Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: McLaren-Honda, Valtteri Bottas and More
Convinced their reliability issues have finally been resolved, McLaren-Honda are ready to attack the second half of the 2015 Formula One season.
The former world champions secured their best result of the season in the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Fernando Alonso's fifth-place finish encouraging the team to pursue further points finishes over the remaining nine races.
Honda's motorsport boss has admitted the company were taken by surprise by the sheer quality of teams competing in the pinnacle of motorsport, and the Japanese manufacturer is planning to introduce significant upgrades to the RA615H power unit as they continue to find their feet in F1.
Like McLaren, Valtteri Bottas had a slow start to the season after missing the first race through injury and continued to fight through the pain barrier as he returned to the cockpit.
In recent months, though, the Williams driver has rediscovered the form he displayed throughout 2014, finishing third in Canada.
But Bottas has explained the back problem he suffered in qualifying for the Australian GP has forced him to make alterations to his fitness regime, with back exercises now playing an integral role in his training.
While the Finn guards against a bad back, Lewis Hamilton has been trying to remove the pressure of the championship battle from his shoulders by holidaying in Barbados, taking full advantage of F1's summer break.
With a 21-point lead over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton is likely to secure his third title in 2015 but has spoken of his interest in trying other categories of motorsport.
From the drivers' standings to the constructors' championship, Force India are refusing to accept defeat to Red Bull Racing in their fight for fourth despite the four-time world champions' double-podium finish in Hungary.
Lotus, however, are determined to pip Force India to fifth, and a senior figure at the Enstone-based outfit is expecting Pastor Maldonado to impress in the second half of the season.
Here's our latest roundup.
McLaren-Honda to Introduce Upgraded Engine
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McLaren-Honda are planning to introduce an updated power unit in the second half of the season, as their rise up Formula One's pecking order continues.
The former world champions were forced to wait until the sixth round of the campaign, the Monaco Grand Prix, to score their first points of the season after their new Honda engine proved to be lacking power and reliability.
McLaren, though, have scored points in the last two races in Britain and Hungary, with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button crossing the line fifth and ninth respectively in Budapest.
Despite both drivers suffering engine-related issues in qualifying at the Hungaroring—Button was denied a place in Q2 after an energy recovery system glitch, Alonso was forced to push his car back to the garage—Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai is convinced the Japanese manufacturer are now over the worst of their reliability problems.
And with those issues supposedly solved, Honda—who, per Sky Sports' William Esler, had used just two of their allotted engine-development tokens ahead of June's Canadian GP—are now focusing on making improvements to the engine's performance and efficiency.
Arai has revealed the first wave of improvements will be introduced in time for the Belgian GP, telling Autosport's Ian Parkes:
"I am confident our reliability problems are now behind us which means we can turn our attention to increasing power.
After the summer shutdown our plan is to apply a new-spec engine using some of our remaining seven tokens.
The most important area for us to concentrate on is the combustion.
Current regulations require high efficiency of the combustion so we want to change the characteristic with the chamber design and intake and exhaust system layout.
Another issue we will be addressing is reducing mechanical friction by changing the gear-train system along with the combustion.
Not all of our upgrades will be in place for the Belgian Grand Prix; some parts will be applied for Spa and the rest during the weeks that follow.
"
Per the same source, Arai admitted Honda—whose renewed partnership with McLaren was announced in May 2013—had underestimated the challenge of producing a leading engine in the modern era of F1.
Renault, meanwhile, are also expecting to make significant progress with their power unit in the latter stages of 2015.
Remi Taffin, Renault F1's director of operations, has told Motorsport.com's Charles Bradley how Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso should receive a "big step" in engine performance in time for October's Russian GP.
Valtteri Bottas Forced to Do Back Exercises to Prevent Repeat of Injury
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Valtteri Bottas has admitted he will be forced to perform back exercises for the remainder of his motor-racing career after suffering an injury at the start of the 2015 season.
The Finnish driver was unable to participate in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after sustaining what Williams' official website confirmed was "a very small tear in the annular part of a disc in his lower back" in qualifying at Albert Park.
While he was passed fit to return to action at the following race in Malaysia, Bottas didn't return to form until April's Bahrain GP, where he finished fourth, and went on to secure his first podium finish of the year in Canada in June.
Upon his return at Sepang, Bottas told Autosport's Edd Straw how Williams had "changed the seat and pedal position quite a reasonable amount" to prevent a repeat of the injury, which he claimed was caused by the bumpy surface at the Melbourne street circuit.
Bottas, however, has revealed he has made changes of his own to guard against further problems, introducing back-specific exercises to his training regime.
The 25-year-old, who has insisted he has had "no problems" in recent months, told Autosport's Lawrence Barretto: "I'm still doing specific exercises for my lower back and those muscles three or four times a week."
"I think I'm going to continue that all my career just to make sure it's not going to happen again."
At a time when Bottas is in contention for a move to Ferrari—Corriere dello Sport (h/t Sky Sports) claim a deal has been agreed for him to replace Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, for 2016—it will be interesting if the Finn's revelation will have an effect on his career prospects.
Would a team with serious championship-winning hopes take a chance on a driver whose back was injured not as a result of a heavy crash, but by simply driving around a track?
Bottas' good recovery from his Australian GP pain suggests it will be a one-off occurrence, but another back strain could cause serious damage in more ways than one.
Lewis Hamilton Keen to Experiment with MotoGP and NASCAR
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Following Nico Hulkenberg's triumph at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, Lewis Hamilton was the only driver who seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the German's achievement.
While the likes of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo told Sky Sports' Pete Gill of their admiration of Hulkenberg, Hamilton confessed to having no interest in endurance racing, telling the same source how he'd never even watched one of the most iconic events in his sport.
It was a shame, but not a surprise, that the reigning Formula One world champion adopted such an ignorant, dismissive attitude toward Le Mans, although Hamilton has admitted he would be eager to try out other forms of motorsport, including MotoGP and NASCAR.
Per the Mirror's Byron Young, Hamilton has claimed that motorcycles, not cars, originally sparked his interest in racing.
And while the 30-year-old doesn't seem keen to emulate John Surtees, the only man to win world championships on both two and four wheels, Hamilton has expressed his desire to try a MotoGP machine in the future, stating:
"When I was a kid I wanted to race motorbikes. When my dad bought me my first go-kart I actually wanted a motorbike.
I’m not disappointed how things have turned out but bikes were my first love I suppose.
I’d also love to test a MotoGP bike just to see what it’s like. Naturally I’d know the lines but I’d love to know if I could even do it.
"
He told the same source how he would "really like to do a NASCAR race one day," following in the footsteps of another title winner, Kimi Raikkonen, who competed in Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series events at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 2011.
Indeed, Hamilton received a brief taste of NASCAR machinery in June 2011, swapping cars with three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart in a promotional event.
Hamilton, though, still has plenty of unfinished business in F1 and is on course for his third world title in 2015, currently holding a 21-point lead over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in the drivers' standings.
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Force India Still Hope to Catch Red Bull in Constructors' Championship
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The Hungarian Grand Prix was a costly weekend for Force India, who lost considerable ground to Red Bull Racing in the fight for fourth place in the constructors' championship.
Force India's second consecutive double-points finish at Silverstone put the team just 24 points behind Red Bull in the standings.
However, retirements for Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez at the Hungaroring, where Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat secured their first podium finishes of 2015, saw the gap extended to 57 points.
Force India's lacklustre weekend in Hungary, which was blighted by suspension and front-wing failures, has left the team looking over their shoulder, with the Mercedes-powered outfit now just four points ahead of Lotus and a further four ahead of seventh-placed Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Despite the pressure from behind, deputy team principal Bob Fernley has insisted that Force India should not give up on their quest for fourth place, telling Autosport's Ian Parkes:
"Our target was very clear as we finished Silverstone, which was to challenge—if we could—Red Bull for fourth place.
But they had a very strong showing in Hungary, and obviously piled on a significant amount of points.
I don't think we should lose sight of that objective, but it's going to be a bit tougher now than it was after Silverstone.
We should certainly make sure we consolidate fifth place. That's the minimum expectation the team would have, but we shouldn't lose sight of the goal of fourth.
"
While a fifth-place finish would represent Force India's strongest-ever season—a considerable achievement when you consider the team's delayed start to 2015—fourth place, despite the significant deficit to Red Bull, is still within reach.
Unlike Red Bull's RB11, which has been hindered by Renault's troublesome power unit, Force India's B-spec VJM08—first introduced in the post-Austrian GP test—has proved to be a strong all-round car.
The heavily revised chassis, featuring an innovative nose design, performed well at the high-speed Silverstone track and exceeded expectations, in terms of performance, at the Hungaroring, suggesting Force India will be competitive at most, if not all, of the remaining nine races.
Lotus Backing Pastor Maldonado to Impress in 2nd Half of Season
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Pastor Maldonado produced his worst performance of the season in the Hungarian Grand Prix, receiving three separate penalties and eventually crossing the line a lowly 14th.
But the Lotus team are expecting the Venezuelan to be one of the stars of the second half of the season and convert his pace into points.
Despite sitting 14th in the drivers' championship with 12 points, 11 fewer than team-mate Romain Grosjean, Maldonado has performed relatively well in 2015, securing solid seventh-placed finishes in Canada and Austria, his first consecutive top-10 results since November 2012.
Maldonado has been among the unluckiest drivers on the grid in 2015, suffering debilitating reliability issues in Malaysia, China, Bahrain and Monaco as well as being punted out of the season-opening Australian GP.
According to F1 journalist James Allen, Lotus are tied with McLaren-Honda as the most unreliable team this year having suffered nine retirements, preventing the Enstone-based outfit from capitalising on their Mercedes-powered E23 car.
However, Alan Permane, Lotus' trackside operations director, is confident Maldonado can lead their fight for fifth place in the constructors' standings, telling Lawrence Barretto of Autosport: "Pastor's had two very strong races this season and has been quick in all the other ones.
"I'm expecting great things from him in the second half of the season."
Should Renault's proposed purchase of the Lotus team, per Sky Sports' Pete Gill, go ahead, there is a possibility that Maldonado will be fighting for his future across the remaining nine races.
As a full-scale works outfit, it is likely Renault would have no burden to employ so-called "pay drivers" as a means of keeping the team afloat and could therefore sign drivers based on talent alone.
That would be bad news for Maldonado, who—having recorded just four top-10 finishes since the beginning of 2013—may be forced to take his PDVSA sponsorship elsewhere.
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