Autosport Plus O5 2015

Features published on AUTOSPORT+ Jan 29, 2015 - Feb 4, 2015
Features published on AUTOSPORT+ Jan 29, 2015 - Feb 4, 2015
Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30 - by Craig Scarborough

F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost - by Jonathan Noble
Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season - by The Secret Mechanic
Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T - by Craig Scarborough
Has Vettel got his mojo back? - by Ben Anderson
Technical analysis: Mercedes W06 - by Craig Scarborough
Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11 - by Craig Scarborough
Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren? - by Jonathan Noble
Can back-to-front work for Nissan? - by Gary Watkins
The other F1 engine in trouble - by Jonathan Noble
Can Haas succeed where others failed? - by Dieter Rencken
Is the Ferrari recovery real? - by Ben Anderson
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AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30
Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

The first car of the new McLaren-Honda era was eagerly anticipated, and the first shots didn't disappoint.
CRAIG SCARBOROUGH analyses the new design from Woking
The McLaren-Honda MP4-30 was the most anticipated of the 2015 Formula 1 cars, and its launch did not
disappoint - with the design clearly different from both the '14 McLaren and all the other new cars unveiled so
far.
It has benefited from Honda designing a bespoke power unit for McLaren's requirements and its
aerodynamics being developed over the winter by ex-Red Bull aero chief Peter Prodromou, resulting in a far
tidier rear end packaging and a (so far) unique long nose to meet the revised regulations.
McLAREN'S TOUGH 2014
Last year's MP4-29 did not prove as well suited to the new regulations and power units as other teams'
designs.
Even with the powerful Mercedes engine, the McLaren lacked top speed. This was partly down to the
dramatic rear suspension fairings designed to regain downforce lost from the banning of the middle beam
wing. While no doubt effective for downforce, the mushroom shaped suspension fairings added a lot of drag.
Aerodynamics were further hindered by downforce found in the windtunnel not translating to the track, which
made the car 'peaky' and inconsistent to drive.
Part of the winter restructure was to bring Prodromou from Red Bull to re-organise aerodynamic design and
operations, but his arrival late in 2014 meant this could not be a truly clean-sheet design for the new signing.
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Many major structures would have been defined in production under Tim Goss and Matt Morris's leadership
prior to Prodromou starting.
CHANGES ON THE MP4-30
It's the nose that catches the eye. McLaren has opted for the longest possible nose and a fared tip to avoid
having a thumb-like extension.
This longer nose places its under-surface over the front wing to work in conjunction with the wing and its
heavily twisted mounting pylons. This combination will be used to create a powerful vortex along the Y250
axis (250mm from the car's centreline) to keep clean airflow over the centre of the car.
The front wing will be a key aerodynamic development area for McLaren this year. The new wing brought to
the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the last minute after Prodromou began work confirmed that a new direction was
required, and some of the concepts from that upgrade will start to appear in pre-season testing.
Aside from the new nose tips, the other technical change to the front of the car for 2015 is a sloped front to the
chassis.
This new geometry is evident on the McLaren, as the high, flat top to its chassis slopes steeply just above the
drivers' feet. McLaren has chosen to cover this area with a single large access panel, which smoothly merges
the chassis top into the nose's upper surface.
This area also houses the camera pods, mounted in the style of the 2014 Mercedes with right-angled mounts
to make best aerodynamic use of their mandatory positioning.
The MP4-30's front suspension is a conventional pushrod and double wishbone design, with the steering rack
mounted high and aligned with the upper wishbone.
The wishbones are mounted near-horizontal, as also seen on the Lotus, for a conventional geometry with
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better mechanical grip.

McLaren states that the wishbone features torsion bars, but increasingly teams are exploiting hydraulics,
albeit not interconnected as was possible with the now-banned FRIC systems, for the ideal suspension
control.
ALL EYES ON HONDA
That the Honda engine packaging is especially low and slim is proven by the cockpit area, where the side
padding is set at a regulatory height, but the area around it is shrunken and lowered to improve airflow to the
back of the car.
Above the cockpit the rollhoop inlet is split with ducts, with a further two smaller inlets formed below them.
One of the rollhoop ducts will feed the engine's airbox and another is likely to feed the gearbox oil cooler
behind the engine, meaning the two small inlets are most likely to feed local cooling air to the electronics
around the engine.
Despite the high-profile faults that hampered McLaren's first test with Honda in Abu Dhabi, there are rumours
that the engine has a strong power output when compared to the 2014 Mercedes.
The power unit design has followed Mercedes' lead with a split turbo, low heat rejection and tight exhaust
packaging, which - along with other Honda-specific details - has allowed McLaren to shrink the bodywork
tightly around the rear end.
McLaren has pushed much of the power unit's radiators, intercoolers and oil coolers to the front of the
sidepods, meaning the heat from these is vented through a tight coke bottle rear end and through relatively
small outlets formed low down over the rear suspension and with a smaller outlet above the exhaust.
When viewed from above, this minimal sidepod size and the open space created ahead of the diffuser are
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clear to see.
As McLaren required extra openings in the MP4-29's sidepods for the Abu Dhabi test, there must be question
marks over whether this launch specification would provide enough cooling for the motor.
FAREWELL TO THE MUSHROOMS?
Attached to the engine is McLaren's own carbon fibre gearbox. This supports the rear suspension, which was
a unique feature of the 2014 car. It is suggested that Prodromou was no fan of the mushroom suspension
concept, but the wishbones and trackrods are still arranged to place two elements angled back so they are
over the diffuser's trailing edge.
These do not have the dramatic fairings attached, on the launch car at least, but panels on the floor suggest
these and the small winglet that sits below them could still be fitted for testing.
The new car's suspension arrangement could have predated Prodromou's arrival and as it is a major
structural part of the gearbox and rear crash structure, it may have been too late to change it for a more
conventional layout.
The theory that the fairings are not part of the aerodynamic plan, despite the suspension arrangement hinting
at them, is also supported by the lower position of the sidepod cooling outlets. In their new position they would
severely choke the airflow passing over the shaped rear wishbones should that concept return, so it appears
unlikely that the 'mushrooms' could work with the new slimmer sidepod concept.
Not unusually for a launch car, the rear of the MP4-30 was missing some key elements - both the rear wing
support and the Y100 'monkey seat' winglet were absent in the photos but appeared on the 3D car on the
McLaren website.
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On the digital model it could be seen that the rear wing was supported by a dog-legged mounting pillar and
the monkey seat was mounted to the rear crash structure.
The launch car also featured a rear wing with a serrated leading edge to its flap.
This was a mid-season development in 2014 and it is believed to help the airflow reattach to the wing when
the DRS is closed.
It was only raced at certain tracks last year so may be an optional solution in the team's armoury for 2015
rather than a permanent fixture.
Overall the MP4-30 is a step in the right direction for McLaren in design terms, and a little more conventional
and back to basics - the new nose notwithstanding.
It's the unseen internal re-organisation that McLaren has undertaken that may be more influential for the
team's form this year.
Our the course of a season, management decisions on design directions and working practices are far more
critical to finding more speed than the shape of the nose.
Honda's learning curve will also be a key factor, and the fact it is now allowed a limited amount of in-season
development will be especially useful when ironing out development issues with a brand new and highly
complex power unit.
Don't expect the start of the season to reveal McLaren-Honda's true potential. Judge the team as its
development curve catches up with the leaders for it should be much more competitive by the season's end.
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2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost
F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost

The push for 1000bhp Formula 1 engines is not just an empty gimmick, argues JONATHAN NOBLE, but the
rulemakers need to tread carefully when making the change
The fans want it. The drivers want it. I want it. Even Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone wants it.
In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who does not support the plan to get F1's engines spitting
out more than 1000 horsepower from the start of 2017.
What's not to like about the prospect of F1 getting back some of the magic that existed in the mid-1980s?
Who could not be enthralled at the prospect of drivers turning up their turbo boost to the maximum for
qualifying and threading their rocketships around what must have felt like a very thin strip of asphalt?
Breaking that mythical 1000bhp barrier again would be good for F1 on so many levels.
It gives the sport an iconic power figure; it will make cars harder to drive and therefore more of a challenge for
drivers; and it will showcase just how impressive new hybrid technology is.
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Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alex Wurz, a man who has experience of 1000bhp from his Toyota
LMP1 car, thinks F1 drivers would fall over themselves for the chance to get back to the mega power the stars
had in the mid-1980s.
But he reckons the biggest benefit of all will be to F1 itself, because being able to sell the headline power
figure would be so easy.
"It is a cool direction that we speak about but this is far more than just about the driver," he explains. "There is
a big marketing effect too.
"When we announced with Toyota last year that that we were going to have 1000bhp, it was amazing to see
the response of the hardcore fans.
"Everyone was talking about it - even people who had no idea about motorsport. Everyone was just going
'wow'."
But there is danger in this water. Not from the fact that more powerful cars could lead to more spills on track.
Instead, it's from the threat that another change to the engine rules could pose to the long-term health of the
F1 grid if it is not implemented properly and costs spiral further out of control.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of the switch to V6 turbos last year was not the lack of noise, or the lack of power
but that there were no price limits laid down for what customers had to pay.
At a time when a majority of F1 teams have been struggling to find the budgets to compete, either through
falling sponsorship revenue or the increased costs of going racing, it was a double blow that teams faced a
dramatic hike in engine bills too.
Lotus boss Gerard Lopez said last year that his team's annual power unit bill had jumped from eight million to
40 million Euros.
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Of course, this increase has come about because of the huge development costs of the new V6s and hybrid
technology.
Manufacturers have sought to recoup these by selling their power units to the small teams.
No cap meant manufacturers dictated the figure that suited their business plan. Renault, for example, wanted
payback for its investment over a much shorter period than Mercedes - so the cost of its power units was
more.
With a potential new change to the engines coming for 2017 - and it is gathering momentum because
everyone wants it - F1 cannot allow this situation to get even worse. Limits must be put in place.
Perhaps it needs the FIA or Bernie Ecclestone to wade in, and only allow the change to happen if there are
guarantees that any extra costs for manufacturers are not passed on to the smaller teams.
After all, this is a process being put in motion to help make F1 more marketable; to make more fans excited and to make more of them want to go out on the Monday after a race and buy a Mercedes, a Renault, a
Ferrari or a Honda. Why should Sauber, Force India or Lotus be forced to underwrite such an affair?
Wurz agrees that F1 has to look at the bigger picture here. He believes that the attraction of a bit more power
under the right foot of drivers should not come at the cost of driving outfits out of business.
"We have to learn from the past," he says. "Currently engine manufacturers run their engines under a
business model whereby they finance the development of engines by putting the costs back to the customer
teams with quite high fees.
"So if the current turbo engines go through their intended business cycle, then in the end the customers, the
F1 teams, would have somehow subsidised marketing of the manufacturers. Why should they be a charity?
"There needs to be a quite clear maximum annual cost cap on the whole power unit per team. That way we
might make sure that small teams and F1 doesn't pay too heavy a price.
"We can't have more teams suffer, more people made redundant, because of expensive development being
priced into the power units."
My colleague Edd Straw raised some of his own concerns about the 1000bhp push this week, and I agree it is
not the miracle cure for all of F1's ills.
But I'd argue that a move to 1000bhp provides exactly the kind of marketing benefits that modern grand prix
racing needs.
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Love it or loathe it, but perception counts for a lot these days: and anything that makes F1 more attractive and
silences critics is positive. It has to be done properly though, with thorough analysis of its impact and benefits.
The rewards for F1 making the jump to 1000bhp in 2017 will be great - but it cannot come at any cost.
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AUTOSPORT+ feature: Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season
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Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season

As the countdown to the first F1 test nears its end, our SECRET MECHANIC reveals some untold stories from
behind the scenes of teams preparing for a new campaign
January and February are always a tough time for a Formula 1 mechanic. The Christmas holidays draw to a
close after just long enough to remind you what life used to be like in the real world, with friends, family and
not living from an open suitcase in the corner of a hotel room.
Much as we all love our jobs, the rare opportunity to synchronise time off with loved ones, and have free
choice over what to wear, means the dreaded back-to-school feeling often sets in as the first days of January
approach.
Those first few days back can often be a little tedious for the race team, depending on how close the factory is
to its intended production schedule. If the parts aren't made, we can't do much.
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The first public appearance for the car tends to be the press launch, shortly before the first test. The days of
the extravagant, glitzy launch parties seem to be over, but even so, if the world's media are coming to your
factory to see the new challenger, it better at least look like a finished product.
I've been in teams so far behind schedule as the car's press launch approaches that we've had to quickly 3D
print pretend parts to make the car look complete on its display stand.
One year we had to 'print out' a set of plastic upper front wishbones, because we'd had a problem with the
first iteration and version two was still days away from reality. A quick coat of black paint from a spray can out
the back of the factory and with them very carefully placed into position using a combination of tape and
tie-wraps nobody would ever know!
Of course had anyone so much as coughed a bit too loudly in the vicinity of the front end it probably would've
slumped to the floor like a dog wanting to play.
In another desperately chaotic January, we approached the much-hyped media launch knowing that our
engine partner was struggling to deliver a powerplant in time to assemble the car. A much lower-tech solution
got us out of that little mess as we got the fab-shop to urgently knock up a very rough steel frame that we
could bolt to the back of the chassis and in turn bolt the gearbox to and we built the car around that.
With bodywork on and a couple of bits of spray-painted steel tube taped in position to look like exhausts, no
one was any the wiser and the photographers snapped away and talked admiringly about attention to detail
like they always did.
Of course when you do eventually hit the track and your hopes or fears are given a glimmer of realism, there's
a lot of hard work in getting through the test programme with any new car.
Even once through a day's running, the car needs stripping down so everything can be inspected,
crack-checked or non-destructive-tested and then carefully re-assembled, fired up and set up for the next day,
when the entire process will be repeated.
Spare parts are generally scarce, even by the time the cars head off to Australia for the first race, so the last
thing anyone needs is the driver going off and putting it into the barriers in testing - which is exactly what
happened to me a few years ago, the day before we were due to pack our race car into the F1 freight plane
headed Down Under.
Our test team had taken my race car, one of only two in existence at that time, for a day of last-minute
straightline aero testing, before we packaged it up that night for the first race.
When the call came through mid-afternoon to say that somehow, in a straightline test, they'd managed to
smash the car into the wall and destroyed the front end, it didn't go down too well at all, I can tell you.
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When the car was rushed back and we began what was now looking like being a very late night in the factory,
it was discovered that the lower wishbone had in fact punctured through the base of the chassis and it was
effectively destroyed.
That was about the worst news a team can get at this time of year and whilst any salvageable parts were
stripped from the tub, all focus turned to the T-car bay across the factory floor. Those poor boys had to give
up their lovingly, but partially, built car to us to finish off overnight and had their flights to Australia delayed
while they stayed behind to do what they could with the next bare chassis that was now being accelerated
through the carbon shop.
That goes down as a bad day at the office and was the start of a bad year as I recall.
Despite the driver's persistent claims of a system malfunction, I still like to remind him of the occasion on a
semi-regular basis and how the experience traumatised my colleagues and me for some time.
HOW IS YOUR YEAR SHAPING UP?
There's a lot of work that goes into getting to that first test. By mid-way through January everyone in the
factory is working flat out, doing long hours and working weekends to meet the various targets.
The first month of the year brings with it an enormous sense of anticipation and hope throughout any F1 team.
Despite fans and media looking for any clue, no matter how tenuous, to the expected success of each of the
new cars, the reality is that even we have no idea.
We can measure the numbers in the windtunnel or through the CFD simulations; we can talk to the designers
or to management over coffee and gauge their optimism; we can even begin to get our hands on the real thing
and see for ourselves what remains, or has evolved, from the previous year.
These things can all give us some rough idea of our relative performance in certain areas compared with last
year's car, but never much more than that.
It's useful to know that we have indeed learned from all the hard work of last year, but what we really want to
know more than anything else, is how this new pile of bits that we're meticulously assembling into a racing car
is going to effectively shape our lives over the coming 11 months?
Are we going to be enjoying success, accumulating a giant win bonus and spending our days honing the finer
points of performance and polishing the car that the rest of the pitlane wants? Or, will we be the last ones at
the track each night, fighting fires, fixing broken parts, struggling to work on an impractically designed car, or
just downright slow compared with everyone else?
These things can govern the season ahead, steer the mood and morale in the garage and ultimately affect the
life of an F1 mechanic. And yet it's not until the car hits the track in February that we get the first preliminary
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picture of our chances.
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AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T
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Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

After a dismal 2014 for Ferrari, there's a lot riding on the SF15-T. CRAIG SCARBOROUGH analyses what the
team has done to regain ground so far
Ferrari enters the 2015 Formula 1 season with a new management structure and an all-new approach to its
car after last year's management turmoil and poor on-track performance.
Its SF15-T has been designed both to counter the technical problems of 2014, handle the new nose
regulations and take advantage of the chance to develop its power unit.
Despite such major changes, the car still bears strong resemblances to its predecessor, though this is belied
by the long slender nose.
It may take time to see the real progress under the skin and how the car has improved on track.
The long flat nose has similarities to that seen on the McLaren. There is no attempt to shrink the end back and
form a thumb tip.
Yet unlike McLaren, Ferrari's front-wing pylons are quite simple and straight, not twisted to create an
aerodynamic wake. Thus in many respects Ferrari has the simplest interpretation of the new nose regulations.
Even where the nose meets the front of the monocoque, rather than a vanity panel blending the nose into the
sloped front section of the tub, the tub is instead shaped to form the exterior bodywork. This somewhat ties
Ferrari into this nose design and means it cannot easily make major changes mid-season.
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More adventurous are the new front wing and endplates, a step on from the simplistic front wing of recent
years.
Ferrari's new wing extends the current trend of ever more elements near the outboard tip. No less than eight
aerofoil elements make up the outer section of wing, the greatest number seen to date!
This wing also follows the other trends of simpler cascade winglets and straighter vanes forming the endplate.
Despite these elements' apparent simplicity, their function of twisting the airflow around the front tyre remains
highly influential.
This outwash effect is also aided by what appears to be a return of the blown front axles. Last year Ferrari
trialled the hollow front axles designed to have air ducted through them at several races. Although the concept
was discarded by mid-season, at the time technical chief James Allison wouldn't confirm they were a dead
end and the flat-faced front axles on the SF15-T suggest this is still a valid development path.
For the media and fans, there remains a fascination over whether the front pullrod suspension will be kept on
the car, amid a myth developing that some drivers prefer the feel of a pushrod front end over a pullrod
version.
In terms of compliance and grip, the suspension-operation method employed makes little difference. Allison
confirms the main difference is the aero benefit for a pullrod set-up over the weight saving for a pushrod
set-up, as the 2015 Ferrari has retained the pullrod approach.
Elsewhere on the front suspension, Ferrari is following Mercedes' format of a front lower wishbone where the
two legs of the V-shaped arm are closer spaced and their profiles overlap to form a conjoined single
aerodynamic profile. Still having to clear the pullrod where it enters the monocoque, the Ferrari version of the
wishbone is less aggressive and still sports a large open area between the inner ends of the arm.
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In terms of suspension geometry, Ferrari has gone for the high-mounted inboard suspension pivots, with the
front upper leg attaching right on the top shoulder of the chassis.
Little has been said about the internal layout of the suspension, so it remains unclear whether it's purely a
sprung and damped set-up, or still employs complex passive hydraulics.
Aside from the regulatory slope to the front of the monocoque, externally the Ferrari appears similar to last
year. The triangular rollhoop inlet feeds the airbox for the turbo and at the moment no other inlets are added
to this area, just one small example under the chin of the rollhoop to cool electronics inside the engine bay.
However there are some split lines covered up on the launch car and some additional inlets could be added
for testing.
This approach is strange as Ferrari has strived to slim the sidepods, while also carrying a larger heat-rejection
requirement for the power unit as it is developed to create more power.
Moving the coolers away from the sidepod and having them fed by separate ducts is a good way to reduce
sidepod size. Ferrari's sidepods, while neat, are not as compact as perhaps the McLaren's.
Within the sidepod, Ferrari has altered the angle of the radiators and changed the specification of their cores
to improve cooling.
The 2014 Ferrari power unit was as disappointing as its chassis. Its layout was compromised to enable better
chassis integration, which was to the detriment of its power output.
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The petrol engine was some 40bhp down on power, the ERS-H was ineffective in races and the overall unit's
driveability was poor.
For 2015 Ferrari's development tokens have been spent in improving these three key areas, but it appears
that a wholesale repackaging of the engine hasn't taken place.
In 2014 Ferrari's rear-mounted turbo, which was split to have the MGU-H in between the two turbines of the
turbo, fed the engine via a water intercooler mounted inside the 'V' of the engine. This created issues for both
power production and the ERS-H.
It's likely the turbo has now been unsplit, moving the MGU-H in front of the turbo and having the compressor
and turbine coupled closely together, albeit retaining the V-mounted intercooler.
Aerodynamics at the rear of the car feature some interesting details. The rear wing remains mounted by a
single pillar, with the slim support reaching in front of the rear wing and mounting it with a swan neck shape.
This pillar also neatly supports the Y100 monkey-seat winglet via a slim, single, central support.
Partially covered up at the launch, the rear-wing endplate features some new louvres, not seen on an F1 rear
wing before.
It's been common for the bottom of the rear-wing endplate to feature vertical louvres, but the SF15-T also
sports some horizontal louvres ahead of these.
Judging by their shape, they appear to be trying to vent airflow out behind the rear wheels, reducing drag and
creating more low pressure behind the diffuser. The diffuser itself was covered off at the launch, but from the
overhead shots we can see it expands aggressively outwards as a means to increase its expansion effect
within the limited height allowed by the regulations.
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In creating the SF15-T Ferrari has been mindful to address the problems of the 2014 chassis and power unit.
Its car is a logical and neat evolution of what went before, but there doesn't appear to be a key change or
innovation that will create the step change in performance needed to chase Mercedes.
After the technical and management struggles of last year, Ferrari perhaps needs a year of consolidation to
get its operation back up towards its pedigree.
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AUTOSPORT+ feature: Has Vettel got his mojo back?
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Has Vettel got his mojo back?

His time-topping laps on day one at Jerez probably don't mean much, but it was clear Sebastian Vettel's
motivation was back as he began life at Ferrari, reckons BEN ANDERSON
A furtive glance at the timing screens after the first day of 2015 pre-season Formula 1 testing at Jerez would
suggest Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari are both back in the game.
After a difficult morning - compromised by a telemetry problem with the SF15-T - Vettel emerged from the
Scuderia's garage, into the afternoon sun, and promptly outpaced the erstwhile dominant Mercedes of 2014
world championship runner-up Nico Rosberg.
Of course it is foolish to read too much into laptimes so soon in the season - affected as they are by
incomparable fuel loads and variable testing programmes across the different teams.
But a driver will have a fair idea straightaway whether his new steed is something he can learn to love, or a
complete dog that he would rather discard. In this regard, Vettel must surely feel encouraged.
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Ferrari pointed to the fact Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time on day one of pre-season testing last year - and
we all know how shaky the foundations of that house of cards turned out to be - in an effort to play down
Vettel's performance, but as the ex-Red Bull driver himself said afterwards: "surely it's better to be closer to
the front rather than a long way behind".
Vettel wasn't giving much away when he spoke about his first experiences of Ferrari's latest design, but he
looked content, happy even. There were plenty of times during his swansong with Red Bull that you couldn't
say that...
"I haven't driven the 2014 Ferrari, but I think as a starting point it was a good day," he told reporters after his
first taste of contemporary Ferrari machinery in F1.
"Obviously there are a lot of things that are different: the steering wheel layout, the steering wheel itself, the
strategies. In the end all the buttons probably do the same or similar things, but they are all different so it does
take some time to get used to that.
"Of course the car feels different - it's a different philosophy behind it and it's made by different people. But
fortunately I could use the time in the winter to make sure I feel comfortable. I could really focus on the car.
"We didn't run a lot today, but what we did felt good as a starting point. More I cannot say and I don't want to
say, because it's way too early for that."
Many churlishly wrote Vettel off after a 2014 season in which he was comfortably defeated by Red Bull rising
star Daniel Ricciardo, and Christian Horner revealed ahead of this first test that Vettel had lost a bit of his love
for F1 amid massive regulation changes, a car he didn't enjoy driving (or like the sound of), and a team-mate
that could put him under pressure consistently.
But you don't win one Formula 1 world championship by accident - let alone four - and those who
underestimate the transformative power of a fresh challenge and a fresh environment on a world class driver
do so at their peril.
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The same goes for the team, which can grow stale built around the same foundations for too long. Ferrari has
swept a new broom right through its F1 squad over the winter. This change could be just what both Ferrari
and Vettel need right now.
"Last year was a difficult year and there was plenty of work - therefore, you might not have as much time to
laugh and joke around as usual," explains Vettel. "But starting off this year is a different story - a new
challenge, a new team, everything is new, and I feel very motivated.
"But I'm not sitting here and saying last year I was down and therefore wasn't performing; I was giving
everything I had and surely it wasn't enough, but that's why you keep coming back and trying again.
"Obviously it's a big change [coming to Ferrari], but so far it keeps getting better. I used the time during the
winter to go to Maranello a couple of times. From what I've seen it's really impressive. The potential is huge.
"Obviously there is a lot to do, but it's a big time of change - a lot of people leaving, a lot of people coming,
and a lot of people getting promoted into different places, so it will take some time, but I think definitely
motivation is high.
"I'm quite happy where I am and definitely the feeling is different. I don't regret any time I had at Red Bull. I
had a very, very good relationship with the people there, but I think - to sum it up - Ferrari is something
special."
The hope for both parties is that their burgeoning relationship will turn into something special too - in time. It
will surely take time, though, because of the relentlessness of the current Mercedes operation.
Vettel beat Rosberg to the fastest time on day one of pre-season testing, but Mercedes by far racked up the
largest number of laps - something Vettel clearly felt was more significant to the emerging storyline of F1
2015.
"I think in terms of laps there's still a lot of improvement we can do," he says. "The reference is still Mercedes
- they did 150-200 laps today, so they've proven they start off with a very reliable car.
"Hopefully not as quick as last year - I think that's what everyone is hoping for! But you have to give fair credit
to them - they're doing a very good job. It will be a surprise if they're not as strong as they were last year."
Early testing has not been Mercedes' forte in recent years, which is perhaps ominous given how strong it was
on day one at Jerez in 2015.
Two years ago Rosberg managed 11 laps on the opening day before a wiring loom failure forced him out; and
a day later Lewis Hamilton ended up in the barriers with brake failure. Last year, Mercedes endured another
fraught opener as Hamilton crashed again after suffering wing failure.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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There was to be no such trouble this time around: as Rosberg managed a whopping 157 laps, having also
made sure his team was first out of the garage again bang on 9am.
The opposition certainly could not fail to have been slightly disheartened by what Mercedes showed - even
though no one really expected anything different from the team that was so dominant in 2014.
Adrian Newey, whose Red Bull team had a much better testing opener than the disaster of 12 months ago,
was well aware of how tough it is going to be to close that gap to Mercedes.
"It doesn't surprise me," he said about the Mercedes form. "It was always likely to be the case. The engine is
well sorted, they do all the research to get the chassis reliable, so it's not a total surprise.
"Our car, so far we haven't had any mechanical problems on the chassis side, but we have had a couple of
problems that have stopped us doing very much running unfortunately today - one with the battery and
another with an engine-related problem.
"It's the nature of testing, and I think Mercedes clearly are the favourites. They have a very good team, and a
great power unit."
Red Bull knows its title hopes rest on a good jump in performance from engine partner Renault - although
Newey accepts that it will be impossible to expect it to close the 10 per cent power deficit to Mercedes in just
one season.
The reliability issues that his team and fellow Renault outfit Toro Rosso encountered on day one were a sign
of the scale of the challenge the French car manufacturer is still facing.
Daniel Ricciardo certainly seemed a bit cautious when asked about when Renault had made a decent leap
with its 2015 power unit.
"It's still too early to say - but I think it is [a step forward]. We'll see in Melbourne when everyone's even, but
for now, the first day, I think there's some positive signs," he says.
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We must remember of course that this is just pre-season testing - and it's only day one of 12 days of running
before the start of the campaign.
Last year Red Bull and Renault went from crisis on day one to (brief) podium finishers in Australia - so
anything is possible.
But if any of Mercedes' rivals hoped 2015 would deliver us some chinks in the German car manufacturer's
armour, they were pretty much dashed by what the W06 did on Sunday.
Mercedes chief Paddy Lowe was in quite a confident mood as he spoke to the media after the session - and
gave quite a telling answer to a question about what he felt most happy and unhappy about so far.
"Our main objective for today was to achieve mileage," he said. "I think on that basis we can come away very,
very happy indeed. We did 695km [432 miles] during the day, including 17 live pitstops. I think that was more
than we actually had targeted, so I'm very happy with that indeed.
"In terms of things we were unhappy with...um...no, we are not unhappy today."
And neither was Vettel. Sometimes - and perhaps today was a good example - being happy is more important
than being fastest.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Mercedes W06
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Technical analysis: Mercedes W06

Much of the detail on the 2015 Mercedes W06 is familiar from last year's all-conquering car, but CRAIG
SCARBOROUGH is sure that will serve Formula 1's champion team well
Even at the end of its dominant 2014 Formula 1 season, the Mercedes W05 still had a huge margin over its
opposition in race pace - so it's not surprising that the W06 officially revealed at Jerez on Sunday is very much
an evolution of its predecessor.
So subtle are the changes that, aside from the mandatory new nose, the car is hard to differentiate from its
forebear. But modifications have been made both to the chassis and the powertrain.
Last year's W05 featured several unique details on its chassis and aero design, from the car's U-shaped nose
and clever conjoined front lower wishbones, to its tiny sidepods and huge 'monkey seat' winglet. The hybrid
powertrain was equally unique, with its split turbo, compact exhausts and cartridge gearbox.
By mid-season the car was not only the class of the field in powertrain terms, but also on pure chassis
performance, even with FRIC suspension being banned. Poor reliability was the only fly in the ointment, and
brake, gearbox and ERS failures were costly.
With such a clear advantage, Mercedes has not needed to reinvent the wheel for its 2015 challenger, merely
work on the details.
Some of the W06's features are simply reworked versions of the strong points of the old design.
As Paddy Lowe explained: "Every development you make has some risk - you can't move forward without
some risk of potentially not getting it right. So we were very conscious of the point that we had a good car. We
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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didn't want to throw any babies out with the bathwater, as we took steps to make developments."
The regulation changes mean differences in the nose and chassis front, as both the nose tip and sloped
chassis of 2014 could not meet the new rules.
Thus a very slim and short nose has been developed, without the fully exposed fingertip of the Williams.
Instead a slight point is the only clue to how the nose adheres to the revised regulations.
Mercedes' old nose used the front wing mounting pylons as part of the minimum cross section. With this not
required, the front wing mounts return to a slender shape.
Atop the nose are the TV camera pods, retaining the pioneering idea from last year of mounting them high on
right angled mounts to keep their obstruction clear of the rest of the car. Below the nose, the front wing
remains in the late 2014 specification.
Now fully optimised for running without FRIC, the front suspension continues the other themes of last year,
with the lower wishbone remaining as two legs partly blended in one profile.
For 2015 this conjoined shape has been taken to a further extreme. The narrow spread legs of the wishbone
form a single profile but for a few inches near their inner mounting with the tub.
Mercedes does this in order to exploit the shape of the wishbone in controlling the front wing's upwash so it
does not upset the rest of the car, in a similar manner to how Ferrari uses its front pullrod.
At the other end of the front suspension, the open inner wheel face is closed off with new brake ducts, their
inner surface devoid of any inlet scoops.
Although this concept is not unique in F1, as other teams collect their brakes' cooling air from small inlets
between the tyre and the front brake duct, this is a departure for Mercedes. This will greatly improve the
airflow around the car.
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Unlike several of its key rivals, Mercedes has not yet employed a duct hollow front axle to use as an
aerodynamic aid. Instead the axle is topped with a pointed end to speed up the engagement of the wheel
guns at pitstops
The other key structural change is the new rollhoop. Last year this was deeply undercut, with the roll structure
supported by struts under the inlet. Now the area is less undercut and has been smoothed over.
Within this structure the inlet is now split, with the side inlets of the W05 removed. The bottom half of the inlet
feeds the engine's airbox and the upper half feeds back towards the gearbox oil cooler.
Cooling improvements were a key area for development. The downsizing of both the rollhoop inlets and the
sidepods show that work has gone into the power unit, lubricants and the coolers themselves.
Last year's car cooled the air from the turbocharger with a water to air intercooler, which sat in the back of the
fuel tank area and its associated water radiator sat within the sidepod. This already made the sidepods
smaller than they would be with a larger air to air intercooler, so this is likely to be one of the key joint
developments between the chassis team in Brackley and the powertrain division in Brixworth.
Also new on the slimmed sidepods are the vanes mounted to the front shoulders. These are refined from
2014 and the horizontal vane gains its own vertical vortex generating vane.
Under the skin the Mercedes AMG power unit has been improved, by "evolution" according Andy Cowell, who
added that it is a totally new engine, the 32 development tokens notwithstanding, given the breadth of what
one token can encompass and due to the fact other alterations were allowed on the grounds of reliability.
Major structural and layout changes can be achieved within what might be thought of as restrictive
regulations.
For the Brixworth powertrain team, the focus has been on cooling and power, although the unreliability of the
ERS last year will also have been attended to.
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Aerodynamics at the rear appear to be more of the late 2014 season specification with the diffuser, rear wing
and Y100 monkey seat winglet all being of familiar design. This is probably the area, along with the front wing,
that will receive the late upgrades before the Australian Grand Prix.
Last year Mercedes was able to bring and race technical updates that performed as it predicted, so its testing
schedule is likely to be centred on improving the powertrain's reliability, with the key developments yet to
come.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11
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Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

The new Red Bull RB11 made its debut in a striking camouflage disguise livery, but that didn't stop CRAIG
SCARBOROUGH from figuring out its secrets and spotting some big changes for 2015
Look beneath the squiggles of the Red Bull-Renault RB11's monochrome dazzle testing livery, and it's clear
that the four-time champion team's new design is aggressive, especially with its nose treatment, sidepods and
front brake ducts.
While Red Bull was the only team to deny Mercedes wins in 2014, outgoing technical director Adrian Newey
estimated its peak power deficit was around 10 per cent, worth nearly six tenths of a second per lap.
Windtunnel gains of the same magnitude are hard to come by, and Mercedes also gained ground in what is
usually Red Bull's trump card area of aerodynamics last year. A big step is required for 2015.
Since 2009 Red Bull has set the bar for aerodynamic and chassis performance, and its four subsequent
championships were all won with cars exploiting the Renault engine's exhaust gases to create downforce.
With this advantage negated by 2014's new power unit and aero regulations, Red Bull was left with a huge
loss in downforce, a lack of power, and unreliability.
It could be argued that the chassis was still the class of the 2014 field, although the team's usually svelte
aerodynamics were harmed by a large cooler installation required to keep the Renault powerful and reliable.
This compromised qualifying performance and top speed; and so, without a clear track from the front row, Red
Bull was trapped in an unvirtuous circle of having to run a low-drag set-up for overtaking speed in the race,
which in turn hindered qualifying pace because parc ferme rules meant it was committed to that route from
Saturday afternoon.
Renault's reliability issues often exacerbated these problems. Sebastian Vettel's car was forced to use more
than the allocated number of power unit components, suffering grid-position drops for doing so.
The aim this year is to claw back the lost six to seven tenths per lap to Mercedes by increasing power,
improving aerodynamic efficiency and ensuring reliability.
It's typical Red Bull style to push the car's development to the last weeks, if not days, before the first tests and
races. This year was an extreme example of that methodology: the monocoque was late being completed,
arriving at the race bays last Monday. The car passed the crash tests on Wednesday, and with the trip from
Milton Keynes to Jerez there was little time to complete the car's build and be ready for the start of testing on
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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Sunday.
Of course the team managed this, but in the rush the car's complex paint scheme could not be prepared, so
Red Bull ran with a 'testing livery'.
Imaginatively this was not simply a vinyl wrap of the Infiniti Red Bull colours, but a monochrome dazzle
scheme, designed to frustrate the eyes studying the detail of the car's shape.
This concept works to an extent, but we have been able to decipher details from under the white blocks and
squiggles to reveal some interesting technology.
As with many teams at this stage, the front wing remains a 2014-specification part, there being no rule
changes affecting this area. Above this, the nose takes a much more complex approach to the new rules than
some other teams.
Red Bull's Rob Marshall admitted other concepts were prepared and went through R&D to ensure at least one
solution could successfully pass the crash test. The solution that appeared on the car is quite a short nose,
with the two new mandatory cross-sectional areas created by a thumb-like extension from the nose tip.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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What appears to be quite a bulky nose tip is flanked by the front wing mounting pillars and these are
extremely twisted in shape. The pylons and the flow structures they set up are partly guided back along the
car by this tip as it extends below the nose's under-surface.
In keeping with previous generations of Newey Red Bulls, the nose features an S-duct, which is a system that
catches air from under the nose and guides it back out of the top of the nose. This cleans up the airflows
passing over and under the nose and raised chassis.
Front axles are surprisingly key to F1 cars' aerodynamics, and Red Bull and other teams are experimenting
with the blown front axle concept.
All F1 cars' axles are hollow for strength and low weight. Typically they are closed off near the wheelnut with a
point end fitting to aid the wheelgun engaging with the nut at pitstops. However the RB11, along with the new
Ferrari and McLaren, keeps the axle open, and purposely ducts air through it for aerodynamic effect.
The brake duct scoops inside the wheel are intentionally larger - some of the air they catch is passed directly
through the hollow axle, with no function for internal cooling, but purely for external aerodynamics.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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As the powerful airflow exits the axle through the wheelnut, it works with the front wing endplate to create an
outwash effect. This sends the tyre's dirty wake away from the rear of the car, which in turn improves the car's
aerodynamic efficiency.
Conceptually this is the same sort of effect as the static wheel fairings that were a common sight on front
wheels during 2008-09.
With the dazzle camouflage removed, the car's lines are apparent - and rather than the livery hiding detail
complexity, the shaping turns out to be unusually smooth.
Unusually for a Newey car, the sidepods feature a square-edged cross section, rather than S-shaped curves.
The sidepods are the car's key feature. Last year's Renault power unit appeared to require a lot of cooling,
particularly the charge air compressed by the turbocharger. If too hot, the engine suffered knocking and lost
both power and reliability. So the 2014 car sported two huge intercoolers in each sidepod, as well as the other
coolers for the power unit's oil and water systems.
This oversized cooling package cost aerodynamic efficiency, owing to a combination of the drag of the air
passing through the radiators themselves and by the blockage created by large sidepods costing downforce
from the rear end.
When asked if the RB11's new smaller sidepods were possible because Renault's cooling demands were
reduced, Newey surprised by saying the power unit had the same cooling requirements.
Marshall later confirmed the sidepods' size is as a result of better internal aerodynamic packaging, rather than
Renault or radiator technology changes.
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The dramatic loss in sidepod volume does not come via re-located coolers, since unlike most of its
competitors the RB11 does not draw cooling air from the rollhoop area, merely from the small sidepod inlets.
There is a small inlet below the rollhoop, but this is typically for electronics cooling and not for the heat
exchangers.
Again Red Bull produces its own gearbox, with the same internal cluster used in the Toro Rosso, but
employing carbon-fibre casing as opposed to STR's aluminium one.
In shape the gear case retains Newey's preference for quite a tall, narrow design, this being good for stiffness
and rear structure mounting, in contrast to the trend for low-line gearboxes elsewhere.
Geometrically the suspension is a refinement of the RB10's, sporting pushrods at the front and pullrods at the
rear. Marshall wouldn't be drawn on whether the internals used conventional springing in the absence of
FRIC, or more complex hydraulic springs, adding that he found advantages in both trading the complexity and
reliability of metal springs for pitch and roll stiffness for the ease of packaging and tailoring hydraulic solutions.
The RB11's first day of running did include two technical issues, with a smoky engine and battery problem,
neither of which were caused by cooling issues, suggesting the maladies affecting last year's maiden test
have not been recreated in this year's design process.
How well the team will fare this year is dependent on the difference in power between Mercedes and Renault.
The gap is too large to be closed from aero alone, but the RB11 has taken the right steps to be ready to take
advantage of everything Renault can deliver.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?
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Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

McLaren insists it never expected an easy start with Honda, and that it's getting through its problems. But
after 12 laps in two days, the team needs a breakthrough, says JONATHAN NOBLE
At what point does a drama become a crisis?

It's a question already swirling around McLaren and Honda after the second day of running at Jerez, when
hopes of its stuttering test programme moving up a gear failed to materialise.
Fresh from the sensor problems that limited its opening day of running with Fernando Alonso to just six laps
on Sunday, Jenson Button could only manage the same distance on day two.
His best lap of 1m54.655s was a distant 33 seconds off the pace. With an average speed of 90mph, it was
probably an effort that Honda's British Touring Car Championship Civic Tourer could target...
McLaren had been bracing itself for a challenging time this week, but perhaps it didn't expect things to be
quite this difficult.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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While it has kept repeating its mantra that what it needs above all else this week is "patience", 12 laps in two
days was much less than had been hoped.
Even on Sunday night, racing director Eric Boullier had talked of a target of 60 laps for the second day of
running.
On current form, McLaren's inauspicious start to testing has gone even worse than Red Bull's and Renault's
first test of the new turbo V6 engine 12 months ago, which rightly felt like a crisis. Rewind to 2014, and
Sebastian Vettel managed eight laps in one day with a best effort of 1m38.3s - still better than McLaren right
now.
But in the Jerez paddock on Monday night, the Woking team said there was finally evidence of light at the end
of the tunnel.
The sensor problems that had dogged day one were gone and an unspecified glitch that was exposed on day
two had finally been cured to allow one trouble-free lap right at the end of the day.
In theory that should at least allow the team to finally push on with its testing programme properly on Tuesday.
That was certainly Button's belief.
"We always knew the first test was going to be difficult, it always is," he said. "It's not as straightforward as it
used to be with sticking an engine straight into the car and trying to pound round. It's a very complex system
now.
"We've had a few things that we've been able to solve now. And tomorrow we'll see where we stand."
Let's not forget though that more mileage was exactly what McLaren had predicted 24 hours ago...
Yet beyond the immediate struggles of the week, there remains a conviction that this is not the precursor to a
year of frustration.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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Instead the mood inside the team is more about this week being an inevitable growing pain of having
produced a "size zero" car - so named because of the skin-tight packaging at the rear.
Boullier said: "We have been quite extreme with packaging our car, and every technical solution that we've
brought to the car is something we believe will help us to close the gap to Mercedes quickly.
"Being brave and ambitious means we're not reliable, and we're struggling with electrical issues, which are
quite difficult to fix. They are fixable... but I want to be cautious on this because every time we try to fix one
[problem], we open up something else further."
The scope of this week's delays, the complications in finding out where trouble is starting, are all a legacy of
this aggressive approach to the Honda packaging - and fixing relatively simple things is not easy because of
the way everything is packed so well inside the car.
But that is the price that the team feels it must pay if it is to close the gap to Mercedes, which not only has the
pace but also has a year's more knowledge of the new turbo hybrids.
Reflecting on Mercedes' strong start to Jerez, McLaren chief Ron Dennis said: "Are we surprised that
Mercedes can do 100+ laps? No, not at all because that is where we would expect them to be coming out of a
season where they were dominant and were effectively developing a given package.
"If you are behind in any sport - catching requires you to accelerate faster than they are running. Otherwise
you will not catch them up. Have we taken some calculated technical risks? Yes. These relate to technologies
that we are the first to deploy and we will work hard to get performance advantages.
"And it probably will not even be Australia before we know how we are doing. I expect two or three races
before we really get the lie of the land. And we will try through the remaining tests, especially the next two, to
take away the consequences of this densely packaged concept."
We must not forget either that this is testing and testing is about discovering problems before the racing
starts. Some things are just not exposed until a hot car is being pushed to the limit with all the vibrations and
G-forces that entails in the real world.
Boullier added: "You can use simulations and dynos all you want but you need to be on track to put the whole
package together.
"We have the 2015 car here, and we have to go through some pain and some glitches to allow us to run, and
obviously we don't want to take any risks either. If you blow up the engine, you could face something
damaging the car, and you'll lose more time. We have to take things step-by-step.
"We just want to win, so we have to be better than the best, which last year was Mercedes. It was the aim of
McLaren-Honda to be as brave as possible so we can close the gap as soon as possible.
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"[Honda] came up with some good technical solutions that maybe bring some reliability issues, but they know
where to go; they have the people, the resources, and the technology. So they can match [Mercedes]."
The talk remains positive
progress on track.
but it is pretty obvious that such optimism is pointless unless there is genuine
History has a strange way of repeating itself, especially in sport, and McLaren has been burned in the past by
going aggressive with a car design and it not quite working.
One McLaren team member famously said at the launch of one such bold car: "Our long-term strategy is to
re-establish the team as a consistent winner, through increasing overall competitiveness and reliability. To
achieve this demands significant, rather than incremental, steps."
Does that sound familiar? Indeed, it's a quote that would fit quite well today for what is going on with the
MP4-30. But it actually came ahead of the launch of McLaren's ultimately doomed MP4-18 back in 2003. That
car never raced.
There is nothing to suggest that McLaren-Honda is heading for the kind of new-car crisis it faced back then,
but equally there is no guarantee yet that what has happened this week is just a bit of early drama that will be
quickly forgotten when the season starts.
The answers will come within the next 48 hours.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can back-to-front work for Nissan?
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Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

Nissan is turning motorsport wisdom on its head by trying to win Le Mans with a front-engined,
front-wheel-drive LMP1. GARY WATKINS examines the bold thinking behind the GT-R LM
We were always expecting something different from Nissan. It has, after all, been building a reputation as
something of an off-beat, even zany, manufacturer and it does employ arguably the most imaginative mind in
motorsport in Ben Bowlby. But how different!
Nissan's GT-R LM NISMO turns conventional motorsport thinking on its head. Or rather back to front. The
rumours had quietly gained momentum that the car was indeed front-engined and front-wheel-drive, but
seeing - and reading - was truly believing.
That a manufacturer has decided to do something completely different in a bid to meet the challenge of the
LMP1 rulebook is refreshing in the extreme in an era when racing cars are becoming increasingly
homogonised.
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Nissan's rivals in the 2015 World Endurance Championship - Audi, Toyota and Porsche each chose
different powertrain concepts with only front-axle kinetic-energy recovery in common, but their respective
contenders were hardly miles apart in terms of chassis design.
The diversity of machinery in sportscar racing is what attracts me to this branch of our sport. I remember
reading about wild Le Mans 24 Hours racers of the past the likes of the side-engined Ardex Group 6 car, the
Rover-BRM gas turbine racer and, going back even further, Briggs Cunningham's Le Monstre and was lucky
enough to be able to report on the tail-end of the rotary-engined Mazda Group C programme. I saw a car run
around the Circuit de la Sarthe on liquid petroleum gas and even wrote about an admittedly stillborn project to
race a car at Le Mans made of wood or at least vegetable-fibre composites.
I also got to see a front-engined prototype win races against Audi in the American Le Mans Series in the 21st
century. If you'd asked me when I visited my first international sportscar race as a 14-year old in 1981 if I
would one day see a prototype with the engine up front triumph in a major event, I would would have giggled
in your face. But it happened.
The original open-top Panoz prototype variously called the LMP1 Roadster-S and the LMP01 Evo beat
the mighty Audi R8 five times in 2000-'02. There were some unusual circumstances along the way, but I
would say all but one of them was on merit. And Jan Magnussen's and David Brabham's triumph in
Washington on a decent city track even if it was laid out in a car park in the last of those years stands as
one of the best sportscar races on which I've ever had the good fortune to report.
But there's front-engined and then there's front-engined with front-wheel drive. Wow, that's an entirely
different proposition.
If you'd asked me prior to the launch of the GT-R LM in the small hours of Monday morning and a quick chat
with Nissan's head of global motorsport, Darren Cox, in the afternoon, I wouldn't have had a clue how it
works.
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I sort of do now, and here goes trying to explain it.

The LMP1 rulebook is as restrictive as most single-seater formulae in terms of the rear venturis and diffuser.
But there is more scope for using the air from the front of the car to one's advantage.
So package the powertrain and its cooling up front, and you free up the sidepods for airflow, which on the
Nissan exits out the back above the diffuser.
This has allowed Bowlby and his design team to move the centre of pressure forward and reduce drag, the
twin holy grails for the designers of LMP prototypes.
That doesn't explain why Nissan has opted for front-wheel drive. Cox says that the major reason was the
weight penalty of a giant propshaft and a differential slung out the back in a formula where achieving the
weight limit now up 10kg from last year's 870 with a powerful hybrid system is already the big challenge.
It's all starting to make a bit of sense to my untrained mind, but then if it seems obvious to me why hasn't it
been obvious to any number of manufacturers and constructors down the years?
Either it's because Nissan has pushed or rather pulled itself up a blind technical alley or because other
manufacturers didn't have Bowlby working for them and/or have the same spirit of innovation that exists within
Nissan. The motor racing industry remains a conservative one, even in a form of racing where new ideas are
encouraged and even nurtured.
My enthusiasm for the new Nissan hasn't convinced me that it is going to work out on the race track. On the
other hand, I'm not convinced it isn't going to work. I really don't know, and why would I?
But there are so many questions to be answered about this complex beast that breaks the mould. Can it get to
the point where it is competitive and can it get there soon enough? Does Nissan have the time and resources
to make it work?
And there are more specific questions, such as what's going to happen to the tyres with all that power
550bhp from the petrol engine and some or maybe all of the retrieved power from the car's hybrid system or
systems being put through the front wheels?
With upwards of 1000bhp, at least for a few seconds on the exit of corners, the GT-R LM will surely be the
most powerful front-wheel-drive racing car in history. And we are talking about a form of racing when multiple
stints on the tyres are demanded.
Nissan, it should be pointed out, is asking us to be patient.
The hyperbole of former company vice-president Andy Palmer on the launch of the programme last May has
disappeared, to be replaced with a more measured tone.
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Cox is now talking about "being respectful of the experience and quality of our competition". And Nissan, he
says, needs "to be credible and get to the finish of Le Mans" in its first year back in the top flight of
international sportscar racing.
Cynics might suggest that the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is already succeeding and will continue doing each
time it visits a new country. It is gaining column inches around the world for its unusual appearance and
off-the-wall technology.
That poses an obvious question. Has a brand that got a massive marketing return for its buck with the
DeltaWing and ZEOD RC experimental machines at the 24 Hours made its technical decisions based on
empirical data and windtunnel figures or has it chosen to be different to grab the headlines?
Nissan insists it's the former. "We are not being different for different's sake," suggests Cox, without
prompting. "We were in the fortunate position to have an open mindset and the support of the company to go
and do something different."
I'm happy to take him at his word and banish thoughts that the radical concept of the P1 racer is the ultimate
get-out-of-jail card, to be played with the words, "yes, but we dared to be different".
That's partly because I really want the Nissan to succeed. As I've already said, it is variety that makes
sportscar racing so interesting to me, and I have always loved the weird and wonderful, probably more than
the next man.
It would also be good for the WEC if a strange-looking thing is running up front and in contention for podiums
and even victories. It could help raise the profile of a series that, although on the up, needs a helping hand in
the promotional stakes.
The other reason why I won't doubt Cox is that there does appear to be logic to the concept of this wacky
racer.
My problem is that more than 50 years of conventional motor racing wisdom says that Bowlby and Nissan are
wrong.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
45
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: The other F1 engine in trouble
46
The other F1 engine in trouble

While Honda's woes have grabbed all of the headlines at Jerez so far, JONATHAN NOBLE reveals that one
of its rivals has been able to keep its troubles out of the spotlight - until now
When Fernando Alonso guided the new McLaren-Honda out of the garage shortly after the track opened at
Jerez on Tuesday morning, it was not just the excited Spanish fans who were delighted that their man was in
action.
The relief on the faces of everyone inside the McLaren garage was clear to see. After two days of deep
frustrations, as engineers from the team and engine partner Honda chased glitch after glitch on the new turbo
engine, finally its testing programme could start properly.
As Alonso returned to the garage after the installation lap and reported zero problems with car and engine, the
confidence grew. Longer and longer runs followed, lifting spirits further.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
47
There was even a brief reason to smile when Alonso, out on intermediate tyres at the same time as Nico
Rosberg's Mercedes, set a purple fastest time overall in sector one - offering a glimpse of some real potential
in the MP4-30.
Any joy did of course turn to frustration a few hours later when running was curtailed by a parts failure that
caused a water-pump leak. But still this was an important step for the new McLaren-Honda era.
Honda's progress this week has been the dominant story of the Jerez test. Interest in the fortunes of one of
F1's most iconic team-engine partnerships is immense. That its early efforts stalled so much, leaving it at the
bottom of the timesheets on each of the three days so far, has only served to ramp up the attention.
But just because Honda has faced the brunt of the media spotlight does not mean the opposition have
escaped their own problems.
Day three at Jerez threw up the first public evidence that Renault's pre-season testing programme has
perhaps not had as good a start as it had originally hoped for.
Twelve months on from its famously disastrous debut test for the new V6 turbo, Renault was having a better
time, but it still was not trouble free.
With the excitement surrounding Red Bull's camouflage livery on day one, and Daniil Kvyat's wing-less laps
on Monday, having died down, a proper day of running for its main team on Tuesday confirmed growing
paddock whispers that Renault is still playing catch up in 2015.
Daniel Ricciardo not only lost track time through the need for an engine change, he and fellow
Renault-powered Carlos Sainz were adrift of the Mercedes and Ferrari on the timesheets.
Their longest stints also seemed quite short compared with what rivals were doing.
It all fitted in with a pattern that team members have hinted at: the two Renault teams being limited in how
long they could eke out their long runs amid concerns about a reliability Achilles Heel.
Renault's managing director Cyril Abiteboul confessed as much on Tuesday night, as he revealed the French
car manufacturer had been braced for a troubled time this week after uncovering a problem in dyno testing
last week.
"To cut a long story short, we have a couple of reliability issues and the next few days will tell us if they are big
issues or small issues," he told AUTOSPORT.
"They are known issues, so we were coming here with some risk associated to the engine that we knew.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
48
"And so far, some of that risk has materialised. There is one particular issue on something that is even
cheaper than your [voice recorder] there! It is crazy that such a cheap part is causing so many issues for a car
so expensive like a Renault/Red Bull package."
"It is something that is not critical to performance but can be critical to reliability, so we know what we have to
do."
The impact of this part - linked to a metallic shaft that is related to the ERS water pump was that long runs
had to be limited in length, just so regular observations could be made to ensure things did not become critical
and lead to an engine failure.
"Let's put it this way: the servicing of the engine has to be pretty frequent," said Abiteboul. "We know what the
issue is, we know what we have to do.
"It is a metallic shaft that we have to change, and we have to optimise and review the design.
"It is something that was working very well last year, but we decided to change and improve it a bit further with
the overall packaging of the engine to also support Red Bull in their attempt also to have very good
packaging. That is why we did not really care for that part.
"Usually you have very specific simulations, designs tests, and validation protocol. But honestly we did not do
it for this part because it is such a stupid part..."
The fault with the 'stupid part' was discovered too late for a fix to be in place this week. But a replacement is
coming for the next test in Barcelona, which it is hoped will give Red Bull and Toro Rosso a decent step
forward.
Ricciardo certainly believed that what is planned for Barcelona cannot come soon enough.
"I think we're where we thought we would be," explained the Australian. "We know there are still some steps
for the Barcelona tests. We know there's stuff still to come.
"We didn't expect to have everything on the track this week. Come the next two tests, we want to be racking
up more laps, and I think we will.
"We came into this test knowing it was a pretty big evolution from last year, and we knew it would be tight.
Obviously we'd love to do 150 laps here, but we knew it would be compromised one way or another.
"I think if Dany [Kvyat] can rack up 50 laps tomorrow, that's not a bad test for us...."
Even with another day to run at Jerez, thoughts are already shifting towards what needs to be done back at
base over the next few weeks.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can Haas succeed where others failed?
50
Can Haas succeed where others failed?

The last few attempts to start new Formula 1 teams haven't ended well. Can Gene Haas buck that trend?
DIETER RENCKEN examines his chances and gets the latest on the project
It's become a cliche - but no less true for being oft-repeated - to say that the only way to make a small fortune
out of Formula 1 is to start off with a big one.
While F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone has spectacularly gone the other way, F1 history is littered with examples of
businessmen who, having made it in life, proceeded to not only lose their shirts to sport, but their kids' clothes
as well.
There is, though, absolutely no reason why an extremely wealthy man with a deep passion for motorsport and
in-depth understanding of its intricacies should not be able to make a successful entry into Formula 1, and all
the more so if an appropriate commercial platform is linked to a long-term programme. That man is Gene
Haas.
This encapsulates the difference between the Haas F1 Team that will join F1 in 2016 and the quartet of
wannabes who arrived (or not, in the case of USF1) in 2010 on the back of former FIA president Max Mosley's
ill-fated budget concept. USF1 was still-born; the other three rapidly exited the sport via the back door - HRT
at the end of 2012, while Marussia and Caterham filed for administration after last year's Russian Grand Prix
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
51
and have slim hopes of survival.

With just nine teams expected (at time of writing - though Caterham and Marussia show sporadic signs of life)
to take to Melbourne's grid, the future health of the sport is under intense scrutiny. Indeed, many in the
paddock wish fervently that the all-US team backed by machine tool magnate Gene Haas - he of
Stewart-Haas NASCAR and Windshear windtunnel fame - had been able to appear in 2015 as originally
mooted.
However, the FIA entry process necessarily dragged on so long - to prevent repeats of the USF1/HRT fiascos
- that any expectation Haas could be up and running in less than a year (the entry was only confirmed in April
2014) would have been utterly unreasonable.
Haas simply does not work that way.
Sceptics point out that Marussia et al had but six months to prepare - and the realistic retort is: "yes, and look
where it got them..."
Thus, by requesting a 12-month extension Haas clearly learned valuable lessons before committing pen to
paper or bucks to budget, namely not to rush things. That said, with exactly 12 months remaining before the
cars are unveiled ahead of the 2016 season, what progress has been made in the interim, particularly given
that talks with Ecclestone first began during the inaugural USGP in November 2012?
"Over the Thanksgiving holiday we looked at some facilities in the UK, and then we ended up purchasing the
Banbury building from Marussia; we completed that in the first week of January," says Guenther Steiner, 49,
the ex-Ford World Rally Championship and Jaguar F1 technical director appointed by Haas to spearhead the
project.
The building, which previously served as Ascari's race/road car factory before being acquired by Wirth
Research as the base for its Virgin Racing CFD activities before being sold to Marussia, will serve as the
European base for Haas F1 Team. It is fully kitted out, having race bays and stores/administration areas, and
is thus better suited to racing operations than the carpet warehouse outside Oxford that previously topped
Haas's list.
"The Banbury building, it's got a 40,000 square feet footprint, but there's probably another 40,000 square feet
inside, so it's huge. And the F1 shop is something like 75,000," explains Haas, adding that, although empty, it
has compressors, air conditioning and an engineering floor, but no "mechanical or manufacturing stuff".
"But," he continues in his Californian drawl, "it all needs to be refurbished. We need to destroy a lot of it,
y'know, demolish it and make it more logical. They had rooms for simulators and all kinds of stuff. None of it
was ever taken down. It was all 'add it on', 'add it on' - it was just a mess. It was really bad, really inefficiently
laid out..."
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
52
The facility is, though, conveniently close to East Midlands Airport, where F1 official logistics partner DHL has
one of its two F1 hubs (the other is Milan). The plan is for components to converge in Banbury from suppliers
situated mainly in the UK, Italy and the US.
Assembly, rebuilds and race preparation will take place in Banbury, from where the trucks will also depart for
European events. The plan is to have a core crew of around 50 - mainly technicians and stores staff - working
out of Banbury. A handful of staff are presently based there, mainly in caretaker/refurbishment capacities,
awaiting the arrival of the first cars and kit.
When will that be?
"Dallara is being used as subcontractor, to help design the cars," explains Haas, who makes no secret of the
fact that his company is entering F1 to double its CNC machine sales, ultimately increasing turnover to $2bn
(3bn) per annum.
"It's not like they're responsible for the car - that's our responsibility - Dallara is providing their engineers, but
we've got a chief designer there."
He mentions the name Rob Taylor - and no surprise there: The ex-McLaren/Red Bull Racing designer worked
with Steiner at Jaguar, and is clearly highly regarded. The Briton currently has a staff of around 50 engineers
working in Italy, mainly with Dallara in Parma - although, since the team will be using complete Ferrari
back-ends plus sundry other pieces sourced from the Scuderia, much shuttling along Italy's A1 is expected.
Ferrari gearbox entails Ferrari rear suspension mounting, suggesting that such components will be
Maranello-made, which Steiner confirms, adding that the front suspension, too, will be out-sourced.
Thus the majority of parts will only be delivered shortly before the team's maiden season - due to having to
wait for Ferrari to complete its own design/production process.
"If you make a car now," says Steiner, "in three months, next year, the car is old. So you keep on developing.
And all the parts we get from Ferrari, we will not have them before next year."
The plan is for the car to have its first run at 2016's first pre-season test.
However, bodywork and aero components will be of the team's own design, as will radiators and other
coolers. According to Steiner any out-sourced common parts will be sourced in conjunction with Ferrari.
"There's no point in double-sourcing. As Gene said, maybe one day we will make parts for both teams in our
own facility," to which Haas adds, "I think we're just looking at the economics..."
Part of Dallara's remit is to help Haas develop its European supplier chain, although Haas stresses that the
liaison is on a sub-contractor basis, not as full-blown technical partner as was the case in the Italian
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
53
constructor's relationship with HRT.

"Many teams get their parts made outside, and we'll be using Dallara. As a matter of fact, I don't know if we'll
ever build our own tubs. We might have to just subcontract that out, because it takes a lot of specialised
equipment to make those things.
"The complexity of how you join these tubs," and he presses both hands together to illustrate the point, "I tell
you there's a lot of work that goes into there, that you just can't do yourself."
So much for the European operation, what about the US side of things, then?
"We've just basically finished the F1 side of the building; it's ready to go," explains Haas of the facility situated
alongside the Stewart-Haas workshop in Kannapolis, deep in NASCAR country.
"We're gonna start working in conjunction with Dallara and Ferrari during the building of bits and pieces for the
windtunnel..."
Any thoughts that Haas F1 could be a low-rent operation in the vein of USF1 are banished by Steiner's next
comment.
"CFD is big. We'll have a big CFD group, because in the United States you find a lot of good engineers, who
know CFD, not specific F1, but CFD."
During this author's visit to the then-nascent USF1 team in 2009, one of the eye-opening aspects of the trip
was the motorsport infrastructure available for hire in NASCAR country, with everything from CFD facilities to
seven-poster rigs being littered about Charlotte and environs. Clearly Haas intends plugging into these.
That said, one of the hardware lots acquired from Marussia's administrators is a CFD computer - allegedly an
ex-Wirth Research machine used for the CFD boffins' car designs - which remains in situ, but will be linked to
the US.
"The supercomputer will be based in the UK, but we'll have pipelines between Kannapolis and Italy, too," says
Haas.
Although the business plan calls for Haas F1 to sub-contract initially, the long-term objective is to ramp up
in-house production, with Haas estimating that "in three years from now we'll be producing, say, 75 per cent
in-house".
However, Haas makes no secret of the fact that the team wishes to exploit F1's 'listed parts' situation.
Basically these are parts such as monocoques, steering components, crash structures and other major items
that define a 'constructor', and for which teams need to own the intellectual property.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
54
There are moves afoot to reduce this list in line with the sport's objective (myopic in the opinion of this author)
of gradually switching to customer cars. As and when this happens Haas aims to be ready to increase Ferrari
commonality and parts sharing.
"We have to, yeah [adhere to the listed parts programme]," he admits, "but that list changes every year - we're
hoping that the list gets shorter and shorter..."
Finally, what about car and team colours? How much red will the cars display, particularly given the Ferrari
links?
After all, the team's signage and Kannapolis factory display rather generous scarlet doses. Will the cars be
bedecked in a US theme given that red is common to both Ferrari and the US?
"We've looked at several [concepts]," says Haas, taking the lead on this one.
"We had one that was basically based on the natural colours of a flame. We thought that was kind of
interesting: it starts off white, then goes to yellow, which then goes to red, but it would be just natural colours
that you would see.
"Then maybe the other ideas that we are talking about was basically a flat black car with a lot of yellow
(Maranello's regional colour) highlights on it. The other, a lot of red, something like that...
"[Our logo], it's like it's red, white and a bit of silver here and there. We would like to have something with a
corporate image, but on the other hand you want a car that you can see. I don't want it like a Sauber or a
Mercedes, because after a while all these silver or grey cars become kind of the same..."
The one thing that Haas F1 cannot be accused of is "becoming kind of the same" as others. After all, if the
only outstanding aspect the team is wrestling with exactly 12 months ahead of launch is battledress, then
clearly it has a very bright future.
It is such preparation that took Gene Haas from machine shop artisan to billionaire machine magnate in the
first place - and it shows in the team's entire approach.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
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2015 AUTOSPORT.com
AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is the Ferrari recovery real?
56
Is the Ferrari recovery real?

Ferrari led three of the four Jerez days and its customer team Sauber topped the other. A typical testing
smokescreen or a sign of real progress? BEN ANDERSON investigates
Ferrari power led the way on all four days of the first pre-season Formula 1 test of 2015 at Jerez, but is this
yet another false dawn for F1's oldest team, or a sign of genuine progress after a disastrous 2014 campaign?
Whether it was Red Bull defector Sebastian Vettel, the former force of nature that is Kimi Raikkonen, or GP2
graduate Felipe Nasr's Sauber, Ferrari engines consistently set the pace in Spain. In fact, Ferrari and its
customer team locked out the top two spots on the timesheet on each day of the Jerez test.
But with McLaren-Honda struggling to get out of the garage (and way off the pace when it did), Renault's
"stupid part" hobbling the camouflaged Red Bull RB11, and Mercedes more interested in making the W06 run
race distances than set quick laptimes, it's hard to escape the feeling that Ferrari is on top almost by default.
The fact that the Sauber C34 was fastest on day three (in Nasr's hands) and in the top two on all four days of
the test only enhances this unease. After all, Sauber's 2014 car was so bad the team failed to score a point
for the first time since it entered F1 in 1993...
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
57
Last year was also the Scuderia's worst since 1993 (the last time prior to 2014 that it failed to win a grand prix
in a given season), but for all the talk of how overnight miracles don't happen in F1, there was a genuine
feeling in the paddock that Ferrari has definitely made significant improvements following its most recent
annus horribilis.
Nico Rosberg is a perceptive kind of guy, and he was certainly impressed with what he saw - declaring Ferrari
an "eye-opener" with its performance at Jerez. This is interesting when you consider that teams usually play
down how much attention they pay to their rivals during testing.
Most of the blame for the Scuderia's poor 2014 season was laid at the door of its engine department, so that
has undoubtedly been the main focus for Ferrari's engineering team over the winter.
Last year the engine was weak in terms of its energy recovery, and also delivered its power in a fairly
uncompromising and brutal way. It was fairly common to see Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso drifting out of
slow corners on opposite lock as they tried to tame the beast.
The SF15-T already looks much more malleable in this regard. The team confirmed traction and throttle
response has improved, and it was certainly delighted to complete four days of testing without any major
technical problems, having made a more radical attempt at designing its F1 car. Telemetry and radio faults,
plus a couple of sensor failures, were the only things that delayed Ferrari's programme.
The drivers were certainly happy with their lot. Raikkonen, who was utterly trounced by McLaren-bound
Alonso last year and complained regularly of difficulties with the front-end feeling of the F14-T, claimed its
successor was a "completely different story".
"Obviously the laptime can be anything - it doesn't mean much. We have quite a good amount of laps and
things are working we're not really having any issues, that's the main thing. And the feeling is pretty fine," he
explained after his final run in the new car.
"I think the whole package is better overall: the engine, the car itself. I think that everything has improved.
Obviously we still have a lot of work to do to try to improve things but this is a good starting point."
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
58
After setting the 1m20.984s laptime (on medium tyres) that opened Rosberg's eyes on day two, Vettel
returned to the Ferrari garage to a loud round of applause from his team.
The four-time world champion played down the significance of his chart-topping performance, but he clearly
felt the SF15-T gave him cause for optimism that was so lacking during his final season at Red Bull.
"We have to remember where we are coming from," he says. "There is a lot of change going on and new
things a lot of stuff that we learned. In that regard it was good to run. It was important to keep running, learn
the car and understand all of the numbers, and make sure we're good for the next test.
"I'll be heading back to do some simulator running to try to maximise all areas and try to keep improving the
car, and have a bit of time to understand, to analyse. It's still very early to tell [where we are].
"Some people didn't show much, others are running a slightly different approach, more longer runs
extremely long runs, to be honest.
"Even without any running here [taken into account] Mercedes are still favourites. In that regard it's difficult,
but speaking of our team we are quite happy. I think we definitely have a good platform to start working from."
So far, so cautious. Which brings us to those apparent 'glory runs' that brought Sauber up into unfamiliar
territory on the timing screens.
Nasr topped day three overall in the C34, but he ran the soft Pirelli tyre in doing so (Ferrari and Mercedes
used the medium), and he reckoned the Mercedes runners were hiding their true pace. This is probably true.
Team-mate Marcus Ericsson lapped half a second slower on the final day on the same compound of tyre,
which again flattered the C34 relative to the Mercedes.
Sauber has made no bones about laying the blame for much of its struggle last season at Ferrari's door, but
sources inside the team say they are genuinely surprised by how much better this year's engine is compared
to 2014's lame duck.
Looking beyond the headline times, the reasons for Sauber's optimism are two-fold: first, the team insists its
best laptimes were not set on particularly low fuel loads (though probably lower than the likes of Mercedes
and the works Ferrari team), but more importantly Sauber is delighted by the fact it was faster on the same
compound of tyre than fellow midfielders Toro Rosso and Lotus.
Nasr lapped almost 1.2s quicker than Pastor Maldonado and 1.6s faster than Carlos Sainz on day three
(when all three used soft tyres to set their best times), while Ericsson was half a second quicker than the
soft-tyred Toro Rosso when Verstappen took over on the final day. Grosjean was some way further back, but
it was his first day in the car and his running was cut short by an engine problem in the early afternoon.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
59
"It's a better car this year," says Ericsson, who spent two days in the old C33 in Abu Dhabi last November.
"It's more stable in general, and under braking, and through the corners it gives the driver more confidence.
So that's positive.
"Also I think Ferrari have made a good step on the power unit compared to the one I drove in Abu Dhabi.
Throttle pick-up and everything feels like it should do, and that's really positive. I think Ferrari still have some
more stuff to bring along as well. We have quite a bit of margin [too], to be honest, so that's also positive.
"All in all we are very happy with these four days and we have something to build on for the rest of the
pre-season, but still we have to wait and see what the others have got."
Of course he is right this was only the first test and the cars and engines will change drastically as
developments are bolted on and tokens spent before Melbourne. As the competitive picture becomes clearer,
Ferrari and Sauber may well slip back.
Certainly the message inside the Scuderia is that it is only focused on itself right now and cannot make fair
comparisons to the rest. Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg completed more laps than anyone else each day they
were in the car, and Ferrari realistically expects Mercedes' overall chassis and engine package to be quicker
than its own.
That said, updates are scheduled for the next test at Barcelona, and after a largely trouble-free first test of the
SF15-T sources inside the team said there is "less concern about the place" than there was in 2014.
We won't really know for sure until March, of course, but the earliest signs suggest the prancing horse may
well regain some of its lost gallop in 2015.
2015 AUTOSPORT.com
60
2015 AUTOSPORT.com

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Features published on AUTOSPORT+ Jan 29, 2015 - Feb 4, 2015

Features published on AUTOSPORT+ Jan 29, 2015 - Feb 4, 2015

Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30 - by Craig Scarborough

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

better mechanical grip.

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: McLaren MP4-30

AUTOSPORT+ feature: F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost

F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost

AUTOSPORT+ feature: F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost

AUTOSPORT+ feature: F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost

AUTOSPORT+ feature: F1 needs 1000bhp - but not at any cost

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season

Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Secret mechanic: All is not as it seems in F1 pre-season

picture of our chances.

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Ferrari SF15-T

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Has Vettel got his mojo back?

Has Vettel got his mojo back?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Has Vettel got his mojo back?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Has Vettel got his mojo back?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Has Vettel got his mojo back?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Has Vettel got his mojo back?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Mercedes W06

Technical analysis: Mercedes W06

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Mercedes W06

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Mercedes W06

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Mercedes W06

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Technical analysis: Red Bull RB11

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

At what point does a drama become a crisis?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

I sort of do now, and here goes trying to explain it.

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: Can back-to-front work for Nissan?

AUTOSPORT+ feature: The other F1 engine in trouble

The other F1 engine in trouble

AUTOSPORT+ feature: The other F1 engine in trouble

AUTOSPORT+ feature: The other F1 engine in trouble