Renault F1 driver Jolyon Palmer has said he would love to have a Formula One confrontation with his younger brother Will at the British Grand Prix at some point in the future.
“It would be very cool,” said Jolyon when asked about the possibility by the Daily Mail newspaper this week.
“Will’s six years younger so we’ve never raced against each other. I’ve got to be successful to still be around and he’s got to make it, so it’s kind of a double dream – but it would be awesome.
“Maybe not in the same team, though!” he added. “We’d have some fallings out.”
26-year-old Jolyon begins his second full season in Formula One next month and is a former GP2 Series champion, while Will – who turned 20 this week – has been competing in Formula Renault 2.0 and picked up the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2015.
“I’ll be in Formula Renault again next season,” confirmed Will. “Lots of current Formula One drivers have been through it so it’s good preparation.
“The goal is to win the championship, go on to GP3, GP2 and then Formula One. And having Jo there would be extra special. I want to give him a race!”
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Jolyon pointed out that Will is already ahead of his older brother in terms of career progression for his age, with the award having given Will a chance to experience what it felt to drive a McLaren F1 car.
“I didn’t drive a Formula One car until I was 24, or win the award, so Will’s on a good track,” said Jolyon.
“It put me on the map,” Will said when asked what winning the award had meant to him. “The McLaren test was the best experience of my life. It was incredible at my stage to do that. I knew it would be a massive step up but the cars are so refined they give you confidence.”
The brothers are clearly inspired by their father Jonathan, himself a former Formula One driver with 83 starts in the 1980s.
“There were pictures, helmets and overalls from Dad’s career around the house so it was obvious racing was a big part of our family,” said Jolyon. “I always loved it and watched F1 races when I was young, but didn’t decide to really give it a go until I was 13. From then I was completely absorbed.
“It has been bloody hard and taken a lot of perseverance, but we’ve never wanted to do anything else.”
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Long linked to a potential deal to bail out Manor Racing, Formula One promoter and organiser Tavo Hellmund admitted this week that the result of the final race of 2016 proved the deciding factor in why the plans – and the team – collapsed.
“At one point we had agreed to terms,” revealed Hellmund, who was in talks to buy the team for a year and a half. “We made two stabs at it. We offered 22 million pounds a year and one-half ago.
“The first go-round, we were even going to involve Anthony Hamilton, Lewis’ dad.
“We were looking to form a partnership with one of the big manufacturers, Mercedes or Honda. We had conversations with both,” he added. “That way you can get motors — discounted motors — and get a driver.”
Hellmund said that the team’s consistently improving form, its single ownership, small operation of around 200 employees and relatively small debt load had made the deal attractive to potential buyers in 2016, but that as time rolled on with no deal the team became less appealing to investors.
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The final blow came with the Brazilian Grand Prix which saw rivals Sauber pick up two points and demote Manor to last place in the constructors championship – with big repercussions for prize money payouts for the team.
“They were starting to come to our terms, and then Brazil happened,” admitted Hellmund, saying that the rain in Interlagos on race day had been crucial to the outcome. “In the dry, Manor was the faster car.”
Hellmund explained that Manor would have made around $15 million if it had held on to tenth place in the standings – and potentially make another $34 million from a different pot of money if it had gone on to achieve that feat twice in a three-year period.
Hellmund noted that the protracted negotiations led to ‘investor fatigue’ in which it was difficult to maintain the interest and enthusiasm of potential partners. Manor’s operating company Just Racing Services Ltd went into administration on January 6 and the team formally wound up at the end of the month.
“We felt we had reached critical time in the development of the car for next year,” he said of the final decision to end negotiations without agreement. “It’s a shame those people are now out of work.”
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Perhaps it’s a bit tongue in cheek but McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says F1 should consider a return to active suspension!
Teams are currently wrestling with the new trick suspension concept, the legality of which still requires clarification from the FIA before the end of the month.
The debate about the pre-loaded suspension system, which has the ability to improve aerodynamic performance, was initiated by a letter sent to F1 race director Charlie Whiting by Ferrari designer Simone Resta, who requested guidance on whether the concept contravened the rule book or not.
A meeting of technical directors with the FIA last week apparently prompted Boullier to suggest a return of the active suspension concept exploited so brilliantly by Williams in the early 1990s, before the technology was banned at the start of 1994.
Boullier’s take on the matter is that authorizing a return of active suspension would simply end the current debate on trick suspensions.
“Suspension, it’s a funny topic,” he said.
“We should maybe one day stop it and copy the road car, which is to bring active suspension back, because at least it will close the debate.
“Today, everything is subject to the interpretation of the regulation and then you can push for one concept, which you can see can be differently interpreted from another one.
“This is why Ferrari trying to push its opinion or interpretation being valid by the FIA. We’re in the middle of this and actually, most of the teams have contacted us over this topic.
“Ferrari has a different interpretation of what can be done and they try to push their opinion through which obviously does not please some other teams.”
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Boullier insists however that McLaren is on the sidelines with regard to the controversial suspension row, while Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull battle it out.
“We are very neutral,” said the Frenchman.
“An agreement has been reached with the FIA, which is that we have to adhere to the existing rules but disclose our procedures in more detail.”
Clear FIA guidelines about the suspension conundrum are expected to be delivered to the teams in the coming weeks, hopefully before pre-season testing gets underway on February 27.
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Renault Sport managing director Cyril Abiteboul wants the French team’s upside trajectory to continue while tightening up its structure.
The manufacture’s return as a full-works outfit last season following its buy-out of Lotus lad to difficult season as Renault set out to relearn the ropes of Formula 1.
It was very much a work in progress in 2016 with ongoing staff building and restructuring at its Enstone and Viry bases running parallel to its efforts out on the race track.
The time has now come to exploit its foundation while pursuing progress on both teh engine and chassis fronts.
“2017 will be more of a consolidation year,” Abiteboul explained.
“In Viry, the focus is much more on quality rather than quantity. We may actually reduce slightly the size of our operations.
“On the chassis side, we have recruited something like 100 people, so that is a growth of 20% of headcount, which is a lot.
“We are going to slow down a little bit the recruitment, make sure everyone is finding their feet.
“I will be more focused on securing the right department heads, which takes time because of the contractual situation – the more senior you go in an organisation, the longer it takes to get those people.
“But we have some in the pipeline that will join us over the course of the season.”
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Efforts at Renault’s engine department at Viry-Châtillon , located in the southern suburbs of Paris, have centered around designing a new internal combustion engine and ERS for 2017.
The revised power unit is destined to bridge the gap with Mercedes, says Abiteboul, a claim which will be music to the ears of Red Bull.
“There is absolutely no doubt about that, and maybe in the future the potential to overtake them,” he said.
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Despite the on-again, off-again ceasefires between the Palestinian Resistance and Israel, attacks in Gaza have continued. According to 8/10/14 announcement from Tel Aviv, they will continue, doubtlessly as ruthless as ever. After Israel launched the first attack on July 7th, tension continues as an omnipresent essence whirling about the winds of the greatly sought-after Holy land. Bombarded by airstrikes, shelling and bombs, civilians of the Gaza strip are incarcerated in what seems to be a never-ending battle with no escape. Recent reports from numerous sources and journalists describe the weight of the devastation Palestinians have endured in Gaza.
Within the last ten years, Israel has provoked three offensive movements against the Palestinian territory in Gaza: Operation Cast Lead, which began at the end of 2008 and 2009, Operation Pillar of Defense, which last eight days in November 2012, and most recently, Operation Protective Edge, which started on July 7th, 2014. During this period of devastation, homes have been obliterated, nearly two thousands civilians have been killed, and humanitarian resources are extremely limited due to the Israeli blockade. Catastrophic damage has already been done, some irreparable and some of the most important consequences are often overlooked.
According to Dr. Jesse Ghannam, a clinical psychologist working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, reported that the rate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among children has doubled since the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense attack. These children will most likely suffer from mood disorders, anxiety, depression, problems with attachment and develop antisocial personality traits. Children of Gaza who are nine years old have spent whole lives experiencing the terror of ruthless violence.
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The UN relief and works agency reported that approximately 270,000 Gazans are taking UN schools as shelters. The organization also calculates that more than 350,000 children need mental health services because of severe and persisting psychological trauma. How can children cope when they witness the loss of their homes and their entire families from a single explosion? These children are witnessing their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and neighbors being blown apart with no understanding of why.
Many Gazan children who have survived view life as an inescapable war. There are many psychological principles to consider when assessing the future of these children, psychosocial development being a prominent one. The UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recently stated that about 75% of teachers at primary and secondary levels reported a decline in their students’ academic performance since Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. Furthermore, Operation Protective Edge has damaged 138 schools, including 89 run by the UNRWA.
IRIN, a UN Humanitarian news and information service, reported that the lack of locations to attend school and lack of education resources leaves students having to wait, prolonging their education with no guarantee of returning. Erica Silverman reported from the 2008-2009 attack that due to the trauma of these children and lack of psychological counseling resources, many are hesitant and anxious about even going to school. Six years later, with two more perennial offenses, these children of Gaza are overwrought. Iyad Zaqut, a psychiatrist managing the UN community mental health programs in the Gaza strip, reports fewer than 100 specialist teachers are treating more than 100,000 children.
The lack of schools, teachers, and school supplies make education for these children a fallacy. In addition to the scarcity of academic availability, many of these schools do not offer mental health services because of the abundance of children suffering from psychological trauma and limited mental health providers. As a result, these children are in dire need of aid which is unattainable. It’s important to consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when thinking about these children. These kids do not even have their basic safety and physiological needs met, which are basic human rights which many take for granted. They have nothing but memories of explosions and imprinted images of violence in their minds.
They live in a world they cannot change, that is cruel and violent. Their only solace is uttering the words “Inch’Allah” as they hide with their families and try to avoid the destruction surrounding them. Many of them don’t. Thousands of Palestinians are restricted from leaving Gaza Strip and are confined, condemned by the Israeli agenda with their fate already determined. How can children conceptualize this, what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamen Netanyahu has described as “complicated” yet “justified”?
Children are unable to understand the nature of this ongoing destruction. The children who have witnessed all three of the Israeli offenses are old enough to have reached Concrete Operations of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Even so, how can they begin to conceptualize such oppression being justifiable? They don’t. Instead, these children, who are completely traumatized, are taught that survival is retaliating against these forces. The innate human compassion that every single human is born with is drowned with the blood of their people, leaving these children as empty shells, with their only hope to survival becoming filled with hatred and violence to join an extremist organization, where they will become like their oppressors—ruthlessly inhuman and unaffected by bloodshed.
In addition to the trauma they experience from witnessing these horrors themselves, family tensions contribute to their psychological issues. It’s difficult for children to feel safe when their parents, older relatives and other adults are stressed. Children need reassurance from adults and a healthy and supportive environment. Their parents are also suffering and face their own worries, so these children of Gaza cannot even retrieve comfort from their family.
The children of Gaza, who may initially be socially withdrawn and reclusive, quiet yet scarred and suffering, are at grave risk of growing into killing machines with nothing but bitter resentment for Israel. The attacks on children in Gaza are only fueling the ongoing violence, because for these children the only option is to avenge their dead family members, their homes, their schools, and their lack of human resources. Essentially, these kids have never known a proper society and will undoubtedly return to a very barbaric nature because that is their only means of survival.
These children are unable to have normal lives and development—besides the psychological trauma and lack of resources—because their identity is not fostered in a normal, healthy way. One of the most notable theories of development comes from Erik Erikson, who developed the 8 stages of psychosocial development. The nine-year old survivors of the Israeli offenses in Gaza, for instance, would be in Erikson’s stage of Industry vs. Inferiority. This is a crucial stage of human development, but these children will not be able to surpass this stage and continue to develop in a healthy manner. The Industry, which we can compare to the Israeli militant forces, dominate over the Palestinians. The children of Gaza who have lost everything—while never really having anything—are robbed of their dignity and the right to a stable life and identity of self.
The Palestinian suffering and Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nothing new. This problem has been raging on, but it is important to ease the suffering of these children and provide resources to help them and help the world. There is a way to stop the cycle, with humanitarian efforts and discussion about what needs to be done. These children are innocent, and yet they are subjected to so much. It is a moral responsibility of the international community to provide assistance to alleviate the strife of these children and rebuild what is left of the home of the Palestinian people.