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The British Formula 1 grand prix has been run and done with Alonso’s Ferrari streaking away from the two Red Bull cars to win his first of the season. Vettel still managed a second place despite an uncharacteristically slow pit stop and a struggle to overtake Hamilton as Alonso pulled away in front.
The first thing I would like to say, is that the upgraded Silverstone facilities and track looked fantastic and look to have brought them in line with the newer tracks visited through the year. It was a bit disorienting at first trying to work out the modified layout and starting location, but once I got used to it, it was good.
The English weather turned out an interesting start situation where the starting grid was bone dry, but within a couple of corners the track was very wet, even holding some small puddles in parts. This saw the entire grid get off the line at the start on Intermediate tyres which do not handle dry track very well at all. This management process was the first challenge for the drivers as they attempted to preserve the grip long enough for a suitable dry line to form so they could then switch to the Soft compound dry tyres.
Vettel got off the line best and pushed pole-sitter Webber back to second. Alonso had a real chomp at Webber’s second place through the first couple of corners, but was unable to get through and was slowly dropped by the Red Bull driver for a few laps before coming back in the latter parts of the first stint. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton charged through the field to overcome his poor qualifying position and put himself into real contention. Michael Schumacher was first into the pits for dry tyres after a crash with Kobayashi saw his nose cone damaged.
With Schumacher setting fastest sector times immediately after his pit stop, all of the other cars filed through the pits within the next couple of laps as they all changed to the Soft dry tyres. While the lap times improved through the field the lack of wet grip on the dry tyres reduced the potential for passing as it remained quite wet off the racing line. Despite this, the two McLaren drivers were able to continue to move forward with each overtaking a Ferrari. Webber made up some time on Vettel, before starting to fade again. Alonso got past Hamilton as the latter’s tyres started to fade and when Red Bull had issues with both driver’s pit stops it was Alonso in the lead, Hamilton second and the two Red Bull cars chasing in third and fourth.
Vettel was able to close in on Hamilton but struggled to get past as the superior horsepower of the Mercedes was enough to defend the McLaren’s position. Eventually Vettel was forced into an early stop to try to undercut the McLaren and gain him the clear space required to make an effort at hauling back Alonso’s advantage. While, the undercut was enough to get him ahead of Hamilton, Vettel was unable to do anything about pulling back Alonso’s Ferrari and the action was all taking place further back in the field. Webber was able to close on Hamilton and overtake as the McLaren found itself severely under-fuelled and was forced to drop a lot of pace in an effort to make it to the end of the race. Button had to pull off to the side on the way out of the pits as his front right wheel wobbled and threatened to come off altogether after a botched pit stop.
Webber, having cleared Hamilton set about catching his teammate, which he did at pace, sparking a call from the Red Bull garage for Webber to “maintain the gap”. A “request” that Webber admitted to ignoring as he then set about trying to get past the defending World Champion in the sister car. There has been much outcry over the order given by Red Bull for a variety of reasons. I must admit, initially I was quite nonplussed about it as the instruction was played to us viewers part way through the final lap – of course the audio was originally delivered to Webber about four laps from the end – and it made perfect sense for the team to want to avoid any potential issues with the cars contacting and failing to capture the maximum points available to them.
Having seen and heard more of the timing of the instruction and then taking into account the previous comments made by Red Bull regarding team orders, this deserves some more discussion. Prior to the race Webber was interviewed about his plans for next year and he indicated that his management team was progressing towards a likely continuation deal with Red Bull. It will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next month as a result of this incident. Webber has admitted to ignoring the directive from the team to hold station with Vettel and he made some attempts to get past his teammate. This will set him at odds with the team management, again. It also indicates his feelings regarding his position within the team and will likely reignite the feelings of inequality between the drivers.
There has been a massive out-crying of condemnation for the instruction from the F1 fan community. Some are upset on Webber’s behalf, some are upset at Team Orders in general and some are upset with the hypocrasy shown by a team on record as saying they “let our drivers race”. There are a few things that need to be said before we decide which way to go regarding this event. Firstly, it is the right thing for a team to want to avoid their drivers racing too vigorously during the closing stages of a race. Thirty three points is a lot better than 0 points – Turkey last year saw Red Bull collide and gain only 15 points after holding the maximum 43 points at the time of that collision. Vettel was told to hold off Webber in a race two years ago, and therefore the instructions are not necessarily always against Webber.
In the context of last year’s fiasco with Ferrari there are three major differences. First, team orders are legal this year – as a result of last year’s incident. Second, neither driver was asked to move aside for the other driver. Third, this command was at the end of the race, not half-way through. Having said all of that, Red Bull were very vocal in their condemnation of Ferrari’s directive to Massa last year and continued to be vocal about their fairness and equality through to the end of the season. According to Horner, “we let our drivers race” and team orders are “wrong for the sport”, yet he has just given a team order – albeit one that was ignored by his driver. So, Red Bull need to be consistent with their views and application of team orders.
The feeling by many last year was that Red Bull were happy to let their drivers race as long as it was in Vettel’s favour to be racing. This latest incident will only pour fuel on that fire as it again appears to favour Vettel over Webber. Is this the case at Red Bull? It probably is and Webber is not likely to be able to reverse that sentiment. Whether or not he can continue to work within the team under these conditions remains to be seen. Will they be willing to continue to work with him if he continues to make these sorts of waves. Much of it may rest on the progress of the driver who completed his first Grand Prix yesterday in 19th position, 3 laps behind the winner.
Ricciardo was a clear last place in his first Grand Prix, but was thrown into difficult conditions for which he has little or no experience of in Formula 1 cars. Notably he was able to finish the race, didn’t appear to get involved in any incidents or cause problems for the leaders as they lapped him. All-in-all a good start all things considered. He will be looking forward to the next race in Germany and will file away all of the learned knowledge from this weekend for use in the future.
Congratualtions to Alonso on a near perfect drive to gain his first win of the season and it will be interesting to see if he can continue to eat away at the lead of Vettel.
In an interesting move, Toro Rosso has loaned Perth-born Daniel Ricciardo to the Hispania Racing Team (HRT) for the remainder of the Formula 1 season. Daniel has been the back-up driver for Toro Rosso this season and had regular Friday practice sessions.
With the two incumbent drivers doing enough to justify their continuing positions in the lead spots, Red Bull through Marko Helmut has looked for another way to develop Ricciardo who is a highly regarded talent. This has led them to make a deal with HRT to get Ricciardo onto the starting grid. While it isn’t with a competitive team it will come with less pressure to immediately perform than a drive in Toro Rosso, or even the lead Red Bull team, would have entailed. This is a fantastic opportunity for him to get into the routine of a full race weekend and to get used to the process of practice, car setup and qualifying, as well as the experience in full 300km races.
His teammate will be Liuzzi, a fairly well-regarded and experienced driver who will provide a good benchmark for Ricciardo to be judged against. Liuzzi is a known quantity to Red Bull and this will help them to further assess Ricciardo’s performances and progress.
The downside for Ricciardo will be the nature of the team he is being loaned to. They are the worst performing cars on the grid, lowest budget and have struggled to make it to the first grand prix’ both of their years in the sport. Last year’s car was a pig to drive and watching Senna trying to wrestle it around the course on TV was a painful thing to watch – it looked a lot like some of my first forays into video game driving. this year’s car has shown enough potential at times to suggest that a good drive from either driver may see them beat the Virgin team cars occasionally, but they are unlikely to finish inside of three laps down on the Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren team cars.
There are a lot of positives in this for Ricciardo, his mentors – Red Bull – are so impressed with his potential they are willing to search out ways to promote him onto the grid as soon as possible, they are willing to ‘loan’ him out rather than release him to try his hand elsewhere and he is going to get a chance to get used to the unique experience that is Formula 1 without the levels of pressure that he would have been under if he was replacing a Toro Rosso driver or being “catapulted” into the lead Red Bull team.
Personally, I am looking forward to actually see the lad driving, rather than hearing and reading about his performances in young driver tests and Friday practices. I hope that he is able to make the most of this exciting opportunity and use it as the stepping stone to a regular drive with one of the Red Bull teams. With two drivers on the grid, Australia is starting to show the open-wheel driver talents are still here and not a distant memory that ended with Alan Jones in the eighties.
 The Chinese Grand Prix has turned up one of the best races in recent memory as the Pirelli tyres created alternative strategies for the teams and helped to create some dramatic racing in the closing stages of the race. Lewis Hamilton ran out the winner over Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in a thrilling race that saw top ten cars lapping with two second plus differences in times as the race drew to a close.
Lewis Hamilton gambled yesterday in the final qualifying session with just a single run, retaining an additional set of new option tyres for the race. After the late pit stop in Sepang, Malaysia he felt that he would benefit more during the race by having that extra set of new rubber than by having a second run at the pole position. As Vettel has made the pole spot his own and McLaren have a decent advantage over their other rivals, it was a decent gamble – especially with Webber’s failure to advance past Q1 – and he was able to grab that third spot on the grid. With Vettel getting bogged down at the start, he was able to grab second place behind his teammate Jensen Button and ahead of Vettel.
Vettel was under immense pressure from Rosberg for the third spot and it took all of his nerve and skill to fend him off and get the third place position which would allow him to chase down the McLarens ahead. It took him the whole first stint to finally get past Hamilton and he pitted immediately, finding a “lost” Button sitting in his pit spot. That mistake by Button saw Vettel leapfrog him in the pits and with Hamilton making a mistake out on track before his stop, Vettel was into the lead of the race. In the meantime, Webber had already pitted and was starting to make some progress through the field and having already used the prime tyre was set to have at least one stint where his pace would be a second or so greater than the front-runners.
As the second stint played through, we started to get some idea of how the tyre strategies would start to affect the race with some cars running much quicker or slower than the other cars depending on the type of tyre and the age of that tyre. The shortened DRS zone meant that the trailing cars couldn’t always overtake using the system, but we did see a number of overtakes around the course. KERS certainly played its part in the race, with Red Bull again suffering major problems with their system and Vettel, in particular suffering for it as he struggled to catch and pass Hamilton in the first stint and then struggled to hold him off in the last stages. With KERS worth a few tenths of a second per lap it isn’t hard to see that Red Bull could have gone one-two if it had worked throughout the race.
It wasn’t just at the very front where the racing was exciting, but Schumacher’s battle with Alonso and many of the other match-ups provided plenty of excitement, especially as the tyre strategies overlapped. It was hard to know what the final result would be as two-stop and three-stop cars differed so greatly with their pace throughout. Webber, for example, was 23 seconds behind third place with about twelve or thirteen laps to go, but was able to catch and overtake four cars in front to take that final podium position for himself. Another couple of laps would have seen him ahead of Vettel.
There will be several talking points from this race. I think, most teams will look to make more aggressive strategy decisions now with the Pirelli tyres which will be great for the racing, as most fans want to see these cars going as fast as possible for as much of the race as possible. Each track is still going to throw up variations that will test the strategists, but an aggressive approach seems to pay dividends with the additional performance outweighing the time spent in the pits.
Massa’ performance to outpace his more fancied teammate by fourteen seconds was top-notch and had he been on the three stop strategy, he could have gained even more points. For the third race in a row Massa has been able to get past Alonso off the start and this must be frustrating the Spaniard who would surely be ruing the points his tardy starts have likely cost him.
Webber’s brilliant drive from 18th on the grid to third place was an obvious highlight of the race. Being able to start him on hard tyres and get that phase out of the way early was a big boost. With a car that was capable of faster lap times than the cars around him even on the slower compound it was a good move. Having three sets of brand new softer tyres, obviously helped as well, enabling him to finish that stint early and take advantage of the additional laps available on the untouched rubber to minimise the time spent on the lesser tyre.
His comments after the race, however, were notable in themselves and his team will be asking him some interesting questions I would suggest. He indicated that it was good to see Hamilton ahead of Vettel, his own teammate and while there is logic in that from a championship perspective and even from a fan’s perspective, it was poorly articulated and really not the sort of thing one would expect a teammate to say about the other. Vettel, quite rightly, looked stunned by the comment and Hamilton could only grin in astonishment at the gaff.
Toro Rosso had another failure with a tyre coming off after a pit stop, for the only retirement of the race, and the governing body must surely start to investigate why they are shedding components all over the race track – side pods last week and tyres this week.
Schumacher showed some form as he moved through the field to advance well ahead of his fourteenth place start, but he must start to perform at a similar level to his younger teammate soon or he will need to reassess whether his comeback should continue on. Rosberg did well, again and was up the pointy end for most of the race and looked good for a podium at one point before tyre and fuel issues saw him slip back a bit toward the end.
Kovaleinen, in the Lotus, actually managed to beat a couple of cars from the established teams in a first for the struggling new teams. HRT completed the whole race which was a further step forward for them. Perez took some of the shine off his memorable start to F1 with a couple of over-ambitious moves leading to contact and an eventual penalty. Renault had a disappointing race and Heidfeld continued his Jekkyl and Hyde performance to finish well down the field.
All-in-all, a great race which got more and more exciting as it went on. The major factor in this excitement was the Pirelli tyres and the differing strategies employed by the teams. Unfortunately, I think we will see these differences in strategy sart to settle down within three or four races and most teams will lock in the same optimal strategy each weekend and we will be back to seeing cars performing at similar levels on similar rubber. At least there will likely be two or three pit stops each race however, which will throw up a little more potential for spice…
I have read an interesting article from yesterday regarding the problems facing the A-League and how the earlier Crawford report had mapped out a plan for a revamped Australian Premier League (APL) which would have had multiple teams in Melbourne (2) and Sydney (3) as well as a different structure that may have promoted the sport in a way to generate more fan support and revenues.
For me, however, despite the very sound ideas contained within that report and the likelihood that they would have provided a better following and spread of the teams through the Australian market, the real failing was the short-sighted decision to hand the TV rights to Foxtel rather than to find a Free TV partner who would commit to a genuine effort to cover the game and attempt to grow it.
Not everyone can afford the time or money required to attend every game of their favourite team and others will not determine a favourite team without first seeing them play. This has meant that the teams have been trying to sell themselves effectively “sight-unseen” to a market that has little reason to be particularly excited considering previous offerings.
It isn’t the first time that Australian soccer has made this mistake either. Prior to the reformation of the competition, they had signed away the TV rights to Channel 7 who held the exclusive AFL rights at the time. For a paltry sum of 10 or 15 million dollars, they gave Channel 7 the ability to control their coverage. Now, if I had a $500+ million dollar investment in Sport A, why would I try to promote and support Sport B? Instead, I can buy the right to suppress and “hide” Sport B for a mere 2 or 3 percent of the cost of the main investment.
When Sport B happens to be the world’s most popular sport by a massive amount then Channel 7 must have laughed themselves silly over the deal they got. The Foxtel deal is a bit more complex in that they probably hoped that the sport would work and they would then be holding an exclusive that would sell subscriptions. What they really needed to do was be willing to give a Free TV station some regular games so as to “advertise” and promote their exclusive, but they were too greedy to share with anyone else.
The money received for the TV rights to the Australian soccer competitions so far has been a minor part of the revenue streams required to get these leagues and teams operating at the level that they do. Instead, the TV rights should have been looked at as an investment to be made in the future of the league. An investment that could easily have put the competition into a position where they could have had genuine interest from serious telecasters who would have been spending the money on a competition they wanted to succeed and would work towards that end.
SBS would have been the obvious partner for those early few years and Channel Ten’s new One HD sports channel would have been a great second round partner which could have seen the league being promoted and made available to a wide ranging audience that could easily have grown members, crowds and team sponsorships. All of this, I think would have had the potential to make a much greater difference than the sensible and practical recommendations of the Crawford report and the combination of the two could have seen a truly viable and strong competition rather than one with only one team not losing money and several ready to fold at any time.
The problem with Australian soccer is not the quality of the players, but the lack of foresight, planning and leadership in the administrative offices. Let us hope that they can fix their mistakes before it is too late.
There is some debate around the viability of Hispania Racing Team (HRT) following the opening race in Melbourne last weekend. Having not tested the new car at all prior to the season opening event and then being unable to do more than seven laps between the two cars prior to qualifying and then failing to reach race day after falling outside the 107% limit, it is not surprising that many would question their ability to bring any positives to the sport.
As one of the vocal opposition to their efforts so far I thought I should take a closer look at their circumstances and where they really do sit in the grand scheme of Formula 1 before completely writing them off. It turns out that one of the problems they had in the preparation for this season was the failure of negotiations to buy the Toyota Racing Team’s assets. If they had been able to secure these assets, they would have been in a better position to formulate a competitive challenge this season. Once these negotiations had reached a point where the team realised they weren’t going to make headway, they made the decision to construct their own car instead.
This, obviously isn’t something that can be done overnight and even with existing designwork, the manufacturing processes and testing takes some time to coordinate effectively. This has definitely placed them on the back foot and hampered their efforts to prepare for the 2011 season. How much blame for this situation sits with the team versus the other parties involved depends on who you believe or favour, but it certainly doesn’t get a car built.
I still find it amazing, however that the team could still be constructing the vehicles during those first two days of the race weekend. The bigger teams will regularly rebuild their cars through the year, using older engines for Friday practices and changing and evaluating many parts and often these complete transformations will happen in a matter of hours, rather than a day and a half, and surely they would be allowed to construct prior to the actual race weekend if they have all the components there and ready to go?
The other issue that has caused them difficulty is the failure of the nose cone to pass crash tests. this left them having to use the 2010 front wing assembly which is very different from this year’s package. This forces air into the wrong areas of the car and so the back half of the car’s aerodynamics doesn’t work as designed, losing efficiency and effectiveness. This could have a major effect on the performance of the car as the modern Formula 1 car requires the air to be controlled consistently from the front of the car right through to the back wings for maximum effect and any changes can throw off the balance, the grip and the general performance of the car. Again, does the blame get apportioned to the team or their manufacturer – who they chose – for this crash test failure?
What does seem apparent, however, is that with limited running and imperfect components attached, we haven’t seen the true potential of the car and it appears from qualifying that there is a realistic opportunity for them to qualify for races inside of the 107% limit if they can bring all of these issues under control and run for a whole race weekend with their full package. Also, the performance of the Virgin cars is currently looking so woeful as to suggest that HRT could easily leapfrog them if they do get it together and could do so as early as Malaysia next weekend.
Having said that, Virgin was four laps down on the winning cars in Melbourne and beating them wouldn’t really be considered that great an achievement. It would, however, go a long way to silencing some of the critics and refocus some of that pessimism on Virgin instead. So, best of luck to HRT for Malaysia and I hope that they can show us some reasons to want them to be a continuing presence in Formula 1.
Sebastian Vettel was untouchable in Melbourne yesterday as he started his World Championship defence with the perfect weekend. After securing pole position with a stunning pair of laps in final qualifying, Vettel kept the lead through the first corner and was never threatened through the race.
While Lewis Hamilton was able to match Vettel in pace at times, it was probably as much to do with the Red Bull driver managing the car and the race, rather than truly competitive pace from the McLaren driver. Not that Hamilton will be unhappy with second against a car that looks to have it’s rivals lagging far behind.
Vitaly Petrov was brilliant value for his third place and thoroughly deserving of his podium. With so much focus on how much the team has lost with the loss of Robert Kubica and what Nick Heidfeld would bring to the team, Petrov was stunning as he overcame the critics who felt he didn’t have this sort of result in him and proved the quality of the Lotus Renault. After qualifying a solid sixth place, he then got off the line well and then drove solidly quick laps throughout the afternoon to hold third place and his first podium of his career.
Alonso overcame a poor start to fight his way back up to fourth place and secure some valuable points in the somewhat struggling Ferrari. Mark Webber was very disappointed with his race as he struggled to get the performance from his tyres having to make three pit stops compared to many other driver’s two stops and in the case of the Sergio Perez, just the one stop – albeit in a car that has now been disqualified. All of the teams must now take a good look at what Sauber have done with their tyre wear and find a way to counter it or else see more top ten finishes from the season’s early surprise packet. Sauber must work out how to trim their cars in a way that doesn’t see them fall foul of the scrutineers.
Jensen Button and Felipe Massa were the final two legal cars to complete the full 58 laps with Button ruining his race by incurring a drive through penalty after an illegal overtake on Massa’s Ferrari. Massa had a great start but then proved to be somewhat of a roadblock for all of the faster drivers behind him as he allowed Webber to pull away from him in a struggling Red Bull. Button’s frustrations culminated in him making increasingly desperate moves against the Ferrari, giving us our first DRS moment – however much of a fizzle it turned out to be. The driver-through cost him a good 20+ seconds and cost him a chance to be trying to steal points away from Webber and Alonso.
Massa’s drive was well below the standard set by his teammate and Massa must find a way to improve his performance quickly or face the possibility of an early exit from the Ferrari as they will surely want a driver capable of stealing vital points away from Alonso’s Championship rivals. Buemi gained an important four points for himself and Toro Rosso as he fends off the speculation that his seat is likely to be offered to the sensational young Ricciardo if performance targets aren’t met. Sutil and Di Resta both grabbed the final points available, by virtue of the Sauber drivers’ disqualification keeping Force India in touch with Toro Rosso after round 1.
Mercedes will be extremely frustrated with their first race having two retirements as a result of other cars making contact with their vehicles. Schumacher’s tyre punctured and destroyed the underneath of his car after Alguersuari made contact in the first lap. Rosberg retired later in the race after Barrichello made an awful attempt at overtaking and speared into the side of the German’s car, one could only guess that Barrichello thought it was Schumacher in the car ahead and was trying to pay him back for the scary move made on him last season.
Lotus will be disappointed that, while comfortably the fastest of the three new teams, they are still not competitive with the teams ahead. Williams retired both cars with Transmission failures not even covering the full race distance between the two of them. Barrichello needs to refocus next weekend in Malaysia and avoid the awful mistakes made this weekend, or reconsider if his desire to race is as strong as it needs to be.
DRS was interesting and when Button lined up within a second of Massa at the end of lap 3 I leaned in to watch the first instance of the technology in action, only to be disappointed as he seemed to lack the speed he had shown in earlier laps down the straight. Having said that, we did see some overtaking as a direct result of the system and it helped a couple of other drivers set themselves up for overtaking manoeuvres in the couple of corners that followed. It will be interesting to see how it works in the other tracks and as the system gets fine-tuned through the season.
Pirelli supplied tyres that seemed to do the basic job required, which was to force more than one pit stop and create alternative strategy opportunities for teams. We saw one-stop, two-stop and three-stop strategies through the field but without any real catastrophic failures. There were a few drivers who flat-spotted tyres early in their stints, but were able to continue on without any major issues, suggesting the performance is not as dire as initially thought. While Webber seemed to struggle with his tyres, his teammate didn’t and even Hamilton was able to keep his tyres fresh enough to require only the two stops.
KERS didn’t seem to have much to do with the final results today, considering that the Red Bulls didn’t have a working KERS system at all and we didn’t see any real impact on overtaking through the use of the technology, it seems to be a bit of a fizzle so far, although it is early days and all teams will be desperately trying to develop the best system and strategy for it’s deployment that they can, knowing that it is a valuable source of pace.
With two weeks to go before the next race there will be a lot of disappointed teams and drivers looking to turn around the first race’s problems and a few teams feeling pretty happy about where they are sitting so far.
Winners
- Sebastian Vettel – pretty obvious after pole and a race win in a car that looks to be more than half a second per lap faster than it’s closest rival
- McLaren – while they are still more than half a second behind Red Bull in pace, they aren’t behind anyone else in pace which is a massive improvement over their expected fourth fastest team rating after winter testing
- Vitaly Petrov – third place in a truly competitive car, with a much more experienced teammate a lap and 11 places behind him
- Sebastien Buemi – points in the first race ahead of his teammate and staking a stronger claim to his seat in the Toro Rosso
- Pirelli – tyre out-performed expectation and threw up the desired differences in strategies
Losers
- Sauber – to have finished the race seventh and eighth and then have it all taken away because of an illegal surface on a rear wing component
- Barrichello – bad mistake in qualifying and then a silly move on Rosberg during the race
- Williams – least reliable cars on the grid today
- Mercedes – poor qualifying and then two retirements, albeit not really their fault sees them without points when they would have expected to be fighting at the pointy end
- Mark Webber – well behind his teammate in performance and only fifth in a car that appears to be much faster than it’s rivals
- HRT – barely had two working cars for qualifying and well off the pace. A massive improvement required for Malaysia
- Nick Heidfeld – brought in to lead the team after Kubica’s accident and was shown up by the inexperienced Petrov in qualifying and the race. Big improvements required or Senna will start to look a better prospect
- Felipe Massa – 50+ seconds behind his teammate and really just a moving roadblock for much of the early running, he needs to improve quickly if Alonso is to have decent support in his title quest
- KERS – appears to have had little effect on the race
While this is only the first race of 19 or 20, there are already a lot of interesting results and debates to be had. It will be interesting to see how Malaysia plays out being the first purpose-built track of the season and it’s long straights and probable rain. Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel on his perfect start to the season and best of luck to all of the teams and competitors for Sepang.
Sebastian Vettel has outclassed everyone to take his second Melbourne F1 pole position. With the only two laps inside 1:24, he has eclipsed Lewis Hamilton by 0.778 of a second and his teammate by another tenth of a second.
Fernando Alonso struggled for fifth place behind Jensen Button with Vitaly Petrov gaining a brilliant 6th place on the grid. Rosberg, Massa, Kobayashi and Buemi fill out the rest of the top ten. A number of interesting results have unfolded through the three qualifying sessions.
- Lotus struggled to set the sorts of times they would have been expecting with their new package – obviously a lot of work still too be done
- Heidfeld performed extremely poorly being knocked out in the first session, while his teammate held fourth in the same session
- Michael Schumacher was unable to get his Mercedes into the top ten and was again beaten by his teammate despite a car that has been redesigned to suit his driving style
- Buemi managed the top 10, Toro Rosso’s first for a while and the overall pace of the Toro Rosso was very good
- Barrichello dumping his Williams into the kitty litter after what appeared to be a lapse of concentration
- Ferrari’s performance was further behind red Bull than expected and they were outpaced by McLaren
- McLaren’s performance in the first qualifying after what appeared an awful off-season
- Vettel beating all-comers by almost 8 tenths of a second, including his teammate. Webber would be very disappointed…
- Petrov and Kobayashi’s performances in their cars were nothing short of brilliant
- HRT should quit now and save themselves $40 million
So, with qualifying done, the focus must now move to the race itself. It will be interesting now to see how the tyre strategies play out with the number of pit stops and pace variations through the races stints. It will also be interesting to see how the adjustable rear wing systems work in the race conditions and if they have the desired effect. We have already seen Sutil lose control as he entered the pit straight while opening up the wings and losing rear grip.
With the 107% rule now being applied it will be interesting to see if the teams feel generous enough to allow HRT to join them on the grid. Considering they have only had an operational 2011 specification car for one practice session and qualifying, I think it be better to have them sit out this race as they are too slow, too unpracticed and too much of a risk for the faster cars which will be likely lapping them every 8-12 laps.
While qualifying is important for getting a good starting spot, the race itself is where the championship points come from and tyre wear and management will be vital in determining the final results tomorrow afternoon. Best of luck to all of the competitors and teams.
With Practice 1 scheduled for Friday we are down to a mere three days before the Formula 1 season begins in earnest. In the previous post I outlined some of the technical changes for the cars this season and the likely impact on the racing. Today we will have a look at the teams and their cars. Tomorrow I will look at the individual drivers within those teams and discuss their likely aspirations and expectations for the upcoming season.
Red Bull
Last year’s champions and still considered the favourites to retain the Constructor’s title in season 2011. During the pre-season testing red Bull showed enough to convince many of the observers that they again have the car to beat.
A number of spectators at the first couple of tests were adamant that the Red Bull was flowing through the turns at noticeably faster speeds than the other cars. While the lap speeds weren’t always the quickest, they were consistent and appeared to have plenty in reserve and were generally near the front.
The number of laps produced each day was also excellent and showed extremely positive reliability, which will no doubt make Vettel happy. With the demise of the double-diffuser, there were some pundits who felt Red Bull may come back to the field somewhat, but Adrian Newey appears to have found other ways to wring performance out of the chassis. The front wing will be subjected to tougher testing this year also, which was also a possible loss of advantage for them, but appears to have not made a significant change as yet.
With a car that could be reasonably economical with tyre wear, strong in performance, reliability and fuel economy, Red Bull will expect to remain near or at the top of the points table and there is every chance that they will defend both Constructor’s and Driver’s championships this year.
Ferrari
Last year saw the Ferrari start brilliantly, fade and then come home extremely strong and this year they will be demanding a strong start that flows through the entire season. Probably the only team with the equipment to compete head-to-head with Red Bull on the track, Ferrari will be desperate to capture at least the Driver’s trophy this year if not the double.
Again, the observers at the testing have reported the Ferrari as being the closest to Red Bull in potential performance and with some incredible lap numbers being driven each day, their reliability suggests they will again complete virtually every lap raced throughout the season. With their experience in using KERS and the sheer amount of resources available to them they will definitely be pushing for race wins right through the season.
McLaren
For a team that had two drivers in the hunt for the championship right throughout the season, McLaren looks to be struggling somewhat. With more reliability issues than most teams and an admission this week that their more radical designs for this car have been a failure, they look like they could be heading for a long and difficult season.
They have apparently stripped back some of their new components and replaced them with simpler, more reliable solutions and believe that they have clawed back a possible second per lap. Unfortunately for them, most experts would agree that they were a lot more than one second behind the top two teams. Having said all of that, the McLaren wasn’t that good a car on most tracks last year either, but they led the championships and were very close till the very end of the season and could still manage to make an impact at the front of the pack through the season.
They will likely be closer to the chasers than the leaders however and may not necessarily be guaranteed points finishes.
Mercedes
Initially, this team looked like they had completely missed this season’s boat and were destined for a true midfield experience in 2011, but the mythical, magical upgrade due for the canceled Bahrain test was put to impressive use at the replacement Barcelona test showing that they have made some dramatic moves in the right direction.
Schumacher completed the fastest time at the Barcelona track in a very impressive time that will even have Red Bull and Ferrari looking closely at the German manufacturer’s car. They really seem to have pushed themselves from a solid fourth place team to a team that will likely win races this season and probably capture the third place mantle from the under-performing McLaren group.
They have slowly introduced the upgraded parts to their car through the testing and have done a good job of analysing the performance of each component and understanding how it fits into the overall package. Rosberg was very positive about the car early in the testing and I feel that the drivers are finding it easier to drive which makes their task much simpler as they can control where it goes on the track rather than fight it through the corners.
Should be a positive season for Mercedes.
Renault
With a radical new exhaust system that blows the exhaust fumes from the front of the car in an attempt to gain down-force and some positive signs during the first test, Renault looked to be making some headway on the teams ahead of them. Tragically, Robert Kubica, their lead driver suffered some horrific injuries in a crash at a rally event he was competing in. As a result he will be undergoing ongoing medical treatment and rehabilitation for probably the whole season if not longer.
This left the team with a difficult decision as they had set themselves high expectations and still needed to fulfill these for the season. In the end they enlisted Nick Heidfeld to replace Kubica and will be expecting him to capture a sizable haul of points this season, as well as assist them in continuing the development of their car in the hope that Kubica will be able to resume his Formula 1 career in the near future.
This is a team that has been looking very strong in the past couple of years and have been very good at developing the innovations that the other teams have brought to the sport. This season they have brought their own innovation and they will be hoping that they will see a just reward for their endeavour.
They will likely be fighting for those precious places behind the top four teams with Force India and Williams.
The Rest
As briefly mentioned above, Force India and Williams will be fighting with Renault for those last few available points behind the top four teams, while hoping to continue their dominance over Toro Rosso, Sauber and the second-year teams who will be themselves hoping to have closed the gaps on those mid-field teams.
Lotus looks to have the best package of the newer teams having changed engine supplier from Cosworth to Renault and also buying some parts from Red Bull. Hispania have struggled and will not be launching their full package until the race this weekend, once again leaving them in an awkward position right from the start of the season – last year one of their driver’s first stint in a Formula 1 car was during the first practice session at Bahrain.
Virgin have made some improvements and will expect to push Lotus and maybe even Sauber and Toro Rosso. There will be a lot of pressure on these teams and their drivers to get points this season and they will all be fighting desperately for every place. Expect some driver changes during the season if expectations aren’t met. With twenty four cars on the grid and only ten point scoring places the competition will be extremely fierce….
The Prediction
- Red Bull – too fast, too reliable and two strong drivers
- Ferrari – very fast, very reliable but one driver will be favoured at the expense of the Constructor’s title
- Mercedes – looking strong and with a top young driver and an ultra-experienced ex-World champion
- McLaren – won’t miss by much, but will struggle and there will likely be internal rumblings by mid-season
- Renault - too strong a car for Williams to beat
- Williams – Barrichello will be strong, but a rookie will cost them points that would probably have gained 5th
- Force India – inconsistency at different venues will see them struggle to get the points they expect
- Lotus – possibly the surprise package for the season they should earn some low points finishes with Kovaleinen
- Sauber – minimal points
- Toro Rosso – expect driver changes if I am right, both drivers are under notice and will have to perform brilliantly to avoid being unemployed
- Virgin – still trying to catch up
- HRT – they need to be testing this year’s car before the season starts if they want to be a serious entry
This Friday sees the 2011 Formula 1 Championship fire up in Melbourne, Australia. This year sees a number of changes to the rules as well as a new tyre supplier, giving us a number of variables that may create some interesting racing over the first few events – if not the whole season.
Double Diffuser
This season sees the banning of the double diffuser in Formula 1. This mechanism was used to great effect by some of the teams, namely Red Bull, to create additional down-force through the manipulation of where the exhaust fumes are directed. The loss of this technology will most likely affect Red Bull and Ferrari the most, although all teams had some sort of derivative by the end of last year’s season.
F-Duct
McLaren were the first team to introduce this technology last year, which allowed the driver to redirect some of the airflow around the car in a way that reduced drag on the straights. This allowed the teams with this technology to gain additional speed on the straights while maintaining high downforce through the corners. One of the main reasons for the demise of this trick of aerodynamics is the way that most teams were implementing it. The main way was via moving a hand off the steering wheel to block a vent. This was beginning to look pretty dangerous when you started to watch drivers shifting gears, turning corners and blocking vents all at the same time. It was only a matter of time before a major accident was caused by this.
With the addition of other new technologies this year, the drivers will still be extremely busy pushing buttons and to not have to block vents will be a small god-send for most of them.
Pirelli
Bridgestone “retired” from the sport after last season and Pirelli was selected to be the replacement tyre manufacturer for the next few seasons. Not a lot is really known yet regarding the true performance or durability of the new Pirelli tyres due to the testing all happening in cooler conditions than most races will be held in. Part of Pirelli’s brief from Formula 1 was to not make the tyres as durable as the Bridgestones had become. They have certainly achieved this from the testing so far with the tyres not lasting nearly as long and some quite dramatic reductions in the performance happening quite quickly.
This will see most teams change their qualifying strategies somewhat as additional flying laps will be unlikely to come near the pace of the first and the performance so far suggests that even the top teams may struggle to qualify for the second and third sessions with harder tyres versus the slower teams on softer compounds. Tyre management even in qualifying will be crucial, as will the ability to avoid mistakes on what could very well be one-shot qualifying attempts.
Race strategy will also be shaken up with at least one additional stop likely at all races and the possibility of more. Again, the drivers and teams able to minimise the performance degradation of the tyres and maximise the durability could see themselves with some excellent advantages. Alternatively, drivers who are willing to thrash their tyres and then change them could see themselves gain enough additional speed to overcome the extra pit stop time required.
One other factor that has been raised is the increase of “marbles” that the faster degrading tyres are creating. Marbles is the term used to describe the little balls of rubber that come off the tyres as the cars progress around the track and then sit just off the main racing line. These little bits of scrap can dramatically reduce the grip available offline and hamper overtaking attempts. Pirelli believe that their tyres will not “marble” as much under the normal summer conditions that the majority of races will be held under due to the increase in tyre and track temperatures. Others argue that it will still be too much and the tyres themselves will kill most overtaking opportunities.
Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS)
This is a returning technology to Formula 1 after a less than successful introduction in 2009 and it’s removal in 2010. When first introduced in 2009 it was a technology that had as many disadvantages as it had advantages which led to many teams leaving it off their cars. McLaren were the most successful with it and, along with Ferrari, managed to create a lot of problems for Red Bull and Brawn off the start line in particular. One of the main problems was the weight and size of the equipment required to install the device. For taller and heavier drivers it was too difficult to fit the device into the car and it added too much weight leaving the vehicles heavier than the minimum weight and slower as a result.
This year sees the minimum weight of the cars increased slightly to make KERS a more attractive option throughout the grid, along with an increase in the available boost. There are still some limits on how much boost can be gained and for how long, but it is attractive enough that most teams will incorporate it into their cars throughout the season. This technology will offer some tactical spice to the racing as drivers choose where and when to make use of the stored energy. It can be used offensively to create overtaking opportunities, or it can be used defensively to try to nullify an attacking move. I would like to see a little more freedom applied to this aspect of the cars, creating more potential for technological gains for those who find ways to do it better.
Adjustable Rear Wings
Probably the most controversial change to the rules this season, we see the introduction of adjustable rear wings to try to overcome the issues created by the disturbed air generated behind Formula 1 cars and create more overtaking opportunities. The aerodynamics of the modern Formula 1 car are such that they create massive amounts of down-force to allow unbelievable cornering speeds, but the air coming off these aero devices is heavily disrupted and therefore is not as useful to the following car making it very difficult for the trailing car to keep up, let alone overtake.
There have been a number of changes to the rules this season to try to reduce the disruption of the air in the car’s wake, but it will still be very difficult to catch and overtake a car in front. The general accepted figure is that the trailing car must be 1.5 seconds per lap faster to be able to catch and overtake the car ahead without relying on driver errors. The aim of the adjustable wing technology is to try to reduce that to 0.5 seconds or so differential. How it works is that the driver has a button that can be pressed to reduce the drag created by the rear wing gaining between 7 and 13 km/hr.
Of course, this doesn’t create overtaking opportunities if everyone has it, so there are some specific rules applied. The drivers can use it anytime during practice or qualifying but will only be able to use it when it has been “armed” by race control during the actual race. Race control will “arm” the button if the car is within 1 second of the car ahead and only in a certain part of the track – generally an area with a decent straight followed by a corner that has overtaking potential – which has been specified prior to the event. Some track may see multiple locations available for this boost, but each event will have the details specified in the lead-up.
Apparently it was the teams that suggested this system and while FOTA have decided to introduce it this season, they are aware of it’s potential to flop and have reserved the right to make whatever changes they deem necessary through the season – even removing it all together if it is a complete failure. This has been a polarising change which has a lot of people excited, angry and philosophical about its introduction. I’m in the philosophical group, in that I hope that it will have the effect that is desired without creating too much advantage for the trailing drivers.
If it works then we will see more varied strategies from the top teams as they will be less scared of being stuck behind inferior cars and we will see fewer races decided solely on qualifying positions. If it doesn’t we could have strange leap-frogging races where the following car is able to overtake the car in front each lap, even after being overtaken themselves the lap prior or a situation where the trailing car is still unable to get ahead because the advantage gained is still insufficient to allow a successful overtake to happen.
I will follow up this preview of the season with a look at the teams and drivers later in the week.
Brendon Fevola has been sacked by the Brisbane Lions after they have finally realised that his off-field antics bring too much scrutiny and negativity to the club. Fevola is the opposite of “bad-boy” Barry Hall in that his indiscretions have been off-field as opposed to the on-field nastiness that Hall is famous for.
Fevola was traded away from Carlton after a number of incidents, culminating in the infamous Brownlow evening where he was an embarrassment to his club, Channel 9 and to the AFL itself on one of the sport’s biggest nights. Brisbane threw Fevola a lifeline by taking him and his baggage on, but it didn’t take him long to become further embroiled in embarrassment with revelations that he was broke as a result of a massive gambling problem and with further incidents the club finally had to take the drastic measure of cutting it’s ties with the troubled player.
Fevola is an excellent talent on the football field and has shown throughout his career an ability to perform on the biggest stage, but his off-field life is a massive shambles. He has cheated on his wife, had photos distributed around the world as a result of one of those affairs. He has lost enough money through gambling to bankrupt himself and suffered numerous embarrassments as a result of over-indulgence in alcohol. The biggest problem for the Lions was the fact that he was having an influence on some of the younger and more impressionable players and it was only a matter of time before he took one or more of them down with him.
Fevola’s biggest problem now is that due to the strict rules the AFL has in place he will now not be able to play this season and at his age and his history it could very well be the end of his career. while the Lions will end up paying out his contract, he will lose the additional years that he would have hoped to play for if he is unable to sort himself out this season and find a club willing to give him a third chance.
Surely this will re-ignite debate on the system that the AFL has in place which restricts player movements after the draft processes late the previous year and means that players who are dropped by their respective clubs for reasons of form or behaviour are prevented from attempting to pursue opportunities with teams who might otherwise be willing to take on these players. Wayne Carey, one of the most talented players to play the game missed a whole season because he was found to have been cheating with a team-mate’s wife. Ben Cousins missed a season after being arrested on charges which were later dropped and there would have been numerous players who didn’t fit one team’s roster but could easily have benefited another team’s.
Fevola could possibly sue the Lions for these lost earnings and possibly even win. The AFK would actually be the party most to blame for the situation, as very few would blame the Lions for taking the action that they have, but no-one will ever know if he may have been able to find a team willing to take on his “damaged” psyche and allow him to play this season. For Fevola to miss out on this whole season as a result is a tough punishment and one that, at his age, is likely to see the end of him as a top player commanding hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. While the bulk of the blame must be shouldered by the player himself, the system itself needs to be examined to see if there is a fairer way to govern the movement of players so that the best players have the best opportunities to play the sport that have committed so heavily to.
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