{"id":3546,"date":"2017-04-05T17:54:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T17:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/f1vault.co.uk\/?p=3546"},"modified":"2017-04-05T17:54:45","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T17:54:45","slug":"f1-today-05042017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/f1-today-05042017\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Today – 05\/04\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Honda through too easy to catch up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa admits the Japanese manufacturer though developing the engine technology required to catch their rivals this season would be \u201ctoo easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

At McLaren\u2019s launch, Hasegawa said that he thought that the new power unit would match that of Mercedes. However, in testing the team struggled with the reliability of the engine.<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, neither driver suffered an engine failure, but Hasegawa admitted the current engine is down on power and says Honda underestimated the difficulty of finding more power.<\/p>\n

Hasegawa told Autosport \u201cAs a matter of fact we were thinking [it was] too easy, and it was too difficult to achieve the new technology – that was my mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did some good progress in the mono-cylinder on the dyno, but as soon as we complete the V6 engine we had many issues. When we transfer exactly the same specification to the V6 engine it doesn’t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said by the time they discovered this it was too late as they need to understand the issue at the same time they had to confirm their final specification of the engine.<\/p>\n

Hasegawa says that the\u00a0new engine currently produces “almost the same power” as the 2016 unit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wolff and Hamilton reset<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been speaking about how he and Lewis Hamilton hit the reset button following a turbulent 2016 when the pair had their disagreements.<\/p>\n

Both men were at odds at various points during last season over engine failures and Hamilton was annoyed about a reshuffle of mechanics between his side of the garage and teammate Nico Rosberg’s.<\/p>\n

The season finale proved controversial after Hamilton tried to back Rosberg up into the pack to try in a bid to retain the title. Hamilton said on social media after the meeting to say how ‘amazing’ it had been to have a chat as they ran through the fallout of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the first time about these chats, Wolff told Motorsport.com \u201cWhen it gets intense during a season between two drivers, sometimes things remain unspoken and not discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the season is a good moment, where you can put everything on the table, some of the frustrations and undiscussed topics, and to reflect on them, and to analyse them and to agree or find out what actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff has admitted following these chats it highlighted that both of them could have done things differently. He says it the same thing for Bottas, they need to understand the brand and that they have a responsibility to the brand.<\/p>\n

Wolff says that the arrival of Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes as Rosberg’s replacement has helped reset the situation at the team even further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a completely different dynamic. We’ve seen it already in testing and in the team briefings we have held.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

News In Brief <\/strong><\/p>\n

Overtaking discussion<\/strong> \u2013 Bosses at Mercedes, Red Bull and Renault say that something may need to be done if overtaking doesn\u2019t improve. The Australian Grand Prix only featuring a handful of proper overtakes, causing concerns that overtaking maybe difficult because of the regulation changes.<\/p>\n

William(s) the third \u00a0\u2013 <\/strong>Williams\u2019s Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams and her partner Marc have announced via the team’s Twitter account that she is expecting a boy in October<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Williams increase profits <\/strong><\/p>\n

Williams has posted a profit and increased revenues for 2016, and have expressed optimism for Formula One’s future under the sport’s new owners Liberty Media.<\/p>\n

The British-based team, who last won a race in 2012, finished fifth last year after ending the previous two seasons in third place overall. The group which includes the F1 team and the advanced engineering company posted a profit of \u00a3167.4 million before tax.<\/p>\n

in 2015 the group made a profit of \u00a3101.5m, and 2016 saw a 65% rise in the team’s profit. Chief Executive Mike O\u2019Driscoll said, \u201cOur team continues to attract support from some of the world’s leading companies and brands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very optimistic about the overall potential for the sport, under Liberty Media’s stewardship.\u201d He added. Williams is the biggest non-works team in Formula One and doesn\u2019t receive as much funding from the prize money, but have a \u2018heritage bonus.\u2019<\/p>\n

The sports owners Liberty has said it wants to see a more level playing field, with a more competitive grid that would give smaller teams a chance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Todt\u2019s warning about revenue<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIA President Jean Todt says that Formula One will not attract any more teams unless the sports owners Liberty Media shakes up its revenue system.<\/p>\n

Liberty has made it clear they believe that the majority of the prize money goes to the larger and wealthier teams will be a major hurdle to increasing competition.<\/p>\n

While the way the prize money is shared cannot be change until the expiry of the Concorde Agreement in 2020, Liberty has made it clear they want to change it after that.<\/p>\n

The sport has a limit of thirteen teams, however, there hasn\u2019t been that many cars in its field since the middle of the 1995 season.<\/p>\n

Todt said “clearly we should be able to fill” the empty slots, but argued the revenue distribution disparity was the main stumbling block.<\/p>\n

“The only way to fill [the spaces] is probably by a different distribution of the revenues, which is not one FIA problem. It’s a problem but we are not involved in dealing with that\u201d he said. Todt view is, Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport but it cost too much.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Autosport Managing Director Ross Brawn said that he\u2019s convinced that a shake-up of the commercial structure of grand prix racing could actually be beneficial for everyone.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cThe costs are very important. My fellow directors have been brought up in a culture where sports teams are profitable ventures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brawn says that the NFL is a good example because \u201cThere was a time in American football where there was quite a heavily distorted reward system and the top two teams got the majority of the money and the rest of the teams struggled.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mercedes are favourites but we can catch them<\/strong><\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s Daniel Ricciardo says that Mercedes remain the team to beat and hopes the team can close the gap to the world champions and Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Red Bull was off the pace of their main rivals in Melbourne, however, they were well ahead of the rest of the field. Many expected the team to be a lot closer, if not the main challengers to Mercedes because of the change in regulations.<\/p>\n

Ricciardo had an awful home race, crashing out of qualifying and a gearbox issue caused him to start several laps behind before he was forced to retire.<\/p>\n

He told the South China Morning Post \u201cTo start and finish [in Shanghai], that’s my target, Finish qualifying and to start the race. That will already be better than Melbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get close to Ferrari and Mercedes. If we can get closer to the podium, that already will be a better result.\u201d The Australian says progress is what they are chasing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honda through too easy to catch up Honda\u2019s F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa admits the Japanese manufacturer though developing the engine technology required to catch their rivals this season would be \u201ctoo easy.\u201d At McLaren\u2019s launch, Hasegawa said that he thought that the new power unit would match that of Mercedes. However, in testing the team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[43,344,425,445,493,664,675,712,754,799,921,1022,1153,1154,1287,1289,1298,1343,1637,1642,1843,2031,2149,2152,2188],"class_list":["post-3546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-analysis","tag-43","tag-business","tag-claire-williams","tag-concorde-agreement","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-today","tag-fia","tag-formula-one","tag-future-of-f1","tag-honda","tag-jean-todt","tag-liberty","tag-liberty-media","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-honda","tag-mercedes","tag-mike-odiscoll","tag-red-bull","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-toto-wolff","tag-williams","tag-williams-mercedes","tag-yusuke-hasegawa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}