F-1 Notes: McLaren Skipping First Test

January 18th, 2011

EXTRA TIME: McLaren officials have decided to skip the first Formula One preseason test in order to give team engineers more time to find additional performance for the new MP4-26 chassis. (Steve Etherington Photo)

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Back in 1988 McLaren ran its new car just 11 days before the first race. This year the team isn’t cutting things anywhere near as close with the MP4-26, but it will miss the first of the four preseason test sessions.

“We took that decision some time ago, and it hasn’t split from that,” team principal Martin Whitmarsh explained at Britain’s Autosport Int’l Show. “It’s a balance because now we have very short winters and we are developing cars to very complex technical regulations.

“We have chosen to give our aerodynamicists and engineers an extra 10 days — which doesn’t sound [like] much, but in F-1 terms that’s a long period of time — to find more performance. So it was always our intention regardless of how people interpret it.

“What matters is whether the car is quick enough to win races and the world championship over the course of the season. So we will launch on Feb. 4, but that car will look different by the time it gets to the test a few days later, and it will then evolve very quickly by the time it gets to the first race.”

The 1988 McLaren Honda MP4-4 went on to win 15 of 16 races. Time will tell if McLaren opted for the right strategy in 2011.

- Williams will debut its new FW32 at the Valencia, Spain, test Feb. 1. Ferrari has announced that it will unveil its 2011 car in Maranello Jan. 28 and then take it to Spain where Fernando Alonso will drive it on the first two days and Felipe Massa on the third.

- Renault became the first team to unveil its 2011 livery — albeit on a 2010 car — when the wraps were pulled of the car at the Autosport Int’l Show Jan. 13. The car is painted in the classic JPS Lotus black and gold. The team, which calls itself Lotus Renault, is going all out to exploit its new links with Lotus.

“Our line-up with Lotus gives us a sense of stability,” team principal Eric Bouiller said. “This commitment is a great achievement for us and through this we have a long-term vision. This is obviously very exciting for us and we are all thrilled at the opportunities ahead. I strongly believe that with Vitaly Petrov and Robert Kubica we have the best drivers for our F-1 team.”

The team is entered under a British license in 2011 instead of a French one as in the past.

- Italy should have only one grand prix, and it should be at the classic at Monza. “The general feeling by the car manufacturers and also the teams [is] not to go above a certain number of grands prix, which are already so many…the season never ends,” Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo said. “And most of all that the preference was for having races in new countries, new markets, first of all the United States, but not just that, there’s Russia, there’s India; instead of having two races in Germany or Spain, or eventually Italy.”

- Ferrari wants to steal Red Bull’s spirit. That was the opinion of Red Bull’s racing guru Helmut Marko, who commented on the stories that Ferrari wants to eventually sign Sebastian Vettel plus poach people from Red Bull’s engineering department.

Behave, retorted Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo.

“I notice with pleasure that there are some small polemics,” he told the media during Ferrari’s Wrooom event. “I see with pleasure that someone has won a world championship and maybe he isn’t yet used to winning, as far as his behavior is concerned.

“But this is part of the game; it’s OK. Maybe when someone has won 10 percent of what Ferrari has won, we’ll reply. For now we look ahead calmly: may the best win.”

On a more conciliatory note, di Montezemolo called the teams to continue to cooperate under the umbrella of the Formula One Teams Ass’n.

“If the teams know how to remain united and work in constructive fashion, as part of the virtuoso triangle alongside the FIA and the commercial rights holder, then this organization has a future,” he said. “F-1 has to be the highest level of this sport, therefore there cannot be too big a gap between the big and small teams in terms of how competitive they are.”

- The Williams F-1 team has signed a long-term partnership with PDVSA, Venezuela’s national energy company and the world’s fifth largest oil exporter. PDVSA has been a longtime backer of the team’s new driver Pastor Maldonado.

- HRT is no longer a member of the Formula One Teams Ass’n. But this is not because the team did not want to pay the annual membership dues of 100,000 euros.

“The truth is we left because FOTA defends only the interests of the big teams,” team boss Colin Kolles said in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport. “For example, it doesn’t divide the extra points revenues in equal parts as planned. The difference in TV rights revenues seems excessive between 10th place, which gets $36 million, and 11th which gets $10 million. So why should the entry fee be equal for everyone?”

- The new F-1 project near Austin, Texas, took a significant step forward with the official ground breaking on Dec. 29.

A representative for promoters Full Throttle Productions had stated several months ago that the bulldozers needed to start “moving dirt” by December 2010 in order to have the track completed in time for a United States Grand Prix in June 2012. And that deadline was met.