Justin: Tip of the cap to my co-blogger on his last blog. That was a fair few sub-headings!
Cucumber
This is what Vettel apparently called Karthikeyan in a German interview after the race.
Karthikeyan has come back with a stinging remark calling Vettel a cry baby. The gloves are off now! There has been quite a backlash to Vettel's reaction to losing in his homeland.
Auction
The Toleman raced by Aryton Senna in 1984 is expected to receive up to £750,000 for a charity auction at Silverstone. Blimey!
I'm just thinking about who will be next on the BBC all time top twenty drivers list they are doing...scrap that...who is next on our list? Co-blogger, over to you on this one as I kicked it off with Mika.
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Bring on the sub-headings
Phil: I completely agree (as always) with my learned co-blogger that so much was going on at Sepang on Sunday that we need an A to Z to find our way through it.
A. Alonso
General consensus in the paddock is that Alonso is the best driver of his generation, but that he rarely has a car to flatter his talents. General consensus also says that this year's Ferrari is the worst car they've built in years. At Sepang, as in any wet race, the performance differential between a good car, a mediocre car and a really awful car is to a certain extent levelled off, and raw driver talent plays a much bigger role. Alonso's win tends to prove both theories correct. Together with his fifth place in Melbourne, it also gives him the lead in the world championship. But - and it's a big but - even he acknowledged after the race that at dry races it's going to be damage limitation.
B. Bruno Senna
Nice one.
C. Coverage
I'm afraid I don't subscribe to any of conspiracy theories doing the rounds about Sky sabotaging the BBC's access to the juicy bits. All broadcasters' pictures are the same as they come direct from FOM (Formula One Management), so this should really be under B for Bernie. Or even B for bollocks. After all, it would hardly be the first time the producer has shown us a shot of someone pitting from eighth place when someone else is challenging from the lead.
G. Grosjean
Qualifies well, goes off in first lap incidents. We're only two races in though and the first one was a simple racing incident (at the time I'd have put the blame more at Maldonado's feet, actually) so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.
K. Kimi
Before the season started I confidently predicted Kimi would be a laughing stock by the beginning of the European season. However, his pre-race poo strategy is really paying off and it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he might actually win a race this year.
L. Lewis
I fear my co-blogger may have misinterpreted my earlier blog as tending to be supportive of Lewis when I was actually taking the piss out of him. He seems not to have taken the hint either (anyone would think he doesn't actually read this blog), so I think things now need to be spelt out to him.
Lewis. When you first came into F1, I was a huge fan. I was impressed by your maturity as well as your talent. I was impressed that you weren't overawed by having a double world champion for a team-mate. I was genuinely over the moon the next year when you became the first British world champion in over a decade having given us the Official Best Race Ever (see last year). But now I have tell you you irritate me more than any of the other drivers. More than Kimi. More than Alonso. More than Vettel. More even than Michael Schumacher. And the reason is this. When things don't go your way, you sulk. You're second in the world championship, and you're sulking now. And I think the reason you sulk is that you can't deal with failure. Your life except for the last 2-3 years has been one success after the other. You've been a champion in every form of motorsport you've entered, including the very highest. So you've never learned that sometimes, in racing, and in life, things don't go your way. Sometimes you can give it every ounce of breath and every drop of sweat you have, and still watch it all fall to pieces on the very last lap. Just look at Maldonado last weekend. Some drivers spend their whole careers doing that. You're lucky, you're a world champion. But you're not special. You don't have a god-given right to have everything your own way. When they don't, that doesn't mean there is some kind of conspiracy against you, that's just racing. The thing that worries me the most, Lewis, is that you're slowly but surely turning into Ayrton Senna. By the end of the season you might very well be shunting Jenson off into the kitty litter at the first corner at Suzuka, then telling everyone he had it coming to him. And you know what happens then. Gerhard Berger throws your briefcase out of a helicopter and fills your hotel room with frogs. Oh yes. Don't say we didn't warn you.
P. Perez
It's pissing down with rain and a promising young Latin American driver scores an amazing second place which was very nearly a win. As James Hunt might have said, this marks the arrival of Sergio Perez as a major new talent within Formula 1.
S. Schumi
He's 43 years old, he was world champion 7 times and won 91 races along the way. He has nothing to prove to anyone, but he is still beating his team-mate, has started both races this year from the second row of the grid and seems to be having the time of his life (well, apart from winning everything in sight for about 10 years). I'm actually almost warming to the old sod.
V. Vettel
Slightly uncharitable about Karthikeyan I thought. It's difficult to go any faster when you've only got an HRT to drive. However we won't put him in the naughty corner, because Lewis is already there.
On thing is 'for sure' (as racing drivers don't say any more). We're in for a cracking season.
A. Alonso
General consensus in the paddock is that Alonso is the best driver of his generation, but that he rarely has a car to flatter his talents. General consensus also says that this year's Ferrari is the worst car they've built in years. At Sepang, as in any wet race, the performance differential between a good car, a mediocre car and a really awful car is to a certain extent levelled off, and raw driver talent plays a much bigger role. Alonso's win tends to prove both theories correct. Together with his fifth place in Melbourne, it also gives him the lead in the world championship. But - and it's a big but - even he acknowledged after the race that at dry races it's going to be damage limitation.
B. Bruno Senna
Nice one.
C. Coverage
I'm afraid I don't subscribe to any of conspiracy theories doing the rounds about Sky sabotaging the BBC's access to the juicy bits. All broadcasters' pictures are the same as they come direct from FOM (Formula One Management), so this should really be under B for Bernie. Or even B for bollocks. After all, it would hardly be the first time the producer has shown us a shot of someone pitting from eighth place when someone else is challenging from the lead.
G. Grosjean
Qualifies well, goes off in first lap incidents. We're only two races in though and the first one was a simple racing incident (at the time I'd have put the blame more at Maldonado's feet, actually) so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.
K. Kimi
Before the season started I confidently predicted Kimi would be a laughing stock by the beginning of the European season. However, his pre-race poo strategy is really paying off and it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he might actually win a race this year.
L. Lewis
I fear my co-blogger may have misinterpreted my earlier blog as tending to be supportive of Lewis when I was actually taking the piss out of him. He seems not to have taken the hint either (anyone would think he doesn't actually read this blog), so I think things now need to be spelt out to him.
Lewis. When you first came into F1, I was a huge fan. I was impressed by your maturity as well as your talent. I was impressed that you weren't overawed by having a double world champion for a team-mate. I was genuinely over the moon the next year when you became the first British world champion in over a decade having given us the Official Best Race Ever (see last year). But now I have tell you you irritate me more than any of the other drivers. More than Kimi. More than Alonso. More than Vettel. More even than Michael Schumacher. And the reason is this. When things don't go your way, you sulk. You're second in the world championship, and you're sulking now. And I think the reason you sulk is that you can't deal with failure. Your life except for the last 2-3 years has been one success after the other. You've been a champion in every form of motorsport you've entered, including the very highest. So you've never learned that sometimes, in racing, and in life, things don't go your way. Sometimes you can give it every ounce of breath and every drop of sweat you have, and still watch it all fall to pieces on the very last lap. Just look at Maldonado last weekend. Some drivers spend their whole careers doing that. You're lucky, you're a world champion. But you're not special. You don't have a god-given right to have everything your own way. When they don't, that doesn't mean there is some kind of conspiracy against you, that's just racing. The thing that worries me the most, Lewis, is that you're slowly but surely turning into Ayrton Senna. By the end of the season you might very well be shunting Jenson off into the kitty litter at the first corner at Suzuka, then telling everyone he had it coming to him. And you know what happens then. Gerhard Berger throws your briefcase out of a helicopter and fills your hotel room with frogs. Oh yes. Don't say we didn't warn you.
P. Perez
It's pissing down with rain and a promising young Latin American driver scores an amazing second place which was very nearly a win. As James Hunt might have said, this marks the arrival of Sergio Perez as a major new talent within Formula 1.
S. Schumi
He's 43 years old, he was world champion 7 times and won 91 races along the way. He has nothing to prove to anyone, but he is still beating his team-mate, has started both races this year from the second row of the grid and seems to be having the time of his life (well, apart from winning everything in sight for about 10 years). I'm actually almost warming to the old sod.
V. Vettel
Slightly uncharitable about Karthikeyan I thought. It's difficult to go any faster when you've only got an HRT to drive. However we won't put him in the naughty corner, because Lewis is already there.
On thing is 'for sure' (as racing drivers don't say any more). We're in for a cracking season.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Magic
Justin: I don't think I'll be the only one who thinks that the Malaysian GP was a chaotic, frantic and ultimately fantastic race!
There are so many things to talk about that I don't know where to begin.
Ok, here we go...
BBC Highlights coverage
I found myself very annoyed at two points during the race. When Button came out of the pits near Hamilton after the first stops, we didn't actually see anything of this at all!! DC was urging the race director to switch to footage of those two, but frankly when they did cut to it whatever had happened was already over. Secondly, when Alonso made his move on Perez around turn 1 and into turn 2 we were watching footage of cars in the pits!!! One wonders if Sky have control over this? I'm not sure they do as such, it's probably more the BBC being shit. I found through reading The Guardian over the weekend that the new BBC show The Voice cost £25 million to make. One can't help but think that that is where the money saved on live F1 went. What a load of bollocks! Oh...and is Eddie only doing live races now??
Anyone who bothered watching the F1 forum after the race will know that Jake and DC now appear to be homeless on there now, roaming the paddock for stories, as opposed to having set up shop in a team home and letting people come to them. I still love the BBC coverage obviously, but I really wish they had them all live still.
Perez
Beautiful drive by a fantastic young driver. To put his drive into context, it was Sauber's best ever result. It's easy to say he would have won too, given how quick he was compared to Fernando's bucket of crap dry weather running Ferrari. Still, Fernando wouldn't have made it that easy for him. Perez has been rumoured to be in the running to replace Massa if not this season then in 2013. One can easily see why.
Senna
Erm, did anyone else notice that he drove from last at the restart to finish a fine 6th?? Proof, finally, that the boy can drive!
Kimi
His comeback continues to go well with a fine 5th position. I must state though, that he didn't seem that impressed with anything in his interview after the race!
Schumi
Is anyone else almost excited by Schumi's pace this year? He out-qualified Nico by getting third on the grid to Nico's eighth. He looked rather quick too until he got nerfed by Roman.
Roman Grosjean
Qualifies well then punts people off. His racecraft is severely lacking, which given he won GP2 last year, shouldn't really be the case. Has he been found out? Well, dare I say it, my co-blogger and I pointed out that the only thing he was famous for was replacing Piquet Junior and being shite that year.
Vettel Vs Webber
We all pondered what Vettel would be like if things didn't go his way. I refer you to his post race interview when his usually grinning face didn't appear at all, perhaps just a glimmer as he exited the interview. He reminded me a bit of Hamilton, stroppy schoolboy, toys out of the pram etc etc. Calling people idiots etc. Ok, we accept that the HRT was being lapped and should have got out the way....but Seb, you pulled an identical move to the one you made on Mark in Turkey 2010 and that was all your fault...."I'll just move over and pretend you aren't there"...
Speaking of Mark, a pretty good performance from Aussie Grit again. He seems to be more on top of things than Seb at the moment (ie not having the best car for once), as the title standings show us. More than anything, I bet that is eating Seb up inside.
JB vs Lewis
Apologies to my co-blogger, but regarding his last blog about the Aussie GP where he said in brackets it was pretty unlucky/unfair what happened to Lewis being jumped by Seb with the safety car. So what? Bad luck happens in F1. Need I remind you of the whole incident in Valencia 2010 where luck dictated that Lewis stayed second where Fernando dropped to ninth because of Lewis overtaking the safety car? Good luck, bad luck.
I'm getting pretty tired of people saying Lewis seems calm, more focussed, it's a new him after last year etc. So what? I still think Button will emerge from this inter-team battle in front this year. When he is on it, Lewis is clearly faster. But, he isn't on it as much as he should be really, and Button is a far more complete F1 driver. I was reading a blog on the BBC earlier and someone wrote about how if Button punts someone it's a one off, but if Lewis does it everyone says "not again"...well, just look at 2011 for Lewis!
JB can scrap the Malaysia weekend...nerfing into the HRT....ooppss. Still, after all that he is only 5 points behind Lewis in the title chase.
Two poles and two thirds for Lewis. To his credit, he does look like he has his eyes on the long term prize....ie, two thirds isnt the end of the world, it's not that bad at all really.
Fernando Alonso
You knew I'd save the best for last. The Ferrari has no right at all winning a GP. In dry conditions it's probably the 5th best car, perhaps even 6th??! It seemed to suddenly come alive in the wet in the hands of Alonso. He was doing fastest lap after fastest lap to push out a margin between himself and Perez - DC couldn't believe what he was seeing. Compare all this to Massa's race and you would have to say that Massa's days are surely numbered - even though everyone at the team backed him before the race.
Utterly relentless.
That's 28 wins now and moves him ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart in the all time winners list. As Andrew Benson stated in his BBC blog, that race and that win was certainly befitting of the occasion.
If Alonso can pick up points like this whilst the Ferrari is...difficult...one can only imagine what he will do once they start to hopefully improve the car.
There are so many things to talk about that I don't know where to begin.
Ok, here we go...
BBC Highlights coverage
I found myself very annoyed at two points during the race. When Button came out of the pits near Hamilton after the first stops, we didn't actually see anything of this at all!! DC was urging the race director to switch to footage of those two, but frankly when they did cut to it whatever had happened was already over. Secondly, when Alonso made his move on Perez around turn 1 and into turn 2 we were watching footage of cars in the pits!!! One wonders if Sky have control over this? I'm not sure they do as such, it's probably more the BBC being shit. I found through reading The Guardian over the weekend that the new BBC show The Voice cost £25 million to make. One can't help but think that that is where the money saved on live F1 went. What a load of bollocks! Oh...and is Eddie only doing live races now??
Anyone who bothered watching the F1 forum after the race will know that Jake and DC now appear to be homeless on there now, roaming the paddock for stories, as opposed to having set up shop in a team home and letting people come to them. I still love the BBC coverage obviously, but I really wish they had them all live still.
Perez
Beautiful drive by a fantastic young driver. To put his drive into context, it was Sauber's best ever result. It's easy to say he would have won too, given how quick he was compared to Fernando's bucket of crap dry weather running Ferrari. Still, Fernando wouldn't have made it that easy for him. Perez has been rumoured to be in the running to replace Massa if not this season then in 2013. One can easily see why.
Senna
Erm, did anyone else notice that he drove from last at the restart to finish a fine 6th?? Proof, finally, that the boy can drive!
Kimi
His comeback continues to go well with a fine 5th position. I must state though, that he didn't seem that impressed with anything in his interview after the race!
Schumi
Is anyone else almost excited by Schumi's pace this year? He out-qualified Nico by getting third on the grid to Nico's eighth. He looked rather quick too until he got nerfed by Roman.
Roman Grosjean
Qualifies well then punts people off. His racecraft is severely lacking, which given he won GP2 last year, shouldn't really be the case. Has he been found out? Well, dare I say it, my co-blogger and I pointed out that the only thing he was famous for was replacing Piquet Junior and being shite that year.
Vettel Vs Webber
We all pondered what Vettel would be like if things didn't go his way. I refer you to his post race interview when his usually grinning face didn't appear at all, perhaps just a glimmer as he exited the interview. He reminded me a bit of Hamilton, stroppy schoolboy, toys out of the pram etc etc. Calling people idiots etc. Ok, we accept that the HRT was being lapped and should have got out the way....but Seb, you pulled an identical move to the one you made on Mark in Turkey 2010 and that was all your fault...."I'll just move over and pretend you aren't there"...
Speaking of Mark, a pretty good performance from Aussie Grit again. He seems to be more on top of things than Seb at the moment (ie not having the best car for once), as the title standings show us. More than anything, I bet that is eating Seb up inside.
JB vs Lewis
Apologies to my co-blogger, but regarding his last blog about the Aussie GP where he said in brackets it was pretty unlucky/unfair what happened to Lewis being jumped by Seb with the safety car. So what? Bad luck happens in F1. Need I remind you of the whole incident in Valencia 2010 where luck dictated that Lewis stayed second where Fernando dropped to ninth because of Lewis overtaking the safety car? Good luck, bad luck.
I'm getting pretty tired of people saying Lewis seems calm, more focussed, it's a new him after last year etc. So what? I still think Button will emerge from this inter-team battle in front this year. When he is on it, Lewis is clearly faster. But, he isn't on it as much as he should be really, and Button is a far more complete F1 driver. I was reading a blog on the BBC earlier and someone wrote about how if Button punts someone it's a one off, but if Lewis does it everyone says "not again"...well, just look at 2011 for Lewis!
JB can scrap the Malaysia weekend...nerfing into the HRT....ooppss. Still, after all that he is only 5 points behind Lewis in the title chase.
Two poles and two thirds for Lewis. To his credit, he does look like he has his eyes on the long term prize....ie, two thirds isnt the end of the world, it's not that bad at all really.
Fernando Alonso
You knew I'd save the best for last. The Ferrari has no right at all winning a GP. In dry conditions it's probably the 5th best car, perhaps even 6th??! It seemed to suddenly come alive in the wet in the hands of Alonso. He was doing fastest lap after fastest lap to push out a margin between himself and Perez - DC couldn't believe what he was seeing. Compare all this to Massa's race and you would have to say that Massa's days are surely numbered - even though everyone at the team backed him before the race.
Utterly relentless.
That's 28 wins now and moves him ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart in the all time winners list. As Andrew Benson stated in his BBC blog, that race and that win was certainly befitting of the occasion.
If Alonso can pick up points like this whilst the Ferrari is...difficult...one can only imagine what he will do once they start to hopefully improve the car.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Reasons to be cheerful
Phil: Anyone would think Lewis Hamilton had been sucking on a lemon for most of Sunday's Australian grand prix, to judge by his post-race demeanour. Having cocked up the start, allowing his teammate Jenson Button into a lead he never looked likely to lose, he (perhaps slightly unfairly, it has to be said) lost second place to reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel when the safety car came out. And the big picture is that he must know he once again has a car capable of winning the world championship, but that the only other man with the same car, his teammate, is already 10 points ahead.
So, just for Lewis, and with a nod to Ian Dury who went to the same school as us (yes, really!) here are some things we learned on Sunday which if he were to reflect on them for a moment might incline him not to be such a miserable sod.
1. Red Bull's domination is broken. By mid-season we may be cursing McLaren's domination, but a change in F1's prevailing wind is always refreshing to begin with. Particularly if you happen to be driving the new fastest car on the grid.
2. The midfield is closer than usual. Perez made it to 8th from 22nd on the grid. Raikkonen must have had a damn good shit before the race because he made it to 7th from 18th. A healthy number of retirements (9 out of 22 starters) kept it interesting and even without the last corner shenanigans I was struggling to keep up with who was running where.
3. Williams seem genuinely competitive. Probably both Maldonado and Senna ought to have scored points, and would have done had they avoided midfield shunts.
4. We don't need Sky after all. Apart from cutting a few laps behind the safety car, I genuinely forgot this was an extended highlights show, rather than every lap in full. This will admittedly be of limited interest to Lewis. But best of all...
5. There's another one this weekend.
So, just for Lewis, and with a nod to Ian Dury who went to the same school as us (yes, really!) here are some things we learned on Sunday which if he were to reflect on them for a moment might incline him not to be such a miserable sod.
1. Red Bull's domination is broken. By mid-season we may be cursing McLaren's domination, but a change in F1's prevailing wind is always refreshing to begin with. Particularly if you happen to be driving the new fastest car on the grid.
2. The midfield is closer than usual. Perez made it to 8th from 22nd on the grid. Raikkonen must have had a damn good shit before the race because he made it to 7th from 18th. A healthy number of retirements (9 out of 22 starters) kept it interesting and even without the last corner shenanigans I was struggling to keep up with who was running where.
3. Williams seem genuinely competitive. Probably both Maldonado and Senna ought to have scored points, and would have done had they avoided midfield shunts.
4. We don't need Sky after all. Apart from cutting a few laps behind the safety car, I genuinely forgot this was an extended highlights show, rather than every lap in full. This will admittedly be of limited interest to Lewis. But best of all...
5. There's another one this weekend.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Grand prix legends
Phil: I feel I ought to alert to my co-blogger to a few feature the BBC are adding to this year's F1 coverage. They may not have all the races live, they may not have Martin Brundle, but they do have a rundown of the top 20 greatest F1 drivers ever, according to their team of pundits.
They'll be announcing one each race (assuming there are 20 races this year), in reverse order. No 20 is Jochen Rindt. They've revealed that, intriguingly, four of the current crop are on the list, which begs the question - which four? Schumacher, Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton would be my guess. Others may of course disagree.....
It's this weekend. Can you believe it?
They'll be announcing one each race (assuming there are 20 races this year), in reverse order. No 20 is Jochen Rindt. They've revealed that, intriguingly, four of the current crop are on the list, which begs the question - which four? Schumacher, Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton would be my guess. Others may of course disagree.....
It's this weekend. Can you believe it?
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
The 1973 German Grand Prix
Fourteen laps of the old Nurburgring, each of them fourteen miles long. Each lap led, from pole, by Jackie Stewart, who also won the race.
The last time a grand prix started without a single Italian driver on the grid - until this season, with both Trulli and Liuzzi having lost their race seats.
In the late 80s it seemed like half the grid was Italian - Alboreto, Capelli, de Cesaris, Larini, Martini, Modena.
The back half, of course.
The last time a grand prix started without a single Italian driver on the grid - until this season, with both Trulli and Liuzzi having lost their race seats.
In the late 80s it seemed like half the grid was Italian - Alboreto, Capelli, de Cesaris, Larini, Martini, Modena.
The back half, of course.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
So close you can almost smell it...
"In two weeks we know. There is no point to guess here. I don't know who's going to be fastest. Nobody knows."
The wise words of Kimi Raikkonen, taking time out from having a shit, to give the world's media an insight, and also to manage expectations of his own performance after two years out.
What we do know, at last, is who's driving for who.
Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Sauber have the same blokes as last time.
Lotus, who were Renault last year, have a new line up in Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Raikkonen returns after two years under-achieving in the WRC for more of the same in F1. Grosjean is another F1 returnee but differs from his teammate in actually having won something while he was away, the 2011 GP2 championship.
Force India retain di Resta and promote test driver Nico Hulkenberg, who let's remember started his last race, Abu Dhabi 2010, on pole, to a race seat. Former no 1 driver Adrian Sutil is, as we've said, the new Bertrand Gachot, and finds himself without a race seat.
Toro Rosso have an entirely new line up, with Sebastien Buemi testing for Red Bull and Jaime Alguersuari commentating for Radio 5 Live (!). They've been replaced by Daniel Ricciardo who impressed last year with half a season at Hispania (to the extent that it's possible to impress in a Hispania, ie by not finishing last) and Jean-Eric Vergne. Toro Rosso seems to have been set up to find the new Sebastian Vettel, and they must have decided that neither Buemi nor Alguersuari was going to be it.
Williams, lurking down near the bottom like something Kimi might have left in the gents, have retained Maldonado. Rubens Barrichello, however, starts a new career in Indy after 18 years and more races than any other driver in history - a clear candidate for our new slot on great drivers of the past, I think. His replacement is almost more noteworthy - for the first time since that fateful day at Imola, we have a Senna in a blue and white Williams.
Amongst the new teams, who really must stop being 'new' and start scoring some points, Vitaly Petrov has been a last minute replacement for Jarno Trulli, alongside Heikki Kovalainen at Caterham (formerly Lotus). Marussia, who aren't Virgin any more, keep Timo Glock alongside new guy Charles Pic.
Hispania have got Narain Karthikeyan back after Ricciardo got a better offer from Toro Rosso, and the long list of returning F1 drivers is completed by Pedro de la Rosa, making what must be his fourth or fifth comeback after having replaced Sergio Perez at Sauber for the race after his shunt at Monaco.
As has been said elsewhere, all six world champions of the 21st century will be on the grid. Kimi and Schumi will be sharing a grid for the first time since that legendary incident at Brazil 2006.
Excited is not the word.
The wise words of Kimi Raikkonen, taking time out from having a shit, to give the world's media an insight, and also to manage expectations of his own performance after two years out.
What we do know, at last, is who's driving for who.
Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Sauber have the same blokes as last time.
Lotus, who were Renault last year, have a new line up in Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Raikkonen returns after two years under-achieving in the WRC for more of the same in F1. Grosjean is another F1 returnee but differs from his teammate in actually having won something while he was away, the 2011 GP2 championship.
Force India retain di Resta and promote test driver Nico Hulkenberg, who let's remember started his last race, Abu Dhabi 2010, on pole, to a race seat. Former no 1 driver Adrian Sutil is, as we've said, the new Bertrand Gachot, and finds himself without a race seat.
Toro Rosso have an entirely new line up, with Sebastien Buemi testing for Red Bull and Jaime Alguersuari commentating for Radio 5 Live (!). They've been replaced by Daniel Ricciardo who impressed last year with half a season at Hispania (to the extent that it's possible to impress in a Hispania, ie by not finishing last) and Jean-Eric Vergne. Toro Rosso seems to have been set up to find the new Sebastian Vettel, and they must have decided that neither Buemi nor Alguersuari was going to be it.
Williams, lurking down near the bottom like something Kimi might have left in the gents, have retained Maldonado. Rubens Barrichello, however, starts a new career in Indy after 18 years and more races than any other driver in history - a clear candidate for our new slot on great drivers of the past, I think. His replacement is almost more noteworthy - for the first time since that fateful day at Imola, we have a Senna in a blue and white Williams.
Amongst the new teams, who really must stop being 'new' and start scoring some points, Vitaly Petrov has been a last minute replacement for Jarno Trulli, alongside Heikki Kovalainen at Caterham (formerly Lotus). Marussia, who aren't Virgin any more, keep Timo Glock alongside new guy Charles Pic.
Hispania have got Narain Karthikeyan back after Ricciardo got a better offer from Toro Rosso, and the long list of returning F1 drivers is completed by Pedro de la Rosa, making what must be his fourth or fifth comeback after having replaced Sergio Perez at Sauber for the race after his shunt at Monaco.
As has been said elsewhere, all six world champions of the 21st century will be on the grid. Kimi and Schumi will be sharing a grid for the first time since that legendary incident at Brazil 2006.
Excited is not the word.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Testing report
Justin: I expect my co-blogger (and indeed our readers, if we have any) to cast his eye over my previous detailed, fun blogs.
Anyway...testing.....Lotus have topped 3 of the 4 testing timesheets from Barcelona..I think. Kimi looks fast and committed. Andrew Benson..or was it Gary Anderson sat watching the cars through a particular turn at Circuit de Catalunya (a circuit which requires pure aero as a must) and said the Red Bull and Mclaren behaved well and looked fast, but the Ferarri looked good for a few laps then started behaving erratically with understeer, oversteer etc etc...
As far as I can see from testing it's as you were last year...Red Bull and Mclaren, Mercedes pushing to be nearer them....Lotus looking good....nobody knows about Ferarri at all...it looks fast but very unpredictable. The rest of the field has bunched up somewhat...Williams, Force India etc...the field is closing together by the looks of it.
As Webber said, lets go racing!
Anyway...testing.....Lotus have topped 3 of the 4 testing timesheets from Barcelona..I think. Kimi looks fast and committed. Andrew Benson..or was it Gary Anderson sat watching the cars through a particular turn at Circuit de Catalunya (a circuit which requires pure aero as a must) and said the Red Bull and Mclaren behaved well and looked fast, but the Ferarri looked good for a few laps then started behaving erratically with understeer, oversteer etc etc...
As far as I can see from testing it's as you were last year...Red Bull and Mclaren, Mercedes pushing to be nearer them....Lotus looking good....nobody knows about Ferarri at all...it looks fast but very unpredictable. The rest of the field has bunched up somewhat...Williams, Force India etc...the field is closing together by the looks of it.
As Webber said, lets go racing!
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