Sunday 27 July 2014

Ricciardo wins Hungarian thriller


It was down to just three for the win. Fernando Alonso could see his chance, just a few laps left to take the unlikeliest of victories in possibly the worst Ferrari they have provided for him in his Scuderia tenure. He was aiming to make his soft tyres last for 32 laps, longer than anyone else, he could do it if he was careful with the rubber; he’d take his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix. He cut over the chicane, no he must have thought, the tyres he’d so carefully nurtured were giving up on him, he could see his efforts coming to nothing.

From the pit lane to victory, it was there for the taking. Chasing the unlikely leader Alonso, Lewis Hamilton on slightly fresher and more durable medium compound rubber was in the mirrors of the scarlet car and searching for a way through. He knew his team mate and championship rival was closing fast, he had to make a move for victory to close the points gap down to the maximum he could today, he just needed to get away from the even fresher rubber of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, who he’d hope could fend off Rosberg closing at three seconds per lap.

For Ricciardo it was game on. He’d spent a long time in the lead during this race, he and the team had managed to solve a power unit problem as he told the media by getting ‘a bit crazy on the switches’. But it was early on in the damp as they toured round behind the first safety car he’d got on the radio and said they could win this. He knew it could come to him, he just had to keep it all together and push. Trying to get to the end on old tyres he knew they wouldn't make it so called it early to pit and give up the lead to go on the offensive. With just a few laps left, he was behind just two cars and probably with a determined smile behind the crash helmet, he went on the attack.

It could have been any of them, it could even have been the chasing Rosberg who suffered most from the first safety car period, losing a ten second lead and passing the pit entry just as the safety car came out and tumbling into the pack when he did pit. But after making his final stop with just 14 laps left he had the tyre advantage, the car advantage and the instruction to go all out for qualifying laps. He delivered exactly that. It was up to the front three to sort it out before he caught them, Ricciardo was the one who had the advantage and he took it.

Lap 67 the Australian made his move, he’d tried before but this time he made it work against Lewis Hamilton. He came out of turn 1 close behind the Mercedes and dived to the outside of turn 2, holding it alongside to claim the inside to turn 3. Lewis had nothing to respond with, he’d been finding it tough to even get a sniff at passing the fast degrading tyres of Alonso. Immediately the Red Bull latched onto the back of the Ferrari and wasted no time with making the move the very next lap. On to the start finish straight, DRS wide open he dived down the inside into turn 1 and was away. Five seconds to the good by the end of the race just a few laps later, he was elated, possibly more so at having to fight his way to the front.

The race started on a damp track, rejoice, our first wet race for a long long time. Everyone set off into the unknown of the spray but it was drying pretty quickly, still there were some hairy moments for all. Marcus Ericsson careered into the barriers to bring out the first safety car on lap 9, Romain Grosjean spinning off too during the down time. Sergio Perez, who’d taken a hit from his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg which led to the German’s first retirement of the year spun out of control and into the concrete of the pit wall to bring out the second safety car on lap 23.

On a three stop strategy, Ricciardo took advantage of both safety cars to come into the pits and take the lead as the front four missed out. Everyone changed to slicks of varying compounds during the first time except the McLaren’s who gambled on it raining again. Ricciardo quickly despatched Jenson Button who’d overtook at the restart but as the track dried McLaren quickly realised their strategy was the only wrong one in the field.

Ricciardo held the lead fairly comfortably before the second safety car then latched on to the leading group before retaking the lead as others pitted. His third stop came on lap 54, giving up a 10 second advantage, but then the fight for victory began.

Alonso managed to hold off Lewis to finish in a great second place, but once again he dragged a result from the car that it didn’t deserve. To come so close to victory when this machine hasn’t looked capable all season was a fantastic achievement. To lose out in the end is no shame; he was fighting with one hand behind his back; it was a fantastic drive. Like Rosberg he missed out on pitting when the first safety car came out along with Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.

Unlike Rosberg, he got back into the fight a lot quicker and to end up ahead of the fastest car on the track is testament to how astonishing Alonso is. As with Hamilton, he made a two stop strategy work for him and led for some considerable time until Ricciardo came through. He was so close to holding out for what would have been a great win, but second place is no mean result either.

Mercedes infighting to begin again?

You knew Hamilton was on a significant charge when in a blink of an eye he went from 13th to 9th in just a few corners. It was another fantastic charge from the back after a fuel leak ruined another qualifying leaving his car ablaze and the prospect of starting from the pit lane. To say he was unhappy would be an understatement.

Despite a spin on the first lap he made pass after pass, including an epic round the outside move on Jean-Eric Vergne at the fast turn 4 soon brought him to the head of the field. His final stop on lap 39 meant he relinquished the lead, but due to safety cars he was ahead of Rosberg. The team asked him to move aside so Rosberg’s strategy could play out which meant he had to stop one more time. Hamilton politely refused and to be fair why should he? Rosberg barely got to within a second of him, so why should he give up time. If Lewis had let him through when he was asked to it’s likely Rosberg would have finished ahead.

The team want the best overall result, but to ask Lewis to move aside when it might’ve affected the title chase was a silly call from the team. They’ve got the championship sewn up, and yes they might want to win as many races as they can but they are head and shoulders above the rest and to avoid looking biased in the eyes of the drivers I think it’s better for them to just let it play out from now on. They might site that it’s a team sport but you know Rosberg and Hamilton couldn’t care less about that now, they’re out for themselves so if one of them is behind on a quicker strategy, then it’s up to that driver to get ahead, no time for the team game from now.

What the team might like to do is sort out the reliability problems that are increasingly creeping in. Even today there seemed to be a brief brake problem affecting Rosberg. Anyway, as it was Rosberg didn’t get by and despite charging up after his final stop to latch on to the back of Lewis, #44 Mercedes firmly shut the door on any moves. It was Mercedes’ worst combined result of the year, but 3rd and 4th isn’t too bad to go home with.

Williams lose out on strategy

Felipe Massa was towards the front for a long time but Williams in my opinion went the wrong on strategy by fitting the slower medium compound tyres to both Massa and Bottas’ car. Massa held off Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages to take 5th, while Bottas ran second early on after starting third at a track many thought wouldn’t suit Williams. The first safety car scuppered any better result as he was one of the front 4 who missed pitting when it initially came out so fell down the pack and could only recover to 8th.

Raikkonen and Vettel enjoy FRICless future as Vergne shines?

Raikkonen ran as high as third and eventually finished 6th with Sebastian Vettel 7th to split the Williams cars. Kimi looked stronger this weekend and if hadn’t been for a terrible call by Ferrari in qualifying to leave him in the pits he’d have started higher than 16th. In general he looked like he had more speed, many suggesting this was because of the lack of the FRIC suspension.

Vettel is another who is believed to have benefitted from the lack of FRIC. He certainly seemed stronger in qualifying as he outpaced Ricciardo to start on the front row. He was running third when the safety car came round so was one of those who failed to pit which left him behind his team mate. He spun on the start finish straight when he caught a bit of damp astro-turf at the side of the track but avoided the wall. If the safety car had worked differently he probably would have been the lead Red Bull but once again it’s Ricciardo who is making the most of his opportunities while Vettel mostly seems to not get any. Anyway, both Kimi and Vettel seem to have taken positive steps even if the results haven't yet proved that.

Ninth was Jean-Eric Vergne who rose to second at one point and impressed by holding off Rosberg for a number of laps while his Toro Rosso team mate Daniil Kvyat was strangely quiet for most of the race. Button recovered to tenth after the poor pit calls by McLaren. Behind the points scorers Sauber looked a bit more competitive, while both Caterham’s retired, both Marussia’s finished at the back and Maldonado in the Lotus hit someone but finished 13th.

So once again it was a weekend of action packed racing and thrilling competition all the way down the grid. Why Formula 1’s bosses seem to think there are such problems with the product I don’t know. It occurs to me it’s much more to do with how it’s promoted than anything else, but that’s another story.

We enter the summer break with the championship brilliantly poised and tremendous supporting battles from Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari. Hamilton clawed a few points back on Rosberg to be just 11 behind, but will be wondering about the team instruction and how much more his weekends will be tainted by reliability problems.

Rosberg will be happy to be leading the championship but probably annoyed that the team seem to have let Hamilton ignore an order despite repeated calls to let him through. I think they'll be a lot of meetings after this race at the Mercedes factory. It’ll be interesting to see who comes back the stronger in four weeks-time in Belgium. One thing is for sure, this championship is going down to the wire.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Thursday 24 July 2014

The Hungarian Grand Prix Forecast


The Hungaroring hosts the Hungarian Grand Prix, tight and twisty with barely a straight worth the name it used to have a reputation of processional grand prix but over the last few years I think it’s held some pretty great racing.

Certainly the nature of the track can lead to bottlenecks as one driver falls off the pace and starts holding people up. I’m not sure the two DRS zones on the start finish straight and between turns 1 and 2 will help too much. There’s hardly time to open the wing between turns 1 and 2 although it will help to get a driver in position to perhaps attack down the relatively straight bit of track between turn 3 and 4.

Pirelli are bringing the soft and medium tyre this weekend, which as predicted last weekend could be redundant come race day as thunderstorms are meant to hit the track. It’s hot all weekend with temperatures ranging from 29C up 31C, so the tyres are going to take a lot of punishment, but the medium should hold up well once the track is rubbered in.  

It’s potentially a crucial race for the championship. Lewis Hamilton needs to win and once again reassert himself against his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg before the four week summer break. Good fortune has not shined on him too much this season despite the five wins and a car which when pushed can be up to two seconds a lap quicker than anything else on the track.

So I suppose it’s a curious thing to say but then when you’re only fighting against one other man for the title of world champion and he’s had less mechanical troubles than you, seems to have faster pit stops a lot of the time and when he makes mistakes in qualifying gets away with it, then that aspect of fortune becomes rather focused.

This weekend Hamilton and Rosberg will battle it out once again to take the momentum into the summer break. It doesn’t even matter which one of them is leading the championship at the end of the race it’s all about the psychological advantage of being the last one to win. If Rosberg wins then Hamilton could be left stewing for four weeks thinking the title is getting away from him.

If Hamilton wins, then for four weeks Rosberg will be metaphorically looking over his shoulder for a charging number 44 silver beast chasing him down thinking he’s going to get him because no matter what Rosberg says, he knows Lewis is the faster driver. Rosberg is driving exceptionally well, but if it came down to just natural talent Lewis would win. Fortunately for him, there’s so much more to it to come out on top.

But as we’re talking about fortune, of any race to go into the summer break with, Lewis must like the fact it’s Hungary. Four times a winner here from seven attempts including the last two years. Last season he out performed Rosberg significantly too, something he will be hoping to replicate this time.

To do that he needs to sort his qualifying out. Overtaking at the Hungaroring isn’t as impossible as some people seem to think but it is more difficult than a lot of other places; it once had the title of Monaco without the walls. Last Saturday looked to be going well, it was Rosberg making the mistakes while Hamilton had put a decent banker lap in and was looking to go faster when his brakes failed.

It wasn’t his fault but it adds to the last few sessions when it has been him making mistakes, he hasn’t had a pole position since the Spanish Grand Prix and that surely must rankle with him. He wants to be perceived as the fastest out there, having this car gives him the opportunity to show just how quick he can be but he hasn’t delivered, in fact Rosberg has out-qualified him 6-4 and that’s something he won’t like, perhaps it’s why he’s been making the mistakes.

Lewis made no secret of his annoyance that Sebastian Vettel was racking up the pole positions simply because in his opinion he had the best car. Now Lewis has that same opportunity and he’s not taking it so far. He wants to dominate Rosberg, but Rosberg is too good for that. Better for Lewis just to concentrate on getting the best out of himself rather than thinking of Nico, I think it only holds him back, at least on the Saturday. Whatever happens, it’s once again going to be a tense atmosphere in the Mercedes garage.

Once again Williams will be looking for their now traditional podium slot this season. They’re now targeting second place in the constructors championship ahead of Red Bull. Previously I might have said that I wouldn’t expect them to do well in Hungary given the fact it’s a high downforce track and they seemed to be lacking earlier in the year.

But I thought that about Silverstone and Valtteri Bottas charged from 14th to second so they’ve made some progress. They’re bringing an update to Hungary which should help them even more, in fact Williams Performance Chief Rob Smedley told autosport that this ‘should allow it to keep up its strong form’.

Felipe Massa will surely be hoping so after three crashes in the last four grand prix. Admittedly you could argue they weren’t really his fault, but he’s the one getting involved in them, not Bottas. A strong weekend and result for Massa and it’ll all be forgotten, it’s about time he got a podium too. Bottas though is on a strong run of form and really showing his potential. He was saying last weekend podiums are not enough anymore, at this this rate of progress could we see Williams occasionally challenge Mercedes for victory this year? Maybe, but probably not here.

Will we get another Fernando Alonso vs the Red Bulls battle? I really hope so, Alonso hasn’t let the lack of a winning car from Ferrari affect his racing, he still gives it everything, as does Sebastian Vettel who despite not winning everything and being beaten by his team mate is still proving how hard he can battle too, just to show he’s still got something while he sorts himself out.

While Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull has shone brightly this year, Alonso even describing the young Australian as brilliant. While these guys are finding it difficult to get into the hunt for wins, the battles they’re having for the lower points places makes you wish they were fighting for the world championship.

I expect more of the same this weekend as despite being over 60 points ahead of Williams, Red Bull have slipped behind them and Alonso’s genius makes sure Ferrari always get a look in somewhere around the top six. With the Red Bull chassis and engine power not so much of an issue in Hungary I actually expect Vettel and Ricciardo to be more of a threat this weekend, I hope Alonso gets pulled along with them.

It would be great if Kimi could also get involved. In Germany he was literally in the centre of some battles, but it looked more like he was just getting in the way. There did look to be some genuine progress though, he topped a practice session and was charging hard before his front wing got squeezed too many times, the damage resulting in poor tyre life. Hopefully we can get two Ferrari’s and two Red Bull’s battling each other this weekend.

It was a shame Kevin Magnussen had that accident with Massa at the first corner in Germany after qualifying so well. Hopefully he’ll be able to continue that form, but I’m not sure McLaren are going to be loving a downforce heavy track, so I guess that means Jenson Button will continue to be a bit gloomy. The other major rookie Daniil Kvyat made his first major mistake last weekend but I feel sure the Toro Rosso driver will bounce back, he has the confidence of youth.

Force India will be racing for the lower half of the points, but I don’t expect the likes of Lotus, Sauber, Marussia or Caterham to be challenging for any points this weekend unless this potential rain does come down heavily. As I said last weekend that would be quite welcome as it’s been a while since we’ve had a wet race, but it’s only rained once at the Hungarian Grand Prix since 1986, so I’m not going to hold my breath.


So Hamilton and Rosberg resume battle, Williams look to charge after them, Alonso vs Red Bull round 3, it’s all looking like another great weekends racing.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Sunday 20 July 2014

Rosberg cruises to win as Hamilton charges in Germany


Nico Rosberg capped a great week for Germany and himself as he cruised to victory at his home race having seen Germany win the world cup and then got married. From pole position he led into the first corner and from then on was never headed, only going as fast as he needed to keep out of reach of his pursuers to win by 20 seconds.

The win brought him a 14 point championship lead as we pass the half way mark of the season and with just one race left next weekend before a four week hiatus for the summer, he’ll look to maintain this momentum as his Mercedes stable mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a difficult weekend while Nico enjoyed a perfect few days from the car and his driving matched it.

Hamilton and Rosberg looked evenly matched through practice and when it came to qualifying it could have been either one of them who took pole position, but having at that point set the fastest time in Q1 a brake failure threw Lewis into a 30g impact with the barriers ruling him out of contention for the top slot.

The crash also meant a gearbox change which cost him a further five places on the grid meaning he started just 20th. In parc ferme conditions they also changed his brake discs from Brembo to Carbon Industrie which apparently annoyed some other competitors as they believed that should have meant he started from the pit lane but the FIA approved it, they did the same with Rosberg’s rear brakes.

Anyway it was a joy to watch as Lewis does what he does better than anyone else and charged through the field. It helps if you have a Mercedes which is sometimes two seconds a lap quicker than anyone else but it was a fantastic drive as he went wheel to wheel with most of the grid to race up to third place.

His brief dice with Kimi Raikkonen (who endured another disappointing weekend with just 11th place despite a fine mid-race charge on super-softs) was great, battling it out with Daniel Ricciardo too was fantastic as he came across the Australian far earlier than he might’ve, the Red Bull driver having taken avoiding action for Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen’s accident at the first corner which resulted in Massa barrel rolling out of the race which brought out the safety car for a couple of laps at the start.

His moves into the turn six hairpin nearly resulted in contact with first Adrian Sutil as Lewis followed Ricciardo through, before he made contact with Kimi then dived up the inside of Jenson Button’s McLaren when suddenly the door was closed. Button says he doesn’t know what Lewis was doing but it looked for all the world like he was leaving the door open. Lewis put a hand up when he did get by as if to say sorry, but I think it should have been the other way round, whatever though, that incident cost him later in the race.

Lewis had started on the soft tyre while most others started on the super-soft, so while everyone pitted he had moved up to second by lap 17, pretty impressive even in a Mercedes. His first stop came on lap 26 dropping him back into the pack again. He’d make two further stops but such was his pace that by the end of the race he was charging after the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas was on a two stopper and looking after his last set of tyres as Lewis caught him at up to a second a lap, sometimes more. Hamilton had come in for his third and final stop on lap 51, slightly earlier than he planned after Sutil spun his Sauber at the final corner and got stuck there. It looked like certain safety car territory but as marshals crossed the track the pace car was not forthcoming. That would have set up an interesting end to the race but it wasn’t to be. In the end it didn’t take much to move the car but I’m not sure you ever want marshal’s crossing the track even if the corner is under double waved yellows.

It meant Lewis’ tyres weren’t as optimal as they could have been at the end and with front wing damage suffered on Button’s car he couldn’t quite get into position to make a move. Perhaps if he’d known what the ‘menu magic’ setting was that his race engineer told him to go to earlier in the race it might have helped! However, he’d got to the podium with a great aggressive drive but he should have had second to minimise the losses to Rosberg.

I’m not taking anything away from my star of the race though, Valtteri Bottas took his third consecutive podium and second second place in a row in another brilliant display that is making him look like a potential world champion and confirming William’s continued revival. If they can maintain this into next season we know they’re back and with the people they’ve recruited and the Mercedes power unit there’s no reason why this can’t continue.

Bottas held Lewis back expertly, slowing the car in the middle of the corners to stop the Mercedes switching back, then using the Williams superior straight line speed to not even have to bother defending into most corners, eventually he managed to stretch the gap out to almost two seconds by the flag.

It was another classy and controlled drive and he’s certainly the real flying Finn out there now. While Bottas is claiming the podiums he is bringing the team around him as Massa continues to find trouble. A lot of the time it’s not of his own making but this one I’ve got to say was his fault. Massa blamed Magnussen for the first corner incident but it looked to me like he just didn’t give enough space to the McLaren driver leaving him with nowhere to go other than to tip the Williams upside down. A shame for both as Massa had qualified third and Magnussen equalled his best starting position of fourth.

Magnussen ended up finishing ninth behind his annoyed team mate Button who seemed quite lonely a lot of the time or getting passed or looking like he was allowing people passed and then turning in on them...

The Force India’s claimed a double points finish with the ever reliable Nico Hulkenberg maintaining his season long points scoring streak with seventh and Sergio Perez making his point for tenth despite Daniil Kvyat pretending he wasn’t there and bashing into the Mexican. Kvyat impressed again with another top 10 quali slot but what looked like it could have been an amazing move around the outside of Perez sent him into a spin when he failed to give enough room. The day ended with his Toro Rosso on fire while Jean-Eric Vergne could only get 13th.

There was more thrilling action centred around the fun and games of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Ricciardo. All were in inspired form as they fought over the minor points placing’s although originally Vettel and Alonso appeared to be hanging on well to Bottas.

In the end they dropped back but yet these world champions and Ricciardo battled bravely especially Vettel who has to be commended, he’ll never lift off as the road runs out if he thinks he can still make the move as demonstrated when he kept his foot hard to the floor clipping the grass as he charged down the inside of Kimi with Alonso squeezing on the other side as they shot down to turn 6. It kept Vettel in fourth at the time.

Earlier Kimi had also been sandwiched between Lewis and Ricciardo with some more fantastic three abreast racing. In both incidents Kimi lost bits of his car, it was a struggle to keep up with the amount of body work falling off these machines over the race.

Alonso got ahead of Vettel after the second pit stops but Vettel pitted earlier while the Spaniard tried to make a two stop work although he eventually succumbed to the inevitable third tyre stop which brought him out behind the other Red Bull of Ricciardo on worn tyres.

Ricciardo didn’t just let him go, he made Alonso work for it the position, just when you thought the Ferrari was ahead back would come the Australian. Eventually Alonso made it but it was yet more exciting tough but clean racing. Ricciardo really impressed witht that, even more than his podiums. Battling it out with the likes of Alonso so confidently confirms he is the real deal, along with Bottas surely a world champion of the future.

By the end Vettel made it across the line in fourth with Alonso and Ricciardo in fifth and sixth, not the positions they want to be fighting for but great to see they’ll still battle as if their lives depended on it.

Lotus and Sauber had another horrible day, while I liked the fact Max Chilton got ahead of Hamilton at the start for Marussia. Caterham brought up the rear.

The predicted rain failed to materialise which was a shame, I’d love a wet race soon as it’s been such a long time. Despite all the great racing this weekend a bit of wet might have mixed it up at the front although the best car is the best car whatever the weather, but it’s so much easier to throw it off track... The FRIC suspension ban also made no real upheavel in the competitive order although Lotus have been running it longest since they were called Renault and they seemed to struggle even more. 

Next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix is a race where Hamilton has won four times including the past two years. This championship is still wide open as we race towards the summer break but at a track which he has made his own he’ll want to dominate Rosberg, finally get his qualifying back on track and cruise off into the distance as Rosberg did today. No more failures, no more mistakes, a clean weekend where he can show just how much better he is. Trouble is, Rosberg won’t want to let him. While behind, it’ll be do or die for any position going.

all LAT & XPB photo's taken from autosport.com, all others taken from BBC F1

Thursday 17 July 2014

The German Forecast


About half way round the 34th lap of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim we will be exactly at the halfway point of the 2014 world championship. We won’t be there for long, there’s a race to complete, but they could be shooting off into the spray as we anticipate our first wet race for a very long time. It’s about time that we had the unpredictability that a slavering of H20 can do to a piece of tarmac.

Currently the forecast is for very hot days on Friday and Saturday with temperatures reaching as high as 33C. Race day doesn’t get much lower, still pushing the boundaries of a 30C day but couple that with thunderstorms and you’ve got some rather unpleasant racing conditions for the drivers, or some absolutely thrilling conditions if you’re sitting at home.

We’ve got two DRS zones as is mostly the norm these days, the first one on the exit of turn one down to turn two. Then there’s a quick right and left before the second DRS zone a little after turn four. Pirelli are bringing the soft and super-soft compounds to Germany with their Motorsport director Paul Hembery not overly sure how many pit stops the teams will have to make as they’ve not brought the super-soft to this track before. It could all well be superfluous if the track is glistening with rain.

Germany still have the most drivers on the grid with four, one of them a four time champion, so it's strange they're also one of the markets which is losing viewing figures despite a German challenging for the world title again this year not to mention the countries national team being dominant. Hopefully the stands will be full and an air of celebration will be present after the countries world cup win. With such a thrilling season it seems strange areas are losing viewers but that's another blog entirely.

There’s been strange goings on since the British Grand Prix. Charlie Whiting, Chief technical delegate of the FIA has been investigating teams suspension seasons, the Front and Rear Interconnected system (FRIC) that pretty much works like active suspension used to in keeping the car level in corners to create more downforce, to be simplistic.

Although it hasn’t been banned outright, it has been suggested that because the FIA now believe it to be contravention of the rule that requires there to be no movable aerodynamic devices on the car it could be subject to protest from the German race onwards if teams were to keep it on their car and a rival outfit were to protest it.

There was hope that the teams would come to an agreement to not protest each other for the remainder of the season so a proper ban could be put in place for the 2015 season, but as ever with Formula 1, that kind of agreement was always subject to never happening. So what does this mean for the performance of the teams with the most advanced systems?

Well so the F1 press has speculated, not much. Mercedes run the most advanced version so it will be interesting to see if any of their advantage is quelled this weekend. At the time of writing they have not announced that they won’t be using it whereas Red Bull and McLaren have already said they are removing it from their cars. I would suggest that with the likes of Red Bull perhaps finishing third behind two FRIC equipped Mercedes cars that a protest would be forthcoming very quickly unless a team can prove it is not an aerodynamic aid which would be a risky strategy.

Therefore I suggest it is very unlikely any team will be running it this weekend. At the moment we don’t know exactly how much it will or won’t affect certain teams but it’s definitely a story to keep a watch on.

So to the interesting things, such as who’s going to win? Well if I may be so bold, I think a Silver car will win, probably not a McLaren. Mercedes head to Germany having won eight of the nine races so far, they’ve just signed Nico Rosberg to a new multi-year contract and have him leading his team mate Lewis Hamilton by just four points.

Rosberg is turning up with a world cup themed helmet and will be determined to show well at his ‘home’ race, especially after suffering his first retirement at Silverstone. It enabled Lewis to win without a fight he was relishing, so game on once again between the two drivers. With just those four points separating them if Lewis was to win this weekend, wherever Nico finishes would mean he’d lose the championship lead. To lose it on home turf would be quite the blow and with only one other race to go before the summer break, Rosberg will not want to be against such a momentum swing behind Hamilton.

It’ll be close but Lewis does well at this track, he took a great win in 2008 and this track is similar to Canada and Austria, lots of straights and slower corners, despite Rosberg getting the better results Lewis was faster so he should be confident. Having said that Nico has proved this year he is a fighter and does not give up, his desperation to get the car moving at Silverstone is testament to that. This will once again be a close battle between the silver arrow drivers and one I’m sure the Mercedes management are getting increasingly nervous about.

I think Williams will be quietly confident this weekend. They should have won in both Canada and Austria, took a great second place at Silverstone as Valtteri Bottas sliced through the field from 14th which was particularly noteworthy as it wasn’t supposed to be a track the team would do well on.

I think Hockenheim will suit Bottas and Felipe Massa and I fully expect them to be on the first two rows of the grid. They really are the coming team at the moment, vying with Red Bull to be best of the rest, but in recent races they’ve stolen the advantage. Massa will want a bit of the podium action his team mate has monopolised so far, Bottas is certainly somewho who's in a rich vein of form. It should be noted that Susie Wolff will once again be taking over a car for Friday morning practice. Hopefully she will have more of a run than at Silverstone so she can show what she can do, her progress will be closely followed I’m sure.

Sebastian Vettel comes to Germany suffering his worst half season of Formula 1 ever. He is still being outperformed by Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo and will be desperate to get one over on him at his home race but he’s still not comfortable with the car and the Australian is in great form. I’m not sure podium places are available this time, I think this will be a Mercedes and potentially Williams race, but Red Bull probably have the best chassis on the grid, and when it rains their power deficit becomes less of a problem…

McLaren and Ferrari are suffering terrible seasons. It hasn’t been this bad for the sport’s biggest teams for a long time, but they keep fighting although you have to believe they’re already looking to 2015 despite their protestations that they’re still developing their 2014 cars. If it’s dry they’ll be points contenders if it’s wet then watch out for Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, it could be their biggest opportunity of the year. Kimi Raikkonen will be back in the second Ferrari after his huge shunt, but whether he’ll ever get a decent weekend this year is still open to debate…a bit.

Force India will be looking to improve their form after an off-colour weekend in Britain, Nico Hulkenberg will want a starring result as I feel he’s beginning to fly a bit under the radar at the moment, while Lotus just want to scrap for points. Such a shame for them and particularly Romain Grosjean who looked like a race winner last year, at least for him he’s putting Pastor Maldonado to shame.

Toro Rosso continue to qualify strongly and then retire although they did get a double points finish last time out. Daniil Kvyat is just awesome, rookie of the year by far and away at the moment, I’m sure before the year is out he’s going to have a run of strong results. If it rains I hope he goes well, it’s always a sign of a top driver.

Sauber will lead the charge from the back which for such an established team is a bit heart breaking for them. Marussia will hope for a mixed up race to see if they can score a couple more points, Jules Bianchi, fresh from testing for Ferrari will look to take a star role while Caterham are in upheaval after their sale.


So to the halfway point we race to, rain or shine, FRIC or no FRIC, this weekend promises to be one of the more unpredictable races of the 2014 season and another step in this thrilling story of how the 2014 world championship was won.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Sunday 13 July 2014

The noise of Formula 1: Comparison


If you haven’t attended a Grand Prix before and you were to ask someone who had what it was like, chances are the first thing they’d mention was the noise. In previous years the first thing you’d know about a Formula 1 car is hearing them far off in the distance and there would be that anticipation that they were on their way towards you before they’d hurtle into view and as they’d pass you it would literally vibrate through your body before they’d shoot off. It was exhilarating, a wall of violent sound kept under control by the dancing feet on the pedals and the strength and skill of the hands on the wheel.

It’s mesmerising to see a Formula 1 car in action. I’ve been lucky enough to see 15 Grand Prix over the years and it’s quite a fantastic experience seeing them live, right in front of you. And seeing them this year was no different in my opinion.

I’ve not really written too much about the noise debate, in fact as the season has gone we’re beginning to hear less and less from people about the subject. For good reason too as the racing has been just as good, and in the end that’s what the people are paying their money for. There have been sound bites of people criticising the show but I feel its unjust for the most part.

I’ve waited until now to add a few comments because I wanted to actually hear these new Turbo engines up close myself. Below are two clips taken with the same camera. The first one is from the young driver test last year, and the second is from this year’s British Grand Prix. They are taken from nearly the same section of track. The test clip was taken in the Grandstand on the old start/finish straight so you see the cars coming out of Woodcote down the straight to Copse. This year’s race clip was taken from the Grandstand on the outside of Copse.





Now if I was to ask which one sounded better then I think the majority of people would go with the 2013 vintage. It’s scream just projects the exhilaration of Formula 1 into you, pretty much nowhere else could you hear cars like this. The 2014 version is obviously a lot quieter, you can hear the circuit commentary a lot clearer and you come away from the race not feeling like you’ve been pummelled in the face for ninety minutes. Which actually I quite liked, although there was something nice about having your ears ringing for hours afterwards, it felt like you’d experienced something amazing.

However, as much as I’m eulogising about the extinct normally aspirated V8’s of yesteryear, I have no problem with moving on to this more subtle noise. In fact I actually quite like it now. Formula 1 is meant to be the leading motorsport and no matter what anyone tells you that means you have to move with the times and that means moving towards greener technology. To be basic, sound is energy, the cars are quieter because these power units are that much more efficient at using all the waste energy that it produces. It’s a message which the F1 commercial team have failed to get through to the fans somewhat, but it’s important that Formula 1 is at the forefront of this. Nowhere else does technology progress at such a pace than in the competitive environment of this sport.

The racing was obviously unaffected, it was a great race at Silverstone and after a few laps you simply don’t care about the noise, it’s the racing you’re concentrating on. You can still see the cars, the drivers at work controlling these still very powerful machines and actually there is something quite pleasing about the rumble of thunder as they come towards you, it’s not body shattering but it still combines well as the drivers tame the cars in front of you. I actually find the turbo sounds and the electrical whining that you can hear particularly on the Ferrari to be futuristic, which is what Formula 1 should be about.

I’m sure as the years go on and we create new sources of cleaner fuel for the combustion engine, which will happen, then they’ll become 50/50 hybrid machines with a nice subtle roar and the whine of electricity, maybe it’ll even get louder again, but this kind of technology is here to stay and for good reason. I don’t want to see F1 go fully electric, there’s the new Formula E for that (which to be fair actually sounds pretty good to my ears). F1 has been built on noise and that needs to be maintained, but I was quite pleased, and after 90minutes of racing it might be quieter but it’s still very spectacular and an experience you won’t forget. 

Tuesday 8 July 2014

FIA look to ban FRIC suspension systems


According to autosport.com the Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension that most teams use in Formula 1 could be banned before the German Grand Prix. The FIA has left the door open for the ban to be put back until 2015 but that will require unanimous support from all the teams.

Mercedes are thought to have the most advanced system and one which is one of the major strengths of their current dominant car. The chances of all teams agreeing to delay the ban then are slim one would have thought as some teams may not have the system or cannot work it as well as others so it may advantage them to see it banned sooner rather than later.

I'm sure Mercedes doesn't see it like that as it appears to be an integral part of their car. Apparently the FIA wrote to the teams on Tuesday to tell them they believe the system to be illegal. So what does FRIC suspension do? Well it's sort of trying to mimic active suspension which adjusted itself to stabilise the car which then helps with the aerodynamics.

In a note Autosport has seen Charlie Whiting, FIA technical delegate says this: "Having now seen and studied nearly every current design of front to rear linked suspension system we, the FIA, are formally of the view that the legality of all such systems could be called into question."

This is because the system is not rigidly fixed to car, so therefore could be seen as a moveable aerodynamic device which is outlawed in Article 3.15.

To me it seems strange that it is suddenly banned when nearly halfway through a season. I'm aware it isn't uncommon for the FIA to change things part way through a season, such as what happened with Pirelli last year. However just because they've done it before doesn't make it right. In fact I've never seen it as the right thing to do because it changes the playing field. Why should a team suffer when they've designed something that up to now was legal? These sort of decisions should be made in the off season if it's a system that is already being used.

By all means if a team invent something during the system and it's a little dodgy then ban it, but if most have had this system when the season start to ban it now does seem unfair. 

Teams have been running their cars in this kind of configuration since testing started in January, how can it now be illegal? Ok they've said they have just finish studying 'nearly every current system' but it has been around for a few years now, and Renault introduced a version as far back as 2008, so the FIA have known about it for a while.

I do find it a strange thing to do, especially less than two weeks before the next race with minimal chance to test. The last day of testing at Silverstone is tomorrow, (Felipe Massa was fastest today) I hope the teams see sense and delay the ban until 2015, but as the autosport article notes, if one teams design isn't that good or if even they don't have a version of this then why should anyone else benefit? If a team then chooses to run it in Germany, then a team could make an official protest if the FIA's opinion is that it is illegal.

I'm sure this will cause a fair amount of controversy, but lets see what happens first, I hope any such ban is held back to 2015. Although again as I have written before, it might be against the moveable aerodynamic devices rule but I hate seeing Formula 1 being so consistently constrained by the rules. I know they do it for money reasons, but this is the most advanced motor sport, could we stop trying to standardise everything and let the teams breathe and invent so the best drivers in the world can thrash these devices around a track. This is meant to be a breeding ground for creativity that should be allowed to flourish. 

Anyway, that's another story, as for this story it should be watched with interest and if a ban does come in it'll be very interesting to see which teams benefit and which teams don't and if the pecking order changes at all.

Monday 7 July 2014

British Grand Prix Photography


The British Grand Prix was an eventful race. Lewis Hamilton won his fifth race of the season while his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg retired for the first time this year. The result cut Rosberg's championship lead from 29 points to just 4.

I was lucky enough to attend this race and took a few photographs of the action from Copse corner illustrating some of the action that took place.

Before the action started we had the drivers parade
Rosberg got a great start ahead of the McLaren's
It was Massa's 200th Grand Prix...
...but Kimi lost it on Wellington Straight leaving Massa with nowhere to go.
The resultant damage meant both cars were out of the race and the race was red flagged.
Rosberg legged it at the restart, he was on his own.
But Lewis was soon up into second position and charging.
Meanwhile there was an intense fight for the final podium spot between McLaren's
Red Bull's and the remaining Williams of Valtteri Bottas
Force India were off the pace, but Nico Hulkenberg held on for eighth despite starting fourth
Toro Rosso cars fell back at the start but ended up finishing where they started in 9th and 10th,
Kvyat ahead of Vergne.
I thought Sauber might have got a point but they fell back with Gutierrez hitting
Maldonado and retiring. Yes, Maldonado was the victim!
The Lotus cars never looked like points scorers at Silverstone.
Jules Bianchi impressed with his defensive driving for the opening laps, while
the other Marussia of Max Chilton valiantly chased the Caterhams.
Jenson Button pursued Ricciardo for his first British Grand Prix podium...
...but the Australian held on to take his fourth podium of the year.
With Lewis closing, Rosberg suffered his first mechanical drama forcing his retirement.
Lewis shot off into the distance.
Meanwhile Bottas had long since been best of the rest and was lonely
in 2nd after starting 14th. 
Alonso had got ahead of Vettel into Copse after the German's second pit stop.
Vettel fought hard to get the place back. These two world champions battled
like it was for the win, but it was only 5th place.
Eventually Vettel sneaked inside and chased after Button but there were too
few laps left.
Up at the front though, Hamilton was in control and cruised to the line to win
his fifth Grand Prix of the year. The crowd loved it!