A short statement on the home page ot Formula One Teams’ Association at www.fota.co said:
As of the 28th of February 2014 FOTA will be disbanded, as a result of its members’ having re-evaluated their requirements in the face of a changing political and commercial landscape in Formula 1.
Sakhir, 28 Feb 2014: On the first day of pre-season testing a Ferrari topped the timesheet, since then every day has seen a car with a Mercedes engine go quickest. Today added a slight variation to the theme with the same driver going quickest for the second day in a row, with Force India’s Sergio Pérez once again the fastest man at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Along with Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo and Pastor Maldonado were continuing for Red Bull and Lotus respectively, while the other eight teams opted to switch drivers for day two of this final test. That saw Fernando Alonso appearing for Ferrari, Fel
Sergio Perez tops time sheets again on Day 2 during the Bahrain testing on Friday. A Sahara Force India photo
ipe Massa for Williams and Jenson Button at McLaren. Jules Bianchi stepped into the Marussia, Lewis Hamilton took over at Mercedes, Jean-Eric Vergne at Toro Rosso, Esteban Gutiérrez for Sauber and Marcus Ericsson at Caterham.
It was Pérez who set the first time of the day with a lap of 1:46.166. He followed that with a more representative 1:38.014 on his next lap. That stood for half an hour before Alonso announced his presence, going quickest with 1:37.274, before the Mexican driver took top spot back with 1:36.440, 90 minutes into running.
That came shortly after the first red red flag period of the day. Hamilton beached at Turn Three on new hard tyres. Mercedes, tongue-in-cheek, suggested they were testing the gravel. Running resumed as soon as the W05 was recovered and continued until Button necessitated a second red flag, slowing to a halt with a mechanical issue some two and a half hours into the session.
Repairing the McLaren took much of the day but Button was able to resume with 75 minutes of the day remaining and finished the session with a long run.
“We had a problem within the gearbox,” said Button after the chequered flag. “It took a while to change – as anything within the power-unit does these days – but we got back out at the end, and everything ran smoothly, which was good. It was a shame to lose that time – it’s the first major issue we’ve had this winter; but it’s better to suffer it here, rather than at a race weekend.
“We were still able to do a long-run on high-fuel this afternoon. The basic car is good, and there’s a great deal of potential there, but there’s still a lot of work to do. We have a good understanding of the power-unit, and we know how to race it, but, in terms of balance and grip, the car isn’t quite there yet.”
When running resumed shortly before noon, everyone had a time on the board baring Ricciardo, who to that point had only managed installation laps. That would change soon after with the Australian getting on the board with a lap of 1:40.867. Shortly before that, however, Pérez had improved upon his best lap, lowering the benchmark to 1:35.570. That time would stand until the end of the session, despite Force India completing 75 laps after lunch.
“It feels very good to have another full day and to do so many laps,” said Pérez. It’s my last time in the car until we arrive in Melbourne and I’m feeling positive about how things are going. The set-up work today was very useful because we tried some different things to have a better direction for the first race. Everything went to plan and we managed to complete all the long runs in the afternoon.”
After lunch it was Lotus’ turn to bring out a red flag as Maldonado’s E22 caught fire. It was sufficiently serious to end Lotus’ participation on day two. “We had a localised fire in the car which ended our running early and caused a reasonable amount of damage to the E22,” said trackside operations director Alan Permane. “We’re inspecting the chassis and installation very carefully to deduce the cause of the fire and rectify any issues we find. Clearly this is not how we wanted to spend our day, but our focus is getting the most from the remaining days of the test.”
Less spectacular was Mercedes decision to end their day 90 minutes before the close with a gearbox problem, but track marshals had to deal with another fire when Ericsson was required to exit the Caterham quickly as it started to burn, causing the final red flag of the day. It wasn’t all bad news for the Renault teams, however, as Vergne completed 61 laps for Toro Rosso and Ricciardo 66 for Red Bull. The Australian finished the day third quickest in the RB10, less than two-tenths off the best time of the day – though with Red Bull still lagging behind in its pre-season programme, the comparison with teams concentrating on long runs is invalid.
“It went a lot better today,” said Ricciardo. “In the afternoon we did some good stuff. We had a go on the soft tyre, which was nice, to see how the car responds with a bit more grip. We also did one long run at the end, which was very important, just to see how the car is behaving with the tyres. A big improvement everywhere over yesterday and a much more optimistic outlook now I think. We still have a lot to learn and understand, but we’re making progress and the past two days have been a big step in the right direction.”
Testing continues tomorrow.
2014 second Bahrain test day two – unofficial times
1 Sergio Pérez Force India 1:35.570s 108laps
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.634s +0.064s 122laps
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.743s +0.173s 66laps
4 Felipe Massa Williams 1:36.507s +0.937s 103laps
5 Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.901s +1.331s 52laps
6 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.092s +2.522s 75laps
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.041s +3.471s 89laps
8 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:39.636s +4.066s 61laps
9 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber 1:39.976s +4.406s 106laps
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:41.613s +6.043s 31laps
11 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:42.516s +6.946s 55laps
Sergio Perez who topped the time sheets in Bahrain on Thursday. A Sahara Force India photoBahrain: After a four-day hiatus Formula One returned to the Bahrain International Circuit today to begin its final pre-season group test before shipping out to Australia and the first grand prix of the 2014 season. Force India’s Sergio Pérez recorded the fastest lap of the day, though few teams seemed to be searching for outright pace. Headline times were several seconds slower than those recorded at the circuit last week. Instead, the day saw the front runners largely focussing on long-run pace and – as is now expected at the last test of the winter – fitting aerodynamic parts closer to a race-specification than those seen previously.
Pérez finished nine-tenths of a second quicker than Valtteri Bottas, though the Finn recorded the highest mileage of the day, with 128 laps for Williams. Kimi Räikkönen for Ferrari was third quickest, Nico Rosberg fourth for Mercedes and Adrian Sutil fifth for Sauber. McLaren’ Kevin Magnussen was sixth fastest. He completed 109 laps, joining Pérez (105) and Bottas in three figures. That was seventy laps more than seventh-fastest Daniel Ricciardo managed for Red Bull – he did, however, had the consolation of being the fastest of the Renault-engined cars. Eighth on the timesheet was Marussia’s Max Chilton who was followed by Daniil Kvyat for Toro Rosso, Pastor Maldonado for Lotus and Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi.
Bottas was the first man out on track, leaving the garage almost immediately the pitlane exit light turned green, though all 11 teams were lapping within the first half-hour. The first time of the day was set by Ricciardo, with a 1:40.262. The Australian dropped that to 1:38.642 moments later, over a second faster than the RB10 managed at the previous test.
If that were a reassuring start for one Renault team, the opposite was true at another as Caterham caused the first red flag of the day, with Kobayashi pulling his smoking car over 40 minutes into the session.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg gave the timesheet a familiar shape when he went fastest an hour and a half after the start with a lap of 1:37.722. That stood as the benchmark for an hour before Pérez took a second out of it with a lap of 1:36.051. He then improved to 1:35.290 as the lunch break approached.
“We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it,” said Pérez. “We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different compounds and mappings, and it’s been a fantastic day in terms of learning about the car. Tomorrow is my last day in the car before the season starts so hopefully we can have another solid day to be in good shape for Melbourne.”
In a change to the timetable for the previous test, a half-hour break was scheduled for 1300, compensated with an extra half hour on track at the end of the day. The change was for the benefit of the track marshals rather than the teams – though some had a busy lunch break as Pastor Maldonado stopped out on track a few minutes before the interval. Lotus had been trialling a new exhaust system and later revealed this to be the source of the breakdown. They did not run again during the day.
After lunch Kvyat caused another red flag, stopping the Toro Rosso at Turn Two but there was happier news from the other Italian team. An unspecified glitch had restricted Raikkonen to just 12 laps in the morning but Ferrari were able to resolve the issue and allow the Finn a full afternoon of running – though it was he who brought the session to a slightly premature conclusion, stopping out on track a few minutes before the scheduled close.
Things were going the other way at Red Bull. Ricciardo completed 32 laps in the morning but failed to build on that, spending much of the afternoon in the garage as the team suffered a problem with its exhaust. Ricciardo added a further seven laps at the end of the day – but with Red Bull wanting a significant increase in track time this week, it was not the ideal start to proceedings.
“We sent Daniel out for a long-ish run, but we had to abort about five laps in, as we noticed some issues on the sensors,” explained race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum. “We brought him in, had a look at the car and discovered that we had a problem with the exhaust. So we had a long afternoon in the garage, but we did manage to get Daniel back out at the end of the session, which was good. We have some work to do overnight but hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to run in a similar style to this morning.”
Testing continues tomorrow and will run until Sunday.
2014 second Bahrain test day one – unofficial times
1 Sergio Pérez Force India 1m35.290s 105laps
2 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m36.184s +0.894s 128laps
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1m36.432s +1.142s 54laps
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m36.624s +1.334s 89laps
5 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m37.700s +2.410s 89laps
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1m37.825s +2.535s 109laps
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m37.908s +2.618s 39laps
8 Max Chilton Marussia 1m38.610s +3.320s 44laps
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m39.242s +3.952s 56laps
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m40.599s +5.309s 31laps
11 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1m42.285s +6.995s 19laps
eom
Sergio Perez remained behind the wheel of the VJM07 today as Sahara Force India concluded its first week of testing in Bahrain.
Day Four Statistics:
Chassis: VJM0701
Laps: 19 laps
Mileage: 120 km
Fastest lap: 1:39.258
Sergio Perez: “It’s a shame to lose the track time this afternoon, but I think we can feel quite positive about what we have learned this week. Every lap in the car gives us more information and we are always trying something new. I was not able to do the long runs we planned this afternoon so it’s important to do those next week. We also need to start pushing the performance and set-up work, which is not really an area we have focussed on that much yet.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer:
“Although we didn’t cover a large number of laps today, we were able to complete some aero work this morning and evaluate some more set-up items. The programme was cut short by a drivetrain issue just before lunch, which confined us to the garage for the rest of the afternoon. With the amount of work involved in resolving the problem and the lack of time available, we decided it was better to regroup and put our efforts into achieving our objectives next week.”
endsSergio Perez in a Sahara Force India car. A Sahara Force India photo
Nico Hulkenberg covered 59 laps today as Sahara Force India completed its second day of testing in Bahrain.
Day Two Statistics:
Chassis: VJM07-01
Laps: 59 laps
Mileage: 319 km
Fastest lap: 1:36.445
Classification: P2
Nico Hulkenberg: “My two days in the car have been very positive. We’ve made some improvements to the car, collected lots of data, and continued to learn with each lap. At the moment it’s still early days, but I’m pleased with the progress we have made in terms of understanding the car. I think we are getting closer to seeing the potential of these cars, certainly compared with the performance in Jerez, but it’s such a steep learning curve and I expect the times to become quicker and quicker.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer:
“It’s been another productive day with aero data collection, performance work and tyre evaluation. We had some aero devices on the car this morning and then continued with the set-up programme that we started yesterday. Nico was able to try the various tyre compounds available to us. There was a small amount of downtime in the middle of the day, but on the whole it’s been another solid performance with good reliability.”
Test Schedule
Sergio Perez will drive the VJM07 tomorrow and Saturday.
endsNico Hulkenberg in a Sahara Force India on Day 2 of Testing at Bahrain SIC on Thursday. A Sahara Force India photo
Sakhir, 19 Feb 2014: The second of Formula 1’s three pre-season tests kicked off Wednesday morning at the Sakhir circuit here in Bahrain.
Sahara Force India and Nico Hulkenberg finished at the top of the timesheets after the first day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Day One Statistics:
Chassis: VJM07-01
Laps: 79 laps
Mileage: 428 km
Fastest lap: 1:36.880
Classification: P1
After the busy programme, Nico Hulkenberg said: “A very positive and satisfying day. We had a busy programme and we learned a lot. Time in the car is very valuable at the moment and so it feels good to cover so many laps and even complete two long runs at the end of the day. That gave me a chance to see how the car behaves and to start getting a feel for it, which was not something I was able to do in Jerez. It’s great that we’ve already done some set-up work and started to improve the drivability of the car. But it’s still very early stages; we are learning with every lap and we face a very steep learning curve in the coming days. ”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer said: “Our Bahrain test has got off to a positive start. 79 laps is a good effort and it’s just what we need at this early stage of the VJM07’s development. The aero work this morning ran smoothly with the constant speed runs giving us some aero data we required. In the afternoon we started evaluating the soft and medium tyres, and running through different set-up options – changing ride heights and rebalancing the car. We ended the day with a couple of longer runs on the soft tyres.”
Test driving schedule
Nico Hulkenberg will be back in the VJM07 tomorrow. Sergio Perez will drive on Friday and Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen drives the opening two days of the test for McLaren Mercedes, with Jenson Button concluding the test by running on Friday and Saturday.
Kevin kicked off proceedings for McLaren by conducting a series of short aerodynamic evaluation runs, complete with monitoring equipment fitted to the car.
In the afternoon, he completed a number of longer runs, aimed at putting mileage on the power unit and components, and also to proof theories and improvements introduced after the first test in Jerez earlier this month.
Kevin completed the second-highest mileage of the day, and, despite a slow start to the morning, was pleased with his progress.
1 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m 36.880s 78 laps
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m 37.879s 64 laps
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1m 37.908s 74 laps
4 Kevin Magnussen McLaren Mercedes 1m 38.295s 81 laps
5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1m 40.224s 14 laps
6 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m 40.443s 82 laps
7 Robin Frijns Caterham 1m 42.534s 68 laps
8 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m 44.346s 5 laps
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m 44.832s 8 laps
10 Felipe Massa Williams – 5 laps
11 Jules Bianchi Marussia – 3 lapsNico Hulkenberg sets top times on Wednesday on Day 1 of Bahrain testing. A Sahara Force India photo
ends
Chennai, 15 Feb 2014: British driver Ruper Svendsen-Cook became the favourite for the MRF Challenge 2013 after two convincing wins at the MMRT in Chennai. His title rival Tio Ellinas had a tough day after only one podium finish, one 4th position and a DNF which saw a 22 point advantage turn into a 9 point deficit as we head into the last two races of the championship. Indian F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan thrilled the home crowd with a great effort to finish 3rd on his return to the MMRT. In the MRF 1600 National Racing Championship category Tarun Reddy fought back from 8th place on lap 1 to win on the last lap ahead of Advait Deodhar and Vikash Anand. In the first round of the Indian Motorcycle National Racing Championship, Sarath Kumar won ahead of Jagan K and Mathana Kumar.
In Race 1 Svendsen-Cook had a great start from 2nd on the grid to move into 1st place ahead of Ellinas, Dejonghe and Karthikeyan. Karthikeyan pulled off a great move to get past Dejonghe on Lap 5 to move into 3rd place and started chasing down Ellinas. Ellinas and Karthikeyan had a great battle with the Indian all over the rear of the Cypriot driver. Svendsen-Cook crossed the line to win comfortably. Karthikeyan finished just behind Ellinas to finish on the podium in his first ever MRF Challenge 2013 race.
In Race 2 Svendsen-Cook once again got the jump on Ellinas and moved ahead in the 10 lap race. Dejonghe slotted in third and it was soon a three way battle between Svendsen-Cook, Ellinas and Dejonghe with Harry Tincknell closing in on the trio. Behind them young Indian driver Raj Bharath enjoyed his best race of the season in 5th place ahead of APRC Champion Gaurav Gill. As they entered the last lap the order was the same with Ellinas trying everything possible to get past Svendsen-Cook. Ellinas made a move into C3 on the final lap and hit the Brit driver sending him into a spin. Ellinas had to retire with damage on his right front tyre while Svendsen-Cook managed to recover and get back on track. This gave Sam Dejonghe his first win of the season ahead of Harry Tincknell and a recovering Svendsen-Cook. Raj Bharath was forced to retire on the last lap with mechanical problems from a brilliant 5th position. Gill finished in 4th place but was later penalised for a jump start.
The MRF 1600 NRC category was up next with Tarun Reddy dominating qualifying earlier in the day. Tarun started on pole but got bogged down with a clutch problem which dropped him to 8th position. Advait Deodhar had a great start and led ahead of Kartik Tharani, Mihir Dharkar and Vikash Anand. Advait pulled away at the front with Tharani behind him. Tarun started picking off drivers and passed Vikash and Mihir before setting his sights on the front duo. Tarun got past Tharani with 2 laps to go and started to close in on Advait. Tarun went down the inside of Advait at Anands corner taking the lead and going on to win one of the best races of his career. Tharani finished in second place with Vikash Anand passing Dharkar to finish in 3rd place. Race 2 will take place tomorrow.
Tarun Reddy won his best race of his career so far. He commented, “I still can’t believe I won today. This is easily the best race I have ever participated in. I had a problem with the clutch on the formation lap so knew the start would be a problem. I did not expect to drop to 8th but after that I tried to push as much as possible. I knew podium was possible but Advait was too far ahead. I caught him on the last lap and managed to surprise and pass him. It feels great and now I am looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
The final race of the day was Race 3 of the MRF Challenge 2013. Svendsen-Cook got his trademark fast starts and moved into second place at the start behind Dylan Young. Ellinas starting at the back had a good start and was up to 6th place at the end of lap 2. Svendsen-Cook passed Young on lap 3 to take the lead pull away from the pack. Harry Tincknell was in 3rd place before passing Young for 2nd. The battle was for 4th place with Dejonghe, Ellinas, Ryan Cullen and Oscar King all close together. Tincknell closed the gap to Svendsen-Cook from 7 seconds to 1 second but was not enough and the latter took his second win of the day. Tincknell took his second podium of the day with Young taking his first podium of the season. Indian drivers Vikash Anand and Raj Bharath put on a good show to finish in 9th and 10th positions respectively. With Ellinas only finishing in 5th place the championship swung again and this time towards Svendsen-Cook’s favour. Svendsen-Cook has 185 points with Ellinas in second with 176 points. There are two races remaining tomorrow that will decide the MRF Challenge 2013 winner.
Race winner Rupert Svendsen-Cook was surprised to be leading the championship. He commented, “It was a fantastic day for me and I am thrilled to be in the lead of the championship. There are still two races to go tomorrow so still lot of work to do. Winning 2 out of the 3 races was great so am excited about tomorrow.”
Championship contender Tio Ellinas was disappointed after a tough day of racing. He said, “In Race 1 I had a slow start and Rupert got ahead of me and was just too fast. Narain was right behind me and we had a great battle for 7-8 laps. In Race 2 I tried to pass Rupert in the final lap but he closed the door and we ended up colliding. I had to retire which was unfortunate and it also meant I had to start from the back in Race 3. In Race 3 5th was the best I could do after fighting my way from the back. I have lost the championship lead but tomorrow is a new day so I will push for the win.”
Sam Dejonghe was happy to win his first race of the season. He said “We have been competitive all weekend so it feels great to take my first win today. There was almost nothing to choose from between Tio, Rupert and me in Race 2 so when they collided I was in the right place to take advantage. The MRF Challenge is a great championship so would like to thank my engineers and team for all their help.”
Earlier in the day Sarath Kumar won the first race of the opening Round of the Group C 165CC Open of the FMSCI-MMSC INMRC. K Jagan put pressure on Sarath throughout the race and finally finished a second behind him. Mathana Kumar finished in a lonely third place ahead of Harry Sylvester. In the Group D 165CC Ankit Gupta took his first ever win ahead of Deva U and Harikiran P.
MRF Challenge 2013 Calendar:
Round 1: October 25-27, 2013, New Delhi, Buddh International Circuit (Formula One Support Race)
Round 2: November 28-30, 2013, Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit (World Endurance Championship Support Race)
Round 3: December 19-21, 2013, Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit (Gulf Racing Festival)
Round 4: February 14-16, 2014, Chennai, Madras Motor Race Trust
Silverstone, 7 Feb 2014: Sahara Force India has expanded its driver development programme by teaming up with Hilmer Motorsport to create Sahara Force India’s official GP2 team.
The new partnership will see Facu Regalia and Daniel Abt race on the GP2 grid in the distinctive colours of Sahara Force India in the Hilmer Motorsport GP2 car.
The development programme expands on the success of Sahara Force India’s reserve driver programme, which has already helped progress several drivers to Formula One race seats. It also represents a logical addition to the team’s ‘One From A Billion’ talent hunt, which helped unearth a selection of young Indian karting talents. The most successful candidate has been Jehan Daruvala, a 15-year-old from Mumbai, who graduated into the team’s Academy last year and was crowned British KF3 Junior champion.
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director of Sahara Force India: “As a team we’ve always placed great emphasis on nurturing young drivers so I’m delighted to announce our partnership with a GP2 team. It’s the logical next step as we look to bring through the next generation of drivers and provide them with the opportunity to showcase their talent. Our presence in GP2 moves us closer to having a holistic development programme to school drivers from grassroots karting to the higher echelons of professional motorsport.”
Franz Hilmer, Team Principal and Managing Director of Hilmer Motorsport: “We are very happy about the collaboration between Hilmer Motorsport and Sahara Force India Formula One Team. I’ve had an association with Sahara Force India for ten years and we are looking forward to working together on a sporting level going forward. With Facu Regalia and Daniel Abt we have two very talented young drivers with the potential to progress to Formula One. We will do our best to support them on their way to the pinnacle of motor racing.”
Facu Regalia, Driver #12 Hilmer Motorsport:
“It is incredible news for me to be a GP2 driver with Hilmer Motorsport and Sahara Force India’s driver development programme. I appreciate the belief Franz Hilmer showed in my performances last year and the opportunity to race with him in 2014. I am also very proud to be associated with Sahara Force India and will make the most of the opportunities it presents. The chance to drive a Formula One car at the end of the season is also a huge motivation. My focus is to work as hard as I can to make sure we are fighting at the front of the field and getting the best results possible.”
Daniel Abt, Driver #11 Hilmer Motorsport:
“I am very happy about the association between Hilmer Motorsport and Sahara Force India Formula One Team. Over the last few years, Sahara Force India has given young and talented drivers the opportunity to race in Formula One so it’s great to have their support this season. I am determined to have a successful year with Hilmer Motorsport in the GP2 Series and I’m sure that we have the right package to achieve our ambitious goals.”
Chennai, 3 Feb 2014: J Prithviraj of Coimbatore Automotive Sports Club, an active council member in promoting the rallying in India for the last few years was announced as the President of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs in India while pre-election favourite Bharat Raj, of Karnataka Motor Sports Clubs, who pumped in monies in the last few years to keep the rallying scene alive in India, was forced to support the new team.
It was Tutu Dhawan, who took Bharat Raj’s place as Vice-President in the Federation, which is under severe pressure to prove its efficiency and capability after the outgoing team’s high performance, at least, as far as Formula One is concerned.
Just like FIA and Formula One, both of whom are steeped in secrecy as far as financial transparency is concerned, FMSCI will also come under the scanner as far as Governance and Transparency issues are concerned especially as the National body which is the ASN (Association recognised by FIA, the World Governing boday) has paid a hefty income tax which would have been avoided, had it spent the money on promoting sport at the grassroot level or sharing the booty with the hard-working Clubs, who are suffering for lack of funds. Motorsports experts in the country feel that had FMSCI spent the money sharing the expenses of running events with the clubs, they would not have ended up paying a huge amount in scores of lakhs to the Income Tax department.
Coming to the elections, while Prithviraj serves as the President, Tutu Dhawan will be the Vice-President. The FMSCI also announced the formation of the new Governing Council for 2014-15 which will see the introduction of two new members. The change of guard promises a new direction that will focus on taking the sport to a higher level and the team and its members at various forums including Facebook, have expressed their inclination to come clean as far as transparency is needed. Prithvi, as he is popularly known in the rally circles, promised to look into the possibility of bringing the Federation under the ambit of RTI act.
Prithviraj has been a part of the rallying scene for over two decades, both as a participant and organizer. He has been a councillor since 2007 and the Vice President of FMSCI for two years, being Chairman and a member of various FMSCI sub committees.
Prithviraj was humbled to be elected President and commented, “I am honoured to be elected FMSCI President by my fellow councillors. Firstly I would like to thank the outgoing President and team for all their efforts over the years. As part of the last council our biggest achievement was bringing Formula One to India. Now our role will be to ensure we maximize the benefits of that to build national motorsport events across the country. The newly elected council is extremely excited of the task that lies ahead and I am confident that this is the perfect team to take the sport forward.”
The newly-elected Council will focus on the following few areas for the year ahead. The first area of focus will be the fact that policies and procedures will take precedence and not just the people involved. Secondly the council will select the best man for the job to ensure that seamless running of the sport comes first. The third objective will be to ensure total access to all information with regard to all aspects of the Federation. The FMSCI will also continue to partner with the auto and auto ancillary manufacturers to increase their involvement in the sport.
The FMSCI announced that they will launch an interactive website which will aim at making all event details easily accessible. From entry forms to regulations to schedules to officials to penalties everything will be made available on the website for everyone to see. Most importantly the online platforms will be interactive and open to queries and suggestions. There will also be an effort to ramp up marketing activities to ensure there is more reach and visibility for events.
Prithviraj commented, “We will look at coming under the ambit of Rights to Information act. The sport has been built to this level with the help of the media and we are looking forward to their continued support as we march on. All these factors will help us in offering better support and returns to our promoters, sponsors and partners.”
The FMSCI will also continue to make sure motorsports reaches all ends of the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Kutch to Kohima. The North-East has already proved a popular motorsport venue with one of our promoters holding rallies there under the aegis of the FMSCI. The FMSCI will continue to give more importance to the region.
Prithviraj also announced the forming of a advisory body which will work with auto manufacturers, partners and government. He commented, “The dedicated committee will be entrusted with the task of working closely with auto manufacturers and government officials. Motorsport is the perfect platform for auto majors to showcase their products and get maximum visibility out of it. We are very happy by the government’s decision to modify the trade policy to facilitate easy import of cars and motorcycles for racing events. We still feel there is a lot of work to be done”
The results of the election were not announced immediately after the elections in Dec due to a court case filed by Sportscraft’s Shrikant Karani. The court ruled in his favour and struck down FMSCI stand that profit making bodies are not eligible to contest as per a recent amendment, but Karani chose to withdraw from the contest at a later stage.
However, it was Sanjay Sharma of JK Tyre, who called the shots. Hardy, as he is popularly known represented as an alternate member of Himalayan Motorspord Club.
Akbar Ebrahim – Meco, S Karani – PCRT, J Prithviraj – CASC, J Balmurugan – Spitfire, Sanjay Sharma, the kingmaker – HMSA. A photo by Adrenna
He also addressed the Press Conference.
Two new member clubs made their entry into the council joining the three founding members. The eight members of the council are:
Jerez, 31 Jan 2014: Sahara Force India wrapped up its first week of testing as Daniel Juncadella spent his first day in the VJM07.
Day four statisticDaniel Juncadella makes his debut in a Force India car at Jerez. A Sahara Force India photo
s:
Chassis: VJM07-01
Laps: 81 laps
Mileage: 359 km
Fastest lap: 1:29.457
Classification: P3
Daniel Juncadella: “It was my first day working with the team and it was a big challenge because of the tricky conditions. I took things very cautiously because I had never driven a Formula One car in the wet and for the whole day the track still had damp patches. It was a case of building up my confidence and learning how the team operates. It was a great experience and I made sure to make the most of it. We covered a lot of laps, which was a big improvement after quite a frustrating day yesterday. It’s what the team needed before the Bahrain test to really start understanding the car. I want to thank the team for today and I look forward to the rest of the season.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“The final day in Jerez has proved to be the most productive so far. Despite the mixed weather conditions, Daniel was able to cover 81 laps, which has given him valuable experience for his role as a reserve driver this season. The car has run reliably all day, which is a result of all the hard work carried out earlier in the week to resolve some of the initial reliability concerns. During these early days it’s paramount to get laps under our belt and over the last four days we have clocked up almost 650 km. It’s not been an easy test operationally, with lots of different challenges, but the whole team has done an extremely professional job to ensure we maximised the test days we had available.”
