SAKHIR // The new female figure in Sebastian Vettel's life may be providing the entire Red Bull-Renault team sleepless nights, but they were all awake and up to the job yesterday afternoon as the 22-year-old German clinched pole position ahead of today's Bahrain Grand Prix, the first F1 race of the new season.
Vettel, the winner of the final Grand Prix of 2009 in Abu Dhabi, has replaced last year's car with a new RB6, deciding to nickname her "Luscious Liz". And the pair looked formidable as Vettel, the youngest driver to win a Grand Prix, clocked a final qualifying lap of 1min 54.101secs to put him at the top of the standings and ahead of Felipe Massa by 0.141secs. Massa's Ferrari teammate, Fernando Alonso was third, ahead of the McLaren-Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes GP car of Nico Rosberg.
Jenson Button, the world champion, could do no better than eighth in his McLaren, one place back from Michael Schumacher, who struggled for pace in his first race back since coming out of retirement. In keeping with the start the of the season, which includes four former world champions, three new teams and five rookie drivers, the first qualifying session of the year proved unpredictable. With new regulations prohibiting refuelling and the 10 fastest drivers being forced to start the race using the same tyres they qualify on, few had been willing to predict this weekend's outcome.
Qualifying, however, had been billed as the first genuine indicator of each team's competitiveness and Vettel admitted the result was not foreseen. "It's a big surprise," said the German. "In winter testing, it was pretty clear there were four teams who would be close to each other, but nobody really knew where they were. I knew we had a great car, but [Friday's practice] was tough for us; we did not get as much running as we were hoping for. We had a long night - especially the mechanics - there were a lot of tired faces out there, but everyone was still keen to push. The boys have not had much sleep, but by getting pole we have shown how strong we are.
"We had to get it together and qualifying went pretty smoothly, so I am very, very happy." Vettel maintained that anything can happen today, adding any prediction is made more difficult by the scorching 35C weather, a stark contrast to that of Spain where the teams examined their cars during winter testing. However, the five-time Grand Prix-winner, knows he has put himself in the best position possible going into the season-opener. "It could be very exciting, it could be very boring - that is what I hope for, to finish more or less where I start. We have had a good result and there is no better position to start from, but it is only the first of 19 and it is going to be a long, long race and there are a lot of things unknown."
Red Bull at one point looked like they might emulate their performance in Abu Dhabi and secure a one-two finish, but as Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, pushed, the Australian went wide on a corner and slipped down sixth. "In the past it has been more of a sprint event," said Vettel. "You had to take care in the beginning, which I think everyone enjoyed. "But this year, the challenge is not to attack every lap."
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae The Bahrain GP is live on Abu Dhabi Sports 2, 4pm
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
