Tag Archives: Sutil

Equalled Best Season – Force India Mercedes VJM06

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Force India’s story begins with a plucky Irishman called Eddie Jordan who 1991 burst on to the Formula One scene with one of the most attractive Formula One cars ever built, a fist full of Pepsi Co sponsorship dollars to fly the 7 Up flag and an Italian called Andrea de Cesaris, who had a reputation for crashing and under achieving, as their lead driver.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Against the odds Jordan finished a highly creditable 6th in their first season of competition. When Jordan’s second driver, Bertrand Gachot, was incarcerated for an incident involving pepper spray and a cab driver in London, Eddie introduced Micheal Schumacher to Formula one at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, but failed to keep him beyond his debut race, from which retired with clutch failure on the first lap, for which he qualified an impressive seventh.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Jordan’s highlight season came in 1999 when with cast off Mugnen tuned Honda V10 motors the team finsihed 3rd in the constructors championship behind only Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes. Jordan’s lead driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen also came third in the World Drivers Championship with 2 victories.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Sutil, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

In 2005 Eddie sold out to Alex Shnaider who rebranded the team Midland F1 which became the first F1 entry. Midland F1 achieved nothing in 2006, unless you count two top ten non points paying finishes, and Alex sold the team on to late season Dutch sponsor Spyker before the 2006 season had ended.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Sutil, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Spyker F1, like Midland F1, only lasted for a single season during which Adrian Sutil scored a single world championship point for an 8th place finish in the Japanese Grand Prix. Before the 2007 season has ended Spyker F1 was sold to a consortium led by Vijay Mallya an was rebranded Force India for the 2008 season.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Sutil, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

With the aid of some financial stability the team progressed from scoring no points with their Ferrari powered car in 2008 to becoming 6th place finishers in the 2011 constructors championship.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, di Resta, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

During that time Giancarlo Fisichella, who scored Jordan’s last Formula One win in 2002, scored Force India best ever result a 2nd place in the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix with the now Mercedes powered VJM02, a result that led Giancarlo to join Ferrari as a replacement for the injured Felipe Massa for the remainder of 2009.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Sutil, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

In 2012 Adrian Sutil sat out the season to focus on a legal issue and Paul di Resta was joined by another German Nico Hülkenberg at Force India. Both drivers scored season high 4th place finishes but the team still only finished the season 7th in the constructors championship.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

With half an eye on a possible drive at Ferrari as an eventual replacement for Felipe Massa, Nico Hülkenberg Force India’s top scorer in 2012 left to join the Ferrari powered Sauber team for 2013 and Adrian Sutil rejoined Force India.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Sutil, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

The design of the VJM 06 featured today was over seen by Technical Director Andrew Green, the all new carbon fibre chassis is powered by a 2.4 litre / 146 cui Mercedes Benz FO 108F motor with a mandated maximum 18,000 rpm limit and a Mercedes AMG Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). The transmission is 7 speed semi automatic built by McLaren Racing.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, di Resta, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Paul di Resta seen above managed 9 points paying finishes in 2013 with a season high 4th in Bahrain to finish 12th in the Drivers Championship. His services will not be retained in 2014 when Paul is expected to return to the German DTM Touring Car championship.

Force India Mercedes VJM06, Sutil, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Adrian Sutil, seen above, managed eight points scoring finishes but with a season high of ‘only’ 5th in Monaco on his way to finishing 13th in the drivers championship. With Ferrari opting to re employ Kimi Raikkönen Nico Hülkenberg decided to leave Sauber and rejoin Force India for 2014 while Adrian move the other way to join Esteban Gutiérrez at Sauber.

After equaling their best Constructors Championship finish with another 6th place finish in 2013 Nico will be joined at Force India by Mexican hot shot Sergio Pérez for 2014 when the teams VJM07 cars will be again be powered by Mercedes.

You can follow Force India’s progress on their website linked here, Facebook page linked here and Twitter feed linked here.

Thanks for joining me on this “Equalled Best Season” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an Edwardian Mercer Raceacout. Don’t forget to come back now !river

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Young Driver Test – Silverstone

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Last Friday I popped over to Silverstone for the final day of the three day Formula One “Young Driver Test”.

Ferrari Trucks, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

On the way over to the paddock there was an imposing array of Ferrari tractor units.

Red Bull Transporters, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Even though paddock access was restricted there were a few fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Sebastian Vettel on his way from the Red Bull hospitality suite to the pits.

Massa, Ferrari F138, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

The on track action started at 9 am sharp most of the cars were running with an array of extra airspeed sensors, such as that seen on Felipe Massa’s Ferrari F138, not usually seen on the race cars.

Parffett, McLaren MP4-28, Vergne, Torro Rosso STR8, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Torro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo set the pace on day one and day two respectively, on Friday Gary Parffet and Jean Eric Vergne took over the respective cars seen at Becketts above.

Wolff, Williams FW35, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Making her second appearance in testing for the Williams team was Susie Wolff who recorded 89 laps, nearly two Grand Prix distances recording ninth best time of the day, just under a second slower than Williams team leader Pastor Maldonado recorded the day before.

Prost, Lotus E21, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Nicolas Prost, son of four time World Champion Alain, driving the Lotus E21 set third fastest time on Friday.

Sutil, Force India VJM06, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Second best time of the day was recorded by Force India regular Adrian Sutil trying out the new tyres that will be used at the Hungarian Grand Prix next week.

Vettel, Red Bull RB9, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Fastest time of all three days was recorded by Sebastian Vettel, who like Sutil was testing the Hungarian Spec Pirelli’s.

McLaren MP4-28, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

After the test there was a ‘sold out’ pit lane walk about during which most of the teams put a car out for display. The well worn wheel nut above is seen on the McLaren.

Caterham CT03, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Caterham put on a demonstration of pit stop drill, blink and you’ll miss it at this close range.

My thanks to Tony “Giraffe” Gallagher for additional track access.

Thanks for joining me on this “Young Driver Test” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Number 2 Drivers – British Grand Prix

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Last Friday I popped along to Silverstone last Friday to see the first two practice sessions for the British Grand Prix. This was my first visit to Silverstone for Formula One action since 1981 when John Watson won the race for McLaren.

Rosberg, Mercedes Benz, F1 W04, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Today’s blog focuses on how the 11 teams number 2 drivers got on, above Nico Rosberg driving his Mercedes F1 W04 finished the opening day of practice at the top of the time sheets. Nico qualified second for the race and won after team mate Lewis Hamilton blew a tyre and then Sebastian Vettel retired with transmission problems. Despite having visiting pit row for the second time this season, twice more than his team mate Nico is still three seven points behind his team mate Lewis Hamilton, who has yet to win and fifty points behind Championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Webber , Red Bull Renault, RB9, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Last years British Grand Prix winner Mark Webber, seen driving his Red Bull Renault RB9 above, similarly set a faster time than his team mate Sebastian Vettel on the opening day of practice. Mark qualified 4th behind his team mate for the race and dropped to 15th after making contact with Romain Grosjean on the opening lap and recovered to finish in second place on his final British Grand Prix appearance. Mark announced at the British Grand Prix that he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season and joining Porsche’s Le Mans program for 2014.

Massa , Ferrari, F138, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa is seen driving his F138 in the first practice session he was slowest of the the eleven drivers to set a time in the morning and in the afternoon knocked a wheel of the front when he came off the drying track in the afternoon and again set the slowest time of the 22 drivers in the afternoon. Felipe could only qualify 12th for the race, but despite a high speed blow out did well to recover a sixth place finish by the end of the race.

Sutil , Force India Mercedes, VJM06, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Adrian Sutil driving a Mercedes powered Force India VJM06 set 8th fastest time on day one, qualified 7th for the race and spent a long period running in third place behind Vettel and Rosberg but then got swamped at the end to finish 7th.

Ricciardo, Torro Rosso Ferrari, STR8, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Daniel Ricciardo one of several drivers in the frame to replace the retiring Mark Webber at Red Bull, finished the opening practice session at the top of the time sheets, he qualified his Ferrari powered Torro Rosso STR8 an impressive 6th, seven places ahead of his team mate Jean Eric Vergne. After running in 4th place for much of the race he too was swamped at the end to finish 8th.

Bottas, Williams Renault, FW35, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Williams were celebrating the 600th Grand Pix at Silverstone unfortunately Valtteri Bottas driving his Renault powered FW35 could not repeat his fine Canadian 7th fastest qualifying performance. Starting 16th Valttteri came home 12th in the race.

Gutiérrez, Sauber Ferrari, C32, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Mexico’s Esteban Gutiérrez started the British Grand Prix from 17th place on the grid in his Ferrari powered Sauber C32 and climbed to 14th by the end of the race.

Chilton, Marussia Cosworth, MR02, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Max Chilton in the Cosworth powered Marrusia MR02 was the slowest qualifier but thanks to penalties for Paul di Resta and Giedo van der Garde he started his home Grand Prix from 20th and finished 17th.

van der Garde, Caterham Renault, CT03, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

van der Garde started the British Grand Prix from last place after ignoring blue flags, shown to signal that he was about to be lapped, in Canada and finished the race 18th and last unlapped runner.

Grosjean, Lotus Renault, E21, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Driving his Renault powered Lotus E21 Romain Grosjean started the British Grand Prix from 7th on the grid but was involved in a collision with Mark Webber on the opening lap he finished the race 19th 1 lap down last car still running.

Perez, McLaren Mercedes, MP4-28, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Finally Sergio Pérez suffered a tyre failure during practice on the opening day that would be a portent for 4 similar failures on race day. Starting from 13th on the grid Sergio suffered a second puncture on race day that forced his retirement due to the damage to his Mercedes powered McLaren MP4-28 caused by the flailing remains of the tyre on lap on lap 46.

More on the British Grand Prix at Motorsports Unplugged.

Thanks for joining me on this “Number 2 Drivers” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for an Independence Day edition tomorrow. Don’t for get to come back now !

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