Did Lewis Hamilton chose money over good car

Save on Delicious

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has questioned the reasons behind Lewis Hamilton's imminent move to Mercedes, suggesting the 2008 world champion's switch is money motivated.

Hamilton announced in September he would be ending his career-long association with McLaren, with Mexico's Sergio Perez set to replace him at the British team.

Whitmarsh claims McLaren, with whom Hamilton made his F1 debut in 2007, put a contract on the table which would have made the Briton the highest paid driver on the grid.

But Hamilton instead opted to join Mercedes on a three-year deal, where he will replace retiring seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

"We made Lewis an offer," Whitmarsh told the sport's official website. "An offer, which I believe is more money than any other driver at the moment is being paid.

"That leads us to suspect that our competitor and our partner Mercedes-Benz offered a bit more money. I don't know that, but I think for Lewis [sic] made his decision. I am disappointed in one sense, but you have to focus on going forward."

Hamilton, who reportedly earned $24m this year with McLaren, has endured a frustrating 2012 season.

Despite winning three grands prix, his title challenge has been dented by four retirements in 18 races, leaving him fifth in the drivers' standings with two races of the season remaining.

The news of Hamilton's move came just three months after Whitmarsh had scotched talk of the two parties ending their association.

Hamilton worked his way up through McLaren's young driver program having introduced himself to then team principal Ron Dennis at the age of nine.

"In fairness, if I had said three months ago that Lewis might leave I probably would have made some fantastic headlines, but that wouldn't have been in our interest," explained Whitmarsh.

"The media try to create entertainment from our faux pas. Imagine if I had said Lewis was going to leave. It would have been immensely destabilizing and honestly I didn't think that he was going to leave. I was surprised, but I was not shocked."

Whitmarsh also speculated Hamilton's decision could have been influenced by the Singapore Grand Prix, in which he was forced to retire due to a gearbox problem after starting the race in pole position.

" I am pretty sure he hadn't made up his mind until after Singapore. He told me the Monday or Tuesday after Singapore," continued Whitmarsh.

"I think it is always bad to make a decision in the aftermath of a bad race. He was pretty sure that he was going to win that race and it was a disappointment and as I just said it is never good to make a decision in such a situation."

Hamilton made a huge impact as a rookie in 2007, coming close to clinching the championship title which was eventually won by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, despite continually clashing with teammate Fernando Alonso.

Whitmarsh is hoping McLaren can enjoy more success with an inexperienced driver when Perez joins the team in 2013, having impressed with Sauber since making his F1 debut in 2011.

"Some of the greatest moments in my life I've had when working with Mika (Hakkinen) when he was young. And we won the world championship with Mika," he said.

"And with Lewis, when he was young, so I am excited. It is a risk taking on a young driver. Bear in mind that when we took on Lewis he was the same age as Sergio is today and he was incredibly young, incredibly raw and incredibly talented.

"Now when Sergio gets to Australia in 2013 he will arrive with the kind of pressure that he can't imagine right now."

Borussia Dortmund 2-2 RealMadrid

Save on Delicious

Cristiano Ronaldo stood over a free kick late in Real Madrid's Champions League battle against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, and the former world player of the year stepped aside for Mesut Ozil.
Ozil did not waste the opportunity.
The German international drove a free kick from 22 yards over the wall and off the inside of the right post in the 89th minute, giving Real Madrid a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu that left the Spanish side in contention for first in Group D.
Dortmund had its first lead on a strike from Marco Reus just before the half- hour mark and, after a goal from Real defender Pepe, restored a one-goal edge with an own goal late in the first half.
With Dortmund poised to finish off a sweep of their two matches against Madrid in group play, Ozil lined up a left-footed shot while Ronaldo stood a few feet to his left.
With everyone expecting Ronaldo to take the free kick, as he usually does, the hosts gave Ozil the shot and he fooled Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. The shot went perfectly past the wall and kissed off the inside of the post.
Real Madrid used the point to remain within one point of Dortmund for first in their group, while Ajax remained three points back in third after a 2-2 tie in England against Manchester City in the other match in the group.
Dortmund would have opened a four-point cushion with a win, but the group will remain up for grabs headed into the final two matches.
Siem De Jong scored twice inside 17 minutes as Ajax grabbed a two-goal lead at Etihad Stadium, but Yaya Toure cut the deficit in the 22nd for City and Sergio Aguero tied the match with 16 minutes remaining.
City was denied a late penalty appeal from Mario Balotelli as its hopes of the knockout round remain in doubt as it is five points behind Real and six behind Dortmund with two matches to play.
In Group B, Schalke maintained its one-point lead over Arsenal thanks to a 2-2 draw at Veltins Arena, but Olympiacos joined the knockout race with a 3-1 win over Montpellier.
Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud had Arsenal ahead by two just 26 minutes into the match in Germany, but Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored in first-half extra time and Jefferson Farfan followed midway through the second half for Schalke.
Leandro Greco and Kostas Mitroglou scored two minutes apart late in the match, and Olympiacos remained third but moved within two points of Schalke for first and just one point of Arsenal.
In Group C, Alexandre Pato scored with 17 minutes remaining as AC Milan denied Malaga with a 1-1 draw at the San Siro in Italy, but the Spanish side clinched a spot in the knockout stage anyway.
Eliseu scored five minutes before half for Malaga, which will finish among the top two in the group. Milan is second on five points, but has competition for the other spot.
Dieudonne Mbokani scored as Anderlecht beat Zenit, 1-0, to move to four points with two matches remaining. Zenit is also alive with three points.
In Group A, FC Porto also punched its ticket to the knockout round with a 0-0 draw against Dynamo Kyiv, and PSG inched closer to a spot in the next round as it crushed Dinamo Zagreb, 4-0.
Porto has 10 points with two matches remaining, and only PSG can overtake the current leaders in the group.
Alex, Blaise Matuidi, Jeremy Menez and Guillaume Hoarau scored for PSG, all on assists from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as the French side remained one point behind Porto in second place.

Malaga drew 1-1 at AC Milan:UEAFA

Save on Delicious

Malaga and Porto became the first teams to clinch their places in the knockout phase of the Champions League.

Group C leaders Malaga drew 1-1 at AC Milan, while Porto also earned a point at Dynamo Kiev in Group A, as both progressed with two matches remaining.
Real Madrid's late equaliser against Borussia Dortmund in Manchester City's Group D means the German champions must wait to seal qualification.
Olympiakos moved to within a point of Arsenal after beating Montpellier 3-1.

Ronaldo backs Messi, Mourinho for FIFA awards

Save on Delicious

Brazilian legend Ronaldo says if he could vote, he would nominate Barcelona's Lionel Messi as his choice for the FIFA Ballon d'Or award.
Ronaldo, a three-time winner of the FIFA World Player of Year award, which merged with France Football' s Ballon d'Or in 2010, said the Argentinian striker deserved to win ahead of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo.
"It' s still a battle between those two - Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo," he said on Monday.
"Messi would get my vote because, in addition to being decisive, scoring loads of goals and winning trophies, he' s able to bring a special and different kind of magic to football.
"Cristiano Ronaldo is a very technical, very skillful and very pragmatic player, but Messi continues to produce the unexpected on a regular basis."
The 36-year-old said he would vote for Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho as coach of the year.
"He is the coach I' d vote for because it' s not easy to handle 25 players so well on a daily basis," Ronaldo said.

"He' d get my vote for his tactical organization, his planning and his training methods."
The FIFA Ballon d'Or and World Coach of the Year awards are voted for by the captains and head coaches of national teams as well as selected international journalists.
The 2012 winners will be announced during a televised event in Zurich, Switzerland, on January 7.

PGA Grand Slam: Padraig Harrington wins in Bermuda

Save on Delicious

Padraig Harrington held off a final-day charge from Webb Simpson to clinch the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda at his third attempt.

Five under-par overnight, the Dubliner birdied the 11th, 12th and 13th and, despite a bogey on the last, was still able to take the £375,000 prize. 
The Grand Slam features the winners of the season's four majors.
Harrington was a late replacement for Open winner Ernie Els, who withdrew from the event with an ankle injury.

World number one Rory McIlroy was also absent, preferring to defend the BMW Masters title in Shanghai, and being replaced by Keegan Bradley.

Last year's winner Bradley finished tied third with Masters champion Bubba Watson at Port Royal, and it was left to US Open winner Simpson to lead the American charge.
His six-under 65, the best round from any player at Bermuda, kept Harrington under pressure to the end, but the three-time major winner held on to take the win.
Success in the Grand Slam is Harrington's first on the tour since 2010.
He had participated unsuccessfully at Bermuda twice before, losing to Angel Cabrera in 2007 and the following year to Jim Furyk.

Why Ferrari is struggling ?

Save on Delicious

Ferrari have spent the last few races watching helplessly as a once-commanding championship lead for their driver Fernando Alonso has been turned into a narrow deficit by the revived steamroller that is Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.

Where Red Bull have significantly improved their car, Ferrari have effectively stood still, and they have been quite open about the fact that they are struggling to introduce new aerodynamic developments.
This, they say, is a result of a lack of correlation between the results they are getting from their wind tunnel, a crucial tool where new parts are tested, and the effect when those new parts are put on the car on the track.

 

“I don't think the problem Ferrari are trying to fix can be fixed”

That is a major concern - and especially so because it has been going on for two years, with Ferrari intermittently thinking they have got to the bottom of the problem, and then realising again that they haven't.

An F1 car's performance is 80% dictated by aerodynamics. They are developed by a wind tunnel and by using a computer programme known as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) .
If a wind tunnel is running correctly, it is the best way to develop a car, while CFD is a good tool for understanding airflow around the car.
A wind tunnel is a complicated device used to simulate a complicated phenomenon.
In effect, a racing car is travelling at a speed over the track but the mass of the car is moving slower because it is pushing air in front of it, with the exception of the parts that are producing downforce - such as the front wing, diffuser and rear wing, which energise airflow and make it go faster.
What you're trying to do is minimise the amount of air the car is pushing forward and maximise the speed of the airflow over it, because that creates downforce.

Ferrari's wind tunnel at their Maranello factory

In a wind tunnel, you have air being blown by a fan, the road rolling and the car sitting still. It's a very different environment from the track.
You want the airflow in front of the car - what is called the boundary layer - and the rolling road to be at the same speed.
To do that is an absolute nightmare, and they never will be the same.
Another problem is that the size of the models the teams use has increased over the years - most now use a 60% scale model - but the size of the wind tunnels themselves has not.
That can mean that the airflow coming off the car hits the wall or the roof, which changes the airflow over the car.
The result of all that is that, in reality, the wind tunnel and the track will never completely correlate.
To successfully read the wind tunnel results, therefore, the group of people running it has to understand what is important - you need the people there to see past the raw data and understand what it means.
In short, I don't think the problem Ferrari are trying to fix can be fixed. And they created another problem for themselves by going to use another wind tunnel - Toyota's in Germany, left over from the now defunct Toyota works F1 team.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg study Mercedes' wind tunnel model

So they have results from one wind tunnel, different results from another, and more results from CFD and they're standing in the middle scratching their heads.
Shutting down their own wind tunnel, as they are going to do, is the right thing. It takes out of the equation one extra thing that can mess them up.
Before India, they also went off and did some straight-line testing. That is very important - you can do a ride-height map and match that to the wind tunnel, you can see when the diffuser and front wing stall more accurately.
You'll see a lot of stuff that will help you understand the aerodynamic map of the car a bit better but you won't see what happens when the driver turns the steering wheel, and that is the important bit. It defines how fast a car goes around a corner.
It's very difficult to simulate how the airflow works as a car goes around a race track, so you need a group of people who can read the data you do get and understand the off-sets. Otherwise, you are wasting all your time at a race track and you'll never get it sorted.
I still believe Ferrari missed the basics of the aerodynamic package of the car this year - the exhaust outlets still compromise the airflow too much in the important 'coke-bottle' area between the rear tyres.
When they changed it for the Spanish Grand Prix in May, they made it better and said there was another step to come. But they haven't taken that next step. Red Bull, by contrast, have developed their car from being not so good at the start of the year, to one that was better and which they could develop further.
Red Bull have been making small changes all the time. You had to look twice to see the change they made to the rear of the sidepods in Korea, but the effect of it was big enough to justify a completely new rear bodywork package, which is not cheap or easy.

Alonso optimistic on title chances

And the small amount of change needed to make the 'coke-bottle' work better, Ferrari could do that tomorrow, and make 10 times that change, but they haven't. So there is a lack of vision there in terms of seeing where they're trying to get to with the car.
And that's the main problem. Ferrari lack a visionary - someone like Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey.
That doesn't mean they can't build a good car. They have - it started bad and it got better. Since the Spanish Grand Prix it has been there or thereabouts, but never actually the quickest.
Combined with Alonso's consistency it was enough to build a decent championship lead by mid-season. But as Red Bull have come on strong, Alonso has lost his advantage - not helped by being taken off at the first corner in two of the last five races.
But as this year has proven, whether that is enough to beat Red Bull over a full season is another matter.
They might have to take a step backwards to go forwards. They stated ahead of this season that they had taken a deliberately aggressive approach to the design of their car. But I don't understand what that is.
You only design something that is going to be better - stiffer, lighter or produces more downforce.
If it isn't at least one of those three things you can be as aggressive as you like, you're not going to progress.

Vettel fastest in Indian GP first practice

Save on Delicious

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel headed McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in first practice at the Indian Grand Prix.

The German, who took the world championship lead with victory in the last race in Korea ended up 0.310 seconds clear of Button.
Alonso was 0.435 seconds behind his main title rival, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton 0.002secs behind the Ferrari.
Red Bull's Mark Webber was fifth ahead of Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

Indian GP first practice top 10

1 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull 1:27.619secs
2 Jenson Button - McLaren 1:27.929 +0.310
3 Fernando Alonso - Ferrari 1:28.044 +0.425
4 Lewis Hamilton - McLaren 1:28.046 +0.427
5 Mark Webber - Red Bull 1:28.175 +0.556
6 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes 1:28.447 +0.828
7 Felipe Massa - Ferrari 1:28.542 +0.923
8 Michael Schumacher - Mercedes 1:28.993 +1.374
9 Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso 1:29.204 +1.585
10 Kimi Räikkönen - Lotus 1:29.291 +1.672

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was seventh, ahead of Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo and Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen 10th.

Mexican Esteban Gutierrez, standing in during the first session for regular driver Sergio Perez, was 20th fastest, 1.4secs slower than his team-mate Kamui Kobayashi.
He had one near-miss when he lost the car through the fast chicane at Turns Eight and Nine but managed to recover it before hitting the wall.
Sauber said Gutierrez drove because Perez was "unwell", but Perez said on his Twitter account that while he had a cold on Thursday he was feeling well on Friday morning.
The teams seem closely matched - although Vettel's time of one minute 27.619 seconds was faster by a significant amount with a lap he produced right at the end of the session, Hamilton aborted a lap earlier on that looked as if it would have been a similar time.

Alonso and Ferrari spent the session comparing different designs of front and rear wing as they attempt to claw back some of the advantage Red Bull have created with developments introduced over the last three races, all of which Vettel has won.

BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson said: "This race will be won on pure speed. I don't think there will be much tactics or strategy involved, so all the teams will be concentrating on ensuring the cars are as fast as possible in qualifying trim. It will be important to be a the front of the grid."
The track was very dusty at the start of the session and the teams took some time before they started to do any extensive running.
But although a few drivers ran wide, there were no major incidents.