July 10, 2011
F1 Update!: Britain 2011
Rules changes that may have been aimed directly at the Red Bull team didn't seem to slow them down at all in Quals. But what would actually occur when the lights went out at Silverstone? Would Ferrari kick Vettel to the curb? Would McLaren make a remarkable comeback from a depressing qualifying stint? Or would the rain come bucketing down like it did during practice, throwing everything into a tizzy? THIS is your F1U! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Great Britain!
*LIGHTS OUT: While it wasn't raining when the race began, just a few minutes before the back half of the track had been in the middle of a downpour. Up at the start/finish line however the track was pretty much dry. The entire field was on Intermediate tires, and with the way the weather had been at Silverstone for the past two days, nobody was sure if they'd have to change to full wets, move to slicks, or stay on the Inters, perhaps as soon as the end of Lap 1. The weather was just that weird. When the lights went out, polesitter Mark Webber made one of his patented Lousy Starts©, allowing his teammate, Seb Vettel, to rocket by him in a repeat of a scene we've seen all too many times this season. Meanwhile, Ferrari's HWMNBN began living right behind the Australian driver, not quite able to get by but not letting his opponent get away. Behind them, everything is thrown into a cocked hat. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton picks up three places at the start, and by the end of the second lap is up to fifth, passing his teammate.
*AND SO ON...: By Lap 10, it's clear that the track is just about ready for the normal slick tires... on the racing line at least. Slappy Schumacher, fresh after discovering that wet pavement is slippery and misplacing his front wing somewhere in the side of Gandalf Kobayashi's Sauber, becomes the first to try the regular tires, followed by half the field on the next lap. A few laps later, both Lotuses are out with problems with their Renault engines. As these may very well be the first engine failures of the entire season, there is immediate thought that the new rules against the "throttle trick" are causing overheating. On Lap 25, Gandalf pulls over, his engine cooked to a lovely shade of golden brown.
*PIT MISFORTUNES: Two weeks ago in Spain, all 24 cars that started the race finished, only the third time in the 61 year history of F1 that has ever occurred (the last time was in 2005). A lot of that can be put down to the sterling work by the pit crews. Not this race. Kobayashi was handed a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for being released unsafely into the pit lane, taking with him a Force India airhose in the process. In an unrelated incident, Force India's Paul diResta on lap 26 stopped for new tires... and discovered that the team had teammate Adrian Sutil's ready for him. The screwed up pitstop cost him nine places, dropping from seventh to 16th. We'll talk about what happened to Jenson Button later. But then came the big mistake. On Lap 27, Vettel pits from the lead with 2nd place HWMNBN a few seconds behind him. Ferrari got their man in and out in a hurry, but the Red Bull mechanics had problems with an airgun. HWMNBN, who was some seconds behind the young German champion at the beginning of the pitstop, sweeps by before the Red Bull driver has all four tires on and takes over the lead.
*CONTINUING DEVELOPMENTS: At this point, the order is HWMNBN, Lewis Hamilton and Seb Vettel. It still stands that was on Lap 32, but the Ferrari driver is a full seven seconds ahead of second place Hamilton, who has Vettel all over his rear wing. Astonishingly, the Red Bull can't get past the obviously slower McLaren, allowing the Ferrari driver to open an 11 second lead in the space of a few laps. Obviously frustrated, the Austrian team called their driver in for a pit stop on Lap 37, hoping that fresh tires and no McLaren in front of them will make a difference. In response, Vettel turns in the lap of the day and when Hamilton came in for tires on the next lap, his mechanics take 0.2 seconds longer than Vettel's; this, combined with the lightning-fast out lap, allows the reigning World Champion to jump Hamilton on the pit exchange. On Lap 40, HWMNBN pits from the lead for the final time, and when he rejoined the race still in the lead, it became clear that the churchbells would be busy in Maranello.
*AND THEN...: All a race driver wants to do is go fast. That's what he does, after all... what else IS there to racing, when it comes right down to it? So imagine what was going through Lewis Hamilton's head on Lap 44. He's in third, having passed Ferrari's Felipe Massa to get there, but he has Mark Webber coming up behind him fast, and Seb Vettel is merely a couple of seconds ahead. Of course he's going to want to run like the wind, right? Then came the call from the pit wall: "Lewis, we need to conserve fuel if we're going to finish the race." It appears that McLaren, gambling on a slower, less fuel-intensive wet race, didn't put enough gas into his car for the surprisingly quick-paced (mostly) dry race they got. Two laps later, Webber cruised by the drastically slower Hamilton, kicking the 2008 Champion off the podium. By Lap 49, another threat emerges: Felipe Massa's Ferrari has gained over seven seconds in three laps and appears to be drooling at the opportunity in front of him.
*THIS IS THE END: Much to everybody's surprise and delight, Hamilton might not have been the only one with fuel problems. Mark Webber was making up time in huge gulps on Seb Vettel, maybe for the same reason the McLaren had slowed, or perhaps because the German's tires had gone off. Whichever reason it was, on Laps 50 and 51, the two teammates begin to go at it hammer and tongs. Only a slightly dangerous blocking maneuver kept the Aussie behind Vettel. Back at the Red Bull pit wall, team principal Christian Horner has a heart attack and dies. Recovering quickly, he immediately says enough of that. The forceful radio call goes out on the final lap: "Mark, maintain the gap." It turned out that Webber had been ignoring similar calls for a few laps to have a go at his teammate, but that final, failed, attempt brought the team's foot down... and with the rules against team orders being removed this season, nothing will happen to the team. Of course, this is the team that last year got quite holier-than-thou when Ferrari told Felipe Massa that "(HWMNBN) is faster than you." "We would never issue team orders under any circumstances," I believe was the gist of Horner's quote back then. Yeah, about that...
*FIN: Whatever little dramas were going on behind him bothered HWMNBN not a whit, as he sailed across the finish line some 16.5 seconds ahead of the two Red Bull drivers for his first win since the 2010 GP of Korea. His teammate however, he was locked in a tooth-and-nail fight for fourth with Hamilton. The McLaren pilot was doing an incredible job of keeping the ridiculously faster Ferrari behind him until the last sequence of turns. Then the Brazilian made his move to the outside of the Brit. The two bumped twice and Massa was forced into the run-off area outside of the final turn. A balls-out sprint ensued, with Hamilton crossing the line 0.024 seconds ahead of Massa for fourth place, bringing to an end a surprisingly eventful race.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: HWMNBN. From hounding Webber at the start to keeping his head as people nicked places off him in the pits, the Spaniard stayed as cool as the other side of the pillow all race, and it paid off in spades with a dominating victory... but one that never really seemed all that dominate. Do it again and we here at F1U! will begin to believe it, though.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. From a miserable start to the season to nearly getting a 1-4 result, the red team from Maranello have got to be feeling pretty good right now. Whether their sudden speed is a result of the new rules changes or from improvements in the car is a topic for another day.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 14, Jenson Button was hovering just behind Felipe Massa in 6th place as the two raced down the Hangar Straight. Conditions were... um... dicey, to say the least, but that's the sort of track that Button enjoys racing on. Into the 150mph Stowe corner they went, with Button making his move to the outside of the Ferrari.
Massa, despite a slight speed disadvantage, took some umbrage with this attempt and kept pushing the 2009 Champion farther and farther outside, until finally Button wasn't driving on the track at all, but on the painted section just off the circuit.
Somehow, Button managed to keep the car gripping the surface (unlike Gandalf Kobayashi in Friday's P1) as they raced down to Vale. When Massa slid out to the racing line for the turn, Button pounced.
Barbecuing his front-left tire with his late braking, Button zipped past as the two entered Vale, and while Massa attempted a counterattack in Club, the McLaren had too much speed built up and ran away, bringing a truly professional pass to a close. Well done, here's the MotR!
*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: It seems appropriate that, given all the pitlane problems the teams had today, that the worst move of the race will be going to a pit crew member. On Lap 40, Jenson Button was coming in for his final set of tires. He was in fifth place, and had an outside shot at a podium position if everything went right. Instead, everything went very very wrong. The front-right air gun seemed to have a problem going from "loosen" to "tighten" as the old tire came off promptly, and the new tire put in place. As the other three tires were bolted down however, the front-right gunner tried to lock the tire on the hub, and couldn't. Immediately, he dropped the gun and began reaching for the backup. The chief mechanic, also known as the "Lollypop Man" for the paddle-shaped "stop/go" board he wields, took the frantic scramble for a new gun to mean that the tire was safely attached, even though the usual notification for that is a neon-glove-covered hand held vertically above the tire. The lollypop was lifted, and away went Button, exactly as he's supposed to do. Before he got out of the pits, though...
Amazingly the tire never came completely off the hub, though only by the barest of margins. He still had to park the car however, and the team was fined after the race for an unsafe release, to the tune of €5000. From 5th to out, and a decent chunk of change to boot? Yep, that's a Moooooo-ooove to the Lollypop Man!
*SELECTED DRIVER'S QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*LIGHTS OUT: While it wasn't raining when the race began, just a few minutes before the back half of the track had been in the middle of a downpour. Up at the start/finish line however the track was pretty much dry. The entire field was on Intermediate tires, and with the way the weather had been at Silverstone for the past two days, nobody was sure if they'd have to change to full wets, move to slicks, or stay on the Inters, perhaps as soon as the end of Lap 1. The weather was just that weird. When the lights went out, polesitter Mark Webber made one of his patented Lousy Starts©, allowing his teammate, Seb Vettel, to rocket by him in a repeat of a scene we've seen all too many times this season. Meanwhile, Ferrari's HWMNBN began living right behind the Australian driver, not quite able to get by but not letting his opponent get away. Behind them, everything is thrown into a cocked hat. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton picks up three places at the start, and by the end of the second lap is up to fifth, passing his teammate.
*AND SO ON...: By Lap 10, it's clear that the track is just about ready for the normal slick tires... on the racing line at least. Slappy Schumacher, fresh after discovering that wet pavement is slippery and misplacing his front wing somewhere in the side of Gandalf Kobayashi's Sauber, becomes the first to try the regular tires, followed by half the field on the next lap. A few laps later, both Lotuses are out with problems with their Renault engines. As these may very well be the first engine failures of the entire season, there is immediate thought that the new rules against the "throttle trick" are causing overheating. On Lap 25, Gandalf pulls over, his engine cooked to a lovely shade of golden brown.
*PIT MISFORTUNES: Two weeks ago in Spain, all 24 cars that started the race finished, only the third time in the 61 year history of F1 that has ever occurred (the last time was in 2005). A lot of that can be put down to the sterling work by the pit crews. Not this race. Kobayashi was handed a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for being released unsafely into the pit lane, taking with him a Force India airhose in the process. In an unrelated incident, Force India's Paul diResta on lap 26 stopped for new tires... and discovered that the team had teammate Adrian Sutil's ready for him. The screwed up pitstop cost him nine places, dropping from seventh to 16th. We'll talk about what happened to Jenson Button later. But then came the big mistake. On Lap 27, Vettel pits from the lead with 2nd place HWMNBN a few seconds behind him. Ferrari got their man in and out in a hurry, but the Red Bull mechanics had problems with an airgun. HWMNBN, who was some seconds behind the young German champion at the beginning of the pitstop, sweeps by before the Red Bull driver has all four tires on and takes over the lead.
*CONTINUING DEVELOPMENTS: At this point, the order is HWMNBN, Lewis Hamilton and Seb Vettel. It still stands that was on Lap 32, but the Ferrari driver is a full seven seconds ahead of second place Hamilton, who has Vettel all over his rear wing. Astonishingly, the Red Bull can't get past the obviously slower McLaren, allowing the Ferrari driver to open an 11 second lead in the space of a few laps. Obviously frustrated, the Austrian team called their driver in for a pit stop on Lap 37, hoping that fresh tires and no McLaren in front of them will make a difference. In response, Vettel turns in the lap of the day and when Hamilton came in for tires on the next lap, his mechanics take 0.2 seconds longer than Vettel's; this, combined with the lightning-fast out lap, allows the reigning World Champion to jump Hamilton on the pit exchange. On Lap 40, HWMNBN pits from the lead for the final time, and when he rejoined the race still in the lead, it became clear that the churchbells would be busy in Maranello.
*AND THEN...: All a race driver wants to do is go fast. That's what he does, after all... what else IS there to racing, when it comes right down to it? So imagine what was going through Lewis Hamilton's head on Lap 44. He's in third, having passed Ferrari's Felipe Massa to get there, but he has Mark Webber coming up behind him fast, and Seb Vettel is merely a couple of seconds ahead. Of course he's going to want to run like the wind, right? Then came the call from the pit wall: "Lewis, we need to conserve fuel if we're going to finish the race." It appears that McLaren, gambling on a slower, less fuel-intensive wet race, didn't put enough gas into his car for the surprisingly quick-paced (mostly) dry race they got. Two laps later, Webber cruised by the drastically slower Hamilton, kicking the 2008 Champion off the podium. By Lap 49, another threat emerges: Felipe Massa's Ferrari has gained over seven seconds in three laps and appears to be drooling at the opportunity in front of him.
*THIS IS THE END: Much to everybody's surprise and delight, Hamilton might not have been the only one with fuel problems. Mark Webber was making up time in huge gulps on Seb Vettel, maybe for the same reason the McLaren had slowed, or perhaps because the German's tires had gone off. Whichever reason it was, on Laps 50 and 51, the two teammates begin to go at it hammer and tongs. Only a slightly dangerous blocking maneuver kept the Aussie behind Vettel. Back at the Red Bull pit wall, team principal Christian Horner has a heart attack and dies. Recovering quickly, he immediately says enough of that. The forceful radio call goes out on the final lap: "Mark, maintain the gap." It turned out that Webber had been ignoring similar calls for a few laps to have a go at his teammate, but that final, failed, attempt brought the team's foot down... and with the rules against team orders being removed this season, nothing will happen to the team. Of course, this is the team that last year got quite holier-than-thou when Ferrari told Felipe Massa that "(HWMNBN) is faster than you." "We would never issue team orders under any circumstances," I believe was the gist of Horner's quote back then. Yeah, about that...
*FIN: Whatever little dramas were going on behind him bothered HWMNBN not a whit, as he sailed across the finish line some 16.5 seconds ahead of the two Red Bull drivers for his first win since the 2010 GP of Korea. His teammate however, he was locked in a tooth-and-nail fight for fourth with Hamilton. The McLaren pilot was doing an incredible job of keeping the ridiculously faster Ferrari behind him until the last sequence of turns. Then the Brazilian made his move to the outside of the Brit. The two bumped twice and Massa was forced into the run-off area outside of the final turn. A balls-out sprint ensued, with Hamilton crossing the line 0.024 seconds ahead of Massa for fourth place, bringing to an end a surprisingly eventful race.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: HWMNBN. From hounding Webber at the start to keeping his head as people nicked places off him in the pits, the Spaniard stayed as cool as the other side of the pillow all race, and it paid off in spades with a dominating victory... but one that never really seemed all that dominate. Do it again and we here at F1U! will begin to believe it, though.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. From a miserable start to the season to nearly getting a 1-4 result, the red team from Maranello have got to be feeling pretty good right now. Whether their sudden speed is a result of the new rules changes or from improvements in the car is a topic for another day.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 14, Jenson Button was hovering just behind Felipe Massa in 6th place as the two raced down the Hangar Straight. Conditions were... um... dicey, to say the least, but that's the sort of track that Button enjoys racing on. Into the 150mph Stowe corner they went, with Button making his move to the outside of the Ferrari.
Massa, despite a slight speed disadvantage, took some umbrage with this attempt and kept pushing the 2009 Champion farther and farther outside, until finally Button wasn't driving on the track at all, but on the painted section just off the circuit.
Somehow, Button managed to keep the car gripping the surface (unlike Gandalf Kobayashi in Friday's P1) as they raced down to Vale. When Massa slid out to the racing line for the turn, Button pounced.
Barbecuing his front-left tire with his late braking, Button zipped past as the two entered Vale, and while Massa attempted a counterattack in Club, the McLaren had too much speed built up and ran away, bringing a truly professional pass to a close. Well done, here's the MotR!
*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: It seems appropriate that, given all the pitlane problems the teams had today, that the worst move of the race will be going to a pit crew member. On Lap 40, Jenson Button was coming in for his final set of tires. He was in fifth place, and had an outside shot at a podium position if everything went right. Instead, everything went very very wrong. The front-right air gun seemed to have a problem going from "loosen" to "tighten" as the old tire came off promptly, and the new tire put in place. As the other three tires were bolted down however, the front-right gunner tried to lock the tire on the hub, and couldn't. Immediately, he dropped the gun and began reaching for the backup. The chief mechanic, also known as the "Lollypop Man" for the paddle-shaped "stop/go" board he wields, took the frantic scramble for a new gun to mean that the tire was safely attached, even though the usual notification for that is a neon-glove-covered hand held vertically above the tire. The lollypop was lifted, and away went Button, exactly as he's supposed to do. Before he got out of the pits, though...
Amazingly the tire never came completely off the hub, though only by the barest of margins. He still had to park the car however, and the team was fined after the race for an unsafe release, to the tune of €5000. From 5th to out, and a decent chunk of change to boot? Yep, that's a Moooooo-ooove to the Lollypop Man!
*SELECTED DRIVER'S QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:57 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 2377 words, total size 16 kb.
June 26, 2011
F1 Update!: Valencia 2011
The weather in Valencia was gorgeous as the 24 cars took to the grid, but would the sun shine on the polesitter Seb Vettel? Or would someone show him the greyness of loss? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Europe @ Valencia!
*NOPE: As the lights went out, Red Bull's Seb Vettel leaped from his slot on the grid and headed for the hills. By the end of the first lap, he was well over a second ahead of his teammate Mark Webber, who was being hounded by Ferrari's HWMNBN. From there, it was just a pleasant Sunday drive for the reigning World Champion, who went on to win with a grand total drama amount of zero. 10 seconds behind him was HWMNBN, who was 17 seconds ahead of Mark Webber's ailing RB7. Nearly 20 seconds later, Lewis Hamilton's McLaren sauntered across the lane, followed five seconds later by Ferrari's Felipe Massa. The man currently second in the world championship race, Jenson Button, finished the race in 6th place, exactly one full minute behind Vettel.
*THE BAD OLD DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN: It wasn't all that long ago that we'd go entire races without seeing anything other than red hot pitstop action!!! We've gotten spoiled, what with all this newfangled passing and excitement and on-track racing for position that we've had this season. It took the efforts of a Valencia street circuit to show us what F1 used to be: mostly unexciting. We here at F1U! are dyed-in-the-firesuit traditionalists, always have been, but we can do without a return to the past in this particular case. F1, get rid of this miserable excuse for a track, please.
*FIRST EVER: F1 has been around for over 60 years. It's seen some amazingly dominant drivers (Schumacher, Senna, St Fangio the Quick), but never before have we seen a run like the one Seb Vettel is on. We're eight races in, and in those he's not finished lower than 2nd in any of them. That's never been done before.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: NKOTT. The Toro Rosso driver started 18th on the grid and finished 8th. He must have done something right.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. In a race that was entirely decided in the pits, Red Bull consistently took tires off and replaced them in amazingly quick times. Late in the race, where a mistake in the pits means lost time that could cost a driver a position or two, they got their men in and out in 3.2 seconds each. Everybody else were around 3.4 or 3.5 seconds. Yes, that's the sort of action we had today... red hot pit stop action!
*MOVE OF THE RACE: When we're watching a race, the F1U! cohort is positioned with notebook in hand, ready to record anything of importance that occurs for easy reference later. For Canada, there were six pages of notes, some with clarifying notations on the back of the previous page. For Monaco, there were four pages. For this race, there were two. Not two pages, two notes. Total. One of them is for the DRS-assisted pass of Webber by HWMNBN on Lap 21 for 2nd place. The other one is for Slappy Schumacher's pass of Adrian Sutil on Lap 15. Neither was particularly exciting, dramatic, or even all that important. Slappy gets the nod because he did his with his front wing dragging on the ground after he ran into The Red Menace as he exited the pits at the beginning of the lap. Yay?
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Other than Slappy taking his own nose off on Lap 15 (see above), there really weren't any stupid driver tricks today. So instead, here's Adrian Sutil with a pair of gag glasses.
*(VERY) SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*NOPE: As the lights went out, Red Bull's Seb Vettel leaped from his slot on the grid and headed for the hills. By the end of the first lap, he was well over a second ahead of his teammate Mark Webber, who was being hounded by Ferrari's HWMNBN. From there, it was just a pleasant Sunday drive for the reigning World Champion, who went on to win with a grand total drama amount of zero. 10 seconds behind him was HWMNBN, who was 17 seconds ahead of Mark Webber's ailing RB7. Nearly 20 seconds later, Lewis Hamilton's McLaren sauntered across the lane, followed five seconds later by Ferrari's Felipe Massa. The man currently second in the world championship race, Jenson Button, finished the race in 6th place, exactly one full minute behind Vettel.
*THE BAD OLD DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN: It wasn't all that long ago that we'd go entire races without seeing anything other than red hot pitstop action!!! We've gotten spoiled, what with all this newfangled passing and excitement and on-track racing for position that we've had this season. It took the efforts of a Valencia street circuit to show us what F1 used to be: mostly unexciting. We here at F1U! are dyed-in-the-firesuit traditionalists, always have been, but we can do without a return to the past in this particular case. F1, get rid of this miserable excuse for a track, please.
*FIRST EVER: F1 has been around for over 60 years. It's seen some amazingly dominant drivers (Schumacher, Senna, St Fangio the Quick), but never before have we seen a run like the one Seb Vettel is on. We're eight races in, and in those he's not finished lower than 2nd in any of them. That's never been done before.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: NKOTT. The Toro Rosso driver started 18th on the grid and finished 8th. He must have done something right.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. In a race that was entirely decided in the pits, Red Bull consistently took tires off and replaced them in amazingly quick times. Late in the race, where a mistake in the pits means lost time that could cost a driver a position or two, they got their men in and out in 3.2 seconds each. Everybody else were around 3.4 or 3.5 seconds. Yes, that's the sort of action we had today... red hot pit stop action!
*MOVE OF THE RACE: When we're watching a race, the F1U! cohort is positioned with notebook in hand, ready to record anything of importance that occurs for easy reference later. For Canada, there were six pages of notes, some with clarifying notations on the back of the previous page. For Monaco, there were four pages. For this race, there were two. Not two pages, two notes. Total. One of them is for the DRS-assisted pass of Webber by HWMNBN on Lap 21 for 2nd place. The other one is for Slappy Schumacher's pass of Adrian Sutil on Lap 15. Neither was particularly exciting, dramatic, or even all that important. Slappy gets the nod because he did his with his front wing dragging on the ground after he ran into The Red Menace as he exited the pits at the beginning of the lap. Yay?
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Other than Slappy taking his own nose off on Lap 15 (see above), there really weren't any stupid driver tricks today. So instead, here's Adrian Sutil with a pair of gag glasses.
*(VERY) SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
01:31 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 741 words, total size 5 kb.
June 12, 2011
F1 Update!: Montreal 2011
Rain. We've wanted rain to make an appearance in the F1 season. Rain makes every race better. But what happens when you get too much rain? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Canada!
*SWIMMING POOL: An hour before the start of the race, the skies opened up and dropped half the Atlantic Ocean on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. As the field made its way to the grid, the decision was made to start the race behind the Safety Car. This meant that, by rule, everybody had to start the race on the Full Wet tires, and that every lap turned behind Bernd Maylander would count against the 70-lap total. For five laps, the field perambulated behind the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, the full wet tires creating an obviously dryer line on the track surface. As the thundering herd approached the Hairpin on Lap 3, Maylander turned off the lights on the Safety Car and opened up the 6.2L V-8 engine to pull away while polesitter Seb Vettel slowed down, both to let the the SC get far enough away that the Red Bull would have a clear track for the start, and so he could decide when to step on the gas and gain an advantage over the two Ferraris following. Except two-time World Driver's Champion HWMNBN had a different idea, staying glued to the young German's rear wing in an astonishing display of car control. Everything Vettel did, the Ferrari driver matched for that half of a lap, never getting more than a car length behind yet never in danger of passing the Red Bull, which is a violation of Safety Car rules. Indeed, he did such a good job of anticipating Vettel's tricks that as the two swept down the front straight, HWMNBN's nose was positioned just ahead of the Red Bull's rear tires... probably the best "restart" from behind the Safety Car we've ever seen.
*GREEN FLAG RACING: It didn't last. HWMNBN had to slot in behind Vettel as the two swept through Turns 1 and 2, giving the Red Bull pilot the ability to do what he does best: rocket away into the distance. Behind him, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton bumps into Vettel's teammate Mark Webber in the first turn, sending the Red Bull into a graceful pirouette. No damage to either car, but the Australian dropped to 15th place before he could rejoin the race. For the next few laps, nothing happened as everybody tiptoed around the soggy track, trying to figure out what they could and could not get away with on the Pirelli galoshes. At one point, Hamilton tried to go offline to pass the Mercedes of Slappy Schumacher through the Hairpin, the slowest point of the circuit, and still wound up staggering around like a drunkard. On the next lap, Vettel, despite having nobody in front of him and therefore with no spray from other cars in his face, completely blew his braking into Turn 7 and had to cut across the grass, just pointing out how messy the track was. Despite this, he still had a clear four-second lead over the the second place Ferrari of HWMNBN, and looked like he wasn't ever going to be caught. But this is Canada, birthplace of the Safety Car... surely something would happen to bring Bernd Maylander back out.
*THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF RACING...: "Don't wreck your teammate." That's what everybody says is the first rule of racing. You can wreck yourself, you can punt other cars into the next country over, but if you so much as breathe funny on your teammate, you're opening yourself up to a world of criticism. So it should come as no surprise that Lewis Hamilton, frustrated by Seb Vettel's utter domination of the 2011 season to date and recently voted "Most Likely To Drive Like His Hair Is On Fire, If He Had Any Hair, Which He Doesn't", would do something dumb. On Lap 8, as the McLarens driven by Jenson Button and Hamilton swept down the front straight, Hamilton tried to get by his teammate to the inside. Button moved over to make it a challenge, and instead of playing it cool, Hamilton decided to barge on through. As Hamilton drove onto the grass, the two McLarens touched. Button drove on, screaming into his radio "...what is he, crazy?!??!". On the other hand, his teammate's car smacked into the inside wall, sending the various team's signboard holders scrambling for cover as he scraped by them. His left rear wheel deranged, he tried to make it around back around to the pits, but only made it a few turns before he had to stop on track. Out came the Safety Car for the second time.
*GREEN AGAIN: This time, Bernd Maylander led the race for five laps as the marshals disposed of the broken McLaren. Behind him, Seb Vettel led HWMNBN, and Felipe Massa, while Jenson Button came around and into the pits for a quick checkover and to become the first to switch to Intermediate tires. Once the Safety Car came in, the leading three blast away from the rest of the pack, while Vettel once again shows that he's got the better car, putting 1.5 seconds between him and the Ferraris in one lap. Button, on the other hand, begins to rip off laps nearly two seconds faster than anybody on the full wets but is hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the Safety Car. Whoops. He serves the penalty and rejoins in 15th. There's a mass exodus to the pit lane as teams decide it's safe to put on Intermediate tires. By Lap 18 however, Vettel leads Massa by nearly seven seconds. Gandalf Kobayashi follows the Ferrari, but is still on the full wet tires. Mark Webber and HWMNBN round out the top five.
*AND THEN...: On Lap 20, the skies decide to drop the other half of the Atlantic Ocean on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Once again, Bernd Maylander brought out the Safety Car, leading to yet another mad scramble for the pits and full wet tires. Vettel manages to get in and out while remaining in the lead, but Massa loses 2nd to Gandalf, who doesn't need to pit; he's still on the rubber he started with. Then, much to everybody's surprise, the rain got even harder. Even though he was the leader and therefore had nobody but Maylander in front of him, Seb Vettel radios in that he can't see a darn thing, while Jenson Button complains that he's aquaplaning down the track. On Lap 25, some bright spark realizes that the track is undriveable and throws the red flag, halting the race.
*IT FELL, AND FELL, AND FELL SOME MORE...: The field came to a halt on the front straight, with everybody supposed to stop in the grid spot that equated to their position: First place in the first grid slot, second in the second slot, and so on. Felipe Massa, apparently unable to count to "three", just sort of stopped where he felt like, leading Rob Smedley, his head engineer, to call to him over the radio: "...is it so hard, Felipe?" Cue peals of laughter amongst the Legendary Announce Team. And with that began the longest red flag period in Formula 1 history. For two hours and 14 minutes, the field sat on the grid, umbrellas over the cockpits and tarps over the backs of the cars as the rain continued to pelt down. After a couple of recaps of what had gone on so far, the Legendary Announce Team was reduced to showing clips of past races, praising Montreal to the heavens, and making shadow puppets. Oh, and Rhianna visited the McLaren pits. Cue plenty of "Umbrella ella ella ella" jokes. What F1 needs for rain delays is what baseball has: players sliding headlong into big puddles. We here are F1U! would pay good money to see Slappy bellyflop like that.
*FINALLY: After two hours of watching Canadians with brooms trying to push water off the track, they finally decided to restart the race behind the Safety Car. Once again, we were treated to the sight of Bernd Maylander leading the 23 most expensive, technically advanced race cars in the world... in a street-legal car you could, in theory, walk into a Mercedes dealer and buy. For ten laps we get this pleasure, full wet tires pumping the rain off the racing line and accomplishing more in a few minutes than the Squeegee Patrol managed in two hours. But all good things come to an end, and on Lap 35 the SLS AMG turned off its lights and let Seb Vettel take over the field. Immediately, a quarter of the field dove into the pits to make the switch to Inters. On Lap 36, Jenson Button pits to do the same, his fourth stop of the day if you include his earlier drive-through penalty. He rejoins just behind HWMNBN, and is obviously faster than the Ferrari driver.
*OH COME ON: On Lap 37, Seb Vettel is still on the full wet tires, still cranking out quick laps, but he's intentionally driving off the racing line, trying to keep the rubber wet and cool. It's obvious that he's going to need to pit soon, which would throw the entire field into a cocked hat. And then Button tried to pass HWMNBN in the first chicane. The two cars collide, sending the Ferrari into a spin that ends up with the Spaniard high-centered on the curb. And once again, Bernd Maylander takes to the track! Button limps around to the pits, is pronounced fit to continue, but rejoins dead last on the grid. Meanwhile, Seb Vettel took advantage of the Safety Car to change to Inters and rejoin without losing first place. This time, the SC comes in on Lap 41, with Vettel still leading Gandalf and Massa.
*RACING, WHAT A CONCEPT: Surprisingly, we go for 13 laps before anything weird happens. The racing line was dry enough for people to try slicks, and they worked well: nearly three seconds a lap faster than either of the two types of galoshes. It was on these that Button began working his way up the field, taking 10th place on Lap 49, and coming on like a freight train. On Lap 54, Felipe Massa found his way blocked by the HRT of Narain Kittylitter as he chased after Gandalf and Sebby. Going off the dry line to get past, the Ferrari snapped viciously into the wall on the right side of the track, sending the car's front wing off into the forest and actually damaging the nosecone in the process. He'd continue, but would be out of the running. Button makes yet another pitstop for tires, his sixth of the day.
*WHO HERE IS SURPRISED, RAISE YOUR HAND: A lap later, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld bangs into the back of Gandalf. The Renault's front wing detaches, slips under the front tires, and virtually explodes as the uncontrollable car plows into the wall. And once again, the Safety Car is summoned, this time because of all the carbon fiber debris scattered across the track. The standings at this point are Vettel, Slappy Schumacher, Mark Webber... and Jenson Button, having the drive of his life at this point. The Safety Car stays on the track until Lap 61, but not without incident. On Lap 59, before the entire field had been gathered up by the Mighty Maylander, track marshals ran out to start picking up debris from Heidfeld's front wing. One of the marshals, apparently wearing super-soft shoes or unfamiliar with the concept of gravity, took a header... right in front of the fast-approaching Sauber of Gandalf Kobayashi.
Only fast braking and a quick swerve saved us from a Montreal Marshal Massacre.
*THIS TIME FOR SURE: With nine laps to go, the race restarted. Webber and Slappy immediately begin fighting each other tooth and nail for second place, letting Vettel fly away unfettered. Jenson Button is right there behind the two, looking for an opening. On Lap 65, the Red Bull driver, under pressure from the McLaren, blows the final chicane and lets Button past. A lap later, Button barely notices when he go by the Mercedes and into second, so great is his advantage. However, he's a few seconds behind Vettel.
*AND THEN...: On Lap 67, Button turns the fastest lap of the race at 1:17.5, a full second-and-a-half faster than Vettel. On Lap 68, he does it again. And again on Lap 69. Just like that, it's the final lap and Button is less than a second behind the reigning World Driver's Champion. Suddenly, it's Monaco all over again: Vettel has the lead, Button has fresher tires. Button is driving as if he's on rails, while the Red Bull is slipping all over the place. Into Turn 7, the inevitable happens and Sebby slides juuuuuust a bit wide, his tires giving up altogether. He gets into the wet part of the track, and suddenly he's fighting to keep from spinning while Button sweeps past, taking the lead for the first time today. From dead last on Lap 50. A few turns later, the McLaren takes the checkered flag a full two seconds ahead of Vettel, winning in four hours, 14 minutes, 39 seconds: the longest race in F1 history. Seb comes in second, followed by Webber, Slappy, and the Red Menace. Behind the Renault, Felipe Massa and Gandalf are sprinting for the finish line, with the Ferrari beating the Sauber for 6th place by five-hundreds of a second, ending the drama of a fantastic race.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Jenson Button. SIX pit stops, one drive-through penalty, and still going from last to first in 20 laps? Oh yeah, driver of the race, right there.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. Okay, they didn't win, but second-third is still a pretty good result, particularly when your closest rival only has one car finish, further solidifying your position in the Constructor's Championship.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 51, Slappy Schumacher was in 4th place, behind a dueling Gandalf and Felipe Massa. Coming out of a turn, Schumi began a pass on Massa just as the Sauber driver slid a bit wide. Massa took advantage by passing Gandalf while being passed by the Mercedes driver, a brilliant bit of opportunistic driving by the seven-time World Champion, and a small example of his past talents. It drew a "Holy Sh*t!" from the F1U! team, a jaded bunch of plonkers, that's how good it was.
*MOOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: (please see "The Number One Rule of Racing..." above)
Good jorb, Lewis. Still, you got to hang out with Rhianna... that's gotta count for something. Here's your Mooooooooo-oooove.
*SELECTED DRIVERS QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*SWIMMING POOL: An hour before the start of the race, the skies opened up and dropped half the Atlantic Ocean on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. As the field made its way to the grid, the decision was made to start the race behind the Safety Car. This meant that, by rule, everybody had to start the race on the Full Wet tires, and that every lap turned behind Bernd Maylander would count against the 70-lap total. For five laps, the field perambulated behind the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, the full wet tires creating an obviously dryer line on the track surface. As the thundering herd approached the Hairpin on Lap 3, Maylander turned off the lights on the Safety Car and opened up the 6.2L V-8 engine to pull away while polesitter Seb Vettel slowed down, both to let the the SC get far enough away that the Red Bull would have a clear track for the start, and so he could decide when to step on the gas and gain an advantage over the two Ferraris following. Except two-time World Driver's Champion HWMNBN had a different idea, staying glued to the young German's rear wing in an astonishing display of car control. Everything Vettel did, the Ferrari driver matched for that half of a lap, never getting more than a car length behind yet never in danger of passing the Red Bull, which is a violation of Safety Car rules. Indeed, he did such a good job of anticipating Vettel's tricks that as the two swept down the front straight, HWMNBN's nose was positioned just ahead of the Red Bull's rear tires... probably the best "restart" from behind the Safety Car we've ever seen.
*GREEN FLAG RACING: It didn't last. HWMNBN had to slot in behind Vettel as the two swept through Turns 1 and 2, giving the Red Bull pilot the ability to do what he does best: rocket away into the distance. Behind him, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton bumps into Vettel's teammate Mark Webber in the first turn, sending the Red Bull into a graceful pirouette. No damage to either car, but the Australian dropped to 15th place before he could rejoin the race. For the next few laps, nothing happened as everybody tiptoed around the soggy track, trying to figure out what they could and could not get away with on the Pirelli galoshes. At one point, Hamilton tried to go offline to pass the Mercedes of Slappy Schumacher through the Hairpin, the slowest point of the circuit, and still wound up staggering around like a drunkard. On the next lap, Vettel, despite having nobody in front of him and therefore with no spray from other cars in his face, completely blew his braking into Turn 7 and had to cut across the grass, just pointing out how messy the track was. Despite this, he still had a clear four-second lead over the the second place Ferrari of HWMNBN, and looked like he wasn't ever going to be caught. But this is Canada, birthplace of the Safety Car... surely something would happen to bring Bernd Maylander back out.
*THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF RACING...: "Don't wreck your teammate." That's what everybody says is the first rule of racing. You can wreck yourself, you can punt other cars into the next country over, but if you so much as breathe funny on your teammate, you're opening yourself up to a world of criticism. So it should come as no surprise that Lewis Hamilton, frustrated by Seb Vettel's utter domination of the 2011 season to date and recently voted "Most Likely To Drive Like His Hair Is On Fire, If He Had Any Hair, Which He Doesn't", would do something dumb. On Lap 8, as the McLarens driven by Jenson Button and Hamilton swept down the front straight, Hamilton tried to get by his teammate to the inside. Button moved over to make it a challenge, and instead of playing it cool, Hamilton decided to barge on through. As Hamilton drove onto the grass, the two McLarens touched. Button drove on, screaming into his radio "...what is he, crazy?!??!". On the other hand, his teammate's car smacked into the inside wall, sending the various team's signboard holders scrambling for cover as he scraped by them. His left rear wheel deranged, he tried to make it around back around to the pits, but only made it a few turns before he had to stop on track. Out came the Safety Car for the second time.
*GREEN AGAIN: This time, Bernd Maylander led the race for five laps as the marshals disposed of the broken McLaren. Behind him, Seb Vettel led HWMNBN, and Felipe Massa, while Jenson Button came around and into the pits for a quick checkover and to become the first to switch to Intermediate tires. Once the Safety Car came in, the leading three blast away from the rest of the pack, while Vettel once again shows that he's got the better car, putting 1.5 seconds between him and the Ferraris in one lap. Button, on the other hand, begins to rip off laps nearly two seconds faster than anybody on the full wets but is hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the Safety Car. Whoops. He serves the penalty and rejoins in 15th. There's a mass exodus to the pit lane as teams decide it's safe to put on Intermediate tires. By Lap 18 however, Vettel leads Massa by nearly seven seconds. Gandalf Kobayashi follows the Ferrari, but is still on the full wet tires. Mark Webber and HWMNBN round out the top five.
*AND THEN...: On Lap 20, the skies decide to drop the other half of the Atlantic Ocean on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Once again, Bernd Maylander brought out the Safety Car, leading to yet another mad scramble for the pits and full wet tires. Vettel manages to get in and out while remaining in the lead, but Massa loses 2nd to Gandalf, who doesn't need to pit; he's still on the rubber he started with. Then, much to everybody's surprise, the rain got even harder. Even though he was the leader and therefore had nobody but Maylander in front of him, Seb Vettel radios in that he can't see a darn thing, while Jenson Button complains that he's aquaplaning down the track. On Lap 25, some bright spark realizes that the track is undriveable and throws the red flag, halting the race.
*IT FELL, AND FELL, AND FELL SOME MORE...: The field came to a halt on the front straight, with everybody supposed to stop in the grid spot that equated to their position: First place in the first grid slot, second in the second slot, and so on. Felipe Massa, apparently unable to count to "three", just sort of stopped where he felt like, leading Rob Smedley, his head engineer, to call to him over the radio: "...is it so hard, Felipe?" Cue peals of laughter amongst the Legendary Announce Team. And with that began the longest red flag period in Formula 1 history. For two hours and 14 minutes, the field sat on the grid, umbrellas over the cockpits and tarps over the backs of the cars as the rain continued to pelt down. After a couple of recaps of what had gone on so far, the Legendary Announce Team was reduced to showing clips of past races, praising Montreal to the heavens, and making shadow puppets. Oh, and Rhianna visited the McLaren pits. Cue plenty of "Umbrella ella ella ella" jokes. What F1 needs for rain delays is what baseball has: players sliding headlong into big puddles. We here are F1U! would pay good money to see Slappy bellyflop like that.
*FINALLY: After two hours of watching Canadians with brooms trying to push water off the track, they finally decided to restart the race behind the Safety Car. Once again, we were treated to the sight of Bernd Maylander leading the 23 most expensive, technically advanced race cars in the world... in a street-legal car you could, in theory, walk into a Mercedes dealer and buy. For ten laps we get this pleasure, full wet tires pumping the rain off the racing line and accomplishing more in a few minutes than the Squeegee Patrol managed in two hours. But all good things come to an end, and on Lap 35 the SLS AMG turned off its lights and let Seb Vettel take over the field. Immediately, a quarter of the field dove into the pits to make the switch to Inters. On Lap 36, Jenson Button pits to do the same, his fourth stop of the day if you include his earlier drive-through penalty. He rejoins just behind HWMNBN, and is obviously faster than the Ferrari driver.
*OH COME ON: On Lap 37, Seb Vettel is still on the full wet tires, still cranking out quick laps, but he's intentionally driving off the racing line, trying to keep the rubber wet and cool. It's obvious that he's going to need to pit soon, which would throw the entire field into a cocked hat. And then Button tried to pass HWMNBN in the first chicane. The two cars collide, sending the Ferrari into a spin that ends up with the Spaniard high-centered on the curb. And once again, Bernd Maylander takes to the track! Button limps around to the pits, is pronounced fit to continue, but rejoins dead last on the grid. Meanwhile, Seb Vettel took advantage of the Safety Car to change to Inters and rejoin without losing first place. This time, the SC comes in on Lap 41, with Vettel still leading Gandalf and Massa.
*RACING, WHAT A CONCEPT: Surprisingly, we go for 13 laps before anything weird happens. The racing line was dry enough for people to try slicks, and they worked well: nearly three seconds a lap faster than either of the two types of galoshes. It was on these that Button began working his way up the field, taking 10th place on Lap 49, and coming on like a freight train. On Lap 54, Felipe Massa found his way blocked by the HRT of Narain Kittylitter as he chased after Gandalf and Sebby. Going off the dry line to get past, the Ferrari snapped viciously into the wall on the right side of the track, sending the car's front wing off into the forest and actually damaging the nosecone in the process. He'd continue, but would be out of the running. Button makes yet another pitstop for tires, his sixth of the day.
*WHO HERE IS SURPRISED, RAISE YOUR HAND: A lap later, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld bangs into the back of Gandalf. The Renault's front wing detaches, slips under the front tires, and virtually explodes as the uncontrollable car plows into the wall. And once again, the Safety Car is summoned, this time because of all the carbon fiber debris scattered across the track. The standings at this point are Vettel, Slappy Schumacher, Mark Webber... and Jenson Button, having the drive of his life at this point. The Safety Car stays on the track until Lap 61, but not without incident. On Lap 59, before the entire field had been gathered up by the Mighty Maylander, track marshals ran out to start picking up debris from Heidfeld's front wing. One of the marshals, apparently wearing super-soft shoes or unfamiliar with the concept of gravity, took a header... right in front of the fast-approaching Sauber of Gandalf Kobayashi.
Only fast braking and a quick swerve saved us from a Montreal Marshal Massacre.
*THIS TIME FOR SURE: With nine laps to go, the race restarted. Webber and Slappy immediately begin fighting each other tooth and nail for second place, letting Vettel fly away unfettered. Jenson Button is right there behind the two, looking for an opening. On Lap 65, the Red Bull driver, under pressure from the McLaren, blows the final chicane and lets Button past. A lap later, Button barely notices when he go by the Mercedes and into second, so great is his advantage. However, he's a few seconds behind Vettel.
*AND THEN...: On Lap 67, Button turns the fastest lap of the race at 1:17.5, a full second-and-a-half faster than Vettel. On Lap 68, he does it again. And again on Lap 69. Just like that, it's the final lap and Button is less than a second behind the reigning World Driver's Champion. Suddenly, it's Monaco all over again: Vettel has the lead, Button has fresher tires. Button is driving as if he's on rails, while the Red Bull is slipping all over the place. Into Turn 7, the inevitable happens and Sebby slides juuuuuust a bit wide, his tires giving up altogether. He gets into the wet part of the track, and suddenly he's fighting to keep from spinning while Button sweeps past, taking the lead for the first time today. From dead last on Lap 50. A few turns later, the McLaren takes the checkered flag a full two seconds ahead of Vettel, winning in four hours, 14 minutes, 39 seconds: the longest race in F1 history. Seb comes in second, followed by Webber, Slappy, and the Red Menace. Behind the Renault, Felipe Massa and Gandalf are sprinting for the finish line, with the Ferrari beating the Sauber for 6th place by five-hundreds of a second, ending the drama of a fantastic race.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Jenson Button. SIX pit stops, one drive-through penalty, and still going from last to first in 20 laps? Oh yeah, driver of the race, right there.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. Okay, they didn't win, but second-third is still a pretty good result, particularly when your closest rival only has one car finish, further solidifying your position in the Constructor's Championship.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 51, Slappy Schumacher was in 4th place, behind a dueling Gandalf and Felipe Massa. Coming out of a turn, Schumi began a pass on Massa just as the Sauber driver slid a bit wide. Massa took advantage by passing Gandalf while being passed by the Mercedes driver, a brilliant bit of opportunistic driving by the seven-time World Champion, and a small example of his past talents. It drew a "Holy Sh*t!" from the F1U! team, a jaded bunch of plonkers, that's how good it was.
*MOOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: (please see "The Number One Rule of Racing..." above)
Good jorb, Lewis. Still, you got to hang out with Rhianna... that's gotta count for something. Here's your Mooooooooo-oooove.
*SELECTED DRIVERS QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:56 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 2871 words, total size 19 kb.
May 29, 2011
F1 Update!: Monaco 2011
The day dawned beautifully over the Principality of Monaco, just perfect weather for a quick drive around a tiny French fishing village. But who could have expected the race we got? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Monaco!
*LIGHTS OUT: As the race began, it looked like we'd have an improbable runaway victory for polesitter Seb Vettel. By the end of the first lap, he had a three second lead over McLaren's Jenson Button, a lead that would grow to nearly five seconds by lap 4. Great, another dominant blow-out for the incumbent champion, that'll be exciting. To make matters worse, Lewis Hamilton, the only driver with a legitimate chance to catch Vettel in the championship standings, had fallen to 10th and probably wouldn't have a chance to do anything in the race. But then the weirdness began.
*RED HOT PIT STOP ACTION: Button came in for his first stop on lap 15, putting on another set of super-soft tires. Then Vettel pitted from the lead. To say that the Red Bull pit crew made a complete hash of the stop would be something of an understatement... or perhaps it was Vettel who did, as nobody was quite sure what the hell happened. It looked quite a bit like the team had teammate Mark Webber's tires out and ready, as a mad scramble for tires occurred. Whatever the reason, Vettel's stop took over 30 seconds to complete (including drive-in and drive-out), an eternity in F1, and nearly 10 seconds slower than Button's. Then Mark Webber pulled in just as Vettel was leaving, and the same thing happened again. Webber wouldn't be heard from again all day. When Ferrari's HWMNBN came in for tires, Button was promoted into an 8.8 second lead over Seb Vettel. A few laps later, Lewis Hamilton came in for his first stop on lap 21, McLaren clearly wasn't ready for him. This sort of Keystone Kop-ery stuff just doesn't happen in Formula 1, and particularly at Monaco. Hamilton returned to the race in 15th, losing eight places as the McLaren pit crew peed what little chance he had down their collective pants leg.
*WHAT IN THE WORLD...?: As the race continued, Button stretched his lead to nearly 15 seconds over Vettel, who had put on soft tires at his stop, as opposed to the super-softs on the 2009 Champion's McLaren. On lap 34, Button stopped for another set of super-soft tires, meaning he would have to stop one more time at some point to put on soft tires, so as to comply to the sporting regulations. As he did so, Felipe Massa stuck his car into the barrier inside the Tunnel, bringing out the first Safety Car of the 2011 season. Button rejoined the race in second place, but with backmarkers between him and the leader Vettel. Unlike almost every racing series in the world, in F1 cars form up behind a Safety Car depending on where they are collected... backmarkers are not waved past. This led to the race restarting and Vettel immediately having a 9 second lead over Button, as it took that long for the five or six cars between the two to cross the line. Ten laps later, on lap 49, Button pulled into the pits for a set of soft tires, rejoining the race in third, some 20 seconds behind the leader and 15 seconds behind second place HWMNBN, who had pitted for his mandatory soft tires during the Safety Car.
*HE CAN'T REALLY BE TRYING THAT, CAN HE?: Around lap 55, everybody came to a sudden realization: Sebastian Vettel hadn't been into the pits since lap 17, when he changed from super-soft tires to soft rubber. Behind him, HWMNBN was whittling a second a lap out of Vettel's lead as the leader nursed his tires. But if the Ferrari was whittling, Jenson Button was using a chainsaw. By lap 60, the McLaren was a mere three seconds behind the Red Bull; he had made up 17 seconds in 10 laps! On lap 62, the order was Vettel - HWMNBN - Button, all three covered by two-thirds of a second. To say that we were set up for one of the most epic finishes in F1 History would be to massively understate things. Three World Champions, running three different tire strategies, running nose-to-tail, on the most dramatic circuit in the world, with only 16 short laps to go.
*HOLY MACKEREL!: For the next seven laps, we were treated to an example of just why F1 drivers are the best in the world. Button would stab at HWMNBN, who would parry while attacking Vettel, who was managing to keep his tires functional enough to be able to keep the Ferrari behind, despite having 50+ laps on them. All the while, the three kept going so quickly that they had nearly 50 seconds on Gandalf Kobayashi in 4th place... on a track where a slow lap takes only 80 seconds or so to complete. The situation was fascinating: Vettel had the lead, but his tires were failing. However, Monaco is the best circuit in F1 to keep someone behind you, even when your tires are paper-thin. HWMNBN had better tires in second place, but he had the dual tasks of trying to get past Vettel while defending his position, splitting his concentration at a place that demands your entire attention at all times. Button was in third, on the freshest rubber, but had to get past the Ferrari driven by someone with the ability to make his car incredibly wide when he wants to. Legendary Announce Team member Steve Matchett summed Vettel's options up quite succinctly around this point when asked whether the Red Bull driver should pit for new tires. "If he pits, he finishes third. If he stays out, he has a small chance to win, and at worst he'd finish third. He stays out." And so he did, and the knife-fighting between the three was amazing.
*LAP 69: Ahead of the leaders, an amazing gaggle of cars had formed. Take a look:
*CAR-NAGE: Sutil, mostly out of control, cuts across Piscene just as everybody else arrives. Lewis Hamilton slows to avoid the careening Force India. NKOTT bangs into Hamilton, his front wing going under his tires and pitching his Toro Rosso into the air, deranging the McLaren's rear wing in the process. NKOTT then has the left side of his car removed by the barriers. The Red Menace, who had slipped back just before the melee, suddenly had a limping Force India blocking one side of the circuit and a ruined Toro Rosso blocking the other in front of him. With no place to go, the Renault plows nearly head-first into the armco. The remains then embed themselves into the back of NKOTT's car. And then the leaders arrive on the scene.
*RED MEANS STOP: So here's the situation facing Seb Vettel. He's got an angry Spaniard crawling all over the back of his car, a confident Brit immediately behind him, and a disaster movie playing out directly in front of him. Carbon fiber shards and chunks of racecar litter the track, and he has to pick his way through the mess. By some miracle, all three leaders made it through the chaos in one piece, just as the world's fastest Safety Car indication comes out. This time, no backmarkers are in between Vettel, HWMNBN and Button. Nothing will get in the way of this ending. Except things are not all right at the scene of the accident. The Red Menace, still in his ruined Renault, tells the Medical Car occupants that he can't feel his legs. An ambulance is summoned and the Red Flag is thrown, stopping the race.
*FINALLY: According to the rulebook, if the race is red-flagged after 75% of the race distance is run, the race may be declared over. But not today! Instead, the horde forms up on the grid behind the Safety Car, shuts down their engines... and another quirk of the rulebook comes to light. In most every other form of motorsport, if a race is red-flagged but is expected to be resumed, you can't touch the cars. No tire changes, no repairs, no nothing. In F1? The only thing you can't do is refuel. Immediately, Red Bull was out to jack up Vettel's car... carrying a brand new, unused set of super-soft tires. It was at this point that the F1U! team wanted to throw our deep-dish pizza at the TV screen. What was looking like a tremendous five-lap scramble to the checkered flag up until that point suddenly became a five-lap guaranteed win for Vettel. Of course, HWMNBN and Button put on super-soft tires as well, but it doesn't matter. The race restarts, Vettel opens up a 1.1 second lead and keeps it like that all the way to the end. HWMNBN holds a similar lead over Button as they cross the line. A frustrating way to end what was looking like a true classic race.
*POSTSCRIPT: The Red Menace was essentially uninjured in the wreck, just bruised. Good to hear!
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: A one-stop strategy in this day and age of F1 seems like an impossibility, but Monaco might be the one time it could possibly work, if you're quick and good. Seb Vettel was both, and managed to keep his 52-lap old soft tires in racing condition right up until the race was red-flagged. While we might be dissatisfied with the way the affair ended, there's no denying that the reigning World Champion did a miraculous job conserving his shoes while keeping up a competitive pace. Not everybody could pull that off... indeed, perhaps not anybody. Congratulations Seb, you deserve this one.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: The logical choice would be Red Bull. After all, Vettel finished 1st and with the help of the red flag, Webber came in 4th. However, we're not giving it to them. After the race, it turned out that Vettel's tire strategy was an accident; he was supposed to have another set of super-soft tires put on at his first stop, but confusion resulted in the soft tires going on. Then they wanted to bring him in late, thereby throwing away the win (but locking up a third-place finish). Vettel ignored the call to stop. That's not a sign of a team working together. Yes, they did well, but something didn't click for the Bullies today. So instead, we're giving the Team of the Race award to perennial underdog Sauber. Despite working under the black pressure of having one of their drivers in hospital, they flawlessly executed an intentional one-stop strategy. It was only because of the red flag and Webber getting to put on a fresh set of super-soft tires that they lost out on a fourth place finish for Gandalf Kobayashi. Still, fifth place is pretty darn good, and well-deserving of the Team of the Race. Honorable mention goes to Lotus for quietly having their best day ever, finishing 13th and 14th.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Karma can be a real beeyotch sometimes. Last week in Spain, Lewis Hamilton complained that he believed Slappy Schumacher had intentionally blocked him, so as to slow the McLaren driver down in his pursuit of Slappy's fellow German Seb Vettel. Today, Hamilton got a chance to provide some payback. Early on, he'd been hounding the seven-time world champion for a couple of laps, needing desperately to get past if he wanted any chance to affect the outcome of the race. On his soft tires, he had to stay in touch with the leaders, but here he was, stuck behind Slappy's Mercedes. On lap 10, as the two headed towards Ste Devote, Hamilton said "enough."
He pulled alongside the Mercedes driver as they entered the braking zone, brazenly daring Slappy to slam the door on him. Considering who we're talking about here, it was quite the gamble... Schumacher is notorious for doing just that, and damn the consequences.
Instead, Schumi squeezed over, getting their tires overlapped. One false move by either, and the whole thing would end in tears and carbon fiber being shed.
No false move was forthcoming, leaving Slappy with a choice: either keep fighting the young Brit, and likely ending up in the quickly upcoming barrier, or backing off and letting Hamilton by. Wisely, he did the latter, and Lewis zipped off into the distance. A truly gutsy pass in a place on the track that isn't particularly conducive to such things. Brave lad, here's your MotR!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: From the sublime to the idiotic in 24 laps. Now Hamilton was stuck behind Felipe Massa, and not having any luck getting unstuck. The Ferrari driver just wasn't giving him any chance to get by, and Lewis was getting desperate... and impatient. Coming into the Loew's Hairpin, Hamilton threw caution (and brains) to the wind and went to the inside of the Brazilian... with predictable results.
For the record: the sidewalk is not the preferred line around the Hairpin. Bodywork flew, Massa wound wind up crashing in the Tunnel a few seconds later, and Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for causing an accident, thereby ruining his race anyway. He later claimed that it was all Massa's fault, saying that the Ferrari driver had turned in early, forcing him onto the sidewalk and thenceforth into the red car's sidepod. Uh-huh. Here's your Mooooooooo-oooove, Lewis.
*SELECTED DRIVER'S QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*LIGHTS OUT: As the race began, it looked like we'd have an improbable runaway victory for polesitter Seb Vettel. By the end of the first lap, he had a three second lead over McLaren's Jenson Button, a lead that would grow to nearly five seconds by lap 4. Great, another dominant blow-out for the incumbent champion, that'll be exciting. To make matters worse, Lewis Hamilton, the only driver with a legitimate chance to catch Vettel in the championship standings, had fallen to 10th and probably wouldn't have a chance to do anything in the race. But then the weirdness began.
*RED HOT PIT STOP ACTION: Button came in for his first stop on lap 15, putting on another set of super-soft tires. Then Vettel pitted from the lead. To say that the Red Bull pit crew made a complete hash of the stop would be something of an understatement... or perhaps it was Vettel who did, as nobody was quite sure what the hell happened. It looked quite a bit like the team had teammate Mark Webber's tires out and ready, as a mad scramble for tires occurred. Whatever the reason, Vettel's stop took over 30 seconds to complete (including drive-in and drive-out), an eternity in F1, and nearly 10 seconds slower than Button's. Then Mark Webber pulled in just as Vettel was leaving, and the same thing happened again. Webber wouldn't be heard from again all day. When Ferrari's HWMNBN came in for tires, Button was promoted into an 8.8 second lead over Seb Vettel. A few laps later, Lewis Hamilton came in for his first stop on lap 21, McLaren clearly wasn't ready for him. This sort of Keystone Kop-ery stuff just doesn't happen in Formula 1, and particularly at Monaco. Hamilton returned to the race in 15th, losing eight places as the McLaren pit crew peed what little chance he had down their collective pants leg.
*WHAT IN THE WORLD...?: As the race continued, Button stretched his lead to nearly 15 seconds over Vettel, who had put on soft tires at his stop, as opposed to the super-softs on the 2009 Champion's McLaren. On lap 34, Button stopped for another set of super-soft tires, meaning he would have to stop one more time at some point to put on soft tires, so as to comply to the sporting regulations. As he did so, Felipe Massa stuck his car into the barrier inside the Tunnel, bringing out the first Safety Car of the 2011 season. Button rejoined the race in second place, but with backmarkers between him and the leader Vettel. Unlike almost every racing series in the world, in F1 cars form up behind a Safety Car depending on where they are collected... backmarkers are not waved past. This led to the race restarting and Vettel immediately having a 9 second lead over Button, as it took that long for the five or six cars between the two to cross the line. Ten laps later, on lap 49, Button pulled into the pits for a set of soft tires, rejoining the race in third, some 20 seconds behind the leader and 15 seconds behind second place HWMNBN, who had pitted for his mandatory soft tires during the Safety Car.
*HE CAN'T REALLY BE TRYING THAT, CAN HE?: Around lap 55, everybody came to a sudden realization: Sebastian Vettel hadn't been into the pits since lap 17, when he changed from super-soft tires to soft rubber. Behind him, HWMNBN was whittling a second a lap out of Vettel's lead as the leader nursed his tires. But if the Ferrari was whittling, Jenson Button was using a chainsaw. By lap 60, the McLaren was a mere three seconds behind the Red Bull; he had made up 17 seconds in 10 laps! On lap 62, the order was Vettel - HWMNBN - Button, all three covered by two-thirds of a second. To say that we were set up for one of the most epic finishes in F1 History would be to massively understate things. Three World Champions, running three different tire strategies, running nose-to-tail, on the most dramatic circuit in the world, with only 16 short laps to go.
*HOLY MACKEREL!: For the next seven laps, we were treated to an example of just why F1 drivers are the best in the world. Button would stab at HWMNBN, who would parry while attacking Vettel, who was managing to keep his tires functional enough to be able to keep the Ferrari behind, despite having 50+ laps on them. All the while, the three kept going so quickly that they had nearly 50 seconds on Gandalf Kobayashi in 4th place... on a track where a slow lap takes only 80 seconds or so to complete. The situation was fascinating: Vettel had the lead, but his tires were failing. However, Monaco is the best circuit in F1 to keep someone behind you, even when your tires are paper-thin. HWMNBN had better tires in second place, but he had the dual tasks of trying to get past Vettel while defending his position, splitting his concentration at a place that demands your entire attention at all times. Button was in third, on the freshest rubber, but had to get past the Ferrari driven by someone with the ability to make his car incredibly wide when he wants to. Legendary Announce Team member Steve Matchett summed Vettel's options up quite succinctly around this point when asked whether the Red Bull driver should pit for new tires. "If he pits, he finishes third. If he stays out, he has a small chance to win, and at worst he'd finish third. He stays out." And so he did, and the knife-fighting between the three was amazing.
*LAP 69: Ahead of the leaders, an amazing gaggle of cars had formed. Take a look:
6th: Adrian F'n Sutil 7th: Cleric Maldonado 8th: The Red Menace 9th: Lewis Hamilton
10th: NKOTT 11th: Seb Buemi 12th: Nico Rosberg
We've taken the liberty of labeling the on-track positions of the traffic. Suddenly, Vettel's job had become infinitely more difficult; he'd have to pick his way through the cars ahead, all of whom were racing for position and couldn't just move aside like normal backmarkers. To be sure, the sporting regulations insisted that they'd have to. But, for example, nobody could expect Lewis Hamilton in 9th to pull aside in a manner that'd make it easy for NKOTT in 10th to sneak by too, or for The Red Menace in 8th to do so, either. But a few moments later, it all became moot. Just past Tabac, Adrian F'n Sutil brushed the armco, his right-rear tire coming off as they reached Piscene... and all hell broke loose.10th: NKOTT 11th: Seb Buemi 12th: Nico Rosberg
*CAR-NAGE: Sutil, mostly out of control, cuts across Piscene just as everybody else arrives. Lewis Hamilton slows to avoid the careening Force India. NKOTT bangs into Hamilton, his front wing going under his tires and pitching his Toro Rosso into the air, deranging the McLaren's rear wing in the process. NKOTT then has the left side of his car removed by the barriers. The Red Menace, who had slipped back just before the melee, suddenly had a limping Force India blocking one side of the circuit and a ruined Toro Rosso blocking the other in front of him. With no place to go, the Renault plows nearly head-first into the armco. The remains then embed themselves into the back of NKOTT's car. And then the leaders arrive on the scene.
*RED MEANS STOP: So here's the situation facing Seb Vettel. He's got an angry Spaniard crawling all over the back of his car, a confident Brit immediately behind him, and a disaster movie playing out directly in front of him. Carbon fiber shards and chunks of racecar litter the track, and he has to pick his way through the mess. By some miracle, all three leaders made it through the chaos in one piece, just as the world's fastest Safety Car indication comes out. This time, no backmarkers are in between Vettel, HWMNBN and Button. Nothing will get in the way of this ending. Except things are not all right at the scene of the accident. The Red Menace, still in his ruined Renault, tells the Medical Car occupants that he can't feel his legs. An ambulance is summoned and the Red Flag is thrown, stopping the race.
*FINALLY: According to the rulebook, if the race is red-flagged after 75% of the race distance is run, the race may be declared over. But not today! Instead, the horde forms up on the grid behind the Safety Car, shuts down their engines... and another quirk of the rulebook comes to light. In most every other form of motorsport, if a race is red-flagged but is expected to be resumed, you can't touch the cars. No tire changes, no repairs, no nothing. In F1? The only thing you can't do is refuel. Immediately, Red Bull was out to jack up Vettel's car... carrying a brand new, unused set of super-soft tires. It was at this point that the F1U! team wanted to throw our deep-dish pizza at the TV screen. What was looking like a tremendous five-lap scramble to the checkered flag up until that point suddenly became a five-lap guaranteed win for Vettel. Of course, HWMNBN and Button put on super-soft tires as well, but it doesn't matter. The race restarts, Vettel opens up a 1.1 second lead and keeps it like that all the way to the end. HWMNBN holds a similar lead over Button as they cross the line. A frustrating way to end what was looking like a true classic race.
*POSTSCRIPT: The Red Menace was essentially uninjured in the wreck, just bruised. Good to hear!
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: A one-stop strategy in this day and age of F1 seems like an impossibility, but Monaco might be the one time it could possibly work, if you're quick and good. Seb Vettel was both, and managed to keep his 52-lap old soft tires in racing condition right up until the race was red-flagged. While we might be dissatisfied with the way the affair ended, there's no denying that the reigning World Champion did a miraculous job conserving his shoes while keeping up a competitive pace. Not everybody could pull that off... indeed, perhaps not anybody. Congratulations Seb, you deserve this one.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: The logical choice would be Red Bull. After all, Vettel finished 1st and with the help of the red flag, Webber came in 4th. However, we're not giving it to them. After the race, it turned out that Vettel's tire strategy was an accident; he was supposed to have another set of super-soft tires put on at his first stop, but confusion resulted in the soft tires going on. Then they wanted to bring him in late, thereby throwing away the win (but locking up a third-place finish). Vettel ignored the call to stop. That's not a sign of a team working together. Yes, they did well, but something didn't click for the Bullies today. So instead, we're giving the Team of the Race award to perennial underdog Sauber. Despite working under the black pressure of having one of their drivers in hospital, they flawlessly executed an intentional one-stop strategy. It was only because of the red flag and Webber getting to put on a fresh set of super-soft tires that they lost out on a fourth place finish for Gandalf Kobayashi. Still, fifth place is pretty darn good, and well-deserving of the Team of the Race. Honorable mention goes to Lotus for quietly having their best day ever, finishing 13th and 14th.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Karma can be a real beeyotch sometimes. Last week in Spain, Lewis Hamilton complained that he believed Slappy Schumacher had intentionally blocked him, so as to slow the McLaren driver down in his pursuit of Slappy's fellow German Seb Vettel. Today, Hamilton got a chance to provide some payback. Early on, he'd been hounding the seven-time world champion for a couple of laps, needing desperately to get past if he wanted any chance to affect the outcome of the race. On his soft tires, he had to stay in touch with the leaders, but here he was, stuck behind Slappy's Mercedes. On lap 10, as the two headed towards Ste Devote, Hamilton said "enough."
He pulled alongside the Mercedes driver as they entered the braking zone, brazenly daring Slappy to slam the door on him. Considering who we're talking about here, it was quite the gamble... Schumacher is notorious for doing just that, and damn the consequences.
Instead, Schumi squeezed over, getting their tires overlapped. One false move by either, and the whole thing would end in tears and carbon fiber being shed.
No false move was forthcoming, leaving Slappy with a choice: either keep fighting the young Brit, and likely ending up in the quickly upcoming barrier, or backing off and letting Hamilton by. Wisely, he did the latter, and Lewis zipped off into the distance. A truly gutsy pass in a place on the track that isn't particularly conducive to such things. Brave lad, here's your MotR!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: From the sublime to the idiotic in 24 laps. Now Hamilton was stuck behind Felipe Massa, and not having any luck getting unstuck. The Ferrari driver just wasn't giving him any chance to get by, and Lewis was getting desperate... and impatient. Coming into the Loew's Hairpin, Hamilton threw caution (and brains) to the wind and went to the inside of the Brazilian... with predictable results.
For the record: the sidewalk is not the preferred line around the Hairpin. Bodywork flew, Massa wound wind up crashing in the Tunnel a few seconds later, and Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for causing an accident, thereby ruining his race anyway. He later claimed that it was all Massa's fault, saying that the Ferrari driver had turned in early, forcing him onto the sidewalk and thenceforth into the red car's sidepod. Uh-huh. Here's your Mooooooooo-oooove, Lewis.
*SELECTED DRIVER'S QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
09:52 PM
| Comments (8)
| Add Comment
Post contains 3173 words, total size 21 kb.
May 24, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Monaco 2011
There are two ways to look at the street circuit known as "Monte Carlo," home of the Grand Prix of Monaco. The first is as a narrow and slow track that modern F1 cars have rendered close to obsolete, and would be too dangerous to have on the F1 calendar if it was proposed today. The other way is to see it as what it is: the grandest Grand Prix of them all. Here's the track map:
It's hard to argue with the "too narrow" and "too dangerous" assessment, because to be frank, it is both of those things. Three-time World Driver's Champion Nelson Piquet famously described racing at Monaco as "riding a bicycle round your living room." Because the track is so narrow, it's nearly impossible to pass without taking heroic measures. The circuit starts by going uphill from Sainte Devote all the way to Beau Rivage, then descends sharply from Mirabeau to Portier. There's another small descent as the cars approach the Chicane as well.
Monte Carlo has the distinction of having both the slowest and the fastest turns in Formula 1. Turn 6, better known as the Loew's Hairpin, is taken at approximately 30mph and is so tight that the teams usually have to modify their steering rigs to allow a car to make the turn. Turn 9, aka The Tunnel, is run at about 160mph or so. The only true tunnel in F1 (Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi has one at the end of the pit lane, which doesn't count. Singapore has a stretch that runs underneath some grandstands, but that isn't really a tunnel), its aerodynamic effects take off nearly a third of a car's downforce. For that reason, DRS will not be permitted while running through it during practice and Quals.
That's kind of a pity, as it'd lead to more of my favorite camera sequence... 1) camera follows car through Portier and into the tunnel. 2) Camera picks up car as it approaches the apex of Turn 9, swings to follow. 3) Camera outside tunnel waits for car to appear; all that exits the dark tunnel is a tire or two bouncing free, followed by carbon fiber debris, followed by remainder of car. It never fails to crack me up... it's like the track has eaten the car, and is in the process of spitting it out.
Yes, it's dangerous. Yes, it's too narrow. Yes, it's a horrible track for modern F1 cars. It's also the most recognizable circuit in the world, and nowhere in the world can a (ridiculously wealthy) spectator get so close to a F1 car during a race.
Late breaking newsflash! Earlier today, a truck caught fire at Sainte Devote. It burned long enough and hot enough that it actually damaged the tarmac underneath it, requiring it to be replaced less than 48 hours before the first practice session. This could very well cause some problems, as the damaged area is in the braking zone... look for Turn 1 to be very exciting this time around.
Of course, the Legendary Announce Team will be bringing us their usual reportage on SPEED! It all begins on THURSDAY morning from 3am to 430am with streaming coverage of Practice 1. Practice 2 follows from 7am to 840am, live on SPEED.
Friday is a quiet day in Monaco for the F1 Circus, but the whole shebang picks back up on Saturday morning from 4am to 5am with streaming coverage of Practice 3. Quals is likewise on Saturday morning, from 7am to 830am live on SPEED.
Finally, the jewel in the F1 crown, the 2011 Grand Prix of Monaco takes to the air from 630am to 9am, live on SPEED. There'll be a replay on Monday from 1030am to 1pm.
F1U! will be providing our own version of the "usual reportage" as well, so don't miss it!
It's hard to argue with the "too narrow" and "too dangerous" assessment, because to be frank, it is both of those things. Three-time World Driver's Champion Nelson Piquet famously described racing at Monaco as "riding a bicycle round your living room." Because the track is so narrow, it's nearly impossible to pass without taking heroic measures. The circuit starts by going uphill from Sainte Devote all the way to Beau Rivage, then descends sharply from Mirabeau to Portier. There's another small descent as the cars approach the Chicane as well.
Monte Carlo has the distinction of having both the slowest and the fastest turns in Formula 1. Turn 6, better known as the Loew's Hairpin, is taken at approximately 30mph and is so tight that the teams usually have to modify their steering rigs to allow a car to make the turn. Turn 9, aka The Tunnel, is run at about 160mph or so. The only true tunnel in F1 (Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi has one at the end of the pit lane, which doesn't count. Singapore has a stretch that runs underneath some grandstands, but that isn't really a tunnel), its aerodynamic effects take off nearly a third of a car's downforce. For that reason, DRS will not be permitted while running through it during practice and Quals.
That's kind of a pity, as it'd lead to more of my favorite camera sequence... 1) camera follows car through Portier and into the tunnel. 2) Camera picks up car as it approaches the apex of Turn 9, swings to follow. 3) Camera outside tunnel waits for car to appear; all that exits the dark tunnel is a tire or two bouncing free, followed by carbon fiber debris, followed by remainder of car. It never fails to crack me up... it's like the track has eaten the car, and is in the process of spitting it out.
Yes, it's dangerous. Yes, it's too narrow. Yes, it's a horrible track for modern F1 cars. It's also the most recognizable circuit in the world, and nowhere in the world can a (ridiculously wealthy) spectator get so close to a F1 car during a race.
Note spiral staircase to the left of "Le Casino" sign.
Monaco is one of the three entries in the "Triple Crown of Motorsport," along with the 24 Hours of LeMans and the Indianapolis 500. Only one driver, Graham Hill, has accomplished the feat in his career, and only one active driver, Juan Pablo Montoya (aka "The Pope"), has a chance to join him (he won Monaco in 2003 and the Indy 500 in 2000).Late breaking newsflash! Earlier today, a truck caught fire at Sainte Devote. It burned long enough and hot enough that it actually damaged the tarmac underneath it, requiring it to be replaced less than 48 hours before the first practice session. This could very well cause some problems, as the damaged area is in the braking zone... look for Turn 1 to be very exciting this time around.
Of course, the Legendary Announce Team will be bringing us their usual reportage on SPEED! It all begins on THURSDAY morning from 3am to 430am with streaming coverage of Practice 1. Practice 2 follows from 7am to 840am, live on SPEED.
Friday is a quiet day in Monaco for the F1 Circus, but the whole shebang picks back up on Saturday morning from 4am to 5am with streaming coverage of Practice 3. Quals is likewise on Saturday morning, from 7am to 830am live on SPEED.
Finally, the jewel in the F1 crown, the 2011 Grand Prix of Monaco takes to the air from 630am to 9am, live on SPEED. There'll be a replay on Monday from 1030am to 1pm.
F1U! will be providing our own version of the "usual reportage" as well, so don't miss it!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:55 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 722 words, total size 5 kb.
May 23, 2011
F1 Update!: Spain 2011
A gorgeous day in Barcelona, but would the sun shine on Mark Webber, or
would someone else steal the light and win today? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Spain!
*LIGHTS OUT: With the Red Bull teammates locking out the front row, it was pretty much a given that one of them would be leading the pack into the first turn. After all, they've got the best car, Seb Vettel is arguably one of the best drivers in the field, and Webber is hardly a slouch himself. Still, with an iffy KERS unit, one could see Lewis Hamilton's McLaren sweep by them both from third. But nobody expected what actually occurred as the Ferrari of HWMNBN, perhaps powered by the cheers of the Spanish crowd, blew past them all to take the lead going into Turn 1. More surprisingly, he held the lead after the first lap, then the second, then the third... while he didn't run away from Vettel and Hamilton, second and third respectively, neither did he yield any time to them. He had roughly a half-second lead on the Red Bull, who had a half-second lead on the McLaren. That trio did manage to pull away from Webber in fourth, to the tune of maybe five seconds.
*THAT'S THE PITS: Seb Vettel dove into the pit lane for new tires on lap 9, apparently just before they fell off the cliff and became a hindrance. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, stayed out until lap 11, running a lap or two after his tires went bad. HWMNBN still held the lead, much to everybody's shock and horror. On lap 18, Vettel came back in for another set of new tires, again before their performance fell off. When HWMNBN came in a lap or two later, he wound up on the losing end of the pit rotation, as the Red Bull passed him just as he exited the pits. Hamilton had the lead, maybe one that was big enough for him to hit the pits, change shoes and rejoin before the reigning Driver's Champion went by... but McLaren kept him out there too long. When his pit stop finally occurred, he came back onto the track in second. We here at F1U! were impressed by Red Bull's strategy: they didn't worry about tire wear, because they knew they wouldn't be keeping their man out there long enough for it to affect their pace. Of course, that can only work when you've got relatively unused sets of soft tires... which, after Quals, they in fact had. At this point, the F1U! crew were sure the young German would power off into the sunset for an easy win.
*MEANWHILE: Sitting at the back of the grid at the start was Renault's Grizzly Nick Heidfeld. Relegated there by dint of an exhaust fire in P3 that prevented him from taking place in Quals, it was obvious to everybody that he'd be a fox amongst the chickens once the race started. Indeed, very quickly he went from 24th and dead last to 17th on the first lap, all the while on the new super-hard tires. In fact, he stayed out for 22 laps, during which time the guys up front stopped twice. He then had three sets of soft tires to go 44 laps. The chuckling and metaphorical rubbing of hands with glee were obvious on the Renault pitwall.
*YOU MANGY CURS KERS: Back up at the front, the F1U! crew were astounded to see that leader Seb Vettel did not, in fact, power away from Lewis Hamilton. Indeed, after the last set of pitstops had been completed, with both drivers going onto the super-hard tires, the McLaren slowly began to reel in the Red Bull. By lap 55, the gap was about a half-second and often closer. The KERS unit in Vettel's car was to blame, apparently overheating after being used for a couple of laps. The pit lane would then tell him to switch it off so it could cool down. Eventually it'd be okay to use again... at which point it would overheat after a couple of laps. Rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
*FINALLY: Hamilton's frustration must have been terrible. In the last couple of turns of each lap, Vettel would open the lead just enough to make the run down the front straight, even with DRS and KERS, a long stern chase that would end with the McLaren a bit too far back to make a passing attempt into Turn 1. If he had been on the soft tires, he could have braked later, maybe carried a little bit more speed into the first turn, and made the pass easily. But the McLaren had the less grippy super-hard shoes on, making it academic. The rest of the lap would be spent closing up on the Red Bull, only to see all the work go away in the last turns. No flaw in the McLaren, just that for some reason, Vettel could make the Red Bull work better in those last bends. As their grim duel continued on, the duo managed to lap the field through fifth place HWMNBN's Ferrari when the race ended. Hamilton did everything he could to catch the reigning Driver's Champion, but nothing he tried was successful. When the Red Bull finally crossed the line, there was the McLaren trailing behind by .6 of a second. A truly sterling race from both drivers. Third place Jenson Button followed along over 35 seconds later, with Mark Webber finishing up 12 seconds after that.
*AND THEN...: Further down in the pack, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld had been chewing up the rest of the field like the beast that gave him his nickname. Particularly on the final stint, when he was the only car in the field on a brand new set of soft tires (everybody else on softs were running scuffs, or "pre-used" tires), did Heidfeld go berserk, showing what "two seconds per lap" really means. He managed to end up in eighth, and given another couple of laps he probably would have passed both members of Team Mercedes. All of this leads one to wonder why the teams even bother to go out in Quals anyway?
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Yes, he has the best car. Yes, he's arguably the best driver. Seb Vettel actually had to drive today, as opposed to coasting the entire race. The result? A hard-fought win in a balky car that was probably a smidge slower than his rival. One small mistake and he would have been relegated to the second step on the podium... except he never made that mistake. Vettel deserves this award, perhaps more than ever before. The predictable Honorable Mention goes to Grizzly Nick Heidfeld for picking up 16 places during his charge from the rear.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren wound up second and third on the podium, had a great shot at winning the whole thing, and out-thought their main rivals on tire strategy. If Lewis Hamilton had the tire babying skills of his teammate Jenson Button, he probably would have won. Still, they put a scare into Red Bull, and made sure their main opponent knew that they have a fight on their hands the rest of the way... at least until Red Bull gets their KERS unit reliably working.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Mark Webber had been trailing behind HWMNBN for a few laps, reeling the Ferrari in despite the two having tires with the same amount of wear. As the pair approached Turn 10 on lap 35, Webber made his move.
From waaaay back, the Aussie braked about as late as you can and possibly later, throwing out the anchor, deploying the parachute, dragging his feet, and anything else you can think of to slow down. HWMNBN must have been shocked at how quickly the Red Bull zipped by. However, the two-time World Champion quickly got his head back into the game.
Turning inside Webber, HWMNBN took a shorter (but slower) line through the turn and got back on the gas while the Red Bull pilot gathered in the parachute and anchor. The two sprinted down to Turn 11... another left-hander.
This time, the Ferrari was in the better position and retook the place from the Red Bull. A brilliant piece of driving from both men, Webber for the initial pass, HWMNBN for the re-pass. A well-deserved shared MotR for the two!
*MOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: Felipe Massa had been having a miserable weekend. First, Quals simply sucked, qualifying eighth while his teammate took fourth on the grid. The once the race started, he simply couldn't get his Ferrari F150 Italia to perform, languishing in eighth before starting a slow slide down the field. The unforced error that led to a spin on Lap 38 mercifully didn't cost him any places, but must have just made an awful day even worse. The ugly grinding sound in his gearbox couldn't have made him feel any better. It probably came as a relief when he beached himself.
Intentionally, I might add. His gearbox wasn't going to make it another five laps. Really, he doesn't deserve this... so instead, I'm going to give it to a special surprise winner!
Yes, that's right, I'm giving the Moooooo-oooove of the Race to the cornerworker who managed to lose both his safety helmet AND his ballcap as he ran around the back of Heikki Kovaleinninninnie's car. Well done!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*LIGHTS OUT: With the Red Bull teammates locking out the front row, it was pretty much a given that one of them would be leading the pack into the first turn. After all, they've got the best car, Seb Vettel is arguably one of the best drivers in the field, and Webber is hardly a slouch himself. Still, with an iffy KERS unit, one could see Lewis Hamilton's McLaren sweep by them both from third. But nobody expected what actually occurred as the Ferrari of HWMNBN, perhaps powered by the cheers of the Spanish crowd, blew past them all to take the lead going into Turn 1. More surprisingly, he held the lead after the first lap, then the second, then the third... while he didn't run away from Vettel and Hamilton, second and third respectively, neither did he yield any time to them. He had roughly a half-second lead on the Red Bull, who had a half-second lead on the McLaren. That trio did manage to pull away from Webber in fourth, to the tune of maybe five seconds.
*THAT'S THE PITS: Seb Vettel dove into the pit lane for new tires on lap 9, apparently just before they fell off the cliff and became a hindrance. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, stayed out until lap 11, running a lap or two after his tires went bad. HWMNBN still held the lead, much to everybody's shock and horror. On lap 18, Vettel came back in for another set of new tires, again before their performance fell off. When HWMNBN came in a lap or two later, he wound up on the losing end of the pit rotation, as the Red Bull passed him just as he exited the pits. Hamilton had the lead, maybe one that was big enough for him to hit the pits, change shoes and rejoin before the reigning Driver's Champion went by... but McLaren kept him out there too long. When his pit stop finally occurred, he came back onto the track in second. We here at F1U! were impressed by Red Bull's strategy: they didn't worry about tire wear, because they knew they wouldn't be keeping their man out there long enough for it to affect their pace. Of course, that can only work when you've got relatively unused sets of soft tires... which, after Quals, they in fact had. At this point, the F1U! crew were sure the young German would power off into the sunset for an easy win.
*MEANWHILE: Sitting at the back of the grid at the start was Renault's Grizzly Nick Heidfeld. Relegated there by dint of an exhaust fire in P3 that prevented him from taking place in Quals, it was obvious to everybody that he'd be a fox amongst the chickens once the race started. Indeed, very quickly he went from 24th and dead last to 17th on the first lap, all the while on the new super-hard tires. In fact, he stayed out for 22 laps, during which time the guys up front stopped twice. He then had three sets of soft tires to go 44 laps. The chuckling and metaphorical rubbing of hands with glee were obvious on the Renault pitwall.
*YOU MANGY CURS KERS: Back up at the front, the F1U! crew were astounded to see that leader Seb Vettel did not, in fact, power away from Lewis Hamilton. Indeed, after the last set of pitstops had been completed, with both drivers going onto the super-hard tires, the McLaren slowly began to reel in the Red Bull. By lap 55, the gap was about a half-second and often closer. The KERS unit in Vettel's car was to blame, apparently overheating after being used for a couple of laps. The pit lane would then tell him to switch it off so it could cool down. Eventually it'd be okay to use again... at which point it would overheat after a couple of laps. Rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
*FINALLY: Hamilton's frustration must have been terrible. In the last couple of turns of each lap, Vettel would open the lead just enough to make the run down the front straight, even with DRS and KERS, a long stern chase that would end with the McLaren a bit too far back to make a passing attempt into Turn 1. If he had been on the soft tires, he could have braked later, maybe carried a little bit more speed into the first turn, and made the pass easily. But the McLaren had the less grippy super-hard shoes on, making it academic. The rest of the lap would be spent closing up on the Red Bull, only to see all the work go away in the last turns. No flaw in the McLaren, just that for some reason, Vettel could make the Red Bull work better in those last bends. As their grim duel continued on, the duo managed to lap the field through fifth place HWMNBN's Ferrari when the race ended. Hamilton did everything he could to catch the reigning Driver's Champion, but nothing he tried was successful. When the Red Bull finally crossed the line, there was the McLaren trailing behind by .6 of a second. A truly sterling race from both drivers. Third place Jenson Button followed along over 35 seconds later, with Mark Webber finishing up 12 seconds after that.
*AND THEN...: Further down in the pack, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld had been chewing up the rest of the field like the beast that gave him his nickname. Particularly on the final stint, when he was the only car in the field on a brand new set of soft tires (everybody else on softs were running scuffs, or "pre-used" tires), did Heidfeld go berserk, showing what "two seconds per lap" really means. He managed to end up in eighth, and given another couple of laps he probably would have passed both members of Team Mercedes. All of this leads one to wonder why the teams even bother to go out in Quals anyway?
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Yes, he has the best car. Yes, he's arguably the best driver. Seb Vettel actually had to drive today, as opposed to coasting the entire race. The result? A hard-fought win in a balky car that was probably a smidge slower than his rival. One small mistake and he would have been relegated to the second step on the podium... except he never made that mistake. Vettel deserves this award, perhaps more than ever before. The predictable Honorable Mention goes to Grizzly Nick Heidfeld for picking up 16 places during his charge from the rear.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren wound up second and third on the podium, had a great shot at winning the whole thing, and out-thought their main rivals on tire strategy. If Lewis Hamilton had the tire babying skills of his teammate Jenson Button, he probably would have won. Still, they put a scare into Red Bull, and made sure their main opponent knew that they have a fight on their hands the rest of the way... at least until Red Bull gets their KERS unit reliably working.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Mark Webber had been trailing behind HWMNBN for a few laps, reeling the Ferrari in despite the two having tires with the same amount of wear. As the pair approached Turn 10 on lap 35, Webber made his move.
From waaaay back, the Aussie braked about as late as you can and possibly later, throwing out the anchor, deploying the parachute, dragging his feet, and anything else you can think of to slow down. HWMNBN must have been shocked at how quickly the Red Bull zipped by. However, the two-time World Champion quickly got his head back into the game.
Turning inside Webber, HWMNBN took a shorter (but slower) line through the turn and got back on the gas while the Red Bull pilot gathered in the parachute and anchor. The two sprinted down to Turn 11... another left-hander.
This time, the Ferrari was in the better position and retook the place from the Red Bull. A brilliant piece of driving from both men, Webber for the initial pass, HWMNBN for the re-pass. A well-deserved shared MotR for the two!
*MOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: Felipe Massa had been having a miserable weekend. First, Quals simply sucked, qualifying eighth while his teammate took fourth on the grid. The once the race started, he simply couldn't get his Ferrari F150 Italia to perform, languishing in eighth before starting a slow slide down the field. The unforced error that led to a spin on Lap 38 mercifully didn't cost him any places, but must have just made an awful day even worse. The ugly grinding sound in his gearbox couldn't have made him feel any better. It probably came as a relief when he beached himself.
Intentionally, I might add. His gearbox wasn't going to make it another five laps. Really, he doesn't deserve this... so instead, I'm going to give it to a special surprise winner!
Yes, that's right, I'm giving the Moooooo-oooove of the Race to the cornerworker who managed to lose both his safety helmet AND his ballcap as he ran around the back of Heikki Kovaleinninninnie's car. Well done!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:17 PM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1996 words, total size 14 kb.
May 08, 2011
F1 Update!: Turkey 2011
A beautiful sunny day awaited us today at the Istanbul Otodrom as the cameras went live on the Turkish Grand Prix. But would Seb Vettel enjoy the race, or would the someone else take the May flowers from him? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Turkey.
*RACE: As the F1U! crew, joined by F1tern Vaucaunson's Duck, settled into our comfy chairs, the lights went out to begin the race. It immediately became obvious that, barring car failure, this contest was going to be for second place. Seb Vettel jumped away from the line and never looked back, opening a 1.2 second lead at the end of Lap 1. Just a pleasant Sunday drive for the World Champion, who won by nearly nine seconds over his teammate Mark Webber, who led Ferrari's HWMNBN across the line by just over a second. After those podium positions, there was a 30 second gap back to Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.
*THAT'S A RECORD: Pirelli's hopeful optimism towards the lifespan of their tires turned out to be somewhat misplaced. The first pitstops came on Lap 10, and for all intents and purposes never stopped. As a result, more stops were made in this race than ever before in F1 history: 80. The previous record-holding race started out in the wet, went dry, then sort of bobbled back and forth between the two, causing chaos in the pit lane. This one? All dry, and everybody save McLaren's Jenson Button and one of the Toro Rosso drivers made four stops.
*DIFFERING VIEWPOINTS: Having the F1tern here for the race brought something unexpected to the F1U! team's eyes. We saw the race as being action-packed but somewhat dull, full of passing back in the pack that was more or less meaningless. On the other hand, the F1tern thought the race was action-packed and exciting, full of dramatic passes. The possibility exists that the F1U! team is old and jaded.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: It's very hard to not give this award to Ferrari's HWMNBN, who pulled his steed onto the podium when it looked like the red cars would never get there this year. It's also very hard not to give the award to Gandalf Kobayashi, who started dead last, fought his way up to eighth, and ended up tenth, very nearly equaling Mark Webber's 15-place improvement at China (18th to third). But it's impossible to not give the Driver of the Race award to Red Bull's Seb Vettel. Maybe it's the car, maybe it's because he's mostly driving with a clear track in front of him, but he dominated the Grand Prix of Turkey race weekend. Beginning from Saturday's P3 session, then in Quals, then the race itself, nobody was even close to the World Champion. It's a telling statistic that he's led 183 of the 220 laps run this season...
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. Duh. They blew away everybody in Quals, they blew away everybody during the race, and they had to rebuild Vettel's car after his 1st Practice wreck. That's a heckuva record for the team.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: The combination of KERS and DRS have made passing much, much easier this season, giving the F1U! crew more than enough choices for the best move. The McLaren teammates, for example, had a scrum that lasted three full laps; Hamilton passed Button, who passed Hamilton, who came back and repassed Button, who turned around and repassed Hamilton again. Massa and Rosberg had a lovely little scrimmage on Lap 20. There were literally dozens of others, mostly in the DRS zone. But none of them came close to what happened on Lap 15. Slappy Schumacher led a hard-charging Gandalf Kobayashi, who had just gotten by Force India's Adrian F'n Sutil and Paul di Resta. Coming down from the flat-out Turn 11 towards Turn 12, Gandalf decided that he wanted Slappy's place, no matter what. Slappy decided he wouldn't make it easy for the Wizard. He moved to the inside, and Gandalf took Shadowfax onto the grass at 200 mph while Adrian F'n Sutil tried to take advantage of Schumacher's inattention, going wide to the outside.
Gandalf, past the elder statesman, lit up his tires through Turn 12, while Sutil whipped from the outside to the inside to get past the Mercedes driver. His tires smoking, he shouldered Schumi aside.
On the pull-out, di Resta tried to get involved as well, to no avail. Kobayashi had picked up three places through the whole thing, Sutil one, and Slappy lost two.
More importantly, it's clear that Schumacher's legendary status has worn off, with the younger drivers no longer giving him the respect they used to... which is the way it should be.
*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: 13 laps previously on the same bit of track, Renault's Red Menace, Vitaly Petrov, made a... shall we say optimistic... move on Slappy Schumacher, neglecting to apply his brakes until very late into Turn 12. He went to the inside of Schumacher and quite honestly had no chance whatsoever to make either the move or the turn. Slappy, however, was having none of it. He decided that the brilliant thing to do was to close down on the speeding Red Menace.
Result? The two bumped rather hard, the Renault ran over the Mercedes' nose, and the contact slowed the Red Menace enough that he could control himself through the turn. Schumi immediately pulled into the pits, but he still lost a ton of places and was never seen again. Good job, Slappy, here's your Moooooo-oove.
*SELECTED QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*RACE: As the F1U! crew, joined by F1tern Vaucaunson's Duck, settled into our comfy chairs, the lights went out to begin the race. It immediately became obvious that, barring car failure, this contest was going to be for second place. Seb Vettel jumped away from the line and never looked back, opening a 1.2 second lead at the end of Lap 1. Just a pleasant Sunday drive for the World Champion, who won by nearly nine seconds over his teammate Mark Webber, who led Ferrari's HWMNBN across the line by just over a second. After those podium positions, there was a 30 second gap back to Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.
*THAT'S A RECORD: Pirelli's hopeful optimism towards the lifespan of their tires turned out to be somewhat misplaced. The first pitstops came on Lap 10, and for all intents and purposes never stopped. As a result, more stops were made in this race than ever before in F1 history: 80. The previous record-holding race started out in the wet, went dry, then sort of bobbled back and forth between the two, causing chaos in the pit lane. This one? All dry, and everybody save McLaren's Jenson Button and one of the Toro Rosso drivers made four stops.
*DIFFERING VIEWPOINTS: Having the F1tern here for the race brought something unexpected to the F1U! team's eyes. We saw the race as being action-packed but somewhat dull, full of passing back in the pack that was more or less meaningless. On the other hand, the F1tern thought the race was action-packed and exciting, full of dramatic passes. The possibility exists that the F1U! team is old and jaded.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: It's very hard to not give this award to Ferrari's HWMNBN, who pulled his steed onto the podium when it looked like the red cars would never get there this year. It's also very hard not to give the award to Gandalf Kobayashi, who started dead last, fought his way up to eighth, and ended up tenth, very nearly equaling Mark Webber's 15-place improvement at China (18th to third). But it's impossible to not give the Driver of the Race award to Red Bull's Seb Vettel. Maybe it's the car, maybe it's because he's mostly driving with a clear track in front of him, but he dominated the Grand Prix of Turkey race weekend. Beginning from Saturday's P3 session, then in Quals, then the race itself, nobody was even close to the World Champion. It's a telling statistic that he's led 183 of the 220 laps run this season...
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. Duh. They blew away everybody in Quals, they blew away everybody during the race, and they had to rebuild Vettel's car after his 1st Practice wreck. That's a heckuva record for the team.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: The combination of KERS and DRS have made passing much, much easier this season, giving the F1U! crew more than enough choices for the best move. The McLaren teammates, for example, had a scrum that lasted three full laps; Hamilton passed Button, who passed Hamilton, who came back and repassed Button, who turned around and repassed Hamilton again. Massa and Rosberg had a lovely little scrimmage on Lap 20. There were literally dozens of others, mostly in the DRS zone. But none of them came close to what happened on Lap 15. Slappy Schumacher led a hard-charging Gandalf Kobayashi, who had just gotten by Force India's Adrian F'n Sutil and Paul di Resta. Coming down from the flat-out Turn 11 towards Turn 12, Gandalf decided that he wanted Slappy's place, no matter what. Slappy decided he wouldn't make it easy for the Wizard. He moved to the inside, and Gandalf took Shadowfax onto the grass at 200 mph while Adrian F'n Sutil tried to take advantage of Schumacher's inattention, going wide to the outside.
Gandalf, past the elder statesman, lit up his tires through Turn 12, while Sutil whipped from the outside to the inside to get past the Mercedes driver. His tires smoking, he shouldered Schumi aside.
On the pull-out, di Resta tried to get involved as well, to no avail. Kobayashi had picked up three places through the whole thing, Sutil one, and Slappy lost two.
More importantly, it's clear that Schumacher's legendary status has worn off, with the younger drivers no longer giving him the respect they used to... which is the way it should be.
*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: 13 laps previously on the same bit of track, Renault's Red Menace, Vitaly Petrov, made a... shall we say optimistic... move on Slappy Schumacher, neglecting to apply his brakes until very late into Turn 12. He went to the inside of Schumacher and quite honestly had no chance whatsoever to make either the move or the turn. Slappy, however, was having none of it. He decided that the brilliant thing to do was to close down on the speeding Red Menace.
Result? The two bumped rather hard, the Renault ran over the Mercedes' nose, and the contact slowed the Red Menace enough that he could control himself through the turn. Schumi immediately pulled into the pits, but he still lost a ton of places and was never seen again. Good job, Slappy, here's your Moooooo-oove.
*SELECTED QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:47 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1067 words, total size 7 kb.
April 17, 2011
F1 Update!: China 2011
It was a beautiful day in Shanghai, absolutely perfect for a Formula 1 race. Would it prove to be so for the polesitter Seb Vettel? Or would one of his rivals prevent him from winning his third race in a row to start the season? You'll soon find out, because THIS is your F1 Update! for the Grand Prix of China!
*BEFORE: Prior to the start of a F1 race, cars form up on the grid after taking a "recon lap" of the track. To prevent teams from holding their cars in the pits until the very last possible instant before a race, they must be off pit lane by 15 minutes prior to race start. If a car fails to do so, they must start from pit exit and can't move until all the rest of the field passes that point on the track. Usually this is the home of cars badly damaged during Quals, or that had a last-minute engine failure, or teams like HRT or Virgin, for whom such a handicap will make no difference. You can imagine the panic felt by McLaren's mechanics, then, when they fired up Lewis Hamilton's car at 20 minutes to go, and fuel began spraying out from under the bodywork.
They had rip the rear panels off the car, figure out what was causing the leak, clean up the spilled gasoline, make sure the MP4-26 was safe to drive, then get Hamilton off of pit lane, all within five minutes. It turned out that there wasn't a leak; instead, the engine somehow flooded when they engaged the starter. A liberal application of paper towels to the inside of the car sopped up the fuel that dripped into the bodywork, they made some adjustments to the sprayer rail of the engine, and sent the 2008 World Champion on his way... with some 15 seconds to spare. They didn't put the rear of the car's body back on until it was on the grid. No, no stress there.
*DURING: When the lights went out to begin the 2011 Grand Prix of China, we knew immediately that this was not to be a repeat of the previous two races. Red Bull's Seb Vettel bogged down off the line, allowing McLaren's Hamilton and Jenson Button to get past him before Turn 1, and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg nearly did so as well. It took a heroic effort by Vettel to keep his German countryman behind him, fighting him all the way through the Turn 1-2-3-4 complex, and only on the straight before Turn 5 did he shuffle the Silver Arrow back. By the end of the first lap, Hamilton had opened a one-second gap to his teammate, and nearly three to Vettel. That's the way it stayed for most of the first stint, Hamilton's lead bulging up to three seconds to Button at one point, then slowly dropping away. Eventually, both Jenson Button and Vettel passed him, dropping him to third. However, the first strategic play came from the man in fourth place, Rosberg. He made what seemed to be an early pit stop on lap 13. Instead of being caused by worn-out soft tires, the team had made the call to bring him in before the soft Pirellis "fell off the cliff". Then, as everybody else made their first stops, Rosberg ripped off some blazingly quick laps and found himself legitimately in first place. Button and Vettel made their stops together. Vettel came out ahead, aided by a major brainfade by the McLaren driver.
"I was looking down at the steering wheel to adjust a switch: when I looked up, I thought I was in my pitbox, but then I saw the Red Bull pitcrew in front of me," said Button, who had to roll slowly forward into his own box while Vettel slid smoothly into his. That small delay was enough to get the Red Bull driver out first.
*MEANWHILE: Red Bull's Mark Webber started the race in 18th, after a miserable qualifying session caused by electrical, mechanical and KERS problems prevented him from doing much. Starting the race on the hard tires, he slipped back to 20th after his first pit stop on lap 11. However, one unexpected benefit of his problems in Quals was that he had a full three sets of completely fresh soft Pirellis to use in the race. Getting his required stint on the hard tires out of the way early proved to be a masterstroke, as Webber began to climb his way through the field. It became obvious that the fight up front was so intense that everybody else was going to be using their hards on their last stints, giving Webber an interesting advantage... if he could get close enough to the frontrunners to use it. That was a mighty big "if", however, being as far back as he was.
*MIDRANGE: Nico Rosberg had driven a fantastic race, leading the more heralded Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Ferrari's HWMNBN and Felipe Massa for a good spell on the strategic decision to pit "off-sequence," taking advantage of fresh rubber to slip past opponents who had dying tires. While that was a genius-level call, it would mean a longer final stint on the hard tires than the others, as his last set of softs would go away with more laps remaining. Realizing this, team principal Ross Brawn made another strategic decision: Rosberg would be on a two-stop strategy while all around him would be making three. This would, in theory, save him the 25 seconds needed for the roll down the pit lane and should give him a comfortable margin of error. Rosberg made his final stop from the lead on lap 40, coming out in third, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and just behind Felipe Massa, while Seb Vettel, fighting a dead KERS unit and unable to speak to his pit crew due to a failing radio, led the race with 16 laps to go.
*MEANWHILE PT II: Mark Webber was driving like a man pissed off at the world. By lap 40, he was in seventh after making his last pit stop for fresh soft tires. Sixteen laps on softs was proving to be doable, though there'd be something of a dropoff in grip later in the run. On the plus side though, they had proven to be just over a second a lap faster than the hard tires that everybody else was on. The angry Aussie set to work. By lap 51, the standings were Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg and Webber... a miraculous drive by any stretch. The top five positions were covered by only nine seconds.
*ENDGAME: One thing you almost never see in F1 anymore is a pass for the lead late in the race, unless there's a breakdown on the leader's car. While Vettel's KERS unit had died, it doesn't appear to have worked much during the race in any case, so we here at F1U! aren't counting that. So it came as a pleasant surprise when Lewis Hamilton swept past the 2010 World Champion on lap 52 for the lead, a lead he would never relinquish. It came as an even bigger surprise when Mark Webber, who you may remember started from 18th on the grid, caught and passed Nico Rosberg for fourth. To be fair, Rosberg's tires had given up the ghost, but still. Then our collective jaws dropped even farther when Webber set sail after Jenson Button for third. On lap 54, the dislocation of our mandibles became total when the Red Bull driver cleanly dispatched Button. The checkered flag flew with Hamilton five seconds ahead of Vettel, who was a mere two seconds ahead of his teammate, bringing to an end a frantically exciting race, one of the best dry races we've had in the seven year history of F1U!
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: From 18th to third and fast lap of the race? Oh yeah, Mark Webber gets this one going away. Considering the relative pace between Webber and winner Hamilton at the end, if the Grand Prix of China had been 60 laps long instead of the regular 56, there's very little question that we'd be talking about the greatest single race performance of all time right now. Instead, it's merely fantastic. Honorable mention goes to Nico Rosberg for nearly making a brilliantly flawed strategy work. Not his fault the tires fell off the cliff.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. While McLaren finished 1st-4th and Red Bull 2nd-3rd, that third place finish came from a driver who was as low as 20th at one point. Yeah, that worked pretty well, giving the team a huge haul of unexpected points. Now they've got until Turkey to figure out their KERS problem. That's a scary thought.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: While there were plenty of more exciting passes during the race, none were more important than Lewis Hamilton's against Vettel on lap 52. He'd been harrying the Red Bull driver for most of a lap, parking his McLaren right under the rear wing of the World Champion's car all the way through the Turns 1-2-3 complex. He then made his move on the short run to Turn 4.
It was almost as if Vettel wasn't expecting a passing attempt at that point, as it wasn't until the very last moment that he even reacted with a blocking manuever, and that came when it was too late to do any good. Hamilton swept past into the lead for his first win of the year.
*MOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: Two candidates this time. The first, Jenson Button's attempt to become the third Red Bull car, we've already seen. While that cost him a place at the time, it probably didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. For Toro Rosso's NKOTT, a pit blunder ended his race. Pitting on lap 10 from 12th place, the pit stop seemed to be routine... indeed, we got to see all of it from the point of view of a camera looking back at the right-rear of the car, which was pretty neat. The director stayed with that view as the car rolled out and back onto the track, at which point, an eagle-eyed viewer might have noticed that right-rear tire seem to wobble... but it might have been the stripe Pirelli had painted on the soft tire. A few moments later, it was obvious that it wasn't the stripe.
No, the tire made a mad dash for freedom. Only a catch fence kept it from making its way into the wilderness outside of Shangahi. Upon reviewing the video, it looks like the tire-gunner for that wheel never engaged the locking pin that prevents the wheel nut from working free after the tire change. Some teams have gone to pins that are engaged by the gun itself so take care not to read too much into that, but either way it seems appropriate that Toro Rosso has earned themselves a Moooooo-oove of the Race. Olé!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*BEFORE: Prior to the start of a F1 race, cars form up on the grid after taking a "recon lap" of the track. To prevent teams from holding their cars in the pits until the very last possible instant before a race, they must be off pit lane by 15 minutes prior to race start. If a car fails to do so, they must start from pit exit and can't move until all the rest of the field passes that point on the track. Usually this is the home of cars badly damaged during Quals, or that had a last-minute engine failure, or teams like HRT or Virgin, for whom such a handicap will make no difference. You can imagine the panic felt by McLaren's mechanics, then, when they fired up Lewis Hamilton's car at 20 minutes to go, and fuel began spraying out from under the bodywork.
They had rip the rear panels off the car, figure out what was causing the leak, clean up the spilled gasoline, make sure the MP4-26 was safe to drive, then get Hamilton off of pit lane, all within five minutes. It turned out that there wasn't a leak; instead, the engine somehow flooded when they engaged the starter. A liberal application of paper towels to the inside of the car sopped up the fuel that dripped into the bodywork, they made some adjustments to the sprayer rail of the engine, and sent the 2008 World Champion on his way... with some 15 seconds to spare. They didn't put the rear of the car's body back on until it was on the grid. No, no stress there.
*DURING: When the lights went out to begin the 2011 Grand Prix of China, we knew immediately that this was not to be a repeat of the previous two races. Red Bull's Seb Vettel bogged down off the line, allowing McLaren's Hamilton and Jenson Button to get past him before Turn 1, and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg nearly did so as well. It took a heroic effort by Vettel to keep his German countryman behind him, fighting him all the way through the Turn 1-2-3-4 complex, and only on the straight before Turn 5 did he shuffle the Silver Arrow back. By the end of the first lap, Hamilton had opened a one-second gap to his teammate, and nearly three to Vettel. That's the way it stayed for most of the first stint, Hamilton's lead bulging up to three seconds to Button at one point, then slowly dropping away. Eventually, both Jenson Button and Vettel passed him, dropping him to third. However, the first strategic play came from the man in fourth place, Rosberg. He made what seemed to be an early pit stop on lap 13. Instead of being caused by worn-out soft tires, the team had made the call to bring him in before the soft Pirellis "fell off the cliff". Then, as everybody else made their first stops, Rosberg ripped off some blazingly quick laps and found himself legitimately in first place. Button and Vettel made their stops together. Vettel came out ahead, aided by a major brainfade by the McLaren driver.
"I was looking down at the steering wheel to adjust a switch: when I looked up, I thought I was in my pitbox, but then I saw the Red Bull pitcrew in front of me," said Button, who had to roll slowly forward into his own box while Vettel slid smoothly into his. That small delay was enough to get the Red Bull driver out first.
*MEANWHILE: Red Bull's Mark Webber started the race in 18th, after a miserable qualifying session caused by electrical, mechanical and KERS problems prevented him from doing much. Starting the race on the hard tires, he slipped back to 20th after his first pit stop on lap 11. However, one unexpected benefit of his problems in Quals was that he had a full three sets of completely fresh soft Pirellis to use in the race. Getting his required stint on the hard tires out of the way early proved to be a masterstroke, as Webber began to climb his way through the field. It became obvious that the fight up front was so intense that everybody else was going to be using their hards on their last stints, giving Webber an interesting advantage... if he could get close enough to the frontrunners to use it. That was a mighty big "if", however, being as far back as he was.
*MIDRANGE: Nico Rosberg had driven a fantastic race, leading the more heralded Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Ferrari's HWMNBN and Felipe Massa for a good spell on the strategic decision to pit "off-sequence," taking advantage of fresh rubber to slip past opponents who had dying tires. While that was a genius-level call, it would mean a longer final stint on the hard tires than the others, as his last set of softs would go away with more laps remaining. Realizing this, team principal Ross Brawn made another strategic decision: Rosberg would be on a two-stop strategy while all around him would be making three. This would, in theory, save him the 25 seconds needed for the roll down the pit lane and should give him a comfortable margin of error. Rosberg made his final stop from the lead on lap 40, coming out in third, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and just behind Felipe Massa, while Seb Vettel, fighting a dead KERS unit and unable to speak to his pit crew due to a failing radio, led the race with 16 laps to go.
*MEANWHILE PT II: Mark Webber was driving like a man pissed off at the world. By lap 40, he was in seventh after making his last pit stop for fresh soft tires. Sixteen laps on softs was proving to be doable, though there'd be something of a dropoff in grip later in the run. On the plus side though, they had proven to be just over a second a lap faster than the hard tires that everybody else was on. The angry Aussie set to work. By lap 51, the standings were Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg and Webber... a miraculous drive by any stretch. The top five positions were covered by only nine seconds.
*ENDGAME: One thing you almost never see in F1 anymore is a pass for the lead late in the race, unless there's a breakdown on the leader's car. While Vettel's KERS unit had died, it doesn't appear to have worked much during the race in any case, so we here at F1U! aren't counting that. So it came as a pleasant surprise when Lewis Hamilton swept past the 2010 World Champion on lap 52 for the lead, a lead he would never relinquish. It came as an even bigger surprise when Mark Webber, who you may remember started from 18th on the grid, caught and passed Nico Rosberg for fourth. To be fair, Rosberg's tires had given up the ghost, but still. Then our collective jaws dropped even farther when Webber set sail after Jenson Button for third. On lap 54, the dislocation of our mandibles became total when the Red Bull driver cleanly dispatched Button. The checkered flag flew with Hamilton five seconds ahead of Vettel, who was a mere two seconds ahead of his teammate, bringing to an end a frantically exciting race, one of the best dry races we've had in the seven year history of F1U!
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: From 18th to third and fast lap of the race? Oh yeah, Mark Webber gets this one going away. Considering the relative pace between Webber and winner Hamilton at the end, if the Grand Prix of China had been 60 laps long instead of the regular 56, there's very little question that we'd be talking about the greatest single race performance of all time right now. Instead, it's merely fantastic. Honorable mention goes to Nico Rosberg for nearly making a brilliantly flawed strategy work. Not his fault the tires fell off the cliff.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. While McLaren finished 1st-4th and Red Bull 2nd-3rd, that third place finish came from a driver who was as low as 20th at one point. Yeah, that worked pretty well, giving the team a huge haul of unexpected points. Now they've got until Turkey to figure out their KERS problem. That's a scary thought.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: While there were plenty of more exciting passes during the race, none were more important than Lewis Hamilton's against Vettel on lap 52. He'd been harrying the Red Bull driver for most of a lap, parking his McLaren right under the rear wing of the World Champion's car all the way through the Turns 1-2-3 complex. He then made his move on the short run to Turn 4.
It was almost as if Vettel wasn't expecting a passing attempt at that point, as it wasn't until the very last moment that he even reacted with a blocking manuever, and that came when it was too late to do any good. Hamilton swept past into the lead for his first win of the year.
*MOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: Two candidates this time. The first, Jenson Button's attempt to become the third Red Bull car, we've already seen. While that cost him a place at the time, it probably didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. For Toro Rosso's NKOTT, a pit blunder ended his race. Pitting on lap 10 from 12th place, the pit stop seemed to be routine... indeed, we got to see all of it from the point of view of a camera looking back at the right-rear of the car, which was pretty neat. The director stayed with that view as the car rolled out and back onto the track, at which point, an eagle-eyed viewer might have noticed that right-rear tire seem to wobble... but it might have been the stripe Pirelli had painted on the soft tire. A few moments later, it was obvious that it wasn't the stripe.
No, the tire made a mad dash for freedom. Only a catch fence kept it from making its way into the wilderness outside of Shangahi. Upon reviewing the video, it looks like the tire-gunner for that wheel never engaged the locking pin that prevents the wheel nut from working free after the tire change. Some teams have gone to pins that are engaged by the gun itself so take care not to read too much into that, but either way it seems appropriate that Toro Rosso has earned themselves a Moooooo-oove of the Race. Olé!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:04 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 2330 words, total size 15 kb.
April 10, 2011
F1 Update!: Malaysia 2011
The skies overhead were dark gray, heavy and humid, the ambient temperatures around 90 F... thoroughly unpleasant conditions for man and machine both. But would the rain come and throw the race into a tizzy? Or would tires, short-lived and prone to failure, prove to be defining aspect of the race? You're about to find out, because THIS is your F1U! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Malaysia.
*THE WEATHER: Surprisingly, the leaden skies never opened up. Other than a brief sprinkle right around the first pitstops, the race was run entirely in the dry. Of course, the timing of the sprinkles made for some tense moments up and down the pit lane. If a car came in for Inters and it stayed dry, that would be a wasted stop and a few laps run on slow slow tires. However, if a car stayed on slick tires and it began to rain, you're going to be turning laps 45 seconds slower than everybody else... if you can keep it on the track in the first place. Lots of crossed fingers, dice rolling, and coin flipping later, everybody made the right guess.
*THE TIRES: The combination of high temperatures and abrasive track surface made life hell on the Pirelli tires. Three stops were the norm today, four stops were not unheard of... though Gandalf Kobayashi managed to do the race on a two-stopper.
That's what the track looked like around Lap 40. That black stuff is known in the business as "clag," and it's what comes off the tires as they wear. You can see there's a clean line, but get off that you're taking your life in your own hands... literally. Your traction goes away fast when you're driving on little balls of rolled-up rubber. Unfortunately, it only took a few laps for the clag to build up to problem levels. While passing did occur today, it was mostly at the end of the back straight where there was no clag to speak of.
*THE RACE: Once the lights went out, Seb Vettel ran away and hid. Again. By the end of a very busy first lap that saw Grizzly Nick Heidfeld jump into second place, Mark Webber drop to 10th, and everybody else jumbled up, Vettel had a two second lead. However, he never got farther ahead than nine seconds during his cruise to victory, and spent most of it about five seconds in front of second place. That's good... except some of that might have been because neither Red Bull had a working KERS system; Vettel had overheating batteries and couldn't use his after Lap 25, while Webber's went into shutdown mode on the recon lap. Explains his horrid start. Behind Vettel, the race was one of the more confusing things we here at F1U! had ever seen. The multitude of pitstops made keeping accurate track of what was going on nigh impossible.
*AFTER THE RACE: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had a bad day. Starting in second position, he got stuck behind Grizzly Nick Heidfeld for some 14 laps, ran out of soft tires at the halfway point, spent half of the contest on the slower hard tires and stumbled all the way down to seventh. At one point though, he was in third, being harried by Ferrari's HWMNBN, who was faster at that point in the race. Hamilton made two defensive moves to protect his position against a passing attempt by the Spaniard, who then clipped the McLaren coming out of the next turn. This sent the Ferrari to the pits for a new nose. Both drivers were brought before the Stewards post-race and handed 20sec. time penalties... HWMNBN for hitting Hamilton, Hamilton for his swerves. This penalty kicked Hamilton from seventh to eighth, while HWMNBN did not lose a position. F1U! thinks the penalties, while awfully ticky-tack, were both legit. We have yet to see Hamilton's swerving, though we've looked at the video a number of times, and the contact between the two sure looked like a racing incident to us. So it goes.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Grizzly Nick Heidfeld had a heck of a start, jumping from sixth to second by the second turn. He then grimly held off all comers for most of the race while Seb Vettel could never quite get away from him. In the end, he wound up on the third step of the podium after holding back a hard-charging Mark Webber for four laps at the end of the race. Good job, Griz!
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. The death of their KERS unit made Webber's start understandable. His fight back up the order to finish fourth was impressive, and Vettel's runaway victory despite the lack of KERS had to have cold chills running down the back of every team in the pit lane. Honorable mention to Renault for their second podium in two races.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: After Lewis Hamilton pitted on Lap 14, he returned to the race in 7th position, right behind Seb Buemi's Toro Rosso in 6th and the Mercedes of Slappy Schumacher. With fresh tires, he was surely faster than either, but approaching the long final straight, he had a decision to make. Would he hang back, protect his tires, and get past them when they pitted? Or did he risk burning his last set of soft tires off the rims by asking them to help him pass both cars? Since this is Lewis Hamilton we're talking about, the answer should be obvious.
Using the aerodynamic tow of the two cars ahead, he slingshotted past Buemi, pulling even with Slappy. However, neither driver really wanted to give up their positions without a fight.
Slappy moved to the right to push Hamilton onto the dusty side of the circuit. This let Buemi, also slipsteaming, attack to the other side of the Silver Arrow. Three abreast they came down to the final turn... who would blink first?
As it turned out, the seven-time World Champion, pinched between two drivers young enough to be his sons, backed out, then dove into the pits. Hamilton gained two positions, Buemi one, and all three impressed by not turning their cars into smoking piles of carbon fiber. Hamilton gets the MotR, but all three could share it.
*MOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Here's something you don't see every day...
That's right, the steering column of The Red Menace's Renault is completely disconnected from the car. Fortunately his brakes still worked so he could bring his car to a relatively safe halt off-track. But what caused his steering to break?
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*THE WEATHER: Surprisingly, the leaden skies never opened up. Other than a brief sprinkle right around the first pitstops, the race was run entirely in the dry. Of course, the timing of the sprinkles made for some tense moments up and down the pit lane. If a car came in for Inters and it stayed dry, that would be a wasted stop and a few laps run on slow slow tires. However, if a car stayed on slick tires and it began to rain, you're going to be turning laps 45 seconds slower than everybody else... if you can keep it on the track in the first place. Lots of crossed fingers, dice rolling, and coin flipping later, everybody made the right guess.
*THE TIRES: The combination of high temperatures and abrasive track surface made life hell on the Pirelli tires. Three stops were the norm today, four stops were not unheard of... though Gandalf Kobayashi managed to do the race on a two-stopper.
That's what the track looked like around Lap 40. That black stuff is known in the business as "clag," and it's what comes off the tires as they wear. You can see there's a clean line, but get off that you're taking your life in your own hands... literally. Your traction goes away fast when you're driving on little balls of rolled-up rubber. Unfortunately, it only took a few laps for the clag to build up to problem levels. While passing did occur today, it was mostly at the end of the back straight where there was no clag to speak of.
*THE RACE: Once the lights went out, Seb Vettel ran away and hid. Again. By the end of a very busy first lap that saw Grizzly Nick Heidfeld jump into second place, Mark Webber drop to 10th, and everybody else jumbled up, Vettel had a two second lead. However, he never got farther ahead than nine seconds during his cruise to victory, and spent most of it about five seconds in front of second place. That's good... except some of that might have been because neither Red Bull had a working KERS system; Vettel had overheating batteries and couldn't use his after Lap 25, while Webber's went into shutdown mode on the recon lap. Explains his horrid start. Behind Vettel, the race was one of the more confusing things we here at F1U! had ever seen. The multitude of pitstops made keeping accurate track of what was going on nigh impossible.
*AFTER THE RACE: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had a bad day. Starting in second position, he got stuck behind Grizzly Nick Heidfeld for some 14 laps, ran out of soft tires at the halfway point, spent half of the contest on the slower hard tires and stumbled all the way down to seventh. At one point though, he was in third, being harried by Ferrari's HWMNBN, who was faster at that point in the race. Hamilton made two defensive moves to protect his position against a passing attempt by the Spaniard, who then clipped the McLaren coming out of the next turn. This sent the Ferrari to the pits for a new nose. Both drivers were brought before the Stewards post-race and handed 20sec. time penalties... HWMNBN for hitting Hamilton, Hamilton for his swerves. This penalty kicked Hamilton from seventh to eighth, while HWMNBN did not lose a position. F1U! thinks the penalties, while awfully ticky-tack, were both legit. We have yet to see Hamilton's swerving, though we've looked at the video a number of times, and the contact between the two sure looked like a racing incident to us. So it goes.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Grizzly Nick Heidfeld had a heck of a start, jumping from sixth to second by the second turn. He then grimly held off all comers for most of the race while Seb Vettel could never quite get away from him. In the end, he wound up on the third step of the podium after holding back a hard-charging Mark Webber for four laps at the end of the race. Good job, Griz!
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. The death of their KERS unit made Webber's start understandable. His fight back up the order to finish fourth was impressive, and Vettel's runaway victory despite the lack of KERS had to have cold chills running down the back of every team in the pit lane. Honorable mention to Renault for their second podium in two races.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: After Lewis Hamilton pitted on Lap 14, he returned to the race in 7th position, right behind Seb Buemi's Toro Rosso in 6th and the Mercedes of Slappy Schumacher. With fresh tires, he was surely faster than either, but approaching the long final straight, he had a decision to make. Would he hang back, protect his tires, and get past them when they pitted? Or did he risk burning his last set of soft tires off the rims by asking them to help him pass both cars? Since this is Lewis Hamilton we're talking about, the answer should be obvious.
Using the aerodynamic tow of the two cars ahead, he slingshotted past Buemi, pulling even with Slappy. However, neither driver really wanted to give up their positions without a fight.
Slappy moved to the right to push Hamilton onto the dusty side of the circuit. This let Buemi, also slipsteaming, attack to the other side of the Silver Arrow. Three abreast they came down to the final turn... who would blink first?
As it turned out, the seven-time World Champion, pinched between two drivers young enough to be his sons, backed out, then dove into the pits. Hamilton gained two positions, Buemi one, and all three impressed by not turning their cars into smoking piles of carbon fiber. Hamilton gets the MotR, but all three could share it.
*MOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Here's something you don't see every day...
That's right, the steering column of The Red Menace's Renault is completely disconnected from the car. Fortunately his brakes still worked so he could bring his car to a relatively safe halt off-track. But what caused his steering to break?
Wheeeeeee!
Yeah, that'll do it. Petrov ran wide into a turn and wound up going agricultural. He thought he could keep going at full speed across the grass... he was wrong. Remember, F1 cars are totally unsprung, and the driver doesn't have a seat; they sit on the floor of the cockpit. The landing must have really, really hurt... maybe the Mooooooo-ooootR will ease the pain.*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
05:46 PM
| Comments (7)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1658 words, total size 11 kb.
March 27, 2011
F1 Update!: Australia 2011
The 2011 season picked up where the 2010 season left off, with Red Bull ascendant. Seb Vettel had dominated Qualifying, and his teammate was directly behind him on the grid, but the surprisingly quick McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were right next to them. Behind those four stalked the prancing horse, the Ferraris of HWMNBN and Felipe Massa, and the resurgent Renault of Vitaly Petrov. Could we be seeing a repeat of Red Bull's astounding year, or could one of the others knock them off their drinks cart? THIS is your F1Update! for the first race of the 2011 season, the Grand Prix of Australia!
*BEFORE: The weather in Melbourne was glorious. The sun, low in the sky with the 5pm local start, shined in the clear blue sky. All of Albert Park seemed to glitter on the television screen, the gray skies of the past two days gone. Even the traditional flyby of the Qantas 747 seemed more spectacular than normal.
There may be a large percentage of the population of Melbourne that doesn't want Formula 1 in their city anymore, but that doesn't stop them from turning out in droves and putting on a show, I'll give them that. On the grid, there was a minute of silence in memory and support of those lost and suffering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Traditionally there has been deep ties between Formula 1 and Japan. Many, if not all, of the drivers have raced there at one time or another in lower Formula (not to mention the Japanese Grand Prix), and of course Sauber's Gandalf Kobayashi and Virgin's reserve driver Sakon Yamamoto are from Japan. Honda and Toyota have only recently left the sport, and of course last year's tiremaker Bridgestone is based in Japan, so this was a nice gesture for the sport to their fans in that country.
And then it was time to race.
*DURING: The strategies up at the front of the grid were all pretty clear. For polesitter Vettel, it was to stay in front, despite the handicap of a non-functional KERS system, turned off in the Red Bull cars for unreliability reasons. For Hamilton, get past the 2010 Driver's Champion and keep him there. For Mark Webber, Vettel's Red Bull teammate, it was a little more complex: get past Hamilton, keep Button behind him, and do well in front of his home nation's fans, something he has not managed to do very well in the past. For HWMNBN, the goal was to get past the McLarens and stay in touch with the Red Bulls... and for god's sake stay in front of the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, lest there be a repeat (however unlikely) of the race at Abu Dhabi last year. For those further back in the horde, the goals were infinitely more simple: survive the first turns with the car in one piece, then get on with racing. When the lights went out, Vettel made it clear that this was going to be a long race by easily keeping everybody behind him, and indeed, pulling out a six or seven car-length lead by the end of the second turn. Try as he might, Hamilton had no answer for Vettel's start, and indeed had his hands full keeping Webber behind him. Vitaly Petrov served notice that he was to be reckoned with by leaping into fourth and watching his Spanish rival drop all the way to ninth as he got squeezed by the Thundering Herd. Button dropped to sixth, caught between the two Ferraris in the first couple of corners, one sliding back in the field, the other, Felipe Massa, making a start for the ages jumping up to fifth.
*AND THEN...: As Vettel and Hamilton streaked away from Webber, and Webber pulled away from the rest of the field, Button and Massa began a most entertaining duel, one that played up both the strengths of the new technological marvels (KERS and the Drag Reduction System, aka the movable rear wing) on F1 cars these days and the weaknesses. Massa was clearly slower than the McLaren driver, but judicious use of KERS in a defensive posture mixed with good driving kept the silver car behind him, though close on his tail. Lap after lap the DRS, which could only be used on the front straight, allowed Button to nearly get past, but not quite. Must have been frustrating for the 2009 Driver's Champion. Eventually, Button made a slightly unlikely attempt at a pass. He got alongside Massa, but was pushed off-track onto an escape road. The escape road allowed Button to get past the Ferrari, but in a way that was clearly a violation of the rules and he should have relinquished the position. Instead, he did nothing of the sort, claiming that he was ahead of Massa when he was forced off-circuit and that he had right of position. The matter went to the Race Stewards. Meanwhile, two things occurred that showed that Ferrari are, depending on your point of view, either master strategists or conniving bastards. First, Massa let his teammate HWMNBN, who had managed to claw his way back up towards the front after his awful start, past him. This would mean, in effect, that Button would have to give up two positions when the Stewards invariably ruled against him, for he would have to let Massa get by, not the car behind him. Then, while the Stewards continued their review of the situation, Ferrari called Massa into the pits for new tires. This forced the Stewards' hands, giving them no choice but to give Button a drive-through penalty, thereby effectively ending any chance he may have had at a podium. After the race, Button accused the Red Team of playing underhandedly. Though it pains us here at F1U!, we completely disagree with Button and applaud the quick thinking of the Ferrari planners.
*MEANWHILE: Up and down the field, the DRS/KERS combination showed that they could be used to pass, making the battles down in the midfield quite entertaining. Towards the front though, it became painfully clear that Vettel was having a field day. The biggest surprise was the tires. There was an immense performance gap between the faster soft tires which wore faster and the slower hard tires which lasted longer. The problem was that the gap was so large that, at least amongst the top runners, the hards were completely unusable. As an example, Mark Webber pitted from third, changing from soft to hard tires. This put Vitaly Petrov into third. As Webber exited the pits, he slipped and slided his way around Turn 1, then put in a few hideously slow laps before coming back in for new soft tires. All the while, HWMNBN hacked the Red Bull driver's lead over him into tiny bits and indeed, passed him while Webber was in the pits for the second time. When the Ferrari came in for new tires, you would have expected him to return to the track behind the Aussie, but it didn't happen that way at all. In fact, he retained a decent lead over the Red Bull driver, all because of a few laps on the hard tires. Some drivers could make the hards work, however. Sauber's rookie Sergio Perez managed to pull off a one-stop strategy, starting on the hards and staying with them for around 40 laps. He finished in seventh, and only the drop-off of the soft's grip happening a couple of laps earlier than expected kept him from giving Button a run for sixth.
*FINALLY: Really, it was no contest. Vettel cruised home with an easy 15 second victory over Hamilton, who had a 15 second lead over the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, who was closely followed by HWMNBN and Webber. If this is any indication of how the season is going to play out, we're looking at a battle for second place in the Championship.
*AFTERWARD: It had been a great race for the two Saubers. Sergio Perez managed to pull off something of a coup with his one-stop strategy, finishing his very first F1 race in seventh, while Gandalf Kobayashi came in just behind him in eighth. After the post-race scrutineering, however, both cars were disqualified for irregularities in their rear wings that violated Articles 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 of the technical regulations. The team has filed an appeal, but is investigating in-house how the wings failed to meet spec, and may drop the appeal.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: In the last race of 2010, HWMNBN needed to get past Renault's Vitaly Petrov if he was to have any chance at winning the Driver's Championship. This shouldn't've been much of a problem, as Petrov was prone to making mistakes under pressure, or even without pressure at all. Instead, with a two-time world champion all over him, he drove smoothly, made no mistakes, and prevented the Ferrari driver from getting by him for position. He showed that there was quite a bit of skill under his error-prone skin. Today, with a good car under him, Petrov had a fabulous drive, showing that, at least on this day, he had shed his error-prone skin. A well-deserved podium for The Red Menace.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren. The team finished second and sixth, decent enough. But what pushed them into "Team of the Race" status the admission by Lewis Hamilton after the race: "That's the longest the car's lasted!" Of all the heavy hitters, McLaren put in the fewest laps in testing, dealing with reliability issues, and when they were on-track, they reportedly looked slow. They got something right in the time since the final test at Barcalounger, and that earns them TotR.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On lap 22, Rubens Barrichello was closing in on Gandalf Kobayashi for 9th place. Normally this would be challenging, since Gandalf has a knack for keeping cars behind him, but it was going to be downright hard this time as there was a limping Slappy Schumacher in the mix at the same time.
When a narrow gap opened between the Sauber and the Mercedes, the ever-brave Brazilian made a run for it.
Slotting his Williams between the Sauber and Slappy, he found himself to the inside coming into the turn, braked late and crossed his fingers.
It got close, but Rubens held his line, forced Gandalf wide, and took the place in a nifty little bit of driving. Well done, Rubens!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: One lap later, Rubens Barrichello got the bit between his teeth and made a run at the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. At the same turn as his MotR, he tried much the same pass as before... except this time, it was from farther back and his opponent had the better line. It could only end in tears.
Barrichello ended up spinning and losing a handful of places. Rosberg ended up by the side of the track, unable to make it back to the pits, with either his radiator crushed or his oil cooler broken, smoke pouring from the rear of his Mercedes. Nice job, Rubens... you might be the first to earn both the MotR and the MoootR in the same race!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*BEFORE: The weather in Melbourne was glorious. The sun, low in the sky with the 5pm local start, shined in the clear blue sky. All of Albert Park seemed to glitter on the television screen, the gray skies of the past two days gone. Even the traditional flyby of the Qantas 747 seemed more spectacular than normal.
There may be a large percentage of the population of Melbourne that doesn't want Formula 1 in their city anymore, but that doesn't stop them from turning out in droves and putting on a show, I'll give them that. On the grid, there was a minute of silence in memory and support of those lost and suffering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Traditionally there has been deep ties between Formula 1 and Japan. Many, if not all, of the drivers have raced there at one time or another in lower Formula (not to mention the Japanese Grand Prix), and of course Sauber's Gandalf Kobayashi and Virgin's reserve driver Sakon Yamamoto are from Japan. Honda and Toyota have only recently left the sport, and of course last year's tiremaker Bridgestone is based in Japan, so this was a nice gesture for the sport to their fans in that country.
And then it was time to race.
*DURING: The strategies up at the front of the grid were all pretty clear. For polesitter Vettel, it was to stay in front, despite the handicap of a non-functional KERS system, turned off in the Red Bull cars for unreliability reasons. For Hamilton, get past the 2010 Driver's Champion and keep him there. For Mark Webber, Vettel's Red Bull teammate, it was a little more complex: get past Hamilton, keep Button behind him, and do well in front of his home nation's fans, something he has not managed to do very well in the past. For HWMNBN, the goal was to get past the McLarens and stay in touch with the Red Bulls... and for god's sake stay in front of the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, lest there be a repeat (however unlikely) of the race at Abu Dhabi last year. For those further back in the horde, the goals were infinitely more simple: survive the first turns with the car in one piece, then get on with racing. When the lights went out, Vettel made it clear that this was going to be a long race by easily keeping everybody behind him, and indeed, pulling out a six or seven car-length lead by the end of the second turn. Try as he might, Hamilton had no answer for Vettel's start, and indeed had his hands full keeping Webber behind him. Vitaly Petrov served notice that he was to be reckoned with by leaping into fourth and watching his Spanish rival drop all the way to ninth as he got squeezed by the Thundering Herd. Button dropped to sixth, caught between the two Ferraris in the first couple of corners, one sliding back in the field, the other, Felipe Massa, making a start for the ages jumping up to fifth.
*AND THEN...: As Vettel and Hamilton streaked away from Webber, and Webber pulled away from the rest of the field, Button and Massa began a most entertaining duel, one that played up both the strengths of the new technological marvels (KERS and the Drag Reduction System, aka the movable rear wing) on F1 cars these days and the weaknesses. Massa was clearly slower than the McLaren driver, but judicious use of KERS in a defensive posture mixed with good driving kept the silver car behind him, though close on his tail. Lap after lap the DRS, which could only be used on the front straight, allowed Button to nearly get past, but not quite. Must have been frustrating for the 2009 Driver's Champion. Eventually, Button made a slightly unlikely attempt at a pass. He got alongside Massa, but was pushed off-track onto an escape road. The escape road allowed Button to get past the Ferrari, but in a way that was clearly a violation of the rules and he should have relinquished the position. Instead, he did nothing of the sort, claiming that he was ahead of Massa when he was forced off-circuit and that he had right of position. The matter went to the Race Stewards. Meanwhile, two things occurred that showed that Ferrari are, depending on your point of view, either master strategists or conniving bastards. First, Massa let his teammate HWMNBN, who had managed to claw his way back up towards the front after his awful start, past him. This would mean, in effect, that Button would have to give up two positions when the Stewards invariably ruled against him, for he would have to let Massa get by, not the car behind him. Then, while the Stewards continued their review of the situation, Ferrari called Massa into the pits for new tires. This forced the Stewards' hands, giving them no choice but to give Button a drive-through penalty, thereby effectively ending any chance he may have had at a podium. After the race, Button accused the Red Team of playing underhandedly. Though it pains us here at F1U!, we completely disagree with Button and applaud the quick thinking of the Ferrari planners.
*MEANWHILE: Up and down the field, the DRS/KERS combination showed that they could be used to pass, making the battles down in the midfield quite entertaining. Towards the front though, it became painfully clear that Vettel was having a field day. The biggest surprise was the tires. There was an immense performance gap between the faster soft tires which wore faster and the slower hard tires which lasted longer. The problem was that the gap was so large that, at least amongst the top runners, the hards were completely unusable. As an example, Mark Webber pitted from third, changing from soft to hard tires. This put Vitaly Petrov into third. As Webber exited the pits, he slipped and slided his way around Turn 1, then put in a few hideously slow laps before coming back in for new soft tires. All the while, HWMNBN hacked the Red Bull driver's lead over him into tiny bits and indeed, passed him while Webber was in the pits for the second time. When the Ferrari came in for new tires, you would have expected him to return to the track behind the Aussie, but it didn't happen that way at all. In fact, he retained a decent lead over the Red Bull driver, all because of a few laps on the hard tires. Some drivers could make the hards work, however. Sauber's rookie Sergio Perez managed to pull off a one-stop strategy, starting on the hards and staying with them for around 40 laps. He finished in seventh, and only the drop-off of the soft's grip happening a couple of laps earlier than expected kept him from giving Button a run for sixth.
*FINALLY: Really, it was no contest. Vettel cruised home with an easy 15 second victory over Hamilton, who had a 15 second lead over the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, who was closely followed by HWMNBN and Webber. If this is any indication of how the season is going to play out, we're looking at a battle for second place in the Championship.
*AFTERWARD: It had been a great race for the two Saubers. Sergio Perez managed to pull off something of a coup with his one-stop strategy, finishing his very first F1 race in seventh, while Gandalf Kobayashi came in just behind him in eighth. After the post-race scrutineering, however, both cars were disqualified for irregularities in their rear wings that violated Articles 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 of the technical regulations. The team has filed an appeal, but is investigating in-house how the wings failed to meet spec, and may drop the appeal.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: In the last race of 2010, HWMNBN needed to get past Renault's Vitaly Petrov if he was to have any chance at winning the Driver's Championship. This shouldn't've been much of a problem, as Petrov was prone to making mistakes under pressure, or even without pressure at all. Instead, with a two-time world champion all over him, he drove smoothly, made no mistakes, and prevented the Ferrari driver from getting by him for position. He showed that there was quite a bit of skill under his error-prone skin. Today, with a good car under him, Petrov had a fabulous drive, showing that, at least on this day, he had shed his error-prone skin. A well-deserved podium for The Red Menace.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren. The team finished second and sixth, decent enough. But what pushed them into "Team of the Race" status the admission by Lewis Hamilton after the race: "That's the longest the car's lasted!" Of all the heavy hitters, McLaren put in the fewest laps in testing, dealing with reliability issues, and when they were on-track, they reportedly looked slow. They got something right in the time since the final test at Barcalounger, and that earns them TotR.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On lap 22, Rubens Barrichello was closing in on Gandalf Kobayashi for 9th place. Normally this would be challenging, since Gandalf has a knack for keeping cars behind him, but it was going to be downright hard this time as there was a limping Slappy Schumacher in the mix at the same time.
When a narrow gap opened between the Sauber and the Mercedes, the ever-brave Brazilian made a run for it.
Slotting his Williams between the Sauber and Slappy, he found himself to the inside coming into the turn, braked late and crossed his fingers.
It got close, but Rubens held his line, forced Gandalf wide, and took the place in a nifty little bit of driving. Well done, Rubens!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: One lap later, Rubens Barrichello got the bit between his teeth and made a run at the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. At the same turn as his MotR, he tried much the same pass as before... except this time, it was from farther back and his opponent had the better line. It could only end in tears.
Barrichello ended up spinning and losing a handful of places. Rosberg ended up by the side of the track, unable to make it back to the pits, with either his radiator crushed or his oil cooler broken, smoke pouring from the rear of his Mercedes. Nice job, Rubens... you might be the first to earn both the MotR and the MoootR in the same race!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
09:38 PM
| Comments (7)
| Add Comment
Post contains 2377 words, total size 16 kb.
November 20, 2010
F1 Update!: 2010 Awards
Now that the 2010 season has been over a couple of weeks, it's time to take a look at the best and worst events of the year! THIS is your F1 Update! 2010 Awards post!
*RACE OF THE YEAR: Sometimes a race is made great by the spectacle it provides, like the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. But this award should be given because of the actual racing involved, and on that grounds there was no better, no more exciting, race than the 2010 Grand Prix of Turkey. For forty laps Mark Webber, Seb Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were locked in a duel that saw the four of them separated by no more than a second. None of them could break away, but likewise neither could they close too much on their rivals, This resulted in a remarkably tense race that made even experienced fans like those of us here at F1U! wonder just who would crack first: the young hotshot, the older and wiser teammate, or the two world champions? When it turned out to be the young hotshot, nobody was overly surprised, but when he took out his wiser teammate in the process, the race took the leap from "pretty darn good" to "best of the year." A repudiation of the Red Bull incident a few laps later as the McLaren teammates showed how to race each other without scattering carbon fiber all over the place was just the icing on the cake. Want to show someone one race from 2010? This should be it. An honorable mention should go to the Chinese Grand Prix for reasons that'll become clear later on.
*MOVE OF THE YEAR: This award is open to any pass for any position during any race of the 2010 season, excluding any event on Lap 1. It doesn't have to have any dramatic implications, like for the lead or to win the Driver's Championship or anything like that: a Lotus passing a Virgin for 19th is just as eligible as a Ferrari passing a McLaren for 1st. This year's MotY goes to Lewis Hamilton for his fantastic pass of both Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil at the Grand Prix of China. The three drivers came down the back straight more or less evenly matched, weaving to defend their positions or get into clean air as they went.
As they approached the turn, Webber locked up slightly and went outside, Sutil took the normal line in the normal way, but Hamilton slowed late and hard, going to the inside of both.
He then got on the gas with more force than he really should have been capable of and powered by.
That Webber then tried to follow Hamilton past Sutil but was denied by the Force India driver in the next turn just made it all the better. Honorable mention goes to Rubens Barrichello's pass of Slappy Schumacher at Hungary, made all the more impressive as Slappy was trying to murder the Brazilian at the time.
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE YEAR: Everybody makes mistakes in racing. It just comes with the territory. When one of the best drivers or teams in the world does it in front of an estimated 600 million viewers, it gets magnified. When it is particularly egregious, it goes from a fact of life to something more special... it becomes a "Mooooooooo-ooove." The MooootY therefore needs to be more than just something dumb. It needs to be epically stupid, above and beyond the merely ridiculous. Fortunately for us there were three brand new teams of varying quality in the field this year, and one of them provided us with what may be the greatest Moooooooo-ooove of all time. Fittingly, it too came at the Grand Prix of China. The cars were lined up on the grid, surrounded by mechanics doing last minute adjustments before the recon lap. The humans left, and the cars rolled off... all but one. As we stated back then, it's not uncommon for cars to stall on the grid, but the reason Timo Glockenspiel's Virgin wasn't moving was something much, much stupider.
The team had left it jacked up, like Detroit street punks had been interrupted in the midst of stealing the wheels off the VR-1. To this day an adequate explanation has yet to be forthcoming.
*CRASH OF THE YEAR: Again, this category rules out incidents on the first lap (unless they're really really cool because, hey, cool crash!), but even with that restriction there were a surprising number of violent wrecks that qualified, like the Red Bull Incident at Turkey, the Vettel/Button accident at Spa, the Webber/Rosberg crash at Korea (is anybody seeing a theme here?), but none of these holds a candle to the winner of the CotY. But first, an honorable mention to Lotus's Jarno Trulli and HRT's Karun Chandhok, for their low-speed wreck at the Grand Prix of Monaco.
As impressive as that is, and the camera shot from Chandhok's T-bar was impressive to say the least, it's a distant second to the "winner" of CotY. Of course, there was never any doubt on this one: Mark Webber's creation of Red Bull Airlines at the European Grand Prix @ Valencia.
*DRIVE OF THE YEAR: This award goes to the driver who puts in an incredible performance over the course of a single race. This year, there is nobody who deserves it as much as Ferrari's HWMNBN for his run at the Grand Prix of Malaysia. On the formation lap before the race had even begun, he had a little problem with his clutch: it didn't work. For the entire race, he had to shift by stamping on the accelerator and holding the downshift paddle, hoping that the gearbox would eventually find a lower ratio. Mind you, he did all of this while braking at the same time, usually a sure recipe for disaster as F1 cars tend not to like such things while cornering. That he managed to get as high as eighth, setting fast lap of the race twice along the way, and dueling with Jenson Button for seventh, is nothing short of miraculous. It actually came as quite the sad surprise, then, when his engine finally let go on him with two laps remaining. We actually felt badly for HWMNBN, an emotion we never expected to feel towards the Spaniard.
*FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Also from the European Grand Prix @ Valencia, we saw a young driver become a folk hero over the course of some 40 laps. Kamui Kobayashi was a rookie who had showed that he had no fear during the last two races of the 2009 season, but was off to something of a lackluster start with Sauber in 2010... until Mark Webber's attempt at low earth orbit. To steal from the F1U! for that race:
"When the Safety Car caused by Webber's crash was called out, he stayed out on track, jumping from the back of the pack all the way to third. Of course, he'd still need to pit to change his tires, but who was to say there wouldn't be another Safety Car? When the safety car period ended, Kobayashi suddenly became Gandalf the Grey in the Mines of Moria, bellowing 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!' at the silver, blue and yellow Balrogs that were Jensen Button, Rubens Barrichello and Robert Kubica. For thirty-nine laps! It was only when he was dragged into the fiery pits on Lap 53 for his mandatory tire change that he relinquished third place... but he would re-emerge as Gandalf the White, in 9th place but on brand new soft tires with three laps to go. He emerged from the pits reborn on fresh soft tires while everybody ahead of him were on well-used rubber. Two cars, the Ferrari of HWMNBN and the Toro Rosso of Seb Buemi, were within striking distance. Seemingly from the moment he rejoined the race, he was all over the back of the former World Champion, hassling him in every turn to the point that the Spaniard, who had been trying to overpower the Toro Rosso, had to let him off the hook and drive defensively. The Ferrari just couldn't cope with the Sauber, however, and in Turn 20 of the penultimate lap Kobayashi did everything right and slipped by HWMNBN with no fuss whatsoever. He then set his sights on the Toro Rosso, some five or six lengths ahead. The chase would prove to take the entire lap, with the Sauber slowly reeling Buemi in. Then, finally, going into the final turn, Kobayashi came from three or four car lengths back, seemingly without touching his brakes, leaped to the inside of Buemi and rolled past in a daring and bold move."
It was the sort of performance that nobody expected from the rookie in a mediocre car, and easily became our favorite moment of the season.
*DRIVER OF THE YEAR: We suppose that we need to give this to Seb Vettel. After all, he won five races, took pole 10 times, and won the Driver's Championship. He made some awfully stupid mistakes along the way though, enough to make this difficult to swallow. In our hearts, we think HWMNBN should be given the trophy... but we're giving it to Vettel.
*TEAM OF THE YEAR: No question about this one: Red Bull. Far and away the best car on track all year, 15 pole positions, and both the Driver's and, more importantly, Constructor's Championships. That the strife between their two drivers didn't cause the team to disintegrate, despite it partially being caused by the team itself, just makes it all the sweeter. For a team only in its sixth year in the sport (assuming you don't count the time as Jaguar) boggles the mind. Adrian Newey, the car designer and chief aerodynamics engineer, truly is a miracle worker.
And so the 2010 F1 season goes into the record books as perhaps the best of all time. We're glad to have had you along for the ride for all 19 races, and look forward to being there for all 20 in 2011! See you when the teams start bringing out their cars!
...and you thought we'd never do one of these.
*RACE OF THE YEAR: Sometimes a race is made great by the spectacle it provides, like the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. But this award should be given because of the actual racing involved, and on that grounds there was no better, no more exciting, race than the 2010 Grand Prix of Turkey. For forty laps Mark Webber, Seb Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were locked in a duel that saw the four of them separated by no more than a second. None of them could break away, but likewise neither could they close too much on their rivals, This resulted in a remarkably tense race that made even experienced fans like those of us here at F1U! wonder just who would crack first: the young hotshot, the older and wiser teammate, or the two world champions? When it turned out to be the young hotshot, nobody was overly surprised, but when he took out his wiser teammate in the process, the race took the leap from "pretty darn good" to "best of the year." A repudiation of the Red Bull incident a few laps later as the McLaren teammates showed how to race each other without scattering carbon fiber all over the place was just the icing on the cake. Want to show someone one race from 2010? This should be it. An honorable mention should go to the Chinese Grand Prix for reasons that'll become clear later on.
*MOVE OF THE YEAR: This award is open to any pass for any position during any race of the 2010 season, excluding any event on Lap 1. It doesn't have to have any dramatic implications, like for the lead or to win the Driver's Championship or anything like that: a Lotus passing a Virgin for 19th is just as eligible as a Ferrari passing a McLaren for 1st. This year's MotY goes to Lewis Hamilton for his fantastic pass of both Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil at the Grand Prix of China. The three drivers came down the back straight more or less evenly matched, weaving to defend their positions or get into clean air as they went.
As they approached the turn, Webber locked up slightly and went outside, Sutil took the normal line in the normal way, but Hamilton slowed late and hard, going to the inside of both.
He then got on the gas with more force than he really should have been capable of and powered by.
That Webber then tried to follow Hamilton past Sutil but was denied by the Force India driver in the next turn just made it all the better. Honorable mention goes to Rubens Barrichello's pass of Slappy Schumacher at Hungary, made all the more impressive as Slappy was trying to murder the Brazilian at the time.
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE YEAR: Everybody makes mistakes in racing. It just comes with the territory. When one of the best drivers or teams in the world does it in front of an estimated 600 million viewers, it gets magnified. When it is particularly egregious, it goes from a fact of life to something more special... it becomes a "Mooooooooo-ooove." The MooootY therefore needs to be more than just something dumb. It needs to be epically stupid, above and beyond the merely ridiculous. Fortunately for us there were three brand new teams of varying quality in the field this year, and one of them provided us with what may be the greatest Moooooooo-ooove of all time. Fittingly, it too came at the Grand Prix of China. The cars were lined up on the grid, surrounded by mechanics doing last minute adjustments before the recon lap. The humans left, and the cars rolled off... all but one. As we stated back then, it's not uncommon for cars to stall on the grid, but the reason Timo Glockenspiel's Virgin wasn't moving was something much, much stupider.
The team had left it jacked up, like Detroit street punks had been interrupted in the midst of stealing the wheels off the VR-1. To this day an adequate explanation has yet to be forthcoming.
*CRASH OF THE YEAR: Again, this category rules out incidents on the first lap (unless they're really really cool because, hey, cool crash!), but even with that restriction there were a surprising number of violent wrecks that qualified, like the Red Bull Incident at Turkey, the Vettel/Button accident at Spa, the Webber/Rosberg crash at Korea (is anybody seeing a theme here?), but none of these holds a candle to the winner of the CotY. But first, an honorable mention to Lotus's Jarno Trulli and HRT's Karun Chandhok, for their low-speed wreck at the Grand Prix of Monaco.
As impressive as that is, and the camera shot from Chandhok's T-bar was impressive to say the least, it's a distant second to the "winner" of CotY. Of course, there was never any doubt on this one: Mark Webber's creation of Red Bull Airlines at the European Grand Prix @ Valencia.
Not the sort of view one expects to see from a F1 car...
That Webber almost immediately jumped out of the car, obviously unhurt, once it stopped bouncing was one of the greatest reliefs we here at F1U! had ever experienced. *DRIVE OF THE YEAR: This award goes to the driver who puts in an incredible performance over the course of a single race. This year, there is nobody who deserves it as much as Ferrari's HWMNBN for his run at the Grand Prix of Malaysia. On the formation lap before the race had even begun, he had a little problem with his clutch: it didn't work. For the entire race, he had to shift by stamping on the accelerator and holding the downshift paddle, hoping that the gearbox would eventually find a lower ratio. Mind you, he did all of this while braking at the same time, usually a sure recipe for disaster as F1 cars tend not to like such things while cornering. That he managed to get as high as eighth, setting fast lap of the race twice along the way, and dueling with Jenson Button for seventh, is nothing short of miraculous. It actually came as quite the sad surprise, then, when his engine finally let go on him with two laps remaining. We actually felt badly for HWMNBN, an emotion we never expected to feel towards the Spaniard.
*FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Also from the European Grand Prix @ Valencia, we saw a young driver become a folk hero over the course of some 40 laps. Kamui Kobayashi was a rookie who had showed that he had no fear during the last two races of the 2009 season, but was off to something of a lackluster start with Sauber in 2010... until Mark Webber's attempt at low earth orbit. To steal from the F1U! for that race:
"When the Safety Car caused by Webber's crash was called out, he stayed out on track, jumping from the back of the pack all the way to third. Of course, he'd still need to pit to change his tires, but who was to say there wouldn't be another Safety Car? When the safety car period ended, Kobayashi suddenly became Gandalf the Grey in the Mines of Moria, bellowing 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!' at the silver, blue and yellow Balrogs that were Jensen Button, Rubens Barrichello and Robert Kubica. For thirty-nine laps! It was only when he was dragged into the fiery pits on Lap 53 for his mandatory tire change that he relinquished third place... but he would re-emerge as Gandalf the White, in 9th place but on brand new soft tires with three laps to go. He emerged from the pits reborn on fresh soft tires while everybody ahead of him were on well-used rubber. Two cars, the Ferrari of HWMNBN and the Toro Rosso of Seb Buemi, were within striking distance. Seemingly from the moment he rejoined the race, he was all over the back of the former World Champion, hassling him in every turn to the point that the Spaniard, who had been trying to overpower the Toro Rosso, had to let him off the hook and drive defensively. The Ferrari just couldn't cope with the Sauber, however, and in Turn 20 of the penultimate lap Kobayashi did everything right and slipped by HWMNBN with no fuss whatsoever. He then set his sights on the Toro Rosso, some five or six lengths ahead. The chase would prove to take the entire lap, with the Sauber slowly reeling Buemi in. Then, finally, going into the final turn, Kobayashi came from three or four car lengths back, seemingly without touching his brakes, leaped to the inside of Buemi and rolled past in a daring and bold move."
It was the sort of performance that nobody expected from the rookie in a mediocre car, and easily became our favorite moment of the season.
*DRIVER OF THE YEAR: We suppose that we need to give this to Seb Vettel. After all, he won five races, took pole 10 times, and won the Driver's Championship. He made some awfully stupid mistakes along the way though, enough to make this difficult to swallow. In our hearts, we think HWMNBN should be given the trophy... but we're giving it to Vettel.
*TEAM OF THE YEAR: No question about this one: Red Bull. Far and away the best car on track all year, 15 pole positions, and both the Driver's and, more importantly, Constructor's Championships. That the strife between their two drivers didn't cause the team to disintegrate, despite it partially being caused by the team itself, just makes it all the sweeter. For a team only in its sixth year in the sport (assuming you don't count the time as Jaguar) boggles the mind. Adrian Newey, the car designer and chief aerodynamics engineer, truly is a miracle worker.
And so the 2010 F1 season goes into the record books as perhaps the best of all time. We're glad to have had you along for the ride for all 19 races, and look forward to being there for all 20 in 2011! See you when the teams start bringing out their cars!
...and you thought we'd never do one of these.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
11:18 PM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1750 words, total size 12 kb.
November 14, 2010
F1 Update!: Abu Dhabi 2010
The past week has seen fans all around the world trying to figure out who would, at the end of the race, be the World Driver's Champion. After Qualifying, the wondering got louder and louder. But today all the questions would be answered, for today was the last race of the season and four men were still in the running for the Championship. Would it be the Spanish matador in his red car? Would it be one of the two Bulls, one old veteran, one young hotheaded charger? Or would it be the swashbuckling longshot and his flashing silver rapier? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi!
*PRERACE: There was no question that the four men still in the running for the Championship and their teams were feeling the pressure. As HWMNBN brought his car up to the grid, his mechanics swarmed around to push him into his slot, forming a phalanx of bodies and flying elbows to prevent anybody from accidentally touching the car. They even shoved the Legendary Announce Team's gridwalker out of the way. The Spaniard got out of the car and disappeared from the grid, not to be seen again until just before the parade lap. Polesitter Seb Vettel, driving for Red Bull, did the same instead of hanging out by the track wall as he usually does. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton got to his slot and stayed in the car with his helmet on the entire time. Only Australian Mark Webber stayed available to the pointing cameras and microphones, but he looked even more drawn and wan than he normally does. When the LAT's gridwalker got an interview with the man in second place in the Championship, Webber actually sounded depressed. But those not directly involved in the high-level fight were somewhat more relaxed; one Sauber mechanic was seen wearing a bushy wig, while the Mercedes braintrust was joking and laughing with nearby dignitaries. But eventually the grid cleared and the cars rolled off onto the parade lap. And then, at last, the time had come.
*LIGHTS OUT: When the five red lights were extinguished, it looked very much like all the frontrunners had clean getaways. However one driver, McLaren's Jenson Button, had a great start and jumped ahead of HWMNBN for fourth place going into Turn 1. Just ahead of them, Hamilton and Vettel dueled going into the first turn, but the Red Bull held off the McLaren and surprisingly began to pull away. The rest of the Thundering Herd made it through the always dangerous beginning turn and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. Until Slappy Schumacher, making his first visit to the Yas Marina Circuit, got on the gas a little too early coming out of Turn 5 and wound up stopped and facing the wrong way with more than half of the field staring him in the face at 130mph. The first few drivers managed to avoid the stopped Mercedes, but Vitantonio Liuzzi, sandwiched by racers on either side of him, had nowhere to go.
The Force India ran directly up the nose of Slappy's Mercedes, Liuzzi's front wing aimed directly at the head of the German. In slow-motion, you can see Schumacher ducking down as low as he could and the left element of the wing pass just over the top of his helmet. The Force India ended up stopped on top of the Mercedes, and the Safety Car was called out almost immediately. While the Mercedes pitwall was visibly pale, neither driver was hurt and they were seen minutes later laughing and patting each other on the back.
*SAFETY CAR: The field trundled around for five laps as the debris was broomed off the track. Six cars, Nico Rosberg's Mercedes the highest in the order amongst them, took advantage of the Safety Car to change from the soft to the hard tires. While that felt early, none of the drivers had anything to lose. As the restart approached, Lewis Hamilton did everything he could to stay close to Seb Vettel, not wanting him to get a jump when the Safety Car left the track. Unfortunately, he failed badly as he nearly passed the leader two turns too early and had to slam on the brakes. At that point, the Red Bull driver jumped on the gas and left the McLaren wallowing off-track.
*RACING AGAIN: Strung out behind the Safety Car, the field ran peacefully for a few laps. Then Championship contender Mark Webber swung a little too wide coming out of a turn and brushed the armco with his back-right tire.
While it looked dramatic, there didn't seem to be any obvious damage immediately. Four laps later, on Lap 12, the Aussie called into the pit lane: "I'm losing the right rear." He made it in and out of the pits cleanly, but rejoined the race in 16th place, just behind NKOTT. Although he had to get past the Toro Rosso driver as fast as possible, for one entire lap he just couldn't do it, losing time on track in the process. Webber's stop seemed to pull the cork for the rest of the field, many of whom made their stops over the next couple of laps. When HWMNBN came in on Lap 16, Ferrari got him back out blisteringly fast and he rejoined in 12th, about a second ahead of Mark Webber. That was a little less than the amount of time Webber lost on his one lap stuck behind the Toro Rosso. At that point, the Aussie made a desultory charge at the red car, failed, and dropped back, never to be a threat again. Hamilton pitted on Lap 24. Vettel came in on the next lap, and his pit crew got him back out in 3.5 seconds. This was hugely important as the young German came out just barely ahead of Gandalf Kobayashi and Robert Kubica, both obviously running long, and both nearly impossible to pass. Gandalf tried very hard to get past the Red Bull but couldn't manage it, losing a place to the Polish driver in the process. Farther back in the field, HWMNBN was also tangling with a Renault driver, in his case Vitaly Petrov. As desperately as he needed to get past the yellow car, the Ferrari pilot just couldn't seem to make it happen. For lap after lap he'd get close, but for lap after lap he would fail to get close enough. Indeed, he would try so hard that he'd throw the car off-track, letting Webber close up behind him. But not enough, never enough.
*STRESS RELIEF: On Lap 32, Hamilton's radio crackled to life. "My left front tire is bad, I need to pit." The reply from the pit wall was restrained, but could be boiled down to three words: "Aw, hell no!" The F1U! team just sort of fell about the place with laughter.
*FINALLY: On Lap 48 of 55 the last of the long-runners, Adrian Sutil, came into the pits. The standings at this point were Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Kubica, Petrov, HWMNBN, Webber. The Ferrari driver's job was clear: if he wanted to win the Driver's Championship, he needed to pass three cars in seven laps. The magnitude of this task was clear: Rosberg was nearly 10 seconds ahead, and not only did HWMNBN still have to get past Petrov, he had to get past the other Renault driver as well. THEN he'd have to pass the Mercedes driver to boot. There was no chance of that happening, and seven laps later Vettel swept across the finish line, 10.1 seconds ahead of 2008 Driver's Champion Lewis Hamilton, who was less than a second ahead of 2009 Driver's Champion Jenson Button. With that, the Red Bull driver became the youngest F1 Driver's Champion ever.
*STANDINGS AND NOTES: Vettel had ended up with 256 points, followed by HWMNBN's 252. Webber was third with 242, and the longshot Hamilton, who drove a fine race, finished in fourth with 240. Amazingly, the only time the Red Bull driver led the Championship standings the entire year was today. After the race was over and his crew had told him that he had won the championship, Vettel obviously didn't know how to react. One second, he was obviously crying and choked with emotion, the next he'd be screaming at the top of his lungs. During the podium ceremony, you could see his face go from tears to exhilaration back to tears in the course of a handful of seconds. It turns out that his race engineer would not tell him where he stood in the Driver's Championship until the final lap had begun. After the race, HWMNBN looked stunned, like he wasn't entirely sure how it all got away.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: While Vettel drove a flawless race under a lot of pressure, he did it from the front and, other than the first turn and the Safety Car restart, never had to worry overmuch about being passed. While he (obviously!) deserves the DotR, we here at F1U! are instead going to give it to someone farther down in the field. Vitaly Petrov has had an up-and-down rookie season, one race showing some talent, the next looking like the second coming of "Fast" Yuji Ide. Today however, he had a desperate HWMNBN all over his gearbox for nearly 30 laps, and not only did the Russian not flinch, he drove better than the two-time world champion, despite having the lesser car. There surely was no reason for him to pull aside for the Spaniard, as some think he should have done, for it was a points-bearing position. He fought with HWMNBN, showed that he can go toe-to-toe with the best, and in the process may have earned himself a seat with a decent team next year. Good job, that. Vettel probably doesn't mind not getting the award, all things considered.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren. Two podium positions and second in the constructor's championship? All in all, that's a pretty good day, and a lot better than that of Red Bull (1-
, Mercedes (4-dnf) or Ferrari (7-10). They nearly did everything right.
*MOVE OF THE RACE and MOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: For once, it's impossible to give either of these awards. There were no passes worth speaking about, except for Button's pass of HWMNBN off the start, but we don't give MotR honors for anything on the first lap. Conversely, nobody drove like a cow today. While Slappy Schumacher didn't exactly cover himself with glory with his groundloop on Lap 1, F1 cars are notoriously difficult to drive, and it's not impossible that his teammate Nico Rosberg gave him a light touch; video is inconclusive. Likewise, Liuzzi is not to blame in that accident; he had nowhere to go and his reaction on the brakes may have saved Slappy's life. So neither award goes out today. Pity, that.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*PRERACE: There was no question that the four men still in the running for the Championship and their teams were feeling the pressure. As HWMNBN brought his car up to the grid, his mechanics swarmed around to push him into his slot, forming a phalanx of bodies and flying elbows to prevent anybody from accidentally touching the car. They even shoved the Legendary Announce Team's gridwalker out of the way. The Spaniard got out of the car and disappeared from the grid, not to be seen again until just before the parade lap. Polesitter Seb Vettel, driving for Red Bull, did the same instead of hanging out by the track wall as he usually does. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton got to his slot and stayed in the car with his helmet on the entire time. Only Australian Mark Webber stayed available to the pointing cameras and microphones, but he looked even more drawn and wan than he normally does. When the LAT's gridwalker got an interview with the man in second place in the Championship, Webber actually sounded depressed. But those not directly involved in the high-level fight were somewhat more relaxed; one Sauber mechanic was seen wearing a bushy wig, while the Mercedes braintrust was joking and laughing with nearby dignitaries. But eventually the grid cleared and the cars rolled off onto the parade lap. And then, at last, the time had come.
*LIGHTS OUT: When the five red lights were extinguished, it looked very much like all the frontrunners had clean getaways. However one driver, McLaren's Jenson Button, had a great start and jumped ahead of HWMNBN for fourth place going into Turn 1. Just ahead of them, Hamilton and Vettel dueled going into the first turn, but the Red Bull held off the McLaren and surprisingly began to pull away. The rest of the Thundering Herd made it through the always dangerous beginning turn and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. Until Slappy Schumacher, making his first visit to the Yas Marina Circuit, got on the gas a little too early coming out of Turn 5 and wound up stopped and facing the wrong way with more than half of the field staring him in the face at 130mph. The first few drivers managed to avoid the stopped Mercedes, but Vitantonio Liuzzi, sandwiched by racers on either side of him, had nowhere to go.
The Force India ran directly up the nose of Slappy's Mercedes, Liuzzi's front wing aimed directly at the head of the German. In slow-motion, you can see Schumacher ducking down as low as he could and the left element of the wing pass just over the top of his helmet. The Force India ended up stopped on top of the Mercedes, and the Safety Car was called out almost immediately. While the Mercedes pitwall was visibly pale, neither driver was hurt and they were seen minutes later laughing and patting each other on the back.
*SAFETY CAR: The field trundled around for five laps as the debris was broomed off the track. Six cars, Nico Rosberg's Mercedes the highest in the order amongst them, took advantage of the Safety Car to change from the soft to the hard tires. While that felt early, none of the drivers had anything to lose. As the restart approached, Lewis Hamilton did everything he could to stay close to Seb Vettel, not wanting him to get a jump when the Safety Car left the track. Unfortunately, he failed badly as he nearly passed the leader two turns too early and had to slam on the brakes. At that point, the Red Bull driver jumped on the gas and left the McLaren wallowing off-track.
*RACING AGAIN: Strung out behind the Safety Car, the field ran peacefully for a few laps. Then Championship contender Mark Webber swung a little too wide coming out of a turn and brushed the armco with his back-right tire.
While it looked dramatic, there didn't seem to be any obvious damage immediately. Four laps later, on Lap 12, the Aussie called into the pit lane: "I'm losing the right rear." He made it in and out of the pits cleanly, but rejoined the race in 16th place, just behind NKOTT. Although he had to get past the Toro Rosso driver as fast as possible, for one entire lap he just couldn't do it, losing time on track in the process. Webber's stop seemed to pull the cork for the rest of the field, many of whom made their stops over the next couple of laps. When HWMNBN came in on Lap 16, Ferrari got him back out blisteringly fast and he rejoined in 12th, about a second ahead of Mark Webber. That was a little less than the amount of time Webber lost on his one lap stuck behind the Toro Rosso. At that point, the Aussie made a desultory charge at the red car, failed, and dropped back, never to be a threat again. Hamilton pitted on Lap 24. Vettel came in on the next lap, and his pit crew got him back out in 3.5 seconds. This was hugely important as the young German came out just barely ahead of Gandalf Kobayashi and Robert Kubica, both obviously running long, and both nearly impossible to pass. Gandalf tried very hard to get past the Red Bull but couldn't manage it, losing a place to the Polish driver in the process. Farther back in the field, HWMNBN was also tangling with a Renault driver, in his case Vitaly Petrov. As desperately as he needed to get past the yellow car, the Ferrari pilot just couldn't seem to make it happen. For lap after lap he'd get close, but for lap after lap he would fail to get close enough. Indeed, he would try so hard that he'd throw the car off-track, letting Webber close up behind him. But not enough, never enough.
*STRESS RELIEF: On Lap 32, Hamilton's radio crackled to life. "My left front tire is bad, I need to pit." The reply from the pit wall was restrained, but could be boiled down to three words: "Aw, hell no!" The F1U! team just sort of fell about the place with laughter.
*FINALLY: On Lap 48 of 55 the last of the long-runners, Adrian Sutil, came into the pits. The standings at this point were Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Kubica, Petrov, HWMNBN, Webber. The Ferrari driver's job was clear: if he wanted to win the Driver's Championship, he needed to pass three cars in seven laps. The magnitude of this task was clear: Rosberg was nearly 10 seconds ahead, and not only did HWMNBN still have to get past Petrov, he had to get past the other Renault driver as well. THEN he'd have to pass the Mercedes driver to boot. There was no chance of that happening, and seven laps later Vettel swept across the finish line, 10.1 seconds ahead of 2008 Driver's Champion Lewis Hamilton, who was less than a second ahead of 2009 Driver's Champion Jenson Button. With that, the Red Bull driver became the youngest F1 Driver's Champion ever.
*STANDINGS AND NOTES: Vettel had ended up with 256 points, followed by HWMNBN's 252. Webber was third with 242, and the longshot Hamilton, who drove a fine race, finished in fourth with 240. Amazingly, the only time the Red Bull driver led the Championship standings the entire year was today. After the race was over and his crew had told him that he had won the championship, Vettel obviously didn't know how to react. One second, he was obviously crying and choked with emotion, the next he'd be screaming at the top of his lungs. During the podium ceremony, you could see his face go from tears to exhilaration back to tears in the course of a handful of seconds. It turns out that his race engineer would not tell him where he stood in the Driver's Championship until the final lap had begun. After the race, HWMNBN looked stunned, like he wasn't entirely sure how it all got away.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: While Vettel drove a flawless race under a lot of pressure, he did it from the front and, other than the first turn and the Safety Car restart, never had to worry overmuch about being passed. While he (obviously!) deserves the DotR, we here at F1U! are instead going to give it to someone farther down in the field. Vitaly Petrov has had an up-and-down rookie season, one race showing some talent, the next looking like the second coming of "Fast" Yuji Ide. Today however, he had a desperate HWMNBN all over his gearbox for nearly 30 laps, and not only did the Russian not flinch, he drove better than the two-time world champion, despite having the lesser car. There surely was no reason for him to pull aside for the Spaniard, as some think he should have done, for it was a points-bearing position. He fought with HWMNBN, showed that he can go toe-to-toe with the best, and in the process may have earned himself a seat with a decent team next year. Good job, that. Vettel probably doesn't mind not getting the award, all things considered.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren. Two podium positions and second in the constructor's championship? All in all, that's a pretty good day, and a lot better than that of Red Bull (1-
, Mercedes (4-dnf) or Ferrari (7-10). They nearly did everything right.*MOVE OF THE RACE and MOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: For once, it's impossible to give either of these awards. There were no passes worth speaking about, except for Button's pass of HWMNBN off the start, but we don't give MotR honors for anything on the first lap. Conversely, nobody drove like a cow today. While Slappy Schumacher didn't exactly cover himself with glory with his groundloop on Lap 1, F1 cars are notoriously difficult to drive, and it's not impossible that his teammate Nico Rosberg gave him a light touch; video is inconclusive. Likewise, Liuzzi is not to blame in that accident; he had nowhere to go and his reaction on the brakes may have saved Slappy's life. So neither award goes out today. Pity, that.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:49 PM
| Comments (8)
| Add Comment
Post contains 2627 words, total size 17 kb.
November 07, 2010
F1 Update!: Brazil 2010
Sunny skies over the penultimate race of the F1 calendar, but will it be the final one in the Driver's Championship? Would surprise polesitting rookie upstart Nico Hulkenberg's delusions of grandeur transfer over once the lights went out? Would we have a tense, tightly fought contest? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Brazil!
*NOPE: As anybody could have predicted, once the lights went out, Red Bull's Seb Vettel immediately took the lead from Hulkenberg. By the end of the fourth turn, Mark Webber had gotten by the pilot of the Williams... and then the two blue cars streaked off into the distance. It took Ferrari's HWMNBN seven laps to get past Hulkenberg, by which time the Bulls had opened up an eight second lead... which would continue to grow by nearly a half-second a lap. Suddenly the only questions remaining was if Red Bull would let Webber pass Vettel, and if so, how'd they arrange it. Not even the late Safety Car made the race any closer, and that's how it ended: Vettel, Webber, with HWMNBN a distant third and Lewis Hamilton even farther back in fourth.
First place gives you 25 points, second 18, third gets 15 and 12 points are earned for finishing fourth. Fifth earns 10 points. If Webber had won today he would have 245 points, and Vettel 224. Vettel would be in third, and realistically would need a miracle to win. But now, he's in third, needs to win, and beat HWMNBN by 15 points... then it would come down to tiebreakers, and lord knows how that'd work out. In other words, he still needs a miracle, just one that's not quite so big. Instead of a race in Abu Dhabi that would have come down to a straight fight between Webber and HWMNBN, higher finisher wins the Driver's Championship, now Webber needs to win and hope that the Ferrari finishes in third. That's hardly impossible of course, but now the Australian needs help from someone else. And yes, we here at F1U! are quite aware that we're being hypocritical here, advocating for team orders when we decried Ferrari's use of them at the German Grand Prix. If you remember though, we weren't screaming about the team orders themselves, as we're realists and know that they're used in F1, but in the flagrant way Ferrari broke the rules.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We aren't particularly chuffed about any of the drives put in today, so we should probably give it to Seb Vettel for winning when he needed to. But we're not excited about it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull.
But then, all they did was finish 1-2 in the race and clinch the Constructor's Championship. Pretty good day when all is said and done. Shame they practically handed HWMNBN the Driver's Championship in the process, but you can't have everything.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 12 McLaren's Jenson Button was the first driver to pit for new tires. He came in from 10th and rejoined in 18th. The next lap, hometown hero Felipe Massa pitted from 9th and came back out on track in 17th, just ahead of the McLaren and with a decent amount of space between them. He should have been perfectly safe, but Button had other ideas. Running down to Turn 4, the reigning World Driver's Champion basically depantsed the Brazilian by using his slight speed advantage and taking advantage of the Ferrari driver's complacency, popping by so quickly that the red car didn't maneuver to block. For this surprise pass, we're happy to give the MotR to Button!
*MOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: There can be only one. Late in the race Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi, reportedly driving for his career in F1, was all alone on track, nobody pressuring him from behind, and nobody distracting him to the front. So what does he do? Crashes in one of the more unlikely places on the track, Turn 2.
In the wet Turn 2 is horrible, near the bottom of a hill and often swept by torrential rivers of water. But in the dry, it's about as benign as it's possible for a F1 turn to be. So for wrecking your car, for bringing out the safety car, and for throwing what little chance you had to be in F1 next year away, Vitantonio Liuzzi, you've won the Mooooooooo-oove! Good luck in your next career, and watch out for those deep-fryers, they tend to throw grease.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*NOPE: As anybody could have predicted, once the lights went out, Red Bull's Seb Vettel immediately took the lead from Hulkenberg. By the end of the fourth turn, Mark Webber had gotten by the pilot of the Williams... and then the two blue cars streaked off into the distance. It took Ferrari's HWMNBN seven laps to get past Hulkenberg, by which time the Bulls had opened up an eight second lead... which would continue to grow by nearly a half-second a lap. Suddenly the only questions remaining was if Red Bull would let Webber pass Vettel, and if so, how'd they arrange it. Not even the late Safety Car made the race any closer, and that's how it ended: Vettel, Webber, with HWMNBN a distant third and Lewis Hamilton even farther back in fourth.
*HOPE? OR DOPES?: Perversely, Vettel's win may very well have prevented him from winning the Driver's Championship, and made it much harder for his teammate as well. Consider the championship standings after today's race:
| 01 |
HWMNBN | 246 |
| 02 | Mark Webber | 238 |
| 03 | Sebastian Vettel | 231 |
| 04 | Lewis Hamilton | 222 |
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We aren't particularly chuffed about any of the drives put in today, so we should probably give it to Seb Vettel for winning when he needed to. But we're not excited about it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull.
But then, all they did was finish 1-2 in the race and clinch the Constructor's Championship. Pretty good day when all is said and done. Shame they practically handed HWMNBN the Driver's Championship in the process, but you can't have everything.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 12 McLaren's Jenson Button was the first driver to pit for new tires. He came in from 10th and rejoined in 18th. The next lap, hometown hero Felipe Massa pitted from 9th and came back out on track in 17th, just ahead of the McLaren and with a decent amount of space between them. He should have been perfectly safe, but Button had other ideas. Running down to Turn 4, the reigning World Driver's Champion basically depantsed the Brazilian by using his slight speed advantage and taking advantage of the Ferrari driver's complacency, popping by so quickly that the red car didn't maneuver to block. For this surprise pass, we're happy to give the MotR to Button!
*MOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: There can be only one. Late in the race Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi, reportedly driving for his career in F1, was all alone on track, nobody pressuring him from behind, and nobody distracting him to the front. So what does he do? Crashes in one of the more unlikely places on the track, Turn 2.
In the wet Turn 2 is horrible, near the bottom of a hill and often swept by torrential rivers of water. But in the dry, it's about as benign as it's possible for a F1 turn to be. So for wrecking your car, for bringing out the safety car, and for throwing what little chance you had to be in F1 next year away, Vitantonio Liuzzi, you've won the Mooooooooo-oove! Good luck in your next career, and watch out for those deep-fryers, they tend to throw grease.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
01:56 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1272 words, total size 10 kb.
October 24, 2010
F1 Update!: Korea 2010
Many people suspected that the new track at Korea would be a true wild card in the race for the Driver's Championship. A new circuit always puts a cat amongst the pigeons; nobody has an idea what to expect, so you've got as many guesses as there are teams and drivers. The one thing we'd not seen during the three practice sessions and the qualifying periods was rain, which on a brand new track puts an ostrich amongst the kittens. But would weather matter, or would we get a straight-out race for the Championship? THIS is your F1 Update! for the inaugural Grand Prix of Korea!
*SPLISH: During the recon laps before the race, cars were skidding off-track like they were driving on ice. The rain, which had been falling all day, washed away all the rubber laid down on the track surface. Throw in the new-style asphalt with a high oil content, thus preventing the water from permeating the surface and draining away, and we had a situation to rival the worst of the Swimming Pool at Spa-Francorchamps. The closer it got to the scheduled race start time, the heavier the rain came down. The start was delayed ten minutes by Race Director Charlie Whiting, then the decision was made to begin behind the Safety Car. Two laps like that was enough for everybody; the radio freqs were buzzing with calls from the drivers saying they couldn't see the car in front of them. Renault's Robert Kubica, buried near the middle of the trundling herd and thus deluged by the rooster tails of nearly half the field, reported that he couldn't even see his own front tires. And so the race was Red Flagged, hoping for the weather to clear up.
*SPLASH: After nearly an hour with the cars sitting on the grid, Charlie Whiting made the call for everybody to raise anchor and get under way, again behind the Safety Car... and for 17 more laps, Bernd Maylander led the cars around. For the last five or six of those, the track was more than safe enough to race on, making everybody wonder if Whiting had fallen asleep. Eventually, the safety car came in and green flag racing had finally come to the Korea International Circuit.
*CRASH: Almost immediately, Red Bull's Seb Vettel jumped away from his teammate, championship points leader Mark Webber. As the only driver with a clear view of the track, unobscured by spray, he had a much easier time of it. Indeed, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had been agitating to get the race started, was passed very quickly by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes for fourth place... a pass that, strangely, may have kept Hamilton in the hunt for the Driver's Championship. For on Lap 20, as he went through the technical section, Mark Webber got a tire over a curb, spun and slid down the track. Ferrari's HWMNBN got past cleanly, but Rosberg was speared by the crippled Red Bull, wrecking both cars. The leader of the Driver's Championship was out of the race, but he didn't collect Hamilton.
*BLAST: What followed was a rash of Safety Car periods, called out as one car or another ended up slipping off-track, occasionally taking someone else with them. In the end, nine cars would retire from the race, seven from accidents. Surprisingly the most violent of them all, when Vitaly Petrov's Renault wound up leaving the track at high speed and spearing into the wall protecting the pit lane entry, did not bring out Bernd Maylander. Race leader Seb Vettel probably wished for the Safety Car, as he had started to call to the pit lane that it was becoming difficult to see braking points due to the gathering darkness... or perhaps he had an ulterior motive. You see, a few laps later HWMNBN drove past a rapidly slowing Vettel in Turn 1, who then had a total and comprehensive engine failure. Smoke, sparks, engine parts and, eventually, a small amount of fire, issued from the rear of the Red Bull, making it very clear that Vettel's day was done.
*NIGHT: Then it became a race to see if the entire race length would be run, or if Charlie Whiting would call it early because of nightfall. Oddly enough, around the time of Petrov's accident the radio calls that the FIA had been liberally playing throughout the race strangely went silent. The last one we heard was Vettel's call of darkness. One suspects that the radios were burning up from the drivers' calls saying it was too dark to drive, but still Whiting left them out there. By the time HWMNBN swept across the finish line 14.9 seconds ahead of Hamilton, they were running in the dark, but running they were. The most eventful race of the 2010 season had come to an end, and the entire landscape of the Driver's Championship had changed.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We think Bernd Maylander deserves this for his flawless drive in the 571-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Safety Car. It has less effective wet-weather tires than the F1 cars, less downforce, and yet he had to power around in conditions that were ugly at best at speeds that would keep the F1 cars healthy... somewhere between 80 and 120mph. It obviously wasn't easy, as the F1 cars were sliding off even at those low speeds, yet Maylander kept the Safety Car planted like a rock. We would love to give it to him, but we can't, even though he led the most laps today. No, we have to give the award to one of the actual racers, and today the honors go to HWMNBN. While he was given 1st place by the failure of both Red Bulls, he was very much the fastest car on the track for much of the race, despite appalling conditions. Indeed, he was closing in on Vettel even before that driver's engine problems, and probably would have caught up with him with five laps or so left... and you know he would have tried the pass. As it was he left Lewis Hamilton, not a shabby rain driver himself, in his metaphorical dust, finishing nearly 15 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver. An excellent drive from HWMNBN indeed.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. A win, a third-place, and a sudden resurgence in the Constructor's Championship? Oh yeah, they got it right this week.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 27 Slappy Schumacher was in 6th with the reigning Driver's Champion Jenson Button just ahead as they went through Turn 2... and Schumi had the fastest car through the speed-traps all weekend. The rain, though, took that advantage away as the two silver cars went down the longest straight on the circuit. Back in the old days Schumacher had been known as "The Rainmaster," and he showed, at least for this moment, that he hadn't lost that touch. As the two reached The Elephant, Schumacher stayed off the brakes almost suicidally too long, then put just the right amount of force into the pedal. Button, taken a little aback by the sudden appearance of the petwer Mercedes next to him, didn't slam the door, and the two went through the turn in lockstep. Schumi put in just the right amount of throttle for his rear tires to grip and powered away from Button, who spun his tires just a bit. A really sweet piece of driving in horrid conditions, and one well-worth the Move of the Race!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 47, Force India's Adrian Sutil had lined up the Sauber of Gandalf Kobayashi as they ran down to Turn 4, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to do anything about it. His brakes were giving him fits, and the track was still sopping wet. Still, no guts no glory, right? He went to the inside of the white car, stomped on the brakes, turned the wheel... and quickly peeled the front-right wheel off his car as he slammed into Gandalf. Surprisingly the Sauber kept on going on while the Force India ended up sliding off into the wilderness. Congratulations, Adrian Sutil, you won the stupidest move award in a race filled with worthy contenders. You also get a honorable mention for admitting to the race stewards that you knew you had brake problems, yet went ahead and tried the pass anyway! You've earned yourself a five-spot penalty for Brazil AND a $10K fine too. Good Job, a winner is you!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*SPLISH: During the recon laps before the race, cars were skidding off-track like they were driving on ice. The rain, which had been falling all day, washed away all the rubber laid down on the track surface. Throw in the new-style asphalt with a high oil content, thus preventing the water from permeating the surface and draining away, and we had a situation to rival the worst of the Swimming Pool at Spa-Francorchamps. The closer it got to the scheduled race start time, the heavier the rain came down. The start was delayed ten minutes by Race Director Charlie Whiting, then the decision was made to begin behind the Safety Car. Two laps like that was enough for everybody; the radio freqs were buzzing with calls from the drivers saying they couldn't see the car in front of them. Renault's Robert Kubica, buried near the middle of the trundling herd and thus deluged by the rooster tails of nearly half the field, reported that he couldn't even see his own front tires. And so the race was Red Flagged, hoping for the weather to clear up.
*SPLASH: After nearly an hour with the cars sitting on the grid, Charlie Whiting made the call for everybody to raise anchor and get under way, again behind the Safety Car... and for 17 more laps, Bernd Maylander led the cars around. For the last five or six of those, the track was more than safe enough to race on, making everybody wonder if Whiting had fallen asleep. Eventually, the safety car came in and green flag racing had finally come to the Korea International Circuit.
*CRASH: Almost immediately, Red Bull's Seb Vettel jumped away from his teammate, championship points leader Mark Webber. As the only driver with a clear view of the track, unobscured by spray, he had a much easier time of it. Indeed, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had been agitating to get the race started, was passed very quickly by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes for fourth place... a pass that, strangely, may have kept Hamilton in the hunt for the Driver's Championship. For on Lap 20, as he went through the technical section, Mark Webber got a tire over a curb, spun and slid down the track. Ferrari's HWMNBN got past cleanly, but Rosberg was speared by the crippled Red Bull, wrecking both cars. The leader of the Driver's Championship was out of the race, but he didn't collect Hamilton.
*BLAST: What followed was a rash of Safety Car periods, called out as one car or another ended up slipping off-track, occasionally taking someone else with them. In the end, nine cars would retire from the race, seven from accidents. Surprisingly the most violent of them all, when Vitaly Petrov's Renault wound up leaving the track at high speed and spearing into the wall protecting the pit lane entry, did not bring out Bernd Maylander. Race leader Seb Vettel probably wished for the Safety Car, as he had started to call to the pit lane that it was becoming difficult to see braking points due to the gathering darkness... or perhaps he had an ulterior motive. You see, a few laps later HWMNBN drove past a rapidly slowing Vettel in Turn 1, who then had a total and comprehensive engine failure. Smoke, sparks, engine parts and, eventually, a small amount of fire, issued from the rear of the Red Bull, making it very clear that Vettel's day was done.
*NIGHT: Then it became a race to see if the entire race length would be run, or if Charlie Whiting would call it early because of nightfall. Oddly enough, around the time of Petrov's accident the radio calls that the FIA had been liberally playing throughout the race strangely went silent. The last one we heard was Vettel's call of darkness. One suspects that the radios were burning up from the drivers' calls saying it was too dark to drive, but still Whiting left them out there. By the time HWMNBN swept across the finish line 14.9 seconds ahead of Hamilton, they were running in the dark, but running they were. The most eventful race of the 2010 season had come to an end, and the entire landscape of the Driver's Championship had changed.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We think Bernd Maylander deserves this for his flawless drive in the 571-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Safety Car. It has less effective wet-weather tires than the F1 cars, less downforce, and yet he had to power around in conditions that were ugly at best at speeds that would keep the F1 cars healthy... somewhere between 80 and 120mph. It obviously wasn't easy, as the F1 cars were sliding off even at those low speeds, yet Maylander kept the Safety Car planted like a rock. We would love to give it to him, but we can't, even though he led the most laps today. No, we have to give the award to one of the actual racers, and today the honors go to HWMNBN. While he was given 1st place by the failure of both Red Bulls, he was very much the fastest car on the track for much of the race, despite appalling conditions. Indeed, he was closing in on Vettel even before that driver's engine problems, and probably would have caught up with him with five laps or so left... and you know he would have tried the pass. As it was he left Lewis Hamilton, not a shabby rain driver himself, in his metaphorical dust, finishing nearly 15 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver. An excellent drive from HWMNBN indeed.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. A win, a third-place, and a sudden resurgence in the Constructor's Championship? Oh yeah, they got it right this week.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 27 Slappy Schumacher was in 6th with the reigning Driver's Champion Jenson Button just ahead as they went through Turn 2... and Schumi had the fastest car through the speed-traps all weekend. The rain, though, took that advantage away as the two silver cars went down the longest straight on the circuit. Back in the old days Schumacher had been known as "The Rainmaster," and he showed, at least for this moment, that he hadn't lost that touch. As the two reached The Elephant, Schumacher stayed off the brakes almost suicidally too long, then put just the right amount of force into the pedal. Button, taken a little aback by the sudden appearance of the petwer Mercedes next to him, didn't slam the door, and the two went through the turn in lockstep. Schumi put in just the right amount of throttle for his rear tires to grip and powered away from Button, who spun his tires just a bit. A really sweet piece of driving in horrid conditions, and one well-worth the Move of the Race!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 47, Force India's Adrian Sutil had lined up the Sauber of Gandalf Kobayashi as they ran down to Turn 4, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to do anything about it. His brakes were giving him fits, and the track was still sopping wet. Still, no guts no glory, right? He went to the inside of the white car, stomped on the brakes, turned the wheel... and quickly peeled the front-right wheel off his car as he slammed into Gandalf. Surprisingly the Sauber kept on going on while the Force India ended up sliding off into the wilderness. Congratulations, Adrian Sutil, you won the stupidest move award in a race filled with worthy contenders. You also get a honorable mention for admitting to the race stewards that you knew you had brake problems, yet went ahead and tried the pass anyway! You've earned yourself a five-spot penalty for Brazil AND a $10K fine too. Good Job, a winner is you!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
11:17 AM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1806 words, total size 12 kb.
October 10, 2010
F1 Update!: Japan 2010
Sunny skies on Sunday replaced the torrential rain from Saturday, but on whom would the sun shine the brightest? THIS is your F1 Update! for the Grand Prix of Japan!
*RUMBLINGS: The first indication that the hijinks of the Great Suzuka Pit Lane Boat Races had infected Sunday came as the cars were coming to the grid for the first time when from out of nowhere we saw a car spearing into the outside barrier at 130R.
Virgin Racing's Lucas di Grassi said he "felt something break" in the rear of the car just before it went spinning off into the wall. It isn't exactly common to have a car crash on the recon lap, but it isn't unheard of either. Everybody took a deep breath, muttered "rookies" to themselves, and carried on. Until the lights went out.
*TOTAL CHAOS: Everything up front was about as we've come to expect. Seb Vettel led the thundering horde into Turn 1, but Mark Webber had another patented Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢, letting Renault's Robert Kubica slip by into second. But farther back in the pack everything was going straight to hell. Nico Hulkenberg's Williams had a slow-ish start, sending cars on the left side of the grid behind him scrambling to avoid him. Vitaly Petrov, charging hard from his grid slot, tried to thread the needle between Hulkenberg's car and someone else... and failed. The results weren't pretty.
The Renault clipped the rear corner of Hulkenberg, then pirouetted across the Williams' nose on it's way into the Armco barrier. Petrov was unhurt, but both cars were dead on the spot. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa's Ferrari was in a jam... literally. He was squeezed over onto the grass as he approached Turn 1. The loss of traction sent him sprawling across the track, collecting the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi in the process.
Five cars out of the race before the first turn was completed? That's impressive, even for the naked confusion of a F1 start. The Safety Car was called out and everybody took a deep breath. "Well, that's over with, let's get on with it." Except they were wrong. While stacked behind the Safety Car on Lap 2, Robert Kubica suddenly pulled offtrack and came to a stop. A look at the Renault mechanics showed nothing but confusion on their faces, but the Pole's body language simply radiated aggravation.
And for good reason. His right-rear wheel had worked itself free from the axle and gone off into the Japanese countryside, ending his day and making everybody else wonder "what's coming next?"
*NOTHING AMAZING: From there on out, the rest of the race was rather pedestrian. McLaren's Jenson Button was running a strategy race rather than raw pace. The only of the top 10 cars to have qualified on the hard tires, he needed to stay close to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, the two Red Bulls, and the Ferrari of HWMNBN. When they pitted, he'd still have halfway decent tires to try and open a lead, then capitalize when he changed to the soft tires. While he stayed close, he couldn't really stretch his lead enough to make a difference. After he pitted, he rejoined in 5th, later taking passing his teammate for 4th when Hamilton's new gearbox lost third gear. Up front, Vettel led Mark Webber across the line for the win, HWMNBN closing in fast for third.
*DRAMA: Behind those first five though, there was enough excitement for any two races. Gandalf Kobayashi started 14th and progressed through the field to end up 7th, making four or five passes in the Hairpin along the way. The two Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg and Slappy Schumacher, raced each other hard for most of the second half of the contest making everybody wonder if there was going to be a pile of pewter-colored carbon fiber in our future. Adrian Sutil blew one side of his engine going into 130R late in the race, put down a smoke-screen, spinning when oil from his car got onto his rear tires, recovered, blew the other side of his engine, put down another smoke-screen that any WWII-era destroyer would have been proud of, then coasted into the pitlane.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Gandalf Kobayashi hadn't driven on Suzuka Circuit in seven years, yet he had the most impressive performance of the day, picking up seven places in the process. At one point, he was as high as 5th place and was holding up the much faster Lewis Hamilton in the process. While 7th isn't all that impressive in the grand scheme of things, he beat his more experienced teammate Grizzly Nick Heidfeld, put on a great show, and may have solidified his hold on his race-seat for next year in the process. Sometimes the Bantamweights outperform the Heavyweights. Seb Vettel won the race, but Gandalf was more impressive.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull started 1-2, finished 1-2, got the fast lap of the race, led all but a handful of laps, and looked like they could dominate the rest of the season with one hand tied behind their back. Yeah, that's a good result.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 45, Gandalf Kobayashi was 11th, but stalking Toro Rosso's NKOTT for 10th. As they approached the Hairpin, NKOTT moved to the inside; Gandalf had used that line two other times to make passes and the Toro Rosso driver wasn't going to just give it to him again... which was exactly what the Wizard wanted. Holding off on braking as long as humanly possible, and perhaps another instant longer, Kobayashi went around the outside of NKOTT. The two cars touched once, then once more, both times due to the Toro Rosso pilot trying everything to hold the Sauber back, but Kobayashi made the pass work. NKOTT ended up with a broken front wing, while Mr Wizard had a piece of flappy bodywork, but it wouldn't hold him back when he chased down Rubens Barrichello. The best move in a race full of them from Gandalf.
*MOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: You would think after seeing Renault's Robert Kubica lose an entire wheel assembly on Lap 2 of the race, all the tire changers would concentrate on getting everything done correctly, wouldn't you?
Apparently not. Congratulations Mr Mercedes Mechanic, you just won the Moooooo-ooove of the Race!
*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*RUMBLINGS: The first indication that the hijinks of the Great Suzuka Pit Lane Boat Races had infected Sunday came as the cars were coming to the grid for the first time when from out of nowhere we saw a car spearing into the outside barrier at 130R.
Virgin Racing's Lucas di Grassi said he "felt something break" in the rear of the car just before it went spinning off into the wall. It isn't exactly common to have a car crash on the recon lap, but it isn't unheard of either. Everybody took a deep breath, muttered "rookies" to themselves, and carried on. Until the lights went out.
*TOTAL CHAOS: Everything up front was about as we've come to expect. Seb Vettel led the thundering horde into Turn 1, but Mark Webber had another patented Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢, letting Renault's Robert Kubica slip by into second. But farther back in the pack everything was going straight to hell. Nico Hulkenberg's Williams had a slow-ish start, sending cars on the left side of the grid behind him scrambling to avoid him. Vitaly Petrov, charging hard from his grid slot, tried to thread the needle between Hulkenberg's car and someone else... and failed. The results weren't pretty.
The Renault clipped the rear corner of Hulkenberg, then pirouetted across the Williams' nose on it's way into the Armco barrier. Petrov was unhurt, but both cars were dead on the spot. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa's Ferrari was in a jam... literally. He was squeezed over onto the grass as he approached Turn 1. The loss of traction sent him sprawling across the track, collecting the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi in the process.
Five cars out of the race before the first turn was completed? That's impressive, even for the naked confusion of a F1 start. The Safety Car was called out and everybody took a deep breath. "Well, that's over with, let's get on with it." Except they were wrong. While stacked behind the Safety Car on Lap 2, Robert Kubica suddenly pulled offtrack and came to a stop. A look at the Renault mechanics showed nothing but confusion on their faces, but the Pole's body language simply radiated aggravation.
And for good reason. His right-rear wheel had worked itself free from the axle and gone off into the Japanese countryside, ending his day and making everybody else wonder "what's coming next?"
*NOTHING AMAZING: From there on out, the rest of the race was rather pedestrian. McLaren's Jenson Button was running a strategy race rather than raw pace. The only of the top 10 cars to have qualified on the hard tires, he needed to stay close to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, the two Red Bulls, and the Ferrari of HWMNBN. When they pitted, he'd still have halfway decent tires to try and open a lead, then capitalize when he changed to the soft tires. While he stayed close, he couldn't really stretch his lead enough to make a difference. After he pitted, he rejoined in 5th, later taking passing his teammate for 4th when Hamilton's new gearbox lost third gear. Up front, Vettel led Mark Webber across the line for the win, HWMNBN closing in fast for third.
*DRAMA: Behind those first five though, there was enough excitement for any two races. Gandalf Kobayashi started 14th and progressed through the field to end up 7th, making four or five passes in the Hairpin along the way. The two Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg and Slappy Schumacher, raced each other hard for most of the second half of the contest making everybody wonder if there was going to be a pile of pewter-colored carbon fiber in our future. Adrian Sutil blew one side of his engine going into 130R late in the race, put down a smoke-screen, spinning when oil from his car got onto his rear tires, recovered, blew the other side of his engine, put down another smoke-screen that any WWII-era destroyer would have been proud of, then coasted into the pitlane.
Tah-dah!
When Nico Rosberg's left-rear wheel flew off into the blue sky, it barely elicited a comment from the F1U! crew: "Eh, seen it already." Quite the event-filled race, actually.*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Gandalf Kobayashi hadn't driven on Suzuka Circuit in seven years, yet he had the most impressive performance of the day, picking up seven places in the process. At one point, he was as high as 5th place and was holding up the much faster Lewis Hamilton in the process. While 7th isn't all that impressive in the grand scheme of things, he beat his more experienced teammate Grizzly Nick Heidfeld, put on a great show, and may have solidified his hold on his race-seat for next year in the process. Sometimes the Bantamweights outperform the Heavyweights. Seb Vettel won the race, but Gandalf was more impressive.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull started 1-2, finished 1-2, got the fast lap of the race, led all but a handful of laps, and looked like they could dominate the rest of the season with one hand tied behind their back. Yeah, that's a good result.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 45, Gandalf Kobayashi was 11th, but stalking Toro Rosso's NKOTT for 10th. As they approached the Hairpin, NKOTT moved to the inside; Gandalf had used that line two other times to make passes and the Toro Rosso driver wasn't going to just give it to him again... which was exactly what the Wizard wanted. Holding off on braking as long as humanly possible, and perhaps another instant longer, Kobayashi went around the outside of NKOTT. The two cars touched once, then once more, both times due to the Toro Rosso pilot trying everything to hold the Sauber back, but Kobayashi made the pass work. NKOTT ended up with a broken front wing, while Mr Wizard had a piece of flappy bodywork, but it wouldn't hold him back when he chased down Rubens Barrichello. The best move in a race full of them from Gandalf.
*MOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: You would think after seeing Renault's Robert Kubica lose an entire wheel assembly on Lap 2 of the race, all the tire changers would concentrate on getting everything done correctly, wouldn't you?
Apparently not. Congratulations Mr Mercedes Mechanic, you just won the Moooooo-ooove of the Race!
*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
12:47 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1627 words, total size 11 kb.
September 26, 2010
F1 Update!: Singapore 2010
Dark clouds overhead but a brightly lighted track below, with the five points leaders sitting in the first five slots on the grid. Sounds like a perfect setup for a great race, but is that what we got? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Singapore!
*LIGHTS OUT: For once, the entire field made it away and through the first couple of turns without serious incident. Felipe Massa made a fantastic start from his grid position in Palembang, catching up with the rest of the field very quickly. However, all was not well amongst the thundering herd. Vitantonio Liuzzi earned himself a Mooooooo-oove of the Race nomination by managing to run into both ends of Grizzly Nick Heidfeld's Sauber on one pass. Heidfeld had to limp around to the pits, while Liuzzi's Force India struggled to complete the first lap, so it came as quite the surprise when he blew right past the pit entrance. However, Felipe Massa didn't, intentionally. He came right in at the end of the first lap and changed from the soft tires to the harder compound, gambling on a risky strategy. And why not? It's not like he'd fall any further behind. But Ferrari didn't account for the incompetence of Vitantonio Liuzzi.
*SAFETY CAR: Liuzzi zipped past the pit lane and began Lap 2. He never completed it. His suspension, showing obvious signs of damage from his mugging of Heidfeld, gave out and he came to a halt out on track... at a point on the circuit where there weren't any cranes. Out came the Safety Car, and out the window went everybody's strategy. The back half of the herd pitted immediately, with the top 10 staying out... except for Mark Webber. Webber rolled the dice and pitted, potentially putting himself in an excellent position. If he could stay in contact with the leaders, when THEY stopped later in the race the Red Bull would leap high up the standings, potentially as high as first.
*RUNAWAY: It quickly became clear that Webber was going to be racing for third. Polesitter HWMNBN and Red Bull's Seb Vettel rapidly pulled away from the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. By Lap 20, the two had a nearly 15 second lead over the 2008 Champion and over 20 seconds over fourth place Jenson Button. The lead kept widening as the two frontrunners took turns setting fast lap of the race as they tried to open up a big enough gap to pit and stay ahead of Webber. Hamilton blinked first, coming in on Lap 29 after he had run his tires into the ground. Mark Webber swept past as Hamilton crawled down the pitlane to return to the race. On Lap 30, HWMNBN, Vettel and Jenson Button in third pulled in for new tires. The Ferrari driver came out first, despite Vettel having a faster pitstop... until the Red Bull driver tried to exit his pitbox in 2nd Gear. Once again, the young speedster choked under pressure, with a chance to take the lead in the balance.
*BUT THEN: If F1 fans didn't love Gandalf Kobyashi before today, when he hip-checked Slappy Schumacher into the next neighborhood they had to begin feeling all tingly. A rookie asserting himself on the Great Schumi? That's just beautiful. However, a lap later saw Gandalf fishtail himself into the wall but hard, coming to a stop on the racing line just out of sight from cars coming down on him. The HRT of Bruno Senna, the first car to come across the broken Sauber, arrowed right into the side of Gandalf. Felipe Massa, showing the sort of reflexes that one expects from frightened cats, barely avoided adding to the carnage. Another Safety Car comes out as the track marshals try to figure out how to untangle the wrecks. The restart came on Lap 36, with the standings reading HWMNBN, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, and Button.
*SAY GOODBYE TO A CHAMPIONSHIP: While HWMNBN and Vettel had clear track in front of them, somehow the Virgin VR-1s of Lucas DiGrassi and Timo Glock had gotten gathered up by the Safety Car so he was sitting directly in front of Webber... and this is one of the few places that F1 could take lessons from NASCAR. In NASCAR safety car situations, the field is lined up in order of standing for all intents and purposes. In F1, the field bunches up in whatever order they get to the Safety Car. Webber and Hamilton got past Glock, but DiGrassi balked the Australian quite badly. Hamilton, taking advantage, pulled right tight behind the Red Bull then swept past on the outside. Everything was to the advantage of the McLaren as they approached the next turn: he had the racing line AND he was clearly in front of the Red Bull. Webber, however, saw an opening that truly wasn't there and smashed hard into Hamilton, deranging the MP4-25's suspension while the RB-6 continued on merrily. Hamilton made it into a run-off area and, furiously throwing his steering wheel into the night, retired from the race for the second time in a row. Unlike at Monza however, this time wasn't his fault. While the stewards declared it a "racing incident," replays pretty clearly showed that Webber wouldn't have made the turn if he hadn't hit the McLaren. The Red Bull did sustain some damage, picking up what was later described as a nasty vibration, but Hamilton's chances for a second Driver's Championship suddenly look grim indeed.
*THE ENDS: Ahead of the carnage, HWMNBN and Vettel pulled away again, continuing to exchange fast lap between the two of them for the rest of the race. While the Ferrari held the lead, the Red Bull wasn't letting it get away in the least. Eventually, they swept across the finish line only 0.2 seconds apart, one of the closest finishes in recent memory. All wasn't calm behind them, though. Robert Kubica had managed to get himself to 7th place, but drove the tires off his Renault... literally. On Lap 46, he had to pit for new rubber, his right-rear tire showing the canvas backing in some places. He dropped to 13th by the time he returned to the track... and thus began one of the better drives we've seen in a while. On Lap 52, he passed Buemi for 11th and his Renault teammate Petrov for 10th, and pulled up to Massa, whom he passed on Lap 53. On Lap 55, Kubica passed Force India's Adrian Sutil for 7th, regaining the position he relinquished when he pitted. Just awesome driving from the Pole. And then there's the Heikki Kovaleinninninnie story. On Lap 59, the Finn and Seb Buemi bump, with the Lotus ending up pointing the wrong direction but able to continue. Unknown to the Finnish driver, the contact caused a small fuel leak in his Lotus. By the time he made it to the front straight, his engine was fully aflame:
Understandably unwilling to bring a blazing car into the pitlane, Heikki instead pulled to a stop just short of the start/finish line. Once the Lotus stopped, the rear of the car went up like a molotov cocktail had been thrown at it. Unfortunately, the pitlane fire crew wasn't near his stopping point. However, Heikki himself grabbed a fire extinguisher and began to fight the blaze.
The Lotus was pretty much toast by the time HWMNBN and Seb Vettel ended the race, the smoldering car a dramatic counterpoint to the victors.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: HWMNBN and Seb Vettel both deserve this award as the two of them drove flawless races. The Ferrari driver, however, pulled off the rare F1 Grand Slam: pole, win, fast lap, and he led every lap of the race. Yeah, that's pretty dominant.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. 2nd and 3rd, retaking the lead in the constructor's championship, and one of your men leading the driver's championship? Yeah, pretty good race for the team.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: As previously mentioned, Robert Kubica pitted from 7th late in the race and then fought his way back up to regain the position relinquished. What was really impressive was the pass on Adrian Sutil to complete his quest, passing the Force India driver on the outside of the 90-degree Turn 7 at the end of the longest straight on the track. Well done for the Pole, and maybe enough to earn him a drive for Ferrari next year... or so the rumors say, anyway.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: Grizzly Nick Heidfeld was happy. He was finally back in a F1 car for real, and had proven that he hadn't lost anything in the meantime. The first lap had gone swimmingly, and things looked good for the rest of the race... maybe even points! And then Vitantonio Liuzzi came along and did bad things. First the Force India driver slammed into the rear of the Sauber. In one swift mooooo-oove, Liuzzi went past the damaged Sauber, then cut back across Heidfeld's nose, sending pieces of it flying off into the night. That's right, Liuzzi somehow figured out how to damage both ends of the Sauber in one move, without sending it into the wall. Pretty impressive, and quite the Moooooooo-oove! Heidfeld, his downforce compromised, ended up in the walls around Lap 30 or so. Liuzzi, in a case of just desserts, retired his car on Lap 3.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*LIGHTS OUT: For once, the entire field made it away and through the first couple of turns without serious incident. Felipe Massa made a fantastic start from his grid position in Palembang, catching up with the rest of the field very quickly. However, all was not well amongst the thundering herd. Vitantonio Liuzzi earned himself a Mooooooo-oove of the Race nomination by managing to run into both ends of Grizzly Nick Heidfeld's Sauber on one pass. Heidfeld had to limp around to the pits, while Liuzzi's Force India struggled to complete the first lap, so it came as quite the surprise when he blew right past the pit entrance. However, Felipe Massa didn't, intentionally. He came right in at the end of the first lap and changed from the soft tires to the harder compound, gambling on a risky strategy. And why not? It's not like he'd fall any further behind. But Ferrari didn't account for the incompetence of Vitantonio Liuzzi.
*SAFETY CAR: Liuzzi zipped past the pit lane and began Lap 2. He never completed it. His suspension, showing obvious signs of damage from his mugging of Heidfeld, gave out and he came to a halt out on track... at a point on the circuit where there weren't any cranes. Out came the Safety Car, and out the window went everybody's strategy. The back half of the herd pitted immediately, with the top 10 staying out... except for Mark Webber. Webber rolled the dice and pitted, potentially putting himself in an excellent position. If he could stay in contact with the leaders, when THEY stopped later in the race the Red Bull would leap high up the standings, potentially as high as first.
*RUNAWAY: It quickly became clear that Webber was going to be racing for third. Polesitter HWMNBN and Red Bull's Seb Vettel rapidly pulled away from the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. By Lap 20, the two had a nearly 15 second lead over the 2008 Champion and over 20 seconds over fourth place Jenson Button. The lead kept widening as the two frontrunners took turns setting fast lap of the race as they tried to open up a big enough gap to pit and stay ahead of Webber. Hamilton blinked first, coming in on Lap 29 after he had run his tires into the ground. Mark Webber swept past as Hamilton crawled down the pitlane to return to the race. On Lap 30, HWMNBN, Vettel and Jenson Button in third pulled in for new tires. The Ferrari driver came out first, despite Vettel having a faster pitstop... until the Red Bull driver tried to exit his pitbox in 2nd Gear. Once again, the young speedster choked under pressure, with a chance to take the lead in the balance.
*BUT THEN: If F1 fans didn't love Gandalf Kobyashi before today, when he hip-checked Slappy Schumacher into the next neighborhood they had to begin feeling all tingly. A rookie asserting himself on the Great Schumi? That's just beautiful. However, a lap later saw Gandalf fishtail himself into the wall but hard, coming to a stop on the racing line just out of sight from cars coming down on him. The HRT of Bruno Senna, the first car to come across the broken Sauber, arrowed right into the side of Gandalf. Felipe Massa, showing the sort of reflexes that one expects from frightened cats, barely avoided adding to the carnage. Another Safety Car comes out as the track marshals try to figure out how to untangle the wrecks. The restart came on Lap 36, with the standings reading HWMNBN, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, and Button.
*SAY GOODBYE TO A CHAMPIONSHIP: While HWMNBN and Vettel had clear track in front of them, somehow the Virgin VR-1s of Lucas DiGrassi and Timo Glock had gotten gathered up by the Safety Car so he was sitting directly in front of Webber... and this is one of the few places that F1 could take lessons from NASCAR. In NASCAR safety car situations, the field is lined up in order of standing for all intents and purposes. In F1, the field bunches up in whatever order they get to the Safety Car. Webber and Hamilton got past Glock, but DiGrassi balked the Australian quite badly. Hamilton, taking advantage, pulled right tight behind the Red Bull then swept past on the outside. Everything was to the advantage of the McLaren as they approached the next turn: he had the racing line AND he was clearly in front of the Red Bull. Webber, however, saw an opening that truly wasn't there and smashed hard into Hamilton, deranging the MP4-25's suspension while the RB-6 continued on merrily. Hamilton made it into a run-off area and, furiously throwing his steering wheel into the night, retired from the race for the second time in a row. Unlike at Monza however, this time wasn't his fault. While the stewards declared it a "racing incident," replays pretty clearly showed that Webber wouldn't have made the turn if he hadn't hit the McLaren. The Red Bull did sustain some damage, picking up what was later described as a nasty vibration, but Hamilton's chances for a second Driver's Championship suddenly look grim indeed.
*THE ENDS: Ahead of the carnage, HWMNBN and Vettel pulled away again, continuing to exchange fast lap between the two of them for the rest of the race. While the Ferrari held the lead, the Red Bull wasn't letting it get away in the least. Eventually, they swept across the finish line only 0.2 seconds apart, one of the closest finishes in recent memory. All wasn't calm behind them, though. Robert Kubica had managed to get himself to 7th place, but drove the tires off his Renault... literally. On Lap 46, he had to pit for new rubber, his right-rear tire showing the canvas backing in some places. He dropped to 13th by the time he returned to the track... and thus began one of the better drives we've seen in a while. On Lap 52, he passed Buemi for 11th and his Renault teammate Petrov for 10th, and pulled up to Massa, whom he passed on Lap 53. On Lap 55, Kubica passed Force India's Adrian Sutil for 7th, regaining the position he relinquished when he pitted. Just awesome driving from the Pole. And then there's the Heikki Kovaleinninninnie story. On Lap 59, the Finn and Seb Buemi bump, with the Lotus ending up pointing the wrong direction but able to continue. Unknown to the Finnish driver, the contact caused a small fuel leak in his Lotus. By the time he made it to the front straight, his engine was fully aflame:
Understandably unwilling to bring a blazing car into the pitlane, Heikki instead pulled to a stop just short of the start/finish line. Once the Lotus stopped, the rear of the car went up like a molotov cocktail had been thrown at it. Unfortunately, the pitlane fire crew wasn't near his stopping point. However, Heikki himself grabbed a fire extinguisher and began to fight the blaze.
The Lotus was pretty much toast by the time HWMNBN and Seb Vettel ended the race, the smoldering car a dramatic counterpoint to the victors.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: HWMNBN and Seb Vettel both deserve this award as the two of them drove flawless races. The Ferrari driver, however, pulled off the rare F1 Grand Slam: pole, win, fast lap, and he led every lap of the race. Yeah, that's pretty dominant.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. 2nd and 3rd, retaking the lead in the constructor's championship, and one of your men leading the driver's championship? Yeah, pretty good race for the team.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: As previously mentioned, Robert Kubica pitted from 7th late in the race and then fought his way back up to regain the position relinquished. What was really impressive was the pass on Adrian Sutil to complete his quest, passing the Force India driver on the outside of the 90-degree Turn 7 at the end of the longest straight on the track. Well done for the Pole, and maybe enough to earn him a drive for Ferrari next year... or so the rumors say, anyway.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: Grizzly Nick Heidfeld was happy. He was finally back in a F1 car for real, and had proven that he hadn't lost anything in the meantime. The first lap had gone swimmingly, and things looked good for the rest of the race... maybe even points! And then Vitantonio Liuzzi came along and did bad things. First the Force India driver slammed into the rear of the Sauber. In one swift mooooo-oove, Liuzzi went past the damaged Sauber, then cut back across Heidfeld's nose, sending pieces of it flying off into the night. That's right, Liuzzi somehow figured out how to damage both ends of the Sauber in one move, without sending it into the wall. Pretty impressive, and quite the Moooooooo-oove! Heidfeld, his downforce compromised, ended up in the walls around Lap 30 or so. Liuzzi, in a case of just desserts, retired his car on Lap 3.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:34 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1862 words, total size 12 kb.
September 12, 2010
F1 Update!: Italy 2010
For the tifosi of the team of the Prancing Horse, this was the dream setup. Ferrari on the pole, at their ancestral home of La Pista Magica, with their lead driver in combat for the driver's championship. But would the church bells be ringing in Maranello, or would the dream end up a nightmare of epic proportions? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Italy!
*BAD DREAM: When the lights went out to begin the race, the McLaren of Jenson Button lept off the starting line, just slightly faster than the Ferrari of HWMNBN. As the two drivers sprinted down to the ridiculously tight first chicane, the Spaniard tried to intimidate the Brit by sliding down on him. When the defending Driver's Champion didn't budge, it became a simple drag race. The problem arose when it became clear that by dodging across the track, HWMNBN had lost a small amount of forward momentum. It might have been just a handful of feet, but it was enough. As they entered the chicane, the silver McLaren had the advantage, the racing line, and by the end of the chicane, the lead. A small bump from the nose of the Ferrari took off a small piece of the McLaren's rear end, but neither car seemed particularly affected. Just as in Quals, Button's car was substantially faster in the turn-heavy (well, as turn-heavy as any part of Monza can be) second sector of the circuit, while losing time to the Ferrari on the long straights. The upshot of it all was that Button opened up a 6/10th of a second lead over the red car... and there it stayed. It would fluctuate a tenth here or there, but for all intents and purposes neither man could get away from the other.
*NIGHTMARE: Away from the leaders, Hispania's DJ DNF was having communications problems. His radio malfunctioning, on Lap 24 he came into the pits for his tire change and a radio technician practically jumped into the cockpit with him to work on the electronics. The pit stop went cleanly with the new rubber being slapped on smartly, and the lollypop man quickly cleared DJ DNF to pull back into the race. Except there was one problem: the radio tech was still leaning over the cockpit.
*DREAM ON: With the pitlane closed, everybody was forced to keep circulating. Up front, the two leaders may as well have been connected to each other with a bungee cord; the lead would increase, then contract, then boing back up again, but never more than 6/10th of a second. It became obvious that barring incident, the pit crews would decide this race. On Lap 37 Button came in. It took the McLaren mechanics 4.2 seconds to slap on the new tires and get their man back out on track, rejoining the race in third. The next lap, it was the turn of HWMNBN. He was stopped for only 3.6 seconds, the fastest pit stop of the race, and came out of the pits just barely ahead of the silver car. Button tried to get past in the first chicane but couldn't quite pull it off. When Massa came in on Lap 39, HWMNBN took over first place, a position he would never relinquish, eventually winning by a scant 2.9 seconds over Button, with Massa crossing the line just over a second later. One begins to wonder if the small amount of damage that Button suffered in the first chicane back on Lap 1 made any difference to the aerodynamics of the car. It didn't have to be much, just about a tenth of a second total over the first hour or so, for that might have been the difference between the two when HWMNBN came out of the pits.
*MEANWHILE: One Red Bull driver was having a bad day. Mark Webber had another patented Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢, dropping from 4th on the grid to 9th in a heartbeat. He eventually climbed back up to 6th, but had to be frustrated. Seb Vettel, on the other hand, slogged around and around, driving as hard as he could without doing anything stupid or stunning. Car after car ahead of him pitted while he kept going and going. Eventually, he found himself in 4th place with a nearly 20 second lead over Nico Rosberg's Mercedes... but it was Lap 52 of 54, he hadn't made his mandatory pitstop yet, and the pit "bogey time", or the total time it takes to drive into the pitlane, stop, make the tire change, then get back out onto the track was right about 20 seconds. On Lap 53, he dove in fast, smoking his tires as he slammed on the brakes to make the pit lane speed limit, made his stop and re-entered the track... just ahead of Rosberg. He ended up a surprising 4th in a car that really wasn't that good on this track.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: For perhaps the first time, this award is going to go to two drivers. Both HWMNBN and Jenson Button drove their hearts out today, getting absolutely the best out of their vehicles. That the two cars were set up to specialize in different parts of the course, yet ended up less than a second apart for the first 40 laps, just highlights the skill both showed. Without a doubt, both deserve the award, and for providing an incredibly tense race both get it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. First and third on the podium, and the race won by the mechanics? That's a team victory, and there's no way any other team deserves this award more than the boys from Maranello.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: There were surprisingly few passes on track today, so without a doubt this has to go to the Ferrari pitcrew. When McLaren got their man in and out in 4.2 seconds, they knew that they had a chance to decide this one. Everything went like clockwork, and they gained their car about 150 feet of track distance over their competitors. It couldn't have gone better, and made all the difference in the world.
*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: While we here at F1U! are not fond of giving the Mooooooo-oove to something that occurs during the chaotic events of any Grand Prix's first lap, we're making an exception today. Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th and jumped to 4th by default when Mark Webber had another in a long line of Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢s. Heading into the first chicane, the two Ferraris were side-by-side into the narrow first turn, yet Hamilton thought he could get himself some of that action. He got his front wing alongside Felipe Massa's cockpit, and his front-right tire just in front of Massa's left-rear, but only just. When Massa either accelerated slightly, or Hamilton slowed a touch, there was contact; the impact pushed the McLaren's suspension forward. Now, carbon fiber is a ridiculously strong material, but it has an odd property... it's only strong in the direction that it's woven to be strong in, unlike a steel rod which would have the same amount of strength no matter which way forces are applied to it. The result was predictable.
His front suspension broken, the man leading the Driver's Championship was out of the race before he reached the second turn. Now he's behind Mark Webber. A questionable decision to knock yourself out of the championship lead? Good job, Lewis, here's your Moooooooo-oove!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*BAD DREAM: When the lights went out to begin the race, the McLaren of Jenson Button lept off the starting line, just slightly faster than the Ferrari of HWMNBN. As the two drivers sprinted down to the ridiculously tight first chicane, the Spaniard tried to intimidate the Brit by sliding down on him. When the defending Driver's Champion didn't budge, it became a simple drag race. The problem arose when it became clear that by dodging across the track, HWMNBN had lost a small amount of forward momentum. It might have been just a handful of feet, but it was enough. As they entered the chicane, the silver McLaren had the advantage, the racing line, and by the end of the chicane, the lead. A small bump from the nose of the Ferrari took off a small piece of the McLaren's rear end, but neither car seemed particularly affected. Just as in Quals, Button's car was substantially faster in the turn-heavy (well, as turn-heavy as any part of Monza can be) second sector of the circuit, while losing time to the Ferrari on the long straights. The upshot of it all was that Button opened up a 6/10th of a second lead over the red car... and there it stayed. It would fluctuate a tenth here or there, but for all intents and purposes neither man could get away from the other.
*NIGHTMARE: Away from the leaders, Hispania's DJ DNF was having communications problems. His radio malfunctioning, on Lap 24 he came into the pits for his tire change and a radio technician practically jumped into the cockpit with him to work on the electronics. The pit stop went cleanly with the new rubber being slapped on smartly, and the lollypop man quickly cleared DJ DNF to pull back into the race. Except there was one problem: the radio tech was still leaning over the cockpit.
(The FIA removed the video after one day)
Very quickly, an ambulance was summoned into the pits, closing access to the pit lane while the race continued on. He was taken to the infield hospital with minor injuries... a case where looks really do deceive because if you base your opinion on the video, the guy is dead. (UPDATE: I included the video here simply because the F1 cameras never showed the incident. If the Legendary Announce Team hadn't have mentioned it, we never would have known.)*DREAM ON: With the pitlane closed, everybody was forced to keep circulating. Up front, the two leaders may as well have been connected to each other with a bungee cord; the lead would increase, then contract, then boing back up again, but never more than 6/10th of a second. It became obvious that barring incident, the pit crews would decide this race. On Lap 37 Button came in. It took the McLaren mechanics 4.2 seconds to slap on the new tires and get their man back out on track, rejoining the race in third. The next lap, it was the turn of HWMNBN. He was stopped for only 3.6 seconds, the fastest pit stop of the race, and came out of the pits just barely ahead of the silver car. Button tried to get past in the first chicane but couldn't quite pull it off. When Massa came in on Lap 39, HWMNBN took over first place, a position he would never relinquish, eventually winning by a scant 2.9 seconds over Button, with Massa crossing the line just over a second later. One begins to wonder if the small amount of damage that Button suffered in the first chicane back on Lap 1 made any difference to the aerodynamics of the car. It didn't have to be much, just about a tenth of a second total over the first hour or so, for that might have been the difference between the two when HWMNBN came out of the pits.
*MEANWHILE: One Red Bull driver was having a bad day. Mark Webber had another patented Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢, dropping from 4th on the grid to 9th in a heartbeat. He eventually climbed back up to 6th, but had to be frustrated. Seb Vettel, on the other hand, slogged around and around, driving as hard as he could without doing anything stupid or stunning. Car after car ahead of him pitted while he kept going and going. Eventually, he found himself in 4th place with a nearly 20 second lead over Nico Rosberg's Mercedes... but it was Lap 52 of 54, he hadn't made his mandatory pitstop yet, and the pit "bogey time", or the total time it takes to drive into the pitlane, stop, make the tire change, then get back out onto the track was right about 20 seconds. On Lap 53, he dove in fast, smoking his tires as he slammed on the brakes to make the pit lane speed limit, made his stop and re-entered the track... just ahead of Rosberg. He ended up a surprising 4th in a car that really wasn't that good on this track.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: For perhaps the first time, this award is going to go to two drivers. Both HWMNBN and Jenson Button drove their hearts out today, getting absolutely the best out of their vehicles. That the two cars were set up to specialize in different parts of the course, yet ended up less than a second apart for the first 40 laps, just highlights the skill both showed. Without a doubt, both deserve the award, and for providing an incredibly tense race both get it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. First and third on the podium, and the race won by the mechanics? That's a team victory, and there's no way any other team deserves this award more than the boys from Maranello.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: There were surprisingly few passes on track today, so without a doubt this has to go to the Ferrari pitcrew. When McLaren got their man in and out in 4.2 seconds, they knew that they had a chance to decide this one. Everything went like clockwork, and they gained their car about 150 feet of track distance over their competitors. It couldn't have gone better, and made all the difference in the world.
*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: While we here at F1U! are not fond of giving the Mooooooo-oove to something that occurs during the chaotic events of any Grand Prix's first lap, we're making an exception today. Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th and jumped to 4th by default when Mark Webber had another in a long line of Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢s. Heading into the first chicane, the two Ferraris were side-by-side into the narrow first turn, yet Hamilton thought he could get himself some of that action. He got his front wing alongside Felipe Massa's cockpit, and his front-right tire just in front of Massa's left-rear, but only just. When Massa either accelerated slightly, or Hamilton slowed a touch, there was contact; the impact pushed the McLaren's suspension forward. Now, carbon fiber is a ridiculously strong material, but it has an odd property... it's only strong in the direction that it's woven to be strong in, unlike a steel rod which would have the same amount of strength no matter which way forces are applied to it. The result was predictable.
His front suspension broken, the man leading the Driver's Championship was out of the race before he reached the second turn. Now he's behind Mark Webber. A questionable decision to knock yourself out of the championship lead? Good job, Lewis, here's your Moooooooo-oove!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
03:46 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1862 words, total size 12 kb.
August 29, 2010
F1 Update!: Belgium 2010
If there's one thing you can expect at Spa, it's that the weather is unpredictable. Would the circuit in the Ardennes give us another wet race, or would the unpredictability throw up a dry circuit? THIS is your F1U! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Belgium!
*PREDICTABLE, REALLY: When the cars pulled up to the grid, the latest weather forecast was that it was going to rain, but not for ten to fifteen minutes. Knowing that, all the heavy hitters took to the track on the soft slicks, ready to run hard and fast. A lousy start by polesitter Mark Webber let the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and the Renault of Robert Kubica blow by him, with Felipe Massa's Ferrari sitting right on his diffuser. Still, it looked like the first lap would be normal, if a little confused... until it began to rain on the downhill section of the circuit. Even with that, everybody seemed to be able to drive their vehicles through the spitting weather... until they reached the final chicane. Hamilton just couldn't get himself whoa'd up and blew the turn, which should have left the door open for Button, Kubica et al to go by.
Except nobody could make the turn, and it wasn't just the first five, either. It looked like the entire field blew the chicane... except for HWMNBN, who actually seemed to get his car turned into it. Then Rubens Barrichello's Williams plowed directly into the right-rear tire of the Ferrari. Rubens, front suspension turned into splinters and shards, retired on the spot. Surprisingly, HWMNBN was totally undamaged other than a flat tire and drove directly into the pit lane for a set of Intermediate tires. As the leaders came around to finish Lap 2, the carcass of the Williams had not yet been cleared so a safety car was called.
*TOTALLY PREDICTABLE: While three or four other cars dove into the pits to switch to Inters, the leaders stayed out on their slicks. The safety car went in after one lap, and we here at F1U! braced ourselves for the inevitable pileup in La Source when the slick tires skated on the wet track. Except it never happened. The rain had totally stopped, and the track, while not exactly dry, wasn't treacherous anymore. HWMNBN ripped his Inters to shreds in a couple of laps and had to stop again, dropping to the back of the field. Such a shame. A few laps later, Vettel wrecked Jenson Button and earned himself a drive-through penalty for doing so (see the Mooooooo-oooove Of The Race, below).
*PREDICTABLE, REALLY: It stayed dry until Lap 34, when it began to drizzle again. Of course, this happened seconds after Race Control sent a message to the teams saying that rain was expected in 10 minutes. Typical, really. The leaders stayed out on their slicks, hoping to get just one more lap in before it became too damp... and Lewis Hamilton, leading by nearly 15 seconds, missed a turn and went into a gravel trap. He managed to keep from getting stuck, but everybody took the hint and pitted. Somehow, HWMNBN managed to spin off track despite his full wet tires, broke his suspension and came to a stop right on the racing line. Another safety car came out, but nothing would keep Lewis Hamilton from winning the race a few laps later, bringing another exciting race at Spa-Francorchamps to an end.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Slappy Schumacher loves Spa. He's won the race six times, had a seventh victory taken away from him, and has proven that he knows the place like the back of his hand. He proved it again today, dragging himself up from the depths of the grid from 21st to end up 7th. It pains us to say this, but his performance today really deserves to be given the Driver of the Race award. Ow.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Trying to cleanse our palate, we're going to give this one to Force India. Adrian Sutil finished fifth after a beautiful drive. His teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi claimed 11th place, but was promoted to 10th after Toro Rosso's NKOTT was hit with a 20-second time penalty for cutting the chicane while defending against Liuzzi. Last year, of course, FI got their first podium here at Spa, and while this finish wasn't quite as good, it was still an encouraging result for this "bubbling under" team.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: We're breaking with tradition a little here today, in that we're not giving the MotR to a pass, but an avoidance! On Lap 40 with the rain coming down, Jarno Trulli lost control of his Lotus at Pouhon, perhaps the highest-speed turn on the track, with five or six others bearing down on him. Trulli's car continued to rotate down the track, but yet Vitantonio Liuzzi and Heikki Kovaleinninninnie managed to avoid him without losing control themselves, despite the wet conditions and the high closing speed!
Thus was disaster avoided, but only because of quick reflexes and high skill. Nice job, guys!
*MOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: When the best drivers in the world race like cows, they earn themselves the Moooooo-ooove of the Race. It's hard to argue that Seb Vettel isn't one of the best drivers in F1, but boy does he do stupid stuff sometimes. Today, he was closing in on Jenson Button as they approached the final chicane. Close behind on wet pavement, he moved inside then decided to dodge to the outside with a quick flick of the wheel. Predictably, his Red Bull's tires couldn't handle the traction demands and voomph! Away he went:
Of course, you can't drive in F1 without having near-superhuman reflexes so he was already correcting his slide even as it was beginning. And then the tires got grip again.
Even though he was correcting the fishtail caused by his first correction, he couldn't gather it up a second time and was surely destined for the grass... except for one little thing.
Button's McLaren was in the way. Vettel's nose speared right into Button's left sidepod, shattering the radiator, ending his race and perhaps his championship hopes. Vettel drove right into the pits, got a new nose and continued on. For his overenthusiastic passing attempt (again), we present Seb Vettel with this Moooooo. Blech.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*PREDICTABLE, REALLY: When the cars pulled up to the grid, the latest weather forecast was that it was going to rain, but not for ten to fifteen minutes. Knowing that, all the heavy hitters took to the track on the soft slicks, ready to run hard and fast. A lousy start by polesitter Mark Webber let the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and the Renault of Robert Kubica blow by him, with Felipe Massa's Ferrari sitting right on his diffuser. Still, it looked like the first lap would be normal, if a little confused... until it began to rain on the downhill section of the circuit. Even with that, everybody seemed to be able to drive their vehicles through the spitting weather... until they reached the final chicane. Hamilton just couldn't get himself whoa'd up and blew the turn, which should have left the door open for Button, Kubica et al to go by.
Except nobody could make the turn, and it wasn't just the first five, either. It looked like the entire field blew the chicane... except for HWMNBN, who actually seemed to get his car turned into it. Then Rubens Barrichello's Williams plowed directly into the right-rear tire of the Ferrari. Rubens, front suspension turned into splinters and shards, retired on the spot. Surprisingly, HWMNBN was totally undamaged other than a flat tire and drove directly into the pit lane for a set of Intermediate tires. As the leaders came around to finish Lap 2, the carcass of the Williams had not yet been cleared so a safety car was called.
*TOTALLY PREDICTABLE: While three or four other cars dove into the pits to switch to Inters, the leaders stayed out on their slicks. The safety car went in after one lap, and we here at F1U! braced ourselves for the inevitable pileup in La Source when the slick tires skated on the wet track. Except it never happened. The rain had totally stopped, and the track, while not exactly dry, wasn't treacherous anymore. HWMNBN ripped his Inters to shreds in a couple of laps and had to stop again, dropping to the back of the field. Such a shame. A few laps later, Vettel wrecked Jenson Button and earned himself a drive-through penalty for doing so (see the Mooooooo-oooove Of The Race, below).
*PREDICTABLE, REALLY: It stayed dry until Lap 34, when it began to drizzle again. Of course, this happened seconds after Race Control sent a message to the teams saying that rain was expected in 10 minutes. Typical, really. The leaders stayed out on their slicks, hoping to get just one more lap in before it became too damp... and Lewis Hamilton, leading by nearly 15 seconds, missed a turn and went into a gravel trap. He managed to keep from getting stuck, but everybody took the hint and pitted. Somehow, HWMNBN managed to spin off track despite his full wet tires, broke his suspension and came to a stop right on the racing line. Another safety car came out, but nothing would keep Lewis Hamilton from winning the race a few laps later, bringing another exciting race at Spa-Francorchamps to an end.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Slappy Schumacher loves Spa. He's won the race six times, had a seventh victory taken away from him, and has proven that he knows the place like the back of his hand. He proved it again today, dragging himself up from the depths of the grid from 21st to end up 7th. It pains us to say this, but his performance today really deserves to be given the Driver of the Race award. Ow.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Trying to cleanse our palate, we're going to give this one to Force India. Adrian Sutil finished fifth after a beautiful drive. His teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi claimed 11th place, but was promoted to 10th after Toro Rosso's NKOTT was hit with a 20-second time penalty for cutting the chicane while defending against Liuzzi. Last year, of course, FI got their first podium here at Spa, and while this finish wasn't quite as good, it was still an encouraging result for this "bubbling under" team.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: We're breaking with tradition a little here today, in that we're not giving the MotR to a pass, but an avoidance! On Lap 40 with the rain coming down, Jarno Trulli lost control of his Lotus at Pouhon, perhaps the highest-speed turn on the track, with five or six others bearing down on him. Trulli's car continued to rotate down the track, but yet Vitantonio Liuzzi and Heikki Kovaleinninninnie managed to avoid him without losing control themselves, despite the wet conditions and the high closing speed!
Thus was disaster avoided, but only because of quick reflexes and high skill. Nice job, guys!
*MOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: When the best drivers in the world race like cows, they earn themselves the Moooooo-ooove of the Race. It's hard to argue that Seb Vettel isn't one of the best drivers in F1, but boy does he do stupid stuff sometimes. Today, he was closing in on Jenson Button as they approached the final chicane. Close behind on wet pavement, he moved inside then decided to dodge to the outside with a quick flick of the wheel. Predictably, his Red Bull's tires couldn't handle the traction demands and voomph! Away he went:
Of course, you can't drive in F1 without having near-superhuman reflexes so he was already correcting his slide even as it was beginning. And then the tires got grip again.
Even though he was correcting the fishtail caused by his first correction, he couldn't gather it up a second time and was surely destined for the grass... except for one little thing.
Button's McLaren was in the way. Vettel's nose speared right into Button's left sidepod, shattering the radiator, ending his race and perhaps his championship hopes. Vettel drove right into the pits, got a new nose and continued on. For his overenthusiastic passing attempt (again), we present Seb Vettel with this Moooooo. Blech.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:52 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1469 words, total size 10 kb.
August 01, 2010
F1 Update!: Hungary 2010
It was just as bad as we thought it'd be. But the winner wasn't who we expected. THIS is your F1U! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Hungary.
STRATEGERY: At the start, the RB6 of Seb Vettel pulled away from HWMNBN's Ferrari at a rate of one second per lap, and there was nothing anybody could do about it... until Heikki Kovaleinninninnie's Lotus lost a wing endplate. This wound up right in the center of the track, a hazard that brought out the Safety Car. Everybody dove for the pit lane except for Vettel's teammate Mark Webber, who inherited the lead. But then Vettel decided to give his teammate a gap as the Safety Car pulled in, holding up the field while Webber tagged right behind the SC... and earned himself a drive-through penalty in the process. Still, no worries for Vettel: he was substantially faster than everybody else but his teammate, and Webber would have to pit to get off his soft tires. Except when he did his drive-through, he came out behind HWMNBN's Ferrari, and Webber made his supposedly fragile soft tires last until Lap 43 while stretching his lead out to about 25 seconds. He stopped, changed tires and came out a few seconds ahead of second place. Race over, it was only a question of how far ahead Webber would be. The answer was almost 18 seconds, with Vettel third, unable to get around the Ferrari.
BORING: The Hungaroring has been on the F1 calendar for 25 years. This particular race seemed about that long on it's own. When the F1U! staff is fast-forwarding through coverage, it's bad. THIS is how we go into F1's summer break? Great. Thrilling, I'm sure.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Mark Webber. To go 43 laps on a set of soft tires is impressive enough. To do so while turning fast lap after fast lap while opening an insurmountable lead is nearly miraculous. Yet that's exactly what the Red Bull driver accomplished on his way to becoming the season's first four-race winner. There must be some panic amongst the other teams at the moment.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. First-third and they take over the lead in the Constructor's Championship and Driver's Championship? Yeah, pretty darn good. Could have... should have... been better, with only Vettel's stupid maneuver after the Safety Car prevented them from sweeping the top two steps of the podium. If ever a team needed the summer break...
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Mark Webber wasn't the only one to stretch his tires; Rubens Barrichello did as well, running his hard tires for the first 60 laps. His luck on the worn rubber wasn't as good, though, and after he pitted he came out in 11th place, behind his old teammate, Slappy Schumacher. For four laps, Rubens harried Slappy until they came onto the front straight. Rubens pulled to the inside, and Slappy in his normal style decided to make it hard for him, despite his opponent being faster and on fresh tires. He began driving Rubens hard to the wall as the Brazilian pulled alongside. Barrichello's right tires got close to the concrete... very close... and then even closer than that. How close?
Yeah, about that close. Fortunately the wall ended before the Williams ended up grinding its starboard side down to the cockpit, and Barrichello made the pass cleanly, if angrily. He was heard on the radio demanding that Slappy be black-flagged. He wasn't, but he was given a 10 grid-spot penalty for the next race. We here at F1U think he should be flogged for such a dangerous stunt. We also think that Rubens Barrichello just won himself a Move of the Race.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: When the Safety Car came out, there was pandemonium in the pit lane, what with all the cars diving in to change tires. The first hint we got that something was wrong came when we got a camera shot of Adrian Sutil's Force India tangled up with Robert Kubica's Renault. And yes, Renault's lollypop man did release Kubica right into Sutil's path, but he had good reason to be distracted.
The Mercedes mechanics sent Nico Rosberg out without adequately tightening his right-rear tire, which came off at high velocity, rolled through the Sauber pitbox and into the Williams crew. At that point, it was "caught" by Nigel Hope, one of their mechanics. As Rosberg said later, "I was more worried about the (40-pound) tire than I was about Nige, one of my old Williams truck drivers. He's a big guy." Hope was taken to the medical station with bruised ribs. One Mooooooo-oove to the Mercedes guys!
*SELECTED QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
STRATEGERY: At the start, the RB6 of Seb Vettel pulled away from HWMNBN's Ferrari at a rate of one second per lap, and there was nothing anybody could do about it... until Heikki Kovaleinninninnie's Lotus lost a wing endplate. This wound up right in the center of the track, a hazard that brought out the Safety Car. Everybody dove for the pit lane except for Vettel's teammate Mark Webber, who inherited the lead. But then Vettel decided to give his teammate a gap as the Safety Car pulled in, holding up the field while Webber tagged right behind the SC... and earned himself a drive-through penalty in the process. Still, no worries for Vettel: he was substantially faster than everybody else but his teammate, and Webber would have to pit to get off his soft tires. Except when he did his drive-through, he came out behind HWMNBN's Ferrari, and Webber made his supposedly fragile soft tires last until Lap 43 while stretching his lead out to about 25 seconds. He stopped, changed tires and came out a few seconds ahead of second place. Race over, it was only a question of how far ahead Webber would be. The answer was almost 18 seconds, with Vettel third, unable to get around the Ferrari.
BORING: The Hungaroring has been on the F1 calendar for 25 years. This particular race seemed about that long on it's own. When the F1U! staff is fast-forwarding through coverage, it's bad. THIS is how we go into F1's summer break? Great. Thrilling, I'm sure.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Mark Webber. To go 43 laps on a set of soft tires is impressive enough. To do so while turning fast lap after fast lap while opening an insurmountable lead is nearly miraculous. Yet that's exactly what the Red Bull driver accomplished on his way to becoming the season's first four-race winner. There must be some panic amongst the other teams at the moment.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. First-third and they take over the lead in the Constructor's Championship and Driver's Championship? Yeah, pretty darn good. Could have... should have... been better, with only Vettel's stupid maneuver after the Safety Car prevented them from sweeping the top two steps of the podium. If ever a team needed the summer break...
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Mark Webber wasn't the only one to stretch his tires; Rubens Barrichello did as well, running his hard tires for the first 60 laps. His luck on the worn rubber wasn't as good, though, and after he pitted he came out in 11th place, behind his old teammate, Slappy Schumacher. For four laps, Rubens harried Slappy until they came onto the front straight. Rubens pulled to the inside, and Slappy in his normal style decided to make it hard for him, despite his opponent being faster and on fresh tires. He began driving Rubens hard to the wall as the Brazilian pulled alongside. Barrichello's right tires got close to the concrete... very close... and then even closer than that. How close?
Yeah, about that close. Fortunately the wall ended before the Williams ended up grinding its starboard side down to the cockpit, and Barrichello made the pass cleanly, if angrily. He was heard on the radio demanding that Slappy be black-flagged. He wasn't, but he was given a 10 grid-spot penalty for the next race. We here at F1U think he should be flogged for such a dangerous stunt. We also think that Rubens Barrichello just won himself a Move of the Race.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: When the Safety Car came out, there was pandemonium in the pit lane, what with all the cars diving in to change tires. The first hint we got that something was wrong came when we got a camera shot of Adrian Sutil's Force India tangled up with Robert Kubica's Renault. And yes, Renault's lollypop man did release Kubica right into Sutil's path, but he had good reason to be distracted.
The Mercedes mechanics sent Nico Rosberg out without adequately tightening his right-rear tire, which came off at high velocity, rolled through the Sauber pitbox and into the Williams crew. At that point, it was "caught" by Nigel Hope, one of their mechanics. As Rosberg said later, "I was more worried about the (40-pound) tire than I was about Nige, one of my old Williams truck drivers. He's a big guy." Hope was taken to the medical station with bruised ribs. One Mooooooo-oove to the Mercedes guys!
*SELECTED QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
04:42 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1260 words, total size 9 kb.
July 25, 2010
F1 Update!: Germany 2010
One year ago to the day, Felipe Massa was nearly killed by a freak incident. Today he was sitting third on the grid. But would it be a storybook ending, or would the Red Bull of Seb Vettel continue that team's near-dominance of the season? THIS is your F1 Update! for the Grand Prix of Germany!
*NEVER MIND: During Quals, the forecasters were saying that it was going to be raining at the start of the race. Well, it turns out that German weathermen aren't any better than those here in the US. Weather was not a factor, other than a few clouds that rolled in during the second half of the race. The clouds cooled the asphalt, lowering grip levels a touch. Otherwise? Nothing.
*LIGHTS OUT, UH-HUH: Sitting on pole, with the best car on the grid underneath him, on his home track (he grew up just a few kilometers away from Hockenheim), and knowing that he's one of the best drivers in F1 today, Seb Vettel surely was feeling confident as the red lights came on. Ferrari's HWMNBN, sitting second, was a threat that he couldn't take lightly, but if he drove his race and nothing went wrong with his car, he had an awfully good chance to win. When the red lights went out however, nothing went right. He had a lousy start, immediately allowing HWMNBN to get right up alongside him. Vettel tried to squeeze the Ferrari, drifting over to the right. HWMNBN stayed on the gas all the way and refused to let the Red Bull intimidate him, knowing that he had the inside line as they charged down to Turn 1. But Vettel's drift had an unintended side-effect: it opened nearly the entire track up for Felipe Massa, who took advantage. Through Turn 1, his Ferrari was almost two car lengths in the lead with his teammate in front of Vettel. To make matters worse for Red Bull, Mark Webber had to stand on the brakes to keep from plowing into the back of his teammate, letting McLaren's Lewis Hamilton get a great run, blowing past him in Parabolica. Farther back in the pack, Toro Rosso's NKOTT did plow into the back of his teammate Seb Buemi. The Swiss driver was out on the spot, while NKOTT's nose scattered a ton of debris across the track, debris that cut the tires on both Force India machines, sending them into the pits.
*AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS: And for the most part, that's the way it stayed. Mark Webber wound up dropping down to 6th after the pit stop rotations were over, losing a place to McLaren's Jenson Button, but the important positions remained the same: Massa, HWMNBN, Vettel, Hamilton. The two Ferrari drivers were fairly close, with Vettel about four seconds behind. HWMNBN got on the radio back to the Ferrari pit wall and began to whine about being faster than his teammate, saying things like "This is ridiculous." Shortly thereafter, Massa opened up a two second lead, giving the lie to the Spaniard's claims. But by Lap 45, the lead was down to less than a second and the Legendary Announce Team was talking about how there were no "team orders" allowed in F1.
*HISTORY LESSON: In 2002, Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was leading the Austrian Grand Prix late in the race, and by a decent margin, too. No question he was going to take the victory... except for one thing: his teammate, Slappy Schumacher, was in second. Ferrari, wanting to get Slappy maximum points for his run at the Driver's Championship, ordered Barrichello to let his teammate past... and made it quite clear that if he didn't, his seat would be in jeopardy. Barrichello did, but he did it in the most blatantly obvious way possible, slowing down precipitously as he approached the finish line. Slappy went past, and Barrichello came in second. The crowd booed, Schumi gave Rubens the winners trophy and insisted that he stand on the top step of the podium, and the FIA reacted by banning "team orders." From then on, teammates were to race each other regardless of standing, and teams could not manipulate results.
*BUT: Of course team orders still exist, teams are just more subtle about it. It might be something like one car's pit stop taking a second longer than the other, but ridiculous maneuvers like that in Austria wouldn't happen again. But with HWMNBN under a second behind Massa, Ferrari got on the radio and said "(HWMNBN) is faster than you. Can you confirm that you understood that message?" We never heard the response from the Brazilian, but on Lap 49 it became clear that Massa got it. Coming off a turn, Massa just never got back on the throttle and HWMNBN swept past him like he was standing still. Ferrari claimed after the race that "Massa made a small mistake when (he) shifted up three gears at once," but that's nothing more than a flat-out lie. Ferrari shamelessly violated the ban against team orders. If HWMNBN really was faster than Massa and as good as he's supposed to be behind the wheel, he shouldn't've needed team orders.
*FINALLY: And that's the way it ended, with HWMNBN winning his second race of the season, Felipe Massa in second, and hometown hero Seb Vettel in third, kicking himself for lost opportunities. After the race, the stewards fined Ferrari $100000 for violating Article 39.1 of the Sporting Regulations, and forwarded the matter to the World Motor Sport Council for further penalties.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Felipe Massa. We'll never know if he could have held HWMNBN behind him for 12 laps, but he still drove a helluva race today. His start was a thing of beauty and he made very very few mistakes out there... the only major mistake was driving on the same team as HWMNBN.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren. Yes, neither Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button were on the podium, but they just didn't have the grunt to stay with the Ferraris or the Red Bull of Seb Vettel. Fourth and fifth were about the best they could have hoped for, and that's what they got. And they didn't have to cheat to do it.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: There wasn't one. If we lift the rule stating that the MotR can't come on the first lap though, Felipe Massa's run to Turn 1 and into the lead from third on the grid would win.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: You may remember that the two Toro Rossos got into each other, an incident that scattered carbon fiber across the track, resulting in punctures to both Force Indias. That's where our story begins. It took quite a bit of time for Adrian Sutil to limp his car around to the pit lane but when he came to a stop in his box, it seemed like the mechanics were not ready for him. A ton of frantically disorganized activity got him in and out in a halfway decent time, but it wasn't pretty. As Sutil pulled out, his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi pulled into the pit lane to get new tires. Again, the team looked disorganized. And then something weird happened... Adrian Sutil turned one lap and returned to the pit lane for another tire change. It was only then that it became clear just how disorganized Force India had been: they had sent him out with three hard tires and one soft! A few moments later, Liuzzi came back into the pits... and he had on three soft tires and one hard! It's hard to believe, but they screwed up BOTH cars in the exact same manner. Bravo, Farce India, you truly deserve this MOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*NEVER MIND: During Quals, the forecasters were saying that it was going to be raining at the start of the race. Well, it turns out that German weathermen aren't any better than those here in the US. Weather was not a factor, other than a few clouds that rolled in during the second half of the race. The clouds cooled the asphalt, lowering grip levels a touch. Otherwise? Nothing.
*LIGHTS OUT, UH-HUH: Sitting on pole, with the best car on the grid underneath him, on his home track (he grew up just a few kilometers away from Hockenheim), and knowing that he's one of the best drivers in F1 today, Seb Vettel surely was feeling confident as the red lights came on. Ferrari's HWMNBN, sitting second, was a threat that he couldn't take lightly, but if he drove his race and nothing went wrong with his car, he had an awfully good chance to win. When the red lights went out however, nothing went right. He had a lousy start, immediately allowing HWMNBN to get right up alongside him. Vettel tried to squeeze the Ferrari, drifting over to the right. HWMNBN stayed on the gas all the way and refused to let the Red Bull intimidate him, knowing that he had the inside line as they charged down to Turn 1. But Vettel's drift had an unintended side-effect: it opened nearly the entire track up for Felipe Massa, who took advantage. Through Turn 1, his Ferrari was almost two car lengths in the lead with his teammate in front of Vettel. To make matters worse for Red Bull, Mark Webber had to stand on the brakes to keep from plowing into the back of his teammate, letting McLaren's Lewis Hamilton get a great run, blowing past him in Parabolica. Farther back in the pack, Toro Rosso's NKOTT did plow into the back of his teammate Seb Buemi. The Swiss driver was out on the spot, while NKOTT's nose scattered a ton of debris across the track, debris that cut the tires on both Force India machines, sending them into the pits.
*AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS: And for the most part, that's the way it stayed. Mark Webber wound up dropping down to 6th after the pit stop rotations were over, losing a place to McLaren's Jenson Button, but the important positions remained the same: Massa, HWMNBN, Vettel, Hamilton. The two Ferrari drivers were fairly close, with Vettel about four seconds behind. HWMNBN got on the radio back to the Ferrari pit wall and began to whine about being faster than his teammate, saying things like "This is ridiculous." Shortly thereafter, Massa opened up a two second lead, giving the lie to the Spaniard's claims. But by Lap 45, the lead was down to less than a second and the Legendary Announce Team was talking about how there were no "team orders" allowed in F1.
*HISTORY LESSON: In 2002, Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was leading the Austrian Grand Prix late in the race, and by a decent margin, too. No question he was going to take the victory... except for one thing: his teammate, Slappy Schumacher, was in second. Ferrari, wanting to get Slappy maximum points for his run at the Driver's Championship, ordered Barrichello to let his teammate past... and made it quite clear that if he didn't, his seat would be in jeopardy. Barrichello did, but he did it in the most blatantly obvious way possible, slowing down precipitously as he approached the finish line. Slappy went past, and Barrichello came in second. The crowd booed, Schumi gave Rubens the winners trophy and insisted that he stand on the top step of the podium, and the FIA reacted by banning "team orders." From then on, teammates were to race each other regardless of standing, and teams could not manipulate results.
*BUT: Of course team orders still exist, teams are just more subtle about it. It might be something like one car's pit stop taking a second longer than the other, but ridiculous maneuvers like that in Austria wouldn't happen again. But with HWMNBN under a second behind Massa, Ferrari got on the radio and said "(HWMNBN) is faster than you. Can you confirm that you understood that message?" We never heard the response from the Brazilian, but on Lap 49 it became clear that Massa got it. Coming off a turn, Massa just never got back on the throttle and HWMNBN swept past him like he was standing still. Ferrari claimed after the race that "Massa made a small mistake when (he) shifted up three gears at once," but that's nothing more than a flat-out lie. Ferrari shamelessly violated the ban against team orders. If HWMNBN really was faster than Massa and as good as he's supposed to be behind the wheel, he shouldn't've needed team orders.
*FINALLY: And that's the way it ended, with HWMNBN winning his second race of the season, Felipe Massa in second, and hometown hero Seb Vettel in third, kicking himself for lost opportunities. After the race, the stewards fined Ferrari $100000 for violating Article 39.1 of the Sporting Regulations, and forwarded the matter to the World Motor Sport Council for further penalties.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Felipe Massa. We'll never know if he could have held HWMNBN behind him for 12 laps, but he still drove a helluva race today. His start was a thing of beauty and he made very very few mistakes out there... the only major mistake was driving on the same team as HWMNBN.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: McLaren. Yes, neither Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button were on the podium, but they just didn't have the grunt to stay with the Ferraris or the Red Bull of Seb Vettel. Fourth and fifth were about the best they could have hoped for, and that's what they got. And they didn't have to cheat to do it.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: There wasn't one. If we lift the rule stating that the MotR can't come on the first lap though, Felipe Massa's run to Turn 1 and into the lead from third on the grid would win.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: You may remember that the two Toro Rossos got into each other, an incident that scattered carbon fiber across the track, resulting in punctures to both Force Indias. That's where our story begins. It took quite a bit of time for Adrian Sutil to limp his car around to the pit lane but when he came to a stop in his box, it seemed like the mechanics were not ready for him. A ton of frantically disorganized activity got him in and out in a halfway decent time, but it wasn't pretty. As Sutil pulled out, his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi pulled into the pit lane to get new tires. Again, the team looked disorganized. And then something weird happened... Adrian Sutil turned one lap and returned to the pit lane for another tire change. It was only then that it became clear just how disorganized Force India had been: they had sent him out with three hard tires and one soft! A few moments later, Liuzzi came back into the pits... and he had on three soft tires and one hard! It's hard to believe, but they screwed up BOTH cars in the exact same manner. Bravo, Farce India, you truly deserve this MOOOOOOOOO-OOOVE!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
02:11 PM
| Comments (10)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1540 words, total size 10 kb.
273kb generated in CPU 0.5661, elapsed 0.7239 seconds.
64 queries taking 0.5968 seconds, 329 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
64 queries taking 0.5968 seconds, 329 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
