The week prior to the British Grand Prix saw sweltering weather hit the UK and had spectators gearing up for a red hot encounter, with just ten points separating Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the head of the driver’s leaderboard going into the ninth race of the season.
In the end, it was a decisive call by Lewis Hamilton in the wet that saw the Brit make the headlines in Northamptonshire, claiming victory from Rosberg to put him 17 points ahead of his teammate in the individual standings.
Bad starts from Hamilton and Rosberg, who began one and two on the grid respectively, saw the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas take an early lead in the race. But after regaining the lead following his first pit stop, Hamilton then made a decisive call to pit again and change to wet tyres as the rain began to fall, a call that ultimately proved the right one as the reigning world champions held on to claim his third career victory at Silverstone.
Leading the charge
A week out from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, another form of motorsport was making headlines on British shores. Hosted in the leafy surroundings of Battersea Park, the final race weekend of Formula E’s inaugural season was met with blazing sunshine and 60,000 fans eager to catch the electric-powered action.
Sir Richard Branson was in attendance to announce a new partnership between his Virgin Racing team and Citroen’s DS Brand ahead of the first of two races held over the weekend to bring the season to a close.
“Having DS as a partner is going to be just what Virgin Racing needs – one of the best car manufacturers in the world now behind Virgin Racing. So I look forward to our team doing even better next year. The thing I like about DS is they’re committed to trying to create cars that are initially hybrid cars, but I’m sure if you watch this space then they’ll go a lot further to look after our environment and lead us into a world that is a clean world, which will be fantastic for our children and grandchildren,” Branson said.
Yves Bonnefont, the chief executive of the DS Brand, described the Virgin Racing team as a natural fit, given their shared commitments and values of innovation and improving the world through technology.
“Formula E is just tracing a new way in the field of motorsports and the signature of DS is avant-garde and we are very, very excited to engage on this avant-garde motorsports approach,” Bonnefont said.
As things transpired in London, Virgin Racing’s British driver, Sam Bird, gave the home crowd something to cheer about by claiming victory in the weekend’s second and season-ending race. However, it was Formula One crossover Nelson Pique Jr, driving for Nextev TCR, who left Battersea Park celebrating after the Brazilian clinched the inaugural Formula E title, while the constructors’ championship went to Alain Prost’s E.Dams-Renault team.
More for Manor
The Manor Marussia Formula One Team started the British Grand Prix race weekend on a positive, revealing a new major sponsorship deal with Flex Box.
The shipping and storage container manufacturer's logo was on display on the sidepods of the team's MR03B cars as they took to the Silverstone track and it will remain in place for the rest of the season, together with the new blue colouring to reflect the company's sponsorship on the car’s livery.
Manor recently signed another major partnership with room rental service Airbnb and team principal John Booth was delighted with the deal: “We are very pleased to welcome Flex Box to the Manor Marussia Formula One Team. We are two very ambitious businesses, aspiring to dramatic growth on the international stage and making a major impact in our respective industries.
“This is our second partnership announcement in just a few weeks, so these are exciting times in our team's development. It is very rewarding for us to be able to welcome likeminded brands to join us on that journey and assist them in achieving their own global objectives.”
In other news ahead of the British Grand Prix, Force India driver Nico Hülkenberg signed a personal endorsement deal with European private jet firm Globeair following the German's victory for Porsche in the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race last month.
No return for refuelling
As the early practice sessions were set to get underway at Silverstone, the strategy group of leading teams and officials was busying itself discussing matters including the reintroduction of refuelling during races should from 2017. Banned in 2010 following a string of safety incidents, the strategy group put forward the proposal of reinstating refuelling in May as a means to improve the racing spectacle.
In the end the proposal was dropped, with team principals unanimously rejecting the idea after results from an investigation into it revealed refuelling would cause dulled-down strategies and lead to a decline in the number of overtakes during races.
It’s now up to FIA race director Charlie Whiting to report the teams’ rejection to the strategy group before the FIA's World Motor Sport Council will make a final decision.
And while refuelling was given the thumbs down, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been busy trying to win over the teams with his desire for an engine freeze.
Ecclestone hopes such a ruling would lead to more competitive racing, with an upper limit set on performance to give the likes of Honda and Renault, who are lagging behind Mercedes and Ferrari, the opportunity to move closer in line with their rival producers, though Mercedes are against the idea.
“We can all put our money together and have a wager that Mercedes will win the championship next year which is not really the sort of thing we are looking for. I have been proposing and am going to propose that we go back to a normally aspirated engine with some hybrid bits built into it,” Ecclestone said.
He added: “The manufacturers will have to call it a 'McLaren hybrid', 'Ferrari hybrid' or a Williams hybrid' so that it will get across the message. They are hybrids now but nobody tells anybody. It's the best-kept secret actually. What this engine is for. What was it designed for and what have we achieved? It is a fantastic bit of engineering.
A week or so prior, Ecclestone had suggested the sport had been left with a “crap product” when referring to the turbo V6 engine currently in use in Formula One.
One thing which bosses did agree to was reducing driver aids and coaching in order to enhance the role of the driver in Formula One, with some changes set to take effect as early as the Belgian Grand Prix in August.
Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff said: “The racing drivers are the main cast of the show, so let's put more responsibility back to the racing driver.
“We want more variability and less predictability. In order to achieve that, maybe there should be less scientific approach to racing, and more the race driver responsible for his racing.”
The decision means that from next year, information such as tyre pressures and temperatures and brake condition will be available to the driver on his dashboard but not fed to him by the team.
Things are also set to sound better in 2016 after the strategy group agreed on the need for changes to exhaust systems to “improve engine noise for 2016”, an FIA statement detailing the meeting revealed.