Saturday August 22nd 2009

Williams to run KERS next year? Well the agreement not to rn it was decided by FOTA, and since FOTA have expelled Williams they are free to use it I guess. Its quite surprising they wish to run it next year after not utilising it this year, but perhaps they feel confident it will be developed sufficiently by then. The team have a unique flywheel system which they hope to sell on for use in busses and trains so I guess they want the publicity. On the other hand they still haven’t been invited back into FOTA so they may be out to cause as much trouble as they can. It will certainly disrupt the grouping. It will be interesting to see what Toyota do. They need Williams to run Kaz Nakajima as much as Williams need the engines, and the arrival of Cosworth next year wil offer new options to the team.

Free Practice 3- I missed watching this myself this morning, but a bit of reading later and I have caught up. Force India will have been very pleased to have topped the time sheets. They have nee under a bit of pressure this weekend with the team owner (Vijay Mallya) allegedly putting pressure on the team (and presumably team principle Vijay Mallya). Good luck to them, but if they cant raise their game I would rather see someone who can take their slot on the grid who can. Vettel delayed the session for half an hour after his engine sprung a leak and he drove a long way leaving oil all over the track and the racing line. This is dangerous and I am very surprised he hasn’t been punished. Although Its not too hard to see why he hasn’t been with the way the championship is set up at the moment.  Nakajima and Kubica also put in quick times which is good for the future of the former and a big come and get me advert for the latter.

Michael Schumacher is incredibly frustrated- apparently the fact he cant comeback has hit the former racer hard. If that’s the case I am not sure attending this weekends race was the best thing to be doing.

Red Bull to Run KERS?- Well this is interesting, a few races back the teams couldn’t get rid of their systems quickly enough! Following Lewis’ win in Hungary which owed a considerable part to KERS, the system appears to be back in vogue. Monza and Spa should be good for the system with long straights and large topographical changes which will see extra horsepower being especially useful. With the team lagging behind in the championship they have an incredibly good chance to win it although they are running out of races and a resurgent McLaren provides another obstacle. They need to gamble, and they can’t afford to be blown away off the line by KERS cars and sit behind them to pick up the smaller points. Brawn can do this on the other hand, so it makes sense for Red Bull to roll the dice and give it a go, but they will need to be careful not to upset the balance of the car.

Badoer’s cap says it all- If making your Debut in F1 is difficult, then jumping into a Ferrari alongside a former world champion over 10 years since your last race must be a daunting prospect. The Italian had managed to lower expectations with convincingly slow performances in the practice sessions. He managed to maintain these standards in Q1 with his best time being two and a half seconds slower than Raikonnen. Its just not good enough, I feel for the guy, but you cant keep someone that slow in the car. The lack of race experience in 09 F1 may also hamper Gene’s chances of getting in the car. If it was down to me I would love to see Nelson Piquet have a go in the Ferrari and show what he is really made of. He has an impressive race history, and although he didn’t show this at Renault, another team could be just what he needs to shine in F1.

Qualifying- Q1 saw a disappointing performance from Nakajima who had done well in FP3, Joining Badoer new boy Jaimie was unable to make it out the first session, if he is still learning but I wonder how long he will get in the car before they decide Hartley might deserve a go? Specialist qualifier Trulli also disappointed going out early. Q2 saw the exit of new boy Grosjean who I think can be pleased to have gotten that far. Sutil wasn’t able to convert his FP3 pace into a Q3 slot, Kubica did well to drag the BMW up into the top 10 shootout, Webber will be disappointed with only getting to ninth, whilst teammate Vettel will be pleased to be ahead of Button in 4^th.. Heikki was very unlucky with a small mistake costing him pole which went to his teammate. McLaren are defiantly back, and look like they will be fighting for wins for the rest of the season.

Weights- Heikki’s lap was perhaps even more impressive as it has been seen to be done with an extra 2KG fuel in the car. It looks like Jenson and Rubens will be able to go a couple of laps longer which should be useful to Button if he gets stuck behind Vettel’s Red Bull. Something else to watch for is Trulli appears to be fuelled to go to the moon so expect a Trulli train behind him if he is given the chance to develop one.

That’s today’s rundown. What do you all think?

Friday August 21st 2009

Free Practice 1– The F1 cars are back! it was great to see them back in anger after (an unnecessary) few weeks away. The session ends up looking good for McLaren with their cars 1^st and second, and pretty good for brawn too with Ruben’s topping the sheets. Looks like the sweltering temps got them some heat into the tyres. What this tells us though is another matter, as we don’t know what the teams have been running in terms of fuel loads and what their goals for the session were.

Whitmarsh tells us Alonso is off to Ferrari. FOTA unity taken to the next level? Now McLaren are announcing Ferrari’s future driver line ups! Possibly a slip of the tongue, but as the McLaren boss was questioned over his future line up he cited Alonso’s move as shuffling up the driver market. I have no doubt he knows things we don’t, but was this more than just paddock gossip? It certainly won’t please Ferrari to hear what he said, but it does give the rumours a new level of credibility.

Free Practice 2: It began with reports of no screens working in media centre at the beginging of the session which isnt great after the debarcle in Hungary. Rosberg hit a bug live on onboard his onboard camera which gave us a sniff of drama as the director stuck with him and the bug for a few corners. Badoer appears to be cruising around like it really is a test session at one point he was 5 seconds off the pace. If he doesn’t pick the pace up over the weekend he will be gone before Spa. Looked good for Brawn against Button and Barrichello traded fastest laps during the seesion, and they will be pleased to have finished 2nd and 3rd. McLaren had a new front wing: Heikki took it 2^nd quickest in FP1, Lewis took it sideways and although he managed to avoid a major meeting with the wall in FP2, he did enough damage to not go out again. Alonso put in a good showing on the timing sheets as he topped the session; they did look good in Hungary until the wheel fell off. It did make Grosjean look particularly bad though as he languished in 17^th. Alonso had a big incident with Nick Heidfeldtoward the end of the session. Locking up into the last corner, before loosing his front wing and sending the BMW flying in the process…. This amused Schumacher.

Sebastian Vettel Extends his Red Bull Deal– Having bought the youngster up into F1 (although admittedly not giving him his first drive) Red Bull have signed the young German up until the end of 2011 with the option of another year. Good news for Red Bull as he is there star. It’s a bit of a risk for Vettel as he will obviously be on the big bucks, but will he have a car under him to win with for the next few years. I have no doubts about his speed, but I do still question his overtaking ability, and being stuck in the midfield will put this under a big microscope.

Fisi to be a Ferrari a test driver in 2010? Despite the fact he told AUTOSPORT he wasn’t going to, and the testing ban effectively meaning he would be retired, it must be an attractive option for the aging Italian racer to go to what is effectively the Italian national team. He seems like a nice enough guy, but I don’t see what he is achieving back there on the grid. It may be time for some younger blood to come in and show what they can do.

Webber says Red Bull below par at this stage- They have had a couple of great races since Silverstone, but they still lag in the championship. They cant afford to lag behind the brawns anywhere, especially where they will be strong given the higher temperatures. Vettel might have been unlucky not to finish in Hungary, but Its only Friday so don’t write them off just yet, as there is plenty of time before the points and prizes are handed out

Could Bernie pull the plug on Valencia and send the European GP to Silverstone? – Well its certainly an interesting idea. Valencia looked poor on TV today. The best scenes were of the people having fun on the beach, hardly any pictures of the grandstands suggest no one was watching the racing. The circuit is an ugly procession though concrete barriers going part such highlights as the container port and a dull old fish market. Going over the bridge is the only real highlight on a circuit which appears to be to be near on impossible to overtake at due to having go many corners and minimal straights. Silverstone on the other hand has been packed of late if the British GP does go to Donnington, it would be great to keep it on the calendar. It would certainly be a turnaround from speculation earlier this year that there could be no races in Britain.

Renault let off again as driver’s miss autograph session– Not a lot to say here really. It was a good initiative, and I am glad they have just been reminded of it. But it does strike me that the whole race is here for Fernando Alonso. It seems ironic that he was the one that missed the autograph signing. I hope his fans don’t feel too let down; hopefully Renault can sort out another session.

Badoer gets fined for speeding– Well who can blame him, its his first real race weekend so he needs time to get to terms with the limiter. But then he did it again. Which was clumsy but forgivable. Then a third, which was just reckless. Then a fourth… WHATS WRONG WITH YOU MAN?

Todt shows off– What’s the best way to counter your opponents manifesto? In the world according to Todt it’s to shower yourself in praise from important motorsport people from all over the world. Its certainly an impressive list even if it perhaps wasn’t the classiest move. More on Ari and Jean in a post this weekend.

That’s today’s rundown. What do you all think?

Thursday August 20th 2009

Ari Vatanen releases his ‘October Manifesto’- Todt released his a few weeks back with a slick PDF and some quite radical ideas, we have had to wait to see Ari’s proposals and he appears to be attempting to use the publicity of a Grand Prix weekend to bolster his publicity. The title is interesting; it shares its name with the document outlining the civil liberties granted to the people of Russia by the Tsar after the attempted Revolution of 1905. I have no idea if this was deliberate or not, but hopefully it isn’t. The reforms proved to be insincere and not widespread enough, and the population rose up against him just over a decade later. I hope to Blog about Ari’s proposals this weekend.

Lewis cracks the whip in Woking– Interesting video, Lewis and Jake genuinely seem to get on really well, which I guess is good news for the future of their on screen interactions and BBC access to Lewis for us in the UK. What I found most interesting in this clip is the way Lewis talks about going to the engineers and technicians and demanding to know what’s going on and why things aren’t ready yet. This really surprised me, he must feel really comfortable at McLaren to be able to do this, and perhaps people have underestimated how much he put into turning around this years car. He also seemed to be very involved in knowing exactly what each and every part that goes on the car is and what it is supposed to achieve. He looks very passionate about it, and with that sort of attitude it is easy to see him in the role as a team boss in the future?

Rosberg might be interested in going to Mclaren– Classic interview here, AUTOSPORT desperate for Nico to say something about a potential move to McLaren, but he isn’t giving anything away. Ok he sort of does, but I am not sure if this was deliberate or just him doing a bad job. He says being team mates with Lewis would be sweet and sour, but having done it before he thinks he is up to the job. I am not sure he would beat Lewis, especially with it being his team and him being so established, but could Nico get the money or the car that good anywhere else? I think he should go, I don’t think he will win championships at McLaren, but he will win a lot more races there then any other options which are apparent at the moment. Unless he wants  and can take a gamble on Brawn.

Adrian Newey has spoken about the RB5 and its successor- Things I found interesting… Although the RB5 seems to be the best car on the track it is still not as good as it could be as the rear end of the car wasn’t designed to house the double decker diffuser. This bodes well for them for next season if they can package it right they could remain one of the front running teams. However if Brawn get themselves together they may be able to optimise their cars to an ultimately higher level than the Red Bulls. Newey also said he wants the RB6 to be an evolution from the RB6 with the obvious difference of the fuel tank. This will be something to watch as Newey has gained somewhat of a reputation of only building a fast car once every few years.

Martin Whitmarsh hails KERS as an advantage– Not a massive surprise, Mercedes are unquestionably proud of their unit and we keep being told it’s the best on the grid. Given that it makes up half the units on the grid now this isn’t too hard to believe. Whilst I find the application KERS during the racing questionable, it seems to stop as much if not more overtaking than it promotes, its use of the line is unquestionable. Places made up there are invaluable and will the remainder of the season very interesting. If the McLaren’s are in the top 6 they know they have a genuine shout at a podium if not a win. It will be interesting to see if Brawn get their hands on the system before the end of the year.

That’s today’s rundown. What do you all think?