Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Manor Reborn, Tyres, Lewis Hamilton, More
The Formula One world had cause to celebrate this week as it learned the Manor Marussia team would be on the grid for the first race of the season.
Manor will fly out to the Australian Grand Prix having succeeded in their bid to modify their 2014 car to meet the 2015 regulations. A new, purpose-built 2015 car will be built to debut as soon as possible.
The only announced Manor driver, Will Stevens, will be taking part in his first full F1 season. Raffaele Marciello will too, albeit only as a test and reserve driver. He'll make his Friday practice debut for Sauber at the Malaysian Grand Prix at the end of March.
Elsewhere, Pirelli has published details of the tyre compounds being provided for the opening four rounds, Lewis Hamilton wants more close competition and uncertainty continues to swirl around Fernando Alonso after it was confirmed he will miss the opening race.
Read on for a full roundup of the top stories from the last few days.
Manor Marussia to Race in Australian Grand Prix
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Manor Marussia will be the 10th team on the grid at the Australian Grand Prix after confirmation they will make it to the race.
Though no longer associated with Russian car brand Marussia, the team must retain the name in 2015 as it was too late to change it. A statement on the team's Facebook page read:
"The Manor Marussia F1 Team looks forward to its participation in the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Formal agreement was reached with Manor’s creditors on Thursday 19th February 2015 in order to allow the team to come out of administration, following new investment from Stephen Fitzpatrick.
Manor’s President and Sporting Director will be Graeme Lowdon, with former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King taking over as the team’s interim Chairman.
The team has been preparing the cars with which it will begin the 2015 season and which comply fully with the 2015 regulations. Later in the season it will introduce a new 2015 specification car as per the designs initiated last year.
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The news comes less than two months after the team looked down and out. An auction of their remaining assets—which would have made a return impossible—was cancelled just two days before it was due to take place in mid-January.
The Telegraph's Daniel Johnson reports new owner Fitzpatrick, founder of energy firm Ovo, has put £30 million of his own money into saving the team. The Northern Irishman said in the team statement:
"We've all worked incredibly hard to get the car ready for Melbourne and the season ahead. Our fans have given the team amazing support for many years and we want to restore Manor to the very best of racing in the future. I have a lifelong passion for Formula One and can't wait for the season ahead, with Manor and the team.
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Stephen Fitzpatrick, Justin King, Graeme Lowdon and team principal John Booth give Manor a formidable management team, but instant success is out of the question.
The modified 2014 machine will use last year's Ferrari engine, as will its successor, and the team and drivers will have no opportunity to test it. Making the 107 percent cutoff time to qualify for the races their first priority.
Fortunately, this is based on the quickest time set in the first part of qualifying, not the last. At the first dry qualifying of 2014 in Bahrain, the 107 percent time was one minute, 41.515 seconds—based on Nico Hulkenberg's 1:34.874 in Q1.
Had it been calculated from Nico Rosberg's Q3 pole lap, it would have been 1:39.708.
This should give adequate breathing space for Marussia to squeeze through in the early rounds. One would hope the newly built 2015 car, when it arrives, will have no trouble making the grade.
Pirelli Announces Tyre Compound Selections for Opening 4 Rounds
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Pirelli has announced the tyre compounds it will make available to the teams for the first four rounds of the season.
The yellow-marked soft- and white-marked medium compound tyres will be supplied for the Australian, Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix. Malaysia, a circuit with many quick corners and often unusually high temperatures, will see the orange-marked hard tyre make its debut alongside the medium, as noted by Pirelli Motorsport:
"#PZero M&S for the #F1 #AusGP! Discover our nominations for #MalaysiaGP #ChineseGP #BahrainGP: http://t.co/foOZfhdIW9 pic.twitter.com/OBwqPVtZ6H
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) March 4, 2015"
The tyre manufacturer confirmed on their press release these are the same compounds used in 2014, explaining, "Although the P Zero range has evolved from 2014, with a new rear construction designed to distribute forces and temperatures more evenly, these nominations are in fact the same as those made by Pirelli for the equivalent races last year."
The tyres should experience a little more pain this season due to the improved aerodynamics and more powerful engines, but sticking with the same compounds should mean there are few nasty surprises for the teams.
Lewis Hamilton Wants More on-Track Action in 2015
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After winning his second world title in the dominant Mercedes W05 in 2014, Lewis Hamilton hopes more drivers are able to compete with him and Nico Rosberg in the season ahead.
Hamilton has been nominated for the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award, won in 2014 by Sebastian Vettel. Speaking to the awards website, he said:
"I like to race, I really like to race. The 2015 cars are going to be evolutions of last year’s cars, so it’ll be the same people that we were racing with last year. Red Bull, Williams, and then you’re hoping that it’s a bit of a better year for those like McLaren and Ferrari, so that we have more people to race. The more the merrier.
There was one year the first seven races were won by a different driver, a different team, that’s what people want to see. But, most importantly, if the cars are close you can have real races where you’re overtaking and battling and that’s what I love doing. That’s what racing’s about.
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Though Hamilton had a few battles with Rosberg in 2014, he had a fairly quiet year. Only in Hungary and Germany did he have a real opportunity to do some serious racing against multiple rivals.
He went on to reveal he plans to remain in F1 until his late 30s, but only if he remains at or close to his peak.
The Laureus award is one of the most coveted in global sports. Hamilton's fellow nominees for this year's prize are two-time 2014 tennis Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic, pole-vault world record-setter (and holder) Renaud Lavillenie, MotoGP champion Marc Marquez, double golf Major winner Rory McIlroy and football's Ballon d'Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo.
It's tough to see Hamilton beating a field like that, but three-time 2014 race winner Daniel Ricciardo has a strong chance in the "Breakthrough" category and Mercedes might do well in Team of the Year.
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Raffaele Marciello to Make Friday-Practice Debut for Sauber
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Ferrari Driver Academy member Raffaele Marciello will take part in his first free practice session at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix, driving for Sauber.
He announced the news on Twitter.
"FP1 in Malesia / @SauberF1Team :D pic.twitter.com/ldyZVsQCxi
— #ForzaJules MR53 (@RMarciello_) March 4, 2015"
Marciello won the European Formula Three Championship in 2013 before stepping up to GP2 last year. Though he took an excellent wet-weather victory in the Belgian feature race, the Italian was unable to consistently feature near the front.
He scored points on just six occasions from 22 starts—including one win and two further podiums—to end the year eighth in the championship. By contrast, fellow rookie Stoffel Vandoorne was second in the standings, his four wins contributing to a total of nine podiums.
But Marciello definitely possesses a lot of talent. Having switched to the Trident team for another crack at GP2 in 2015, there's every reason to believe he'll have a better year.
If he does, a race seat with the new, Ferrari-powered Haas team in 2016 could well be his.
Rumours and Uncertainty Continue to Swirl Around Fernando Alonso
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Fernando Alonso will miss the Australian Grand Prix after sustaining a concussion in a crash during pre-season testing. Kevin Magnussen will take his place.
A Tuesday statement from McLaren said:
"Having performed an exhaustive series of tests and scans—some of them as recently as yesterday evening—McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso’s doctors have informed him that they find him asymptomatic of any medical issue; that they see no evidence whatsoever of any injury; and that they therefore describe him as entirely healthy from neurological and cardiac perspectives alike.
However, Fernando’s doctors have recommended to him that, following the concussion he sustained in a testing accident at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 22, for the time being he should seek to limit as far as is possible any environmental risk factors that could potentially result in his sustaining another concussion so soon after his previous one, so as to minimise the chances of second impact syndrome, as is normal medical procedure when treating athletes after concussions.
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Usually such a statement would be met with acceptance, and the world would move on having sent its best wishes to Alonso.
However, the clumsy manner in which McLaren have dealt with the aftermath of the incident—including Ron Dennis' claim to media in Catalunya that Alonso did not have concussion—has led to all manner of rumours and viewpoints receiving an airing.
Sky Italia (h/t grandprix247.com for the English translation) reported Alonso had told close friends and family he had suffered a "major shock to the spine" leading to him losing control of the car.
On a similar theme, Italian newspaper La Repubblica (also h/t grandprix247.com) quotes former F1 driver Fabrizio Barbazza, who says Alonso "took a 600 watt hit with serious consequences. Difficulty focusing and temporary obstruction of the veins."
These claims are as yet unproven and should be considered as no more than rumours at this time. But Sky Sports F1 commentator and former driver Martin Brundle also feels everything is not how it seems.
He told The Telegraph's Daniel Johnson:
"Something is amiss. Something doesn't add up. When he missed the test, I assumed it meant he would miss the first race.
It's a very strange situation. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors around. We get back to the real crux of this in the first place: did he have an event that meant he went and hit the wall, or was it hitting the wall? Is it cause or is it effect? We don't know. Everybody is a little bit coy about it so something isn't quite right.
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Whatever the truth, hopefully Alonso will be fit, well and back in the car very soon.
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