Rookie F1

Gascoyne gets a promotion:

Mike Gascoyne, of Caterham F1, has been named the team’s Chief Technical Officer with immediate effect. Moving on from handling day-to-day operations of the technical department, he will now preside over the proposing, supporting and coordinating of technical initiatives, not only within the Formula One team but the GP2 team as well. Gascoyne will also be concerned with Caterham Cars, Caterham Composites and Caterham Technology & Innovation as well. Speaking about the new appointment Gascoyne said, “This is a very proud moment for me. My new role will now give me the chance to help drive value across the whole group through the creation and delivery of new projects in all the sectors we are already working in, and opening up new opportunities for each of the Group’s companies to embrace.

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The new chief technical officer goes on to discuss who will be taking his former position, “Mark Smith is exactly the right person to step up to the broader role he will now be taking on in the F1 team, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with Mark Edwards at Caterham Technology & Innovation, Phil Hall at Caterham Composites and Ansar Ali at Caterham Cars. This is a big challenge but one I am extremely excited about and I want to thank our shareholders for this opportunity.”

Bottas gets a taste of a the highlife:

Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas will be getting behind the wheel of the new car in Barcelona next week. Bad weather stopped him previously when he was scheduled to get in the car before Jerez, and it will be Bruno Senna who will be cutting his time in half to allow the Finn to get his chance on track. Senna will be in for the first day, followed by Bottas with Maldonado taking the last two days.

Awards a plenty at Red Bull:

Adrian Newey may have just been inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame tonight in London, joined by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, but his mind seems to be fully on the season ahead. Concerned with what Mercedes has over their rivals he said after hearing the W03 was ready to go at the last test, Newey said “I said I’ve got no idea but why you might choose to do that would be if you had some feature on your car which you think is a big benefit and which is relatively easily copied. I’m not saying that is the reason, but it’s a possible reason.”

Current world champion Sebastian Vettel was also honoured, this time in his home country. The Silver Laurel Leaf is the highest sporting award in Germany, beginning in 1950 it is bestowed upon Olympic medalists, those who finish in the top three in European and world championships and those with a record of outstanding achievement. Vettel will receive the honour at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin after completing two days of testing in Barcelona. Michael Schumacher holds a laurel leaf which he was award in 1995 after his second championship win.