F1Maniac.net

End of an era as Caterham replace Trulli with Petrov

2012-02-19T18:35:00.000+02:00

2011 may well be the last time we see the likes of Rubens Barichello and Jarno Trulli in F1. Both men seem to have been the victims of younger men holding bigger purse strings, but there's more to it than that.

Caterham last week announced that they were dropping Jarno Trulli in favour of Vitaly Petrov. Petrov himself had been dropped by Lotus Renault for Kimi Raikkonen. That move by Lotus was clearly motivated by performance and not money. On the surface Raikkonen brings no money to Lotus and no doubt commands a hefty salary, but he is without doubt a world class driver and a world champion to boot. Last season Lotus Renault seemed to go backwards, the early loss of team leader Kubica was in my opinion, a humungous blow to Lotus Renault. I have no doubt that if he was in the car last year they would have ended up much higher than where they did. Instead they ended up sacking Heidfeld just over half way through the season, and replacing him with Bruno Senna.

Senna in turn ended up being dumped by Lotus Renault for Roman Grosjean. But he in turn was then taken on by Williams as they ditched Barrichello. Now, there's no doubt that between Maldonaldo and Barichello, the obvious pick would seem to be Rubens, but he doesn't have Pastor's access to Venezuelan sponsors, and Bruno also has access to some big Brazilian sponsors, so Rubens had to go.

Going back to Petrov's appointment, everyone is saying it's motivated purely by money, but that's not entirely true in my opinion. What has Trulli done in the last two seasons at the former Team Lotus, he has been comprehensively outperformed by Heikki Kovalainen, the same man who was comprehensively outperformed by Hamilton in his time at McLaren. So while Heikki is a very good driver, he is not out of the top drawer. I honestly think Jarno's best days were behind him, and sad as it is, it is time for him to move on. Petrov isn't top drawer but he is not without merit either, this is the man that denied Fernando Alonso the 2010 world championship by keeping him behind him at the last race at Abu Dhabi. He resisted a tremendous amount of pressure that day to keep a hot and bothered Alonso behind him. He may not be the top gun in the F1 paddock, but he is no worse than Trulli, combine this with his access to Russian sponsors and the Russian market as a whole to market Air Asia and Caterham cars, and you can see why this is a no-brainer for Tony Fernandes and Caterham.

I feel the same about Rubens, he didn't outclass Pastor last year as I thought he should have. I feel his best days too, are behind him. I would rather see Bruno Senna being given another crack at F1 than Rubens pounding around for another year. What's his end game, he is never going to get back into a top team. He had many years to get it right, at Ferrari and his best chance at Brawn, but he blew it.

So two really experienced campaigners are lost to F1, but time marches on, except for a certain German 7 time world champ. Last I heard the Daimler CEO was talking about extending his contract to take him into 2013!

First week of testing is officially over!

2012-02-10T19:43:00.000+02:00

Iceman back in the office

After the first week of F1 testing at Jerez it is clear as mud who is the fastest out there. Kimi Raikkonen stole some headlines by setting the fastest time on the first day of practice to show that he certainly remembers how to drive an F1 car. But as usual we don't know how much fuel etc. he was running at the time.

The one interesting thing to come out of testing for me was that Mercedes have still not launched their new car, they were running with the 2011 car in an effort to build data and compare the 2012 Pirelli's to the 2011's. So their car was still running the blown diffuser etc. Will this give them an advantage in understanding the tyres better? Or will their 2012 car be poorer for having missed the first test week.

From what I have read, Red Bull still seem to be the team to beat, them, McLaren and Ferrari all had cagey test days, with none of them eager to show what they have in hand. Ferrari's car is all new, and of the top teams they have the most to lose if it all goes south. McLaren and Red Bull have evolutions of last years cars, so I fully expect them to be fighting it out in the early season.

Lotus Renault have been looking pretty good in the test thus far, I am hoping they can take a step up this year and really challenge the likes of Mercedes, who in turn want to put pressure on the top 3.

Can't wait for the next test!

McLaren's pretty nose is the odd one out

2012-02-06T23:33:00.001+02:00

Red Bull launched their RB8 today, and like everybody else, they too have the "step-nose".

Lotus, Sauber and Torro Rosso have also launched their cars with their own versions of the step-nose. Saubers iteration is particularly displeasing to the eye in my opinion, might have something to do with the livery though.

Question is though, McLaren are the only team not to have this feature, and from what I have read its because of the way their car channels the air under the nose that they have a different nose, very interesting. The other hypothesis is that the car they unveiled is nothing like what they will actually race, but its a bit of a reach to think they will suddenly change to a step nose.

Here are the pics of the new noses on the block.

Red Bull RB8 - the gorilla in the field that everyone has to beat

This is the machine you would think is the one to beat, Seb Vettel and the RB7 decimated all before them in 2011, will the ban on the rear diffusers level the playing field?

Next up we have the Lotus E20 - the Iceman's chariot

One of the nicer looking nose treatments and I really love that black and gold livery. Of course the fact that I am a huge fan of the Iceman has nothing to do with it :-)

The Torro Rosso STR7 - the young man's Joyride

Having brought in 2 brand new young drivers after ditching both Buemi and Alguersari, there must be a certain element of pressure on the 2 new boys in the Torro Rosso garage. Franz Tost has freely admitted that his teams job is to find the next Red Bull star, and Buemi and Alguersari weren't it, so they moved in 2 new drivers. From that point of view, they perhaps have a certain amount of latitude with regards to driver acclimatisation.

Last, but not least, the Sauber C31- Koba's dive bomber

Sauber have not had the most auspicious start to their campaign as their technical director James Key has left the team. Sauber has said he will not be replaced and the cars development will be a joint effort betweeen all the various department heads. I hope they can keep improving this year, if only to keep Koba in F1.

So there you have it, we still await the biggest launch yet to come, which is Mercedes GP, and two smaller fish, in HRT and Marussia.

Ferrari, McLaren, Force India and Caterham "nose" something the others don't?

2012-02-04T09:45:00.000+02:00

Hmmm...........is it Alain Prost tribute year? You will see what I mean in a minute ;-)

Ferrari was the latest team to unveil their 2012 car yesterday after McLaren did the same on the 1st of February. Force India and Caterham were launched a bit earlier.

There is already a trend amongst the teams this year that I really dislike, and that is the step-nose feature that Ferrari, Force India and Caterham have on their cars.

Of course nobody will really care that much if Ferrari are winning, and Luca di Montezemelo as already said as much, but still, just look at it!

For reference, here is the 2011 Ferrari F150

And here is "Ferrari's ugly sister" the F2012, hope you don't mind the Seb Vettel pun :-)

The Force India follows a similar theme with the nose.

And so does Caterham, and to be fair they launched their car first, with that schnozz! They must be breathing a sigh of relief that other teams have followed suit and they didn't have to be the only car in the paddock with that nose.

McLaren seem to have taken a more evolutionary approach with their new car, and hopefully if they win then the other cars will all be forced to copy their nose design....fingers crossed. Here's last years 2011 MP4-26

And here is the 2012 MP4-27...looks very similar I am sure you will agree.

Something interesting I noticed when looking at the 2011 Mercedes was that their nose from last year was already looking a lot like the new Force India, Ferrari and Caterham, so they may be the ones that started the whole bloody trend. They haven't launched their car yet, so we will see if they also have the same stepped nose.

Here is the 2011 Mercedes F1 car. It's easy to see the similar design elements to the step-nose.

We all wait to see what Red Bull is going to do, if they go a similar way with a step-nose, then McLaren may well be the odd man out in terms of car design.

Oh, and here's to Alain Prost, the original "step-nose"!

Bruno Senna joins Williams!

2012-01-23T19:55:00.001+02:00

In a move that I certainly didn't see coming, Williams have revealed that Bruno Senna will be in the second car alongside Pastor Maldonaldo for 2012.

His appointment came after lengthy driver evaluations of a few drivers on Williams Shortlist, Adrian Sutil was amongst them, and I would have certainly had my money on him getting the drive. What no doubt counted against him was the fact that he now has to go to court to face an assault charge for an incident after the Malaysian Gp I believe.

Senna has financial backing, which to Williams these days, is on a par with driving talent it seems. Bruno seems like a nice guy and I would rather see him in the car than almost anyone else.

What is certain this season though is that he has to perform, his first season in a woeful HRT doesn't really count, and last year he only got the Renault drive late in the year so it was difficult to judge his progress.

If he can getting in the car and beat the pants off Maldonaldo, then his future in F1 should be assured. Let's not forget that Pastor often matched and beat Rubens last year, no mean feat, so Bruno has his work cut out.

After losing out at Lotus Renault, this is the best seat he could have possibly dreamed about. Williams are back with Renault power this year, a combination that dominated F1 in the early to mid 90's. They have a depth of experience and knowledge, I really hope that they can make a serious comeback this year.

It would be remiss of me not to point out the significance of a Senna in a Williams again, a day I am sure Sir Frank and Patrick Head never thought they would see in their lifetimes. The omens are there for the past to be put right, so please F1 gods, give Williams the equivalent of the 2009 Brawn for 2012.

Have Lotus Renault stolen a march with innovative ride height management system

2012-01-14T11:09:00.003+02:00

Lotus Renault have been testing a new system that allows the car to control the ride height under braking.

It is from what I understand, linked to the braking system, so it is applied as the driver applies the brakes, limiting the front wing dive as the car brakes. This would allow the team to run a lower ride height, as with this new system, the front of the car's ride height can be managed.

The next step of course is whether it is deemed legal, as devices controlled by the driver are now banned, after the F-duct episode in 2010.

If it is allowed it could give Lotus Renault a nice little jump over the other teams. It might also give a little boost to a certain Finn who has just joined the team :-)

Alonso splits from wife, bad news for other F1 drivers I reckon

2011-12-22T09:48:00.000+02:00

Fernando Alonso announced that he is splitting from his wife Raquel del Rosario, a Spanish pop star. The couple were married in 2006 and made a joint statement announcing their seperation.

How will this affect the double world champ in 2012?

If anything I can imagine this will make him only stronger. Fernando was never one to have huge entourages in the team garage at race weekends, and quite honestly if I had not read this story I would not have even known he was having personal problems. He is someone that arrives at a race weekend fully committed and professional at all times.

If you contrast him with Lewis Hamilton, who was sulking publicly when he had split with his on/off again girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. You can see how different characters they are.

If Fernando was committed before, I can only imagine him being even stronger in 2012 now that he has put his personal problems behind him.

In fact, I would not even put it past him to have dumped his wife coz he thought she was slowing him down...... :-)

Torro Rosso and Force India announce their drivers

2011-12-19T17:37:00.000+02:00

Blocking your ears won't help keep out the bad news boys

Its not going to be a merry Christmas for Jaime Alguersari and Sebastian Buemi as they have both been released by Torro Rosso in favour of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric Vergne.

This is a very drastic move in my opinion as starting a season with 2 new drivers can only slow you down. How do you measure the improvements in the car versus last year, how do you measure how the new driver is doing versus an established benchmark. With 2 new drivers I think they might even fall back behind the midfield teams they beat this year.

Ricciardo and Vergne

What does come out of this for me, is that Red Bull did not see either Buemi or Alguersari as good enough to take over from Webber in 2013. That is what has seemingly triggered the rather drastic step of dropping both drivers from this year. Sink or swim, Vergne and Ricciardo have been warned. Ricciardo has spent the latter half of 2011 at HRT, so there will be more pressure on him to be a team leader as opposed to Vergne who is a complete F1 newbie.

In other more obvious news, Force India have announced that their 2012 drivers will be Di Resta and Hulkenberg leaving Sutil out in the cold. Its a tough blow for Sutil as in my opinion he outperformed Di Resta solidly in the second half of the season. In his case however he does seem more likely to find a drive as he does possess the speed and has shown as much on many occasions.

Many people were surprised when Williams dropped Hulkenberg at the end of 2010 for pay driver Pastor Maldonaldo. He showed a lot of promise then and it will be an interesting battle between him and Di Resta. Hulkenberg did some Friday running with Force India this past season as their 3rd driver so he is familiar with the team so it won't be all new to him. It was also vital as he got to experience Pirelli tyres, something that Vergne for example won't have extensive experience with as compared to Ricciardo

Kimi gives Lotus a fright!

2011-12-13T10:37:00.001+02:00

Kimi shows that he can stay on a snowmobile too

Kimi Raikkonen gave his new team, and Eric Boullier in particular, a big scare over the weekend.

Kimi was taking part in a snowmobile race in Austria when he fell off and hurt his wrist. Luckily it is nothing more severe than a sore wrist, but given what happened to Lotus Renault last year with Kubica, Boullier must have held his breath when he heard Kimi had been injured.

I honestly think F1 should bring back F1 testing just to keep drivers out of trouble when they not racing!

Petrov out and Grosjean in at Lotus for 2012

2011-12-09T10:05:00.001+02:00

Lotus have announced that Romain Grosjean will line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen in 2012.

This ends all the speculation about who the second driver was going to be. I was pretty confident that Petrov was going to retain his seat despite his tirade against the team in the Russian media a few weeks back, for which he duly apologized. He still has some considerable financial backing so I really thought that would keep him in the team.

Bruno Senna was on the way out anyway, and with Kubica seemingly unable to make the start to the season, Lotus have taken steps to finalize their lineup early.

I haven't seen anywere as to how long Grosjeans deal with Lotus is for, but one would assume that if he underperforms next season he won't retain the seat for 2013.

He did make his F1 debut some time ago in 2009 when the team was still Renault, but he was replaced by Petrov in 2010. He then went away and worked hard and became GP2 champion last year and fought his way back into the team.

There are whispers that Lotus sponsor Total had a big part to play in Grosjean getting the drive as they wanted a French driver in the team.

Either way, I will be interested to see how he goes compared to Raikkonen. The slightly concerning thing for Lotus is that they will have drivers new to Pirelli tyres and we will see if that hampers them early season until they get up to speed.

Vettel's standup routine at the 2011 Autosport Awards

2011-12-07T14:33:00.001+02:00

I think Seb is an exceptionally funny guy, he always comes across as a genuine and very likeable person in interviews, and his appearance on Top Gear was pretty hilarious too.

This is him at the Autosport awards, and it almost runs like some kind of stand up skit.

His Kimi Raikkonen impression is pretty good!

F1Scoop is now F1Maniac!

2011-12-06T10:28:00.001+02:00

Hi guys

I have been running 2 blogs over the last year, f1maniac.net and f1scoop.blogspot.com.

I have decided to consolidate the 2 under 1 name which is f1maniac.net.

So those of you coming from f1scoop.blogspot.com, welcome, as you can see the layout is still the same
as it was on blogger, and for those used to the old layout on f1maniac.net, it is all new in terms of layout.

So in a nutshell, f1scoop readers, only thing thats changed is the URL, and for f1maniac.net readers, the layout is new.

Welcome everyone :-)

Kimi is back!

2011-12-06T09:05:00.001+02:00

Kimi's F1 fans are legion. Visit any F1 forum and you will see that he is probably still the most popular F1 driver despite not actually competing in F1 these past 2 years.

The news of him potentially joining Williams whipped said forums into a state of frenzy. Only to be let down at the last minute when we found out that the Williams deal was in fact off.

Oh well, I thought, another year, another rumour, but then suddenly, it was announced that he was in fact in joining Lotus Renault GP. I rubbed my eyes, surely that couldn't be right.
After their public media bust up last year when rumours first came to the surface that Boullier might be looking at Kimi, Kimi retorted angrily in the media that the rumours were untrue and that Boullier was just using his name to raise the profile of Renault.

My, how times change. All of this was no doubt spurred on by the fact that Kubica's manager has said that as of 2012, Robert is a free agent, and the fact that Kubica's comeback to driving has been delayed so that he will miss the first testing sessions of the season.

Boullier and Lotus had to look elsewhere, they were seemingly intent on Grosjean alongside Petrov. But the lure of a world champ in your car proved too strong to ignore, and once the Williams deal fell through, a deal between Lotus and Kimi's management team happened very quickly.

His teammate for next season would seem to be Petrov, but Lotus is a much sought after seat and that could still change. I have the feeling that Lotus did not want to head into 2012 without a strong no.1 driver, as there is no doubt they missed Kubica this year, and neither Heidfeld or Senna really managed to fill his considerable racing boots.

All I know is, Kimi is back for 2012!

Confusion about Kubica's future

2011-11-25T09:49:00.001+02:00

Some of you may have noticed that the background on the blog is a pic of Robert Kubica testing the Lotus Renault before his terrible accident.I have been reading interesting stories regarding Robert Kubica's future or lack thereof with Renault for next season.

Renault have released statements saying that Kubica had contacted them and said that he could not commit to being ready for the beginning of the 2012 season. This would seem to indicate that they would now need to find a replacement driver for him alongside the likely incumbent of Roman Grosjean.

Kubica's manager on the other hand, has come out and said that he doesn't understand Renault saying that Robert said he could not race for 2012. And even bigger news is that according to him Kubica's contract with Renault runs out at the end of 2011!

If this is indeed true, then it could be throwing some serious gasoline on the dimming fire that is the 2012 driver's market. It is very likely that Kubica could get some kind of provisional deal with one of the big teams if they know that he would be available next season.

First one knocking on his door might be Ferrari. It is highly likely they could do a deal with him for 2013 to replace Massa. It would all be dependent on him being able to show his fitness and speed are still up to scratch of course.

But if he is able to test GP2 cars for instance early next year he would be a serious floater in the driver's market. If Massa underperforms next year he could well be dropped for Kubica mid season. Kubica is highly rated by Alonso and pretty much anyone who knows about F1.

I am praying he makes a full comeback. He is an uncompromising, exciting talent who deserves a shot at a big team. His forthrightness in expressing himself to the media reminds of a certain Finn who I am also hoping makes a comeback in 2012 ;-)

Still no Kimi confirmation at Williams

2011-11-10T13:25:00.002+02:00

The story about Kimi's comeback seems to be dragging on much longer than I anticipated. Many in the media had speculated that the deal could be announced as early as the Indian GP, but that did not happen.

So now I am starting to think that they still haggling over details. What does seem like fact however, is that both parties are definitely talking, and Rubens himself has said he does not yet know what will happen with him for next year.

If it does not get announced this weekend at Abu Dhabi, then the only time we will probably hear about it is in the off season. I really doubt Williams would announce they dumping Rubens in his home race at the Brazilian GP.

So my prediction is if we don't hear confirmation by this weekend, it may only come next year. It does seem almost certain that a deal will be done however.

Imperious Vettel wins inaugural Indian GP

2011-10-31T11:14:00.001+02:00

Wow, I have truly run out of superlatives for Sebastian Vettel. His dominance of the Indian GP was so complete that he took every record the circuit had to offer, pole position- check, fastest lap of the race - check, led from lights to flag - check, summed up the 1st Indian GP and paid tribute to the Indian people in a genuine and humble way during the post race interview - check.

Jenson Button finished in a fighting second, and Alonso had a ding dong battle with Webber to finish in the final podium slot. Webbo finished in 4th, despite driving a hard race. My star of the race, besides Vettel, was Schumi. He finished in a best-of-the-rest 5th ahead of Rosberg who was 6th. It must make him wonder how much better his races could be if he didn't get it wrong in qualifying all the time, he qualified 12th here. Yet again Schumacher got a blistering start and kept his nose clean to be running in 8th on the first lap just behind Rosberg where he stayed till the last round of pit stops when he put in a few blistering laps to leapfrog his young teammate. Vintage Schumi or what!

Hamilton finished in 7th after clashing with Massa yet again! This time it was Massa that got the drive through penalty after the stewards ajudged that he had turned into Hamilton. I couldn't believe it when I saw them tangle yet again. Surely their teams have to get them together and make them understand that they have to stop tripping each other up. Its become embarrassing not only to Massa and Hamilton, but surely also to McLaren and Ferrari as well.

It also highlights how far ahead each drivers respective teammate is. You don't see Alonso and Button tangling every race, and they are often around each other during the race too. They race not only on instinct, as Massa and Hamilton seem to do, but also with a clear head and a long term view. If you want to be champion, you must ensure that you finish every race. Felipe and Lewis seem to have forgotten that vital bit of racecraft.

Alguersari finished in a well deserved 8th place after recovering from a poor start. They were very quick and both cars made it into Q3 on Saturday due to their car being great on tracks with long straights.

I think the Indian GP was pretty splendid overall, and I was very happy to see the stands mostly full. Lets hope ticket prices remain reasonable so that the fans can fill it up again next year. I think the track layout is pretty special, that turn 11 reminds me of the lotus wheel in the Indian national flag.

Here's the full race results:

Results

1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h30:35.002
2. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 8.433
3. Alonso Ferrari + 24.301
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 25.529
5. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:05.421
6. Rosberg Mercedes + 1:06.851
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1:24.183
8. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
10. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
12. Senna Renault + 1 lap
13. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
15. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 2 laps
16. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
18. Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
19. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 4 laps

Did Not Finish
Massa Ferrari 33
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 25
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 13
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 3
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1

Vettel wins in Korea and makes up for 2010

2011-10-20T22:50:00.000+02:00

Vettel does it again! After being cruelly denied the win in 2010 due to a blown engine, Sebastian Vettel made no such mistakes this time as he yet again showed just how far he is ahead of the field in 2011. He led home a fighting drive from Hamilton who finished ahead of Webber. Mark's 3rd place sewed up the constructors for Red Bull and prompted yet another Red Bull party.

After Saturday qualifying Hamilton and McLaren were the package to beat as Lewis at last broke Red Bull's monopoly of pole position this season. The McLaren driver got off to a good start but was passed by Vettel on the first lap. Seb's has firmly banished the reputation he unfairly earned in 2011 of not being able to overtake. His move on Alonso in Monza, and this one on Hamilton, showed everyone that he has a keen eye for a gap, and takes it when presented. It's hardly his fault that he is at the front 90% of the time!

Once Vettel cleared off at the front, the most heated battle for the rest of the afternoon was between Hamilton and Webber. Mark clearly had the faster car but just could not find a way past Lewis. The McLaren had better traction off the slow corners leading on to the long straight and this proved just enough to keep Lewis ahead. Mark was left to rue his bad luck post race as he would have had a good chance to leapfrog Hamilton if he had stayed out a lap longer or come in 1 lap earlier, as it happened they pitted on exactly the same lap for their tyres and left them locked in a stalemate.

Button ended up in 4th ahead of a late charging Alonso. The Spaniard spent the first half of the race tucked up behind Massa. There were clearly no team orders in this race as Felipe defended his position from Nando. Once Alonso got ahead of him however he disappeared into the distance, leaving many to wonder what might have been if Ferrari had gotten Massa out of his way sooner. But then again, we would have all been crying foul wouldn't we?

Mercedes had a real mixed bag of a race. Nico ended up so slow towards the end as he was running out of fuel that he was caught and passed by Alguersari for 7th, the Torro Rosso drivers best finish in F1 so far. Schumi was taken out by Petrov who was fighting Alonso at the time and rammed straight into the back of the Mercedes.

Bruno Senna ended up in 13th. Since his strong debut at Spa he seems to be going backwards and will need to turn it up if he wants to have any hope of retaining his drive with Lotus next season.

Special mention for Kovalainen who finished ahead of both Saubers!

Here's the full results:
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h30:01.994
02. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 12.019
03. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 12.477
04. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 14.694
05. Alonso Ferrari + 15.689
06. Massa Ferrari + 25.133
07. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 49.538
08. Rosberg Mercedes + 54.053
09. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:02.762
10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:08.602
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:11.229
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:33.068
13. Senna Renault + 1 lap
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
15. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
17. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
19. Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth + 1 lap
20. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
21. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
Did Not Finish
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 31
Petrov Renault 17
Schumacher Mercedes 16

Vettel is champion of the World!

2011-10-13T17:25:00.003+02:00

Seb Vettel didn't quite get the fairytale ending he was hoping for on Sunday but 3rd place was still more than enough to seal the 2011 Driver's World Championship. Button drove another superb race to win on what proved to be a very emotional day for him, with Alonso in 2nd.

The start provided most of the drama, as Vettel who was yet again on pole, was being challenged by Button, Vettel chopped across Button extremely forcefully and the McLaren man went onto the grass. This allowed Hamilton into 2nd and the Ferrari's were formation flying just behind with Massa ahead of Alonso.

After this things were mostly won in the pitstops. Button won the race by being quick when he had to and good McLaren pitwork. Hamilton by contrast fell back and yet again had his customary tangle with Felipe Massa. If these 2 were schoolkids they would be outside the headmasters office every day! Wait, did I say IF! Massa and Hamilton tangled when Massa tried to pass Hamilton on the outside going into the last chicane, Hamilton later said he didn't see Massa but to be fair to Massa he left the door open when he went on the inside leading up to the chicane and then cutting across to take his racing line, this time Massa had a bit of front wing damage, but nothing more.

Massa also had to earlier "let" Alonso by again, no pit instructions or anything, but the way Alonso breezed past Massa, it was obvious he had to jump out the way. What must such things do to Massa's confidence? He must surely know in his heart of hearts that he will never be allowed to challenge Alonso, so should he stay at Ferrari and be Alonso's lackey, or try and secure a drive at a team where he will be given equal opportunity. All the other top teams allow their drivers to race within reason, even at Red Bull, but the minute Alonso is in Massa's rearview Felipe has to jump out of the way.

Another strong performance by Schumi, delivering the maximum out of the car to end up in 6th place, ahead of Massa. The old boy is really starting to show strong improvement, he is now just 3 points behind Rosberg! Kop that Schumi haters :-)

Here are the full results:
01. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1h30:53.427
02. Alonso Ferrari + 1.160
03. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 2.006
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 8.071
05. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 24.268
06. Schumacher Mercedes + 27.120
07. Massa Ferrari + 28.240
08. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 39.377
09. Petrov Renault + 42.607
10. Rosberg Mercedes + 44.322
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 54.447
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:02.326
13. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:03.705
14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:04.194
15. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1:06.623
16. Senna Renault + 1:12.628
17. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:14.191
18. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1:27.824
19. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 1:36.140
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
22. Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
23. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
Did Not Finish
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 35

F1 Circus drifts into Japan

2011-10-07T18:19:00.000+02:00

The F1 paddock is back at Suzuka for the Japanese GP. There has been much news since Singapore and I will try and provide an overview of the latest news and gossip in the Suzuka paddock.

First of, after all Japan's troubles, its great to get back to doing something that Japanese people love, and that's motor-racing! Many Japanese fans came out with placards thanking F1 for coming to Japan. The F1 paddock were very positive about Japan right from the outset, unlike MotoGP with some riders threatening not to go over radiation fears, even though they all went to Motegi last weekend anyway.

Biggest news since Singapore is the fact that Jenson Button has signed a contract extension to remain with McLaren . They have only disclosed that it is a "multi-year" deal, which normally signifies at least 2 years and possibly more. In all honesty, McLaren could hardly afford to let him go, he has led the team superbly this year in contrast with Hamilton's many brain fades grabbing more negative headlines than the team would care to remember. He is the first teammate to outscore Lewis in F1 and has proved many people wrong(including me!) that he would get soundly thrashed by Hamilton when he moved to McLaren.

Lewis may be having mixed feelings about this one, if Button beats him again next season, there will be serious doubts about whether Hamilton could win a world championship again.
In other very significant news, Mercedes GP has recruited 2 heavyweight names in the technical arena to beef up their challenge for 2012.

First man in is Also Costa, he was relieved of his duties by Ferrari earlier in the year as the fall guy for their F150 not being fast enough. But before you say that Mercedes are feeding of Ferrari's discards, remember that Costa won world titles with Ross Brawn in their time together and Brawn is a man with whom he has an intimate working relationship.

The other man joining Mercedes is Geoff Willis, he was at HRT before he left them earlier this season. He was at Red Bull before then and is also vastly experienced, having served at BAR in the same premises that Mercedes currently occupy. He is coming home in a manner of speaking, as BAR morphed into Honda, then into Brawn, then into Mercedes GP. Merc are showing serious intent by recruiting very experienced personnel. I do think they won't have much input for the 2012 car, but the 2013 car should be very good. I wonder if they will pull the same trick they pulled in 2008 by ignoring that season completely and focussing on 2009, the year which brought us the all conquering Brawn.

Still no further Kimi news to my last post on him, but I still have my fingers crossed he and Williams will work out a deal for 2012.
Here's to an epic Japanese GP!

Virtuoso Vettel wins in Singapore but Massa and Hamilton grab the headlines

2011-09-27T14:07:00.000+02:00

: Seb and his "finger" are here to stay

It was yet another masterful performance from Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing as the German wunderkind yet again dominated qualifying and the race to take his 9th, that's right 9th victory of the season! He was followed home by Jenson Button and Mark Webber ended up in 3rd.

Vettel's domination was so complete that he hardly featured in the tv coverage at all. Even safety cars couldn't help the others catch up and stay with the fastest man in F1. Is it a sign of the times now that the tv coverage watches Vettel at the start and then seemingly forgets about him till the end when he reaches the checkered flag? He is almost too good, meaning following him with the tv camera would show nothing but a solitary Vettel with none of his rivals in sight.

Button drove another well judged race, and towards the end was reducing the gap to Vettel by almost 1 second per lap. Brundle and Coulthard seemed to be nursing semi's and loudly proclaimed that, "This race isn't over yet!" but sadly for the Brit's backers, another mighty Button comeback wasn't meant to be. Vettel was busy scything his way through backmarkers which was costing him time. Once he cleared them and Button caught up with them, Vettel's gap was quickly re-established.

Webber finished in 3rd place, he had a good race, but after watching what his teammate does in the same car, it must be pretty demoralising trying to figure out how Vettel ends up so far in front of him at most races. This year it looks like a raw speed differential exists between the 2 as well, as a few times this season Vettel has had a half second gap on everyone else in qualifying, including Webber, in the same car. He is remaining with Red Bull for 2012, but if Vettel crushes him again in 2012 like this season, I am pretty sure retirement for Webber is not too far away.

Alonso fought his way to 4th with the customary gritty and determined Sunday performance that marks him out for universal praise from all F1 quarters. Ferrari normally can't get heat into the tyres, at this race they devoured their tyres faster than everybody else, it seems they will never be able to get the tyre management right.

5th placed man is the ever controversial Lewis Hamilton, he and Felipe Massa's love affair continued as the McLaren driver broke his front wing on Massa's right rear tyre while trying an overtaking move that was never on. Hamilton got a drive through and Massa's race was ruined as he had to hobble back to the pits with a flat tyre. Massa ended up in 9th but it was in the post race tv interview area that matters got heated. While Hamilton was talking to a Dutch tv station Massa walked up behind, smacked him on the shoulder and gave him a sarcastic, "Good job hey, good job", Hamilton's retort was to shout after Massa not to touch him, and he then promptly left the interview area. All very much handbags at 10 paces but it sparked a media frenzy as you can imagine.

Here is the video of the incident:

Hamilton, if not already so, is in danger of making himself an island with regards to his relationships with other drivers. The spat with Massa started when he tried to pass Massa in Q3 when they nearly touched. He and Maldonaldo had a similar spat in Belgium qualifying. If anything I think his driving is regressing compared to when he first arrived in 2007. I have a suspicion that Button's emergence as a calm and influential presence in the team, not to mention that he has now emerged as the McLaren team leader is probably rattling Hamilton.

Hamilton's father has said that he needs to be managed better, and I definitely see a drop off since his dad left his side. Having someone you can trust who has backed you through your entire life, and then suddenly removing that presence, has definitely had an impact on him. Whitmarsh keeps defending him, saying that he is still young, that's true, but the man who is on the verge of being a double world champion, is even younger, and you can see him visibly maturing and improving in every single facet of his driving skill.

Notable mention for Paul Di Resta who managed his best ever F1 finish in 6th, beating the works Mercedes of Rosberg.

Schumi has grabbed the award for "Best Air" of the 2011 season. Wrestling the title away from Mark Webber's epic backflip in 2010.

He got said "Air" after clipping Perez's rear wheel and getting airborne, luckily he wasn't seriously hurt. Schumi said that Perez slowed very early and there is some suspicion that Perez didn't exactly help things, but if that was true the stewards would have surely picked that up after studying the telemetry, if stewards do such things at all, sometimes I wonder.

Here are the full results:
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h59:06.537
02. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1.737
03. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 29.279
04. Alonso Ferrari + 55.449
05. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1:07.766
06. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:51.067
07. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
08. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
09. Massa Ferrari + 1 lap
10. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
12. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
13. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 2 laps
15. Senna Renault + 2 laps
16. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
17. Petrov Renault + 2 laps
18. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
20. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
21. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 5 laps
Did Not Finish
Trulli Lotus-Renault 48
Schumacher Mercedes 29
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 10

Are Raikkonen and Williams doing a deal for 2012?

2011-09-22T22:07:00.000+02:00

There are a lot of rumours circulating that Williams and Raikkonen are talking about a return to F1 for Kimi for the 2012 season. The speculation started after Kimi visited the Williams factory just before the Italian GP.

Rubens Barichello, who hasn't confirmed a deal yet with Williams for 2012 was moved to comment that he is not fazed by the rumours and is focussed on getting the drive for next season at Williams.

So in reality, what could it all mean?

Firstly Kimi left F1 at the end of 2009 as he ostensibly wanted to pursue a rallying career. There were strong rumours however that McLaren wanted him back and that the deal eventually stumbled over money. They then got Jenson Button instead.

Kimi's year and a half in WRC has not been as stellar as he would have liked, and I think reality has set in and he realises that he is unlikely to even win a rally, let alone a championship. He even tried a Nascar race earlier this year which is an indicator to me that he is keeping his options open for next season and is looking for a return to tarmac.

He had big backing from Red Bull for his WRC effort last year and he was strongly linked with a return to F1 in Mark Webber's place at Red Bull Racing. However, now that Webber has signed to stay on in 2012 that avenue is closed.

The other 2 top teams are Ferrari and McLaren. Ferrari is obviously out, and McLaren are not going to break up a great English partnership of Button and Hamilton. Button however has not confirmed he is staying with Mclaren for 2012, the re-emergence of Raikkonen on the scene as an available driver might hasten Button to put pen to paper on a new deal with McLaren. McLaren's respect and admiration for Kimi is well known so he could be a viable candidate if Button decides to play contract hardball.

Other top 2 teams of Mercedes and Lotus Renault....hmmm........Mercedes are locked in their all German pair of Schumi and Rosberg, both of whom are confirmed for next year. Lotus Renault are more complicated. Not only do they have the uncertainty of if Kubica returns, and if he does, how quick will he be, they also have Senna confirmed for the rest of this season and possibly next, as well as Petrov. They look likely to go for 1 "talent" driver in either Kubica or even Raikkonen, and 1 sponsor driver like Senna or Petrov.

And this leaves Williams. Although they are struggling at the moment, they are a multiple world championship winning team. They are returning to Renault power soon as well and this key relationship may convince Kimi that they could be getting back to winning ways in the future. Kimi also has a humungous fan base still, visit any F1 forum and you will see what I mean and he is imminently marketable and has good potential to draw in big sponsors to go with Maldonaldo's Venezuelan oil money.

Will it happen, I am highly sceptical, but according to F1 journo's I follow on twitter, the Singapore paddock is ablaze with rumours that Williams and Kimi are in fact speaking about a return to F1 for the Finn...........interesting times indeed.

2011 F1 development is grinding to a halt

2011-09-15T12:57:00.001+02:00

With Sebastian Vettel likely to sew up the drivers championship if he wins in Singapore, and with Red Bull leading the Constructors championship pretty comfortably, Ferrari and McLaren are now set to focus exclusively on their 2012 challengers.

It also hands Red Bull a significant advantage too. Unlike last year when Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren were in the championship right till the end, meaning that they had to keep developing their cars to ensure victory, this year they will all focus on next years car unseasonably early thanks to Vettel and Red Bulls utter dominance of F1.

Being in a championship fight can really cost you in terms of development time for next season, just ask McLaren and Ferrari, McLaren clinched the title in 2008 but had expended so much of themselves in the process they took their eye off the ball with their 2009 car, which turned out to be a real turkey. Ferrari too were in it right till the end, with Massa actually being World Champ until Hamilton overtook Glock and got the point he needed to become champ. Their 2009 car was also pretty unholy, with tifosi still spitting everytime they mention the F2009. Raikkonen only took 1 victory for the Scuderia that year at Spa.

Brawn proved the contrast however, as they focused exclusively on their 2009 car from early 2008 and it payed off extremely handsomely as they and Jenson Button dominated the first half of the season with their car before being caught by Red Bull in the latter stages of the season.

The 2012 cars are however set to be an evolution of the current 2011 cars. The engines are frozen, teams are all used to Pirelli's now, and with the banning of double diffusers next year, there is not a whole lotta scope for new and clever thinking. With that in mind I predict that Vettel and Red Bull could well start out as championship favourites again. We will have to wait till 2014 when the new 1.6L turbo engines come in before we see any changing of the guard.

Vettel may well turn out to be a quadruple world champion by then, Baby Schumi indeed!

Vettel wins Italian GP

2011-09-11T19:57:00.000+02:00

Sebastian Vettel was utterly dominant to win his 2nd Italian GP with Jenson Button in 2nd and Fernando Alonso in a consolation 3rd place.

The race started with some high drama as Alonso got a fantastic start to lead going into the first corner from 4th on the grid. Tonio Liuzzi lost control of his car and came careening into the pack sideways by way of the grass at the first chicane to leave a complete mess at the first corner. He took out Rosberg and Petrov. This brought out the Safety car and the restart is where all the magic happened.

Schumi had gotten his customary lightning start and was running in 4th behind Hamilton. As the Safety Car pulled in Alonso and Vettel bolted but Hamilton seemed to be unaware, resulting in Schumacher catching and passing him to setup a ding dong battle that lasted well over 20 laps. Hamilton tried in vain to pass the veteran but kept running into the rev limiter on his Mclaren and even with the DRS couldn't find a way past.

Brundle and DC were complaining bitterly that Schumi was too harsh in his defence and the FIA did ask Mercedes to tell Michael to "be careful". Ross Brawn came over the radio and told Michael to leave room at Ascari and after the first message he seemed more "compliant". However Lewis was still struggling, and by this time Jenson had caught both of them. He made the most of their fight, by passing Lewis and then Michael into Ascari to set about catching Alonso. Michael came in for tyres first and when Lewis pitted 2 laps later he came out behind Michael again.

Their battle commenced again until Lewis eventually passed him but by this stage the race was more than halfway done and Lewis chance of victory had long since evaporated.

There were a lot of retirements as well, far more than I can remember at any other race, with only 15 cars finishing.

The net result is Vettel can be world champion in Singapore if the results go his way, an incredible achievement to show how dominant he has been this season.

Special mention for Bruno Senna who got his first world championship points today. He is impressing many people with his driving and is putting up his hand for a Renault seat next year.

Results:
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h20:46.172
02. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 9.590
03. Alonso Ferrari + 16.909
04. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 17.471
05. Schumacher Mercedes + 32.677
06. Massa Ferrari + 42.993
07. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
08. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
09. Senna Renault + 1 lap
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
14. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
15. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
Did Not Finish
Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 40
Perez Sauber-Ferrari 34
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 23
Sutil Force India-Mercedes 11
Webber Red Bull-Renault 6
D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 3
Petrov Renault 1
Rosberg Mercedes 1
Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1

Heidfeld and Lotus Renault go their seperate ways

2011-09-04T17:22:00.000+02:00

Nick Heidfeld and the Lotus Renault team ended their working relationship after coming to what has been described as an "amicable" settlement. It has also been announced that Bruno Senna will complete the rest of the season with Lotus Renault in Heidfeld's place.

Heidfeld threatened to take legal action against Lotus on the weekend of the Belgium GP as he still had a valid contract and there was some tension simmering over the team the whole weekend. Bruno Senna however didn't let this get to him as he claimed a superb 7th in qualifying to perhaps drive the point home as to why the team had chosen to drop Heidfeld.

Unfortunately he undid all his hard work in qualy by getting involved in a 1st corner fracas which dropped him right down the grid. He managed to finish in an eventual 13th and gain some valuable time in the car.
He will have to show steady improvement over the remainder of the season if he wants to hold on to the seat for next year, the Lotus Renault team have GP2 champion Roman Grosjean waiting in the wings, as well as the hopefully imminent return of Robert Kubica to give them an even bigger selection headache.

So, what this means in my opinion is that we have just seen the end of Nick Heidfeld's F1 career. He hardly covered himself in glory this year which led to the team ultimately dropping him. A new career in DTM perhaps for Quick Nick?

Schumi "Quit" rumours starting to circulate again

2011-08-09T17:39:00.000+02:00

I suppose it is inevitable that when you are a 7 time world champion and that you haven't gotten a podim since your comeback, that from time to time, (especially during the F1 summer break when news is slow!), your commitment to the team and your long term F1 future is questioned.

This "time" of the season is now upon us and we have another story circulating that Schumi is perhaps re-evaluating his commitment to F1 for next season.

The story seems to emanate from Corriere dello Sport who report that Schumacher said:
"I arrived at Mercedes with a specific task: not winning at all costs but to grow the team"
"If anything, I am the problem: it is a fact that I am a bit more relaxed than before and I do not know if my mind-set is right for this team.
"I have experience, I can estimate when it is necessary to concentrate. But I do not know if my mind-set is right for the team, in some time we will evaluate whether to continue or stop in F1."

The facts are that Schumacher has a contract till the end of 2012, and in my opinion he will see out his contract at the minimum. Yes, he has not been as succesful as he would have liked since his return, but the facts are that the Mercedes is not a front running car, Rosberg hasn't been on the podium this season either. I am pretty sure that Schumi will at least wait till the 2012 car before deciding on his future.

I do think however, that if the 2012 Mercedes is slow in pre season testing, that he may well retire instead of spending his last season running around in 8th, 9th or 10th trying to just pick up points.