Sunday 20 April 2014

Hamilton dominates while Red Bull fight begins to grow


Lewis Hamilton was perfect today as he was in qualifying. He’d taken a dominant pole position in the wet, then consolidated that with a great start, gapped the rest of the field over the first few laps, looked after the tyres and fuel and cruised through a two stop strategy to win his third straight victory of the year, a career first.

His Mercedes was never headed as he closed the gap in the championship to his team mate Nico Rosberg to just four points who further proved the dominance of the Silver Arrows with second place. Rosberg’s race was more eventful, he’d only qualified fourth after spinning on his fastest lap then made a poor start where he made contact with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas at turn one to lie only seventh.

He fought back, but in all honesty it was only a matter of time before he caught and passed the cars in front such is the advantage the Mercedes cars hold. What is more interesting is that for the third race in succession Hamilton had the edge on him. He’s only leading the title hunt because of the one technical failure the team have suffered in Australia to Hamilton’s car. Without that I think it’s fair to say we would be looking at four straight Lewis wins.

Surely it’s only a matter of time before Hamilton takes a grip on this title and never let’s go. I only hope that when we get to Abu Dhabi at the end of the year whichever driver is in front doesn’t lose the title because of the utterly stupid double points rule.

Anyway, the Chinese Grand Prix was never really going to live up to the highs of Bahrain but there was still plenty to take our interest. Fernando Alonso put the woe of Bahrain behind him to take his first podium of the year with third, again fighting for all he’s worth and beating the Red Bull’s which arguably were the quicker car on the day.

He’s once again demonstrating just why he’s regarded as the best all round driver out there (although that can be entirely disputed with regards to Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel) as he grinds out results he shouldn’t really be getting. Kimi Raikkonen is quickly learning he’s going to have to really raise his game for Ferrari if he wants to get anywhere near Alonso, the Finn only managing an eighth.

To be fair to Kimi he’s suffered a lot of problems this year and hasn’t really had a clean weekend, but even without the difficulties it’s pretty hard to see how he’ll get on terms with the Spaniard consistently this year.

I think the most interesting talking point though is the Red Bull drivers particularly with regards to Vettel. He is being consistently out performed by Daniel Ricciardo who once again out qualified him and then out raced him despite falling behind at the start to finish fourth with Vettel fifth. While Vettel faded to 15 seconds behind his team mate, the Australian closed to just a second behind Alonso at the finish.

Once again we got the unusual message that Vettel should let Ricciardo through, which to my mind at least, Vettel was perfectly justified in replying ‘tough luck’. As it turned out he did let him through when he was told they were on different strategies which then didn’t happen.

Vettel is struggling with the 2014 car. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky that Vettel isn’t able to use the tyres the way he has in the past few years and he hasn’t managed to adapt to them yet. It’s true that in previous seasons he has been the master at maximising the Pirelli’s, better than anyone else.

To my mind if you plonked Vettel in a Mercedes right now he would be able to extract just as much if not more than any driver on the grid. He is great at extracting the maximum potential out of a good car. As I’ve written before it’s when the car is not so good that it takes him some time to get up to speed.

Remember 2012 after he’d already won two world championships and crushed the spirit of Mark Webber. Well then Red Bull were struggling at the start and Webber was back in the game, it was only when the car improved that Vettel then was able to get the car how he wanted and went on to trounce Webber again.

He’s not an Alonso driver who can drive around problems. He needs the car to be in his control. Whereas Ricciardo has spent the past two years driving Toro Rosso’s which lets say were not optimised. He’s used to driving with a less than perfect car and therefore seems more confident with the current machinery.

I fully expect Vettel to get up to speed and the fight to get closer, just as I think Red Bull are the most likely challengers to Mercedes if one can be mounted at all. They probably have the best chassis, in the wet where extra grip counts, both Vettel and Ricciardo were great in qualifying, it’s only the Renault engine letting them down at the moment.

I don’t want to undersell Ricciardo though. He has been tremendous this year and is grabbing this opportunity and really shaking up the order at Red Bull right now. It’s such a shame his podium in Australia has counted for nothing, but he’ll step on the podium again this year and possibly even win.

It’s great that Vettel is being challenged once again in his team, but I have a feeling Vettel will roar back to life soon enough. Whatever though, the current situation doesn’t make me think any less of Vettel, more than Ricciardo is the real deal and I can’t wait to see how this situation develops throughout the year.

Nico Hulkenberg was once again showing why he should be fighting for world championships as he finished sixth for Force India while his team mate Sergio Perez managed ninth. Despite his brush with Rosberg, Bottas came home seventh  for Williams while Felipe Massa could only manage fifteenth after smacking Alonso at the start as he went for a closing gap after making a blindingly fast start which could have seen him third. As it was he settled in sixth before falling to last after a botched pit stop.

The final point went to Daniil Kvyat who has now scored in three out of his first four races for Toro Rosso. The young Russian isn’t even 20 yet and is consistently impressing. Despite qualifying behind Jean-Eric Vergne he’s really putting the Frenchman’s job at risk as he continues to outperform him. Vergne had qualified ninth but fell out of the top 10 pretty quickly due to a tardy getaway.

Behind we should mention Romain Grosjean. He got the struggling Lotus team into the top 10 in qualifying and would have scored a point if it wasn’t for a faltering gearbox. Grosjean is really carrying the team this year after Maldonado had another weekend of errors, although to be fair he did gain eight places after starting last.

McLaren had another wretched weekend, both cars just not having the grip to compete as Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen finished just 11th and 13th after starting 12th and 15th. I thought they would go forward a lot more but they never looked like challenging for points.

Finally a word on Kamui Kobayashi who’s proving to be the outstanding driver from the Caterham and Marussia collective. A brilliant move on Jules Bianchi into the last but one corner secured him at the head of that particular battle until an error by the officials resulted in the race being declared a lap early as they showed the chequered flag too early. According to FIA regulations if the flag is shown the race will be declared there and then.

So not the best race in the world but one which certainly raises a lot of questions; can Rosberg hold Hamilton’s charge? How long can Alonso continue to haul Ferrari up the field against increasingly competitive Red Bull’s? Will Kimi ever match him? Is Daniel Ricciardo the go-to man at Red Bull?

Whatever happens, the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix in three weeks time is crucial? If there is no discernable improvement from Mercedes opposition then the championship is most certainly over for anyone else apart from Hamilton and Rosberg. And if Lewis makes it four wins on the bounce will the championship be over for Rosberg too?

There’s surely only so many times you can finish second before your confidence begins to break. Lewis is crushing the opposition at the moment and driving better than ever. I always thought if you put Lewis in the best car he will crush the field. Finally he’s getting the opportunity to prove it.

Result:

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
4. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
5. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
6. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
7. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
8. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
9. Sergio Perez - Force India
10. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
11. Jenson Button - McLaren
12. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso
13. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren
14. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus
15. Felipe Massa - Williams
16. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber
17. Jules Bianchi - Marussia
18. Kamui Kobayashi - Caterham
19. Max Chilton - Marussia
20. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham
R. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - Gearbox
R. Adrian Sutil - Sauber - Engine

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Thursday 17 April 2014

Chinese Forecast


Round 4 of the Formula 1 world championship is the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. It could be another rain effected weekend as the current forecast shows that qualifying may be wet for the third time in four races.

Not that that will change the outcome too much anyway. Let’s face it the likelihood is a Mercedes on pole position and then very possibly a win too. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have both won here before and as shown by the rate they pulled away in Bahrain after the safety car at up to three seconds per lap they have plenty in hand to ward off a challenge at the moment.

Rain has often shaken up a Chinese Grand Prix so the soft and medium tyres that Pirelli have brought may not be used as much as the intermediate or wet tyres. Saturday does look slippery but Sunday is also cloudy so you never know if a shower may burst out.

China is quite a technical track with the first two sectors full of corners some of which are particularly long helping teams such as Red Bull who once again have a very tidy aerodynamic package which will help them make up the deficit their Renault power unit has to the Mercedes.

Of course this is rather neutered by the 1.17km straight in sector three where they will lose a bunch of time, but it could mean that Red Bull take advantage in the first two sectors to be still fairly close in overall lap time. I would think that they will be the main challengers to Mercedes this weekend.

There are once again two DRS zones, one on that back straight and the other on the start finish straight which should make overtaking particularly easy this weekend for those out of position and needing to pass slower cars in a hurry.

At the front you cannot look past the Mercedes duo for the fight for victory, but I do think Red Bull will be slightly closer, although in the battle for the win I don’t think so. Red Bull will want at least a podium weekend especially since their appeal to get Daniel Ricciardo’s second place from the Australian Grand Prix back ended in disappointment.

Basically the way I see it is that the FIA approved fuel flow sensors are new technology and are not perfected yet. It seems like Red Bull did not think it was working properly so used their own back up and ignored the FIA’s instructions during the race.

Red Bull probably did not exceed the maximum fuel flow rate but to reinstate them would open a can of worms as other teams which did follow FIA directives despite their own misgivings about the fuel flow sensors could kick up a fuss and just use their own technology which would not always be FIA approved.

I think it probably turned out better this way although if it was proved the fuel flow had not been exceeded I’d have given Ricciardo his points back and docked the team theirs. Whatever though it’s going to be an interesting weekend for Red Bull as they fight their way back to the front. Sebastian Vettel and Ricciardo look to have a nice simmering rivalry going on and in a way Ricciardo has been the main pace setter for the team so far this season as Vettel has been afflicted by problems.

In fact I’d love to see a continuation from the Bahrain race of the intra-team fighting that was going on throughout the field, particularly in Mercedes, Red Bull, Force India and Williams. It was spectacular, forceful but clean fighting.
Ferrari too looked like they had Kimi Raikkonen finally giving Fernando Alonso a run for his money. 

It’s been an interesting week for the team as much liked team boss Stefano Domenicali resigned after another poor start to a season for the team. He’s replaced by Ferrari’s north American director Marco Mattiacci. He has not been involved in the F1 world but Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said he wanted a Ferrari man. He’s also said he will be more involved in the F1 operation.

I’m not sure how welcome that will be by the wider F1 community as he is still complaining about the direction the sport is taking. The way I see it this fuel efficiency Formula is not much different from what we’ve had before. They’ve always had to look after things and in the 1980s often ran out of fuel too as they hadn’t saved enough and that’s looked at as some of the glory years.

It looked to me at the last race that the cars were running fairly flat out a lot of the time, even the tyres aren’t as critical too so they can push that little bit more. Formula 1 had to change otherwise they’d have lost Renault, Mercedes and Honda wouldn’t be coming back next year.

The only thing is, and which they’re working on, is a way of making the engines louder. Although I like the low thundering sound and the whine of the turbo and energy recovery systems but yes, it could do with being a few decibels louder especially as that is a great part of seeing the cars live.

Anyway another race like Bahrain soon and the critics will have to shut up. Any change to the regulations wouldn’t be fair. Ferrari have suggested giving more fuel etc or increasing the fuel flow rate but that’s pointless. Mercedes can work to these regs fine, it’s up to the other teams to get on with it and compete not moan that the regulations which have been known for two years now are not fair. Do a better job!

Anyway, as regards the race, Rosberg will definitely want to fight back but I think for most races Lewis will have the edge. Even when Nico was quicker in Bahrain he couldn’t beat his team mate but it should still make for some thrilling racing as he tries to topple Hamilton, although he is still championship leader. Red Bull will establish themselves in second with another podium while the other Mercedes runners will be making up the top 10.

Nico Hulkenberg will want to get a podium soon after Sergio Perez’s third while Williams really need to take advantage of their obvious pace while managing their tyres better. McLaren will hope they start making progress as since Australia they look to have slipped back despite Jenson Button saying they have made progress. Time for him and Kevin Magnussen to prove it.


I hope he shines again soon as since Australia he hasn’t shown such spectacular form against Button. In fact of the rookies it’s Daniil Kvyat for Toro Rosso that’s really impressing.  Where does this leave Ferrari? They’ll be up there in the top 10 but it’s going to take quite some time before they win again. Anyway with the fights that should be going on in teams and between teams, it’s going to make for another exciting Grand Prix.

all photo's from autosport.com

Sunday 6 April 2014

Hamilton holds off Rosberg in night time thriller


The Bahrain Grand Prix was one of the most intense races we've seen for quite some time and a fitting 900th world championship Grand Prix. There were fierce battles throughout the field under the flood lights for the first Bahrain night race and with the added safety car towards the end it combined to make the race a thrilling spectacle that should make those who claim this new formula is boring reconsider their words.

Ok, the Mercedes cars were still ultimately dominant but Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg gave us quite the show. We also saw just how fast they are as after the safety car with 10 laps to go they simply took off, leaving the rest of the field behind at up to three seconds a lap. No managing the cars here, just pure speed, it was extremely impressive but perhaps slightly overwhelming for the rest of the teams as they realise the extent of the task in front of them.

But that took nothing away as Hamilton held off the faster Rosberg throughout the race. Lewis grabbed the initiative at the start, just squeezing past his team mate who had started in pole position. But Nico didn’t let Lewis swan off into the distance, he kept him honest and produced some incredible wheel to wheel action as they battled for supremacy.

Hamilton was simply superb with his defensive driving, and combined that 
with some great re-overtaking when once Nico did get by, but he was only leading for half a lap before Lewis swept back past. It was crucial Lewis got ahead again, giving him the advantage of first pit stop  so he’d be on fresher tyres sooner.

Nico changed his strategy to get the slower medium compound tyre out of the way in the middle stint. Lewis built a gap while he was still on the soft compound, he needed to as he’d be on those mediums in the final stint with Rosberg on the softs. When the safety car came out for a stupid accident involving Pastor Maldonado flipping Esteban Gutierrez over, it looked like Rosberg was in the best position as both made pit stops under yellow.

When racing resumed Rosberg was all over Hamilton but could not find a way by, the number 44 Mercedes placed his car perfectly to keep Rosberg at bay and claim his second straight victory.

This was a statement of intent from both drivers and you have to commend Mercedes for letting them go at it even in the final laps when they had a 1-2 at stakes. Lewis is one of the most aggressive drivers out there but mostly he is fair but he squeezed Rosberg close to edge on a few occasions, something that despite post-race interviews saying he enjoyed the battle I don’t think Nico liked at all.

Rosberg was the faster driver today but still he could not beat Hamilton and that will have disappointed him. He made a comment that he hated finishing behind Hamilton and it showed, it was a forced smile that greeted the team photograph. This is a fascinating battle and I have a feeling it’s going to get more intense as the season goes on.

At the moment these two drivers are the only ones who can challenge for the championship and already Lewis has stamped his authority twice; once leading from the front and today when he was the slower driver.

This race was all about team mates laying down markers, showing the driver next door what he could do. There were intra-team battles all the way down particularly between the Force India, Red Bull and Williams drivers.

Sergio Perez put one over on Nico Hulkenberg for the first time this year. He made an outstanding move around the outside of Hulkenberg as the German was baulked by Felipe Massa. It put him in a prime position to claim the teams first podium since 2009.

Perez was fantastic all weekend while Hulkenberg continued his brilliant form leaving Force India with a third and fifth to give them a current second in the constructors championship.

After a terrible qualifying Red Bull roared back in the race. Daniel Ricciardo finally got some points on the board. He suffered a 10 place grid drop to start 13th after the unsafe release in Malaysia but drove through the field to claim fourth during which the team told Sebastian Vettel to move over, before later in the race he made a move on the world champion all by himself.

Ricciardo has been very impressive in his opening races for Red Bull and it was great to see him get some points on the board. Vettel said he had some problems with his car, but let’s not take anything away from Daniel, he already seems more of a threat than Mark Webber was the last few year. 

It’s going to be very interesting to see how Vettel handles this. He’s been out-qualified twice and now out-raced. It’s not something he’ll be enjoying at all. However, if I had to pick a team and driver to be the most likely to beat the Mercedes this year it would be Red Bull and Vettel.

If the safety car hadn’t come out could Williams have got one of their drivers on the podium? I think it’s doubtful actually but the safety car intervention certainly stymied their attack. Felipe Massa will be particularly disappointed after such a great start from seventh catapulted him into third on the opening lap.

He resumed his battle with Valtteri Bottas from Malaysia but there was no team interference this time and they were allowed to just get on with it, although there was a justifiable cause for telling Bottas to get out of the way when he was holding up Massa with the Force India’s snapping at their heels. They came away with seventh and eighth in the end but it should have been more.

It occurs to me that William isn’t making best use of the opportunity they have at the moment. This race amply demonstrated just how good the Mercedes engines are as they ran first to sixth at one point, but other teams will get on track soon, so Williams should be capitalising while they can.

Fernando Alonso will leave Ferrari at the end of this year. He wants a third title and again they have not provided him with a car to get it. He finished ninth with Kimi Raikkonen tenth, a paltry three points for the Scuderia.
It seemed like every time you saw a Ferrari they were being passed and passed easily on a number of occasions. Kimi Raikkonen looks like he is getting quicker but again finished behind Alonso despite qualifying four places in front.

As I’ve said before even if Kimi starts beating Alonso I don’t think the fireworks will come from that, but from between the Spaniard and the team. Of course the question is where would he go?

McLaren suffered a double retirement after a generally positive start to the season, Jenson Button was in a good position until the safety car came out before he faded then his car failed. Kevin Magnussen had apparently been suffering from clutch trouble since qualifying so it was no surprise to see him retire after an uninspired race where he nearly hit Kimi again as he did in Malaysia a week earlier.

A mention to Daniil Kvyat who again had a strong race. No points this time but he was mixing it with Kimi Raikkonen and he has a confidence that makes me think he'll be a star of the future. Romain Grosjean drove a sensible race as Lotus got both cars to the finish while Pastor Maldonado needs another head check after he took out the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez with a pretty dumb move. 

Max Chilton got the Marussia home in 13th to give them back 10th in the constructors. Finally Marcus Ericsson caught the eye before he retired his Caterham with some assured racing. 


It was a fantastic show today, the sport need more races like this. But importantly even though we have a dominant team, it’s between two close drivers who have been friends for ages, but you can feel the battle will push them apart already. They’ve not had to race so close for wins before and it won’t be long before the garage is divided into Nico and Lewis camps. This championship is taking shape nicely, and after a race like this it looks like it’s going to be a thriller.

Result:

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
3. Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
4. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull-Renault
5. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
6. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull-Renault
7. Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
8. Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
9. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
10. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
11. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso-Renault
12. Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Renault
13. Max Chilton - Marussia-Ferrari
14. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Renault
15. Kamui Kobayashi - Caterham-Renault
16. Jules Bianchi - Marussia-Ferrari
17. Jenson Button - McLaren-Mercedes - Clutch
R. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren-Mercedes - Clutch
R. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber-Ferrari - Accident
R. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham-Renault - Oil leak
R. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso-Renault - Accident damage
R. Adrian Sutil - Sauber-Ferrari - Accident

all photo's taken from autosport.com