Williams and Mercedes

17.30 Monaco Paddock. Down at the Williams motorhome members of the media are listening to chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar talking about the team’s adventures in qualifying. Very quietly, Niki Lauda (chairman of Mercedes AMG Petronas), Andy Cowell (managing director of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber (the Daimler AG board member for Research & Development), all in Mercedes gear, sidle as casually as possible into the motorhome and disappear into the offices… They emerge a few moments later.

The team’s new engine supply deal for 2014, 2015 and 2016 is done.

Q3: Clouded but silver lining

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton qualified their Mercedes 1-2 on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix, butthe big question will be on Sunday when the cars run in race trim as in recent Grands Prix they have gone backwards as the tyres degrade. The people who are most likely to take advantage are Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the Red Bulls, who are third and fourth with Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso next up. Their chances will depend on tyre strategies. The top 10 is completed by Sergio Perez’s McLaren, Adrian Sutil’s Force India, Jenson Button’s McLaren and Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso.

Q2: Sebastian climbs to the top

The Q2 session started on intermediate tyres and then the teams switched to dry rubber as the track dried. The usual suspects moved to the front with Sebastian Vettel leading the way, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber and Jenson Button. The surprise was Jean-Eric Vergne in ninth, ahead of Sergio Perez.

Knocked out were Nico Hulkenberg, Dan Ricciardo, Romain Grosjean, Valtteri Bottas, a valiant Giedo Van der Garde for Caterham and Pastor Maldonado.

Pastor sets the pace!

The Q1 session in Monaco began with the track damp and the drivers were in something of a lottery as times were falling throughout the session. The result was that Pastor Maldonado ended up fastest for Williams, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. Romain Grosjean did a sterling job in his repaired Lotus to take fourth fastest after just a few laps while Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez completed the top 10.

In the midfield Dan Ricciardo was 11th ahead of Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber, Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Giedo Van der Garde.

Knocked out were Paul di Resta, Charles Pic, Esteban Gutierrez, Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi (who retired with mechanical trouble on his first lap out) and Felipe Massa, who did not run as his car was still being repaired.

Local boy still going well

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the Saturday morning session in Monaco, with a lap that was 0.8secs ahead of his nearest challenger, Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman ended his session by smacking the wall at Ste Devote, which was perhaps not the smartest thing to do in the run up to qualifying. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, the last-named who took a trip up the escape road at Mirabeau. Mark Webber was seventh ahead of Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, while Force India’s Paul di Resta was 11th, ahead of Jenson Button and the two Toro Rossos of Jean-Eric Vergne and Dan Ricciardo. Adrian Sutil was 15th after clattering down the barriers at Massanet, while Felipe Massa has some sort of mechanical failure that threw him into a wall on the run down to Ste Devote, resulting in a double-hit crash. Esteban Gutierrez and Valtteri Bottas were 17th and 18th with the Caterhams of Charles Pic and Giedo Van der Garde 19th and 20th and the Marussias of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton finishing off the time sheet.

BMW and Formula 1

In recent days Bernie Ecclestone has mentioned that BMW might be considering a return to Formula 1 racing. This has, inevitably, been denied by the Munich company’s motorsport people, who say that they are quite happy doing DTM and running Z4s in the American Le Mans Series. Be that as it may, there is a fairly decent business case for BMW to get back into F1 as an engine supplier.

The company’s 2012 financial year was the most successful in its corporate history, with new records achieved for sales volume, revenues, and earnings. The first quarter of 2013 has seen an increase in volume of five percent, although revenues went down slightly. The company invested heavily in new technology because of what it called “increasingly tough competition”. The firm still made a Q1 profit of $2.5 billion. The breakdown of sales showed an increase of three percent in Europe, five percent in the Americas and 9.5 percent in Asia. Russian sales grew by 21 percent. Thus the firm is expanding in all the markets where F1 is at its most powerful as a marketing tool.

In 2012 the US accounted for 18.9% of total BMW sales, China delivered 17.7% and Germany was only 15.6%. It is worth noting that the company is building a new factory in Brazil which will produce up to 30,000 cars per year. By the end of 2014, some 25 new models will have been added to the range, 10 of them totally new models. The company says that “with a view to global sales development, the company will continue its strategy of avoiding over-reliance on a single market or region”.

The conclusion that one reaches is that a global sporting programme would be of more value to BMW than its current sporting activities – if the board wants to move in that direction.

Sauber, in the meantime, is trying to negotiate a new engine deal for less than three years…

Fanboys and Indians

I get a fair amount of abuse from Mallya fanboys in India over any story that dares to suggest that their beloved leader is anything but a national hero. These go straight to trash. For those with the ability to read, they should know that while Vijay is partying on his yacht in Monte Carlo there continue to be legal moves to wind up his UB Holdings, the parent company of the group. These have been filed by unsecured creditors of the now-dormant Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya is trying to hold things together and has been suing lenders who have been selling pledged shares of United Spirits. He is also threatening to sue anyone who buys pledged shares. In the meantime the consortium of lending banks continues to go after assets, be they shares, real estate and even personal assets. Mallya is trying to complete the sale of United Spirits to Diageo, something he said he would not do. His Force India partner Roy Sahara awaits an important legal action over his inability to pay a fine ordered by the Supreme Court. He has recently pulled Sahara out of the Indian Premier League (IPL), making a lot of noise about how the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is run.