MOTORSPORT: A whole new start for F1

After a recent famine of top-level international four-wheel motor racing, now comes the feast.

The Formula 1 World Championship makes what very literally is a new start this weekend at its most revered circuit, Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps.

The IndyCar championship will be decided over the next two weekends, while the World Rally Championship’s first full asphalt event of the year is already underway in Germany – and it’s the last round before Rally Australia on September 10-13.

Daniel Ricciardo doesn’t agree with the change, although he’s hopeful it will bring better starters back to the Red Bull-Renaults – but he holds little hope of a repeat of his victory at Spa a year ago.

Ferrari announced during the week that it is keeping Kimi Raikkonen on next year, curiously referring to a renewal of its “technical and racing agreement” with the Iceman who it seemed might have had to make way for fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas from Williams.

And there is talk of a return to “ground-effects” cars in 2017, although that it is only a suggestion out of a meeting of team technical directors rather than any imminent rule change yet. Certainly there is pressure to lessen the importance of the highly-sensitive front wings, which are being largely blamed for there being so little overtaking.

But the immediate focus is on the new start procedure, which is well explained by the website Formula1.com.

“The basic premise is that the teams will be limited in the information they can give their drivers over the radio as they prepare for the off,” it says.

“Primarily, the clutch bite point will now be fixed by the time the cars leave the pits for the grid prior to the start of the race. In the past drivers could experiment with the bite point and make adjustments with help from their team during the formation lap.

“With the twin clutches employed on an F1 car, drivers would set one lever at the chosen bite point and have the other fully disengaged just before the start.

“They’d then release the second lever at the start and begin the juggling act with power, torque, engine mapping and wheelspin to make the best start they can.

“What’s different now is that the teams can’t help them find the crucial bite point; now each driver has to do that himself in the old-fashioned, seat-of-the-pants way.”

The head of the dominant Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, said F1 “wanted to make the starts more variable and unpredictable, to give more responsibility to the driver and make it look less ‘remote control’ from the garage”.

“This is the first exercise in tuning technology down for the sake of the entertainment,” Wolff said.

“But is it going to cause drama beyond expectations, or variability beyond expectations? If so then it will need to be looked at again and adjusted.

“What none of us want is completely unpredictable starts for everybody which then completely devalues qualifying.

“It is going to be learning on the job, but Formula 1, the FIA (the governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) and the stakeholders have shown in the past we are pretty flexible in adapting things for the sake, or safety, of the sport if required.”

Daniel Ricciardo said the change “can’t be worse” for his Red Bull team.

“Our starts haven’t been really good and I think the new procedure employs some new variability, as the teams will find it hard to get the optimum settings in terms of clutch temperature and so on,” he said.

“So I hope it will bring the good starters more to our level - and maybe that will help us. [But] don’t let the hype about it obscure the view: we have always been active at the start.

“There are still so many variables. If the clutch doesn’t bite and work as it should you are lost. You still need a significant element of luck to have a good start – and you don’t get that from the pit wall anyway.

“I think the changes are okay, but in the end my feeling is that it didn’t need to be done. But, now that it is a fact of life, let’s embrace it.”

Lewis Hamilton has predicted more weaving at Sunday’s start and that, in the worst-case scenario, it could even be “disastrous”.

Sebastian Vettel has said “maybe it will be a bit chaotic on Sunday – and maybe the next Sunday … but two or three races down the line nothing changes”.

However, next year F1 cars will have only one clutch and other clamps are on the way that will further limit contact between crews on the pitwall and drivers.

While Honda will introduce a major upgrade to its power units in the McLarens at Spa, and cop grid penalties because of the number it has used this season, Ricciardo does not have high hopes of his Renault unit being hugely competitive, despite both Red Bull cars having been on the podium at the previous GP in Hungary four weeks ago.

Spa – the longest circuit in the championship at 7km - places a much greater emphasis on sheer power because of its long straights.

“I don’t expect miracles for [the rest of] this year, but we can still get a little bit more from the engine,” Ricciardo said.

“It’s not going to be enough to fight for the wins, [but] it will be a little bit more.

“We can still optimise the car around the problems we have.

“And there are always uncertainties about this track – namely the conditions – which always give you the chance to have a good race.”

Ricciardo has been unable to win a race this year after his shock three victories in his first season at RBR last year. Instead, Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, the Australian’s teammate last year, have been the only combination to break the Mercedes stranglehold this season.

Ricciardo had the press in stitches at Spa overnight when asked about Ferrari’s pace compared with Mercedes.

“On the tight and twistier circuits Ferrari seem to be closer, but here this weekend I think Mercedes will spread their legs, I guess … No! That’s not (the correct expression). Stretch their legs!”

But more realistically there are five, with Australia’s reigning champion Will Power the fifth of them – 59 points behind Penske-Chevrolet teammate and leader Juan Pablo Montoya.

Even then, Power will be counting on the double points at the final race and his great record at Sonoma – he’s won there three times in his past five starts - to have a serious chance of retaining his crown.

Montoya’s main challenger is American Graham Rahal, who has won two of the past four rounds and finished third and fourth in the other two.

Honda-powered Rahal is only nine points behind Colombian Montoya, while New Zealander Scott Dixon, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, and Brazilian Helio Castroneves, another Penske driver, also are ahead of Power.

Montoya and Dixon have won the past two years at Pocono, the last of six “oval” races this season and where Team Penske has been triumphant eight times in the 22 previous races.

There have been nine winners in 14 rounds so far, with Power’s sole victory this year on the road course at Indianapolis before the Indy 500.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit against Andretti Autosport team principal Michael Andretti by the two executives who have run the associated Andretti Sports Marketing (ASM) has been settled.

Mediation resolved the dispute promptly after John Lopes, who had been sacked from ASM, and Starke Taylor claimed the Andretti empire was losing US$10 million a year, had debts of US$7 million and assets of only US$2 million.

Andretti will sell his 60 per cent in ASM to Lopes and Taylor, who already own 20 per cent each.

That’s something it is intent on fixing this weekend.

Its dual world champion, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, could clinch a third title if he wins the asphalt event in the Rhineland, while its Finn, Jari-Matti Latvala, won the previous WRC round in his homeland. Both have good tarmac form and Ogier has won in Germany before with Citroen.

Hyundai stole the glory last year with its first WRC event win, by Belgian Thierry Neuville, and an historic one-two – Spaniard Dani Sordo was second – after Citroen’s perfect record of success in the 11 previous German rallies.

The Korean manufacturer runs its WRC squad out of Alzenau in Germany so it also considers this a home event, and this year it is running four i20s – with New Zealander Hayden Paddon and Dutchman Kevin Abbring in the other two.

VW, as always, has a third card up its sleeve, with Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen hungry for his first victory.

“There is no other event at which our desire to win is great and so unfulfilled,” said VW motorsport director Jost Capito.