Hamilton Back In The Mix

Lewis Hamilton confirmed his title-credentials with a dominant victory in the heat of Sepang, making up for the disappointment of a non-finish last time out in Australia. As the feared rain-showers failed to materialise, the Englishman was able to control the race with consummate ease from pole position – the 33^rd of his career to equal Jim Clarke’s British record – and managed his Pirelli tyres expertly in the sweltering 40 degree heat to head home team-mate Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes 1-2.  

Hamilton celebrates victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix
to confirm his title credentials. (Credit: Getty Images)

The win, achieved with a comfortable of 17 second margin, was precisely the reply the 2008 champion needed after the unfulfilled promise of Melbourne, where Hamilton again qualified on pole but suffered engine problems from the start, allowing Rosberg to romp away to victory. Nevertheless, the German retains his hold on the championship lead, despite coming under sporadic pressure from Sebastien Vettel’s Red Bull, the defending champion getting his title defence off to a belated start with a podium finish, his first points of the year.

Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for Red Bull’s number two however, as Daniel Ricciardo hit trouble for the second race in a row. Following his disqualification from second place in Australia for exceeding fuel flow rates, Ricciardo was again running strongly in fourth when his third and final pitstop went awry, the left-front wheel not fully attached by the time he pulled away and costing him a lap as he was pushed slowly back to his pit-box. In the knowledge that he would have to serve a penalty for the unsafe release, he then suffered a broken front wing which cut down a tyre and forced another visit to the pits, a scant reward for another encouraging drive. His luck can only improve in Bahrain.

Elsewhere, Nico Hulkenberg again starred for Force India, running an alternative two-stop strategy in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to snatch fourth from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, his very-worn tyres leaving him with little chance in the closing laps to defend the position. Nevertheless, he still finished comfortably ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and the scrapping Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas as the top Mercedes customer. The Finn had scythed his way from 18^th on the grid to run 10^th in the opening laps, but found himself stuck in a train behind a limping Kevin Magnussen, who had made contact with Kimi Raikkonen and and broken a front-wing endplate, costing him significant front-end downforce.

Hulkenberg excelled once again. (Credit: Sahara Force India)

After allowing team-mate Button through, Magnussen proceeded to hold up Massa and Bottas until his first pitstop, which allowed Button to build a gap he could manage until the end. Despite orders telling him to allow Bottas, on fresher rubber, to have a go at Button in the closing laps, Massa resolutely held firm, unwilling to repeat the 2010 German Grand Prix where he was ordered aside by Ferrari to help Alonso win the championship.

While Magnussen was able to recover and still score points in ninth ahead of fellow rookie Daniil Kyvat, Raikkonen would sustain a puncture in the collision, dropping him out of contention and on a hiding to nothing. The Ferrari returnee would eventually finish a disgruntled 12^th, right on the gearbox of Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, which finished a race for the first time this season. 

Rosberg, You Little Ripper!

It was a German who won nine races in a row to close out the 2013 season and it was again a German who won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. But on this occasion, Sebastien Vettel was nowhere to be seen; this was the Nico Rosberg show.

So far, 2014 has certainly lived up to its billing as an exciting new era of Formula One, with the most radical rule changes seen in recent history producing a radical shakeup of the established order as the teams struggle to master the highly complex new technology. Gone is the familiar Vettel dominance; his retirement on lap five ending an eleven-race podium streak stretching back to the British Grand Prix in June, and in its place an aura of unpredictability, even before degrading Pirelli tyres and DRS are entered into the mix.

Nico Rosberg starts the season in style with a
dominant performance Down Under. (Credit: Getty Images)

Fulfilling the promise shown in winter testing, Rosberg qualified a strong third in damp conditions and got off to a flying start to leap ahead of front-row starters Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo before the first corner, which saw F1-returnee Kamui Kobayashi clatter into the hapless Felipe Massa back in the pack. But while Hamilton never really got going and retired as early as lap three, having already lost several places due to a faulty power unit, team-mate Rosberg went from strength to strength and was never troubled out in front, crossing the line for his fourth career win a comfortable 24 seconds ahead of first-time podium finisher Ricciardo, making his first start for Red Bull in place of the departed Mark Webber.  

Sadly for the perma-smiling Australian and his legions of home fans, following a post-race stewards inquiry the Red Bull was disqualified for fuel-flow irregularities, promoting McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen to a remarkable second place, becoming the first Dane ever to finish on an F1 podium, ahead of team-mate Jenson Button, now Formula One's elder statesman at the grand old age of 34, who capped McLaren’s return to form with third, having started tenth.

One of the stars of the race was Williams’ Valterri Bottas, the young Finn yo-yoing up and down the leader-board after starting 15^th due to a pre-race penalty, stealthily moving into the points before suffering a puncture (which brought the race’s only safety car) and having to do it all again. He would eventually fall short of catching Fernando Alonso’s lonely Ferrari for fourth place, but it was a worthy drive nonetheless which begged the question where he could have ended up without the mishaps.  

Nico Hulkenberg customarily transcended the limits of his machinery to bring the Force India home in sixth, having run as high as fourth in the early stages, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who seemingly lacked confidence on his return to Ferrari, and Toro Rosso twins Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kyvat, the Russian teenager going some way to justifying his surprise inclusion in the team for this year ahead of the more experienced Portuguese prospect Antonio Felix da Costa.  Despite underperforming relative to Hulkenberg, Ricciardo's disqualification gave Serio Perez something to cheer, the Mexican rounding out the points in his first race since being dropped by McLaren.

Elsewhere, both Lotuses of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean unsurprisingly failed to make the finish after a very limited testing programme, while Britain's Max Chilton continued his run of consecutive finishes with 13th for Marussia, as both Caterhams failed to make the flag. 

[This article is reproduced from Concrete Online.]

Tincknell: MRF Challenge On The Rise

A new phenomenon is taking over the junior single-seater scene.  Along with the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand and the Florida Winter Series from Ferrari, the Indian-based MRF Formula 2000 has played host to an international crop of young drivers looking to develop their skills outside the regular racing season, with the lure of extra track time on Formula 1 circuits – and even a slot on the support bill at the Indian Grand Prix – an attractive alternative to kicking their heels over the winter. 

Harry Tincknell arrived in MRF on the back of a
strong season in FIA Formula 3. (Credit: Carlin)

Following a promising season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, yielding a win on home turf at Silverstone and an eventual fifth in the standings, 22 year-old Harry Tincknell was one of many among the European single-seater elite to travel east over the off-season to sample the ever-expanding MRF Challenge, which also counted Cypriot hopeful Tio Ellinas, World Series race-winner Arthur Pic and former F1 racer Narian Karthikeyan among a competitive field.  Despite bad luck and reliability problems which contrived to prevent a title challenge, Tincknell was nonetheless pleased with his pre-season preparations ahead of a switch of discipline to sportscar racing, joining Jota Sport in the European Le Mans Series.

“Certainly it was all about keeping sharp. There’s not really any negatives to it I don’t think, because win or lose, it’s all good experience,” said Tincknell. “It’s a good championship for the young drivers trying to get extra mileage to come and learn. They get a few more experienced drivers who’ve got some results in good single-seater championships like Formula 3 and World Series to come in as well, so there’s a benchmark for those guys going into Formula Renault to look up to.

“In terms of data it’s all open as well, so it’s a good opportunity for the young guys to learn and for the more experienced guys like myself to get some more time in the car over the winter, when generally in Europe everyone’s got their feet up doing stuff in the gym.”

Tincknell negotiates Turn 3 on the Buddh International
Circuit during the Indian GP weekend. (Credit: MRF)

After three years in Formula 3, Tincknell is well-placed to make the comparison between the categories, so how was the Formula 2000 Dallara to drive?

“It’s powered by a Renault engine, which is at a similar level of power to Formula Renault, so it feels quite similar to a Formula 3 car, just with a little bit less power,” says Tincknell. 

“It’s all about keeping the minimum speed up through the corners rather than pointing and squirting like you would do in a more powerful car.

“It’s a good base car to learn from and they’re relatively bombproof.  I had a couple of issues during the championship – I think I scored more points in the last round in Chennai than I did in the whole season! – but they’re working all the time to improve the car and Jos [Claes] from Dallara is the technical delegate for most of the rounds, so you’ve got one of the top guys there looking to improve the car.”

Tincknell will switch to sportscars in 2014
after three years of F3. (Credit: Carlin)

Double-R Racing team principle Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt has also lent his name and expertise to a series that already enjoys a massive following in India, and is only set to expand in coming years as more follow the trail blazed by Tincknell and co.

“Narain [Karthikeyan] came in for the last round, so there were loads of fans in Chennai. They get a lot of coverage out there; we were back page news in the national press in the Times of India and the Hindu Times, so in terms of exposure in India it’s massive,” he said. “The fans love it; they were all chanting away which is something I haven’t experienced too much before. That was cool.

“I just had a great time out there and I think they’ve got some plans this year to have a few more F1 support races, so hopefully the championship will get bigger and bigger.”

Bentley On The Comeback Trail

When Bentley goes racing, you can rest assured that things are done properly. Given that Bentley’s last project – their first in 73 years – was the 2003 Le Mans-winning Speed 8, even before it hit the track, great things were thus expected of the new GT3 Continental, prepared by rallying supremos M-Sport. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Bentley’s return to sportscar racing in the Gulf 12 Hours of Abu Dhabi was a marked success, as Steven Kane, Andy Meyrick and Guy Smith brought the car home in fourth place on its race debut.

“It was fantastic; almost a perfect weekend for us, with a new car, a new team, a new programme,” Smith said. “You go to those races and you can never underestimate the challenge of a 12 hour race, especially with a new car, but the GT3 ran pretty much faultlessly all weekend long. 

Finishing fourth on debut after 12 Hours was a perfect
start for the GT3 Continental. (Credit: Bentley Motors)

“The purpose was to go there and get experience and to finish the race, which we did, so to bring the car home in fourth place was excellent and definitely beyond what we thought was going to happen. There are certainly some things that we can improve on, but these are things we expect, that’s why we do these long tests. We’ve come away from there with a hit-list to improve on in future and luckily it was all relatively small things, which is very encouraging.”

Smith, a Bentley man through and through who was part of the 2003 winning line-up with ‘Mr Le Mans’ Tom Kristensen and the now-retired Dindo Capello, believes that making the finish first time out bodes well for the upcoming season in the Blancpain Endurance Series, which will see the V8-powered Bentley pitched up against the great and good of sportscar racing from Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, McLaren and more.

“These 12 hour and 24 hour races are as hard as they come, where Blancpain is a lot more of a sprint format, so we can be more aggressive,” he said. “We’ve been impressed so far with the performance of the car and I think there’s more to come in terms of fine-tuning. You never stop learning and developing.

“The most important thing with the GT3 being a customer programme is that as well as having a fast car and a reliable car, we want a customer-friendly car, that’s easy for the teams to run and for the gentleman drivers to get in and drive safely and quickly, which is something we put a lot of effort into during the testing. We’ve still got the BOP to come, which is a little bit of an unknown, but we’re confident that we have a car that can be competitive against any other car out there.”

M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson is more familiar with the mud and dust of the World Rally Championship, but was impressed by what he saw in Abu Dhabi. Winner of 1994 British Rally Championship before switching to team-ownership with the Ford WRC programme from 1997, Wilson knows a fair bit about preparing cars and is excited for the challenge ahead.

Wilson's M-Sport team also runs Robert Kubica
in the World Rally Championship. (Credit: M-Sport)

“Abu Dhabi was my first race in effect; I must admit I’ve never been a racing man, but after being there, I’m really looking forward to the whole project now I have a better understanding of what’s required,” said Wilson.

“There’s no question we want to win. That’s what Bentley want and that’s what we’ve got to try and achieve,” he added. “We’ve seen that the car was competitive in Abu Dhabi, and now it’s just a question of getting the right drivers and making sure that all the attention to detail is there to win. No question, that’s the target, we want to be winning.”

One suspects those winning ways aren’t far off. 

[This article originally appeared in e-Racing Magazine as Arabian Knights. For more on endurance racing and Formula E, click here.]