Rosberg takes win after spectacular Alonso crash

As is traditional the Australian Grand Prix opened the Formula 1 season at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. After a Mercedes 1-2 in qualifying with Lewis Hamilton on formidable form with a brilliant pole position it was surely back to the normal routine as he commenced his bid for a fourth world title...

Of course so much has gone on to get to that point. The last four months has seen the teams working feverishly to get their cars ready, especially as the Australian race was brought forward by two weeks meaning a lot of the teams planning had to be shuffled. 

Testing showed Mercedes were strong but the hope was Ferrari had taken another step forward over the winter to really challenge, after qualifying this hope was rather dampened as they lined up nearly a second back from the silver cars.

A lot has changed in Formula 1 and a lot has stayed the same since the end of the 2015 season. Some of the more notable additions to this year was the new qualifying format, which I won't go into because it was so rubbish it's already looking like it'll be scrapped for the second round in Bahrain in two weeks time with the old system being brought back in. 

When will these people realise there isn't anything wrong with the format, it's the way the money is distributed and perhaps the way the rules are formed. Although if we could have consistent rules stability everyone would close up in the end. Today we saw that at the top and in the pack it's all looking rather promising, more on which later, for now lets continue to bitch about the stupidity.

So qualifying was one of the major changes that was magicked out of the air and so it proved the second point of things staying the same which is Formula 1 is ruled by chaotic decision making and ill-thought out ideas. Never mind, at least the team bosses got together on Sunday morning to get rid of such a pointless change in the first place.

A couple of other changes look like they are good additions with the addition of an extra compound of tyres available for each driver. Drivers are free to choose how many sets of each compound they want, two of which must be used in the race. It creates extra strategic options as seen in today's race.

The further restriction of radio transmissions mean the drivers are certainly more alone than they have been for years and are no longer the play things of the engineers sitting on the pit wall. This was relaxed slightly an hour before the race to allow strategy calls to be made between the teams and drivers. 

So let's go back to 'rather promising' aspects of the days events and the racing, because this is what we got today, a good race. Nico Rosberg picked up where he left off to take his first win of the year and his fourth consecutive victory when you include his winning of the last three races of 2015. Lewis Hamilton came through the pack to finish second after a faltering start where the Mercedes cars touched slightly and he dropped back to seventh.

So it seems on first look this was further demonstration that the old order of Mercedes way out in front was maintained from the previous couple of seasons. But this wasn't so, in qualifying Ferrari hadn't gone for a second run in Q3 whereas Mercedes cars had improved on their times. Ferrari's race pace was arguably as strong as the German giants, certainly their starts were light years ahead.

Engine notes raised, lights out, Vettel launched between the silver cars, Hamilton was sluggish away while Rosberg hung on claiming the inside line, but a bit of squeezing from Vettel let the Ferrari through and clear he went. Rosberg hung on so long, he almost clattered into Hamilton, he did shove him wide though allowing the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen through, the brilliantly qualified Toro Rosso's of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, and Felipe Massa in the Williams got ahead as well.

Even fans of Mercedes must have been praying for such a start, now we had a race on our hands. So the Ferrari's led in 1-2 formation on a track which is difficult to pass on. Rosberg closed up a bit but never really challenged while behind Lewis began his comeback passing Massa but getting stuck behind the Toro Rosso drivers.

Then came lap 17, battling in the midfield Fernando Alonso proved just how safe Formula 1 cars are these days. He came up behind Esteban Gutierrez in the new Haas car as they approached turn three, feinted to the right then to the left, but it seemed Alonso misjudged the speed differential or Gutierrez braked a little earlier than expected, but whatever happened (the stewards deemed it a racing incident) Alonso smashed into the back of the Haas, his McLaren speared into the wall and towards the gravel trap which pitched it into a barrel roll. 

The television coverage picked up Gutierrez's car first and as it zoomed out we caught site of Alonso scrambling out of an upside down and completely mangled McLaren. It was a miraculous escape for the double world champion. 

The safety car was initially deployed but a red flag soon flew and the race was stopped. This means any damage can be fixed in the pit lane and tyres can be changed. it's effectively a free pit stop. This helped determine the result. Before the stoppage, Kimi had lost a place to Rosberg during the first round of stops. Both Ferrari's were on super-soft tyres, the quickest of the compounds but not very durable.

Rosberg was on soft tyres, but during the stoppage switched to mediums, which were likely to get him to the end of the race. Hamilton had already elected to switch to mediums to help him get ahead of the Toro Rosso's and not have to stop again. The Ferrari team decided to stay on super-softs meaning they would definitely have to stop again. It was a decision that turned a likely Ferrari win into a Mercedes victory.

When the race got going again, Vettel pumped in a few quick laps extending his lead over Rosberg, but the Mercedes soon was on his pace and then started to catch him. When Vettel pulled into the pits with 22 laps left to go it was game over for the win, it was now his mission to hunt down Hamilton. By this time Kimi was already retired, flames coming from the air box.

The Toro Rosso's got out of the way of Hamilton as they also needed to stop, leaving Lewis to try and catch Rosberg, but Nico was wise to it and maintained a 10 second gap. Vettel closed the gap to Lewis, but locked up with a couple of laps to go losing him a chance of second.

So Rosberg crossed the line to win, Lewis was happy to come back for second while Vettel seemed happy enough with the knowledge that his car looks like it will help him to challenge for the title. 

Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth after an inspired drive, and my Star of the race. Red Bull have produced a great chassis, and although still down on power the Renault engine in the back has been improved. He started eighth but dropped a place at the start. However before the red flag he had worked his way up to sixth with a few late braking passing moves before moving up to fourth as those around him pitted. Not having pitted he got a free pit stop, but kept a good pace to keep up with the leaders. It was a strong drive, he'll be in the mix this year at many more races along with his team mate Daniil Kvyat who didn't even make the start following a problem as the grid formed up.

Felipe Massa took a lonely fifth, while Romain Grosjean in the Haas also hadn't pitted by the time of the stoppage and found himself in ninth when the race restarted. With retirements and others pitting he worked his way up to sixth, but although slightly fortuitous it showed how much genuine pace is in this new car and team as he held off challenges from behind. A brilliant start to this new teams life in the top rung of motor sport. 

Force India was another team which could have had a better team, Sergio Perez losing out to finish only 13th although Nico Hulkenberg got them some points with seventh holding off the recovering Williams of Valtteri Bottas, the Williams driving recovering from 16th on the grid after a gearbox penalty.

The Toro Rosso's ended up with Sainz ahead of Verstappen due to the Spaniard pitting first. This caused the teenager to get quite creative with his language on the team radio, they're both going to be great entertainment this year and if not for the red flag would have finished much higher up than ninth and tenth.

Amongst the other runners Jolyon Palmer made his debut for the reformed Renault team and impressed straight away by out qualifying his highly rated returnee team mate Kevin Magnussen who had a year on the sidelines in 2015. Palmer showed off some great defensive work against Bottas, both he and Magnussen will provide good drama.

Sauber were pretty awful, Manor are still at the back albeit closer and with Pascal Wehrlein they have a star on their hands. McLaren were having a much better start than last year and are at least able to race although after Alonso's crash, Jenson Button's strategy calls weren't the best.

So in summing up, until Formula 1 is out of the hands of a private equity firm it will continue to lurch from stupid decision to stupid decision and not treat the teams or circuits fairly, actually the product is pretty good and is not what needs changing.

Haas are a genuinely nice surprise, McLaren look like they have a platform to at least make progress and the lower midfield are well capable of mixing it with the higher end midfield runners. Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso are going to be locked into a great fight, Renault will have a difficult season but will spring a few surprises.

I truly believe once Red Bull get an engine upgrade in Montreal from Renault (if it's good) they will become contenders for victory, as it is I think they'll mix it up on occasion. 

At the very front, after Lewis' late season form in 2015 allowed Rosberg the luxury of a few easier weekends he was as strong as ever in Australia and was only undone by a poor start. Rosberg looked to have reverted to type during practice and qualifying but it was a strong race performance and a nice aggressive start. At Ferrari Kimi looks to be on the pace while Vettel should have taken the win, but he has a car to do battle with and that might well be enough. It's all set up nicely and I think we can be quietly confident this season is going to be a bit of a cracker.

all photographs taken from auto-motor-und-sport.de & autosport.com

Grosjean storms to podium as Hamilton wins

Star of the race

Romain Grosjean was the undoubted star of the Belgian Grand Prix as he rose up the order from ninth on the grid to take the final podium place with a tremendous carefully constructed drive which demonstrated that despite the problems Lotus have had over the last 18 months he is still a driver of the top drawer and one that deserves a crack at a top team.

He qualified a brilliant fourth but was forced to take a five place grid penalty due to a gearbox problem that relegated him to ninth. A fine start ensued he was mixing it with the Red Bull's, Williams' and Ferrari's as soon as the lights went out.

He made some great DRS assisted moves along the Kemmel Straight into Les Combes, particularly on Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo, always leaving them enough room but giving them no opportunity to get back at him. They were sweetly executed, he really is one of the finest overtakers currently in the sport.

After the rounds of pit stops, most going for a two stop strategy, Grosjean lay in fourth place behind Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari which was attempting to just pit the once. Vettel questioned the decision but with two laps left and the Lotus hunting him down his right rear Pirelli let go shredding itself down Kemmel, Grosjean swept past to take his first podium since 2013. 

It was a starring drive which offered the cash strapped team a well deserved fillip. Rumours go Renault are looking to buy back Lotus and make them a works team once again, although there are further stories linking Renault with Force India. Both teams are currently using the dominant Mercedes power unit so surely a switch to the rather lame Renault unit would be a step back, at least until they get it right, if they do.

For now though the team can bask in a fantastic performance, which might have been even better had Pastor Maldonado not encountered an engine problem.

The winner

World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton extended his lead to 28 points over his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg after a dominat win. This race was the first with the new start rules which forbid the teams from telling the drivers to alter the clutch settings after they leave the pit lane to go to the grid. It made little difference, although Rosberg did get a poor start which left him down in fifth.

Hamilton made a good enough start to lead into the first corner. The only slight wobble in his whole afternoon was on the first lap when he came over the top of Raidillon, getting just slightly out of shape which allowed Sergio Perez's Force India to slip stream him up the hill getting slightly ahead before having to back out.

Hamilton was away and clear and never looked back. Rosberg fought his way through and used good strategy to get into second but once again never looked like troubling his team mate. Rosberg really has sadly slipped into the role of Mark Webber against Vettel at Red Bull. Any real threat of a title battle between the two is just an illusion and one which is getting increasingly easy to see through.

Vettel was an outside bet to challenge and as he lay third in the closing laps it looked like he had plucked an unlikely result out of the air after starting just eighth. After his tyre let go he fell out of the points and now lies 67 points adrift.

Lewis is one of those drivers who if put in the best will clear up and currently he's doing just that.

The battles

There were a number of alternative stars of the race, in particular Max Verstappen who was sensational in his on track fights. His move on Felipe Nasr around the outside of Blanchimont at nearly 200mph was sensational. He was rewarded with eighth place after starting just 18th after a grid penalty.

Perez was another who starred, particularly early on, but the Force India driver couldn't hold on to a podium spot, slipping to fifth at the end of the race. Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull was again fighting as hard as anyone out there. Powered by Renault they were running the car with very little wing but yet he was a podium contender throwing the car round the long fast turns, but an electrical problem shut down his car taking him out of the race and causing a virtual safety car.

The Williams' of Felipe Massa started sixth and finished sixth but was involved in plenty of scraps along the way while Valtteri Bottas started third but was soon pushed down the order and suffered a drive through penalty after his team sent him out with one medium compound tyre on his right rear with the other wheels fitted with softs. Not a great afternoon as he fell to ninth. Bottas is an outstanding driver but he often seems to lose out in wheel to wheel confrontation. Both Williams cars seemed to be losing out down the straights, surely a case of the car running too much wing on a circuit that they were expected to star at.

Daniil Kvyat in the second Red Bull charged through at the end of the race to finish fourth which saw him go above his team mate Ricciardo in the drivers standings which after his tepid start to the season is quite the achievement.

Kimi Raikkonen ended up seventh after starting 16th, he was involved in plenty of fights but couldn't make the progress he'd have wanted. Still, he's signed up for another year at Ferrari now so hopefully his luck will change soon if he wants a final hurrah in what will surely be his final season in Formula 1.

Marcus Ericsson got Sauber back in the points with tenth after a solid drive. 

Things of note

Honda brought an upgraded engine to Belgium that was hoped would match the power output of Ferrari. It seemed to fall way short of that target in what is becoming an increasingly laughable campaign for the Japanese manufactuer and McLaren. In fact Jenson Button seemed to let off a bit of steam by calling the race embarrassing and confessing to not enjoying his Formula 1 that day. 

He was with his electrical energy through most of the race, so there was little he could do to fight after he had out qualified his team mate Fernando Alonso by over half a second with what Button described as a lap to equal his pole position in 2011.

Lotus are in further troubles with a threat to have their cars impounded due a contractual dispute with former reserve driver Charles Pic. This comes after other money issues which has meant development has been scarce this season. A reunion with Renault couldn't come soon enough to ensure their longevity but as mentioned earlier it seems a link up with Force India and Renault may scupper that too.

The title fight

Vettel's tyre letting go has almost certainly destroyed any chance of a title fight emerging this season. The German was justifiably furious at the incident, seemingly blaming Pirelli who themselves say they were surprised that Ferrari went for a one stop strategy. 

Whatever, it has taken away a threat from Hamilton who when everything runs smoothly has Rosberg firmly under control. This is Lewis' title to lose. 

Result

1. Hamilton - Mercedes

2. Rosberg - Mercedes

3. Grosjean - Lotus

4. Kvyat - Red Bull

5. Perez - Force India

6. Massa - Williams

7. Raikkonen - Ferrari

8. Verstappen - Toro Rosso

9. Bottas - Williams

10. Ericsson - Sauber

11. Nasr - Sauber

12. Vettel - Ferrari

13. Alonso - McLaren

14. Button - McLaren

15. Mehri - Marussia

16. Stevens - Marussia

R. Sainz - Toro Rosso - Power Unit

R. Ricciardo - Red Bull - Electrical

R. Maldonado - Lotus - Transmission

R. Hulkenberg - Force India - Did not start

all photos taken from autosport.com

Formula e to electrify motor sport?

There’s one motor racing series which is embracing modern technology and attempting to push the boundaries of how we go motor racing. The competitive edge will help to drive technology forward that will drip feed down in to the automotive industry, therefore making it a relevant and pioneering series.

It has embraced social media reaching out to the tech savvy and younger generations and even made the sport interactive, while it has constantly been running demonstrations and encompassing a more even approach with the teams all working (for the time being) on a similar level. Of course this isn’t Formula 1, the sports bosses wouldn’t want to waste time finding out what fans want, this is the FIA sanctioned Formula e, the newest form of motor sport to divert fully from the combustion engine to electrical power due for the off in September.

It’s a modern 21^st century world championship that encompasses the aforementioned power systems, one day events in which practice sessions, qualifying and the race all take place in city centres emphasising its green credentials further by making it easily accessible by public transport. It’s being healthily promoted through the means of social media, there have been many video updates and test days have been promoted for the public to attend as an event to see what this new venture is all about.

As it's website says it’s core ethos is about ‘energy, environment andentertainment’ representing ‘a vision of the motor industry over the coming decades, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability.’

The power produced is 270bhp in qualifying trim down to 200bhp when racing. That doesn’t sound much at the moment but I’m sure if this series proves to be a success then the that power output will steadily increase. The sound is very futuristic, with a pretty compelling whooshing noise that sort of turns into a scream. The cars look fairly good and are infused with technology by McLaren, Williams and Renault. There’s no stupid looking noses, and added to that the series doesn’t get a double points round at the end to undermine the previous rounds of the championship.

The cars this year are all the same but from the second year of this project all 10 teams will be allowed to design and build their own cars to use that to advance the technology quicker in the competitive environment. The teams are mostly well established in the motor racing world and include names such as Audi, Andretti, Dams and Virgin while the calendar includes two races in the USA as well as events in Monaco, Germany and the UK.  

The driving standard is pretty high with a lot of ex-formula 1 drivers participating including the likes of Bruno Senna, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Jaime Alguersuari. It also includes two female drivers, Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti who have both shown their speed in other series.

It really seems to me that a lot of thought has been put into this championship and it is doing what motor racing is often for, to advance technology for the motor industry while having a lot of exciting on-track action (which admittedly remains to be seen).

There are a few causes for concern, they have allowed a rather stupid gimmick of a ‘fan boost’ where the likes of you and me can vote for our favourite driver to receive a power boost during the race. That smacks of artificial nonsense, it could well end up with the same driver getting the boost at every round, although it has made many of the drivers turn to twitter to appeal for votes which I guess helps with driver/audience interaction.

The other thing I find a little off-putting is that during the course of the one hour races the drivers will have to change cars to make it to the end as the battery life will not last long enough to complete the distance. This is something I’m sure will be dropped in the future as the technology advances and the batteries last longer, but I think the general perception is that with a few exceptions, electric cars don’t go very fast and not for very long, so to see the drivers having to hop out mid-race to get a new car kind of solidifies that point of view, especially when you realise that a GP3 car, two rungs down from Formula 1 produces over 100bhp more. I possibly would have reduced the race distance until they didn't need to do that.

But I think these will be minor quibbles and as all the races will be on street tracks, they’ll look plenty fast. The noise is a concern as has been seen in F1 this year, but this series is starting off with their unique sound, so I don’t see it being a problem. As I’ve said it sounds rather futuristic, which is their whole philosophy anyway.

It makes me wonder how Formula 1’s bosses will react to this series if it proves to be a success. They have a decent first calendar, professional outfits and good driver names, many of which should probably be in Formula 1 if it weren’t for some teams need for drivers with a budget.Their inclusion of social media is surely a must for any national or international sport these days to connect with the fans who will at the end of the day, fund the sport. There is a danger that e could make 1 look a bit like a dinosaur. In a way it’s great that the hybrid power trains F1 now uses have come into effect in terms of relevance.

It’s still going to be hard for Formula e, Formula 1 spent a long time being a sport nobody watched until it became the global behemoth it is today. Formula e lacks the cache, the names, the glamour and even in this age, the noise of a world motor sport series that F1 has. However, I think if you compared the two sports as they stand right now you’d say Formula e has a clear direction, it has an electrical charge of modernity, it feels fresh while F1 seems to be in a state of permanent conflict where no one can agree with anything and they constantly talk themselves down despite the racing being absolutely superb this year.

It of course remains to be seen how this championship will be received by the wider public or whether it’ll be a niche series that like other global motor sports gets swallowed by the general public's perception that F1 is motor racing. I don’t think this series can overtake F1 as the standard bearer of motor racing, to be fair it’s CEO Alejandro Agag has never claimed to be a direct rival to Formula 1, but I do think it can be a success. Find out what it’s like for yourself, the first round is on the 13^th September 2014 in China with the finale in London on 27^th June next year. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

The half way point of F1 2014

The four week summer break is in full swing as the factories shut down and all team personnel supposedly get a decent holiday. Don’t worry though, there’s less than three weeks left until racing returns, so let’s have a very original half term report for the season so far, even though we’re actually nearly 58% through the season now, so a sort of half term report. Here we’ll pick some of the most impressive drivers, teams and results of the season so far. Of course with the highs come the lows, so we’ll wipe the feel good factor off with some of those too.

But let's start off with the racing, that has been a particular high this year. No one could tell how these new regulations were going to go but the battles throughout the field have been brilliant. Yes, I'd like the cars to make just a little more noise, but no one cares about that so much anymore. I'd also like the cars to be a bit faster, but they will be a lot quicker by next year I'd think.

So the counter point to this is the people in the highest echelons of Formula 1 slating the sport saying it's not good enough. The product is fine, but it seems those running the sport aren't sure how to sell it anymore, surely it's simple? Great racing powered by ever advancing technology that'll make your own cars better. That's the jist of it at least, it's a shame that while they ignore social media as a means of promotion they'll introduce video game gimmicks like double points or potentially standing restarts when no one was complaining about this in the first place.

Anyway let's go in no particular order with something impressive. Actually someone impressive, and I don’t think you have a better candidate than Daniel Ricciardo who has come to the top table of Formula 1 and astounded everyone, even the team who picked him. He adjusted to the new era of Formula 1 brilliantly, has consistently beat his quadruple world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, won two races, and raced hard, consistently and without fear. All with a beaming smile, the class act of 2014 so far.

We’ve kicked off with an impressive driver, so we’ll follow that up with a disappointment. I don’t think you can get more disappointing than the performance of Kimi Raikkonen so far this year. Not so much the way he’s driven, which to be fair he’s barely had a clean weekend all year with a variety of mechanical dramas and incidents. But the much anticipated rivalry of Kimi vs Fernando Alonso has been entirely irrelevant, Alonso, the master that he is has adapted to the new regulations well and can drag any car to positions it shouldn’t be whereas Kimi has singularly failed to master this new Formula 1, although there are signs it’s beginning to come to him.

Alonso though has once again been brilliant, after a slightly subdued 2013 this year has shown him on great form in a car which if anything is the worst he’s been provided with by Ferrari since he joined them. He so very nearly grabbed a victory in Hungary and it would have been richly deserved.

A rivalry which has most certainly not let us down is the one between our championship contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. The Silver Arrow squad had been preparing for this season probably before anyone else, their power unit is by far and away the best and their chassis a fine match. They’ve been the dominant team, so it’s to their great credit that they’ve given their drivers free reign to race how they want, mostly.

Hamilton and Rosberg have grabbed their opportunity well. Rosberg particularly has impressed with his attitude and his speed compared to Hamilton. Pretty much anything that has come his way he has taken advantage of which you need to do in order to build a championship. He’s not just leading because Lewis had problems, he’s still had to deliver when it’s mattered. Six pole positions to Lewis’ four is probably the most impressive statistic.

Hamilton of course was always going to impress this year. In a car that finally matches his talent once again he has demonstrated his ample speed in a variety of ways. He’s had dominant wins, defensive victories, charges to the podium. Whatever it is, he can do it. It’s a shame he’s had a number of reliability problems which have meant his qualifying has been affected, although he made several mistakes too. That he’s come back from that and lies only 11 points behind Rosberg shows how well he’s done and how much stronger his head is these days, although sometimes you still sense a bit of fragility. It’s time for the damage limitation races to stop though and get back to winning ways because the most impressive thing about Rosberg is his consistency which doesn’t look like dropping any time soon, this is a fight to the end.

Williams have also impressed this year. At the beginning of the year it looked like they were wasting their obviously good pace, but as things have gone on and particularly it seems since Rob Smedley came over from Ferrari to take up the position of Head of Vehicle Performance they have been making the most of their potential. Three podiums and one pole position, the only team to have beaten the Mercedes to the top slot on the grid, show they are heading in the right direction.

They seem most at home on the quick tracks as a result of their Mercedes Power Unit and slippery aerodynamics so maybe look out for a surprise result at Spa or Monza, the next two races on the schedule. Valtteri Bottas has been particularly notable this season, scoring all three of the teams podiums and being the most consistent of the two drivers. Felipe Massa seems refreshed after his time at Ferrari but has got involved in too many accidents, whether they be his fault or not. Bottas looks to be the go to driver of the team and he’s certainly taking the title of the grid’s top flying Finn.

By contrast Lotus have been a huge disappointment so far this season and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better for them this year. Everyone knew this former world champion team from Enstone were in huge financial trouble last year, there was much said about drivers and staff not getting paid on time or at all.

Well that was supposedly sorted out but it didn’t stop a number of high profile figures from leaving including designer James Allison, Eric Boullier and Kimi Raikkonen. It obviously affected how they approached this year too, they missed the first test and their power unit and car still don’t seem to work in harmony all that well resulting in a number of retirements particularly for Pastor Maldonado who has had a wretched year.

There might be more of a sense of optimism if they’d shown a hint of consistently decent pace but it’s not forthcoming. I feel particularly sorry for Romain Grosjean who looked like he was coming of age last year and certainly a potential race winner if not more. He’ll have to put those plans on hold for now and I hope the frustration won’t result in his driving taking a dive.

Of course a lot of their trouble comes from the Renault power plant who have been a massive let down this year to their teams and to the championship. They were months behind schedule during winter testing but although they've made progress it's not enough although thats mostly to do with the engine freeze until the season finishes. 

While we’re talking of disappointments I’m not sure you can go far without talking about three major ones; Sebastian Vettel, McLaren and Ferrari. Well I’ve talked a great deal about Vettel here, so read up, but in brief he’s just not got how to drive these cars and he’s being beaten by a newcomer to the team comprehensively. However, there are signs things are getting better.

There aren’t too many optimistic signs for McLaren or Ferrari this year. How can these two legends of the sport once again fail to come up with the goods. Ferrari have slipped further back, although Alonso did bring them a sniff of victory in Hungary, but other than that it’s once again been his genius that’s elevated them far above where they should be.

McLaren continue to struggle. It started so well with a double podium, Kevin Magnussen looked awesome, Jenson Button looked strong. Button still does look impressive, he has more than double the points of Magnussen so is leading the way in that respect, although at other times he has looked lost as has the team. Even when an opportunity presents itself such as in Hungary they cast it aside and say it doesn’t fit their logic. Their logic is unfortunately skewed  at the moment, but with Honda coming on board a fresh start is on the horizon. Unfortunately for them it’s not much to do with their power unit and more to do with their chassis as to where the problem lies…

Let’s end this bit with some good cheer, Magnussen has been a good rookie for McLaren and was expected to be the best new comer to the grid, but Daniil Kvyat has been by far the most impressive arrival to the 2014 grid. A Red Bull young driver, he’s come into the Toro Rosso team and immediately been on it. He was GP3 champion last year, scoring points on his debut in Australia when just 19 years old. He’s qualified in the top 10 a number of times, only reliability holding him back in the races. He’s got a strong future in front of him.

And finally let’s sign off with some great results to reminisce about from the first half. Marussia’s ninth place in Monaco was remarkable and unexpected, but just brilliant. Felipe Massa’s pole position for Williams in Austria broke Mercedes hold on the Saturday top spot, it was great to see such a beautiful livery lead the grid round at the start.

The Mercedes 1-2 in Bahrain after such an epic wheel to wheel fight gave the world a huge thrill and a giant sigh of relief when it was truly realised Mercedes would let the championship contenders race to the flag. A number of Alonso’s drives have been superb, the battle between him and Vettel at Silverstone was superb. But in terms of bravado Ricciardo summed his season up when he took on two world champions in Hungary and beat them. Admittedly on fresher tyres but he still had to make the moves.

I’m sure there’s many obvious ones I’ve missed but I’m equally sure there’s a lot more to come and what better place to kick off the sort of second half of the year than at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The most impressive of tracks, the most mixed up weather and the perfect place to let battle recommence. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Sebastian Vettel fighting back

“When he [Vettel] will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1… When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles in a worse manner than they are doing now.”

There’s a German leading the championship in the best car in 2014. It’s not Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull though. However, the Red Bull team have mostly been the second best out there and have taken two victories so far this year, but neither was scored by their four time champion. Two facts which make the above quote from Fernando Alonso at the tail end of last year stand out just a little bit more.

At the time of Vettel’s victorious years many in the F1 world wondered whether it was just the car catapulting him to win after win. Could it be that he was merely a good driver piloting an exceptional car? I wondered during winter testing when it became apparent that Red Bull would be facing an uphill battle if Vettel would struggle when confronted with a car which wasn’t an immediate front runner.

In brief I speculated that with the banning of blown diffusers, something Vettel had exceptional technique with and a major advantage of the Red Bull if he’d full back in the pack. Further to that the conservatism with which Pirelli approached this season because of the huge torque coming from the new for 2014 hybrid turbo power units, and the fact that I think they were fed up with their tyres being blamed for everything took another advantage of Vettel’s away. He was brilliant at getting the best out of those more brittle tyres, better than anyone else.

Two major elements had been taken away along with a whole chunk of downforce and one major addition of a power unit where the throttle pedal is extremely sensitive, unlike in the blown diffuser era where you practically stepped on it and let the aero sort you out, it would stick in the corner, now it won’t. It doesn't help that his Renault power unit is the worst in the field as much as 90bhp down on th Mercedes.

I thought back in February that if Vettel were to struggle it would be an ideal opportunity for his new team mate Daniel Ricciardo, promoted from Toro Rosso, to take advantage. But Vettel is a four time world champion, so I dismissed this as a possibility but highly unlikely. As has become quite clear during this season, never dismiss Ricciardo for the young Australian is a brilliant talent.

He leads Vettel in qualifying by 6-5 which should actually be 7-4 as Ricciardo suffered a 10 place grid penalty in Bahrain which put him behind his team mate. In the races he is even further ahead. When both cars have finished Ricciardo has beaten Vettel 6-1.

Ricciardo has scored five podiums of which two were wins and this is not including the second place he was disqualified from in his home race. Vettel has managed to get on the podium just twice this year and each time it was the bottom step. For all the world to see these statistics provide a compelling case, when he’s finished it’s been mostly fourths and fifths, kind of what Alonso said might be the case if Vettel were to sit in a car which wasn’t the best, you know that’s what the Spaniard was implying.

First of all that shouldn’t take anything away from Vettel’s achievements of the previous four years, it was a different era of Formula 1, one in which he exploited the potential of the machinery available to him to the full. In that era, with that technology he was unsurpassed. This is a very different Formula 1, one in which he hasn’t yet got used to. 

Alonso is a brilliant driver, probably the best all-rounder in the business, he can adapt to anything that comes his way, to me that makes a great driver. His current team mate Kimi Raikkonen was meant to challenge him but Alonso has wiped the floor with him, I don’t think that means Kimi is suddenly a bad driver. He has been brilliant these past few years, but something about this new era doesn’t sit well with him a bit like Vettel.

Vettel is sensitive to change, he needs a car where the back end will stick, something that the cars are not capable of doing to the extent they have been in the recent past. Vettel has not been able to change his style and feel comfortable in the car whereas Ricciardo has jumped in straight from Toro Rosso which didn’t have as advanced blown diffuser technology and straight away adapted to this new Formula. He is a team mate who is eager for success, something Vettel has not had to put up with for a while as probably since 2011 Mark Webber was demotivated a lot of the time after losing his one shot at the title.

This doesn’t mean he won’t learn how to deal with these cars or that success has somehow dulled his driving when he’s got to fight harder for it. If anything his frustrated radio messages this year show just how much more he wants, just how annoyed he is at being beaten. This car and this team mate is the toughest time he's ever had in Formula 1, even though he denies this. Ricciardo has been constantly shading him in qualifying. Just when you think Vettel might have the beating of the Aussie, Ricciardo pulls a lap out of the bag. In the races Ricciardo is feisty, attacking, amazingly consistent, including the Mercedes drivers, he has probably been the most impressive driver of the season so far.

Vettel is up against a star of the future, just like Alonso was when Lewis Hamilton got his chance at McLaren when the Spaniard was beaten. This is plainly not some journeyman driver who has turned up at Red Bull, he’s been through the same young driver program Vettel himself went through, there is little doubt that Vettel is up against a future world champion.

Having said that, there are signs that Vettel is turning a corner, especially since FRIC suspension was banned, he looked strong in Germany and out-qualified Ricciardo in Hungary. But even before then, he hasn’t been quite as trounced by Ricciardo as it might seem; it could be argued that both Ricciardo’s wins could have been Vettel’s. Delays in traffic meant he exited behind Ricciardo after pit stops in Canada when he was running in front for most of the race. It could well have been him who took advantage of the struggling Mercedes.

In Hungary he was in third when the safety car came out as he was passing the pit lane, just behind Ricciardo was one of the first into the pits which put him into the lead at the restart. Circumstance has not gone his way nor has reliability, it’s like they’ve given him Webber’s car.

So yes, Vettel has been out performed this year, he hasn’t made the best of the equipment at his disposal, so he’s certainly not out-performing the car like a great can. However, he has out-performed the car in previous years (Red Bull never had an advantage like Mercedes have this year), he is improving in this era and he is beginning to match an exceptional young driver.

Might you have expected more from a four time champion? Yes, quite probably, but this car doesn’t suit him, but it’s coming to him and I will not be surprised to see him match and beat Ricciardo more often after the summer break. He won’t dominate him like Webber, he may not even beat him overall this year, but he’ll match him. He is a very intelligent driver, very mechanical minded and he won’t leave a piece of telemetry unturned until he’s worked out how to succeed once again.

It’s not all lost for Vettel, he’s only just turned 27, he is still learning himself and sometimes it does you good to experience losing. But he won’t want it to last for long. He has achieved great success, but is he a great yet? Greatness is too often bandied around, greatness is earned, it’s about how you achieve success, how you exploit it when the opportunity arises and how you get it back when times are tough. Vettel is going through those hard times, but as the season continues and turns into 2015 I won’t be surprised to see him standing atop the podium once again. He’s turning a corner, adjusting, and it may take until next year, but it’s coming to him, and he’ll make sure it does.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

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.

Will Fernando Alonso ever win another title?

Fernando Alonso is arguably the best driver currently racing in Formula 1. He’s a two time world champion who has proved his worth in the best cars and most certainly in many poorer cars as he drags them to wins and podiums they shouldn’t be achieving. He’s come so close to adding another title but missed out so often but with Ferrari continuing to squander the talents of their lead driver and the Spaniard certainly in the latter stages of his career will he get another opportunity to secure the third title he so desperately craves? 

Since he won his last world championship all the way back in 2006 for Renault, he has fought for a further three, all of which he perhaps should have won in 2007, 2010 and 2012. Two of which, and one in particular when he was driving a car which just didn’t deserve to be competing at the front, let alone nearly winning the world championship.

After winning for Renault he joined McLaren which was a tumultuous season and which quickly meant an exit back to Renault to have two relatively uncompetitive years where he scored just two wins and failed to win in 2009. But everyone knew he was still fighting as hard as he could mostly, especially when a sniff of a decent result came along.

Ferrari likes to have the best driver available and so rescued him for what would surely become one of the most successful partnerships in the sport. It hasn’t been. Admittedly it should have accrued him at least another two titles but that was more down to the driver than the team. This Alonso-Ferrari combination is now entering its fifth season together and if you go on the Michael Schumacher-Ferrari formula of success, it should be bearing the fruits of countless winners trophies. But it isn’t, it’s probably going to result in Alonso’s first winless season since the dark days of 2009, and that is just unacceptable to a man of Alonso’s quality and drive to succeed.

His lack of winning titles hasn’t done his reputation any harm at all. If anything it’s enhanced it greatly. 2012 should go down as one of the best examples of driving a near perfect season as anyone has ever seen only derailed by others mistakes, and I’m sure it will for the many knowledgeable fans out there, but for the casual fan the name written next to 2012 as the championship winner will be Sebastian Vettel’s and that’s all they’ll know.

I think it would be a tragedy for a driver the calibre of Alonso to end his career without another world title especially because in my opinion he is so much better now than when he won his first two titles. Is Alonso destined to be a driver remembered for just a couple of titles but mainly for outperforming his machinery? 

There’s something heroic about that, but in the end it’s not what gets you recognised as a true great around the world, success is the true barometer of a sportman’s legacy for many, and unfortunately for Fernando that’s been in short supply for too long. He needs another title, as if you cared to you could question his first two championships? When Kimi was a true speed king, he might well have won in 2005 if his McLaren hadn’t have been so unreliable. 2006 too, Schumacher probably should have won if it were not for an engine failure while leading at the penultimate race. 

I do tend to look at it another way though, 2005 he maximised his machinery and as is his way, built a championship, won when he could, maximised the points available if he couldn’t. He took the title with two races left to run. His 2006 title will always remain one which should be highly regarded as he battled an at his peak Schumacher to the last race of the season and beat him in pretty equal machinery. But since then he has played second fiddle to Vettel as the young German has exploited the maximum potential of the Red Bull machinery. Alonso has been the main guy to push Vettel, always the one challenging when perhaps he shouldn’t be. It's caused him much frustration to watch Vettel rack up the wins in a superior car when Alonso believes he's not as good as his four championships suggest.

On the Sky sports website, it was noted that that once again it was Alonso who was mixing it with this year’s dominant power unit Mercedes, but asked if he got much satisfaction from outperforming his car he replied tellingly. ‘"Not much," he sighed. "It's been five years like this. There is always satisfaction that everyone believes you are always performing at your best. There's the respect from drivers, Team Principals and fans for the job that you do. But I prefer to have no respect and to win more trophies."’

And there’s the rub of it. Alonso has made no secret of the fact that he deeply desires a third world title to put him amongst the greats like Ayrton Senna (although there’s plenty of great double world champions too), but as he approaches his 33rd birthday in just a month, time is running out for him to achieve his ambition.

You could say he has at least another four to five seasons but at the moment he is contracted at Ferrari until 2016, a team which should be producing consistently competitive cars but which have now been struggling to do that for over five years. Periodically Ferrari go through fallow periods, I don’t expect this one to last as long as the 21 year wait that Schumacher ended in 2000, but it’s not unreasonable to say it could be longer than four or five years.

Ferrari has been struggling with the calibration of their wind tunnel and even the supposed fix for this season doesn’t seem to be producing. They’ve brought in people like Pat Fry who designed for McLaren before and James Allison who was at Lotus and worked for Ferrari in the latter stages of the Ferrari steamroller of success. After the Schumacher era though, the core group of people that made the team work so harmoniously fell apart gradually, and it hasn’t had that same harmony since. It’s like trying to tape up a cut when it needs stitches; it’s not going to get better quickly. It’s taken Alonso to drag the limping horse to its feet these past few years and he continues to do that this season as he makes a mockery of the excitement that (an admittedly struggling) Kimi Raikkonen would challenge him as his team mate this year. 

Alonso publically maintains belief that Ferrari can step up next season, but it always seems to be next season at the moment with scarlet team. So where could he go? It’s well known his management team did a bit of investigating at Red Bull last season, but the likelihood is that with the immediate success of Daniel Ricciardo partnering Vettel, that driver combination will remain for a few years yet, although if Vettel doesn’t start beating Ricciardo a bit more you never know. 

McLaren have Honda coming on board next year, it’s a partnership that should work but McLaren aren’t exactly producing great chassis at the moment either and it’s bound to take a few years for this partnership to come to fruition. Despite saying things to the contrary I’m not sure Ron Dennis would want Alonso back after the 2007 spy gate affair lead to his acrimonious departure after just one season of a three year contract.

Mercedes? I think they’re quite happy with Nico Rosberg and Hamilton to be honest despite a Mercedes board member heaping praise on the Spaniard. I’m not sure any team would really want to put Alonso and Hamilton together again.  There really doesn’t seem anywhere open to him that would be immediately competitive. I’m afraid also that his reputation of throwing his toys out of his pram on occasion at Renault, the bust up at McLaren and the increasingly frosty relationship he seems to have at Ferrari has put people off him, he could disrupt the team especially if a team mate gets too close for comfort.

Unfortunately for Alonso he looks stuck at Ferrari as his best bet and that might mean he may never win a title again. As the younger generation become more established and he is in the latter years of his career, it becomes increasingly unlikely that a team will look to him to lead them for the future. After this season it will have been eight years since he won the world title. It wouldn’t be right for his career to be defined by early success and then a constant fight with sub-optimal cars that he out drove.

However, I’m not sure it would be right for him to jump into the best car and beat everyone either. No, for a fighter such as Alonso I think it would be far more poetic for him to create the perfect season as his legacy in a car just off the best. To drag and cajole it to perform miracles that no one on the grid (apart from perhaps Lewis when the mood takes him) could do. 

It’s obviously frustrated him to be given substandard machinery, after the epic 2012, last season he seemed subdued sometimes but who can forget that stare after he lost the title in the final round, it spoke of just total amazement and devastation, it was like he couldn’t quite believe that he could have lost after everything he’d done. He had put so much effort into 2012 that I think it was inevitable that after all he had done for Ferrari and they once again failed to keep up their side of the bargain that he would be sometimes below par. 

However he has regained the fight this year despite another poor car. I truly believe he can recreate a 2012 performance again. He might want to do it in the best car, but I’m not sure Ferrari can give him that for a while and there are no openings elsewhere. One more perfect season Fernando, he can be king again and he deserves to be.

all photo's taken from autosport.com