Norbert Haug

Kotenok is another F1Wolf reader who went to see some live racing action last week. Kotenok went to the DTM days on the Barcelona track and during his walk around the paddock stumbled upon Norbert Haug, the main Mercedes guy in McLaren operation. He did not hesitate and decided to ask Mr. Haug some questions for this website (although he forgot to tell him the name of this site ). The interview was conducted in German, so what you read here is translation:

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F1Wolf

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It has been busy few days for me and it took me 2 days to finish the Spanish GP review. Here it comes finally… I apologize for a dull format without pictures this time .

Four races, three Ferrari wins, two 1-2 finishes, red cars leading both championships and Ferrari friendly Turkey track next … Things have turned around a bit since Melbourne …

After Fernando Alonso squeezed in between Raikkonen and Massa in qualifying there was a chance Renault may spoil the race for Ferrari. Massa’s good start put an end to those worries and from then on it was Ferrari’s race. The gap between them and Hamilton and Kubica was not that big but this may be down to the safety car period and Ferrari preserving the machinery towards the end of the race.

Hamilton returned to the podium for the first time since Melbourne. The race of both McLarens has been compromised by their qualifying. Fifth and sixth places on the grid are not the best places from where to launch the attack on the podium. The positive sign for McLaren is that they did not seem to be too much off the pace of Ferrari. The worry must be the BMW Sauber … The talking point of the race however was the heavy crash of Heikki Kovalainen. It looked very scary and to me even worse than the crash of Robert Kubica in Montreal last year. It is amazing to see how much protection the current F1 cars give to drivers. It is hard to believe that somebody can survive an impact like that with pretty much no injuries at all. At the same time crashes like this are a reminder that F1 is still a dangerous sport …

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F1Wolf

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Kimi Raikkonen will start the Spanish GP from pole position confirming the strength of the Ferrari package in Barcelona. It is also the first pole position of the season for Raikkonen. He will however have an unexpected neighbour on front row - Renault with Fernando Alonso in the cockpit. Felipe Massa missed out on front row and will start from P3.

Robert Kubica qualified well again - P4  ahead of both McLarens. The silver cars have exclusive rights to row 3 in Barcelona and they will not be too happy about that. Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli proved again they are masters of qualifying - P7 and P8 are great results for Red Bull and Toyota. Nick Heidfeld may be heavier than his team mate but still, P9 is hardly a starting position he would have hoped for. Nelson Piquet made it to Q3 adding his bit to what definitelly was a very good day for Renault.

The midfield is extremely even. Only few tenths separate 11th from 15th.

This was a disapointing session for Coulthard (eliminated in Q1), Vettel (beaten by his team mate again), Sutil (7 tenths behind Fisichella and less than a tenth ahead of Davidson in pennyless Super Aguri…).

Is Renault that good all of a sudden or did Alonso only go for home qualifying glory in a lightly fueled car ? We will see tomorrow.

Spanish GP Qualifying Results:
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F1Wolf

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After 3 weeks spring racing break that included a 4 day test we have another race weekend ahead of us. The first European race of 2008 F1 calendar - Spanish Grand Prix.

The Barcelona test last week did not reveal much about the new found strength of the F1 teams. We can expect the usual suspects to fight it out for the pole position. Depending on their fuel strategy any of the 6 Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber drivers may claim the pole position. I would expect Ferrari to have the edge in the race with Massa (2007 winner) needing the race win more than Raikkonen. But anything can happen, we do have six drivers with a shot at the race win.

It will be interesting to see how the battle of the midfield shapes up. There are not that many places in Q3 left for grabs and even less that offer some points … But there are at least 10 cars aiming for them …

At this moment it is still unclear whether Super Aguri will race in Barcelona. The team will be present and even if they may not be able to take part in the race itself, I would expect them to do at least just enough to formally participate in the race. As long as they hope to survive and find new investor they would not want to forfeit their television money rights… Just a year ago at this race Takuma Sato scored first point for Super Aguri…

There are some reports that it may drizzle on Saturday and Sunday in Barcelona, that would sure bring some degree of unpredictability to the race. Other reports only forecast scattered clouds, so make your pick .

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As you may have realized, one of the regular F1Wolf readers and commentators lives nearby the Barcelona F1 circuit. Unsurprisingly, he seems to know the track quite well. He sent over a long message with lots of tips how to make the most of the visit to the Spanish GP. I chose to turn his comment into a post. So here it comes, Spanish GP by Kotenok, I added few photos (courtesy of AT&T Williams) for decoration:

Everybody might be thinking now: “Teams are preparing already the few last details and gathering for the whole weekend competition”. That’s true!! In Montmeló everything is ready, they’re prepared for showing to the world another complete race weekend!

I’m expecting to hear the cars roar soon, while now the motor homes are being built and the drivers walk over the track to find out any changes since tests last week, and I’m really anxious! HEHE!!!

Since the first event in 1992, this circuit became one of the greatest! Catalonia’s International Circuit is the first of these tracks from the new-era, this circuit attached to his history 4 times the best GP organization (1992, 2001, 2003 and 2006). The circuit hasn’t been designed by hands of Herman Tilke, but nowadays includes some spots of his work.

As written in last F1 Racing (Spanish edition, at least), this year organizers will perform some surprise - something that the remaining circuits won’t have or can’t do. What is it??? I’m not expecting any anti-racism program, as Max Mosley promised since February (he and his FIA mates shall feel sorrier about other facts recently). The surprise could be the presentation of some young Spanish driver in a F1 team? It’s the aim of their campaign which RACC and Catalonian government are carrying out; they want to open the doors to a young talent in the F1 championship in 1 or 2 years. Except it, I expect any entertainment could happen this weekend! A new great race weekend with GP2 and Formula One as top events, also there will be Porsche Supercup and the little but fast Formula BMW.

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F1Wolf

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The testing last week did not reveal too much. Not that we ever can tell too much about the form of teams from a test, but we can tell pretty much nothing after the last Barcelona test . Here is my view of what may have changed.

First look at the top 3:

Ferrari looked to be damn fast on slicks and with the hole in the nose. But not that different times were later achieved for example by Barrichello and Alonso, also on slicks. Ferrari’s speed early on in the test does not reveal much … McLaren cars were quite slow last week but both de la Rosa and Hamilton did lots of laps on their test days and outright speed might not have been their focus. Quite the same can be said about BMW Sauber. All three top teams are optimistic on their own form but cautious at the same not knowing the true gains of the other 2 …

Down to midfield now:

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Shaun left this comment yesterday under one of the Barcelona test posts:

Why is Schumacher testing for Ferrari instead of Raikkonen or Massa ? sorry if this is an obvious question.

Well, good question and I do not think it is obvious. Ferrari has Raikkonen and Massa plus test drivers proper Gene and Badoer. But they still use Michael Schumacher and used him again in Barcelona this week. Schumacher did one day of testing. This was half of what Massa did, but about a day more than Kimi (thanks to rain on Thursday). Why is he still testing ? And why do they keep two other test drivers on payroll when they do not use them (almost) at all?

He still probably gives the team valuable input but is his input more valuable than input from one of the race drivers would be ? How does Kimi like the fact that he gets less running ? Perhaps he likes it and is actually thankful to Schumi for stepping in . But as far as I remember Kimi was never too excited about having Schumacher around.

Perhaps it is only publicity stunt as no matter what people may think about Michael Schumacher, he is a phenomenon that still attracts lots of attention.

Or perhaps it is just something that Jean Todt cooked up before leaving the team and Domenicali has to live with it now …

Well, who knows. The fact remains, Schumi is still around and he is definitely not slow.

There is another blog post on Michael Schumacher today here …

F1Wolf

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Day 3 in Barcelona was about new BullRosso car that was supposed to run for last 2 days of test. Unfortunately Mr. Bourdais smashed it beyond repair and we probably will not see STR03 again for the rest of the Barcelona test.

Fernando Alonso must have felt like at the end of 2006 season, his Renault finishing just ahead of Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari.

Not sure what exactly are McLaren and Toyota testing, they did not show much pace yet in Barcelona. Well, important will be the pace they show next week on the same track…

Most important development yesterday was however related to the team that does not test in Barcelona at all - Super Aguri …

Barcelona test April 2008 - Day 3 times:

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The day 2 in Barcelona felt a bit like deja vu. First either Adrian Newey did some freelancing for Renault, or Red Bull showed some aero love to their engine supplier, or Renault simply copied what they have seen in the next garage. Well, I though that the Renault car can’t get any more ugly that it already was. I was wrong apparently .

It looks like in Honda they not only decided not to do much upgrading this year. They took it one step further, they are going retro . The Dumbo ears back almost exactly a year after their premiere in Barcelona in 2007. Honda never used them in a race, but at least we had some Dumbo jokes :-) …

The only other obvious new develpment I spotted on Tuesday was what looks like a new front wing for Ferrari.

Let’s see what today will bring besides Michael Schumacher … Toro Rosso are to test their new car so we may see yet another ugly fin covering the F1 engine …

For an in-depth report on all that has been tested in Barcelona so far I recommend checking out the comment from Kotenok below the previous post.

Just for the record, below are the times from day 2 of Barcelona tests. But as teams are testing very different packages, the times are of no significance. But it has been a while since Barrichello and Fisichella were on top of the timesheets.

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F1Wolf

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It looks like the first day day of Barcelona testing was all about the new Ferrari hole. The fact that the combination of the new hole in the nose part of Ferrari car and the slick tyres resulted in 3 seconds gap between Massa and the second fastest car, Honda of Alex Wurz, is one of the reasons the expected hole got so much attention.

McLaren slow times should not be taken too seriously though. If you look carefully at the pictures from Barcelona, you can see the tiny almost Monza like rear wing on de la Rosa’s car. McLaren obviously spent the day focusing on 2009 season rather than updates for the next race. BMW Sauber did not run on slicks yesterday, so Heidfeld’s times can’t be compared to Massa either …

One thing remains fact nevertheless, the Ferrari was scary quick on Monday in Barcelona.

While browsing the pictures from yesterday’s test, the only other ineteresting thing I spotted were the front wheel covers on Renault. If I am not wrong, that is new.

There is a nice picture gallery from Barcelona here. The site is in Spanish.

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F1Wolf

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