2011 Season Review Cards

In preparation for the end of the season, I've invited my Twitter and Twitpic followers to submit Season Review cards for drivers. These "cards" are created by selecting options from 4 columns to describe different drivers' 2011 season.

For example: Massa: A, b, 7, vi

Objective: Beat my team-mate

Satisfied with Performance?: No, not at all

Areas to improve on: Avoid that Silver and Red car

Rate your season: 4/10

To see the Season Review cards already submitted, click here for my Twitpic page.

Japanese GP: Qualifying

Japanese Qualifying had some elements of surprise but not for who got pole position. McLaren's Hamilton found some good pace that he didn't have during Practice sessions. Jenson had been fastest in Friday practice and seemed at ease at his 'second home Grand Prix'.

Nico Rosberg's car developed a hydraulics failure and he starts tomorrow's race in 23rd position. The general concensus in the paddock was that Hamilton had the pace for pole position but an 'misjudgement' error meant he didn't make it to the start/finish line in time to put in a lap-time which could have toppled Vettel off pole position. Button's qualifying time was 9/1000th off Vettel's pole lap time of 1min 30.466.

Top 3 Qualifiers (photo from www.bbc.co.uk)

Top 10 drivers were: VET, BUT, HAM, MAS, ALO, WEB, KOB*, MSC, SEN, PET. 

*Kobayashi (the only remaining Japanese driver on the grid) was 'promoted' to 7th place even though he didn't set a time but because he had started a flying lap by the time the chequered flag fell.Click here for the rules on Qualifying rules for drivers who don't set a time.

Vettel just needs one point to win the 2011 World Drivers Championship but the McLaren drivers will try their utmost to delay the Red Bull celebrations as much as possible and to take the World Constructors Championship down to the wire.

Byte Blog: BadgerGP Debate

I submitted a response to @BadgerGP's 'Scrutineering Bay' feature on their website. Here is the piece I wrote which is currently on their website too.

"Would Lewis be beating Seb if both were at Red Bull?"

The short answer is UNEQUIVOCALLY YES.

The long answer is most teams adopt a 'split strategy' i.e. sign two drivers with different driving styles, run different strategies with tyre choices etc to cover most eventualities and maximise their 'success rate'. 

I think Vettel and Hamilton have quite similar driving styles and although both of them at Red Bull sounds like an interesting prospect, it will probably never come to be.

Nonetheless if Hamilton was at RBR in a car designed by Newey, he would have THE best car on the grid. Compared to Vettel, I'd say he is marginally more aggressive in seizing opportunities to overtake but he'd be doing very little of that since he'd be qualifying on pole. Both drivers are skilled in wet conditions but Hamilton has a slight edge on Vettel, as the following video demonstrates...

 

Japanese Grand Prix, 2007

So their relative performance would come down to their Race Starts and Tyre Management. Tyre Management is considered by most as Hamilton's weakness but his race starts are fairly good.

So with all this considered, I'd say Lewis would be beating Sebastian but the gap wouldn't be as big as the chasm between Vettel and Webber at the moment!

Drivers' Meeting at Suzuka

Given Lewis Hamilton's several issues this season, it is unsurprising that some drivers feel his driving is too aggressive and that he could be a danger to them. One of those drivers is Felipe Massa who had some 'choice words' for Hamilton after the Singapore Grand Prix (click here for articles [1] [2] [3]).

Also, Italian blog "Autosprint" and the BBC website reported that Formula 1 drivers had called a meeting with Charlie Whiting in Suzuka to discuss Hamilton's driving. According to F1 blogger Kate Walker, (from girlRacer and F1KateWalker.com), these meetings are not uncommon but there is a lot of attention on this one because it will be about an exciting yet controversial driver.

I tweeted Heikki Kovalainen to enquire if all drivers would attend this meeting and the Finn (a straight-talking driver who regularly interacts with his followers and fans on Twitter) replied to say: 

"I'm not, I have no problem" - click here for Twitter quote

RacingNewsFlash website also reported his remarks (Finnish website).

Heikki speaks his mind

If this meeting does go ahead, it would be interesting to know what 'recommendations' - if any - the race director makes to Hamilton and his team, even though Hamilton has repeatedly declared that he has no intention of changing the way he drives.

Addendum (4th October 2011):
James Allen spoke on TalkSport about this 'meeting'. Listen to the interview here (courtesy of @iamlewis4fake)

Singapore GP: Race Summary

First the 'vanilla' news: Vettel won the Singapore Grand Prix and needs just 1 more point to clinch his second World Drivers' Championship. Button came second and Webber finished in third place. There was only 1 Safety car deployment after an ambitious (read: unnecessary) overtake attempt by Schumacher on Perez.

Vettel tires of finger-pointing (photo from usatoday.com)

Now for the 'tastier' stuff: Lewis Hamilton clipped his front wing on Felipe Massa's wheel while justling for position and both required a visit to the pits for repairs. This incident resulted in a drive-through penalty for Hamilton. The Brit eventually visited the pit-lanes 5 times during the race and made several overtakes to finish 5th. Massa on the other hand, finished in 9th place and made his feelings about the Hamilton incident clear for all to see by interrupting Hamilton's interview saying “Good job, man, well done” with a sarcastic thumbs-up.

 

Video by SixtyBuckss

Other notable drives were by Paul Di Resta (6th position), whose rookie year continues to impress everyone in the paddock and Heikki Kovalainen (Team Lotus) who finished ahead of a Lotus-Renault. Sweet revenge against the team his is currently embroiled in a legal battle with.

More 'tastier' stuff, albeit strange was Anthony Hamilton's comments about his son's management (XIX Entertainment) and their non-appearance at his races. It is understood that he said: 

“You look up and down the pit lane and every driver, except for Lewis, has a driver-manager in his life, not people from a company". “I am sure his management are very good – I don’t know – but Formula One drivers need people personally involved in the driver’s lives because it is a big pressure" - Interview by Tom Cary

Vettel may have won the race at Singapore but another driver is dominating newspaper's columns. 

For more photos and a fan's experience of the Singapore Grand Prix, check out @nicolaheartsF1's blog and Please continue to vote in my poll on the right-hand tool bar.

German GP: Race Summary

Rain was expected on Sunday as the cars lined up at the start of the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. However it was dry as the red lights went out, and what a start it was.

German GP paddock before race. Photo by @VoxVocis

Hamilton had a fantastic start and quickly made his way ahead of the field. Webber appeared to have his hands full defending first place from Hamilton and preventing his team-mate from overtaking him: he prioritised keeping the other Red Bull car behind him. At one point, Vettel was in a Ferrari sandwich however Ferrari's Alonso managed to stay in front and they settled into this order: HAM, WEB, ALO, VET, ROS, MAS by the end of the first lap.

Alonso, Hamilton and Webber traded first place several times, but the McLaren driver was ahead for most of the race.Great pit-stops, bold non-DRS overtaking moves and a perfectly-timed strategy call to change to prime tyres, meant that Hamilton finished the race ahead of Alonso and Webber. His second win this season and his 16th career win.

2nd Win for Hamilton

Ferrari: La Rinascita?

Prima di tutto, devo dichiarare che io non sono italiano e non sono un tifoso di Ferrari (ma mi piace la machina, il Fiat Cinquecento e ho scritto quest'articolo per migliorare il mio italiano). Comunque, io rispetto cosa la questa squadra ha fatto nello sporto di Formula Uno. Tra 1961, i giorno di Phil Hill dai quei giorni di Schumacher, la squadra ha vinci 14 trofei costruttori di Formula 1. Ma tra 2004 ed oggi, solamente vinca 2 trofei. E perche non va bene per loro? Ci sono molti possibilita di spiegare.

Tuffo di Ferrari? 

Una possibile spiegazione era il problema con la mancanza di prestazioni per le sue machine al inizio di 2005. Un altro è stato il prestazione di gomme/pneumatici Bridgestone in contro di Michelin che altre squadre utilizzati. Molti cambiamenti di personale inoltre non era utile; la partenza di Barrichello nel 2005, ed il Schumacher nel 2006 (un piloto che hanno relazione forte con i ingenieri e il capo di squadra), Jean Todt  nel 2008 e finalmente il polemica con Nigel Stepney.

Alonso a Gran Premio di Monaco

Ferrari: La Rinascita?

Anche se Ferrari riesco vinci trofei costruttori di Formula 1 nel 2007 e 2008, Ferrari ha competizione nuove e diversa (insomma Red Bull) e ha doveva fare qualcosa grande per ritorna di vincere ancora. La nomina del piloti spagnolo Fernando Alonso è parte del piano per la rinascita; un piloto che gia vinci due campionati e commandi molti rispetta dal paddock e con Stefano Domenicalli e parla la lingua italiano come la sua madre lingua.

La squadra ho avuto un risorgimento nella seconda parti della stagione nel 2010: Alonso ha avuto un'opportunita di vincere all'ultima gara di Brasilia ma finita nel posizione 7° e finita la stagione con 252 punti e purtroppo per lui, Vettel ha vinto quest'anno con solo 4 punti di piu.

Adesso nel 2011, al inizio della stagione non ho fatto niente spettacolare ma Alonso continua di finisca tutti le gare di fronte a Massa (il suo compagno della squadra) ed ecceto un incidente con Button a Canada, ha finito tutti le gare. Ultima gara a Silverstone, Inghilterra era la sua posizione migliore (1°).

Alonso a Silverstone

E per i tifosi, era un segno che Ferrari è all'inizia un risorgimento lentamente....e forse durante il divario tra le Gran Premi dall'Ungheria e Belgio, ci sono alcuni possibilita di contestare a Vettel e la dominanza di Red Bull. E probabilmente, comincia di ritornare ai giorni di Schumacher.

Informazione dal:  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuderia_Ferrari
http://www.formula1.com/results/driver/2010/30.html

British GP: Race Summary

Tyre choice was a difficult decision to make at the start of the British Grand Prix at the revamped Silverstone track. Rain was pelting the track with 45minutes to race start but it was finally decided that Intermediates were the best tyres to be on. 

 

Highlights

Hamilton who started in 10th position, made up several places by the end of the first lap of the race, including overtaking his team-mate early in the race. Schumacher served a Stop-Go penalty for a collision with Kobayashi. There was a tasty DOUBLE overtake by McLaren drivers on both Ferrari drivers within a few minutes of each other. Vettel lost first place after bad pit stop by his engineers and Alonso pounced on 1st place and never let it go.

Alonso eventually won the British Grand Prix. Hamilton hung onto 4th place right up to the last corner, despite having been told to conserve fuel and being challenged by Massa (the gap between them was 0.024seconds!). Webber was told to 'maintain position' in final lap when he was closing up to his team-mate Vettel. What an exciting race!!!

Not a happy (Australian) bunny

Alguersuari continue his good form and scores another point this race. F1 rookie Ricciardo also finishes his first Formula 1 race and improves on his starting position (albeit by virtue of 5 drivers developing problems and not finishing). Perez did well to finish in 7th place from a qualifying position of 12th.

The other Ozzie's happy to bring his HRT car home in one piece

Errors

McLaren's botched pit stop for Button meant the lollilop was lifted before his right front tyre was fitted (McLaren was later fined for this error). Both Team Lotus cars developed problems and didn't finish the race. Kobayashi's Sauber overheated and was forced to retire. The final DNF at the British Grand Prix was Sebastian Buemi whose tyre was punctured after clipping Paul Di Resta's front wing.

Top 10: Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Massa, Rosberg, Perez, Heidfeld, Schumacher, Alguersuari.

Podium Photo by @atmoorehead

Spanish GP: Qualifying Summary

Red Bull continue their Qualifying success but Vettel loses his 100% record, as team-mate Webber topped the timesheets in Q3 on Saturday.

McLaren drivers were 3rd and 4th until they were split by Fernando Alonso (who had qualified 5th in each race so far this season). 

2010 Russian Rookie Petrov qualified 6th for Lotus-Renault (though his team-mate Nick Heidfeld will start from the pitlane after a fire prevented him from participating the Qualifying session on Saturday. Nico Rosberg out-qualifies his F1 veteran team-mate Michael Schumacher again in 7th position, and Schumacher finished in 10th - hampered by KERS problems.

Massa starts in 8th position and will have a Williams close to him on the grid. This is the first time a Williams car has made it to Q3 and it's the first flash of brilliance from rookie Pastor Maldonado. 

Qualifying Order: WEB, VET, HAM, ALO, BUT, PET, ROS, MAS, MAL, SCH.

Chinese GP Race Summary: Fortune shines on Hamilton

"Thank you, Pirelli", ex-F1 driver-turned-BBC-commentator, David Coulthard said at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix. Pirelli are the new tyre manufacturers for Formula 1 cars and they were tasked with creating a tyre compound that degraded faster than previous year's Bridgestones.

This has meant teams spending more time planning their race strategy and trying to avoid the misfortune that befell Hamilton in Malaysia, when he started in 2nd position but finished 8th after 4 pit-stops and being unhappy with his team's tyre choices for him.

Mark Webber had his gremlins during Qualifying on Saturday which meant he started the race in 18th position. Lewis Hamilton's arrived just before drivers made their way to the starting line. Scenes of 'organised panic' in the McLaren garage were difficult to watch as engineers ran around trying to mop out excess fuel from the MP4-26. With 35 seconds to go, Hamilton made it onto the starting grid (3rd position) and didn't have to start his race from the pit-lane.

The 56-lap Chinese Grand Prix race was fun of action, starting with a double overtake of Vettel, the Red Bull driver in pole position by 2 McLarens by the first corner. At lap 15, both Button and Vettel pitted but the McLaren driver drove into the Red Bull space before realising his mistake and moved onto his team's spot. This error cost him a place as Red Bull finished work on Vettel's car before Button was released.

2011 Season Opener: Australian Grand Prix

Qualifying
The Formula 1 season finally got under way at Melbourne, Australia on Sunday 27th March. Qualifying on Saturday was a mixed bag and had a few surprises. Red Bull's Vettel got pole position with lap time of 1min23.529 but his team didn't dominate the front row. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had a late charge and clinched the 2nd place on the grid. The second Red Bull car driven by Webber was 3rd, Button (McLaren) 4th, Alonso (Ferrari) 5th, Petrov (Lotus-Renault) 6th, Rosberg (Mercedes) 7th, Massa (Ferrari) 8th, Kobayashi (Sauber) 9th and Buemi (Toro-Rosso) making up the Top 10 qualifiers.
Noticeable omissions were both drivers of Hispania Racing who were victims of the new 107% rule i.e. they were not within 107% of the fastest qualifying time.

Race Day
After observing a minute's silence in remembrance of those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the 58-lap race began with the 22 drivers who made it through qualifying.
Vettel had a good start, Hamilton and Alonso didn't but although the McLaren driver managed to retain his 2nd place position, Alonso wasn't so lucky - dropping back from 5th.

Biggest gain by the 3rd corner was Renault's Vitaly Petrov who had moved from 6th to 4th behind Webber. Button got 'stuck' behind Massa and tried to pass him several times, in fact being the first driver to deploy the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the new Drag Reduction System (DRS) or Adjustable Rear Wing, but the overtake manoeuvre was unsuccessful. Button was later penalised with a drive through penalty for cutting a corner while battling with Massa and Alonso.
Mercedes GP didn't have a good day, with both cars failing to finish the race. Rosberg was hit by William's Barrichello during an 'amateurish' overtake move by the Brazilian. He too was to serve a drive-through penalty for causing this collision.

Webber was the 1st of the front runners to pit for fresh tyres on lap 12. Petrov was now 3rd behind Vettel and Hamilton, and Webber fed back into 7th place. Vettel pitted in lap 15 returning onto the track behind Button who was unable to 'hold the RedBull driver' behind him. Hamilton pitted a lap later and regained his starting position behind Vettel.
Hamilton's car sustained damage 0n lap 32 in its under-tray after an excursion off the track but his lap times were generally unaffected.

Second set of tyre changes for the race leaders were around lap 36, Alonso pitting on lap 43 and leapfrogging Webber (who previously had a terrible lap) to get into 4th position. Massa overtook Toro Rosso Buemi with 3 laps to go, and the race ended with no other changes to the order.
1) VET, 2) HAM, 3) PET, 4) ALO, 5) WEB, 6) BUT, 7) PER, 8) KOB, 9) MAS, 10) BUE.
Sergio Perez, new Sauber driver, stunned the everyone by his excellent tyre management and required just 1 pit-stop (i.e. only used the mandatory minimum tyre allocation of two).

Five Contenders: A Win at all Costs

Mathematically, eight drivers remain in the fight for this year's World Drivers Championship but most F1-realists would narrow the list to five main contenders: Webber, Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Vettel. Each of these drivers have strong motivations to strive for a win this year even though 3 of them are recent World Champions. Button won in 2009, Hamilton in 2008, Alonso is a two-time champion (2005 and 2006), and holds the title of being the youngest double champion.

This article examines the motivations of these 5 drivers to secure a win this year, and why this year's title will be just as nail-biting as Lewis' win in 2008. The drivers' current standings before the Singapore GP are in ().


Webber (1st): The oldest driver in contention for this year's Championship at 34 years old, has been the most consistent and has only had 1 retirement so far this season.
Coming back after a serious leg injury, he has risen above the 'perceived' favouritism in his team towards his team-mate to maximise the performance of his RedBull car, and has held onto the lead of the Championship table several times this year. He is ready for his first WDC since his debut in the sport 8 years ago; to be the first Australian winner since Alan Jones 30 years ago, and to proclaim himself as the ACTUAL Number 1 driver in his team.
Potential Record: Third ever Australian WDC, and first Australian winner in 30 years







Hamilton (2nd): Current youngest World Driver Championship (WDC) winner at 23years 300 days, beat Alonso's record of 24years 58 days in 2008. The following year was a year to forget, he just didn't have the car to deliver after the high of 2008.

He is back with a vengenance in 2010. The McLaren car is not the fastest on the track but it has proven to be quite reliable, which has been to Hamilton's advantage. He has been as aggressive as always and he now has a competitive, yet cooperative team-mate in Button to motivate him. Two retirements so far this season, but he admits Monza's could have been avoided.

With both McLaren drivers' contracts ending in 2012 and the team principal already scouting other teams, he needs another WDC win to convince McLaren to extend his contract: not just for his history with the team but because he deserves it.
Potential Record: Third Briton with 'just' 2 WDC titles




Alonso (3rd): is the highest earner in the paddock, reportedly earning 30million euros. Ferrari has entrusted him to revive their dominance in the sport and although the middle of the season was lacklustre, Alonso has remained within touching distance of the RedBull and McLaren drivers all season.

On a personal note, he will be looking for his 3rd title after a near-win in 2007 and several team changes since his last win with Renault.
Potential Record: Youngest three-time WDC winner









Button (4th): First WDC win in 2009 with the superb Brawn car. His move to McLaren has been smooth sailing by all accounts and he is demonstrating that having a different driving style to your team-mate is not necessarily detrimental to your success. He has made terrific tyre choices and set-up decisions, and has shown maturity in this driving and personal life. But some would argue that his passion and determination to win again is muted.

However, a win this year would make him the first Briton to win consecutive WDC. Surely, the prospect of that is worth getting fired up for.
Potential Record: First Briton to win the Championship in consective years.









Vettel (5th): On the other side to the paddock from Mark Webber is the man dubbed "Baby Schumi". Having demonstrated tremendous wet racing skills and being the youngest ever winner of a Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel has won plaudits from everyone in the paddock. However within THIS season, he has made several catastrophic racing errors which have called his skills into question; Turkey and Belgium being the most memorable.

This year is his last hope if he wants to claim Hamilton's record of being the youngest F1 Champion. Vettel will be 23 years 131 days in Abu Dhabi on 12th November which would beat Hamilton's record by 169 days.
Potential Record: Youngest F1 WDC winner









The three other drivers still mathematically in contention are Massa (6th), Kubica (7th) and Rosberg (8th). With the exception of Massa, the other two are undoubtedly outperforming their team-mates in their respective teams; but Nico Rosberg has a bigger challenge on his hands; to demonstrate his skills without being intimidate by his 'legendary' team-mate (the 7-time F1 World Champion, Michael Schumacher) and gain recognition as a talented driver in his own right.

Massa has been the 'unofficial' Number 2 driver for a few years. Although he came close to winning the WDC in 2008, he has a mighty task ahead of him if he wants to win his first title this year, as Ferrari favours his team-mate and are not averse to some overt car-shuffling on the track.

Images from:
http://jalopnik.com/5371095/official-fernando-alonso-signs-three+year-contract-with-scuderia-ferrari
http://www.topnews.in/
http://www.hitresimler.com/img-mark-webber-resimleri-3044.htm