FIA UN POPULAR DECISIONS

I found the 2017 United States Grand Prix to be exciting, enjoyable, and very satisfying.

Everything in the days following has been very dispiriting. By that I mean both the news and the exchanges in the forums. I think that we need to look past all of the angry words and controversy to identify the root of the problem.

In the final analysis, I believe the root cause of all these issues is the fact that the FIA does a very poor job of running and officiating these races. Regardless of our team allegiances and personal likes and dislikes, how many of us have full confidence in the FIA to perform their duties with professionalism, consistency, fairness and a lack of bias?

Every single week there’s some issue where people question the officiating of the stewards. Every week one group or another question whether or not some shady backroom deal has been done or political pressure applied. Some of these recurring issues are not really the FIA’s fault, and by that I mean these idiotic grid penalties that seem to have reached a new peak at Austin, but what we see on race day is the work of the FIA.

If they took a vote, the FIA would surely merit a resounding NO CONFIDENCE vote from just about every fan and most of the teams in the sport.

The FIA has earned this. They write and codify the regulations the teams agree to, and they do an exceedingly poor job of it. The wording is often vague and leaves loopholes you could drive a team transporter through.

These people are supposed to be the consummate professional “rule writers” and yet any good lawyer would look at the FIA regulations for F1 and burst out laughing. Regarding this week’s argument about coloring inside the lines, we know the intent of the regulation, but we also know that it was written so as to give the stewards discretion to ignore the intent of the regulation entirely.

Simply put, they can allow some drivers to pass or defend by driving outside the lines and then penalize other drivers for doing the same thing. This forces the competitors to attempt to “read” the officials and guess what’s being allowed this week versus last week or what’s being allowed at the beginning of the race versus what’s being allowed on the last lap.

Inevitably, some driver is going to guess wrong, get penalized, and believe he has been treated unfairly, and then there will be bad feelings and controversy.

When the DISCRETIONARY POWER of the stewards allows them to ignore an infraction, there are no regulations.

Regarding the 2017 USGP, I think this entire argument has moved beyond discussing whether or not Max had all four wheels outside the lines. For me, there are two issues that need to be clearly examined:

1.) Are there truly extenuating circumstances such as avoiding a collision that allow the stewards to NOT penalize an infraction as the wording of regulation 27.3 implies?

2.) Do the stewards have discretionary powers of sufficient scope to completely ignore the “four wheels out” condition of some drivers and then hand out penalties to others for the same infraction?

In this race, the stewards clearly demonstrated that they have discretionary powers that allow them to look the other way on certain selected infractions, including the “four wheels out” infraction, so we know the answer to the first question is a big YES. (Spare me arguments about it being early in the race or late in the race. Let’s stick to the regulations.)

The answer to the second question is also a big YES because we saw the stewards do exactly that and be subsequently supported by the FIA at large. Others drivers, in defending or attacking, gained advantage by going off the track and were not penalized. What was technically different about Verstappen’s pass that warranted a penalty where the others did not?

I submit that the stewards COULD have looked the other way and let the exciting finish stand. Verstappen may have deserved that five-second penalty (you decide), but the stewards had the option of not enforcing the regulation just as they had done with others earlier in the race. Their hands were not tied. They decided how the race would end.

Any problems of this sort are exacerbated by the fact that the stewards change from race to race, and also by the fact that many of us don’t really trust Charlie Whiting to make the right decision or do the right thing. Tell the truth: You may think the FIA did everything right this week, but next week the shoe will be on some other foot and you will be screaming about the officiating.

We need to have one team of stewards who are carefully selected at the beginning of the season and travel as a set to each and every race. Hire professionals to do this. Pay them to do the job. Don’t just appoint a pickup crew based upon who is handy for each venue. We need to appoint stewards who use their discretionary power wisely and equitably.

Charlie Whiting is responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the correctness of these rulings. He is the race director and can override the stewards. If they make a bad call, Whiting needs to step in and correct the situation. If he doesn’t, we need to question his fitness for holding that position. Have you ever seen Whiting step in and override the stewards even in the worst situations?

Charlie Whiting should required to be available to the press after every race, just like the drivers, and he should answer any and all questions. Make him, as race director, accountable for doing his job and doing it properly.

Let us have SOME sort of transparency in this officiating process. Without transparency and openness we are all forced to guess at what took place and find ourselves having arguments based upon rumors and conspiracy theories.

Personally, I would be extremely pleased if Liberty Media simply dumped the FIA entirely and removed them from their organizing and officiating role. They are an archaic organization, a holdover from a time long gone, a bunch of dinosaurs. Even if the “Formula One” moniker was lost, it would be worth it to be rid of this bloated bureaucratic anachronism. They are incompetent. They have no credibility. They need to change, or else they need to go.

This change may never happen, and if it doesn’t nothing will improve. When the fans and the teams and the sponsors lose confidence in the organizing and officiating body, they’ll move on and others will be reluctant to take their place. It is bad for the business. It is bad for the sport. It is bad for Liberty Media’s bottom line.

Note: This is an personal opinion piece by Reader Napoleon Solo and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or stance of our editorial team. Nevertheless we believe in providing Readers a platform to air their thoughts and views as in this case.

2020 Danish Grand Prix Formula 1 track proposal

A consortium backing a grand prix in Danish capital Copenhagen for 2020 is in advanced talks with Formula 1 bosses, Autosport has learned.

A group led by Helge Sander, former Danish Minister of Science, Technology and Development, and Lars Seier Christensen, ex-owner of Saxo Bank, has proposed a circuit that would run through Copenhagen's city centre, passing landmarks such as the parliament building and crossing two major bridges.

Sander met with F1 CEO Chase Carey, his commercial chief Sean Bratches and director of promoters Chloe Targett-Adams over the Singapore GP weekend to discuss the plans in detail.

Danish ex-F1 driver Jan Magnussen has helped design the circuit, along with F1 track architect Hermann Tilke, and the layout has been described as 'Baku-like'. Magnussen reckoned the layout would make the circuit "one of the most spectacular in F1".

The project has received further support from the Danish government, the royal family and the Copenhagen city government, although all parties are seeking private funding to make the project viable.

At the recent Singapore GP, organisers revealed that it cost the city state approximately £80million per year to stage and host the race, 60% of which was government-funded, with the remainder coming from promoters.

VEGAN - HAMILTON: I WANT TO LIVE A HEALTHIER LIFE

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that Lewis Hamilton returned from the winter break a changed man, indeed the triple Formula 1 World Champion has made some changes to his life one of which is ditching his carnivore habits to become a fully fledged herbivore.

Hamilton revealed recently, “I stopped eating red meat two years ago. I have generally been pescatarian for the majority of the year and now I’ve cut fish.”

“As the human race, what we are doing to the world… the pollution coming from the amount of cows that are being produced is incredible.”

“They say it is more than what we produce with our flights and our cars, which is kind of crazy to think. The cruelty is horrible and I don’t necessarily want to support that and I want to live a healthier life.”

“So far I don’t feel as if I have been missing out. But I don’t know how easy it is going to be when I get home. That is going to be a real test. Every person I have met who has gone vegan says it is the best decision they have ever made.

“When you watch this documentary and you see meat clogging up your arteries, you see all the stuff they put in the meat, stuff we are all eating, there is no way I am going to disregard that.”

“I don’t want in 10 or 20 years to have diabetes or catch any of that stuff. I can continue to decide to eat that stuff and take that risk, but when you get [a disease or illness like that], you want to make change, so I am trying to pre-empt that.”

“I think it’s the right direction and by letting people who are following me know, maybe that will encourage a couple of people to do the same thing.”

Maybe the diet has contributed in some way to the fact that Hamilton has won more races than any driver so far this year with eight victories to his credit and has started from pole ten times. He heads to the United States Grand Prix, for Round 17 of the championship, with a 59 points lead at the top of the standings.

Hartley to race at COTA

New Zealander Brendon Hartley will race for Scuderia Toro Rosso at the next round of the Formula 1 World Championship, the USA Grand Prix in Austin, as Pierre Gasly will be racing in Japan for the last race of the Super Formula Championship in Suzuka.

Brendon last tested with the team back in 2009. Eight years later, he will be taking part in his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, at the Circuit of the Americas, alongside Daniil Kvyat.

Since his last outing with Scuderia Toro Rosso, Brendon has gained experience in many different categories, including the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, GP2 Series and sports car Series. In the last three years he successfully raced the LMP1 Porsche in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

In 2015 he was crowned WEC Champion alongside his teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard. In June this year he won the prestigious 24h of Le Mans race and he’s currently leading the 2017 WEC Championship, with three rounds to go – the next one being the 6 Hours of Fuji, in Japan. After that, he’ll travel to Texas for his first F1 race weekend… A well-deserved reward that has been eight years in the making: never say never!

Brendon Hartley: “What an amazing feeling! This opportunity came as somewhat of a surprise, but I never did give up on my ambition and childhood dream to reach F1. I have grown and learnt so much since the days when I was the Red Bull and Toro Rosso reserve driver, and the tough years I went through made me stronger and even more determined.”

“I want to say a huge thanks to Red Bull for making this a reality, and to Porsche for allowing me to do this alongside the World Endurance Championship. COTA is a track I really enjoy and one I have raced at recently. I’m trying not to put too many expectations on my F1 debut, but I feel ready for it,” added Hartley.

Franz Tost: “Scuderia Toro Rosso is very pleased to announce that Brendon Hartley, who has been part of the Red Bull family for a long time in different classes, as well as the test and reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, will now be back racing for us in Austin.”

“Brendon is coming as the reigning 24h Le Mans winner and he’s also leading the current FIA LMP1 World Endurance Championship, which he won in 2015 as well. We are really happy to have him back in our team. With all the racing experience accumulated over the years, we are convinced that he will do a fantastic job for us,” concluded Tost.

The world of espionage and cyber warfare in F1 !

October 13, 2017 by Joe Saward


The world of espionage and cyber warfare is so complicated as to be impenetrable for the average person. If one follows the newspapers, there is a spat going on at the moment over whether or not the Russian data security group Kaspersky Lab has had its software breached by the Russia security services, in an effort to gain access to top secret US documents in computers that have Kaspersky anti-virus software installed. In essence, anti-virus software searches for known characteristics of viruses and malware to identify and then neutralise them. However, such systems can it seems be modified to search for anything, if the company is compliant, or if access to the software codes has been found by secret government agencies.

The US government is so wary of Kaspersky products that a month ago the Senate voted to ban Kaspersky Lab’s products from use by the federal government, saying that it poses a national security risk. In part this is due to the alarms raised about cyber espionage during the US presidential elections last year, since when there have been allegations of Russian interference to aid Donald Trump in his election campaign. Who knows what is true? Eugene Kaspersky, the man who founded the anti-virus business, says that there is no evidence to support the allegations, despite reports that Israeli intelligence observed Russian cyber spies using the software to search the computers of Kaspersky’s 400 million users, looking for classified material. It was clear from this that the Israelis had themselves hacked the Kaspersky network, in order to have observed others doing the same. Kaspersky could be the villain, or could be the victim. Whatever the case, the firm is likely to suffer as a result of the revelations. Several big US retailers have already stopped selling the software.

Kaspersky has been a Ferrari sponsor for the last five years, using the fan engagement for the Italian F1 team to promote his brand, while at the same time working to protect data at Ferrari. Kaspersky says that Ferrari is the most secure and protected factory in the entire automotive industry, but it will not say how or why. It is believed that some of the software searches for anomalous behaviour within the Ferrari networks. This does make one wonder whether there is cyber spying in Formula 1. Novels have been written about the hacking of F1 computers in order to steal the design of cars, but is that really possible?

Espionage has, of course, been a part of motor racing since the very beginning of the sport, with the flow of information helping the industry to develop technologies. As the sport has become more complex and more expensive, so attempts have been made to curb such activities. Fourteen years ago two Ferrari employees were accused of stealing design files from Maranello and supplying them to Toyota F1. They both lost their jobs and, four years later, both were given suspended sentences by an Italian court. 

The FIA stayed away from that case, saying it was not for them to be involved. However, for reasons which have never been properly explained, the federation then chose to become involved in 2007 when Ferrari manager Nigel Stepney gave 780 pages of design documentation to his former Team Lotus colleague Mike Coughlan, who was then employed at McLaren. Although McLaren proclaimed its innocence, the FIA handed McLaren a $100 million fine. The team might have fought it, but at the time was dependent on F1 revenues and decided that it might be pushed out of business if it did not accept the decision. This was one of the primary reasons why the company has since diversified significantly, to avoid being put in such a position again. 

There has always been a strong suspicion that the McLaren fine was a personal thing because the FIA chose not to investigate Stepney’s claim that he also gave McLaren data to Ferrari, and because when McLaren drew the FIA’s attention to a similar story involving an engineer called Phil Mackereth, who left McLaren and moved to Renault, allegedly taking 762 pages of data, in 33 files on 11 disks. Renault admitted that this was the case and the FIA ruled that the team was guilty of a breach of Article of 151c of the International Sporting Code. The same decision that was given to McLaren a few weeks earlier. The FIA thus left itself open to the accusation that it was only out to get McLaren. The argument that the $100 million fine was because McLaren denied receiving some of the data Coughlan had is not a credible explanation – and never has been. After this mess, teams began to look more closely at their security and today, it seems, the big operations have fairly advanced security, including multiple firewalls and multi-stage authentication techniques. 

There are, it seems, at least three hurdles in the way of hackers wanting to get into the computers at Mercedes. The team’s laptops are each given their own machine signatures, so if the machine attempts to log on to the system it is instantly blocked. If someone steals a Mercedes laptop there is still a manual password required in addition to the machine code and then there is a log-in process after that with a randomly-generated code, delivered to a separate device, such as a mobile phone, to allow access the person access. Perhaps a stolen laptop could run “brute force” password-cracking software (basically, high-speed trial and error) which could reveal six or seven digit passwords in minutes, but 10-12 digit codes would take days to crack and brute-forcing is, in any case, negated if the system restricts log-in attempts to one per minute.

I have heard of cases in which staff in F1 have downloaded seemingly-harmless software, which has inserted malware into computer, gaining access to data by recording key loggers to discover passwords. The dangers of this was more than just espionage as there is also ransomware, which encrypts data and then demands money to restore access to the data. I am told that at least one team has faced this kind of attack. Today, no-one is allowed to download anything and access to the Internet is not allowed in some factories. Other teams say that they have fended off cyber attacks, but they do not want to discuss the details. 

One case has come to light but it has since disappeared quietly. In December 2015 a Mercedes engine development expert named Ben Hoyle allegedly took documents and data, while he was serving out his notice, before joining Ferrari. The word is that he allegedly managed to acquire a colleague’s log-in details and took the data, while logged into the system as his colleague. It is said that he then sent the data from the computer to a mobile phone, using bluetooth technology. 

The fact that Mercedes spotted what was going on suggests that there are probably security algorithms in the computers that are matching machines and passwords with unusual movements of data and flagging anything untoward. When the news became public, Ferrari denied having anything to do with it and said it was not hiring Hoyle. He has since left F1.

Japan GP to be Palmer last F1 race in 2017

Jolyon Palmer’s time at Renault will end on Sunday, following a mutual decision not to continue for the rest of the season. Carlos Sainz will replace Palmer in Austin. This means that Pierre Gasly will almost certainly not try to win the Formula Nippon Championship on the October 22 weekend, leaving the championship to sort itself out without him. He cannot win it if he does not take part but as his ultimate goal is to get to F1, it is irrelevant whether he wins it or not, if the Scuderia Toro Rosso drive is his for the taking. It has been clear for a while that Palmer’s situation was tenuous for the rest of the year, but as he had a contract to continue the goal was to do that, in the hope that good results would help him get a drive elsewhere for 2018. Given the availability of seats next year, there was not much hope of that, as he is not believed to be in the running at Williams, Toro Rosso or Sauber, and so it is probably best to spend his time looking at other options rather than trying to make something happen in F1.