F1 Gives You Wings

We've got a champion!

2010-11-16T22:41:00.002Z

Although this blog has been silent for a while, it can't not mention a little something about its favourite driver winning the WDC!

As a fan, you choose a driver to support for one reason or another. I spotted Sebastian putting his car on pole at Monza in 2008 and then winning that race and, you know, who doesn't love a good underdog story? Back then, it was easy to be Seb's fan. With no pressure on him and a less-than-brilliant car, all he did was impress. This year, on the other hand, hasn't been quite as straightforward.

There's no point in arguing about whether Seb deserves the championship. He had to fight it out with all the other big names in the sport and he probably lost as many points through reliability as he gained from the qualifying superiority of his car. The stats speak for themselves but there's something more impressive about his season.

It was only a few months ago that Sebastian Vettel was trailing in the championship by several points, and had just lost another bunch by crashing into Jenson Button at Spa. He was already considered the villain by many; Mark Webber was getting nothing but sympathy from the press after the team's awkward handling of the Istanbul and Silverstone incidents. Hungary had been another lost win and after that came an incident that earnt him the nickname 'crash-kid'. How does a 23-year-old bounce back from that?

In style, is the answer. In Singapore, even though he had just spent a whole race looking at Fernando Alonso's diffuser, he knew he was back. "Don't you worry, we will get them" he said calmly on the team radio at the end of the race. Next time round, he did what he does best: pole position and a race win at his beloved Suzuka, all in one day, put him back into the championship hunt.

Just before his engine blew up in Korea, he was on course to lead the championship for the first time. It didn't happen. He put the fire out, consoled the team, and decided to come back stronger. Two races and two wins later, he was the World Champion. Abu Dhabi was the first time Sebastian had led the championship in his career. Make your own jokes about German efficiency.

When Jenson Button won last year, you could see the relief in his eyes. He had been the leader all year and it was his to lose. In contrast, Sebastian just couldn't believe it. His reaction on the radio was heartwarmingly emotional and he looked completely in awe afterwards. And understandably so; after a year of dismal luck, everything had gone his way in the last race.

If you believe in fairytales, then the right guy won. Of course, in real life, things are not just black or white. Sebastian might not be the perfect champion (and who is?), but he is certainly a deserving one. And he'll only get better.

When are team orders bad... and when are they really bad?

2010-07-27T15:20:00.001+01:00

I can't speak for everyone, but I watch F1 because I love the racing. Sure, the off-track drama can sometimes be almost as entertaining, but hardly as thrilling as seeing two skilled drivers in powerful cars fighting it out on track.

Seeing it like this, we were robbed on Sunday. Just after the pitstops, everyone was hanging off the edge of their chairs, trying to see how Massa would deal with the hard tyre (which he clearly dislikes) and whether Alonso could take advantage of his struggles. As Massa kept locking up, Alonso was closing in dangerously and we were set for a brilliant fight.

Looking back at it now it is clear that Alonso wasted his only chance to take the lead as, after Massa got used to driving on hard tyres, he didn't look threatened anymore. The gap was a comfortable 4 seconds and we were getting ready to celebrate Felipe Massa's return to form, exactly one year after his horrific accident in Hungary.

What happened next is pretty well documented; the reaction from journalists and fans was passionate and the podium and press conference a sad affair. But why were we all so shocked? After all, team orders have occured several times in the past, even after they were banned in 2002.

One would be naive to assume that it is possible for a team to give both their drivers equal chances until the end of the year. Fans watch the sport for the racing. Teams and drivers are in it to win, and some of them will try and do so at all costs. So, if team orders are inevitable and (relatively) frequent, what's the fuss all about? Why is this different?

Well, the first obvious reason is that both drivers are still in contention for the championship. The new points system makes gaps look a lot bigger than they actually are and Keith from F1 Fanatic has done a great job of explaining Massa's and Alonso's relative positions in the standings. For me, there is a clear difference between what happened on Sunday and Massa helping Raikkonen in 2007 or vice versa in 2008. What Ferrari did in Germany was to publicly declare that they do not consider Massa a championship contender. Without his team's moral and practical support, he certainly isn't one.

Another important point is that the Constructors' points didn't change after the swap, i.e. Massa wasn't helping his team, he was helping Alonso. Two years ago, same place, Kovalainen let Hamilton past, who then went on to win. Crucially, Hamilton had the pace and the strategy to challenge for the lead and, after overtaking Kovalainen, he made two further passes and ended up winning the race. As a result, the team's points were maximised.

On a more sentimental note, Massa was about to win a race for the first time since his life-threatening crash, exactly a year ago. The team missed an excellent opportunity for positive press and a fairytale story. People like fairytales. What people don't like is spoilt drivers who make a fuss about "being stuck" behind their teammates while being faster than them, yet fail to overtake them without the team's help. This wasn't good for Alonso's image, for Ferrari's image or for the sport's image.

In the end, I didn't want to see a repeat of Turkey, but I did want to see a race.

9 races, 5 winners, anyone's championship

2010-06-29T13:17:00.000+01:00

If 2009 was exciting, 2010 was promising to be a classic with 4 world champions on the grid and at least 4 teams trying to establish themselves at the front.

Red Bull started the season nicely, with Vettel taking pole in Bahrain, but a spark plug issue dropped him to fourth. Alonso inherited the win and lead the first Ferrari 1-2 since the 2008 French Grand Prix. At least the Tifosi were happy; the rest of us were just hoping to see some real racing in Australia.

Another race, another pole for Vettel, another mechanical problem. This time it was a tactical Button who took advantage of Red Bull's misfortunes to grab his first win for 2010. Could he finally prove his doubters wrong?

Malaysia saw Webber taking pole to maintain Red Bull's impressive record. A mistake at the first corner gave Vettel the lead and the car held up for Vettel to finally celebrate his first win of the season. So far we'd had 3 different teams winning the first 3 races, an exciting start to the season that we hadn't seen since 1990.

Vettel returned to his qualifying form in China, but the Red Bulls faded away in a hectic race with changeable conditions, which was won by Jenson Button. The 2009 champion was now leading the 2010 championship.

Before Barcelona and Monaco, Webber promised his dogs to go back with as many points as possible and he's not a man to break a promise; two straightforward poles and wins at Barcelona and Monaco gave him 50 points and the championship lead. Had the bad luck finally abandoned him?

Two teammates tied in points at the top is a recipe for disaster though, as Red Bull discovered in Turkey. At a race to forget, Vettel hit Webber while fighting for the lead and gave Hamilton his first win of the season. Button got a bit too close trying to grab the lead and just avoided another Red Bull-style drama.

Hamilton was back for good, and he showed it with an emphatic win in Canada. The race was a classic, packed with action and far from predictable. Even if Alonso only managed 3rd, Ferrari's pace looked good and it gave them hope that they could return to their early season pace.

The season so far had been so exciting, some people were almost looking forward to the procession that is Euro GP. Luckily for the rest of us, that's not what we got. Drivers proved that overtaking might be hard on the Valencia street circuit, but not impossible. Vettel was back; a pole and a win gave him the confidence boost which he desperately needed after Turkey. Alonso was fuming after a safety car ruined his race but, crucially, not Hamilton's. Webber proved that Red Bull does give you wings when his car went flying after it hit Kovalainen's Lotus.

And for the rest of us, Valencia proved that with good drivers in fast cars and a bit of luck, F1 is at its best.

The Lost Points

2010-06-22T10:41:00.000+01:00

While we're approaching the half-point of the season, there's been a lot of talk of missed opportunities from several teams. Red Bull have had a big speed advantage, especially at qualifying, but they haven't always managed to convert pole positions into wins. They have had their fair share of problems and controversies but sometimes they just didn't have the race pace to win.

Although I thought James Allen was exaggerating a bit when he estimated that Red Bull had dropped 120 points so far this season, it got me thinking what the leader tables would look like if the top teams hadn't suffered any mechanical problems. Unlike James Allen, I am not taking crashes and racing incidents into account- it would make things too complicated and I don't think it's relevant.

In Bahrain, Vettel's spark plug issue dropped him to 4th and in Australia he retired from the lead when a wheel nut problem forced him onto the gravel.

In Malaysia, it was Ferrari's turn to hit trouble with Alonso's engine blowing up at the last lap and forcing him to retire from 9th. In Spain, a brake failure dropped Vettel from 3rd to 4th, behind Alonso and at the penultimate lap Hamilton suffered a puncture and retired from 2nd.

In Monaco, Button retired with an overheating engine after a mechanic left a cooling cover on one of the sidepods. Although it's hard to tell how he would have done if it wasn't for that mistake, it makes sense to assume he could have finished at least 8th, just behind Nico Rosberg.

Turkey featured a controversial crash between teammates and, although it did gift McLaren a 1-2, it was a racing incident and not an unlucky mechanical failure - i.e. I'm not it counting here. In Canada, Vettel suffered some gearbox trouble which forced him to nurse his car to the end, but didn't lose any positions.

The Lost Points Championship

Driver New Points Difference
Vettel 128 -38
Hamilton 122 -13
Webber 102 +1
Button 101 +5
Alonso 81 +13
Rosberg 72 +2
Kubica 68 +5
Massa 59 +8
Schumacher 31 +3

Clearly, the biggest loser in this is Vettel, who lost a massive 38 points from mechanical problems and, without them, he would be leading the championship now. Perhaps surprisingly, Alonso is the biggest winner, mainly because of the win he inherited from Vettel at the season opener in Bahrain.

In total, Red Bull have lost 37 points so far while McLaren just 8, with Hamilton being the overall loser at -13 and Button averaging at +5 despite his retirement at Monaco. Ferrari have gained 21 points from other people's problems, but they have had their fair share of accidents and mistakes, like Alonso's crash at Monaco or the bad qualifying choices in Malaysia- these are not taken into account here.

Mistakes, accidents and failures are all part of the racing though, and building a good car also means building a reliable one. At the end of the year, no one will care about missed points and opportunities; Vettel's two lost wins might cost him, but the points he managed to salvage in Bahrain and Spain could prove extremely valuable.

Is Renault the third fastest team?

2010-06-02T22:52:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday wasn't the first time this year that Fernando Alonso didn't make the last stage of qualifying. It was though the first time that he failed to do so because the car wasn't quick enough. After the session he told journalists that Ferrari is now only the fifth fastest team, behind Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Renault. I am not sure he is enjoying the irony of the situation.

Robert Kubica qualified behind both Mercedes cars, although less than two tenths off Michael Schumacher, with Nico Rosberg splitting the two. Vitaly Petrov also made it into Q3, four tenths of a second behind his teammate. During the race though, the Renaults showed superior pace and Kubica was frustrated to be stuck behind Nico Rosberg whose quick pit stop (fastest of the race) helped him stay ahead.

Vitaly Petrov posted the fastest lap of the race on the last lap and, although it was because he had very little fuel and new tyres on (a result of his tangle with Alonso) it was only 30 hundredths off Mark Webber's fastest lap. Webber posted his 3 laps earlier and since a lap of fuel is worth about 0.1 sec a lap, Renault can't be much more than 3 tenths off Red Bull's pace.

The team has still work to do to improve their qualifying pace if they want to catch the top teams but with their F-duct and a new front wing coming soon, we might see Robert Kubica regularly challenging for podiums.

How McLaren almost did a Red Bull

2010-06-01T10:30:00.000+01:00

More details have been emerging about the Webber-Vettel battle as well as the Hamilton-Button one, alongside many rumours of favouritism inside Red Bull. What we now know for sure is that, at lap 40, Webber went into fuel saving mode and turned his engine down. At the same time, Vettel was using the optimal engine setting and was able to get the run on Webber down the straight. Christian Horner has claimed that Vettel had managed to save an extra kg of fuel while being in Lewis's tail. There other versions of the story which include Vettel ignoring his team's orders to turn down the engine himself or even the team telling him to turn the engine up to overtake Webber.

I find the latter hard to believe, as it doesn't make much sense for a team to start alienating the driver who is currently leading the championship. They might prefer Vettel as he is younger and he is the product of their young driver development product, but a championship is a championship, and Webber would make a deserving champion and a very exciting story after years of being in underperforming cars.

Interestingly enough, Turkey '09 ended up with Vettel feeling let down by the team, as the strategy cost him a place to Webber. He was quick in the last stint but he was instructed not to pass with the message "Mark is faster". He went on to post the fastest lap of the race, surely wanting to show that he had the pace.

In a similar way to Vettel, Jenson Button decided to take advantage of Hamilton's fuel struggles and attacked him a few laps after the Red Bull crash. He overtook him briefly, but Hamilton was able to regain the lead soon after. What is interesting is that, in the lap before the overtake, Button managed to lap 1.2 sec quicker than Hamilton, and suddenly ended up right on his gearbox. After the race, Hamilton said he was instructed to save fuel and was given a target lap time, which he quickly slowed down to. He assumed Button would have been in a similar situation, and was very surprised to see him catch up so quickly.

The podium was a very awkward one, as all three drivers looked quite upset, each one for different reasons. There's an interesting story in the Guardian about Hamilton and Webber talking about Vettel's move. Lewis said something along the lines of "He did the same thing to me", presumably referring to their pitlane incident in China. Button thought he was referring to the move he pulled on him and, although Hamilton was quick to clarify, the misunderstanding says something about the tension that was evident on the podium between the McLaren teammates.

At least they managed to have a clean and exciting battle, which is something the Red Bull duo could learn from.

What now for Red Bull?

2010-05-30T18:32:00.001+01:00

The picture of Adrian Newey with his head in his hands sums up Red Bull's race perfectly. If there is one thing that will make you look silly in a race is crashing into your teammate, and it's only worse when you do so on your way to a podium.

The crash between Vettel and Webber cost the team several points, especially with Vettel retiring when he looked set for at least a podium and gifted McLaren a 1-2 in the process. Webber managed to keep going and salvaged 3rd, thanks to the big gap that the top 4 had to Michael Schumacher.

If Vettel had managed to pull that move off he would have silenced his critics who have been saying that he is being beaten by his teammate for several races in a row and to some extent, the ones that claim that he can't overtake. Instead, he is facing another two weeks of the media talking about how the pressure is getting to him.

Up to the point of the crash, he was driving a good race, having managed to jump Lewis at the pitstops (with some help from Lewis's own problems) and starting to pull away from him a little bit. Webber had to go into fuel saving mode, meaning that he was slower down the straight and Vettel, who had saved a couple of kilos of fuel, was able to run at full speed for an extra lap. So, realistically, that was his only chance to overtake and in doing so, he would also avoid being under pressure from the McLarens.

Maybe he got desperate or maybe he expected Webber not to give him such a hard time. The team seems to be putting the blame on both of them, which of course is the sensible thing to do in front of the media, saying that they should have given each other more space. Webber thinks that Vettel turned right too quickly and didn't give him a chance to react, which is what the replay shows too. Of course, it's hard to know without having all the data.

What I do find strange is that Vettel insists he didn't do anything wrong, while he has been very quick to apologise about less straightforward incidents in the past, like Australia '09. Maybe he expected Webber to move out of the way as he knew he was a lot slower due to being in fuel save mode. Psychologically, he must have been quite desperate to show he can beat Webber, since this was the first race in a few weeks where he had the speed and could have taken pole if it wasn't for another mechanical problem.

The media is already going crazy about team orders and favouritism, but Christian Horner is smart enough to realise that he can't favour one driver over the other at this stage, as it's unclear who will end up being on top after another ten races. The team will be very disappointed as this was one of the few races where they did everything perfectly, with the car having no problems, the pit stops being clean and the strategy working wonderfully. They need both drivers to be working together and stop giving points away, as McLaren isn't too far behind and they are ready to take advantage of Red Bull's mistakes.

Whose fault do you think it was? And how should the team handle it?

Red Bull makes it 4 out of 4 in China

2010-04-17T11:07:00.000+01:00

Red Bull does it again! Vettel took pole in China by a quarter of a second from his teammate Mark Webber. It's another Red Bull front row, but it wasn't looking that good for them earlier in the weekend.

McLaren had been very strong during practice and the first two stages of qualifying, but it looks as though Red Bull didn't try too hard to top the timesheets in the early sessions and still had quite a lot of speed left for the top 10 shoot-out. In Q2, Hamilton was top with a time of 1:34.928 while the Red Bulls were 2-3 tenths behind. Between them, the impressive Nico Rosberg, while the Ferraris also looked to be on Red Bull's pace.

Come Q3, Vettel grabbed provisional pole and Hamilton, although on a fast lap, failed to match him. Webber, who had been ahead of his teammate all weekend, took the top spot off him, but Vettel managed to put together a great lap at the dying moments of the session, finding time mainly in the last sector, to put himself back on pole. Webber must have been gutted but Vettel showed that he can get the job done when he really needs to.

Behind them, the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, who admitted that he was on the limit of the car and no more was possible. Nico Rosberg will line up next to him on 4th, while his teammate (some bloke called Michael Schumacher) ended up in 9th, having just made it through to Q3.

Jenson Button will be happy to have managed one place more than Hamilton, having been behind him for most of the weekend. Massa was 7th with Kubica 8th and Sutil 10th, and the last two must be quite happy with their regular top 10 spots.

Interestingly, the McLarens were quite a bit slower than Vettel in the last sector, where their F-duct is supposed to be giving them an advantage. Are they on wet-weather set up, hoping for rain to help them gain places in the race?

Some statistics:

No one has ever won the Chinese Grand Prix twice.
So far we've had 6 winners: Barrichello, Alonso, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Vettel. All of them but Raikkonen are going to be on the grid tomorrow but I'm sure Webber, Rosberg and Button will be doing their best to keep this statistic going. Also, Massa or Kubica or even Sutil could be in with a chance if it rains and they choose their strategy well.

The last time that we had 4 different winners at the 4 first races of the season was 2003.
We are being treated to a very exciting season, with as many as 6 or 7 drivers fighting for wins. Will we see a fourth winner so early in the season? Massa could really do with a win to show that he's not leading the championship just because of consistency. Also, Webber and Hamilton will be desperate to finish first now that their teammates have both achieved it.

No one has won a race from pole this year.
Vettel's poles in the first two races seemed to bring him bad luck and the win slipped away from him because of reliability problems. He then managed to win in Malaysia while starting 3rd on the grid, by overtaking Rosberg and Webber and heading first down Corner 1. Will he manage to keep his top spot this time? Can Webber or Alonso catch him heading down the first corner?

4 out of 6 Chinese GPs have been won from pole.
One of them being last year's, won by Vettel. If it rains from the beginning, the leader has a big advantage as his visibility is so much better than anyone else's.

Reliability:

Last year there was a strange situation with one team having the fast and reliable car. Red Bull caught up speed-wise, but the engine let them down every now and then.
This weekend, it seems that Ferrari and McLaren are having some trouble. Alonso lost his second engine during FP1 and, although he claims he is not worried about it, Ferrari must be working hard to figure out how to avoid similar problems in the future. With 16 races to go, you want to manage your 6 remaining engines (and only 5 new) carefully.

Both McLaren drivers encountered a frustrating problem with the gears, mainly during their out laps. Trying to go into second gear, the gearbox jumped to neutral, a problem similar to Hamilton's (very costly) failure in the 2007 Brazilian GP. Even if it doesn't affect the race, it could prove quite tricky at the beginning of the race.

Favourite quote:
Christian Horner (to Seb on the radio after his last lap) "Who needs ride-height control, heh?"

The Duck is Dead

2010-04-04T15:23:00.001+01:00

This blog doesn't actually believe that this duck was to blame for Red Bull's miserable first two races.

Anyone who is a bit superstitious though, and Sebastian Vettel certainly is, will be glad that the duck that was picked up from the Bahrain hotel and taken to Australia and then Malaysia is finally dead.

I suppose it also helps that, according to Vettel, they have fixed the problem behind their loose wheel nut from Australia. The driver was pretty secretive about the cause of the failure when asked about it at Thursday's press conference, but appeared pretty confident that they would get a reliable run in Malaysia.

And so it was. Vettel did everything he had to do, like in the last two races. Unlike the last two races, his car didn't let him down. Webber enjoyed a good run but he must have been disappointed with 2nd, starting from pole.

Webber did a brilliant job in qualifying with an inspired choice to put on intermediates while everyone else was on wets. He grabbed pole by a mile but Vettel wasn't going to let this one get away from him. It looks like he has sorted out the slow start problems he had last year, which he demonstrated by overtaking Rosberg and then Webber for the lead down into turn 1. I can only imagine how shaky Christian Horner's famous leg must have been seeing his drivers going wheel to wheel in the first few seconds of the race. Vettel's move paid off though and, with Webber not challenging him later in the race - maybe he was discouraged by his team- he didn't lose the lead again apart from a brief period around his only pitstop.

This must be a huge relief for the whole team who has moved up to 3rd in the Constructors' Championship with Vettel tied with Alonso in second in the Drivers'.

Unlike 2009, there isn't one dominant driver that everyone else is racing against. It is still very early, but looking at Alonso's engine failure today it is clear that Red Bull's main rival so far, Ferrari, isn't enjoying the reliability advantage that Brawn had last year.

It's shaping up to be an incredibly close and exciting championship. At the moment, the top 7 drivers are covered by just 9 points. To put that into perspective, a 5th place finish is worth 10 points under the new scoring system. Let's see if Ferrari can bounce back in China, if McLaren's pace has actually improved since Australia, and if Red Bull can keep the bad luck away now that the duck is dead.

Bahrain GP

2010-03-15T20:53:00.000Z

Formula 1, it's a good thing we've missed you because that was one boring race. I could have counted the overtaking moves on the fingers of one hand but I was too busy looking at my timing screen. Yes, my timing screen was more interesting than the race itself, and that's never a good sign.

There were 24 cars starting the first race of the season, after Karun Chandhok managed to get some laps in during qualifying and therefore was allowed to compete in the race. For two laps. There were 17 drivers classified at the end of the race, including Trulli and Buemi whose cars gave up on them with the finish line in sight.

Ferrari: Well, you can't get much better than a 1-2. It was the perfect start to the season for the Italian team and it looks like they've built a fast and reliable car and have luck on their side. Alonso, having qualified third on Saturday and looking pretty miserable about it, overtook his teammate at the first corner and never looked worried about him again. Then, he inherited the lead from Vettel and won his first ever race with Ferrari. Good stuff. Massa didn't try to take the place back after he was instructed to save fuel half way through the race. Nonetheless, it was a great comeback for the Brazilian who seems to have recovered perfectly from his horrific accident last summer.

McLaren: Hamilton got stuck behind Rosberg in the first stint but managed to get ahead after his pitstop. He was then gifted a podium by Vettel's engine so, all in all, a good day for him. I thought Button was going to have an advantage with his smooth driving style and it seems like he could have gone a bit longer on the soft tyre. It's still early days and McLaren is lacking a bit of pace but they have the potential to catch Ferrari and Red Bull.

Red Bull: The race should have been Vettel's but a faulty spark plug cost him 3 places. He managed to stay ahead of Rosberg for 4th position and although he missed out on the perfect start to his season, he showed that the car has the speed and no serious tyre degradation issues. Webber's qualifying mistake cost him as he was stuck behind that seven-times-world-champion first and Button later on.

Mercedes: Not a bad day for Rosberg who came 5th beating Schumacher by a place. He was close to Vettel towards the end but he was struggling a lot in dirty air and Vettel was handling his damaged car quite well. Schumacher managed to match Rosberg's pace later in the race but he is still looking "rusty". The Mercedes is clearly the slowest of the top 4.

Force India: It should have been Sutil finishing in the points but, surprise surprise, he got in a spin very early on, as Webber's car was throwing smoke everywhere and he couldn't see much. He forced Kubica into a spin too, ruining both their races. Kubica blamed him for the incident and Formula 1 fans were glad to see that not much has changed since 2009. Liuzzi did well though to finish 9th and the Force India is looking like a frequent point-finisher. Good stuff.

Williams: It sounds like the team was expecting more from this weekend but the fact that Barrichello got a point and scored the 6th fastest lap of the race should make them optimistic that they can frequently challenge for points in the future. Hunkenberg had an early spin which ruined his race.

Renault: Kubica was looking good for some points but he was taken out by the spinning Sutil and, although he recovered from his spin, the best he could do was try to finish the race. Which he did. His teammate, Petrov, didn't though, as he was hit by technical problems and had to retire. It was a shame, as he had a brilliant start, jumping up to 11th. The team said they are positive about the race pace and should be able to get better results in the next races.

Toro Rosso: Not a great day for them. They were looking good at the pre-season testing but Alguersuari was the only old-team-driver to not make it into Q2 on Saturday. He improved during the race to finish 13th, ahead of Buemi who had a terrible start and then his car broke. Bad times.

Lotus: Well done to them! Both cars finishing the race is a lot more than what the other two new teams managed to do. Well, Trulli had some hydraulic problems and stopped before the end, but he was still classified. Kovalainen did some good times towards the end and he is looking happy and confident with his new team. My money is on him to be the first point scorer from the new teams.

Virgin: Well, both cars retired and that's always a bad sign. But it's early days and problems like that are expected. They managed to beat Lotus in qualifying, so if they can make that car more reliable Richard Branson could potentially avoid working as an Air Asia stewardess.

HRT: What a weekend it was for them! Chandhok lost it early on and retired but, as that was only his 5th timed lap in that car, you can't really blame him. He dealt with the crazy situation he was thrown into impressively well. Senna managed to get some laps in before his car failed him, and any practice they can get is valuable at this point. At least they made it to the grid, which is more than most people expected of them a few weeks ago!

Sure, the race was dull but I don't agree with everyone who is blaming it on the new regulations. We should give them some time to see how the strategies develop, as "for sure" the teams played a conservative game this week since they didn't really know what to expect from their tyres and the heavy cars. Bahrain isn't the most exciting track in the world and Australia will certainly produce a much better show.

Playing Hide and Seek

2010-03-02T12:25:00.000Z

With the new cars being unveiled up to a month and a half before the first race in Bahrain, the teams have been quite obsessed with hiding important elements of their design from other teams, journalists and photographers. We saw it every time a car stopped on track and had to be transported back to the pits: the first thing the teams were doing was to cover the diffuser as quickly as possible. Engineers were frequently used as human shields and when Mark Webber's car stopped on track on his first day of testing at Jerez, he used his helmet and gloves to cover the diffuser while waiting for help!

Surely it wasn't always like this. There's this lovely story on the F1 Badger about Niki Lauda letting his good friend James Hunt jump into his Ferrari and have a play. A few mechanics are standing around having a laugh while Hunt is climbing into his championship rival's car. Can you imagine something similar happening these days? Me neither.

On the contrary, teams now go to extreme lengths to hide their designs from their opponents. It was discovered that Red Bull put fake exhaust stickers on their engine cover to detract attention from the real exhaust, which has been moved lower.

Mercedes are going one step further and they're not testing their diffuser at all! Their new diffuser wasn't part of the upgrade package they took to Barcelona and they have announced that the first time the car will run with it will be the Bahrain Friday practice. It sounds risky but if the diffuser is really that good you don't want to give your opposition a couple of weeks before the season starts to study and copy the design, right?

To some extent, all the secrecy just adds to the excitement. Come Bahrain, we will see all the diffusers (although I'm sure engineers will still try their best to hide them!) and we will know who's fast and who's slow. Until then, it's good that some people can still see the funny side of it all:

Schumi changes his mind

2010-02-28T21:09:00.002Z

Don't get too excited; he's still going to race (as far as I'm aware anyway). What I'm referring to is his Bahrain expectations.

When he got out of his car on Friday, he looked at the times, realised he was 7th, and said to reporters that

"At the moment we are not perfectly in the position we would like, probably to be competitive enough to win the first races"

With everyone else from the top 4 teams repeating how they are on target and how they couldn't possibly say for sure but yes, they will probably be pretty quick in Bahrain, Ross Brawn couldn't allow his senior driver going around spreading pessimism.

To be honest, I'd tend to agree with Schumi that Mercedes has looked like the least impressive out of the 4 (Ferrari, Red bull and McLaren being the other 3, possibly in that order). There are still changes to come before Bahrain though, and apparently Ross Brawn has got a new diffuser up his sleeve that must be pretty good given that he chose to sacrifice any testing time on it to keep it away from his opponents' eyes.

Schumacher's revised comments on Saturday were along the lines of

"This was just initial feeling, but it looks like maybe we were running more fuel than others yesterday and that's why the time didn't look so good. Looking at the results and the data, it looks very reasonable - not too bad."

Phew. And then today, he saw Lewis Hamilton topping the time sheets and explained how

"They looked very strong today, no doubt,"

...but...

"But then it depends on who is going to bring what to Bahrain. It's something we'll have to wait for to find out."

Insightful stuff.

The truth is, no driver can provide any interesting information at the moment, as everyone is playing the same game. It's going to be a boring two weeks, with the only F1-related entertainment likely to come from Stefan GP and their quest for a place on the grid. Bring on Bahrain, I say. But just for laughs, who do you think is going to be on pole?

It is the season...

2010-02-27T21:03:00.000Z

It's almost Bahrain time! Remember how long the off-season seemed back in November? After the last race, and when even the Race of Champions was over and there was practically zero F1-related action, everyone started playing guess-the-2010-grid. I'm actually quite glad I didn't write my predictions down. Let's just say I was certain Button would stay with his fairytale team and Kimi would move to McLaren to show Lewis who the boss is.

Instead, we got Team Britain and the return of Michael Schumacher. Really? Has everyone forgotten how boring F1 was when he was cheating his way through championship after championship?

But let's not judge before we see. He might have finally learnt to only park his car in his garage rather on the track.

And there are plenty of other reasons to be excited about the new season. Testing has been pretty hard to judge but it looks like no less than four teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes) are going to be challenging for wins, while Sauber and Williams are looking pretty nice to me too. And then, a lot of teammate battles that could be quite unpredictable: Lewis or Jenson? Alonso or Massa? Webber or Vettel? And Rosberg finally gets a teammate who will probably score more than zero points (although it would be quite funny if he didn't....)!

So, to make it a bit more exciting, here are my predictions for this season:

Constructors' Championship: Heart says Red Bull but a little voice in my head is screaming Ferrari. I'm going for Red Bull because I believe in Adrian Newey (and hope the Renault engine won't let them down).
Drivers' Championship: Alonso is looking good but he will probably find himself a scandal to get involved with and he might get a bit distracted. Brit boys will probably be too busy trying to change the aerodynamics with their knees to see the next corner coming up. Schumi will crash trying to take Vettel out. I'll go for Vettel.
Top Rookie: Although I'm sure Kobayashi will give us some entertaining action, I think The Hulk will impress us more, especially in a car set up by Barrichello.
Worst Old Team: Hard to tell really, but Renault isn't looking great at the moment and I'm not sure if The Grumpy Pole can do as well as Alonso could in a bad car.
Top New Team: Lotus. Surely.
Worst New Team: Spoilt for choice. USF1 won't make it on the grid unless they merge with Stefan GP in which case I back the Toyota car to beat the Campos (probably still non-existent) car. Campos it is then. I feel bad for Bruno Senna.
Hamilton vs. Button: Hamilton. But I think it will be quite close.
Massa vs. Alonso: Alonso. And I think it will get ugly.
Vettel vs. Webber: Vettel.
Rosberg vs. Schumacher: Schumacher (with some help from his old friend Ross).

I am looking forward to having all these (apart from the RBR/Vettel ones!) proven wrong by an exciting and unpredictable season. What are your predictions for 2010? Let me know in the comments!

And if you like predicting, you can take part in some of the numerous F1 prediction games on the web. I particularly like the F1 Badger's Fantasy GP and the games on F1 Fanatic and F1 Wolf. Which ones are you playing on?

What is going on with Heikki?

2009-11-08T13:41:00.015Z

Abu Dhabi could well have been the last race for Heikki Kovalainen in a McLaren. He has been the second driver for the team in many respects and, although this isn't surprising now, it is quite a lot different to what expectations were a few years ago.

His career started from carting, like a lot of the other F1 drivers, where he did well, winning the Finnish Kart Driver of the Year award in 2000. He then moved on to car racing, being supported by Renault all the way up to Formula 1. He was fourth in Formula Renault and impressed in Formula 3 by finishing third in 2002, having won 5 races. He won the World Series by Nissan in 2004 and was named Finnish Driver of the Year.

Everybody stood up and looked when he appeared in the Race of Champions in 2004 and won it, becoming the youngest Champion of Champions. On his way, he beat DC, Juan Alesi and Michael Schumacher and, perhaps more impressively, Sebastien Loeb in a Peugeot 307 WRC car. That was the first time that Heikki had ever driven a rally car. His win prompted Peter Windsor to say:

We've just witnessed the birth of a new superstar.[...] His coordination, his feel and his touch is just sublime.[...] We won't see him immediately in Formula 1 but, when he arrives, he undoubtedly will take the sport by storm.

In 2005 he had a strong year in GP2, when he finished second behind Nico Rosberg. Having been Renault's test driver for 2006, he was promoted to a race seat for 2007, replacing the twice World Champion Fernando Alonso who was off to McLaren for a year full of controversy. He outperformed Giancarlo Fisichella but he didn't get a chance to shine as the car proved uncompetitive. His best result was a second place in Japan, which he inherited after the unfortunate crash of Vettel and Webber which took both of them out of the race.

As if the prospect of replacing Alonso in 2007 wasn't daunting enough, he had to repeat it in 2008 when he moved to McLaren. He ended up in 7th, while his teammate Hamilton won the championship. He did take his first win in Hungary though and a further two podium finishes in Malaysia and Italy. In 2009, in a uncompetitive car, he struggled and his best result was a 4th in Europe while Lewis won a couple of races when the car improved later in the year.

Although results show that Hamilton had the upper hand in most cases, a closer look reveals that Heikki at least had the speed to outperform Lewis, but possibly lacking a bit of race pace to support it. Germany was the rebirth for McLaren when Hamilton's car received a major upgrade, putting him 5th on the grid. Kovalainen was next to him in 6th, without the updates, and with 4 more laps worth of fuel on board. Lewis failed to capitalise when he got involved in a first lap incident which gave him a puncture but Heikki grabbed the last point in 8th.

Having been quiet for a while, Heikki has recently complained of always being the one to get the worst strategy when both drivers made it into Q3. He has certainly had the speed but lacked performance in the races. One has to wonder whether this is down to the car suiting Lewis more than him, or due to some of Heikki's own shortcomings. The 2010 season will probably see him in a different team, but with Timo Glock tipped to partner Kubica at Renault and Toyota leaving F1, he might have to look towards one of the new ones. No one really knows how they will do compared to the experienced and established ones and the uncertainty won't help him much. But I do feel that working with a team that could concentrate more around him will certainly help his confidence and we might finally see Heikki's potential materialising.

A slightly more rational approach to the Kimi/RBR rumours

2009-10-07T15:22:00.008+01:00

I am sitting in a computer room, in front of the slowest computer I have ever used in my life. Yes, even worse that my 5-year-old laptop. Being worried that any attempt to start Matlab in order to do some work will give it the final blow, I've instead been thinking about the latest rumour of Kimi talking to Red Bull about possibly replacing Mark Webber.

To be honest, I don't buy it. If McLaren doesn't want to pay £20 million for Kimi, why would Red Bull? They already have one very talented young driver, and a teammate that has challenged him more than anyone expected. And I bet they both are much cheaper than Kimi.

It also doesn't make any sense for Red Bull to be involved in such rumours at such a crucial stage of the championship, when they need Webber's support. They renewed his contract at a time where he was still in the championship hunt. Of course, Kimi wasn't available at the time but, let's be honest, everyone kind of knew he wouldn't be driving for Ferrari in 2010. Mark's recent lack of form is more due to bad luck than bad driving (story of his life) and I would expect him to be even more competitive next year, having fully recovered from his accident. Red Bull can be sure that they will have a very competitive line-up next year and they have made it clear that they are not looking to change it.

Kimi has found himself in an awkward situation. Having declared that he wants a top drive for next year, he has closed the door on a few teams and, with Rosberg's move to Brawn almost a given, his only real choice is McLaren. McLaren knows that and that doesn't help his negotiations. The Red Bull rumours are so convenient for him that one would assume his manager is the one who started them.

Oh, wait, he is.

Silly Season update

2009-10-07T11:59:00.004+01:00

Raikkonen talking to RBR? Come on Seb, we know Kimi is your best friend, but you already have a teammate!

If RBR get rid of Mark, I will cry. Then again, this is coming from GMM so it's probably wrong.

Silly season is getting the better of me.

Don't you just love conspiracy theories?

2009-09-15T23:10:00.004+01:00

....especially when they start sounding believable?

I'd like to be able to remain impartial here and avoid jumping to conclusions, but this is too good to avoid.

In case you've missed it, here is the crashgate in short:
Alonso is fueled light after a rubbish qualifying, hoping for safety car early on. Piquet very conveniently crashes 2 laps after Alonso's first pit stop. Alonso wins the race.

Surely many people thought it looked suspicious at the time, but no one really talked about it seriously until, a year later, Piquet claimed he was asked to crash on purpose.

Now, let's think about this. Piquet's had a bad time with Renault and Briatore. He got fired mid-season. He is angry. But can he be making this up? Well, car telemetry indicates the crash was deliberate. So the only thing left to decide is whether this was Piquet's idea and if yes, whether the team knew about it.

I'll assume, for the sake of the argument, that it was indeed Piquet's idea. I will also believe Pat Symonds when he says that it was discussed at a meeting before the race but the idea was dismissed. Hence, Piquet suggests a deliberate crash, his bosses say no, and he still goes and does it. Convinced? Didn't think so.

The other alternative, with Symonds and Briatore agreeing to it, seems more possible. Then, even if you convince yourself that Nelson is the one who came up with it, it doesn't change the fact that they fixed the race.

Today, interesting radio conversations between Symonds, Piquet, Briatore and Renault engineers taking place at the time of the crash have come to light. They go a bit like this:

Piquet: “What lap are we in, what lap are we in?” [Of course I can tell the lap from the pitboard, just checking you still want me to crash]

Engineer: “He just asked: ‘What lap are we in?’ ”

Symonds intervenes: “Yeah, tell him that he’s about to complete lap 8.” [yeah go for it!]

Symonds insists: “No, just tell him, he is about, he’s just completing, he’s about to complete lap eight.”

Symonds: “Right, I’m going to . . . I think we’re going to stop him just before we catch him [a reference to the Williams driver, Kazuki Nakajima, who was ahead of Alonso] and get him out of it, the reason being we’ve still got this worry on the fuel pump. It’s only a couple of laps short. We’re going to be stopping him early and we’re going to go to lap 40.” [erm..I'm just trying to find some excuses to get Alonso in early]

Engineer: “Pat, do you still not think that this is a bit too early?”

Symonds: “No, no it’s going to be all right.” [got it covered!]

Symonds to the engineer: “OK right, you’ve got to push him really bloody hard now. If he doesn’t get past Barrichello, he’s going nowhere, he’s got to get past Barrichello this lap.” [Got to crash now!]

Briatore: “Tell him, push...,” [I'll jump in just in case Symonds wasn't clear enough....crash!!]

Engineer “Nelson, no excuses now, you’ve got to get past Barrichello. You’ve got four clicks straight-line advantage. Come on, you’ve got to push now, you must get past him.”

Nelson crashes.

Multiple voices: “Nelson’s off. F***ing hell. Nelson’s had a crash. I would say that would be a red flag. It’s huge [all speaking at the same time] .

Piquet: “Sorry guys. I had a little outing.” [Job done!]

Engineers and Symonds ask about Nelson's condition, but Briatore doesn't seem so concerned.

Briatore: “F***ing hell . . . my every f***ing disgrace, f***ing, he’s not a driver.” [I told him to make sure he doesn't smash the car too hard, now Alonso might hit some debris!]

The conversation after that turns to Alonso and how the crash has affected his strategy. They seem to "realise" it's worked out quite well for them.

In fairness, this doesn't exactly prove that they knew about it or that they asked him to do it. But it does support the conspiracy theory pretty nicely.

With both Piquet and Symonds having been offered immunity to tell the FIA the full story, it will probably be just Briatore facing the accusations on Monday. Surely this is quite a damaging story for the sport, but I am sure people will get over it and losing Briatore might not be such a bad thing after all...

The Beauty of Twitter

2009-09-06T12:07:00.009+01:00

I've had the p*ss taken out of me many times for joining Twitter. After all, I do write on this blog pretty much for myself, so I will struggle to join the ever-growing blogger community out there. And my tweets don't really have anything huge to offer anyway (that's the reason I don't really tweet I suppose).

I just liked Twitter as a sort of an RSS feed. My Google Reader is good, but it doesn't update as quickly and you can't get Autosport's Noble's inside information before it even gets published. He is great and you can trust everything he says to be true rather than just a rumour, which can't be said about everyone on there. It is true- fake news can travel as quickly as real ones and it is sometimes hard to distinguish straight on. And "silly season" has a lot of silly rumours to offer. It's all part of the fun, if you ask me!

There is a growing "Fake F1" trend on Twitter which can be very entertaining, if maybe a bit too cruel at times.
Mark Webber swears on live tv, my dear Vettel likes the ladies and the ladies like him, Jarno Trulli spends his days drinking wine and Flavio gets money from Christian Horner not for their "rubbish engines" but to get Grosjean to crash into Jenson!

All fake of course.

And this is all very entertaining, and a perfectly good reason to be on Twitter. But the real excitement for me (and for other F1 fans I guess) comes from the real F1 drivers on Twitter.

Nelson Piquet Jr has been there for quite a while now, and has set the benchmark for the rest of them. He organises competitions, takes pictures and uploads them for the fans to see, answers questions and I think that he has become more popular in the F1 world with his Twitter account. He really comes out as a very nice and genuine guy.

Rubens is on it too and, just like Nelson, his tweets are bilingual. He offered a lot of information on Massa's condition and is in general very talkative. After the German GP and his frustrated comments on live tv, he used Twitter to let his fans know that he had talked to the team and calmed down.

Rubens apparently also managed to persuade Jenson to join, with an account which was first mainly used for triathlon updates but he's kept it going and he talks about his races and how things are going for him:

Had a tough Sunday afternoon. Had to lift for Vettel at the start and then got stuck behind the other Bull. Well done to Rubens, Legendary.
7:47 AM Aug 26th from web

He also talks to fans, even the fake f1 people

@FakeF1GridGirl Gotta keep my body in one piece for Monza
about 16 hours ago from web in reply to FakeF1GridGirl

and girlfriend Jessica Michibata

@jessybondgirl http://twitpic.com/ga4h2 - You've made someone very jealous honey!! x
8:09 AM Sep 3rd from TwitPic

Now, Sebastian Vettel has joined Twitter (you can imagine how much time I've spent on it the last 24 hours then)! He seems to be quite keen to build a good relationship with fans, and to have a joke around with other drivers. Jenson wasn't convinced he was real so he threw a little test at him:

@real_Vettel Remember what you said to me on the drivers parade in Hungary? TA!
about 16 hours ago from web in reply to real_Vettel

and when Seb had the answer ready

@The_Real_JB Kers? We dont need Kers! We can do it by ourself!
about 16 hours ago from web

Jenson welcomed him to Twitter!

@real_Vettel You know your shit!! How you doing man? Wishing you had Kers for Monza!?
about 16 hours ago from web in reply to real_Vettel

Romain Grosjean is also on it, although I think he's had some bad experience with some fake f1 people joking a bit too much. But I'm sure he'll get more involved and enjoy it.

There's a few more going around, but I'm not sure whether they're real yet, so I'll be patient and wait! I do think that more drivers will join sooner or later and it will be good to see what they have to say.

UPDATE: Oh no! Dank has discovered that @real_Vettel is not the real Seb Vettel! At least I wasn't the only one who fell for it, Jenson!

Just Another Day in F1- BMW's out!

2009-07-30T10:43:00.017+01:00

Oh, how little I knew when I wrote the last post. It seems like a horrible accident, a qualifying blunder, a shock winner and a new, more real than ever championship challenger isn't enough for F1 this week. We also have a team out and a certain seven-time world champion in.

There had been speculation about several teams' F1 future for a while, well, since Honda pulled out. But I think that the general impression was that Toyota was going to be the next one out. BMW's decision has been a bit of a shock to many. The FIA and Mosley will happily use this to support their budget cap idea and put the blame on FOTA who stopped it from happening. But BMW was one of the teams that didn't want a budget cap and, with a continuing involvement in many other motorsport series, we can't see this being a budget issue.

Premium [brands] will increasingly be defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. This is an area in which we want to remain in the lead. In line with our Strategy Number ONE, we are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability. Our Formula One campaign is thus less a key promoter for us.
Norbert Reithofer

Is the point that F1 isn't green enough?

Another important factor must have been the terrible year they are having. BMW enjoyed the idea of 'meeting targets' since they joined F1 with BMW Sauber in 2006. The team achieved a couple of podiums and finished fifth in the championship that year, having swapped Jacques Villeneuve for Robert Kubica mid-season.

In 2007 they established themselves as the third best team after McLaren and Ferrari. A win looked within reach but the best they could get was a 2nd place for Heidfeld the same day Kubica crashed heavily.
In 2008, the target was clear: a win. The year turned out to be pretty good for the team. They achieved the first pole position with Kubica in Bahrain, where he didn't win, but the team scored 11 points. They frequently found themselves at the top of the championships. The teams first win coincided with the first 1-2 finish, at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Kubica at the top step.

With Kubica on target to ruin Hamilton's and Massa's championship party, there was no wonder he was annoyed when BMW announced they would shift the development focus to the 2009 car. With massive regulation changes coming in, the team wanted enough time to make sure they produce a competitive car. But that is a gamble, and it turned out to be a bad one. BMW got overtaken by other teams later in the season, like the impressive Renault but also Toyota.
Until the last round, Kubica has a chance to win the championship (although a slim one) which makes you wonder what would have happened if they didn't make that decision. To make matters worse, their 2009 car is a complete catastrophe and, apart from the Australian Grand Prix where Kubica lost a second place due to his crash with Vettel and Heidfeld's podium in Malaysia, they have frequently found themselves at the bottom of the time sheets. Did they get too carried away with their targets? Did they believe they would do it in 2009? No one throws away a chance at the championship, so we must believe there was another reason that made them take that decision.

In the few years that BMW stayed in the sport it provided us with some top racing battles and a couple of names for the future: Robert Kubica shouldn't have a problem finding a seat next year even if the team doesn't survive. And Sebastian Vettel, tipped to be a Champion sooner rather than later, became the youngest ever driver to score points when he did so on his first race ever, replacing the injured Kubica after Canada. They also gave us some seriously ugly cars.

Hungarian Grand Prix - Felipe's crash

2009-07-29T11:26:00.003+01:00

This week just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

It all started with that horrible accident on Saturday, which involved Felipe Massa, his helmet, his scull and a heavy part bouncing around the track after falling off Barrichello's car. What are the chances? I am in Greece at the moment. I hate Greek F1 coverage with all my heart- it's boring and they don't really know what they're talking about. It's probably not as bad as I make it out to be, but I am used to the good old BBC and let's face it, if you don't get Martin Brundle walking down the pitlane embarrassing himself, it doesn't feel like you're watching F1. Anyway, as soon as the footage of the accident was released, they showed it over and over again, trying to 'understand what exactly happen'. Slow motion, showing the object, showing the contact it made. It was horrible; we didn't even know if Massa was ok. We don't want to see something hitting his head and him hitting the wall, probably unconscious, over and over again. It's almost as bad as running up to a car after it's crashed and taking a picture of a hurt and clearly shocked driver, and then putting it on the internet. But who does that, right?

It is thankfully all going well for Felipe, latest news say that he is able to speak as well as move his arms and legs. Head injuries are unpredictable things and one must be very closely monitored for a while to ensure that everything has gone back to normal and no damage has been done. Although the doctors are being cautious, they reckon that, at this rate of recovery, Massa will be able to walk out of hospital in 10 days. Another danger against him returning to the cockpit would be damage to the eye that was hit, but apparently he has opened it and he can see, and the eye looks 'morphologically normal'. The doctors are impressed by how quickly he is getting better, and they are much more positive now about him making a full recovery and being able to race again. Stefano Domenicali has also confirmed that 'the car is his' and that whenever he is ready he can jump back in there.

Of course, the accident has raised concerns about the safety of the sport, and many people have started talking about introducing closed cockpits, which sounds like it would get even more dangerous, and they could still break under high impact anyway. Would a closed cockpit had been enough to save Henry Surtees? I doubt it. Would it cause further accidents with people getting trapped in them? Probably. Would they make cars look weird? Definitely.

The fact is that, coming a few days after Henry's death, this accident has to be looked into, and something might have to be done to improve safety. But the inconvenient truth is that motosport is a dangerous thing to do. F1 has been fortunate enough to have no more fatalities after that awful 1994 weekend in Imola, but we can't forget that the drivers put their lives at risk every time they race.

Do You Want To Come To A Party?

2009-07-14T21:15:00.002+01:00

I am still trying to recover from the weekend. I am already missing the noise of the cars, the smell of the burning fuel and the rubber and that amazing atmosphere that our cheap but cheerful general admission grandstand had when Vettel got oh-so-close to Massa or when the two Red Bulls drove past waving at the crowds. On top of all that, on Saturday evening I went to what was probably the best party I've ever been to. And got to see the three Sebs and Mark in real life- weird, they are just like normal people. Only a little bit better.

I am slightly obsessed with F1 and especially Red Bull and I do spend an unhealthy chunk of my life reading blogs and F1 websites. Red Bull has had a competition before each Grand Prix since Monaco and I have been dreaming of winning one for quite a while. On Friday evening there was quite a lot of excitement since we found out that my boyfriend won this GP's competition and got himself a double ticket for the Red Bull Offtrack party. There was only one problem- there were 4 of us at the Grand Prix. Oh well, that didn't bother us for long as a few minutes later another phone rang and Phil this time found out he had won too. There you go, 2 out of 3 tickets to the party. Magic.

After Saturday qualifying, we set off to find Camp4Fun where the party was held. We got there, after being lost for a bit in a village in the middle of nowhere (like most places around the Ring anyway) and we were greeted appropriately with some cans of Red Bull. The Offtrack Party seemed to live up to its name since there was a large area where rally cars and motorbikes were impressing the crowds doing things which Alex described as "Better than F1". Alex and Phil queued for a while and got themselves in one of them for a ride- I was too busy trying to find Seb! To be honest, it looked a bit too scary for my liking. I like watching cars do stupid things, but I don't really fancy being in them. There is a video on the Red Bull website showing a few clips from the off-roading.

Trying to distract myself for a while, I decided to have some food. I caused a bit of a shock when I asked for my burger well done, with the guy laughing and telling me to go back in 90 mins. I was subsequently informed that it was made from Kobe beef, which probably slightly justified his terror at my request. He still cooked it to my liking, and it was probably one of the best burgers I've ever had. I will probably have to write a separate post about the amazingness of the food over at the other blog, since I could go on for a while. One last thing: They made ice-cream on request using liquid nitrogen. By that time, Phil was too drunk to care about looking cool, so he filmed the whole thing. I'll get him to put the video on here.

Suddenly photographers starting gathering around the little stage formed on the back of a lorry, next to last year's RB4- by the way, what a beautiful car, it kept us entertained for quite a while. Realising that this meant the drivers would arrive, I managed to get myself a front-row spot. I got my camera ready and started feeling even more hyper than before- the 3 cans of Red Bull I had already drunk weren't helping.

First to arrive were Mark Webber and Christian Horner. Mark gave a very funny interview, which I now wish I had recorded since the only highlight I remember is his answer on what the weather in Australia is like. "One day beautiful, the other day perfect". By that time, the sun had come out again, apparently confirming Seb's claims that Germany does see the sun every now and then. I second that- I got sunburnt on Sunday. The other thing we learned is that none of the two actually speak any German, which made me feel better for myself. I hadn't been able to understand a single word all weekend, and ordering food had been a challenging experience. No, I still didn't lose any weight- chips somehow always found their way to my plate.

I wanted to go and talk to Mark after he moved to the side of the stage while Christian was being interviewed. Then, suddenly, there were loads of girls all over him asking for pictures and autographs, and you could see that he just wanted to go racing. Bring on Sunday so he can go out and win it. So, I stayed away, which I now regret. But maybe I'll speak to him next time (do you hear me Red Bull?).

It all went a bit crazy when Sebastian Vettel arrived, and the photographers didn't leave him alone for long. I did feel quite cheeky going to ask for a picture too as he had managed to escape, but at that point I was definitely feeling the Vettel-and-energy-drink-induced overexcitement taking over, so I didn't really care. If I have one complaint (really? Are you serious?) is that his interview was in German, so I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Nevertheless, I stayed for the whole thing, mainly taking pictures, and it sounded like he was saying some funny things. Has anyone got an english trascript of it?

I also managed to get a little chat with Bourdais as well as a photo with him and Buemi. He was quite nice, but definitely quite worried and probably annoyed with the press and the ongoing rumours about his departure (which are sadly not just rumours anymore...). It is a shame that he wasn't given the chance to try the improved car in Hungary, given that he had to put up with such a rubbish one for so long.

The rest of the party (without the drivers who went to bed early in preparation for the race) included a lot of drink, even more food and even a live band that took over from the DJ later on. When it started getting dark the setting became even more impressive, with loads of fires that had been lit around lighting the place. This picture of the Toro Rosso car is one of my favourites of the weekend- it looks mean!

It was an amazing experience that made the weekend very very special. Other teams should follow Red Bull's example of offering something back to the fans who support them. It doesn't cost anything and it's good for the fans to get a taste of what goes on behind the scenes. Keeping my fingers crossed another one of those competitions will come my way sometime soon!

Please, Give Us Some Racing News

2009-07-01T16:15:00.003+01:00

With all the politics taking over F1, it seems that Silverstone, the last time we saw some cars racing round a track, was ages ago. I have followed all the news about Max and the FIA and FOTA, but I have gone from being worried, to slightly bothered, to completely-couldn't-care-less. I just want to see some racing. I am sure that the rest will sort itself out, one way or another.

So, here are some interesting racing-related things I've been reading this week.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/12776

Rumours have gone mad again about Alonso moving to Ferrari in 2010. What I find interesting this time is that, apparently, Ferrari doesn't seem to be sure about which of their current drivers to get rid of to make space for him. Felipe did well at Silverstone, and of course has the 2008 success to show. And those 5 seconds that everyone thought he was World Champion.
Raikkonen, on the other hand, had a miserable year last year, at least compared to the expectations everyone had, and has frequently been questioned about his motivation. Personally, I don't think he doesn't care about the racing, he just isn't a PR guy and just wants to get in a car and drive. Maybe F1 is a bit too political for him. Kimi is taking part in the Rally of Finland in July.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/12772

I hope he doesn't decide he'd rather race in some different series if he gets dropped by Ferrari. But I doubt he'd fancy Flavio as his new boss.

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5408732,00.html

Back to the front of the grid, Brawn have revealed they have updates for Germany which include a few things that they decided to not run at Silverstone because of the tyre problems they were having. They now expect to make a step forward at the Nurburgring and hope that their main rivals don't show as much pace under different weather conditions. We will have to wait and see, but for sure (in the words of every F1 driver) we should expect an exciting Grand Prix!

http://allenonf1.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/webber-fancies-a-crack-at-button/

Webber fancies seeing himself chasing Jenson and, if you ask me, why not? He's been doing very well this year, even though he's yet to win a race. But he is only 3.5 points behind Seb and as much as I like Seb, I have to admit that Mark has been more consistent. And also a bit unlucky- story of his life! He must know though there will be no excuses if he wastes the chance he's been given this year. There might not be another one!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76641

It has also been reported for what feels like the millionth time this week that Red Bull isn't going to give preferential treatment to any of their drivers since they're so close. It seems like the obvious choice, given that Seb has been winning races but Mark has been getting more consistent points. Things could change pretty quickly, with a DNF for example. I'd really like seeing Mark winning a race or two, so I'm quite happy about that.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76632

And finally, Red Bull have got themselves a new reserve driver.

Jaime Alguersuari is the British F3 Champion, and therefore has a superlicense. But, his only experience with F1 cars consists of straight line test, hence it could be interesting (and/or dangerous) if any of the four Red Bull/Toro Rosso drivers needed a replacement for any reason. I really do hope the testing ban gets lifted. Until then, reserve drivers are going to spend their F1 careers waiting.

BA employees to sponsor McLaren

2009-06-26T19:04:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago, British Airways made headlines as it asked its employees to take unpaid leave or work unpaid for a month, in an effort to save some money and survive the global economic crisis. Recently, it was revealed that a shocking 2% has agreed to implement the measure, which could save BA £10m.

The move though hasn't gone without criticism, with anonymous workers calling the proposal "unrealistic" and "laughable". One does wonder how much savings of £10m are going to help a company that made a £401m loss last year, but latest news have shed light into the reasoning behind the measure.

BA is thought to be considering sponsoring the F1 team McLaren next year, intending to use the extra money towards that. The revelation angered both workers that had agreed to the measure and ones that hadn't. "Why would BA as a whole get to sponsor our favourite team", one unnamed worker on unpaid leave said, "when it is from our money that they are doing it. I would like to see my name up there". A disappointed-to-miss-out worker, expressed his anger as "noone let us know what the money was going to be used for. We hadn't realised the importance of the scheme". BA is now considering to accept more offers from other workers that want to sponsor McLaren, although there are fears they might end up with no staff willing to work, and too many angry employees wanting to see their names on the silver cars.*

Links:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8119388.stm, http://www.f1technical.net/news/12707
*Not entirely true

How I Fell In Love With Silverstone

2009-06-23T13:57:00.002+01:00

I had been thinking about going to watch Silverstone Friday Practice for a while, but I was almost persuaded that it wasn't worth the money (£50 a ticket). When the news came through that Red Bull Racing were offering 20 passes for fans to have dinner with them, I really couldn't ignore the chance of getting to eat with my motorsport heroes, seeing the paddock and the garage, and acting like an embarrassing groupie if I got to see Mark and Seb. So I went ahead, joined the competition and bought myself and my boyfriend Friday tickets.

Of course, luck wasn't my friend, and I didn't win the competition. I did spend about 3 hours on Thursday staring at my phone to make sure it had reception, and checked my answering machine several times. Nothing. I got quite bitter when reading people's tweets about what an amazing night they had. I was so disappointed I almost forgot that I WAS GOING TO SILVERSTONE!

I woke up at 6 in the morning on Friday, packed my suncream and my umbrella, made some sandwiches and had some quick breakfast. Decided to wake myself up by watching really-early-morning tv shows, which proved to be very F1-related since FOTA had announced their breakaway series. When had that happened? You go to bed for a few hours, wake up and you find out that you might have to follow two championships next year (the FIA one just to see Nico Rosberg becoming world champion and Adrian Sutil achieving regular podiums). Whatever, I was going to Silverstone, and that was the important thing. Max Mosley, you couldn't take that away from me.

The drive there was surprisingly easy, we (almost) didn't get lost, and we didn't get stuck in traffic. Found a good parking spot, weather was pretty. We picked up tickets and had a little walk around the shops. Watched some people doing a pit stop competition, which looked fun and Alex had to stop me from buying overpriced Red Bull merchandise, which I now regret. Apparently we were at the British Grand Prix, so I should be supporting Jenson. Oh well. I loved the fact that Renault's merchandise stand was simply called Fernando Alonso Merchandise. I would really love to see Nelsinho trying to build his career with a team that isn't obsessed with one of their drivers (no McLaren for him then!). He must be sick of all the Alonso loving - I know I am!

Anyway, onto the action, we chose to watch the 1st free practice from Copse, which I didn't think lived up to the expectations we had. It was good at the time, but when I realised how much more action you get to see from Stowe or Club, I wished I hadn't stayed there at all. Nonetheless, we did get a little doughnut from Nelsinho when he spun off, which I had excitedly predicted as soon as we sat down there. It was also quite good seeing the cars coming out of the pits, but that was about it.

We decided to walk around for the next few events, which were Formula BMW qualifying and GP2 practice. We watched them from Becketts and tried but miserably failed to take pictures of the cars when we got very close to them down the Hangar straight. Too fast. We watched second practice from Stowe, which gave us really good views and my only chance of the whole day to get close to an F1 driver, when Mark Webber stopped his car between Stowe and Hangar Straight grandstands. I really hoped he would walk all the way to us when I saw him heading towards Stowe B, but that is as close as I managed to get to him.

A special mention should go to the GP2 qualifying, which was really exciting, since they were actually overtaking each other. Yes, during qualifying. There were two incidents in front of us at Vale which, by the way, is an amazing place to watch from since you can see almost 1/3 of the track. And if you sit at Club, you can get really really close to the cars.

After going to Pit Straight B to try and take full-zoom pictures of the pits with the hope of seeing Seb or Jenson, or any other famous person (I failed), we decided to head back. I was quite sad to go, and really regretted not buying 3-day tickets when I could still afford them. But I was also exhausted and very sunburnt (even though it had been cold and cloudy all day- great British summer!) so quite happy to be sleeping in my own bed that night rather than in a tent.

All in all, a really amazing experience, and I don't think it was only because I had never been to a Grand Prix before. Yes, it is expensive, and you don't get to watch any races, but you can go to any grandstand you like and really get to explore the circuit. And as if that wasn't good enough, we did get to go round 58 roundabouts in one day - what more can you ask for?
Oh, and we got a taste of the anti-Bernie&Max feeling when we came across a couple of comedy posters.

Yeah Bernie, give us back the British Grand Prix. Cos I will definitely be going next year.

Oh No, Not Another F1 Blog

2009-06-22T12:50:00.000+01:00

Like the internet wasn't already oversaturated with blogs about Formula 1, I decided to start one too. What is even worse is that I am not a specialist in any way (apart from some slightly-higher-than-average fluid dynamics knowledge), I have only been watching F1 for two years and I definitely won't be able to be impartial.

This is my second one, the first one being a food blog- yes, again, how original! I am still struggling to get that going, and it's only going to get harder from now on. But I am hoping to persuade a couple of friends to contribute to this blog, and I will be attending the Nurburgring Grand Prix this year so I'm hoping to bring some good pictures back to make this more interesting!

I started following F1 when Britain rediscovered their national hero in the face of Lewis Hamilton. My boyfriend decided to introduce me to the magical work of fast cars, exciting technology and cool drivers, and now I am so obsessed with it that he has started regretting it. I think I could possibly make a job out of talking about F1; that is, if anyone actually wanted to listen!

I originally supported LH but soon found my new hero in the face of Sebastian Vettel. I have watched his win in Monza several times on YouTube (in a unbelievably-low-quality filming-my-own-tv video) and everytime I realise that this is really the moment that made me fall in love with F1. After a season and a half on McLaren-Ferrari domination (let alone the years of Michael Schumacher winning everything), seeing that anything is possible in this sport, that even a 20-year-old in a back-of-the-grid car could win a race, really got me quite excited. Of course, SV is in a beautifully designed car this year and definitely not a rookie anymore (although most people insist on calling him by his second name, The Young German) but I still have a soft spot for him.

Mark Webber is also a favourite and I am really hoping to see him on the top step of the podium this year. So, there is going to be quite a lot of Red Bull loving on this blog. I would also love to see Jenson winning the championship and completing the fairytale. If this new aerodynamic package that Red Bull has is really that good, I am set for a real struggle with picking a favourite towards the end of the season.

There you go then, let's see how this is going to work out. I will post some Silverstone pictures in a new post and I will also try to describe how unbelievably amazing my first experience of live F1 was. I might not be able to stop myself from sounding like an overexcited 5-year-old though, you have been warned.