Formula 1's Latest Rumours, Talk: Nico Rosberg, Ferrari's Frustration and More
Nico Rosberg may have a 36-point lead over Lewis Hamilton after his victory in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, but the German is all too aware of how quickly things can change in Formula One.
It was not too long ago, remember, that Rosberg held a 29-point advantage over his Mercedes team-mate with six races remaining, only to end up losing the world championship by a margin of 67 points as Hamilton finished 2014 with a flourish.
And while Rosberg has extracted maximum points from the opening three races of the 2016 season, and extended his career-best winning streak to six, he has acknowledged Hamilton remains a very dangerous threat.
With Hamilton forced to start from the back of the grid, Ferrari had hoped to threaten Rosberg in Shanghai, but their chances of registering a first win of the season were almost immediately extinguished when Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen collided at the first corner.
The team-mates were still able to finish second and fifth, respectively, but their recovery drives hardly papered over the cracks in the eyes of Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne, who has expressed his frustration with the Prancing Horse's start to the season.
The friendly fire between Vettel and Raikkonen was prompted by Daniil Kvyat's opportunistic lunge down the inside of the Ferraris, with the under-pressure Russian surviving the early chaos to claim the second podium finish of his career in China.
And Kvyat believes Red Bull are capable of challenging Mercedes on a regular basis as the season progresses.
As one Renault-powered driver enjoyed a strong, trouble-free race, another finished in last place in a grand prix with no retirements, with Jolyon Palmer left horrified by his lack of pace in China.
Closing this week's roundup is Paul Hembery, who has explained why Pirelli is prepared to quit F1.
Nico Rosberg Insists Lewis Hamilton Is Still 'The Benchmark' in F1
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Nico Rosberg is adamant Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton remains "the benchmark" in Formula One, despite claiming his third successive victory of the 2016 season in the Chinese Grand Prix.
After winning the final three races of 2015, Rosberg has extracted maximum points from the opening three races of this season and holds a 36-point advantage over Hamilton in the drivers' standings.
As Rosberg dominated from pole position, Hamilton arguably endured his worst weekend in almost two years at the Shanghai International Circuit, where he could only recover to seventh after suffering an engine problem in qualifying and a collision with Felipe Nasr on the opening lap.
No driver has ever failed to win the world championship after winning the first three rounds of the season, but despite his career-best run of form, Rosberg has insisted Hamilton will come back fighting, as he told Sky Sports' James Galloway:
"Six wins, that doesn't count for me because three wins were last year and I just think about this year. And I'm happy about those, they've gone well, but it's early days.
Three races are just a handful and we've got 18 to go—it's the longest season in F1 history. My team-mate is dear Lewis and he's going to push like hell, like always, and it's tough to beat him in previous years and it's going to be tough to beat him this year.
I look forward to the battle though, that's what I'm here for. He's the benchmark.
"
Per Sky Sports' William Esler, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff rejected the suggestion Rosberg—whose father Keke won the 1982 world championship—is the favourite for this year's crown, saying Hamilton "will make a quick recovery" and ensure the title fight "will be close at the end" of the season.
In a separate Sky Sports article, Hamilton told Esler how his race was "pretty horrifying" and insisted he has no more "jokers available" after failing to capitalise on pole position in the Australian and Bahrain grands prix.
Sergio Marchionne Issues Warning After Ferrari's Frustrating Chinese GP
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Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne has expressed his disappointment with the team's winless start to 2016 after missing another opportunity in the Chinese Grand Prix.
After winning three grands prix with Sebastian Vettel last year, finishing a comfortable second in the constructors' standings, Ferrari are expected to challenge Mercedes for the championship this year.
Although the SF16-H car has shown flashes of pace in the opening three races, the Prancing Horse have been unable to return to the top step of the podium, with Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen suffering one retirement apiece in the opening two races.
Both drivers then collided on the opening lap in China, forcing Vettel to recover to second behind Nico Rosberg and leaving Raikkonen in fifth as Marchionne watched from the garage.
As reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble last December, Marchionne told his staff to be "terrified" of failure in 2016, and the Italian has increased the pressure following Ferrari's substandard start to the season.
He told Sky Sports' James Galloway: "What could have been is unfortunate because it didn't happen—we didn't win—so we need to fix this now. The team knows that the clock is on and we need to start winning some races and bringing them home."
Meanwhile, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said Ferrari would have had a "very, very good chance" of winning the Chinese GP in "normal" circumstances and admitted Marchionne was right to be unhappy, as he told Noble:
"He knows motor racing, so of course he was not happy. As I was not happy. He saw the race but in certain circumstances, what can you do? You can say, many, many things.
There is nothing you can do, not the team nor with the car. When things happen like this you have to accept it, but of course he was not happy.
By the way if he was happy, I would be asking to myself: is this a real president or what?
"
Arrivabene told the same source he has "had enough" of finishing third and second, and he said Ferrari need to be "a bit more positive" as their search for a first win since last year's Singapore GP continues.
Daniil Kvyat Confident Red Bull Can Offer a 'Big Challenge' to Mercedes
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Daniil Kvyat believes Red Bull Racing can threaten the all-conquering Mercedes outfit later this season after claiming his second-ever podium finish with third place in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Red Bull endured their first winless campaign in seven years in 2015 but produced their most impressive performance for some time in Shanghai, where Daniel Ricciardo started on the front row and took the lead at the first corner.
A puncture on Lap 3 dropped the Australian out of contention, but Ricciardo recovered to fourth behind Kvyat in what he told Motorsport.com's Adam Cooper was the "equal best" race of his career.
Red Bull sit just four points behind Ferrari in the constructors' standings after the opening three rounds of 2016, and Kvyat is confident a Renault engine upgrade—currently scheduled for June's Canadian GP—will allow the four-time world champions to challenge Mercedes.
Per Autosport's Lawrence Barretto, he said:
"Mercedes is still a bit of a step ahead but with the developments in the future races, probably around Canada, we can make a bit of a step forward.
In some circumstances, we can be quite a big challenge to them.
It was quite an encouraging race. I thought we were close in our pace to Ferrari.
We are consistently third-fastest team on the track and with a bit of development in the future we can give a fight to these guys even a bit more.
It's all looking quite promising for the future.
"
Kvyat's own race revolved around the first-corner incident involving Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, who collided with his Ferrari team-mate as he tried to avoid making contact with the charging Red Bull.
As reported by Motorsport.com's Valentin Khorounzhiy, Vettel confronted Kvyat ahead of the podium ceremony, with the four-time world champion saying the Russian "shouldn't crash into people like that."
However, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has defended Kvyat's aggressive manoeuvre, telling Motorsport.com's Pablo Elizalde it was "a racing incident" and implying Vettel "might change his opinion" after viewing replays of the collision.
In a separate Motorsport.com article, Noble told Elizalde Red Bull are "snapping at the ankles of Ferrari," saying the improvements "in the pipeline" will put them "that much closer" to the front-running teams.
Jolyon Palmer Admits Chinese GP Was the 'Worst' Race of His Career
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Jolyon Palmer felt the Chinese Grand Prix was the "worst ever" race of his entire career after finishing last at the Shanghai International Circuit.
The British driver made an assured start to his F1 career at last month's Australian Grand Prix, where he finished on the fringes of the points, but he has struggled to recapture that form in the subsequent two races.
Palmer failed to even start the Bahrain GP after pulling into the garage at the end of the formation lap with a hydraulic issue, and his difficulties continued in China, where he qualified almost a second behind team-mate Kevin Magnussen as both Renault cars failed to progress from Q1 for the second successive weekend.
In a race featuring no retirements, Palmer finished last behind Manor's Rio Haryanto as well as Felipe Nasr and Romain Grosjean, both of whom suffered damage on the opening lap and struggled with the handling of their cars.
After the race, Palmer told the team's official website how the "balance of the car was all over the place, tyre degradation was bigger than usual and the pace wasn’t as good as previous races," admitting he was "definitely happy to move on to the next race."
And the 2014 GP2 champion has admitted he was not quite sure why his performance was so poor, telling Autosport's Ian Parkes:
"I'm down on aero, but we could only see it in qualifying.
There were also some damaged parts in qualifying as well, and we managed to fix half the problem for the race, but I'm missing that aero.
The safety car was definitely not good for the strategy.
But I think we need to understand what's going on with the car first and then focus on the strategy.
But overall, for me personally, I think the whole weekend was maybe my worst ever as a racing driver. It's been very bad.
"
Renault remain one of the three teams yet to score a point in 2016 after Magnussen, whose preparations for the race were severely hampered by a suspension failure in Friday practice, could only manage 17th in China.
Pirelli Prepared to Quit F1 over 2017 Testing Program, Admits Paul Hembery
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Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has said the tyre manufacturer is prepared to walk away from F1 if its testing program for the 2017 season is not imminently finalised.
As reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, the F1 Commission is set to decide on Monday whether Pirelli will be permitted to conduct 25 days of testing with its new rubber ahead of the 2017 season, when wider tyres are to be introduced along with changes to chassis dimensions.
Concerns over whether Pirelli would have enough time to prepare its rubber recently saw the Italian company write to the FIA "to make it clear that if the 2017 test programme was not sorted immediately, then it would have no choice but to withdraw its tender application for the 2017-2019 F1 contract."
Noble noted F1 race director Charlie Whiting traveled to Pirelli's headquarters in Milan to discuss the situation, with a meeting at the Chinese Grand Prix resulting in "a plan for five teams to join in a programme that would run from July over a period of 25 car days."
At the beginning of April, Hembery told Motorsport.com's Roberto Chinchero how Pirelli is reluctant to "put [its] name at risk for the sake of not having the tests nor information necessary to do a good job."
And he has now said the situation is critical, telling Noble:
"When I land, if I don't have an email confirming it's approved, or something else positive, then you will be calling me for a different story.
This is it. We cannot do our job without this. We cannot deliver. We are being asked to make very significant changes, by changing the driveability of the tyres.
Plus the thermal challenge that we have been given from the outset is now changing, so we now have to give tyres that will have less degradation and less wear.
And they have to be tyres that the drivers will have a wider window of opportunity to push on. So it is a big change, and big performance improvements—so time is running out. We are in mid-April.
"
Asked what would happen if Pirelli's testing plans were prevented, he told the same source: "Someone else can have that challenge then. There are plenty of other things to do in life."
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