Vodafone to end McLaren sponsorship
For the past six seasons, the Vodafone name and logo have appeared on the side of McLaren’s Formula One cars and in the team’s name – Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. But from the end of 2013, that will no longer be the case; Vodafone is pulling the plug on its Formula One sponsorship.
The move comes as part of Vodafone’s plan to “transform its local and global sponsorship strategy”. In short, Vodafone has enjoyed a successful partnership with McLaren, but now it is time to move on. This was confirmed by a statement from Vodafone Group Chief Commercial Officer Morten Lundal:
“We have been very happy with our engagement with McLaren. Our relationship has been a key ingredient in bringing the Vodafone brand to where it is today. However, our brand is evolving, and we’ve concluded we will have less of a need for this kind of exposure in future. We now look forward to further success and brand engagement with McLaren in 2013.”
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said, “We’re immensely proud that, having been set a number of ambitious challenges by Vodafone back in 2007, together we’ve met or exceeded each and every one… Our focus is on continuing to drive results for all our partners throughout the 2013 season and we look forward to making a major title partnership announcement towards the end of the year.”
Significantly for McLaren, it also comes shortly after the signing of Mexican driver Sergio Perez, who has been supported through his career by billionaire Carlos Slim’s Mexican telecommunications company, Telmex. Perez’s former team, Sauber, continues to display Telmex sponsorship on their 2013 car, and Sauber has a Mexican driver in the form of Esteban Gutierrez for this season. But McLaren, as a higher profile and more competitive team, would provide better return on investment for Telmex, making a switch all the more possible.
McLaren seem to be in the middle of re-aligning their commercial and sporting partnerships. The exit of Vodafone is now confirmed, but what is not yet firmly established is the possibility of a change of engine supplier from Mercedes to Honda. Rumours have surfaced recently that Honda is considering a return to Formula One with the new turbo engine formula that comes into effect in 2014.
While McLaren and Mercedes have enjoyed an extremely successful partnership over the last two decades, Mercedes are now focusing on their own works team, and McLaren will not want to be second on their engine supplier’s priority list. If Honda does make a return to F1, McLaren could easily secure their full commitment. For Formula One fans, the return of the McLaren-Honda combination would be significant and quite emotional – all three of Ayrton Senna’s World Championships came in McLaren cars powered by Honda engines.
For the moment, however, McLaren have a much more immediate priority – the 2013 Formula One season. The first practice session for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix is now a matter of hours away. McLaren will want to start the season with a strong result on Sunday to get their championship campaign underway. It’s been five years since McLaren last won a World Championship, and the team will be anxious not to let it slip away again this season. For Vodafone, as this is their final year of involvement in F1, success for McLaren in 2013 would be the perfect result on which to bow out of the sport.
Hamilton has nothing to lose in 2013
Lewis Hamilton is in a particularly enviable position in 2013: he has moved to a team in which he is not expected to win the World Championship, at least not this year. Therefore, there is almost zero external pressure to perform. If he wins the title, he’ll be hailed as a hero. If he doesn’t, then nobody will criticise him – he’s not expected to have the car to deliver a title this year anyway.
In many respects, Hamilton is in a similar position to that of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari in 1996. Schumacher had left a top team and gone to Italy to rescue the struggling Ferrari team. It was clear that Schumacher would not challenge for the title that year, and he didn’t, but he also put in some inspired and brilliant performances, particularly in Spain where he dominated a sodden Grand Prix and made the other drivers look like amateurs. Schumacher may not have won the title, but his stock certainly went up as he was recognised for his supreme skill in a difficult car.
Hamilton has similarly moved from a top team (McLaren) to one that was not a title challenger last season (Mercedes). In the last three seasons, the works Mercedes team has won just a single race and never looked like producing a title-winning car. Hamilton has arrived at the team as part of a shake-up intended to deliver championship glory to Mercedes. At the earliest, he and the team are expected to challenge at the front in 2014, when new engine regulations are likely to benefit teams like Mercedes that manufacture their own engines. So this season is dedicated to development, to making sure the pieces are in place for a title challenge next year.
But Hamilton, much like Schumacher back in 1996, is a racer. He is acknowledged as perhaps the quickest driver in Formula One today, and can always be counted on to give his all on the track in pursuit of results. Hamilton does not like coming second. So we can expect him to push with everything he has for victory in 2013.
If Hamilton and Mercedes to triumph against the odds in 2013, it will be a great story for Formula One: the return of one of the great names of motoring to the top of the racing ladder, along with the second title that seems inevitable in Hamilton’s career. On the other hand, if as expected Hamilton and Mercedes have a strong but ultimately unsuccessful season, it will all be accepted as part of the development plan.
Australian Grand Prix – Preview
For four long months, Formula One fans have been sitting idle on Sunday afternoons, not quite knowing how to fill the two hour gap left by Grand Prix racing in the off-season. But now, at long last, the wait for a return to F1 action is over. The season gets underway this weekend in Melbourne, Australia.
The first race of the season is always an exciting prospect. It’s impossible to know for sure who will be competitive based on pre-season testing, as the teams never give away exactly what their testing programme entails. Until qualifying on Saturday, any predictions of form are largely guess-work. By the end of Sunday, however, there will be a clearer picture of the pecking order.
Tyres
Pirelli are bringing their P Zero White medium and P Zero Red supersoft tyres to Melbourne. It is the first time this particular combination of tyres is being used in Australia and it should make for interesting pit strategies. In particular, the supersoft tyre is likely to wear quickly on the abrasive surface of the temporary Albert Park circuit. There is a strong emphasis on traction out of the slower corners, which puts great strain on the rear tyres and can lead to severe degradation.
For qualifying, the supersoft tyre will be the tyre of choice if the session is dry. But while the supersoft tyre will be quicker than the medium tyre, it will also wear much faster on heavy fuel at the start of the race, which will necessitate early pitstops for drivers who elect to run on the supersoft in Q3. There is therefore the distinct possibility that drivers who progress to Q3 in qualifying but do not expect to challenge for pole position might use the medium tyre to set their grid time or perhaps not run in Q3 at all.
Pirelli are expecting two to three pitstops per car in the race. The number of stops will largely be determined by the behaviour of the two compounds in the race. If the supersoft tyre wears too quickly, the teams are likely to use the medium tyre for most of the race, which would suit a two-stop strategy. If the supersoft tyre lasts longer than expected, a three-stop strategy could be worthwhile, particularly as there is expected to be a significant performance advantage on the supersoft tyre over the medium compound.
Stats
Circuit Length: 5.303 km
Corners: 16
Race laps: 58
Race length: 307.574 km
Lap Record: 1:24.125 – Michael Schumacher / Ferrari (2004)
2012 results:
Race winner: Jenson Button / McLaren
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton / McLaren – 1:24.922
Fastest lap: Jenson Button / McLaren – 1:29.187
Trivia
- For six of the last ten seasons, the winner in Australia has gone on to win the World Championship.
- 2012 Australian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button has won the race three times and will equal Michael Schumacher’s record of four wins if he triumphs on Sunday.
- McLaren is the most successful constructor in Australian Grand Prix history, with twelve wins including the 1970 non-championship race. Their nearest competitor is Ferrari with 10 wins including three non-championship races in the 1950s.
Weather
Friday practice is expected to be dry, with the sun shining down on Albert Park and temperatures in the mid-twenties centigrade forecast. Saturday brings the possibility of rain for third practice and qualifying, with a 20% chance of precipitation in the afternoon and early evening. The race on Sunday is expected to be dry.
The impact of a potentially wet qualifying session is significant. A dry race requires a dry setup for qualifying, which will compromise wet weather performance. The chance of a wet session is not high, but if it does rain there could be 22 cars slipping and sliding around in conditions that do not suit the dry weather setups.
Race prediction
McLaren and Jenson Button have a very strong record in Melbourne. Button has won two out of the three races he has contested at Albert Park for McLaren and also won the race in 2009 for the Brawn team in his championship-winning season.
McLaren have had a strong pre-season and look like they should be competitive in 2013. Their car is generally suited to circuits like Albert Park, made up mostly of slow to medium-speed corners with an emphasis on traction off the corners. The Mercedes engine in the McLaren is ideal for blasting from corner to corner and, if McLaren’s form from last year is anything to go by, the MP4-28 should be strong aerodynamically, which is important in the middle sector of the Melbourne circuit.
With the departure of Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes, Button is now the team leader at McLaren. He will be well aware that a win in the first race of the season would further emphasise that position and establish him as the team’s primary title contender.
Looking ahead to the 2013 Formula One season
With just over a week to go to the first race in Australia, it’s a good time to reflect on what’s happened in testing and what to look out for in the first few races of the season
The Teams – who will be quick?
The results of pre-season testing are always difficult to interpret, as it is never clear what the teams are trying to achieve. Varying fuel loads in particular can make the order misleading.
In Barcelona, at a circuit that is considered a good all-round test of a car’s characteristics due to its mix of corners and very long straight, the fastest time was set by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes W04. In fact, the Mercedes looked competitive throughout the two Barcelona tests, after struggling with reliability issues early in the Jerez test.
However, Mercedes were not competitive in the latter part of 2012, which suggests that their position at the top of the order may be slightly false. Lewis Hamilton in particular is playing down the team’s chances of challenging for victories in 2013, frequently telling the press that he feels no pressure to deliver results in his first season as a works Silver Arrows driver.
It’s extremely tough to predict an order amongst the teams, except to point out that Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Lotus all look competitive as expected, and with Mercedes should feature at the sharp end of the grid. That being said, Sauber are looking in reasonable shape as are Force India and Williams. Toro Rosso are the team that seems to have lost ground over the winter, but that will have to wait for the racing to begin to be confirmed.
The general consensus in the paddock seems to be that Red Bull and McLaren will lead the way initially, but Ferrari and Lotus are making optimistic noises in the press about their chances, which suggests that they have reason to be confident.
At the back of the field, Caterham do not seem to have made up much ground on the rest of the pack, and are likely to struggle for points again this season, depending on how aggressively they can develop their new car. Marussia have done nothing to suggest that they will not be at the back of the field when racing begins next week, but their development programme in 2012 was solid which suggests that they could be a team to watch for progress in the latter part of the season.
Tyres
When Pirelli entered Formula One in 2011, they were tasked with increasing the number of pitstops and improving overtaking opportunities. They responded to the challenge magnificently, and the tyres they have produced, together with other technical changes in the sport, have contributed to two seasons of action-packed races.
For 2013, Pirelli have made changes to the construction of their tyres to ease warm-up issues, which had plagued some teams in 2011 and 2012. They have also softened all of the tyre compounds to increase degradation and improve performance across the entire range.
While the teams have had 12 days of pre-season testing using the new tyres, they will not have been able to collect much data about the behaviour of the tyres on their 2013 cars, as temperatures in Jerez and Barcelona for the tests were well below the levels expected for the Grands Prix. All of the teams suffered from tyre graining issues, particularly with the harder compounds which did react well to the cold.
As in 2012, the early part of the season should see drivers making frequent pitstops, and any teams that can use the tyres gently enough to make fewer stops than the competition should find themselves at a significant advantage. As the season goes on, however, tyres are likely to play less of a major role in determining the race results.
The Drivers
While the usual suspects – Vettel, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen – will likely feature at the front of the grid as last year, there are a few drivers with a point to prove in 2013, whether or not they are prepared to admit it to the press.
Mark Webber has been the slower driver in the championship-winning car for the past three seasons, which is a situation he will want to remedy. He clearly does not appreciate being outpaced by Vettel, and relishes his occasional triumphs over his more successful team-mate. Webber knows only one way to compete – all-out commitment – and that is how he can be expected to start the season. If he can establish himself early as a title contender, this could well be Webber’s year to taste success.
Felipe Massa is fortunate to be at Ferrari, after an appalling 2011 season and miserable first half of 2012. That he is still racing in red is partly due to Ferrari’s emphasis on running the team more as a family that protects its own than a cut-throat business, and partly due to some inspired performances in the second half of last season. Massa’s extended contract runs out at the end of 2013, and he will be acutely aware that he is racing for his seat and has all but run out of chances at Ferrari. He has to win races to stay at Ferrari, and the sooner he does so the better for his career.
Sergio Perez has filled a large gap – that left by Lewis Hamilton at McLaren – and considering that Ferrari were not prepared to sign him due to his relative lack of experience, he will feel the need to justify McLaren’s faith in him at this early stage of his career. He is quick, that much is clear, and his driving style is silky smooth much like that of his new team-mate Jenson Button. Whether or not he can use his talents to deliver success quickly in his new team remains to be seen.
Lewis Hamilton has had to fill the largest shoes of all – those of Michael Schumacher – at Mercedes. Although Schumacher was not at his best during his three-year return, there is something of a “Schumacher couldn’t do it. Who can?” feeling about Mercedes. Hamilton has been very keen to downplay any expectations over the winter, constantly telling the press that wins are probably out of reach. But behind that cautious exterior, he knows that he is possibly the quickest driver in the field, and he is an aggressive racer who wants nothing but victory. Hamilton could very well surprise everyone with a strong championship challenge.
And then are the bad boys: Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean. Both are fast and entertaining, but a bit rough around the edges. There is no doubt about their talent – each has a GP2 championship to his name and Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix – but they have a history of causing collisions and making unnecessary mistakes. If these two can clean up their driving for 2013, this should be an action-packed season with some daring overtaking.
And, finally, there are the new drivers: Estaban Gutierrez at Sauber, Veltteri Bottas at Williams, Giedo van der Garde at Caterham and the all-new Marussia line-up of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi. Each of them will want to make enough of an impression to, firstly, see out the season and, secondly, stay in Formula One past the end of 2013. The one driver who is not new, but rather returning, is Adrian Sutil, who has already shown in testing that he has lost none of his speed, but will want to show that he can match or beat team-mate Paul di Resta at Force India.
Circuits
Oddly, in 2013 there are no new circuits on the Formula One calendar. There was meant to be one – a street circuit in New Jersey which would have hosted the second US race on the calendar – but the event was cancelled as the facility was unlikely to be completed in time for the race.
For the teams, the lack of new circuits is important, as it means they have knowledge of every race venue on the calendar. For each of the past few seasons, there has been at least one new location for Grand Prix racing, which has meant the teams and drivers have had to work doubly hard in order to understand how their cars work on a new track surface in various conditions. This year, they do not have that problem, and can carry out extensive preparatory setup work in their simulators before arriving at the races and fine-tuning the cars for racing.
The first four Grands Prix are “fly-away” races. In other words, the venues are not accessible by road, which means the multitude of trucks that normally accompany a Formula One team have to be left behind, and the teams rely on a reduced amount of freight that is sent to the venues by air and sea.
The normal result of this arrangement is that the teams run cars that are largely unchanged from the first to fourth race, as they do not have all of the equipment they would need to implement major modifications. The first major upgrades of the season typically appear on the cars when the European season starts in Spain.
The limitations of the schedule in terms of early-season upgrades mean that it is of paramount importance to the teams that they start the season in good shape, as they can otherwise be substantially on the back foot after four poor races, particularly if one team brings a particularly strong package to the first four rounds of the season. A good example is the success of the Brawn team in 2009, where they started the season with a vastly superior car and dominated the early races, and although the other teams caught up by the end of the year, the early results were enough to secure both titles for Brawn. While that sort of dominance is unlikely due to the stability of the technical regulations, it is still important to start the season well, particularly as the title can come down to a difference of only a few points as it has done so often in recent years.
