Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i AUTOSPORT

The last three Russian Grands Prix tell the story of Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes career in microcosm. In 2017 he claimed his maiden F1 victory at Sochi, overtaking both Ferraris and fending off Sebastian Vettel while Lewis Hamilton languished in fourth amid Mercedes’ early-season tyre woes. That race marked Valtteri’s arrival as a potential top-line grand prix driver. He should have won last year’s edition too but by then, with another 31 races in the books, the dynamic within Mercedes had shifted considerably. Having failed to become a proper factor in the title races of 2017 and 2018, by the time the circus returned to Sochi Bottas was cast firmly in a subjugate role, told to give up what would have been his only victory of last season to boost Hamilton’s…

01 CIVIL WAR BREWS AT FERRARI Ferrari has found itself facing what F1 chief Ross Brawn calls a ‘potentially explosive’ situation between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. Matters have reached a point where team principal Mattia Binotto held separate ‘clear-the-air’ talks with his two drivers ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Ferrari’s return to form since the summer break – particularly after a successful technical upgrade for Singapore – has come with an unexpected cost. Tensions have grown between the two drivers as Leclerc’s confidence has grown, and Vettel has attempted to reassert himself as team leader after a run of poor results. Vettel appeared to be on the ropes after Italy, where he suffered an embarrassing in-race spin on the day Leclerc became the tifosi’s darling thanks…

GENERATIONAL CHALLENGE FOR VETTEL You cannot coast in elite sport, it’s too competitive for that. As the old aphorism states, getting to the top is the (relatively) easy bit, it’s staying there that’s the greatest achievement. That’s what makes the longevity of drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost so astonishing. Time and again they return to the well to draw the motivation and determination required to stay at the top longer than anyone else. That source ultimately runs dry for everyone, for even the greatest cannot defeat time. Determination is just part of the equation, despite those who reduce sporting competition to ‘who wants it more’. If it was everything, Sebastian Vettel would not be standing at the career crossroads he’s currently facing. He torpedoed the understandable…

F1 Racing : What prompted you to set up in what must be quite a niche industry? Mark Huslig: My background from university is as an industrial designer – automotive and product design and furniture – and I had a paid work placement in college with LearJet, working with them on new interior designs. I started my career with a company in Austin, Texas that was literally designing flying palaces. We would take Airbus A340s and Boeing 747s and make works of art in the sky. So from the beginning of my career I was working with really exotic programs. I had a short stint at Motorola, but went back into the aviation industry in partnership with three other designers creating interiors for VIP aircraft. Then, 17 years ago, I…

McLaren’s driver performance manager Simon Reynolds explains four upper body and shoulder routines performed by test and reserve driver Sergio Sette Camara STABILITY ONE-ARM SHOULDER PRESS “This challenging exercise develops a driver’s strength and stability of the shoulder and core complex, which incorporates a load in one arm (unilateral), while sitting on a stability ball. The driver has to work very hard to prevent their body compensating, and losing a neutral posture, and is important for drivers to master as part of their conditioning programme. The driver can be challenged further by performing this with the opposite foot lifted slightly off the ground.” STANDING CABLE PRESS “This exercise incorporates the entire body, using a split stance position, bracing from core and targeting muscles involved in steering (pectorals, triceps and anterior…

How to handle being be a number-two driver? Valtteri Bottas is fighting this battle right now – the tug-of-war between ambition and reality, of being in a competitive car and wanting to fight for the title, and the guy in the other car just being better. You know you can beat him sometimes. But the stars need to be aligned and, realistically, the other guy needs to have had a problem. So, how to deal with that situation? Mark Webber, veteran of five losing years alongside Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, used to rage against it. He never accepted his position, and pushed team harmony to breaking point in trying to fight his corner. Looking back, Webber says: “Valtteri’s handling it a lot better than I did.” Bottas is doing…

IT IS THE MID-EIGHTIES, AND WE ARE CHATTING outside the Meridien Hotel in Montréal. A cab draws up, and out steps Jacques Laffite. He sees us, waves hello, then goes to the boot, from which he extracts his suitcase and – of course – the fishing gear that goes everywhere with him. Then he pays the driver, who starts to move off. Suddenly Laffite’s expression changes. “Merde!”, he shouts, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand, gesticulating for the cab to stop. Up goes the boot again, and Jacques gratefully retrieves the overlooked item. It is his helmet bag. Whenever the name of Jacques Laffite is mentioned, it is invariably this vignette that comes first to my mind. If he adored motor racing, he was far too well-balanced…

Sum up your time with Renault... Generally we’ve had good times – it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster with good and bad moments. We definitely made a few steps forward this year, unfortunately we didn’t make the most important step forward. As a result there was more pressure within the team. We’re a factory outfit and people expect progress from us. If we don’t deliver then there are questions to be asked and pressure on people. That’s how it goes. All in all, I’ve enjoyed my time here. “ MY MINDSET IS PRETTY POSITIVE. MAYBE, GIVEN THE SITUATION, IT MIGHT BE THE END OF MY CAREER SO I’M ENJOYING IT MORE – I’M LIVING THE MOMENT MORE” At the launch of this year’s car, engine boss Rémi Taffin was…

3 NIGHT HOTEL PACKAGE FROM£369 PP 8th – 11th May 2020 Package 1 includes: ★ Option to add Spanish Grand Prix ticket or hospitality ★ 3 star or 4 star hotel in Barcelona with breakfast ★ Sunday circuit transfers (option to add Saturday circuit transfers for an additional £29pp) ★ Informal social drinks ★ Tour merchandise ★ Gullivers representatives 3 NIGHT TOUR FROM £699 PP 8th – 11th May 2020 Package 2 includes: ★ Option to add Spanish Grand Prix ticket or hospitality ★ 3 star or 4 star hotel in Barcelona with breakfast ★ Return flight from London and airports transfers ★ Sunday circuit transfers (option to add Saturday circuit transfers for an additional £29pp) ★ Informal social drinks ★ Tour merchandise ★ Gullivers representatives FAST FACTS Flight time:…

THEY SAY NEVER GO BACK TO YOUR EX… When McLaren and Renault announced their ‘conscious uncoupling’ last month, it was easy to assume this was a consequence of them finding themselves in direct competition with one another at the head of Formula 1’s ‘Class B’. After all, Renault has form in falling out with its customers over the past few seasons as it fights to realise its ambition of returning to the front of the grid. But while Renault’s relationship with the two Red Bull teams collapsed in a morass of public finger-jabbing and mutual rent-a-quoting, McLaren has pulled back from criticising its engine partner. The only blow-ups have been on the track (perhaps, indeed, too many of them). Since recruiting Andreas Seidl from Porsche to run the race operation,…

SCOTT MITCHELL After joining sister title Autosport in 2013 to work on the national desk, Mitchell moved up to F1 in '18. His take on Honda's rise is on p58 ANDREW BENSON Having been with the BBC for 19 years, these days you'll hear Benson on their F1 radio output. His Valtteri Bottas interview starts on p48 GLENN DUNBAR In the summer Dunbar became a proud father for the first time. Since then he's been busy shooting Pérez (p46) and Hülkenberg (p84) ROBERTO CHINCHERO The respected journalist for motorsport.com and Sky F1 Italia visited the centre of Milan for Ferrari's 90th anniversary event (p78)…

17.09.19 Channel 4 will continue to show highlights of F1 races and live coverage of the British GP in the UK in a new “multi-year” deal 19.09.19 Robert Kubica announces he will not continue with Williams beyond the end of the current season 20.09.19 Ferrari unveil an updated aerodynamic package for Singapore featuring a revised nose 21.09.19 Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton rubbish an idea to have reversed grids in F1 24.09.19 Alfa Romeo are unsuccessful in their bid to have their German GP penalties overturned 27.09.19 The FIA delays the introduction of a standard supplier of brake system and friction materials from 2021 28.09.19 Toro Rosso consider name change to AlphaTauri for 2020 03.10.19 A Spanish F1 team is evaluating entering the sport…

FORMULA 1 IS ON THE ROAD TO SUSTAINABILITY The term ‘gas-guzzling’ is synonymous with Formula 1 in the eyes of the popular press and yet F1 CEO Chase Carey has often spoken on the subject of sustainability. Indeed, at the recent Frankfurt motor show he stated that not only did F1 have to become sustainable in its own right, but also that it needs to promote sustainability. This is a far-reaching subject and by the end of the year F1 intends to announce a comprehensive policy covering all aspects of the subject, but for now let’s concentrate on the environmental issues. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing engineers at present is how to avoid catastrophic climate change. As with most problems there isn’t a singular solution – and in this case…

For just over three decades tobacco was the key fuel in Formula 1’s commercial engine. More than mere sponsors, the big hitters of the industry were F1’s kingmakers. In its pomp, Philip Morris International’s Marlboro brand and its delegate, John Hogan, moved and shook: the McLaren team we know today came about as a result of a shotgun marriage Hogan arranged between the ailing post-Bruce équipe and Ron Dennis’s thrusting young Project Four operation. Sponsorship has been part of the fabric of motorsport since the very first organised races, although overt sponsorship was restricted by the Commission Sportive Internationale (the FIA’s sporting arm) until late 1967. It had become a sticking point because ‘invisible’ sponsors such as oil companies and spark plug suppliers could only associate themselves with teams and…

How would you reflect on the turn of events that led you to be demoted from Red Bull to Toro Rosso? Well, there’s a lot to talk about. But what’s been done is done – it’s history. I’m a positive guy and always moving forward, so I’m focusing on what is happening right now and also in the next few months, since this will impact my career. Of course, some things were good, others were wrong. There were things I could have done better as a driver, obviously. I had my part to play in the responsibility of what happened but I think everyone in the team had their responsibilities in the lack of performance that we had too. It was a good lesson for me, so in the future…

Mirror, mirror Mirrors have been on racing cars since 1911, and are taken for granted but recently they have been recognised as one of many components affecting a car’s aero. So are their days limited? Perhaps they should be. Instead of having two mirrors, one on either side of the cockpit, would it not be better to have a rear-facing camera mounted atop the role hoop, with a small monitor screen mounted just in front of the cockpit? Rear view cameras already exist, but they are mounted low, at the rear of the car, and are used primarily for the benefit of television viewers. A rear view camera mounted higher on the car with a 180 degree field of view would also improve drivers’ peripheral vision, which has been greatly…

1 Ferrari meltdown hands championship to Mercedes On a weekend that faced an existential threat from one of the most severe typhoons to hit Japan for years, victory for Valtteri Bottas and third place for Lewis Hamilton sealed Mercedes’ sixth consecutive constructors’ championship as Ferrari fell apart from a position of strength yet again. The Japanese Grand Prix represented Ferrari’s season in a microcosm: just when the red cars seemed to have it in the bag, the blunders began. Bottas set the pace during Friday practice and might even have started from pole if circumstances had fallen differently. Saturday’s sessions were cancelled in the face of the oncoming storm, and qualifying provisionally postponed until Sunday morning. The grid would be decided by the results of second practice if qualifying did…

Vettel’s win drought comes to an end Singapore is always one of my favourite events of the year, as racing at night offers some brilliantly atmospheric photographic opportunities. In the Marina Bay parc fermé there was a giant screen which I decided to use as a backdrop, so I positioned myself on the other side of the pen. Sebastian Vettel is always happy to celebrate and, after not winning for over a year, I knew that it was going to be a pretty emotional moment. I was surrounded by his mechanics, who were screaming his name as he lifted himself from his Ferrari and in his body language you can sense his relief. Photographer Steven Tee Where Marina Bay, Singapore When 10.15pm, Sunday 22 September 2019 Details Canon EOS-1DX MkII,…

FORMULA 1 NEEDS TO INNOVATE TO SURVIVE During a recent ‘Flat Chat’ F1 Racing podcast, Stuart Codling commented on the photograph of Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1949 Pau Grand Prix-winning Maserati 4CLT that hangs on my office wall. I explained that its sister car turned up at September’s Goodwood Revival, the owner happy to let me give it the once over. Looking at the technology of a front-engined grand prix car of 60 years ago, with its drum brakes and between-the-legs gearshift, set me wondering. What will the Formula 1 cars of 60 years hence look like? This is a big ask when, at the time of writing, the combined powers in Formula 1 cannot agree on what we should be racing in 15 months’ time. F1 must be careful because…

One safety instruction is very clear: No smoking. Nearby is a storage facility with hundreds of barrels of highly volatile premium-octane fuel. Around 700 litres of petrol per car are about to be transported to the next grand prix. That’s around 15 times more petrol than your average family vehicle can accommodate. It’s an understatement, therefore, to say that safety at this facility is taken extremely seriously. Thankfully, in the unlikely event of any conflagration, we’re on the banks of a major river. The Elbe flows through the nearby city of Hamburg, in the north of Germany, before debouching into the North Sea. For the logistics of transporting fuel to races, it’s the perfect location for Shell to house its fuel and lubricants technology centre. Thousands of litres of fuel…

V altteri Bottas has a large – and rather obvious – problem in his life. You see, Bottas wants to be Formula 1 world champion. He has got himself into the right position to do it. He is in the best team and he is driving what has been, on balance for the duration of his time there, the best car. But you already know what the problem is. And so does Bottas. The problem is Lewis Hamilton. Bottas believes he can beat Hamilton. He has to, of course. On a micro level – individual races; single qualifying sessions – he has already. At the time of writing, after the Singapore Grand Prix, Bottas had won five races since he joined Mercedes in 2017. But then there’s Hamilton’s record. In…

For the drivers, the Russian Grand Prix is arguably the most laid-back race weekend of the year. The commute to the track is easy, the weather is placid and the circuit isn’t particularly challenging. Additionally, all media and PR duties are greatly reduced. With the Singapore GP held just a week earlier, it’s easy for many F1 folk to find an excuse to skip the hassle of obtaining visas and transiting through Moscow to get to this remote part of the world. Thursday interview slots to speak with F1 drivers come with strict time constraints, but half-way through having Lando Norris answering your questions, F1 Racing inquires if our time is up. “You’re already five minutes over,” says McLaren’s genial press attaché Martyn Pass, “but it’s fine, you can continue…”…

“Give a child a sheet of paper, some colours, and ask him to design a car: surely it will be red.” Enzo Ferrari was famously dismissive of marketing, but he well knew the value of the marque he built. His Scuderia is more than just a name, it’s woven into the fabric of motorsport fans’ imaginations. Now 90 years old, Ferrari is a religion in Italy – probably not only in Italy – a totem people love whether it wins or not. And if non-devotees think some of the lustre has worn dull over the course of a decade of toil since Ferrari’s last world championship victories… well, let them come and witness the spectacle here outside the marble-clad extravagance of Milan’s vast 14th-century Duomo, in the heart of the…

1 Ferrari surprises itself with Vettel victory On the streets of Singapore, 392 days and 22 races after his last win, Sebastian Vettel finally took his 53rd grand prix victory. It was, however, rather against the run of play and the nature of the win – a consequence of a tactical call from the Ferrari pitwall – left his team-mate Charles Leclerc fuming. Vettel had impressed on his first Q3 run in qualifying, but then squandered his second run and was then usurped by a brilliant final lap from Leclerc, who secured another pole position. Lewis Hamilton also improved on his last run and the Mercedes driver demoted Vettel to third. At the start of the race, Leclerc led away as Vettel tried and failed to snatch second from Hamilton,…

THE MAIN EVENT In August the organisers of the Mexican Grand Prix confirmed the race would continue for another three years until 2022. The announcement was welcomed by both fans and F1 personnel since this race is one of the highlights on the calendar, and the promoters have been awarded ‘best event of the year’ by the FIA for the past four seasons. Since Mexican driver Sergio Pérez has extended his deal with Racing Point, high spectator numbers are guaranteed, thanks to the passionate support of the locals. Situated 7,500 feet above sea level, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is F1’s highest circuit, 5,000 feet higher than Brazil’s Interlagos. The thin air militates against the intended effects of the car’s aerodynamics, so teams run high-downforce setups to compensate. 2018 RACE RECAP…