Formula E’s season five car puts the series at a pivotal point. Gone is the first point of ridicule: the cars are now good for full races on one battery.
That was an important step from a marketing perspective and also for manufacturers, because the implication that you can only run an electric car for 20 minutes has now been removed. Battery capacity has all but doubled, and peaks at 900 volts. Power is boosted by 40kW, but in speed terms you can expect the cars to still be inhibited by the tracks.
The series has always pointed to its relatively futuristic looking cars, but that’s taken a step further with the new car: it looks straight out of a sci-fi film. That’s the point: this is the future, now.
Wheels are enclosed, with a big rising diffuser and simple rear plane behind. It’s not a wing, as such. The mandatory halo houses an LED strip.
What happens next is up for discussion, with pitstops supposedly remaining.
Official testing begins in March at Monteblanco, with another scheduled for April, meaning the teams will be developing two cars concurrently. The dynamic could well shift this year as development focuses on the future rather than the present.
But that’s something Formula E has done from the off.
It’s been a while coming, but the new Electric GT Series appears finally to be on its way to the race track. The series, which has no support from the Tesla factory, was initially announced to the world two years ago in March 2016.
In the intervening months there has been plenty of bluster but little in the way of concrete information. Now, two pieces of good news have followed in close succession: the Tesla Model S P100D-based race car has passed the FIA crash tests and the series has been ratified by the FIA.
That it’s a private endeavour from organiser Mark Gemmell may go some way to explain the delay in Electric GT going from idea to fully-fledged series. There may be benefits of no factory involvement; it could conceivably open up to be a mixed-make series – TCR goes electric? But costs would inevitably rise and soon spiral out of control.
Its first season is supposedly this year, though there’s no calendar as of yet. But there’s long been talk of ‘electric festival’ events, featuring only electric-powered racing and plenty of fan engagement. That’s since been clarified as ekarting and esports races.
The main GT races will be 60km long, with one held during the day and another at dusk, after a ‘three-heat qualifying format’. “The longer race isn’t really what the public wants,” Gemmell said last year.
Evening racing is no problem for a silent racing series, for obvious reasons. Gemmell also claimed the circuits have been very receptive, because “it’s the right message and projects the right image”.
The top two from the weekend will contest a ‘Drift-off’ for three additional championship points, too. Different, if nothing else.
As for the cars, the series has confirmed a maximum output of 778bhp/585kW. Drivers have seemingly been impressed by the car, which has been on a long development curve. It has good torque, as is to be expected, fast with a 0-60mph of less than two seconds, and it’s grippy. But it’s heavy, the final car weighs in at 1800kg.
There’s a persistence behind Electric GT, which bodes well, and it’s got ahead of most in the electric racing stakes. Now it’s a case of fulfilling aims.
This three-day event, from April 26-28, consists of one sprint and two hillclimbs on closed public roads, attracting a wide array of vintage and classic cars to the island. Jaguars, Frazer Nashes and Bentleys, the GN Spider, modern sports cars and Edwardian entries have starred in the past – and more than 100 entries are expected. Viewing is free of charge, but be aware that many roads and pavements will be closed off.
The event starts with The Sloc sprint on Thursday 26, in the south of the island, with spectacular views the full length of the track, then moves onto Creg Willey’s hill (part of the TT course) on Friday.
Friday also heralds a spectacular finale as drivers tackle Lhergy Frissell – another section of TT course and the longest hillclimb in Britain.
These roads also formed part of the Gordon Bennett Trials route in 1904 and the following year’s RAC TT, so the Classic maintains strong links with the island’s rich, proud motor sport heritage.
The TT Grandstand serves as one of many points to view the trials, but you can also volunteer with the Manx Motor Racing Club and contribute to an organisation that once had the late John Surtees as patron. Find out more at www.manxmotorracing.com.
HOW TO GET THERE
Packages from ferry operator the IoM Steam Packet Company are available with double/twin rooms (from £94 for two nights) and foot passenger crossings from Liverpool or Heysham, with an extra £89 charge for a car or low van.
ALSO GOING ON
The Isle of Man Motor Museum holds a collection of more than 400 exhibits spanning 100-plus years of motoring history, including 200 motorcycles, at former RAF station Jurby on the north side of the island. Admission is £12.50.
DON’T MISS
Marshals were brought in from all over the UK for the 2017 Manx Classic. You could volunteer for the 2018 running, though you’ll need to be present for the Tuesday – an extra night’s B&B might be useful.
The most promising young single-seater drivers face off as the Formula 2 grid lines up in Bahrain. Lando Norris will make his full-time debut, as will GP3 champion George Russell.
INTERNATIONAL
Apr 15 – World Rallycross Championship, Barcelona
About 20 drivers will tear around Circuit de Catalunya for the opening WRX round, as Johan Kristoffersson prepares for his title defence against the likes of double champion Petter Solberg (in the new Volkswagen Polo GTI).
INTERNATIONAL
Apr 15 – Long Beach Indy
Long Beach hosts its 44th GP and its 35th consecutive Champ Car/Indycar race. There have been six winners since 2012 on the 1.968-mile palm tree-fringed circuit.
IN THE UK
Apr 22 – Rally Tendring and Clacton, Clacton-on-Sea
The first rally in England on public roads, under the new Closed Road Motor Sport legislation, will take place on the Tendring Peninsula over 45 miles. More than 100 cars are entered.
INTERNATIONAL
Apr 20-22 – Hockenheim Historic, Germany
This weekend celebrates the life of Jim Clark and commemorates his passing at the circuit. The event marks the 50th anniversary of Clark’s death and also recognises Lotus’s heritage.
INTERNATIONAL
Apr 28-29 – WTCR, Hungaroring, Hungary
The first World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) hits Budapest for its second round. Drivers such as Yvan Muller, Rob Huff, Gabriele Tarquini and 2017 WTRCC champ Thed Björk are confirmed.
Apr 5 WRC France
Apr 7 INDYCAR Phoenix
Apr 8 F1 Bahrain
Apr 14 FORMULA E Rome
Apr 15 F1 China
Apr 15 NASCAR Bristol, Tennessee Apr 28 FORMULA E Paris
“When I look back at 1977,” the American says with a smile, “F3 wins seemed to be shared out between several drivers. I’m not sure if everybody was very good – or if we were all a bit average!”
King took his works March to victory at Cadwell Park that season, but returned home soon afterwards and picked up where he’d left off before his European sojourn, racing in Formula Atlantic and winning the SCCA National title in 1982.
He retired five years later, not long after sharing 12th overall – and second in the GTP Lights class – in the Daytona 24 Hours. In 1993, however, he was lured back by the appeal of historic competition – and 25 years on he’s still active, racing on both sides of the Atlantic in a small fleet of cars that includes an ex-Dan Gurney Brabham BT7 (he was there to watch the American win with it at Rouen in ’64), a March 761 and a March 712.
His adventures have led him to the top steps of podia at events as diverse as the GP Historique de Monaco and the Goodwood Members’ Meeting – and he was also a co-founder of Historic Grand Prix, which continues to sanction old-time F1 races in the States (though King sold his interest a few years ago).
Now 72, he plans to take in another blend of clubbies and celebrated classics during the campaign ahead. “I still absolutely love racing,” he says, “and the people I’ve met along the way have been essential in fuelling my passion to compete. I’ve always considered myself a lucky dog – and that holds true to this day.”
Circuit racing might grind almost to a halt beyond October, with a few honourable exceptions, but the ‘off-season’ contains plenty of weekend alternatives that don’t involve pubs, garden centres or television sets. For instance…
BRANDS HATCH
The rain wasn’t heavy, initially at least, but remained irritatingly persistent. As its volume intensified during the day, the temperature dropped: chill factor, moisture factor… who knows? And yet, throughout it all, a couple of blokes on the spectator banks thought it perfectly acceptable to wear shorts. Fine on the grounds of taste, perhaps, but less so in terms of common sense. They appeared to be enjoying themselves, though, which arguably counts for more than comfort – a perfect snapshot of local resolve.
In truth the day was probably better suited to sitting indoors and listening to goals rattle in on BBC 5 Live with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc to hand, but I have an internal trigger that forbids such indulgence: it’s January, Brands Hatch is stirring, get thee to the A20…
Third round of the 2017-18 Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship, Chelmsford MC’s MGJ Winter Stages is now well established as part of the circuit’s repertoire. The recipe is tried and trusted – eight stages that blend the regular racetrack with access roads, the pit lane, both paddocks and the undulating course that hosts Brands Hatch’s own rally school – but familiarity doesn’t breed complacency. By the day’s end there were sufficient scars to vouch for both the event’s challenging nature and the commitment of those taking part, though the conditions probably didn’t help. And the pit exit hairpin, a tight squeeze for anything much bigger than a Fiesta, proved as always to be a chaos magnet. One driver stalled there for two consecutive laps, making navigability even more marginal and costing several rivals a second or three.
It says much for the Ford Escort’s emotional pull that about one third of the 80-plus entry were in either Mk2s or Mk1s, most of them with modern running gear (sequential transmission and so forth) beneath a recognisable cloak, but that doesn’t make them any less engaging to behold.
There was also a trio of Ferrari 308s, one destined to end its day in the Paddock gravel, one not especially quick and the other – shared by Lee Jones and Thomas Grogan – taking a worthy sixth overall among the more conventional weaponry,
The winners? Mark Kelly and Andy Baker. In a Mk2 Escort. Obviously.
BROOKLANDS
Some locations retain an aura even when there’s nothing going on – and Brooklands is one such. That the Vintage Sports-Car Club happened to be present, performing antique gymnastics against the clock, was merely a bonus.
Entries for the traditional New Year Driving Tests have dwindled slightly – down from 60-plus in the previous two years to 47 on this occasion – but it remains deeply satisfying to see the extant bits of Brooklands being used, even at speeds significantly south of John Cobb’s 143.44mph record, set as recently as 1935…
The nature of the event had changed slightly, with no reversing tests (the rules used to allow cars without a suitable gear to be pushed backwards) and the banking being used only lightly. Perhaps understandably, given the acclaim surrounding its relatively recent reopening, greater emphasis was placed on a series of exercises on the Finishing Straight.
Eddie Williams (1929 Frazer Nash Super Sports) is a regular front-runner at VSCC race meetings – and he underlined that he has dexterity as well as speed by taking outright victory from class winner Edmund Burgess (1924 Bugatti T13) and Richard Marsh (1929 Austin 7 Ulster). Among the most eye-catching entries were the 1925 Trojan Utility of Frazer Sloan, which just about conquered the Test Hill (with its one-in-four gradient towards the summit), and Katie Forrest’s 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, which required a three-point turn simply to access said Test Hill but otherwise performed with abundant grace.
Rally winners Baker & Kelly, far left; the flying 308 of Jones & Grogan, left; VSCC assembly includes Edmund Burgess’s T13 and Katie Forrest’s Rolls Silver Ghost
And then there’s all the other stuff that was accessible to visitors on the day – the sprawling collection of sheds housing one of the planet’s finest assemblies of subjects automotive and aeronautic, everything from pre-war Grand Prix cars to Concorde via a Morris Eight.
Plus, of course, the on-site café retains its period urinals – strictly not for use, and bereft of graffiti as ‘the right crowd’ presumably didn’t do that kind of thing – but a charming throwback of the kind you simply don’t find elsewhere.
Walking into the new Flight Shed, the first thing one sees is a Sopwith Camel replica, with twin machine guns perched just behind its propeller. It would be impressive today if somebody came up with adequate synchronisation technology to prevent such planes shooting themselves down, but the Sopwith Camel is 101.
STANDLAKE
There is something defiantly grandiose about the word ‘arena’ – a term you might apply with equal certainty to Madison Square Garden or the Camp Nou. You might not associate it with a small plot of land just off the B4449, about 14 miles to Oxford’s west, but Standlake Arena has been a sporting hub since 1972.
Originally a dirt track, it was paved during the early 1980s but that’s about it as far as facilities go. There is raised banking upon which early arrivals may park to obtain a weather-sealed view from the comfort of their car, plus a tea hut, but for the most part it’s a friendly, laidback place carpeted in mud and gravel (with a bit of ice thrown in if you happen to be there for the Heavy Metal Classic – a January staple that once attracted a UK record entry of 266 bangers, though that is now capped at 236).
Standlake prides itself on an old-school approach – only the driver’s door and floorpan may be welded for strengthening, but that’s it. Anything considered to have been too zealously prepared will be rejected at scrutineering. That apart, almost anything goes: the multi-class structure admits Nissan Micras at one end of the scale and Rolls-Royce Silver Shadows at the other, though some things – including Ford Mondeos and Toyota Previas – are barred on the grounds of inherent natural strength. The 2018 entry included an Austin Allegro and two Morris Marinas, though science is powerless to explain why you’d choose either for durability or handling…
Many people remain dismissive of short-oval competition, but in all its forms (banger racing included) it’s a good place to fine-tune one’s car control, peripheral awareness and reflexes.
Standlake calls itself the ‘home of motor sport in Oxfordshire’ – a claim the Williams and Renault F1 teams might validly contest, ditto Brookes University – but for £12 per head (including programme) and with at least 20 races (depending on the survival rate) it provides competitively cheap racing on both sides of the fence.
A former AC Cobra owner is suing the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency over his car’s apparent loss of value, after it was deemed to be built in 2002 (using old and new parts) rather than in 1964 as originally stated on the logbook. But does he have a valid case?
Julian Seddon claims the change in status on the DVLA’s documents slashed the car’s value from £250,000 to £100,000. His barrister John Black said that his client ‘would not have purchased the vehicle’ had he known that its status as a historic vehicle was ‘liable to investigation’. He explained that the purchase of the Cobra was made in good faith, partly relying on the integrity of its V5C logbook.
The DVLA’s case is that it does not owe a duty of care to buyers, and that the car’s logbook cannot be taken as proof of its age and provenance. The DVLA refused to comment further.
Black also claimed that the DVLA ‘made a conscious decision’ to delay its investigation into the car’s history until after the vehicle had been sold to Seddon. Two months before Seddon purchased the Cobra, the DVLA already ‘had reason to suspect that the integrity was in doubt’, Black said.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, this is not be the first time that a row over the provenance and value of a classic car has ended in court. But this case is unusual in that it is against the DVLA rather than a former owner.
With the values of period road and racing cars heading into millions of pounds, the potential for dispute is growing. Little wonder, then, that prudent buyers go to strenuous lengths to prove a car’s history, sometimes using period drivers, designers and mechanics to verify the car.
The High Court will make a ruling on the case at a later date.
Period competition cars will feature prominently at two Grand Prix weekends this summer as Masters Historic Racing further strengthens its links with contemporary Formula 1.
Against a backdrop of changing race weekend schedules and a push to enhance the appeal of modern F1 events, Masters Historic Formula 1 cars will race at the British Grand Prix and the new Masters Endurance Legends series, for Le Mans prototype and GT cars built between 1995 and 2012, will appear at the revived French Grand Prix.
In recent seasons, European Grand Prix weekends have existed on a staple support race package of GP2/F2 and sometimes uninspiring GP3 and Porsche Supercup races. However, the Silverstone and Paul Ricard race weekends will now feature race action from spectacular bygone machinery, and the quality of the new support races is likely to gain favour with race fans.
Continental European F1 races are now slated to start at 3.10pm rather than 1pm, while the French race will start at 4.10pm to avoid live a TV clash with the Football World Cup. The later starts have come on the back of audience research, both live at the track and on TV, and have opened the door to an increased support race programme.
Historic Formula 1 cars will return to the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone ( July 6-8), marking the 70th anniversary of the circuit, and a grid of about 30 cars from 1966 through to 1985 is expected.
Masters Historic Racing founder Ron Maydon said: “The fact that we have been asked to organise a support race at the British Grand Prix certainly reflects the quality of the show we put on at Montréal, Austin and Mexico City last year.”
However, the big surprise was the announcement that the fledging Masters Endurance Legends series, pictured below, had earned a slot at the revived French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard ( June 22-24).
The series, which caters for cars as young as six years old, will have two races at Paul Ricard as the French Grand Prix returns after a 10-year absence. The Paul Ricard circuit has not hosted the race since 1990, when it was won by Alain Prost’s Ferrari 641/2.
“I’m proud that in its first year Masters Endurance Legends will be able to showcase its spectacular variety during the French Grand Prix weekend,” said Maydon. “The Paul Ricard circuit is perfect for these cars and I’m sure we will put on a good show for the crowd.”
WHIZZO WALTZES OFF
Barrie Williams, one of Britain’s best-loved racing drivers, has retired from competition after 60 years.
Once dubbed a ‘whizz kid’ by journalist Andrew Marriott, Williams gained the nickname of ‘Whizzo’ and has thrilled race fans with his sideways style ever since. He made his first start in a Morris Minor at Rufforth, on Easter Sunday 1960.
Williams, who will be 80 in November, is stepping down from racing but will remain involved in the sport through his roles with a number of clubs and organisations.
“I’ve had a bloody good time racing,” he said. “It’s all I’ve ever really done and I’ve got huge memories. But I’ve got to be sensible. I still want to put something back into the sport that has given me so much.”
Williams was renowned for his success in saloon and sports cars and only briefly dabbled with single-seaters in the mid-1960s. The death of Jim Clark in 1968 persuaded him to focus on sports and saloon cars and he raced a works Colt in the BSCC and won a series of one-make titles. In his earlier years he rallied extensively and won the 1964 Welsh Rally in his Mini Cooper – his first experience of forest rallying.
In 1986 Barrie made his debut in historic racing and over the last 25 years competed extensively in historics. He raced ERAs, Jaguar C-types, BRMs and much more and was a regular Goodwood Revival winner. His exuberant style, both on and off the track, won him many friends and he’s always had time for everyone, no matter what their position in the sport.
But now he has decided to call time. “I raced every year for nearly 60 years and it was a way of life,” he said, “but now it’s time to stop.”
LAT
ULSTER REUNION
Walter Röhrl, one of the most respected rally drivers of a generation, will celebrate a landmark performance in Irish rallying when he stars at the Titanic Déjà Vu Ulster Rally reunion on Saturday September 1.
The German star will return to the scene of his dominant win on the 1984 Ulster Rally for Déjà Vu Motorsport’s latest rally celebration, organised to raise charity funds.
Thirty-four years ago Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer entered the Ulster Rally in their Group B Audi Quattro S4 and decimated the best of the domestic two-wheel-drive opposition, headed by the Opel Mantas of Russell Brookes and Jimmy McRae.
The Ulster event will be based in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter and will include a noncompetitive 150-mile run over classic Circuit of Ireland and Ulster Rally terrain.
Röhrl will head a cavalcade of historic rally cars over famous Antrim stages like Glen Dunn and the spectacular Torr Head coast road. He will be then joined by other rally stars at a gala dinner in Titanic Belfast on Saturday.
“I’m delighted that he has accepted an invitation to headline our event,” said Dr Beatty Crawford from Déjà Vu Motorsport. To date, the Déjà Vu programme has raised £70,000 for charity.
DHF’S FRESH LOOK
The 2018 Donington Historic Festival will feature 14 grids and up to 19 races over three days, taking in some of the UK’s leading historic categories. Races for the May 4-6 event range from the Mad Jack Trophy for Pre-War Sports Cars to the opening races of the season for the Super Touring Trophy. Racing will run throughout Saturday and Sunday after qualifying on Friday.
The 1000Kms race for Group 4 sports cars, which has run in the prime early Saturday evening slot in recent years, is not on the 2018 schedule and a new race will take centre stage as the sun sets on the second day of the festival.
For the first time the HSCC’s Derek Bell Trophy will feature and will bring out a grid of mainly Formula 5000 and Formula 2 single-seaters of the 1970s. The DBT pack will appear twice, with 25-minute races on Saturday and Sunday.
LE MANS CLASSIC
A star-studded entry has been revealed for the 2018 edition of the Le Mans Classic ( July 6-8), including Derek Bell and five other former Le Mans 24 Hours winners.
The Classic features six 50-car grids, which all race several times during a 24-hour period. In addition a Group C race, for the cars of the 1980s and early 1990s, will run as a curtain-raiser on Saturday morning.
Five-time winner Bell will be joined by three-time winners Klaus Ludwig, Henri Pescarolo and Marco Werner for the event, which features cars that contested the Le Mans 24 Hours between 1923 and 1981. Stéphane Ortelli and Jochen Mass will complete the gathering of former 24-hour winners at the biennial celebration.
Bell is provisionally scheduled to race a Porsche 917LH, in a rare racing appearance for the 917 long-tail evolution developed for the 1971 race. Now 76 years old, Bell will race at Le Mans more than 30 years after his final Porsche 962 victory in the 24 Hours and 48 years on from his debut in the race alongside Ronnie Peterson in a works Ferrari 512S. Bell contested the 24 Hours race 26 times in 27 years from 1970 to 1996.
Porsche is using the event to celebrate 70 years of the marque with a special Porscheonly race on Saturday afternoon, ahead of the main event. The promoters are targeting a grid of 70 cars spanning the early 356s to the 2.8 RSR from 1973, along with the short-wheelbase 911s from the new 2.0L Cup race series.
MATHIEU BONNEVIE
F5000 TO STAR AT MM
One of the biggest gatherings of Formula 5000s ever seen in the UK will feature at the 76th Members’ Meeting at Goodwood (March 17/18). As many as 30 of the thundering 5-litre monsters will take to the track for high-speed demonstration sessions to mark the 50th year of the category, which started in North America as Formula A.
Most F5000s have never run at Goodwood and cars are being shipped from the other side of the world to join the celebrations. From the UK will be the ex-Peter Gethin McLaren M10B and several cars from Frank Lyons, including a stunning Gurney Eagle FA74.
Meanwhile, two rare Begg Formula 5000s will be there as Scott and Lindsay O’Donnell are coming from Christchurch, New Zealand, with two of the seven cars built between 1968 and 1974.
“For me it completes a mission of restoring and racing this car over the last 15 years to celebrate the ‘Kiwi ingenuity’ of characters like George Begg,” said Lindsay.
The next few months are going to be crucial for F1’s future according to McLaren’s chief Zak Brown. Although the new era encompassing different technical regulations and commercial terms doesn’t begin until 2021, Brown believes that a map of what that future looks like needs to be in place some time this year.
“We have a chance to course-correct 2021 now,” he says, “but Liberty and the FIA need to move quickly to minimise the period of negotiations because they will be turbulent and the longer that goes on the more disruptive it becomes. If new engine manufacturers and teams are going to come in it takes a couple of years to gear up – and time is ticking. I’d like to see what 2021 is going to look like by the middle of this season. After that, it begins to get very hard technically… In terms of costs, [Liberty is] talking of a 150 million [euros] cap. We would be in excess of that cap at the moment, some others more so. But we have – as do the others – an automotive business, a technology business and other forms of racing. So if those decisions were made this year, it would give us all enough time to redeploy resources we have today that we won’t need in 2021.”
Brown is effectively challenging Liberty and the FIA to set out its stall early, to give Mercedes and Ferrari the choice of either agreeing – or leaving. Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Ferrari/Mercedes position is different to everyone else’s. Whether that’s a difference in fundamental beliefs or one of negotiating position isn’t clear.
There are three basic areas of discussion:
1) ENGINE REGULATIONS
The four current engine manufacturers are in broad agreement on future engine regulations – which is for a continuation of the current hybrid with ERS-h – but the would-be new manufacturers would not countenance coming in under that formula. The independent teams, by and large, favour the presence of at least one independent engine manufacturer – and therefore by default disagree with the continuation of ERS-h. Ferrari’s Sergio Marchionne has been vocal in dismissing the idea of abolishing this technology as ‘dumbing down’ and against Ferrari’s brand values. Mercedes is in broad agreement.
2) REVENUE DISTRIBUTION
Liberty is on record as saying it wishes to create a more even spread of F1 revenues between the teams, but hasn’t publicly stated the scope of the redistribution. Force India and Sauber have recently withdrawn their long-running joint complaint to the European Union about anti-competitive practices, whereby the big teams (but most notably Ferrari) receive disproportionately more than the rest. They withdrew it because of their belief in Liberty’s Chase Carey and his team. “Their approach has brought a new culture of transparency to the sport and illustrates willingness to debate fundamental issues such as the distribution of the prize fund monies, cost control and engine regulations,” read a joint statement from the two teams. Obviously, Liberty isn’t talking about giving its share of the money to the less favoured teams – that money has got to be surrendered by Ferrari, Merc, Red Bull. Not an easy sell…
Martin Whitmarsh is back in F1. Below, bosses Arrivabene, Kaltenborn (no longer in situ), Steiner, Wolff, Horner, Boullier, Tost and Abiteboul
3) COST REDUCTIONS
The FIA has recently engaged McLaren’s former boss Martin Whitmarsh to help it frame a post-2020 control upon costs, with Liberty having floated the idea of a future team cost cap of about 150 million euros per year.
WHAT’S BEST FOR F1?
“I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY FERRARI AND Mercedes want to protect their position,” says Brown, “but I think we need to ask: if Mercedes wins seven championships in a row, is that good for the sport? Is it healthy for anyone in the sport? On current spend and regs, they are odds-on favourites to win the next three years.”
The imbalanced payments – largely created when previous owner CVC needed the signatures of the top teams as it tried to float the sport on the stock market – are constantly expanding and reinforcing the advantages of the big teams over the small. But even that is being compounded by a highly complex cutting-edge engine that only one, maybe two, manufacturers have truly mastered even after four years. That unfortunate combination has frozen in place a static competitive order – and, if not radically changed at the 2021 opportunity, threatens to freeze things indefinitely. The two main beneficiaries of that competitive order, carrying enormous political weight, don’t want it radically changed.
Liberty’s Carey and Ross Brawn have been at pains not to conduct negotiations in public and have stated they will negotiate for as long as is required to get something that all parties can live with. But the concern that Brown outlines is that this very delay could be what ensures nothing will really change. “I think Liberty needs to focus on what’s best for the sport and what’s best for the fan. If that means a team/manufacturer not supporting that, then I think Liberty and the FIA need to be prepared to recognise you’re not going to make everyone happy. So they need to just centre on what’s best for the sport. If someone feels that’s to the detriment of their team and leaves, I’d rather that than have just two teams that can win.”
So, call the bluff of Ferrari and Mercedes? What if they do leave? “I think that’s highly unlikely but anything’s possible,” says Brown. “So we need to land on a set of rules that allows other teams to enter in the unlikely event of one or the other of the existing ones not continuing. Ferrari is a unique case but we’ve all seen manufacturers come and go in the sport. We have to write rules that are best for the sport, not what’s best for today’s manufacturers.”
So what does Brown hope 2021 F1 will look like? “F1 of all the major sports has the biggest revenue discrepancy from first to last. We’ve got to close that. Costs are totally out of control. We’re probably the only industry in the world, let alone sport, that hasn’t addressed costs in today’s age. I think that’s the highest priority. If people are making more money than others, I’m OK with that, so long as they are not able to spend it to increase this great gap in competitiveness. The engines are obviously complicated, and expensive, and there probably needs to be an independent manufacturer in there to give teams greater choice because the engine situation does get very political. The FIA announced a direction of more simplified engines. We support that. I’m not exactly sure of the FIA’s position on cost cap vs cost containment, but I think cost containment is very difficult and cost cap is the way to go. If you have the money you’ll figure out how to use it. Like the wind tunnel hours restriction. Teams just spent money instead on extracting more data from the more limited running. That’s a good example of how cost containment doesn’t really work.”
So McLaren, like most teams outside the Ferrari/Mercedes alliance but against the current engine suppliers, supports a simplified technical formula that would allow an independent engine supplier and make entry to F1 for new teams easier. This plus a radically tough cost cap of about half the budget of the top two teams. Sailing a smooth path through these troubled waters to 2021 is going to take some feat of diplomacy.
Brown: “It’s going to get pretty aggressive, I think. There’s going to be talk of breakaways. I hope not because a breakaway isn’t feasible, but I’m sort of resigned to the fact it’ll be used as a threat. But hopefully the conversations are more constructive in trying to get a solution and can be concluded quickly.”
Those in charge of midfield teams view things differently from Wolff and Arrivabene, above
The Porsche Curves stand up there with the Esses and Tertre Rouge, the Mulsanne Straight, and the right and the left-hander at Indianapolis as an iconic sequences around the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans. Some are arguing that the completion of a round of safety upgrades at the four-corner section of permanent track created back in 1972 has robbed them of some of their challenge and much of their character.
The hemmed-in nature of the track, with unyielding walls on either side, helped give the Porsche Curves a flavour of their own. They were traditionally corners in which the best – and perhaps bravest – drivers excelled.
Critics of the changes argue that a bit of what makes Le Mans unique has been eroded. The track was opened up on the outside of the final right-hander for last year’s 24 Hours and the process has now been completed with the addition of new asphalt run-off on the inside for this year.
The character of the final right will inevitably change, but the powers that be at the Automobile Club de l’Ouest argue that improving the safety features around the existing layout was preferable to the alternative. That might have involved a wholesale rejig of the Porsche Curves or, perish the thought, the addition of a chicane.
They point out that the Porsche Curves have survived the latest safety improvements with their route intact. The corners themselves haven’t changed. We should be thankful for that.
