Blog and Motor Racing CV

Ferrari thoroughly deserved to win the German Grand Prix yesterday but the way they achieved it makes a mockery of the sport. Ferrari were clearly the class of the field yesterday, having improved their cars enormously since the British Grand Prix. Felipe Massa made the best start and led his team mate Alonso who was unable to challenge him until Felipe was held up by a slower car. Felipe would not give way and Alsonso was unable to overtake. After Alonso whined to the Team over the radio, Massa was instructed to let him through to win maximum points.

It makes sense for a Team to favor one driver over another to maximize their chances in the Championship but to do so is against the rules of the sport. The rule actually says that the Team is not allowed to instruct their drivers to finish in a certain order if it effects the result of the race. The amazing thing is the arrogance of the Ferrari Team in thinking that they could orchestrate the race in such an obvious way and get away with it. There have to be ways of ensuring the result they want in a much more subtle way.

I sincerely hope and expect the World Council of Motorsport at the FIA will come down very hard on them, either with removal of their points from Hockenheim or a ban for a number of races.

Hockenheim this weekend for the German Grand Prix. With rain expected over the weekend we could see a surprise winner. Hopefully McLaren will have their blown diffuser sorted out and will be able to challenge Red Bull, but don’t rule out Ferrari who have really had their nose put out of joint recently and will have been working hard back in Maranello. I expect the Webber/Vettel battle to continue unabated but the Team should have learned by now that trying to favor Vettel will do their image no good at all.

If I had to choose a winner in bad conditions it would be Button but if it is dry Vettel will be hard to beat in front of his home crowd.

Sweet revenge for Mark Webber when he won the British Grand Prix today. The Red Bull Team had given his updated front wing to Vettel before qualifying which understandably upset the Aussie, although the team denied any favoritism. Webber made a great start from second place on the grid and outgunned Vettel to the first corner. Vettel touched Hamilton’s wing end plate and collected a puncture which put paid to any chance he had of a podium finish. Hamilton drove a great race in his uncompetitive McLaren to finish 2nd and Jensen Button drove a great race from 14th on the grid to 4th overall. Alonso was never really fully competitive and was finally given a drive through penalty for cutting the corner at Club whilst overtaking Kubizca. He was so upset that he left the track immediately without any comment to the media.

This result for Mark will hopefully make the Red Bull Team think again about playing games with the drivers. Mark has surely established himself as every bit as quick as Vettel if not quicker in many instances. He has now won the two most restigious races of the year, Monaco and Silverstone.

The new section of track proved interesting but did not provide any genuine overtaking opportunities  and the powers that be at the BRDC must be wondering why they spent all those millions to make the changes.

The next race at Hockenheim is home territory for Vettel and he will want to pick up maximum points there. I am sure Webber will have other ideas.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	52	1:24:38.200	2	25
2	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+1.3 secs	4	18
3	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	52	+21.3 secs	5	15
4	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+21.9 secs	14	12
5	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	52	+31.4 secs	8	10
6	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	52	+32.1 secs	12	8
7	5	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	52	+36.7 secs	1	6
8	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	52	+40.9 secs	11	4
9	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	52	+41.5 secs	10	2
10	10	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	52	+42.0 secs	13	1
11	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	52	+42.4 secs	20
12	16	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	52	+47.6 secs	16
13	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	52	+59.3 secs	15
14	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	52	+62.3 secs	3
15	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	52	+67.4 secs	7
16	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	51	+1 Lap	21
17	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	51	+1 Lap	18
18	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	50	+2 Laps	19
19	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	50	+2 Laps	23
20	21	Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	50	+2 Laps	24

Sebastian Vettel took pole for the British Grand Prix today, ahead of his Team mate Mark Webber and Alonso in the Ferrari, but not without some controversy.  Both Red Bulls had been fitted with a new design of front wing for this weekend, but Vettel’s front wing became detached and was damaged and the Team gave Webber’s wing to Vettel, which left Webber with the old design. Clearly after qualifying Webber was not a happy bunny and quite rightly so. The team had stated after the Turkish Grand Prix fiasco that they did not favor either driver. Clearly they favored Vettel today. They say that the new front wing would not effect the lap time, so why give it to Vettel? Even if the new front wing was not an improvement, taking it away from Webber and giving it to Vettel was a very demoralizing move against Webber. I hope he wins tomorrow and shows the Team that they are backing the wrong guy. Rosberg outqualified Schumacher by nearly a second today which is massive in Formula One terms. Schuey should step down and give a younger driver like Gary Paffet a chance.

The race should be a no contest tomorrow. The Red Bulls have a big advantage here, much to everyone’s surprise and only Alonso looks like being anywhere near them. A big disappointment for the British fans with the updates to the Mclarens being a damp squib and Jensen in particular seems to have suffered adhesion problems today. I predicted the closest race of the year so far but it looks like this will not be the case. We need a sharp downpour just before the start to liven things up.

1	5	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:30.841	1:30.480	1:29.615	18
2	6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:30.858	1:30.114	1:29.758	18
3	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:30.997	1:30.700	1:30.426	23
4	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.297	1:31.118	1:30.556	17
5	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:31.626	1:31.085	1:30.625	23
6	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:31.680	1:31.344	1:31.040	22
7	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:31.313	1:31.010	1:31.172	26
8	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:31.424	1:31.126	1:31.175	20
9	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:31.533	1:31.327	1:31.274	16
10	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:32.058	1:31.022	1:31.430	20

This week, the Grand Prix circus moves to Silverstone, which, alongside Monaco and Monza, is the most Historic of all the circuits. In fact, Silverstone was the venue for the very first World Championship Grand Prix in 1950. Recent updates have assured Silverstone’s place on the Calendar for the next few years. I doubt if the new circuit extension will add anything to the racing and will not provide any extra overtaking opportunities, but, having said that, I expect the race on Sunday to be the most exciting of the year so far.

The gap between the cars is narrowing considerably and we should see a great race between the Mclarens and the Red Bull cars with Alonso and Massa in the Ferraris in the mix too. Robert Kubica in the Renault and Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes/Braun will be close and looking to pick up some good points. Don’t expect Schumacher to suddenly find form, in fact, this may be his last race. If I have to pick a winner, Mark Webber would be my tip. It will take more than his low flying experience in Valencia to put the Aussie off his stride and he knows Silverstone like the back of his hand.

Ferrari Boss, Montezemelo, is whinging about the results of the Valencia race being unacceptable and unfair. In a safety car situation, there is always someone who loses out. The safety car is used to protect the scene of an accident and has to be deployed as soon as possible. It is the luck of the draw as to where any particular car is on the track at the time and when the safety car comes out. Sometimes you win, as Hamilton did, and sometimes you lose, as Alonso did. Admittedly, the FIA Stewards did take a long time to impose the penalty on Hamilton and inadvertently handed him an advantage over Alonso. To say the race was manipulated is ridiculous.

Unfortunately the FIA is not renowned for decision making and it can be galling for the teams, which are run very professionally and are come down upon very hard when they step out of line, to find that the FIA often acts in a very amateurish way with no recourse. However, Ferrari should be the last Team to moan about the FIA when they have been treated very favorably in the past and had the perfect opportunity to replace both FIA and FOA last year, but bottled out. If Montezmolo had stood firm alongside the other teams, they could be running their own series by now, making their own rules and appointing their own stewards. The fans could be getting much better value for money and the historical circuits would be getting a better bite of the cherry. In which sport, apart from F1, do the event organizers and venue owners get such a raw deal?

Another win for Red Bull, this time with Vettel, in front of the two McLarens of Hamilton and Button. The race was a real yawnfest and was only enlivened by the enormous accident of Mark Webber when he ran into the back of a slower car. Fortunately neither driver suffered any injuries at all. Alonso was running very well in the early laps but he was caught out by the safety car after Webber’s accident.

The steward’s are considering the actions of several cars during the safety car period, so the results are provisional. How difficult can it be for the FIA steward’s, with all the electronic and video evidence at their finger tips, to come to a conclusion about an incident that happened early in the race, before the race finishes. Millions of fans watching the race on TV or live at the circuit, once more go away without knowing the result.

The Valencia track is probably one of the worst circuits on the calendar, offering no real overtaking opportunities and the race was a little like watching paint dry. The race is virtually decided by the qualifying results and the positions on the grid. Another Monaco it is not. Not to take anything away from the performance of Red Bull and their two drivers. They are doing a fantastic job and cannot be blamed for the lack of spectacle.

The paying public really deserve more from the Governing body and the owners of the Sport. Let us hope that the new changes to Silverstone, where the circus moves to in two weeks time, make for a better race than we saw today.

Would it also not be a change for the better if the BBC put Anthony Davidson in the commentary box alongside Martin Brundle. We need experienced people commenting on the action, guys who have been there and know what it is all about.

Back to Valencia this weekend. Not the prettiest place to hold a Grand Prix, but the organizers have illusions of it becoming a second Monaco and the local Authorities think it is a good idea to pour millions of Euros into Bernie’s coffers at a time when Spain has around 25% unemployment. Enough of that and back to the racing.

The gap between the tops teams has shrunk considerably since the season started and McLaren seem to have the measure of Red Bull now. Ferrari are not quite there, but the circuit should suit Alonso if he doesn’t throw it at the wall during qualifying. He will be out to impress this weekend in front of his countrymen, so expect some fireworks. If Monaco was anything to go by, Mark Webber should be the man to beat, with Lewis Hamilton a real threat.

You have to hand it to McLaren. Their rate of development and race strategy leaves everyone in the paddock way behind. They started the season way behind Red Bull and now seem to have the measure of them. They were, of course, helped by a brilliant qualifying lap by Lewis Hamilton which Jensen admitted to not being able to match. It takes a lot for a racing driver to admit that someone else is faster. Even if Mark Webber had not been demoted from the first to the third row after changing a gearbox, I doubt very much if he would have been able to do much about the two McLarens. The Championship is now wide open and we can look forward to a great race at Silverstone. After starting off like a damp squib, the season is now turning into one of the best for a long time.

This year we are seeing a problem which the Teams have rarely had to face before, namely both drivers being very equally matched. McLaren and Red Bull and to a certain extent Ferrari all have a similar dilemma. Team orders are strictly forbidden now in Formula one after one or two badly managed situations in the past, so it is very difficult for Team bosses to direct their drivers during the race. In addition to this, despite modern technology, Pit to Car Radios are not always very clear and misunderstandings can happen.

The Teams have developed a glossary of seemingly innocent comments to relay instructions to the drivers, although they would strenuously deny this. After the disastrous coming together of the Red Bulls in Turkey, which left the two McLarens fighting over the lead, McLaren wanted to avoid a similar situation between their two drivers. Lewis had been pushing harder than Jensen for most of the race and found his tyres going off slightly and he was getting perilously low on fuel. Jensen was able to close up and made a bid to take the lead. This surprised Lewis as he thought he had received a message from his chief mechanic to say that Jensen would not push him. Lewis then retook the lead after a furious half lap battle with Jensen when they touched more than once and looked like following Red Bull out of the lead. Obviously this was a situation that the Team wanted to avoid at all costs, yet were legally unable to tell their drivers to hold position.

Suddenly Jensen backed right off and left Lewis to an unchallenged win. Did Jensen suddenly loose the urge to win. Clearly Lewis’ car was not in such good condition as Jensen’s and Jensen would certainly have succeeded in passing before the end of the race. Jensen was quite clearly given instructions to back off. No Racing Driver would have given up the opportunity to take a win if it was in his power to do so. A second message about saving fuel had come over the radios but this time it said that fuel was critical. Could the word critical be the one used to tell the drivers to hold station? Probably. McLaren deny that any instruction was give, but they would, wouldn’t they? We will never know, or will all be revealed in the distant future?

Mark Webber was certainly the moral winner in Turkey and Christian Horner, the Red Bull Team principal, has now stated that Webber was not responsible for the accident. Not what a lot of the hierarchy in the Team were saying directly after the race. The accident was caused by a moment of desperation by Vettel to take advantage of Webber having been told by the Team to conserve fuel. He made a desperate lunge down the inside and lost it on braking, causing him to veer into Webber’s car. Despite what has been said, he was only half way past Mark’s sidepod which can be clearly seen on the video footage.

Vettel is clearly the blue eyed boy of the Team and Webber’s performance and speed of late has caused some embarrassment. Vettel is obviously in the Team to stay and don’t be surprised if Webber makes a move at the end of the season. He should be in great demand. Ferrari would seem to be the obvious choice and he is probably the best driver to withstand Alonso’s intimidation. Roll on Montreal.

Louis Hamilton won the Turkish Grand Prix from Jensen Button and Mark Webber. Probably the most interesting race of the year on what is generally regarded as one of the best tracks. Webber was heading for a third win in a row when he was hit by Vettel on lap 40.  Webber had been leading from the start of the race after starting from Pole Position and was looking for his third consecutive win. Hamilton had been in second place from Vettel and Button in the early stages until the pit stops. Hamilton was delayed slightly by a sticking rear and when he emerged from the pit he had lost his second place to Vettel. Vettel had never looked like challenging Webber until lap 40 when he got close enough to slipstream Webber and pull along side him into turn 12. Webber, quite naturally did not make it easy for Vettel to pass and held his line in the centre of the track. Vettel was approx. half way alongside Webber when he turned right into the sidepod of Webber’s car and caused both cars to veer off the track. Vettel’s car was too badly damaged to continue and Webber continued in third place behind the two McLarens  after replacing his front wing. Vettel was very close to the edge of the track and looked like he lost control slightly and the car turned into Webber. In my opinion this accident happenened because Vettel took a big chance in trying to overtake Webber. Some may say that Webber should have given him more space but that would only be true if Vettel had managed to get right alongside Webber’s car. Towards the end of the race Button squeezed past Hamilton and they drove side by side for several corners without touching before Hamilton regained the lead. Having seen what had happened to the Red Bull cars, I suspect that the McLaren drivers were told to cool it and hold station until the end of the race.

World Championship Points after Turkey

1	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	93
2	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	88
3	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	84
4	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	79
5	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	78
6	Robert Kubica	Polish	Renault	67
7	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	67
8	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes GP	66
9	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes GP	34
10	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	22
11	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	Force India-Mercedes	10
12	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	7

The Formula One Circus moves to Turkey this weekend. The Turkish track is one of the better tracks on the Grand Prix calendar and turn eight is probably one of the most testing high speed corners that the drivers have to tackle all year. Red Bull and McLaren will be the teams to beat again this weekend and the race should prove a lot more interesting than Monaco but hopefully without the continued interruption of the safety car.  Webber will be looking for a third straight win but I expect Vettel to re-establish himself this weekend. This track should suit Button and his driving style so don’t be surprised if he gives the Red Bulls a hard time.

Michael Schumacher has been penalized for overtaking Alonso in the last corner of the last lap. He was given a 20 second penalty which put him back to 12th place. It appears that Ferrari were the only team that understood the rule, although by the way Alonso was driving I don’t think even he had been told.

Schumacher was penalized under rule 40.13, which states that “if the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pitlane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.”

I presume this rule is made to prevent the end of the race spectacle for spectators and television being spoiled by a safety car blocking everyone’s view of the winner. However, it would have been an interesting chaotic situation if Webber had known about the rule and just cruised to the line and all the other drivers had raced past him before the finish.

Even the stewards cannot have been too clear about the rule as it took them some considerable time to make a decision.

A good win for Mark Webber but a very messy Grand Prix. The Red Bulls seem to be in a class of their own at the moment and it could take some time for the other teams to catch up.

A second great win in a row for Red Bull’s Mark Webber from Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica. Mark lead from pole and dominated the race from start to finish. Three times he pulled out a comfortable lead and three times the safety car came out and wiped out his advantage. He drove an immaculate race and earned his place as joint number one in the Team and the World Championship with Sebastian Vettel. Robert Kubica drove a great race in the Renault to give Renault engined cars a complete lock out on the podium. The Red Bull car has now proved the fastest on many different types of circuit and the other teams must be scratching their heads about how to bridge the gap. Schumacher had a better weekend and executed an nice opportunistic manoeuvre in the last corner to deprive Alonso of sixth place. Rosberg had the pace to challenge Webber but suffered various frustrations and problems during qualifying, that saw him start down the grid with no chance to make it to the front. Rosberg’s first win cannot be far away.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1h50:13.355
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 0.448
3. Kubica Renault + 1.675
4. Massa Ferrari + 2.666
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 4.363
6. Schumacher Mercedes + 5.712
7. Alonso Ferrari + 6.341
8. Rosberg Mercedes + 6.651
9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 6.970
10. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 7.305
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 8.199
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 9.135
13. Petrov Renault + 4 laps

World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers:
1. Webber 78
2. Vettel 78
3. Alonso 73
4. Button 70
5. Massa 61
6. Hamilton 59
7. Kubica 59
8. Rosberg 54
9. Schumacher 30
10. Sutil 18
11. Liuzzi 9
12. Barrichello 7
13. Petrov 6
14. Alguersuari 3
15. Hulkenberg 1

The Monaco Grand Prix, Jewel in the Crown of the F1 circus, takes place this weekend. Alonso has his nose in front after the first unofficial practice, just edging out Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. Qualifying will be a very hit and miss affair due to the impossibility of overtaking without full co-operation of the car in front. Cars making their way back to the pits after a flying lap will find it almost impossible to give a clear run to someone on a qualifying lap. The front row of the grid is more important here than any other circuit. The driver who comes out of the first corner in the lead will be able to control the race pace. A poor start here can ruin the whole race. No chance to make up places as Lewis Hamilton did in China.

Monaco could easily throw up a completely surprise winner such as Rosberg or Sutil as this race is 75% driver and 25% car. A complete turn around from the normal situation. Don’t be surprised if no more than handful of cars finish the race.

A great flag to flag victory for Mark Webber in the Red Bull. Bad luck for Hamilton to suffer mechanical problems during the last few laps after a great drive to stay ahead of Vettel in a clearly faster car. Problems too for Vettel but he did manage to achieve a podium finish, albeit in third place behind Alonso.

Jenson Button was very unfortunate to suffer delays during his pitstop which allowed Schumacher to edge ahead after the tyre stops. Despite being faster than Shuey, Jensen was unable to overtake due to the ongoing problem with the aerodynamics of the cars making overtaking very difficult. As it turned out, Jensen was heading for a podium finish but destroyed his tyres trying to overtake Schuey.

The race was quite processional and without the adverse weather conditions to spice things up, the order up front only changed due to mechanical problems.

The spectacle in Monaco next week could benefit from a good rainstorm just before the start

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1h35:44.101
2. Alonso Ferrari + 24.065
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 51.338
4. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:02.195
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1:03.728
6. Massa Ferrari + 1:05.767

World Championship standings, round 5:

Drivers:
1. Button 70
2. Alonso 67
3. Vettel 60
4. Webber 53
5. Rosberg 50
6. Hamilton 49
7. Massa 49
8. Kubica 44
9. Schumacher 22
10. Sutil 16
11. Liuzzi 8
12. Barrichello 7
13. Petrov 6
14. Alguersuari 3
15. Hulkenberg 1

The Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona this coming weekend. I expect the race to be between the three top teams, namely Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. Vettel must start as favourite with the most likely challenge coming from the two Mclarens which should be able to benefit from their marginally higher top speed. Barcelona does not offer many overtaking opportunities, the main straight being the best one, so being on the front row of the grid and making a good start will be of paramount importance. Rosberg may squeeze himself between the front runners if his Mercedes has found some speed since the last race, and Schumacher will be hoping to improve his points tally.

Check out this article by Richard Littlejohn. He really says it like it is.

Richard Littlejohn

Another win for Jensen and thoroughly deserved. Changing weather conditions set the scene for an interesting race and temporarily put aside the worries about the lack of overtaking possibilities due to the aerodynamics of the cars. Jensen’s smooth and accurate driving style was perfectly suited to the conditions. His lead was twice wiped out by the intervention of the pace car, so his domination of the race was partly disguised. After Jensen’s win, the highlight of the telecast was the interview with Bernie Ecclestone before the race. In his usual deadpan style, he fended off Jake’s questions with some of the most amusing statements of the Grand Prix season so far. His prediction that the whole world championship season could take place in China if the cloud of volcanic dust continues to hang over Europe was a masterpiece. Lots of questions after the race directed to Michael Schumacher and Norbert Haug about Michael’s lack of performance compared to the brilliant young Nico Rosberg who finished on the podium. It’s a bit like the Emperor’s new clothes, everyone is frightened to tell the truth about it, but my prediction about Michael not finishing the season may come to fruition a little earlier than I expected.

Vettel and Webber both had a difficult race after dominating practise. There is no doubt that the Red Bull cars are the class of the field in the dry and I still have Vettel down as favourite for the Championship when the circus moves to Europe.