F1 Today: 24/02/2015
Gust of wind caused crash – McLaren
McLaren has dismissed rumours that an electrical fault caused Fernando Alonso to become unconscious before the crash during preseason testing on Sunday. The 30-year old remains under observation in hospital.
The team say that analysis of the car and telemetry data shows “the accident was caused by the unpredictably gusty winds at that part of the circuit at that time, and which had affected other drivers similarly. We can categorically state that there is no evidence that indicates that Fernando’s car suffered mechanical failure of any kind”.
They added that there was no loss of aerodynamic pressure nor was there any electrical discharge or irregularity in the ERS (energy recovery) system before, during or after the incident.
The third and final pre-season test starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday, with the teams then returning to their factories before flying to Melbourne.
Concept Mania?
Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene, says that when it released it idea for a future Formula 1 car it was trying to provoke its rivals into action. McLaren and Red Bull have also in recent weeks release their ideas for future F1 Cars.
This is comes as the sport tries to rebuild it fan base following a decline following last year’s regulation changes. Already there has been talk of 1000bhp engines and wider cars and tyres for a future Formula 1 car.
Arrivabene said “Other teams proposed their own view because we are not talking about ‘my car is better than your car, we were doing this design before you’ – this is stupid, this is crazy. I want to ask to every team to try to propose a concept car. Our message was mainly ‘try to liberate the creativity and create a beautiful car’
No new customers
Honda boss Yasuhi Arai says the Japanese manufacturer does not have any new customers for next season. Honda did only intend to supply McLaren for this season with others from 2016.
Arai says that testing has been plagued with ‘pop up’ issues with the engine. The idea of supplying new customers is not the priory at the moment. He says that there is no offers from other teams “because they think there’s something a bit mysterious about Honda.”
He added he is wondering how they can prepare for supplying a second team during the season.
Leave a Reply