Rosberg Aiming To End The Season On A High For Mercedes

Nico Rosberg is aiming to end the season on a high for Mercedes, as the Formula 1 paddock gears up for the final two races of the season at the United States and Brazil. Mercedes have failed to score a World Championship point since the Singapore Grand Prix, and are only 12 points ahead of Sauber in the Championship.

Despite winning the Chinese Grand Prix at the start of the season, Nico Rosberg and Mercedes have endured a frustrating run of uncompetitiveness throughout recent races. Since the Singapore Grand Prix back in September, Nico Rosberg has retired from three of the last four races. Although Michael Schumacher has finished more races in comparison to Rosberg of late, the seven-time World Champion has failed to finish within the points, finishing 11th at both the Japanese and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.

With only two races of the season remaining, Nico Rosberg is aiming to end the season on a high, and bring an end to Mercedes’ recent run of bad luck. The new track at Austin in Texas is an unknown entity for the drivers on the grid, although Nico Rosberg has enjoyed extensive time in the simulator to try and learn the new circuit.

“It will be very exciting to race in the USA again and I’m really looking forward to our visit.” Explained Nico Rosberg, “I spent some time practicing on the simulator at the factory this week so I know what to expect and, as a team, we are as well prepared as we can be from our simulator work. The track looks cool with a great double S section to begin the lap and it looks like there should be some good opportunities for overtaking. We really want to end the season on a positive note so we’ll be aiming to score some points next weekend.”

Michael Schumacher will also be striving for a positive result in the next two races, as the German legend once again prepares to retire from racing. Schumacher has unfortunately endured a very uncompetitive return to the sport with the German marque, and will be eager to score points at both the United States and the Brazilian Grands Prix.

Picture Copyright © Mercedes AMG Petronas

Williams Suffer Explosive End To Promising Race

After a disastrous season last year, many were understandably surprised with the pace of the Williams’ during Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix. Although both Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna failed to finish, they showed superlative race pace, with Maldonado even putting the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso under immense pressure.

Bruno Senna suffered a difficult race as he was included in an incident on the opening lap, and was forced to make an extra pit stop. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, he came together with his fellow countryman Felipe Massa which resulted in both drivers’ being forced into retirement. 

Further up the order, however, his team-mate Pastor Maldonado was having a much stronger race. The Venezuelan was even able to put two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso under pressure in the closing stages of the race, with the Williams clearly faster than the Ferrari.

However, Maldonado and Williams competitive race came to an explosive end on lap 57 as the Venezuelan driver lost control of his car on the kerbs on the exit of turn 6. The sudden change of direction saw Maldonado slam into the concrete wall, ending his chances of bringing points home for the Williams team.

“Whilst the end result was disappointing for the team, we are all very pleased with the significant performance improvement of the FW34.” Said Chief Operations Engineer, Mark Gillan, “We will now regroup and look forward to delivering a strong performance in Malaysia next weekend.”

Picture Copyright © Williams F1

Red Bull Suffer Disastrous End To Testing

After suffering a disastrous end to the final week of pre-season testing, which included a gearbox issue and an incident for reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull will be hoping for less issues for the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

After flying out new upgrades for their car in time for the final two days of testing in Barcelona, the team would have been hoping for a productive end to the test. Instead, Red Bull were restricted to only 23 laps all day, in comparison to McLaren and Ferrari’s 115 laps. 

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel admitted it was a tough day for the team, and that it will be hard to judge the updates due to the lack of running time. 

“We would love to be on the circuit more, but this morning I had an issue.” Explained Vettel during the lunch break yesterday, “I went off track and broke the front wing and had to come in, and it took quite a while to get back out and just before lunch we suffered a problem with the gearbox so we have to fix it and get back out after lunch.”

When Sebastian Vettel was asked about the potential pecking order for the first couple of races, the German was quick to snub any belief that Red Bull could be second best behind the likes of McLaren.

Red Bull will be using the 10 days before FP1 at the Australian Grand Prix to sort out their reliability issues, and will be hoping for a successful start to the 2012 season, void of any of the troubles they received during testing.

Picture Copyright © LAT Photographic 

Lotus Naming War Comes To An End

 

The Lotus naming row that has been ongoing in F1 between Tony Fernandes (Team Lotus) and Group Lotus (Renault F1) since 2009 has been resolved as Team Lotus are to become Caterhams whereas the Lotus sponsored Renault F1 team will become Lotus.

The naming argument has been ongoing since 2009 when Malaysian entrepreneur, Tony Fernandes, entered a team on the 2010 F1 grid named Lotus Racing under license from Group Lotus. Throughout 2010, the cars raced in their legendary green and gold colors without a hitch as they ended the season outright leaders of the three new teams of the sport. However in September 2010, Tony Fernandes announced that he aimed to return in 2011 with his Lotus cars rebranded as Team Lotus, the official name in which Colin Chapman’s cars raced with between 1958 and 1994. In December 2010, Group Lotus which owns the cars side of the company announced it was becoming the title sponsor of the Renault F1 Team and before you knew it in January there was a court date set in relation to which of the two Lotus teams could use the Lotus name. Some likened the situation to a bus in that you wait ages for one to come along, and two show up at once.

In May 2011 the courts ruled that Tony Fernandes’s Team Lotus could continue using the name but that Group Lotus also have rights to use the moniker if they enter a team in F1. And so we come to todays confirmation by the F1 Commission that Team Lotus have decided to be called Caterhams after Team Boss, Tony Fernandes bought Caterham Cars on April 27th, 2011, and that Renault GP will now be called Lotus.

Some feel that this saga has blackened what was a legendary name of the sport and a name that should’ve been left as it was. Either way next season we will all have to get used to calling the Renault’s Lotus’s and the Lotus’s Caterhams. Confused yet? I am!