15 April 2018

Issue 230

CHINESE
GRAND PRIX

Shanghai
surprise
IT’S ALL ABOUT
THE PASSION
 CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Issue 230
15 April 2018

Leader 3
On The Grid by Joe Saward 4
Snapshots 7 GrandPrix+ is brought to you by
David Tremayne | Joe Saward | Peter Nygaard
Driving Tips From Fernando 19
Exciting Times at Toro Rosso 22 With additional material from Lotte Nygaard

The F1 Festival in Shanghai 28

How Not To Do Formula 1 31
Obituary: John Miles 37
Shanghai - Qualifying 45
Shanghai - Race 60
The Last Lap by David Tremayne 76
Slide Shots 78

2
Who we are What we think
DAVID TREMAYNE
A freelance motorsport writer and former executive editor of Motoring News and Motor Sport,
he is currently the Formula 1 correspondent for The Independent and The Independent on The news that Formula One’s new TV streaming service will kick off in
Sunday, and The Straits Times, a veteran of 30 years of Grands Prix reportage, and the author
of 50 motorsport books. He covered his 500th Grand Prix in Sepang in 2016, and his 500th Spain in May is good news for the sport and the start of a revolution that
consecutive race in Austin that year. He is the only three-time winner of the Guild of Motoring could greatly increase the revenues of the sport - and thus help all the
Writers’ Timo Makinen and Renault Awards. His writing, on both current and historic issues,
is notable for its soul and passion, together with a deep understanding of the sport and an teams to become more financially secure. It is a time of change for F1 and
encyclopaedic knowledge of its history. David is also acknowledged as the world expert on we are keen to see all parties coming up with the right solutions - and
the history of land and water speed record breaking and is also passionate about Unlimited
hydroplanes. He is the British representative on the FIA Land Speed Records Commission. not simply argue everything from self-interest. The sport will be better
A former rocket car driver, he is the driving force behind the Team DUO STAY GOLD jetcar off if the playing field is level, it is better off if there is a budget cap. It is
programme which averaged 275 mph and peaked at 297 mph while challenging the 301 mph
UK land speed record in August 2017. hard to argue against these things. It is logical. The teams are dragging
their feet, wanting to see Liberty Media delivering results rather than just
JOE SAWARD talking. That’s fair enough, but it is important that everyone embraces
A professional motorsport writer for 35 years, the last 30 of them in Formula 1, he celebrated
change with a view to creating a better - and more competitive - sport.
his 500th consecutive race in Abu Dhabi in 2016. Starting out travelling with a tent and We believe that there is massive potential that was never developed
a typewriter, he joined Autosport, for which he later became Grand Prix Editor. His wide-
ranging travelling led to a commission to write the best-selling “The World Atlas of Motor
under the previous owners of the commercial rights, because their only
Racing”, which sold 40,000 copies. A freelance for the last 23 years, he was a pioneer in motivation was to make as much money as possible. Liberty Media is
electronic media in F1, launching the award-winning JSBM e-newsletter as early as 1994.
This was followed by www.grandprix.com before he moved on to GP+, his blog Joe Blogs F1
involved because it also wants to make a lot of money, but there is a vision
and the Missed Apex Podcast. Joe also hosts regular Audience with Joe events for F1 fans, to get everyone working together and moving the sport forward so that
believing that the sport shoud engage with its followers. Trained as an historian, Joe is also
an acknowledged expert on the Special Operations Executive (SOE), his book “The Grand
everyone will end up making money and the sport will be better off as
Prix Saboteurs” won the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Renault Author of the Year Award. He has well. The old attitudes, caution and mistrust that existed in the Ecclestone
also written “The Man who Caught Crippen”, a non motor racing book. He is a Visiting Fellow
of Cranfield University.
era are holding back progress to some extent and it is important that this
negative thinking is not allowed to block progress. v
PETER NYGAARD
A law student at Copenhagen University, when he began taking photographs at Formula 1
races, he established the Grand Prix Photo company after he graduated in 1982 and has since
attended well over 500 Grands Prix. Today he not only takes photographs but also writes
and commentates. The company covers every Grand Prix and, with contacts all over the
world, can supply photos from almost any motor race. In addition to current photography
the Grand Prix Photo archive is one of the biggest in the world, Nygaard having acquired
the work of a number of F1 photographers, notably Italian photo-journalist Giancarlo
Cevenini and France’s Dominique Leroy, plus a portion of Nigel Snowdon’s collection. Grand
Prix Photo has 25,000 photographs on its website and millions more in its offices, which are
decorated with a Tyrrell 021, which Peter acquired from Ken Tyrrell.

© 2018 GrandPrix+. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of GrandPrix+.

3
LIFE AROUND THE POND IN SHANGHAI
There may be some keen horticulturalists in
Formula 1, but if there are, I have yet to meet
them. I like the idea of growing things but
as I spend most of my time away from home,
my adventures in gardening tend to be rather
laissez-faire and have, in the past, resulted in
my local mayor ringing up to ask me to cut
back the wisteria, lest it invades the entire
village. Formula 1 and horticulture are strange
bedfellows as the racers tend to use anything
green as a run-off area if things go wrong and
do not worry if they give the grass a bit of a
short back and sides when they hurtle off the
tarmac.
But at the Shanghai International Circuit
they have unusual views about quite a lot of
things. It was built at huge cost in a large and
soggy marsh, which could not be drained
because in places it was more than 300
metres deep. In order to solve this problem
ON THE GRID
by Joe Saward
the construction teams had to sink 40,000
piles into the ground, each of them between
40 and 80 metres in length. A concrete sub-
structure was then fixed on top of these and a
14-metre deep layer of polystyrene was used
to provide suitable buoyancy. The circuit was
then built on top of all this. It cost $240 million
back in 2004. In the paddock area a lake was
constructed around which the team hospitality
units were ranged, on stilts in what is supposed
to be an imitation of the water gardens in
Shanghai’s Yuyuan garden. In order to soften
these concrete constructions, it was decided to
there should be an exotic garden built around
these buildings, with bridges and pathways.
It is very nice, is filled with interesting plants -
and it is impossible to find anybody. The main
paddock area is a big concrete slab behind the
pit building, big enough to land a small plane
on and wide enough to destroy andy sense
4
of intimacy. It might make good a good tank
parade ground. If they dug up the middle of
it and planted some grass and a few trees, it
would be so much better. The whole place is
a bit incongruous and lacks the harmonious
nature of feng shui. If one is brutally honest,
many people in the F1 circus are of the opinion
that the best place in Shanghai is the departure
lounge at Pudong International Airport. This
is not really fair because, on the one hand, the
race organisers make great efforts to welcome
the visitors, while the government makes
communication with the outside world difficult,
by nefarious cyber-censorship and the paddock
is filled with security men in battledress and
helmets. They are neither the army nor the
police, bur rather a private security company.
They do more harm than good.
There is a similar disconnect with the way
in which Ferrari deals with the Formula 1 world.
They have a fantastic deal that pays them wildly
excessive prize money and other benefits (at
the expense of the smaller F1 teams) and they
seem to have some kind of diktat from the
chairman Sergio Marchionne (right) not to talk
to the media. It’s an odd way to go about things
in what is essentially a media business.
As a result, there is a great deal of
frustration and bad feeling surrounding the
team, which is not really fair because they are
mainly good and passionate people, but the
view is that if they will not help F1, then why
should F1 help them.
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene
is a man in a difficult position. He comes across
as someone who doesn’t get much say in what
is happening and yet is smart enough to be
able to cite Bertolt Brecht in press conferences
5
which suggests that he is a lot smarter than he
comes across as being.
Marchionne has the reputation of being a
cut-throat and in F1 terms behaves as though
he is some kind of emperor, who happily
threatens to pull Ferrari out of the sport. It’s
a daft thing to suggest, but if that is what he
wants to do, if he doesn’t get his own way, then
the view is that he should stop huffing and
puffing and get on with it. No-one wants to
see that happen, but at the same time Ferrari
should not be given such advantages at the
expense of others. We want to see an equitable
solution and Liberty Media has made Ferrari a
pretty decent offer in its Bahrain presentation.
In the last issue of this magazine, you
could read an assessment of the proposals
put forward by the Formula One group for
the commercial future of the sport. The article
deliberately avoided going into specific
numbers because the presentation was marked
“strictly private and confidential”.
It is not illegal to reveal the details, but
some would say that it is unethical. Any affect the share price of the company and could respect those wishes.
journalist who can get his or her hands on the be construed as market manipulation, and so This will obviously not help the journalists
presentation document knows that it is private they, the teams and the FIA, don’t want the when it comes to future dealings with the
and confidential and also knows that they are specifics published. There is no valid public people involved and it does not help the
breaking that confidence, even if it is someone interest justification for publishing them. There media to build a better relationship with the
else who has given them that opportunity by is no corruption nor incompetence to expose. movers and shakers in the sport, something
leaking the document to them. One can use the public interest argument in which can only positive as they push to get
The sad truth is that the reports that have revealing the old Concorde Agreement because everyone working together. Perhaps that is
been published are simply about self-interest. there are clearly some elements of that which impossible, but it worth striving for such a goal.
The stories have been written solely for the self- are patently unfair, and it is a contract, rather We don’t want everyone clamming up and
aggrandisement of the authors. than a discussion paper. It is very clear that the saying nothing, but in order to win trust and
The proposal is a commercial proposition parties involved don’t want the proposals being respect, we must respect the people we are
between private parties and one must discussed in the public domain and so we dealing with. One can explain the way things
remember that Liberty Media is a listed decided not to print any specific details. are developing without the need to be overly
company and that this kind of disclosure could Sadly, some other media outlets, did not specific... v
6
Caption
SEVEN TIPS FOR YOUNG DRIVERS by Fernando Alonso

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO FERNANDO

The Road Racing Drivers Club in the United States exists to give drivers greater influence
in the sport. The organisation works to have safer circuits - and to improve driver training.
Their Safe is Fast campaign provides online video tutorials to teach young drivers how to
be both safe and fast on the race track. Fernando Alonso recently joined the campaign’s
experts - giving seven tips for young racing drivers to follow. Here is Fernando’s advice...

ENJOY YOURSELF
“The advice that I always give to
young drivers is that they have to
have fun. I see kids karting. They
enjoy driving, but the problem is
more about the excitement of the
parents and how much pressure
they put on the kid. At the end
of the day if you see your father
is not happy you start having no
fun. That’s the worst thing that
can happen. So, first of all this is a
sport, and you need to have fun. If
the results are coming, if you are
competitive, you will come back
because you have the talent, not
because someone wants another
five percent from a kid who is just
there having fun.
“So the number one rule is to
enjoy what you do.”
19

START IN KARTING
“I think karting is the best school
for everything. Of all the categories
I think you have pure racing when
you drive karts, especially when
you drive karts with low grip or in
wet conditions or something like
that. I think your skills develop
much, much quicker.
“I think the racing, the close
racing in karting, helped me when
I went to single-seaters because
normally in karting you have a
lot of contact. You have a lot of
overtaking manoeuvres and the
kind of strategic and defensive
moves I learned in karting were
very, very, useful in single-seaters
throughout my career.”
HIGH SPEED CORNERS
“High speed corners are the pure
adrenaline of a racing driver. I
think that slow speed corners are
20
something that we like, but in a
way it is easiest thing. You brake
as late as possible, you turn in and
you get on the throttle as soon as
possible. But high-speed corners
are demanding and you have to
show your skills. You need to trust
the car, commit to the corner, have
no fear, and sometimes close one
eye and go on the throttle. I used
to say that I normally race with a
dark visor because the less you see,
the faster you are...”
PRACTICE OVERTAKING
“It depends on the driver you are
overtaking and which lines they
are taking into the corner, but it’s
a good strategy to wait two or
three laps and understand what
lines they are using. After that you
choose your line. Sometimes it
is around the outside, where you
know you have more room to
brake later and more space on the
track, but you need to also judge
the grip and make sure there are
no marbles there and no other
things that may interfere with a
manoeuvre. Sometimes you try to
confuse the guy in front, taking the
slipstream, go on the inside or the
outside and then suddenly change
to the other side and commit to
your line.
“Sometimes you need to be
lucky because if the guy in front
of you doesn’t understand the
manoeuvre then maybe you will
touch each other and it’s the end
of the race for both of you.”
MAKE KILLER STARTS
“I think the starts require a calm
approach even if it sounds the
opposite but you need to be
very calm. The start requires very
precise movement on the throttle,
on the clutch position, on the
temperature and on the tyres. It is everything is dictated by the ago and I have one race that the rain in seven minutes’ and I said:
important how you warm up the simulation, by the computers, by engineer kept telling me that it ‘No, put your hand outside of
tyres before stopping the car on everything is good. It is helping was not raining. You know: ‘If we the pit wall and you will see it is
the grid. the performance and helping to will stay out another five lap...’ and raining. I need to stop now.’
“You need to be exactly on the maximise these machines. I was on the radio screaming: ‘It’s “So definitely technology helps
point you know and very precise “But at the end of the day raining . I cannot keep the car on but there is always the human
with all the movements you do, so you need to trust the human the track! I see the drops of rain.’ being behind the steering wheel
if you are calm maybe you reach being behind the steering wheel. “And they were saying: ‘No, no, and the driver will always be the
those perfect positions. If you are I remember a couple of years the computer is saying that it will most important part.” v
a little bit over-excited, if you have
too much pressure for that race,
if there are external factors that
are affecting you in that moment,
then normally you are not 100
percent precise and the starts
tend to be worse. In my career I
have normally been good at starts
because I try to be as calm as
possible in that moment.”

TRAIN ON SIMULATORS
“We use simulation and simulators
for practice and to develop the car
and the engine. But from a driver’s
point of view practicing the starts,
memorizing these movements,
getting all the automations that
you need to use on the car right.
This is part of our training and the
more you use them the better you
get.”

WORK WITH ENGINEERS

“The engineering era that we are
living in now, you know where

21
INSIGHT: TORO ROSSO HONDA by David Tremayne

HIGH HOPES FOR HONDA

When Franz Tost made all sorts of upbeat comments about the new alliance between Toro Rosso and Honda in Singapore last year,
when the divorce between the engine manufacturer and McLaren was confirmed, nobody took him seriously. In Bahrain, he had the
last laugh

22
As McLaren continued to struggle
with its Renault power unit in
Sakhir, with Fernando Alonso and
Stoffel Vandoorne qualifying 13th
and 14th, Pierre Gasly planted
his STR13 sixth on the grid. That
became fifth with Lewis Hamilton’s
five-place penalty, and then fourth
after a superb race which gave
Honda its best result since Jenson
Button won in Hungary in 2006,
and its best result since it came
back to the sport in 2015. Alonso
was a distant seventh, Vandoorne
eighth…
“It was a very emotional race
result of course, because the
fourth place we didn’t expect,”
Tost admitted on Friday here. “We
expected to show quite a good
performance and realistically I
expected a place between eight
and 10. At the end it was the fourth
place.”
After Gasly had retired with
engine-related problems in the
season opener in Melbourne, that
was a big fillip; all weekend the
Honda power units had been far
more reliable than they ad been in
2017, and the MGU-H in particular
seemed well behaved.
“It was a big positive surprise
and I’m very happy, especially for
Honda after the difficulties they
had in the past, and also for Toro
Rosso of course, and for Pierre,” Tost
continued. “Pierre drove a fantastic
23
race, without any mistakes. He
deserved this fourth position
and I hope that we can continue
in a similar way. Not always in
the fourth position, of course,
because we must not forget that
three cars in front of us did not
finish. They were faster, like Kimi
Räikkönen, then Verstappen and
also Ricciardo. But nevertheless, it
was a good performance.”
Indeed, it was. It owed much to
an aerodynamic upgrade brought
for the race, and also an upgrade in
Honda’s formerly much maligned
engine, now in RA169H guise.
“Of course it was one of our
most satisfying results, especially
thinking about Honda,” Tost said,
“because last year, in December,
we had many meetings in Tokyo
and I promised the president that
we would have a successful season
and a successful future, and this
was the first step. Therefore, I was
quite satisfied to have this good
result.”
The alliance between Toro
Rosso and Honda had got off
to a cordial start even before
Bahrain, but the geography of the
relationship is complex. there is a special programme on kind of stuff, and we also are “I don’t know the circumstances
“Some of the Honda engineers the dyno because we are now currently running a programme in which happened at McLaren and
are based in Milton Keynes, much more involved also in the Sakura.” I do not want to comment on this
because Honda has an R&D dyno runnings. We started already Does he feel it’s a case that because this is past tense and I was
department there, but most in November/December with the Honda is a better fit for a team not involved – therefore I cannot
of them are in Sakura and our gearbox, and engine and gearbox such as Toro Rosso than it was with come up with any conclusions.
engineers are flying to Japan when tests and gearshifts and all this a team such as McLaren? “The fact is Toro Rosso has a
24
fantastic relationship with Honda.
We work very closely together,
we worked quite hard during the
winter months to sort out all the
problems which maybe occurred in
the past, and Honda worked very
hard to come up with a reliable
and competitive engine. The last
two races they proved that this is
the case and I am really optimistic
for the future.”
It’s also said that the Toro Rosso
design team led by James Key was
delighted with the compact size of
the engine.
Things are gelling well on a
human level, too.
“The Toro Rosso team from
its nature is a very friendly team,
with Italian mentality,” Tost says.
“I must say that we never had
any frictions; from the very
beginning onwards we had a good
cooperation. In addition to this,
we organised some workshops
for our engineers and employees
who are working together with
the Honda people, to understand
the culture, to understand the
way of thinking, because the
cultures between Europe and
Japan are different. I must say that
they found a really good way of
working together without any
problems and I am also convinced
that this will continue in this
way. From the technical side, as
I mentioned before, we had a
25
couple of technical meetings in
December where we discussed
different topics and where both
sides started immediately to work
on this and we are still quite close,
cooperating together because we
want to develop the car as well
as the power unit also during the
season.
“From this point of view I
must say Toro Rosso is in the best
situation we have ever been –
because we are now much more
involved in the complete design
process, regarding the car and
how to fit in the power unit, how
to design the cooling system, the
exhaust system, where to put the
electric boxes and so on. I think,
especially for next year, this will be
a big advantage from the complete
car design point of view.”
Gasly himself showed his
mettle with a fine drive, actually
overtaking stablemate Daniel
Ricciardo early in the opening lap
before the Red Bull driver returned
the favour at the end of it.
The Frenchman gave thee
engine company a little boost by
jokingly paraphrasing Fernando
Alonso from his Honda days, Renault-powered MCL33. “It was a way to give back to drivers in all time in F1, one of
during the slowdown lap. “It was just a little joke,” he said. them credit because they are my idols. It was nothing related
“Unbelievable,” he said. “Now we “I just think we need to give credit working really hard. They need personally, it was a comment
can fight.” back to Honda. They had a really credit for the hard work they are for Honda, because I think they
The Spaniard had said the same tough three years with McLaren, doing. deserved the credit.”
thing to McLaren after finishing and to finish fourth in our second “I have huge respect for Over the coming races Honda
fifth in Australia in March with the race with them was just amazing. Fernando, who is one of the best plans to upgrade the RA169H
26
further, with a major update in
Canada.
Brendon Hartley fared less well.
“He was also quite good in the
qualifying,” Tost said. “He missed Q3
just by one tenth.”
As Esteban Icon lapped his
Force India in 1m 30.009s, Hartley’s
best was 1m 30.105s.
“The race went a little bit in
another direction because he
had a collision with Pérez [on
the opening lap] and he got the
10-second penalty and after this
penalty he was not any more in a
position to score points, although
I think if the race had gone for
another three to five laps maybe
he could have finished in 10th
position. He drove a good race.
Brendon is doing a good job,
because you must not forget that
most of the tracks, he doesn’t
know. Also here, he is the first time
with a Formula 1 car, he was here
in LMP1. It’s not so easy to get
everything together with these real
strong midfield competitors and I
am quite convinced that Brendon
is on a good way and he will quite
soon be close to Gasly.”
Shanghai was tougher, as the
lengthy back straight highlighted
the shortcomings of the Honda’s
energy recovery system and thus
reduced maximum speed.
“The track layout is for sure
not one of our favourites,” Gasly
added. “We were pretty slow
in Melbourne, we were very
competitive in Bahrain, even faster
than expected, so it’s difficult
to know exactly where is the
performance of the car.”
There was a problem on Hartley
car on Friday, and generally the
team struggled here. The low
temperature and the wind didn’t
help, and the car had suffered the
latter in Australia too.
Gasly found that changes
for Saturday had not effected
an improvement, and there was
insufficient time between that and
qualifying.
“Hopefully we can understand
what went wrong and find the
pace again,” he said. “Yesterday we
struggled a bit with the front of the
car and today there were problems
with the rear. I would say we know
in the long run we’re usually pretty
good with the degradation, but
tonight we need to understand
why the changes we made didn’t
work. We’ll try everything to come
back tomorrow.
“But we are going to be in
the fight for the midfield, and
hopefully on top of it.”
Time will tell, but Bahrain gave
an interesting insight into the
potential of the Toro Rosso Honda
package. v
27
HEINEKEN F1 FESTIVAL by Chico Rella

TAKING RACING
TO THE PEOPLE
Hot on the heels of an incident-packed Bahrain Grand Prix,
Formula 1 revved up for more action at the 2018 Formula 1
Heineken Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

This time, however, the action
was not confined to the Shanghai
International Circuit. For the
first time, F1 action headed into
downtown Shanghai with the
spectacular Heineken F1 Festival,
part of the ongoing effort to
connect cities to circuits and
energize a whole new audience of
Formula 1 fans.
Formula 1 Events Director Alex
Molina (left) explains how the
event worked and what the future
hold for connecting circuits to
cities...
The primary location of the
festival was the Jing’An Kerry
Centre, a premium commercial
venue right in the heart of
Shanghai.
28
.
“We’re taking over the whole
area,” Molina said before the event.
“We’ll block the road; we have
a big stage with a lot of music
and entertainment as well as
activations. We really want people
to be able to live the experience of
Formula 1, but maybe on a slightly
lighter level than that which they
would experience at the track in
the Fan Zone.”
It all kicked off on Friday April
13th in the late afternoon and, as
the date suggested, it was perhaps
not the best timing as Shanghai
was drenched at that point by a
huge thunderstorm...
“The event opened with two
F1 World Champions, Sir Jackie
Stewart and Nico Rosberg, on
hand to help. That was followed by
some fantastic entertainment. We
had superstar DJ Armin van Buuren
playing until around 10pm.
“What we wanted to do was
to bring the spectacle, passion
and the power of Formula 1 to
people in the city centre who
are not attending the race. The
Shanghai International Circuit is
quite a distance from the centre
of Shanghai and what we wanted
to do was to directly connect the
circuit to the city.
“On Saturday we broadcast
qualifying live on the big screens
at the Kerry Centre and we had
explanations of everything that
was happening at the track, giving
festival-goers a real insight into the
action and, of course, we had loads
of activations with our partners
Pirelli, DHL and Emirates.
“Up until the end of qualifying it
was all about motorsport, showing
people the excitement and drama
of F1 and explaining how each part
of the process works. We’ll also
had a lot of interactive elements
such as simulators and pit stop
challenges to really engage people
with F1.
“After qualifying we had more
entertainment with Angela Chang,
a major singing and acting star in
China who is currently doing really
well on a Chinese talent show Singer
2018, which is a bit like The Voice.
“Later on, we’ll really got into
party mode when we moved
location to our second home for
the weekend, the F1 House at the
M1NT night club, one of Shanghai’s
top venues. Obviously, while the
fan festival element was open to
anyone, the F1 House was a much
more exclusive environment and
was a much more VIP guest and
paddock-oriented event, especially
on Sunday night when the after-
race party was held there.
“Sunday at the Kerry Centre was
really geared around the race and
we brought all the atmosphere
of the Grand Prix to people in the
city centre, showing them how
everything ramped up towards the
race start.
“It’s not easy to have driver
appearances as the circuit is a
long way from the city, so Friday
was very difficult but on Saturday
evening we were able to bring
some drivers down to meet fans
before Angela Chang took to the
stage.
“Outside the fan base we had
at the race, which is growing all
the time, there is not that much
awareness of what F1 is all about.
We are bringing the festival to a
really popular spot in Shanghai
so we were hoping for a really
big crowd across the weekend.
Heineken had done a lot of pre-
event promotion so was confident
29
that it would be a really good.
“This event was quite different
to the F1 Live event in London in
2017.”
Molina says that the planned fan
festivals in Marseilles, Berlin and
Miami will be rather different.
“I think what we’re planning
to do is to take what we did in
London, which was one afternoon,
and expand that across five days,”
he says. “In Shanghai we were
slightly constrained logistically
and operationally, so it has been
compressed to three days, but
the other festivals this year are
all planned to be five-day events,
from Wednesday to Sunday.
That will certainly be the case
in Marseilles. I’m really positive
about Shanghai, though, there is
a great appetite for this kind of
event in the city and the level of
enthusiasm is really high.”
There are a number of other
things happening at the moment,
such as the promotional event in
Vietnam.
“Vietnam is a Heineken event,”
Molina says. “That is fantastic, and
I’m sure that’s a model that will
continue and we’ll try to add value
to it for them, but what we would
like to do is build fan festivals that
partners can plug directly into,
bringing everyone together to
really showcase Formula 1 and all
our partners in a really incredible
30
way.
“We have four events this year
and we would really love to extend
that to many more locations next
year. In certain places the track is
in the city, or really close to a city
centre, but at other venues the
circuit is remote – Le Castellet is a
good example; it’s close but still
quite separate from somewhere
like Marseilles – so what we want
to do at races like that is really
connect the Grand Prix to a city
or to people who might not
otherwise have any exposure to
Formula 1, educating them about
this amazing sport, thrilling them
and giving them some world-class
entertainment.”
Extending the idea to regions
where there are no Grands Prix is
the next step.
“I think that’s the next level and
I think that’s what we’re doing in
Miami – which is quite far removed
from Austin,” Molina says. “There,
we’ll be creating much more of a
warm-up event, demonstrating F1
to people who might otherwise
have no connection to the sport
and showing them this amazing
world. It’s all about extending
the spectacle of Formula 1 to as
wide and audience as possible in
locations where we think there is
an appetite for F1.
“It really is about bringing the
power to the people.” v
 The heritage of racing, brought to you by
CYRIL DE ROUVRE by Joe Saward

HOW NOT TO DO FORMULA 1

The history of Grand Prix racing is dotted with people who arrived, didn’t have a clue, made
a mess of things and departed - poorer for the experience. Some even did it more than
once, their passion overriding all logic and business sense...

31
There was a time when sugar was
so valuable that only the very
wealthy could afford it, but as
people sought to make profits, so
the technology improved and the
supply increased and the once
“fine herb” gradually became a
cheap commodity that everyone
could afford and use every day.
Along the way, vast fortunes were
made and men did unspeakable
things to get rich. Lands were
seized, slaves were traded, all in
the name of profit.
Cane sugar came first, initially
from Asia and later from the
Caribbean and South America,
where the plants grew very
successfully. And then a German
scientist called Andreas Marggraf
discovered there was sucrose in
beetroot. It was much harder to
extract but eventually he found
a way to make it economically
viable. The Napoleonic Wars saw
the French ban the importation
of cane sugar, in an effort to inflict
economic damage on the British
and so France turned to sugar
beet and new fortunes were made.
the newly wealthy bought land,
castles and titles and became
politicians to further their causes.
By the end of the 19th Century
Gustave Lebaudy was one of the
richest men in France. In 1881 his
daughter 20-year-old Geneviève
married Charles Bourlon de
Rouvre, 10 years her senior, a
functionary. As a result Charles
began working in the sugar
business, running the business for
his father-in-law and managing
sugar refineries across the eastern
side of France. He became the local
mayor, then a deputé for the Haute
Marne departément, living in a
grand town house on the Avenue
de l’Alma in Paris, which today
serves as the Chinese Embassy.
His children and grandchildren
32
ran the sugar business - but
there was money for them to
experiment, and to follow their
passions.
Two of his sons, Paul and
Pierre, spent large sums of money
developing dirigible balloons,
which they hoped the French
army would adopt, while Paul’s
son Jean lived an exciting life as an
explorer, archaeologist, collector
of artefacts, pilot and racing driver,
competing under the pseudonym
of François Lescot in races
between 1921 and 1927.
His cousin Évrard Bourlon de
Rouvre, was passionate about the
cinema and became a producer
and director in the early years of
film-making.
Évrard’s son was born in 1945
and baptised Cyril. He was
sent to the finest schools and
emerged from his education
speaking several languages,
well-prepared for the modern
business age. he joined the family
business but then began to run
his own businesses, including a
British Leyland car dealership.
He collected expensive cars and
rallied with Renault products. His
passion for motorsport saw him
fall in with a pack of adventurers,
led by Thierry Sabine, and they
created the Abidjan-Nice Rally,
the prototype for the Paris-Dakar
that followed. Cyril drove a Range
Rover from Abidjan to Nice.
Not long afterwards, his life
changed dramatically when his
father Évrard was stabbed to
death by his valet in 1979 and
at 34 Cyril inherited the family
fortune, including real estate
holdings, sugar refineries and
around 30 other companies. In
the years that added he added
to the conglomerate, buying
leading a leveraged buyout of
the Compagnie Fraissinet, which
owned the Transair executive
aviation company, which
maintained and serviced hundreds
of planes and helicopters, in
addition to running a VIP terminal
at Paris’s Le Bourget airport.
This was followed in 1987 by
the purchase of Financière Robur,
a company owned by former film
producer Robert Dorfmann, which
owned a catalogue of 650 movies.
De Rouvre also invested in
movie production, bought a
hotel in Tahiti and was elected
as the mayor of Chaumont,
the préfecture of the Haute-
Marne department, where has
33
grandfather had been the local
deputé. He would then become
a regional councillor for the
Champagne-Ardennes region.
In 1988 Financière Robur
became a sponsor of the AGS
team, with driver Philippe Streiff
(above), with a car called the JH23.
It was a good car and Streiff’s
best result was eighth in Suzuka.
The car was revised for 1989
but in pre-season testing Streiff
crashed in pre-season testing at
the Jacarepaguá circuit in Brazil
and suffered neck injuries, which
left him paralysed. Team owner
Henri Julien was so upset by the
accident that he decided to sell the
team and de Rouvre jumped at the
opportunity. He used his business
contacts to get sponsorship from
French electrical company Faure
and Gabriele Tarquini was hired to
replace Streiff, alongside German
Joachim Winkelhock, who had
funding from Liqui Moly.
De Rouvre hired a string of new
people to lead the happy-go-
lucky little operation but the new
JH24 was late arriving and by the
time the car was ready to race,
AGS had slipped into the pre-
qualifying session for each Grand
Prix. Winkelhock was replaced by
Yannick Dalmas, but neither he nor
Tarquini could qualify for a race
that summer. It was brutal.
In the autumn de Rouvre
restructured the team again, with
a new technical director in Michel
34
Costa and ORECA boss Hugues
de Chaunac being named as
team director. The team landed
sponsorship from the French
fashion house Ted Lapidus and
Dalmas and Tarquini - a good
driver line-up - were retained. De
Rouvre funded a new purpose-
built factory at the Circuit du Luc.
All of this cost de Rouvre a
significant amount of money
with $18 million being spent but
although Dalmas scored ninth
place in Spain in 1990, which lifted
the team from pre-qualifying,
it became clear that de Rouvre
could not afford to go on alone.
He had to start selling some of
the family businesses to keep the
cash flowing in, including Transair,
and then the Société de Fabriques de Sucre
(SFS), which was sold to a rival firm. There were
discussions about a merger between AGS and
rival Larrousse and Dalmas decided to move on
and signed to have a paid drive with Peugeot in
sports cars in 1991. This would lead to victory
at Le Mans in 1992, the first of four wins in the
classic French endurance event. Tarquini stayed
on.
AGS had discussions with Andrea de Cesaris,
who had a substantial budget from Marlboro,
but the Italian decided that the new Jordan
team was a better bet than AGS and took his the new JH26 was not ready in time for the
sponsorship money there. In a last-minute deal, new season and so AGS had to make do with a
AGS signed for Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson. revised version of the old car. After the Brazilian
The team was underfunded that winter and Grand Prix at the end of March 1991 de Rouvre
35
was forced to seek protection from bankruptcy
protection from the French courts.
Shortly afterwards Italians Gabriele Rafanelli
and Patricio Cantu took over the team, agreeing
to find a financial solution and to revive AGS.
Johansson departed but Tarquini stayed on and
was joined by Fabrizio Barbazza.
De Rouvre moved on quickly and was soon
busy doing a deal to merge Financière Robur
with its much larger rival, the Union Générale
Cinématographique (UGC), creating a company
called UGC-DA, in which de Rouvre held an
18.6 percent shareholding. He then raised a
loan against the new shareholding and used
the money to buy into the Ligier team, which
seemed like a much better investment than
AGS, thanks to its owner Guy Ligier having been
able to secure a Renault engine supply deal for
1993 as a result of his close relationship with
President François Mitterand. Ligier also had
the promise of substantial sponsorship from
French government companies Elf, SEITA (which
owned Gitanes) and the French national lottery
company La Française des Jeux.
Ligier, who was then 62, decided at Monaco
that he was fed up with Formula 1 after the
crowds booed him. He wanted out and de
Rouvre agreed to pay him $30 million to buy
the team. By the end of the year de Rouvre
had taken over the team and hired British
drivers Mark Blundell and Martin Brundle
(below) to drive the Ligier JS39, designed by
Gérard Ducarouge. The result was a car that
was capable of scoring a number of podium
finishes that year and finishing Ligier fifth in the
Constructors’ Championship in 1993, its best
result for several seasons.
As this was happening, de Rouvre was
running into trouble with UGC, which
discovered that the company it had been sold
was $30 million in debt. De Rouvre promised to
repay the money by the end of 1992, but $18
million still outstanding at Christmas and in
May 1993 they ran out of patience and filed a
legal complaint against him.
36
The case would not get to court until
December and de Rouvre was shocked when
Judge Eva Joly decided that he should be
remanded in custody, pending an investigation
and he was incarcerated in Fleury-Mérogis
prison in the south of Paris for two months.
The Ligier team’s future hung in the balance.
Both McLaren and Renault were keen to get
their hands on Ligier’s supply of Renault
engines and with de Rouvre in need of money,
de Rouvre saw the chance to sell the team.
McLaren withdrew from the fight, unwilling
to get into the complex dealings with de
Rouvre, Renault and the French government,
but Benetton’s Flavio Briatore agreed to pay all
the necessary bills and acquired the team for a
great deal less than de Rouvre had paid for it.
The result of all this was that in 1995 Ligier’s
Renault V10s were switched to Benetton,
while Ligier was given a supply of Mugen
Hondas. Michael Schumacher would win
the World Championship in 1995 with his
Benetton-Renault, while Ligier was sold on to
Tom Walkinshaw, although the deal was never
completed and the team was eventually sold to
Alain Prost and became Prost Grand Prix.
De Rouvre was gone from F1. He lost his
job as mayor of Chaumont in the municipal
elections in 1995 and went to trial in 1999.
He was given a suspended 18-month prison
sentence, a large fine and a ban from managing
a company for 3 years.
De Rouvre turned to farming, making a brief
return to politics in 2013 in the local council in
Chaumont, but resigned in 2015. v
 Nobody looked less like a racing
OBITUARY: JOHN MILES by David Tremayne
driver than John Miles, who died
on Sunday, April 8th, at the age

THE QUIET MAN of 74 after falling into a coma

from which he never recovered
having taken medication following
a minor stroke. But behind his
bespectacled mien he was a quick
and competent racer and a superb
development engineer.
He was born in Islington on
June 14, 1943, and was the son
of character actor and theatre
entrepreneur Bernard Miles and
actress Josephine Wilson. His
father is best remembered for
founding the Mermaid Theatre
in St John’s Wood in 1959, before
it eventually moved to London’s
North Bank, and was also famous
for a time on British television
for his countryside character
monologues and as the star of
Makeson stout advertisements. In
1969 he became only the second
British actor (after Sir Laurence
Olivier) to be knighted, and 10
years later he was awarded a
life peerage as Lord Miles of
Blackfriars. That made his son
the Hon. John Miles, and he had
two sisters: Sally, an actress, and
Bridget, an artist and sculptress.
John had few thespian
inclinations himself, and the
influence of his mother’s brothers
drew him instead to engineering.
Initially he raced Austin 7s in the
37
early Sixties, before running John
Wilks’ 3.4-litre Omega-Jaguar
(right) and then a Diva GT in 1964.
He won races all over the UK in the
latter, but he and Peter Jackson
also won their class in the car in
the Nurburgring 1000 kms when
they were competing on the same
track as the works Ferrari 275Ps.
With sponsorship from team owner
John Willment, for whom he went
to work as a progress chaser, he
had such a successful season with
the car in 1965 that he was the
overall champion in the Redex
Sports Car Championship and
took third place in the prestigious
Grovewood Awards, behind Piers
Courage and Tony Dean.
Another hugely successful
season in 1966 saw him take the
Autosport GT Championship in a
Willment Lotus Elan 26R, winning
15 of his 17 UK races, and also
competing abroad on challenging
tracks such as Vila Real, Cascais
and Montes Claros. He also won a
race at Brands Hatch in Willment’s
Cobra coupe.
His best victory with the
26R came at Brands where he
dropped to last on the first lap of
a 15-lap event when the bonnet
flew open. After a hasty pit stop
to have it ripped off he stormed
back through the field to catch
and pass Tony Lanfranchi’s V8 TVR
Griffith and then Bernard Unett’s
Le Mans Sunbeam Tiger on the
final corner, to take the win. Lotus’s
sales director Graham Arnold was
spectating, and drew him to boss
Colin Chapman’s attention. That
led to four laps in a Lotus-Cortina
at Oulton Park before a delayed
Jim Clark arrived to reclaim the
car, and then John being asked to
debut Lotus’s new 47 GT car at the
Boxing Day Brands Hatch. After he
won there Chapman invited him
to race the car in 1967, together
with a Lotus 41 in Formula 3. John
38
had a successful season, but the
41 was a handful and after he had
tried and loved the more forgiving
Brabham BT21 towards the end of
the year, Dave Baldwin and Alan
Barrett reworked the Lotus with
a longer wheelbase and sleeker
bodywork. In 1968 John raced the
resultant Lotus 41X and the Lotus
62 sportscar, and after winning
four International F3 races in the
former he was promoted to Roy
Winkelmann’s Bernie Ecclestone-
owned team of Lotus 59s in
Formula 2 for 1969. He finished a
strong third in the season finale at
Vallelunga. He was also given the
task of racing the four-wheel-drive
Lotus 63 in F1.
Though he found Chapman
inspiring, John’s relationship never
really gelled with the mercurial
White Tornado, perhaps because
of the team owner’s innate distrust
of drivers who were technically-
minded. Despite his successes with
the Lotus 41X, Chapman rarely
paid John or the car any attention,
and he was paid only £300 per race
with the 63, which both Graham
Hill and Jochen Rindt had refused
to drive following its deeply
unimpressive performance during
its first appearance in practice at
the Dutch GP.
Chapman remained convinced
that 4WD was the way forward,
following the performance
of Maurice Philippe’s turbine-
powered Lotus 56 at Indianapolis
in 1968, and John quickly formed
the view that he was regarded by
the boss merely as some sort of
grease monkey. He qualified 12th
out of 13 on their joint F1 debut
in the French GP at Clermont-
Ferrand, but retired after a lap
when the fuel pump overheated.
He then qualified 14th and drove
the unloved machine to 10th place,
nine laps down and stuck in third
gear after a long pit stop that failed
to rectify selection problems, in the
British GP at Silverstone (above).
After Mario Andretti had crashed
a 63 heavily at the Nürburgring in
the German GP, John drove again
in Italy, where the engine broke
after three laps, Canada where the
transmission failed after 40, and
Mexico where it lasted three laps
before the fuel pump overheated
again. The 63 was simply too
heavy and too cumbersome for
twisting circuits and the complex
transmission had huge power
39
losses. All-wheel drive was better
suited to the sort of constant
state cornering encountered at
Indianapolis, which is why he
was only able to qualify well at
Mosport, where he was 11th on the
grid as its sweeping corners suited
the car better.
When Hill had his huge leg-
breaking shunt at Watkins Glen
at the end of the year, Chapman
wanted his old friend to retire, and
attempted to ease him towards
that by signing John as Jochen’s
number two for 1970. But Graham
signed up to drive Rob Walker’s
ex-Siffert Lotus 49 instead.
In the opening race of the new
season (right), John qualified his
Lotus 49C 14th in the 23-car field
and scored his only championship
points by finishing fifth, one place
ahead of Graham. He had soldiered
on despite enduring a fuel leak into
the cockpit for much of the race,
but was chastised by Chapman for
failing to beat Jean-Pierre Beltoise’s
Matra for fourth place.
He was then heavily involved
with the development of the
revolutionary wedge-shaped
Lotus 72, which was more than a
handful in its initial guise. He and
Jochen struggled with the car in
the Spanish GP at Jarama, where
he failed to qualify, and again at
the International Trophy race at
Silverstone when he was 17th, 15
laps down.
The major problem was the
anti-dive front suspension and
the anti-squat rear. They were spending too much time trying to the winning spree that would and John Surtees’ McLaren. It
designed to maintain an even ride fettle the 72. ultimately take him to the World would be his most convincing
height, but all either succeeded in A heavily revised version of Championship. outing in a Grand Prix, but both he
doing was robbing the car of any the 72 with normal suspension John qualified his Spa car and Jochen were deeply saddened
feel. John said it was possible to was then created, which required seventh at the Dutch circuit and by the death of their friend
lock a front brake long before it felt a different monocoque. Jochen finished in the same position, Courage on the fifth lap.
as if you were going to. raced a 49C at Spa, where John having earlier battled in fifth place As Rindt won again France,
Jochen hated the car and had a miserable time in an interim with Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari and John took the interim car to eighth,
famously reverted to the 49C to 72 before the gearbox broke. Piers Courage’s de Tomaso before then qualified an updated version
win in Monaco, where John again Then Jochen got the modified car brake wear dropped him back after seventh but retired after 15 laps
failed to qualify a similar car after for Zandvoort, where he began another strong fight with Beltoise with engine failure as Jochen won
40
the British GP at Brands Hatch. the aerodynamic appendages. dug under the barriers close to one Canada either, but just as John
By then the writing was on Then Jochen crashed heavily at of the mounting stanchions and was preparing to race in America
the wall as Chapman ran a 49C Parabolica on Saturday afternoon, was ripped off as the car torqued he was informed that he had been
for promising Brazilian Emerson and was killed. round. He refused to wear the replaced. Fittipaldi had crashed
Fittipaldi. He finished eighth John was convinced that the crutch straps on his seat belts, a new 72 at Parabolica during
there, then fourth as Jochen won accident had been caused by and his throat was cut on the belt practice at Monza after misjudging
yet again at the German GP in another broken front brake shaft, buckle as he submarined out of the his braking, but would now lead
Hockenheim. John’s retirement albeit of a slightly different nature front of the shattered cockpit. the team in place of Jochen, while
at Brands had been caused by an to the one he had suffered in The team withdrew from the rising Formula 5000 star Reine
undetected hairline crack in a water Austria. The front of Jochen’s 72 Italian GP and did not run in Wisell had taken John’s seat.
pipe, and this proved his undoing
again in Germany as he was battling
with Surtees and Denny Hulme
after qualifying 10th. By then it
was clear to him that his was the
third car in Chapman’s mind, but
he qualified 10th again in Austria.
His race, which turned out to be
his final Grand Prix, lasted only
four laps, however, before a front
brake shaft sheared. That had been
caused by a fault drilling lightening
holes, and he was lucky it happened
in a relatively slow corner and got
away with a shaking.
Team Lotus’s season reached its
tragic nadir at Monza (right). Trying
to resist the mounting challenge of
Ferrari’s powerful flat-12 engines,
Chapman insisted that Jochen and
John run without wings. Jochen
wasn’t happy but pressed on,
anxious to clinch his title. John
was extremely reluctant, as the
lack of downforce made the 72s
horribly unstable, but Chapman
brusquely overruled his feelings
and ordered him to run without
41
 The world believed that the six laps. more cerebral after hanging up technical journalism was excellent
introspective John had taken He drew far greater enjoyment his helmet. For a while he went because he knew exactly what he
the decision to quit. After all, he from driving for Denys Dobbie’s back to his first love, building was talking about and developed
had been the first on the scene D.A.R.T. Chevron B19 2-litre engines for Ken Brittain and Spike a style in which he avoided
at Oulton Park in 1969 when Paul sportscar team, for whom he won Winter who ran a company called confusing his readers with too
Hawkins crashed his Lola T70 in the British Sportscar Championship Racing Services which supplied much ‘engineerspeak’.
flames, and had been there when in 1971, but soon after he had units for Gordon Spice’s Group Later, wanting to get hands-
Courage and Rindt died. But that shared Malcolm Gartlan’s Ford Capri 1 Capris. After three years, he on again, he went back to Lotus
wasn’t the case. He was always with Brian Muir to finish second then carved himself a successful Engineering as an engineer
adamant that Chapman had in an ETCC race at Zandvoort and career as a technical writer, most alongside his friend Peter Wright,
chosen to drop him. They’d had then to win the Six Hour event at notably with Autocar’s road test working on the Lotus Sunbeam
no further conversation after the Paul Ricard, he decided that he had team and via his Miles Behind the and sorting out Toyota’s Supra.
argument over wings at Monza. raced long enough. Wheel column. Though he found When Lotus was sold to General
He was offered the F5000 Lotus He wanted to do something the writing difficult initially, his Motors, he did a tremendous
70 to race at Brands Hatch, but was
happy to leave what he memorably
described as “a tractor, a b*gger’s
muddle of a car,” to Alan Rollinson.
He was signed instead as the
development driver at BRM for
1971, alongside Pedro Rodriguez,
Jo Siffert and Howden Ganley,
but only competed in a couple
of non-championship races. In
the Race of Champions at Brands
Hatch he qualified his ageing P153
(right) a respectable fifth behind
Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell 001, Denny
Hulme’s McLaren M19A, winner
Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari 312 B2, and
Graham Hill’s Brabham BT34, and
ahead of rated team-mate Howden
Ganley, but finished seventh after a
pit stop; in the Rhein-Pokalrennen
at Hockenheim he qualified sixth
right behind Ganley, but as the
New Zealander finished fourth, his
P153 cracked a cylinder liner after
42
amount of under-the-radar been when he raced. And he later their release of Peter King’s as we sat talking about races of
development work eradicating derived greater satisfaction from Tamburello, inspired by the death the past. He was always interested
the dreaded torque-steer and solving engineering problems on of Ayrton Senna, won the BT Jazz in the technical and technique
civilising the new front-wheel mass production roadcars, working CD of the year award. side of things, never in blowing
drive Lotus Elan, working on the to a budget, than working in F1 John was a lovely man, his own trumpet. He just wasn’t
US version of the front-wheel where they seemed to have no whom you were always happy that sort of person. And he was an
drive Cavalier and the Ford Focus, limit. Looking back, he believed to bump into. Back in the early understanding and tolerant tutor.
developing active suspension, that he had done more worthwhile Eighties I remember spending We later worked together
and doing further development things in his post-racing career. time with him in a front-wheel briefly in his last stint with Team
work for Kia, Hyundai, Rolls-Royce In 1985 he had pursued another drive hatchback – a Vauxhall, Lotus, and I remember being
and Volvo. It was all engaging passion when he founded Miles perhaps? - on Michelin’s test track embarrassed at Interlagos in 1992
engineering work, in which he Music with his friend Peter Watts, at Ladoux, and marvelling at his when he raved about the drive I’d
took great pride. to create jazz records. Eleven years smooth and unflurried car control had in Sammy Miller’s Vanishing
In 1992 he returned to F1
when he joined Wright and Peter
Collins as a race engineer for the
newly rejuvenated Team Lotus,
working two days a week and
going to several Grands Prix. He
liked Johnny Herbert and Mika
Hakkinen (right), but the following
year felt that Alex Zanardi had the
most mature outlook and the best
technical understanding.
After 18 years with Lotus
Engineering he spent three years
developing the DB7 GT, the DB9,
the Vanquish and the Vanquish S
for Aston Martin, before burn-out
persuaded him to take up an offer
from Larry Holt to work the for
Canadian company Multimatic, at
its base in Norfolk. He continued
there until his stroke.
He would describe himself not
as a designer, but as a prompter
who would give input into what
needed changing, just as he had
43
Point rocket car in 1982. He had
driven Santa Pod’s sister Scorpion
jet car, a mammoth with a Rolls-
Royce Avon turbojet, and I suspect
that his engineer’s interest had
been piqued much more by the
Vanisher’s technology. Parts of it
were very simply, but John would
have liked the manner in which
something relatively simple and
straightforward produced its
results. He was also impressed with
its awesome speed.
In 1996 I had a room next
to Andy Green’s in Petra, when
ThrustSSC was being tested for
the first time on the Al Jafr Desert
in Jordan. I could hear Andy on
the phone, and after I’d fallen
asleep then awoken in the middle
of the night, he was still talking
away. I mentioned his lack of sleep
over breakfast the next day, and
it transpired that he had been
speaking all that time with John.
He had been consulting on TSSC’s
curious rear-wheel steering which
was necessary because the front
wheels had insufficient room to
steer as they were located up
front in nacelles with the two
Rolls-Royce Spey engines which
were mounted either side of the
cockpit. TSSC resembled a pair of
binoculars that had been interfered
with by a rampant pencil.
John had initially advised Andy
that his best bet was to make
minimal inputs so as not to excite
the system too much. But after
trying that, Andy discovered that
method simply wasn’t going to
work. The TSSC project was facing
a major drama that could have
ended it before it had really begun.
But John and Andy spent that
night figuring out a way to beat
the system, and eventually Andy
drove the big black monster to a
44
new land speed record of 714.144
mph on September 25th, 1997,
before setting the world’s only
supersonic mark at 763.035 mph
on October 15th 1997.
“I was very sorry to hear of
John’s passing,” Andy said. “It
would be lovely to mention his
contribution to TSSC. I can’t really
comment on him as a person as I
hardly knew him. However, I was
very impressed by his analysis of
TSSC, together with his concise
and highly insightful written
report, which I still have as a
treasured memory of the project. It
was an impressive piece of work for
such an unusual (and at the time
incomplete) vehicle.
“His subsequent on-the-phone
analysis of the car’s handling
difficulties was also extremely
valuable, as it gave me the
confidence to try the bold ‘drive
through it’ strategy that eventually
made it work for us.”
Without John’s input, Britain
might not have set a unique record
that still stands.
“Somebody said I didn’t look
like an F1 driver,” he once admitted.
“I looked like a geography teacher,
and I should have been wearing a
chalky tweed jacket with leather
elbows.”
In Autocar’s obituary, Steve
Cropley mentioned a handling day
run when a younger staffer was
impressed by John’s driving and
asked, with the ignorance of youth,
whether he had ever done any
racing.”
“A bit,” John replied, without
feeling any need to elucidate.
Both comments summed up
perfectly a quiet and unassuming
man who was comfortable with
who he was, and even more so
with what he could do. v
QUALIFYING ANALYSIS by Joe Saward

ALL RED CHINA...

After the first two races in Australia and Bahrain, it seemed that the Ferraris and the Mercedes were fairly evenly-matched, but then in
Q3 in Shanghai, the Mercedes were left behind. It was a Ferrari 1-2, and a dominant one too. It was all down to getting the tyres into
their operating window. But would the same thing happen in the race?

45
Until the final seconds of the Q3
session it looked as though Kimi
Raikkonen was on his way to his
first pole position since Monaco
2017, but then Vettel flashed across
the line to secure his 52nd pole
position. It was a fairly miserable
cold day in Shanghai but China’s F1
fans turned out in large numbers
to watch the action and were
rewarded with an exciting session,
even if the Mercedes duo were not
really in the picture.
It was odd was that they had
been in Q2, when they were using
soft tyres, but on the ultrasofts,
which were harder to get working.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari chose to
use soft tyres in Q2, which meant
they would start the race on those
tyres.
Vettel was delighted to be
starting at the front but said that it
had not been easy.
“The wind was changing,
sometimes more, sometimes less,”
he said, “and it was a bit gusty as
well. I was trying to look around to
see where the flags are, trying to
get a reference. The last lap in Q3
I knew I could step it up. I knew I
had a bit more in me, because on
the first run I had two moments,
out of Turn 3. The same out of Turn
6, I lost the rear twice, so I lost a bit
of momentum in those places. So
I knew that I had a little bit more
and obviously in the last lap I got
46
 it all together and was very happy.
We are a bit surprised to be as far
ahead as we are.
“The first three races have been
a bit different. The tracks are quite
different to each other and to have
that much of a gap is a bit of a
surprise. But I think it’s also a track
where you just need to get in and
find that sweet spot and if you are
a little bit out then you easily lose
time, so I wouldn’t be surprised
tomorrow if that gap disappears
and it will be a very tight race. I
think in the previous races we have
seen that we’ve been a bit better
on the harder tyre compounds. We
are working on trying to get more
from the softer tyres, but I still
think that gap between Lewis and
I is still very small, so the fight is all
about small details.”
Kimi Raikkonen was his usual
deadpan self.
“It was pretty straightforward,”
he droned in Kimi-speak. “Not
much really happened. Not much
to say that was wrong. For sure
there are things that we can
improve always – but that’s a
never-ending story.”
Down at Mercedes they were a
little bit shell-shocked by the scale
of the defeat.
“It was quite straightforward
for us,” Bottas explained after
qualifying third, a fractoion ahead
of Lewis Hamilton. “Run by run
47
we were understanding the tyres,
getting them to work better, but
today we could never achieve
similar grip levels to Ferrari. We
thought we would be fighting for
pole position but it was beyond
out reach today. There was no was
we could have closed that gap. I
think there is a little bit in terms of
getting the tyres absolutely perfect
but it was not half a second. I
think they have a really strong
car, especially in long corners.
They make good gains on us and
obviously without any speed
difference on the straights, they
48
can keep the gains they make in
the corners. We definitely have
work to do...”
Hamilton said that it had been
a “difficult” day.
“We started the weekend
positively in practice, but the car
went away from us today, the
pace just wasn’t there. Ferrari
have definitely improved over the
weekend - maybe they didn’t show
their true pace yesterday - but
today they were rapid.
“We were half a second behind
them in qualifying, which is why
I boxed on my final lap because I
knew I couldn’t match their pace.
It’s not going to be easy to beat
Kimi and Sebastian tomorrow.
They’re the quickest on the
straights too, so overtaking will be
tough.”
Having said that, the Mercedes
was better on the soft tyres and so
there promised to be a tight fight.
At the same time, both teams
reckoned that Red Bull needs to be
watched as well. The team has had
a difficult time thus far, but the cars
have pace if it all comes together.
The team was very consistent on
the ultrasoft tyres on Friday and
would no doubt be willing to
gamble on strategy.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff
called it “a complex weekend”.
49
“On some laps, we have hit
the window of tyre performance
just right, but more often it has
felt like we were chasing that
window, especially on the UltraSoft
tyre. Ferrari has been strong in all
conditions and on all tyres.”
Max Verstappen ended up fifth
on the grid and reported that his
Red Bull was well-balanced but
reckoned that there was not much
more potential.
“Fifth on the grid is quite
realistic and where we should
have been,” he explained. “I don’t
feel like we got the maximum out
of the engine in Q3, I think there
would have been some time to
find if we had. We are losing time
on both of the straights which is
hard to make up in other areas of
the track. We knew the corners
would be important but it was not
enough to make up the difference.
Ferrari were very fast but we were
not that far off Mercedes at the
end. In the race they can’t use the
same engine modes so, based on
the long run pace, we can be a lot
closer to the guys in front.”
Daniel Ricciardo had engine
troubles on Saturday morning but
made a terrific recovery to line up
sixth on the grid.
50
“I want to thank the mechanics
for doing such a great job. I think
they have broken their own record
for an engine change several
times and they did it again today,”
he said. “It got to 2pm and the
guys were saying get ready, but
we didn’t think it was going to
happen. I didn’t expect to get out.
I was ready to go and was excited
when I did. What happened this
morning wasn’t the mechanics’
fault but they had all the pressure
to put the new engine in the car
in time and they did very well.
In the end it’s relatively close,
we’re at the tail end of the top six
which isn’t ideal, but I think with
all things considered it wasn’t a
bad afternoon. Max will start on
ultrasofts, so strategy will definitely
play a big part.”
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh
fastest in his Renault and was
pretty happy with the result.
“That was probably the best we
could do today,” he explained. “We
achieved our qualifying mission
and that’s a positive. I’ve had a
good feeling and good rhythm
on this track. Tomorrow is a little
more challenging, the first stint
51
will likely be on the shorter side for
sure, but we have good pace on all
compounds.”
Carlos Sainz was ninth on the
grid.
“It’s good news to have both
cars again in Q3,” he said. “We did a
reasonable job. We lost DRS in Q1
with a yellow flag so I had to do a
second run and that meant that
there was one set of new ultrasoft
tyres in Q3. We’re still not at one-
hundred percent, especially in the
slower speed corners, but it doesn’t
worry me too much.”
Next up in the pecking order
was the Force India team, which
was a step forward after some
difficult times in the early two
races. Sergio Perez emerged the
faster of the two drivers by a few
tenths but with the midfield at the
moment in F1, that meant Esteban
Ocon was four places behind his
Mexican team-mate.
“I am very pleased with our
performance today as a team,”
Perez said. “My Q3 lap was very
strong and I feel that we really
maximised qualifying. The wind
was very tricky because it changed
completely from yesterday. Q2 was
quite close and I made it through
at the last attempt, and in Q3 we
only did one flying lap, which was
enough for P8. I hope we can stay
in that mix and come out on top of
the midfield group tomorrow. The
strategy will be interesting because
starting on the UltraSoft may not
be ideal, but we will try and make it
work.”
Ocon was less happy.
“I am not totally satisfied with
today,” he said. “I’d prefer to be
starting further up the grid. The
difference between making Q3 and
not was just over a tenth, which
I probably lost in the final corner
with a small mistake. It shows just
how close everybody is in the
midfield. It’s a shame to miss out,
but on the positive side I can start
the race with a free choice of tyres
and my target is to score some
more points tomorrow.”
52
 In the midfield mix were the
two Haas-Ferraris, with Romain
Grosjean ending up 10th on the
grid, while Kevin Magnussen was
pretty happy to get 11th, the best
spot from a strategic point of view,
as he had free tyre choice for the
race, which looked like being a
decent advantage with the cars
ahead unlikely to go very far on
their ultrasofts.
“This morning, we had a
53
problem (with the brake-by-wire)
and the team did an amazing job
to put the car back together,” said
Grosjean. “There was a lot of work
on the car. The engineers changed
quite a lot on the set-up last night
to give me a better feeling in the
car, which was great to have today.
So, I’m really pleased with all of
that. I was very pleased to get
through to Q3. “
Magnussen reported that he
had had a bad out lap and so his
tyres were not perfectly warmed
“If you don’t hook it up
perfectly on the warm up lap, you
lose a lot of performance,” he said.
“On top of that, it wasn’t a perfect
lap so P11 is perhaps not so bad a
qualifying position. We have a free
choice of tyres to start the race,
so that’s a bonus. The car is pretty
good and I’m sure we can score
some points tomorrow.”
The two McLarens were 13th
and 14th and Fernando Alonso
admitted that the car did not have
the pace to do more. The team has
54
a major upgrade coming at the
Spanish Grand Prix, which they say
will be a big step forward.
“After we were P9 in Q1, we
thought we could make it into
the top 10,” Alonso said, “but then
in Q2 we weren’t quick enough.
We were P11 in Australia, P13
in Bahrain and here, and that’s
where we are at the moment. Not
enough. We seem to be slow on
the straights, but we have the
potential to improve that. Anyway,
making it into Q3 would’ve meant
starting the race tomorrow on
ultrasoft tyres, which I believe will
degrade quite quickly on a hotter
track. So, in the end, I’m happy with
P13 and a free choice of tyres.”
Vandoorne said that he was a
little disappointed to be 14th.
“Since the start of the season
we’ve been around these places in
qualifying, so this is how it is at the
moment. There’s some work ahead
of us to improve our performance,
but on the positive side, our long
run pace from Friday practice
looked very promising. Having free
tyre choice looks to he something
55
pretty crucial again here and will
make a difference.”
After the great performance in
Bahrain, things were less cheery
down at Toro Rosso, with Brendon
Hartley 15th and Pierre Gasly 17th.
“We’ve both been struggling
on this track,” the New Zealander
said. “The temperature is very
different and the wind is very
high here. We saw it in Melbourne
as well, we seemed to suffer
more when the wind picked up
compared to the other cars. In
Bahrain, we had a stronger car and
now we have to figure out why it
wasn’t the same story here. It does
show just how competitive it now
is in the midfield.”
Gasly had what he called “a
tough day”.
“I’ve struggled to find pace,” he
admitted. “That made it difficult to
put everything together. We didn’t
have much time to change the set-
up between FP3 and Qualifying,
and in the end it was a difficult
qualifying session. I’m still learning
a lot about the track, I think in the
long run yesterday we looked OK
in terms of degradation - so that’s
positive - but starting 17th we will
have to find a way to come back.”
Williams has not had a good
time thus far in 2018 and things
were little better in China with
Sergey Sirotkin qualifying 16th,
while Lance Stroll was 18th.
“We went P10 this morning,
which is extraordinary given our
shape at the moment,” Sirotkin
said. “Even the first lap in Q1 was
really decent. I don’t think we
maximised the second lap, and
we can find more time there.
Maybe not as much time as others,
because I think our first run was
better than most of them.”
Stroll admitted that he was not
happy being beaten by his rookie
team-mate (something he cannot
afford to let happen too often).
56
 “We were really struggling all
weekend, and I spun yesterday so I
never got a baseline.”
After scoring points with a
good strategy in Bahrain, it was
back to the back for Sauber, with
Charles Leclerc 19th and Marcus
Ericsson 20th.
“A small error on my fast
lap cost me some time,” Leclerc
explained. “But it was the first
qualifying this year in which
I am satisfied with my own
performance.”
Ericsson said that the team
was struggling with the ultrasoft
57
tyres and he ruined his best lap by
locking up.
“I had to lift off,” he said.
“Still, we had a good race pace
during the two practice sessions
yesterday, which is encouraging for
tomorrow.”
The stage was thus set for
an interesting race, even if the
qualifying had been a bit of a
walkover for Ferrari.
Fluctuating temperature and
designed-to-degrade tyres left
plenty of potential for a great show
on Sunday. Just what the sport
needs to make it big in China. v
FRIDAY - FREE PRACTICE 1
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.999
2 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:34.358
3 V Bottas Mercedes 1:34.457
4 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:34.537
5 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:34.668
6 S Vettel Ferrari 1:34.861
7 K Magnussen Haas 1:35.178
8 C Sainz Renault 1:35.616
9 R Grosjean Haas 1:35.718
10 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:35.800
11 P Gasly Toro Rosso 1:36.037
12 F Alonso McLaren 1:36.044
13 S Perez Force India 1:36.051
14 E Ocon Force India 1:36.351
15 S Sirotkin Williams 1:36.691
16 B Hartley Toro Rosso 1:36.715
17 C Leclerc Sauber 1:36.723
18 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:36.756
19 M Ericsson Sauber 1:36.909
20 L Stroll Williams 1:37.277
FRIDAY - FREE PRACTICE 2
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.482
2 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:33.489
3 V Bottas Mercedes 1:33.515
4 S Vettel Ferrari 1:33.590
5 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:33.823
6 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:34.313
7 K Magnussen Haas 1:34.458
8 C Sainz Renault 1:34.473
9 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:34.557
10 F Alonso McLaren 1:34.632
11 S Perez Force India 1:34.792
12 P Gasly Toro Rosso 1:34.849
13 E Ocon Force India 1:34.874
14 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:35.163
15 B Hartley Toro Rosso 1:35.333
16 S Sirotkin Williams 1:35.340
17 M Ericsson Sauber 1:35.624
18 C Leclerc Sauber 1:35.916
19 R Grosjean Haas 1:36.471
20 L Stroll Williams 1:37.147
SATURDAY - FREE PRACTICE 3
1 S Vettel Ferrari 1:33.018
2 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:33.469
3 V Bottas Mercedes 1:33.761
4 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:33.969
5 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.057
6 K Magnussen Haas 1:34.329
7 S Perez Force India 1:34.445
8 E Ocon Force India 1:34.456
9 C Sainz Renault 1:34.582
10 S Sirotkin Williams 1:34.741
11 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:34.841
12 F Alonso McLaren 1:34.851
13 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:34.977
14 B Hartley Toro Rosso 1:34.991
15 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.061
16 P Gasly Toro Rosso 1:35.079
17 L Stroll Williams 1:35.375
18 C Leclerc Sauber 1:35.497
19 M Ericsson Sauber 1:35.679
20 R Grosjean Haas 1:35.756
QUALIFYING 1
1 S Vettel Ferrari 1:32.161
2 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.474
3 V Bottas Mercedes 1:32.921
4 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.932
5 R Grosjean Haas 1:33.238
6 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.283
7 C Sainz Renault 1:33.315
8 K Magnussen Haas 1:33.359
9 F Alonso McLaren 1:33.428
10 S Perez Force India 1:33.464
11 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:33.545
12 E Ocon Force India 1:33.585
13 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:33.824
14 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:33.877
15 B Hartley Toro Rosso 1:34.013
16 S Sirotkin Williams 1:34.062
17 P Gasly Toro Rosso 1:34.101
18 L Stroll Williams 1:34.285
19 C Leclerc Sauber 1:34.454
20 M Ericsson Sauber 1:34.914
Grid positions are indicated in blue
QUALIFYING 2
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.914
2 V Bottas Mercedes 1:32.063
3 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.286
4 S Vettel Ferrari 1:32.385
5 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:32.494
6 R Grosjean Haas 1:32.524
7 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:32.688
8 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.809
9 S Perez Force India 1:32.931
10 C Sainz Renault 1:32.970
11 K Magnussen Haas 1:32.986
12 E Ocon Force India 1:33.057
13 F Alonso McLaren 1:33.232
15 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:33.505
16 B Hartley Toro Rosso 1:33.795
59
QUALIFYING 3
1 S Vettel Ferrari 1:31.095
2 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:31.182
3 V Bottas Mercedes 1:31.625
4 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.675
5 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:31.796
6 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:31.948
7 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:32.532
8 S Perez Force India 1:32.758
9 C Sainz Renault 1:32.819
10 R Grosjean Haas 1:32.855
RACE ANALYSIS by David Tremayne

HOLY TESTICLE TUESDAY!

So, at the start of the season who would have put money on Red Bull winning a race before Mercedes? Or on
the Silver Arrows going three races without seeing the chequered flag first?
Daniel Ricciardo, the surprise
winner of a dramatic Chinese
Grand Prix, had his own slightly
off-the-wall answer: “Good job!”
he beamed. “Pretty cool!” Then
he laughed, and added, “Holy
testicle Tuesday, that’s what I’d say.
Awesome!”
No, we have no idea what that
means, either. But it takes all sorts,
and the popular Australian had just
demonstrated some staggering
opportunism en route to his sixth
victory.
61
The race was always going to
be a tactical race, thanks to Pirelli’s
variation of tyre choices – the
ultrasofts, softs and mediums - and
that together with an incident on
the 30th lap between the two Toro
Rossos, delivered the extraordinary
victory to DannyRic. But it was far
from a clear-cut thing.
For the first 20 laps Sebastian
Vettel seemed on course for a 2018
hat-trick after a superb start from
pole position saw him squeeze
team-mate Kimi Raikkonen going
into the first corner. He was
leading Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes
comfortably as Max Verstappen
and the derailed Raikkonen kept
an unhappy Lewis Hamilton down
in fifth place. The Beiton had
actually been ahead of both on the
opening lap, but lost momentum
when he got pinched by the Finn.
But a superb early pit stop on
the 19th lap, matched by peerless
in- and out-laps, enabled Valtteri
to get ahead of the Ferrari when
he got the undercut on Seb, who
62
pitted a lap later.
“The team told me I needed the
best out-lap of my life,” Valtteri said,
and I knew it was possible to get
the undercut if we got everything
perfect, the entry to the pits,
the stop, which was the best I’ve
ever had with the team, and then
switching the medium tyres on
quickly. Our timing was perfect.”
Ferrari responded by keeping
Kimi out long enough so that he
could try and back Valtteri into the
pursuing Seb when they came up
to overtake him by the 26th lap,
but when the older Finn finally
pitted for medium tyres on the
27th lap, Valtteri was still in control
of Seb even though he was nursing
his right rear tyre.
“Things were going pretty well
for us and I thought we deserved
the victory,” Valtteri said on a day
on which he outdrove Lewis. “I
felt like we had everything under
control, and I think we could have
63
done it.”
Fate decreed otherwise,
however, in what became an
extraordinary race.
On the 30th lap Pierre Gasly,
the hero of Bahrain, collided in the
Turn 14 hairpin at the end of the
lap with his Toro Rosso team-mate
Brendon Hartley. As both cars spun
and debris littered the track, the
Safety Car was deployed for five
laps.
 Red Bull reacted brilliantly.
Having brought both cars in for
medium tyres at the same time
earlier, on the 17th lap, and pulled
it off, it boldly did the same thing
again, this time while the field was
running slowly, and switched them
from mediums to the faster softs.
Mercedes, who had done such
a good job with Valtteri earlier on,
now dropped the ball. It should
have brought Lewis in, and since
64
he was running behind Max
that would have been possible,
whereas it was not with Valterri
who, with Seb, had already passed
the pit entry lane. But it missed the
chance, and it ruled its man out of
contention for the win.
“Am I right that all the cars
behind me are on fresh tyres?”
Lewis asked testily. He’d only
had two used sets of softs left,
but surely they would have been
better than his increasingly worn
mediums…
When the race resumed on the
36th lap, it had a very different
complexion.
Valtteri was still in control,
apparently headed for victory in
his 100th Grand Prix. But Max, on
his fresher, softer-compound tyres,
was soon pushing the struggling
Lewis for third place. He nearly
got it on the 39th lap, but as the
65
World Champion hung tough
the Dutchman ran wide, crucially
losing a place to his team-mate,
who had seen it coming.
Daniel soon overtook Lewis
on his older, harder tyres with a
brilliant late move going into the
hairpin on the 41st lap.
Then he set about cutting down
the gap to second-placed Seb and
leader Valtteri. He overtook the
German on the 42nd lap, and then
came the other big drama of the
race. Max had finally passed Lewis
on that 42nd lap, and tried to pass
Seb in the hairpin on the 43rd. But
it was an over-ambitious move that
spun both cars. Lewis gained two
places but immediately lost one
as he had to go wide around the
stricken Ferrari and Red Bull, while
Kimi went down the inside of them
and passed the Mercedes.
Now Daniel had Valtteri in his
sights, and he dived ahead of the
Finn in a hugely dramatic move
going into Turn 6 on the 45th lap.
“It was hectic!” he said of his
race. “When we heard about the
Safety Car I was in Turn 14 and they
said, ‘Come, come, in the box, we
are double stopping again.’ It was
very decisive, the winning move
from the team. That obviously gave
us a good little bit of grip on the
restart with the soft tyres, and they
held up well and gave us wicked
pace. Once I was aware we had
that pace I wasn’t going to let that
slip. Every win I’ve had seems to
have been in similar circumstances,
and it was crazy but a lot of fun!
“With Lewis, sometimes you just
have to lick the stamp and send it.
The soft tyre always gives you more
under braking, and if you get one
chance you take every opportunity.
“The overtake on Valtteri
into Turn 6 was touch and go.
It was close, hard but fair. I saw
66
him defend and wanted to go
shallower; he came a bit more,
but I knew there would always be
enough room and that the tyres
had enough grip.
“After the turbo problem I
had in the third practice session
I thought I’d be starting the race
at back. Instead the team were
rewarded in the best way possible
after all their hard work then.”
With the Red Bull now
untouchable, the focus switched
to Kimi’s pursuit of Valtteri
on his newer mediums, and
Max’s recovery on his softs. The
67
Dutchman caught and repassed
Lewis on the 48th lap and passed
his easily that time, and the three
them ran hard to the flag without
any of them being able to pull
anything further out of the bag.
But the Dutchman had incurred a
10s time penalty for his attack on
Seb, and that dropped him back
behind Lewis by the end.
“I think we made a good start
and then got, unfortunately,
blocked a bit and passed in the
first corners,” Kimi Said, omitting
to mention that it was his team-
mate who created his problem.
“I struggled a little bit following
people in the beginning. On my
own I wasn’t too bad, but far from
ideal at the start of the race and
then obviously we stayed very
long out. A little bit of luck with the
Safety Car.
“I had good speed on the
mediums but in the end we would
have needed the soft tyres to really
go for it. But I think I was kind of
okay in the end, and I had much
more speed than Valtteri. But once
you get close it’s so difficult to
follow people, to get a good run
you need much better tyres to get
that proper run and you can kind
of offset yourself. But I’ll take what
68
I got, because at one point it didn’t
look good at all.”
“Not the result I wanted today,”
a rueful Max said. “We missed a
great opportunity for a double
podium. I tried to pass Lewis on
the outside but there were too
many marbles and I went a bit
wide, it was a shame as I was in a
good position but ended up losing
one to Daniel.
“It was still an open race with
the possibility to finish first and
second, but unfortunately I made
some mistakes. Seb was struggling
a bit on the tyres, so I knew I had
an opportunity. I tried to take
him on the inside but locked the

rears and ended up hitting him. I
am disappointed with myself that
this is the outcome of the race.
The team executed everything
perfectly today, we had a great
strategy and the car was behaving
well so it is a real shame. It isn’t
going my way at the minute so
I’ll go away and analyse this and
hopefully come back stronger. A
massive well done to the team
on such a strong weekend and of
course to Daniel on the race win.”
Seb, meanwhile, had fallen
off the cliff. He was struggling
with a damaged Ferrari after the
Verstappen incident, and fell prey
to Nico Hulkenberg’s well-driven
69
Renault on the 44th lap, and then
Fernando Alonso came hauling
up behind him in his McLaren-
Renault, brushing the Ferrari as
he insouciantly snatched seventh
place from the series leader with
two laps to go.
“Everyone seemed to have low
grip at the start with cars sliding all
over the place,” Nico said. “We were
on a two-stop strategy from the
beginning, so we had to make the
tyre last, while maintaining strong
pace. It paid off well, the Safety
Car played to our hands and made
things easier, but even without
that I think we would have come
out on top. The pace was good
today and we were on top of the
midfield, so not a bad day overall.
Eight points, we’ll take that home.
It was an entertaining one, that’s
for sure!”
“It was a well-executed race
from our side – P13 at the start and
P11 after the first lap,” Fernando
said. “The Safety Car didn’t play
into our hands as we were on a
one-stop strategy and we’d just
pitted on to good, fresh tyres
which were going to take us to
the end, but the Safety Car gave
everyone else the opportunity to
pit.
“We had good battles with
Haas and Ferrari, even though the
latter wasn’t really a fair fight as
Sebastian apparently had damage
on his car and was struggling in the
corners. We caught up with him,
saw that the door was open in one
corner, so we went for it.
“P7 is a great result for the
team after a difficult weekend, but
there’s no doubt that we have to
improve.”
Carlos Sainz picked up ninth for
Renault, as Kevin Magnussen took
the final point for Haas.
“I just got unlucky with the
Safety Car,” the Dane said. “Our
strategy was paying off to begin
with, but then we got that at a bad
time. We didn’t get the advantage
out of the one-stop strategy that
we would’ve had otherwise. I don’t
know if we should’ve pitted. It was
a tough choice. I just think the
Safety Car came at a very unlucky
70
time and it meant we couldn’t
score more than the one point.
That’s still okay, but we had hoped
for a bit more. It’s a long season
and, hopefully, we’ll keep scoring
points. I’m proud of how we’re
performing as a team. We need to
keep that up.”
Force India had a disappointing
day with 11th and 12th, as Esteban
Ocon overtook Sergio Perez on the
last lap.
 “We were so close to scoring
points today, but the events of the
race didn’t really help us,” he said.
“It was a messy start and we lost
some time, and we didn’t make any
progress. The race was starting to
come back to us because we pitted
early and the two-stop strategy
looked to be working well. We were
on course to finish in the points
until the Safety Car came out. After
that it was a big push until the end
of the race, but I was stuck behind
Grosjean for too long and he
defended very well. Ultimately this
cost me the chance of overtaking
Magnussen and getting back in
the points. It’s another race where
things didn’t play into our hands,
but the pace was competitive so
we focus on the positives.”
“It was another race ruined on
the first lap,” Sergio said. “The start
was chaotic and I ran into a lot of
trouble. I was pushed wide by a
Renault at the exit of Turn Four
and lost a lot of places there. That
pretty much ruined our whole
weekend. We were suddenly on
the back foot, on the weaker tyre
and there was very little I could
do. We got close to the points and
the team made a strategy call that
gave me an opportunity to try
and pass Kevin but there was not
enough time.”
Stoffel Vandoorne had a
tough run to 13th ahead of Lance
71

Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin. Both
Williams drivers made good starts,
but lacked the pace to fend off
attackers. Marcus Ericsson couldn’t
repeat last week’s heroics, and took
18th as team-mate Charles Leclerc
struggled to 19th, sandwiching
late-stopping Roman Grosjean and
the unhappy Pierre Gasly who was
penalised 10s for his clash with
his team-mate, who retired with a
broken gearbox.
72
“It was a difficult weekend
for us overall because we never
found the pace since Saturday
morning,” Gasly said. “We knew the
race would be difficult after the
performance we had in qualifying
and the car was quite tricky. Today
things didn’t really work out for
us, so we have plenty to analyse
between the two weekends and
try to understand why we were fast
in Bahrain and why we struggled in
Shanghai.
“I apologise to Brendon for
the contact we had, the team
told me that they were going to
switch our positions so I went on
the inside of the back straight
thinking he would give me space.
Unfortunately, I don’t think he saw
me and once I was on the inside
there was nothing I could do. We
lost a lot of time after that, I broke
my front wing and the steering was
bent at the end of the race, so it
was really difficult to drive and we
couldn’t do much from there.”
“It was a tough day for us,”
Brendon said, “At the beginning
of the race I had no grip on the
ultrasofts so that compromised
our strategy. Starting near the back
of the grid we tried alternating
strategies to give us a better
chance but unfortunately that
didn’t work. I think the accident
with Pierre was down to a
miscommunication. The team
asked us to swap positions because
we were on completely different
strategies, so I was going to let him
by on the exit of Turn 14 like I did
at the start of the race. The second
time we had to change positions I
planned to do the same but I got
hit from behind at the apex. Then
towards the end of the race I had
to retire because the team saw an
issue with the gearbox. In the end
it was a long afternoon.”
Not for DannyRic, though.
Cheerfully he held up the back
of his helmet to the television
cameras, to reveal the logo ‘I won’t
apologise.’ Indeed, he had nothing
to apologise for. But a lot to be
grateful for when it came to quick-
thinking team strategy.
As he happily supped another
shoey, the two very disgruntled
championship leaders left China.
Seb had 54 points, but though
Lewis closed to within nine points,
he too was far from happy with the
outcome.
“I was lucky to finish my race,”
Seb said. “After a collision like the
one I had, I think we could have
even stopped there. Obviously, the
lucky thing is that the car was still
working, even if the balance was
gone.
“We lost the lead after the pit
stop and that was not ideal. We
were quite sure we would have
come out in front, but we didn’t.
The timing of the Safety Car was
bad for both me and Valtteri,
because we had no chance to
react. After that it was clear that
Red Bull was faster and I think
there was no point to resist much
73
at the way Daniel approached result today. And we don’t want to to win the race,” he said. “He had two Red Bulls were bold enough
from behind, and then the same be third-fourth. We just need to get a great day, great driving. But the to pit for tyres. We thought track
happened with Max. I gave him our act together.” luck has been going against us position was more important. We
some room just in case he had a bit He also pointed out how in these first couple of races, and got it wrong, they got it right, and
of tyre lock-up, but then obviously unfortunate the deployment of the today again. We had a Safety Car at they deserved to win.”
he had a big one and that’s why Safety Car was for Valtteri. the wrong moment. Indeed , they did. It was a bit of
we crashed. I think he realized he “I think he would have deserved “It shakes everything up and the brilliant strategizing. v
was wrong. We were both lucky to
continue but it was not necessary.
However, I appreciated the fact he
came to me straightway because
that’s the way to solve things like
this, face to face. But obviously, this
is not the result we were looking for.”
“I was in no man’s land. I had no
pace. I was just trying to hold on
for whatever I had,” Lewis said.
“Obviously, we’ve got a tough
battle ahead of us, particularly
on my side. I’ll say my side, but
also us as a team, we’ve been
underperforming.
“Yesterday and today have been
a disaster on my side, so I’ve got to
try and rectify that and get myself
back into normal performance
mode. Otherwise more valuable
points will be lost.
“I’m thankful for a couple of
incidents that happened ahead
today, they kept us kind of in the
battle.”
Toto Wolff took the
disappointments on the chin.
“The whole weekend we were
just not good enough,” he said.
“This weekend we were probably
third-fourth, when you look at the
74
Chinese GP, Shanghai, 15 April 2018 DRIVERS CONSTRUCTORS
1 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.36.380 - 191.451 km/h 1 S Vettel Ferrari 54 1 Mercedes AMG Petronas 85
2 V Bottas Mercedes 1:35.45.274 - 8.894 2 L Hamilton Mercedes 45 2 Scuderia Ferrari 84
3 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:35.46.017 - 9.637 3 V Bottas Mercedes 40 3 Red Bull Racing 55
4 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.53.365 - 16.985 4 D Ricciardo Red Bull 37 4 McLaren 28
5 M Verstappen * Red Bull 1:35.56.816 - 20.436 5 K Raikkonen Ferrari 30 5 Renault Sport F1 25
6 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:35.57.432 - 21.052 6 F Alonso McLaren 22 6 Scuderia Toro Rosso 12
7 F Alonso McLaren 1:36.07.019 - 30.639 7 N Hulkenberg Renault 22 7 Haas F1 Team 11
8 S Vettel Ferrari 1:36.11.666 - 35.286 8 M Verstappen Red Bull 18 8 Sauber F1 Team 2
9 C Sainz Renault 1:36.12.143 - 35.763 9 P Gasly Toro Rosso 12 9 Sahara Force India F1 1
10 K Magnussen Haas 1:36.15.974 - 39.594 10 K Magnussen Haas 11
11 E Ocon Force India 1:36.20.430 - 44.050 11 S Vandoorne McLaren 6
12 S Perez Force India 1:36.21.105 - 44.725 12 C Sainz Renault 3
13 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:36.25.753 - 49.373 13 M Ericsson Sauber 2
14 L Stroll Williams 1:36.31.870 - 55.490 14 E Ocon Force India 1
15 S Sirotkin Williams 1:36.34.621 - 58.241
16 M Ericsson Sauber 1:36.38.984 - 62.604
17 R Grosjean Haas 1:36.41.676 - 65.296 FASTEST RACE LAPS
18 P Gasly Toro Rosso 1:36.42.710 - 66.330
19 C Leclerc Sauber 1:36.58.955 - 82.575 1 D Ricciardo Renault 1:35.785
R B Hartley Toro Rosso Gearbox - 51 laps 2 M Verstappen Renault 1:36.206
3 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.456
RACE DISTANCE: 56 laps - 305.066 km 4 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.878
5 N Hulkenberg Renault 1:36.881
6 V Bottas Mercedes 1:36.987
* Verstappen had a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision 7 F Alonso McLaren 1:37.234
8 R Grosjean Haas 1:37.410
9 S Vettel Ferrari 1:37.479
10 S Perez Force India 1:37.673
11 C Sainz Renault 1:37.754
E Ocon Force India 1:37.985
13 S Vandoorne McLaren 1:38.137
14 K Magnussen Haas 1:38.152
15 P Gasly Toro Rosso 1:38.367
16 M Ericsson Sauber 1:38.386
17 L Stroll Williams 1:38.500
18 S Sirotkin Williams 1:38.624
19 C Leclerc Sauber 1:38.808
20 B Hartley Toro Rosso 1:39.376
THE GOON SHOW
For a while here in Shanghai on Friday, I
thought the paddock actually looked… busy.
I couldn’t figure it out for a while, because
that’s unusual given that the Shanghai
International Circuit was never one of Hermann
Tilke’s masterpieces (were there ever any?). The
team offices are spread all around a dark green
lake which harbours heaven knows what, and
the empty expanse of concrete in front of them
is so barren I reckon we could get GOLD to 250
mph quite safely before shutdown.
Then, when the umpteenth hand had made
a grab for my media pass - the big no-no as
most everyone knows in F1 circles – I figured it
out.
‘Security’ this year had gone into unwelcome
overdrive.
Everywhere you looked in the paddock
there was somebody dressed in black riot gear
(no, not me on this occasion), wearing a matt
black helmet and a threatening, though oddly
out-there expression of aggression. Not soldier
boys but a private security company.
Going up to the press room, there were
others, in slightly less alarming guise, ready to
make their own grab for the plastic, which this
year is flimsy enough to break unless you’ve
been artful with the superglue.
Once you’d made it to the press room, there
were yet more goons prowling on passwatch,
just in case. Somehow, they missed the
Chinese woman with no pass, videoing from
the hallowed area, but all the regulars were
given a once-over no matter how many times
you’d been in and out. What’s the Chinese for
jobsworth.
Ironically, several FOM-uniformed worthies
got checked out, as did an unamused FIA F1
Head of Communications and Media Delegate
Matteo Bonciani, despite wearing his pass and
an FIA jacket.
Coming so soon after the excellent weekend
in Bahrain, whose organisation we lauded last
THE LAST LAP
by David Tremayne
week, China’s heavy-handed handling of such
matters simply added to a less popular race’s
list of perceived shortcomings.
Not that the weekend was without humour,
though. Joe and I made our usual super-quick
departure from Emirates’ A380 once it had
finally taxied several miles to a berth at Pudong
Airport, and cleared immigration pretty damn
quickly too. So much so that we were the first
to the right carousel. It was good to know that
the investment of £180 and around 350 miles of
there-and-back motoring to Manchester for the
necessary five-day visa was paying off.
Some time later a distinguished gentleman
joined us from First Class as we waited for our
luggage. We fell into conversation about travel
costs in general and he mentioned not wishing
76
to spend $300 on something.
“I’m sure that wouldn’t bother somebody of
your stature,” Joe smirked.
Whereupon Jackie Stewart, for it was he,
laughed and said, “You’re forgetting that I am
Scottish!”
All his life, JYS has been one of those people
you have to get up very, very early to beat, so
we were quite amused when mine was the
first bag to arrive, and Joe’s the fourth. We left
him still waiting for his luggage, but had no
doubt that he would have reached the final
destination of his day well in advance of us as
we jumped on the Maglev and Joe then worked
his unfathomable magic pressing buttons and
inserting money into machines as he sorted
out our Metro path to the Crowne Plaza in
Anting. That was a departure from our habitual
Equatorial Hotel in downtown Shanghai, and
turned out to be a surprisingly good one.
Then on Saturday morning the hapless Lu
Wen Long provided a much-needed distraction
and amusement when he became Lu Went
Wrong. Alone, he opted to turn right exiting
the pit road as all his fellows in the Porsche
Cup race did the correct thing and went left
then right. Old Lu tanked his Carrera into the
Armco even before he left the pits, spun, then
got halfway across the road before stalling his
battered mobile, bringing out the red flag for
the best part of 15 minutes while the mess was
cleared up. Small wonder he kept his helmet
firmly on as he did the walk of shame back up
the pit road… grit to argue us in further than the main gate, spiffing race.
He may have been driving our shuttle bus where more goons in black waited to scream Was it pure irony when, the night before
the previous day. Whoever it was turned out to and rant at him and do their best to frustrate as we had taxied to the hotel, something
be more Nico Rosberg (in Monaco escape road our ambition to enter the track so that we could completely separate had brought memories of
mode) than Lewis Hamilton, and lacked the write nice things about their country’s jolly The Goon Show to mind? v
77
 Statue of The B
ernard
Nico R

China
Chinese GP
Bright sparks
Behind the grandstand

Kevin in China
Shanghai
+

79