Tag: Jack Prentice

Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.
Sunday 26 March 2017.
World Copyright: Sam Bloxham/LAT Images
ref: Digital Image _W6I4899  via PirelliThey say that one swallow doesn’t make a summer.

But in the Australian sunshine, there is no question that Ferrari will certainly be feeling a warm glow after they became the first team other than Mercedes to lead the World Championship with Sebastian Vettel’s victory.

The win was Vettel’s 43rd, but from the way the four-time World Champion celebrated his fourth Ferrari success you’d think it was his very first.

It was a disappointing 2016 for both Vettel and Ferrari, in which much was promised but little delivered and it appears lessons have been learnt.

After all the flattering to deceive in 2016, in which they never could get over the line when in a race-winning position, Ferrari have given nothing away unlike the public confidence exuded 12 months ago.

After multiple strategy mistakes like in and Canada Melbourne last year, in which the Prancing Horse managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on both occasions, their strategy became a laughing stock.

Internally they will know that after all the tricks and flicks in testing that season cannot play out in a similar fashion

So it took a lot of bottle not to just simply follow Hamilton into the pits on lap 17 and instead push it to lap 23.

By that point Hamilton had spent six laps staring at the back of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, and with Vettel having more clean laps than not, he was able to squeeze ahead of the Mercedes – and crucially the Red Bull.

It appears Vettel has his mojo back too.

His angst with everything and everyone last season a lot of critics questioned his motivation.

When Ferrari were a second or more off the pace on Friday, Vettel, who had spent the winter telling anyone who’d listen that Mercedes were the quickest, was unruffled in a way that he perhaps wasn’t towards the end of last year.

His drive to victory was calmness personified and has raised hopes that we might finally see a battle between Hamilton and Vettel for the title in a fight not too dissimilar to the days of Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher.

Kimi Raikkonen had a less illustrious drive to fourth, with his only half-battle coming in the shape of Max Verstappen chasing him from time to time.

The 2007 champion admitted the team found setup issues after qualifying – too late to make changes to the car.

Victory for Ferrari isn’t a huge shock, despite the upgrades brought in by Mercedes. The Scuderia were quick in testing and less than 0.3 slower in qualifying despite a so-so sector one for Vettel on his flier.

This result by no means guarantees that Ferrari will be at the top of the tree, or fighting with Mercedes through the season.

It doesn’t guarantee either that Red Bull, despite being slower than expected, are completely out of the running already.

The litmus test for Ferrari is whether they can maintain the pace for the rest of the season.

Indeed, one swallow does not make a summer.

But if Ferrari sustain this battle with Mercedes, they’ll have plenty more birds singing.

Jack Prentice

 

One can only wonder at the thoughts running through the head of Fernando Alonso as he prepares for yet another handicapped season with the McLaren-Honda package.

The two-time World Champion, who took the last of his 32 Grand Prix victories in Spain almost four years ago, has spent the last two seasons trundling around in an underpowered McLaren, scrapping away for minor points at best. Meanwhile, despite much-publicised errors last year, Ferrari – the team Alonso left as he had lost faith in their ability to win him a third title – have improved immeasurably from their woefully uncompetitive 2014. They even look like they could be hot on the heels of the all-conquering Mercedes team if testing is anything to go by.

Honda had promised to be level with Mercedes after three years but, despite redesigning their engine over the winter, they have nowhere near the amount of power Merc have at their disposal. Even if they did, the reliability has been so poor that Alonso and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne brought out the red flag four times (twice each) in the last two days of testing alone. They didn’t once complete a Grand Prix distance inside a day, with their best effort being 55. Mercedes completed 1,096 laps in testing, Ferrari, whose last World Drivers’ Championship came in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen, completed almost 1,000 themselves.

McLaren?

Well, they completed 475 laps across eight days. That is well over 600 laps down on Mercedes. Their ultimate pace has only been faster than the struggling Sauber team, although McLaren’s 1:21.3 was set on the faster ultrasoft tyre whereas Sauber’s best effort, three tenths slower, was on supersofts.

Honda expect to introduce a newer-spec engine for the Australian Grand Prix but before testing it was hoped they’d introduce that in the second test. Instead of being at least a certainty for points, as Alonso hoped he would be doing after all the noises made by team and engine supplier in the autumn of last year, he’ll spend the Australian Grand Prix sorting out more issues.

Even if they sort out those issues over that weekend, they have a lot of power to make up regardless of what mapping they use at Albert Park. McLaren were between 25-30kph (15-18mph) slower than Mercedes down the straights in Barcelona. The most frustrating thing about that detail for driver, team and fans are that until that deficit is significantly reduced, we will not know how good McLaren’s chassis is.

Alonso seems to rate it, and was frank in his assessment of McLaren’s problem. When speaking to Spanish media during the second test, he accused Honda of “not being ready to win,”, having previously taken to team radio during his second stint at McLaren to lambast the lack of grunt underneath his right foot. No-one will forget the “GP2 engine” or the “amateurs” outbursts anytime soon.

Those words will be ringing in the ears of McLaren, who are acutely aware of the damage to their reputation that Honda’s stagnation is continuing to inflict. However, they cannot just simply make a change, even if Team Principle Eric Boullier says that the engine problems are “putting maximum strain” on their relationship.

Honda contribute a net $100m to the team and with few title sponsors, McLaren simply cannot afford to lose that and buy another customer engine. There are also still seven years left on the ten-year contract agreed in late 2013, when Ron Dennis was adamant that it was the only way McLaren to return to the winners’ circle following a poor 2013.

Three years into the reunion of the glory partnership that swept all before them in the late 1980s, it looks as if his crystal ball was murky at best. While Honda gave themselves little over a year to prepare the most complex engine ever seen in Formula One, the benchmark supplier Mercedes were working on this technology back in 2010.

Honda are proof in that the harsh world of F1 has no sympathy for those who overpromise and underdeliver. By underestimating the mammoth task ahead when they re-entered the sport, they’ve chased their tails in the past two years and in the third are now back where they started. Three years behind, and little sign of bridging a gap the size of the Grand Canyon.

It is barely possible to imagine Alonso’s anger should Ferrari, the team he felt couldn’t give him a title, live up to their winter promise and bring an end to the Mercedes supremacy.

Jack Prentice @JPrentice8

Former Lotus, Renault and Ferrari technical director James Allison has agreed to join Mercedes in the same position. The 49-year-old, who also won two world drivers’ and constructors’ championships at Renault from 2005, will officially start work in March.

Allison had been out of Formula One since July last year following the death of his wife, and joins following the departure of former technical chief Paddy Lowe to Williams.

On joining the team that won all except two races last year, Allison had this to say: “I am very excited to be getting back to work after this time away from the sport.

“It’s a massive privilege to be given the trust of a position in a team that has done so spectacularly well in the past three seasons.

“I am really looking forward to playing my part in helping Mercedes go from strength to strength in the coming years.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff added: “I am delighted to welcome James to Mercedes and very much looking forward to working with him. Our technical team is extremely skilled at every level and at the top of its game after delivering three world championships in a row.”

Allison will officially start work during the first pre-season test in Barcelona, where despite the huge shake up in technical regulations Mercedes are once again expected to be on top.

The Silver Arrows are looking to defend a run of dominance that has seen them win each of the last three World Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships.

The new Formula One season begins on March 26 at Albert Park, Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, where yet another thrilling season will start.

Jack Prentice @JPrentice8

Sebastian Vettel’s radio messages and the subsequent outcry as a result of them have done a lot to reveal plenty about Formula One and the hypocrisy surrounding some of its following.

Vettel called Red Bull driver Max Verstappen a “c***” and told race director Charlie Whiting to “**** off” in the final laps following the Dutchman’s refusal to move over despite cutting the chicane at turn two.

Importantly, and what plenty who have stuck the knife into the four-time World Champion are keen to ignore, he apologised to Whiting straight after the race. Before he climbed onto the podium. Which he was stripped of following a penalty for moving under breaking when defending from Daniel Ricciardo.

Had he not done that he would have faced an FIA tribunal and possibly been fined or even suspended.

Seriously?

They didn’t take such measures at the Belgian Grand Prix of 2002 when Juan Pablo Montoya described Kimi Raikkonen in unflattering terms, nor was it an issue when Ricciardo called Nico Rosberg the same thing as Vettel did Verstappen in the US Grand Prix…last week.

For heaven’s sake Ayrton Senna punched Eddie Irvine in the face at the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix and Michael Schumacher was quite prepared to do the same to David Coulthard at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. Even the best lose their rag.

This is one example of some irate messages from an array of drivers including Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen and more that have been X-rated both in this and previous season.

His critics, and there have been plenty regarding his expressions of displeasure, appear to have decided that Vettel’s expletives are the biggest crisis since Spygate in 2007.

Let’s be clear. I’m not saying it’s right that Vettel should choose to voice his angst like this, and that Vettel’s choice of words towards Whiting especially was poor. He should not kick off at the Race Director like that and it is also right that he shall be contacting Verstappen to make an apology to him.

But it is being blown out of proportion.

A majority of those who claim to abhor Vettel’s anger are happy to use such language on a day-to-day basis at work. Except that they aren’t doing their job in front of millions worldwide and aren’t travelling at 200mph.

Instead, a good proportion would say far worse things about people they don’t know for a perceived annoying manoeuvre at 27mph in their local suburban avenue.

So how can they expect someone who’s travelling at over eight times that figure to be rational when he feels someone is acting dangerously?

Furthermore, he was bleeped out by Formula One Management when they broadcast those messages, so those of a young age wouldn’t have known what was being said. Those old enough to know what was being said are going to be aware that they can’t turn around to their elder and use similar words.

As for those saying it’s damaging to Formula One, well, doesn’t the sport have bigger problems? Such as the falling crowds, less TV viewers, the still astronomical costs to run a team and the extreme unfairness of the prize money payments between those at the top and bottom of F1.

Not to mention the fact that everyone these days are delighted to have the possibility of having to pick a winner from three drivers instead of two. Though that’s only for special weekends.

The Formula One public are experts at making a mountain from a molehill and this latest furore is exhibit A.

The really tragic thing is that all of this uproar has overshadowed what was an exciting end to a Grand Prix between three of the world’s best drivers in which no quarter was asked or given.

Let’s cut the bulls*** and start focussing on the real issues that Formula One has at this present moment.

Jack Prentice

(Image Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

With all of the headlines surrounding Ferrari and in particular Sebastian Vettel following the Mexican Grand Prix, it can be easy to forget that the Scuderia managed to display the importance of strong qualifying.

For all the swearing and yelling at both Max Verstappen and Race Director Charlie Whiting, had Vettel had a quicker car in qualifying, he’d have been battling over which step on the podium instead of just to get onto the podium.

Karun Chandhok made the pertinent point that Vettel could possibly have been challenging for a victory had he been able to qualify higher than seventh, which for long periods was a net eighth as he lost out to Felipe Massa’s Williams at the start.

Ferrari haven’t always made the right strategy calls this season but they got this one-stop strategy absolutely spot on to catapult Vettel to fifth and within stalking distance of the Red Bulls once he left the pitlane.

In the end, he did get to spray some champagne but received a 10 second time-penalty that dropped him to fifth for reasons that have been well documented.

His hard defensive move on Daniel Ricciardo on the penultimate lap made him the first victim of the new “Verstappen rule”, whereby any movement in the breaking zone is banned.

Kimi Raikkonen was another man who would have been aiming for the skies had he not started behind a slower team.

He spent the first third of the race behind Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, which had started sixth and Ferrari eventually put the Iceman on a two-stopper.

Like Vettel, he also had shown long run pace that would have challenged Mercedes in Mexico City early in the weekend.

The result leaves Ferrari 62 points behind Red Bull with 86 left on the table, while Ricciardo needs to score six points to guarantee third place this season.

2016 had promised much more than this.

Jack Prentice
(Image Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

If ever there was a way to sum up Ferrari’s 2016 season, Kimi Raikkonen’s US Grand Prix was it.

Raikkonen had moved from fifth to fourth having passed Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and was looking like threatening Daniel Ricciardo’s third place, when, as usual this season, errors meant the end of his challenge.

During his second pit stop, Ferrari left the wheel gun on his front right tyre and as a result, it wasn’t fixed properly. The Iceman would get no further than the end of the pitlane before he retired.

Teammate Sebastian Vettel collided with Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas at turn one – not his first lap one wheel-banging this season, but was unscathed and until both Raikkonen and Verstappen retired was running sixth, unable to do anything about crowd-favourite Ricciardo in third.

The German said that fourth was the maximum that Ferrari were capable of at Texas and he wasn’t far wrong, as strategic mishap was the main reason behind Raikkonen’s pre-retirement assault on Ricciardo.

Ferrari are almost 60 points behind Red Bull and will now not finish second in a season in which they had promised to fight for first with Mercedes, and Mexico promises much of the same as Austin in view of the similar layout of both circuits.

The Prancing Horse will have long turned their attentions towards 2017 with the radical technical changes providing an opportunity to leapfrog incumbent champions Mercedes.

But they will keen to take any opportunities for a victory this season given that the top brass have already labelled this tumultuous season a failure after not building on the successes of 2015, where Vettel took three victories.

The Scuderia will be less than buoyed by their performance in Mexico City last season, as Vettel spun multiple times and collided with Ricciardo at turn one, while Raikkonen clashed with fellow countryman Bottas and retired.

Last year’s Mexican Grand Prix was a sign of things to come for Ferrari this season. Will this season’s edition prove the same?

Jack Prentice

Ferrari go in the US Grand Prix in Austin in the last chance saloon as far as their hopes for second place in the F1 Constructors’ Championship are concerned.

Max Verstappen’s second place was a hammer blow for Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finishing fourth and fifth respectively – both having qualified faster than the Red Bulls but having to start sixth and eighth respectively due to penalties.

Vettel did manage to set his first fastest lap of 2016 in Japan but his winless run is now at 23 races – the longest of his career including his spell at Toro Rosso from 2007-08.

Raikkonen’s race will be remembered for a three-wide pass on Jolyon Palmer and Sergio Perez, and despite early traffic he was only five seconds behind Vettel at the circuit where he took a memorable win back in 2005.

And so it’s on to a track that Ferrari have never won at, although this is only the fifth time F1 has visited the Circuit of the Americas, although Vettel took victory there during his unbeaten streak at the end of 2013.

Ferrari have at least stood on the podium in Texas, with Fernando Alonso taking third in 2012.

The most famous of the Prancing Horse’s American adventures came back in 2005 in F1’s very own American Horror Story, as only six runners took to the start because of safety concerns about Michelin tyres.

The race, as with most this season, is likely to consist of Mercedes dominance followed by a scrap to be the best of the rest between Red Bull and Ferrari, with Austin likely to favour the Red Bull despite the long straights.

It has been a little frosty in the press in Italy, who have criticised Vettel since his first lap collision in Malaysia, while the Ferrari top brass have said publicly that he needs to “earn” another contract and his current deal runs out 2018 while there is speculation that he may seek pastures new.

For Ferrari, that chat can wait should it happen as they bid to try salvage second place out of a season in which they were meant to offer a challenge to Mercedes for top honours.

They’re 250 points behind with four races left.

(Image Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)
Jack Prentice