Wednesday 29 May 2013

Monaco in hindsight


This column is linked to the forecast and will be a regular feature that looks back at some of the predictions made and other issues arising from the race just gone, in this case Monaco.

Just for a moment, let’s forget about the whole tyre testing debacle that’s engulfing Mercedes right now. They had scored pole position in the three previous races and yet pretty much sank down the field without trace. Not in the principality though.

Here they knew exactly what they needed to do. After locking out the front row they set a slow pace to look after the tyres. Sebastian Vettel described it as being stuck behind a bus. But when they needed to be quick such as around the pit stops, they used the pace they’d kept in reserve.

Nico Rosberg in particular was able to open up a gap at will and then control it from then on. It was impressive driving. The only thing denying them a 1-2 was a safety car and Lewis Hamilton holding back in the pit lane just that little bit too long.

So now let’s return to the tyre testing. The tyres didn’t affect Mercedes in the way they had, was this because of the Pirelli test? I don’t believe so. As I’ve said before Mercedes struggled with tyre wear last year and yet were competitive in Monaco. This is because Monaco has a less abrasive surface and is full of slow corners.

This means that the energy going through the tyres is significantly less. It could well be the same in Canada which is all about traction onto long straights, something the Mercedes had already proved it was good with in Spain’s final twisty sector. The surface is also similar to Monaco, so they could be in line for another decent showing.

However, it was noted that by rival teams that Mercedes were approaching their use of the tyres differently but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of their tyre issues. They’ve said so themselves but it seems to me it’s something inherently built into the car. It can’t be pure coincidence that the last 2-3 years they’ve suffered with excessive tyre wear.

Which makes the tyre test even more significant; if they had been told by the FIA they can use their 2013 car (in the regulations if you’re going to test you have to use a 2 year old car as Ferrari did in Bahrain when Pirelli asked them to test some tyres, as current cars in season testing is banned) on the condition the test was available to everyone, then to fail to do so does make it seem, as Red Bull put it, underhand even if they had some sort of approval.

The other condition the FIA specified was that the car would be run by Pirelli, this did not happen. You’re always learning in Formula 1 even if Mercedes didn’t know the compounds they were running and most of the compounds were for next year although one could have been used in Canada too but it has been recently announced will not be used.

You begin to see why the other teams are in such uproar about it. It looks as if this case will go to the International Tribunal, an independent body separate from the FIA. They will assess the report from the Monaco stewards and can hand out penalties including fines, bans and exclusions.

I would think a significant fine will be handed out if they are found guilty as surely they won’t hurt a manufacturer which has been so supportive of Formula 1 and will be supplying a great deal of the grid with new regulation engines next year.

We got our first safety car of the year in Monaco, in fact we got two safety car periods and a red flag to boot. So at least that was something I got right but it was fairly obvious. If we have a quick run through some of the other predictions 
I made I said tyres wouldn’t be as significant a talking point. Well I got that bit slightly wrong, although I was talking about them not being such a significant factor in the race.

I thought Mark Webber would be able to outperform Vettel too, but it’s just not working for him this year. He showed great pace all weekend and looked to have a little edge in Thursday’s practice sessions but wasn’t able to get the lap in when it mattered in qualifying. Webber is already 50 points behind Vettel, that’s two race wins. He needs to beat him in Canada otherwise a supporting role will not be far away. Of course whether he’d support Vettel after Malaysia is an entirely different story.

Force India had a good run to get both cars into the points, but it could have been so much better for them. In Q1 Paul di Resta was left stranded on worn tyres as the track conditions improved and he was left down in 17th on the grid. He had looked quick all weekend, and would have been battling higher than the 9th position he was eventually rewarded with. Adrian Sutil did get into Q3 and battled hard from 8th to 5th.

Both McLaren’s did get into Q3, but I said Jenson Button was the one to look out for. I was wrong it was Sergio Perez, I think after the reputation he is picking up at the moment most of the drivers will be keeping an eye on their mirrors for him. I don’t think he was overly aggressive to be honest, but perhaps he is risking a bit too much on occasion, and I don’t think the final move on Kimi Raikkonen into the Nouvelle Chicane was really on, which punctured Kimi’s left rear and lead to Perez’s retirement.

Button managed to grab sixth by the end but it’s now three weekends in a row where arguably, Perez has been the stronger driver. Jenson will be keen to put the young Mexican in his place in Montreal, a track he’s won at in the past.
Perez left a mark on Kimi, but Kimi seems to want to leave a mark on Sergio. He was more than disappointed, Kimi seemed angry, well a laid back angry,  when he suggested that drivers talking to Perez won’t help, ‘maybe someone should punch him in the face’. Kimi would have every right to feel aggrieved as that move dropped him down the field and he went from 4 points off the title lead to 21. Not a good day.

It was a very disappointing weekend for Ferrari too. They have a significantly stronger car than last year, but they are not making the best use of it. They didn’t have the pace on Sunday that has been there all year. Hopefully for them this is just a small blip, because really you could make a strong case why Alonso should be leading the championship, the fact that he isn’t shows the whole team, including Alonso haven’t been at the same level as they were in 2012.

They came into Monaco on a fairly dominant Spanish Grand Prix performance and were one of the favourites to contend for victory, but qualifying is still a problem and the race where Massa suffered a suspension failure and Alonso’s pace was poor was unexpected. Alonso looked asleep as he was passed three times with moves he just didn’t seem capable of reacting too.

Of course being the driver he is I feel sure he’ll be back on top form in Canada, but last year this wouldn’t have happened, he and the team would have maximised everything to get the best result they could, and I think it’s fair to say they could have done better than 7th.

This will all make Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull rather happy. They were probably slower than three teams in Monaco and yet came out with a double podium; not a bad days work. Red Bull are obviously held back by the tyres, that being the case though, they haven’t looked at all like being the fastest out there all year, yet they have come away with 2 victories and are leading both championships quite comfortably at the moment despite their tyre complaints.

Vettel is doing well, in fact he is doing an Alonso of 2012 and is getting the best results that are available to him, he’s not been out of the top four all year whereas Alonso has suffered a retirement and two low top 10 placing’s while Kimi has also had a couple of low top 10 points positions.

Vettel is the only one getting the job done every weekend at the moment, if the rest want to stop him getting a fourth world title, they’re going to have to up their game, and quickly.


all photo's taken from autosport.com 

Monday 27 May 2013

Mercedes tyre test causing controversy


On the Saturday night of the Monaco Grand Prix it emerged that Mercedes had run a 1000km test directly after the Spanish Grand Prix with their 2013 car and regular drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

It was asked by Pirelli to test some new compounds for 2014 as well as a development for Canada this year. Mercedes didn't have any knowledge of which compound they were running (although I'm sure they've got enough intelligent people to make an educated guess) and did not run any developments on their car.

They say it was simply a tyre test to help Pirelli, but when a team like Mercedes who have had such obvious tyre issues before perform such a test it's always going to raise issues. In testing you're always learning something.

Mercedes said that it was FIA approved, so despite Ferrari and Red Bull launching an official protest saying that it contravened the regulations governing in season testing (of which none is allowed apart from a few days straight line testing and a 3 day young driver test) there seemed to be no threat to the team.

However, the FIA has now said that they actually wrote to Pirelli and Mercedes to approve the test but make sure that the opportunity was open to all teams and the test would be run by Pirelli and not the team itself. It appears from the fact no one knew about it until Monaco that this was not done.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner and Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali have both entered protests, believing Mercedes were underhand in the way they have dealt with this situation.

Domenicali pointed out that under the current regulations no team can test their 2013 car or the previous two years models and if Pirelli required a car all teams should have been notified.

For their part Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said that they have run a test with a different team before and have asked others.

The Monaco stewards are currently compiling a report to be sent to the FIA. How this situation will be dealt with is not yet known. Mercedes did sort of have approval, yet the fact other teams weren't notified makes it seem slightly devious. Obviously there is more information to be revealed but after such an impressive result for the Silver Arrows squad in Monaco, this is rather beginning to overshadow their achievement.

What is known is that the Monaco race result is not in dispute and most of the Formula 1 fraternity believe that the race was not affected by the test.

photo taken from autosport.com

Sunday 26 May 2013

Rosberg untouchable around the crazy streets of Monaco


The sound of the engines roaring and reverberating off the buildings of Monaco must be a particularly awesome experience, but to thread your car for 78 laps knowing you’re untouchable must be a supreme feeling.

Nico Rosberg was fastest in every practice session, took his third consecutive pole position on Saturday and was never headed on Sunday to secure his second Formula 1 victory. He looked absolutely dominant.

Sebastian Vettel got a great start, but Rosberg was already wise to it and cut him 
off and headed down to Sainte Devote in the lead with his team mate Lewis Hamilton safely behind having also headed off the Red Bull.

At first as the race slowly heated up it looked like Mercedes might have tyre issues again, as they almost cruised around in the opening laps making sure the tyres were kept as fresh as could be.

This became evident after contact Pastor Maldonado in the Williams pitted in the early stages and was lapping up to two seconds faster than the leaders. But this was all part of the plan, if you keep on line and inch your car into the right position it’s almost impossible to pass around these streets.

However, just as it seemed like a queue was forming behind the Mercedes they slowly started stretching their legs, their conservation work over and this became more obvious as some of the leading pack pitted. First Mark Webber dropped out of fourth place to get fresh rubber on lap 26, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button a lap later switching from the super softs to the soft tyres.

Now tyre degradation was never expected to be that high in Monaco, it’s surface is less abrasive and the lack of fast corners ensure that the tyres are not over worked. Still, the fact that the early stoppers could barely lap any quicker than the Mercedes pair showed just how well they’d managed the tyres in the opening phase of the race.

In fact they went on for longer until lap 31, a lap later than Sebastian Vettel and just as the safety car made its first appearance of the season as Felipe Massa copied his accident from practice 3 into the barriers at Sainte Devote. This is when the race really got going.

The Mercedes had to pit both cars at the same time, Lewis was only a few seconds adrift of Nico so hung back in the pit lane to allow his team to reset themselves after servicing the lead car. But this didn’t work out for him.

The safety car had picked up the Red Bull’s but allowed them to pass as it was waiting for the leader to come round, they scampered around and just managed to get in front of Hamilton as he exited the pits. But for that, it would have been a silver arrows 1-2; although it wasn’t for lack of trying from Lewis that this wasn’t achieved. Webber was perfect as he kept the Mercedes behind.

Lap 46 and Max Chilton in the Marussia had Pastor Maldonado alongside into Tabac. The Englishman failed to see him and edged him into the Armco wrecking the techpro barriers too further along and causing Jules Bianchi to lose his nose. The Red flag came out to reset the barriers.

Rosberg had by now built up a four second lead ahead of Vettel, but again it was wiped out and again he had to lead a restart after all teams had taken the opportunity to switch to fresh rubber as is allowed under the regulations. For the second time he managed the situation perfectly, pulling away in the lead.

Lap 62 now and another safety car after Romain Grosjean who had hit the wall three times already this weekend now hit a car instead, wiping out Daniel Ricciardo as they battled for 13th. The Lotus was almost launched over the back of the Toro Rosso coming down into the Nouvelle chicane.

Both were out with Grosjean once again having questions raised about his driving and a 10 place grid penalty for Canada. This incident meant Rosberg had to watch his lead get swallowed up for the final time. However, he made no mistakes and lead away again five laps later. He opened up a manageable gap yet again and responded when needed.

He was in brilliant form, and Mercedes boss Ross Brawn came on the radio to say he couldn’t have driven any better. In his home town, Rosberg took the chequered flag to win. He was absolutely ecstatic and deserves to be. No one got near him, he dealt with all the incidents that came his way including a near miss with a pigeon, managed the tyres and was fast when he needed to be; a thoroughly deserved win with Lewis Hamilton unfortunate to only come away with fourth.

Lewis has been complaining he can’t drive the car the way he wants to at the moment, especially on the brakes. Perhaps when he gets more comfortable in the car we’ll see things change but right now Rosberg is putting him under significant pressure.

However, Mercedes are racing under protest. It was discovered last night that Mercedes had been asked by Pirelli after the Spanish Grand Prix to perform a 1000km test to assess some new tyres, most of which are for next year it has to be said, and the team weren’t allowed to know which compounds they were using anyway.

Now in season testing is not allowed so some teams have taken exception to this despite it being ok’d by the FIA. Red Bull protested before the race and it remains to be seen if this will affect the race result, although if it’s been allowed by the governing body I don’t see why it should.

It shouldn’t take away from the Rosberg, but people will ask how Mercedes seemed so much better on the tyres at this race. My answer is they suffered from poor tyre wear last year too, and Rosberg could have won here in 2012, so how significant the test was remains to be seen.

Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez make the moves

Sutil and Perez really starred in today’s race making some brave and opportunistic moves. As they said in the commentary on Sky they were rolling the dice today. Unfortunately for Perez it ended up not paying off.

After handing a place back to Button, he later got him back again into the chicane, and then made another great move on Fernando Alonso into the same place. He tried his luck on Kimi Raikkonen but this time it ended his race.

It was a racing incident and I think Kimi was already making it clear that he was coming into the apex of the chicane out of the tunnel. As Perez went for the gap Kimi was there they clashed, leaving Kimi with a slow puncture and Perez with failing suspension and a damaged front wing. Kimi later said Perez needs to be 'punched in the face'.

It was still impressive and aggressive stuff from the Mexican and it was sad to see him retire from 5th. This allowed Adrian Sutil into the top 5, who himself had made Loews hairpin, sorry Fairmont Hairpin, his passing place of choice.

Sutil effectively mugged first Button, then Alonso and was looking menacingly at the back of Perez before he retired. A decent result for the Force India, scoring his first points since Australia.

Championship contenders

Sebastian Vettel was the top finisher in the title race with second place. I found his race rather strange. The safety car gave him second spot, as I doubt he’d have challenged Lewis properly. And that’s kind of how it felt today, Vettel was just out there to secure some decent points. That’s fair enough really especially when your main rivals are not having good days, but I’m not sure it was Vettel’s choice.

The team once again told him to calm down as he set an outrageously fast lap in the closing stages, he said he did it for satisfaction and maybe to show he’d have liked to have fought harder for the victory. I’m not sure he could have, but it was decent points and he’s extended the gap at the top to 21 in front of Kimi.

Fernando Alonso ended up with 7th and lost a lot of ground to Vettel. I thought Ferrari would be strong here and that they were about to launch a sustained attack for the top of the title race. The team said he had some debris stuck in the front wing which was hurting the aerodynamics, but in truth he never really looked like he could challenge and not even his usual brilliant self.

He was caught napping by Perez, Sutil and Button in the second half of the race and just didn’t seem to have the pace. Coupled with the strange incidents that afflicted Massa I think Ferrari will be investigating this weekend rather thoroughly.

Kimi Raikkonen had good race pace in practice but was always caught up in the pack, spending the large majority of the race in 5th. After his Perez incident he found himself back in 16th. He quickly made progress and with 2 laps left he was 13th. Unseen by the camera’s by the time the race ended he was 10th. I’d love to have seen his on board camera footage from that. He’s still within a race win of Vettel, but this would have definitely disappointed him more than usual.

It’s by no means certain that Mercedes will play a huge part throughout the year to come, but they’re certainly going to spring a surprise or two again at some point. It’s at those times the top three have to have good damage limitation. Today Red Bull did, Lotus and Ferrari did not. Sometimes it’s these results which win championships.

Rest of the top 10

Mark Webber looked strong this weekend, he certainly had the pace of his team mate but they was no room to pass. After the first safety car he ended up in the final podium spot and there  he stayed. It was a decent display but I thought maybe he’d have an edge on Vettel this weekend.

Jenson Button again felt his McLaren team mate Perez was being a bit too strong armed, but after a disappointment in qualifying with  a faulty fuel pump, luck swung his way in the latter stages and he made a nice move on Alonso to secure 6th. At present, that’s a good result for the Woking squard.

Jean-Eric Vergne turned his best qualifying performance of 10th into 8th. He never looked really threatened and kept up the pace of the leaders well. A good showing after his team mate Ricciardo had looked to be gaining the upper hand.

Paul di Resta took 2 points for 9th place. He should be very proud of the result; he pitted early anticipating a safety car which never came when Charles Pic’s Caterham retired. It meant he had clear air and when others pitted and safety cars and red flags enabled him to get fresh tyres he found himself in a position to take advantage of further incidents ahead of him. A strong drive after qualifying only 17th.

Racing at Monaco and looking to Canada

Monaco is a special place to race, just watching the cars go through the swimming pool chicane is utterly mesmeric. Watching an on board lap is a thing of beauty. That’s why even when the race has yet to come alive it’s still a treat to see these cars race on such majestic streets.

Today’s race wasn’t exactly amazing in its first half, but this event is almost like a flat tour de France stage. You know you’re going to get the good stuff by the time the end comes. Today was no different, although perhaps it wasn’t exactly a sprint finish.


We now look ahead to Canada. Kimi and Alonso can’t afford to let Vettel get further ahead in the championship battle, but can Mercedes become a permanent factor in the title race? How much if any, did Mercedes gain from the Pirelli test? Will Pirelli’s apparent tweaks for Canada make any difference and will they even be allowed? And if Monaco can be this wild, then Canada is going to be amazing; lots to look forward to as we head to North America.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Wednesday 22 May 2013

The Monaco Forecast



Here is a new column which will be put out every Wednesday before a race weekend. It will offer brief predictions for the event ahead in a sort of serious fashion. So here we go.

First of all, it will be bright and Sunny on race day according to the latest weather reports. Only 18C so quite settled conditions and nothing too hot for the tyres, which is always nice to know. Saturday looks cloudy, maybe a chance of rain which could make qualifying interesting.

Of course tyres are a tiring debating point, and no doubt we’ve done them to death. I believe my last three blog entries have been about them. Certainly we will have some chat about them especially as Pirelli’s proposal to go back to the 2012 tyres has been blocked by the FIA. But, I expect the Monaco weekend to not be such a major tyre talking point for the actual race. Monaco isn’t high on degradation, so hopefully we can put the tyres to one side for once this season and just go racing, Pirelli are predicting a 2 stop strategy which is enough on the streets.

Of course if tyre degradation is low, this could work for Mercedes, the team who love a good pole position but love it even more when they drop hopelessly down the field. Well they don’t like that bit but if often happens. If they can maintain their good one lap pace then, Mercedes stand their best chance so far of winning a race in 2013. Michael Schumacher set fastest Q3 time and it was one of Nico Rosberg’s best races last year, finishing a strong second place so there is a precedent set. Rosberg or Lewis Hamilton though? Too close to call, although I will call it and go with Lewis.

Rosberg finished behind Mark Webber last year, and it’s time for Webber to out-qualify his Red Bull adversary Sebastian Vettel and beat him. A winner here for two of the last three years, I see no reason why Webber can’t win again, and he needs to, he’s only 6th in the a title race his team mate is leading and if he qualifies well he can even protect his predictable poor start fairly easily. Tyres shouldn’t be an issue, so it’s time for Mark to kick start his season.

Monaco is a place where a driver can more easily make a difference. You often hear how it’s in the slow stuff where drivers can make up the most time, and there’s plenty of slow stuff on these streets. I think McLaren will finally have a stronger weekend, both cars at least into Q3, and from there anything can happen. Watch out for Jenson Button in particular. They’ll also have to answer a lot of questions regarding their new partnership with Honda from 2015 and how that affects their current lover Mercedes. Designer Paddy Lowe has now been allowed to join Mercedes earlier than planned since the Honda link up was announced.

Williams also need to grab some points, being one of only three teams not to have scored this year. Pastor Maldonado is good around the Principality so he’s another one that could spring a surprise result.

Talking of surprises, this one wouldn’t be as Force India have produced a strong car so far this season and are one of the main beneficiaries from the tyre situation right now. If they can qualify well perhaps a podium for Paul di Resta or Adrian Sutil? I’m not just plucking this out of the air, they’ve had two 7th placed finishes the last two years and are in much stronger shape this year, it’s certainly not inconceivable.

We all know Monaco is very confined, over taking is hard, there’s often queues on the opening lap especially down to the famous Fairmont/ Loews/ Station/ whatever hairpin. You’ll know it. We haven’t had a safety car yet this year, surely one is due and where more obvious than here. There have been 14 safety car periods in the last 10 years, so I think I’m fairly safe with this one.

So now we come to the championship trio of Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Of these three who will have the best chance of adding to their Monaco tally’s? I’ve got to go with Fernando to be the most likely winner, he always goes well here, and despite the Red Bull domination of the past three years, I think he’s about to emerge as the possible dominant force over the next few races. 

I’m probably wrong, but I definitely expect Alonso to be winning a lot more than last year. Ferrari haven’t won here since 2001, they could have won in 2008 when Felipe Massa was leading (Massa would be a good outside tip for pole, he’s done it before and is good around Monaco) and 2010 when Alonso looked a level above everyone before he crashed in practice. I think this is the year for them.

Vettel will always be up there, but as I said I think Webber may be the lead Red Bull this weekend. Kimi will be somewhere on the podium and don’t rule him out for the win either. Lotus believe they may be able to unlock some more one lap pace to go with their brilliant race pace. However, wherever he ends up Kimi will be disappointed, such is life.


LAT, Sutton and XPB photo's taken from autosport.com, all others from planetf1.com 

Saturday 18 May 2013

FIA allow only minor changes for Pirelli



After much debate and complaining by teams such as Red Bull regarding the extreme degradation of the tyres, Pirelli announced they are going to revert back to the 2012 tyre construction by the Canadian Grand Prix, although the 2013 compounds will remain. However, the FIA have said only minor changes will be allowed for safety reasons indicating the 2013 tyres will stay.

I was going to write about how the apparent change by Pirelli should have been made at the end of the season. Teams such as Lotus and Ferrari have designed their cars to suit the tyres and it is hardly their fault if the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes have failed to do as good a job. 

Red Bull in particular has expressed their dissatisfaction with the tyres to a great extent despite winning two races so far this year. They are suffering because their car produces a great deal of down force, but they cannot exploit this as it degrades the tyres too quickly.

Over the last few days Lotus and Ferrari have aired their views that their cars are looking after the tyres better as they used the information Pirelli gave them of the 2013 compounds and designed accordingly. They see no reason to change especially after what looks like persistent lobbying from Red Bull, and after what were fairly perceived to be an excessive amount of pit stops at the last race in Spain.

In truth I’m sure all teams would have got a grip on the tyre situation by mid-season, Pirelli admit they’ve gone too far with the degradation, but there were similar headlines in 2011 and 2012 but by the end of the season there were many two or one stop races as the teams adjusted.

I think the reaction has been a bit much, although I would like to see more of a return to drivers being able to push a bit more without hearing constant radio messages about looking after the tyres. However a change such as this should be made for next year without upsetting the current competitive environment.

We also shouldn’t forget that Pirelli have done a great deal of good for the sport over the last few years which have produced a great deal of fantastic racing. So they’ve gone a bit far this season, but people are quick to forget that a few years ago there were plenty of races where there was no passing at all resulting in many follow the leader at a respectful distance races.

As I’ve written before looking after tyres, or fuel or whatever isn’t actually an unusual thing for Formula 1, it’s been like that most of the time, perhaps with the exception of flat out hard tyre refuelling sprints, even then you had to be mechanically sensitive.

Having said all that it has been reported on Autosport.com that the FIA has said the tyres will remain in 2013 specification with slight tweaks in regards to the tyre delamination’s that occurred in Bahrain and Spain.

Autosport says:  ‘The FIA is basing its stance on Article 12.6.3 of the technical 
regulations, which has also been cited by teams to Pirelli amid questions about the legality of a bid to change the specification.

The rule states: "Tyre specifications will be determined by the FIA no later than 1 September of the previous season. Once determined in this way, the specification of the tyres will not be changed during the championship season without the agreement of all competing teams."’

This will come as a blow to Red Bull, but bring satisfaction to Lotus and Ferrari. It looks to mean that any changes to the tyres will be minor and should maintain the current order and I think that that is only fair. Any further changes I would expect to be made if Pirelli renew their contract for next year.

This clarification by the FIA is to be welcomed, you shouldn’t just change the rules with barely a quarter of the season over.

It isn’t the best situation in the world, but it’s the one we’ve got and the teams who are suffering should be pushing harder to rectify their problems rather than constantly moaning about it.

It’s Monaco next and for anyone who's tired of tyres, they should hopefully be low on the agenda as it has a low degradation surface so they can concentrate on racing.

photo taken from autosport.com

Monday 13 May 2013

Tyres, tyres and tyres again

Here's a quick word on the tyre debate, I'll keep this short as it's been done to death at the moment. Autosport.com has two interesting stories on their website today one comes from Red Bull, the other regards Lotus.

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has said Formula 1 isn’t racing anymore and wants the tyres changed as Red Bull can't get the best out of their car or drivers with the current Pirelli tyres.

Of course there are two perspectives the other voiced by Lotus, their car is more than capable of managing the tyres successfully and think it would be unfair to make a significant change now. It’s a debate that will rumble on, but Pirelli should not be overly influenced by calls from teams who want it changed just because their cars can’t make the best use out of them.


The teams knew the route Pirelli were going to go down, they even had the opportunity to test early constructions at the end of last year. I don't think it would be fair to then compromise teams which have made a car which can live with the tyres in favour of ones that haven't. At the moment it is a minority who complain. 

However, I do think Pirelli have gone a bit too far, it begins to make a mockery of the fastest sport in the world when you hear radio traffic from teams telling their drivers to slow down or not fight in aid of preserving the tyres. Perhaps they do need a rethink, but whether that should come this year is another matter entirely. 

Admittedly the Spanish Grand Prix wasn't the greatest advertisement to racing there has ever been, but other races this year have been enhanced by the mixed up strategies the tyres can bring.

Pirelli are considering alterations by the British Grand Prix, I would say if they do make any changes that they don't make too many that would drastically alter the competitive order. It's up to the teams to find a solution to circumstances that have been with them all year. If Ferrari and Lotus can deal with the tyres I'm sure everyone else can.

Mercedes fight the tyres



Ever since Pirelli returned to the sport in 2011 Mercedes have struggled with tyre issues. It seems inherent in the design of their cars and it just can’t be removed. It’s not a bad thing to be able to heat your tyres up quickly and get them in the operating temperature quickly, on occasions over the last 2 seasons, that’s been a distinct benefit especially when it comes to one lap pace.

But too often these past few years a good starting position has been totally compromised by the tyres falling apart on them despite various attempts to alleviate the issue. I’ve lost count of just how many technical directors and other personnel Mercedes have hired over the past year with still more to come, so to have ended up with pretty much the exact same problem that has plagued them for several years is totally unacceptable.

Team principal Ross Brawn is aware of the issue, and despite what appears to be Mercedes moving into a new management position with the hirings of Toto Wolf, Niki Lauda (in the managerial side) and Paddy Lowe (on the technical side) amongst many others, I still think it is in Brawn they should trust.

I’m not exactly sure why they appear to be undermining Brawn, it certainly comes across that way at least, but he is still one of the most successful people in Formula 1 and he will get it right; all past evidence points to that. Although the fact that Mercedes feel the need to have appointed these new technical people points to the fact the board don’t feel they’re being successful quickly enough.

There’s no doubt they can design a quick car, this year’s is awesomely fast, while last years could also show a decent turn of speed. But it is in tyre management where a new design philosophy is needed. Lewis Hamilton was left baffled after yesterday’s drop down the grid.

He said "Today I was doing absolutely everything the same as I did in Bahrain. But I had no grip, I couldn't push, and if I did, the tyre just went off immediately. I'm absolutely lost today. I don't know what went wrong."

It is exactly the reverse of the last race in Bahrain. There Lewis managed the tyres well enough to secure 5th while Nico Rosberg started from pole position and plummeted down the order.

In Spain they locked out the front row with Nico again on pole, but this time Lewis just dropped like a stone while Rosberg managed to maintain a degree of respectability.

Afterwards when being interviewed by Sky when asked if they were looking forward to Monaco, they both replied they weren’t even thinking about the next race, usually that’s the stock answer whatever the result, but perhaps they can’t bear to think about another race of trying to drive conservatively and still falling down the pack.

In Monaco it should be different, last year Rosberg finished second while Michael Schumacher set the fastest qualifying lap. Tyre degradation shouldn’t be as much of an issue and given that Mercedes seem to produce good traction they might just be in with a shout of victory.

It’s one they’ll have to take as there are plenty of other places left where tyres will be critical and they look no nearer to sorting out the problem after three weeks of trying to find a solution between Bahrain and Spain. Championship contenders they are not, but race winners they certainly should be if they can make the tyres last for at least one race.

As a side note, Nico Rosberg has been impressive this year. Lewis Hamilton has come into the team with the reputation of the fastest driver in Formula 1 and Rosberg has more than held his own so far, he’s set pole at the last two races.
It is still early days and Lewis does have double the points of Nico although that can be explained through unreliability on Rosberg’s car but Damon Hill made an interesting point during Sky’s Spanish Grand Prix coverage. He said it puts Schumacher’s performances in a new light.

Schumacher out qualified Rosberg an equal amount of times last year, while also often out racing him. If Rosberg can continue to look good alongside Hamilton then perhaps a re-evaluation of just how successful Schumacher was in his comeback is due.

However, like I said it’s still early days and Lewis is in a new team and may come to dominate Rosberg, but so far Nico is enhancing is reputation and by dint of that re-enhancing Schumacher’s. It’s at least an interesting perspective.

all photo's from autosport.com 

Sunday 12 May 2013

Alonso jubilant with commanding home win



Five red lights on, the roar of the engines reaches deafening proportions, lights out and twenty-two Formula 1 cars streak away in a flash towards the first corner at the Circuit de Catalunya. The blood red Ferrari of Fernando Alonso makes another exceptional start from 5th on the grid, but space around him closes down, Sebastian Vettel then Kimi Raikkonen force him to the outside into turn 1.

Alonso is a fighter and he fought brilliantly from the beginning. Kimi got tucked up behind Lewis Hamilton into turn 2, enabling the Ferrari to edge onto the outside of the Lotus then with the momentum with him he stayed on the outside of Hamilton’s Mercedes and was into third place, immediately hooking himself on to the back of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.


It was a great move and put him right into the mix of the lead battle. Nico Rosberg was heading the pack from pole position but the Mercedes’ perennial problem of tyre degradation struck again almost immediately. Rosberg was like a cork in a bottle, with a queue of cars headed by Vettel and Alonso behind him only broken up by Hamilton’s similarly suffering car.

Ferrari needed to act and brought him in on lap 10 before Rosberg and Vettel, when they stopped a lap later Alonso was able to split them. Lap 13 he uses all his KERS, opens the DRS and dives around the outside of Rosberg to take the lead.

It wasn’t all done and dusted though, Kimi Raikkonen was getting stronger as the race went on and move himself into a position where he looked like he might just be able to knick it. He was on a three stop strategy with Alonso making four, but as the race went on Alonso took all the grip he could to maintain a lead and close gaps as the strategies played out. Eventually as he made his final stop (while suffering a slow puncture) he was over 10 seconds clear of the Lotus and on fresher tyres; the race was over.

Fernando was jubilant as took his 2nd Spanish Grand Prix victory, stopping to pick up a Spanish flag which contravened regulations but the stewards chose common sense over stupidity and didn’t penalise him.

It launches him right back into the title fight after a poor Bahrain race, and with Red Bull not showing wonderful pace today, Alonso will be getting increasingly confident. In truth Alonso could have won at least another race so far this year and been on the podium in the other, he’s looking formidable in this kind of exceptional form; but we expect no less.

Tyre degradation again, Mercedes plummet, Red Bull complain

There were more complaints over the tyres this weekend. It’s an argument that doesn’t seem to stop; my main thought on the matter is that it’s the same rules for everyone so you build your car accordingly.

It’s simply not good enough to have a car which can be fast in qualifying then not be able to manage them in the race. Surely the race is the main point. I certainly do take on board the various points about Formula 1 being about speed not tyre conservation, and I think perhaps it’s gone a bit too far.

Today for instance we had four stop strategies and I don’t think that’s a good thing, it just makes the races slightly too convoluted and a bit gimmicky rather than a test of true strategy. It was still a fairly exciting race, but I think seeing the cars pass each other so easily as their strategies played out actually took away from cars racing side by side. It’s all over in an instant with no chance to fight back.

However, it’s not like it hasn’t happened before, in the Turbo era of the 80s cars ran to strict fuel conservation rules, in various other eras you’ve always had to look after the tyres, although not to quite this extent. In fact the only era which has been full on maximum attack is when you could refuel and had Bridgestone tyres which were made to last forever. But you worked to those rules like everyone else did.

In fact as I was writing, Pirelli boss Paul Hembery has said they are considering changes to the tyres to ensure that four stop strategies will be a thing of the past by the British Grand Prix. However, not all teams are in favour fearing this will favour Red Bull who most suspect are restrained by the tyres not letting them exploit their ultimate pace. We’ll see what happens.

If Pirelli do change anything further (they already have with their hard tyre) then it should only be a slight adjustment, just so the drivers can push that bit harder. Whether that would stop the likes of Mercedes destroying their tyres is another matter.

Over one lap the silver cars are fantastic, as Rosberg and Hamilton locked out the front row. But consistently over the years they just chew them up almost from the start. Hamilton could do nothing today as he fell back to 12th while Rosberg controlled his first stint well to head the field before falling back to what was quite a decent 6th and on a three stopper to boot.

Vettel blamed his cars lack of kisses and cuddles for his tyres as he couldn’t maintain Ferrari’s or Lotus’ race pace and dropped back to fourth from third. He looked to be a contender at first but as the race developed he couldn’t maintain the pace. This is through no lack of speed from the Red Bull, just the way they nurture the rubber. He still leads the title chase though, and Red Bull haven’t won three years consecutively for nothing, they’ll sort it out.

His team mate Mark Webber on the other hand made his trademark poor start to drop out of the top 10 but then made decent gains from there. He stopped early for clear air and brought himself back into play to end the day only 10 seconds behind his team mate.

McLaren supply the upgrades which fail to deliver

McLaren have been nowhere in the first four races, and at least on the evidence of Spain, they’re still nowhere. Now they’ve only just fitted these latest updates and will be continuing to upgrade the car over the coming races.

I thought that perhaps they might get a little nearer the front, but they were still outpaced by Force India and also looked dangerously close to being eclipsed by Toro Rosso too. Jenson Button was having a torrid time, failing to make Q3 and then complaining about the balance from the start. It was quite some effort and a worthy performance that he dragged his car up to 8th by the finish.

Sergio Perez finished a close 9th, and was generally the more impressive McLaren driver of the weekend. He managed to drag the car into the top 10 in qualifying and was hanging out near 6th/7th for a long time before dropping back a bit. Still I found it amusing that McLaren radioed Perez to tell him to not to hurt the tyres by fighting with Button as he caught him hand over fist.

Of course I’m sure it was just for tyre preservation purposes from the team that let their drivers fight and not at all a coded team order with memories of Bahrain still fresh.

Anyway, they’ll be glad to get a double points finish but 8th and 9th are not the positions they should be fighting for. McLaren usually develop well over the season but let’s not forget so do other teams. They need a really major step if they aren’t just going to stagnate in the midfield.

They really shouldn’t be in this situation in the first place, it does point to some rather odd choices being made with their design for 2013, especially with a major rules overhaul in 2014. But then again, McLaren do have a history of designing duds after producing pace setting cars, but a team with their strict philosophies shouldn’t be making the same mistakes as often as they do.

No gains for Williams while Gutierrez shines for Sauber

It seems strange that two of the main surprise packages of last year have slumped so badly. Sauber have only grabbed a few points while Williams are yet to even get on the board.

Could it be that with fast cars last year they neglected to focus much on 2013 as 
they battled for constructor’s positions. They both had cars that at times were capable of wins, perhaps this sudden shot at glory fuelled to develop more for that current season and take their eye off this year, or even that confidence has pushed them down avenues they might not have ventured down before.

For Williams this race couldn’t have provided a starker contrast. Last year pole and victory, this year they didn’t even make it out of Q1 and made little progress in the race.

Sauber fared little better, suffering a stop-go penalty for unsafe release of Nico Hulkenberg who tagged the rear of Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso eventually causing it’s retirement.

I thought Esteban Gutierrez had a good race; starting 19th after suffering a grid penalty he set fastest lap and even took the lead for a few laps as he stayed out the longest in the opening stint. He nearly managed to grab the final point, but I think he can be satisfied with his 11th place, first time he looked like a proper Grand Prix driver.

Kimi ecstatic and rest of the top 10


Kimi Raikkonen was a disappointed man as he finished second for the third consecutive race, notching up his fourth podium from five races. To be fair it just shows he wants to win, I reckon he could have if he’d not dropped a place at the start.

Ideally he’d have been ahead of Vettel into the first corner and then his three stopper might have worked as he’d have been in control of the four stoppers through track position. Still he closed the gap to Vettel in the title fight, just four points separate them.

Felipe Massa didn’t quite have the pace of Alonso, but he still made some great moves to lift his Ferrari from 9th on the grid (he qualified 6th but had a 3 place penalty for impeding Webber in Q2) to finish on the podium for the first time this year, a result he’s deserved for his performances so far this season. With this double podium Ferrari are looking in great form for the rest of the season.



Paul di Resta wasn't noticed much by the camera's but he had a good drive to 7th in his Force India. It probably should have been 6th as he hounded Rosberg in the closing laps but he couldn't quite make the move. Still, he's in impressive form as his team mate suffered pit stop problems and failed to get higher than 13th.

Daniel Ricciardo took the final point with a quietly efficient performance holding off Gutierrez in the final laps. The Toro Rosso’s had good pace all weekend and qualified only just outside the top 10. Spain is when all the teams bring their first major upgrades and apart from Caterham, Toro Rosso were the only team to move themselves up the order.

Well I say Caterham but even with their upgrades they were still over a second away from the lower midfield. But they beat the Marussia’s, although disgraced themselves by allowing Geido van der Garde to continue despite not securing a wheel on properly.

On to Monaco

The championship battle already looks like it might be boiling down to three contenders with Vettel, Kimi and Alonso locking out all the wins so far this year. It’s another title battle that looks like it could go all the way to the wire, but this time I expect Kimi to be still well up there by the time we reach Brazil.

However, Monaco I expect to see a slight break. Now I’m made a rash over simplification here, but if the Mercedes had a strength in Spain apart from it’s one lap pace it was in the final twisty traction orientated sector. If they can locked out the front row again, Ross Brawn thinks Monaco isn’t as tough on tyres, Mercedes might just be about to crash the victory party.

It’s not unknown for a bad car to be sublime around the barrier lined streets of the principality, anyone for Jenson Button to bring McLaren some cheer? Or even Sergio Perez who looks to be getting better by the race.
If we’re going for our top three, I’m going for Kimi to even the victory score and put himself top of the championship table. It’s only two weeks away before we find out.



LAT & XPB photo's taken from autosport.com, all others from planetf1.com