Pirelli confirm tyre choices for Russia

Pirelli have announced the three tyre compounds they’ll bring to the fourth round of the 2016 championship in Russia, and they’re exactly the same as for the first three races of the season - supersoft, soft and medium.

As per the revised 2016 rules, Pirelli have also nominated the two sets of tyres that the teams must have in their race day allocation, and as with the first three events these will be the soft and the medium. Each driver must use at least one of these mandatory sets during the course of the race.

Every team must also save a set of supersoft tyres for Q3, but they have a free choice over the remaining compounds that make up their 13-set weekend allocation. The teams must inform the FIA of their choices no less than 14 weeks ahead of the race.

The 2016 tyre choices so far:

1. Australia – supersoft, soft, medium

2. Bahrain – supersoft, soft, medium

3. China – supersoft, soft, medium

4. Russia - supersoft, soft, medium

(source: f1.com)

Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren to attend Pirelli wet tyre test

Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren have been confirmed as the three teams that will participate in Pirelli’s upcoming wet-weather tyre test, to be held at the Paul Ricard circuit in France on January 25 and 26.

The two-day session - the first track activity of 2016 - will focus exclusively on full-wet tyres (as opposed to intermediates), with several different prototypes being evaluated.

As per the regulations, none of the teams in attendance will be running with new cars, and Pirelli will dictate each squad's programme.

Stoffel Vandoorne will be behind the wheel of an MP4-30 on behalf of McLaren, with details of the other participating drivers set to be made available in the coming days.

(source: f1.com)

Haas on target for February test debut

Formula One racing’s newest team, the American-led Haas squad, are on schedule to appear at next month’s opening 2016 test after their car passed its final mandatory FIA crash test.

“Good job guys!” was driver Romain Grosjean’s response as the team confirmed the news, which means they are now clear to take part in the first of two pre-season tests at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The car, the name of which has yet to be announced, features a Dallara-built chassis and power from Ferrari, with whom Haas have a multi-year technical agreement, also covering supply of transmission and other components, as well as support.

Driving it on its race debut at March’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will be Grosjean and team mate Esteban Gutierrez, the former Sauber racer returning to the grid after a year away as a Ferrari tester.

Before then, both men are expected to sample their new machine in testing on February 22-25 and March 01-04.

(source: f1.com)

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Maria Teresa de Filippis, first female F1 racer, dies at 89

Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first woman to compete in a world championship Formula One Grand Prix, has passed away at the age of 89.

The Italian made three Grand Prix starts for the Maserati team in 1958, with a best result of 10th at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

She also failed to qualify for the 1958 and 1959 Monaco Grands Prix, her second attempt being in a Behra-Porsche, and she walked away from the sport after the death of team boss Jean Behra later that year.

Naples-born De Filippis began racing after her brothers bet that she wouldn’t be fast enough, the result being that she won her first event in a Fiat 500. She went on to enjoy success in sports cars, before getting her F1 chance with Maserati.

De Filippis returned to a motorsport role in 1979 when she joined the Club Internationale des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix F1 for retired drivers, eventually going on to become its honorary president. She was also a founding member of the Maserati Club.

Only one other woman has recorded an F1 race start. The late Lella Lombardi, also Italian, started 12 Grands Prix between 1974 and ’76.

(source: f1.com)

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Tyler Alexander, 1940 - 2016

Tyler Alexander, one of the founding members of McLaren, has died at the age of 75. Alexander joined driver Bruce McLaren in the early 1960s to help set up the team that would go on to become one of the most successful in F1 racing.

Paying tribute to the American, McLaren Chairman and CEO Ron Dennis said: “Tyler Alexander was one of the first pillars of our company - working hard alongside Bruce from the very earliest days - and Bruce couldn’t have asked for a sturdier pair of shoulders upon which to help build the team’s reputation.”

After helping establish the team in 1963, Alexander worked with McLaren for two decades before leaving in 1983, two years after Dennis’s arrival at the helm. However, he returned in 1989 and remained with the squad until his retirement in 2008.

"Tyler Alexander was a true motor racing man, passionate, knowledgeable and the kindest of people," commented Formula One group CEO Bernie Ecclestone. "He worked with some of the greatest drivers, spanning nearly 50 years.

"He was a friend and had been through his days in motorsport. Tyler was a special person to me. He understood people and the sport. I am going to miss him."

Alexander started out McLaren's chief mechanic, working alongside Bruce McLaren and fellow American Teddy Mayer, before becoming chief engineer and then a director. As well as F1 racing, he led the company to success in the United States in the CanAm sportscars and Indycar series.

“Tyler's skilful yet practical expertise, coupled with his energetic and optimistic attitude, topped off by his infectiously dry and satirical sense of humour, made him both highly successful and hugely popular,” continued Dennis, “whether he was overseeing car-builds in the team's workshop, running race-winning CanAm and Indy 500 crews, or working with some of the world’s greatest drivers and engineers in Formula One."

In his period away from McLaren in the 1980s, Alexander returned to the US to join Mayer in running an Indycar team, before the pair briefly became joint team principals of the short-lived Beatrice F1 squad, which contested the 1985 and ’86 seasons.

After another brief stint in Indycar, he was re-signed by Dennis to McLaren in 1989 as a special projects engineer, and over his final 20 years with the team they won six drivers' and five constructors' titles, with the likes of Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen.

“Quite simply, Tyler lived and breathed McLaren," added Dennis. "And, following his retirement in late 2008, during which season he attended every Grand Prix and played an important part in securing the team's and Lewis Hamilton's world championship success, he remained a much loved and greatly valued chum to many of us, regularly visiting our Woking factory to catch up with pals old and new. Tyler's was a friendship that you could really rely upon; he was a man who would never let you down.

“In fact, Tyler was one of the finest of the old school: hardy, humble and wise, leaving a reputation and a legacy that will remain indelible in the history of international motorsport.”

(source: f1.com)