Phil: I agree entirely with my co-blogger that we both knew Nico Rosberg could do it, the only doubt was whether, given the extent to which success in F1 depends on having the right machinery at the right time, he ever would. As my co-blogger has pointed out, Nico took his first win at his 111th race - only Button, Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello have had to wait longer for their maiden victory.
Let's be under no illusions that Nico was simply in the right place at the right time, and took a lucky first win, as plenty of other drivers have done. He was genuinely the class of the field in Shanghai - pole by a margin of half a second, and then the win with a margin of 20s.
Lovers of statistics will note that this was the first race won by anyone other than the Big 5 (Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Button and Alonso) since Barrichello won at Monza in 2009. 1982 champion Keke Rosberg becomes the first driver to have won a race himself and then seen his son win one (Graham Hill and Gilles Villeneuve were dead when their sons won the world championship). Nico becomes the first man to win in a Mercedes since Fangio in 1955, and the first German driver to win at the wheel of a Mercedes since Hermann Lang, in the 1939 Swiss Grand Prix - held less than a fortnight before the outbreak of war.
This win should improve Nico's confidence no end, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him take another win before the end of the season - assuming Mercedes continue to have the pace they showed at Shanghai.
One thing is for certain - we are in for a cracker of a season. Three races in, and still no real pattern and no clear favourite. The last six races have been won by six different drivers, and the world championship is currently led by a man who hasn't won so far this season but who has managed three third places. As his boss Martin Whitmarsh said yesterday, 'who would try to predict who's going to win the next race?'
I wouldn't.
Monday, 16 April 2012
Sunday, 15 April 2012
China
Justin: Hmmm, I really should come up with better subject titles!
Anyway....
I think this year will be the closest ever.
We've always known Nico Rosberg was good, but just how good was ultimately unknown. He's a bit like Button in a way, in that he'd always been in non race winning cars. Button took 113 races to get his first victory, Rosberg 110. I've always thought Rosberg was good, capable, but not great. Perhaps now with his first win under his belt he'll mature and improve in the same sort of way Button did.
Give him a race winning car, as Mercedes have done this year, and today shows just how good he is. In fact, qualifying was a blur.....Nico was half a second quicker than anyone else, which is almost unheard of in 2012! You only need to look at Q2 to see how close the grid is this year. Vettel didn't make it into Q3 and the gap between 1st and 10th in Q2 was just 3 tenths of a second. Amazing!
The race in China was frankly frantic, beautiful, amazing and intense. There were so many things going on that it's hard to recall exactly what happened where and between who! Do we need the legendary subheadings system again? I'm going to read over the race report on the BBC website first before proceeding.
Incidentally, I emerged at 6am for yesterdays qualifying show and 7am for todays race. I received a text from my esteemed colleague yesterday afternoon asking if I wanted to watch the race with him as he was back in town. I replied, asking if he meant the live show or the repeat at lunchtime. I suspect he may have watched the lunch version :-).
Race Overview
As already mentioned, it was an utterly frantic race behind Rosberg. There were so many scraps and overtakes along with wheelbanging and sparks flying ( Maldonado and Grosjean...boy those guys went at it tooth and nail!) it was just insane. So much fun to watch and as Button said, so much fun to drive in too! Rosberg dissapeared, Button may have had fun trying to catch him but for a slow pit-stop which fed him into the chasing queue of cars. Near the end Kimi was 2nd, but in one lap he plummetted down to 10th. That will be the tyres then!
Nico Rosberg
Son of 1982 Champion Keke, Nico couldn't have done anything any better for the weekend. The Mercedes has looked fast in quali since the start of the year, more in the hands of Schumi. They have usually struggled for race pace as their car has a small window of ultimate use with the tyres.
Let's not piss around here. Rosberg was half a second quicker than anyone else in Q3! That's a gap and a half.
In essence, he did what Vettel did a lot of last year - get pole then dissapear. Though, it has to be said, Vettel never really dissapeared like Rosberg did today - he was a full 20 seconds ahead at the end!
A beautiful weekend for Rosberg which catapaults him up the driver standings.
JB & Lewis
They now have a championship winning car. They sit first and second in the title race seperated by just two points.
Lewis has clearly taken a leaf out of JB's book by being more consistent this year.
JB is driving absolutely at the top of his game and I suspect he will only get better.
I would put a lot of money on their "relationship" fracturing big time as the season evolves - only one of them can win the title. End of.
Webber and Vettel
Vettel seems generally unhappy with this years car, opting to use a slightly older spec version of the RB8 this weekend whilst Webber had the upgrades.
Webber has gone on record saying this years car feels like a more conventional F1 car as opposed to last years blown diffuser layout which changed the handling somewhat.
So, if we look at last year as a blip for Webber, we can clearly see this year that these two are back to a level playing field ala 2010 when they literally raced each other off the road.
Webber drove a great race today, as did Vettel - but with one lap to go they found themselves 5th and 4th repsectively and line-a-stern. I was half thinking Red Bull would tell Webber to stay behind....They didn't, and he didn't.
To be fair, Vettel's tyres were shot and when interviewed about it neither of them played it up - it was what it was. Doesnt appear to be any bad blood on either side just yet.
We wait until Vettel starts getting rather upset about being beaten by his team-mate. You always need to beat your team-mate first.
DC
Needs to rest his voice after nearly losing it through getting so excited in the race. Are you Murray in disguise??!!
BBC
If you watched the forum, you will know that a lot of people despise Sky Sports. The team's interview with a fan known as Lao was amusing, but at the same time cringeworthy hehe.
Grosjean and Maldonado
What a fucking battle that was! Sparks flew, literally!
Alonso
Back to reality with a P9 start and a P9 finish. Those upgrades cannot come soon enough!
Bruno Senna
Anyone else actually notice him sliding up the field from 14th to 7th? I thought not. Beautiful stuff yet again from this guy.
Actually, listening to the repeat now, Ben Edwards gets just a tad excited and high pitched too. Nice.
Co-blogger, I suspect I have missed plenty. Over to you!
Anyway....
I think this year will be the closest ever.
We've always known Nico Rosberg was good, but just how good was ultimately unknown. He's a bit like Button in a way, in that he'd always been in non race winning cars. Button took 113 races to get his first victory, Rosberg 110. I've always thought Rosberg was good, capable, but not great. Perhaps now with his first win under his belt he'll mature and improve in the same sort of way Button did.
Give him a race winning car, as Mercedes have done this year, and today shows just how good he is. In fact, qualifying was a blur.....Nico was half a second quicker than anyone else, which is almost unheard of in 2012! You only need to look at Q2 to see how close the grid is this year. Vettel didn't make it into Q3 and the gap between 1st and 10th in Q2 was just 3 tenths of a second. Amazing!
The race in China was frankly frantic, beautiful, amazing and intense. There were so many things going on that it's hard to recall exactly what happened where and between who! Do we need the legendary subheadings system again? I'm going to read over the race report on the BBC website first before proceeding.
Incidentally, I emerged at 6am for yesterdays qualifying show and 7am for todays race. I received a text from my esteemed colleague yesterday afternoon asking if I wanted to watch the race with him as he was back in town. I replied, asking if he meant the live show or the repeat at lunchtime. I suspect he may have watched the lunch version :-).
Race Overview
As already mentioned, it was an utterly frantic race behind Rosberg. There were so many scraps and overtakes along with wheelbanging and sparks flying ( Maldonado and Grosjean...boy those guys went at it tooth and nail!) it was just insane. So much fun to watch and as Button said, so much fun to drive in too! Rosberg dissapeared, Button may have had fun trying to catch him but for a slow pit-stop which fed him into the chasing queue of cars. Near the end Kimi was 2nd, but in one lap he plummetted down to 10th. That will be the tyres then!
Nico Rosberg
Son of 1982 Champion Keke, Nico couldn't have done anything any better for the weekend. The Mercedes has looked fast in quali since the start of the year, more in the hands of Schumi. They have usually struggled for race pace as their car has a small window of ultimate use with the tyres.
Let's not piss around here. Rosberg was half a second quicker than anyone else in Q3! That's a gap and a half.
In essence, he did what Vettel did a lot of last year - get pole then dissapear. Though, it has to be said, Vettel never really dissapeared like Rosberg did today - he was a full 20 seconds ahead at the end!
A beautiful weekend for Rosberg which catapaults him up the driver standings.
JB & Lewis
They now have a championship winning car. They sit first and second in the title race seperated by just two points.
Lewis has clearly taken a leaf out of JB's book by being more consistent this year.
JB is driving absolutely at the top of his game and I suspect he will only get better.
I would put a lot of money on their "relationship" fracturing big time as the season evolves - only one of them can win the title. End of.
Webber and Vettel
Vettel seems generally unhappy with this years car, opting to use a slightly older spec version of the RB8 this weekend whilst Webber had the upgrades.
Webber has gone on record saying this years car feels like a more conventional F1 car as opposed to last years blown diffuser layout which changed the handling somewhat.
So, if we look at last year as a blip for Webber, we can clearly see this year that these two are back to a level playing field ala 2010 when they literally raced each other off the road.
Webber drove a great race today, as did Vettel - but with one lap to go they found themselves 5th and 4th repsectively and line-a-stern. I was half thinking Red Bull would tell Webber to stay behind....They didn't, and he didn't.
To be fair, Vettel's tyres were shot and when interviewed about it neither of them played it up - it was what it was. Doesnt appear to be any bad blood on either side just yet.
We wait until Vettel starts getting rather upset about being beaten by his team-mate. You always need to beat your team-mate first.
DC
Needs to rest his voice after nearly losing it through getting so excited in the race. Are you Murray in disguise??!!
BBC
If you watched the forum, you will know that a lot of people despise Sky Sports. The team's interview with a fan known as Lao was amusing, but at the same time cringeworthy hehe.
Grosjean and Maldonado
What a fucking battle that was! Sparks flew, literally!
Alonso
Back to reality with a P9 start and a P9 finish. Those upgrades cannot come soon enough!
Bruno Senna
Anyone else actually notice him sliding up the field from 14th to 7th? I thought not. Beautiful stuff yet again from this guy.
Actually, listening to the repeat now, Ben Edwards gets just a tad excited and high pitched too. Nice.
Co-blogger, I suspect I have missed plenty. Over to you!
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Gilles Villeneuve
Justin: It's 30 years since the death of one of, if not the most, naturally gifted drivers of all time.
Motorsport magazine has this month written a few fantastic pieces on the man and I recommend that my co-blogger pick up a copy - or just read mine next time we meet.
Interestingly, Jacques has started opening up about his Dad since he left F1 - he rightly didn't want to speak of him when he was starting his career as he wanted to carve his own way.
I couldn't help but notice one piece of writing by the editor - He was talking about Villeneuve looking at today's F1 and being unfussed about it, he'd just get on with racing the wheels of whatever he was driving...usually a pig of a Ferrari.
Holding on against the odds in fifth place, a supremely gifted racing driver, grappling with a pig of a Ferrari and scoring points them team didn't deserve. The spirit of Gilles lives on in the pure racer form of Fernando Alonso.
Until this, I'd never thought of those being similar, but when you look at how many times Villeneuve dragged a performance out of his cars on pure driver brilliance, you can start to see the comparisons.
Motorsport magazine has this month written a few fantastic pieces on the man and I recommend that my co-blogger pick up a copy - or just read mine next time we meet.
Interestingly, Jacques has started opening up about his Dad since he left F1 - he rightly didn't want to speak of him when he was starting his career as he wanted to carve his own way.
I couldn't help but notice one piece of writing by the editor - He was talking about Villeneuve looking at today's F1 and being unfussed about it, he'd just get on with racing the wheels of whatever he was driving...usually a pig of a Ferrari.
Holding on against the odds in fifth place, a supremely gifted racing driver, grappling with a pig of a Ferrari and scoring points them team didn't deserve. The spirit of Gilles lives on in the pure racer form of Fernando Alonso.
Until this, I'd never thought of those being similar, but when you look at how many times Villeneuve dragged a performance out of his cars on pure driver brilliance, you can start to see the comparisons.
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Sub headings galore!!!
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.
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.
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.
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