F1-Blog

The Spanish GP turned out to be a bit of an interesting beast. Yes the racing was not amazing (as it rarely is at the Circuit de Catalunya), but from a technical and strategy standpoint it was a very interesting mix.

The first European GP of the year is always where strange things turn up, not only in the car designs, but in the changes to where the teams perceived performance.

This year is no different, going into the race everyone was saying that the Ferrari’s with their new nose design would run off and hide all weekend, this was shock number one, they didn’t, in fact the other teams where a lot closer than we thought they would be.

The Renault’s were the next shock, looking pacey all weekend, then Fernando getting second spot on the grid. Everyone dismissed this, saying Fernando was doing a glory run on low fuel for his fans, it turned out he was not as light as people thought, pitting only two laps ahead of the Ferrari’s.

Then we have McLaren, everyone thought they were going to be playing catch up all weekend, but after working out fuel differences it seems that they were not far off the Ferrari qualifying pace, if at all, and it seems they just misjudged the amount of fuel the other teams would run in Q3 as they went the longest of the front running teams in the first stint. The cars did not look as planted as the Ferrari’s, but then Lewis like his car setup to be loose, so not really a big issue.

Almost all teams however brought changes to their cars, Honda being the most visible with the dumbo wings nose design, reminiscent to what we got a glimpse of last year.

So with the off track stuff dealt with, let’s get onto the race.

It started well for the Ferrari’s, with Massa getting the jump on Alonso’s Renault, and went into the first corner in second spot. It was also a good start for Lewis Hamilton, jumping ahead of Robert Kubicca up the inside into turn one, giving him fourth spot behind the Renault and two Ferrari’s.

Everyone seemed to squeeze through turn one unscathed, but the carnage did not hold up for long, Adrian Sutil caused a short stint for the safety car when he tried an adventurous undertake at turn four touching David Coulthard’s car and spinning out, Sebastian Vettel was the unlucky driver to collect Sutil, destroying both drivers chances.

After the race resumed it seemed to be a rather status quo affair, with nobody seeming to be able to get better than 2 seconds behind the car in front. This is a problem at this track, as the high levels of downforce required completely hinder close quarters running.

There were a few scraps up and down the field, with Nelson Piquet having an off in his Renault, putting him back to 18th spot. He then went and added insult to injury, when trying to overtake Sebastien Bourdais with a run up the inside of the French driver he managed to take both cars out of the race. It seems Bourdais just did not see him coming, and the result was two more cars retiring. The earlier off from Piquet also took Anthony Davidson out of the race, as the gravel that was brought back onto the track managed to get through the Super Aguri’s radiator protection, and cause a leak that ended the Brit’s race.

The front runner Pitstops started on lap 16, when Fernando brought his Renault in for it’s first stop, later than a lot of people had predicted, it seems he was not running quite as light as some expected, as Felipe Massa only lasted another three laps, then we had Kimi coming in on lap 22, with Lewis on Lap 23, showing that the McLaren should have been further up the grid if it had run a more aggressive strategy in Q3.

While all the stop were happening, Heikki was leading the race, and before he could make his stop for fuel, he suffered a massive accident at turn nine, when his front left wheel failed on entry to the 140mph corner. The wheel failure allowed the tyre to instantly deflate, and Heikki had no chance to slow the car down before skipping through the gravel and hitting the tyre barrier. The worrying thing was that the McLaren had managed to go underneath the tyre wall, the modern ‘conveyor belt’ design is supposed to stop the cars going underneath.

The marshals did a fine job pulling Heikki’s car out, and getting him to the medical centre quickly. But the damage to the car was very telling, with the car picked up to be carted off, you could actually see the floor underneath the drivers cell from above. Heikki is ok though, some bruising and concussion, but nothing broken.

However, as this all happened during most of the midfield teams scheduled pit stop sessions, there was carnage, with Nick Heidfeld having to pit whilst the pit lane was closed, giving him a 10 second drive through penalty when the safety car session was over. Rubens Barichelo also had another pit lane incident, he seemed to catch the nose of the Honda when he left his pit garage, and had to tour a complete lap with the nose wing stuck under the floor of the nose, damaging many of the aero parts in that section of the car. This forced the Honda out of the race, as it was deemed too damaged to continue by the team.

The race continued through all the teams second stops, with only retirements to be interested in. Fernando’s Renault lump let go on him in a big way, forcing him to retire from his home GP.

The Toyota lump in Nico Rosberg’s Williams also let go on the pit straight, forcing him to retire as well.

David Coulthard was again the target of another driver, Timo Glock tried a manoeuvre on the Brit, and was far too fast, clipping the rear wheel of the Red Bull, this caused a deflation of the tyre and forced both cars to pit for repairs. A stewards investigation deemed it a racing incident, but it ruined the race for both drivers.

All the retirements and accidents did mean that drivers who have not yet scored managed to get of the mark this race. Most notably Honda’s Jenson Button who finished sixth.

The race was all but over at the start though, as the track is notoriously difficult to overtake at, and with Kimi winning it made it eight in a row for pole starters winning. Hopefully the new aero and slicks next year will negate this a bit.

OK, so where did Renault come from? Alonso is the talk of the Qualy session without a shadow of a doubt. Yes Kimi took a pole position, and Massa took third, but it’s certain that all talk will be about Fernando, who was pleased as punch coming over the line after setting the pole position time.

The new Renault is obviously a decent step up from what they started the season with, but the question is how much fuel does Alonso have on board.

The BMW of Robert Kubica sit’s behind Massa’s Ferrari in fourth spot, with the two McLarens on the third row of the grid, with Hamilton ahead of Kovalainen.

Behind the McLarens is Webber and Trulli, showing that the Red Bull and Toyota’s are still in the hunt, even if it’s not for the race win.

Heidfeld and Piquet get the last two spot’s in the top 10, showing that their team mates did a decent job, even if they are light on fuel.

The other big shock is that the Ferrari that every one thought would run and hide, just have not done it. The Ferrari is the car with the most obvious aero changes, and Kimi seemed to struggle on his first run in the Q3 session, this was rectified by a couple of turns of wing on the front.

The race will certainly be one to watch, with some jokers in the pack, it could certainly be a fight to the end.

Right back to doing something on the site, after sorting out our ‘technical problems’ (note to self, don’t annoy the FOM), let’s get back to race news and issues.

The Spanish GP is the first of two proposed Grand Prix’s in Spain this year, however the Valencia GP has bumped into some issues of late.

So with that all dealt with, what are we looking at this weekend?

It might be a little more hazey this weekend, as almost all of the teams tested at the track earlier this week and last week, so the teams should have an idea of the settings they will use over the weekend. It’s not however completly clear cut, as rain is forcast, as well as the track getting rubbered in differently.

With that said, it will be the same names at the front, with McLaren playing catchup to the Ferrari and BMW’s. The cars will almost all have new aero parts on them this weekend, and even some that were not shown off last week in testing, with the Ferrari ‘nostrils’ probably being the most visible change to the big teams.

The 4.655 km track is suited to well balanced cars, and cars that look after their tyres well, so the Ferrari’s should certainly be quick here this weekend. That will suite Filipe as he was fastest all weekend last year, and took the top spot, he just has to make sure that he makes no mistakes this weekend, and he will be in with a good chance of repeating the results.

Kimi will not make it easy for him though, and will want to show his dominance over his team mate with another win this weekend.

Lewis should be trying to show that his lackluster 2008 start is just a blip in the radar, he came in second last year, and will certainly want to go one better this year, that is if his McLaren will let him compete. But the McLaren team are in bigger trouble if their car is not competitive, as the Ferrari will certainly have moved on a step.

BMW are probably going to be there or thereabouts again, they are certain to have found some more performance in the car, and their drivers are looking strong and reliable. It’s only a matter of time now before they win their first race.

Further back, I still see it close between the Williams, Toyota and Red Bull teams, so the mid field will again be an interesting watch. It will be good to see how much development work all three of those teams have done, and how much performance they have found.

Honda are steadily improving as well, so let’s hope Jenson and Rubens see some battle action this weekend. The team deserve to get a decent result.

Further back it’s not good news for Super Aguri, Honda seem to have bailed them out again, but that will not continue for much longer. Let’s hope the new deal they are doing comes through for them this time.

Force India are fighting above their weight, and it will be interesting to see if they have managed to move the car along enough to get out of the back of the pack, and into the midfield. Toro Rosso have been testing their new car, and as it’s a clone of the Red Bull for all intense and purpose, but with a Ferrari lump it should be at least as competitive, if not more so.

So this will be an interesting weekend, lets see who has got the development right, and who made a mess.

Google Earth View of Circuit de Catalunya / Windows Live View

Stats :

Fastest Lap : 1:15.641 (Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 2005)
Pole Time : 1:21.421 - Filipe Massa
Most Wins : 6 by Michael Schumacher

Link to ITV Web Simulcast for the GP and Practice/Qualifying sessions.

Broadcast Times for Spain in UK time

First practice Friday 09:00
Second practice Friday 13:00
Qualifying Saturday 13:00
Race Sunday 13:00

Just a quick note of apologies for the absence of the site, all sorted now though, so normal service will resume shortly.

The Bahrain GP had a few revelations and showed some issues, so it made for an interesting race from the technical side, as well as a decent race from a racing point of view.

Let’s get onto the disappointing day for McLaren. Not only was their car completely off the pace all weekend, but their Star driver made a complete hash of it, and the team had to rely on the new boy to score points.

Lewis Hamilton had a terrible day, from the start he bogged down his McLaren, forcing Heikki to take a detour around him, this put him tenth, behind Fernando Alonso in his Renault. Then to add insult to the injury he ran into the back of the Renault, destroying both his and Fernando’s race as he destroyed his nose, and took a huge chip out of Fernando’s rear wing (see pic left).

To be fair to Fernando he raced on, and did a decent job considering the damage to the car, it may only look like a small piece missing, but he will have had a huge loss of rear downforce, as well as vibrations and the nagging thought that the whole assembly could collapse at any moment, this race showed the Spaniard’s fighting spirit and Title holding worth.

Up front the Ferrari’s were showing there raw pace, Massa was pulling away, and Kimi had put a move on the Pole sitter Robert Kubica to claim the second spot from the BMW Sauber.

The BMW sat with the Ferrari for a time, showing that the pace in Qualifying was not a one off, and to the team’s credit they did not even pit that early, coming in on lap 17, only four laps before his team mate. This showed that the team is certainly heading in the right direction, and I am sure if they can keep it up over the European season, then they will be able to take their maiden race win this year. With the team claiming 11 points for third and fourth spots in the race they go into the European races on the top of the constructors table.

Toyota also deserve mention, or more specifically Jarno Trulli. It seems that without the disruptive Ralf at the team, Jarno has stepped up to the team leader job well. He has constantly out paced his younger team mate, and scored points regularly, usually as the ‘best of the rest’ driver behind the McLaren/Ferrari/BMW’s. In fact the Toyota for the last couple of races has been on the same pace as the McLaren cars, showing they too have moved along a good way, and if development stays apace could also be challenging for regular podium slots this year. Timo Glock drove a trouble free race for the most part, and managed a ninth spot finish.

I must mention Heikki, who took the fifth spot with a great trouble free race. Considering the performance advantage that both the BMW and Ferrari teams had over McLaren, he did well. He drove his own race and stayed out of trouble, and because of that took home some much needed points for the team. Lewis eventually finished in thirteenth spot, but if you watch the on board footage you will see why he made little progress after his bump with the Renault. The car looked a complete handful, with the back end not doing what it should in almost every corner. The damage to the nose was obviously not the only damage the car had taken, it was probably down to damaged barge boards on the side of the car, and more than likely damage on the tray underneath the McLaren.

Mark Webber again brought the Red Bull home in the points, taking the seventh spot, with an off the pace Nico Rosberg taking the final point paying position for Williams.

It’s strange that the Williams seems to be suffering the same performance losses as the McLaren car, perhaps there is something similar in the design philosophy that the two teams have not quite got right yet, both cars went well at Australia, but both teams have been struggling since, strange.

I would put money on both coming back though when we hit Spain in three weeks time.

I must mention Giancarlo Fisichella as well in the Force India, he has certainly brought something back to the old Jordan team, the car and team seem a lot more settled since his return, and he performed well in both the race and qualifying. It would be nice to see the team start to make their way up the grid.

Rubens drove well in the Honda, hounding Fernando Alonso for most of the race, showing that the team is certainly starting to get a handle on their performance troubles of last year.

The European season starts next, and with all the teams testing and developing new aero upgrades it should be interesting. Talk of a very strange Ferrari nose has been making it’s way, as well as some odd things seen on the Toyota and McLaren cars. So let’s hope the 3 weeks are used well by the teams, and they all come out racing in Europe.

This could turn out to be one of the closest and most interesting seasons so far, at the moment it’s Ferrari, BMW, McLaren and a little further back Toyota, but don’t expect it to stay that way all year. We are on for a cracker!

I’ll do a full race run through later on, but Massa has taken the race win for the second year in the row.

He took the lead off the line, and maintained it all the way through the race, Kimi grabbed second, and Robert Kubica took the last step on the podium.

Lewis had an appalling start of the line, and bogged down, he went around the first lap in 10th spot behind Fernando Alonso, Lewis was sat right behind the Renault, and it looked like Alonso feathered the throttle, this caused Lewis to run into the back of the car, damaging both cars in the process.

Toyota and Trulli did well, coming in sixth to take the best of the rest spot.

The race was full of incidents, so I will do a full race run through shortly.

Robert Kubica has started the weekend well for the BMW Sauber team by giving the team their first pole position.

Mario Theissen seemed overjoyed, and told Robert so while the driver was returning to the pits.

Behind Robert was a close battle between last years race winner Filipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.

Kimi Raikkonen looked to be running longer than Filipe on fuel and popped his Ferarri into the fourth spot with Heikki Kovalainen a few hundredths behind him in fifth.

Nick Heidfeld put in his fast lap, then pulled into the pits happy with it and sat out the last few minutes of the Q3 session.

Jarno Trulli showed that the Toyota certainly has true pace this season as he was the best of the rest behind the BMW’s, Ferrari’s and McLaren’s.

The Toyota powered Williams of Nico Rosberg was the last of the drivers in the 1:33 times, and he seemed to be quite happy with his eighth place on the grid, and said that the car is better suited to this track than it was in Malaysia.

Button popped in a great Q2 drive to make it through to Q3 in the improving Honda, and even managed to out pace Fernando Alonso in the Q3 session.

Suprises that turned up, well there was a few, the Red Bull cars looked to be struggling, especially David Coulthard who did not even make it through the Q1 session, Mark Webber faired a little better but still looked slow in comparison to previous races.

Takuma Sato threw his Super Aguri off the track in the last corner and put it into the wall, not usually an issue but the team are running short on supplies, so lets hope they manage to get the car repaired overnight as Taku is always amusing to watch in the race in a bullish Montoya way.

Should be a great race tomorrow, let’s hope that the BMW of Kubica has a sensible amount of fuel on board and they have not decided to take glory on Saturday over the race.

The 2008 Bahrain GP could be the last at the circuit, as it looks likely that the event may swap over to the Yas Island track in Abu Dhabi from next year.

So what do we have to look forward to this weekend?

The drivers will be glad to be at the Bahrain track this weekend while they all still try to get used to their cars now that traction control and engine breaking are gone, this is because the track offers some of the largest run-off areas of any of the modern tracks, previously a criticism by some, as it did not punish mistakes, however the drivers will welcome that this weekend.

Felipe Massa was the dominator here last year, taking pole, fastest lap and the win. After the race the three 2007 title contenders (Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa) left the race on equal points standings as they went into the European season. It’s also worth remembering that this was Lewis Hamilton’s third straight podium finish in a row, a first for an F1 Rookie.

We could see quite an interesting race this year as well. The three top teams (McLaren, Ferrari and BMW) all look strong going into this race, with the McLaren team partially handicapped by being demoted to the bottom of the pit lane under an FIA decision.

Other teams looking good this race are the Toyota, and with a little luck, the Red Bull cars.

The 3.363 mi (5.412 km) track is not the most challenging of Herman Tilke’s designs, but the dry dust, heat and flowing nature usually add up to an interesting race from the viewers stand point.

This will be Massa’s make or break race, if he cannot keep the car on the track without the aids for three races in a row, then I would think that Ferrari may have some stern words for the young Brazilian. The McLaren cars need to come back strong this race as well, and show that they can challenge on equal terms with the Ferrari’s and put their lack of pace 2 weeks ago behind them.

The Ferrari’s will no doubt be quick again in qualifying, so expect a McLaren/Ferrari split over the first four spots on the grid, I would then expect that both BMW’s and Toyota cars should make it through to the final ten as well, as should the Red Bull cars who are clearly faster when on track than the Renault, but don’t write Fernando off.

After this race the teams come back to Europe, as we head for Barcelona a few weeks later, this is where the teams will no doubt start to show their bigger aero and car developments, and also might be where we see the STR3 (Adrian Newey’s RBR4 copy) from Toro Rosso as it has been spied out testing recently.

Let’s hope we have an interesting Race weekend, and forget all the other mess and scandal that is going on around the sport at the moment.

Google Earth View of Bahrain Circuit

Stats :

Fastest Lap : 1:30.252 (Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 2004)
Pole Time : 1:32.652 - Filipe Massa
Most Wins : 2 by Fernando Alonso

Link to ITV Web Simulcast for the GP and Practice/Qualifying sessions.

Broadcast Times
FRI Practice 1 08:00
FRI Practice 2 12:00
SAT Qualifying 12:00
SUN Race 12:30

The German newspaper Bild has published what it says are details of why the McLaren team are at the bottom of the pit lane this weekend in Bahrain.

The Newspaper says that it is the FIA actioning it’s right to do this to the team, after Bernie Ecclestone had agreed with the relevant parties to allow the McLaren team to take the fifth pit garage.

This demotion will not really affect the team this week, as the Bahrain circuit is well setup, and all the teams get the same allocation of space, however if the FIA enforce this again whilst the teams are in Europe, then the McLaren outfit will suffer as space is limited at most European tracks, especially at the bottom end of the pit lane.

Bild says the reason this has happened is that the FIA agreed to the deal with Ernie, under the belief that Ron Dennis would stand down before the season start. Obviously this did not happen, and when Dennis went to collect the winners trophy in Australia, it seems that it annoyed ’someone’ in the FIA so much that they are forcing the team back down the lane.

If this is true, it is a petty, and despicable thing for the FIA to do, and after all the ‘limelight’ they have received this week it would be more advisable to keep one of the title contending teams happy. After all do we want the title decided on the fact that the FIA interfered again!

First up the letter, and it’s really well worded, proving he is a political animal, and not stupid.

From information provided to me by an impeccable high-level source close to the UK police and security services, I understand that over the last 2 weeks or so, a covert investigation of my private life and background has been undertaken by a group specialising in such things, for reasons and clients as yet unknown. I have had similar but less well-sourced information from France

Regrettably you are now familiar with the results of this covert investigation and I am very sorry if this has embarrassed you or the club. Not content with publicising highly personal and private activities, which are, to say the least, embarrassing, a British tabloid newspaper published the story with the claim that there was some sort of Nazi connotation to the matter. This is entirely false.

It is against the law in most countries to publish details of a person’s private life without good reason. The publications by The News of the World are a wholly unwarranted invasion of my privacy and I intend to issue legal proceedings against the Newspaper in the UK and other jurisdictions.

I have received a very large number of messages of sympathy and support from those within the FIA and the motor sport and motoring communities generally, suggesting that my private life is not relevant to my work and that I should continue in my role. I am grateful and with your support I intend to follow this advice. I shall now devote some time to those responsible for putting this into the public domain but above all I need to repair the damage to my immediate family who are the innocent and unsuspecting victims of this deliberate and calculated personal attack. You can, however be certain that I will not allow any of this to impede my commitment to the work of the FIA.”

Yours sincerely,
Max Mosley
FIA President

As you can see, at no point does he actually say it was him, although as he is apologising about the Nazzi stuff it is assumed he kew about it at least, so he cannot say he was drugged.

The other thing that strikes me is he is either, Paranoid, or in deeper than we thought. Most people thought that this was all setup by the News Of The World in one of their ’sting’ operations (they have done similar stuff before with other people, usually footballers). However if the first paragraph is to be believed it would seem that their is someone investigating him, and the footage turned up on the newspapers lap. Strange if someone is investigating him, as who would it be? (Jackie surely would not go to the expense)

Also as Oliver points out he has made no mention of the people (and there are significant numbers) who think he should either step down, or aside until this all blows over. He only sites those people who have offered him support, not even a cursory glance to those that have been the opposite.

Max, please step asside and let this all blow over, or even better hand over your rain to Todt, you are the first one to complain when teams/drivers bring the sport into disrepute, and I think (whether guilty or not) this counts in that camp.