Sunday 25 May 2014

Rosberg wins in Monaco as Mercedes civil war begins


The Monaco Grand Prix truly ignited the battle for the 2014 world championship. In the all Mercedes fight for the title Lewis Hamilton looked to be in the ascendancy. Having taken the points lead in Spain after his fourth successive win it was crucial for Nico Rosberg to strike back around the streets he won on last year.

Rosberg duly took the victory from pole position, holding off sustained pressure from Hamilton for most of the race. He made a perfect start and despite fuel issues during the middle part of the race kept it all under control to take his second win of the year and hit the front once again in the championship battle.

If Rosberg had lost out to Lewis for the fifth time in a row, then it was going to start looking rather sketchy as to whether he’d ever manage to take the fight to Lewis. Have no doubts it was essential that he won this race.

That meant he had to lead out from the start, the best place to do that is to start at the front of the grid. He did this under, shall we say, controversial circumstances. Every time the Formula 1 circus arrives in Monaco there is mention of how Michael Schumacher supposedly parked his car at La Rascasse in 2006 and blocked the track to prevent Fernando Alonso setting a better time during qualifying.

No wonder there was immediate suspicion on Rosberg as knowing he was down on his own provisional pole lap he locked up going into Mirabeau and ran down the escape road bringing out the yellow flags. The pressure certainly seemed to be getting to him at this point, but suddenly that pressure was transferred to Hamilton.

Hamilton was behind Rosberg on the track, and after the first laps had been set was just 0.059 slower. On the second run he was quicker at the first sector but backed off as the yellow flags waved for his team mates car, Hamilton’s chances of securing the most important pole position of the year were over. Immediately he thought it had been done on purpose and from there his head seemed to go, this was a race he desperately wanted to take pole at and win to demonstrate his dominance over Rosberg as he had intimated in the lead up. That it seemed like he'd been wrong in his efforts to do so struck him hard.

My initial reaction to the incident was it was just a mistake, a driver pushing too hard knowing he was slower than his first lap and knowing that Lewis often pulls it out of the bag on his final attempt, just like he’d done in Spain. In fact Rosberg has had previous at messing up his final attempt in qualifying a few times this year, perhaps it was no surprise it should happen again.

I still think it was just a mistake, I don’t think Rosberg is the kind of driver who would do this kind of thing deliberately. But when you look at the replays it does at least look like he unsettles the car with a few movements of the steering wheel before he actual locks up his left front tyre. He just manages to guide the car down the escape road, but even with that most drivers would know that would bring out the caution flags.

Only Rosberg knows but on this occasion you have to give him the benefit of the doubt especially with regards to what has happened in qualifying in previous races this year. What it did do is ignite the fire that’s been smoking away for the past few races as the Mercedes drivers have come to realise this title is going to be fought by themselves.

Hamilton particularly seems to be letting the pressure begin to get to him despite his four wins this year. He knows he’s the quicker of the two drivers, but he knows that with the advantage Mercedes have Rosberg is always going to be there. So when on the occasions that Rosberg is quicker, and amplified by Lewis’ non-finish in Australia, he knows Nico will stay close to him on points and on weekends such as this can retake the points lead.

Lewis looked just utterly downcast, he obviously feels something dodgy went on despite the stewards exonerating Rosberg from any wrong doing. He even went so far to say that these two karting buddies were no longer friends. He ignored Rosberg completely after qualifying and after the race too. Nico is taking a more light hearted approach and saying they are still friends but this battle is just going to get more and more intense.

I hope Lewis doesn’t let it get to him too much as in reality this title is his for the taking. He is the better race driver, but he has in the past sabotaged himself by not letting his driving do the talking. Monaco could well have been a pivotal weekend in the championship.

Lewis’ driving can be affected by his emotions, when he’s in a good place he’s brilliant, when he’s not it can start going wrong. He can’t let any paranoia creep in. He already started questioning the team on the radio for not pitting him earlier when the second safety car came out for Adrian Sutil’s crash. But Mercedes have a policy of favouring the lead car as most teams do, something he did actually acknowledge after the race.

Rosberg needed to steal the advantage this weekend and he did just that. He was fast all through practice and looked in general to have the edge over Lewis. He took pole position, he made a perfect start and never let Lewis get to him despite two safety car periods. In the closing stages Hamilton got something in his eye which cost him several seconds and left him vulnerable to attack from the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, who hounded him to the flag to make up the podium. Even during this period of the race Hamilton was more concerned with how far away Nico was rather than the fast catching Australian.

Whatever though, Rosberg took a fully deserved victory for Mercedes and with it there will now be two very distinct teams within the Mercedes garage. Canada can’t come soon enough for the next chapter in this title thriller.

Final Result:

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

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Marussia score in Monaco


Behind the civil war that looks like breaking out at Mercedes, Monaco was significant for many reasons not least that after over four years of competing at the highest echelon of motor sport Marussia took their first points.

Ok, so there were several retirements in this race. Sergio Perez failed to give Jenson Button enough room on the opening lap and spun into the barrier causing the first safety car. Both Toro Rosso’s had qualified brilliantly in the top 10 but mechanical problems robbed them both of a decent finish as did an engine failure for Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. Esteban Gutierrez joined the already mentioned Sutil in the barriers for Sauber while running a very strong eighth, while Kimi Raikkonen took himself and Kevin Magnussen out at the Loews Hairpin, sliding up the inside in a brave move that took them wide and stuck at the side of the road.

That though is to take nothing away from an excellent drive by Bianchi who despite being penalised five seconds for taking an initial stop go penalty for lining up in the wrong grid position under the safety car which is against the rules still came home in ninth place. What’s more is that it was done with genuine good pace. Officially he is classified behind Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, but on the road he held him off by over a second.

Couple that pace with an excellent barge against Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham and you have to offer nothing but praise for a driver and team who are now in their fifth year. These two points take them to ninth in the constructors championship ahead of Sauber which is extremely impressive. This year Marussia have looked far more competitive but for various reasons haven’t been able to show their potential. They are still a long way off the ultimate pace but at least now they don’t have that pressure of when are they going to score their first points.

Vettel and Raikkonen can’t catch a break

To my mind Sebastian Vettel looked every bit as quick if not quicker than his team mate Daniel Ricciardo this weekend. But problems with his Energy Recovery System (ERS) in qualifying and then a Turbo failure in the race put paid to any kind of decent result this weekend. Once these reliability problems go, then we’ll see if he can do anything about Ricciardo.

Meanwhile Kimi was outqualified by Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso by over eight tenths of a second, which is huge. It only account for one place on the grid though. Off the start he was fantastic, Alonso got boxed in behind the Red Bull’s allowing Kimi to rip past both Alonso and Vettel into the first corner. At the first restart he got by Ricciardo too and ran a strong third for the opening third of the race.

However, during the second safety car period his race came apart, he was hit by Max Chilton’s Marussia and had to pit for a second time after maintaining his position through the first pit stops during the Sutil safety car. This dropped his right down the field, but he’d managed to climb back up into the points to join the battle for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. However a perhaps overly optimistic move on Magnussen sent them towards the barriers. With a turning circle which is not a lot they had to reverse out of the situation leaving them both down the field.

It was such a shame, it looked like he could have been on for a podium before the Marussia incident, and he had a healthy lead over Alonso. Perhaps in Canada Kimi might get a smooth weekend for the first time this year.

The battles through the field

Ricciardo continued his great form by qualifying and finishing third and moving ahead on points of his four time champion team mate. His attack on Hamilton at the end of the race was fantastic racing. He’d saved his tyres well and used that pace to really give Mercedes their first race of the year albeit with safety car intervention.

After Vettel retired in the early laps and Kimi dropped back Fernando Alonso ran a rather lonely race to finish fourth. As usual he’ll have run to the maximum for lap after lap, but the Ferrari race pace is no match for either Mercedes or Red Bull, it’s just another nail in the coffin for the Ferrari-Alonso relationship. Although the question of where he would go and who would take him is an interesting one, as at the moment there doesn’t seem any seat available that would be any better than Ferrari. 

Red Bull have their chosen two, both Mercedes drivers are signed up until at least the end of next year, with Rosberg a year on top of that. McLaren are unlikely to have him back and would need to settle in with Honda during 2015 anyway. The reputation he gained at McLaren for unsettling the team and his current frosty relationship with Ferrari have made him seem like someone who is difficult to work with, despite his other reputation as being the best around. Is the best enough though if it can hold the team back?  For now Alonso and Ferrari are stuck with each other.

Nico Hulkenberg launched a great move on Magnussen into Portier and then held off a train of cars for many laps. Eventually he finished less than a second ahead of Jenson Button who also put a good move on Magnussen down the start finish curve to finish fifth and sixth respectively.

It was a significant result for Hulkenberg. His Force India team mate Perez has taken the only podium of their campaign so far, out raced him in Spain and out qualified him in Monaco. He needed a strong result because after Perez was dumped by McLaren, for Hulkenberg to be out performed by him would be significant damage to his reputation and hopes of ever getting into a top car. He drove well avoided trouble and held off faster cars on degrading tyres, it was a fine showing indeed.

Felipe Massa didn’t stop under the safety car but managed to get his Williams into the points for seventh after starting seventh. Grosjean inherited eighth for Lotus ahead of the delighted Bianachi, while Magnussen managed to sneak back into the points for tenth.


It ended up being a rather eventful Monaco race with plenty of action down the field, and lots to look forward to with the many intra-team battles down the field. But what it has really done is ratchet up the title tension between the Mercedes drivers. Can Rosberg use this momentum to win again in Canada and pile the pressure on Hamilton, all will Lewis manage to respond in the best way he can, by just driving faster. With the drivers seemingly no longer talking, this is proving to be a battle than cannot be missed.


Final Result:

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

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Monaco Forecast


Monaco is the race every driver wants to win. It's combination of tight slow corners and lack of meaningful straights surrounded by barriers which never forgive an error make it one of the most challenging circuits of the year and a true test of driver skill; it really is like threading the needle, except you have a turbo charged 750bhp monster behind you. 

The new power units are going to make this a massive challenge for the drivers this year. The power delivery means they're going to have to caress the throttle peddle, which will be magnified by the reduction in down force and the conservative Pirelli tyres meaning grip is not as bountiful as it once was. Another problem cited by Jenson Button is that a new track surface from Casino Square to until the start of the tunnel will offer no grip so cars with good traction that can get heat into their tyres will be needed even though it's predicted that that part of the circuit will be low grip whatever.

As usual they've brought the soft and super soft tyres. Monaco doesn't destroy the tyres like some tracks so the grip shouldn't be too bad. There is one DRS zone on the start finish straight but even that won't make passing easy. 

The weather looks like it won't complicate things too much, qualifying should be sunny while the race looks like it'll be much the same. However, Thursday practice has rain forecast at the moment so setting up the cars may prove difficult.

After a season which has so far been dominated by the Mercedes team, this weekend is a real chance for another team to shine. Well, so the theory goes at least. Now Mercedes have a great chassis, but it's their exceptional power unit which has really been giving Championship leader Lewis Hamilton and his team mate Nico Rosberg their quite significant advantage.

With Monaco's longest straight being not very long and actually quite curvy there is hope from the other teams and possibly from the fans too which would like to see a winner not driving a silver arrows.

We'll see how that pans out as the weekend goes on, but here's a few facts to start off with. Rosberg took pole position and won last year. The year before Michael Schumacher took pole position in a not so wonderful Merc. So far so ominous. 

However Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said that in previous years Monaco has flattered them. Before this year they were very hard on the tyres and this track suited them. Tyre degradation is not so bad here and their car worked the tyres hard so got them up to temperature quicker. Although Rosberg won the race as slow as he dared to preserve them.

Now they've resolved these issues, they might not have quite the same advantage. Already both Mercedes and Fernando Alonso are predicting that this track represents an opportunity to upset the form book.

Red Bull are the likely contenders. They've probably got the best chassis on the grid. Corner for corner, Red Bull are there. It's when it comes down to grunt that their Renault engine loses out. The Mercedes advantage certainly won't be wiped out but you can definitely expect them to be a lot closer this weekend.

Sebastian Vettel would dearly love to get his season back on track and there's not much better of a drivers circuit to show nothing's wrong. Watch out for Daniel Ricciardo too. He's in exceptional form and could well continue to outperform Vettel. Webber often did around the streets, so there's nothing to say Ricciardo won't either. 

But Vettel seemed to turn a corner last time out in Spain and I think if anyone's going to be out gunning the Mercedes duo, particularly for pole position then it's going to be him. Then again, if you got pole in Monaco you can't be discounted from the win either.

Alonso too will be on the lookout for a strong result. We all know he can pull a great result from nowhere and Ferrari's chassis is only a little worse off than Mercedes and Red Bull. Again it's the power unit letting them down. But Monaco is a drivers circuit, it's one of the few places where a driver can really make a difference. Let's hope Kimi's positive upturn in form will continue too.

Other teams which may be in the mix could be McLaren. Button has been cautiously optimistic. Force India too look like they may be more competitive than in Spain. However the under achievers of the season so far, Williams might be fairly optimistic. I only say this on the basis of the Mercedes theory already discussed. Williams work their tyres the hardest this year so maybe they might spring a surprise particularly in qualifying. Felipe Massa took a great pole position in 2008, so don't discount him.

Lotus made significant progress in Spain and Romain Grosjean will be a man to watch. He's not gone brilliantly at Monaco in the past despite a fourth place grid slot in 2012. But I think he's getting better and better, he'll definitely be troubling the points finishes. Pastor Maldonado needs to get a good result this weekend. His season thus far has been pretty atrocious and with rumours of the Venezuela Government backing being withdrawn he needs to produce something positive to shout about.

McLaren's Kevin Magnussen will hope to use Monaco to show off his skills again after running well under the radar the last few races. He's had a bit of contact in the opening rounds so I hope the close barriers don't put him off. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso can do as well. Monaco is a true test and he's been by far the most impressive rookie this year.

Sauber have admitted their updates didn't work in Spain, so I wonder if Marussia can hope to maybe steal a grid slot or two. Look out for Kamui Kobayashi too in the Caterham but I don't expect them to be causing any surprises.

It does all look like a rather interesting and exciting weekend ahead. It may all just be highly optimistic with regards to the fight at the front, perhaps looking for hope of more than just a world of silver, but there is a distinct possibility this may just be more than a Mercedes fight for the win. There are genuine reasons to believe that for the first, and maybe only time this season, Mercedes are under threat and that at least is a tantalising prospect as we head to the sports most challenging race.

Sunday 11 May 2014

Hamilton beats faster Rosberg in tense Spanish Grand Prix


In a season where one team has such an advantage it’s crucial for the two drivers in that team to put on a show for victory. For the second time in three races, Nico Rosberg looked the faster driver, the one who was about to seize the championship initiative away from his three consecutive victory team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Like in Bahrain Rosberg had the edge, he hung back during the first stint, pitting a few laps after Lewis who’d put on the faster medium compound. Rosberg went to the harder tyre, knowing that Lewis would have to run those tyres in the final stint while he would be on the faster tyre, closing and closing ready to attack in the final laps.

Hamilton had blasted away from his fourth pole position of the season and looked in the early laps like he was just going to cruise away as he stretched out a gap. But Rosberg and his side of the garage had other ideas. They knew to keep a gap, look after the tyres and just keep close enough as they decided to change strategy.

It had almost worked in Bahrain and it almost worked again. The German kept on closing on Lewis and in the last few laps had closed to within a second. The tension was incredible as the two Mercedes circled together, the radio messages from Lewis Hamilton particularly adding to the excitement as he struggled with his tyres as the race came down to the final few laps.

Rosberg had DRS in the last laps but despite some traffic getting in the way of Hamilton he just could not get close enough and Hamilton crossed the line to take his fourth win of the year and finally take the championship lead his victories have deserved. But always there is Rosberg, just behind. Despite the 4-1 victory ratio in favour of Hamilton, Rosberg is only three points behind and is never too far away. It’s perfectly possible this championship could go down to the wire and lottery of double points in Abu Dhabi.

There still seemed to be a slight degree of warmth after the race had finished between the two team mates but at the same time it was noticeable there wasn’t a lot of talking between them before the podium. As the season wears on there is certainly going to be some intra-team tension not just from the drivers but their engineers and mechanics too. As observed in the Sky commentary the radio messages to the drivers were like they were racing against another team, not the guy across the garage and that’s just going to create more a combustible atmosphere. Lewis may hold the upper hand at the moment but it can all change, Rosberg was probably the faster driver today and if he can capitalise on that speed soon it may unnerve Hamilton a bit.

For all his perceived dominance at the moment Lewis is only three points ahead with 14 races remaining, plenty of time for Rosberg to mount a challenge back at Lewis. Lewis himself says he feels he is 'struggling' sometimes compared to Rosberg. Looking at it from the other side though, at times it must seem that whatever he does, even when he’s quicker, Hamilton still manages to maintain an edge and that must have a negative psychological effect.

Rosberg must know that if not for the mechanical failure in Australia, Hamilton would likely have won the first five races. That’s got to be pretty galling when you know you’re in the fastest car by a significant margin yet your shot at the championship is being trampled on by your team mate. It should come as no surprise as Hamilton is probably the most naturally gifted driver out there and seems to be working harder than ever. With Lewis on this form and while he is happy on the outside of the car too, it’s going to be very difficult for Rosberg. He needs to start winning from the next race in Monaco like he did last year if he wants to turn the tide before the year is out.

Nearly fifty seconds behind the dominant Mercedes duo came Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. It was another impressive weekend from the Australian as he once again beat his world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel. He qualified third and after undercutting Valtteri Bottas at the first stops changed to a two stop strategy that enabled him to run to a lonely first proper podium.

However, driver of the day surely has to be Vettel, he was quite brilliant and showed just why he’s been world champion so many times in his short career. He had a wretched start to his weekend with barely any laps in Friday practice due to some faulty wiring which necessitated a complete change. He got into Q3 on Saturday only for his car to suffer a gearbox failure which meant a further five place grid penalty for having to change it.

He started 15th but didn’t make the best of starts yet still managed to end up 14th at the end of the first lap. Progress was slow as the Red Bull still doesn’t have maximum power and they rarely set up their cars for straight line speed. You could see it even when he had DRS open on the start finish straight. Instead he used the shorter DRS zone between turns nine and ten to make controlled lunges around several cars. His moves on Esteban Gutierrez, Kevin Magnussen, Kimi Raikkonen and finally Valtteri Bottas were all executed perfectly as he pushed hard on an aggressive three stop strategy.

His first stop was the earliest of anyone as he got into some clean air and launched himself up the field. His was the most successful three stopper out of anyone, for instance Felipe Massa’s just didn’t work for him ending up 13th for Williams from ninth on the grid.

For Vettel to end up fourth with the fastest lap and just 25 seconds away from his team mate despite an extra stop and having to fight his way past a lot of cars was a great drive. I just hope he can get a proper clean weekend as it seems to be mostly his Red Bull afflicted with problems. This is not to take anything away from Ricciardo who’s driving brilliantly, but we have not seen the best of Vettel yet this year. With the Red Bull improving it’s only a matter of time before we do.

My other driver of the day has to be Romain Grosjean for Lotus. As his team mate Pastor Maldonado once again showed how good he is at encouraging his team to speed up the replacement parts process, Grosjean showed that his good form from last year has not gone away. A great fifth on the grid and an equally brilliant showing to secure eighth place and four points despite suffering from a myriad of problems including a sensor failure that looked like giving him a temporarily down on power Renault engine when the Ferrari’s swept past him.

On this current form Lotus will soon be once again a regular points troubler after a torrid start to the year. Renault is predicting that Canada will be the first race they can have their power unit at 100% which can only be a good thing for the Renault teams competitiveness. Red Bull particularly will look forward to adding power to what is actually probably the best chassis on the grid despite Mercedes dominance.

Finally, finally Kimi Raikkonen gave us a performance to show that he can match Fernando Alonso at Ferrari. He out qualified him and held him off valiantly for most of the race although in the end Alonso managed to squeeze through with a few laps remaining. However, Alonso was on a three stop strategy to Kimi’s two and had much fresher tyres to overtake him with.

I thought it an odd race for Ferrari strategy wise. It’s generally accepted that the car ahead in the race will get priority on when to pit. In this race as in most others, it is more advantageous to stop first and gain track position by using the fresher and therefore faster tyres. In Spain today despite being behind Kimi it seemed Ferrari employed a strategy to get Alonso ahead which surely the Finn can’t be happy with?

At the first stops Fernando pitted first with Kimi in a lap later. It was only due to traffic on Alonso’s out lap that prevented him from getting ahead of Kimi. At the second round of stops despite Kimi having pulled a bit of a gap, Alonso again got first call. Now at this point it’s fair to say due to the position they were in and the cars close proximity the team decided to split strategies. Ultimately Kimi pitted for a second time several laps after Alonso but had track position when Alonso stopped for the third and final time.

However the fresher rubber allowed him to close very quickly and eventually pass a defensively robust Raikkonen. In the end the cars were separated by not very much so splitting the strategies didn’t really harm the cars overall results for the team as they finished sixth and seventh, but it didn’t put Alonso in front whereas if they remained on the same strategy Kimi would have come out on top at the Spaniard’s home race for the first time this year. Interesting I thought.

Valtteri Bottas completed the top five for Williams with another strong drive. It had looked like he might have been on for a podium as he ran third in the opening laps but failure to cover Ricciardo’s first stop meant he fell behind and his two stop strategy left him victim to the flying Vettel.

The Spanish race is the traditional point for a number of upgrades and can shake up the grid from the opening flyaway races. It certainly appears that after Mercedes, Red Bull have used their financial muscle and are now the clear second best team with Ferrari and Williams scrapping for third. This race it appeared that Force India was the big loser compared to their previous results as they could only just manage a ninth and tenth. Force India has never shown brilliantly in Spain so it may be just a blip although Nico Hulkenberg was meant to have complained that the team had hardly shown up with anything new. Sergio Perez outraced Hulkenberg to be the lead driver in the team.

Sauber’s new light weight car offered them no encouragement while McLaren are buried in the midfield. Jenson Button might have dragged them in to the top 10 of qualifying but he was nowhere in the race. Kevin Magnussen must have thought he was going to have a rookie year of Lewis Hamilton proportions after his podium in Australia, but since then McLaren have looked lost and don’t seem able to control their tyres as for them to get the best out of the rubber is particularly temperature sensitive. Toro Rosso also look to have dropped back a bit, Daniil Kvyat couldn’t continue his scoring run but was still quicker than his reliability troubled team mate Jean-Eric Vergne who already could be fighting for his 2015 seat.

Marussia look to have made progress and could be able to attack the lower end of the midfield. Jules Bianchi was impressive in the race while Max Chilton should be very happy he out-qualified his Ferrari young driver team mate by six tenths. Caterham were nowhere despite Kamui Kobayashi’s efforts.

So once again we are off to Monaco in two weeks time. Monaco can be an anomaly of a race, with results that sometimes you wouldn’t expect, for the championship Rosberg knows wherever he finishes it has to be ahead of Hamilton. But I think it’ll be the first circuit where we might legitimately expect a proper challenge to Mercedes, or at least for them to be nearer to the rest of the field. I’m going for a Sebastian Vettel win. What? It’ll make a change…

Result:

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

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Thursday 8 May 2014

Spanish Forecast


This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix is set to be one of the most interesting races of the year so far. As the start of the European season it is traditional that after the opening fly-away races the teams bring a whole load of updates to their cars. After the Chinese race the cars returned to the factories for the first time in two months therefore this race presents the first real opportunity to see if anyone will be able to catch the current dominators of the sport, Mercedes.

The circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona is a real test of the cars with its long straight, fast, medium and slow speed corners, it has everything you need to tell whether your car has a flaw or not. It’s often said that if your car goes well here, it’ll do well pretty much everywhere. Then again Fernando Alonso won the race last year and then faded away so who really knows.

This year there are two DRS zones, one on the start finish straight and one between turns nine and ten, the second one seemed a bit short last year but we’ll see how it goes, it would at least help move them in a position to attack down the start finish straight a few corners later. Pirelli are taking the medium and hard compounds. Degradation is traditionally high in Spain because of its long corners and abrasive surface but with these compounds you’d hope it wouldn’t be more than a three stopper.

The weather is meant to be nice and hot all weekend with temperatures reaching around 24C. This could help teams such as McLaren get their tyres up to temperature a lot easier so we could see the Woking team slightly revitalised after a couple of very poor weekends for the team where they haven’t scored any points at all.

But who can really challenge the Mercedes team? Well all the engine manufacturers will have been working feverishly to bring some updates to the power units. The engines have been homologated which basically means they can’t do updates which specifically target performance. However, they can working on the software and work with the fuel companies to provide a boost. Renault are confident they will have made significant progress.

Which is good news for Red Bull as if any team is going to be taking on the Mercedes cars it’s them. Red Bull have once again designed a fantastic car, the main problem right now is the Renault engine holding them back. Undoubtedly the team will be bringing upgrades of their own but if Renault can at least get close to Mercedes then Red Bull will be firmly back in the hunt for victories.

Whether this means Sebastian Vettel can start getting back on terms with Daniel Ricciardo is another matter? The World Champion needs a result against his younger team mate, but first he needs the car underneath him and in his control. I wonder if the upgrades Red Bull are bringing will be targeted at making Vettel more comfortable in the car so he can unleash the speed that is still there. But if Vettel is more comfortable then there’s nothing to say Ricciardo can’t exploit the car just as well.

With a Renault upgrade the team to watch could well be Lotus. They’ve had an exceptionally poor start to the season which could be about to change. I by no means think they’re going to be challenging for podiums but Romain Grosjean was on for a point or two in China before he retired which after qualifying on the back row of the grid at the first round is quite the progression. Despite Pastor Maldonado winning here a few years back, Grosjean is the driver to watch, his form from the end of the last year hasn’t disappeared and I believe when the opportunity comes he’ll be the Lotus driver to take it.

Sauber have taken 20kg off their overweight car so hope to be the team least likely to join the disappointing Marussia and Caterham’s in Q1.  Hopefully the likes of Force India and Williams won’t start getting left behind by the upgrades to the bigger teams. Especially for Williams who have not taken advantage of their early season pace to record anything like the results they should have had. At least for Force India they have managed to grab a podium, although in Nico Hulkenberg’s eyes I’m sure he thinks the wrong driver picked it up as he has been the pace setter at every race but the one Sergio Perez picked up the podium at.

I’m beginning to think if Ferrari don’t offer significant improvement at this race then Fernando Alonso will be looking to get out of his Ferrari contract. Mercedes seem to think Ferrari are their biggest threat which I disagree with but like Renault, the Ferrari power unit will have been worked on to find ways of improvement for fuel consumption and driveability. The improvements that the team are bringing have got to move them closer to the front and offer Kimi Raikkonen a solution to the problems he has driving the F14T. If Kimi isn’t closer to Alonso then I think any upgrades will have failed because if the car is easier to drive then generally the drivers are closer as there is less problems to drive around.


I do expect Ferrari and particularly Red Bull in qualifying to offer more of a challenge, but can Mercedes be beaten yet? I don’t think so, they’ve barely had to open the taps and they won’t have been resting on their laurels at all. Obviously the opposition have more to gain as they are that far behind but Mercedes have a lot of clever people. So who do I tip to win? Well Nico Rosberg was stronger than Lewis Hamilton last year in Spain. I don’t think that will be the case this year, Lewis is just in total harmony with this car and seems to have Rosberg covered at the moment. I'm going with Vettel to get a surprise pole position, Hamilton to win, the Red Bull’s and Alonso to mix it with Rosberg with a Williams, Force India and McLaren lurking in the background. And a Grosjean ready to get a point, probably battling rookie of the year so far Daniil Kvyat.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Thursday 1 May 2014

Ayrton Senna


I remember April 11th 1993 so well. It’s the only time I ever saw Ayrton Senna race live. The European Grand Prix at Donnington has gone down in history as one of the great races as Senna drove through a myriad of conditions to take his 38th victory. There would only be three more brilliant wins before his untimely death twenty years ago on this day at the San Marino Grand Prix.

I’ve written before about Donnington here, but I realise how lucky I was to witness a true legend of the sport compete in one his best seasons despite not winning the championship. His skills in the wet that day and on so many other occasions were truly astonishing, he just left everyone behind. 

Senna was a fascinating racing driver; there was so much about him that really shone through to take him above other competitors. His total commitment, his belief in justice that often spilled into controversy and divided opinion about his racing ethics, his compassion to other drivers when out of the car, but his raw speed was something so exciting to witness.

The sad thing is there was so much still to come. His rivalry with Alain Prost is well documented. Prost was regarded as the best when Senna came into the sport. When he became Prost’s team mate at McLaren Senna set out to destroy him. He wanted to be known as the sport’s sole number one.

That he established himself so incontrovertibly and ruthlessly made him someone you just couldn’t ignore. But there was a stage of his career that wasn’t allowed to play out. How fascinating would it have been to see how he’d have reacted to the threat of Michael Schumacher whose star was quickly rising and who Senna knew was the next big name the sport would know? Could someone do to him what he did to Prost? Undoubtedly it would have been dramatic and surely controversial, controversy being the one word that has followed both these titans of the sport.

Senna brought racing into a new realm and is often cited as inspiration by today's stars such as Lewis Hamilton. But he arguably made Formula 1 a contact sport which can be seen by how drivers these days run everything so close to the edge when racing wheel to wheel. But Senna was also a keen advocate for safety. The aftermath of Senna and the often forgotten Roland Ratzenberger’s death at Imola made the sport so much safer over the years to the extent that there hasn’t been a fatality since.

With many people who die too soon their legacy is embellished. We remember only the good parts and raise them up to be more than they were. This is in part true of Senna, his legend now is almost like a demigod, but he was certainly fallible and that’s what made him so interesting and continues to do so for many people. 

His total commitment to driving was amazing, his technical ability brilliant but his emotions sometimes made him vulnerable and could push him to do things that he knew was wrong but he could justify as being right which is why we have Japan 1990. He crashed into Prost at over 150mph to right a wrong from 1989 when he believed the title was unfairly taken from him showing the dark side of himself when on other occasions he'd stop his car on track to make sure other drivers were ok. His was a complex character.

Personally I don’t think he was the best driver that ever competed I do think he was the most exciting though. The name Senna just conjures speed. When you heard him talk it was almost like a spiritual lesson. Listen to him reflect about his qualifying laps at the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix where he believed he was driving almost unconsciously such was his focus. He qualified two seconds clear of Prost that day, his own team mate. It was one of 65 pole positions to go with his 41 wins and three world championships that made him probably the fastest driver the sport has seen.

In Monaco he demonstrated that speed better than anywhere. He committed himself so much more around the tight confines of those streets than anyone ever has before or since to win six times in the principality. It was tragic that the next race after the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 was Monaco. 

I remember sitting in front of the television twenty years ago and watching my hero die. It was one of the saddest moments I remember witnessing. After he crashed and the car came to a stop, it looked like his head moved. I thought he was about to get out of the car as they always seemed to.

There hadn’t been a death in 12 years at a race meeting until April 30th and Ratzenberger crashed, I’d been too young to know it was possible. Now the next day the one driver who seemed invincible wasn’t getting out of his car and it was truly unbelievable.

So much good has come out of that tragic situation. The safety in Formula 1 is amazing now and the Ayrton Senna foundation which the man himself was already establishing was continued by his family to help under privileged children in Brazil.

However, Senna had created so much good before in his life and not just with his racing. But it’s in the car that I and many others remember him. That yellow crash helmet so distinctive in his early years in the black and gold Lotus or in the winning years in the red and white McLaren’s that he drove so hard, so fast and never giving up.

I remember him at Donnington, driving out of the spray towards me and shooting past for lap after lap, crushing the dominant Williams Renault cars and just leaving everyone else behind. That’ll always be the ultimate Senna memory to me. 




all photo's taken from autosport.com