Toro Rosso fires up engine
Toro Rosso has fired up the Honda power unit for the first time. The Italian team has replaced McLaren as the Japanese engine manufactures works team.
Today, the team released a short video showing the first start-up, as well as race drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly having their seat fittings. Along with a tweet, which said “What a fantastic Valentine’s Day, the STR13 and the Honda RA618H finally meet.”
The video also showed Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly having their seat fittings.
Honda will be hoping that it can repair its reputation after three disastrous years with McLaren. That partnership was supposed to last at least 10 years but was cut short last year after McLaren finally lost patience with the constant issues and missed upgrade deadlines.
Toro Rosso is hoping to avoid similar setbacks and has targeted an issue-free pre-season. Last year it went through a public spat with former supplier Renault after its own problematic campaign.
Haas release 3D renders
Haas has become the first team to release 3D renderings of their 2018 car. The Images of the car show a render of the teams car As well as the halo cockpit protection device.
The VF-18 is the American team’s third Formula One car. Earlier this week team owner Gene Haas gave the team the challenge of cutting the gap to engine supplier and technical partner Ferrari to 0.5s.
The livery continues to use the corporate colours of Haas Automation.
Sauber can emulate Force India
Sauber believes they can emulate Force India’s achievements of beating some big teams in three to five years, now that they have more support from Ferrari says team principal Fred Vasseur.
Force India finished fourth in the constructors for the past two years, and has been in the top six every season since 2013. While financial difficulties have seen Sauber fall to the bottom of the pile since 2012.
Sauber is now effectively a junior team, and are expected to move forward thanks to the latest-specification Ferrari engines and securing Ferrari stablemate Alfa Romeo as title sponsor. Vasseur thinks those changes will allow them to match what Mercedes-affiliated Force India has achieved lately.
Vasseur told Autosport, “Force India is a good model because they are working with Mercedes more or less as we are working with Ferrari. They are working with drivers, they are working on collaborations.”
“Working on the engine and some other parts, and it is more or less the same size as Sauber. It is a good example of what we could achieve and what could be the project.” He says that Force India had not reached its current ‘best of the rest’ status overnight.
Force India has worked over time to progress into the top five, because it was serious and had a long term project and he says Sauber has to be patient.
“When you are outside the business it is sometimes not easy to understand, and you may have the feeling that you can buy performance.” He added.
Vasseur says that the sensible short-term goal is to regularly be in the points this year. Sauber’s first target will close the gap in races and be able to fight with those around them.
He added “Then it is difficult to know if we will fight for P8, P9 or P10. More will be difficult. But it will depend also on the other teams and their projects.”
Haas denies being anti-American drivers
Haas has denied claims that they are against the idea of taking an American driver, but say they are not in a position currently to take a homegrown driver.
The only American team are yet to announce an American driver in a race seat since they entered the sport in 2016. This season Romain Grosjean and Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen will be the teams race drivers
The team were criticised by American racing figures last month after Haas team boss Guenther Steiner suggested no driver from the United States was yet ready for F1.
Responding to criticism from the American press, team owner Gene Haas told the teams website “The fact is that we’re still learning here in Formula 1, and bringing on a driver who needs to learn about Formula 1 probably isn’t the best thing for us or them.
“So, we need to step up, but we know where we need to improve thanks in large part to the experience of our drivers. We’re not saying no to having an American driver, but the reality is that of the American drivers who have a superlicence and could actually compete in F1.”
Haas added that the team wanted to be in that position sooner rather than later. He says that Grosjean and Magnussen are playing a big part in driving the team forward.
The last American to race in the sport was Alexander Rossi, who did five races for Manor at the end of 2015. Haas has run the Stewart – Haas Nascar team since early 2000’s, and there is no doubts in his mind that America can produce highly rated talents.
He added “But we’re not ready for that yet, and with the limited amount of testing teams have, getting anyone up to speed who hasn’t already been a part of a development program would be hard.”
F1 Superstars to drive fans in supercars
Formula One fans will be given the opportunities to be driven around circuits in supercars by some of the sports biggest drivers this season, like Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
A programme named Pirelli hot laps was announced by Liberty Media and the Italian tyre supplier and will feature at nine races starting with the Bahrain Grand Prix.
McLaren and Aston Martin have already signed up to the programme, with others expected to follow soon. Aston will use their new V8 Vantage with Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Dutch driver Verstappen among those at the wheel.
McLaren will provide a 720s supercar with drivers to include Spaniard Alonso, Belgian teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, Finland’s retired double world champion Mika Hakkinen and British reserve Lando Norris.
The programme will also run special competitions and promotions for fans to win rides as well as catering for celebrities and guests.
In a statement commercial managing director, Sean Bratches said: “The once in a lifetime experience of being driven at speed by a racing driver at iconic race circuits in dream cars is truly unique.”
“We are seeking to be fan first and this is yet another example of our efforts to that end.”
McLaren uncensored in Amazon film – Brown
McLaren’s executive director Zak Brown says that the upcoming Amazon film about the team would of fallen flat if the team had tried to censor more controversial moments.
Last week, Amazon announced a four-part series called Grand Prix Driver which followed the teams preparations for 2017, the series will expose the struggles and frustrations it felt as its relationship with Honda fell apart.
Brown told Autosport, “We took a decision: if you are going to do a show like that, then you have to be authentic to what the purpose of the show is. So we let them in places and meetings like we have every Tuesday race debriefs.”
“We took the view that it would be counterproductive if it was the inside of McLaren, edited by McLaren. We wanted to show everyone this is what really happens in an F1 team.”
The original plan was to focus on Stoffel Vandoorne’s rookie season in F1. Brown said there was no second thought to keeping the filming going when the backstory of Honda’s woes emerged.
Brown hinted that the story changed into the engine woes, and there was no attempt to censor anything to “be politically correct in everything we do. Let’s let our guard down a little bit and let the fans on the inside.”
Brown admitted that this wasn’t the story that the team wanted to tell, adding “we had to be authentic to what we said the show was going to be about. We just hope people appreciate our open and honest and transparent approach.”
It is understood Liberty Media is about to announce a deal with Netflix to film with various teams this year, Brown believes that the sport must do more to bring fans closer to what happens off track.
Adding “We should open up that access up a bit more without sharing trade secrets because as you well know there is a heavy paranoia about the competition and seeing what we are up to.”
