March 2014

              Williams finished the final pre-season Formula 1 test of 2014 with the fastest time, as Mercedes-engined cars continued to lead the way in Bahrain, and Red Bull continued to struggle. Felipe Massa went quickest on day three of the test, lapping within a second of Nico Rosberg’s pole time for last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix and edging out Rosberg’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton (fastest on the final day) by two hundredths of a second. Williams was arguably the strongest performer across the final test, racking up more miles than any other team and suffering just one reliability issue, when the FW36’s Mercedes engine blew up on Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages of the final day.             Meanwhile, the works Mercedes team suffered more glitches that hampered its running at this test, leading Rosberg to say that Mercedes is still not reliable enough heading towards the first race in Melbourne. The W05 required what the team described as a “precautionary” engine change ahead of day three, before a gearbox problem cost Hamilton nearly half the final day’s track time.             Red Bull’s test started badly when ongoing cooling issues with the RB10 forced Daniel Ricciardo to miss most of the first day and declare the champion squad had “not been up to scratch” in pre-season. The Australian was more optimistic after a productive second day, during which he clocked 66 laps (including 20 consecutively) and set the third fastest time, but that proved merely a positive blip in an otherwise miserable week. World champion Sebastian Vettel failed to complete a lap on Saturday (despite two attempts) thanks to electrical problems, before a “mechanical issue at the front of the car” pitched the German off at Turn 1 on Sunday morning. He returned to the track in the afternoon, but failed to complete a race run while lapping at reduced pace.             Sister squad Toro Rosso managed more laps, but only went slightly quicker than Ricciardo with Jean-Eric Vergne at the wheel at the end of the final day, while fellow Renault-powered team Lotus suffered a disastrous test. The Enstone squad found its running scuppered by exhaust problems and engine failures, leading technical director Nick Chester to declare the team’s cars would be lucky to make the finish in Melbourne. Ferrari finally managed to complete race runs with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, after falling behind with its programme at the previous test. But both were significantly slower than Mercedes managed, and team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted the Scuderia has “work to do” to catch Mercedes and Williams, which outpaced Alonso on the final day.             Jenson Button expressed similar sentiments about McLaren’s chances after a difficult final test for the Working team. Team-mate Kevin Magnussen completed 197 largely trouble-free laps, but wound up only 11th fastest overall, while Button clocked only 74 after suffering a loss of drive on day two and an engine failure on day four.             Force India also had an engine failure on the final day in Bahrain with Nico Hulkenberg driving, but the German’s team-mate Sergio Perez hailed the “great step” made by the team since the second test. The Mexican topped the times on the first two days and managed more than 100 laps on each of them – including an impressive race run on Friday.             Bar the engine problem that robbed Adrian Sutil of a full day’s running on Saturday, Sauber again showed the C33 has reasonable reliability but lacks speed. Sutil was only 13th fastest overall, and team-mate Esteban Gutierrez 17th.             Marussia made decent progress with its car at the final test, managing to lap within four seconds of the ultimate pace with Max Chilton at the wheel on the final day, while Caterham clocked more laps but could not get within a second of the pace of its back-of-the-grid rival. Combined test times:   Pos  Driver             Team/Car              Time       Gap      Day  1.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m33.258s           Sat  2.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m33.278s  +0.020s  Sun  3.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m33.484s  +0.226s  Sat  4.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m33.987s  +0.729s  Sun  5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m34.280s  +1.022s  Sun  6.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m35.290s  +2.032s  Thurs  7.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m35.426s  +2.168s  Sat  8.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m35.577s  +2.319s  Sun  9.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m35.701s  +2.443s  Sun 10.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m35.743s  +2.485s  Fri 11.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.894s  +2.636s  Sat 12.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m36.113s  +2.855s  Sat 13.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.467s  +3.209s  Sun 14.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m36.835s  +3.577s  Sun 15.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m36.901s  +3.643s  Fri 16.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m37.087s  +3.829s  Sat 17.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m37.303s  +4.045s  Sun 18.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m37.468s  +4.210s  Sun 19.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m38.083s  +4.825s  Sat 20.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m38.391s  +5.133s  Sun 21.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m39.302s  +6.044s  Sun 22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault         1m40.599s  +7.341s  Thurs Total running in test three:   Drivers:                    Laps  Km Valtteri Bottas    236   1277                 Sergio Perez       213   1152 Felipe Massa       202   1093 Kevin Magnussen    197   1066 Fernando Alonso    196   1060 Esteban Gutierrez  192   1039 Nico Rosberg       192   1039 Nico Hulkenberg    189   1022 Adrian Sutil       181   979 Marcus Ericsson    172   930 Lewis Hamilton     159   860 Jules Bianchi      153   828 Kimi Raikkonen     141   763 Daniil Kvyat       136   736 Jean-Eric Vergne   135   730 Kamui Kobayashi    125   676 Max Chilton        105   568 Daniel Ricciardo   105   568 Sebastian Vettel   78    422 Jenson Button      74    400 Romain Grosjean    65    351 Pastor Maldonado   62    335   Teams:              Laps  Km Williams     438   2370 Force India  402   2175 Sauber       373   2018 Mercedes     351   1899 Ferrari      337   1823 Caterham     297   1607 Toro Rosso   271   1466 McLaren      271   1466 Marussia     258   1396 Red Bull     183   990 Lotus        127   687   Engines:           Laps  Km Mercedes  1462  7912 Ferrari   968   5238 Renault   878   4751   Total running across pre-season testing:   Drivers:                    Km Nico Rosberg       2813 Fernando Alonso    2698 Kevin Magnussen    2471 Valtteri Bottas    2389 Lewis Hamilton     2159 Esteban Gutierrez  2122 Felipe Massa       2034 Adrian Sutil       1917 Nico Hulkenberg   

         Almost two months after Michael Schumacher was placed in a drug-induced coma after he suffered serious head injuries in a skiing accident, neurologists say he seems unlikely to make a full recovery. The 45-year-old Schumacher fell while skiing in France and hit the right side of his head on a rock, cracking his helmet.Doctors operated to remove blood clots from his brain but some were left because they were too deeply embedded.Schumacher’s condition stabilized after he was placed in the coma and doctors began the process of withdrawing sedatives to try to wake him up.             His agent, Sabine Kehm, said on Friday that “Michael is still in the wake-up phase” and that “this phase can be long.” Schumacher’s family has released few details of his condition to protect his privacy. “It does not bode well,” said Dr. Tipu Aziz, professor of neurosurgery at Oxford University who is not connected to Schumacher’s care. “The fact that he hasn’t woken up implies that the injury has been extremely severe and that a full recovery is improbable.” Patients who have had major head injuries are sometimes put in a drug-induced coma to give the brain a chance to heal; a coma reduces the need for blood flow and may help the swelling go down. Aziz said doctors typically try every few days to bring someone out of a coma. “If you don’t start getting any positive signs, that becomes very worrisome,” he said, adding that Schumacher’s doctors are probably doing regular brain scans to look for signs of activity, though such signs may be difficult to detect if he is still being sedated. Other experts said it was premature to make an accurate prognosis.”About 90 percent of the recovery is made within nine to 12 months, so this is still early days,” said Dr. Anthony Strong, an emeritus chair in neurosurgery at King’s College London. “The longer someone is in a coma, the worse their recovery tends to be.”             Now that several weeks have passed since the accident, doctors may also have a better idea of how the rest of Schumacher’s brain is doing. “MRI scans can show any secondary deterioration in the brain structure,” said Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London as well as a trustee for Headway, a British brain injury charity. He said other parts of Schumacher’s brain that weren’t directly affected by the accident might now be starting to show worrying signs that may not have been visible before. Shieff said that if Schumacher does eventually come out of the coma, he probably would face significant disabilities because of the length of time he has already spent comatose. While there have been rare instances of people emerging from comas months and years later with the ability to communicate, Shieff was doubtful that would be the case with Schumacher. He said the cases where comatose people made a surprising recovery had mostly suffered things like poisoning, strokes or failed resuscitation attempts.   Source: Eurosport

         Bahrain Grand Prix organisers are to name the Sakhir track’s first corner in honour of Michael Schumacher. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion, who remains in hospital following his skiing accident at the end of last year, won the inaugural Bahrain GP in 2004. Track chairman Zayed Al Zayani said Schuamcher’s family had given the move their blessing. “With the support of his family, it is a great privilege to be able to honour arguably the greatest racing driver in the history of F1 and someone who the people of Bahrain hold close to their hearts,” said Al Zayani. “From his first appearance at the BIC in 2004, he immediately became an inspiration for all those who love motorsport in the Kingdom and it is therefore natural for us to recognise him in this way. The team at the BIC continues to offer Michael and his family its best wishes.”             Schumacher advised the team behind the Bahrain GP during the building of the track in the early 2000s, and he also made his return to the sport at the 2010 Bahrain GP after three seasons away. His manager Sabine Kehm added: “Michael’s family would like to thank the Bahrain International Circuit for this gesture, acknowledging Michael’s achievements in Formula 1 and interest in the BIC circuit design. We take it as a recognition for his passion for motorsport. I am convinced Michael will love the idea and feel very honoured about having a BIC corner named after him.”             Bahrain is not the first active grand prix circuit to name a corner after Michael Schumacher. The fast left-right Turn 8/9 combination at the Nurburgring, where Schumacher won five grands prix, was renamed the ‘Schumacher S’ ahead of the 2007 European Grand Prix. Source: Autosport.