Monday 19th October 2015

Motorsport on Monday: 19/10/2015

Bernie and Max team up to speak sense; Merc-AMG reserve driver wins DTM; Ron gives Magnussen a birthday present he won't forget

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Bernie Ecclestone reckons modern F1 racing is an engineer's championship, not a driver's championship - and wants to see today's rulebook completely rethought to enhance the role of the driver. In a joint interview with Max Mosley for Germany's ZDF, Mosley added that driver aids should be banned and maybe even manual gearboxes brought back to F1.

Lewis in GP2? Make it happen Bernie!

"If the engineering competition starts to take over from the human competition," said Mosley, "F1 in my opinion loses an essential element." His solution? A back-to-basics approach - give the driver a steering wheel, gearlever, brakes, accelerator and a very powerful engine "and he has to get on with it".

Bernie also revealed that he thought Prost was the best F1 driver ever because he looked after his car, completed more races and finished in a better position more often. "Today they don't have that," he said. Lewis Hamilton is a great driver, he explained, "but he is given a hell of a lot of help."

Rather wonderfully, Bernie added that he'd love to see Lewis in a GP2 car alongside the other drivers. "I'm not saying he would not win, but it would be interesting." We say, hear hear, Bernie! And if anyone can make it happen...

Oh, and for everyone who's hopeful the 2017 tweaks are going to revolutionise F1 racing, think again, said Bernie. The rules are like an old Victorian house, he paraphrased, where they're constantly tweaked, whereas the best solution is to rip it up and start again. Tear up the F1 rulebook? With pleasure! Over to you, PHers, to decide what should be in the new one.

Token gesture
Good news, F1 engineering commentators: next year's engine development token allowance will be retained at 32 rather than being reduced to 25 and, more importantly, in-season development will be allowed to continue. This means manufacturers such as Honda and Renault will be able to continue development into next season, rather than signing it all off for homologation in February.

It also means Honda will again be able to claim big performance upgrades are on the way that will see it match the performance of Ferrari and be not far shy of Mercedes, before then backtracking when the upgraded engine hits the track and appears to be no faster than the woefully deficient pre-upgrade engine.

Not bad for 20...

Pascal Wehrlein is 2015 DTM champ
Mercedes-AMG F1 reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein has won the 2015 DTM championship. What's more, aged just 20, he's become the youngest ever series champion - scooping the title in a race won by Timo Scheider who, at 36, is one of the oldest drivers in the field.

German-Mauritian Wehrlein adds the DTM championship to his ADAC Formel Masters 2011 title win, and second place in the 2012 Formula 3 Euro Series championship. It also means Mercedes-Benz has now won 10 DTM drivers' championships, becoming the most successful brand in the history of the series.

Lastly, Leicester-born Jamie Green secured second place in the DTM championship with an end-of-season win at Hockenheim in his Team Rosberg Audi, his fourth victory of the year. It's Green's best-ever performance in the DTM championship since first racing in it back in 2005.

Could Magnussen take Grosjean's Lotus seat?

Happy birthday Kevin; you're fired
McLaren is not retaining F1 reserve driver Kevin Magnussen for 2016 - and told the Danish racer by email on his birthday. 2015 GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne is to take his place and Magnussen will leave McLaren after the season-closing Abu Dhabi race.

Magnussen is now being linked with the second Lotus seat, and one of the two available drives with Manor, after reportedly missing out on the chance to drive for new F1 team Haas. He comes with a great recommendation on his LinkedIn profile: "He's good enough not only to race in Formula 1," said Jenson Button, "but also to help a team success in Formula 1."

Estoril provides a thrilling close to the ELMS

Greaves scores second to scoop ELMS title
Greaves Motorsport drivers Bjorn Wirdheim, Gary Hirsch and Jon Lancaster are 2015 European Le Mans Series champions after a thrilling four-hour race in Estoril - despite going into the final race two points behind fellow Gibson-Nissan 015S runners Jota Sport.

And Greaves partly has the weather to thank, after a heavy shower around an hour into the race saw Jota driver Simon Dolan spin into the gravel and lose a lap. Second place was thus enough to grab the title, with Jota Sport finishing fourth.

The AF Corsa Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen, Mikkel Max and Andrea Rizzoli won the GTE title, and auto-entry to the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours, although it was the MarcVDS BMW Z4 that won the Portuguese race after a star drive by Andy Priaulx in the wet. Question is, will MarcVDS take up its second-place Le Mans 2016 auto entry or will owner Marc van der Straten carry through his vow to close the car racing programme?

[Photos: LATphoto, DTM, Nick Dungan]

[andyps]

Selective reporting about the Max and Bernie show there. Those points are all valid, but reading more about it Max has criticised the engine rules which he was responsible for by saying "If you designed or restricted the engine in a way that you could produce it economically, and Mercedes do what they liked, like in the old days with the old ordinary engines, manufacturers could come in and [no one] could dominate." Maybe he should have considered that when he wrote the rules, recognising that they would be massively expensive and lock out anyone other than a car manufacturer.

And Bernie seems to have forgotten that Lewis did quite well last time he drove a GP2 car...

[MikeyC]

andyps said:

And Bernie seems to have forgotten that Lewis did quite well last time he drove a GP2 car...

thought exactly the same!
but what he really meant to say was if it was a level playing field

seem to recall some years back there was an end-of-season go-kart race meet with drivers from all forms of motorsport - F1/WRC/Indy + up'n'coming go-karters etc remember seeing Prost, maybe Senna plus 'the Schu' fighting it out with the whippersnappers - ok found youtube

[forzaminardi]

Yeah, Bernie and Max are in a perfect position to have a pop at the F1 rules, afterall, they've never ever had anything to do with making the rules, have they?

[richardaucock]

MikeyC said:

andyps said:

And Bernie seems to have forgotten that Lewis did quite well last time he drove a GP2 car...

thought exactly the same!
but what he really meant to say was if it was a level playing field

seem to recall some years back there was an end-of-season go-kart race meet with drivers from all forms of motorsport - F1/WRC/Indy + up'n'coming go-karters etc remember seeing Prost, maybe Senna plus 'the Schu' fighting it out with the whippersnappers - ok found youtube

That's a stellar find, MikeyC! Added to the repeat-view list... Thanks!

[Valveman]

Very interesting interview.

[Alex Langheck]

Max & Bernie talking sense? Are you sure?

The same pair, who under their watch saw all non F1 Motorsport rot & wither. Some of which still haven't recovered. And the the F1 commercial rights were given away for a pittance. I'd prefer the pair of them as far away from Motorsport as possible.

[TNH]

You forgot to mention that BMW won the DTM manufacturers championship again?

[lfsv8]

"Hear, hear" to the following: "If the engineering competition starts to take over from the human competition," said Mosley, "F1 in my opinion loses an essential element." His solution? A back-to-basics approach - give the driver a steering wheel, gearlever, brakes, accelerator and a very powerful engine "and he has to get on with it".

Isn't that PRECISELY what the late [and most certainly GREAT] Peter Wheeler did with the TVR Tuscan Challenge, 1989-2004 under his invention & stewardship. It proved extremely popular with the participatory teams & drivers + circuit-and-TV spectators alike and - unless someone can demonstrate otherwise - was what I understand to be the longest-standing and most successful British, V8 sports cars' Series in our history...

The "...back-to-basics" approach might be exactly what F1 needs to re-engage true racing car followers/fans (aka actual/not virtual 'PetrolHeads'); after all, those of a more 'evolved' persuasion, can always remain confined within cyberspace via their own chosen video games instead...

Akin to "keep it simple, stupid", the GENIUS of Mr Wheeler was that he did not have to perform an act of "reverse-engineering", as F1 will need to, to meet Max Mosley's reported suggestion. Instead he forward engineered things (with the truly excellent support of two young & highly talented TVR engineers, Messrs. Anderson & Ravenscroft) from-the-ground-up in the first place. QED: was he right, or was he right?