Pre-season testing for the 2018 F1 season gets underway at the Circuit de Cataluyna on 26th February. With less than a month to go, here are my top five things to look forward to in the coming season.
Charles Leclerc (MCO, PREMA Racing). Photo: Zak Mauger/FIA Formula 2. ref: Digital Image _W6I4169
1 – Charles Leclerc
Runaway 2017 F2 champion Charles Leclerc will make his F1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix with the newly rebranded Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. The Monegasque driver has progressed rapidly through the junior formula and has emerged out the other side with a very impressive CV. He is the first driver since Nico Hulkenberg in 2009 to win the F2 championship, or GP2 as it was when Hulkenberg won, in his rookie year, and only the forth ever after the German, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg. Not bad company at all. Add to that a GP3 title, also won in his first year in the series, membership of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and a second place finish at the Macau Grand Prix in 2015, and it’s no wonder that Leclerc is widely tipped to be driving for Ferrari at some point in the near future, possibly as early as 2019 if and when Kimi Raikkonen retires.
From 2011 to 2015, the rights to F1 television coverage in the UK were jointly held by the Sky Sports and the BBC. The former aired all races live, while the latter broadcast only a few live, with the rest showed via highlights a few hours later. In 2016, Channel 4 took over the BBC’s part of the contract. That same year, it was announced that Sky Sports had signed a deal which will see it solely hold the rights to live F1 coverage from 2019 all the way through to 2024. The only exception is the British Grand Prix, which will continue to be available on a free-to-air channel as yet undisclosed. Despite the deal being made prior to Liberty Media’s takeover of the sport, Management Director Sean Bratches has said that Liberty Media plan to honour it. So it seems that 2018 may well be the last year of free-to-air live coverage in the UK for the foreseeable future.
3 – Return of the French Grand Prix
Having dropped off the calendar in 2008, the French Grand Prix will this year make its return. Magny-Cours was the last circuit to stage the event, but the 2018 race will be held at the Circuit Paul Ricard, also known as Le Castellet, in the south of the country. Several of the circuit’s corners have been modified to accommodate the increased cornering speeds of the new breed of F1 cars, whilst the organisers are also trying to improve the capacity of the access roads for fans travelling to and from the track. The race will take place on 24th June, as part of a triple-header with Silverstone and Hockenheim. With Renault, Romain Grosjean, and Esteban Ocon on the grid, the French fans will surely have a lot to cheer for.
(c)Jake Archibald released under Creative commons 2.0
4 – Introduction of the Halo
One of the most controversial debates in Formula 1 over recent years has been surrounding cockpit head protection. Despite large amounts of backlash from fans and from some of the teams and drivers, 2018 will be the first year that the halo will be used in F1, with F2 doing likewise and other junior formulas set to follow suit in the coming years. Click here to read more about it (shameless plug I know).
5 – McLaren and Renault Team Up
It’s safe to say it’s been a pretty miserable few years for McLaren. Their last podium came in 2014 when Kevin Magnussen finished second at the Australian Grand Prix, and their last win came courtesy of Jenson Button at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, and their partnership with Honda was woefully underwhelming in the three years they were together. For many fans it was a case of good riddance when it was announced that for 2018 McLaren would revert to Renault power. Renault had its fair few reliability issues in 2017, not least in Mexico when, over the weekend, four out of the six Renault-powered cars had engine issues, but McLaren have said that they’re pleased with the early data being produced by the car and powertrain, and are cautiously optimistic about what the coming year could bring.
This year I had the chance to attend the Autosport show in Birmingham, I feel very lucky for that and I would like to thank the organizers for their amazing hospitality. It was a unique experience, I was able to see closely several racing cars and also, I watched a great show hosted by David Croft.
The first day that I went to the show, I was astonished from the variety of cars that were at the show. While I was passing and was taking photos of almost all the cars, I noticed something different, something unique, I saw the Robocar. It was placed on the side of the Autosport’s interview stage, a strange car with no cockpit and a weird design.
Before you read Bryan’s Balcombe exclusive interview, it will be useful to know some of the car’s characteristics.
Robocar. Image by Chief Design Officer Daniel Simon / Roborace Ltd.
The Robocar, designed by the German Daniel Simon, who has previously created vehicles for Tron Legacy and Oblivion, is a fully electric and autonomous car, weights around 1000 kg and has four 300kW motors, one per wheel.
The top speed of the Robocar is about 320kph or 200mph and it also has a 62kWh battery with 550kW power.
Around the car, there are several types of sensors, to allow the car to move safely and fast on the tight Formula E circuits. It has 5 lidars, 18 ultrasonic sensors, 2 optical speed sensors, 6 AI cameras, two radars and GNSS positioning.
Robocar, is currently powered by NVIDIA Drie PX2 which can run up to 24 trillion A.I. operations per second, but it will be upgraded to Pegasus platform and will run 320 trillion operations per second. The current Drive PX2, is connected to Robocar’s sensors and gives the opportunity for 360-degree situational awareness around the car, to give the exact position of the car on the track.
Bryn Balcombe, Roborace’s Chief Strategy Officer, answered my questions regarding the Robocar and the Roborace series. Enjoy!
When and who came with the idea of a fully autonomous and electric car?
“Denis Sverdlov, Roborace’s founder and Alejandro Agag, came up with the idea whilst discussing the future of the automotive industry becoming electric but also connected and autonomous on the way back from the Beijing race in Season 1 of Formula E. Motorsport has always been used to advance road relevant technology. Roborace applies this philosophy to Vehicle Intelligence Technologies, many of which are banned in traditional championships as driver aids.”
What are your expectations from the Robocar, what do you want to achieve with Roborace series?
“Roborace will increase the pace of innovation and development of road relevant hardware and software for Intelligent Vehicles. Ultimately technology will save lives on the road and move society close to Vision Zero. As in all motorsport, Robocar will continue to evolve as technology improves. Within two years of development there have been three significant steps in NVIDIA compute power on the car. So the pace of innovation is much faster than traditional powertrain. We will start to see Software and Cognitive Power becoming as important to performance and safety as Mechanical and Horsepower.”
How many teams will take part in the Roborace championship, how many cars will each team have?
“We are looking at completely new formats of motorsport that are much more relevant to testing driver skills in perception, reasoning and decision making. Basically the smartest driver should win which is why we refer to it as a Championship of Intelligence. This year we are opening up the hardware platform for 3rd parties to start to develop AI Driver Software. Before they can race Robocar they’ll need to test their software in a simulator and in DevBot, our development vehicle. The development process and AI Driver is much the same as a human. We often refer to Max Verstappen taking 17 yrs before making it to F1 (13 of which he spent driving). The process for AI Drivers should be faster but there are similar logical steps that progress from small scale to full scale cars and from virtual to real cars. For any competition you need at least two competitors. So we’ll have competition formats that include anything from 2 cars upwards.”
How easy will it be presenting to the public a driverless series? Considering that all these years we are used to seeing drivers to battle wheel to wheel and fans are connected emotionally to the drivers and their achievements.
“There is always a driver. In fact, Roborace is focused on being a pure driver’s competition because it intends to use standardised vehicle hardware. The only performance differentiator is the driver skill. In some formats this will be AI Driver software only. In other formats we can allow a human to collaborate with the AI Systems and take executive control over decision making. In these formats you’ll see human collaboration with AI versus pure AI Drivers. We may see the same natural progression we’ve witnessed in chess, where Human/AI Centaurs can outperform AI only systems and AI systems can outperform humans only.”
What are the biggest challenges that Roborace team is facing, and how are they planning to overcome them?
“The pace at which the industry is moving is incredible so we will have constantly evolving competition formats that ensure the AI Drivers remain constantly challenged. In Roborace all evolutions are focused on driver performance whether that’s better eyes, ears, brain size or intelligence. The competition complexity will increase in line with those technical developments.”
What excites you about the Robocar? Is it the future of the commercial cars?
“In the future all vehicles with become intelligent. They will all become aware of their environment. They will all become aware of the surrounding situations. However, there is a fork in the road at that point in how you chose to use that intelligence. Toyota describes the options as Chauffeur and Guardian Angel. The first is an autonomous future where humans no longer need to drive. The second is an assisted/augmented future where humans still drive but their skills and capabilities are enhanced by the AI systems within the car. We know of several high performance OEMs that are considering AI technology as a future Race Trainer. So an AI Lewis Hamilton might be able to act as your real-time driver coach when you take your Project One on a track day. He could even drive you around first as you are learning the track and to set a reference lap time for you to target.”
Nicki Shields had the chance to drive the DevBot at Hong Kong ePrix, from the video it is seen that the Robocar cannot match the human’s times, will it ever be able to do it? What are the difficulties that do not allow it to move faster?
“In Hong Kong we ran using our development vehicle called DevBot rather than Robocar. DevBot is a modified LMP3 race car that allows a human to drive but can also be switched into an autonomous mode. That allows us to run human versus machine competitions. The AI Driver in DevBot was around 10% slower than Nicki. We actually ran a brand new version of our internal development AI Driver which was designed to run using LiDAR sensors only. For safety we imposed VMAX limit and a minimum distance to the barriers lining the street circuit of around 1.5m. Sensor fusion of LiDAR with cameras and Radar will improve perception which ultimately improves confidence so speeds increase and safety margins can be reduced.”
Consider a hypothetical scenario, during a race, two Roboracs are close to each other, how will each react? Will the leading car be able to defend its position, whilst the one from behind will be moving faster for a potential overtake?
“Wheel to wheel racing is a key target for Roborace. Nose to tail processions broken by straight line overtakes are not exciting for the public. AI Drivers will have adhere to similar sporting regulations as human drivers; such as leaving one car width of space for a competitor or staying within track limits. They will also have similar goals as human drivers and will develop similar offensive and defensive tactics to maintain an advantage.”
“The interesting thing is that if there is an incident all the data and decision making processes will be available for immediate review to determine fault. No more waiting for the end of the race for stewards in interview drivers before confirming the result. Sporting penalties can be applied immediately and proportionately.”
Describe Roborace series in a few words or more than a few!
“Roborace is an extreme motorsport and entertainment platform for the future of road relevant technology.”
How many people are working together every day to keep improving the Robocar? Would you like to say a few words about them?
“We’ve built an incredible team full of international talent to bring the project to life. Building a fully autonomous car is probably the most complex interdisciplinary task you could imagine. Collaboration is key.”
When will the Robarace championship be ready to launch?
“As soon as enough, drivers qualify to use Robocar. “
F1 has completed its first full season under Liberty Media’s ownership, all 20 races have been and gone, the champion has been crowned and everyone’s preparing for the year ahead. Liberty are the new kids on the block, their arrival has been met with a mixed response and they’ve got a lot to learn if they’re to manage the sport successfully.
While critics will argue that Liberty haven’t achieved an awful lot so far, it’s important to remember the unstable mess that they picked from Bernie Ecclestone on the 23rd January 2017. Bernie’s strategy was to keep F1 on an unstable platform so that no one got too comfortable however, this is the opposite of what is needed for growth and expansion.
The bias within the F1 remains for now, Ferrari still get a disproportionate amount of prize money but that’s unlikely to change as it is part of the Concorde Agreement which was signed in 2013 and runs to 2020. In spite of this, Liberty have made it clear that they intend on scrapping the controversial agreement as soon as possible.
“We have the infamous document called the Concorde Agreement, which is this agreement that comes up every six to eight years – it comes up in 2020 – which defines the financial arrangements with teams,”
“Our goal is to create much more of a long-term partnership, not a partnership that sort of has a point in time that you go out and renegotiate the next eight-year partnership, that there’s a continuum.” – Chase Carey, F1 Chairman
Even with the majority of the inner workings of F1 being locked in contracts, Liberty have started to make changes to the social element of the sport. Almost immediately the strict regulations surrounding social media usage in the paddock were relaxed, allowing teams and drivers to better connect with and involve fans.
The London Live event was an entirely new concept for F1 which brought all the drivers, bar Hamilton, to the centre of London with live music, interviews and an impressive demo run in the old cars. This type of event is going to become more common in the coming years and, with the relaxation of more regulations, can now include the current cars doing demo runs.
Another of Liberty’s changes was to the logo, this was met with swathes of criticism however, the FIA stood by Liberty’s decision so the new logo will be sticking around for 2018 and beyond.
“What we wanted to do was provide a fresh energy to the sport and I think we have a lot of plans for the future, a lot of things we want to do and we thought the logo was a good way to emphasise the excitement, fresh energy and a new day to take the sport to a new place,” – Carey
F1 unveiled their new logo at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2017 was just the start of Liberty’s new venture, they intend to set up an in-house live streaming service for 2018 however, it will only be available in countries where there isn’t a pre-exiting TV deal that guarantees exclusivity, for example the UK and Sky.
They will also have to tackle the looming engine regulation change, set to come in for 2020. The current hybrid engines have proven to be unpopular with fans, monumentally expensive to teams and have detracted any new manufactures from joining – just look what happened to Honda. The change will be a delicate balancing act to please the current manufactures while attracting new ones and improve the show for the fans.
It’s clear that some fundamental changes need to be made to F1 if it’s to succeed in this modern world. Liberty need to take back control from the manufactures for a start; if Ferrari want to quit, let them – decisions need to be made for the benefit the sport, not one or two manufactures.
Likewise, changes need to be made to the ludicrous engine penalties; capping them at 15 places for 2018 is a start but more needs to be done to stop them ruining races, confusing fans and even deciding the championship.
Even with all that, F1 as a whole needs to be modernised, it needs to attract new fans and it needs to have a bigger, more global reach. F1 was the fastest growing sport on social media in 2017 but it still has a long way to go to have anything like the presence of the NBA, the Premier League, La Liga and such like.
Overall, Liberty Media’s first year in charge has gone as well as it could’ve, the confident manner in which they are talking is promising but there’s still a long way to go and a lot more hurdles to clear before F1 is anywhere near where it should be.
Grand Prix 1970 van Nederland voor Formule I wagens , Zandvoort; Dan Gurney , kop *21 juni 1970
We at The Pit Crew Online join the global motorsport community in marking, and mourning, the passing of the legendary Dan Gurney.
Gurney came of age in the wild mid-century era of motorsport, racing for several teams across several series from 1959 to 1970 before focusing on managing his team, All American Racers. The list of his accomplishments could fill several lifetimes: racing for Scuderia Ferrari, winning at Le Mans, the most successful American driver in Formula One, winning in NASCAR, winning in Indy Car (the first driver to win in all four series), winning in Can-Am, the first to spray champagne from the podium at Le Mans, the first driver to wear a full-face helmet in a Formula One Grand Prix, inventor of the eponymous Gurney Flap and inspiration for the Gurney Bubble, manufacturer, team owner…
The list of names associated with Gurney throughout his storied career is no less luminous on both the driver’s and manufacturer’s side: Jack Brabham, Carroll Shelby, AJ Foyt, Bob Bondurant, Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, Bruce McLaren, Roger Penske…
The 1967 season in particular stands out in Gurney’s rich career, thanks to the Golden Week of 11 – 18 June. It was on June 11th, 1967 that Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt won at Le Mans, and Gurney established the tradition of spraying champagne from the podium. A scant week later, Gurney won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in his Eagle Mk 1, the only US-built car to win a Formula One Grand Prix. Beyond this, the car was built by Gurney’s own team, then known as Anglo American Racers. This was the second time of only three in Formula One history that a driver has won a Grand Prix in a car of his own manufacture.
There is so much more one could say about Dan Gurney, and doubtless drivers and motorsport fans alike are recounting their favorite memories around the world in his honor.
Dan Gurney died from complications of pneumonia on 14 January, 2018, in Newport Beach, California. He is survived by his wife, their children, and grandchildren.
The final checkered flag has waved for one of the greats of global motorsport. Godspeed, Dan.
Force India has signed Canadian F2 racer Nicholas Latifi as its new test and reserve driver for the 2018 F1 season.
Latifi’s role will comprise simulator work as well as participation in young driver tests and “a number of Friday practice sessions” throughout the year.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity,” Latifi said in a statement. “Sahara Force India is a team that has shown constant improvement for the last few years and I’m proud to become a part of one of the success stories of Formula One.
“I am eager to show the team what I can do and help them as they continue to close the gap to the front of the grid.”
Joe Portlock/FIA Formula 2
Force India team boss Vijay Mallya said of the appointment, “Nicholas joins us off the back of a strong season in F2 and strengthens our driver development programme. He will support our simulator programme and work with the team during a number of Friday practice sessions.”
Mallya added: “We have a long track record of bringing on young talented drivers and Nicholas will learn a huge amount as he gets embedded in the team, and looks forward to a career in Formula One.”
Latifi, who previously held a test driver role at Renault, took one race win and nine podiums to finish fifth in the 2017 F2 Championship.
One of Sean’s 2018 car designs: The new Sauber with the Alfa Romeo livery and the Halo
We talked with designer Sean Bull about his work in Formula E and his change from casual F1 fan to creator of fictional and real car designs, and show the person who stands behind some of the most popular fantasy F1 liveries.
Most of the F1 community knows it: the feeling weeks before the presentation of the new F1 cars. Especially when a team has a big new sponsor or has changed their engine partner for example, everybody talks about possible livery changes. How would Ferrari look without Santander? Or the new McLaren in an old-school papaya coat? What about Red Bull with the new Aston Martin deal, or Sauber with Alfa Romeo? And most importantly: how will the cars look with the new halo system above the cockpits?
Only a few of the many questions in this year’s pre-season. Thats where the work of Sean Bull begins. A man who not only creates possible designs of real and fictional F1 teams—he also started with a real design for the Dragon Formula E team this season.
The fictional designs are iconic to many people. Thats why the disappointment is often big, when the teams reveal their real cars with a much more conservative livery. Some people might ask why the real teams don’t look as good as popular examples from designers like Sean Bull. Let’s ask the man himself about this and know more about him, his hobby and his job at the same time.
A dream came true: Sean’s livery designs for Dragon Racing in this year’s Formula E season.
1. First of all, congratulations on your first real car livery, the Dragon Racing Formula E cars and their driver suits. They look great. Could you tell us, what was your reaction when you learned that your design had been chosen for the car?
Sean: The Dragon design was months of hard work, working closely with the team’s owner, Jay Penske to design and develop the teams refreshed identity this season after the departure of Faraday last year, going back to the team’s roots of the striking red chrome and a more elegant and flowing design was a pleasure to draw and create, with the car lending itself heavily toward the livery layout. A classic use on subtle pinstriping around the key feature lines and the minimalist American flag motif that adorn the roll hoop and front wing are the result of continued fine tweaking and development.
The decision to split the liveries came quite late and continue what is left of the team’s corporate DNA from last year with the split faraday designs, only presented in a more obvious and dramatic fashion this year, with each car being the mirror imprint of the other, something I wish F1 would be allowed to adopt with such difficulty telling the drivers apart from one another.
The race suits and garage design were also fun aspects to design and create, we went with a range of options before we settled on something more minimal and classy rather than anything too outlandish and obvious, and I believe they look great, with obvious relation between the cars, pits and corporate branding and I’m very proud to have been part of it and am certainly looking forward to working with the team for the rest of the season.
2. Tell us what got you started designing. What inspired you to design car liveries, and is that your full time job now, or is it still a hobby for you?
Sean: I started, as I believe any fan of F1 has, sketching the cars watching the race as a young kid, and it’s from then that it’s always been my passion to be a car designer, so I studied Automotive Design at Coventry university and after gaining an industrial placement in my 3rd year I continued to work for that company as an Automotive Stylist after graduating in 2016. It was the skills in Photoshop and CAD learnt at university and work that helped me develop a hobby designing fantasy F1 liveries that slowly evolved into designing and creating the real thing for some big race teams around the world. Fortunately, it is still my side hobby and one that I take great passion in, but as I enjoy my main career as a car designer, it makes for a good break and free time relaxation, I’m just lucky enough that the livery work I do for ‘fun’ has given me the opportunity of a “second career”.
Another idea from Sean: making the most of the unpopular halo system with driver-specific liveries.
3. Your designs for the upcoming year are everywhere on the web, especially during the winter break. Many are disappointed when the real cars are presented by the teams after the break. In contrast to your designs they are often more simple and less warmly received. Does this reaction make you proud?
Sean: As mentioned, this is what I love to do in my free time, so it’s good to see how my fantasy designs are received by the public, and that’s the difference between mine and the real ones that get presented in February. I’m not tied down to any corporate restrictions, branding guides or sponsor requirements, hence why my designs can be so much more extreme and dramatic compared to the real life counterparts. So I do have sympathy for the team’s actual design departments, especially now knowing the creative restrictions that do apply after working on a few real world commissions.
4. Could you tell us how much time you spend on a typical livery design?
Sean: Usually when just playing around with my F1 designs, it’s anything from ten minutes to an hour. The real time is spent creating my templates and trying to get them as photo-realistic as possible. That’s where the hours and hours of work is spent. With the real-world teams it can be a lengthy process of design and development, or it can be relatively quick if the team love an initial concept and want to go with that. For example, the Dragon designs were five months from initial sketches to the final application, with changes and tweaks being made even as the car was being wrapped. However, in contrast the F2 livery for MP motorsport last year went straight from an initial sketch to the final proposal in a matter of weeks, such was the reaction from the proposed title sponsor the designs were created for!
Also one of Sean’s most popular livery series’: the 2017 McLaren with all the team’s liveries from 1966 onwards. This is the design of the 1968 McLaren M7A.
6. 2017 has been a special year for you, with many successes. What is your next goal? Do you have an ultimate goal, perhaps designing a livery for an F1 team in the near future?
Sean: 2017 has honestly been the best year of my life, both professionally and personally. I was lucky enough to be engaged to my now-fiancée and we are getting married next year, so that was the personal highlight for me!
In terms of professional success, this year has been incredible. I only started in November 2016, so for all this to happen in such a small space of time has been amazing—especially the work with Leclerc, going to see my first F1 race as a guest of his, and the Red Bull work I have done with their North American team this year (I was lucky enough for them to fly me out to LA to meet them and see my GRC liveries in action at the last race of the rear). And to top off the year, the Formula E commissions with Dragon and the contest win with Mahindra have been incredibly well received!
Looking forward to the future, my ultimate goal is of course F1, and to gain a commission with a team there or eventually work as part of the team. I have other aspirations that I hope will be realised in the coming year, but they’re all secret for now!
Throughout 2017 there have been stories aplenty. Whether it be the old guard proving that they still have it, or a new generation suggesting they might upset the apple cart, it’s certainly been memorable. Here are eight men that excelled and enthralled in their respective fields, with a poll at the bottom so you can pick your favourite.
Jason Doyle:
After heartbreak in 2016 when the affable Australian looked set to win his first Speedway World Championship before injury robbed him, Doyle simply picked himself up and carried on in 2017. A battle with rookie Patryk Dudek went to the final round in Melbourne, where the 32-year-old took what he felt what was rightfully his.
Jason Doyle became Speedway World Champion in 2017: Image courtest of www.Speedwaygp.com
Lucas Di Grassi:
2016/2017 FIA Formula E Championship. Lucas Di Grassi (BRA), ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, Spark-Abt Sportsline, ABT Schaeffler FE02. Photo: Zak Mauger/LAT/Formula E ref: Digital Image _56I7110
The Brazilian’s Formula E victory in the 2016/17 season came against all odds. After Sebasiten Buemi and Renault e.dams’ sensational start it looked a forgone conclusion, but other commitments for Buemi and a sudden loss of form while Di Grassi remained consistent meant the Brazilian stole the championship from the Swiss.
Charles Leclerc:
The new kid on the block in Formula One for 2018, Leclerc has earned a drive at Sauber after dominating Formula 2. At 20, Monaco’s finest looks set to have a long career ahead of him at the pinnacle of motorsport.
Charles Leclerc (MCO, PREMA Racing) Photo: Zak Mauger/FIA Formula 2. ref: Digital Image _J6I1710
Lewis Hamilton:
Mercedes content pool. Lewis Hamilton is now a certified great after a fourth championship.
There is little to say about Lewis Hamilton that has not already been said. The Briton has not only won his fourth title after a titanic battle with Sebastian Vettel and moved into an elite club of just five to have won more than three World Championships, but also broke the great Michael Schumacher’s pole position record and with 62 is now the closest man to the German’s record of 91.
Marc Marquez:
In the past, Marc Marquez has won his MotoGP titles with varying degrees of difficulty. This year was one of his biggest challenges as Andrea Dovizioso led a rejuvenated Ducati challenged. Eventually the mercurial Spaniard won his fourth World Championship at the final round in Valencia.
MotoGP: Marc Marquez has won four of the five MotoGP Championships he has contested
Sebastien Ogier:
Sébastien Ogier (F), Julien Ingrassia (F) Volkswagen Polo R WRC (2016) WRC Rally Australia 2016 Photo: Helena El Mokni
Ogier continued his dominance in the World Rally Championship over the last five years with another title in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta. Two wins and nine podiums meant that he beat nearest rival Thierry Neuvile of Belgium by 24 points
Jonny Rea:
It’s been a record-breaking year in the World Superbike series for the man from Northern Ireland. A third straight Championship win would have been enough to see his name on the list, but in doing so he scored 556 points to break a 15-year-old points record that had previously been held by Colin Edwards with 552.
Ash Sutton:
Ashley Sutton (GBR) Team BMR Subaru Levorg, leading at Oulton Park.
A Baby-faced Assassin in the British Touring Car Championship, Sutton had given fair warning to his rivals of what could happen given the chance during his debut season in 2016 with victory at Croft. Six further wins in 2017 saw the man from Kent dethrone reigning back-to-back champion Gordon Shedden in style in the final round at Brands Hatch.
It’s almost time to switch off the lights and celebrate the first day of the 2018, but before we close the 2017 chapter, we must first give the crown to the driver who received the most grid drop penalties in 2017.
During the past season, many fans complained about the amount of penalties which were given to the Formula One drivers, some of them were fair, but some others didn’t even make sense. This article, presents all the penalties which were given to the drivers in the 2017 season. Due to the different type of penalties, I decided to give the crown to the driver with the most grid penalties.
Let’s step aside now and let the numbers do the talking.
The first figure shows the number of penalties which applied on every track, the least penalties were given in Malaysia and Singapore, whilst Italy and Belgium set the highest rate of penalties. The award of the most “painful” track goes to Monza (12)!
It’s not difficult to guess which team got the most penalties in 2017 (hint: they were using Honda engines), the interesting point is that despite the wins and the podium finishes Red Bull Racing was penalised 12 times in 20 races. The two title contenders had low penalty percentage, which means that the battle for the title wasn’t affected much from grid position penalties.
The award of the most penalised team goes to McLaren (25).
Now it’s finally the time to announce the big winner. (Hold your breath!!)
Many drivers tried to beat him, to claim the throne, but once again he proved how skilful driver, he is, of course his team and their engine supplier helped him to achieve this victory, but without teamwork you cannot achieve anything.
His closest rivals were Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo with eight grid drop penalties, whilst Esteban Ocon still doesn’t know how is to lose positions due to penalties, no grid drop penalty for Esteban (a.k.a. Oconsistency).
The award of the Mr.Penalty goes to.. Drums… Stoffel Vandoorne (15)!
At this point, I would like to thank the Pit Crew for giving me the opportunity to freely write articles and express my opinion via our website! I hope you enjoyed most of them, if not all them, and I wish you a happy new year!
See you all next year!
Ps. if you are planning to attend the Autosport Show, in January, let me know and we can meet there!
Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia. Sunday 26 March 2017. World Copyright: Zak Mauger/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _56I1907
Season finale once again, the 2017 Formula One season, belongs to the past, it’s hard to describe my feelings for this season. There are two emotional packages, the first one is before the summer break and the other one is after the break, mixed emotions but at the end, despite the results, despite the winner, there is no way to relieve the pain that appears when the F1 season ends. Now we have to wait until the first pre-season tests to hear the noise of the engines, but before that there will be massive debates about the Halo. Personally, I don’t like it, but the drivers’ safety is always the most important factor, end of discussion!
A traditional review would break the season into two parts and remind you round by round, or race by race, if you prefer, what happened the past months. Let’s try a different approach, a shorter season review, which will try to put you in a flashback mode, and pass all the 2017 season in front of your eyes in 1 minute (okay maybe a bit more!)
8 months ago…
Australia
Season premiere, tonnes of coffee for us who are living in the European time zone, agony as well, like the first day in school after the summer break! Sebastian Vettel, started from the second place, had better set up and a faster car than his title rival, Lewis Hamilton, and won for the first time since the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2015. Mercedes asked from Hamilton to go faster, but the Brit had issues with his tyres and was unable to catch Vettel’s speed.
Not a race to remember for Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian’s Red Bull, stopped on the way to the grid, his mechanics sent him back to the race, and on the second lap he had another issue, returned to the track, to enjoy his home race, but retired before the 30th lap.
China
Lewis Hamilton took his revenge, the Briton won his first victory in 2017. On Saturday he secured the pole, and had an advantage the following day, Vettel was close but never too close and at the end Hamilton took the chequered flag. The drivers started the race on wets, Max Verstappen had an impressive race, moved from the 16th to the third. Antonio Giovinazzi crashed his Sauber on the third lap of the race and retired, a good result for Carlos Sainz who finished seventh and scored six points for Toro Rosso.
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain. Sunday 16 April 2017. World Copyright: Charles Coates/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _27I8921
Bahrain
Pole position for Valtteri Bottas, the first in his career, the Finn set the fastest lap on Saturday, followed by his team-mate and Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari, had the pace to challenge Mercedes, and win their second victory of the season. At that moment, it was clear that the 2017 title would be decided between Hamilton and Vettel. Lewis Hamilton received a five second time penalty, for driving slowly on the pit entry to hold up Daniel Ricciardo. Lewis, served his penalty during the second and final pit-stop, when he re-joined the track he was behind Vettel and Bottas. The Finn stepped aside, allowed to Hamilton to pass him and chase Vettel, but Hamilton was not able to cover the 12 second gap in nine laps.
Max Verstappen crashed on the eleventh lap of the race, due to brake problems and retired.
Russia
Russia was the next stop for the Formula 1 crew, after the Bahrain Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel was prepared to celebrate another victory in 2017, as he claimed the pole position in Bahrain, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas, but the Finn had other plans. The Silver Finn, jumped the two Ferraris in front of him and took the lead on the opening lap. Bottas, despite the pressure from Vettel during the final laps, managed to remain first until the chequered flag and scored his first victory in Formula 1.
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada. Sunday 11 June 2017. World Copyright: Steven Tee/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _R3I0800
Spain
Hola amigos, said Hamilton to Sebastian Vettel. After an amazing start, Vettel passed Hamilton on the first lap, but Mercedes had an ace under its sleeve. The Silver Arrows, decided not to follow Ferraris strategy and go for a quick stop, but to leave Hamilton on the track for a longer medium stint and gain an advantage on a later stage of the race. Valtteri Bottas, delayed Vettel, as the German couldn’t pass the Finn, Mercedes pitted Hamilton, after the end of VSC, and with 30 laps to go. The British champion, re-joined on softs, Vettel pitted a lap later and after a wheel to wheel battle with Hamilton managed to remain first. On lap 44, Lewis was on Sebastian’s tail, took advantage of the DRS and overtook the race. Since that moment Lewis has tried to increase the gap between him and Vettel and at the end, he took his second chequered flag of the season.
Hamilton vs Vettel = 2-2
Monaco
Kimi Raikkonen started from the pole position, after nine years, Kimi took advantage of Vettel’s mistakes on his flying lap, and took the pole on Saturday’s session. A race to forget for Hamilton, Lewis qualified 13th and finished seventh. Jenson Button, replaced Fernando Alonso, in Monaco, but collided with Pascal Wehrlein on lap 60 and retired the race.
Ferrari decided to pit Kimi on lap 34, Sebastian Vettel found the opportunity and set some flying laps, pitted after five laps, and re-joined ahead of his team-mate.
Daniel Ricciardo was the third person on the podium, it was Red Bull’s third podium of the season, and the second consecutive for Ricciardo.
Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Sunday 14 May 2017. World Copyright: Andy Hone/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _ONZ6737
Canada
Easy weekend for Lewis Hamilton, the Briton started and finished the race from the same position, the first. Vettel, qualified second on Saturday, couldn’t follow the pace of the two Mercedes’ and Ricciardo’s, he finished only fourth. Sergio Perez, refused to follow Force India’s orders, to allow Ocon to pass, while he was fourth behind Ricciardo. At the end, Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Azerbaijan
Three safety cars, and several crashed were not enough to stop Daniel Ricciardo to win his first victory in 2017. Sebastian Vettel collided with Lewis Hamilton, he got a 10 second stop and go time for swearing in Hamilton’s car.
Daniel Ricciardo totally deserved the victory in the Baku Grand Prix, the Australian dropped down to 17th place, but moved up to the tenth position just before the first safety car. The two following, safety cars, and the troubles between the leading drivers, gave the advantage to Ricciardo to move all the way up in the first place.
A race that Stroll will never forget, the Canadian young driver finished on the podium for the first time in his career.
Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia. Saturday 25 March 2017. World Copyright: Zak Mauger/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _56I7996
Austria
Valtteri Bottas dominated in Austria, took his second victory in 2017. A five-place grid penalty dropped Hamilton to eighth position, the following day, Lewis finished fourth behind Daniel Ricciardo whilst Sebastian Vettel finished second. During the final laps of the race, Vettel was closing to Bottas and Hamilton to Ricciardo, for the third place, but both drivers didn’t improve their position.
After the Austrian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel was leading in the championship standings by 20 points.
United Kingdom
Home race for Lewis Hamilton and he couldn’t imagine a better way to thank his fans who appeared in Silverstone, than to win the British Grand Prix. With that victory, Lewis Hamilton tied the all-time record of five career wins in the British GP.
“The support has been incredible this weekend, I am so proud I could do this for you all. Now the plan is to win the championship.” Lewis Hamilton said after his victory in Silverstone.
An issue on Vettel’s front tyre, dropped him to seventh place behind Hulkenberg. Kimi Raikkonen, suffered the same problem a couple laps earlier, which cost him the second position, dropped him to the third place, whilst Bottas moved up to the second position.
Hungary
The last race before the summer break, Ferrari dominated in Hungary, and responded to Mercedes 1-2 in Silverstone. Sebastian Vettel, despite the problems that his Ferrari suffered, he won in Hungary, followed by his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who was complaining about Vettel’s speed.
Lewis Hamilton, was not able to catch the two Ferraris in front of him and allowed Bottas to pass him and finish third. The Briton, kept the promise which made to Valtteri earlier in the race, when Bottas allowed Lewis to pass, as he was moving faster at that point of the race.
A great race for Fernando Alonso, who finished sixth and scored crucial points for McLaren, a positive result for Carlos Sainz Jnr too, the Spaniard finished seventh behind Alonso.
Ferrari will feel that after the mid-season collapse in 2016 that 2017 was a missed opportunity.
So often the Prancing Horse had the quickest car but slight issues here and there held them back, despite Sebastian Vettel notching another four wins.
Their and his failure to win the World Drivers’ Championship can be attributed to a spectacular collapse in Asia as the Scuderia suffered a bleak mid-autumn.
Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen collided at the start of a Singapore Grand Prix that the German would have been favourite for, while in Malaysia technical dramas in qualifying meant he started at the back. He recovered to fourth.
Vettel then retired once again at the Japanese Grand Prix from second place. Lewis Hamilton won two and finished second in the other over the course of those three races.
It had all started so well in Melbourne.
Vettel simply sat behind Hamilton, waited for him to pit and drove into the distance after emerging from the pits ahead.
After a second in China, Vettel struck back in Bahrain with a win before being held off by a determined Valtteri Bottas in Russia and losing out to Hamilton in Spain.
A Ferrari 1-2 in Monte Carlo as Kimi Raikkonen converted his first pole in nine years into second place while Vettel again took the spoils seemed to confirm the Prancing Horse’s return to the top.
However June was a difficult month and saw Vettel recover from early damage to finish fourth in Canada while Raikkonen’s late technical gremlins dropped him to seventh.
Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan. Sunday 25 June 2017. World Copyright: Andy Hone/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _ONY8206 Vettel’s road rage in Baku earned him a stop/go penalty and ultimately cost him victory
There was then that road rage incident as Vettel rammed Hamilton in Baku to add needle to what was before a peaceful title rivalry. Controversially, Vettel stayed ahead of Hamilton after a stop-go penalty after the Brit’s headrest became loose forcing him to pit.
He would finish second in Austria, again pressuring Bottas before a tyre failure at the British Grand Prix cost him four positions and dropped him to seventh.
A gutsy win in Hungary restored his Championship lead to 14 points, before Hamilton took the spoils in Belgium ahead of Vettel.
A Mercedes 1-2 in Italy meant that for the first time Vettel was now the hunter instead of the hunted.
Marina Bay Circuit, Marina Bay, Singapore. Sunday 17 September 2017. World Copyright: Steven Tee/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _R3I1034 A first-lap collision took Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen out and meant pole amounted to nothing for the German World Championship contender.
The aforementioned month in which the wheels came off as Ferrari squandered poles, second places and the rest across Singapore, Malaysia and Japan rendered an excellent start and solid form thereafter irrelevant.
In the space of three races it became a case of when instead of if Hamilton won the World Championship.
The Brit took his customary win in the USA ahead of Vettel, to leave himself needing only to finish in the top five in Mexico.
A chaotic start there dropped both men to the back of the field as they collided, to leave Hamilton with a puncture and Vettel with a broken front wing. Vettel needed to win to have any chance of continuing the fight to Brazil, but could only fight to fourth. Hamilton raced to ninth.
At the Brazilian Grand Prix and with both Championships now decided, Ferrari needed to remind the watching world that they remained a threat, having failed to win a race since Hungary.
Vettel was second in qualifying ahead of Raikkonen, but jumped ahead of Bottas into turn one and controlled the race from there. It was a win the team desperately needed.
Mercedes secured a 1-2 in Abu Dhabi with Ferrari third and fourth, but thoughts had already turned to 2018.
As they reflect back on this season, it will be a mixture of “what ifs” and encouragement for the Scuderia’s top brass.
While they ultimately did not fully deliver after the promise they’d shown early season, 2017 proved that Ferrari – after so long – can compete for top honours once again.
It would be unwise to rule out the men from Maranello next year.
