Renault confirm works F1 entry for 2016

Renault will return to Formula One racing as a works entrant in 2016, the French manufacturer announced on Thursday.


The confirmation comes more than two months after Renault signed a Letter of Intent to acquire a controlling share in Lotus - the team it operated from 2002 to 2009. Principal contracts between the two parties were signed on December 3, though Renault say work continues on finalising the terms of the acquisition “in the shortest timeframe possible”.

“Renault had two options: to come back at 100 percent or leave,” said Carlos Ghosn, Renault’s Chairman and CEO. “After a detailed study, I have decided that Renault will be in Formula One, starting in 2016. The final details supplied by F1’s main stakeholders gave us the confidence to accept this new challenge. Our ambition is to win - even if it will take some time.”

(source: f1.com)

Greater tyre choice among regulation changes for 2016

New freedoms for teams regarding tyre choice were among a number of rule changes approved for the 2016 Formula One season in Wednesday’s Paris meeting of governing body the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council.


Three, rather than two, dry-weather compounds will now be available to teams at each round. Of the 13 sets of tyres allocated to each driver at a Grand Prix, tyre suppliers Pirelli will select three sets, while drivers will have the choice of compound for the remaining 10.

In other changes, the number of in-season development tokens available to power unit manufacturers has been revised, while power units from previous season may now be re-homologated. This means Ferrari are free to supply a fourth customer team with a 2015-specification power unit in 2016.

The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) may now be used in practice sessions as well as races, in order to reduce stoppage times, while DRS will now be re-enabled immediately after a VSC period.

The Council also passed a mandate for FIA President Jean Todt and Formula One group CEO Bernie Ecclestone to make decisions on pressing governance issues such as power units and cost reduction.


The full statement from the FIA's World Motor Sport Council:

The World Motor Sport Council approved, by a near unanimous number (just one vote against), a mandate for the FIA President, Jean Todt and the Representative of the Commercial Rights Holder, Bernie Ecclestone to make recommendations and decisions regarding a number of pressing issues in Formula One such as governance, Power Units and cost reduction. Mr Todt and Mr Ecclestone expressed their intention to establish conclusions on these matters by 31 January, 2016.

The World Motor Sport Council also approved a number of changes to the F1 Technical and Sporting Regulations.

Technical

The number of power unit tokens allowed for in-season development will be allocated as follows over the coming seasons:

- 2016 – 32

- 2017 – 25

- 2018 – 20

- 2019 – 15

Any new Power Unit manufacturer will be allocated 15 tokens in their first year, and 32 in their second.

The padded areas around the driver’s head have been increased in thickness for improved safety.

Sporting

Changes have been approved by the World Motor Sport Council in regard to the way that tyres are used by teams in order to encourage differing race strategies in 2016. These include:

- The tyre supplier will now provide three dry-weather compounds instead of two

- Of the 13 sets of dry tyres available to each driver, the tyre supplier will choose two for the race (only one of which must be used in the race), and one set (the softest available) that may only be used in Q3. Each driver may then choose their remaining ten sets from the three available compounds

- Unless intermediate or wet-weather tyres have been used, a driver must use at least two different specifications of dry-weather tyres – at least one of these must be the one chosen by the tyre supplier.

In the event of a Virtual Safety Car (VSC), DRS will now be re-enabled immediately after the VSC period. Furthermore, the VSC may also be used in practice sessions to reduce the amount of time lost during a stoppage.

Power Units homologated in previous seasons may now be re-homologated. Previously no manufacturer could supply more than one specification of PU. The World Motor Sport Council was also advised that the FIA had agreed for Ferrari to supply a fourth customer team with a 2015-specification Power Unit in 2016.

The maximum number of Championship events in a season has been increased to 21 (from 20).

(source: f1.com)

MiniDrivers - Chapter 7x19 - 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

F1 Abu Dhabi tyre test: Stoffel Vandoorne fastest for McLaren

(source: autosport.com)

Winners and Losers - Abu Dhabi

The best thing to end a season with? Probably a world championship, as Yas Marina runner-up Lewis Hamilton pointed out. Second best, however, must be momentum - something his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg has in spades after scoring his sixth successive pole and third consecutive win over the weekend. Others leaving Abu Dhabi happy included Force India, who secured their best-ever championship finish, and Jenson Button, who revelled in his battling race for McLaren. Among the less content were first-corner retiree Pastor Maldonado, and Max Verstappen, a lowly 16th after not one, but two time penalties for driving offences. We take a team-by-team look back at Sunday's 2015 finale…


Mercedes

Nico Rosberg, P1
Lewis Hamilton, P2

Rosberg had his hat-trick in the bag from the moment he left the start line, but Hamilton pushed him as hard as he could. The Englishman tried a different strategy by running 10 laps longer on his second set of soft Pirelli tyres, having hoped at one stage that he might even get the first set to the finish, but was dissuaded from trying that by his engineers. He cut a 12.5s deficit to 6.8s before being blocked by Verstappen for a lap, and eventually finished 8.2 s adrift as Mercedes scored their 12th one-two of the year.


Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen, P3
Sebastian Vettel, P4

Vettel’s race would always be subservient to Raikkonen’s here. The Finn drove very well to take the final podium slot after starting on supersofts and doing two stints on softs, and his only real problem was when the right front wheel was sticky during his second pit stop. Vettel started on softs and a long first stint helped him to his eventual fourth, as his strategy called for supersofts from the 39th lap to the finish. That worked perfectly as the team maximised their score.


Force India

Sergio Perez, P5
Nico Hulkenberg, P7

Perez was on great form and thoroughly deserved his fifth place after race-long pressure from Ricciardo’s Red Bull. Hulkenberg said he was disappointed with only seventh, not quite able to match his team mate’s pace. It nevertheless capped a strong end to Force India’s best-ever season.


Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo, P6
Daniil Kvyat, P10

Ricciardo did everything he could to keep the pressure on Perez and was pleased with his sixth place. Further back, Kvyat had likewise hounded Hulkenberg, but eventually fell back when electronic problems hampered his progress.


Williams

Felipe Massa, P8
Valtteri Bottas, P13

Williams’ performance was hugely disappointing after last year’s effort here. Massa had a strong start to his race but was generally not able to challenge anyone thereafter, and only just resisted the supersoft-shod Grosjean in the final laps. Bottas made a terrible start, then was unsafely released into Button’s path on the eighth lap. That meant a stop for a new nose, and another to serve a five-second penalty.


Lotus

Romain Grosjean, P9
Pastor Maldonado, Retired lap 1, hit by Alonso

Grosjean had to fight up after a five-place post-qualifying grid penalty was levied for a gearbox change. Like Vettel, he started on softs and ended on supersofts, which enabled him to gobble up Sainz and Kvyat and snatch two points in his final outing for the team. Maldonado was the innocent victim when his E23 Hybrid was hit by Alonso at the first corner just after the start.


Toro Rosso

Carlos Sainz, P11
Max Verstappen, P16

Sainz had the better race and was unlucky that Grosjean was able to catch and pass him in the closing laps, thus denying him a point. Verstappen had an adventurous race. He needed a stop to replace badly flat-spotted tyres, then got a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits while racing hard with Button, and another 20-second penalty after blocking Hamilton in the closing laps. That dropped him from 12th on the road to 16th.


McLaren

Jenson Button, P12
Fernando Alonso, P17

Button had what he described as his best race of the season, taking a fighting 12th after battles with Verstappen and Ericsson. Alonso had the race from hell; he hit Nasr approaching the first corner which pushed him into Maldonado. That delayed both and earned the Spaniard a drive-through penalty. He struggled thereafter and at one stage threatened to give up, but when running supersoft in the closing stages he set the race’s third fastest lap.


Sauber

Marcus Ericsson, P14
Felipe Nasr, P15

Both drivers struggled to maintain midfield pace, and Nasr damaged his nose after contact with Alonso at the first corner, pushing him into Maldonado.


Marussia

Will Stevens, P18
Roberto Merhi, P19

Neither driver had any real problems, as an era drew to a close with the last race for team founders Graeme Lowdon and John Booth.

(source: f1.com)

2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix review

Picture taken from my seat.

The last race of the season is now over and it is time to make this review for you guys. As usual I will start from the beginning and ramble away from there.

In my opinion the best drivers at the start were Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez. Vettel overtook three cars on the first lap but Perez wasn't that lucky. He got blocked by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen even though you could clearly see that he had a much faster start. This blocking meant that the positions stayed pretty much the same in the front and Perez was 4th behind Nico Rosberg, Hamilton and Räikkönen.

Further back Fernando Alonso crashed with Pastor Maldonado and they went off track. Both of them managed to continue to the pits but Maldonado had to retire from the race. For those of you who participated in the PREDICTORS LEAGUE should know that almost every time this season when we predicted first DNF most of you usually said Maldonado. This time only one of you said him! One of my admins (JI) who obviously got 5 bonus points for that. Back to the race.

Rosberg at the front was too fast for his teammate. Hamilton could not get in DRS range to gain an advantage and maybe overtake. Rosberg was driving with an old engine and still did a much better job.

Not much happened before the pitstops. When the drivers started to pit one by one after lap 7 there was drama right away. Once again Williams messed up Valtteri Bottas' race! That really sums up the season doesn't it? They made an unsafe release from the pits so that Bottas smashed into Jenson Button. Why didn't they look out after incoming cars?! That's the easiest thing!! That's not all folks! Do you believe me if I tell you that Williams actually blamed Bottas for the crash?! "BOTTAS SHOULD HAVE SEEN BUTTON". Are they crazy or something? I watched the replay of the crash several times and there was nothing Bottas could have done. Even though if he had locked his brakes he would have slided into Button anyways. The concrete floor in the pits is very slippery compared to the regular asphalt. They should remember this when their former driver Kazuki Nakajima slided into their pitcrew in 2007. One of them had to go to the hospital. That was only because of the concrete floor and he was too unexperienced. Let's move on again.

Bottas lost his front wing after the crash and had to pit again of course. He also got a 5 second penalty for the unsafe release which made him drop to the back and stay there. Last year he was on the podium and this year it was like this. Williams should really think about their mistakes they have done this season. I hope Bottas joins Ferrari when Räikkönen leaves. They don't tolerate mistakes like that.

Speaking of Ferrari, I really enjoyed Räikkönen's and Vettel's teamwork. Vettel let Räikkönen pass him right away because he was sure that Räikkönen's tires were in better condition than his. The only weird thing was that after Vettel had let Räikkönen through he asked on the radio "was I supposed to let Räikkönen pass?". Why wasn't it clear to him before that?! Ferrari really messed up with their communication this weekend. I mean look at Vettel's qualifying result. They didn't tell him to do another fast lap and he dropped out in Q1 and now in the race they don't even tell their drivers not to hold each other back. They have to figure it out on themselves?! Luckily Sebastian is a smart man and he knew what to do without the help of his team.

The Mercedes drivers on the other hand did not help each other at all. It's understandable because they were fighting for the win. Hamilton tried to argue with his team so that he could stay out and possibly beat Rosberg with older tires. The team made Hamilton understand that he has to pit because otherwise he could be overtaken by both Rosberg and Räikkönen, who by the way was as fast as Rosberg most of the race.

After Hamilton's pitstop the top3 was Rosberg, Hamilton, Räikkönen and it stayed like that till the end. Not a very special race If you ask me. I don't really have anything else to say about the race so let's go to the predictions and the results.

Predictions and results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. His teammate took his 6th pole in a row. Only Ayrton Senna has more pole positions in a row (8 poles).

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race!
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th and Kimi was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen. Leave him alone he knows what he's doing! - He took 3rd which was a surprise for many. I thought he was going to be 4th.

The predictors league also came to an end and the winner was Peter McLaren for the second time. I made him an admin on our Facebook page as a reward.

Congratulations mate!

Rest of you guys know that even though the season is over I will still post F1 stuff every day for you to see. 

Tomorrow I will post how Pirelli's Abu Dhabi tests have gone. See you tomorrow guys ;)

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE final standings

The winner of this year's PREDICTORS LEAGUE is Peter McLaren. He also won last year and is now a two time champion! CONGRATULATONS mate!! You really deserve to be an admin on our Facebook page. Last year you didn't want to be one but this year you can't say no! :D

1. Peter McLaren - 163 points

2. Leonardo Machado - 155 points 

3. James Redman - 154 points

4. Jonathan M Yountz - 109 points

5. Ryan Lane - 107 points

5. Larry Gallagher - 107 points

7. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 80 points

8. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 75 points

9. Shaun Magnano - 59 points

10. Rich Kewell - 53 points

11. JI (F1-4-LIFE) - 48 points

12. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 44 points

13. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 40 points

14. Tim Saunders - 36 points

15. Elliott Robson - 31 points

16. David Perry - 26 points

17. Dylan Curry - 24 points

18. Daniel Vanderburg - 23 points

18. Archie Donato - 23 points

18. Neil Marchant - 23 points

21. Abijith Kv - 18 points

21. Marcel Kircher - 18 points

23. Yõrt Martö - 13 points

24. Richard Gehl - 10 points

24. Chris Kemp - 10 points

24. Eric Lemens - 10 points

27. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

27. Corey Lea - 8 points

27. Vitor Lobo - 8 points

30. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 6 points

31. Todd Steinberg - 5 points

32. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

32. Tom Maw - 3 points

32. Haresh Reddy - 3 points

32. Paul Beecham - 3 points

36. Steven Peli - 0 points

36. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

36. Martin Hubbard - 0 points
36. Sharon Walmsley - 0 points

36. Alexandre Langlois - 0 points

We have had 40 different predictors this season.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH & JI. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.