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Zitat"Engine maps’ trouble for Red Bull, Lotus By Editor on Monday, February 25, 2013
Hot on the heels of Williams and Caterham’s dubious exhaust exit solutions for 2013, trouble could also be brewing for F1′s two other Renault-powered teams.
Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that, after Renault and ‘works’ partner Red Bull were told to cease using certain ‘engine maps’ last year, the same issue is now back on the table.
Correspondent Michael Schmidt also said the similarly Renault-powered Lotus, who according to most pundits has been the second most impressive team of the 2013 pre-season, is also in the spotlight as the latest controversy brews.
The report said that despite the FIA issuing a technical directive about engine maps last August, “it was not clear what should apply for 2013″.
Ferrari’s engine boss Luca Marmorini was quoted as insisting “Everything remains the same”.
His Renault counterpart Remi Taffin does not agree, claiming “a new benchmark” for engine mapping in 2013 will be set down by teams in Australia next month.
“The (August 2012) directive referred exclusively to last year,” said the Frenchman.
According to journalist Schmidt, however, the FIA has confirmed that the August 2012 directive still stands.
Renault was reportedly unaware of the federation’s stance until as recently as Thursday of last week, having developed new maps to optimise the exhaust-blowing effect for 2013.
Ross Brawn, Mercedes’ team boss, thinks the situation could now harm Red Bull and Lotus, as their similar exhaust solutions for 2013 were probably designed to work in conjunction with “a clever engine management system”.
ZitatLopez backs Grosjean Last Updated: February 27 2013, 9:16 GMT Lotus owner Gerard Lopez has assured Romain Grosjean of his long-term future with the team as he is convinced the Frenchman has learned the error of his crash-happy ways.
Grosjean was effectively put on probation for the final few races of last year after earning a one-race ban for instigating a first-corner pile-up in the Belgian Grand Prix.
It was the culmination to a string of incidents that forced him to look inward, even employing the services of a sports psychologist to haul him out of his mental slump.
It resulted in a calmer Grosjean once he returned to the cockpit from the race in Singapore onwards, doing enough to regain the trust of the team and a new contract for this year.
Following a pre-season so far in which both Grosjean and the car have looked strong and reliable, Lopez has high hopes.
"Romain's a different guy," said Lopez said.
"He knows what he has to do. He doesn't have that pressure, stress as we have essentially told him he's a long-term future with us.
"So now he can literally take it race by race, practice by practice because he's got the speed to win races.
"Overall, we think we've a very good pair of drivers and a good car, so we're quite positive."
On his return to F1 after a two-year sabbatical driving in rallying, Kimi Raikkonen was a revelation, with the Finn finishing third in the drivers' standings behind triple world champion Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
The highlight for Raikkonen and the Enstone-based marque was his win in Abu Dhabi, providing a platform for the team to now deliver more victories this year.
"It's going to be a pretty bunched-up group, and I would be surprised if we were outside of that group," added Lopez.
"The question is, with it being so tight, where do you end up within that group?
"Right now, I believe we've a car that is at least as good, and probably a little bit better, than the car we had last year.
"Although we feel pretty good about the car, how much has everybody else improved?
"But then we've two drivers who are now really into it, who know the team, the car, the tracks.
"Looking back, I think Kimi would have won more races last year if it hadn't been for a number of reasons.
"So this season, winning more than one race is certainly an objective we should have."
Lopez, meanwhile, has confirmed his hopes of signing a title sponsor at some stage early this season, although unlikely now before the first race in Australia on March 17.
Lotus are the only major marque without a title sponsor, with rumours recently linking them with computing giant Honeywell.
"We've had discussions, and some of them were quite advanced," said Lopez.
"We are the only top team that can sell a title sponsorship, so it's important to have the right package, and the right package to a large extent is also financial.
"You don't sign something like that for two or three years, so once you commit you have to commit for what seems right to you.
"I guess we could probably have signed a couple of things that leaked out, but we think we are better off making sure we sign what is the right thing for us.
"We could have something this season. The answer is we will probably end up with something during the season."
Zitat Lotus's Romain Grosjean cannot afford another crash-strewn season By Andrew Benson Chief F1 writer
Lotus team principal Eric Boullier says Romain Grosjean "cannot afford" another crash-strewn season.
In his first full F1 season, Grosjean was involved in eight collisions with other cars early in races - one of which led to a one-race ban.
Asked whether this season was Grosjean's last chance, Boullier said: "Well, it's not his last chance.
"But F1 is a tough world and obviously we definitely cannot afford to have another year like last year."
Grosjean was quicker than his former world champion team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in 10 of the 19 qualifying sessions they did together, but the Finn outscored his team-mate 207 points to 96.
Raikkonen finished third in the championship with Grosjean only eighth and had the Frenchman been more consistent, Lotus may have been able to beat McLaren to third place in the constructors' championship, which is their target for this season.
Boullier said he wanted Grosjean "to show us some - let's call it basically - maturity. I prefer him to go for a fourth place than try to be second and crash.
"That would show me someone who understands why he is racing in F1 and what he is racing for."
But he admitted there was some doubt about whether Grosjean would be able to do so.
He said: "Yes, there is a big question mark about his reliability - will he be able to overcome this, to finish races, because in the end we need the points.
"But at the same time you have somebody who has something special and you have to try until you establish he can't do it, or if he can do it."
Lotus took until Christmas to confirm Grosjean's position in the team for 2013 and Boullier says this was because they were trying to establish that the driver realised what had gone wrong with his driving last year.
"We had a full understanding of what was wrong," Boullier said, "but we needed to make sure that he had one, too.
"If you don't have the full understanding of the problem, you cannot fix it."
He added: "We had a very lengthy discussion; three hours I remember. And the only point was to get his knowledge about what was wrong.
"The complexity of the Romain case was it was not [only] because he was over-aggressive. That was one of the reasons why he had a couple of contacts."
Boullier feels the decision by Renault to drop Grosjean at the end of his first half-season in F1 during 2009 has affected the 26-year-old.
"His past experience was a trauma for him and he wanted to show everyone he had his place," he said.
"He is talented enough to be in F1, so he also put some extra unnecessary pressure on himself. There were many other reasons.
"We found out there were maybe three or four reasons which, depending on the scenario, were putting him in the wrong place [on the track].
"Even if he was not directly responsible for the touch, he was in the wrong place anyway.
"So we took time. Some of the reasons were easy to raise and fix, some were a little less easy. It's unreasonable to blame him for this year.
"A lot of champions had [difficult] moments at the start of their career. If he has the profile of a champion, he will fix it and get the best out of himself this year."
Grosjean's incidents in 2012
Australia - collides with Pastor Maldonado on lap two Malaysia - sends Michael Schumacher into a spin on lap one Spain - taps Sergio Perez and punctures the Mexican's right rear on lap one Monaco - squeezes Schumacher into the barriers at the start, ruining his own race in the process Britain - clips Paul di Resta, puncturing the Force India driver's right rear tyre Germany - makes contact coming down to the hairpin and picks up a puncture Belgium - hits Lewis Hamilton, sparking a mass pile-up Japan - takes out Mark Webber, sending the Red Bull driver to the back of the field
Zitat Lotus not expecting to be slowed down by engine controversy By Andrew Benson Chief F1 writer
Lotus have dismissed a controversy over engine settings that has broken out in advance of the final pre-season Formula 1 test as trivial.
Renault, engine supplier to Lotus and world champions Red Bull, have been told by governing body the FIA they cannot use new settings they designed.
“Kimi Raikkonen has used the new engine map once on an installation lap and hated it”
Alan Permane Lotus
It has been claimed these might explain Lotus's strong pre-season form.
But Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane said: "[The suggestion] it will slow us down is nonsense."
Engineering boss Permane said Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean had both tried the controversial maps briefly at the second pre-season test.
"Renault had come up with some alternative engine maps to try," he said. "They talked to the FIA about it but [race director] Charlie Whiting didn't want us to use them.
"Kimi has used the new one once on an installation lap and hated it. Romain used it in the wet last week on the final day and it finished up OK. But all his running in the dry has been without it.
"It is about partial and full-throttle blowing and modifying maps to get more or less of each, but the amounts [of advantage] we're talking about are tiny. To suggest it will slow us down is nonsense."
The row is rooted in a rule change made after last year's German Grand Prix, when Red Bull were found to be using engine maps of which the FIA did not approve.
Engine maps are the computer settings that control the amount of torque delivered by the engine in various conditions.
The ones designed by Renault enhanced the way the team could use the exhausts for aerodynamic effect by the use of what is known as "on- and off-throttle blowing".
This blows the exhausts over aerodynamically sensitive pieces of bodywork to increase downforce.
The FIA issued a clarification last summer that banned the relevant Renault maps but the French company felt the rule changes might only apply to last year.
The sport's governing body has told them that is not the case - Whiting made it clear that all rules clarifications always stay in force until they are either drafted into the regulations or superseded.
Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has been quoted by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport saying that Lotus and Red Bull's rear bodywork solution was not as effective without exotic maps as those of their leading rivals, who have all chosen a different design similar to each other.
Brawn said he thought Red Bull and Lotus were compensating for that "by a clever engine management system".
Permane said: "For Ross to talk about it like that is utter rubbish."
Seek a genuine insight into the world of Formula 1 and you’ll be hard pushed to find a more straight-talking source than Lotus F1 Team Technical Director James Allison. Here, the man himself gives us his view on some of the big stories flying round the paddock this week… James Allison Speaks Up What are your thoughts on the current debate concerning engine maps?
As far as I’m concerned the situation was clear at the beginning and it’s clear now. It’s our responsibility as a team to stay within the rules, but at the same time to push the limits as far as possible; to do otherwise is to needlessly throw away performance. There are a set of rules governing engine maps and Renault have been exploring the boundaries of these in the same way as any other engine manufacturer.
During the final day of running at Barcelona last week we ran an experimental engine map and made the FIA fully aware of what we were doing. As it turned out they were not happy with what we had proposed and as a result we will not be using it at any of the races. Much was made of the ‘DDRS’ system trialled towards the end of last season; where do we stand with that currently?
As everyone is aware, we experimented with this concept late last year but chose not to run with it outside of free practice. It is a fiercely complex system and to get it working correctly is certainly a challenge, but there are tantalising gains to be made should we achieve this. We conducted a bit of intermediate work with it at the last test and will be doing the same this week. However I don’t anticipate having it working at full capacity before the first race. We are expecting to be a good step closer by the time we leave Barcelona and hopefully we’ll see it make its full debut later in the year. Speaking of innovative solutions, there has been a certain degree of media coverage surrounding teams ‘spying’ on each other’s cars in the pit lane this winter…
Every team on the grid is shameless in copying developments pioneered by their rivals if they feel there is an advantage to be gained. There are many photographers in the pit lane during testing and racing and part of their living is made through taking shots of the design details of all of the cars and hawking these to the technical departments of each team. The Teams then compare these images from race to race and team to team to allow them to follow the development path that emerges.
If it becomes public knowledge that another team has come up with something rather clever then it is a good idea to start exploring your own variation as quickly as possible. Having said that, any team that relied on such a strategy as their principle source of inspiration would quickly fail. The majority of your concept and your detail design must be home grown to stand a chance of being competitive.
CNBC becomes Official Business Media Partner to Lotus F1 Team
Lotus F1 Team welcomes CNBC, the world’s leading business and financial news network, as its Official Business Media Partner in a move which cements the team’s position as the number one Formula 1 team for business.
CNBC takes business news to a global audience of 390 million homes around the world. Throughout the 2013 Formula 1 season, this new agreement will allow Lotus F1 Team’s partners to benefit from CNBC’s unmatched reach of affluent and influential business leaders with commercial advertising campaigns airing on its international network. This new relationship builds on the team’s recent partnerships with brands such as Microsoft, Unilever and The Coca-Cola Company.
The partnership will see CNBC branding on the nose of the team’s 2013 car, as well as on driver and pit crew overalls, team uniform, branding around the paddock and on marketing materials.
Eric Boullier, Team Principal, Lotus F1 Team: “CNBC is a fantastic partner which highlights the growing importance of Lotus F1 Team as a vehicle for the business world. We are working with household brands such as Microsoft, Unilever and The Coca-Cola Company; brands whose actions are watched closely in the business world. Our partnership with CNBC brings us greater exposure in this environment and allows our business-to-business platform to flourish.”
Charlotte Westgate, VP Marketing & Communications, CNBC: “CNBC’s partnership with Lotus F1 Team is extremely exciting. It’s an innovative marketing solution which provides branding and commercial opportunities for both parties. The Formula 1 audience is complementary to our own influential and affluent viewer base around the world. We look forward to working with Lotus F1 Team and wish them success in the 2013 season”
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