Well what can i say ... Well done Germany, It doesn't get much more convincing than that i suppose.
Vettel confounded the pundits and put Redbull back on top at a circuit that shouldn't have suited their car. Valencia is all long straights and silly little corners. Not long fast sweeping corners that suit the Redbulls balanced performance. Both of them were faster than anyone else and Qualifying was done before most of the big boys had had a chance to play, so dominate was Vettel. The much fancied McLarens weren't to far behind, but needed the Redbulls to fail if they wanted a win.
Mickey Schumacher looked lost all weekend and only just scrapped into Q2. All the money Brawn and Mercedes are throwing at their driver and he's beaten yet again By Rosberg, and now the Williams pop up from nowhere and make him eat their dust.
Meanwhile, Webber once again proved than when it all goes wrong for him, he can really really screw it up royally. He started on the dirty side of the grid in second place, but had made it back to 9th by the end of the first lap. So Redbull tried pitting early for the new tires to try and jump the faster boys. But a sticky front left put him back behind a slow Kovalinium in the Lotus. A car that the much faster Redbull should pass with ease. Except that Webber arsed around for a lap or two and then, in a moment of utter stupidity, followed the hapless Finn into the breaking zone and was then astonished when the Lotus driver hit the brakes. He shot over the top of the lotus, did a slow backwards rotation and landed on his wheels before hitting the barrier very hard. Kovalimum had no idea what hit him. Webber got out of the car and was driven off to the medical centre to see if he has any brain at all to damage. He is fast become the new Trulli for me!
So a pretty comfortable win for Vettel really, he didn't look like being touched all weekend cruzing to an easy flag to flag win. He's got his championship back on track now, moving up to 3rd behind the McLaren Duo.
Hamilton gets second after a mix up about over taking the safety car before or after it left the pit exit. He gained a drive through as Alonso threw a hissy fit when he got caught by the safety car and Lewis didn't. He tried to catch Vettel with a series of stunningly fast laps, but Vettel had the measure of the plucky English lad who was forced to settle for second. Given the drive through i suppose that's as good as he could have hopped for. He still leads the championship and that's what counts.
Button tops out the podium, two English flags behind the one German. Button did alright, he was held up by the Sauber of Kobayashi for a long time, but made the jump to third when the Japanese driver stopped for tires four laps from home.
Barrichello pops up in 4th, I've no idea how, they're been rubbish all season and yet here, but for an exploding tire they'd have got 2 cars in the top ten. Will wonders never cease. Barrichello didn't do anything silly and the car held together. Well done him.
Kubica had the chance to be on the podium this weekend, but a duff final qualifying and he makes it to 5th only.
Sutil, didn't get hit by anyone and makes it to 6th
A fantastic result for Kobayshi, who stayed out when the safety car came out, leaving him a top 3 spot for a long time before he had to come in to change tires. He wouldn't have been there without the safety car, but he gambled on the hard tires lasting for almost the whole race and made it work for him. Then came out and over took Alonso who was still having a hissy fit about Hamilton being second and he wasn't, Crazy Koby breezed passed the whinging Spaniard and then took Buemi on the last corner of the race to claim 7th spot. Well done to him.
8th for Alonso who spent most of the race complaining about Hamilton and how it was so unfair he was ahead of the Ferrari driver. To be honest if he's just shut up and concentrated on driving, he might have got a better result. But why drive when you can whinge about your nemesis huh. Perhaps things aren't as rosy as they used to be with Ferrari. I wonder how long before Alonso starts to get linked to a move back to Renault hmmmm.
9th for Buemi who gets bumped with a 5 second penalty for driving too fast when the safety car was out .. or something. He had kept Alonso back for a long time, so respect to him for that.
10th and bumped up as De Le Rosa gets bumped down for the speeding thing is Rosberg. Who yet again beat Mickey, hurrah. But it's luck more than anything as that car is still a dog even after all development parts were bolted on.
Lotus dropped the ball, Kovy was taken out and Trulli complained about the car being too green or something. So Di Grassi in the Virgin win the Tail End Charlie Challenge. a lap ahead of Chandhoks HRT.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Valencia, it's got a nice beach
It’s all back to Spain this weekend for the European (let’s makes some money out of the Spanish company, Santander) Grand Prix.
Well Valencia likes to think of itself as the Monaco of Spain. But it’s not, it’s in a dockyard and has no charm what so ever. It also has no soul or sense of occasion to it. It is just a dockyard, the walls aren’t even that close to the track, so there’s no smearing expensive carbon fibre bits along the wall. And if you have no walls you have lots of run off areas, which means the paying punters are pushed right back and the place looks like a ghost town. Dull dull dull dull dull dull blah blah blah..
Last year a bit of nifty pit work from the Brawn boys saw Barrichello beat Hamilton to the line and an emotional victory. Like Canada last timeout, Hamilton goes well here, and I’m not expecting that to change this time out. The McLarens look to have a speed and handling advantage on these medium fast circuits, where big balls are worth more than clever aero packages and grunty engines. But you also have to be pretty precise with the driving line. The tire wear is pretty high so going off line usually means a trip to the wall, as there’s no grip off line.
With all the cars in the top 15 or so, pretty much on the same pace, it’s going to be one of those dull tactical races. The team that cocks up the pit stop is going to be the one staring at the rear of Schumacher’s diffuser for the rest of the day. Once again, baring incident, they’ll finish pretty much how they started. Which will liven qualifying up, it might even be worth turning over from the world cup to watch .. who knows.
So the McLaren boys are on a roll here, there’s no repeat of the Hamilton v Alonso years it would seem. Button has slotted into the fold nicely, Hamilton is learning to share his toys and both boys are feeding back to the team so that the car is getting better and better. If they’re not on a par with the Redbulls on handling, then they’ve passed then on speed. Other teams (Ferrari) have focus too much on developing their own F’duck systems, whilst McLaren have concentrated on making the car faster, stealing a march on the others and making this into a two horse race for the title. Everyone and their mother has one or other of the McLarens winning here.
Ferrari have gone back to the drawing board and are bringing their B-spec car out a race ahead of McLaren. You could argue that the Ferrari wasn’t too bad, it was just it’s drivers cocking things up. But Ferrari is one of the richest teams on the tour, so they can afford to build a new car from the ground up. New suspension, new aero, new exhaust ducting and the same old drivers. Alonso is on home soil yet again this weekend, so you’d expect him to go well, however the new car has had very little testing, It would be a brave call to predict a podium.
Redbull are once again talking up their chances, “it’s not over yet etc etc” says Horner. The last few weeks have not been an easy ride for the playboys of the paddock and they need a good result to keep things ticking over. They’ve lost any advantages they had at the start of the season, so it’s now down to drivers and their head space being in the right place.
Renault, and Kubica continues to do better then expected. I though the other boys would have out developed them by now, but no Kubica is still knocking around the middle of the top 10. Petrov after an okay start is now falling back as the other drivers hit their stride. I think he’s done enough to keep his seat for next year, but the bigger boys don’t look like their fighting to get his signature at the moment.
The Mercedes boys are starting to talk about “development year” and “learning about the car all the time” and other such bollocks. Brawn is still saying the championship is there to be won. But he’s the only one doing that little speech. Mickey has disappointed really. He’s not as sharp and he’s not hit the ground running. Last time out in Canada we saw the old aggressive for the sake of it Schumacher. The one we didn’t like. I suspect he getting frustrated and irritated about how the season is panning out. Rosberg is still consistently in the top 10 5th or 6th, whilst Mickey is battling the like of Sutil, Liuzzi and Alguersuari to make it into the top 10. Hard time on easy street.
Force India, have so far failed to turn a strong 2009 into a great 2010. The car doesn’t look as fast as the ‘09 car, and the drivers still seem to be getting hit by other cars. Massa had three goes at Liuzzi in Canada. If they could only catch a break and have some good luck, then I’m sure the car is mid top 10 racer. Better than Massa, Kubica and Mickey they have the speed and the determination. Just not the luck.
As for the rest, Williams are going backwards again, Torro Rosso have shown moments of speed, Sauber are wasting their time with the smart money moving on De La Rossa to be the first driver fired.
The tail end charlies are now only 3 seconds off the pace. Lotus still relying on reliability than speed. I may have been a bit premature to call the virgins faster than the Lotus. Lotus looks to have had a blip rather than passed the baton on … if you see what I mean. HRT are starting to deny that any of their drivers are going to be fired, which is usually a sure sign that someone is about to be fired. Shame really, both driver have been okay, not quick but definitely okay, they just don’t have enough money.
Well Valencia likes to think of itself as the Monaco of Spain. But it’s not, it’s in a dockyard and has no charm what so ever. It also has no soul or sense of occasion to it. It is just a dockyard, the walls aren’t even that close to the track, so there’s no smearing expensive carbon fibre bits along the wall. And if you have no walls you have lots of run off areas, which means the paying punters are pushed right back and the place looks like a ghost town. Dull dull dull dull dull dull blah blah blah..
Last year a bit of nifty pit work from the Brawn boys saw Barrichello beat Hamilton to the line and an emotional victory. Like Canada last timeout, Hamilton goes well here, and I’m not expecting that to change this time out. The McLarens look to have a speed and handling advantage on these medium fast circuits, where big balls are worth more than clever aero packages and grunty engines. But you also have to be pretty precise with the driving line. The tire wear is pretty high so going off line usually means a trip to the wall, as there’s no grip off line.
With all the cars in the top 15 or so, pretty much on the same pace, it’s going to be one of those dull tactical races. The team that cocks up the pit stop is going to be the one staring at the rear of Schumacher’s diffuser for the rest of the day. Once again, baring incident, they’ll finish pretty much how they started. Which will liven qualifying up, it might even be worth turning over from the world cup to watch .. who knows.
So the McLaren boys are on a roll here, there’s no repeat of the Hamilton v Alonso years it would seem. Button has slotted into the fold nicely, Hamilton is learning to share his toys and both boys are feeding back to the team so that the car is getting better and better. If they’re not on a par with the Redbulls on handling, then they’ve passed then on speed. Other teams (Ferrari) have focus too much on developing their own F’duck systems, whilst McLaren have concentrated on making the car faster, stealing a march on the others and making this into a two horse race for the title. Everyone and their mother has one or other of the McLarens winning here.
Ferrari have gone back to the drawing board and are bringing their B-spec car out a race ahead of McLaren. You could argue that the Ferrari wasn’t too bad, it was just it’s drivers cocking things up. But Ferrari is one of the richest teams on the tour, so they can afford to build a new car from the ground up. New suspension, new aero, new exhaust ducting and the same old drivers. Alonso is on home soil yet again this weekend, so you’d expect him to go well, however the new car has had very little testing, It would be a brave call to predict a podium.
Redbull are once again talking up their chances, “it’s not over yet etc etc” says Horner. The last few weeks have not been an easy ride for the playboys of the paddock and they need a good result to keep things ticking over. They’ve lost any advantages they had at the start of the season, so it’s now down to drivers and their head space being in the right place.
Renault, and Kubica continues to do better then expected. I though the other boys would have out developed them by now, but no Kubica is still knocking around the middle of the top 10. Petrov after an okay start is now falling back as the other drivers hit their stride. I think he’s done enough to keep his seat for next year, but the bigger boys don’t look like their fighting to get his signature at the moment.
The Mercedes boys are starting to talk about “development year” and “learning about the car all the time” and other such bollocks. Brawn is still saying the championship is there to be won. But he’s the only one doing that little speech. Mickey has disappointed really. He’s not as sharp and he’s not hit the ground running. Last time out in Canada we saw the old aggressive for the sake of it Schumacher. The one we didn’t like. I suspect he getting frustrated and irritated about how the season is panning out. Rosberg is still consistently in the top 10 5th or 6th, whilst Mickey is battling the like of Sutil, Liuzzi and Alguersuari to make it into the top 10. Hard time on easy street.
Force India, have so far failed to turn a strong 2009 into a great 2010. The car doesn’t look as fast as the ‘09 car, and the drivers still seem to be getting hit by other cars. Massa had three goes at Liuzzi in Canada. If they could only catch a break and have some good luck, then I’m sure the car is mid top 10 racer. Better than Massa, Kubica and Mickey they have the speed and the determination. Just not the luck.
As for the rest, Williams are going backwards again, Torro Rosso have shown moments of speed, Sauber are wasting their time with the smart money moving on De La Rossa to be the first driver fired.
The tail end charlies are now only 3 seconds off the pace. Lotus still relying on reliability than speed. I may have been a bit premature to call the virgins faster than the Lotus. Lotus looks to have had a blip rather than passed the baton on … if you see what I mean. HRT are starting to deny that any of their drivers are going to be fired, which is usually a sure sign that someone is about to be fired. Shame really, both driver have been okay, not quick but definitely okay, they just don’t have enough money.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Tarmac, it's not just the black stuff under the wheels
Tarmac (short for tarmacadam, a portmanteau for tar-penetration macadam) is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901. The term is also used, with varying degrees of correctness, for a variety of other materials, including tar-grouted macadam, Tarvia, bituminous surface treatments and even modern asphalt concrete.
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What is it about tarmac that can excite so much passion for petrol heads? To ordinary people with normal lives and an interest in Italian food for instance, it’s just a bit of road from point A to point B. But stick some armco around it and paint a black and white chequered strip in the middle of a straight bit and suddenly it takes on a beauty and majesty that transcends ordinary everyday Tarmac and makes it a Motor Racing Track.
Give bits of the strip of tarmac names like Blanchimont, Curve Grande, Eau Rouge, Tetre Rouge and the Mulsanne straight and things really start to ramp up. The hairs on the back of the neck begin to raise, the shiver in the spine starts to spread and the petrol head starts to hear the voices of motor races long past. The sounds and smells of events long forgotten begin to stir in the memory and they are transported back to the moment Mansell passed Piquet down the hanger straight into Stowe, when Schumacher and Hakkinen fought up the Kemmel straight into Les Combes. Jackie Ickx walking across the Le Mans pit straight to get into his car in 1969
But not just moments of excitement and joy, moments of pain and loss too. Senna leaving the tarmac at Tamburello and not getting out of his car. Lauda engulfed in a fireball on the tarmac of Bergwerk at the Nordschleife. Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes leaving the tarmac of the Le Mans pit straight and scything into the packed grandstand
The moment a driver steps into the car and lights it up, is the moment that he goes out to battle the tarmac to tame the thin ribbon of history and write a new page, that’s what we live for, those are the moment when mere tarmac means life and death. This weekend there a two strip of tarmac that will sort the brave and the good from the pay per drive and the weekend warriors. New chapters will be written about this weekend and you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren that you were alive when history was written.
Le Mans. It’s like mainlining petrol straight into your eyeball, it’s like Mickey mouse on speed and your very first shag all rolled into 24hours. The cars are big and grunty and loud and screamy and fast and dirty and brutal and delicate and there right in from of you, wanting to be loved and daring you to come just a little closer. You have not lived until you’ve felt a Corvette V8 thunder past you, brake discs glowing, spitting flames as it down shifts into Tetre Rouge and then on into the black night of the Mulsanne straight at 200mph the engine note roaring “HERE I AM mmmmwwwwhahaHAHAHAHAAHAHAH” the red tails lights filling the night air. Seconds later an Aston Martin V12 screams past you and Audi whispers behind, “love us, come with us in to the night”.
It’s going to be a wet race and that means speed isn’t important. Not screwing up and keeping four patches of Michelins finest in contact with the Tarmac is what counts. Last year Audi failed to turn up to the party with a car that was too cleaver for its own good, France went loopy as Peugeot claimed a One – Two finish. This year the Audi is a better car than last year but can they beat a Peugeot that is balls out fast and desperate to win back to back. My monies on the French Peugeot squad of Minassian, Montagny and Sarrazin to beat Audis old boys Kristensen, McNish and Capello.
But I’ll be rooting for the family Mansell to finish in their first race at the Circuit De La Sarthe. Sans ‘tash and a good bit lighter than his Indy days Nigel is back with his two boys to take on the might of Audi Peugeot, Audi, Aston Martin and Oreca. He stands no chance what so ever of winning, just finishing will be a victory for him. But they’ll be 50,000 Brits on the wall cheering him on like we did at Silverstone all those years ago.
Meanwhile in Canada the speed junkies are gearing up for their 2 hour fix of Bernie’s babes. This is going to be a McLaren benefit gig..... No, wait trust me. Turkey was all about the Redbulls and their high speed corning handling car. Had Vettel not got all unnecessary, they’d have got a One – Two. Just like I predicted. I can’t be held responsible for Germanic insanity okay. The McLarens were right up their arses, I agree, but they couldn’t stay in touch with Vettel and Webber through turn 8.
Canada has no high speed corner; it’s a circuit of two halves. A long twisty section through the woods down one half. And a balls out eye wateringly fast bit along the St Lawrence Seaway up the other. McLaren and their sorted F’aduck means they can run more wing for the twisty bits and still stay ahead of the chasing pack on the fast bit.
Once they get to the end of the fast bit, they have perhaps one of the best chicanes in formula one. It a right left flick, taken at balls out speed in qualifying. But it demands a great deal of respect. If they get the right flick in wrong, they’ll hit the left flick very extremely wrong and the next thing they’re doing is leaving a big long dirty skid mark and bits of very extremely expensive car down the side of the wall of champions. There’s no run off here, no comfy armchairs and AstroTurf to meander across. There’s a dirty great big solid wall grinning at them ready to suck them and spit them out. It’s had some very famous names smeared across it over the years and doesn’t give a monkeys about reputation. All are welcome.
So Hamilton or Button for the win, if it stays dry Hamilton would be favourite. Throw in a bit of rain (maybe) Button has the smarts to win.
Not too far behind them, got to be the Redbulls. It’s all sweetness and light after the *ahem* incident last week. Webber has been given a contract for 2011 so he’s all sweetness and light. Vettel proved he could beat the Ozzy, just not finish the move. Both have a lot to prove now, but I think they’ll be all “after you sir”, “No I insist, you first dear boy” for the next couple of races. Taking out you team mate from the win is the cardinal sin after all.
I have a feeling that Kubica will go well here. The Renaults looking pretty handy after all and the French boys seems to have a bit of the old flair back whilst Petrov was unlucky not to be in the top ten last time out. They could start to trouble the bigger boys at this rate.
Ferrari seem to be going back to the good old days of having no clue what’s going on and blaming each other in a keystone cops kind of way. Others have pointed out that Alonso, normally the racing drivers racing driver, is cocking things up with no help from anyone else. A jump start in China, a needless crash in Monaco and failing to qualify in Turkey. Not the mistakes one usually expects from a two times world champion. Is he frustrated or losing his touch. Meanwhile Massa drops further and further down the pecking order. A bad result here and the papers will start to turn on him.
Mickey seems to have got the handle on Rosberg now. But the car isn’t a front line challenger and Mickey isn’t beating the young Mr Rosberg like he used to beat his other team mates. Also the FIA are starting to ask difficult questions about the new roll over/air intake scoop on the re badged Brawn and I think Mercedes will soon be saying this is a “Development” year and they’re looking to 2011 for the big breakthrough.
I think it’ll be the usual suspects in the top ten this weekend. However keep an eye out for Sutil. The Force India is on one of their target tracks and Sutil should be there or there abouts. A mistake from the bigger boys could see him in Q3 and then maybe top 5 beckons. Choose between him and Petrov for the top 10.
As for the rest, who cares?
But wait a second; the Tail End Charlie Challenge is at an interesting juncture. Lotus has not been the fastest for the last two races now. In Monaco, that waste of racing overalls Trulli had to attempt to roughly mount the HRT of Chandhok to save the good name of Lotus (More by luck than judgement from the HRT though). The Virgins beat the HRT’s and the Lotus boys in Turkey and I think maybe it’s time to start looking at the performance of the Virgins and ask if they’ve final caught and passed the Lotus chaps. The Virgin always had the straight line speed over the Lotus, HRT just has no speed at all, and straight line speed is what counts here. It was just a bit spit and saw dust in its construction. Maybe they’ve ironed out the kinks and are starting to move ahead of the other Tail End Charlies.
Screw the F1 though; Le Mans is where it’s going to be at this year. LMP1, LMP2, GT1 And GT2, four classes of cars, 56 car, 168 drivers, 24 ex Formula drivers, 1 Formula One champion and an eight times winner. 24 hours, twice round the clock. If you have any petrol in your veins find a TV at 2pm (UK time) this Saturday, and watch the greatest race on tarmac.
*
What is it about tarmac that can excite so much passion for petrol heads? To ordinary people with normal lives and an interest in Italian food for instance, it’s just a bit of road from point A to point B. But stick some armco around it and paint a black and white chequered strip in the middle of a straight bit and suddenly it takes on a beauty and majesty that transcends ordinary everyday Tarmac and makes it a Motor Racing Track.
Give bits of the strip of tarmac names like Blanchimont, Curve Grande, Eau Rouge, Tetre Rouge and the Mulsanne straight and things really start to ramp up. The hairs on the back of the neck begin to raise, the shiver in the spine starts to spread and the petrol head starts to hear the voices of motor races long past. The sounds and smells of events long forgotten begin to stir in the memory and they are transported back to the moment Mansell passed Piquet down the hanger straight into Stowe, when Schumacher and Hakkinen fought up the Kemmel straight into Les Combes. Jackie Ickx walking across the Le Mans pit straight to get into his car in 1969
But not just moments of excitement and joy, moments of pain and loss too. Senna leaving the tarmac at Tamburello and not getting out of his car. Lauda engulfed in a fireball on the tarmac of Bergwerk at the Nordschleife. Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes leaving the tarmac of the Le Mans pit straight and scything into the packed grandstand
The moment a driver steps into the car and lights it up, is the moment that he goes out to battle the tarmac to tame the thin ribbon of history and write a new page, that’s what we live for, those are the moment when mere tarmac means life and death. This weekend there a two strip of tarmac that will sort the brave and the good from the pay per drive and the weekend warriors. New chapters will be written about this weekend and you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren that you were alive when history was written.
Le Mans. It’s like mainlining petrol straight into your eyeball, it’s like Mickey mouse on speed and your very first shag all rolled into 24hours. The cars are big and grunty and loud and screamy and fast and dirty and brutal and delicate and there right in from of you, wanting to be loved and daring you to come just a little closer. You have not lived until you’ve felt a Corvette V8 thunder past you, brake discs glowing, spitting flames as it down shifts into Tetre Rouge and then on into the black night of the Mulsanne straight at 200mph the engine note roaring “HERE I AM mmmmwwwwhahaHAHAHAHAAHAHAH” the red tails lights filling the night air. Seconds later an Aston Martin V12 screams past you and Audi whispers behind, “love us, come with us in to the night”.
It’s going to be a wet race and that means speed isn’t important. Not screwing up and keeping four patches of Michelins finest in contact with the Tarmac is what counts. Last year Audi failed to turn up to the party with a car that was too cleaver for its own good, France went loopy as Peugeot claimed a One – Two finish. This year the Audi is a better car than last year but can they beat a Peugeot that is balls out fast and desperate to win back to back. My monies on the French Peugeot squad of Minassian, Montagny and Sarrazin to beat Audis old boys Kristensen, McNish and Capello.
But I’ll be rooting for the family Mansell to finish in their first race at the Circuit De La Sarthe. Sans ‘tash and a good bit lighter than his Indy days Nigel is back with his two boys to take on the might of Audi Peugeot, Audi, Aston Martin and Oreca. He stands no chance what so ever of winning, just finishing will be a victory for him. But they’ll be 50,000 Brits on the wall cheering him on like we did at Silverstone all those years ago.
Meanwhile in Canada the speed junkies are gearing up for their 2 hour fix of Bernie’s babes. This is going to be a McLaren benefit gig..... No, wait trust me. Turkey was all about the Redbulls and their high speed corning handling car. Had Vettel not got all unnecessary, they’d have got a One – Two. Just like I predicted. I can’t be held responsible for Germanic insanity okay. The McLarens were right up their arses, I agree, but they couldn’t stay in touch with Vettel and Webber through turn 8.
Canada has no high speed corner; it’s a circuit of two halves. A long twisty section through the woods down one half. And a balls out eye wateringly fast bit along the St Lawrence Seaway up the other. McLaren and their sorted F’aduck means they can run more wing for the twisty bits and still stay ahead of the chasing pack on the fast bit.
Once they get to the end of the fast bit, they have perhaps one of the best chicanes in formula one. It a right left flick, taken at balls out speed in qualifying. But it demands a great deal of respect. If they get the right flick in wrong, they’ll hit the left flick very extremely wrong and the next thing they’re doing is leaving a big long dirty skid mark and bits of very extremely expensive car down the side of the wall of champions. There’s no run off here, no comfy armchairs and AstroTurf to meander across. There’s a dirty great big solid wall grinning at them ready to suck them and spit them out. It’s had some very famous names smeared across it over the years and doesn’t give a monkeys about reputation. All are welcome.
So Hamilton or Button for the win, if it stays dry Hamilton would be favourite. Throw in a bit of rain (maybe) Button has the smarts to win.
Not too far behind them, got to be the Redbulls. It’s all sweetness and light after the *ahem* incident last week. Webber has been given a contract for 2011 so he’s all sweetness and light. Vettel proved he could beat the Ozzy, just not finish the move. Both have a lot to prove now, but I think they’ll be all “after you sir”, “No I insist, you first dear boy” for the next couple of races. Taking out you team mate from the win is the cardinal sin after all.
I have a feeling that Kubica will go well here. The Renaults looking pretty handy after all and the French boys seems to have a bit of the old flair back whilst Petrov was unlucky not to be in the top ten last time out. They could start to trouble the bigger boys at this rate.
Ferrari seem to be going back to the good old days of having no clue what’s going on and blaming each other in a keystone cops kind of way. Others have pointed out that Alonso, normally the racing drivers racing driver, is cocking things up with no help from anyone else. A jump start in China, a needless crash in Monaco and failing to qualify in Turkey. Not the mistakes one usually expects from a two times world champion. Is he frustrated or losing his touch. Meanwhile Massa drops further and further down the pecking order. A bad result here and the papers will start to turn on him.
Mickey seems to have got the handle on Rosberg now. But the car isn’t a front line challenger and Mickey isn’t beating the young Mr Rosberg like he used to beat his other team mates. Also the FIA are starting to ask difficult questions about the new roll over/air intake scoop on the re badged Brawn and I think Mercedes will soon be saying this is a “Development” year and they’re looking to 2011 for the big breakthrough.
I think it’ll be the usual suspects in the top ten this weekend. However keep an eye out for Sutil. The Force India is on one of their target tracks and Sutil should be there or there abouts. A mistake from the bigger boys could see him in Q3 and then maybe top 5 beckons. Choose between him and Petrov for the top 10.
As for the rest, who cares?
But wait a second; the Tail End Charlie Challenge is at an interesting juncture. Lotus has not been the fastest for the last two races now. In Monaco, that waste of racing overalls Trulli had to attempt to roughly mount the HRT of Chandhok to save the good name of Lotus (More by luck than judgement from the HRT though). The Virgins beat the HRT’s and the Lotus boys in Turkey and I think maybe it’s time to start looking at the performance of the Virgins and ask if they’ve final caught and passed the Lotus chaps. The Virgin always had the straight line speed over the Lotus, HRT just has no speed at all, and straight line speed is what counts here. It was just a bit spit and saw dust in its construction. Maybe they’ve ironed out the kinks and are starting to move ahead of the other Tail End Charlies.
Screw the F1 though; Le Mans is where it’s going to be at this year. LMP1, LMP2, GT1 And GT2, four classes of cars, 56 car, 168 drivers, 24 ex Formula drivers, 1 Formula One champion and an eight times winner. 24 hours, twice round the clock. If you have any petrol in your veins find a TV at 2pm (UK time) this Saturday, and watch the greatest race on tarmac.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Lock and load, it's going ot be turkey shoot kids
Well, the question isn't who will win in Turkey. No, the question is which one of the Redbulls will win in Turkey.
Webber has the crown Jewel of Monaco under his belt and two on the bounce, momentum and lady luck are are sitting nice and comfortably on his shoulder. He now knows he can put a weekend together and come out top Dog. His supposed better team mate has been lackluster in the last two rounds and not challenged the older man. Formula One is as more about tuning a drivers head into racing winning, than giving him a car to do the job. Webber now believes he can do the job which is going to make him a hard man to beat.
Vettel is equal on points with the Ozzy, but has had no luck with a broken car for the last two races. This means you have to ask that if he'd had a pukka car would he have been pushing Webber harder. At Monaco, probably not as It's not a circuit he likes, but Turkey will give him more room to show what he can do. But if Webber is faster on day one however, Vettel will struggle.
The only driver i think can challenge these two is Alonso. I've been saying from the start that I think this is going to be Alonso's year. Turkey is going to be a race that he has to take to the Redbulls. They will be faster than him, so he'll have to stay in touch to profit from any mistakes the other two make. If he makes another mistake like the one in Monaco he's going to make the job harder than it already is.
Also bare in mind also that Massa has always gone well here. He's not the sharp driver he was last year, but he can still get the job done when on comfortable territory. The Ferrari is fast, it just needs to be driven fast.
As to the rest, I don't think Kubica will be as fast as he was in Monaco, the Renault isn't as fast as the rest of the pack in a straight line and spanking the car won't make it go any faster here. The McLaren boys will be there or there abouts, given a fare win, but Button won't win unless it's wet. Hamilton is always worth watching and could mix it up with the Redbulls and Alonso. He went well in Spain which is a similar fast dusty track to Turkey. The F-duck will keep them in the hunt but Ferrari and now Redbull will have F-ducts too though not as developed and attuned as the McLaren version.
Rosberg and Mickey will be back scrapping about behind the rest, probably ahead of Kubica if they have no problems.
So yeah, the betting money is on a Redbull 1-2. I can't think of a reason to doubt that personally.
Webber has the crown Jewel of Monaco under his belt and two on the bounce, momentum and lady luck are are sitting nice and comfortably on his shoulder. He now knows he can put a weekend together and come out top Dog. His supposed better team mate has been lackluster in the last two rounds and not challenged the older man. Formula One is as more about tuning a drivers head into racing winning, than giving him a car to do the job. Webber now believes he can do the job which is going to make him a hard man to beat.
Vettel is equal on points with the Ozzy, but has had no luck with a broken car for the last two races. This means you have to ask that if he'd had a pukka car would he have been pushing Webber harder. At Monaco, probably not as It's not a circuit he likes, but Turkey will give him more room to show what he can do. But if Webber is faster on day one however, Vettel will struggle.
The only driver i think can challenge these two is Alonso. I've been saying from the start that I think this is going to be Alonso's year. Turkey is going to be a race that he has to take to the Redbulls. They will be faster than him, so he'll have to stay in touch to profit from any mistakes the other two make. If he makes another mistake like the one in Monaco he's going to make the job harder than it already is.
Also bare in mind also that Massa has always gone well here. He's not the sharp driver he was last year, but he can still get the job done when on comfortable territory. The Ferrari is fast, it just needs to be driven fast.
As to the rest, I don't think Kubica will be as fast as he was in Monaco, the Renault isn't as fast as the rest of the pack in a straight line and spanking the car won't make it go any faster here. The McLaren boys will be there or there abouts, given a fare win, but Button won't win unless it's wet. Hamilton is always worth watching and could mix it up with the Redbulls and Alonso. He went well in Spain which is a similar fast dusty track to Turkey. The F-duck will keep them in the hunt but Ferrari and now Redbull will have F-ducts too though not as developed and attuned as the McLaren version.
Rosberg and Mickey will be back scrapping about behind the rest, probably ahead of Kubica if they have no problems.
So yeah, the betting money is on a Redbull 1-2. I can't think of a reason to doubt that personally.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Webber inexplicably takes the Monaco crown
Well there you go, just how much to I know about F1 then. On the strength of the Monaco result, not a hell of a lot.
So much for "There's no way Redbull can win here ...... Webber won't even make the top 10 hardy har har. He’s a bit rubbish etc etc" Apparently he's rather good and can indeed defy expectation and win back to back races which is a first. But you know what, he did it. Now you could argue that had Alonso not attempted to crash test the Ferrari on Saturday morning so that he needed a new car for Sunday, then Webber might have a had to do a bit more work. But the fact is, Webber didn't hit the Armoco and Alonso did. Not so Teflon now are you Mr. Spanish bloke. Thus the Magic of Monaco is displayed for all to see. You kiss the metal work here, you don't give it a good hard smack and tell it to come round the hotel room later. Lady luck doesn't like that kind of thing, she's an old fashioned lass that likes to see a good time before the sweaty business can begin.
1st for Webber who takes the keys to lady lucks room for another weekend, this sort of thing can lead to World Championships if your not careful. Let's see if he can keep the roll going. He was fast when it counted, controlled the race during the safety car periods as other got it all wrong. Then calmly drove off into the wide blue yonder, leaving the rest to mess round in his wheel tracks. I guess he had a pretty boring race, because I didn't see that much of him.
Vettel get's 2nd this time around, he's going to be wondering what happen to the Wunderkind tag he had at the start of the year. Okay yeah, he's second, but he's supposed to be the team leader here, the young gun going for the win at all cost. Not one being shown the way home by the old guy waiting to get fired and move on to some mid field Jonny Nobody effort. However Vettel is second, he's now joint first in the championship with Webber, so he must be doing something right. It's just you get the feeling that Vettel is second because he got the best car on the grid, not because he's the best driver on the grid.
3rd up on the podium is a rather surprising Kubica. He was there all weekend. He didn't look like he was going to win it, but the Pole was within his grasp until Webber found an empty lap and nailed the Redbull to the front row spot. Kubica beat the other Redbull of Vettel to the front row of the grid though and that's very telling. Look where Petrov was all weekend and you can tell that Kubica made the difference here. I don't think he's going to get close to the top step for the rest of the season, but he'll have done his Ferrari chances no harm at all this weekend.
Massa 4th and untroubled by anything like racing. Drove the car and didn't crash, oh well.
Hamilton starts and finishes in 5th, which you have to regard as a bit of a failure. Kubica took a rubbish car to the podium by spanking it. Hamilton just didn't seem to get on top of the car and drive it forward. McLaren brought him early to make sure he stayed ahead of Alonso driving back from last please. But after than he couldn't get close enough to Massa to put a move on him, despite two safety cars. So I think Hamilton will be wondering where the win is going to come from this year, because Monaco should have been there for the taking.
Now 6th is Alonso who did a pretty good job of driving from the back of the grid to the top 10. He had a bit of luck after cocking it all up on Saturday morning, with safety car and other drivers screwing up during the race. But on the last lap under the safety car, he was passed by Mickey Schumacher. Ferrari where incensed by that and claimed the race was still under safety car rules even though the green flag was being waved and the track was officially clear. But the FIA being the FIA said :
"Under rule 40.13, which states that "if the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking," Schumacher has been given a penalty."
This I guess is to allow sponsors to have their cars cross the line without an unsightly Mercedes safety car getting in the way of the money shot. Why the safety car has to peel off and why the safety car line is at the pit entrance not the start finish like it always used to be, is anyone's guess. So there you go. Mickey gets a 20 second penalty (instead of a drive through) and gets bumped all the way back to nowhere. Meanwhile Alonso just about saves the day with a drive back to the top 10, but he was good enough for pole and the win was there for the taking. Webber would certainly have to have worked a bit harder.
7th For Rosberg who was beaten by his team mate again, until the FIA interviened. He felt he had a car capable of winning, but failed to find the clear lap and then didn't really get going in the race. I think he talked a good weekend, but the reality was less then stellar really.
8th. Sutil hmmm normally goes well here, but didn't really trouble the goose bumps all weekend. Made places up off the line that settled back to a few hours racing.
9th for Liuzzi. jolly good
and 10th goes to Buemi after Mickey get's hit with the FIA ban hammer of doom. Well done to him.
Meanwhile its a sorry tail of woe in the Tail and Charlie challenge. Not one of them make it to the line this week. Unbelievably, HRT and Chandhok was showing the Lotus of Trulli the way home. No I don't believe it either. Maybe, just Maybe, Chandhok has done himself the power of good on the best drivers circuit out there. But then the waste of space that is Trulli felt the need to pull a do or die move with 3 laps to go and overtake Chandhok in the most random place available. Chandhok had no idea the Trulli was coming up the inside of him and they dully collided, sending Trulli over the top of the very surprised Indian and in to the Armco. The sooner Trulli retires, the better. Which all means that none of the Tail end Charlies finished this week.
So it's starting to look like Redbull might be running a benefit gig year. They appear to have the fastest cars on the slowly twisty stuff and the long fast stuff. which covers all the tracks. Baring the reliability gremlin of course.
So much for "There's no way Redbull can win here ...... Webber won't even make the top 10 hardy har har. He’s a bit rubbish etc etc" Apparently he's rather good and can indeed defy expectation and win back to back races which is a first. But you know what, he did it. Now you could argue that had Alonso not attempted to crash test the Ferrari on Saturday morning so that he needed a new car for Sunday, then Webber might have a had to do a bit more work. But the fact is, Webber didn't hit the Armoco and Alonso did. Not so Teflon now are you Mr. Spanish bloke. Thus the Magic of Monaco is displayed for all to see. You kiss the metal work here, you don't give it a good hard smack and tell it to come round the hotel room later. Lady luck doesn't like that kind of thing, she's an old fashioned lass that likes to see a good time before the sweaty business can begin.
1st for Webber who takes the keys to lady lucks room for another weekend, this sort of thing can lead to World Championships if your not careful. Let's see if he can keep the roll going. He was fast when it counted, controlled the race during the safety car periods as other got it all wrong. Then calmly drove off into the wide blue yonder, leaving the rest to mess round in his wheel tracks. I guess he had a pretty boring race, because I didn't see that much of him.
Vettel get's 2nd this time around, he's going to be wondering what happen to the Wunderkind tag he had at the start of the year. Okay yeah, he's second, but he's supposed to be the team leader here, the young gun going for the win at all cost. Not one being shown the way home by the old guy waiting to get fired and move on to some mid field Jonny Nobody effort. However Vettel is second, he's now joint first in the championship with Webber, so he must be doing something right. It's just you get the feeling that Vettel is second because he got the best car on the grid, not because he's the best driver on the grid.
3rd up on the podium is a rather surprising Kubica. He was there all weekend. He didn't look like he was going to win it, but the Pole was within his grasp until Webber found an empty lap and nailed the Redbull to the front row spot. Kubica beat the other Redbull of Vettel to the front row of the grid though and that's very telling. Look where Petrov was all weekend and you can tell that Kubica made the difference here. I don't think he's going to get close to the top step for the rest of the season, but he'll have done his Ferrari chances no harm at all this weekend.
Massa 4th and untroubled by anything like racing. Drove the car and didn't crash, oh well.
Hamilton starts and finishes in 5th, which you have to regard as a bit of a failure. Kubica took a rubbish car to the podium by spanking it. Hamilton just didn't seem to get on top of the car and drive it forward. McLaren brought him early to make sure he stayed ahead of Alonso driving back from last please. But after than he couldn't get close enough to Massa to put a move on him, despite two safety cars. So I think Hamilton will be wondering where the win is going to come from this year, because Monaco should have been there for the taking.
Now 6th is Alonso who did a pretty good job of driving from the back of the grid to the top 10. He had a bit of luck after cocking it all up on Saturday morning, with safety car and other drivers screwing up during the race. But on the last lap under the safety car, he was passed by Mickey Schumacher. Ferrari where incensed by that and claimed the race was still under safety car rules even though the green flag was being waved and the track was officially clear. But the FIA being the FIA said :
"Under rule 40.13, which states that "if the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking," Schumacher has been given a penalty."
This I guess is to allow sponsors to have their cars cross the line without an unsightly Mercedes safety car getting in the way of the money shot. Why the safety car has to peel off and why the safety car line is at the pit entrance not the start finish like it always used to be, is anyone's guess. So there you go. Mickey gets a 20 second penalty (instead of a drive through) and gets bumped all the way back to nowhere. Meanwhile Alonso just about saves the day with a drive back to the top 10, but he was good enough for pole and the win was there for the taking. Webber would certainly have to have worked a bit harder.
7th For Rosberg who was beaten by his team mate again, until the FIA interviened. He felt he had a car capable of winning, but failed to find the clear lap and then didn't really get going in the race. I think he talked a good weekend, but the reality was less then stellar really.
8th. Sutil hmmm normally goes well here, but didn't really trouble the goose bumps all weekend. Made places up off the line that settled back to a few hours racing.
9th for Liuzzi. jolly good
and 10th goes to Buemi after Mickey get's hit with the FIA ban hammer of doom. Well done to him.
Meanwhile its a sorry tail of woe in the Tail and Charlie challenge. Not one of them make it to the line this week. Unbelievably, HRT and Chandhok was showing the Lotus of Trulli the way home. No I don't believe it either. Maybe, just Maybe, Chandhok has done himself the power of good on the best drivers circuit out there. But then the waste of space that is Trulli felt the need to pull a do or die move with 3 laps to go and overtake Chandhok in the most random place available. Chandhok had no idea the Trulli was coming up the inside of him and they dully collided, sending Trulli over the top of the very surprised Indian and in to the Armco. The sooner Trulli retires, the better. Which all means that none of the Tail end Charlies finished this week.
So it's starting to look like Redbull might be running a benefit gig year. They appear to have the fastest cars on the slowly twisty stuff and the long fast stuff. which covers all the tracks. Baring the reliability gremlin of course.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Monaco, Lady luck likes it tight and twisty here.
Right ho then … Monaco. It not like any other circuit on the tour this place. F-ducks and fidderly flaps do not help you go fast round this place. No it’s the size of your balls and how lucky you are. Brake an inch late, turn in a degree too much or blink at the wrong moment and the next thing you’re doing is explaining to the team principle why he shouldn’t fire your ass. Lady luck and Monaco have a great time together. They’re like two giddy teenage girls let loose with a platinum credit card. Out late at night partying hard till dad gets the bill and wants some answers.
All the best drivers will be flirting with the lady in her back yard. You have to if you want to go fast, because whilst it’s not the fastest race on the calendar, it’s the longest, tightest strip of tarmac the boys will see this year. Triple Armco funnels the drivers round the streets, inches from the front doors of the rich and famous. And that’s where the drivers have to be, taking risks to pass the tail end charlies and the pay per drive drivers out there. The great and the good will muscles their cars past the slower boys fond that extra inch for lady luck and take her to heaven and back. That’s what she likes, not drivers that pay her lip service and fail to deliver, she likes them brave.
Driver to watch this weekend
Of late Lady luck has not been smiling on young Mr Hamilton. Second place stolen from him by a broken wheel rim in Spain, whilst Webber forgot to watch the road in Australia. He needs to get a good result o the circuit he loves to get his season on track. He’s starting to look very number two’ish at McLaren which is not the script the pundits had written for this year.
Vettel has to win here if he want to show that he does have what it takes. The feeling that he can’t muscle his way past drivers in similar cars is starting to take hold in the collective paddock consciousness. There’s only so long Bernie can keep bigging him up, whilst he’s not delivering the world championship Bernie thinks he’s capable off. Yes the car hasn’t delivered. But is that because he’s spanking it, or has Lady luck had her fill of smug Germans waving their finger in the air.
Talking of smug Germans, Mickey still isn’t delivering. I didn’t watch the race in Spain so I don’t know if he was brilliant or Button was rubbish. Button didn’t have a display apparently so had to change gear by feel and listening to the engine. Not an easy thing in a modern F1 car I’m told. So he was struggling, but was supposed to have a faster car than Mickey. Mercedes are going back to the short wheel base configuration for Monaca, a set up that Mickey didn’t like, but the short comings of the car could be overcome round Monaco, If Mickey has been paying his dues to the Lady of course. It’s been a long time since he was racing at Monaco, where you need to be bang on the top of your game, somewhere that Mickey most certainly isn’t right now.
Kubica, an odd choice you say, but he’s been doing really well with a car that shouldn’t be up there. Yet there he is, and if Ferrari are waving a blank cheque under his nose for 2011, then where better to show you have pasta sauce in the blood than at the glamour Capital of Monaco.
Massa, is either all over the place or gets a podium here. He needs to start delivering, Alonso has got the momentum, and he’s on a roll. Massa never goes well when he thinks he’s about to get fired. He has to feel the love, and that’s not going to be happening if Kubica continues to deliver and Alonso steam rollers him. I don’t think the aggression is there anymore. He’s still fast, but he’s not as sharp as before the accident. I think the fires may be burning low in his soul. A finish out side the top 10 here could see the start of the “fire his ass” brigade back home in Italy.
The Tail end Charlies. These boys are going to have a fun time here, the bigger boys haven’t got their way on a having the smaller boys have their own qualifying session before the rich boys have finished their morning cappuccino. So the drivers in the slower cars will be there with just as much chance as the quick boys. Monaco always throws up the odd result and I’d place money on at least on of the Lotus cars making the top ten. But then I’m sober and having to write this very quickly during lunch. So I’ve not really thought that through too much.
So those are the stories to watch this weekend. I think Button, and Alonso are the drivers to put your money on for the podium. They’re all pumped up right now and getting the score board to tick over whilst not being the fastest driver out there. I just can’t see Webber delivering back to back results. And Vettel doesn’t excite me I’m afraid. But you never know, it’s all about keeping Lady lucks glass of Moet topped up and, making sure you don’t get her falling down drunk before the Grimaldies have handed the big trophy over.
All the best drivers will be flirting with the lady in her back yard. You have to if you want to go fast, because whilst it’s not the fastest race on the calendar, it’s the longest, tightest strip of tarmac the boys will see this year. Triple Armco funnels the drivers round the streets, inches from the front doors of the rich and famous. And that’s where the drivers have to be, taking risks to pass the tail end charlies and the pay per drive drivers out there. The great and the good will muscles their cars past the slower boys fond that extra inch for lady luck and take her to heaven and back. That’s what she likes, not drivers that pay her lip service and fail to deliver, she likes them brave.
Driver to watch this weekend
Of late Lady luck has not been smiling on young Mr Hamilton. Second place stolen from him by a broken wheel rim in Spain, whilst Webber forgot to watch the road in Australia. He needs to get a good result o the circuit he loves to get his season on track. He’s starting to look very number two’ish at McLaren which is not the script the pundits had written for this year.
Vettel has to win here if he want to show that he does have what it takes. The feeling that he can’t muscle his way past drivers in similar cars is starting to take hold in the collective paddock consciousness. There’s only so long Bernie can keep bigging him up, whilst he’s not delivering the world championship Bernie thinks he’s capable off. Yes the car hasn’t delivered. But is that because he’s spanking it, or has Lady luck had her fill of smug Germans waving their finger in the air.
Talking of smug Germans, Mickey still isn’t delivering. I didn’t watch the race in Spain so I don’t know if he was brilliant or Button was rubbish. Button didn’t have a display apparently so had to change gear by feel and listening to the engine. Not an easy thing in a modern F1 car I’m told. So he was struggling, but was supposed to have a faster car than Mickey. Mercedes are going back to the short wheel base configuration for Monaca, a set up that Mickey didn’t like, but the short comings of the car could be overcome round Monaco, If Mickey has been paying his dues to the Lady of course. It’s been a long time since he was racing at Monaco, where you need to be bang on the top of your game, somewhere that Mickey most certainly isn’t right now.
Kubica, an odd choice you say, but he’s been doing really well with a car that shouldn’t be up there. Yet there he is, and if Ferrari are waving a blank cheque under his nose for 2011, then where better to show you have pasta sauce in the blood than at the glamour Capital of Monaco.
Massa, is either all over the place or gets a podium here. He needs to start delivering, Alonso has got the momentum, and he’s on a roll. Massa never goes well when he thinks he’s about to get fired. He has to feel the love, and that’s not going to be happening if Kubica continues to deliver and Alonso steam rollers him. I don’t think the aggression is there anymore. He’s still fast, but he’s not as sharp as before the accident. I think the fires may be burning low in his soul. A finish out side the top 10 here could see the start of the “fire his ass” brigade back home in Italy.
The Tail end Charlies. These boys are going to have a fun time here, the bigger boys haven’t got their way on a having the smaller boys have their own qualifying session before the rich boys have finished their morning cappuccino. So the drivers in the slower cars will be there with just as much chance as the quick boys. Monaco always throws up the odd result and I’d place money on at least on of the Lotus cars making the top ten. But then I’m sober and having to write this very quickly during lunch. So I’ve not really thought that through too much.
So those are the stories to watch this weekend. I think Button, and Alonso are the drivers to put your money on for the podium. They’re all pumped up right now and getting the score board to tick over whilst not being the fastest driver out there. I just can’t see Webber delivering back to back results. And Vettel doesn’t excite me I’m afraid. But you never know, it’s all about keeping Lady lucks glass of Moet topped up and, making sure you don’t get her falling down drunk before the Grimaldies have handed the big trophy over.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
It’s all back to Spain and the start of the European season.
All the big boys will be bringing new improved cars to this race as they’ve had three weeks to sort out the kinks and glitches of the opening rounds.
Ferrari have figured out why their engines keep exploding, the catch all “Hydraulics” problem has been fixed apparently, the FIA have given the go ahead to modify their engine, so it should hold together and Alonso is talking up his championship on home soil.
Mercedes have redesigned their car so Mickey doesn’t look quite so ordinary. Well that’s the plan, I suspect he’ll still be in the bottom of the top 10 come Sunday afternoon. Button has also been talking up his championship in Spain, apparently this circuit will suit their cars. Which is usually code for “We’re not going for pole here”. Buttons is all buffed up at the moment with two wins and a hand on the silverware and if he can’t win then Hamilton won’t be far behind.
Just like last year the Redbulls have so far failed to convert speed into wins. Vettel still looks a little unsure in traffic whilst Webber still can’t seem to string a weekend together. The FIA’s ban on trick suspension doesn’t appear to have made much difference to their qualifying speed, so I expect one of the Redbulls to be upfront form the start of the race.
Kubica has been talking down his chances this weekend. Renault haven’t been splashing the reddies to make the car go fast enough for Mr Kubica, so he’s started whinging about it.
That should be your top eight again, Spain is pretty much a test track for the teams so they know every twist and turn. This means that come Sunday, the order they qualified in, will almost certainly be the order they finish in (unless is rains of course). It’s long, fast and pretty grippy. Tire wear isn’t too bad for the well balanced cars, but a noodly twisty last section of the lap will test the cars that have gone for straight line speed over grip. With the F-duck, McLaren can trim the car for better grip in this slow section for instance.
I shall be in Belgium at the second round of the 2010 LMS race 1000kms of big grunty sports cars. It’s going to be the tester for this years Le Mans, with both Peugeot and Audi bringing three cars apiece. I prey to all the Gods of fast cars that it doesn’t rain in Spa but knowing spa it will rain at some point. But there is nothing in this world to compare to watching sports prototype cars blasting through Eau Rouge for 6 hours. It’s even worth getting wet for.
So I think I can live without seeing a dull two hour racing in Spain. If you want to see some proper racing, tune into Eurosport TV on Sunday from 10am.
All the big boys will be bringing new improved cars to this race as they’ve had three weeks to sort out the kinks and glitches of the opening rounds.
Ferrari have figured out why their engines keep exploding, the catch all “Hydraulics” problem has been fixed apparently, the FIA have given the go ahead to modify their engine, so it should hold together and Alonso is talking up his championship on home soil.
Mercedes have redesigned their car so Mickey doesn’t look quite so ordinary. Well that’s the plan, I suspect he’ll still be in the bottom of the top 10 come Sunday afternoon. Button has also been talking up his championship in Spain, apparently this circuit will suit their cars. Which is usually code for “We’re not going for pole here”. Buttons is all buffed up at the moment with two wins and a hand on the silverware and if he can’t win then Hamilton won’t be far behind.
Just like last year the Redbulls have so far failed to convert speed into wins. Vettel still looks a little unsure in traffic whilst Webber still can’t seem to string a weekend together. The FIA’s ban on trick suspension doesn’t appear to have made much difference to their qualifying speed, so I expect one of the Redbulls to be upfront form the start of the race.
Kubica has been talking down his chances this weekend. Renault haven’t been splashing the reddies to make the car go fast enough for Mr Kubica, so he’s started whinging about it.
That should be your top eight again, Spain is pretty much a test track for the teams so they know every twist and turn. This means that come Sunday, the order they qualified in, will almost certainly be the order they finish in (unless is rains of course). It’s long, fast and pretty grippy. Tire wear isn’t too bad for the well balanced cars, but a noodly twisty last section of the lap will test the cars that have gone for straight line speed over grip. With the F-duck, McLaren can trim the car for better grip in this slow section for instance.
I shall be in Belgium at the second round of the 2010 LMS race 1000kms of big grunty sports cars. It’s going to be the tester for this years Le Mans, with both Peugeot and Audi bringing three cars apiece. I prey to all the Gods of fast cars that it doesn’t rain in Spa but knowing spa it will rain at some point. But there is nothing in this world to compare to watching sports prototype cars blasting through Eau Rouge for 6 hours. It’s even worth getting wet for.
So I think I can live without seeing a dull two hour racing in Spain. If you want to see some proper racing, tune into Eurosport TV on Sunday from 10am.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
No tea, but lots of rain.
The first McLaren 1-2 for the year and I called it, yes I did, I said a good effort in qualifying would reward the boys from Woking with a good finish and didn’t they deliver. They made hard work of it but what the heck. Whilst the faster Redbulls may have locked out the front row of the grid for the 4th race in a row, it was the McLarens that showed it’s not a single lap that wins you a race.
And If I had lady bits I’d want to have Hamilton’s children. He is just brilliant, carving his way past the once great and good, overtaking when he please and showing that he might not have the luck and the experience, but by God he’s got the balls from the job.
Button takes the 1st spot with another rainy race win, because he was on the right tires at the right time yet again, he’s making a habit of this isn’t he. Whilst everyone else peeled into the pits, after Liuzzi had attempted to mount Kobayashi and Buemi on the first lap. Button stayed out with Nico on slicks on a slippery track, but made the tires work for them and they both pulled away from the rest of the field. An early pit call for the inters when it looked like the rain was going to return allowed Button to slip past the Mercedes and take the second win in four faces. With it he takes the lead in the drivers’ championship and McLaren the Constructors. Not bad for a chap the media had called dead and buried 6 months ago.
2nd for Hamilton with another aggressive and exciting drive, he switched to the inters with the early crowd and had to fight his way back into the top 10. This put Hamilton back behind Mickey which gave him a chance to see just what Hamilton is made of, and on first impressions I’d say it was about 50/50. Hamilton isn’t used to other drivers being aggressive back at him. Mickey was in a car 2 seconds a lap slower, yet made the young gun work hard for his pass. He couldn’t keep Hamilton behind him forever, but he showed the Brit that given a fair wind and a dry track, it won’t be so easy next time.
3rd for Nico. He still didn’t show much aggression, but he kept Hamilton at bay when it mattered and only lost second place in the pits. He’s taken Mickey apart yet again, showing the old guy what the car is clearly capable off. The Mercedes team solders must be looking at the other side of the garage and asking what all the fuss over a seven times champion is. Second in the championship by consistency rather than podiums (5th, 5th, 3rd and 3rd) being there when the big boys drop the ball is paying off for the dark horse of the championship. Nico showed that the Merc is as good as the McLaren when a driver is up to speed, that will annoy and worry Mickey.
4th for Alonso. Who jumped the start by a country mile, got a drive through penalty for his troubles and then fought back up the field. He’s back in front of Massa and that’ll make him happy. But the Ferrari should have delivered a win here. If they do have a problem with the engine cooling, he needs to get points on cold wet days. He drove well after making a school boy error off the line.
5th For Kubica, who did well whilst others tripped up over each other. He gets the “was he in the race award” this week, keep this up and he’ll be looking for wins at this rate.
6th For Vettel. That must hurt. He had the race to lose and he managed to lose it. I’m not too sure why either, he got jumped at the start my Alonso cheating, but then never really seemed to recover. He was behind Webber when they came in to change to slicks and when Webber ran over the wheel jack on the way out of the box, Vettel had to hang around whilst they found a new one. He then tried to drive Hamilton into the Williams garage as they raced out of the pits, earning Hamilton and Vettel a slap wrist from the stewards. So a race to forget then, having been on the front row of four races and won one he’ll be glad to get back to Europe.
7th for Petrov and a well deserved 7th at that. He showed that he’s maybe not ‘just another Renault number two’. He worked hard and didn’t drop the ball in play. Stayed on slicks on a damp track and showed better cars the way home. He’s never going to win a race without tremendous luck. But he’s doing better than expected so far.
8th for Webber who avoided hitting anyone else or scenery, well okay he ran over a wheel jack and cocked up Vettels race oh and got hit when Hamilton got squeezed at the second restart. But most of the time he spent following other people and wondering where all the speed had gone. Classic number two team mate stuff.
9th for Massa and another soggy race for the Brazilian that doesn’t like the rain.
10th and very very last Mickey Schumacher. Ho ho ho, he doesn’t like racing in china and didn’t he show it. He was slow all weekend, in practice, in qualifying and in the race. Where has the edge, the aggression and the drive gone? He’s was taken apart by Nico, Hamilton and Vettel made him look ordinary. How the mighty have fallen very far. Ross seemed less than impressed with the 7 times world champions, when Brundle button holed him on the formation grid. I wonder if the German has a performance clause in his contract. If I was him, I’d be checking the small print.
So that’s the end of the first stage. It’s back to Europe (hopefully given the ash cloud) in three weeks time. Button now leads the championship from Rosberg, Alonso then Hamilton and Vettel in 5th, button has two wins, Alonso one and Vettel one the other two have no wins but are still in the hunt.
I think these 5 are going to be the ones hunting the championship down. It’s going to be a long hard fight and one slip will spell the end of their cup run. But all five of these drivers are the best Formula One has to offer today and that’s got me very excited. Rosberg might not be as fast as Vettel or as aggressive as Hamilton. He might not be as race smart as Alonso or as smooth as Button, but he has Ross Brawn and a great team spirit behind him and consistency. His father only won one race in 1982 on his way to his world championship, could Nico be about to join Damon as a world championship son of a world champion?
But that’s for tomorrow, today we have two Brits on the podium in first and second, both of whom are at the top of their game and ready to take on all comers.
And If I had lady bits I’d want to have Hamilton’s children. He is just brilliant, carving his way past the once great and good, overtaking when he please and showing that he might not have the luck and the experience, but by God he’s got the balls from the job.
Button takes the 1st spot with another rainy race win, because he was on the right tires at the right time yet again, he’s making a habit of this isn’t he. Whilst everyone else peeled into the pits, after Liuzzi had attempted to mount Kobayashi and Buemi on the first lap. Button stayed out with Nico on slicks on a slippery track, but made the tires work for them and they both pulled away from the rest of the field. An early pit call for the inters when it looked like the rain was going to return allowed Button to slip past the Mercedes and take the second win in four faces. With it he takes the lead in the drivers’ championship and McLaren the Constructors. Not bad for a chap the media had called dead and buried 6 months ago.
2nd for Hamilton with another aggressive and exciting drive, he switched to the inters with the early crowd and had to fight his way back into the top 10. This put Hamilton back behind Mickey which gave him a chance to see just what Hamilton is made of, and on first impressions I’d say it was about 50/50. Hamilton isn’t used to other drivers being aggressive back at him. Mickey was in a car 2 seconds a lap slower, yet made the young gun work hard for his pass. He couldn’t keep Hamilton behind him forever, but he showed the Brit that given a fair wind and a dry track, it won’t be so easy next time.
3rd for Nico. He still didn’t show much aggression, but he kept Hamilton at bay when it mattered and only lost second place in the pits. He’s taken Mickey apart yet again, showing the old guy what the car is clearly capable off. The Mercedes team solders must be looking at the other side of the garage and asking what all the fuss over a seven times champion is. Second in the championship by consistency rather than podiums (5th, 5th, 3rd and 3rd) being there when the big boys drop the ball is paying off for the dark horse of the championship. Nico showed that the Merc is as good as the McLaren when a driver is up to speed, that will annoy and worry Mickey.
4th for Alonso. Who jumped the start by a country mile, got a drive through penalty for his troubles and then fought back up the field. He’s back in front of Massa and that’ll make him happy. But the Ferrari should have delivered a win here. If they do have a problem with the engine cooling, he needs to get points on cold wet days. He drove well after making a school boy error off the line.
5th For Kubica, who did well whilst others tripped up over each other. He gets the “was he in the race award” this week, keep this up and he’ll be looking for wins at this rate.
6th For Vettel. That must hurt. He had the race to lose and he managed to lose it. I’m not too sure why either, he got jumped at the start my Alonso cheating, but then never really seemed to recover. He was behind Webber when they came in to change to slicks and when Webber ran over the wheel jack on the way out of the box, Vettel had to hang around whilst they found a new one. He then tried to drive Hamilton into the Williams garage as they raced out of the pits, earning Hamilton and Vettel a slap wrist from the stewards. So a race to forget then, having been on the front row of four races and won one he’ll be glad to get back to Europe.
7th for Petrov and a well deserved 7th at that. He showed that he’s maybe not ‘just another Renault number two’. He worked hard and didn’t drop the ball in play. Stayed on slicks on a damp track and showed better cars the way home. He’s never going to win a race without tremendous luck. But he’s doing better than expected so far.
8th for Webber who avoided hitting anyone else or scenery, well okay he ran over a wheel jack and cocked up Vettels race oh and got hit when Hamilton got squeezed at the second restart. But most of the time he spent following other people and wondering where all the speed had gone. Classic number two team mate stuff.
9th for Massa and another soggy race for the Brazilian that doesn’t like the rain.
10th and very very last Mickey Schumacher. Ho ho ho, he doesn’t like racing in china and didn’t he show it. He was slow all weekend, in practice, in qualifying and in the race. Where has the edge, the aggression and the drive gone? He’s was taken apart by Nico, Hamilton and Vettel made him look ordinary. How the mighty have fallen very far. Ross seemed less than impressed with the 7 times world champions, when Brundle button holed him on the formation grid. I wonder if the German has a performance clause in his contract. If I was him, I’d be checking the small print.
So that’s the end of the first stage. It’s back to Europe (hopefully given the ash cloud) in three weeks time. Button now leads the championship from Rosberg, Alonso then Hamilton and Vettel in 5th, button has two wins, Alonso one and Vettel one the other two have no wins but are still in the hunt.
I think these 5 are going to be the ones hunting the championship down. It’s going to be a long hard fight and one slip will spell the end of their cup run. But all five of these drivers are the best Formula One has to offer today and that’s got me very excited. Rosberg might not be as fast as Vettel or as aggressive as Hamilton. He might not be as race smart as Alonso or as smooth as Button, but he has Ross Brawn and a great team spirit behind him and consistency. His father only won one race in 1982 on his way to his world championship, could Nico be about to join Damon as a world championship son of a world champion?
But that’s for tomorrow, today we have two Brits on the podium in first and second, both of whom are at the top of their game and ready to take on all comers.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
China is ready for action
Round 4 and the Bernie loving peoples republic of shooting dissidents and stopping the internet of China. It’s another chance to count the spectator. I think there will be at least 2 empty stands this year and nobody insight for qualifying. Which is a shame because that’s all that there will be of interest.
Ferrari are leading both championship, more by luck than judgement though. Massa has had a whole bunch of good finishes keeping Alonso behind him. The Spaniard is all sweetness and light and “hahahah ahr what a great bloke the Brazilian is ho ho” in front of the camera. Behind closed doors I bet it’s a much different story. Both drivers need to beat the other. But they appear to have an engine cooling issue on the hotter tracks.
McLaren have had some good luck and some bad luck. Lot’s of speed but piss poor pit calls and trying to be too clearer have left them 10 points short of Ferrari. One aggressive driver and one smooth are giving the pit wall plenty of racing options. The fastest thing in a straight line, the Mclaren has been reliable and there or there about every race. A good qualifying from both drivers could see a 1-2 this time out.
Redbull should have won all three by rights so far. But bad luck and Webber have conspired to stop them. If it holds together its a very fast car, if the FIA find out how they’re changing the ride height in Parc Ferme, they’re a very banned car. Vettel won with ease last year on a wet Sunday, I can see it happening again this year. Faster over a lap that anyone else, consistency and reliability are the only think holding them back from a 1-2.
Mercedes are pushing for a top 5 placing with Rosberg, whilst Mickey sits at the back if the pits and complains about how it was all so much harder in his day. Nick Fry is telling all and sundry that Mickey will come good any day now, which is surely the first sign of imminent retirement. They don’t have the speed of the Redbull or McLarens but they have Ross on the pit wall and he’s worth a second a lap.
Renault and Kubica are having a good start to the season, can they keep ahead on the development curve ?? I very much doubt it. This isn’t a factory team anymore and the boss isn’t in it to win it. Petrov has money and some talent, but no experience or luck, thus he is the perfect Renault number 2 driver.
Force India continue to do good things with less money. A solid mid field team, defiantly a top 10 runner, but which driver wil get the break this weekend.
Williams continue to pick up the starting money. They’re already starting to slid down the pecking order. Hulkenberg has so far been less than impressive.
Torro Rosso have to good drivers shocker. But an awful car. If the rest drop the ball they could be in the top ten.
BMW (Sauber) ….. oh dear, running on fumes in testing to get sponsorship always falls apart at the first race. This team was going for the championship 2 years ago.
Lotus are winning the best of the new boys race but only just. Fast (er) then the other newbies. They need to develop the car to stay ahead of an improving Virgin.
Virgin won the new boys race last time out, the tanks too small but they still got both cars to the end have they turned the corner or was it blind luck.
HRT …. Rubbish, but Chandhok is a nice down to earth bloke. Senna is still trading on the name.
Ferrari are leading both championship, more by luck than judgement though. Massa has had a whole bunch of good finishes keeping Alonso behind him. The Spaniard is all sweetness and light and “hahahah ahr what a great bloke the Brazilian is ho ho” in front of the camera. Behind closed doors I bet it’s a much different story. Both drivers need to beat the other. But they appear to have an engine cooling issue on the hotter tracks.
McLaren have had some good luck and some bad luck. Lot’s of speed but piss poor pit calls and trying to be too clearer have left them 10 points short of Ferrari. One aggressive driver and one smooth are giving the pit wall plenty of racing options. The fastest thing in a straight line, the Mclaren has been reliable and there or there about every race. A good qualifying from both drivers could see a 1-2 this time out.
Redbull should have won all three by rights so far. But bad luck and Webber have conspired to stop them. If it holds together its a very fast car, if the FIA find out how they’re changing the ride height in Parc Ferme, they’re a very banned car. Vettel won with ease last year on a wet Sunday, I can see it happening again this year. Faster over a lap that anyone else, consistency and reliability are the only think holding them back from a 1-2.
Mercedes are pushing for a top 5 placing with Rosberg, whilst Mickey sits at the back if the pits and complains about how it was all so much harder in his day. Nick Fry is telling all and sundry that Mickey will come good any day now, which is surely the first sign of imminent retirement. They don’t have the speed of the Redbull or McLarens but they have Ross on the pit wall and he’s worth a second a lap.
Renault and Kubica are having a good start to the season, can they keep ahead on the development curve ?? I very much doubt it. This isn’t a factory team anymore and the boss isn’t in it to win it. Petrov has money and some talent, but no experience or luck, thus he is the perfect Renault number 2 driver.
Force India continue to do good things with less money. A solid mid field team, defiantly a top 10 runner, but which driver wil get the break this weekend.
Williams continue to pick up the starting money. They’re already starting to slid down the pecking order. Hulkenberg has so far been less than impressive.
Torro Rosso have to good drivers shocker. But an awful car. If the rest drop the ball they could be in the top ten.
BMW (Sauber) ….. oh dear, running on fumes in testing to get sponsorship always falls apart at the first race. This team was going for the championship 2 years ago.
Lotus are winning the best of the new boys race but only just. Fast (er) then the other newbies. They need to develop the car to stay ahead of an improving Virgin.
Virgin won the new boys race last time out, the tanks too small but they still got both cars to the end have they turned the corner or was it blind luck.
HRT …. Rubbish, but Chandhok is a nice down to earth bloke. Senna is still trading on the name.
Monday, 5 April 2010
Vettel makes it to the line at last.
Malaysia.
Well done to the Redbull boys. As Ferrari and McLaren forget that just holding their hand out of the garage is usually the best sign of “is it raining or not lad”, Redbull score a one two at long last.
Vettel has led the last two races but had nothing to show for it. This time Webber beats the rest to pole in a rain affected qualifying, but could do nothing as Vettel cruised up the inside of turn one and stole the win from the lanky Ozzy driver. Webber weaved around off the line far too busy trying to drive everyone else off the road. Maybe if he concentrated on driving in a straight line he’d have been first.
Vettel pretty much day dreamed to the flag in the end, Webber tried to make a fight off it, but got left behind pretty quickly and then a sticky wheel nut in the Redbull pit put paid to any chance Webber had. Could this be the start of the Redbull steam roller, quite possibly. No one looked like touching them all weekend. Vettel has the speed and consistency, but is he a car breaker.
Webbers 2nd was better than hitting the other drivers and bits of scenery. But really he should have defended the first corner a bit better. I can see Webber getting a win or two this year, but he’s not the complete package like Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso is he. He doesn’t have lady lucks kiss and has a habit of getting far too aggressive when better driver beat him.
3rd for Nico who once again beats his seven times world champion team mate. He took care of Kubica behind him, but didn’t look like touching the Redbulls up front. They cleared off after five turns and he didn’t get any closer all day. Nico is very fast and he’s in a pretty good car, he’s beaten Mickey three for three now, but you do get the feeling that a Mickey on form would have at least chased the Redbull down. Nico has been guilty of falling asleep on more than one occasion, is he getting complacent as Mickey fails to impress.
4th For Kubica again. Another good result. I may have to revise my opinion of the Polish chap. He’s no world champion, but he can be fast when he’s motivated.
5th For Sutil, like Vettel he’s had bad luck up to this point, so it’s a good result from the once back markers of Force India. Liuzzi has been making all the headline so far for the team, so Sutil will be glad to get a good points place under his belt. Expect more results like this at the rest of the high speed track this year.
6th for Hamilton and damn it all he is brilliant. 20th to 6th is just fantastic and not from passing people in the pits or picking up spots as people drop out either. He took eight cars off the line the chased down the top ten until he got to Sutil and couldn’t find a way past. Hamilton is the best race in the field right now and he’s getting better and better. He might not have that final race craft of Alonso or Mickey used to have. But he doesn’t give up and he gets pissed off when he’s not winning. That’s what I want from my racers. Not dullards happy to be picking up the points.
7th For Massa. Is he as fast as Alonso ? The team seem to think so, they didn’t tell him to move over. Massa seems to have the belief and now he’s leading the World Championship. But has he looked winning a race any time soon. That would have to be a big fat Nope, not something that looks like changing anytime soon either.
8th for Button who switched tires early again, but didn’t make the strategy pay this time and then Hamilton beat him into turn one after Hamiltons pit stop. He’d binned the car in Q1 and had to start down in 17th, he did well to get back to 8th, but not as well as Hamilton who beat him from 20th. So much of the new king of McLaren.
9th For Alguersuari, did all right and beat some big names, in an under powered Torro Rosso. Saying that he took his chances when they presented themselves, passing a bunch of better cars without too many dramas, a good result in the fight not to be last
10th for Hulkenberg and this weeks best of the Williams drivers. Barrichello stalled it on the line so the Hulk gets to pick up the points for Frank and co.
Of the Tail End Charlies. Virgin comes up trumps with Di Grassi beating Chandhok and Senna in the HRTs, Trulli in the Lotus was way behind five laps down on the winner. A very good result for the Virgin boys who haven’t had too much to shout about these last few weeks, beating the Malaysian Lotus on home soil will have made Branson happy. Or kept him interested for another week, now he’s not hob knobbing with the winners anymore he seems a touch more reluctant to be seen around the garages doesn’t he. Oh well.
There we go then. The young guns from Milton Keynes get both cars home with a great One Two. That’s what they’ll have to do from now on if they want to lift the trophy at the end of the year. Malaysia was a good race because the qualifying was mixed up by the weather. Once the big boys got back to familiar territory it was the same old story, with fast cars stuck behind faster cars.
Well done to the Redbull boys. As Ferrari and McLaren forget that just holding their hand out of the garage is usually the best sign of “is it raining or not lad”, Redbull score a one two at long last.
Vettel has led the last two races but had nothing to show for it. This time Webber beats the rest to pole in a rain affected qualifying, but could do nothing as Vettel cruised up the inside of turn one and stole the win from the lanky Ozzy driver. Webber weaved around off the line far too busy trying to drive everyone else off the road. Maybe if he concentrated on driving in a straight line he’d have been first.
Vettel pretty much day dreamed to the flag in the end, Webber tried to make a fight off it, but got left behind pretty quickly and then a sticky wheel nut in the Redbull pit put paid to any chance Webber had. Could this be the start of the Redbull steam roller, quite possibly. No one looked like touching them all weekend. Vettel has the speed and consistency, but is he a car breaker.
Webbers 2nd was better than hitting the other drivers and bits of scenery. But really he should have defended the first corner a bit better. I can see Webber getting a win or two this year, but he’s not the complete package like Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso is he. He doesn’t have lady lucks kiss and has a habit of getting far too aggressive when better driver beat him.
3rd for Nico who once again beats his seven times world champion team mate. He took care of Kubica behind him, but didn’t look like touching the Redbulls up front. They cleared off after five turns and he didn’t get any closer all day. Nico is very fast and he’s in a pretty good car, he’s beaten Mickey three for three now, but you do get the feeling that a Mickey on form would have at least chased the Redbull down. Nico has been guilty of falling asleep on more than one occasion, is he getting complacent as Mickey fails to impress.
4th For Kubica again. Another good result. I may have to revise my opinion of the Polish chap. He’s no world champion, but he can be fast when he’s motivated.
5th For Sutil, like Vettel he’s had bad luck up to this point, so it’s a good result from the once back markers of Force India. Liuzzi has been making all the headline so far for the team, so Sutil will be glad to get a good points place under his belt. Expect more results like this at the rest of the high speed track this year.
6th for Hamilton and damn it all he is brilliant. 20th to 6th is just fantastic and not from passing people in the pits or picking up spots as people drop out either. He took eight cars off the line the chased down the top ten until he got to Sutil and couldn’t find a way past. Hamilton is the best race in the field right now and he’s getting better and better. He might not have that final race craft of Alonso or Mickey used to have. But he doesn’t give up and he gets pissed off when he’s not winning. That’s what I want from my racers. Not dullards happy to be picking up the points.
7th For Massa. Is he as fast as Alonso ? The team seem to think so, they didn’t tell him to move over. Massa seems to have the belief and now he’s leading the World Championship. But has he looked winning a race any time soon. That would have to be a big fat Nope, not something that looks like changing anytime soon either.
8th for Button who switched tires early again, but didn’t make the strategy pay this time and then Hamilton beat him into turn one after Hamiltons pit stop. He’d binned the car in Q1 and had to start down in 17th, he did well to get back to 8th, but not as well as Hamilton who beat him from 20th. So much of the new king of McLaren.
9th For Alguersuari, did all right and beat some big names, in an under powered Torro Rosso. Saying that he took his chances when they presented themselves, passing a bunch of better cars without too many dramas, a good result in the fight not to be last
10th for Hulkenberg and this weeks best of the Williams drivers. Barrichello stalled it on the line so the Hulk gets to pick up the points for Frank and co.
Of the Tail End Charlies. Virgin comes up trumps with Di Grassi beating Chandhok and Senna in the HRTs, Trulli in the Lotus was way behind five laps down on the winner. A very good result for the Virgin boys who haven’t had too much to shout about these last few weeks, beating the Malaysian Lotus on home soil will have made Branson happy. Or kept him interested for another week, now he’s not hob knobbing with the winners anymore he seems a touch more reluctant to be seen around the garages doesn’t he. Oh well.
There we go then. The young guns from Milton Keynes get both cars home with a great One Two. That’s what they’ll have to do from now on if they want to lift the trophy at the end of the year. Malaysia was a good race because the qualifying was mixed up by the weather. Once the big boys got back to familiar territory it was the same old story, with fast cars stuck behind faster cars.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Trouble in paradise
Malaysia.
It’s back to the world of Tilke racing on dull circuits. It’s big, it’s wide, it’s flat and we’re going to play spot the spectator again. I might rain, you never know. Monsoon season is upon us and the gods of interesting racing did smile on us last weekend so you never k now. The current prediction is for rain at some point during the weekend. Saturday and Sunday being goods bets as the start times have been moved back so us Europeans don’t have to get up too early.
Last year the heavens opened and dumped the contents of the Indian Ocean all over the circuit. They had to stop the show after 30 odd laps and hide in the pits. Where Kimi took his suit off and raided the ice cream van out the back. Button was given the win, mostly because he was the only one they could see. Heidfeld popped up in second, Glock got lucky with third and then Trulli managed to stay awake long enough to finish in fourth. Apart from Button none of that lot stands a chance this year.
This year it’s only a week since the last race and the buzz will be all about the Hamilton, Button fight. This might just be a press thing. Hamilton was pretty vocal about the team making the wrong call whilst Button was vocal about how he decided that he was changing tire when he wanted to. It’s an interesting view of the drivers where one is leading from the car telling his engineers what the score is, the other needs the team to tell him what to do, not having the confidence to say “no we’ll do it my way”. However, historically, Hamilton has always spanked the tires. If you’d been on the pit wall, would you have staked you job on Hamilton making soft tires last 50 odd laps? I don’t think I’d have done it.
So the press (who, don’t forget, said Button would be dead and buried by now) are saying that Hamilton has been kicked out of the team and toys are being thrown from the pram already. I doubt it. Its race two and people are still finding their path after all. Button got lucky with a pit call and then Vettels luck ran out. Hamilton over took a whole bunch of people and spanked the car all day. Hero to Zero in one race, such is life in the piranha club.
Ferrari also might have a few problems with team harmony. Alonso was clearly faster than Massa who was struggling on used tires, back in the day Mickey would have been ushered past the stricken team mate. These days he’s told to shut up and get on with it. How much does it grate with Alonso that he’s got 2 world championships to his name, but is not the team leader at Ferrari? Meanwhile Massa has quietly got two podium finishes without too much fuss. Could he
Down the road at Brawn things aren’t too rosy either, I’m shortening my odds on Mickey walking before the end of the season if this keeps up. He used to be peerless in the wet. Five seconds a lap faster than anyone else. He was the rain master. Not anymore. He was arsing around with Torro Rossos and Sauber. Not what he’s used too. Have we seen the last of the Brawns glory days? Whatever happens, it looks like Buttons decision to jump ship was inspired, not suicidal.
Things look troubled in the Redbull garage too. Vettel just can’t catch a break, two wins snatched from his happy grasp, Webber also having his share of bad luck. Webber has mostly made his own bad luck, getting all hairy scary when the fancy takes him. They had a reliability expert in the pits in Australia. The only reliable thing about him (or her I have no idea) is that they picked up the cheque reliably enough. They don’t have time to tear the cars apart and check everything, so they have to worried about what else can go wrong.
Renault did better than I expected, well Kubica did. Petrov hasn’t made the transition from GP2 to well, apparently he only has to get 25% of Kubicas’ points to keep his seat. I suspect he’ll struggle with that one if Kubica keeps getting podium finishes. It’ll all fall apart soon enough. They need investment and the boss is only in this for face time, points cost money, more than champagne in the hospitality suit.
Of the New boys, Lotus continue to be reliable, Virgin need to put a bigger fuel tank into the car and HRT got a car home in Australia. It was 3 laps behind the Lotus. But it did finish whilst Vettel and others didn’t.
Virgin are not going to finish unless there is a lengthy safety car or lots and lots of rain. HRT have two drivers that have never raced in the oppressive humidity of a Malaysia afternoon. Fitness could be an issue for them. Lotus will be on “home” soil so might try something stupid in qualifying so I don’t think it’s too cut and dried for Lotus just yet.
I think this is going to as dull as Bahrain. If it rains in qualifying than that might mix it up, if it’s dry then it’ll be the usual suspects up front and you won’t need to watch the middle of the race. Rain will spice things up as long as it doesn’t rain like last year, then there won’t be a middle of the race.
Malaysia is going to be a hard test for all of the new boys.
It’s back to the world of Tilke racing on dull circuits. It’s big, it’s wide, it’s flat and we’re going to play spot the spectator again. I might rain, you never know. Monsoon season is upon us and the gods of interesting racing did smile on us last weekend so you never k now. The current prediction is for rain at some point during the weekend. Saturday and Sunday being goods bets as the start times have been moved back so us Europeans don’t have to get up too early.
Last year the heavens opened and dumped the contents of the Indian Ocean all over the circuit. They had to stop the show after 30 odd laps and hide in the pits. Where Kimi took his suit off and raided the ice cream van out the back. Button was given the win, mostly because he was the only one they could see. Heidfeld popped up in second, Glock got lucky with third and then Trulli managed to stay awake long enough to finish in fourth. Apart from Button none of that lot stands a chance this year.
This year it’s only a week since the last race and the buzz will be all about the Hamilton, Button fight. This might just be a press thing. Hamilton was pretty vocal about the team making the wrong call whilst Button was vocal about how he decided that he was changing tire when he wanted to. It’s an interesting view of the drivers where one is leading from the car telling his engineers what the score is, the other needs the team to tell him what to do, not having the confidence to say “no we’ll do it my way”. However, historically, Hamilton has always spanked the tires. If you’d been on the pit wall, would you have staked you job on Hamilton making soft tires last 50 odd laps? I don’t think I’d have done it.
So the press (who, don’t forget, said Button would be dead and buried by now) are saying that Hamilton has been kicked out of the team and toys are being thrown from the pram already. I doubt it. Its race two and people are still finding their path after all. Button got lucky with a pit call and then Vettels luck ran out. Hamilton over took a whole bunch of people and spanked the car all day. Hero to Zero in one race, such is life in the piranha club.
Ferrari also might have a few problems with team harmony. Alonso was clearly faster than Massa who was struggling on used tires, back in the day Mickey would have been ushered past the stricken team mate. These days he’s told to shut up and get on with it. How much does it grate with Alonso that he’s got 2 world championships to his name, but is not the team leader at Ferrari? Meanwhile Massa has quietly got two podium finishes without too much fuss. Could he
Down the road at Brawn things aren’t too rosy either, I’m shortening my odds on Mickey walking before the end of the season if this keeps up. He used to be peerless in the wet. Five seconds a lap faster than anyone else. He was the rain master. Not anymore. He was arsing around with Torro Rossos and Sauber. Not what he’s used too. Have we seen the last of the Brawns glory days? Whatever happens, it looks like Buttons decision to jump ship was inspired, not suicidal.
Things look troubled in the Redbull garage too. Vettel just can’t catch a break, two wins snatched from his happy grasp, Webber also having his share of bad luck. Webber has mostly made his own bad luck, getting all hairy scary when the fancy takes him. They had a reliability expert in the pits in Australia. The only reliable thing about him (or her I have no idea) is that they picked up the cheque reliably enough. They don’t have time to tear the cars apart and check everything, so they have to worried about what else can go wrong.
Renault did better than I expected, well Kubica did. Petrov hasn’t made the transition from GP2 to well, apparently he only has to get 25% of Kubicas’ points to keep his seat. I suspect he’ll struggle with that one if Kubica keeps getting podium finishes. It’ll all fall apart soon enough. They need investment and the boss is only in this for face time, points cost money, more than champagne in the hospitality suit.
Of the New boys, Lotus continue to be reliable, Virgin need to put a bigger fuel tank into the car and HRT got a car home in Australia. It was 3 laps behind the Lotus. But it did finish whilst Vettel and others didn’t.
Virgin are not going to finish unless there is a lengthy safety car or lots and lots of rain. HRT have two drivers that have never raced in the oppressive humidity of a Malaysia afternoon. Fitness could be an issue for them. Lotus will be on “home” soil so might try something stupid in qualifying so I don’t think it’s too cut and dried for Lotus just yet.
I think this is going to as dull as Bahrain. If it rains in qualifying than that might mix it up, if it’s dry then it’ll be the usual suspects up front and you won’t need to watch the middle of the race. Rain will spice things up as long as it doesn’t rain like last year, then there won’t be a middle of the race.
Malaysia is going to be a hard test for all of the new boys.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Lady Lucks needs paying
Lady Luck.
That’s who you have to court in Formula One. Not the great God Dollar, not the Gods of Technology and Design. No it’s the beautiful mercurial and easily pissed off Lady Luck that needs to be paid off before you can go racing to win.
You might well have the fastest car in the pack, designed to within an inch of its life. You might well be a seven times world champion “Greatest of a generation”. But if you’ve not paid Lady Luck in full up front, you can forget it. Whatever you do, it’s all going to fall down around your ears on turn 12 in a shower of gravel. Or relegate to an afternoon of tooling around the back of the field fighting the new boy, looking at TV time counted in seconds of you being passed by the moneyed up hot shoe getting his five minutes of fame.
Vettel had this in the bag, Big Ron assertion that the Redbull was thirty on race pace looked wide of the mark as Vettel and Home boy Webber, locked out the front row on Saturday. Ferrari still behind them with the McLarens and Merc bringing up the rear. Hamilton lost a load of grip and time after getting pulled by the Local Rozzers for “over exuberant driving” on Friday night. Back in 11th was a long way from the front.
Sunday Morning and the teams are talking about Rain and how soon it was going to come. As the cars sat on the grid their answers came as the rain fell and soft tires got changed to Inters for the dash to the first corner. Albert Park is a temporary circuit so there is a lot of white line to get slippery on a cold March afternoon.
When the red light went out on Sunday, we got to see just who’d paid lady luck up front. Alonso got tagged by Button in corner one, has he got squeezed by Hamilton who made a blinding start. Mickey Schumacher got a load of wheel spin off the line and got caught in the midfield scramble, eventually coming out with a broken front wing and very little chance of a fun afternoon. Better than Alonso though who ended up facing the wrong way and the field streaming past. Even the two Virgins starting from the pits and the pace car went past. A long afternoon ahead of Alonso then. Thankfully Trulli n in the Lotus had to replace something or other and wasn’t able to start. So Alonso was spared having to avoid the Lotus getting in the way.
Meanwhile up front Webber had managed to start a race and not hit Vettel or anyone else, plenty of time for that later. Vettel cruised off into the distance without a care in the world. It was a little hairy scary in the rain for a bit. The Sauber of Crazy Kobay lost yet another wing and took out Hulkenberg and Buemi. Schumacher pitted for a new front wing and spent the rest of the day looking at the back of various Torro Rossos, Virgins and Lotuses. HAHAHAHA Hahaha aha ah ah ah aa Seven times world champion this. Not some Jonny come lately no hoper with daddies money. This used to be the most feared driver in F1, not any more. Eventhe Virgin of Di Grassi showed Mickey that goal posts haven’t just moved, they’ve been taken off to the top field with different world first eleven.
So Lady Luck wasn’t happy with Mickey and then showed that she still isn’t in love with Vettel either. This time a break disc locked up and pitched the poor hapless German into the kitty litter. What has the guy got to do to catch a break here? Two easy wins snatched from his grasp by things he had absolutely no control over what so ever. Newey will get blamed for giving him a fast but fragile car, but he didn’t design the spark plug of break disc. It’s just random lady luck swigging out the bottle marked “hardy har ahr buddy” and flicking twigglets at the hapless fools going for glory.
Through all of this Button, had grabbed slick tires for a damp track, and got the jump on everyone to lead the race home. Everyone said he was mad to join McLaren and enter the home of Hamilton. But he drove a perfect race, called the perfect pit stop and finished 10 seconds up the road. Lady luck smiles sweetly and raise a glass of Vintage Tattinger towards the lovely Mr Button. A very timely win for the new Woking boy in his second race, this will do everything for his confidence and determination. He’s not going to give Hamilton an inch now is he.
Second up, Kubica in “Renault alright actually “shocker. He didn’t hit anyone and kept the two Ferraris behind him with no dramas what so ever. Does this mean Renault have a fast realisable car? Maybe. Kubica is fine when he shuts up and gets on with it. This might even encourage the money men to come up with a few more reddies.
Talking of Lady Luck and its Massa in 3rd and another podium for the bionic man. Podiums are the way to build a championship. Keep the score board ticking over, picking up points as the big guns cock it up.
4th and lucky to be there at all, Alonso looked faster than Massa but proved once again that the driver behind needs the driver in front to make a mistake if he wants a better result. Stuck in 4th is a good recovery from plum last. But he could have been second with a fair wind and nod from Lady Luck.
5th Nico, who gets this weeks, “was he in the race, I must have missed him” award. He got in some peoples way and did one of his trade mark fell asleep races. He beat Schumacher in qualifying and the race again. But he didn’t turn that into a charge for the line. Ross will be expecting better things from the lad.
6th and mighty pissed off with all of Australia, Hamilton. He got nailed by the local fuzz out looking to make a name for itself on Friday night. Then got punted not once, but twice by Webber, who lost all sense of race control and was out for blood. Hamilton drove a barn stormer of a race and should have been at least second to Button at the chequered flag. But a pit call at the wrong moment. Webber getting all unnecessary cost the plucky English chap and chance of the shared glory. If was Webber, I’d not be looking to grab a glass of fizz of the McLaren boys tonight. 11th to 2nd would have been a dream for Hamilton. 11th to a battered 6th is poor consolation.
7th Liuzzi. Better than his more fancied team mate Sutil yet again. I might have to swallow my pride and start liking him at this rate.
8th Barrichello. See Nico, did you see him? I must have blinked. Still he did better than Schumacher, so he’ll be happy. And it’s another points payer for Williams. Picking up the pay check.
9th and he should be banned for a month for being utterly crap, Webber. Who let driving on home soil go completely to his head? He punted Hamilton twice. The second time for no reason other than he wasn’t paying attention. He spun, got in the way and was generally rubbish. He keeps doing this, hitting other cars that are racing, cutting up drivers for minor places and cocking around. He’s not all that and Hamilton is right, retire you waste of Bridgestone rubber.
10th and the last points payer, Schumacher. Oh how the once mighty have forgotten the phone number of lady luck. He doesn’t even send her a text message to tell her he’s going to be back in the paddock and they should hook up some time. Those two were once the toast of all the after show parties. Inseparable, falling out of night clubs in the wee small house, a cherry faces Lady Luck having the time of her life and showing Schumacher the ultimate prize through the mist of petrol and champagne spray. Now she sits on another’s pit wall pretending to ignore her once favourite and flicking the V’s behind his back. Sad times indeed for the square jawed one.
So there you go. Far more entertaining that Bahrain, and the championship doesn’t look like it’s going to be a Ferrari/Redbull benefit gig.
As long as the boys remember to pay Lady Luck up front and in full.
That’s who you have to court in Formula One. Not the great God Dollar, not the Gods of Technology and Design. No it’s the beautiful mercurial and easily pissed off Lady Luck that needs to be paid off before you can go racing to win.
You might well have the fastest car in the pack, designed to within an inch of its life. You might well be a seven times world champion “Greatest of a generation”. But if you’ve not paid Lady Luck in full up front, you can forget it. Whatever you do, it’s all going to fall down around your ears on turn 12 in a shower of gravel. Or relegate to an afternoon of tooling around the back of the field fighting the new boy, looking at TV time counted in seconds of you being passed by the moneyed up hot shoe getting his five minutes of fame.
Vettel had this in the bag, Big Ron assertion that the Redbull was thirty on race pace looked wide of the mark as Vettel and Home boy Webber, locked out the front row on Saturday. Ferrari still behind them with the McLarens and Merc bringing up the rear. Hamilton lost a load of grip and time after getting pulled by the Local Rozzers for “over exuberant driving” on Friday night. Back in 11th was a long way from the front.
Sunday Morning and the teams are talking about Rain and how soon it was going to come. As the cars sat on the grid their answers came as the rain fell and soft tires got changed to Inters for the dash to the first corner. Albert Park is a temporary circuit so there is a lot of white line to get slippery on a cold March afternoon.
When the red light went out on Sunday, we got to see just who’d paid lady luck up front. Alonso got tagged by Button in corner one, has he got squeezed by Hamilton who made a blinding start. Mickey Schumacher got a load of wheel spin off the line and got caught in the midfield scramble, eventually coming out with a broken front wing and very little chance of a fun afternoon. Better than Alonso though who ended up facing the wrong way and the field streaming past. Even the two Virgins starting from the pits and the pace car went past. A long afternoon ahead of Alonso then. Thankfully Trulli n in the Lotus had to replace something or other and wasn’t able to start. So Alonso was spared having to avoid the Lotus getting in the way.
Meanwhile up front Webber had managed to start a race and not hit Vettel or anyone else, plenty of time for that later. Vettel cruised off into the distance without a care in the world. It was a little hairy scary in the rain for a bit. The Sauber of Crazy Kobay lost yet another wing and took out Hulkenberg and Buemi. Schumacher pitted for a new front wing and spent the rest of the day looking at the back of various Torro Rossos, Virgins and Lotuses. HAHAHAHA Hahaha aha ah ah ah aa Seven times world champion this. Not some Jonny come lately no hoper with daddies money. This used to be the most feared driver in F1, not any more. Eventhe Virgin of Di Grassi showed Mickey that goal posts haven’t just moved, they’ve been taken off to the top field with different world first eleven.
So Lady Luck wasn’t happy with Mickey and then showed that she still isn’t in love with Vettel either. This time a break disc locked up and pitched the poor hapless German into the kitty litter. What has the guy got to do to catch a break here? Two easy wins snatched from his grasp by things he had absolutely no control over what so ever. Newey will get blamed for giving him a fast but fragile car, but he didn’t design the spark plug of break disc. It’s just random lady luck swigging out the bottle marked “hardy har ahr buddy” and flicking twigglets at the hapless fools going for glory.
Through all of this Button, had grabbed slick tires for a damp track, and got the jump on everyone to lead the race home. Everyone said he was mad to join McLaren and enter the home of Hamilton. But he drove a perfect race, called the perfect pit stop and finished 10 seconds up the road. Lady luck smiles sweetly and raise a glass of Vintage Tattinger towards the lovely Mr Button. A very timely win for the new Woking boy in his second race, this will do everything for his confidence and determination. He’s not going to give Hamilton an inch now is he.
Second up, Kubica in “Renault alright actually “shocker. He didn’t hit anyone and kept the two Ferraris behind him with no dramas what so ever. Does this mean Renault have a fast realisable car? Maybe. Kubica is fine when he shuts up and gets on with it. This might even encourage the money men to come up with a few more reddies.
Talking of Lady Luck and its Massa in 3rd and another podium for the bionic man. Podiums are the way to build a championship. Keep the score board ticking over, picking up points as the big guns cock it up.
4th and lucky to be there at all, Alonso looked faster than Massa but proved once again that the driver behind needs the driver in front to make a mistake if he wants a better result. Stuck in 4th is a good recovery from plum last. But he could have been second with a fair wind and nod from Lady Luck.
5th Nico, who gets this weeks, “was he in the race, I must have missed him” award. He got in some peoples way and did one of his trade mark fell asleep races. He beat Schumacher in qualifying and the race again. But he didn’t turn that into a charge for the line. Ross will be expecting better things from the lad.
6th and mighty pissed off with all of Australia, Hamilton. He got nailed by the local fuzz out looking to make a name for itself on Friday night. Then got punted not once, but twice by Webber, who lost all sense of race control and was out for blood. Hamilton drove a barn stormer of a race and should have been at least second to Button at the chequered flag. But a pit call at the wrong moment. Webber getting all unnecessary cost the plucky English chap and chance of the shared glory. If was Webber, I’d not be looking to grab a glass of fizz of the McLaren boys tonight. 11th to 2nd would have been a dream for Hamilton. 11th to a battered 6th is poor consolation.
7th Liuzzi. Better than his more fancied team mate Sutil yet again. I might have to swallow my pride and start liking him at this rate.
8th Barrichello. See Nico, did you see him? I must have blinked. Still he did better than Schumacher, so he’ll be happy. And it’s another points payer for Williams. Picking up the pay check.
9th and he should be banned for a month for being utterly crap, Webber. Who let driving on home soil go completely to his head? He punted Hamilton twice. The second time for no reason other than he wasn’t paying attention. He spun, got in the way and was generally rubbish. He keeps doing this, hitting other cars that are racing, cutting up drivers for minor places and cocking around. He’s not all that and Hamilton is right, retire you waste of Bridgestone rubber.
10th and the last points payer, Schumacher. Oh how the once mighty have forgotten the phone number of lady luck. He doesn’t even send her a text message to tell her he’s going to be back in the paddock and they should hook up some time. Those two were once the toast of all the after show parties. Inseparable, falling out of night clubs in the wee small house, a cherry faces Lady Luck having the time of her life and showing Schumacher the ultimate prize through the mist of petrol and champagne spray. Now she sits on another’s pit wall pretending to ignore her once favourite and flicking the V’s behind his back. Sad times indeed for the square jawed one.
So there you go. Far more entertaining that Bahrain, and the championship doesn’t look like it’s going to be a Ferrari/Redbull benefit gig.
As long as the boys remember to pay Lady Luck up front and in full.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Will it be a snooze fest down under ?
We’re off to the Albert Park, in down town Melbourne, Australia. It’s a medium fast, temporary track. It’s got some sensible bits and some silly bits. Drivers need to be smooth here and not kiss the wall too often. It’ more forgiving than Monaca, faster too. But still need concentrations from the driver. Usually it’s the first race of the year so form is no guide here. New drivers in new cars can go well here as old hands get sloppy and over confident.
Can anything stop the march of Ferrari ?
Vettel may have bagged the pole in Bahrain but the Redbull, according to Ferrari, didn’t have the legs at the end. Redbull might argue about that, Vettel kept Nico behind him when the spark plug started working again after all. Webber once again talked a good race and didn’t supply anything of any interest. Redbull probably have the best one lap car, but will it prove to be as fragile as last years car. As Alonso cruise up to the chequered flag, Massa held station as rear gunner. If he’s to stop Alonso from taking over his head boy badge he need to dominate in Australia, not something he normally does. Alonso should win on form, Vettel will be better than Bahrain, Massa is wild when under pressure. Webber is on home soil and needs to make up ground on the leaders
Whilst Button failed to shine, Hamilton won the first round of the fight to be best Brit. The McLarens didn’t look to have the legs of Vettel or the two Ferraris. Hamilton was fast once he cleared Nico but their trick air wing thing didn’t look all that trick come the speed trap. Button needs to be good here on a circuit that should suit his smooth style. Hamilton for another podium probably, button to make the top 5.
Not looking too trick either was Heir Schumacher. Where was the spark , the daring do, the win at all cost? He drove off the line like he was in a women’s institutes all comers 20 yard pancake tossing dash. SOOOOOOO SLLOOOWWWWWLLLLYYYYY. He claims he’s rusty, but to clean up rusty you have to go out and practice practice practise. That’s not something you can do anymore and sitting in front of the 42“ plasma knackering the PS3 pad isn’t going to get him race ready now. Are we about to see Schumacher’s first mid table season ? I don’t think he’ll be any better in Australia, but this is the 7 times world champion (three years ago)
“leave it out, he’s a facking hero sunbeam”
Nico Rosberg did a good job in Bahrain, showing Schumacher the way home and beating him through out the weekend. If he can continue that run of form he might just be remembered as more than the guy who Schumacher beats. He does well here usually, in rougher cars than a Brawn Merc. He’s fast and smooth and on a mission to beat the ex-best. A solid top 5 beckons
So that’s you’re top eight. Put them into some sort of order.
As to 9th and 10th,well that will probably come from either Williams or Force India. Barrichello is not the sort to get flustered and is racking up the miles to collect the pension. Sutil needs to start delivering the results. If any of the big boy’s trip up, then these two will be there. Liuzzi is also being talked up by those in the know. But he could hardly give me the time of day when I met him, so I don’t like him.
Sauber and Torro Rosso will be shit yet again.
As to those Tail End Charlies that proved so exciting last time out. Well Lotus has to be favourite to finish ahead of the others again. Though i think Virgin might get one to the flag this time. HRT will get both cars to pratice, neither will make it further than Q1 or half distance actually 1/3 distrance might be seen as a victory.
There will be more over taking this time out. I'm sure of it
Can anything stop the march of Ferrari ?
Vettel may have bagged the pole in Bahrain but the Redbull, according to Ferrari, didn’t have the legs at the end. Redbull might argue about that, Vettel kept Nico behind him when the spark plug started working again after all. Webber once again talked a good race and didn’t supply anything of any interest. Redbull probably have the best one lap car, but will it prove to be as fragile as last years car. As Alonso cruise up to the chequered flag, Massa held station as rear gunner. If he’s to stop Alonso from taking over his head boy badge he need to dominate in Australia, not something he normally does. Alonso should win on form, Vettel will be better than Bahrain, Massa is wild when under pressure. Webber is on home soil and needs to make up ground on the leaders
Whilst Button failed to shine, Hamilton won the first round of the fight to be best Brit. The McLarens didn’t look to have the legs of Vettel or the two Ferraris. Hamilton was fast once he cleared Nico but their trick air wing thing didn’t look all that trick come the speed trap. Button needs to be good here on a circuit that should suit his smooth style. Hamilton for another podium probably, button to make the top 5.
Not looking too trick either was Heir Schumacher. Where was the spark , the daring do, the win at all cost? He drove off the line like he was in a women’s institutes all comers 20 yard pancake tossing dash. SOOOOOOO SLLOOOWWWWWLLLLYYYYY. He claims he’s rusty, but to clean up rusty you have to go out and practice practice practise. That’s not something you can do anymore and sitting in front of the 42“ plasma knackering the PS3 pad isn’t going to get him race ready now. Are we about to see Schumacher’s first mid table season ? I don’t think he’ll be any better in Australia, but this is the 7 times world champion (three years ago)
“leave it out, he’s a facking hero sunbeam”
Nico Rosberg did a good job in Bahrain, showing Schumacher the way home and beating him through out the weekend. If he can continue that run of form he might just be remembered as more than the guy who Schumacher beats. He does well here usually, in rougher cars than a Brawn Merc. He’s fast and smooth and on a mission to beat the ex-best. A solid top 5 beckons
So that’s you’re top eight. Put them into some sort of order.
As to 9th and 10th,well that will probably come from either Williams or Force India. Barrichello is not the sort to get flustered and is racking up the miles to collect the pension. Sutil needs to start delivering the results. If any of the big boy’s trip up, then these two will be there. Liuzzi is also being talked up by those in the know. But he could hardly give me the time of day when I met him, so I don’t like him.
Sauber and Torro Rosso will be shit yet again.
As to those Tail End Charlies that proved so exciting last time out. Well Lotus has to be favourite to finish ahead of the others again. Though i think Virgin might get one to the flag this time. HRT will get both cars to pratice, neither will make it further than Q1 or half distance actually 1/3 distrance might be seen as a victory.
There will be more over taking this time out. I'm sure of it
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Bernie responds to the acusation that F1 will be dull this season.
"As long as Ferrari are winning, it's not boring sunbeam. Know what i mean"
Fans respond to this .....
Brian - We didn't realise the race had started man, bob was just getting a beer from the cool box and I said, "like, the parade laps started dude". Then bob was all like "wooo that is one long parade lap man, i'll get some more beers"
Bob - err yeah, we only knew the race was over when the corporate hospitality stands emptied dude.
"As long as Ferrari are winning, it's not boring sunbeam. Know what i mean"
Fans respond to this .....
Brian - We didn't realise the race had started man, bob was just getting a beer from the cool box and I said, "like, the parade laps started dude". Then bob was all like "wooo that is one long parade lap man, i'll get some more beers"
Bob - err yeah, we only knew the race was over when the corporate hospitality stands emptied dude.
Monday, 15 March 2010
It's a Red wave to the finish
So the 2010 Formula One season kicks off not with the hoped for BANG, but a rather dull processional whimper. Livened up only by Adrian Newey once again showing that he can build a very fast car, but he can’t build a very strong car. Not helped by Renualt giving them a rubbish engine
Redbull were all over this place like a rash. They had a few problems on Friday, giving the mechanics their first all nighter of the season, but they came out on Saturday morning with a car that flew through the desert. Ferrari was expected to take pole with ease, but Vettel storms the middle section to leave Alonso behind Massa. Not the expected result. Although Redbull did have a fast car during the testing season, it always got piped by the bigger boys. Maybe Redbull have been sandbagging somewhat.
Meanwhile down at the Mercedes end of the pit McLaren where rather surprised to be so far behind Redbull and the much heralded return of the prodigal Micheal had turned into a wake as first Nico went faster than him and then everyone else improved. “it’ll all be different come the race” said Ross.
McLaren were happy that their car wasn’t as awful as the car last season, but winter testing had put them fighting for pole, not scrapping around with the Merc and Nico. The Hamilton/Button love in was still in full swing with much back slapping and “we’ll be better once the race starts” but there were a few worried faces in the pits during Quli 3.
Meanwhile the rest did their best not to be too embarrassing. HRT got one car out on Friday and the second just made it into qualifying 1. But they were woefully slow. Lotus got their cars out all nice and clean and made a good job of fighting the Virgin boys. This time Glock beat Trulli to the Tail End Charlie pole, and made sure he pointed it out to Trulli during the BBC interview. Lotus might not have the fast car, but they have got a solid car however.
Of the others the Renault looked half built and slow in Petrov’s hands. Kubica did alright but was nothing special. The Hulk and Barrichello were comfortable in the best of the rest crew, Barrichello almost stopping the current world champions from making Q3. Sauber did not live up to their testing promise, the car looked slow and very twitchy in the Mickey Mouse new section.
Most pundits said that qualifying was going to be the important bit of the weekend. With new tire regs no one was quite sure if the tires would last a full distance, so were edging on 1 stop strategy but had a 2 stop if the need arouse. If they one stopped then they had to be high on the grid to avoid losing spots to faster cars on 2 stops.
Come Sunday and that’s exactly what happened. Vettel made a nice clean start off the line followed by Alonso sneaking past Massa. Hamilton made a good start to get to second by turn 3 but got edged out by Alonso and dropped back to 5th behind Nico. ..... and that was the excitement over with. Webber tried to escape everyone by using a smoke screen as his engine appear to lunch itself in turn 1 and 2. But nothing else happened and he continued on his merry way. HRT and chandhok was the first driver out after 2 laps. Apparently after only doing 7 laps all weekend, he found a new bump on lap 7 and speared off into the wall. The Virgins dropped out next leaving Lotus to cruse to an unopposed Tail End Charlie Challenge win.
The rest of the field pretty much held station. Hamilton sneaked passed Nico during the pit stops and all continued as before. Until the curse of the Newey design office struck and Vettels exhaust started burning a hole through the body work and then the Renault engine developed a faulty spark plug. He dropped back allowing Alonso to sail off into the sunset.
So a fine first win in a Ferrari for Alonso, well done I suppose to him. The Ferrari might not have the legs of the Redbull in qualifying, but it’s race pace is going to be hard to beat I suspect. He says he had the measure of Vettel all race. I’m not too sure that overtaking is any easier than it was last year.
Massa make a superb come back with 2nd. But he lost the race to Alonso in the first corner and he’ll know he can’t afford to let Alonso through so easily next time.
Hamilton gets good solid 3rd, he wasn’t on the pace of the Ferraris or the Redbulls. But he beat Button comfortably and that’s what he’ll be most positive about.
Vettel makes it to 4th in the end in a race he should have won. Like the championship he lost last year, reliability robbed him of the result.
Nico in 5th does a good job of being M. Schumacher’s team made. He beat the 7 times world champion all weekend and then drove away from him in the race. Lot’s of smug pundits said he struggle when Mickey hit the track on Sunday. But Nico held his nerve and did a very creditable job.
Not the dream return for Schumacher in 6th that we expected. He looks rusty and conservative in the car. He’ll get better, but how long will that take.
The Current world champion Button in 7th had a lack lustre weekend, scrapped into final qualifying, but never looked like challenging the top 5.
Webber, didn’t hit anyone and made it to 8th
9th Liuzzi did alright from a long way back.
10th for Barrichello.
Redbull were all over this place like a rash. They had a few problems on Friday, giving the mechanics their first all nighter of the season, but they came out on Saturday morning with a car that flew through the desert. Ferrari was expected to take pole with ease, but Vettel storms the middle section to leave Alonso behind Massa. Not the expected result. Although Redbull did have a fast car during the testing season, it always got piped by the bigger boys. Maybe Redbull have been sandbagging somewhat.
Meanwhile down at the Mercedes end of the pit McLaren where rather surprised to be so far behind Redbull and the much heralded return of the prodigal Micheal had turned into a wake as first Nico went faster than him and then everyone else improved. “it’ll all be different come the race” said Ross.
McLaren were happy that their car wasn’t as awful as the car last season, but winter testing had put them fighting for pole, not scrapping around with the Merc and Nico. The Hamilton/Button love in was still in full swing with much back slapping and “we’ll be better once the race starts” but there were a few worried faces in the pits during Quli 3.
Meanwhile the rest did their best not to be too embarrassing. HRT got one car out on Friday and the second just made it into qualifying 1. But they were woefully slow. Lotus got their cars out all nice and clean and made a good job of fighting the Virgin boys. This time Glock beat Trulli to the Tail End Charlie pole, and made sure he pointed it out to Trulli during the BBC interview. Lotus might not have the fast car, but they have got a solid car however.
Of the others the Renault looked half built and slow in Petrov’s hands. Kubica did alright but was nothing special. The Hulk and Barrichello were comfortable in the best of the rest crew, Barrichello almost stopping the current world champions from making Q3. Sauber did not live up to their testing promise, the car looked slow and very twitchy in the Mickey Mouse new section.
Most pundits said that qualifying was going to be the important bit of the weekend. With new tire regs no one was quite sure if the tires would last a full distance, so were edging on 1 stop strategy but had a 2 stop if the need arouse. If they one stopped then they had to be high on the grid to avoid losing spots to faster cars on 2 stops.
Come Sunday and that’s exactly what happened. Vettel made a nice clean start off the line followed by Alonso sneaking past Massa. Hamilton made a good start to get to second by turn 3 but got edged out by Alonso and dropped back to 5th behind Nico. ..... and that was the excitement over with. Webber tried to escape everyone by using a smoke screen as his engine appear to lunch itself in turn 1 and 2. But nothing else happened and he continued on his merry way. HRT and chandhok was the first driver out after 2 laps. Apparently after only doing 7 laps all weekend, he found a new bump on lap 7 and speared off into the wall. The Virgins dropped out next leaving Lotus to cruse to an unopposed Tail End Charlie Challenge win.
The rest of the field pretty much held station. Hamilton sneaked passed Nico during the pit stops and all continued as before. Until the curse of the Newey design office struck and Vettels exhaust started burning a hole through the body work and then the Renault engine developed a faulty spark plug. He dropped back allowing Alonso to sail off into the sunset.
So a fine first win in a Ferrari for Alonso, well done I suppose to him. The Ferrari might not have the legs of the Redbull in qualifying, but it’s race pace is going to be hard to beat I suspect. He says he had the measure of Vettel all race. I’m not too sure that overtaking is any easier than it was last year.
Massa make a superb come back with 2nd. But he lost the race to Alonso in the first corner and he’ll know he can’t afford to let Alonso through so easily next time.
Hamilton gets good solid 3rd, he wasn’t on the pace of the Ferraris or the Redbulls. But he beat Button comfortably and that’s what he’ll be most positive about.
Vettel makes it to 4th in the end in a race he should have won. Like the championship he lost last year, reliability robbed him of the result.
Nico in 5th does a good job of being M. Schumacher’s team made. He beat the 7 times world champion all weekend and then drove away from him in the race. Lot’s of smug pundits said he struggle when Mickey hit the track on Sunday. But Nico held his nerve and did a very creditable job.
Not the dream return for Schumacher in 6th that we expected. He looks rusty and conservative in the car. He’ll get better, but how long will that take.
The Current world champion Button in 7th had a lack lustre weekend, scrapped into final qualifying, but never looked like challenging the top 5.
Webber, didn’t hit anyone and made it to 8th
9th Liuzzi did alright from a long way back.
10th for Barrichello.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Who will win then ?
Welcome one and all to the 2010 F1 world champinship.
The sun is just rising and the air is still fresh with the heady scent of a new world championship popping it’s head up over the horizon. Jean Todt is checking the FIA ban hammer of Doom is nicely polished. Checking the velvet glove that fits over it is as bright red as usual and that the random rule generator is purring. Ready to spring into action at the first sign of trouble the (almost) new FIA guv’ner eases his backside into the seat of power in the Ivory tower and surveys the opening round.
Welcome back all you old hands and welcome all you new bloods. Don’t worry it will all make sense after a few races. The basics rule is to ignore my jaded and ill informed opinion. It’s mostly slanderous and overly jingoistic. But it’s from the heart or more usually the bottom of a bottle of red wine.
We’re starting at The Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Designed I’m afraid by Herman Tilke. This means very little over taking, there is zero chance of rain and not much chance of a spectacle. But being the first race of the season it’s always a lottery. New cars, new drivers and new teams this year mean you’re never quite sure what the outcome will be.
Bahrain in the heart of the desert is a circuit that is very dusty. Last year the boys at Brawns won, but only just after amazingly Toyota had locked out the front row of the grid they then tried really really hard to cock it all up. The Brawns were worried about the cooling of their Mercedes engine so couldn’t chase the Toyotas down. Relying on the pit stop to jump Trulli when he stopped to ask for direction, I think, as Vettel cruzed past in his Redbull, laughing all the way to second.
This year sees no refuelling, narrower front tires and adjustable front wings. The conventional thinking is that drivers who are kind to their tires like Button and Alonso, not all hairy scary like Massa and Hamilton, will do a better job. With the dust and high winds of the desert, looking after the tires is going to be at a premium, with enough fuel to run for 49 laps cars will be heavy and slide around.
Winter testing saw Ferrari having problems with the tires losing their edge for 10 laps or so after a few laps off the start line, then they come back into their sweet spot. Once up to temperature they where the class of the field. McLaren meanwhile where better at the beginning, before gradually tailing off. Maybe a shade behind the Ferraris on the longs runs. The Mercedes and Redbulls were having problems getting the tires to be consistent over the long runs. They’re fast, but not as fast as Ferrari and McLaren.
I think you have to look for the winner to come from one of those four teams. Luck and consistency remember, that’s what makes a championship year come together. The team that has the car running sweetly out of the box has a huge advantage. Teams like Mercedes that are bringing lots of aero updates to the first race suggest they don’t have the car sorted yet and are still looking to find a base line to start working from.
Pole will be about being the last driver doing the last lap. All the other will be clearing the sand and dust for the last lap hero. A dream pole would be Schumacher returning after three years. He always was the master of being in the right place at the right time, three years ago. These days Hamilton, Alonso, Webber and Vettel are all great at that Banzi lap.
But last year the no hopers Brawn turned up in Australia and Button, who up to that point had been an also ran for so long, blew everyone away with Pole and the win. Maybe Sauber will be this years Brawns,
they’ve had some fast times on short runs, could they go for glory and get pole. The wins probably a step too far, but didn’t we all think that a year ago ?
My monies on Alonso, i think he's got the edge on Hamilton, maybe Mickey to spring a suprise and pick up a podium. All the usual supect in the top ten, with maybe Hulkenberger and Sutil joining them.
I think Lotus will finish with 1 car, Virgin will retire before half distance and HRT will got home after qualifying after both cars burst into flames and crash in the first corner grandstand.
The sun is just rising and the air is still fresh with the heady scent of a new world championship popping it’s head up over the horizon. Jean Todt is checking the FIA ban hammer of Doom is nicely polished. Checking the velvet glove that fits over it is as bright red as usual and that the random rule generator is purring. Ready to spring into action at the first sign of trouble the (almost) new FIA guv’ner eases his backside into the seat of power in the Ivory tower and surveys the opening round.
Welcome back all you old hands and welcome all you new bloods. Don’t worry it will all make sense after a few races. The basics rule is to ignore my jaded and ill informed opinion. It’s mostly slanderous and overly jingoistic. But it’s from the heart or more usually the bottom of a bottle of red wine.
We’re starting at The Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Designed I’m afraid by Herman Tilke. This means very little over taking, there is zero chance of rain and not much chance of a spectacle. But being the first race of the season it’s always a lottery. New cars, new drivers and new teams this year mean you’re never quite sure what the outcome will be.
Bahrain in the heart of the desert is a circuit that is very dusty. Last year the boys at Brawns won, but only just after amazingly Toyota had locked out the front row of the grid they then tried really really hard to cock it all up. The Brawns were worried about the cooling of their Mercedes engine so couldn’t chase the Toyotas down. Relying on the pit stop to jump Trulli when he stopped to ask for direction, I think, as Vettel cruzed past in his Redbull, laughing all the way to second.
This year sees no refuelling, narrower front tires and adjustable front wings. The conventional thinking is that drivers who are kind to their tires like Button and Alonso, not all hairy scary like Massa and Hamilton, will do a better job. With the dust and high winds of the desert, looking after the tires is going to be at a premium, with enough fuel to run for 49 laps cars will be heavy and slide around.
Winter testing saw Ferrari having problems with the tires losing their edge for 10 laps or so after a few laps off the start line, then they come back into their sweet spot. Once up to temperature they where the class of the field. McLaren meanwhile where better at the beginning, before gradually tailing off. Maybe a shade behind the Ferraris on the longs runs. The Mercedes and Redbulls were having problems getting the tires to be consistent over the long runs. They’re fast, but not as fast as Ferrari and McLaren.
I think you have to look for the winner to come from one of those four teams. Luck and consistency remember, that’s what makes a championship year come together. The team that has the car running sweetly out of the box has a huge advantage. Teams like Mercedes that are bringing lots of aero updates to the first race suggest they don’t have the car sorted yet and are still looking to find a base line to start working from.
Pole will be about being the last driver doing the last lap. All the other will be clearing the sand and dust for the last lap hero. A dream pole would be Schumacher returning after three years. He always was the master of being in the right place at the right time, three years ago. These days Hamilton, Alonso, Webber and Vettel are all great at that Banzi lap.
But last year the no hopers Brawn turned up in Australia and Button, who up to that point had been an also ran for so long, blew everyone away with Pole and the win. Maybe Sauber will be this years Brawns,
they’ve had some fast times on short runs, could they go for glory and get pole. The wins probably a step too far, but didn’t we all think that a year ago ?
My monies on Alonso, i think he's got the edge on Hamilton, maybe Mickey to spring a suprise and pick up a podium. All the usual supect in the top ten, with maybe Hulkenberger and Sutil joining them.
I think Lotus will finish with 1 car, Virgin will retire before half distance and HRT will got home after qualifying after both cars burst into flames and crash in the first corner grandstand.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Are we ready for the new season yet ?
The planets align, the stars twinkle, Sir Jackie Stewart pops up to spout some 20 year old rubbish and the Formula One world Championship sees not just four previous world champions, but four of the Best World Champions you have ever seen, stare down the thin ribbon of tarmac and know THEY ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD.
All four of these giants have something to prove this year, all four have everything to lose this year, and failure could very well end a career here.
Jenson Button, current world champion; he’s left the very comfortable world of Ross Brawn and the ex Honda mob for the cold stark world of win at all cost McLaren. These boys don’t go racing for a bit of a laugh; it’s not “cup of tea then change the tires chaps” racing. These boys play to win and it’s also the home of ...
Lewis Hamilton. The wonder son of McLaren, the prodigal son. Last year he turned a rubbish season around. He lied, learned that not everyone loves him and realised that winning isn’t about just turning up. He won races, but lost the world championship. He did grow up last year, but did he become a man? Only he can know that.
All the great drivers, drive for Ferrari eventually. Alonso won the world champions ship in 2005 and 2006, back to back. That was always the sign of a great driver, but then he went to McLaren to prove that he was the greatest, that he was better than the car. He could go anywhere and win back to back to back in different cars. No one had done that before. But it all fell apart. He fell out with McLaren, with Hamilton and with many of those that had supported him. He left after only one season and fled back to the comfort blanket of Renault hiding behind Flav and licking his wounds. But then it all went wrong again with cars hitting walls, pointed fingers and FIA hearings. Now he’s back in a car that can and will win. All the great drivers know that they are only as good as their last race.
He’s been away for 3 years. He’s won more Championship than anyone, more races than anyone, more poles, more fastest laps, more bloody everything. He IS modern Formula one. Cut him in half and it says WIN AT ALL COST. He is Michael Schumacher. God only knows what he feels he has to come back and prove here. Ross Brawn and Mercedes have tempted him out of DIY on Sundays and trips to Tesco’s for the weekly shopping. He broke his collar bone last year trying to win a motor bike race. Will he break something this year trying to win an F1 race?
These four are the core of a great year. Hamilton wants to win it back. Button doesn’t want to lose that which he has worked so hard for. Alonso wants to prove he can do it without a Renault engine. And Mickey wants to prove that he is and always will be the Greatest Formula one driver of all time.
Meanwhile we have a whole bunch of thrusting young bucks out to prove they are better than the Americans, who have not turned up. I don’t want to say I told you so, so I’ll let Bernie do it for me.
“I told you so”
The Tail End Charlie Challenge: It’s looking like a one horse race at the moment to be honest. Not quite what I was expecting, I have to say. Yes yes Lotus and for F**ks sake bloody Trulli look to be the best of a rather bad mob of idiots. The Virgin team with Glock and Lucas Di Grassi doesn’t look like it can do more than 10 laps before it dumps its hydraulic fluid all over the track. Whilst the Campos chappies have turned up (at long last) with a car designed by my five year old after his swimming teacher explained what an F1 car looks like. “Throw some shapes at the design board and see what sticks chaps”. Even Brawn turned up to one test last year before blowing everyone away. Maybe Campos knows something we don’t.
Not what I’d hoped for. Still it keeps you interested in the back of the grid, which was the plan.
Meanwhile we have some new boys, some old boys and a few random funnies to keep an eye on this year.
McLaren - Button joins Hamilton, Google isn’t being much help tonight, but I think the last time two English drivers drove for an English team was Julian Bailey and Jonathan Palmer at Tyrell in 1988, they were rubbish. Button and Hamilton are this year’s dream team. Those in the know say the mind games have started with Hamilton ditching his father as manager. That McLaren has wrapped up Hamilton and built the team around him. Buttons first day of testing was spent getting him to fit into the car for instance. But I think Hamilton has learnt from the Alonso year and knows he needs to beat not just Ferrari but Mickey Schumacher this year. They both need to work together to be in with a shout. Better to be fighting a team mate rather than six other drivers.
Mercedes – The car giant flicks the V’s at McLaren, took their ball off to their new best friend Ross and bought an old man out of retirement. Nico must be wondering where it all went wrong. From team Numero Uno to tea boy in one swift move. He had it all and then Michael Schumacher turns up and Nico is just another driver being told to pull over to let the big man past. Harsh on Nico I think. He is better than that. Can Mickey do it? I’ll let you know after Brazil okay.
Redbull – Last year’s best car didn't bring home the bacon, they lost out with bad luck and Renault engines that needed more cooling. Vettel and Webber get to keep their seats. This year Vettel needs to make fewer mistakes and Webber needs to stop hitting so many people before the first corner. Wins will come if Newey can cool the Renault effectively from the off.
Ferrari – Kimi flounces off to WRC, good riddance to the petulant ice man, no loss there. In comes Alonso, love him or hate him (and I do kind of dislike him) you have to admit he is one of the best drivers in F1 right now. He’s focused and utterly professional. He gave McLaren the direction they needed, dragged Renault to the sharp end of the pack and avoided yet more finger pointing and mudslinging. Teflonso is the only front runner who knows what Schumacher is capable of. Massa returns after the doctors rebuilt the front of his skull. It’s a miracle that he can live and breathe, let alone go out and race. Testing showed he still has the speed and stamina, only a race will show if he has the ability to race.
Williams
– off goes Nico and the other one. In comes the oldest man in F1, Barrichello, to give them experience and cheapo Saga travel I guess. The new boy is Nico Hulkenberg, who didn’t embarrass himself during winter testing. Those people who know about stuff are saying the name Hulkenberg and Hamilton in the same sentence. Though Hamilton had possibly the best car one the grid when he joined and a double world champion to tell him where to queue with his lunch money. The Hulk gets an old man who’s well past his sell by date in my opinion.
Renault – It’s now 11.12pm and I’ve had a large G&T and a bottle of red and now I have to think of something interesting so say about Kubica and Petrov. Errumm mmm eeerrrrr, yes. Well they’re going to be better than Lotus I suppose. Renault have sold up to a business chap who wants to “make business to business face time” whatever that means. I predict a slow slide to the back of the grid and eventual sale to some gangsta types from Russia or China. Kubica has gone to the wrong team at just the wrong time. Petrov is bank rolled by Russian money. Make of that what you will.
Force India - did alright last year moving up from the bottom feeder class. Expect to be mid field jonnies this year. Sutil and Liuzzi return. Sutil needs to step up to the plate this year. Liuzzi has lots of money behind him. He was also very sullen when I asked him to sign my son’s autograph book. So I don’t like him.
Torro Rosso – Have built their own car this year apparently. Though I suspect if you scratch it, it’ll have “designed by A Newey” under the paint work. Buemi and Algueruari are back again. My bettering is one of these two will be the first to get fired.
Lotus – first of the new boys. ...... Trulli. That’s all. They’re not Lotus cars, they’re a bunch of Malaysians who went to Norfolk on holiday once and kind of liked the views. The Chapman Family have nothing to do with this. ....... Trulli..... For the love of God...... Trulli. They’ll be the best of the new boys. But that doesn’t make it alright. It’s a Gascoigne vanity project; let’s see if they make it to the end of the season. Kovalainen is in the second seat. So you have Trulli and Kovalainen in one team. The best thing about this is that they will not trouble the top ten in any way shape or form and thus I don’t have to write their names out more than absolutely neseccary.
Virgin – The other new boys that made it to the grid on time with a car that actually moves. So far it’s shown that it can lighten itself after 10 laps by dumping its hydraulic fluid all over the track. They’ve not got long to sort out a fairly major design flaw, so Bahrain could be a short race for the CFD boys. Glock gets new overalls with a Virgin Logo on them, it’s a shame he’s here and not in a better car. I thought he did a better job at Toyota than this. Some chap called Di Grassi is in the second seat, I have no idea who he is...Good in Gp2 apparently though he never won the big cup.
Sauber – was BMW until they threw their toys out of the pram and flounced out of the fire exit pretending to not care and telling everyone that they could have Bernie any time they wanted too. They sold up to Peter Sauber at the very very last minute in a really pathetic display of business morality. They even took their engine away, but made sure Sauber had to keep the BMW name. Cheap and pathetic. So Sauber gets his old team back and looks to have turned it around. Pedro De La Rosa has been brought in from McLaren along with everyone’s favourite crazy Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi. These two have been setting some good times in winter testing. Are they going to do a Brawn and win the silver Cup? I just can’t see it happening. Like I couldn’t see Brawn wining last year......
Campos – oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. .................... Oh dear. Bruno (not trading on the Senna name what-so-ever at all honestly) Senna. And Karun Chanhok. I think they have lots of money, because Campos doesn’t have any. Adrian Campos was last seen hanging around outside Madrid airport with a dancing monkey on a chain, rattling a tin and asking for spare change. He’s sold up to some chap called Jose Ramon Carabante. He’s renamed the team Hispanese Racing team (HRT ). The word on the street is they have more than a little backing from VW/Audi. Who are waiting to see what the 2013 engine rules look like? Maybe, maybe not. If Campos/HRT is there at the end of the season that will be a very big achievement.
Team wise, Mclaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and possibly Redbull will be fighting it out for the constructors. Renault, Sauber and Williams will be hoping to pick up points if the big boys stumble. Whilst Torro Rosso, Lotus, and Virgin hope to finish the odd race. Campos will be hoping to finsih the whole season, let a lone a race.
Mr Todt will be hoping he doesn't have to get the big bad ban hammer if FIA meaness out of the cupboard and Bernie will be making more deal round the back of the bike sheds.
So there you go, it's all jolly exciting with Button, Hamilton, Alonso and Schumacher all out to prove they have the right stuff.
All four of these giants have something to prove this year, all four have everything to lose this year, and failure could very well end a career here.
Jenson Button, current world champion; he’s left the very comfortable world of Ross Brawn and the ex Honda mob for the cold stark world of win at all cost McLaren. These boys don’t go racing for a bit of a laugh; it’s not “cup of tea then change the tires chaps” racing. These boys play to win and it’s also the home of ...
Lewis Hamilton. The wonder son of McLaren, the prodigal son. Last year he turned a rubbish season around. He lied, learned that not everyone loves him and realised that winning isn’t about just turning up. He won races, but lost the world championship. He did grow up last year, but did he become a man? Only he can know that.
All the great drivers, drive for Ferrari eventually. Alonso won the world champions ship in 2005 and 2006, back to back. That was always the sign of a great driver, but then he went to McLaren to prove that he was the greatest, that he was better than the car. He could go anywhere and win back to back to back in different cars. No one had done that before. But it all fell apart. He fell out with McLaren, with Hamilton and with many of those that had supported him. He left after only one season and fled back to the comfort blanket of Renault hiding behind Flav and licking his wounds. But then it all went wrong again with cars hitting walls, pointed fingers and FIA hearings. Now he’s back in a car that can and will win. All the great drivers know that they are only as good as their last race.
He’s been away for 3 years. He’s won more Championship than anyone, more races than anyone, more poles, more fastest laps, more bloody everything. He IS modern Formula one. Cut him in half and it says WIN AT ALL COST. He is Michael Schumacher. God only knows what he feels he has to come back and prove here. Ross Brawn and Mercedes have tempted him out of DIY on Sundays and trips to Tesco’s for the weekly shopping. He broke his collar bone last year trying to win a motor bike race. Will he break something this year trying to win an F1 race?
These four are the core of a great year. Hamilton wants to win it back. Button doesn’t want to lose that which he has worked so hard for. Alonso wants to prove he can do it without a Renault engine. And Mickey wants to prove that he is and always will be the Greatest Formula one driver of all time.
Meanwhile we have a whole bunch of thrusting young bucks out to prove they are better than the Americans, who have not turned up. I don’t want to say I told you so, so I’ll let Bernie do it for me.
“I told you so”
The Tail End Charlie Challenge: It’s looking like a one horse race at the moment to be honest. Not quite what I was expecting, I have to say. Yes yes Lotus and for F**ks sake bloody Trulli look to be the best of a rather bad mob of idiots. The Virgin team with Glock and Lucas Di Grassi doesn’t look like it can do more than 10 laps before it dumps its hydraulic fluid all over the track. Whilst the Campos chappies have turned up (at long last) with a car designed by my five year old after his swimming teacher explained what an F1 car looks like. “Throw some shapes at the design board and see what sticks chaps”. Even Brawn turned up to one test last year before blowing everyone away. Maybe Campos knows something we don’t.
Not what I’d hoped for. Still it keeps you interested in the back of the grid, which was the plan.
Meanwhile we have some new boys, some old boys and a few random funnies to keep an eye on this year.
McLaren - Button joins Hamilton, Google isn’t being much help tonight, but I think the last time two English drivers drove for an English team was Julian Bailey and Jonathan Palmer at Tyrell in 1988, they were rubbish. Button and Hamilton are this year’s dream team. Those in the know say the mind games have started with Hamilton ditching his father as manager. That McLaren has wrapped up Hamilton and built the team around him. Buttons first day of testing was spent getting him to fit into the car for instance. But I think Hamilton has learnt from the Alonso year and knows he needs to beat not just Ferrari but Mickey Schumacher this year. They both need to work together to be in with a shout. Better to be fighting a team mate rather than six other drivers.
Mercedes – The car giant flicks the V’s at McLaren, took their ball off to their new best friend Ross and bought an old man out of retirement. Nico must be wondering where it all went wrong. From team Numero Uno to tea boy in one swift move. He had it all and then Michael Schumacher turns up and Nico is just another driver being told to pull over to let the big man past. Harsh on Nico I think. He is better than that. Can Mickey do it? I’ll let you know after Brazil okay.
Redbull – Last year’s best car didn't bring home the bacon, they lost out with bad luck and Renault engines that needed more cooling. Vettel and Webber get to keep their seats. This year Vettel needs to make fewer mistakes and Webber needs to stop hitting so many people before the first corner. Wins will come if Newey can cool the Renault effectively from the off.
Ferrari – Kimi flounces off to WRC, good riddance to the petulant ice man, no loss there. In comes Alonso, love him or hate him (and I do kind of dislike him) you have to admit he is one of the best drivers in F1 right now. He’s focused and utterly professional. He gave McLaren the direction they needed, dragged Renault to the sharp end of the pack and avoided yet more finger pointing and mudslinging. Teflonso is the only front runner who knows what Schumacher is capable of. Massa returns after the doctors rebuilt the front of his skull. It’s a miracle that he can live and breathe, let alone go out and race. Testing showed he still has the speed and stamina, only a race will show if he has the ability to race.
Williams
– off goes Nico and the other one. In comes the oldest man in F1, Barrichello, to give them experience and cheapo Saga travel I guess. The new boy is Nico Hulkenberg, who didn’t embarrass himself during winter testing. Those people who know about stuff are saying the name Hulkenberg and Hamilton in the same sentence. Though Hamilton had possibly the best car one the grid when he joined and a double world champion to tell him where to queue with his lunch money. The Hulk gets an old man who’s well past his sell by date in my opinion.
Renault – It’s now 11.12pm and I’ve had a large G&T and a bottle of red and now I have to think of something interesting so say about Kubica and Petrov. Errumm mmm eeerrrrr, yes. Well they’re going to be better than Lotus I suppose. Renault have sold up to a business chap who wants to “make business to business face time” whatever that means. I predict a slow slide to the back of the grid and eventual sale to some gangsta types from Russia or China. Kubica has gone to the wrong team at just the wrong time. Petrov is bank rolled by Russian money. Make of that what you will.
Force India - did alright last year moving up from the bottom feeder class. Expect to be mid field jonnies this year. Sutil and Liuzzi return. Sutil needs to step up to the plate this year. Liuzzi has lots of money behind him. He was also very sullen when I asked him to sign my son’s autograph book. So I don’t like him.
Torro Rosso – Have built their own car this year apparently. Though I suspect if you scratch it, it’ll have “designed by A Newey” under the paint work. Buemi and Algueruari are back again. My bettering is one of these two will be the first to get fired.
Lotus – first of the new boys. ...... Trulli. That’s all. They’re not Lotus cars, they’re a bunch of Malaysians who went to Norfolk on holiday once and kind of liked the views. The Chapman Family have nothing to do with this. ....... Trulli..... For the love of God...... Trulli. They’ll be the best of the new boys. But that doesn’t make it alright. It’s a Gascoigne vanity project; let’s see if they make it to the end of the season. Kovalainen is in the second seat. So you have Trulli and Kovalainen in one team. The best thing about this is that they will not trouble the top ten in any way shape or form and thus I don’t have to write their names out more than absolutely neseccary.
Virgin – The other new boys that made it to the grid on time with a car that actually moves. So far it’s shown that it can lighten itself after 10 laps by dumping its hydraulic fluid all over the track. They’ve not got long to sort out a fairly major design flaw, so Bahrain could be a short race for the CFD boys. Glock gets new overalls with a Virgin Logo on them, it’s a shame he’s here and not in a better car. I thought he did a better job at Toyota than this. Some chap called Di Grassi is in the second seat, I have no idea who he is...Good in Gp2 apparently though he never won the big cup.
Sauber – was BMW until they threw their toys out of the pram and flounced out of the fire exit pretending to not care and telling everyone that they could have Bernie any time they wanted too. They sold up to Peter Sauber at the very very last minute in a really pathetic display of business morality. They even took their engine away, but made sure Sauber had to keep the BMW name. Cheap and pathetic. So Sauber gets his old team back and looks to have turned it around. Pedro De La Rosa has been brought in from McLaren along with everyone’s favourite crazy Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi. These two have been setting some good times in winter testing. Are they going to do a Brawn and win the silver Cup? I just can’t see it happening. Like I couldn’t see Brawn wining last year......
Campos – oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. .................... Oh dear. Bruno (not trading on the Senna name what-so-ever at all honestly) Senna. And Karun Chanhok. I think they have lots of money, because Campos doesn’t have any. Adrian Campos was last seen hanging around outside Madrid airport with a dancing monkey on a chain, rattling a tin and asking for spare change. He’s sold up to some chap called Jose Ramon Carabante. He’s renamed the team Hispanese Racing team (HRT ). The word on the street is they have more than a little backing from VW/Audi. Who are waiting to see what the 2013 engine rules look like? Maybe, maybe not. If Campos/HRT is there at the end of the season that will be a very big achievement.
Team wise, Mclaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and possibly Redbull will be fighting it out for the constructors. Renault, Sauber and Williams will be hoping to pick up points if the big boys stumble. Whilst Torro Rosso, Lotus, and Virgin hope to finish the odd race. Campos will be hoping to finsih the whole season, let a lone a race.
Mr Todt will be hoping he doesn't have to get the big bad ban hammer if FIA meaness out of the cupboard and Bernie will be making more deal round the back of the bike sheds.
So there you go, it's all jolly exciting with Button, Hamilton, Alonso and Schumacher all out to prove they have the right stuff.
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