My chat with highly respected Formula 1 journalist Peter
Windsor was so interesting that I simply had to split it into three parts. In
this final segment the F1 Racing Magazine columnist shared his views on
Pirelli, Hamilton and the battle at the back of the pack.
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| (c) SPEED |
Part 1 focused on Peter’s brand new web-show “The Racer’sEdge” as he moves on from previous success with “The Flying Lap.” Part 2 then
moved on to some of the main stories of the 2013 season so far, including his
thoughts on Mark Webber, Adrian Sutil’s return and a potential move to Ferrari
for Nico Hulkenberg.
With plenty more to discuss, I started off with the current tyre debate. It was fascinating to hear Peter’s views on the Pirelli and the situation we find ourselves in. Since the Italian supplier entered the sport in 2011, they have
caused controversy due to the tyre structures causing low durability and
troubles with wear and graining. 2013 has proved to be even more controversial
compared to the previous two years due to the changes made by Pirelli over the
winter.
Pirelli look close to signing a new extension deal which
most of the teams are happy about, however a few have raised issues with the
wear rate. Some have also speculated that the sport would be healthier and more
competitive if there was a tyre war. This is something that Pirelli would
welcome, as said by their Motorsport Director Paul Hembery recently, but at the
moment that does not look likely.
Peter admitted that he dislikes anything artificial in
Formula 1, classing Pirelli’s tyre compounds under this category. Discussing
the current tyre situation he started off by saying “Well I don’t like anything
artificial in motorsport, I know you asked me about Pirelli but I don’t like
DRS, I didn’t like refuelling when we had it and I don’t like having to make at
least one pit stop in the race or indeed the situation which we find ourselves
in.” He then admitted that he would like to see a tyre war and two suppliers in
the sport, “I like having tyre compounds in competition or at least 2 in
Formula 1 if possible and if we don’t have 2 I would like the teams to be
working out their own strategy as they want to do it and to not be controlled
by rules and regulations.”
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| (c) Pirelli Media |
However in the current situation that the sport finds itself
in, he admits that Pirelli are doing a good job. “So all I can say is given the
situation in which Formula 1 has driven itself I think Pirelli are doing a very
good job and I’m a big fan of the way they have handled Formula 1 and their
situation and I think we are all very fortunate that there is a tyre company
out there wanting to supply tyres to Formula 1 when it is in such confusion in
terms of what it wants and where it sees itself going.”
It’s all “a victim of costs” according to Windsor, branding the sport a “mess” in its
present guise. Alongside the astronomical costs of running a Formula 1 team and
running the sport, he also cited “Ego, miss-management, too many market
surveys” alongside a number of other things, “you can point your finger at a
number of things”, for what we have now.
Adding to that comment and adding to his view to why the
sport is in such a poor state is “because the only tyre company out there that
wants to be in Formula 1 is Pirelli and we do have a situation where they have
got to build at least two different compounds for every race and it’s not very
satisfactory in my view.”
It’s interesting to hear his views on the Pirelli compounds
which have created spectacular displays on Sunday, but Peter admits that the
sport has “ever been unexciting”, he has always found the sport thrilling and
enjoys every second of it, always has and always will whatever era he has seen
the sport through.
However I frankly think the excitement on Sunday has come at
a cost of Friday and Saturday practice sessions. We now have to sit through
nearly half an hour of nothingness before we see cars emerge to start
“practicing”, but even then they are always trying to minimise wasting or using
up tyres. Even qualifying is suffering because of this, and when asked about
this Peter agreed with me. It is simply not good enough. “Well I agree with
you, I think it’s terrible when there is no action on track. You go to a Grand
Prix now and if you go Friday as a spectator and you pay and buy your ticket,
you can be there for the start of practice at 10 o’clock and it can be almost
an hour before the current world champion comes out and starts doing any flying
laps and I think that’s really bad.”
Of course the teams have to do what they have to do and they
are limited on tyre wear, but Peter admits that the disparity between the
Friday and Sunday track action is far too big. “You make a couple of good
points, that there is a big disparity on what goes on during Sunday and the
lack of action we see say on a Friday morning.”
Peter has watched Formula 1 since 1972 and has loved it ever
since, whether that is watching the fierce rivalries of Carlos Reutemann and
Alan Jones, to Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill or more recently Sebastian
Vettel and Fernando Alonso. That includes practice sessions and he feels that
it is sad to see so little action. He said “I have always thought Formula 1 is
exciting and I have been watching it since 1972 so that’s where I think Formula
1 has gone wrong, its constantly been trying to reinvent itself and change
itself when in reality there is nothing wrong with it. What we are doing is
putting so much emphasis on Sunday that it is actually taking away from the
action on Friday and Saturday.”
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| (c) Mercedes AMG F1 Team |
So what can be done to improve the spectacle on non-race
days? Peter thinks that watering down the Sunday action, like less pressure on
tyres and their wear, would still produce an exciting race but would benefit
those watching on Friday and Saturday even more. “So I think in reality we can
water down on Sunday and boost what we have on Friday and Saturday.”
That’s obviously a controversial view as I personally would
think there is some kind of balance that can give us an equally exciting race
with Friday and Saturday also benefiting. However Peter loves motorsport and he
enjoys every second of track action, but not when there is no track action at
all. “I love motorsport in general and I like Formula 1 on general and I enjoy
Friday’s just as much as I enjoy Sunday's."
He also revealed to me his fascination with the technical
challenge of winning a race from start to finish. He is “happy” when that
occurs but when it occurs “consistently” he cites it as a problem which creates
a poorer TV spectacle. “The only problem is that when that does happen
consistently, in the Michael Schumacher Ferrari days, it doesn’t come over very
well on television. But that’s not the fault of the sport, that’s the fault of
the television coverage so that’s what needs to be changed, not the sport.”
So how can we make these start-to-finish victories just as
compelling? Well Peter thinks that having more access to the driver briefings,
team radio, telemetry and a chance to listen in to the drivers conversations
with the team will open up the sport and make the racing more interesting.
Formula 1 is a secretive sport at the moment and Peter is not a fan of that, he
would like to broaden people’s access to what they can see and hear. “If all
that happened I don’t think we would need to worry about all the contrived
short term stuff we do with the rules and regulations to try and make Formula 1
‘interesting’ on race day and now I think we would have more tyres then and we
would see more running on Friday and Saturday.”
Moving away from the topic of Pirelli and the tyre debate, I
asked Peter what he thought about Kovalainen’s return to the race track.
Admittedly the role is just for Friday Practice but how big an impact could he
have on turning their season around? “Drivers do count for an awful lot and I
think with two, young rent-a-drivers in the Caterham’s it was very logical to
put Heikki in the car just to see how this year’s car compared to last so they
have some kind of yard stick.”
However Peter is not a big believer in a more experienced
driver being able to turn a team’s season around. “If that was the case then
when Rubens Barrichello was at Williams he would have transformed the car
within three races. Of course he couldn’t do that and no one would expect him
to do that and it’s the same with Heikki, you know, you’re not going to be able
to put Heikki in the car and suddenly make it 2 seconds faster, it isn’t going
to happen.”
I asked if he thought Caterham were realising the mistake
that they had made dropping him for two younger, less experienced drivers who
brought in the money. He responded by saying “Well I don’t think it’s just
Caterham that realise that. That’s why I and F1 Racing Magazine last year voted
Vijay Mallya as the team principal of the year personally because he
steadfastly refuses to hire rent-a-drivers and hires drivers on merit
regardless of the financial situation of his personal empire and I think that’s
very, very impressive how he has done that. One of the reasons Force India are
so strong is because they have got two very good racing drivers, there’s no
magic there, that’s one of the reasons.”
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| (c) Caterham F1 Team |
However Peter admitted that he is perplexed by the teams
choice to have two young, pay drivers in the car now rather than having them at
the start of their journey and employing two more experienced and faster
drivers for now, citing Kovalainen and Kobayashi as two examples. However he
does see potential in both Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, saying that they are “two quick, fast racing drivers
with a lot of potential” but he was perplexed by the “context” of the last four
years of Caterham being a team and “why they were running Jarno Trulli and
Heikki Kovalainen in year one when in reality it would be better to be running
the equivalent of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, maybe it’s Heikki and
Kobayashi for example, in that car. It seems odd that they are not running it
in year four when in theory they should have a better car and a better feel for
what’s going on that when they started.”
Moving on to fellow back marker Marussia, Peter said that he
has so far been impressed by both drivers. “I think they have got two pretty
quick drivers and there is no doubt Jules Bianchi is a very fast racing driver.
He does look to me to be a sort of Romain Grosjean, Jean-Eric Vergne in the way
he drivers again, maybe it’s something French going on there.” Bianchi has so
far impressed up and down the paddock with his strong drives, but how is Max
Chilton faring?
“Max Chilton is actually doing a good job” said Peter,
showing a slight hint of surprise. But having a reflexy, on edge and “quick guy
alongside him” is “not easy for him,” Despite this Peter said that “he is
adapting very well” to the sport and to the Marussia team.
The topic of conversation soon switched back to the
forefront of the 2013 grid. Lewis Hamilton’s move to Mercedes was highly
controversial and came as quite a shock to some. Expectations were low
pre-season but even before winter testing Peter believed he could win at the
wheel of the W04. “Well yes as you probably know in my preview to the season
for F1 Racing, an article that had to be written before the winter testing even
started, obviously not wanting to be boring and saying the championship is most
likely going to be won by Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso, you know really
sticking my neck out, I said that I felt Lewis actually has a very good chance
of winning the world championship this year.”
This came “at a time when everybody felt that Mercedes are
really going to be strong in 2014,” and Peter stands by his prediction. He said
“So I’m out there beating the drum saying not only can he win races but I think
he has a good chance of the championship, I still believe that and I think he’s
doing an extremely good job. Of course he can win grand Prix this year;
Mercedes won a race last year so why can’t they win at least three this year.”
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| (c) Mercedes AMG F1 Team |
But how will Nico Rosberg compare this season? So far he has
proved a match in qualifying but has been, perhaps, slightly off the pace in
race trim. It has been very close so far and Peter rightfully (in my view)
expects it to stay that way. “I think he will be very close to Lewis and he
will be ahead of Lewis quite a lot.” However the team-orders and number one
driver debate sparked up in Malaysia after Rosberg was told not to overtake.
Peter thinks that the team will obviously favour Hamilton more after paying so
much money to get him in that seat. “I think ultimately the amount of money
Mercedes are spending on having Lewis Hamilton in the team and the amount of
money Mercedes are putting into that team in order to win a championship, inevitably
a bit like Sebastian Vettel the emphasis will be on Lewis and you will see momentum
building around Lewis as the season develops.”
Despite the prediction of possible favouritism within the
team, Peter still thinks Rosberg can race competitively and has been impressed
with him so far. “Still I have been very impressed with Nico’s driving this
year and he is just getting better every year, the Nico Rosberg we are seeing right now is not
that far away from Lewis I think.” I would have to agree with him there, Nico
is driving better than ever at the moment and I think it will be a very close
battle come the seasons end.
Lotus are currently battling Mercedes at the front, Peter
predicted big things for Raikkonen when he returned to the sport but he doesn’t
think he can challenge for the title, as well as Grosjean, for a number of
reasons. “I’m not convinced that the
team has enough money, facilities, resources or momentum behind it to be able
to beat a Red Bull, Mercedes or Ferrari to the championship this year.”
However despite the likelihood of Kimi Raikkonen being the
2013 world champion in Peter’s eyes, he reckons that he will have a very
successful season. “But I do think Kimi will win at least three races, a bit
like Lewis.” That’s something that I definitely agree with; Kimi is a fierce
competitor and will definitely be one to watch. It all comes down to money
though. Continuing on from out discussion on Lotus his thoughts on how they
will fare, he gave insight into the future on resource restrictions which he
feels will effectively end soon. “But I think Mercedes have possibly got more
money behind them and I think that is important now because I think the days of
the resource restriction are effectively over. Money will become significant
again over the certainly this year.”
And so we close with a prediction. Peter gave me three names
for the drivers’ championship but to be honest, he couldn’t put them in any
real order. In fact he had to add a fourth name and end it there, the
championship is still wide open and a number of drivers could take it. There’s
plenty of time to find out. Those names were Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen and
Hamilton, and I would have to agree with him completely.
I would like to thank the hugely inspiring Peter Windsor for chatting to me and taking the time out of his busy day to answer my questions.
Follow Peter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterDWindsor
Check out The Racer’s Edge on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theracersedgetv
Peter’s very own blog: http://peterwindsor.com/
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