An award! For me!

Last year I decided to wind down my activities on the blog, instead concentrating on my job and take F1 as a hobby, and not the full time job it turned out to be. In return, I have made a few but – in my own opinion – good articles here and there and wouldn´t you know it, I have been given an award!

Tom D´Silva out of London, my second home by the way, has rewarded me the Dragon´s Loyalty Award. I have been writing for several years and enjoyed a very succesfull 2011 and 2012, with the daily hits in the tens of thousands. I couldn´t ask for more it seemed. And then I am presentd with this award, which means that even after I have decided to turn down the frequency of articles, a lot, a lot of people are still enjoying the blog.

Thank you.

The rules when receiving the Dragon´s Loyalty Award is, that I post the award photo on the website/blog, so…here:

Then, I must mention the blogger who awarded me. This one´s easy. His name is Tom D´Silva and his blog can be found right here: http://tomdsilva.wordpress.com/

List 5 things that others might find interesting about myself.

1: I have never worn high heels.

2: I once played the drums in a Rolling Stones tribute band, Purestones.

3: I make the best smoothie known to man.

4: I cannot hang a shelf on a wall and make it straight. No matter how I try.

5: As a 40 year old, I am too old to be a fanboy, but I believe that Fernando Alonso is one of the best F1 drivers in the past 20 years.

I am now supposed to award another blog, but I rarely follow any. However, I will link to my friend´s blog, which can be found here.

 

Magnussen one step away from race seat

Kevin Magnussen, son of former F1 driver Jan Magnussen, is now just one step away from becoming the next Dane in F1.

McLaren has promoted the 20 year old from their Young Driver Programme to reserve driver for Jenson Button and Sergio Perez at this weekends Chinese GP, if anything should happen to one of the drivers. He will also be a reserve driver for the drivers during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“I am to follow all practice sessions, as well as the race from the pit, and attend all the meetings between drivers and engineers. That way I am able to jump to the task with short notice, and I will no doubt learn a lot as the weekend unfolds,” said Magnussen.

“Both here(China), and Bahrain next week, I amthe official reserve driver. Therewill be more races during the season, but those are not planned yet.”

Vettel stripped of championship points

Sebastian Vettel has had all his championship points taken away from him, following the race in Malaysia.

The repercussions of Vettel´s highly controversial overtake of team mate Mark Webber, has seemingly taken another serious step, as the tripe world champion has been stripped of all his championship points(40), collected in the first two races. The FIA has spent Easter to convene and decided that the only way to stop Vettel from repeating this sort of behaviour, was to take his points away, so “hopefully he´ll learn”, as an un-named spokesperson said on Monday.

The anonymous source continues: “We in the FIA have decided to teach Vettel a lesson. He has been given too much room to act like he damn well pleases, but no more. We´ll stop him in his tracks before it gets worse.”

Vettel himself had only this to add to the controversy: “I am here to race, drink Red Bull by the case and generally lark about. I don´t care what other say,” said the German. With the points being taken away, Kimi Raikkonen is now leading and commenting on the new development, the Iceman said: “Yes. Is good. I am happy. Need to have a sleep.”

Webber is out

Mark Webber will not have his contract renewed after this season.

Short, but not sweet. The message is clear, after last Sunday´s debacle at Red Bull, where a clearly irritated Mark Webber once again saw Sebastian Vettel ignoring team orders, only for the German to stay out of trouble and the Australian being the fault guy.

A source at German´s Bild magazine has reported that Mark Webber, 36, will not have his contract renewed and that he will in fact be forced to leave the team after this season ends, leaving room for a younger driver. After last weekends Malaysian Grand Prix, which saw Vettel ignoring team orders to turn the engine down and cruise to second behind Mark Webber, then overtook the leader to claim a controversial win, the media and several high ranking drivers and team officials, have said that Webber will not tolerate this kind of behaviour, but instead of having the upper hand and voluntarily leave Red Bull, he might be fired.

Sure Webber is 36 years old and some will argue that he has had his finest moments. But is he still finishing well up in the points and scoring vital points for Red Bull? Why, yes. Yes he is. He is still racing because he can and is able, not because Red Bull doesn´t have several other drivers they can replace him with. Stop focusing about if you like Webber or not, or if he is a fast enough driver. He has been with the team for quite a few years now, so obvious he is. Focus instead on the circus that happened last week, where Sebastian Vettel stole the victory, came up with a sad excuse for an apology afterwards and then Webber pays the price?

Sure, Formula 1 is ruthless and a cutthroat business, but this is not about racing. This is about Vettel behaving like a spoilt little brat, who demands everything in the candy store and then kicks and screams until he gets it, no matter what the cost is. And he will eventually be an isolated driver, much like Michael Schumacher was, and in some parts still is. When Schumacher kept winning and we saw one controversial decision after the other in his favour, the sport suffered massively. Rules were being changed, simply to stop a driver from being so dominating as he was. Schumacher might have had some of the sharp edges sanded down in time, but we all remember that he did whatever he damned pleased to win, and never cared about the aftermath.

Vettel is precariously close to following in the footsteps of Schumacher. And that is not always such a great thing.

 

Awkward…

The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix will forever go down in history, as the race Mark Webber won, but had to concede the position to Sebastian Vettel.

It was an exiting race with plenty of close calls and near-misses, but then trailed off into a rather muted affair with 15 laps to go. Last race winner Kimi Raikkonen was not able to transform his 10th place start into a victory, as he did in the opening race at Melbourne Park last week, and after just one lap Fernando Alonso had to retire his Ferrari, as the team botched up their strategy completely.

And team strategy, or lack thereof, is the main theme of today´s article. Alonso made a great start from 3rd and was able to get right under the rear of Vettel´s Red Bull, but stepped in a little wet spot and just hit the back of the car in front. That caused some damage to the front wing, resulting in the left part of the wing to scrape along the asphalt for the first lap. Everyone then thought that Ferrari would pit Alonso so he could have a new wing fitted, thus continuing the race, and very likely be able to finish in a point scoring position. The team did not do that. Instead they did nothing at all, leaving their man out on the track to battle with the wing, and Mark Webber, until right after the first lap was done. On the main straight of lap 2, Webber saw an opportunity to get rid of Alonso without being a bastard, so he managed to get the better line out, climbed on the back of Alonso´s car and overtook him towards Turn 1. This caused the air in front of Alonso´s car to be disrupted, so he lost downforce and the Spaniard wasn´t able to turn into the corner, but ended his day in the gravel.

A tough day for Alonso, but not at all a good day for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton has been heavily criticized for being bullish about his options and future at Mercedes, some say that he is burning the bridges, others that it is much to early to fight for podiums. But in the race last week and today, Hamilton showed exactly what he is worth. Every single penny. From start to finish Hamilton controlled the car and the surrounding conditions to perfection, despite a little trip to visit his old employer at the McLaren garage during a pit stop, and he ended up in 3rd place. So well done to the Hamster, right? Wrong. During the final stages of the race, Nico Rosberg was able to lap faster than Hamilton, because Hamilton was told to preserve fuel and it was clear to all that it was a matter of time before he took the Stevenage Speedster for the final podium place. He even asked for permission, but then Ross Brawn came on the radio and just said no. Rosberg settled for 4th, just behind Hamilton, but neither men were happy with that decision. In fact, when Rosberg parked his car, Brawn hailed his performance and said he did a good job and that they need to discuss the events further in the debriefing later. To which Rosberg replied: “Remember this one.”

A threat? Possibly. But Nico Rosberg is not content with being second driver to Lewis Hamilton, as both drivers see themselves as equals. And after thr race, Hamilton has clearly stated that Rosberg should have been on the podium instead of him, saying “If I’m honest I really feel like Nico should be standing here, generally he had better pace than me throughout the race. But he’s a great team mate and did a fantastic job today.”

Rosberg has replied to his good friend, that it was nice to hear, and added: “I understand I drive for Mercedes, for you guys at home who put your life into building this car over the winter and doing such a fantastic job. I’m pleased to be able to do such a great result for the team.

“But of course there’s a small side of me where I want to go flat out all the way to the end and we up on the podium myself. But the time will come for that.”

To make the podium takes a lot of every driver, but todays´podium has to be one of the most cringe-worthy things I´ve ever watched in modern F1. Sebastian Vettel, who by the way won the race, was not really pleased with the results. he basically stole the win from Mark Webber, who looked like he was about to erupt at the drivers lounge immediately after the race.

The reason for this, is that Webber lead for most of the race and after the last pit stop, he was told to turn his engine down. This means that he goes off the setting which spends the most fuel, and instead cruises a little, in order to save fuel and material. This is even agreed upon before the race starts, and the deal was to save the engines and cruise, if possible. However, Sebastian Vettel obviously and blatantly chose to ignore this and instead attacked Webber for the lead. At first he failed, but then Vettel made the best of the DRS zones, squeezing past Webber to claim a very un-popular win.

Webber explained:

“After the last stop, the team told me the race was over. We turned the engine down to get to the end. I want to race as well, but the team made a decision which we always say before the start; we look after the tyres and get the cars to the end.

“In the end Seb made his own decisions today and will get protection as usual, and that’s the way it goes. I turned my engine down and started cruising on the tyres, and then the fight was on. I was disappointed with the outcome of today’s race.”

Ok, so let´s discuss this. Should Vettel stay behind Webber? Yes he should. Of course, because this is agreed upon between Christian Horner, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, so there. But should a driver always push if he is able? Yes again. There will always be a line that is crossed whenever a driver takes a decision into his own hands. Vettel was told to conserve fuel and to not race Webber, but ignored it and won the race. Nothing will happen, because he is a three time world champion, so of course he can basically do whatever he bloody well pleases. And here is what is interesting.

When Vettel did attack Webber, Horner was not at all happy about it, naturally, saying it was silly of him to attack, when they should save the cars and try not to make mistakes. But wait a minute. First of all we have a three-time world champion who races for a living. Everything he does, from he wakes up until he goes to bed, is about being number one. Don´t tell a natural born racer, like Vettel, not to race. The problem is not the team order, the problem is that despite his three world titles, Red Bull is showing a tremendous lack of faith in their driver, which I have to say is very un-settling and quite honestly, disgusting. Horner has clearly showed that the team is pushing Vettel forward to be the best driver ever and will no doubt do what they can to make this happen, but at the same time they are telling him to behave and do what he is told. Rubbish.

It either shows how immature Vettel still is, the little spoiled brat who always gets what he wants or how cynical Red Bull really is. I don´t know, but I know that Mark Webber just increased his value a lot and that Mercedes better need to get the big pen out, when it´s time for Rosberg to negotiate a renewal of his contract.

The Official 2013 Formula One Update F1 Season Preview 3/3

The final installment of the official preview is here and with only a few days to go before the first race of the season, it´s about time too!

I do apologize for the lack of a preview, but work has been mental the last few weeks. I will try to find the time to get you some good updates here and there, throughout the season, so we´ll see what will happen.

In the second preview article, I predicted that Mercedes, Lotus, Sauber and Force India to stay pretty much where they ended 2012, with only minor changes. The reason behind this logic, is that the teams is not bringing anything revolutionary to the table this year, because next year will be a completely new set of rules, with the new V6 turbo engines and what not. Therefor, as we saw in 2012, a discreet evolution of the cars with the usual updates along the season, is what can be expected.

Still, that said, it´s time to see if the last four teams on the grid will move up or down. Remember that places 1-7 have already been occupied, so for now it´s a matter of finding out who will be the best of the rest.

Toro Rosso

I am still struggling to find a solid argument for having the team on the grid. Sure they are a developing team, grooming young drivers, but the drivers isn´t promoted to Red Bull, which was the entire reason to establish Toro Rosso in the first place. Only man to get the nod, was Sebastian Vettel, and though he has done ok, irony might occur, the talent is either lacking or Red Bull is not interested in the team after all. There is this “let´s just see what happens with it” attitude about Toro Rosso from time to time, and then suddenly one of their drivers does something extraordinary and we fall right back in love again.

So how will they do?

Toro Rosso is not really moving anywhere. The results are clear: From the formation in 2006 when Minardi was bought, up until today, their best season was 2008, when Vettel won the Italian GP in soaking wet conditions, a staggering result for the team who was used to fill up the slots from the mid-field and down. Since then, not much have happened in terms of development, or should I say grooming. Not a single driver has been marked for greatness, except Vettel of course, and no driver has been performing so well, that other teams have had good use of his experience. No, Liuzzi doesn´t count, since he couldn´t do much at Force India. And ending his career at HRT, was….well, nuff said.

Toro Rosso might improve a bit. The team has secured the continued services of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo and these drivers should be able to move the team forward a bit, being second seasoners and all. But other than the pure talent of the drivers, I don´t think Toro Rosso will be anything else but mediocre this season.

Prediction:

I think a move from 9th last year to 8th might be realistic. I will expect fewer non-scoring finishes and fewer retirements, and paired with two drivers who began their duties last season, they could throw up a few, minor surprises.

Williams

The Williams team is the last true private team left on the grid and I have always had a soft spot for them. They have had some pretty serious ups and downs in the last 10 years or so, from finishing 3rd in 2001, then 2nd in 2002 and 2003, to suddenly see their performance curve slide down and down, to 4th, then 5th, 8th, then back to 4th. Then a series of seasons with disappointing results, where they resorted to their old ways, by way of never having a team of drivers, and dropped drivers by a whim. I know, I know, it´s not really that nice to Heidfeld, or Rosberg, or even Barrichello for that matter. Sure, Wurz´s3rd place in Canada was a great boost for the team, but it took a year almost to replicate that, when Rosberg scored 3rd in Melbourne. And then, not a single podium for 76 straight races. Then Maldonado won in Spain last year, and many believed that Williams are back. So are they?

So how will they do?

Yes, how will they do indeed. And are they back? Yes and no. Williams have ditched Bruno Senna in favour of test driver Valtteri Bottas. And yes, he is Finnish. There is an old saying in F1: If you want to win, get the Finn. So the season starts with Maldonado as a team captain, and hopefully with a more relaxed approach to climbing through the ranks, instead of his sometimes accidental/lucky ways he can escape by the hair on his teeth. He is close to becoming a good driver, but still to many mistakes. Bottas is a good driver, in tests that is, but I think we could be in for some good performances.

Prediction:

A new driver, again, for Williams and I honestly don´t think Maldonado can cut the mustard. I just don´t think he has the talent or even the stature to be able to help the team forward. I think he is driving for himself and then the team be damned. Bottas is the new guy, so he will try his hardest. Despite some good performances, I fear Williams will drop to 10th in the standings.

Caterham

The Team Formerly Known As…Oh give me a fecking break here. No one understands why Tony Fernandes went all the way to cling on to the Lotus name, only to then be perfectly happy to drop it, having Renault now driving under the name. His team is now known as Caterham and the results? Not impressive. Ok, so yes a new team will need time to form their identity, their way of dealing with difficult situations. I get that. But They got rid of Heikki Kovalainen, a true talented driver, who actually made a very good impression last year. Especially when he 1) made it into Q2 in Bahrain, 2) achieved 13th in Monaco, best in the season, 3) again making it into Q2 in Valencia and weas absolutely instrumental in helping the team to secure 10th in the standings. For this season, they have hired Charles Pic from Marussia for “multiple seasons” and Giedo van der Garde, who has been promoted from test driver. He has never raced a F1 car. Never. Besides 2012, his last appearance in F1, was when he was test driver for Force India in 2008.

So how will they do?

This is a team we have a hard time figuring out. Every time it seems they are on track, they do something unexplainable. And when it looks like an uphill battle, they pull through. I am hard pressed to find anything positive about them in 2013, but I do think that getting fresh blood in, especially after Vitaly Petrov turned out to be so-so, might be a good idea.

Prediction:

I am going out on a limb here. I think that Caterham could be the surprise of the year, taking some good points from Toro Rosso and Williams. 9th for Caterham.

Marussia

Now that HRT is no longer with us – serious have you ever seen anyone being sorry about that fact, besides the people directly involved in the team? – Marussia now bears the heavy burden of being the last and slowest team on the grid. There is no way they can evolve so much in just one season, this one, to jump several places forward, since development is almost non-existent.

The team has had a large switch in drivers for the 2013 season. Timo Glock was originally under a three-year contract, making 2013 his second season, but he left the team “for financial reasons”. It is unclear what this means, but some say he left because his salary was high, in order to let the team develop. Aww…so sweet. Others of course, believe that the team wasn´t impressed and kicked him.

Luiz Razia was actually meant to race for the team this year, but a conflict with the sponsor package meant he was not able to secure the necessary funds and the contract was terminated. Instead the team will use Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton as their drivers.

So how will they do?

Pretty good, actually. I know, since all the other positions are taken, they will inevitable end 2013 in last place, but they will end the year on a high. Why? Because Jules Bianchi is the 2007 French Formula Renault 2.0 champion, the 2008 Formula 3 Euro Series champion, the 3rd place finisher in the 2010 GP2 series, as well as the runner-up in the GP 2 Asia series. He is the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 series runner-up and oh…in 2011 he was test driver for Ferrari, on loan to Force India for 2012 and was considered as Felipe Massa´s replacement during the Brazilian´s absense.

Max Chilton is the son of Grahame Chilton, the proprietor of Carlin Motorsport, and comes from a family of racing enthusiasts. Brother Tom Chilton is a seasoned BTCC driver, with 10 seasons under his belt and something has to rub off, right?

Prediction:

As mentioned I think Marussia will finish dead last, but not without giving us some good moments. I do believe that if things work out, Bianchi might be able to prove that he is the next big thing, well Ferrari like to think so, and though Chilton is a rather blank page, he could throw in some surprises.

That´s it. The preview is done and I hope you have enjoyed reading it. And remember that nothing is chiseled in stone until the last race, but what a season we have waiting for us!

Have fun!

McLaren-Honda returns in 2015, Whitmarsh says

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is not promising anything in regards to whether the team will stick to Mercedes engines in the future or switch to a different supplier. However, though Whitmarsh is refusing to confirm claims that McLaren will continue using Mercedes engines beyond 2014, he is not confirming their replacement, though everyone strongly believes that the team will use Honda engines.

Talks have been made and Honda has indeed confirmed that they have made plans to return to the sport as engine supplier for McLaren, but for 2015. McLaren has a contract in place for 2014, but for 2015 the situation is different. McLaren only has an option to use Mercedes engines and asked if Mercedes would still be engine supplier beyond 2014, Whitmarsh said:

“I can definitely say that we are with them for some time, we have a contract and we have been talking about it for some time. There is nothing to announce at the moment. I can’t elaborate any further. We have a contract that covers the next three seasons at the moment and we will certainly go into next year with Mercedes-Benz. We have a long and successful partnership with them.”

So did Whitmarsh say that McLaren will use Honda engines? Not specifically, but Honda has been doing this for some time. They don´t let the cat out of the bag, unless they are serious. So Whitmarsh might not technically say that Honda will supply engines for McLaren from 2015, but then again, he just did, didn´t he?

The last time McLaren partnered with Honda, the results were staggering. Four drivers titles in as many years, one for Alain Prost, three for Ayrton Senna.

Maldonado should be safe, despite Chavez death

The death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Tuesday, has caused a ripple effect into F1.

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado is heavily funded by main sponsor PDVSA, the state-owned Venezuelan oil company, and their subsidiaries, and several observers believe that this will end Maldonado´s F1 career.

It should be noted that while Chavez was an avid race fan and supported several other drivers from Venezuela, and that there had been great concerns about the legality of Maldonado´s contract, the driver himself should not feel any pressure regarding his future. The contract is there and it works and even if Chavez´ party doesn´t retain power after the coming election, the new government will most likely keep the sponsorship deal, since it is supoorting new drivers on the international racing scene.

In other words, don´t expect anything to change at Williams this season.