The F1 newswire – Wednesday 25 January

Resident Columnists

Like it? Share it!

The F1 newswire – Wednesday 25 January

All the news the teams see fit to print, in one handy digest produced every 24 hours.

It’s a topsy-turvy newswire today, with a delayed update from LOTUS on Kimi Raikkonen’s second day of testing, plus the launch of the 2012 Formula 1 tyre compounds care of PIRELLI. Let’s look backwards and forwards together.

“LOTUS F1 Team driver Kimi Räkkönnen completed the second day of running as part of his driving session at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain,” the release read. “The Finnish driver continued from yesterday’s good work, completing a further 91 laps making a total of 171 laps from the two days, a total of 666 km or the equivalent of more than two Grands Prix race distances. Kimi Räkkönnen said: ‘It went well today and overall the two days have been helped me a lot. Even though I was using a two year-old car and the Pirelli demonstration tyres, I learnt about working with the team and the engineers which means I can focus on the new car once we get to Jerez for the first official test. It was great to be driving an F1 car again and from that respect I feel very positive.’ Alan Permane, trackside operations engineer, said: ‘We enjoyed another good day with Kimi in Valencia. The morning was spent doing setup work in particular with front and rear cambers. In the afternoon we ran very low fuel qualifying simulations with two new sets of tyres followed by a 27 lap run starting with a full tank of fuel. Kimi’s pace improved from yesterday as we would expect and we completed several start, pitstop and clutch simulations. We were even able to finish early as we completed our programme ahead of time. Overall it has been a productive and valuable two days.’”

“PIRELLI gets the 2012 Formula 1 season underway, its second as sole supplier, by presenting the new range of tyres for the 63rd FIA World Championship at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi,” the release read. “The key characteristics of the new tyres – developed by Pirelli together with the teams in response to the latest aerodynamic regulations regarding blown exhausts – are: squarer profiles, increased grip, and softer, more competitive compounds with consistent degradation. The objective for the 2012 tyres is to ensure entertaining races that remain unpredictable all the way up to the chequered flag, with two to three pit stops per race and a strong emphasis on team strategies. The coloured markings on the sidewalls now change to become bigger and more easily recognisable, while the Cinturato name that has become emblematic in Formula 1 history returns: the tyre with which Pirelli raced and won in the 1950s. From 2012, Cinturato will denote the full wet and intermediate tyres. Pirelli’s Racing Tyre System also returns, with some new functionality. This is a platform created by Pirelli’s engineers in order to record the behaviour and performance of each tyre: information that is shared with the teams and Formula 1 Management (FOM). The presentation took place today at an international press conference hosted by Marco Tronchetti Provera, the President and CEO of Pirelli, Motorsport Director Paul Hembery, and Research and Development Director Maurizio Boiocchi. Marco Tronchetti Provera said: ‘After the positive experience of last year, the teams asked us to continue providing tyres with the characteristics that contributed to spectacular races in 2011. And this is what we have done, optimising the compounds and profiles in order to guarantee even better and more stable performance, combined with the deliberate degradation that characterised the P Zero range from 2011. We’re expecting unpredictable races, with a wide range of strategies and a number of pit stops: all factors that both competitors and spectators greatly enjoyed last year. The development work on the new compounds took place throughout the 2011 season, thanks to the impressive learning curve and reaction times from our engineers, who are ready to continue those evolutions during the season ahead.’”

Check back here tomorrow for the latest news direct from the teams. Kate Walker

Worth Checking - F1 News - Kate Walkers F1 blog