The circuit at Interlagos never fails to disappoint. If you have a Formula One championship going down to the wire, what better place to end the season than in a place which seems, like Spa, to have its own micro-climate, where it can, and frequently does, tip it down at a moment' notice. Who can forget Kimi Raikonnen snatching the title from Lewis Hamilton in 2007 and then the next year Hamilton snatched it from Felipe Massa on the last corner.? In 2009, Brawn GP cemented their Constructors' Championship and the world title for Jenson Button after a bit of fairytale year.
So, last week the F1 circus hit town for climax to the season. If Ferrari's Fernando Alonso could win the race with Sebastian Vettel coming fourth or less, the title would be his. It was a long shot, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be him.
Neither championship contender qualified particularly well, but a first lap spin, encouraged by a good whack on the left side which left visible damage, let Vettel in last place while Alonso had a stonkingly good start, pushing his way up to 4th, then 3rd, which would have been enough.
That was all before the heavens opened. By the time the first lot of tyre changes, to intermediates had happened, Vettel had driven his way from last to 6th, which would have been enough to win the world title. The championship undulated between the two of them for the whole race.
One highlight was that Force India's Nico Hulkenberg led the race for a good stint in the middle before being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton. When he tried to re-take the lead, both spun off. The German managed to get going again, but Hamilton's race was over.
Alonso never stopped fighting. The only place handed to him on a plate was when Massa let him pass, but Vettel had a similar courtesy from his mentor Schumacher in his last race. By the last few laps, all Tifosi hopes rested on Jenson Button doing something silly in the rain. As we saw in Montreal in 2011, Jenson doesn't do silly stuff in the rain; he brings the car home.
It's impossible not to like Sebastian Vettel, or to grudge him his 3rd championship. He has the best car, though. Alonso managed to take a vastly inferior specimen within 3 points of the world title.That shows a fantastic talent. My feelings towards the Spaniard have mellowed over time. I wasn't much enamoured by his early rivalry with Schumacher, and then Alonso behaved like a total tube during his brief stay at McLaren. He and Kimi are probably the best drivers on the grid, though.
Here are my breathless tweets from yesterday. I could talk about this all day, but that train to London won't wait for me.
My hopes for next season - a scrap for the title between Alonso, Kimi, Webber and Jenson, and a place in next year's Strictly Come Dancing for Michael Schumacher. I'm missing this season already. Roll on Melbourne which, inconveniently, falls on the weekend of Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.
Showing posts with label Fernando Alonso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fernando Alonso. Show all posts
Monday, November 26, 2012
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Pass the smelling salts - F1 rumour mill scaring me
I have had my fill of traumatic reshuffles this week. The last thing my tired and emotional self needed as I headed home after a wonderfully relaxing meal out with friends was to see on Twitter rumours that my least favourite driver on the Formula 1 grid was apparently headed to one of my favourite teams. Frankly, I'd rather welcome Nadine Dorries into the Liberal Democrats than see Lewis Hamilton go to Ross Brawn's Mercedes.
This might just be Eddie Jordan messing with our heads, but he's been right about this kind of stuff before.
It's probably time that Lewis Hamilton and McLaren had a break with each other after their lifelong association. The fragility of their current relationship could be seen when Hamilton blew telemetry secrets by posting a photo of the qualifying data on Twitter after he'd had a major tantrum about finishing behind Jenson, who had been on a new set up.
Lewis has been flirting with other teams for some time. Last season he ostentatiously met Christian Horner of Red Bull. This year he's been touting himself round Red Bull, Ferrari and now Mercedes. The first two seem to have told him to sling his hook. That is a huge relief. Nobody wants to see a repeat of the fractious 2007 series when both Alonso and Hamilton moved to McLaren and behaved appallingly as they tried to establish who was top dog.
So, Mercedes is the only option seemingly left open to the Great Whinger. Sadly, if he were to go there, it would mean Michael Schumacher retiring. It was bad enough the first time. I really don't want to go through it again anyway, but finding that my lifelong hero was to be replaced by Hamilton, the Great Whinger, requires gin or smelling salts or both. I don't really want Schumi to disappear when he's only just found the way to the podium again.
Hamilton can be a brilliant driver. Sadly, his performance is often affected by a fairly major attitude problem. He spends his time getting involved in feuds with other drivers - there were several incidents between Hamilton and Massa last year as well as between Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado. However, I have to admit that in the latter case, the dishonour was pretty much equally shared. Maldonado is becoming more and more of a liability as time goes on. He needs taking in hand before he kills someone.
I can't deny, though, that some time working with Ross Brawn might actually be good for Hamilton. Brawn's an excellent manager. When Rubens Barrichello had a fit of temper in 2009, Brawn didn't go shouting his mouth off in the press as Christian Horner might have done, but he made the driver write a grovelling apology to the entire team. If anyone can get him to grow up it'll be Brawn.
We'll know soon enough how it's all going to pan out. It will have a lot to do with what Mercedes next car is going to be like and whether McLaren can be bothered with his negotiating tactics. If Mercedes produce a decent car, the temptation for Schumi to stay around for another year would be compelling.
This has been one of the most exciting seasons in F1 I've ever known. With 8 races to go, we have no idea who is going to win. Alonso's talent should, I think, get its just reward. He may not be a personal favourite of mine, but he's managed to lead the championship by driving the wheels off a car that isn't particularly amazing. Webber, also, has been very consistent and has notched up two victories this season. And then the Ice Man has returned. Kimi has yet to win a race, but he's in a fabulous car which should come into its own in the last races of the season. The last time Kimi won a championship, he grabbed it at the last moment in the last race. We can only hope for such a thrilling end to the season.
This might just be Eddie Jordan messing with our heads, but he's been right about this kind of stuff before.
It's probably time that Lewis Hamilton and McLaren had a break with each other after their lifelong association. The fragility of their current relationship could be seen when Hamilton blew telemetry secrets by posting a photo of the qualifying data on Twitter after he'd had a major tantrum about finishing behind Jenson, who had been on a new set up.
Lewis has been flirting with other teams for some time. Last season he ostentatiously met Christian Horner of Red Bull. This year he's been touting himself round Red Bull, Ferrari and now Mercedes. The first two seem to have told him to sling his hook. That is a huge relief. Nobody wants to see a repeat of the fractious 2007 series when both Alonso and Hamilton moved to McLaren and behaved appallingly as they tried to establish who was top dog.
So, Mercedes is the only option seemingly left open to the Great Whinger. Sadly, if he were to go there, it would mean Michael Schumacher retiring. It was bad enough the first time. I really don't want to go through it again anyway, but finding that my lifelong hero was to be replaced by Hamilton, the Great Whinger, requires gin or smelling salts or both. I don't really want Schumi to disappear when he's only just found the way to the podium again.
Hamilton can be a brilliant driver. Sadly, his performance is often affected by a fairly major attitude problem. He spends his time getting involved in feuds with other drivers - there were several incidents between Hamilton and Massa last year as well as between Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado. However, I have to admit that in the latter case, the dishonour was pretty much equally shared. Maldonado is becoming more and more of a liability as time goes on. He needs taking in hand before he kills someone.
I can't deny, though, that some time working with Ross Brawn might actually be good for Hamilton. Brawn's an excellent manager. When Rubens Barrichello had a fit of temper in 2009, Brawn didn't go shouting his mouth off in the press as Christian Horner might have done, but he made the driver write a grovelling apology to the entire team. If anyone can get him to grow up it'll be Brawn.
We'll know soon enough how it's all going to pan out. It will have a lot to do with what Mercedes next car is going to be like and whether McLaren can be bothered with his negotiating tactics. If Mercedes produce a decent car, the temptation for Schumi to stay around for another year would be compelling.
This has been one of the most exciting seasons in F1 I've ever known. With 8 races to go, we have no idea who is going to win. Alonso's talent should, I think, get its just reward. He may not be a personal favourite of mine, but he's managed to lead the championship by driving the wheels off a car that isn't particularly amazing. Webber, also, has been very consistent and has notched up two victories this season. And then the Ice Man has returned. Kimi has yet to win a race, but he's in a fabulous car which should come into its own in the last races of the season. The last time Kimi won a championship, he grabbed it at the last moment in the last race. We can only hope for such a thrilling end to the season.
Monday, May 30, 2011
#F1: Vettel's lucky win in Monaco
So Sebastian Vettel continues to run away with this year's world championship. With 143 points out of a possible 150, 5 race wins out of 6, he looks invincible. Having said that, Jenson Button was in the same position 2 years ago and his title win wasn't decided until the penultimate race of the season. Having said that, the Red Bull will develop more than the Brawn car did in 2009. We can but hope that others will start to win races soon. Nowt personal about the lad, you understand, but I'd just like the title race not to be decided by the Summer holidays if at all possible.
He'd never won in Monaco before and his victory yesterday was by no means assured, despite him storming away to a significant early lead. His pit stop on lap 18 was almost farcical in its inefficiency with confusion over which tyres to put on and one of them getting caught in a tyre blanket, losing him a good chunk of time. It would never have done for Mark Webber to have had a more efficient stop so by the time he landed in his box, they didn't even have his tyres ready for him and he was stationery for 15 seconds. From his third on the grid slot, after being passed by Alonso at the start, the pit stop debacle saw the Australian having to fight back from 14th.
Red Bull fluffing it in the pit lane meant that Jenson Button was in front. For a while it looked as if he might be able to pull off a victory. And he might have done, if his reckless team-mate Lewis Hamilton hadn't decided to pull an overtake on Massa in the tunnel which sent the Brazilian out of the race and necessitated a safety car. Every time I see that pass it looks more dangerous, with Massa being pushed onto the tyre marbles. He was very lucky that it wasn't a lot worse. Just before that, Jenson had been pulled in for a pit stop in anticipation of a safety car, which never materialised, when a Virgin retired and he wasn't able to get the benefit of the new tyres to set some cracking lap times and sacrificed his place at the front of the race needlessly.
By the time we'd got to lap 60, Vettel was leading Alonso and Button within a second or so of each other. The thing was, Vettel had had his tyres on since lap 18. Because he'd started on the super soft and then switched to soft, he didn't need to stop again. The unknown factor was how long would the Pirelli tyre last? He'd need to complete 60 laps with that set of tyres and it seemed likely that at some point he'd lose grip and potentially lose 2 seconds a lap which would give Alonso and Button the chance to pass him - and Button had the fresher tyres.
9 laps later, just as the leaders were clearing the midfield, near the swimming pool, Jaime Alguesuari and Vitaly Petrov ended up in the barriers after a series of collisions which also saw Lewis Hamilton's rear wing broken, seemingly hanging by a thread. The race was red flagged and there were some scary moments as it was clear that the problem was extricating Petrov from his Renault. He had been complaining of pain in his foot, so once he'd been gingerly extricated he was taken to hospital. Thankfully, all was well and he was out after a few hours.
The resulting red flag and race restart benefitted Petrov's fellow Renault powered driver, Sebastian Vettel, who was able to get rid of his knackered tyres and replace them with a lovely new set of supersofts on the grid. McLaren were even able to replace Hamilton's rear wing. After the restart behind the safety car, the ultimate result was never really in doubt.
Lewis Hamilton featured in most of the day's controversial moments. Having been passed by Michael Schumacher at the hairpin early on, he tried to pull a similar move on Felipe Massa and completely mucked it up. After the restart he tried a similar ill judged attempt to pass Pastor Maldonado at St Devote. Both Williams could have been in the points otherwise. His comments afterwards, that the stewards' interest in him was "a fricking joke" showed that any veneer of civility he's been cultivating this season so far is all for show.
I'm hard pushed to decide on driver of the day. Vettel won by chance, but still he managed to hold off Alonso and Button for many laps on older tyres, so he has to get credit for that. I get so frustrated with Jenson sometimes. He was caught napping a couple of times yesterday, but most particularly at the restart after the red flag. Vettel and Alonso were off into the distance before he realised what was going on. And it's not like he didn't know that the safety car was going to peel off and they'd be free to race. His smooth driving style suits him a lot of the time, but he can be a bit too laid back and slow to react and that definitely holds him back. I'm also tempted by Mark Webber who, as he always does, got his head down and got on with the job and salvaged a 4th place from being as low as 14th. He was clearly disappointed at the end, and, although I think he gets a rough deal at Red Bull, he was measured in his comments at the end of the race. He certainly had a lot more to complain about than Lewis Hamilton. Then there's Alonso, for his storming start and he did harry Vettel quite a lot when he was chasing him. He'd have got past without the safety car, I'm sure. Out of that lot, I'm going to pick Webber, I think purely because he banged in that fastest lap right at the end.
I've not had time to write much about F1 this year, although I hope that will change now that the elections are out of the way, so I haven't been able to wax lyrical about how fantastic I think DC and Brundle are together in the commentary box. Their passion is so infectious, but they remember that they need to keep it real for the fans and explain things. They have a really good chemistry - not seen since Brundle's days with Murray Walker. At times it's like they're finishing each other's sentences. Their commentary has a feel of a chat down the pub which draws you in. Brundle has stepped very ably into the role of lead commentator and comes out with some brilliantly random lines. During quali it was "I know there are 52 billion chickens in the world, but I'm not sure about that." In the race, while a hapless driver was trying to get his car in gear to leave the pits, he said "there are seven of them in there son, you'll find one". I'm not entirely sure about the veracity of the 52 billion chickens, though - Wikipedia says 24 billion and I read another source that suggested 45,000 per person, but that doesn't seem right.
DC, apart from a highly irritating inability to pronounce Heidfeld or Vettel correctly, is brilliant and the banter between the pair is easy and funny. During the red flag period yesterday, Brundle told DC that he was supposed to have the regulations at his fingertips and DC replied that the dog had eaten his notes. I could have listened to them all day. It's interesting that they didn't go back to Jake and EJ during that time - they would never have been able to fill that twenty or so minutes in the dull days of Jonathan Legard without recourse to something to waken us all up.
Monaco is the race pretty much any F1 fan would love to go to. And Laura Marieee did it this year. She has some cracking photos of the drivers and the iconic track and she's been keeping an online diary here at Formula 1 Blog. She was even able to walk through the pitlane. She's truly captured the spirit of the weekend and her excitement is as palpable as my insane jealousy that she made it there. Enjoy her account.
I can't wait for Canada in a couple of weeks' time. I was so glad to see this race back last year. It will, I think, favour the McLarens over the Red Bulls so maybe there will be a chance to rein Vettel in a bit.
He'd never won in Monaco before and his victory yesterday was by no means assured, despite him storming away to a significant early lead. His pit stop on lap 18 was almost farcical in its inefficiency with confusion over which tyres to put on and one of them getting caught in a tyre blanket, losing him a good chunk of time. It would never have done for Mark Webber to have had a more efficient stop so by the time he landed in his box, they didn't even have his tyres ready for him and he was stationery for 15 seconds. From his third on the grid slot, after being passed by Alonso at the start, the pit stop debacle saw the Australian having to fight back from 14th.
Red Bull fluffing it in the pit lane meant that Jenson Button was in front. For a while it looked as if he might be able to pull off a victory. And he might have done, if his reckless team-mate Lewis Hamilton hadn't decided to pull an overtake on Massa in the tunnel which sent the Brazilian out of the race and necessitated a safety car. Every time I see that pass it looks more dangerous, with Massa being pushed onto the tyre marbles. He was very lucky that it wasn't a lot worse. Just before that, Jenson had been pulled in for a pit stop in anticipation of a safety car, which never materialised, when a Virgin retired and he wasn't able to get the benefit of the new tyres to set some cracking lap times and sacrificed his place at the front of the race needlessly.
By the time we'd got to lap 60, Vettel was leading Alonso and Button within a second or so of each other. The thing was, Vettel had had his tyres on since lap 18. Because he'd started on the super soft and then switched to soft, he didn't need to stop again. The unknown factor was how long would the Pirelli tyre last? He'd need to complete 60 laps with that set of tyres and it seemed likely that at some point he'd lose grip and potentially lose 2 seconds a lap which would give Alonso and Button the chance to pass him - and Button had the fresher tyres.
9 laps later, just as the leaders were clearing the midfield, near the swimming pool, Jaime Alguesuari and Vitaly Petrov ended up in the barriers after a series of collisions which also saw Lewis Hamilton's rear wing broken, seemingly hanging by a thread. The race was red flagged and there were some scary moments as it was clear that the problem was extricating Petrov from his Renault. He had been complaining of pain in his foot, so once he'd been gingerly extricated he was taken to hospital. Thankfully, all was well and he was out after a few hours.
The resulting red flag and race restart benefitted Petrov's fellow Renault powered driver, Sebastian Vettel, who was able to get rid of his knackered tyres and replace them with a lovely new set of supersofts on the grid. McLaren were even able to replace Hamilton's rear wing. After the restart behind the safety car, the ultimate result was never really in doubt.
Lewis Hamilton featured in most of the day's controversial moments. Having been passed by Michael Schumacher at the hairpin early on, he tried to pull a similar move on Felipe Massa and completely mucked it up. After the restart he tried a similar ill judged attempt to pass Pastor Maldonado at St Devote. Both Williams could have been in the points otherwise. His comments afterwards, that the stewards' interest in him was "a fricking joke" showed that any veneer of civility he's been cultivating this season so far is all for show.
I'm hard pushed to decide on driver of the day. Vettel won by chance, but still he managed to hold off Alonso and Button for many laps on older tyres, so he has to get credit for that. I get so frustrated with Jenson sometimes. He was caught napping a couple of times yesterday, but most particularly at the restart after the red flag. Vettel and Alonso were off into the distance before he realised what was going on. And it's not like he didn't know that the safety car was going to peel off and they'd be free to race. His smooth driving style suits him a lot of the time, but he can be a bit too laid back and slow to react and that definitely holds him back. I'm also tempted by Mark Webber who, as he always does, got his head down and got on with the job and salvaged a 4th place from being as low as 14th. He was clearly disappointed at the end, and, although I think he gets a rough deal at Red Bull, he was measured in his comments at the end of the race. He certainly had a lot more to complain about than Lewis Hamilton. Then there's Alonso, for his storming start and he did harry Vettel quite a lot when he was chasing him. He'd have got past without the safety car, I'm sure. Out of that lot, I'm going to pick Webber, I think purely because he banged in that fastest lap right at the end.
I've not had time to write much about F1 this year, although I hope that will change now that the elections are out of the way, so I haven't been able to wax lyrical about how fantastic I think DC and Brundle are together in the commentary box. Their passion is so infectious, but they remember that they need to keep it real for the fans and explain things. They have a really good chemistry - not seen since Brundle's days with Murray Walker. At times it's like they're finishing each other's sentences. Their commentary has a feel of a chat down the pub which draws you in. Brundle has stepped very ably into the role of lead commentator and comes out with some brilliantly random lines. During quali it was "I know there are 52 billion chickens in the world, but I'm not sure about that." In the race, while a hapless driver was trying to get his car in gear to leave the pits, he said "there are seven of them in there son, you'll find one". I'm not entirely sure about the veracity of the 52 billion chickens, though - Wikipedia says 24 billion and I read another source that suggested 45,000 per person, but that doesn't seem right.
DC, apart from a highly irritating inability to pronounce Heidfeld or Vettel correctly, is brilliant and the banter between the pair is easy and funny. During the red flag period yesterday, Brundle told DC that he was supposed to have the regulations at his fingertips and DC replied that the dog had eaten his notes. I could have listened to them all day. It's interesting that they didn't go back to Jake and EJ during that time - they would never have been able to fill that twenty or so minutes in the dull days of Jonathan Legard without recourse to something to waken us all up.
Monaco is the race pretty much any F1 fan would love to go to. And Laura Marieee did it this year. She has some cracking photos of the drivers and the iconic track and she's been keeping an online diary here at Formula 1 Blog. She was even able to walk through the pitlane. She's truly captured the spirit of the weekend and her excitement is as palpable as my insane jealousy that she made it there. Enjoy her account.
I can't wait for Canada in a couple of weeks' time. I was so glad to see this race back last year. It will, I think, favour the McLarens over the Red Bulls so maybe there will be a chance to rein Vettel in a bit.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
F1: Humiliation for Hamilton as Red Bulls dominate Albert Park
Well, some things are just worth getting up at 6:30 for. After knackering myself yesterday getting up at the crack of dawn for Practice, I hadn't intended watching Qualifying live, but I woke up naturally just in tme to see 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, my least favourite driver since Jacques Villeneuve, rather unceremoniously fail to make the final qualifying session for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.
I don't know quite what it is about stepping onto Australian soil that turns Hamilton into even more of an idiot than usual. We are supposed to believe that he's grown up since last year when he told barefaced lies to the stewards after the race. Certainly towards the end of last year he was behaving like less of a brat, but then, on Friday night, he decided to show off in his road car, performing the sort of antics that Ferrari's Felipe Massa had been helping an Australian police campaign against earlier in the day. I did pick up a bit of irony in the fact that performing stunts and showing off in a car is known as "hooning" when a certain Mr Hoon has been exposed as showing off about his political prowess to feather his own nest.
Anyway, Lewis says that his brush with the law is "something to learn from". Actually I thought when you passed your driving test, you learnt what was against the law. I mean, those antics wouldn't be looked upon kindly here either.
Hamilton's weekend went from bad to worse when a dismal performance in qualifying meant that he finished in 11th position, failing to make the final 10 minute shoot out. Now, I know that when Rubens Barrichello finished in 11th position last week I was doing cartwheels of celebration, but it's not the same thing. Rubens finished well ahead of his team-mate, for a start, while Hamilton's team-mate, current World Champion Jenson Button, cruised seemingly effortlessly onto the second row of the grid.
My emotions are a bit tangled when I see Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber share the front row after, again, some dazzling qualifying laps. I really, really don't like Red Bull as a team, but I have a lot of time for both drivers. Mark Webber. He has really had to struggle to get a foothold in F1. His twitter name is AussieGrit and it's completely appropriate. Anyway, both drivers flew to the front of the grid. It would be fabulous to see Mark win in front of his home crowd. Red Bull showed us two weeks ago that they can dazzle in qualifying but reliability problems cost Vettel the race and he had to be happy with fourth. He is a very talented driver, but a haircut would do him no harm whatsoever. Do they not have barbers in Melbourne? Stephen came up with another reason, tough - his barnet could be ballast!
Third on the grid is Alonso. He is a very good driver for sure, but he annoys me. He behaved like an idiot at McLaren in 2007 as much as Lewis Hamilton did and he has made me livid yesterday with a typically arrogant interview in which he basically told fans that if they thought F1 was boring then they could always go away and do something else instead.
Jenson's fourth, Massa's fifth, the two Mercedes cars were closely matched in 6th and 7th. Alright then, Schumi was 7th, but only just, then Rubens in 8th, Robert Kubica in 9th and Force India's Adrian Sutil in 10th. What's interesting is that last year there was barely a second and a half covering the entire grid. Today there was almost 2 seconds covering the top 10.
Spare a thought for Virgin F1 though - somebody did the sums wrong and their fuel tank isn't big enough . Now I know I'm first to crticise Jonathan Legard for his ditchwater style of commentary but credit to him for being the first to sniff this story out.
We are used to seeing Melbourne basking in sunlight, but the Antipodean elements seemed to be sticking 2 fingers to Bernie Ecclestone, who'd snubbed Australia by depriving it of its traditional season opener spot. We had one very rainy practice session yesterday and today's qualifying was distinctly chilly and tomorrow's looking a bit unsettled too.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Alonso is going to win again tomorrow as the Ferrari will be faster in the early stages of the race and is likely to be more reliable. I really want Mark Webber to at least make the podium though.
This feels like a proper F1 weekend, though. The place is packed out with fans. While I am not chuffed with Bernie for putting on the Australian race with its resultant sleep deprivation for UK fans on the same weekend as the clocks go forward, the sport is as popular as ever down under. It should be a good race tomorrow. See you then!
I don't know quite what it is about stepping onto Australian soil that turns Hamilton into even more of an idiot than usual. We are supposed to believe that he's grown up since last year when he told barefaced lies to the stewards after the race. Certainly towards the end of last year he was behaving like less of a brat, but then, on Friday night, he decided to show off in his road car, performing the sort of antics that Ferrari's Felipe Massa had been helping an Australian police campaign against earlier in the day. I did pick up a bit of irony in the fact that performing stunts and showing off in a car is known as "hooning" when a certain Mr Hoon has been exposed as showing off about his political prowess to feather his own nest.
Anyway, Lewis says that his brush with the law is "something to learn from". Actually I thought when you passed your driving test, you learnt what was against the law. I mean, those antics wouldn't be looked upon kindly here either.
Hamilton's weekend went from bad to worse when a dismal performance in qualifying meant that he finished in 11th position, failing to make the final 10 minute shoot out. Now, I know that when Rubens Barrichello finished in 11th position last week I was doing cartwheels of celebration, but it's not the same thing. Rubens finished well ahead of his team-mate, for a start, while Hamilton's team-mate, current World Champion Jenson Button, cruised seemingly effortlessly onto the second row of the grid.
My emotions are a bit tangled when I see Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber share the front row after, again, some dazzling qualifying laps. I really, really don't like Red Bull as a team, but I have a lot of time for both drivers. Mark Webber. He has really had to struggle to get a foothold in F1. His twitter name is AussieGrit and it's completely appropriate. Anyway, both drivers flew to the front of the grid. It would be fabulous to see Mark win in front of his home crowd. Red Bull showed us two weeks ago that they can dazzle in qualifying but reliability problems cost Vettel the race and he had to be happy with fourth. He is a very talented driver, but a haircut would do him no harm whatsoever. Do they not have barbers in Melbourne? Stephen came up with another reason, tough - his barnet could be ballast!
Third on the grid is Alonso. He is a very good driver for sure, but he annoys me. He behaved like an idiot at McLaren in 2007 as much as Lewis Hamilton did and he has made me livid yesterday with a typically arrogant interview in which he basically told fans that if they thought F1 was boring then they could always go away and do something else instead.
Jenson's fourth, Massa's fifth, the two Mercedes cars were closely matched in 6th and 7th. Alright then, Schumi was 7th, but only just, then Rubens in 8th, Robert Kubica in 9th and Force India's Adrian Sutil in 10th. What's interesting is that last year there was barely a second and a half covering the entire grid. Today there was almost 2 seconds covering the top 10.
Spare a thought for Virgin F1 though - somebody did the sums wrong and their fuel tank isn't big enough . Now I know I'm first to crticise Jonathan Legard for his ditchwater style of commentary but credit to him for being the first to sniff this story out.
We are used to seeing Melbourne basking in sunlight, but the Antipodean elements seemed to be sticking 2 fingers to Bernie Ecclestone, who'd snubbed Australia by depriving it of its traditional season opener spot. We had one very rainy practice session yesterday and today's qualifying was distinctly chilly and tomorrow's looking a bit unsettled too.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Alonso is going to win again tomorrow as the Ferrari will be faster in the early stages of the race and is likely to be more reliable. I really want Mark Webber to at least make the podium though.
This feels like a proper F1 weekend, though. The place is packed out with fans. While I am not chuffed with Bernie for putting on the Australian race with its resultant sleep deprivation for UK fans on the same weekend as the clocks go forward, the sport is as popular as ever down under. It should be a good race tomorrow. See you then!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
F1: Boring in Bahrain
So the first race of the season is over. I can't say I'm displeased with a Ferrari 1-2, although I'd have been much happier if the order had been reversed and Felipe Massa had been on the top step of the podium. Mind you, from Intensive Care to second in a grand prix in 7 and a half months is a remarkable achievement.
I feel so sorry for poor Sebastian Vettel. He had led from the start and had done absolutely everything he should have done. Just after a set of mind games by team radio (Ferrari telling Alonso he could catch Vettel but he had to watch out for his engine and Red Bull telling Vettel that Alonso's car was in danger of blowing up), Vettel's engine lost power, causing him to lose 3 places. He eventually limped home in 4th but he deserved to win.
I love Ferrari, but there was something a bit sad in a way about what seemed like the old order being returned today. Last year it was the new kids on the block which stole the show from the start. Today they couldn't quite manage it.
Lewis Hamilton was gifted his place on the podium by events which just added to the feeling of the old hegemony coming back.
The Mercedes cars of Schumacher and Rosberg put in a steady performance, finishing in 5th and 6th. This was ahead of the current world champion Jenson Button, so let's not have too much naysaying about Schumi.
The race itself was actually, in the words of Craig Revel Horwood on Strictly, dull, dull, dull. After a few dramas at the start and the initial round of pitstops, there was a bit of a lull where absolutely sweet fanny adams happened. My husband almost fell asleep despite me reading the finer comments from Twitter, most of which seemed to indicate that drying paint would be much more exciting, to him.
This leads to a bit of a dilemma for the rest of the season. If the cars do what they're supposed to do, once they've changed tyres, we're all going to be bored rigid. Harrassed engineers telling their drivers not to push too hard in case they ruin their tyres or engines is likely to be as enthralling as it gets.
Schumi hit the nail on the head afterwards when he said:
Duncan said on Twitter that this was rich coming from someone who had turned passing in the pits into an art form. Although Schumi could overtake on the road rather brilliantly as his last race in 2006 showed.
Even with a relatively sedate weekend, we saw at least 3 engines trashed - 4 if you count Bruno Senna's which sounded like something you'd cut your hedge with when he ground to a halt. The drivers only have 8 engines each for 19 races, the same number as they had for 17 last year. The last thing they will want is to take a penalty at the tail end of the season which could put them back 5 places on the grid when they're fighting for the championship. This just encourages a conservative style of driving that Jenson Button admitted to on the BBC Red Button forum this afternoon. He said that the new regime was easier cos he wasn't driving flat out all day. Surely part of what makes F1 special is drivers taking their cars to the absolute edge of their capabilities.
I wonder if they will have to consider increasing the number of engines allowed, or making them take more pit stops by ensuring that the tyres can't last for very long. Either that, or just reintroduce re-fuelling.
One brilliant result from the weekend was the way Lotus got both cars to the end of the race - they may not have speed, but they will last. It was good to see team technical director Mike Gascoyne have his own special session on the Red Button forum and to hear from principal Tony Fernandes that he'd been given Colin Chapman's black hat to wear on their first race win.
Another good point is that Rubens Barrichello nabbed the last point on offer with a 10th place finish.
Spare a thought for Karun Chandhok, though. The poor guy only got a handful of laps on track in qualifying yesterday and had to continue his shakedown in the race. Unfortunately a bump at turn 12 threw him off balance and his race was over. His twitter feed shows an attitude that is a credit to him and it's nice to see that he's quite starstruck about the whole thing.
My feelings today are perhaps compounded by the rather charmless Bahrain circuit. We'll see how it goes in a fortnight on the wonderful Melbourne street circuit with lots of fans. I hope by then that Bernie Ecclestone will have reconsidered his ridiculous refusal to allow drivers' personal physios on the grid. This meant that when the Blessed Brundle went to do his gridwalk, there were no drivers bar Alonso for him to talk to. The rest were in their garages with their physios. Now, of course the drivers aren't getting any sort of physio actually on the grid, and it's all a big perk for the physios, but it's a battle that Bernie just shouldn't have picked.
I feel so sorry for poor Sebastian Vettel. He had led from the start and had done absolutely everything he should have done. Just after a set of mind games by team radio (Ferrari telling Alonso he could catch Vettel but he had to watch out for his engine and Red Bull telling Vettel that Alonso's car was in danger of blowing up), Vettel's engine lost power, causing him to lose 3 places. He eventually limped home in 4th but he deserved to win.
I love Ferrari, but there was something a bit sad in a way about what seemed like the old order being returned today. Last year it was the new kids on the block which stole the show from the start. Today they couldn't quite manage it.
Lewis Hamilton was gifted his place on the podium by events which just added to the feeling of the old hegemony coming back.
The Mercedes cars of Schumacher and Rosberg put in a steady performance, finishing in 5th and 6th. This was ahead of the current world champion Jenson Button, so let's not have too much naysaying about Schumi.
The race itself was actually, in the words of Craig Revel Horwood on Strictly, dull, dull, dull. After a few dramas at the start and the initial round of pitstops, there was a bit of a lull where absolutely sweet fanny adams happened. My husband almost fell asleep despite me reading the finer comments from Twitter, most of which seemed to indicate that drying paint would be much more exciting, to him.
This leads to a bit of a dilemma for the rest of the season. If the cars do what they're supposed to do, once they've changed tyres, we're all going to be bored rigid. Harrassed engineers telling their drivers not to push too hard in case they ruin their tyres or engines is likely to be as enthralling as it gets.
Schumi hit the nail on the head afterwards when he said:
"It's the start and then after it is just sort of go your pace and not do mistakes," Schumacher told the BBC.
"Overtaking is basically impossible, other than if somebody makes a mistake - Lewis had a little one so Nico was able to pass him, but got back past at the pitstop. That's about it.
"That's the action we are going to have with unfortunately this kind of environment of race strategy.
Duncan said on Twitter that this was rich coming from someone who had turned passing in the pits into an art form. Although Schumi could overtake on the road rather brilliantly as his last race in 2006 showed.
Even with a relatively sedate weekend, we saw at least 3 engines trashed - 4 if you count Bruno Senna's which sounded like something you'd cut your hedge with when he ground to a halt. The drivers only have 8 engines each for 19 races, the same number as they had for 17 last year. The last thing they will want is to take a penalty at the tail end of the season which could put them back 5 places on the grid when they're fighting for the championship. This just encourages a conservative style of driving that Jenson Button admitted to on the BBC Red Button forum this afternoon. He said that the new regime was easier cos he wasn't driving flat out all day. Surely part of what makes F1 special is drivers taking their cars to the absolute edge of their capabilities.
I wonder if they will have to consider increasing the number of engines allowed, or making them take more pit stops by ensuring that the tyres can't last for very long. Either that, or just reintroduce re-fuelling.
One brilliant result from the weekend was the way Lotus got both cars to the end of the race - they may not have speed, but they will last. It was good to see team technical director Mike Gascoyne have his own special session on the Red Button forum and to hear from principal Tony Fernandes that he'd been given Colin Chapman's black hat to wear on their first race win.
Another good point is that Rubens Barrichello nabbed the last point on offer with a 10th place finish.
Spare a thought for Karun Chandhok, though. The poor guy only got a handful of laps on track in qualifying yesterday and had to continue his shakedown in the race. Unfortunately a bump at turn 12 threw him off balance and his race was over. His twitter feed shows an attitude that is a credit to him and it's nice to see that he's quite starstruck about the whole thing.
My feelings today are perhaps compounded by the rather charmless Bahrain circuit. We'll see how it goes in a fortnight on the wonderful Melbourne street circuit with lots of fans. I hope by then that Bernie Ecclestone will have reconsidered his ridiculous refusal to allow drivers' personal physios on the grid. This meant that when the Blessed Brundle went to do his gridwalk, there were no drivers bar Alonso for him to talk to. The rest were in their garages with their physios. Now, of course the drivers aren't getting any sort of physio actually on the grid, and it's all a big perk for the physios, but it's a battle that Bernie just shouldn't have picked.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Flavio Briatore out as Renault fight to save F1 team.
What a horrible day this is for Formula 1. I always thought the day that Renault Team Principal Flavio Briatore, a man I have absolutely no time for whatsoever, left the sport would be a day when I'd hang out the bunting and have a party. The circumstances of his departure, however, are very bad news for the sport.
Next Monday, the Renault team will face a World Motor Sport Council hearing to determine whether allegations made by Nelson Piquet Jr, the driver Renault sacked earlier this Summer, were true. Piquet had told the FIA that he had deliberately crashed his car during the Singapore Grand Prix on the orders of Briatore and the Engineering Director Pat Symonds in order to give an advantage to his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who went on to grab a surprise victory. Because Alonso had stopped by the time Piquet's crash brought the safety car out, he was in last place behind it, but everyone else still had to stop, which effectively gave him the race.
This morning, the team put this statement out saying that they wouldn't dispute the allegations and that both Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds had left the team. It's an announcement that has shocked and saddened those of us who love the sport. It's not quite an admission of guilt, but it does suggest that they were not able to find a way of defending themselves against the compelling evidence against them.
We know exactly what that evidence is because it's been widely published in the press. I can't believe I'm linking to the Daily Fail in a non negative way, but they've put it all up on their website. I have to say that the FIA should hang their heads in shame for allowing what is effectively the case for the prosecution to be leaked and published in the press. If that happened in an actual criminal court case, it could result in the defendant getting off and would certainly be contempt of court. Surely it can't be too much to ask, even in the soap opera world of Formula One, for investigations to be conducted with some sort of decorum, or at least the basic standards of confidentiality and security.
That evidence included the telemetry from Nelson Piquet's car, which indicated that he was accelerating after he lost control, a counter-intuitive reaction. While this could allow the conclusion to be drawn that the crash had been deliberate, it was the evidence given to the FIA by Pat Symonds who refused to answer a number of the critical questions put to him which added weight to suspicions of collusion.
Nelson Piquet Jr has come in for huge criticism for his actions both in causing the crash and for blowing the whistle. There is no doubt that what he did was very wrong, but we have to look further at the pressure he was under. from the statement he made on his sacking outlining his treatment at the hands of Flavio Briatore and his statement he made to the FIA we can put it all a bit in context. If half of what he writes is true, there is no doubt in my mind that he was being bullied by Flavio Briatore. Nelson had the added pressure of having a triple world champion as a father and was desperate to prove himself in that world. It seems that right from the start at Renault he was put under immense strain to deliver results and wasn't given the support that he needed to do that. By Singapore, three quarters of the way through the season, his contract had not been renewed for this season and the conversations in which he says he was ordered to crash took place in a climate of uncertainty about his future.
It's very easy for us to say that we would have told Flavio to get lost, but everybody reacts to bullying in the workplace in different ways. Piquet's confidence was clearly non existent and he was in a fragile state emotionally, not an easy thing to deal with in the macho Formula 1 world. Briatore, by his own admission, seemed to be controlling areas of Piquet's life which were none of his business. It was very difficult for this young man to make his own way and exert influence on his own life. A sensitive young man like Piquet had no chance of standing up to a larger than life figure like Briatore. In that frankly abusive set up, would you have been able to stand up for yourself? Imagine how desperate he must have been to deliberately take action which could, if it had gone wrong, killed him or somebody else - not even at the point of the crash, but I can imagine that the enormity of what he had to do consumed him throughout the race. He could easily have lost concentration earlier and inadvertently injured himself or somebody else.
Whatever his motivations in subsequently going to the FIA about to tell them that he had been ordered to crash in Singapore, it's probably a good thing that he did. If people are going to demand that their drivers crash out of races, then the sport is well rid of them. It beggars belief that any manager would put pressure on a driver to take action that could in the short term endanger the driver's life or that of any person who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong term or in the long term put the jobs of everyone who worked for them in jeopardy unnecessarily.
What should happen now, though, to Renault? Presumably the parent company has completed an internal investigation and judged that Briatore and Symonds should leave to show that they had taken action and presumably to save the team being potentially being thrown out of the sport. Now that the All New Lotus has been given BMW's grid slot and the BMW team has been saved, Max and Bernie have more than enough cars to make up their grid, thank you very much. Renault's presence is less necessary on the grid for 2010 than it may have been a few weeks ago. The FIA could well decide to kick them out. There have been rumours all season that they were going to withdraw anyway, but I doubt they would want to leave in such ignominious circumstances. Distancing themselves from Symonds and Briatore could be an exercise in pre withdrawal rehabilitation for Renault, but they had signed the Concorde Agreement which committed them for 3 years, so we can only assume that they intended to stay.
Is it the case that Renault should only be punished lightly because they have dealt with the trouble makers? I'm not so sure. The team has to be accountable for the actions of its employees otherwise an unscruplous team could unofficially encourage its managers to do all sorts and then fire some sacrificial lambs if they got caught. I would expect that they would get some punishment from the FIA. For a transgression which did not endanger life, McLaren got a $100 million fine and were excluded from the championship for 2007. Surely the potential dangers of a deliberate crash are worse than that? On the other hand, the economic situation is pretty rubbish compared to 2007, especially for car manufacturers and there's an argument that the jobs of hundreds of people should not be put at risk for the irresponsible actions of three.
We know that Pat Symonds has been offered immunity by the FIA but we don't know whether he has accepted this. It concerns me that of the three people in the room, two of them have been offered immunity. There is a strong argument that Piquet should not face further action - he was not the person with the power in that situation, but Symonds? If it had been up to me, I'd have thrown the book at both of them.
Nelson Piquet Jr will find it very hard to secure employment in F1 in the future - which is a shame. I'd have loved to have seen what a decent manager like Ross Brawn or Stefano Domenicali could do with him. Presumably the only way back in for him is for his father to invest in a team and effectively buy him a seat. From there, he could prove himself in his own right. He certainly had a good track record in other series before F1, so he's clearly capable. I hope that whatever his future holds that he finds something that fulfils him and gets him out of the onerous shadow of his father.
The other intriguing question is what effect this will have on the mooted move to Ferrari of Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso. I don't think that he knew anything about it. If he did, I can't imagine that he would have said to Pat Symonds that it was the safety car that won the race for him on the way up to the podium. He's just not that brazen and I think he'd be horrified to win a race under those circumstances. That said, will Ferrari want a driver from a tainted team? They already have too many drivers as both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonnen are contracted to the end of next year. Massa looks like he's on his way back to full health and Kimi is on fire at the moment. It was a pleasure to see the often random and monosyllabic Finn talking in paragraphs in the post race press conference on Sunday. He certainly seems to be having a spell of good form after a while when it's been hard to see his motivation. He's had several podiums and his recent win in Spa shows that he's in spirited mood. He's such a character that I really don't want to see him without a drive for next year and he certainly shouldn't, as also speculated, go to McLaren to play second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton. Only misery lies in that course of action.
As for the sport itself, it's horrible that this has happened, but I don't think there will be any long term damage. It may lead to closer investigation of accidents by the FIA given the crucial and damning telemetry from this one - but on its own, without Piquet speaking up or Symonds' evidence, it would be hard to build a case in isolation. For what it's worth, I think it was a one-off. We'll see what the FIA does on Monday and then I hope we can move on.
And please let the off track drama be over now - all I want to see is a fight to the wire as the Brawn boys determine which one of them wins the Drivers' Championship!
Next Monday, the Renault team will face a World Motor Sport Council hearing to determine whether allegations made by Nelson Piquet Jr, the driver Renault sacked earlier this Summer, were true. Piquet had told the FIA that he had deliberately crashed his car during the Singapore Grand Prix on the orders of Briatore and the Engineering Director Pat Symonds in order to give an advantage to his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who went on to grab a surprise victory. Because Alonso had stopped by the time Piquet's crash brought the safety car out, he was in last place behind it, but everyone else still had to stop, which effectively gave him the race.
This morning, the team put this statement out saying that they wouldn't dispute the allegations and that both Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds had left the team. It's an announcement that has shocked and saddened those of us who love the sport. It's not quite an admission of guilt, but it does suggest that they were not able to find a way of defending themselves against the compelling evidence against them.
We know exactly what that evidence is because it's been widely published in the press. I can't believe I'm linking to the Daily Fail in a non negative way, but they've put it all up on their website. I have to say that the FIA should hang their heads in shame for allowing what is effectively the case for the prosecution to be leaked and published in the press. If that happened in an actual criminal court case, it could result in the defendant getting off and would certainly be contempt of court. Surely it can't be too much to ask, even in the soap opera world of Formula One, for investigations to be conducted with some sort of decorum, or at least the basic standards of confidentiality and security.
That evidence included the telemetry from Nelson Piquet's car, which indicated that he was accelerating after he lost control, a counter-intuitive reaction. While this could allow the conclusion to be drawn that the crash had been deliberate, it was the evidence given to the FIA by Pat Symonds who refused to answer a number of the critical questions put to him which added weight to suspicions of collusion.
Nelson Piquet Jr has come in for huge criticism for his actions both in causing the crash and for blowing the whistle. There is no doubt that what he did was very wrong, but we have to look further at the pressure he was under. from the statement he made on his sacking outlining his treatment at the hands of Flavio Briatore and his statement he made to the FIA we can put it all a bit in context. If half of what he writes is true, there is no doubt in my mind that he was being bullied by Flavio Briatore. Nelson had the added pressure of having a triple world champion as a father and was desperate to prove himself in that world. It seems that right from the start at Renault he was put under immense strain to deliver results and wasn't given the support that he needed to do that. By Singapore, three quarters of the way through the season, his contract had not been renewed for this season and the conversations in which he says he was ordered to crash took place in a climate of uncertainty about his future.
It's very easy for us to say that we would have told Flavio to get lost, but everybody reacts to bullying in the workplace in different ways. Piquet's confidence was clearly non existent and he was in a fragile state emotionally, not an easy thing to deal with in the macho Formula 1 world. Briatore, by his own admission, seemed to be controlling areas of Piquet's life which were none of his business. It was very difficult for this young man to make his own way and exert influence on his own life. A sensitive young man like Piquet had no chance of standing up to a larger than life figure like Briatore. In that frankly abusive set up, would you have been able to stand up for yourself? Imagine how desperate he must have been to deliberately take action which could, if it had gone wrong, killed him or somebody else - not even at the point of the crash, but I can imagine that the enormity of what he had to do consumed him throughout the race. He could easily have lost concentration earlier and inadvertently injured himself or somebody else.
Whatever his motivations in subsequently going to the FIA about to tell them that he had been ordered to crash in Singapore, it's probably a good thing that he did. If people are going to demand that their drivers crash out of races, then the sport is well rid of them. It beggars belief that any manager would put pressure on a driver to take action that could in the short term endanger the driver's life or that of any person who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong term or in the long term put the jobs of everyone who worked for them in jeopardy unnecessarily.
What should happen now, though, to Renault? Presumably the parent company has completed an internal investigation and judged that Briatore and Symonds should leave to show that they had taken action and presumably to save the team being potentially being thrown out of the sport. Now that the All New Lotus has been given BMW's grid slot and the BMW team has been saved, Max and Bernie have more than enough cars to make up their grid, thank you very much. Renault's presence is less necessary on the grid for 2010 than it may have been a few weeks ago. The FIA could well decide to kick them out. There have been rumours all season that they were going to withdraw anyway, but I doubt they would want to leave in such ignominious circumstances. Distancing themselves from Symonds and Briatore could be an exercise in pre withdrawal rehabilitation for Renault, but they had signed the Concorde Agreement which committed them for 3 years, so we can only assume that they intended to stay.
Is it the case that Renault should only be punished lightly because they have dealt with the trouble makers? I'm not so sure. The team has to be accountable for the actions of its employees otherwise an unscruplous team could unofficially encourage its managers to do all sorts and then fire some sacrificial lambs if they got caught. I would expect that they would get some punishment from the FIA. For a transgression which did not endanger life, McLaren got a $100 million fine and were excluded from the championship for 2007. Surely the potential dangers of a deliberate crash are worse than that? On the other hand, the economic situation is pretty rubbish compared to 2007, especially for car manufacturers and there's an argument that the jobs of hundreds of people should not be put at risk for the irresponsible actions of three.
We know that Pat Symonds has been offered immunity by the FIA but we don't know whether he has accepted this. It concerns me that of the three people in the room, two of them have been offered immunity. There is a strong argument that Piquet should not face further action - he was not the person with the power in that situation, but Symonds? If it had been up to me, I'd have thrown the book at both of them.
Nelson Piquet Jr will find it very hard to secure employment in F1 in the future - which is a shame. I'd have loved to have seen what a decent manager like Ross Brawn or Stefano Domenicali could do with him. Presumably the only way back in for him is for his father to invest in a team and effectively buy him a seat. From there, he could prove himself in his own right. He certainly had a good track record in other series before F1, so he's clearly capable. I hope that whatever his future holds that he finds something that fulfils him and gets him out of the onerous shadow of his father.
The other intriguing question is what effect this will have on the mooted move to Ferrari of Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso. I don't think that he knew anything about it. If he did, I can't imagine that he would have said to Pat Symonds that it was the safety car that won the race for him on the way up to the podium. He's just not that brazen and I think he'd be horrified to win a race under those circumstances. That said, will Ferrari want a driver from a tainted team? They already have too many drivers as both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonnen are contracted to the end of next year. Massa looks like he's on his way back to full health and Kimi is on fire at the moment. It was a pleasure to see the often random and monosyllabic Finn talking in paragraphs in the post race press conference on Sunday. He certainly seems to be having a spell of good form after a while when it's been hard to see his motivation. He's had several podiums and his recent win in Spa shows that he's in spirited mood. He's such a character that I really don't want to see him without a drive for next year and he certainly shouldn't, as also speculated, go to McLaren to play second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton. Only misery lies in that course of action.
As for the sport itself, it's horrible that this has happened, but I don't think there will be any long term damage. It may lead to closer investigation of accidents by the FIA given the crucial and damning telemetry from this one - but on its own, without Piquet speaking up or Symonds' evidence, it would be hard to build a case in isolation. For what it's worth, I think it was a one-off. We'll see what the FIA does on Monday and then I hope we can move on.
And please let the off track drama be over now - all I want to see is a fight to the wire as the Brawn boys determine which one of them wins the Drivers' Championship!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Nightmare accident for Felipe Massa
I can't remember a time when I didn't care what the outcome of a Formula 1 qualifying session was going to be. My devotion to the Brawn team knows no bounds, but their fate was nothing compared to that of Felipe Massa.
It's pretty sickening to see a Formula One car immobile in a wall of tyres. Accidents and spin offs are reasonably common, but usually when a car hits a wall of tyres, a few minutes later you see the driver jump out and walk off and you silently thank all those people whose hard work made Formula 1 so much safer. This didn't happen today when we saw Felipe Massa's Ferrari in that condition. Massa did not jump out and was soon surrounded by marshals and then the medical car. I think everyone watching must have been holding their breath. You could feel the air of uncertainty in the pit lane where the BBC were filming. You could see people running here, there and everywhere and for quite a few minute, which seemed to go on for ages.
Then came the somewhat chilling reports that Massa had been hit on the head by debris. In the wake of the awful accident which killed 18 year old Henry Surtees last weekend, everyone watched on with an air of horrified incredulity that two such freak events could take place on consecutive weekends. Then we heard that Massa hadn't been on the radio. Was that because it wasn't working or for a worse reason?
There seemed to be no apparent reason for the crash. How did he suddenly go off at a reasonably easy part of the track. Why did he hit with such an impact? Had his brakes failed?
Just before all this happened, the Official Hiding Behind Pillow was in place as it looked like Rubens Barrichello was not going to make it into Q3 - the first time that any of the Brawns had failed to make the final stage.
It soon transpired that there was a reason for Barrichello's failure to complete his last lap - something had fallen off his car. This "something", a part of the suspension, was what hit Massa. The footage the BBC showed showed that it had given him quite a whack. He started to brake but must have lost consciousness.
Then we cut to some live footage of marshals seemingly scouring the track, presumably to check that there weren't any other Brawn bits flying around the place.
After what seemed like an age but can't have been more than about 20 minutes, word came from Eddie Jordan, of all people, via "one of his spies" whom he wouldn't name, who had told him that Massa was going to be fine.
It's a cruel irony that it was a part of Rubens' car, who is a really good friend of Massa's, which caused the problem. Rubens legged it to the medical centre to see Massa and reported that he was ok, in pain, but talking and not in any danger.
As we all started to breathe again, qualifying resumed in the final 10 minute shoot out. It's usually dramatic, but today it was confusing as the live time feeds disappeared, so the commentators and we at home had no idea what on earth was happening. Neither, it appeared, did the drivers. In chaotic scenes which sharply contrasted with the earlier tension, the drivers parked up afterwards and were comparing their times with each other. They all seemed to know their own times, but had no idea how they all fitted together. As one of the commentators said, it was like a high stakes game of Top Trumps with the winner getting to start at the front of the grid. Martin Brundle had to issue a hasty apology when Jenson Button used some extreme Anglo Saxon to Alonso.
The BBC actually ended its transmission before the result was confirmed - why, oh why, could they not have delayed going to the athletics for a few minutes? If it was football, or Wimbledon, they would have done, why not for F1?
A few minutes later, the FIA confirmed that Alonso had made pole, with the Red Bulls snapping at his heels followed by Hamilton, Rosberg and Kovaleinen.
What was clear was that Jenson wasn't going to figure anywhere near the front of the grid. The Brawn team had put responsibility before everything else and kept him in the garage until they could be sure his suspension was safe. This meant he had time to do one flying lap on his race fuel - it was never going to be enough.
As far as the race is concerned, it was Ross Brawn who developed the strategy in 1998which turned a losing situation into a remarkable victory. He relied on Michael Schumacher basically breaking the laws of physics to do it, so we'll see tomorrow if he and Jenson can come up with enough to at least keep the Red Bulls at bay.
A win for Alonso would actually not be too bad a result for the Brawns, and much better than a Red Bull 1-2. Alonso is in no position to challenge for the championship. In fact, if Lewis Hamilton uses his KERS button to advantage, he may be able to get past one or both of the Red Bulls - he very nearly took the lead from Webber in Germany. Again, he can't challenge from the championship, but he could narrow the gap between the Red Bulls and Brawns. Last year's championship came down to just one point on the last corner of the last race, so every single point is vital.
Anyway, Massa is probably very sore at the moment but if the reports are right, there will be no permanent injury. Let's hope that's the case and that the rest of this weekend passes without incident.
LibDig This!
It's pretty sickening to see a Formula One car immobile in a wall of tyres. Accidents and spin offs are reasonably common, but usually when a car hits a wall of tyres, a few minutes later you see the driver jump out and walk off and you silently thank all those people whose hard work made Formula 1 so much safer. This didn't happen today when we saw Felipe Massa's Ferrari in that condition. Massa did not jump out and was soon surrounded by marshals and then the medical car. I think everyone watching must have been holding their breath. You could feel the air of uncertainty in the pit lane where the BBC were filming. You could see people running here, there and everywhere and for quite a few minute, which seemed to go on for ages.
Then came the somewhat chilling reports that Massa had been hit on the head by debris. In the wake of the awful accident which killed 18 year old Henry Surtees last weekend, everyone watched on with an air of horrified incredulity that two such freak events could take place on consecutive weekends. Then we heard that Massa hadn't been on the radio. Was that because it wasn't working or for a worse reason?
There seemed to be no apparent reason for the crash. How did he suddenly go off at a reasonably easy part of the track. Why did he hit with such an impact? Had his brakes failed?
Just before all this happened, the Official Hiding Behind Pillow was in place as it looked like Rubens Barrichello was not going to make it into Q3 - the first time that any of the Brawns had failed to make the final stage.
It soon transpired that there was a reason for Barrichello's failure to complete his last lap - something had fallen off his car. This "something", a part of the suspension, was what hit Massa. The footage the BBC showed showed that it had given him quite a whack. He started to brake but must have lost consciousness.
Then we cut to some live footage of marshals seemingly scouring the track, presumably to check that there weren't any other Brawn bits flying around the place.
After what seemed like an age but can't have been more than about 20 minutes, word came from Eddie Jordan, of all people, via "one of his spies" whom he wouldn't name, who had told him that Massa was going to be fine.
It's a cruel irony that it was a part of Rubens' car, who is a really good friend of Massa's, which caused the problem. Rubens legged it to the medical centre to see Massa and reported that he was ok, in pain, but talking and not in any danger.
As we all started to breathe again, qualifying resumed in the final 10 minute shoot out. It's usually dramatic, but today it was confusing as the live time feeds disappeared, so the commentators and we at home had no idea what on earth was happening. Neither, it appeared, did the drivers. In chaotic scenes which sharply contrasted with the earlier tension, the drivers parked up afterwards and were comparing their times with each other. They all seemed to know their own times, but had no idea how they all fitted together. As one of the commentators said, it was like a high stakes game of Top Trumps with the winner getting to start at the front of the grid. Martin Brundle had to issue a hasty apology when Jenson Button used some extreme Anglo Saxon to Alonso.
The BBC actually ended its transmission before the result was confirmed - why, oh why, could they not have delayed going to the athletics for a few minutes? If it was football, or Wimbledon, they would have done, why not for F1?
A few minutes later, the FIA confirmed that Alonso had made pole, with the Red Bulls snapping at his heels followed by Hamilton, Rosberg and Kovaleinen.
What was clear was that Jenson wasn't going to figure anywhere near the front of the grid. The Brawn team had put responsibility before everything else and kept him in the garage until they could be sure his suspension was safe. This meant he had time to do one flying lap on his race fuel - it was never going to be enough.
As far as the race is concerned, it was Ross Brawn who developed the strategy in 1998which turned a losing situation into a remarkable victory. He relied on Michael Schumacher basically breaking the laws of physics to do it, so we'll see tomorrow if he and Jenson can come up with enough to at least keep the Red Bulls at bay.
A win for Alonso would actually not be too bad a result for the Brawns, and much better than a Red Bull 1-2. Alonso is in no position to challenge for the championship. In fact, if Lewis Hamilton uses his KERS button to advantage, he may be able to get past one or both of the Red Bulls - he very nearly took the lead from Webber in Germany. Again, he can't challenge from the championship, but he could narrow the gap between the Red Bulls and Brawns. Last year's championship came down to just one point on the last corner of the last race, so every single point is vital.
Anyway, Massa is probably very sore at the moment but if the reports are right, there will be no permanent injury. Let's hope that's the case and that the rest of this weekend passes without incident.
LibDig This!
Thursday, May 07, 2009
How to kick someone when they are down.....
I would love to be in Barcelona with a press pass to cover the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, believe me, but I'm not, so I have to rely on former ITV commentator James Allen's excellent blog for all the craic from the circuit. He did not disappoint yesterday, with this account of the drivers' press conference where Fernando Alonso had a good pop at Lewis Hamilton.
Alonso and Hamilton were not what you would call best buddies when they were team mates at McLaren, so it was somewhat surprising when Alonso alluded positively to that time. However, he was just lulling Hamilton into a false sense of security for then he struck his killer blow...
“Lewis has always been a great driver, a great champion. To help his reputation, which is damaged now, will be very easy, if he keeps winning he will make people happy, his supporters and that is a very important thing.”
Now, Alonso seems to be able to squeeze every last drop of speed out of an average car, contrasting with Hamilton's patchy performances so far in a pretty rubbish car. If winning is what Hamilton needs to do consistently to rehabilitate his reputation, that's likely to be a long time coming......
By the way, I do like this less swarthy, cleaner shaven, less grumpy Fernando Alonso who's around this season.
LibDig This!
Alonso and Hamilton were not what you would call best buddies when they were team mates at McLaren, so it was somewhat surprising when Alonso alluded positively to that time. However, he was just lulling Hamilton into a false sense of security for then he struck his killer blow...
“Lewis has always been a great driver, a great champion. To help his reputation, which is damaged now, will be very easy, if he keeps winning he will make people happy, his supporters and that is a very important thing.”
Now, Alonso seems to be able to squeeze every last drop of speed out of an average car, contrasting with Hamilton's patchy performances so far in a pretty rubbish car. If winning is what Hamilton needs to do consistently to rehabilitate his reputation, that's likely to be a long time coming......
By the way, I do like this less swarthy, cleaner shaven, less grumpy Fernando Alonso who's around this season.
LibDig This!
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