My Motorsport Blog

Comments of F1 being boring could be true but thanks to Mark Webber and Heiki Kovalainen we saw some excellent aerobatics. Now that I know both drivers are OK after the crash I will score that incident 8 out of 10.

Some F1 fans say Mark Webber is dangerous on track and should be cautioned and I wonder why? Mark Webber may be arrogant and opinionated but in my books he belongs to a club of very capable drivers. Both Mark and Heiki carry the same amount of blame but this must be seen as a racing incident involving a super fast Red Bull and a yet to be developed and slow Lotus.

Of the 24 cars that started 5 cars were lapped, one retired, and of course two crashed out in a spectacular fashion. I think the new teams must be given more testing time to improve performance and I am sure Virgin, Lotus, Hispania and both Sauber and Williams may benefit at this stage. In fact the regulations should provide extra testing time for the last 6 cars that finish a race. I must add that the problem for the 5 lapped cars might have something to do with their Cosworth engines. Then again Rubens Barrichello were showing great form in a similar powered car and achieved a 4th place in the race and 25 seconds behind the winner.

Some decent wheel bashing from Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton also brightened the day but then Lewis contributed to making the race less interesting by slowing down and causing all kinds of havoc when the safety car came out. The question would be “Did Hamilton slow down intentionally in Valencia?” I suppose it all depends on which fan club you support. Yes it spoilt a potentially exiting race but it might just have been a honest miscalculation.

We really need more wheel to wheel racing and very soon or I will start going to “karting” meetings. 

“APPALLING” is what Eddie Jordan said about Ferrari and McLaren’s decision to sit in the pits and wait for better weather and track conditions. I say they received their just deserve by Jenson starting 17th, Alonso 19th and Hamilton and Massa in 20th and 21st respectively. This will ensure that fans see some very interesting and exiting opening laps, and, I hope they can stay out of trouble in the first few corners or we will have  a major change to the Championship point standings by the end of Sunday. Hopefully all the teams will take note of the risk they run by not getting a “Banker lap time”  as Eddie Jordan described it.

In the past teams have been on the receiving end of similar set backs in qualifying due to accidents or mechanical failures. If predictions that have been made in the past come true the fight for the drivers World Championship position will be a serious contest between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. I am not a great supporter of Webber but he has been phenomenal on the track. If Mark could only realise that he needs to stay calm and not take silly risks he will be breathing down Sebastian Vettels neck all the time. I would love to put my money on Sebastian Vettel but the Red Bull just does not have the reliability at the moment. The Red Bull cars have the best opportunity to get serious points before the rest of the field catch up or their opportunities will fade away. Ross Brawn and Mercedes GP will be contesting pole and the podium positions soon and time is running out for Ferrari and Red Bull.  

If we have a wet race tomorrow as predicted Ferrari and McLaren will rue the descision to stay in the pits when they could have been putting in qualifying times in the first outing. Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica and Kamui Kobayashi will not be intimidated by the world champions in this formula and will ensure that each point will be hard fought for. I am thus sure that we will see Red Bull in a podium position but will we have Adrian Sutil making things difficult for the front runners?

The face of determination and a serious contender? An excellent result for Ferrari in the first round and well done Alonso. I am not surprised that Ferrari achieved the results they did with a first and second on the podium. This  must concern other teams. Button and Hamilton are world champions and the first thing Buttons does is have a negative attitude in the end of race interview, come on Jenson, you will trip over your own lip and this at the first race!!!! Oh well, no surprise there then!  Vettel and Webber’s achievements with reliability issues could be of concern and I expect more in the form of achievement from the Red Bull Team in future but as with most teams this might have been a good testing first round.

Many would say not refuelling removes some excitement from the race but I think not. Drivers now have to consider the race as a whole and not just the short bursts between refuelling and tyre changes. What does reduce the value of spectatorship would be the amount of teams that fell out in the early laps of this race. Formula One never has or will be a cheap sport no matter what you try to do or write in the regulations. I would rather look at 20 cars racing and 18 finishing due to track incidents than 24 starting and 15 finishing JUST. It impedes on the value of the sport and we need more time for the teams to test. We need more practise and development time.

New teams and their sponsors would have been better off entering after the first or second round to become more competitive and overcome reliability issues. Virgin, Hispania Racing and worst of all Sauber BMW, not having a single car finished this race must be a great disappointment. Shumi at the ripe old age of 41 still showed that his performance is as good as any of the others and wait for the 3rd or even the 4th round before we adjourn court on the man. There will be a podium yet when the German National anthem rings out…twice!!!!. As for Rosberg, Alonso and Massa, they will be Vettel’s nemesis in the future and he would do well to check the rear view mirror before viewing the 2010 Drivers Championship trophy by the end of the year. I would like to add that he (Vettel) would be my driver of choice to get to the trophy at this stage.

What about Button and Hamilton? All I will say is that we have some great racing ahead and let the teams settle. This partnership between Jenson and Lewis will head for disaster and it will be the British press that will spoil it just for headline sake and I expect this to happen soon.

Congratulations should go to Lotus as they had one car finish the first race and the gold and green colours of Lotus is a welcome sight to this formula. I hope to see more of them in the future at a much higher ranking. Thanks to the Chapman family for allowing us to bring this marque back to the F1 fraternity where it belongs.

Ferrari Disaster: As if the qualifying strategy for Ferrari were not bad enough, the Prancing Horse Team decided to make a total hash of it with their disastrous decision to bring Kimi in for full wet tyres on a dry track. Even intermediate tyres would have lasted longer and would have made their gamble pay off. Common sense tells me that full wets would only last for about two  laps of serious racing and then turn to jelly. Ferrari will have to get another “Ross Brawn” to help with racing strategy because I do not believe Michael Schumacher’s consultations are paying off, if, that is what he is there for. I might be wrong and Michael’s only responsibility is mentoring Massa, but Ferrari will have to do something to improve this aspect of their racing. Brawn GP is showing their true colours and they are contenders for the driver and constructors championship.

McLaren Chaos; This team really have to get their act together and a reduction in media coverage might not be a bad idea. Lewis is seen as Ron Dennis’s “spoilt brat” and people blaming Dave Ryan’s suspension from the McLaren team on Lewis might not be far from wrong. I am not sure if I agree, but even the excuse that Lewis happens to be a “Young Man” is rubbish. He is the number one driver in a very high profile F1 team and should leave if he can not handle the heat at the moment.

Did Dave Ryan hold a gun to his head when they went to the stewards in Melbourne? I think not. Would he have been fired if he refused to lie in the initial hearings? Again I think not. The investment in Lewis is huge and span over many years and more money than most of us can imagine. Lewis can not claim the innocent young man attitude in a very serious and expensive sport.

Formula One is a “big boys with serious toys” fraternity and Lewis should not just threaten to walk as his camp apparently indicated in a phone call to Max Mosley but do so.  An old proverb says “Strange new experiences will add to your joy of living”, Lewis is certainly not having much of this at the moment.

While we are on turmoil aspects of F1 in 2009 I would like to add that the late start in these countries (Malaysia and Australia) really do not work due to weather and lighting aspects. The quality of the race is being influenced by these aspects and this is unfair to the local fans who attend the race at the circuit. The regulations or the start times will have to be changed to allow for weather and enough daylight conditions when things go wrong as we have seen in Malaysia. Bernie should realise that motorsport fans do have toys like DVD and video recorders, some even have access to that wonderful item called Sky Plus, to record the races. Even though it is risky I do this all the time and make sure I do not listen to the news or any broadcasting media until I have looked at the programme. Stating that he is catering for the European TV viewers must be the worst excuse he could think of. Bernie looks after number one and that would be the money in his back pocket!

I just love it when a report starts with “a source within….”!I immediately think of politicians. You see, once a politicians lips start moving you know they are lying or covering up for something. When I read a report in a motorsport page and it stated that “a source in Brawn GP says they have more coming in future races”…. It just freaked me out. This is not really a surprise and certainly not news so why try to make something about it? Jenson Button already said there will be more to follow in Australia!!!!. Brawn GP are members of the Formula One fraternity and if they had nothing more to offer in the “forthcoming attractions” they should close the doors at Brackley. This is common knowledge and common sense.

We know all teams have more to offer in the future but understand the issue they have. The real problem lies in testing and development due to the lack of what I would call ”Track Time”.  I might be wrong but they have no testing days left and thus development will be on computer simulations (computational fluid dynamics) and testing new components during practice which, ideally, should be used to get the correct car setup for the race .

They are not allowed any wind tunnel testing and based on the following extract from the FIA 2009 Formula One Sporting Regulations in Article 22 (on page eight) this include full scale wind tunnel development on components and cars at full speed or capacity.

“h) No wind tunnel testing may be carried out using a scale model which is greater than 60% of full size.

i) No wind tunnel testing may be carried out at a speed exceeding 50 metres/second.”

I am in the dark about why wind tunnel restrictions should apply. If a team owns a wind tunnel why not be allowed to test in it? Ferrari has one (actually two, sorry) so does McLaren, Toyota, BMW and Renault. These are long term investments and I see no reason why it should not be used effectively. I do believe they could cost in the region of $ 30 to 50 million to build, and remains a cost which is well spent and the teams like Brawn GP who had one completed in 2006 (under Honda banner) actually save money in testing and development, but this new rule actually negates this investment and it really makes no sense why it is there.

I am sure teams have the technology to develop aero-packages within these restrictions and then apply them to the real/full scale car. The development costs in a smaller scale cannot be much less than on full scale. If a component is developed on the smaller scale (below 60% of scale), then enlarged and applied to the full scale car only to fail by not performing will actually increase costs to fix. ( to read about wind tunnels.Ferrari, BMW, Brawn GP, Renault, Williams, Interesting) It is clear that they have the facility to test a full scale car in wind tunnels and use of tunnels should not be restricted.

Since all the 2008 aerodynamics have been removed which makes the cars look smoother and cleaner (except for the large front wing). There must be a limit to what wind tunnel testing can provide. I suppose this is simplifying things but the money spent on the tunnels have already been spent so let them use it, just make sure the regulations do not allow teams add more external components to the current cars.

Now I really do not want to stir up anything but this clause h in article 22 does specify a “scale model” and it really does not exclude a full race track ready car specifically. Just a thought!!!!!