Justin:
Well, the track and Baku certainly looked the part. A beautiful setting for an F1 race and indeed an interesting track. Castle Corner looked insane...single file only through there chaps please!
Because we had incidents in each practice session and a chaotic GP2 race, people thought the F1 race would at least have a Safety Car or two. Alas, it was not to be and what we got was actually a fairly dull race.
In a shameless effort to get more views, I shall link to more external websites in this blog. I did it for Bahrain and got around 190 views! Compared to the usual 10 or so. Ehem.
Hamilton had all the momentum coming off a storming win in Canada.
Rosberg doing what he needs to do
He was impressive in Baku. Hamilton was quickest in every practice session. Hamilton just went for it and was nearly a second up on Rosberg in P1. Rosberg took his time to catch up, but he was within a couple of tenths by the end of P3. Has to be said that Hamilton's instinctive racing style gets him a bloody long way.
I have to say, looking back on that last line...tortoise and hare anyone?
Everyone was saying that Lewis would have beaten Nico to pole had he kept it on track. But, he didn't keep it on track. He admitted he was just not on it. The car setup was changed and he just didn't feel the car, or adjust to it.
Indeed, Toto Wolff covers this in the column of Andrew Benson on the BBC website.
So, with Hamilton in the wall in qualifying, Rosberg raced off into the distance in the race. When his one pitstop came, he was 40 seconds ahead of second place (ok second had stopped), and he ended up 17 seconds ahead of Vettel.
The way Rosberg seems to be taking each race at a time impresses me. After two Lewis wins on the spin, it would be easy for Nico to lose his cool and let the momentum of Lewis affect him. In Baku he didn't.
I felt a bit for Lewis and the engine setting nonsense. The rules are currently a bit stupid. His engineers couldn't help him, resulting in him fiddling with his steering wheel for many laps at 220mph!
I also sort of agree with Andrew Benson here. Just, you know, for more views ;-).
Colourful radio!
Kimi - we love you! How many swear word bleeps can he get into one broadcast??!! Classic.
Lewis' radio messages were amusing too.
Driver of the day
Perez. Duh!
To Austria we go.
Anyone stumbling across this thinking it's not in-depth or whatever, this particular blog edition may not be I grant you. Check out the last 6 years though people :-).
Showing posts with label european grand prix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label european grand prix. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Saturday, 23 June 2012
7/7
Phil: Lewis Hamsandwich's win at Montreal a fortnight ago gives a seventh winner in seven races in this topsy-turvy season. Can any of the seven take their second race win of the season tomorrow at Valencia, or will this record-breaking run continue? Ross Brawn has said he thinks Schumi is capable of adding to his tally, and he has had a most unlucky season so far with two tenth places and five DNFs. Raikkonen would be my tip to make it an eighth driver, although Perez has come close once or twice.
This may be a record breaking season, as the first seven races have never been won by seven different drivers before, but in 1982 nine consecutive races were won by nine different drivers. The comparisons with 1982 would be even more apt if Nico Rosberg were to emulate his father by winning one race, and then the title.
In other news, last weekend saw Audi's 11th win at Le Mans in 14 years, this time in a hybrid car. Former F1 driver and commentator Anthony Davidson cracked two vertebrae in a colossal crash at the end of the Mulsanne straight. His Toyota was lapping a slower GT car which didn't see him, cut in on him at the last minute and launched him into the air. Another F1 refugee, Giancarlo Fisichella, won the GT class in a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Finally, my co-blogger will be off to Silverstone tomorrow in a single seater. Have a great time and give it 110%!
This may be a record breaking season, as the first seven races have never been won by seven different drivers before, but in 1982 nine consecutive races were won by nine different drivers. The comparisons with 1982 would be even more apt if Nico Rosberg were to emulate his father by winning one race, and then the title.
In other news, last weekend saw Audi's 11th win at Le Mans in 14 years, this time in a hybrid car. Former F1 driver and commentator Anthony Davidson cracked two vertebrae in a colossal crash at the end of the Mulsanne straight. His Toyota was lapping a slower GT car which didn't see him, cut in on him at the last minute and launched him into the air. Another F1 refugee, Giancarlo Fisichella, won the GT class in a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Finally, my co-blogger will be off to Silverstone tomorrow in a single seater. Have a great time and give it 110%!
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Senna, again
Phil: They let me watch 'Senna', at last. Frankly I'd have to endorse my co-blogger's glowing review. This is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. A cynic would say, being obsessed with F1 like we both are, that I would say that, wouldn't I, but I do think that the narrative is so strong and the archive footage so absolutely superb that even someone with little or no interest in F1 would enjoy it.
Although I knew the central story, of course, Senna's arrival in F1, his rivalry with Prost and finally his death at Imola in 1994, there were plenty of new things to keep me interested. I'd never heard him speak his own language, and I'd never seen Ratzenberger's crash the day before Senna's. While as my co-blogger pointed out, Rubens Barrichello's crash that fateful weekend was spectacularly bad (incidentally, not unlike Allan McNish's crash at Le Mans a few weeks ago), I was particularly shocked by Martin Donnelly's crash at the Spanish grand prix in 1990, which equally I'd never seen before. Donnelly's Lotus seemed to have just disintegrated, leaving him unconscious - dead, for all the film audience knows - and lying in the middle of the track. With the benefit of hindsight we know that Donnelly survived, but 17 years on, as I watched a helicopter take the greatest driver of his generation to the hospital, I felt close to tears.
When I was growing up with F1 in 1980s, I was aware that F1 had a history, and that it had a dark side, with not very many retired F1 drivers. I'd seen footage of the likes of Fangio driving in shirt sleeves with no seatbelt or crash helmet. But there was this conceit, or maybe it was just me, that F1 was so much safer than it had been. Imola shattered all that. Looking back now, and comparing F1 cars and tracks in 1994 to the safety measures that basically saved Sergio Perez's life at Monaco this year, there is no comparison. Cars then seemed to fall apart when they crashed (and often when they didn't crash: 24 finishers out of 24 starters at Valencia last weekend is a record, and a measure of how reliable F1 cars have become).
Anyway, that's quite enough doom and gloom. Let's have some racing. Oh, sorry, it's Valencia, there isn't any. It's Valencia, the weather is fine and Vettel is on pole. Nuff said, I think. An hour and a half of racing at Valencia somehow seemed to take longer than four hours of mainly waiting in the pit lane for it to stop raining at Montreal.
To be fair, this has been a cracking season, and we're always going to get a duff one (at least we were spared Bahrain this year). I say a cracking season, but realistically even Vettel's main rivals admit who is going to be champion this year, as my co-blogger was explaining. With six wins and two second places out of eight races so far this season, Vettel has scored 93% of the possible maximum points. A driver has only ever taken more than 80% of the possible points in a season three times: Schumacher twice in the early 2000s, and Jim Clark in 1963, who, as my dad pointed out, won 7 out of 10 races. In each case, the driver concerned won the title by a country mile. Vettel's lead at slightly under half way through the season is now 77 points over Jenson Button, and as Martin Brundle observed, Vettel could join him in the BBC commentary box for the next three races, and still arrive at Spa at the end of next month leading the championship.
A few weeks ago one of the bookies had him 4-1 on to take the title. That's £1.25 back on a £1 bet. But don't think of it as a bet. Think of it as an investment.
Although I knew the central story, of course, Senna's arrival in F1, his rivalry with Prost and finally his death at Imola in 1994, there were plenty of new things to keep me interested. I'd never heard him speak his own language, and I'd never seen Ratzenberger's crash the day before Senna's. While as my co-blogger pointed out, Rubens Barrichello's crash that fateful weekend was spectacularly bad (incidentally, not unlike Allan McNish's crash at Le Mans a few weeks ago), I was particularly shocked by Martin Donnelly's crash at the Spanish grand prix in 1990, which equally I'd never seen before. Donnelly's Lotus seemed to have just disintegrated, leaving him unconscious - dead, for all the film audience knows - and lying in the middle of the track. With the benefit of hindsight we know that Donnelly survived, but 17 years on, as I watched a helicopter take the greatest driver of his generation to the hospital, I felt close to tears.
When I was growing up with F1 in 1980s, I was aware that F1 had a history, and that it had a dark side, with not very many retired F1 drivers. I'd seen footage of the likes of Fangio driving in shirt sleeves with no seatbelt or crash helmet. But there was this conceit, or maybe it was just me, that F1 was so much safer than it had been. Imola shattered all that. Looking back now, and comparing F1 cars and tracks in 1994 to the safety measures that basically saved Sergio Perez's life at Monaco this year, there is no comparison. Cars then seemed to fall apart when they crashed (and often when they didn't crash: 24 finishers out of 24 starters at Valencia last weekend is a record, and a measure of how reliable F1 cars have become).
Anyway, that's quite enough doom and gloom. Let's have some racing. Oh, sorry, it's Valencia, there isn't any. It's Valencia, the weather is fine and Vettel is on pole. Nuff said, I think. An hour and a half of racing at Valencia somehow seemed to take longer than four hours of mainly waiting in the pit lane for it to stop raining at Montreal.
To be fair, this has been a cracking season, and we're always going to get a duff one (at least we were spared Bahrain this year). I say a cracking season, but realistically even Vettel's main rivals admit who is going to be champion this year, as my co-blogger was explaining. With six wins and two second places out of eight races so far this season, Vettel has scored 93% of the possible maximum points. A driver has only ever taken more than 80% of the possible points in a season three times: Schumacher twice in the early 2000s, and Jim Clark in 1963, who, as my dad pointed out, won 7 out of 10 races. In each case, the driver concerned won the title by a country mile. Vettel's lead at slightly under half way through the season is now 77 points over Jenson Button, and as Martin Brundle observed, Vettel could join him in the BBC commentary box for the next three races, and still arrive at Spa at the end of next month leading the championship.
A few weeks ago one of the bookies had him 4-1 on to take the title. That's £1.25 back on a £1 bet. But don't think of it as a bet. Think of it as an investment.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
A nice fresh one for you
Phil: The link my co-blogger has shared offers a detailed, balanced analysis of what actually happened at Valencia. There are only two points I'd add: firstly, it's far from guaranteed that Alonso as undisputed team leader at McLaren would have won two further world titles to add to the two he already has (presumably 2007, when he narrowly lost to Raikkonen, and 2008, when Massa narrowly lost to Hamilton; McLaren were off the pace of Brawn and Red Bull in 2009).
Secondly, Alonso's Achilles heel in my view is what his fans, including my co-blogger, might call his Latin passion and fire, and everyone else would probably call his hot-headedness. He has a tendency to make a lot of noise and act as if he's been cheated when things don't go his way: consider his comment in 2006, that has been quoted a lot lately, that F1 is no longer a sport (he went on to win the world title that year). This also shows his lack of perspective where the rules are concerned: Alonso and Ferrari have called for Hamilton's punishment for overtaking the safety car to be proportionate, yet a proportionate punishment for Singapore 2008, when he would not have won the race had others in his team not cheated in the most shameless way possible, would have been disqualification at the very least.
This time next week, the trucks will be rolling up the M40 ready for Silverstone....
Secondly, Alonso's Achilles heel in my view is what his fans, including my co-blogger, might call his Latin passion and fire, and everyone else would probably call his hot-headedness. He has a tendency to make a lot of noise and act as if he's been cheated when things don't go his way: consider his comment in 2006, that has been quoted a lot lately, that F1 is no longer a sport (he went on to win the world title that year). This also shows his lack of perspective where the rules are concerned: Alonso and Ferrari have called for Hamilton's punishment for overtaking the safety car to be proportionate, yet a proportionate punishment for Singapore 2008, when he would not have won the race had others in his team not cheated in the most shameless way possible, would have been disqualification at the very least.
This time next week, the trucks will be rolling up the M40 ready for Silverstone....
Monday, 28 June 2010
Red mist, part deux
Phil: I'm afraid I've always had very little sympathy for sportsmen who lose and then blame the referees, stewards or other officials for not interpreting the rules in their favour. I'd say the same applies to anyone who seriously thinks England might have beaten Germany but for 'that' goal.
Now, in this case, I'm going to let Alonso off for in-cockpit whingeing about Hamilton, because we all know drivers know the FIA listen in to their cockpit radio and use it as a 'back channel' for communicating directly with the stewards. I'm also going to ignore whatever he may have said post-race as I haven't seen any interviews with him.
However, the fact remains that if Hamilton had not overtaken the safety car, Alonso would still have been eighth. It wouldn't have made any difference to Alonso's race had Hamilton not overtaken the safety car, and it would only have promoted him one place had the FIA applied the strongest possible penalty and disqualified him (and I admit I was a little surprised that only a drive-through penalty had been applied). The fact that other drivers ahead of Alonso who did infringe the safety car regulations were penalised as a result, with the result that Alonso actually gained one place after the race, seems to have been completely overlooked.
As my co-blogger has admitted, for a driver who still considers Singapore 2008 to be a morally legitimate race win to make such a drama about something that in the final event wouldn't actually have affected his race position at all, is a little rich.
Ferrari have the third best car at the moment. Perhaps they need to do more about that rather than expecting the FIA (and you know what those initials mean) to ride to their rescue.
Now, in this case, I'm going to let Alonso off for in-cockpit whingeing about Hamilton, because we all know drivers know the FIA listen in to their cockpit radio and use it as a 'back channel' for communicating directly with the stewards. I'm also going to ignore whatever he may have said post-race as I haven't seen any interviews with him.
However, the fact remains that if Hamilton had not overtaken the safety car, Alonso would still have been eighth. It wouldn't have made any difference to Alonso's race had Hamilton not overtaken the safety car, and it would only have promoted him one place had the FIA applied the strongest possible penalty and disqualified him (and I admit I was a little surprised that only a drive-through penalty had been applied). The fact that other drivers ahead of Alonso who did infringe the safety car regulations were penalised as a result, with the result that Alonso actually gained one place after the race, seems to have been completely overlooked.
As my co-blogger has admitted, for a driver who still considers Singapore 2008 to be a morally legitimate race win to make such a drama about something that in the final event wouldn't actually have affected his race position at all, is a little rich.
Ferrari have the third best car at the moment. Perhaps they need to do more about that rather than expecting the FIA (and you know what those initials mean) to ride to their rescue.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Ouch!
Phil: Well, I think what most people will remember about this race is Mark Webber's crash of the season. It looked painful enough from the trackside camera, and truly terrifying from the in-car camera. What we won't remember is Eddie Jordan becoming momentarily airborne post-race after having received a high-speed shunt from David Coulthard's chin. Admittedly, this didn't actually happen, but discussion between the two of them did become rather heated during the post-race chat, EJ championing the right of drivers of crap cars to get in everyone else's way, and DC....I'm not sure what he was saying, but in the interests of BBC impartiality it's as well to remember he's still on the Red Bull payroll.
My own view is that it can largely be put down to a racing incident, and it's important not to lose sight of the fact that both drivers walked away from a horrendous accident unscathed. It wasn't immediately obvious at the time that Webber was racing Kovalainen for position, Webber having had a dreadful first few laps culminating in a pitstop where his front left wouldn't come off. in fact, you could argue that everything of significance in this race was a direct result of Webber's slow start. The post-race dispute centred on Kovalainen's right to defend his position versus his responsibility to acknowledge that Webber's Red Bull was in reality much faster than his Lotus and that therefore defending too hard might prove disastrous, as in fact it did.
Ironically enough, all of this more or less guaranteed victory for Webber's teammate and rival Sebastian Vettel, whose main rivals were all disadvantaged: Webber crashed, Hamilton received a drive through penalty for overtaking the safety car which had been called out after Webber's crash, and Alonso pitted behind the safety car and dropped to midfield as a result.
This leads me on to the day's other controversy: that Alonso felt that Hamilton's penalty, which cost him any chance of passing Vettel for the lead but didn't lose him a place, was unfair. To my mind, this only stacks up if Hamilton deliberately slowed down in order to back Alonso back into the pack. There's no evidence that he did - it would be obvious from lap times, wouldn't it? - and it's hard to imagine any driver having the mental agility to predict where the pack would be in half a lap's time in order to slow his arch-rival down enough to put him behind them without damaging his own race. The teams and the FIA have to put GPS devices in each car to be able to predict where they all are. There's clearly a huge amount of bad blood between Alonso and Hamilton, particularly on Spanish soil, but I confidently predict we'll hear no more of this particular incident.
A number of cars, including Jenson Button, were actually investigated by the stewards after the race for driving too fast after the safety car was called out but before it could collect the pack, and were penalised five seconds each. There's no change in the provisional results down to seventh place but Alonso leapfrogs Buemi for eighth and there are other changes to what we thought the order was further down the field.
My own view is that it can largely be put down to a racing incident, and it's important not to lose sight of the fact that both drivers walked away from a horrendous accident unscathed. It wasn't immediately obvious at the time that Webber was racing Kovalainen for position, Webber having had a dreadful first few laps culminating in a pitstop where his front left wouldn't come off. in fact, you could argue that everything of significance in this race was a direct result of Webber's slow start. The post-race dispute centred on Kovalainen's right to defend his position versus his responsibility to acknowledge that Webber's Red Bull was in reality much faster than his Lotus and that therefore defending too hard might prove disastrous, as in fact it did.
Ironically enough, all of this more or less guaranteed victory for Webber's teammate and rival Sebastian Vettel, whose main rivals were all disadvantaged: Webber crashed, Hamilton received a drive through penalty for overtaking the safety car which had been called out after Webber's crash, and Alonso pitted behind the safety car and dropped to midfield as a result.
This leads me on to the day's other controversy: that Alonso felt that Hamilton's penalty, which cost him any chance of passing Vettel for the lead but didn't lose him a place, was unfair. To my mind, this only stacks up if Hamilton deliberately slowed down in order to back Alonso back into the pack. There's no evidence that he did - it would be obvious from lap times, wouldn't it? - and it's hard to imagine any driver having the mental agility to predict where the pack would be in half a lap's time in order to slow his arch-rival down enough to put him behind them without damaging his own race. The teams and the FIA have to put GPS devices in each car to be able to predict where they all are. There's clearly a huge amount of bad blood between Alonso and Hamilton, particularly on Spanish soil, but I confidently predict we'll hear no more of this particular incident.
A number of cars, including Jenson Button, were actually investigated by the stewards after the race for driving too fast after the safety car was called out but before it could collect the pack, and were penalised five seconds each. There's no change in the provisional results down to seventh place but Alonso leapfrogs Buemi for eighth and there are other changes to what we thought the order was further down the field.
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Almost forgot to give it a title!
Phil: Welcome to the Grand Prix They Couldn't Think of a Half Decent Name For, sometimes known as Valencia, Europe, or even the other Spanish Grand Prix. Which brings me straight to my point: how much will the home team be worth to Alonso? I'm guessing my co-blogger blogged before quali (he likes nothing better than a nice log blog in the morning), as Ferrari's new double diffuser put Alonso and Massa 'only' fourth and fifth on the grid respectively, behind Vettel, Webber and Hamilton.
Further down the grid, both Renaults and both Williams have outqualified both Mercedes, with Rosberg a disappointing 12th and Schumacher a hopeless 15th (but then I probably over-indulged in Schumi-bashing in Canada, so am going to leave him alone this time, unless he makes me do something). If a move by Kubica from Renault to Mercedes was on the cards before today, he should think very carefully before taking the offer up, particularly as he is clearly undisputed team leader at Renault, and would have a serious rival in Rosberg at Mercedes. But I don't think it's anything more than idle speculation.
Finally, I really think Jacques Villeneuve ought to be 110% exploring the limits of comedy facial hair, fannying about on the guitar and even having another crack at Le Mans before he explores even 1% of getting back in an F1 car.
Further down the grid, both Renaults and both Williams have outqualified both Mercedes, with Rosberg a disappointing 12th and Schumacher a hopeless 15th (but then I probably over-indulged in Schumi-bashing in Canada, so am going to leave him alone this time, unless he makes me do something). If a move by Kubica from Renault to Mercedes was on the cards before today, he should think very carefully before taking the offer up, particularly as he is clearly undisputed team leader at Renault, and would have a serious rival in Rosberg at Mercedes. But I don't think it's anything more than idle speculation.
Finally, I really think Jacques Villeneuve ought to be 110% exploring the limits of comedy facial hair, fannying about on the guitar and even having another crack at Le Mans before he explores even 1% of getting back in an F1 car.
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