Prac Three: Sutil does it again for Force India

Saturday 12th September 2009

There seems to be no stopping Adrian Sutil this weekend in Italy as the Force India driver finished his second successive session quickest of all.

Force India came to the fore at the previous race in Belgium where Giancarlo Fisichella finished on the podium. But with Fisi having left the team it's been up to Sutil to continue the attack, which the German has done with gusto.

Sutil set the fastest time in Saturday's final practice where not only was he quicker than Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld on the softer option tyres through the final five minutes but he also had the measure of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren when Hamilton was on softs and Sutil was on the harder tyres.

As for Fisichella, he crashed his Ferrari F60 at the turn in to Parabolica and finished at the very bottom of the timesheets.

Report: Sunny skies and hot temperatures greeted the drivers at the start of the final practice session for the Italian GP. Tonio Liuzzi and Sebastien Buemi got proceedings underway as the field ventured out for their standard installation laps before returning to the pits.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Jaime Alguersuari headed out for the first timed laps of the morning, joined by Buemi, who is using a new engine, and Liuzzi. Fisichella crossed the line with a 1:28.402, taking 1.3s off his time on his second lap. Buemi, Luizzi and Alguersuari lined up behind the Ferrari driver. Liuzzi improved to first place with a 1:26.268 while Kimi Raikkonen took second place. Nico Rosberg went sixth. Liuzzi continued lapping and dropped the benchmark to a 1:25.332. Buemi went second and Adrian Sutil fourth. Raikkonen returned to the P1 slot with a 1:25.309.

Lewis Hamilton was the next to lead the way as the McLaren driver clocked a 1:25.180 on his very first flying lap. Impressive pace from the MP4-24. His team-mate Heikki Kovalainen went sixth ahead of Alguersuari and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton improved his time with Kovalainen jumping up to second behind him. The duo, though, were soon split by the arrival of Timo Glock into second place. Sutil moved into fourth.

The yellow flags came out when 27 minutes into the session, Fisichella crashed his Ferrari F60. The Italian, who is making his debut for the Italian marque, wasn't able to stop the car heading into the Parabolica, which sent him on a trip over the gravel and into the barriers. Fisichella claimed unaided from the car and trudged back to the Ferrari garages.

With the flags lifted Fernando Alonso was quick to pounce as he took third place while his team-mate Romain Grosjean went sixth ahead of Jenson Button and Kazuki Nakajima.

Mark Webber finally ventured out with 26 minutes remaining in teh session. Red Bull are limiting their drivers' running due to the fact that both are running out of fresh engines. The Aussie, though, was slowest of all with his team-mate Sebastian Vettel P19.

Strapping on the softer tyres, Hamilton improved his benchmark time to a 1:23.929, however, he was soon cut down by Sutil, who despite using the harder option tyres took second place, just 0.179s behind the World Champion. Sutil continued lapping and took the P1 slot off Hamilton with a 1:23.735. And all this on the harder tyres!

Button climbed to fifth place and then third as he too lapped the Monza track with the harder tyres - and no KERS. Liuzzi took seventh, then sixth and Raikkonen eighth. Vettel improved to 18th place and Webber 16th, leaving Trulli and the crashed Fisichella at the bottom of the timesheets.

Grosjean put his Renault into a impressive slide but managed to get back on track. A few minutes later he was off again and onto the gravel, leaping over the grass before heading back to the Renault pits.

With five minutes remaining, the drivers ventured out for their final runs. Kovalainenn moved up to fourth, Barrichello fifth, Liuzzi sixth, Trulli eighth, Sutil improved his benchmark time, Barrichello second, Alonso third, Kovalainen second, Button took first with a 1:23.404, Sutil quickest with a 1:23.336, Hamilton third and Heidfeld third.

Times
01 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:23.336 21 laps
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:23.404 21 laps
03 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:23.490 18 laps
04 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:23.575 20 laps
05 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:23.633 18 laps
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:23.803 20 laps
07 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 1:23.849 21 laps
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:23.915 17 laps
09 T. Glock Toyota 1:23.959 21 laps
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:23.996 18 laps
11 R. Grosjean Renault 1:24.197 15 laps
12 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:24.302 20 laps
13 J. Trulli Toyota 1:24.326 17 laps
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:24.392 20 laps
15 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24.572 23 laps
16 N. Rosberg Williams 1:24.621 21 laps
17 M. Webber Red Bull 1:25.154 13 laps
18 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:25.244 16 laps
19 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:25.791 10 laps
20 G. Fisichella Ferrari 1:25.951 10 laps

Source : Planet F1

Fisichella takes shock pole at Spa

Giancarlo Fisichella took an historic and surprising first pole position for Force India in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

The 36-year-old Italian veteran took his fourth career pole in an extraordinary session, though the car had looked quick through the weekend.

Fisichella - linked to replace Luca Badoer at Ferrari for Monza – kept up the tradition of old-timers following Rubens Barrichello's European GP triumph to set a time of 1m46.308s that could not be matched by Jarno Trulli's Toyota or Nick Heidfeld's third-placed BMW.

Barrichello was the top 'front-runner' in fourth position. The Brazilian is well-placed to make up ground on the championship leader and team-mate Jenson Button, who failed to make it out of Q2.

Robert Kubica was fifth fastest in the second BMW, having briefly occupied a front row slot until the final shakedown in the last minute of the session.

The Pole will start just in front of Kimi Raikkonen, who was sixth ahead of Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg, who did well to wrestle the Williams into the top ten.

Several of the big names were knocked out in a curious Q2 session.

Trulli set the early pace in Q2 with an incredible 1m44.865s in the Toyota. He then lowered that to an even more amazing 1m44.766s.

That was good enough for much of the session, until Fisichella thumped in a 1m44.667s in the final moments. But even that was not the fastest time as Trulli managed a 1m44.503s to take the top place back again.

Then Kubica and Vettel pushed the Force India back to fourth.

All this action at the front contributed to those famous names being knocked out of Q3 – Lewis Hamilton ending up 12th, Fernando Alonso 13th and Button 14th. The Brawn driver in particular was perplexed to have been unable to match Barrichello, who of course did make it through in sixth.

Fisichella had already impressed in Q1, setting the fastest time, 0.38s faster than Trulli's Toyota.

Barrichello meanwhile was third in the opening segment of qualifying, despite running off the track at Fagnes early on, ahead of the second Force of India Sutil and the Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel.

Alonso only made it into Q2 by the skin of his teeth, having ruined his best lap after running wide on the exit of Fagnes.

Button and Hamilton also only just made it through too, in 14th and 15th positions.

Luca Badoer, who needed to find 0.5s on his final run – having set a personal best of 1m46.957s – crashed at Les Combes after going wide on the entry on his final attempt. It rendered him last on the grid.

Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Kazuki Nakajima and Romain Grosjean all also failed to make it beyond the opening 20 minutes.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      
1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308
2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395
3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500
4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513
5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586
6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633
7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677
8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761
9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122
13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

Source : Autosport

Qualy: Hamilton leads all-McLaren front row

Saturday 22nd August 2009

Lewis Hamilton continued McLaren's resurgence, claiming pole position for the European GP after outpacing his team-mate by 0.034s.

The Brit, coming to Valencia off the back of his Hungarian GP win, crossed the line with a 1:39.498 and appeared to have the pace to better that before opting instead to pit having already secured the coveted grid slot.

Heikki Kovalainen, who is use the old McLaren chassis that is reported two-tenths slower than the shorter wheel-based chassing being used by Hamilton, finished in second place, 0.034s behind his team-mate.

Rubens Barrichello claimed third place for Brawn GP, also less than a tenth off Hamilton's time while Sebastian Vettel qualified fourth and, importantly, ahead of Championship leader Jenson Button.

Kimi Raikkonen was next in line, P6 for Ferrari, with Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso completing the top eight.

Meanwhile, Luca Badoer's first qualifying session in a decade didn't go according to plan as the Ferrari test driver finished P20, almost three seconds off the pace.

Full report to follow...

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39.498
02 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.532
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:39.563
04 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:39.789
05 J. Button Brawn GP 1:39.821
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.144
07 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.185
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:40.236
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:40.239
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:40.512
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:38.826
12 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:38.846
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:38.991
14 R. Grosjean Renault 1:39.040
15 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:39.514
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:39.531
17 K. Nakajima Williams 1:39.795
18 J. Trulli Toyota 1:39.807
19 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:39.925
20 L. Badoer Ferrari 1:41.413

Source : Planet F1

European Grand Prix Preview

Cut the elevator music, it's time to go racing again. The summer break is over, but thanks to the incident-packed Hungarian Grand Prix, we haven't had four weeks of tumbleweed blowing through the F1 news.

There's little doubt that Renault wouldn't have been facing the ludicrous penalty of a one-race ban had Massa not made connection with Rubens Barrichello's flukily bouncing rear spring on the Saturday of the last GP weekend.

Pit-stops cock-ups happen all the time, but it takes the mind of a Machiavelli to think that Renault might have deliberately sent Alonso back onto the track knowing that he would lose a wheel.

Thankfully common sense has now prevailed and the Renault team are allowed to race in Valencia, but it took an act of blatant stupidity to impose such an inappropriate penalty in the first place. Presumably FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting will now face similar charges for failing to black flag Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari after he drove round with a flailing exhaust chimney at the French GP in 2008.

The excitement at the prospect of seeing Schumi race again, in Massa's stead, was very real while it lasted. Presumably the former World Champion wanted to drive the current machinery to check out whether his 'secretly fractured' neck would stand up to the strain. When various teams - including Williams, who owe him at least one pie in the face - vetoed a ride in an F60 he must have calculated that the risk of failure was too great.

In his place Luca Badoer will face a tough test at a circuit he doesn't know, in one of the few Ferraris he's had little time in. Certainly the car that he'll be presented with on Friday will be a quantum leap forward from the one he drove in pre-season testing.

It wouldn't be a surpise to see Kimi Raikkonen put a whole second between himself and the Massa replacement. Ferrari are in a bit of a dilemma right now. There are stories doing the rounds that Raikkonen is going to be offered a lot of money not to race for them in 2010 so they can bring Alonso on board.

What they can't know is how Felipe Massa will react to his big accident. Williams' Patrick Head is fond of the theory that after drivers have experienced major accidents they are never quite as fast again. Amongst those he cites are Ralf Schumacher who had a big testing accident at Monza while he was with Williams.

It hasn't seem to have deterred Robert Kubica after his titanic shunt in Canada in 2007, but Patrick's seen enough drivers to know what he's talking about. Ferrari will have to make a decision about 2010 before they can know the true state of Massa's recovery.

Back at the World Championship Brawn should have had enough time to analyse the data from Hungary and work out why they weren't fast on a hot track that was supposed to favour them. Button is good on street circuits and if he can nudge his Brawn in front of the two Red Bulls in Valencia and the following race at Spa, which is a track at which he excels, then he can start to feel less nervous.

The good news for Jense is that Mclaren are looking good for back-to-back wins, with Hamilton supremely strong at the Hungaroring and Kovalainen being given the hurry up from the team. Raikkonen is also looking quick and on home soil Alonso rarely disappoints.

So if all that lot are in front of the Brawn GP cars and the Red Bulls, then Button will not be at all worried. If Red Bull are in front, but Brawn are behind, then it's very bad news indeed. Team orders are an easy call for the Brawn team but for Red Bull any intervention is still a long way off.

With a fine win in Hungary and yet more swanky new parts for the McLaren, Lewis Hamilton will be looking to make it two wins on the trot at the European GP. What's more, he and Raikkonen have the advantage of the KERS boost button which they both used to their advantage on the similarly tight confines of Budapest. Ferrari and McLaren may have given up their Championship-winning ambitions, but they'd both like to finish third in the Constructors' title.

Williams will also be looking to join in the fun and demote either the Red Bulls, or more likely the Brawns down the order, while Toyota will be struggling to hold back the tide of Ferrari and McLaren development and retain fourth in the Constructors'.

Both Fisi and Adrian Sutil are good on street circuits and Sutil in particular will be pitching in there for Force India's first points. Surely his luck has to turn sooner or later. After all, Mark Webber's did.

Romain Grosjean will be making his debut for Renault and all eyes will be on him to see if he can close the gap between the two Renauts. This is probably not the race to do it, though. Don't expect an exhilarating overtaking fest from the dock side - sorry, harbourside - circuit of Valencia, but whatever happens, there will be some significant action.

Source : Planet F1

How McLaren turned a dog into a winner

It's quite surprising and exciting that McLaren have managed to fix the problems with their car, the MP4-24 turning it essentially from trash to cash. It not only improved but won the race in Hungary outright. It's fast, sticks in corners and is as reliable as ever. How did they do it? Well, head on to Youtube to find out more here.

Hungarian GP Report: Hamilton Returns To The Top

Sunday 26th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton claimed his first grand prix victory of the season in Hungary as McLaren put their early season woes behind them to return to winning ways.

Starting from fourth on the grid, the defending World Champion put his KERS to good use, easily sliding his way past his rivals and up into second place by the end of the first lap.

From there it was just a case of chasing down Fernando Alonso, which he easily did, taking the lead as the Spaniard pitted.

Alonso's pit stop, though, proved to be the Renault driver's downfall as his front right wasn't secured properly and came off on his out-lap.

With the wheel hurtling across the track, F1 proved for the second time this weekend that its safety standards still need to be improved. The damage from driving back to the pits on three wheels resulted in Alonso retiring on the next lap.

Meanwhile, with Hamilton pulling away from the chasing pack, it was left to Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber to settle the podium with the Ferrari driver taking second place off the Australia.

However, in yet another strange occurrence of the weekend, Raikkonen could lose his eight points as he will be investigated by the race stewards after the race for his incident with Sebastian Vettel at the very start of the race. So what were the stewards doing for 69 3/4 laps?

Nico Rosberg put in yet another solid performance for Williams, coming home in fourth place ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock. Jenson Button could only manage seventh place with Jarno Trulli completing the points.

Full report to follow...

Results
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:38:23.876
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 11.529
03 M. Webber Red Bull + 16.886
04 N. Rosberg Williams + 26.967
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 34.392
06 T. Glock Toyota + 35.237
07 J. Button Brawn GP + 55.088
08 J. Trulli Toyota + 1:08.172
09 K. Nakajima Williams + 1:08.774
10 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 1:09.256
11 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:10.600
12 N.Piquet Renault + 1:11.500
13 R. Kubica BMW + 1:14.000
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 1 laps
15 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
16 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
Did not finish
17 S. Vettel Red Bull + 41 laps
18 F. Alonso Renault + 55 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 69 laps

Source : Planet F1

LEWIS WINS IN HUNGARY

Finally, a race worth watching. And what a race. The supposedly boring Hungarian GP turned otherwise. Alonso who was on pole and looked to have at least been on the podium ended up DNF because of a loose wheel which came off flying in a dramatic way.

Sebastien Vettel also retired due to a problem with his car and Mark Webber really didn't have the pace although he did end up 3rd. Rosberg quietly finished in 4th and Kovalainnen got some more points for McLaren in 5th. He really is no match for Lewis even with the same car.

The 2 Toyotas were surprising finishing 6th and 8th after a poor practice and qualifying. The Brawns seems to have lost some steam with Button 7th and Barrichello 10th. Looks like Rubens won't be racing next year.

The race was watchable, I'd definitely watch it again. The start was nail biting, there were some overtaking moments and McLaren are back.

F1 News - Prac Two: Hamilton steals Vettel's thunder

Friday 10th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton stole Sebastian Vettel's thunder in Friday's second practice in Germany, beating the local favourite to the P1 slot.

Hamilton, who has had a miserable season with McLaren to date, showed some signs of promise as he crossed the line with a 1:32.149, edging Vettel by 0.182s.

Third place went to Brawn GP's Jenson Button, who wasn't far off the pace, just 0.2s behind his fellow Brit.

Report: With the track temperature up to 20'C and thick cloud cover overhead, Sebastian Vettel got proceedings underway in the weekend's second practice session. The German, who stopped out on track due to a loose electrical connector in Practice One, led out a string of cars as the drivers set about covering their installation laps. Vettel, though, almost came together with Seb Bourdais as he dived down the inside, looking to start the first timed lap of the afternoon.

Vettel clocked a 1:37.646 but was quickly overhauled by fellow German Timo Glock. Glock too lost out as his team-mate Jarno Trulli went quickest with a 1:37.180. Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Seb Buemi queued up behind them on the timesheets. Vettel returned to the P1 slot, posting a 1:35.577 as the first few drops of rain began to fall. Glock improved to second place ahead of Trulli, Kubica and Buemi.

Giancarlo Fisichella was the first to fall foul of the wet weather as the Roman put his car onto the wet white paint, which put him into a slide that ended with his Force India making contact with a barrier at the Michelin Kurve. Game over for Fisichella.

After a brief rain break the drivers returned to the track with Nico Rosberg taking eighth place on his first timed lap of the afternoon. The German moved up to second place on his next lap before being dropped as Heikki Kovalainen went quickest, the first driver to use the super softs. He did a 1:34.906 only to take more than a second off his time on his second timed lap.

With all the drivers out on track, excluding Kovalainen, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, the timesheets continued to change with Kazuki Nakajima taking second place ahead of Rosberg before Rosberg moved ahead and Massa slotted in between the Williams pairing. Fernando Alonso went fifth ahead of his team-mate Nelson Piquet but that too changed when Trulli put his Toyota into third place.

Nick Heidfeld was the next to take the P1 slot only to lose out to Mark Webber seconds later. Jenson Button went fourth and Alonso fifth. Vettel had problems going into Turn 1, forcing him onto the run-off area as he overshot the braking point. The German later moved up to fourth place, moments after Button took third.

Raikkonen improved from the bottom of the timesheets to fifth place while Hamilton moved up to ninth. The McLaren driver continued his climb up the order taking sixth place behind Glock. Glock's team-mate Trulli also upped his pace, going second quickest with Nakajima third.

The order of play changed as Button took control, going quickest with a 1:32.369, putting him 0.2s ahead of Webber while Adrian Sutil put in another stellar performance to take third place. Trulli improved to second place, 0.142s behind Button. Barrichello slotted into fifth place, finishing finding a similar sort of pace to his pace-setting team-mate's.

Hamilton was the next to put in a charge as he moved up to second place, just 0.044s behind Button before the two Brits were dropped by Vettel's climb up the order. He went quickest with a 1:32.342.

The final few minutes saw a mad rush from the 19 drivers remaining in the session with Hamilton taking the P1 slot and although Vettel closed the gap, he wasn't able to overhaul the McLaren man.

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.149 23 laps
02 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:32.331 31 laps
03 J. Button Brawn GP 1:32.369 32 laps
04 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.480 28 laps
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:32.511 32 laps
06 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:32.585 32 laps
07 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:32.664 26 laps
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:32.774 24 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:32.872 32 laps
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:32.992 29 laps
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:33.012 36 laps
12 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.052 34 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:33.128 34 laps
14 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.161 28 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:33.172 34 laps
16 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.182 29 laps
17 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.724 27 laps
18 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.903 30 laps
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.025 30 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:38.877 3 laps

Source : Planet F1

Lewis refuses to blame Sutil for dismal qualy

Saturday 20th June 2009

Lewis Hamilton is refusing to proclaim that he would have been on pole if it hadn't been for Adrian Sutil crash forcing him out of Q1 at Silverstone.

The McLaren driver, who was languishing down in 19th, was on a flying lap when Sutil crashed his Force India into the barriers at the Abbey chicane during Q1.

Because of the severity of the accident the session was red flag and the 24s remaining on the clock did not leave Hamilton - or anyone else - with enough time to put in an out lap and a flying lap.

Thus he dropped out of qualifying and will start P19 on the grid for his home race.

"I did the best I could today," said Hamilton. "I was pushing as hard as I could but our car is too slow. I gave it my all and there wasn't really much more I could have got from the car."

He also refused to blame Sutil's accident for his disappointing qualifying.

"I was pushing on that final lap - but it was nothing special. However, we live to fight another day and anything can happen in the race tomorrow.

"We'll keep pushing on and hopefully put on a good show for all the fans. The great thing is that I've had incredible support these past few days from the fans - they're the ones who are really helping me to get through it, so a big thank-you to all of them."

Meanwhile, team boss Martin Whitmarsh was left to lament Hamilton's lack of luck: "Lewis was a little unlucky to have his final quick-lap cut short by Sutil's accident.

"Today's result is not a surprise, but it demonstrates that we still have work to do to address MP4-24's weaknesses in high-speed corners.

"Nonetheless, we're already fully focused on the race tomorrow and mindful that we could still produce a strong result in front of the many thousands of passionate fans who will be cheering us on."

Source : Planet F1

IT'S THE CAR, STUPID!

I'm going to attempt to explain one of the most intriguing and least understood aspects of F1 racing, which some people may understand, some will not and some others don't care. I'm not very technically adept nor have I been watching F1 for 20 years. I am very interested in the goings on in F1 and try my best to read up on any material that I can get my hands on, plus I try to have discussions with like minded people as much as possible.

There have been many arguments lately about drivers and their ability to drive a modern F1 car to the limit and perform seemingly incredible and heroic feats on the track. So much so that fans of certain drivers or teams have become fanatics who cannot see any wrong in their heroes no matter what. They also always see wrong in other drivers and teams and always find excuses to run them down.

I have been following F1 since the Senna days but only started being a fanatic the season before Lewis Hamilton joined i.e. 2006. That's because I was part of a group of people offering F1 simulators for corporate rental. We developed the simulators ourselves and used the official F1 game at the time - F1 Challenge 99-02 with the requisite mods to simulate the current seasons.

A simulator or simulation is different from a game, so F1 Challenge is not the same at F1 2006 on the PS2. With a simulator you have total control over the car i.e. you can change almost all the settings like the real car and the tracks dimensions are actual i.e. they were mapped based on the real tracks. Plus the physics employed were real too, you can't just turn the wheel in a corner and let the car drive itself. You have to continuously adjust to get the perfect line, if not you'll lose vital tenths.

Playing around with this simulator gave me an insight into the intricacies, detail and difficulty of F1 I never realized before. It is so difficult to even improve on 1/1000th of a second if the car setup is not right, your reflexes are not right and the other conditions are not right. But when all the conditions are right, it seems like you are just gliding on water, everything is just smooth. You can telegraph your thoughts to the car and it will almost drive itself and produce a stunning lap time.

It is this "talent" for the driver to be able to dial in into the car that impresses us and makes us look at them as gods. But there are days when even they can't "dial-in" and sometimes the car just doesn't want to cooperate. When the car is designed in such a way that it is difficult to set-up or doesn't flow with the driver's style, it will produce an excuse for fans to ridicule those drivers or teams that they don't support.

I have noticed that these seasonal issues crop up when something changes - either driver or rules change. For example, why is it suddenly that Jenson Button is winning every race in sight when the last 2 years he was sucking exhaust fumes at the back? And why is it that Lewis Hamilton can't even make it into Q2 of qualifying when the last 2 years he was defying the laws of physics to push the car around the track to win? Luck? A bit but I don't think so.

It's the car, stupid! Yes the car. Think Schumacher was a racing god? Sorry to deflate your pride there but it was the car. On our simulator when we want to set the best times on most tracks, we always use the Ferrari F2004. That was the fastest car of that year and maybe the best of the batch in which Schumacher won his 5 world titles.

How can Button win 6 out of 7 races this year so easily and serenely? It's like he's cruising around to victory everytime. The Brawn car had the benefit of 15 months of development as Honda decided to scrap development on the 2008 car and concentrate on this year. They had lots of time to look at the new regulations and think of solutions. It's not just the double diffuser, if it was just that, how come Red Bull were so competitive from day one without a double diffuser?

Plus Brawn had all the resources of Honda to develop the car - a lot of cash, 2 wind tunnels, CFDs, the lot. The car now is powerful (courtesy of the Mercedes engine), aerodynamically almost perfect, technically sound, smooth to drive, easy on the tires and well balanced. With a car like that, any driver on the current grid can become world champion. At least 50% of the equation in winning a race is the car. With the right car even Nelson Piquet Jr could become champion.

So ultimately, all F1 drivers are good, if not they wouldn't be there driving F1 cars. Their main limitation is the car that is available to them. All other issues could be ironed out with the team and resources available.

THE STATE OF MCLAREN

Currently the state of McLaren is not good and it does not look good either for the rest of the season. The car is not performing at low, medium or high downforce tracks, in short it is not performing at all.

The last few races we could see that Lewis is doing everything he can to wring out every inch of performance from the car and Heikki too but somehow when it matters most i.e. during qualifying and the race, it lets them down. The back is so twitchy that on-board footage of Lewis or Heikki driving it looks like a wrestling match between the driver and machine.

I said it weeks ago that McLaren should forget about this season and concentrate on next year. They need to put resources where it matters as this season is too late for them. Brawn GP and Jenson Button has run away with the championship. It's a battle between Brawn and Red Bull. Now even Lewis has admitted it to the world.

And talking about his despair, it is revealed clearly this year that not only does the driver matter but the car is ultra important. Yes Lewis arrived in 2007 at the wheel of a good car and he was lucky but he is also a good driver as he beat a 2 time world champion in the same equipment. The same cannot be said of Nelson Piquet as we can see at Renault this year. That also shows how important the car is as Alonso being the good driver he is, is still unable to match the Brawns or Red Bulls.

This is a good lesson for Lewis and McLaren. I suggest they put their heads down and work on next years' car. Heikki might not survive to next year, so Lewis' teamate might be Rosberg which I prefer. That would be interesting.

As for todays' race, it would be a straigh fight between the Brawns and Red Bulls. I'm rooting for Vettel, hopefully he can pul the cat out from the bag. The Red Bull car is a solid piece of engineering - fast, well balanced and reliable, just the tools one needs to win races. The Brawns are also fast, well balanced and reliable so this should be a good show.

Alvin

TURKISH GP 2009 RESULTS

To be honest, I was expecting a more interesting race than what transpired. Three reasons why I didn't enjoy the race at all.

Number one - which is obvious to people who know me - because McLaren and specifically Lewis Hamilton had no chance at all of scoring any points. And I was right about that, plus the fact that the TV director hardly focused on Lewis or Heikki at all.

Number two is because my other choice of winner - Sebastien Vettel, made a mistake early on in Lap 1 whereby he let Jensen Button overtake him after making a mistake and almost running himself off the track. All that after he stole pole from Button yesterday. The race could have been his but he lost it at the start.

Number three - Jensen Button winning again. As he himself said it, he has become a "right boring bastard". The races nowadays are just that - boring. It reminds me of the Schumacher and Ross Brawn era when Schumacher won 17 out of 18 races. What's the point of watching.

Othe than that, it was good to see at least 1 Brawn car slip to the back and not scoring points when Barichello had his anti-stall kick in at the start and demoting him to 13th then later he just retired. Reason unknown at this time.

All said and done, Red Bull were a serious threat to Brawn GP if only they had not made the little mistakes they did. Imagine if they had Ross on their pitwall.

Alvin.

Prac Two: Heikki sets the pace for McLaren

Friday 5th June 2009

Heikki Kovalainen showed massive signs of improvement in Turkey on Friday as the McLaren driver topped the timesheets, albeit by only 0.006s over Fernando Alonso.

Kovalainen hit the front of the timesheets prior to the halfway stage of the session and quickly set about extending his lead over the chasing pack. And although Alonso put in a late charge, the Spaniard found himself 0.006s off the pace.

Robert Kubica went someway towards putting his Monaco disaster behind him as the Polish driver finished in the third place.

However, it must be noted that all the drivers up and including Nick Heidfeld in 16th place were separated by just 0.7s.

Report: Friday's second practice got underway with the track temperature already sitting at a very warm 43'C and cloud cover building over the circuit. Seb Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg were the first drivers out on track with Buemi and Rosberg both staying out for a second lap. Buemi crossed the line with a 1:38.417 which was easily beaten moments later by Rosberg, who took 7.8s off the Toro Rosso driver's time.

Nelson Piquet soon overhauled them both while Nakajima went third quickest ahead of Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock and Giancarlo Fisichella. Heikki Kovalainen was next into the P1 slot before Piquet returned to take it off him by 0.039s.

Rosberg became the first driver to take to the run-off area as he went wide at Turn 1. Kovalainen edged Piquet to hit the front of the pack but was soon beaten by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton while Robert Kubica went third ahead of Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso and Piquet slotted in second and third quickest while Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were eighth and 12th.

Jarno Trulli improved to second place, 0.033s off Hamilton's pace with Mark Webber taking P4. Kovalainen joins the list of those struggling to stay on track but goes on to take third place on his very next lap. Kovalainen was the next to go P1 with Nakajima slotting in behind him.

Sebastian Vettel's running was brought to an early end when the Red Bull racer's RB5 came to a halt on the side of the track at Turn 2. The German was third quickest when he stopped.

Hamilton put his car into an impressive slide as the McLaren driver lost control coming out of Turn 1. Three laps later, using the softer rubber, the Brit put his MP4-24 into a massive spin. He was, however, able to continue.

Kubica improved to second place as he Polish driver made good use of his new updates, which include a double-decker diffuser. Bourdais runs wide at Turn 1. The drivers appearing to be having a great deal of problems with that corner, with many taking to the run-off area.

Alonso moved up to second place behind Kovalainen, 0.201s off the McLaren driver's pace. Rosberg, Trulli and Glock tussled amongst themselves for the final top eight positions while Massa made his way into the top ten in 10th place.

Nakajima spun at Turn 1 but stayed out on track while Massa had to take to the run-off at Turn 12 after failing to slow his Ferrari down in time for the left-hander. He too was able to continue.

The session ended with Kovalainen in the P1 slot, just 0.006s ahead of Alonso. Kubica was third.

Times
01 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:28.841 37 laps
02 F. Alonso Renault 1:28.847 35 laps
03 R. Kubica BMW 1:29.056 35 laps
04 K. Nakajima Williams 1:29.091 37 laps
05 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:29.202 4 laps
06 J. Trulli Toyota 1:29.207 41 laps
07 N. Rosberg Williams 1:29.257 40 laps
08 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:29.305 35 laps
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:29.383 39 laps
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:29.401 38 laps
11 F. Massa Ferrari 1:29.416 38 laps
12 J. Button Brawn GP 1:29.430 33 laps
13 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:29.435 31 laps
14 T. Glock Toyota 1:29.518 40 laps
15 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:29.520 33 laps
16 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:29.550 40 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:30.081 33 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:30.091 38 laps
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.295 39 laps
20 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.629 37 laps

Source : Planet F1

TURKISH GP 2009

The Turkish GP is here again this weekend. Both Friday practices were over today with some improvement from the big name teams of McLaren, Ferrari and BMW. The surprise were the Brawns were off the pace and Vettel had some soft of mechanical failure on his car.

I am pleasantly surprised that McLaren have made by the current standards a huge improvement compared to Monaco 2 weeks earlier. I was thinking that they would be having a problematic time at the low-medium downforce and fast flowing Istanbul track but so far they showed not only do they have pace but the grip is also there. The notorious and incredible turn 8 did not really throw them around.

For a more detailed report, I will re-publish the report from Planet F1 following this.

Alvin.