F1-Blog

It was not quite the race that McLaren and Lewis were hoping for after their domination in Australia. It was however an interesting race, as it showed that the season is not going to be the two horse race that we have had in recent seasons.

Ferrari shone all weekend, and where pretty much unbeatable, Felipe was looking fast, as was Kimi, and the Ferrari with it’s minor changes to improve cooling looked strong.

The race started under a little cloud, the McLaren team had been penalised five grid spots for both of their cars, this was because Lewis and Heikki had impeded Heidfeld and Alonso’s fast laps at the end of the Q3 session.

This put the two lower fueled McLarens into eight and ninth place, in and around heavier fueld cars. This did however show us that both the McLaren and Lewis are quick away from the line, the Brit lined up ninth on the grid, and finished the first set of corners in fifth, Mark Webber did well getting the Red Bull into fourth as well.

This left the two Ferrari’s of Felipe and Kimi running out front, and pulling away from the chasing pack. Timo Glock was again unlucky, with Nick Heidfeld bumping him into retirement, but some might say it was only fair, as Glock’s team mate Jarno Trulli had bumped Heidfeld at the first corner when he understeered into the German.

Lewis was having issues with his tyre selection, it was perhaps the wrong choice to use the option tyre, especially after the heavy rains in the night caused the track to loose some of it’s rubbering in. He started to come back at Webber as his tyres wore away, and the car regained some grip levels. Lewis sat behind the Red Bull for a few laps, then got lucky when the Red Bull pitted, this released Lewis who set some good times. Webber’s stop was not without issues, his rear safety light was loose, and had to be snapped off during his stop, he then suffered an air pump issue that caused problems during the race.

Hamilton had his second unfortunate turn of the day (after being penalised), he pitted on lap 20, but the wheel bolt and aero guard on the front right wheel was stuck with what looked like a lot of brake dust, and Lewis’s pit stop took 20 seconds, and Lewis was again fighting his way back up past Webber again, after going through the graining issues on another set of soft tyres, he managed to re-catch the Ausie, but again could not pass him on the track.

While everyone else was fighting their battles down the track, Felipe and Kimi were out front in their own duel, Kimi kept catching upto his Brazilian team mate, but the turbulent air would not allow him to put a move on to get to the front.

Massa pitted on lap 18, this released an amazingly fast Kimi from behind him, he put in a superb lap on his pit entry lap, when the two drivers had finished their first round of stops, Kimi had taken the lead. Felipe tried to stay with Kimi, but it all came to naught when Felipe lost the back end of the Ferrari and beaching the car in the gravel. This adds more fuel to the fire that Felipe is struggling to get to grips with the loss of the electronic driver aids.

It was good news for the teams following, Robert Kubica had been running third, in a race all of his own, and was promoted to second spot. Another driver with a battle on his hands was Jarno Trulli. The Toyota driver was running a great race, but coming under pressure from  Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren. Heikki got ahead of the Toyota, but it was a good showing from the team, as most of the time they were running laps equal to the McLaren cars.

Lewis Hamilton came under attack from Nick Heidfeld late on in the race, with Nick setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, something BMW cannot be too happy about.

Webber’s Red Bull hung on and took seventh spot, with the Renault of Fernando managing the last point with eight.

So from this we can gather the following.

• The Ferrari trouble at Australia seemed a little bit of a fluke, however the team have still only had one car finish in two races, so the Manufacturers title could be difficult unless they start finishing both cars in decent positions.
• BMW have certainly taken a big step towards the front of the grid, and will no doubt win a race in the not too distant future.
• Toyota have made a colossal improvement, just being able to run with the McLarens is a huge leap, lets hope for Trulli and Glock’s stake that the team can keep up the development on the car.
• The Red Bulls may be fragile, but are quick when they want to be, it’s not unlike Adrian Newey to try pair down the car and parts on it to their absolute tolerance, and I think that’s why we have seen big braking on the car when involved in accidents.
• The Renault really is not quick, and if Fernando really did bring the team 6 tenths of a second, then the Renault was a real dog of a car.
• The Honda is definitely a step in the right direction, lets hope Ross Brawn can now inject a little more pace.

With a couple of weeks until the next race, the teams have a chance to put any issues that these first two races have pointed out right, but with limited time they will have to prioritise any things they need to do.

Results

Without doubt the Ferrari’s where the cars to beat this time out, however Massa managed to throw his car off the road and into the gravel to end his race. Kimi however kept his head, and finished the race on the top step of the podium.

Lewis had an on/off race, at points showing great pace, but his luck was not good, as he had issues when the tyres were graining, and had a right front wheel stick at his first stop, which culminated in his wheel deflector on that wheel not being fitted properly for the whole of his second stint. He managed to finish in fifth in the end.

It was a good battle in the final stages of the race between Hamilton and Jarno Trulli who finished a deserved fourth in the Toyota, showing that the Japanese team have real pace in the car.

Heikki raced a mature race, moving up the field and finishing third. Kubbica raced well too, to take the second spot, however there was not much footage of him through the race as he was on his own.

Heidfeld dropped off the back of Hamilton after the second pit stops, but this was because Hamilton was setting personal best times trying to overtake Trulli.

The other interesting battle at the end of the race was for seventh and eighth, and was arguably a battle of the Renault’s. Alonso’s factory Renaul was battling against Webber in the customer Renault powered Red Bull. Webber managed to hold the two times world champion off until the end of the race.

Full race report later.

So a quick rundown

1. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
2. Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber
3. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren
4. Jarno Trulli - Toyota
5. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
6. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber
7. Mark Webber - Red Bull Racing
8. Fernando Alonso - Renault

The McLaren drivers have both been penalised 5 places on the grid for tomorrows race for blocking Nick Heidfeld during his fast lap.

The McLaren team’s Martin Whitmarsh said “We accept the stewards’ decisions, but would like to add that neither Lewis nor Heikki impeded any of their competitors deliberately. It was an unfortunate incident, nothing more, nothing less. We look forward to tomorrow’s race”

That’s bad news for the drivers, however I would be surprised if they where the only ones to block, as Fernando Alonso was certainly blocked on his lap as well.

So Heikki will now start 8th and Lewis 9th.

Rain is looking likely, so we will see how the teams fair.

The Ferrari’s looked good in qualifying. Both of the Scarlet cars are on the front of the grid, with Massa taking the pole spot.

The McLaren’s looked slower all qualifying session, so it seems that they may have put a little more fuel in the cars, and went for the second row, which they got. Heikki managing to take third spot, with Hamilton looking out of sorts and struggling to keep Trulli’s Toyota behind him.

Trulli is surely the shock of the session though, setting the fastest time in Q1, and then the ‘best of the rest’ for fifth spot in the final Q3 session.

The two BMW’s follow Trulli in sixth and seventh for Kubica and Heidfeld, Webber managing to take eighth, Alonso ninth and the second Toyota of Timo Glock on the tenth spot.

It was quite a dangerous session though, with Alonso and Heidfeld both trying to set times at the end of the session, with all the other cars touring very slowly in fuel saving mode back to the pit’s. There will certainly have to be some sort of ruling stopping the cars going so slowly when they have finished their own final fast lap.

So it seems that the Ferrari’s are the fastest boys around the Sepang circuit, at least over one lap, and we know that the team usually have good race pace. So can McLaren or perhaps even Trulli take the fight to them tomorrow in the race?

Why ITV does not show this session I don’t know, but looking at the timing screen it’s a strange layout in the times.

David Coulthard and Mark Webber where on track, and both finished the session, so it looks like the car has been cleared for qualifying at least.

The BMW in the hands of Nick Heidfeld is looking racey again (at least on one lap), the Ferrari’s are both there in the times, as is the Toyota of Trulli.

Piquet did a decent enough time, so perhaps he is settling into the sport, and Button looks good in the Honda.

The top 11 drivers were inside a second of each other on this session, and some of the drivers will have no doubt been working on race configurations for the wet weather that is forcast.

Qualifying should be interesting.

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Just watching the Live coverage of the test session 1, and it looks like Kimi has again been forced to leave his car out on track, and walk back to the pits.

Have Ferrari still got the same issues as they did in Australia? it is another hot session in Malaysia. Kimi seemed to loose drive, as the onboard shots had him trying to change up, with the engine then not wanting to rev, and eventually shutting itself down, forcing Kimi to coast.

Also David Coulthard will not be taking any more part in this session, after missing the apex at a chicane entry, he ran over the second part of the corners grass inside, he then hit what must have been a kerb sticking out of the grass, and had the front end of his Red Bull collapse on him. Lots of work for the Red Bull Mechanics if he wants to be out in session 2.

DC’s off caused the session to be Red Flagged so that the track could be cleaned, and the car moved.

So far the fastest cars are the Ferrari’s and McLaren’s, with the two Toyota’s next up, with Trulli about half a second slower than Hamilton.

All the drivers so far seem to be struggling on entry into the last hairpin corner, with Timo Glock complaining about rear wheel lockup over his pit radio to the mechanics. Seems all the drivers are finding life in F1 without traction control and engine breaking less easy than they thought.

Update - Seems to be a bad day for Red Bull, Mark Webber’s Renault engine has just decided to blow up half way down the final straight. Fortunately he could just duck off and come into the pits, but there was certainly flames involved, so those Red Bull mechanics have a busy day ahead of them to get both cars out again for practice 2.

Update - Session ended, another couple of things worth noting. Massa looks quick, as does Nico Rosberg in all but the last sector. Vettel had a shock coming into the final hairpin, like Mark Webber last week he had a front brake disk explode on him. I would assume the teams use the same supplier, so there may be a design issue there somewhere.

Not 100% sure, but Lewis looked to abort a lap after having an off, running round the outside of a corner on the slim safety strip, and returned to the pits at a slow pace, whether he had just had enough, or whether there was an issue with the car we will have to wait and see.

Fastest five were, Massa, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso.

Just a quick reminder that the Practice sessions, Qualifying and the Race will be streamed live through the ITV-F1.com site.

Also have a look at my previous post’s on the streaming, as people outside the UK can get it

Oh, and here is the Direct Link / UPDATE - New Direct Link to the video feed. I have left the old direct link up, as this will go live if there is issues with the ‘new’ way that ITV have integrated the player.

UPDATE - I’ve tried out a couple of UK proxies, and they seem to work for me (after remoting through one of our US network locations), so it seems that works ok. Also ITV, please up the bitrate you broadcast in, it looks rubbish on my media center through the telly.

Oh and another quick thing, Oliver has a poll going over on BlogF1 to see who you think should be in the BBC commentary team, go have your say.

The BBC have announced a 5 year deal to show the Formula 1 show on the BBC.

The deal that starts next year, and give the fans what their crying out for, F1 without the bad timed adverts.

The Beeb also get the right’s for online broadcasting and keep their radio licence as well, so all bases covered.

Bernie had this to say about the deal, “I think it will be good, a fresh face. I’m not complaining about ITV, I’m not saying they did a bad job or anything like that. But with all the other things they are loaded up with - and who knows they will get some more stuff - maybe it will be a bit more difficult to spend as much time on us. I think the BBC will do that.”

Dominic Coles (BBC Sport director of sport rights), “The biggest motorsporting event in the world is returning home after 12 years. We were delighted when Bernie Ecclestone approached us about the return of F1 to the BBC. F1 is a crown jewel of sports broadcasting, so to bring the rights back to their traditional home from 2009 is tremendously exciting. Fans will be able to enjoy uninterrupted, state of the art and innovative coverage from BBC Sport, across all of our TV, radio and new media platforms, for the first time since 1996.”

The question on everyone’s lips must be however why the ITV have stepped away from their current 5 year deal half way through (they were scheduled to broadcast till 2010), Roger Mosey (BBC Sport Director) said “Our understanding is that F1 did have a termination right at the end of the 2008 season, and that appears to be what has happened, and we’re absolutely delighted F1 will be back on the BBC this time next year.”

Murray Walker had this to say “I’m absolutely flabbergasted - I was lying in bed listening to the news this morning and I almost fell out of bed when I heard it. It’s an amazing development because I think ITV did and do a superb job, and I think there is more to this than meets the eye.”

BBC sports news correspondent Adam Parsons said: “ITV are saying it was a straightforward commercial decision. A lot of people I have spoken to today have queried that. Within ITV, what they are saying is that even though Lewis Hamilton is great, even though the Brazilian Grand Prix got a huge viewing figures, that actually over the course of a year viewing figures are not that impressive, they’re not that great. A lot of races are happening at night, they’re not happening at peak time. That it is not particularly good value for money. The other side of that is the BBC is saying, Lewis Hamilton and the ripple effect of that is wonderful, millions of people tune in and the Brazilian GP was the most-watched sports event of last year. You might say ITV would rather bad-mouth it because they’ve just lost the rights but on the one hand they’re saying straightforward commercial decision. But on the other plenty of people are saying that having spent a decade broadcasting when a German, a Finn and a Spaniard were winning world titles, it seems a bit curious to pull out when a Brit is on the verge of winning it.”

Who from the current comentation crew will come over to the Beeb, please tell me James Allen will not!

Update - The Times have an article up quoting Dominic Coles “When Lewis Hamilton did a test lap on Top Gear it got more viewers than the Brazilian Grand Prix. Bernie was very impressed with the Top Gear proposition and there will be cross-fertilisation between the show and the races.”

So it looks like the Top Gear crew could be involved with the Beeb’s broadcasting of F1, and Hammond in particular. I can’t say that would be a bad thing, the only worry would be that in making the sport more open to non F1 fans, they could dilute it too much. One of the reason’s I watch F1 is for the engineering and developments that go on. I love Top Gear don’t get me wrong, but I’m not 100% sure the two would marry up. But hey, time will tell I suppose, and as long as James Allen is not part of the commenting crew, all’s good!

The second of our 2008 fly away opening races is upon us, just one week after the Australian GP.

This one is again a difficult, hot race, and cars that had heat issues last week will probably have more of the same.

Sepang is also a challenging circuit for the engines, even if the heat is not too bad as it has a very high percentage of full throttle around the 3.444 miles (5.543km) circuit. It seems that this might be the last of the daytime races, as the organisers have put in to be allowed to run at night from 2009.

This will be the tenth time the teams have been around the track, and it’s always an interesting race as there are a fair few overtaking opportunities  to be had if the drivers are brave enough.

The track used to be dominated by the Schumacher brothers, with Michael winning three times and Ralf having won in 2002 driving for Williams (BMW). Since then Fernando has won twice at the track and his then team mate Giancarlo Fisichella won the 2006 race in the Renault.

Don’t expect the Renault’s to win it this year though, as the team still have some work to do to become competitive at the front again, so it would look from the stat’s that the win should goto a Ferrari (4 wins), but I think I will hedge a bet on one of the McLaren’s (2 Wins) this time round.

The McLaren cars start strong this race, they had a technically trouble free race at Australia in the high heat, so it seems that the team’s cooling strategy for the Mercedes engine is a good one. Ferrari will be wanting to make amends for their dreadful showing last week though, and have new engines in both cars, so as long as they can make them last Kimi and Filipe will no doubt be strong.

BMW and Williams are the two dark outsiders, BMW showed exemplary pace last week, and have certainly taken a step towards the front, with drivers to match, Nick Heidfeld has taken the team lead role well, and his level headed driving earned him the second spot last week, that is matched perfectly with the fast and exciting driving style of Robert Kubicca, so expect the team to be there or thereabouts.

Williams is a little more difficult to judge, Nico Rosberg has taken to the role of team leader, and settled down into a good, fast, dependable driver. Kazuki Nakajima however is still an unknown. Yes he has some pedigree, but I wonder if it’s perhaps a year too soon for the Japanese driver in F1.

The Red Bull team are probably going to look good, as may the Toyota team, however it is still uncertain if Timo Glock will be racing, as he is said to still be having issues after his big shunt last week. If he does not drive, then the third driver Kamui Kobayashi will take the seat for the race, and he is a complete unknown, however has shown turns of speed in his Formula Renault days.

Remember that ITV-F1.com is showing all of the sessions live, so make sure your up at 2am and 6am on Friday for the Practice sessions.

Google Earth View of Sepang Circuit

Stats :

Fastest Lap : 1:36.701 - Lewis Hamilton
Pole Time : 1:35.043 - Filipe Massa
Most Wins : 4 by John McDonald

‘I’m uploading the ITV-F1 stream of the highlight’s. This has all the bumps and bangs, including the Timo Glock accident.

For those that want the DivX version, download it here

Oh well, suppose it was only a matter of time, the FOM have asked for the video to be removed, so I have. Appologies.

I just wish the FOM would put a decent video subset up of their own, and it would not come to this, after all we ARE in the 21st century nowadays.

FOM Sort your life out, the F1 is a highly watched sport, with a high interest level in it. I am sure you can monetise video content on your site if you were to do it (properly, not that lame attempt you currently have). After all I’m sure there is more than one sponsor that would fund it for you. Give the fans what they want! After all we are what makes you all of your money!