It was so exciting to finally see all the cars zoom past us on their first lap. The combined sound of those 20 cars was worth taking all the trouble to get there.
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Tag Archive for 'f1'
Drivers parade around the circuit in vintage cars before the inaugural Airtel India Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit.
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I have been a Ferrari fan for as long as I have watched F1. But I cannot condone the way Ferrari shamelessly asked Massa to give up his lead and let his team mate win. It was so blunt and straightforward message that even a fool would understand it.
Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?
They did not even try to hide their intention. And since the transmission radio is now open to public, everyone heard it. And our very professional Massa slowed down his car and let Alonso pass.
Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry.
Was how the Ferrari pit crew appreciated this cowardly act.
A lot of things happen behind the curtains in F1. Although team orders have been banned after the Michael Schumacher [Ferrari, Australian GP], teams do send out coded messages which reveal such intentions. However, these are usually done towards the end of the season, when only one of the drivers have any chance of winning the championship. Such a decision is understandable. But to enforce such ordering at just the mid season is just wrong.
But I refuse to point the blame at only Ferrari. Everyone, including Alonso and Massa, were guilty of showing us a manufactured race. Just a few laps ago Alonso had tried a passing move on Massa. However, a couple of corners and Massa was able to regain his lead. Alonso’s reaction to this on his radio was
This is ridiculous!
Clearly, Ferrari must have set the driver orders even before the race started, and when Massa overtook Alonso, whereby defying the team order, Alonso was irritated. And if we couple this incident with Luca Montezemolo’s statement just a few days ago saying Ferrari were still aiming to win the championships leaves no doubt that Massa had been made the scapegoat. This does not augur well for a F1 fan.
Alonso might have been quicker than Massa, but that does not mean he has the right to be ahead of him. The highest paid driver should have fought for the position, and given a faster car, if he really had superior skills he could have forced Massa into an error and taken the lead.
I blame Massa for not having the balls to stand up to the order. He has been with Ferrari for so many years, and yet gets treated like a secondary driver. I am no Massa fan. His response to the media saying he is a professional just doing his job, cuts out a sorry figure of a guy who just the last year was made a Ferrari hero. He should have spoken out like Webber did in the last race when the team favored Vettel.
Ferrari is set for a hearing with the WMSC. Whatever the ruling of the committee is I hold Ferrari guilty of fixing a brilliant race. Massa had started the race well, and he did deserve to win the race.
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For all its pre-season hype, the excitement of having 4 champions on track, the eagerness to get a competitive Ferrari back on tract, the season opener couldn’t be a more boring car procession.The front runners, the ones having the fastest cars, just followed each other around the track completing the mandatory 49 laps without trying any overtaking maneuver. And the new regulation of fueling ban ensured that the nothing exciting could even happen during the pit stops.
The qualifying was the first to signal that something is not right. Until the last year, Q2 used to see the cars go zoom-broom at top speeds. Then the Masters of Strategy would work out a fuel strategy to give their drivers the best shot at glory. This did mean that slower cars could end up in front of faster ones, but at least it did mix the grid up a bit, and then the pit stops would become interesting. The new format of having no fuel strategy for Q2 and Q3 somehow reduced the charm of Q3. And when Vettel set the fastest Q2 lap, it was only a matter of wait and watch to see Vettel do it again in Q3. After all, there is no change in the car from Q2 to Q3. So the result of Q2 and Q3 should be the same, unless of course one of our drivers gets nervous and commits a mistake, something we saw Webber do. Or else if you were foolish enough like Adrian Sutil to be the only driver running on Hard than the Super Softs which the remaining 9 had chosen.
After qualifying we knew who the fastest guy was – Vettel. We also knew that Alonso and Massa were strong. But when everybody starts the race with the same amount of fuel, and when you expect everybody to come into the pits at almost the same time, and when you already know that to overtake the car in front you need to be 2-3 seconds faster which you are not, then where the hell did FIA see an opportunity for the drivers to overtake one another?
Another impact of removing refueling was that drivers chose to dive into pits only once, and play it safe on the track to conserve their tires.
For all the talk about reducing cost associated with getting a team ready for a race, and lessening the impact of machinery on race result, FIA has made the race day boring. Perhaps it were the slow corners of Bahrain which wasn’t the ideal place to judge the new regulations, or perhaps I was expecting just too much, but I wasn’t impressed with the show. If the same repeats for a few more races, F1 might face an even greater scare than all the scams, match-fixing and recession of the past couple of years. With a dwindling fan base, they need to do a quick rethinking.
Congrats to Alonso and Schumacher. Is this the beginning of the end of Schumacher – Ferrari legacy? Will Alonso become the next Schumacher of Ferrari? I certainly hope so. And I think the next season will once again be Schumacher vs. Alonso – one last time, and I will put my bet on Schumacher to walk away with the title. That would most certainly be a fairy tale end to a great illustrious career.
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I have been watching F1 regularly since 2006 and this is the first time that 4 world champions will be on the grid at the same time! No wonder I am so excited and eager to get the season started. My ears have tired of waiting to hear the commentator say – “And the Bahrain GP is GO“. And just like the millions of fans across the globe, I too have lots of expectations from this season after the boring last one.
What makes the 2010 season fantastic is the return of God of Racing – Michael Schumacher. The seven time world champion is desperate to get started again. His enthusiasm shows his want for F1 racing again after a break of 3 years. And who better to have as team principal than Ross Brawn. The duo have won seven championships. I don’t care if it is not Ferrari they represent now. Schumacher is great at developing the car, and I am sure that if not this season then the next one will definitely be his.
The pre season testing for Brawn has not been as awesome as last years. The last year they had the fastest car and it showed right from the first lap of testing. This year though Brawn has accepted that they might be slightly off the pace. In the longer runs Mercedes car has managed to show consistency and speed, but it is with the lower levels of fuels that they are not sure about. The other cars seems to be quicker than Mercedes when running on fumes.
Speculations and rumors though refuse to die down around Brawn and Schumacher. Apparently Brawn has declared that they have a piece of technology which did not require testing and to design it they went till the limit of rules. Obviously reporters have been buzzing about the possibility of a new design of diffuser which would boost the performance of their car by a second or two per lap. And if this turns out to be true, then the championship is already Michael’s.
The testing though showed Ferrari to be the pick of the lot. They have got the pace to challenge for the championship. And Alonso is a shrewd driver. He is just as good in developing his car and extracting that last bit of performance. People have already tipped him to be clear favorite for drivers title. I just want to see Alonso and Michael battle it all out just the way they used to earlier. I just cannot make up my mind who to support – Michael or the team I have always liked, Ferrari. Michael was the reason I started watching F1, and Ferrari the reason I continued watching it after Michael left. Picking one is tough.
The return of Massa after the tragic accident is being highlighted too. He was quick during the practice sessions. But how competitive he will be compared to Alonso is doubtful. Alonso might perhaps carve out a place for himself just like Schumacher did. Alonso has already declared that he would like Ferrari to be his team when he retires. Also Luca Montezemolo has declared that all great drivers ultimately end up at Ferrari. I think if it comes to choosing between Alonso and Massa, Ferrari might prefer Alonso.
A lot of focus is being put on Hamilton and Button. I am given to understand that the Hamilton-Alonso saga, which nearly destroyed the McLaren team a couple of years ago, has been a valuable lesson for the team in management of resources. However the Hamilton-Kovaleinen partnership suggests otherwise. McLaren has been Hamiltons’ team and I think it will continue to be his. A few measure like shuffling of staff has been made to make Button happy regarding equality of driver, but pretty soon Button will realise that perhaps it was not for nothing that Alonso cribbed so much while at McLaren. How soon will trouble emerge could be an interesting bet.
But the most promising rising star on the grid has been Seb Vettel. The German has won lots of accolades for his driving in the wet. The last season with Red Bull, he did mount a serious challenge to the championship despite his car not having the double diffuser. Horner is a great designer of car, and it was mostly his ability that pushed RBR to the front. This year they have gone a step forward. With refuelling banned for the races, pit stops shall only have a change of tires, adjustments to the wing and a few minor changes if required. RBR has gone on record saying their pit crew has worked hard the whole winter and they have come up with a modified methodology which enables them to complete the pit stop in less than 2 seconds. Less than 2 seconds !!! You got to be kidding me. Thats lightening quick.
Last but not the least, with Max Mosely gone, politics should see a drastic reduction. Jean Todt is more than able person to be replacing him. A joke I read somewhere -
What could be the worst thing that Jean Todt does in the first year of his office?
Cry his tears out when Schumacher wins his first race.
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But guess what ! The ban comes with a string attached. The ban is hereby “SUSPENDED” unless any mor fresh evidence against McLaren is revealed or if McLaren makes a smilar fiasco in the next 12 months. Is this a joke ! FIA should have made this announcement on the 1st of April instead, at least there would have been a few takers.
After all the speculations and debates as to what would be a just penalty for a team that thought lying is a better way to achieve glory, this was a shameful anti-clmax. A general sentiment echoed by most of the fans was of a constructor points deduction or of a single match ban. The earlier option was a better one as it sought to punish the team McLaren for instructing Hamilton to lie and yet allow Hamilton to maintain his stake for the world championship.
But as declared, McLaren are free to race with no punishment what so ever. However, if any fresh evidence becomes public showing McLaren scheming to grab the third place by lying, then they will be handed the three race ban. Ridiculous ! How many more reasons does one need to conclude that the pair were lying in the face of the stewards. And what other motive can there be except to gain an advantage. A second criteria for the suspended ban to become active is if McLaren indulges in any wrong doing in the next 12 months. This looks like a mother telling her child not to be mischievious, unless he wants to fofeit his chocolate for a day.
The FIA took a stance that mcLaren had brought the sport into disrepute by lying. Its intentions were always to punish McLaren. A mild pnishment for the constructors would have done. but showing complete leniency in this regard invites other teams to use unfair means too.
What the FIA chose to do was play politics. Yes, nothing but politics. The intended target was always Ron Dennis. He eventually succumbed to the overall pressure and had to throw in his towel. Mosely should now be feeling quite relaxed with Ron out of the way.
I personally did not want the McLaren team to he handed a heavy penalty. Afterall, the diffuser row was enough to distract the atention from the main agenda of the sport, and these court ruling should be kept to bare minimum. But why make all the fuss and then shy away. FIA has got no balls. Ferrari has always ruled the sport. FIA has been afraid of Ferrari breaking away. Now McLaren joins the rank. Welcome to a New World Order wherein the organisation chosen to govern the teams is being governed by the teams themselves.
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No, I am no fan/supporter of McLaren F1 team and neither do I like or have any sympathetic feelings towards anyone working for the Woking based team. Yet the latest events – the Liargate issue – makes me sit up and feel sorry for McLaren.
A season already in torubled waters, thanks to the double-diffuser row, does not need another fiasco. Although three races have been raced already, the most engaging actions have taken place out of the race track. The latest of which is the hearing coming up later next week to decide a punishment for McLaren. And the rumours don’t help either.
Talks about McLaren being banned for the championship or being fined heavily is doing rounds. But taking such stern actions, is it really the need of the hour. A season which was hit by withdrawl of Honda, does not need to see the grid size reduced to 18 cars. Also, taking note of the recession, a heavy fine would cribble McLaren for the season and might perhaps leave them short of sponsorers.
Rules are not meant to be observed in words, but are just general guidelines – is what I believe in. FIA needs someone to stuff some sense into themselves to make such a big issue out of a lie. What should have ended with McLaren being banned from the Australian GP has now moved to courts and requires hearing to settle the matter. All this negative publicity has already a few fans away from the sport.
It’s high time for both Berlie and Mosely to leave their office and take a not-so-well-earned break. That’ll perhaps be the best thing they could do for the sport. It’s time for the focus to shift back to the racing grid where the bulk of action takes place.
Man proposes, God disposes – seems to be so true in this context. With the McLaren issue not out of way, Flavio has stirred up another unrest in FOTA regarding the payment of travel compensation to BrawnGP, More on that later.
Ohh, how I wish things get back to normal.
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The Diffuser-Three have it their way ! The verdict of the court is out – and they have decided to uphold the steward’s decision. The diffuser used by the BrawnGP, Toyota and Williams have been declared legal. Its now up to the remaining seven teams to spend millions on a new design to catch up these three, else drop any chances of poduim finish.
After months of speculaitons and arguements, the matter was presented to the court on the 14th of April. 8 hours of deliberations followed. The court announed its conclusion the next day ruling in favour of the Diffuser-Three.
The news must have been a relief to Ross Brawn. It is learnt that he had brought to notice of the officials last summer a few rules which, unless clarified, could be used by a few teams to gain advantage. The officials thought otherwise, the outcome of which is the devision in the field 3-to-7.
As the designer of Red Bull said, it is extremely important to spend money designing the new diffuser without which there are no chances of survival.
And adding a new diffuser isn’t simple either. A lot of aero chances have to be made to incorporate the new design. It will need to be tested too. Needless to say, the teams will have to spare a lot of resources to get the new design. Realistically speaking, the teams might not be able to come up with the new design fitted into their cars before the Monaco GP.
McLaren though have got a head start. They are already racing the Chinese GP with an intermediate-diffuser design. And it seems to be working. Atleast Hamilton managed to stay at P1 for the first free practise. Though the afternoon wasn’t good enough, he could manage only 12 in the second free practise.
We have already seen how quick the BrawnGP is. It is foolish to race against these cars with the present diffuser. All the teams will have to switch to the new diffuser as soon as possible. Until then, Button will continue dominnating the field. We might be able to watch proper races only when the grid moves to Europe. Until then, all the Ferrari fans – hang on.
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