Sunday 27 May 2012

Webber rolls six in Monaco


Mark Webber soaked up all the pressure to achieve victory in one of the greatest challenges in motor racing for the second time in his career while also becoming the sixth different winner in the opening six races, a record for Formula 1.

There is no other circuit quite like Monaco. Nowhere else offers the challenge of 100 per cent concentration and perfection that is required to win around the majestic barrier lined streets. 

Webber was in control from the start and didn’t put a wheel wrong. He for once got a good launch away to lead into the first corner and from then on apart from during the single pit stop strategy that most used, was never headed.

But don’t let this fact make you think it was an easy race for the Australian. Nico Rosberg who started alongside him was never less than two seconds away crowding his mirrors especially when a few drops of rain fell in the latter stages.

He took it cautiously in the moments when the track moistened, and Rosberg followed by the ever charging Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and a rejuvenated Felipe Massa all bottled up behind him.

But he corked them all nicely, and this is Monaco, if he didn’t make a mistake no one would have a chance to pass; no opportunity was forthcoming.

Truth told it wasn’t exactly the most thrilling of races, but with the threat of rain and six cars circulating within five seconds of each other it made for a tense finish to the end but it still ended with the now traditional Red Bull victory pool party as they won for a third year running.


After a consistent showing so far this year where he’s had the better pace than team mate Sebastian Vettel for a fair amount of the season, this win puts him right in the mix in the championship.

He’s now just three points behind Fernando Alonso and tied equal second with Vettel. This is Webber of 2010 vintage, with the absence of blown diffusers, which he wasn’t able to exploit as fully as Vettel last year, he is showing great form.

Red Bull didn’t really have the fastest car today, but they used it to its full potential and delivered a great result to become the first manufacturer of 2012 to double up their win tally. The threat of a protest about a hole in the floor just in front of the rear wheels that is meant to send more air to the diffuser failed to materialise.

It’s been on the car for some races now, and the FIA have approved it before. It shows really well how they are fighting this season despite not having the best car anymore and also how much they’ll push the rules to get it back.

As it is, both their drivers are only three points from the lead and they have a significant lead in the constructors, provided by the fact that both their drivers are challenging near the front of the title race, something the other teams haven’t got right now.

Vettel’s damage limitation run


 Sebastian Vettel started only ninth on the grid after again not setting a time in the final part of qualifying. He avoided Romain Grosjean’s spinning Lotus at the start, having to cut the first corner, but found himself sixth.

He’d started on the harder of the two compounds (the soft tyre), and despite a gap appearing between himself and the Ferrari’s in front, he was never too far away. It may well have been a clever ploy to give himself a little clearer air to look after his tyres, but whatever, when the front runners pitted on lap 30 for the softs he began to push.

Vettel flew, lapping in 1.19s while Webber and co for a long time couldn’t get much below a 1.21 as they struggled to push them. It brought Vettel into play and until Webber began to find the sweet spot and push his Pirelli’s, it looked like the German might even just manage to pull a gap large enough for him to come back out in the lead.

He came in on lap 46, his lap times had begun to drop, but it was enough for him to exit in front of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and move up to fourth. From then on he was caught in the Webber train and just like the rest of them could find no way through. Still it was a bit of a damage limitation race for Vettel and he executed it well.

Fernando, Felipe is faster than you

Well, not quite but a special mention for this weekend has to go to Felipe Massa who has been under intense pressure all year after a disastrous series of results. He looked quicker than team mate Alonso through a lot of practice, and just missed out on out qualifying him.

 

During the early parts of the race Massa definitely looked the faster Ferrari driver, however he fell back just enough that he couldn’t replicate his team mate jumping in front of Hamilton during the pit stops which consequently allowed Vettel to also get ahead when he made his stop. However he still finished sixth which is progress, now let’s see if he can continue this into the Canadian Grand Prix.

However he’ll still have to go some to beat Alonso. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how Fernando is driving this year. He is making the most of every opportunity offered to him, and now Ferrari are maintaining their new found competiveness compared to the start of the season he is the man everyone has to watch out for in the title hunt.

But his Monaco Grand Prix could have gone very wrong at the start. Alonso had a great getaway, but Hamilton’s slow start meant there was no room on the inside. He hesitated slightly then moved to the outside only for a slow starting Grosjean to already be there.

Fortunately for the Ferrari driver, it pushed the Lotus to the outside clattering it into the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, by then Alonso was well away.
He wasn’t quite able to keep pace with the top three in the early laps, and was actually beginning to look like he was forming his own train behind him. However, unfortunately for Massa, Alonso may well have just been protecting his tyres because as the pit stops approached he got it together and started to close Lewis down.

Hamilton pitted on lap 30 which signalled a brilliant in lap from Alonso, fastest personal sector times all the way round followed by a quick pit stop. He blasted out of the pits just in front of Hamilton to eventually claim third place; a great result that elevates him to the outright lead of the title hunt once again.

Contrasting fortunes continue at Mercedes


Mercedes had a mixed weekend; on the one hand Rosberg delivered a great result. If he’d got Webber at the start he may well have won easily as the German squad looked to have the better car around Monaco.  

It wasn’t to be, so he had to settle for harrying him all the way to the end, and especially during the damp stages of the race Rosberg looked like he was building up to a challenge, but no opportunity was offered to him.

On the other we have Schumacher. He’s been criticised a lot since Spain but he answered his critics in qualifying with a brilliant pole position lap. After he’d taken his five place grid drop for the clash with Bruno Senna he started 6th.

He made a good start but was caught up in the Grosjean incident at the start and then got stuck behind Kimi Raikkonen who’s tyres faded badly allowing a big gap to build up to the front six.

He had looked after his tyres and set a great pace to easily jump Kimi into 7th and set about catching the front runners. A fuel pick up problem put an end to another promising display.

Rest of the top 10


Lewis Hamilton was a frustrated man after going backwards from 3rd to 5th. His start was poor but he maintained position as chaos broke out behind, but a slow pit stop dropped him behind Alonso and Vettel.

He’s still bringing home points though and keeping himself near the front while Jenson Button is looking lost at sea with the Pirelli’s. His late race retirement failed to lose him any points as he ended his day spinning behind the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen, which tells you everything.


Paul di Resta fought back from a 15th start position to jump ahead of his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg to finish 7th. Nico ended up 8th after being in the queue behind Kimi, an opportunistic move when Kimi got held up by a late pitting Sergio Perez salvaged an extra spot so all round it wasn’t a bad day for the team.

After Grosjean’s early retirement Lotus were left with Raikkonen to pick up the points, and he did but only two of them for 9th. After three podiums from the last two races and looking quick in practice Monaco ended up being a bit of a disappointment for Lotus.

Kimi’s tyres went off worse than the others while waiting to see if it would rain, when  he eventually pitted he came out behind the Marussia of Charles Pic, then lost a place to the aforementioned Hulkenberg when he ducked inside Perez at La Rascasse, only for the Sauber to swing into the pits late and baulk him which cost the Mexican a drive through penalty.

Final point went to the Williams of Senna. Not the glory of two weeks ago for the team but at least it was something after Pastor Maldonado’s worrying weekend when he sideswiped Perez in practice after he felt he’d been held up although he denies it. Maldonado was caught up in the start incident and failed to complete the opening lap.


Kovalainen who finished 13th was impressive today, he caught the Kimi train and held off Button for a while too although his defence was sometimes a little questionable especially one time exiting the tunnel when he appeared to change lines. Timo Glock also had a good run to 14th for Marussia.

Finally Jean-Eric Vergne had a decent display for Toro Rosso moving up from 16th on the grid to lie 7th before pitting for intermediates when the few spots of rain came, a gamble that did not pay off as he slipped down the order.

The title fight develops

If Monaco taught us anything, apart from that even with DRS and these lottery inspired Pirelli’s it’s still a very difficult track to pass on, it’s that the top teams are beginning to move ahead. You might see flashes of speed on occasion from the other squads, but the consistency of the main front runners and the rate of development will soon begin to tell.

We are beginning to see a championship battle forming. Alonso, Vettel, Webber and Hamilton look to be the leading contenders at the moment, not just by the fact they’re the top four but because they are consistently scoring decent points. Kimi, Rosberg and Button are all in there too.

Already Alonso has said that he achieved his objective today which was to finish ahead of Vettel and Hamilton, now he’ll add Webber to that list of targets. The main contenders aren’t quite defined yet, but we’re getting there.

The next race takes us to Montreal in Canada, where even without the variables we have this year is usually an entirely frenetic unpredictable event. Who’s going to make it seven from seven?

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Monaco Grand Prix preview


In the words of Jenson Button after he won in 2009 ‘Monaco baby, yeah’! It’s the race all the drivers want to win; the claustrophobia of the barriers needs levels of concentration that make it a true test for drivers as they wind their way past the many famous landmarks that scatter the circuit, the often used cliché of it being the jewel in the crown of Formula 1 is certainly a very apt one.

This year it’s a race that almost all the drivers can actually genuinely go there and believe they have a hope of winning as the form book has been ripped up, spat out and stepped on before being tossed in the Mediterranean.  

The gripping tyre debate

There has been no real form set in 2012, it makes predicting anything rather a hard task. The Pirelli tyres, for better or worse, have made Formula 1 a lottery. I think in terms of entertainment in the races they’ve been a great success.

However, even with Sebastian Vettel winning all the time last year, many of the races were fantastic spectacles, but you at least had a consistent run of form for people to latch on to. This year it hasn’t been like that at all with almost any team coming to the forefront, and the thing is they don’t even know why, which gives it all a slight artificialness.

Certainly as I wrote in my Spanish race report many drivers are baffled and frustrated with why they can’t make the tyres work for them on particular occasions. I’m not sure it’s particularly a good thing.

For all the technical wonders that Formula 1 teams possess they have been left flummoxed by the tyres to such an extent that they don’t even know how their car will perform one day to the next. For instance Lotus was extremely fast in race set up mode on the Friday of Spain. Two days later and a 10C drop in temperature and they couldn’t compete with Ferrari and Williams until the end.

As Mark Hughes wrote here for the Skysports website, it’s about maintaining a consistent approach with the tyres on a given occasion which many a driver can do, but how many can really sustain full on attack for lap after lap? Well none at the moment as that skill is no longer required, something you feel many drivers miss.

Is Formula 1 now just an entertainment lottery show or is it still a sport of technical skill and driving to the edge? My bet is you’ll see a slight adjustment of how Pirelli go about constructing their tyres for 2013 to give a little bit more consistency so that teams can go on the attack again and satisfy the drivers a bit more.

Who will win on the streets?

So as the teams set up in Monaco for tomorrow’s practice they’ll be desperately searching for that all elusive sweet spot while coping with differing temperatures and a street track surface which no one will really know where they stand, probably until Sunday evening.

Well having said that let’s try and work out who Pirelli would like to win this weekend? I’ll start off with a bold prediction that perhaps, just maybe we could pick up our sixth different winning driver and team and you’ve got to believe it’ll be Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus.

When you search for a consistent theme from 2012 perhaps the most obvious one is that Lotus have been there abouts all year long. If they were a graph they’d have more of a straight line than anyone else.

If anything they’ve been moving up, they could conceivably have won the last two races, Kimi certainly thinks there’s been missed opportunities. If the tyres hadn’t have died so comprehensively in China while in second he’d have been leading the championship, it has to be his turn to shine soon.

I’m not forgetting Romain Grosjean though, he’s been very impressive with his second bite at Formula 1 especially in qualifying. His race performances have left him getting a bit battle scarred, but Bahrain and Spain have marked a turnaround but at present Kimi just has the edge on Sundays.

Apart from Lotus making it six from six, as we enter our second quarter of the season it becomes more likely that someone will double up their race wins. There’s many who could but it’s not outlandish to suggest Pastor Maldonado could get back to back victories.

Providing Williams have recovered their equipment after their garage fire I think they’re a reasonable choice. Maldonado was unlucky not to finish sixth last year in a terrible car after he got bumped by Lewis Hamilton. So with a winning car and that extra bounce from victory… Bruno Senna won in GP2 so let’s not rule him out either.

Ferrari’s updates appeared to at least work for Fernando Alonso in Spain, he is joint leader of the championship and really he has no right to be. But he’s been fantastic and the team have worked hard to improve the car, but to be in a position where he is, is entirely down to him. With an improving car I think it’s looking ominous for the rest, he’s always there waiting in the wings, but how long before he’s flying far above?

Realistically, although you never know, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes will be the other challengers for victory. McLaren still probably have the quickest car, tyres corrected, especially in Lewis Hamilton’s hands.

Hamilton has been held back by team mistakes, he’s another one who has cause to think he should be leading the title hunt, but he’s kept his head and he should be well up there in qualifying. But it’s Sunday where there’s the question mark. McLaren have faded in the last few races, if they’ve understood why then I’d expect Lewis to be heading Jenson Button who is increasingly confused by the way the tyres work for him.

Never discount Red Bull, Vettel and Mark Webber will be around, but after a resounding victory in Bahrain they were nowhere in Spain. Vettel looked disappointed, but if anything it’ll make him more determined than ever and he’s still leading the championship. He took a great Monaco victory last year while conserving the tyres and holding off Alonso and Button so he’s got recent form, if that counts for anything.

Mercedes too have dropped back after their win in China and with Michael Schumacher restrained by a grid penalty they’ll be looking to Nico Rosberg to lead the charge, but I think they’ve dropped down the pecking order for now at least.

But these are just predictions, nobody really knows what the Pirelli gods have in store for us in the principality and whatever you may think about how the racing is going this year, it’ll still be a lot of fun finding out.

photo taken from autosport.com

Wednesday 16 May 2012

First quarter over, what does the form guide tell us?

What does the form guide tell us? Nothing. The Spanish Grand Prix marked the completion of the first quarter of the 2012 Formula 1 season and trying to assess anyone’s form right now is about as difficult as juggling knives, unless you are an accomplished juggler. But let’s look at a few highlights from the season so far.

First of all the sheer unpredictability of it all; five different teams and drivers winning the first five races hasn’t been seen since 1983. Pirelli have certainly mixed things up this year with no one able to work the tyres consistently from race to race.


Fernando Alonso has been utterly brilliant. Everyone constantly marks him out as the most complete driver racing in Formula 1 right now, and it’s so hard to disagree with that as he is joint leader of the championship with a car that has been way off the pace up until Spain.

He has dragged that car into the points at every race so far and it’s been amazing to see. He’s been very positive with his attitude, something that might not have been the case a few years ago, and is really leading the team. If Ferrari’s updates continue to improve the car, Alonso has given them a great start to the season to build upon.

Kimi Raikkonen; his return raised many questions about motivation and did he still have what it takes etc. Well, two podiums, which perhaps should have been wins certainly have answered anyone who doubted him. He’s been awesome and I think is certainly a title contender at this early stage of the season. A win must be just around the corner.


Williams winning after so long was quite fantastic. To win with their so called pay driver as well was the icing on the cake. Pastor Maldonado may have come with a lot of money, but then again Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher had money to secure their first drives too.

I’m not saying he’ll end up a world champion one day, but he certainly displayed a great deal of maturity and control in delivering Williams’ first win since 2004. I think we’ll see a few more podiums from Williams before the year is out too.

Sebastian Vettel needs a mention, he's been good this year. It must be such a fall after the dizzying highs of last year, but he's kept at it, got a win and a podium and is joint leader of the title chase. And his wheel to wheel racing has been brilliant.

So on to the not so wonderful things. First of all the sheer unpredictability of it all; I’ll talk more about the tyres in my Monaco preview next Wednesday, but the Pirelli’s are producing a lottery situation where no one can get a real grip (intended) on how to use them.

Of course it is the same for everyone and the teams have to cope with whatever circumstances are thrown at them but when drivers, good drivers, are left bewildered by why the tyres won’t work for them, then it feels like anyone can win given a track temperature that suits their car. When you know the drivers can’t go all out, it kind of takes the edge off this unpredictability, well just a tiny bit.

I’m not sure that that route is how Formula 1 should go, as you want to see drivers and teams really earn it by fighting for it, not just winning because on that particular day the best couldn’t make their tyres work and they don’t even know why. But like I said, it’s the same for everyone.


Poor Felipe Massa, after the improvement in Bahrain where he looked quicker than Alonso, he has got a demand from Ferrari to step up in Monaco. It’s difficult for Ferrari, they’ve helped him after his accident in 2009 but for whatever reason it’s just not working for him.

When he came back at the start of 2010 he could have won his first race back, should have won in Germany the same year but was deprived by team orders, but last year he was just lacklustre. 

He had been getting better and better every year at Ferrari since 2006, but whether that accident has taken the edge off or the sheer force of Alonso and Ferrari’s dedication to him has made Massa unsettled or he just can’t handle the tyres, it’s do or die time for Felipe.

If he can’t I don’t know who would replace him anyway, perhaps Perez, maybe test driver Jules Bianchi. I think it would be worth giving Jaime Alguersuari a go. But first of all I’d give Felipe a bit more time, he’s better than what he’s doing now, hopefully he can rediscover his form before it’s too late.

Caterham, Marussia and HRT; I thought at least Caterham would have made enough progress to latch onto the back of the midfield.

And Finally, McLaren; Lewis Hamilton got his head down after last year’s catalogue of errors and has quite frankly been the quickest out there, definitely in qualifying. Despite the pace falling away for the Woking team on Sundays Hamilton should be leading the championship.


But pit errors and that qualifying mistake in Spain has at least cost Lewis a podium, possibly two. With the season being so close, this could hurt his title chances. They need to get their act together as it’s not something you’d normally expect from such a successful team.

Anyway, it’s certainly been an interesting start to the season, can’t wait for the rest of it, starting with the streets of Monaco.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

In defence of Schumacher


A recent column on the BBC website by Andrew Benson suggests that Michael Schumacher is past it due to the crash he had in Spain with Bruno Senna, and seems to suggest that people will start to call into question his past achievements.

This will be a brief riposte to that column as I believe it to be a bit early in the season to be questioning his place in the sport especially when all evidence is to the contrary.

First of all, I acknowledge an admiration of Schumacher, but I also am not blind to the faults that lay within his make up and have often criticised him in this blog.

The crash in Spain was probably more Schumacher’s responsibility as he was the car behind but Senna did move around in the braking area, it was a racing incident more than anything and certainly not indicative of someone who can’t take the pace anymore.


Michael Schumacher has had a terrible start to the year, his worst ever. He has suffered from pit and mechanical failures and a crash that have resulted in three retirements so far. He was also tagged by Romain Grosjean's Lotus in Malaysia that spun him down the field while lying third.

A failed DRS wing stymied his Bahrain race resulting in a charge from the back. So all in all he’s not had the luck going with him, but despite all this he’s actually been very fast. He’s qualified in the top four three times already this year, and lost a lot of points through no fault of his own.

He started so brightly and had the upper hand over Nico Rosberg over the first two races continuing the form of last year where he was often the faster driver on race day.

This is not the sign of someone who is over the hill at all, in fact despite acknowledging he doesn’t like the tyres, this is the best he’s been in terms of pace since his return, something only 2 points on the board obviously doesn’t show, but I think there’s still hope for a win this year and certainly a podium or two, providing the tyres work of course.

I’ve been saying for a while that apart from a slight lack of pace that he once had, the other major thing he hasn’t brought with him from his first career is good luck. It’s not gone right for him at all, he probably should have had a couple of podiums already, but that can all turn around.

There is certainly no need to for Mercedes to consider someone else as Schumacher is matching Rosberg for pace, someone they rate very highly.

Finally, what concerns me is that anyone should call into question his achievements. He was a seven time world champion for a reason, he ran rings around the opposition as he became a double champion at Benetton, many a time driving the second best car, dragged Ferrari back to the top over five years, and if he ended up with the best car and designer tyres it’s because he’d put himself in that situation that anyone would want and he reaped the rewards.


No driver would turn down the opportunities he had, and lest we forget, opportunities that he helped to generate for himself. People like Fernando Alonso, the acknowledged best at the moment, enjoy team preference and have often complained about it in the past when it hasn’t been forthcoming. Many other drivers in the past enjoyed number one status, it certainly wasn’t a Schumacher exclusive thing.

Just because he has at times struggled since his return, his achievements before should never be called into question. He is obviously not as good as before, but that means he's still very good.

I believe he returned to racing for the love and enjoyment of it and a desire to compete and ultimately to win again. He's done it with some humility at times but always with a dollop of supreme confidence behind that.

It's been harder than perhaps he thought, but he's still trying when he doesn't really need to, what does he have to prove; this is something he should be credited for. So if anyone can turn this situation around it's Michael Schumacher.

all photo's from autosport.com

Sunday 13 May 2012

Maldonado takes Williams back to the top


Pastor Maldonado took his first Formula 1 victory for Williams-Renault today and became the first ever Venezuelan to top the podium. It was also the team’s first win since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2004. It was quite an incredible drive resulting in the fifth different driver and manufacturer to win a race from the first five races, something not seen since 1983.

Fire in the garage

However, this amazing story today was soured by a freak fuel explosion in the Williams garage about an hour after the race. Just after the team had had a celebratory team photo taken, fuel somehow ignited. While watching the BBC F1 forum you could see thick black smoke pouring out the back of the garage.


It was quickly under control, but team members from Williams, Force India and Caterham have reported injuries to a few team members who helped tackle the blaze. So far it thankfully looks like they escaped anything too serious.

The fight for victory

Before this incident though, the Williams team were revelling in the glory of victory and the brilliance of Maldonado. He’s been involved in a few incident in his short Formula 1 career and been labelled wild and a pay driver.

Admittedly he comes with a whole heap of Venezuelan money, and his crash on the last lap in Australia this year while chasing Fernando Alonso kept up his wild man rep, but if ever there was a performance that highlighted just how quick he can be, especially this year, then this was it.

He inherited pole position after Lewis Hamilton was disqualified for not having enough fuel to take a sample but Pastor looked relaxed before the race, and he wasn’t being cagey about what result he wanted.

He realised he had a chance of winning, it’s that kind of season, and he exploited this fully. However, at the start he had the Ferrari of Alonso alongside him into the first corner and made a wise decision to let him go.


After the first lap he was 1.3 seconds behind Alonso, but Maldonado was going to make a race of this, the very next lap Maldonado brought the gap down.
Williams looked like they were playing it cautious in the first round of pit stops, playing into the hands of the bigger teams like Sauber had done with Ferrari in Malaysia and Lotus with Red Bull in Bahrain. Maldonado pitted a lap later than Alonso on lap 12 and they looked content to cover what Alonso did.

Maldonado stuck close and was unrelenting in his pursuit; Alonso couldn’t drop Pastor. Coming up to the second stops Maldonado went on the attack.
Williams brought him in on lap 25 before Alonso this time and got him out on fresh tyres and into clear air. Alonso was delayed by Charles Pic in the Marussia, but stayed out two laps longer which seemed a fairly fundamental mistake.

Perhaps Ferrari wanted to be sure they’d be on fresher rubber come the end of the race, but despite passing being significantly easier these days track position is still king and Alonso had just lost it. As Maldonado shot through on the start finish straight, the Spaniard was only just exiting and was over 6 seconds behind.

It wasn’t all over for Pastor, Alonso doesn’t give up without hassling and getting a few punches in first. He maintained the gap for a while, but the Ferrari started gaining putting the pressure and the gap was down to three seconds when the Williams pitted for the last time on lap 42.

It was a slow stop, but he again exited on fresh tyres and in clean air, until he caught Kimi. Alonso dearly wanted to win again in front of his home crowd and kept on coming at him, he’d looked after his tyres well and pitted three laps later to exit close behind.

 
They both passed Kimi quickly who had yet to stop, with Alonso right on the back of Maldonado. For all the world it looked like Alonso was about to make the move to win. But it never quite came, the DRS was open but Maldonado wasn’t rattled and remained just out of reach.

Ferrari were obviously hoping that the Williams’ tyres were about to drop off, they’d not had to do a 25 lap stint before, and with three laps extra life they thought they’d be ahead of the fight by the end. However, they dropped out of contention with four laps to go as Alonso’s tyres went off first leaving 

Maldonado safe to take a fantastic win for Sir Frank Williams 70th birthday.
Maldonado displayed a fantastic maturity and grabbed his moment well, he really earned it the right way.

Ferrari looked to have the opportunity to be the first team to claim a second win, the updates they brought certainly helped Alonso, Massa not so much who qualified 16th, got a great start, fought around the top 10, got a drive through penalty and finished 15th. Not a good day after the progress he’d made in Bahrain.

But Fernando enjoyed the weekend, he qualified well and altogether looked a far more competitive proposition but I think Ferrari believed they would beat Williams and didn’t factor in that they’d have to earn it first.

Perhaps if they’d covered Maldonado after the 2nd stop to try and maintain track position they’d have been able to control the race, but it wasn’t to be and in fact Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus nearly caught him on the last lap. Still Alonso is now joint championship leader and Ferrari are on the up.

Lotus maintain consistency but could they have won?

As we know the tyres are affected by all sorts of circumstance such as temperature and track surface, but despite this many people predicted a Kimi victory today after both Lotus’ displayed good race pace in Friday practice. But it was colder today, perhaps explaining why they couldn’t extract the pace they thought they had. 


Anyway after the start Kimi shot into third place from fourth and from then on actually ran a pretty lonely race. The expected challenge never materialised although after the final stops he had a lot fresher tyres than the two ahead of him, and almost caught Alonso towards the end, but I think the team may view this as another missed opportunity.

They certainly seemed a bit conservative with strategy. Grosjean backed Kimi up well with fourth place, he made a poor start from third but still managed to achieve a respectable result. Lotus surely have to be the next manufacturer to get a win, so far they’ve probably been the most consistent, look out for them in Monaco, especially Kimi who surely has to be a championship contender now?

Hamilton charges from the back

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was astoundingly quick in qualifying and took pole position by over half a second. Although we’ve seen McLaren drop away on race day over the last couple of races you have to believe he’d have been a significant challenger for victory.

His chance was taken from him after a team error in which the car wasn’t fuelled enough to get back to the pits after his pole lap. This was already contravening regulations which state the car must be able to return to the pits and have a litre of fuel left over to be tested. The punishment to disqualify him and send him back to the grid was harsh, perhaps send him to the back of Q3, but the whole grid?


Anyway despite this, Lewis maintained a positive outlook and said he’d ‘drive his heart out’. But he must be becoming frustrated with some of the basic mistakes his team are making? He’s not under contract next year…just saying.

Despite another troubled pit stop, Lewis was great today. From last on the grid he was the only one to make a two stop strategy work, looking after one set of tyres for nearly half the race. He made some great passes on Senna, Massa and particularly the Toro Rosso’s.

He cut past Daniel Ricciardo just after turn 3 to split them then dived around the outside of turn 4 to set himself up with the inside line at turn 5 to get past Jean-Eric Vergne, brilliant stuff. Despite fading tyres at the end which lost him a place to Vettel he was challenging Rosberg for 7th. A great drive to 8th was his reward today but it could have been so much better.

Tyres make championship challengers become bit-part players

Jenson Button started 14 places higher and ended up 9th a place behind Lewis. Not a good day for him and one of many drivers who complained of being baffled by why they didn’t have the speed or why they couldn’t make the tyres work as well as others.

Mark Webber for Red Bull was 11th and was another one to wonder why he just didn’t have the speed. It’s a mark of the season how managing the tyres can make previous race winners and even championship leaders just bit part players at the very next race.

Sebastian Vettel joined Webber in not understanding why Red Bull switched the front wings over, but apparently it was because they were losing down force from them. Vettel hadn’t set a time in Q3 and so started 7th. He didn’t make a great start but was running 6th by lap 19 after pitting early to find some clean air.


However his afternoon turned into a comeback drive after being given a drive through penalty for failing to slow down at yellow flags. He fought back wonderfully with some superb moves against Button, Hamilton and Rosberg that yielded him a final result of 6th. It kept him in a joint championship lead, but his disappointment was clear to see after the race.

I think they’d all like a more consistent tyre so they know where they stand rather than the lottery we have now, but it does result in a great show.

The Schumacher-Senna incident

Michael Schumacher had another terrible race, this time he crashed into the back of Bruno Senna’s Williams taking them both out. Schumacher has argued that Senna changed direction in the braking zone which took him unawares. Certainly Senna does move just before turn 1 to the right just as Schumacher did the same to try and take the outside line, but to me it looked like a racing incident.


However it is Schumacher’s responsibility as the car behind to avoid that sort of contact, and as a result has been given a five place grid penalty for Monaco, while Senna’s day got worse after his car was damaged by the fire in the Williams garage.

Rest of the top 10

Kamui Kobayashi had a starring role today and deservedly took 5th making some aggressive moves, especially on Button; giving him a slight tap on his way past. His team mate Perez retired but was never in it after suffering a puncture when Grosjean hit him on the opening lap.

Nico Rosberg finished up 7th after making a good start but faded badly towards the end of the race when he was passed by Kobayashi and Vettel near the end. Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 and put up a great defence of the final point, refusing to give into Mark Webber.

So that was it for Spain, it was another race for of unpredictable twists and turns and yet another winner in this 2012 season. Next up is Monaco, always a highlight in the Formula 1 calendar. We head to the Mediterranean knowing that Williams are back, no one has control over the tyres, the top seven drivers are separated by less than a race win and no one can predict who’ll win; something to look forward to then.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Testing and the tyre debate

Today is the start of the first in season test since 2008, held at Mugello, Italy. All teams apart from HRT will be attending, and all will most certainly be trying out a vast array of updates as the European season kicks off in Spain a week on Sunday.

During the first four flyaway races there has been little time to do any big upgrades to the cars so this is an essential three days to improve and hone the cars, especially with regard to making sure they can work the Pirelli tyres properly, something which is crucial to success so far this season.

And this is where I’m going with this blog; the Pirelli tyres have been attracting a fair amount of debate in the Formula 1 press this past week. Finding the sweet spot where these tyres operate in a successful tandem with the cars has resulted in four manufacturers winning the first four races.

And people are concerned, and it’s not just some of the drivers. Criticism has also come from some Formula 1 commentators including Sky’s Martin Brundle, who sees the tyres perhaps being too influential in the outcome of Grand Prix.

There are contrasting views of course, epitomised by the Mercedes drivers. Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg offer very different perspectives. Schumacher questioned whether the Pirelli tyres should be made to last longer as he felt this wasn’t real racing. He wants it so ‘that you can drive at normal racing car speed and not cruise around like we have a safety car.’

Certainly we do have a lot of chatter on the radio about conserving tyres constantly, which doesn’t allow drivers to push. Reading the F1 media, other drivers privately agree with this assessment by Schumacher.

Alternatively Nico Rosberg had this to say to Autosport.com "We have seen already this year that when you go from one condition to another, one racetrack to another, one temperature to another... different cars are better on the tyres, so there's a very big engineering challenge to understand why, to adapt and to try and be the one to understand the tyres best. That can be a very big key for the season, so we're pushing hard to try and understand that quicker than others.

"Personally, I think it's great for the season. We've had four winners in four races, [so it is] all mixed up. It couldn't be better for Formula 1. Also within the races, with the tyre degradation and with lots of overtaking, we've had lots of exciting races."

In a way, I do think it has become a bit too overly reliant on tyres and perhaps too much of a conservation Formula. I’d like to know that the drivers are going all out and not constantly hearing engineers tell their drivers to slow down to save the tyres. Its also comes across as being a bit of a lottery, which team will suit this particular temperature today?

However, I find myself agreeing with Nico Rosberg’s point of view. You can’t really argue that the racing has been outstanding this year. It is up to the teams to set their car up and develop their car so that they can create a wider operating window for the tyres to work at their full potential. This is what Formula 1 is also about, finding the solutions to problems.

It’s also worth remembering that it is the same for everyone out there. Just like when in the early part of this century Schumacher and Ferrari were able to maximise their situation with Bridgestone tyres, where you hardly ever had more than 20 laps worth of fuel on board with tyres which never went off and you could basically drive as hard as you could. And this favoured his approach.

The other side of the coin though is that drivers like Jenson Button for instance (despite winning his title while refuelling was still allowed) who’s very good at looking after the tyres, didn’t really have the opportunity to use that skill as much as he does now. Different skills for different occasions, Formula 1 is in constant evolution; you’ve just got to do your best and adapt the quickest at a given time if you want to win.

Besides this, Pirelli have said this issue will go away once the teams understand them. "The engineers are the best you will ever find in the automotive world. They are exceptional and in two or three races they will have understood the challenge that they have in front of them and we won't be having this type of conversation [about tyres].”

So with the test underway, Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Lotus etc will all be searching not just for aerodynamic progression, but to understand the tyres and exploit them better and quicker than everyone else.

This test is most important for Ferrari, they’re another team who need to understand the tyres more but they also have more fundamental problems. They’ve worked themselves into a competitive points position, now they need a competitive speed solution. The next three days could be crucial to the rest of the season as they set themselves up for Europe.