July 12, 2009
F1 Update!: Germany 2009!
What a confusing, irritating little race that was. THIS is your F1 Update! for the German Grand Prix.
*AUSSIE RULES: He shattered his leg and arm in an off-season bicycling accident. Since the last race, he had surgery to remove some screws from his leg, though the titanium rod is still in place. It took him 130 races to get his first pole position, a F1 record for both futility and perseverance. He had gone 130 races without a victory. Until today. Mark Webber, Australian, Red Bull driver, has finally... finally... won a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Even a well-deserved drive-through penalty for his contact with Rubens Barrichello at the beginning of the race, a penalty that he agreed with, could do little to slow him down.
*BRAWN DROOLS: After today's race, it has become obvious that the Brawns are no longer the fastest cars on track. What may very well be the case is that they may not be the second or even the third fastest. Toyota and Renault had faster laptimes than either Brawn, and Ferrari was on the podium. McLaren's weight-adjusted speeds in qualifying show them to have been faster than the Brawns as well. In past seasons, we've seen smaller teams, like Williams, come out like a house afire but by midseason the bigger teams have usually caught up. We may be seeing that here. For all their talent, Brawn just can't throw 200 people at a problem like Ferrari or McLaren or Toyota. We're not even sure they have 200 people in their factory. What was looking like a runaway season suddenly looks much, much different with eight races to go.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Well, gee, I wonder:
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Their third straight one-two podium finish, 18.5 19.5 points behind in the Constructor's championship, and looking as dominant now as Brawn did at the beginning of the season, Red Bull is looking like the team to beat the rest of the way. They're also the first team this season to have both their drivers each win a race.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: At first, we here at F1U! were pretty sure there wasn't going to be a MotR... if there was anything decent past the first lap, we didn't see it. It turns out that there was a very nice pass while our staff was in the loo. On lap 17, Jensen Button came out of the pits with fresh tires and a full load of fuel, but was behind Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso. Going into turn 2, he put himself on the inside of the rookie, and all the way through the turn 2-3-4 complex the two cars were side-by-side. Button had the better exit position from 4, however, and won the battle. A tidy little pass that made what turned out to be the Moooooo-ooove of the Race look even worse by example.
*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Adrian Sutil was flying high in his Force India. After qualifying seventh, he was looking pretty good for the team's first ever points-paying finish. He swooped into the pits in eighth. Coming out with new shoes and a full tank of gas, he found himself side-by-side with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. Wanting to hold his ground and not let the red car go by, he nudged himself over onto the racing line... right into the side of the Ferrari. Carbon fiber flew as the left-front endplate of his front wing was torn off, completely destroying the front end grip of the Force India. Dreams of points disappeared into the night as Sutil had to limp around for an entire lap before he could get a new nose put on, rejoining the race in 18th. Yo, Adrian! Here's your Moooooooo-ooove!
*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
"YAAAAAHOOOO! YAHOOOOOO! YESYESYESYESYES! YAAAAAAAHHHOOOOOO!!! YESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!! THANK YOU GUYS! YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" - Mark Webber (note: real radio quote)
"I'm still second in the points, y'know. Just remember that." - Sebastian Vettel
"It's been such a long time since I made it to the podium! Almost as long as Mark has gone without a win!" - Felipe Massa
"I'll take fourth. These days, I'll take any points I can get." - Nico Rosberg
"Whatever happened to those golden days of of time gone by?" - Jensen Button
"Where did it go wrong? Our strategy from the pitwall. The team have shown how to lose a race. I am terribly upset. I did all I could but they made me lose the race basically. I feel sorry for myself. To be honest, I wish I could just go straight on the plane and go home. I don't want to talk to anyone in the team because I don't want to understand. All it will be from them is 'blah, blah blah'. I'm not saying they are favouring anyone, all I'm saying is that they have given a good show in how to lose." - Rubens Barrichello (note: real quote)
"I'm baaaaaaack." - HWMNBN
"Sure, Lewis had the entire upgrade package, and I just had a bit of it, but gosh, look who's got the points and look who finished 18th. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" - Heikki Kovaleininninnie
"Meh. Still, ninth after starting from the pit lane isn't so bad." - Timo Glockenspiel
"Trying to pass Adrian Sutil was very tough. I'm going to kill myself now." - Grizzly Nick Heidfeld
"I'll bet that I get into the points before Sutil does. Who wants some of that action?" - Giancarlo Fisichella
"Thanks for hitting me, Jarno, and ruining my race. My speed was good, our strategy obviously would have worked, but none of that is important anymore... and cut your damn hair!" - Kazoo Nakajima
"HWMNBN had the updates, and I didn't. It's as simple as that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see if Campos Racing needs an experienced driver." - Nelson Piquet Jr
"I was leading the driver's championship at this point last year. Remember that? Anybody? Bueller?" - Robert Kubica
" (quiet sobbing) " - Adrian Sutil
"That was cool! Now I want to ride the roller coaster next? Can I, dad? Huh? Can I?" - Sebastian Buemi
"My race was over at the first corner. Some Williams ran over my nose and it was done from there. And you just wish your hair was as nice as mine, Kazoo." - Jarno Trulli
"Helluva start, wasn't it? I was actually leading for a second there. Pretty good feeling, that. Did I mention that I'm the reigning driver's champion? Hey, where are you all going?" - Lewis Hamilton
"mrmbmlm mrbrbrlbblll mrmrrmrmmmrrrrrmbl rrrmblrbrllmrrm bbbbbbbbb." - Kimi Raikkonen
"I began to lose hydraulic pressure and so I lost the power steering, clutch and eventually everything else. Then when I pulled in the mechanics all started waving pink pieces of paper at me. What does that mean?" - SeaBass
And so the German Grand Prix comes to an end. We'll be back in two weeks for the Grand Prix of Hungary... will there be a Zsolt Baumgartner sighting? We can only dream...
Comments are disabled.
Post is locked.
*AUSSIE RULES: He shattered his leg and arm in an off-season bicycling accident. Since the last race, he had surgery to remove some screws from his leg, though the titanium rod is still in place. It took him 130 races to get his first pole position, a F1 record for both futility and perseverance. He had gone 130 races without a victory. Until today. Mark Webber, Australian, Red Bull driver, has finally... finally... won a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Even a well-deserved drive-through penalty for his contact with Rubens Barrichello at the beginning of the race, a penalty that he agreed with, could do little to slow him down.
*BRAWN DROOLS: After today's race, it has become obvious that the Brawns are no longer the fastest cars on track. What may very well be the case is that they may not be the second or even the third fastest. Toyota and Renault had faster laptimes than either Brawn, and Ferrari was on the podium. McLaren's weight-adjusted speeds in qualifying show them to have been faster than the Brawns as well. In past seasons, we've seen smaller teams, like Williams, come out like a house afire but by midseason the bigger teams have usually caught up. We may be seeing that here. For all their talent, Brawn just can't throw 200 people at a problem like Ferrari or McLaren or Toyota. We're not even sure they have 200 people in their factory. What was looking like a runaway season suddenly looks much, much different with eight races to go.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Well, gee, I wonder:
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Their third straight one-two podium finish, 18.5 19.5 points behind in the Constructor's championship, and looking as dominant now as Brawn did at the beginning of the season, Red Bull is looking like the team to beat the rest of the way. They're also the first team this season to have both their drivers each win a race.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: At first, we here at F1U! were pretty sure there wasn't going to be a MotR... if there was anything decent past the first lap, we didn't see it. It turns out that there was a very nice pass while our staff was in the loo. On lap 17, Jensen Button came out of the pits with fresh tires and a full load of fuel, but was behind Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso. Going into turn 2, he put himself on the inside of the rookie, and all the way through the turn 2-3-4 complex the two cars were side-by-side. Button had the better exit position from 4, however, and won the battle. A tidy little pass that made what turned out to be the Moooooo-ooove of the Race look even worse by example.
*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Adrian Sutil was flying high in his Force India. After qualifying seventh, he was looking pretty good for the team's first ever points-paying finish. He swooped into the pits in eighth. Coming out with new shoes and a full tank of gas, he found himself side-by-side with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. Wanting to hold his ground and not let the red car go by, he nudged himself over onto the racing line... right into the side of the Ferrari. Carbon fiber flew as the left-front endplate of his front wing was torn off, completely destroying the front end grip of the Force India. Dreams of points disappeared into the night as Sutil had to limp around for an entire lap before he could get a new nose put on, rejoining the race in 18th. Yo, Adrian! Here's your Moooooooo-ooove!
*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
"YAAAAAHOOOO! YAHOOOOOO! YESYESYESYESYES! YAAAAAAAHHHOOOOOO!!! YESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!! THANK YOU GUYS! YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" - Mark Webber (note: real radio quote)
"I'm still second in the points, y'know. Just remember that." - Sebastian Vettel
"It's been such a long time since I made it to the podium! Almost as long as Mark has gone without a win!" - Felipe Massa
"I'll take fourth. These days, I'll take any points I can get." - Nico Rosberg
"Whatever happened to those golden days of of time gone by?" - Jensen Button
"Where did it go wrong? Our strategy from the pitwall. The team have shown how to lose a race. I am terribly upset. I did all I could but they made me lose the race basically. I feel sorry for myself. To be honest, I wish I could just go straight on the plane and go home. I don't want to talk to anyone in the team because I don't want to understand. All it will be from them is 'blah, blah blah'. I'm not saying they are favouring anyone, all I'm saying is that they have given a good show in how to lose." - Rubens Barrichello (note: real quote)
"I'm baaaaaaack." - HWMNBN
"Sure, Lewis had the entire upgrade package, and I just had a bit of it, but gosh, look who's got the points and look who finished 18th. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" - Heikki Kovaleininninnie
"Meh. Still, ninth after starting from the pit lane isn't so bad." - Timo Glockenspiel
"Trying to pass Adrian Sutil was very tough. I'm going to kill myself now." - Grizzly Nick Heidfeld
"I'll bet that I get into the points before Sutil does. Who wants some of that action?" - Giancarlo Fisichella
"Thanks for hitting me, Jarno, and ruining my race. My speed was good, our strategy obviously would have worked, but none of that is important anymore... and cut your damn hair!" - Kazoo Nakajima
"HWMNBN had the updates, and I didn't. It's as simple as that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see if Campos Racing needs an experienced driver." - Nelson Piquet Jr
"I was leading the driver's championship at this point last year. Remember that? Anybody? Bueller?" - Robert Kubica
" (quiet sobbing) " - Adrian Sutil
"That was cool! Now I want to ride the roller coaster next? Can I, dad? Huh? Can I?" - Sebastian Buemi
"My race was over at the first corner. Some Williams ran over my nose and it was done from there. And you just wish your hair was as nice as mine, Kazoo." - Jarno Trulli
"Helluva start, wasn't it? I was actually leading for a second there. Pretty good feeling, that. Did I mention that I'm the reigning driver's champion? Hey, where are you all going?" - Lewis Hamilton
"mrmbmlm mrbrbrlbblll mrmrrmrmmmrrrrrmbl rrrmblrbrllmrrm bbbbbbbbb." - Kimi Raikkonen
"I began to lose hydraulic pressure and so I lost the power steering, clutch and eventually everything else. Then when I pulled in the mechanics all started waving pink pieces of paper at me. What does that mean?" - SeaBass
And so the German Grand Prix comes to an end. We'll be back in two weeks for the Grand Prix of Hungary... will there be a Zsolt Baumgartner sighting? We can only dream...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
04:27 PM
| Comments (11)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1183 words, total size 8 kb.
1
I don't want to talk to anyone in the team
because I don't want to understand...I'm not saying they are favouring anyone, all I'm saying is that they have given a good show in how to lose.
What is it about F1 that turns some drivers into whiny little primadonnas? Jacques Villeneuve was notorious for doing this sort of thing back in the day, but Barrichello's outburst gives JV a run for his money. If it wasn't for the team he just badmouthed, Rubinho wouldn't have an F1 drive this season, never mind contending for a championship. He should remember that, and criticize his teammates in private and to their faces, instead of backstabbing them in the press. Otherwise, he will find himself without a drive.
What is it about F1 that turns some drivers into whiny little primadonnas? Jacques Villeneuve was notorious for doing this sort of thing back in the day, but Barrichello's outburst gives JV a run for his money. If it wasn't for the team he just badmouthed, Rubinho wouldn't have an F1 drive this season, never mind contending for a championship. He should remember that, and criticize his teammates in private and to their faces, instead of backstabbing them in the press. Otherwise, he will find himself without a drive.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at July 12, 2009 05:48 PM (c62wM)
2
Peter, it was unlikely that Brawn would bring Barrichello back next year anyway, and it would be unlikely that another team would want to pick him (and his likely salary needs) up. This outburst just makes it even more likely that this is his last season in F1.
The question now is will he still have a drive in Hungary? Before this, it wasn't even a question... and while it's almost certain he'll be in the seat in Hungary, this blowup at least makes it possible that he'll be canned.
If he wasn't 4th in the driver's championship, I think he'd be gone tomorrow.
The question now is will he still have a drive in Hungary? Before this, it wasn't even a question... and while it's almost certain he'll be in the seat in Hungary, this blowup at least makes it possible that he'll be canned.
If he wasn't 4th in the driver's championship, I think he'd be gone tomorrow.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 12, 2009 06:18 PM (AnJdu)
3
And here I thought Barrichello had gotten his act together. Yeesh.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 12, 2009 06:40 PM (+rSRq)
4
Headline: "Stewards did not penalise Kimi Raikkonen for his collision with Force
India's Adrian Sutil during the German Grand Prix."
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 12, 2009 07:46 PM (/ppBw)
5
Which is good, Pete, because it really was Sutil's fault.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 12, 2009 08:19 PM (AnJdu)
6
Wonderduck's quote of Barrichello is subtly different from transcripts that I saw elsewhere (on ITV-F1 and Motorsport.com) to make him sound worse than he actually did. That said, he's still whining badly. Surprisingly Ross Brawn said "When you get out of a car thinking you should have won a race, and you
haven't got all the facts, that can happen. ... Once he has calmed down ... sits down and looks at all the numbers he
will realise we were too slow. There was no capacity to win the race." He's probably seen his share of petulant drivers.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 12, 2009 08:38 PM (/ppBw)
7
I took my quote from Planet-F1.com's story on it. I sat down and transcribed the interview from the BBC coverage... that transcription can be found here.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 12, 2009 09:13 PM (AnJdu)
8
What is BrawnGP thinking with the three pit strategy? That could work with Schumacher at Ferrari, because he wouldn't think twice about sending another driver off the track to make a pass. But he's got Button and Barrichello now, and neither one is aggressive enough to make it work.
Posted by: John Smith at July 12, 2009 09:16 PM (sDvZi)
9
Either way that was a weak sauce.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 12, 2009 09:27 PM (/ppBw)
10
John, there was one way a three-stopper could have worked.
Rain.
IF it had rained after the second round of stops, then a planned three-stop strategy would have been brilliant. The Brawns would have been flying around the track for 2/3rds of the race on low fuel whilst everybody else was lugging around 55-gallon drums. Then, when the rain came, everybody would have to make an unscheduled stop to put on their galoshes, while the Brawns would be making their planned stop.
Considering that the weather nabobs were saying that it was supposed to rain "about an hour" into the race, and it rains almost as often at the Nurb Jr as it does at the Swimming Pool at Spa-Francopants, it wasn't that horrible a gamble.
It just didn't pan out, and it made a three-stopper look silly. In retrospect, they shouldn't have done it. But then, what else could they do? The team knew that their car was overmatched by the Red Bulls, the only chance they had was to get in front and try and run away on a light fuel load. If Button had been #2 on the grid, he might have pulled it off, and we might have had a different race. Maybe.
Not likely, but maybe.
Pete, I can't agree with you more. One suspects that Rubens would be thrown out on his ear if he was named "Bill Jones" or something like that.
Rain.
IF it had rained after the second round of stops, then a planned three-stop strategy would have been brilliant. The Brawns would have been flying around the track for 2/3rds of the race on low fuel whilst everybody else was lugging around 55-gallon drums. Then, when the rain came, everybody would have to make an unscheduled stop to put on their galoshes, while the Brawns would be making their planned stop.
Considering that the weather nabobs were saying that it was supposed to rain "about an hour" into the race, and it rains almost as often at the Nurb Jr as it does at the Swimming Pool at Spa-Francopants, it wasn't that horrible a gamble.
It just didn't pan out, and it made a three-stopper look silly. In retrospect, they shouldn't have done it. But then, what else could they do? The team knew that their car was overmatched by the Red Bulls, the only chance they had was to get in front and try and run away on a light fuel load. If Button had been #2 on the grid, he might have pulled it off, and we might have had a different race. Maybe.
Not likely, but maybe.
Pete, I can't agree with you more. One suspects that Rubens would be thrown out on his ear if he was named "Bill Jones" or something like that.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 12, 2009 11:24 PM (AnJdu)
11
Good for Webber for getting the pole and the win after such a long time!!
Reubens should have practiced the fine art of holding one's tongue before blurting out what was on his mind to people with cameras and microphones in hand. It just came off as sour grapes no matter how justified he felt at the time.
Ya know, if anybody had a right to public whining yesterday, it would have been SeaBass who, by the way, could probably use a new ride.
Posted by: Mallory at July 13, 2009 07:56 AM (WJ2qy)
36kb generated in CPU 0.0135, elapsed 0.351 seconds.
47 queries taking 0.3417 seconds, 287 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
47 queries taking 0.3417 seconds, 287 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
