Paul's F1 Musings

A bad day for Hamilton and for McLaren

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP for "deliberately misleading the stewards" as to whether or not he was asked by the team to let Jarno Trulli pass him when running behind the Safety Car and whether he actually let Jarno past. From the recordings of a post race interview and of the car-to-pit radio from the official FIA ruling, it seems pretty obvious that he did both and yet told the stewards he did neither. In any sport you simply can’t have lying to the officials,...

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Melbourne '09 – So many great performances with a few notable exceptions

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:49:00 +0000

It was a great race, a great showing from Brawn GP, from Jenson Button and Rubens Barricello. I haven't been a great fan of Button, but he put in a flawless performance this weekend. Another great performance came from Lewis Hamilton – he got a podium from nothing with a good, safe, considered drive whilst many around them fell off the island and cost themselves points. The ending of the race saw the coming together of Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel in an incident that took them both out...

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Is “New” the new “Tried and Tested”?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:26:00 +0000

Can we please get one thing straight for the 2009 season? Brawn GP is not a new team, despite what their PR people and even what the title documents say in their FIA lodgings. Brawn GP (and their new car) follows a direct lineage from Honda Racing of last year, through British American Racing and to Tyrrell Grand Prix. That’s over 40 years. Of course they have done wonders following the announcement that Honda was to pull out of F1 – however given the PR spin that the team in Brackley simply...

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Alonso – running home scared?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:06:00 +0000

After reading the news that Fernando Alonso has done the predictable, and returned to Renault, I was disappointed by the idea that part of the deal may have been moving Heikki Kovalainen to one side. Flavio Briatore manages Heikki, so it’s unlikely that he will fall too far (rumour has it straight onto his feet and into a McLaren), but in essence this seems to have been to ensure that Alonso does not have to battle another really quick team-mate. Clearly this makes some sense; no one wants to...

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Improving the Racing

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:00:00 +0000

Whilst I applaud any effort to increase overtaking in F1, and certainly support methods that are not artificial (i.e. I don't want to see power-to-pass or success ballast penalties), I am not totally convinced by either Gary Anderson's (Autosport 22/11/2007) or the FIA's proposals. I defer to Gary's far superior knowledge of F1 design than my own, however my first impression of the Anderson spec F1 car was that it reminded me very much of the grid of the second half of the 1994 season. The...

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Fuelling speculation

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:50:00 +0000

The FIA needs to be stronger and show more integrity. It seems to continually make rulings with an eye to image of the championship. This leads to the inconsistency that we have seen over several years. It has a rulebook that it needs to follow. It needs to resist the urge to change regulations mid-season and instead address problems at season's end or, in extreme cases if persistent breaches of the spirit of a rule are found. However, pandering to vested interests, such as in the media, led...

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Justice expert is blind

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:44:00 +0000

Damien Smith’s "expert view" (Autosport 02/08/07), regarding the lack of punishment of McLaren by the WMSC, is anything but. Rather it is a "classic view from the F1 village tent" - that if those outside don’t understand they can be told the "correct" way by those within. The F1 governing bodies persist in doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Whether they are technical or sporting rulings, most of the major ones, including the examples he gives, seem to be almost deliberately...

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No one is responsible in F1?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:48:00 +0000

I know I am not alone in being bemused by the FIA World Motor Sport Council’s decision regarding the alleged spying involving McLaren, Ferrari are confused too, to put it mildly. Every team should be outraged by the decision, one which effectively says that a team should feel free to avail itself of a rival’s designs as long as they cannot be traced to a physical component on the offending team’s car. Clearly this is not just preposterous, but also gives free reign for designers to be, as...

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F1 Testing

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:51:00 +0000

Here are some upcoming F1 testing dates with location and attending teams were known. I shall try and add to this when i know more. If anyone has any more info then post a comment and i can update the post. Might be useful for people fancy visiting the quieter (!) side of F1. Track Dates(inc) TeamsJerez 24-26/77/2007 BMW, Honda, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Super Aguri, Toyota & WilliamsMonza 28-30/08/2007 AllBarcelona 13-15/11/2007

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Breaking the Tow

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:25:00 +0000

Aside from the outstanding performance by Lewis Hamilton under extreme pressure from his twice World Champion team mate, Fernando Alonso, the 2007 US Grand Prix also marked the return to GP racing of the technique known as "breaking the tow". This is the defensive response to a car using the slipstream of the car in front as a high-speed windbreak, which gives the following car an easier path – and faster speeds. The defensive move by Hamilton, shown below, is not just a "one move to the...

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Fast Felipe or Flying Finn?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 14:34:00 +0000

I have resisted posting until now. Why? Well because there hasn’t been much for me to add to what everyone else has been saying, notably that Lewis Hamilton has been excellent: he is showing in F1 everything that his performance in lower formulae has suggested. I have followed his career for years and it is great to see. However, the single most interesting feature at the moment is the battle within Ferrari. The Italian team is unaccustomed to having two drivers actually fight it out and it...

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And they’re off!

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:42:00 +0000

The 2007 season is underway and it appears the winter testing form was carried through to the first race. Normally someone is sandbagging, someone is running a light car for some extra column inches, but not this year. The surprise package was the Super Aguri, although there wasn’t really much winter testing form to go on as the 2007 car was only launched two days prior to a run around Albert Park. True, their test mule was a hybrid of the 2006 Aguri with 2007 Honda engine and transmission and...

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Copying their homework

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:40:00 +0000

Whilst from a competition point of view it is great to see the teams at the back of the grid get quicker, the FIA cannot have been pleased at the performance of the Super Aguri. The full 2007 car, produced by a team that is essentially a vehicle (sorry) for Takuma Sato, hadn’t turned a wheel in anger before the first practice session in Melbourne and yet qualified tenth and eleventh. It isn’t that I wish them to struggle, but they need to serve an apprenticeship. Regardless of the...

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Wet Blanket

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 13:04:00 +0000

As printed in Autosport November 16th 2006 Whilst I don’t dispute the list of Michael Schumacher’s Top Ten drives(Autosport November 2nd 2006). I think that there is a caveat that should be applied to his wet weather talent – it is not just on the track that he has a demonstrable superiority in the wet. Michael has been undisputed number 1 in his team for most of his career and with that status comes almost exclusivity over the spare car. What this has meant (prior to engine change park ferme...

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Who's up for a Brazlian?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:28:00 +0000

This weekend sees the season ending Brazilian Grand Prix and, as I am sure all motor racing fans already know, Michael Schumacher can only beat Fernando Alonso with a straight reversal of their respect results at Suzuka. As we saw in Monza, this is entirely possible. The Renault engine can break, the Ferrari can win. However, there are other options and possibly Massa could come into play in an attempt to hold up Alonso. If you were a complete conspiracy theorist and wore a Renault shirt you...

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Design Mueseum F1 exhibition - well worth a look

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:37:00 +0000

I have been meaning to get around to this exhibition for quite sometime. If you are in the UK, or heading to the UK and are interested in F1 then I suggest the Design Museum exhbition on F1 . There are cars from each of the decades of F1, a Cooper from the 50s, Brabham from the 60s, a gorgeous JPS lotus from the 70s, the awesome MP4/4 that scored 15 wins out of 16 races in 1988. Mansell's FW14B is present as is a "2004" Ferrari. I say "2004" because the steering wheel is clearly not 2004...

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Farce in Action

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:42:00 +0000

(internet exclusive) The FIA insists that F1 rules must be applied consistently yet keeps changing them. Not content with a yearly change to qualifying, or engine regulations, this season more than any other it has fiddled with the regulations during the season - mass dampers, vertical wings and now blocking in qualifying. If that wasn’t bad enough, it is the manner with which it handles these changes. We have aerodynamic devices that aren’t in the air flow, vision impairing wings that the...

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Are they Ferrari in disguise? II

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:12:00 +0000

Following on from Saturday's decision by the FIA and my own views about decisions of the FIA, it was pleasing to see that i am not alone in this view!

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Safety in F1

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:47:00 +0000

This may come across as macabre and ghoulish, and but that isn't the intention. Recently, I was looking at F1 videos on YouTube and I came across some videos of crashes. You really see the improvements in safety, especially when you compare the mechncially major crashes such as Villenueve at Eau Rouge in the 90s and much less violent crashes from the 70s, such as Lauda's horrific crash at the old Nurburgring. There is less fire in a crash now. There is also a quicker and more sophisticated...

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Movable Aerodynamic device?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:41:00 +0000

Mass dampers never saw the airflow and yet have been banned. Now Ferrari have wheel fairings that it says are there to aid the cooling of the brakes on its cars. This is done by managing the airflow to the car. Now, surely this is a movable aerodynamic device that is not rigidly fixed to the sprung mass of the car. It is fixed to the wheel which is of course unsprung. The FIA as to act on these wheels, since it has already banned a device that feels no airflow as an aerodynamic device. It...

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Are they Ferrari in disguise?

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:54:00 +0000

(internet exclusive) I think the FIA has lost the plot in banning the mass damper. As i have previously posted if the FIA doesn't like something, it bans it. But it should use the rules to ban for the right reason. It is ludicrous to argue something that is not in the airflow is an aerodynamic device, whether it be moveable or otherwise. I don't think Pat Symonds is making an idle threat when he says :- "I really do not believe the FIA can win the appeal on the grounds they have said,"...

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I guess if the details are "sketchy"

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:39:00 +0000

I just stumbled across the image shown. This is the official map to the Shanghai circuit. I would have thought, having already staged a couple of races they should know what the traffic is going to be like for the upcoming race weekend. On the other hand, if you have to be vague, be honest about it as they describe in their "Sketchy" map.

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JV's got a point about Michael Schumacher's legacy

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 10:19:00 +0000

(internet exclusive) It would be easy to dismiss Jaques Villeneuve's comments as being bitter at his BMW exit (especially as he seemed to have regained some of his old form), but really he has a point and a point i agree with. Michael has the record for, well everything, in F1. He is undoubtedly up there with anyone else in the history of the sport, but you simply don't get the same feeling from him as you do with Mansell - responsible for all the best over taking moves ever. Or Senna-...

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Regs Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 21:57:00 +0000

(internet exclusive) When thoughts are given to the final ruling on the legality of the "mass dampers" as used by many teams. Perhaps the appeal should focus not just on the technical regulations themselves but how they are applied for the benefit of the fans. The FIA has a habit of banning things on safety grounds when it simply doesn’t like them aesthetically. It is difficult for fans to understand that an X-wing is more dangerous than a wing mirror, or that a BMW Sauber’s vertical wings...

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On the Button

noreply@blogger.com (EI2g) — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 21:58:00 +0000

(internet exclusive) I would just like to add my congratulations to Jenson Button on his maiden Grand Prix win this afternoon at the Hungarian Grand Prix. I have been a long time critic of Button, who I still maintain has not had the results that support the hype surrounding him. Today he drove very well from 14th on the grid, following his engine change penalty and made no mistakes when many of those around him threw it off the road (Raikkonnen, Michael Schumacher etc). I can't argue that...

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