Formula One plays the blame game after Vettel smash

LONDON - Sebastian Vettel's temperament is under the spotlight again after the Ferrari driver's hopes of seizing back the Formula One lead disappeared in a few seconds of mayhem at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.

The German, his fast-starting team mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull's Max Verstappen crashed out as they raced to the first corner.

Stewards summoned all three drivers after the race but decided none was wholly or predominantly to blame.

The view was not shared by others who either pointed the finger at Verstappen, in his last race as a teenager, or accused Vettel of needless aggression at a key point in the championship.

Long before Hamilton had stretched his lead to 28 points with six races remaining, Ferrari's official Twitter feed stated that "VER (Verstappen) took #Kimi7 out and then he went to #Seb5."

"What we tweeted was a factual description of events. No need to speculate on this," it added later as reaction on social media flared.

Television footage and in-car cameras showed Raikkonen making a storming getaway from fourth on the grid and around Verstappen on the outside.

Vettel, on pole, was slower off the line and steered left to squeeze Verstappen, who kept his car straight and was pincered by the Ferraris.

The Dutch teenager and Raikkonen tangled wheels, with the Finn's car slewing sideways and into Vettel's before again careering into the Red Bull and also collecting Fernando Alonso's McLaren.

"I think initially Sebastian saw I was a little bit better off the line than him so he wanted to close me. So he drove to the left," said Verstappen.

"Maybe he didn't see Kimi on the left but what do you expect, I cannot just move out of the way... I think it was just not very clever."

Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, was disappointed to see Vettel "pretty much blow his and Ferrari's championships into smithereens."

"Nice one Seb. You're better than that. Need to watch that short fuse," said the Briton in a blog post.

Vettel made a public apology in July after he banged into Hamilton's Mercedes in a moment of 'road rage' at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while both were following the safety car.

Former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull racer David Coulthard told Britain's Channel 4 viewers that the crash was "instigated by Seb."

Retired Australian driver turned pundit Mark Webber, who had a few clashes with Vettel as Red Bull team mates, defended Verstappen.

"If you were pushed for someone to blame then it looks like Seb because he's the one doing the biggest movement," he said in the Times newspaper.

"But in the end he wasn't the one who crashed into Max. It was Kimi who crashed into Max. Max was innocent in this."

Retired triple world champion Niki Lauda, now the Mercedes team's non-executive chairman, said it was an incident Vettel could have avoided.

"If he (Vettel) would not have moved (across) he could have won the race, there's no question about it. They were unlucky really, in a big way," said the Austrian. — Reuters

McLaren start new Honda era on back row of F1 grid

McLaren's worst fears were realized on Saturday when they suffered a humiliating start to the Formula One season with a woeful Australian Grand Prix qualifying session that left both cars at the back of the grid.

The sport's second most successful team in terms of race wins, McLaren endured one of their worst qualifying performances in decades and at the start of a new partnership with Honda.

Former champion Jenson Button, a three-time winner in Australia, will start 17th with team mate Kevin Magnussen alongside.

The Dane, a stand-in for Spaniard Fernando Alonso, qualified last in a field of 18 after Manor Marussia failed to get their cars running.

"It's going to be a really difficult race for us," Button said. "We haven't done a race distance yet. We want to do the best we can.

"We're not going to be fighting for points," he added.

McLaren always knew 2015 would be difficult as they begin rebuilding for the future but few expected them to be the slowest team on the grid.

The return of Honda, who powered the team in some of their greatest years with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, may take McLaren back to the summit but that still looks a long way off.

Even with the dominant Mercedes engine last year, McLaren still failed to win a race.

"It was never going to be super-competitive here, it wasn't even going to be competitive but there's a good feeling about the car, even though we are so far off," Button said.

"The basic car is there and we've just got to build on it now...obviously there's a lot more to come."

The team suffered an unexpected setback in testing when Alonso, the double world champion signed from Ferrari, was told to miss Australia after a heavy crash.

He was replaced by Magnussen, who raced for McLaren last season and finished second in Australia after local hero Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified for Red Bull.

But the Dane was not expecting any repeat this time, with McLaren struggling in testing to get laps under their belt due to persistent troubles with the new V6 turbo hybrid power unit.

"I don't think we expected anything else. It's tough," Magnussen said. "It's very new. The main priority is to finish the race and try and learn from the race.

"It's a learning process right now, we've just got to be patient." - Reuters

Rosberg promises 'maximum attack' in 2015

Nico Rosberg vowed 'maximum attack' in a new title battle with Formula One world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday as Mercedes unveiled their 2015 car before pre-season testing started in Jerez.

"I know the feeling of winning and of fighting for a championship after last year, but I also know the feeling of not winning in the end and I don't want to repeat that," said the German.

"It's an extra boost and it gives me so much motivation for the year ahead."

Rosberg, son of Finland's 1982 champion Keke, won five races last year to Hamilton's 11 and finished runner-up in a dominant season for his team and one that saw the drivers' relationship tested to the limit.

Mercedes are again expected to set the pace, even if the cars have not changed dramatically since last year's debut of the new V6 turbo hybrid power units and rivals hope to have closed the gap.

"It will be massively tough to repeat what we achieved in 2014 but we all want to keep that momentum going and to dominate the sport for many years to come," said Rosberg.

"We know the opposition will be right there, so we have to keep pushing flat out to have any chance of doing that. Nothing is for certain but, whatever happens, I know it will be another great battle with Lewis.

"This year is the rematch for me and I'm massively motivated for it."

Hamilton, now a double world champion after taking his first title with McLaren in 2008, agreed that there could be no complacency.

The Briton said he was also fired up for the season which starts in Australia on March 15.

"You hear about people who achieve a lot but then lose their focus and you wonder; at what point does it fade off? I'm grateful that the fire is still there in me," he said.

"I think subconsciously the taste of success spurs me on. I like that feeling and I want to feel it again and again," added the 30-year-old.

"I'm glad me and Nico had the battle we did last year. I love winning races but it just feels so much better when you have to fight for it. I just want to get back out there, race hard, be the best I can be and hopefully win some more." - Reuters

Rosberg reluctant to fuel the flames

MONTREAL - Nico Rosberg steered clear of fighting talk on Thursday (Friday, PHL time) but recognized relations with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton had become trickier since the Formula One championship turned into a duel between the two.

The red hot rivalry between the title contenders has been the talk of Formula One for weeks and both drivers did their best to avoid stirring things up ahead of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.

"Of course it is more difficult," Rosberg told reporters as he faced the same wall of cameras and tape recorders that had greeted Hamilton earlier in the day at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. "We are fighting every single race weekend.

"There is more at stake, there is the opportunity of winning the championship this year and that is the ultimate goal in racing so there is a lot at stake," added the championship leader.

With six wins from six races so far, Mercedes are in a dominant position. Hamilton had taken four successive victories before Rosberg won and seized back the overall lead in Monaco two weeks ago.

That last race saw the rivalry turned up a notch with Hamilton suggesting the German had deliberately run wide in the final seconds of qualifying, bringing out yellow warning flags and forcing the 2008 world champion to slow when he might have taken pole.

The battles on the track and war of words off it have rekindled memories of the fierce rivalry between McLaren team mates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost that captivated Formula One during the 1988-89 campaigns.

"In a way I am honored to hear those comparisons because that was an extremely high level, a big battle at the time," said Rosberg. "But I leave it at that. I don't compare myself to that era I just want to do my own thing and go my own way."

Before arriving in Canada, Hamilton and Rosberg met to discuss the situation.

Rosberg refused to reveal details of what was said, only that he and his British teammate - who have been challenging each other on the track since their go-karting days - had settled their differences.

"I didn't see it as too unusual. We have always had periods where it was more difficult and we have that base respect that goes back 15 years and that's the important thing," said Rosberg. "As a result we always discuss things and move on.

"That's how it's been this time too."

The 28-year-old made clear he saw the bigger picture, and what was good for his team and Formula One.

"I want to win races," offered Rosberg. "Everything I do is focused on that.

"You are all trying to build it into a war which I can understand because it makes it all the more exciting but I want to try and avoid putting extra fuel on it.

"I was in the factory this week talking to everybody and for them the Constructors' [championship] is so important so if we take each other out [on track], for all our team members that would be a disaster.

"In the end we are a team and I do think about everybody else too."  - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Red Bull dismisses Vettel tantrum report

Formula One champions Red Bull recognized on Saturday they were well behind rivals in preseason testing but dismissed reports that Sebastian Vettel had "thrown a hissy fit" about the situation.

Four-time champion Vettel and his team have suffered a string of setbacks due to the new Renault power unit and the problems continued in Bahrain on Saturday with the German breaking down on his first lap of the day.

Vettel helped marshals push the stricken RB10 back to the garage.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports News that speculation Vettel had thrown a tantrum when he first tested the car back in January was "complete and utter rubbish."

"I don't know where that came from about Sebastian," he added. "He is fine, he understands that there are issues and he is trying to help the team where he can.

"There has not been one raised voice, one bit of discontent. He has just got his head down and he has a huge amount of trust in the team."

The Red Bull website also carried a highly sarcastic report from their "F1 Spy" about the rumor mill.

Vettel, it joked, had sent the team a postcard to say sorry and decided to spend a couple of weeks chilling out watching daytime soaps and eating chips at former teammate Mark Webber's house.

While Red Bull and some of the other Renault-engined teams have been struggling to string a significant number of laps together, Mercedes and Ferrari-powered rivals have been doing race simulations.

Vettel's new Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo, preparing for a home season-opener in Melbourne on March 16, said on Thursday the team was still "not up to scratch" with time running out.

Ricciardo had a more positive day on Friday but Saturday brought more gloom and Horner said the team was "still definitely on the back foot.

"This is the 10th day of testing and we are about 10 days behind I reckon," he added.

Horner said cooling issues that had sidelined the team during the first team in Jerez, Spain, had been addressed and Red Bull were working hard with Renault to fix other problems that had emerged.

"We still have another two weeks before Melbourne, for sure we will be bringing more parts to Melbourne. It would just be great if we could have another couple of days like we had yesterday." - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

F1 bosses taken aback by double points storm

JEREZ - Formula One may have to 'revisit' a controversial rule change awarding double points for the final race of the season because of the backlash from fans, according to Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff.

"I think obviously the shitstorm we got afterwards was something which was not expected," the Austrian told reporters at preseason testing in southern Spain when asked about the decision.

"We discussed it up and down and the reason [for the decision] was that for the last years we have seen the dominance of a driver and team and the [television] audiences were not as expected.

"Was it the right move or not? Ninety-nine percent of our fans and spectators, and this is what counts, told us it was the wrong move. So perhaps it is something to revisit."

Social media has been abuzz with opposition to what many see as a needless gimmick ever since the sport's rulers announced the change in December as a means of keeping the title battle open for longer.

Red Bull has won four drivers' and constructors' titles in a row, with Sebastian Vettel wrapping up his fourth straight championship with three races to spare last year.

Vettel has called the rule change 'absurd', Caterham team owner Tony Fernandes dubbed it a 'fake fix' and Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo finds it too artificial for his liking.

However, a meeting of Formula One's strategy group in Switzerland this month failed to overturn it and the change remains in the 2014 regulations.

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"We decided to keep it for the moment," said Wolff. "There are discussions ongoing.

"There are some arguments [in favor]," added the Austrian, whose team finished runners-up last year and could dethrone Red Bull this season if their new V6 power unit proves to be the pick of the field.

"If for whatever reason we have the same kind of power situation with one of the teams, you add a little spice towards the end of the season," said Wolff.

"Things need to be done, and when you see TV audiences generally dropping then you need to try out things. This maybe wasn't the right thing, but maybe we need to find out."

Red Bull principal Christian Horner said the fans had to be listened to.

"I don't think that it's any secret that I wasn't particularly in favor of it [double points]," he added.

"I can understand why the governing body and the promoter are keen to keep the championship alive, or hope in the championship alive, until the last race but two out of the last four years it's gone to the last race under the previous points scoring system.

"It would probably be better... to look at three races to take away an element of lottery over that last race." - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com