F1-Blog

Australia - Qualifying

The first qualifying session of the season has been one that we as spectators were not expecting.

Lets have a look at how well the teams went compared to their expected results.

Ferrari - It was a mixed bag for the new look Ferrari team. Kimi Raikkonen ’sandbagged’ for the first 2 parts of qualifying, making Massa and the McLaren’s look quick. He than ran a 1:26.072 in the third part of qualifying, nearly half a second quicker than his nearest rival.

Massa though stopped out on track during the Q2 session with a damaged gearbox. It seemed to happen after he took too much kerb in one of the corners.

McLaren - A good day for both of the new McLaren drivers. With a 1:26.493 Fernando Alonso lines up second on the grid, with his team mate Lewis Hamilton starting in fourth with a 1:26.755. Both drivers seem to be carrying a little more fuel than perhaps the Ferrari of Raikkonen.

If the team has played the strategy right then they will be strong runners on Sunday.

Super Aguri Delay Launch

So the Tokyo Launch on the 12 is off. Why may we ask? Is it because Williams and Spyker (to name a few) are hoping to take the team to task if they believe the car is not Super Aguri’s own design (we already know it’s based at least on the 2006 Honda). Perhaps Super Aguri are hoping that if they launch the car at Albert Park on the GP weekend then the teams that will protest will have no time to do so.

If I were Super Aguri I would be less worried about my car, as they are not really a challenge (although I would love to see them perform, certainly Anthony Davidson). I believe all the teams will be complaining more about the Toro Rosso car that is not last years Red Bull, but is rather this years Red Bull with a different engine.

With only this year left of the rules that block chassis and major component sharing, I believe the teams should just buckle down and be done with it, after all it’s not the first time in F1 that teams have shared chassis.

Toro Rosso announce more Speed

Scott Speed and Scuderia Toro Rosso have announced that he will be the second driver in the team in 2007.

It seems that co-owner Gerhard Berger has not been happy with Scott’s ‘Speed’ and it seems that it was not until the end of last week that Gerhard decided to give Scott a chance.

The 24 year old American is seen as an essential drive for both Red Bull and F1 in the States, and as such would have been a disaster if he did not get a drive.

Red Bull not so Rosy?

Anton Stipinovich has been announced as leaving the Red Bull fold. Anton has been working as the head of development at the team since the beginning of 2005.

The reasons for his departure have not been announced, however it may be that the public facing ‘fun place to work’ image the team shows may not be true.

It may be that he has been pressured out of the team after the arrival of there ’superstar’ designer Adrian Newey, however the two have worked in the same team before and not had issues.

It is probable that Anton may move to Williams, and perhaps take over the running of the test team from Dickie Stanford, as it’s rumored that he wants to step back from the active testing team manager position he now holds.

Bridgestone quick at home

It seems that the Bridgestone tyres where certainly the rubber to have in Japan today.

The qualifying session ended with the first four spots on the grid for tomorrows race are held by the Japanese tyre giant.

This is certainly bad news for the Renault's and Alonso in particular. However the Ferrari's where pushed hard during the third session by one of the other home teams Toyota. This caused both of the Ferrari cars going out to set the fastest times at the end of the session, this however worked against Michael as Fillipe managed to pip the German to the pole position.

The Renault team are the fastest of the Michelin tyre runners starting from fifth and sixth on the grid behind the two Toyota's and the two Ferrari cars.

The shock of the session was the lack in pace from the McLaren cars, both of the cars did not make it through to 3rd qualifying.