Ferrari delayed work on its 2016 F1 car for 2015 push

Ferrari delayed work on its 2016 Formula 1 car to allow it to fully develop the race-winning SF15-T last season.

The Italian team bounced back from a winless 2014 campaign to emerge as Mercedes' closest challenger and finish second in the constructors' championship, with Sebastian Vettel taking three wins.

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne is confident the delay will not have an impact on it providing a stern challenge to world champion team Mercedes next term.

"Maurizio [Arrivabene, team principal] will tell you we delayed some things to allow for the 2015 car to be finished," said Marchionne.

"Hopefully he will not bitch about this. We pushed the start of some of the work on the '16 cars on the chassis, delayed it a bit.

"But we have had adequate time and adequate financial resources to do the right thing given the rules.

 Secrets of the Ferrari revival

"So I'm confident we will give Mercedes a run for their money.

"We approached the 16 car with a very clear idea and very clear interpretation.

"It is incredibly unlikely that the car will not offer Mercedes a proper challenge.

"For me to determine whether it will win or not would be very gutsy.

"I have no excuses to give you this year, in the sense that we started developing the car at the proper time."

Mercedes won 16 of the 19 races in 2015 as it won the constructors' championship with four races to spare, while Hamilton defended his title with three races left.

Marchionne concedes Mercedes is still a team to be "afraid of" but he believes the outfit has developed a greater respect for Ferrari following its challenge in 2015.

"They are competitors to be afraid of because Mercedes is a company which the suitable financial resources to properly manage the races of 2016," he said.

"They have a high level of know-how so they are not to be underestimated.

"They made huge progress in 2015, so I'm certain their car will be enormously improved for 2016.

"We respect them, they are competitors, but we are not afraid of the battle on the race track.

"I remember at the start with [Mercedes boss Dieter] Zetsche, in spite the fact we are friends, he had a bit of arrogance about Ferrari.

"They lost a bit of that but not too much because they won the championship.

"If you talk to him now, I think he now respects Ferrari a little bit more

"The only way to get respect is to gain it on the track with results."

F1: Vettel not ready to make bold title targets for 2016

Four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel has urged caution as Ferrari heads into the 2016 season as a potential title candidate.

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne this week issued a bold target of nothing less than overall victory in 2016, beginning with the race win in Australia in March.

Vettel, Ferrari's top driver and the only competitor in 2015 able to win races against dominant Mercedes, agrees that the Maranello team made big progress last year.

"Ferrari and myself were prepared at the beginning for a difficult year," Vettel wrote in a column for the Munich newspaper TZ. "No one expected three victories.

"But almost more important is the consistency that we had, showing that we are on the right track.

"Nevertheless, there is still much to do and we must not forget where we began. But things that were a little rough in the beginning have now become smoother.

"I think that, slowly and step by step, everything is coming together," Vettel added.

"Of course," the former Red Bull driver continued, "the temptation to now think big for next year is very high, but we must not forget all the little steps on the way.

"Last winter there was a big upheaval in the team with a lot of new people and many changing their position as well, so it is a process that takes time.

"Hopefully we will have a better year in 2016, but it is still much too early to make forecasts."

Button to fly flag for England in RoC

Jenson Button will carry home hopes at the 2015 London Race of Champions, it is announced.



Jenson Button has become the latest F1 driver to sign up for the annual Race of Champions later this month, flying the flag for Team England on home soil in London. 

The 2009 world champion has competed at the end-of-season RoC on four previous occasions, though hasn't done so since 2011. However, to celebrate the event's return to British soil at London's former Olympic stadium venue in Stratford, Button will be one of four English drivers flying the flag for home fans. 

Looking to go further than his semi-final placing of 2009, Button will be teamed with sportscar racer Alex Buncombe in one of two English line-ups being entered for the Nations' Cup, with Jason Plato and another unnamed driver pairing up for the other. 

Button is the latest F1 driver to commit to the RoC this year, joining Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg in representing the championship alongside representatives from rallying, IndyCar and MotoGP. 

This year's Race of Champions will take place between the final two rounds of the 2015 Formula 1 World Championship in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

McLaren F1 driver Jenson Button joins 2015 Race of Champions field

McLaren driver Jenson Button has become the latest big Formula 1 name to join the line-up for this month's Race of Champions event in London.

The 2009 F1 world champion will be competing in his fifth RoC, but his first since '11.

His best performance came in 2009 when he reached the semi-final of the individual event, as well as the Nations Cup for Great Britain in tandem with Andy Priaulx.

On this occasion Button will partner 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series champion Alex Buncombe in one of the two English teams, with the other comprising two-time British Touring Car champion Jason Plato and a yet-to-be-named team-mate.

Button said: "I can't wait to be back at the Race Of Champions again - and especially to be racing at home at London's former Olympic Stadium.

"It is always a very special event with a good atmosphere. You're racing against guys from your own series, plus others from all over the world.

"We get to meet friends old and new from the different forms of motorsport so we enjoy our time both on and off the track.

"It's always a lot of fun, but everyone wants to put on a good show for the fans - and of course we only pretend to be taking it easy before giving it everything when we're sitting in the car on the line.

"I look forward to partnering Alex Buncombe in the RoC Nations Cup too.

"Germany had an annoying habit of beating us at Wembley in 2007 and 2008, so it's about time we made it all the way now we'll be racing on the other side of London."

The 35-year-old is now the sixth F1 driver to sign up to this year's RoC at the Olympic Stadium on November 20-21, joining Roman Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.

2015 RACE OF CHAMPIONS LINE-UP SO FAR

Alex Buncombe
Jenson Button
David Coulthard
Mick Doohan
Romain Grosjean
Nico Hulkenberg
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Tom Kristensen
Jorge Lorenzo
Felipe Massa
Nelson Piquet Jr
Jason Plato
Daniel Ricciardo
Petter Solberg
Sebastian Vettel
Susie Wolff.

On this day: September 14, 2008 – Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest Grand Prix winner ever

A day after becoming the youngest driver to take pole position in Formula One history, a 21-year-old Sebastian Vettel became the youngest Grand Prix winner ever by topping the podium in Monza on this day, seven years ago.

The German finished 12.5 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen in wet weather conditions. The result was also a team best for Toro Rosso, being the only podium finish it ever achieved.

Vettel said after the win: “P1 was still on the board, P1 and a plus and I was leading by quite a bit, and I thought f***, if you finish the race you will be winning – I apologise – but you know, it was unbelievable.”

Other memorable events on this day...

1968: Jimmy Ellis wins the WBA heavyweight title by beating Floyd Patterson in the 15th round in Stockholm, Sweden.

1987: Ivan Lendl wins his sixth slam by defeating Mats Wilander 6-7(7), 6-0, 7-6(4), 6-4 in the US Open final.

2002: Tim Montgomery of USA sets a world record in the 100m, clocking 9.78s at the Grand Prix Final in Paris.

2006: Tiger Woods’ five-tournament winning streak finally ends when Shaun Micheel knocks him out in the first round of the World Match Play Championship.

From jeers to cheers: Formula One is in love with Sebastian Vettel again

Two years ago Sebastian Vettel was booed at Monza. The then-Red Bull driver had just claimed his third win at the iconic Pista Magica. But the German was an outsider, a rival winning on Ferrari’s home turf.

He was also the villain of Formula One, vilified by fans all over the world for his actions in that year’s Malaysian Grand Prix when he stole victory from team-mate Mark Webber, the dominance he exerted over the sport only further feeding fans’ disenchantment with him.

But this year, standing on the second step of the podium garbed in scarlet, the crowd was chanting his name.

“Alonso, Alonso,” they had screamed two years ago, reserving only catcalls for Vettel.

But now Formula One’s Temple of Speed reverberated with chants of “Sebastian, Sebastian.” Once the sport’s blue-eyed boy, then pantomime villain, Vettel was back to being the hero of the piece.

Now driving for Ferrari, the Tifosi were always going to shower him with adulation at Monza. But warmth they heaped on him is reflective of a broader shift in the way Vettel has been perceived since he made the move to the sport’s most legendary team.

Formula One is in love with Vettel again.

Where once his dominance turned off all but the most die-hard followers of the sport – and even they found it wearying – fans are now turning to the German to create upsets in a season dominated by Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, ironically, in almost Vettel-esque style.

After four years of title-winning dominance on the trot, put down by many largely to the superiority of the Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull, people relished watching him struggle last year, failing to come to grips with a car designed to radically different regulations than the ones he had spent so many years honing his driving style to make the most of.

But this year Vettel, in a car not quite a match for the Mercedes but capable of taking the fight to the silver cars, is the underdog and fans are rooting for him to take on the established order.

Vettel too has fallen back in love with Formula One. The 28-year-old is a keen enthusiast of the sport’s history. Driving for the most storied name in the sport, joining the pantheon of Ferrari greats and following in his boyhood hero Michael Schumacher’s footsteps seems to have rekindled his passion for Formula One after a year of disillusionment.

“There are a lot of fairy tales about Ferrari and how it feels to drive a red car and so on and I can only confirm all these fairy tales,” Vettel told the team’s website after his first outing in a Formula One Ferrari at Fiorano. “It is a true legend that exists and it feels really, really, special to become part of that.”

“Looking back to the years when I was 11, 12 years old, trying to look over the fence and trying to see a glimpse of Michael running on the track. Today I was on the track and I saw the Tifosi around.”

That he is driving for Ferrari and the circumstances he joined the team in are also major reasons for Vettel’s newfound popularity.

Ferrari is the oldest and most successful team on the grid. It is the only marque that has competed in every season since the Formula One World Championship was formed in 1950 and is very much a part of the fabric of the sport.

But he joined the team at a difficult time, when the downward spiral the Scuderia had seemed locked into over the past few years culminated in the squad’s first winless season in over two decades.

He has very much been cast in the role of Ferrari saviour, the man tasked with returning the Prancing Horse to greatness, a champion fighting the odds, devoted to the pursuit of restoring the lost lustre to a storied name.

It makes for a very engaging storyline.

If he succeeds, his popularity will only soar. It won’t erase the ‘bad-boy’ incidents that have blotted his copybook. But nursing Ferrari back to health, like Schumacher did, would put his claim to greatness beyond dispute.

F1 » Vettel not expecting priority Ferrari status

Sebastian Vettel says his stronger performances in 2015 shouldn't mean he gets preferential treatment from the Ferrari team.

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Vettel not expecting priority Ferrari status

Sebastian Vettel says it is not worth Ferrari prioritising him over Kimi Raikkonen in the team unless he is in clear contention for the world title. 

The German got the gap down to leader Lewis Hamilton to 42 points following his second win of the season in Hungary, though this has now swelled to 67 points on the back of his failure to score last time out in Belgium.

Despite this, Vettel never felt as though he was a clear contender for the title and unless he is, Ferrari shouldn't 'worry' about channelling its resources to him over the newly re-signed Raikkonen, despite the substantial 78 point gap between them.

“If you make a new part, you do it two times at least, that's the way it has to be. I think if you're racing for the championship and at some point later in the season it is clear that only one car is racing for the championship, then it is clear what you have to do.

“Where we are now, if you look at also the gap that I mentioned, the best thing we can do is to go racing, try to win and worry about ourselves and not look at others too much.”