Schumacher sets new
record at Mugello
Michael Schumacher
completed the Ferrari tests at the Mugello
(Italy) circuit today. The German carried out a grand
prix simulation in an F 310 B fitted with the 046/2
engine. The test, divided into three runs was stopped
just three laps short of the planned race distance
with a hydraulic leak. In the morning, the team
worked on a few set- up changes. Schumacher covered a
total of 87 laps (approximately 456 kilometres) with
a best time of 1m 25.25s, which is a new record for
the Tuscany circuit, despite the fact he was not
running in qualifying trim. During the test he tried
both soft and hard compound Goodyear tyres. "This
was a good day. I am satisfied with the 046/2 engine,
both in terms of its reliability and drive-ability.
We are making major progress," Schumacher
said after the tests.
The Ferrari team have
also denied the claims made by Italian sports daily Tuttosport,
that Eddie Irvine is about to get fired and
replaced by Gianni Morbidelli if he doesn't do
well during the next Grand Prix in Argentina. A
spokesman said: "Ferrari have every
confidence in Eddie Irvine." He added: "It
is premature to talk about any changes, although it's
obvious that every driver must give his best and
contribute to the race tactics decided by those in
charge of the team."
The next test session
is scheduled for the week after the Argentine
Grand Prix (Buenos Aires, 13th April) at the
Catalunya Circuit outside Barcelona.
Alesi tests at
Silverstone
After finishing sixth
at Interlagos, Jean Alesi was at Silverstone
on Wednesday and Thursday driving the Benetton
B197 test car preparing new front suspension
geometry for the Argentine GP. "We were very
happy with the way the test went," said Nick
Wirth, the team's new chief designer. "We
had a successful race with both cars in Brazil and we
are looking forward to challenging for the lead again
in Buenos Aires." It was Alesi's first visit
to Silverstone since its corners were re-profiled and
the circuit resurfaced. He quickly adapted to the
changes and was encouraged by the test, completing 21
timed laps with a best of 1m 22.94s.
Fisichella shakes
down fourth Jordan 197
Giancarlo
Fisichella returned to England from Brazil to
shake down the fourth Jordan 197 at Silverstone on
Thursday. The chassis will be introduced into the
team as Fisichella's race chassis at Imola,
allowing his existing car to become the team spare
while the current spare will become the permanent
test car. Fisichella completed 38 timed laps with a
best time of 1m 25.05s, trying new electronics and an
updated differential. Technical director Gary
Anderson explained that Fisichella was also
testing some minor components in preparation for the
Buenos Aires race. "We have to get the best
out of certain bits and pieces on the car and this
test will help," he said. "I think
the cars proved quick enough in Brazil, but if you
are stuck down in ninth place, there isn't much the
drivers can do."
New bodywork for
Stewart
A second set of
revised bodywork, as used by Rubens Barrichello
at Interlagos, will be available for Jan Magnussen's
Stewart-Ford SF1 in time for the Argentine
Grand Prix. As mention in Speed Motorsport news’
Grand Prix review, Paul Stewart explains that
Barrichello's startline problem at Interlagos was due
to an electrical software problem with the
drive-by-wire system. "On the grid, the
engine suddenly shot up to 16,000rpm and
automatically shut down," he explained.
"We are still trying to get to the bottom of
what caused the problem."
Frentzen up before
the beak.
Heinz-Harald
Frentzen was due to visit the Williams
headquarters today (Friday) to have a detailed
de-brief on his disappointing run to ninth place in
the Brazilian GP. After colliding with Giancarlo
Fisichella in the first start to the race, he had no
choice but to race in the spare car, but he never
looked able to compete with the front-runners. "It
will all take a bit longer," said Frentzen, "At
Sauber, it was different and I had my own way of
setting up my car, but I haven't been able to do it
properly at Williams yet. Here, I’m the new guy
and have to work Damon's way, with a team that takes
its own options. In any case, I don't think that I'm
getting the best out of my car." Gerhard
Berger would agree that a faulty damper that Frentzen
had during the race could have harmed his lap times.
Damon Hill, replaced by Frentzen this season however,
already driving his spare Arrows car due to a
Fuel leak in the race car and compromised by a
gear shift problem, matched the German’s pace
for most of the race, with equipment hardly up to the
Williams spec. Whilst Frank Williams might
think that it could take Frentzen half the season to
match his team mate, it is doubtful that the
Boss’s patience will last that long. Frentzen
has already canceled plans for a vacation after
Brazil and his audience with Williams. His excuse
could be that Jacques Villeneuve had 6000 kms
under his belt this time last year, but then
Villeneuve had not sat in an F1 car before. Frentzen
had three years at Sauber to get his Formula 1
awareness together. "What will really boost
Heinz-Harald's confidence is having a decent run in
Argentina," said technical director Patrick
Head, ever the diplomat. "He wasn't the
only driver to have a poor weekend in Brazil, so we
must just get to the bottom of his problem and
correct the situation."
Tyrell’s
disappointment continues
The Tyrrell Racing
Organisation is satisfied that both cars finished
the Brazilian GP, but disappointed about their
mediocre placings. "We have reliability, now
we must look to the performance," said Ken
Tyrrell. In order to do just that, Chief Designer Harvey
Postlethwaite is back in Britain working on
modifications to use on the cars in Argentina. A new
specification Ford V8 engine is expected for the San
Marino GP.
The team have also
have denied rumours that they have started talks with
Bridgestone after it has become obvious that their
tyres are proving to be quick. The team stated that
they have a contract with Goodyear which they
will honour.
Lola out of credit
March 29th
Interlagos. The blue covers stayed on the cars in
the Lola team pit garages this weekend. It seems now
that they will never roll again. A spokesman for the
company said in a short statement, "the Lola
organization is experiencing financial difficulties
and, as a result Lola Formula 1 would not be able to
continue its 1997 racing season and as a consequence
of that, Mastercard sponsorship of Lola Formula 1 has
ended." Team Boss Eric Broadley stated that
‘funding was nor forthcoming’.
In a complex
sponsorship deal with the Brazilian arm of Mastercard
funding was to be provided from a ‘Lola
Mastercard holders Club’. This would bring money
to the team by mid season. It seemed however that
there was some confusion as to who would bridge the
gap until this cash came on-stream. Mastercard was
said to have assumed that Lola had ‘funds
already raised’ and that it’s sponsorship
deal was ‘on top’ of Lola’s budget.
Lola it was said hoped to survive until mid season on
the cash already delivered (approx £200,000), its
smaller sponsor Penzoil, and Lola itself.
It says something for
the wisdom of Broadley to pull out now rather than to
go on digging himself further into financial debt and
jeopardising the other sporting arm of Lola Cars
which looks, for the immediate future to be
unaffected by the crisis " We have delivered
$12 million of equipment to the US and we will
continue to supply chassis elsewhere." Said
a spokesman for Lola.
Lola’s Engine
development programme was not totally funded by them
and is now seen as a separate entity(see separate
engine story).
Despite attempts to
raise further funding it is widely assumed that Lola
will quit Formula 1 at least for this year. Broadley
said, "I won’t say Lola will not return
to GP racing in the future. F1 is the Pinnacle of the
sport and we have vowed to participate in it."
Preparation for
Formula 1’s mini tour of South America is
different from that of the European races. Renault
Sports Race Team Manager, Jean-Francois Robin
explains:
How do you organise
yourselves for the two consecutive Grands Prix on the
South American continent?
Jean-François Robin:
"Because of the distances involved, the South
American campaign follows the same overall planning
strategy as that employed for the Australian Grand
Prix. Being so far away from base for two races in
succession does however accentuate the unknown factor
which faces us in the early part of the season, and
that is that we are unable to confirm the total
reliability of our engines following inspection of
the units used for the opening race."
"After each Grand
Prix, Renault Sport's priority is to recuperate the
engines from the previous race as quickly as possible
in order to strip and inspect them, a procedure which
is essential if the engine is to evolve. The
principal difference with long haul events compared
to a European Grand Prix resides in the time it takes
to get the engines back to Viry-Châtillon. Generally
we are able to work on them on the Wednesday after a
race, but this clearly isn't the case for the South
American rounds."
"The distances
involved when traveling to Brazil and Argentina do
not leave us with sufficient turnaround time and
that, it has to be said, is effectively something of
an inconvenience."
What does this mean
in concrete terms?
Jean-François Robin:
"In concrete terms, we are obliged to prepare
the qualifying and race engines for Brazil and the
qualifying engines for Argentina at the same time.
These are built to exactly the same specification
since we do not have time to react between the two
Grands Prix. These engines are sent together to Sao
Paulo."
"The race engines
for Argentina however follow our normal methodology
and are shipped directly from France to Argentina. We
will have had sufficient time to incorporate any fine
tuning adjustments judged necessary following
inspection of the components that come back from
Australia. It is not vital for the Argentina race
engines to be in Buenos Aires on the Monday preceding
the race - as is the case with the qualifying engines
- and we therefore have time to carry out any
modifications we believe necessary."
"From the
logistical point of view, our total running stock of
engines - that is to say, 20 per team- has been built
up by the time the South American campaign comes
around. This means that our entire stock of engines
is physically away from the Factory for the seasons
first three races."
How do you see the
1997 season?
Jean-François Robin:
"The major unknown factor of the season is the
tyres. Being able to choose from two types of rubber
for each Grand Prix is going to be very important
tactically and changes in weather conditions are
likely to complicate matters further still."
Peugeot’s
Chief Engineer Jean-Pierre Boudy puts onus on Jordan
to produce the goods this year.
Can you tell us
about the new V10 engine produced for this season?
"The new V10 is
called the A14. It is a logical development of
the A12 but there are practically no parts that have
been carried over from it. The A14 is smaller,
lighter and more compact than its predecessor."
Peugeot Sport is
presenting the A14 engine as its first real
three-litre design. Is that how you would describe
it?
"The earlier A10
and A12 designs were both derived from the 3.5-litre
engine of 1994. They had the same architecture and
were fundamentally the same. We didn't want to build
a pure three-litre engine any earlier because we
wanted to apply the experience we gained with the A6,
rather than making big changes to the layout of the
engine prematurely, before we had sufficient
experience with this kind of engine. Developing a new
engine takes a relatively long time and we preferred
to take our time to introduce the A14 for 1997 rather
than rush it out for last year and risk problems with
reliability. At Peugeot Sport reliability is close to
our hearts - as much as finding more horsepower - and
I think we were right to use the A12, which was
derived from the A10 - last year."
What have you
incorporated in the A14 which you reamed from your
previous engines?
"The A14 is still
a V10 with the same 72-degree v-angle. Fundamentally
it works in the same way as the A12 did. What we did
was to look at ways of making every piece of the
engine smaller and lighter with the lowest possible
frictional losses. We have, if you like, pushed ahead
with the development which we did on the A10 and A12
engines."
How many parts of
the A14 are the same as in the A12?
"There aren't
many. At most I would say a dozen." You talk
about the engine being lighter and having gained a
few centimetres here are there, to the casual
observer, the figures don't seem to be very big.
"Our engine has dropped from 135 to 127 kgs.
That means we have gained eight kilos. That is quite
a lot. At this level it really is not easy to reduce
weight. When you build an engine which weighs 150kgs
it is easy to find a way to save five kilos but after
that it gets more and more difficult to save weight
without affecting the reliability of the engine.
Making a lighter engine means that one can improve
the weight distribution of the car to improve the
handling, which is also helped by the fact that we
have managed to lower the centre of gravity of the
engine by some centimetres. A smaller engine also
allows all the engine ancillaries to be arranged to
improve the weight distribution."
When you began
working on the design of the A14 engine, how much did
you know about the design of the 1997 Jordan?
"We didn't know
anything at all about the car, but we did know the
objectives which we had defined with Jordan engineers
in our development plan. We worked along the lines
laid down in this plan."
The big word at
Peugeot Sport last year was "reliability"
what is this year's catchphrase?
"In the course of
the 1997 season we want to show that the A14 engine
is as reliable as the A12 was and, if possible,
better because we have two failures with the A12.
That may be not be many but for us it is not good
enough. Having said that we do not know the A14 as
well as we knew its predecessor and we have obviously
taken a calculated technical risk in introducing the
new engine this year. We are satisfied with the
performance-and the weight but we have to improve the
reliability. We can only do that as we go along in
the course of the season." As far as this
year's A14 engine is concerned we have reached all
the targets which we had planned for with
Jordan."
"As far as we are
concerned this is not really the principal goal. It
is only one of them. The aerodynamic set-up of the
cars at the moment means that it is not easy to
exploit all the available power in all situations
Clearly in terms of acceleration from tight comers we
don't know how to use all the available horsepower.
We know how to use the horsepower when the car is
accelerating at high speed in a straight line. Using
horsepower at the top of the rev ranges is not
difficult, the skill is to find smooth delivery of
power at low speeds and in the medium rev ranges so
that it is always power available when a driver needs
to use it."
Do you think it is
a handicap to have to work with two young and
inexperienced drivers - Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo
Fisichella?
"If there is a
handicap, it is in the development of the chassis.
As far as the engine is concerned we are in our
fourth season in F1 and we are beginning to profit
from a certain amount of experience in setting-up our
engines. The youth of the two Jordan drivers ought
not to be a handicap to us during the 1997
season."
Paris, March
1997
More Engine
News...
Reports that Benetton
team boss Flavio Briatore has sealed a two
year deal to use Mecachrome prepared Renault
engines have yet to be substantiated but it looks
more than likely and Briatore is expected to make an
announcement in the next week or so. The expected
cost of over £10 million a year is likely to be
funded in part by the extra money provided by the
increased TV revenue the teams will receive from a
revised structuring of the Concord Agreement.
For Briatore to consider a deal with Mugen Honda,
it is thought that he would want the parent company
of the Japanese engine supplier to become fully
involved by the ’99 season. Favourites for the
second batch of engines after Prost, is Jordan who
seem unlikely to retain their links with Peugeot in
view of their poor showings at the first two Grands
Prix this year. Whether Mugen Honda would want Jordan
however, is another matter as repeated promises, as
yet unfulfilled, that the team will break into the
top five next year are beginning to wear thin.
Shinji Nakano,
current Prost No 2 driver is to marry the daughter of
Mugen's Chairman, Hirotoshi Honda. Nepotism,
it seems sits beside Formula 1 well. It will indeed
be hard for Alain Prost to even think about
taking on the errant Jean Alesi next season.
To do this Nakano would have to go elsewhere. Perhaps
to Benetton next year in a sort of musical chairs?
This could of course throw a spanner in the works
regarding Briatore’s above mentioned deal with
Renault. But it is widely rumoured that Flavio is not
interested in taking the rookie Japanese and Honda
are extremely keen naturally, to see him placed in
front of one of their engines.
The possibility that TWR
may be in line for the Honda would make sense as it
would also with Renault. Both manufactures recognise Damon
Hill’s proven development capabilities.
Mugen are also familiar with most the TWR engineers
who worked with the Ligier team before moving with
then team boss Tom Walkinshaw to form the
revamped Arrows outfit. There must also be a clause
in Walkinshaw’s contract that stipulates Hill
staying on for a further two years to realise the
engine’s potential. Hill is currently half way
through his one-year deal with TWR. The revised Yamaha
engine is not now expected until the Spanish Grand
Prix, and could even be later, requiring some
fundamental redesigning of the Arrows A18
chassis.
Whilst it is known
that Williams are using the Mecachrome
Renaults until 1999, it has been rumoured for quite a
while that BMW are covering the cost of the
two year deal in order to keep the team available for
the supply of its own engines when they enter Formula
1 in 1999.
With the demise of Lola
immediately prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix
(see seperate story), it now seems that there will be
a spare engine looking for a home. MCD Consultants,
who in consultation with Lola were producing a race
engine from ‘the ground up’. MCD Boss Al
Melling said. "It’s ready for someone to
stick their name on it". The engines were
not funded by Lola who put ‘very little money
into it’
Computer
connections fail to reveal secrets of the ‘Black
Box’
IMOLA, Italy
(Apr 2, 1997) - Ayrton Senna's 'black box' data
recorder came under scrutiny Wednesday, as the trial
continued into the Brazilian's fatal crash at the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Witnesses said last
month that due to damage, the recorder could not be
connected up to the team's computer. Senna's
Williams-Renault hit a concrete wall after leaving
the track on the Tamburello bend. Marco Spiga, a
technical expert called by state prosecutor Maurizio
Passarini, attempted to show in court whether or not
the Williams chassis data logging computer could be
downloaded via three pin connectors supplied by
Williams expert Giorgio Stirano. The session however,
proved inconclusive because the recorder also
requires the addition of a card, in order to upload
data to a computer.
Passarini said: "Only
today are we told we need a card. Williams never told
us this before. Why wasn't it made available?" Stirano
replied: "Because we were only asked for the
pin connectors."
Lawyer Edda Gandossi
acting for Williams said: "I think it's clear
today that it would be pointless to try and cast any
suspicion on the behaviour of the Williams engineers,
which has always been courteous and
professional."
The trial resumes
April 15th, at which time Williams will supply the
data card.
Barnard in Arrows
deal
It now seems that John
Barnard has linked up with TWR to do design work
for the Arrows team. This is an unexpected turn of
events as Barnard was expected to forge a close
alliance with old friend Alain Prost’s new team.
Current Arrows designer Frank Dernie
‘Knew nothing about the deal’ and got the
news from the media, rather than from Walkinshaw
himself. He is not expected to leave the team as
Barnard’s role is being regarded as
‘consultative’. Barnard will be expected
however, to start work on the 1998 spec Arrows
Chassis as well as supplying minor modifications to
the current ’97 model.
"We have the
capacity to do a development programme." He
said. But when pressed on his plans with Prost he
played the whole episode down saying, "There’s
still a couple of bits we can do for Prost".
Barnard bought the
FDD design facilities from Ferrari when his
contract expired and despite his expectations to
provide consultancy work for both Prost and Ferrari
it is widely thought that this will not happen.
Meanwhile..........
Rumours fall thick
that Williams has been talking to Jordan
Peugeot’s chief designer Gary Anderson
about taking over the position vacated by Adrian
Newey. Newey meanwhile has yet to attend a grand
Prix this year but ten to one McLarens number is on
his ‘speed dial’.
BIC, maker of
pens and razors, have entered into a four-year
sponsorship with Prost . It is not known how much the
deal is worth.
Minardi-Hart
meanwhile, have reached on agreement with Roces,
manufacturers of in-line roller skates, for the
‘97 season. It is also rumoured that Ukyo
Katayama, will leave the team and Formula One
next year to go to the Indy car series.
A new team involving
Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve and backed by Reynard
and Chrysler has been hinted at and denied
by everyone, including Villeneuve's manager, Craig
Pollock. It is understood that Villeneuve’s
contract with Williams ends this year.
Chris Richardson
05/04/97
