Grand Prix Laboratory

[gpxlab]

New ThreeBond Formula 3 engine runs at Silverstone - F3 news - AUTOSPORT.com

The new ThreeBond Formula 3 engine completed 120 miles on its shakedown run with T-Sport at Silverstone on Tuesday this week. Alexander Sims, who took F3 European Championship podium finishes with ThreeBond's old-spec Nissan-based block in 2012, gave the new Japanese powerplant its first mileage. ThreeBond was one of the first to affirm its commitment to the FIA back in 2012 to build a unit for the new era of ground-up racing engines, which were introduced to European F3 this year. While continuing to back T-Sport, ThreeBond was never going to get its powerplant - built by long-time Nissan tuner Tomei - into competition in time for the 2014 season. T-Sport boss Russell Eacott said: "When we ran the engine it was mostly damp and greasy conditions, but it worked OK. We had a little fuel-pressure issue but no major problems. "It's mechanically fine - it just needs mapping to get it right." Eacott said T-Sport plans to run three cars in European F3 next year, with at least two powered by the Neil Brown Engineering unit the squad used this season, and which took Nick Cassidy to third place in the Macau Grand Prix. The team replaced the ThreeBond engine with an NBE powerplant to run 18-year-old Japanese Formula Renault graduate Ukyo Sasahara on Wednesday. "He was really good - just brilliant," said Eacott. "Very methodical and everything you said to him he put into practise." OTHER CHANGES TO TEST LINE-UP Apart from Sasahara, there were other changes to the driver line-up at Silverstone on Wednesday from those who ran on Tuesday. With Charles Leclerc switching from Carlin to Fortec Motorsport, the Monegasque was replaced at Carlin by the team's regular 2014 driver Ed Jones. At Double R Racing, Hong Kong's Matt Solomon continued his test programme by replacing Alex Bosak in the team's new-spec car. Dutch Formula Renault 3.5 racer Beitske Visser drove a Double R Racing Dallara powered by an old-spec Mercedes after taking over from Ricky Collard.

[gpxlab]

Formula 1 has long been an expensive game, but the absence of Caterham and Marussia from the Austin grid has reopened debate about whether its business model is now unsustainable. While the loss of one team could be put down to isolated circumstances, that two outfits have gone into administration just days apart is a clear indication that something is amiss. It comes amid repeated warnings since the start of the season that F1's finances were out of control, especially after FIA president Jean Todt revealed that he had abandoned efforts to implement a cost cap because of resistance from the big teams. That move left smaller outfits hugely upset - at a time of falling sponsorship income, the costs of competing were being ramped up by the spending war at the front of the grid, plus the arrival of the new turbo V6 hybrid engines. But while it has always been a challenge to pull together the budgets needed to compete in F1, the disconnect between what teams can earn and what they are spending has never been greater. Amid the smaller teams' efforts to convince Todt to persist with the cost cap earlier this year, they revealed the real costs of competing in F1. A letter written to Todt by Caterham, Marussia, Sauber and Force India, a copy of which has been seen by AUTOSPORT, laid bare just how expensive F1 was. It provided an example of what a midfield team was now spending - excluding driver salaries, building leases, hospitality, marketing and media. Bigger teams are spending more, in some cases much more, while F1's minnows Caterham and Marussia have been trying to get by on much less. The breakdown for an average team went as follows: Hybrid power system $28 million Gearbox and hydraulics $5 million Fuel and lubricants $1.5 million Tyres $1.8 million Electronics $1.95 million IT $3 million Salaries $20 million Travel and trackside facilities $12 million Chassis production/manufacturing $20 million Windtunnel/CFD facilities $18.5 million Utilities and factory maintenance $2 million HR and professional services $1.5 million Freight $5 million TOTAL $120.25 million Of course such high expenditure only becomes an issue if income does not cover it, which is where much of the current problem has materialised. Force India, Sauber, Marussia, Caterham Belgian GP 2014, Spa Income from F1's commercial rights is only around $55million - roughly half of the cost of competing - for a midfield team like Sauber or Toro Rosso. Amid a global financial slowdown, and lack of sponsors coming into F1, the gap between income and expenditure has got too high. The economics of F1 no longer work. While Caterham and Marussia have paid the price of that imbalance for now, there are warning signs elsewhere too. Williams has posted losses of £20 million for the first half of the year, and only a dramatic cut back of expenses at Lotus has prevented it falling further into the red. But unless the sport faces up to the fact that there is a fundamental problem with the way it is structured, there will be no impetus to change the way teams risk being driven out of business.

[gpxlab]

・Tom Dillmannが背中のケガのため欠場のAndre Negraoに代わって、Arden Internationalから今週末のGP2バルセロナに参加。 ・Oscar TunjoがPons Racingと14〜15年の契約を結んだ。過去3年間FR2.0 Eurocupに参戦後、今季SignatureからFIA F3にステップアップする予定だったものの、Oreca Renaultエンジンのパフォーマンス不足によりプロジェクトが一時停止。FR3.5に照準を変えた形。 ・次戦モナコまではOliver Webbが搭乗し、翌スパから参戦する。 ・Nelson MasonとBeitske Visserが、Hilmer MotorsportからGP3に参戦決定。Masonはフル参戦、Visserは当面開幕戦のみの模様。これで全27台が出揃った。

[gpxlab]

今週末のGP2バルセロナで、Tio EllinasがJon Lancasterに代わってMP Motorsportを、Sergio CanamasasがAxcil Jefferiesに代わってTridentをドライブする。

[gpxlab]

Conor DalyがLazarusから今季フル参戦を発表。 米国出身、22歳のDalyはGP3で3シーズンを過ごした後、昨年GP2にスポット参戦。佐藤琢磨のチームメイトとして、Foytからインディ500にも参加した。

[gpxlab]

2014 Entry List (5/8)

【GP2】 RUSSIAN TIME (run by iSport) 1.Mitch Evens 2.Artem Markelov Carlin 3.Felipe Nasr 4.Julian Leal Racing Engineering 5.Raffael Marciello 6.Stefano Coletti DAMS 7.Jolyon Palmer 8.Stephane Richelmi ART Grand Prix 9.Takuya Izawa 10.Stoffel Vandoorne Hilmer Motorsport 11.Daniel Abt 12.Facu Regalia Rapax 14.Adrian Quaife-Hobbs 15.Simon Trummer Arden International 16.Rene Binder 17.Andre Negrao EQ8 Caterham Racing 18.Rio Haryanto 19.Alexander Rossi MP Motorsport 20.Daniel de Jong 21.Jon Lancaster(1) Tio Ellinas(2) Trident 22.Axcil Jefferies(1) Sergio Canamasas(2) 23.Johnny Cecotto Jr Venezuela GP Lazarus 24.Nathanael Berthon 25.Conor Daly Campos Racing 26.Arthur Pic 27.Kimiya Sato 【FR3.5】 DAMS 1.Carlos Sainz Jr 2.Norman Nato Fortec Motorsports 3.Sergey Sirotkin 4.Oliver Rowland International Draco Racing 5.Pietro Fantin 6.Luca Ghiotto Arden Motorsport 7.Pierre Gasly 8.William Buller Tech1 Racing 9.Marco Sorensen Strakka Racing 11.Will Stevens 12.Matias Laine Lotus (run by Gravity Charouz) 15.Marlon Stockinger 16.Matthieu Vaxiviere ISR 17.Jazeman Jaafar AVF 19.Beitske Visser 20.Zoel Amberg Zeta Corse 21.Roman Mavlanov 22.Roberto Merhi Carlin 23. 24. Pons Racing 25.Oliver Webb 26.Meindert van Buuren Comtec Racing 27.Nikolay Martsenko 【GP3】 ART Grand Prix 1.Alex Fontana 2.Marvin Kirchhofer 3.Dino Zamparelli Arden Intenational 4.Robert Visoiu 5.Patric Niederhauser 6.Jann Mardenborough Koiranen GP 7.Carmen Jorda 8.Jimmy Eriksson 9.Santiago Urrutia Carlin 10.Alex Lynn 11.Emil Bernstorff 12.Luis sa Silva Marussia Manor Racing 14. Patrick Kujala 15.Ryan Cullen 16.Dean Stoneman Hilmer Motorsport 17.Ivan Taranov 18. 19. Jenzer Motorsport 20.Pal Varhaug 21.Matheo Tuscher 22.Adderly Fong Trident 23.Victor Carbone 24.Roman de Beer 25.Denis Naglin Status Grand Prix 26.Nick Yelloly 27.Richie Stanaway 28.Alfonso Celis Jr 【FIA F3】(M=Mercedes, V=Volkswagen, N=NBE) Prema Powerteam (M) 1.Nicolas Latifi 2.Esteban Ocon 25.Antonio Fuoco 26.Dennis van de Laar Mucke Motorsports (M) 3.Lucas Auer 4.Roy Nissany 27.Felix Rosenqvist, Carlin (V) 5.Jordan King 6.Ed Jones 28.Jake Dennis EuroInternational (M) 7.Riccardo Agostini 8.Michele Beretta Fortec Motorsports (M) 9.Mitchel Gilbert 10.John Bryant-Meisner ThreeBond with T-Sport (N) 11.Richard Goddard 12.Alex Toril Double R Racing (M) 14.Felipe Guimaraes Van Amersfoort Racing (V) 15.Jules Szymkowiak 16.Gustavo Menezes 30.Max Verstappen Jo Zeller Racing (M) 17.Sandro Zeller 18.Tatiana Calderon Jagonya Ayam with Carlin (V) 19.Antonio Giovinazzi 20.Sean Gelael 31.Tom Blonqvist Team West-Tec (M) 21.Felix Serralles 22.Hector Hurst

[gpxlab]

「日本でああいう（台数が少なくバトルのない）レースをしている以上は難しいのかな。とにかく、年間の走行距離がまったく追いついていかない。へたしたらヨーロッパ勢は1年間で3倍以上の距離を走っている。そういう環境の違いが大きい」 「レースも数も減り、合同テストの数も減り、エントリー数も少なくて、レース中の争いもなさすぎる。なんかスクールみたいだよね」 「今の日本のレースに興味がないというか、魅力がないからガイジンさんも来ない。どんどん悪循環ですね。だって、数千万円払って日本に来て、年間7イベントしかなく、台数も4、5台しかいない。これじゃ、誰もこないでしょ？せめてそのあとに、SUPER GTかSUPER FORMULAでテストができて、翌年に乗れるチャンスがあるのならばまだしも、どちらもメーカーがコントロールしちゃっているからそんなことはできない」

F3レース　決勝レース後コメント　トムス山田エンジニア編

[gpxlab]

「実を言うと、自分もここ１年ほど、フォーミュラＥに参戦しようとしてイロイロ動いていたんです。ただ、日本でのフォーミュラＥに関する権利はすでに電通さんがすべて押さえているらしく、スポンサーと交渉しようとしても、必ず『電通を通してください』と言われてしまいました。」

「スーパーアグリ」、フォーミュラＥで電撃復活の舞台裏