Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel Quickest In F1’s 1st Testing Day In Spain

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel Quickest In F1’s 1st Testing Day In Spain

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Monday in Spain, Formula One cars came back to life at the Circuit de Catalunya

Ferrari’s team drive Sebastian Vettel was quicker than MBZ-AMG’s Lewis Hamilton in 1st F1 testing session

And Tuesday afternoon in Geneva, CH, there is a meeting of the world’s premiere motorsport, Christian Horner, the Red Bull team boss says it is the last chance for F1 to endorse a series of radical proposals to revitalize the sport in Y 2017 with more aggressively designed cars with wider tires that are more difficult to drive and 5 secs a lap quicker.

“We need to do it now because if we need unanimous agreement required after the end of February deadline then you might as well forget it,” he said.

The day that must be seized is a long one.

A morning meeting of the F1 strategy group, involving the leading teams, will be followed by a full meeting of the F1 commission, involving Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s chief executive, the FIA president, Jean Todt, race organisers, sponsors, the tyre-makers Pirelli and the teams.

Radical change would suit Red Bull fine.

Mr. Horner continued: “It would be a great shame if this opportunity was missed. The thing that concerns me is that every team has a vested interest. We need to see strong governance and leadership. I don’t think F1 is in crisis but we have got an opportunity to do something really good.”

More pessimistically, he added: “It will be an interesting day. We’ll probably go round and round again.”

Bernie Ecclestone recently described F1 as “the worst it’s ever been,” adding, “I wouldn’t spend my money to take my family to watch a race. No way.”

Mr. Horner came to the aid of his ally when he said: “I think Bernie is frustrated with where Formula One is and in the old days it would have been easier to fix it. Now we have this democracy in Formula One it’s very hard to get everyone to agree.”

He asked Boss Ecclestone to play a full part at the meeting. “We need the commercial rights holder and the governing body aligned, or there is no chance.”

Lewis Hamilton was the busiest driver but Sebastian Vettel was the fastest for Ferrari. The quickest of his 69 laps was half a sec better than Mr. Hamilton’s.

The McLaren’s racing director, Eric Boullier, is still haunted by last year’s awful start with the Honda engine and he seemed disappointed after the morning session when he said: “Not good enough. We didn’t have the best mileage and we had a couple of issues in the car.” McLaren looked happier at the end of the day, by which time Jenson Button had clocked up a very respectable 84 laps.

DAY ONE TIMESHEET

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:24.939, 69 laps;

2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:25.409, 156 laps;

3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:26.044, 87 laps;

4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:26.091, 80 laps;

5. Alfonso Celis, Force India, 1:26.298, 58 laps;

6. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:26.735, 84 laps

7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:27.180, 55 laps;

8. Marcus Ericson, Sauber, 1:27.555, 88 laps;

9. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:28.292, 54 laps;

10. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:28.399, 31 laps;

11. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:29.356, 37 laps.

Stay tuned…

HeffX-LTN

Paul Ebeling

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