On Track Review : Malaysia Qualifying 2013

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 ‘on track correspondent’: James Parker

Heat, humidity and tyre degradation are the three things that look set to dominate tomorrow’s proceedings for the Malaysia Grand Prix. In what was a hugely intriguing Qualifying session today, which saw RedBull struggle, the unpredictable nature of the famous Malaysian weather once again struck to cause some fast and frantic action in Q3 as a sudden downpour turned the track into an ice-rink.

So without further ado, shall we get cracking?

Q1
Up to Qualifying on Saturday, it was generally expected that the shootout for pole position would be a RedBull vs Lotus affair – with both teams dominating all 3 practice sessions.

Under relatively humid (67%) conditions Q1 got underway and immediately teams started going different ways with tyres. With the hard compound tyre considered the optimum race tyre for Sunday’s Grand Prix, RedBull, Lotus and Force India driver – Adrian Sutil decided to bolt on the medium compound for the first session.

Both McLaren’s looked to look a lot more at home at Sepang, with Perez and Button easily solidifying their position in the top 10. Whilst Adrian Sutil, the standout performer from the previous Grand Prix for many, continued his rejuvenated form by topping the Q1 timesheet, a track Force India have always looked strong at.

Williams woes, if they needed any more clarification, were confirmed with Bottas missing the cut and being dropped out at the first hurdle, joining him were Vergne who struggled for pace and the two “new” teams followed with Jules Bianchi leading the way, a second clear of Pic, Chilton and the Caterham of Giedo Van Der Garde.

The big surprise however was the clear lack of pace from the RedBull car. Both Vettel and Webber only just scraped through with seconds to spare in Q1 as the RB9 looked ungainly and a bit of handful with the German only managing 14th, whilst Webber could achieve a more respectable 9th place.

Q2

Qualifying 2 was to be more of an interesting affair, with the storm clouds starting to gather over the Sepang circuit.

The first exchanges looked rather worrying for Lotus, as Grosjean on his first run could only manage 11th place, the Frenchman suffering yet again to find a good balance over the course of a lap. However his team-mate Raikkonen was far more content and sat 4th.

Up front the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was sitting pretty, the W04 looking rather ominous in the dry conditions, whilst Mark Webber had recovered to sit 2nd in the middle of a Mercedes sandwich due to Hamilton sitting 3rd.

Adrian Sutil continued his strong form in 5th, with the Ferrari’s of Massa and Alonso hot on the German’s heels. McLaren seemed satisfied with both cars in the top 10, and once again Sebastian Vettel didn’t seem a happy chappy as he could only muster 9th on a scrubbed set of the medium tyre – the rain potentially the German’s saviour.

With 10 minutes gone however, the heavens opened around turn 6 and 7 as a heavy shower decided to spice up a hugely intriguing session. Disaster struck Paul Di Resta, trying to save tyres in doing 1 run late on, he could not set a competitive time before the rain hit, leaving him skating around the circuit on slicks, eventually spinning at turn 7 as he ran wide on to the slippery kerbs.

Maldonado also got caught out (who didn’t set a time and sat 16th), as did Grosjean, unable to improve before conditions deteriorated. Joining the above 3 were both Saubers of Hulkenberg and Guttierez who sit 12th and 14th, sandwiching the Torro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo.

Q3
Conditions for the start of Q3 were extremely difficult, as some parts of the circuit were relatively dry, whilst the back end of the circuit was still feeling the full force of the shower. Intermediates were the only choice for drivers, and it would see the last driver to cross the line, given the best chance of claiming pole as the rain subsided.

Trying to manage the wear rates and heat of the intermediates over the course of the lap were to be crucial to set a competitive time, as drivers didn’t look to take too much out of the tyre in the drier parts of the circuit. After the first set of runs, Hamilton showed his skill in the mixed conditions by topping the timesheet for provisional pole however the joy was short lived thanks to some clever strategy by both Vettel and the Ferraris.

Seeing a potential advantage on fresh intermediates, due to the compounds wearing abnormally fast thanks to the drying track, Vettel and the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso pitted for a fresh set of boots. With a minute to go Hamilton was looking pretty ahead of Webber in 2nd, however the fresh rubber paid off and Vettel drove the “perfect lap“, with a 1min 49.674 to capture his 38th pole position in Formula 1.

It was an incredible performance given the clear lack of pace from the German in both Q1 and Q2 earlier.

Felipe Massa continued his magnificent form by out-qualifying Alonso for the second Grand Prix in a row (and fourth time in succession; Austin and Brazil) to claim his first front row in F1 for over 2 years. Alonso was 3rd, with Hamilton 4th, Webber down in 5th and Rosberg rounding out a frustrating final session for Mercedes.

The most frustrated man on the grid however had to be Raikkonen. Staying out on used Intermediates, the Finn could only manage 7th place, with a Lotus car that really did not possess the same kind of pace as in the dry conditions during the earlier part of the weekend. His problems were further compounded with a 3 place grid penalty post session, with the official statement from the FIA declaring that he had impeded Mercedes driver, Rosberg during Q3 demoting him to 10th.

It means the two McLaren’s of Button and Perez start 7th and 9th, which highlight a generally more positive session for the guys from Woking. Adrian Sutil, like Raikkonen, really could not reproduce his strong dry form in the mixed conditions and could only manage 8th.

Conclusion
It sets up an incredibly interesting Grand Prix, a race in which you would predict rain at some point during the afternoon, creating a potential lottery for anyone in the top 10. Ferrari look to have a stronger race car than qualifying car, and the fast starts they are able to produce will worry Vettel I am sure.

Whether Mercedes have built on their race pace woes from Melbourne has yet to be seen, but they could be outside bets on a podium if rain does hit during the Grand Prix – Rosberg especially, will be doing the rain dance this evening I am sure.

Adrian Sutil looks strong however the big question mark must be over Lotus. Raikkonen is effectively out of position, as is Grosjean, and it will be interesting to see what kind of progress they can make from 10th and 11th respectively – do they possess the same wear rate advantage at Sepang?

What are you most looking forward to tomorrow?

~ by thejudge13 on March 23, 2013.

Posted in F1 Qualifying Review
Tags: adrian sutil, Caterham, Charles Pic, daniel ricciardo, Esteban Gutierrez, F1 Qualifying Review, Felipe Massa, Ferarri, Fernando Alonso, Force India, Giedo van der Garde, Jean eric vergne, Jenson Button, jules bianchi, kimi raikkonen, Lewis Hamitlon, Lotus, Mark Webber, max chilton, McLaren, Mercedes AMG F1, nico hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg, Pastor Maldonado, Paul Di Resta, PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX, red bull racing, Romain Grosjean, sauber, Sebastian Vettel, Sepang, Sergio Perez, Torro Rosso, valtteri bottas

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Malaysia GP 2013 Race Analysis: A Damp Squib Leads to Fireworks

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Contributor: James Parker, TJ13 on track correspondent

Sebastian Vettel has won the Malaysia Grand Prix in controversial style, as he defied RedBull team orders to hold station in the last 10 laps to overtake teammate Mark Webber and therefore claim his first win of 2013. Mercedes also landed themselves in hot water, during a hot and humid afternoon, where on track events, will dominate the following 3 weeks for all the wrong reasons in the lead up to the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Race

For the start of the Grand Prix, conditions, like Qualifying yesterday were incredibly mixed, with the start of the lap drenched in a heavy downpour (turns 3-4) whilst the majority of the circuit was relatively dry. Every driver opted to start on the Pirelli Intermediate compound, before the magic 1min 50 window presented itself during the race to switch to slicks.

Off the line, both Mark Webber (surprisingly) and Fernando Alonso made lightning starts, as the Spaniard found himself leapfrogging his teammate Massa, going around the outside of Turn 1. As the cars swung round for Turn 2, Alonso found himself “rearending” Vettel ever so slightly; causing damage to his front wing and in the chaos he lost out to the opportunist Webber.

At this point Alonso managed to claw 2nd place back, with the front wing now dangling down. It appeared certain he would pit at the end of the lap with the Ferrari mechanics waiting in anticipation. With the track drying however, Ferrari looked to hold out, to coincide the nose change with a stop for slicks as the track appeared to dry rapidly.

That all fell apart though, when at the start of lap 2, Alonso’s front wing disappeared under the Ferrari going into Turn 1, leaving the Spaniard just a passenger and out of the race – a decision I am sure Ferrari lament now.

Vettel gapped the field in all the drama, with the two Mercedes drivers of Hamilton and Rosberg closing following the two RedBulls. Further back a poor start saw Massa settle into 6th, behind a strong showing from the McLaren of Button, who had moved up to a solid 5th.

As the track dried, race leader Vettel made the bold call of bolting on a set of slick tyres, whilst his Webber decided to carry on. As Vettel rejoined he struggled in the traffic getting mugged into Turn 4, by Massa, Hulkenberg, Perez and Grojsean who were fighting in the lower top 10 positions.

It was a move which benefitted the Aussie, as when Webber rejoined 3 laps later, he found that the decision to stay on Inters was correct, coming out ahead of Vettel. The rest of the top 10 stayed pretty much status quo.

Mercedes were showing magnificent pace, even after a rather funny, unfortunate incident which saw Hamilton stop at the McLaren pit garage for his first stop by mistake. The strong lap times caused second place man Vettel, to probe the team, asking if Webber could concede 1st place as he felt he was far faster than his teammate – something which didn’t happen.

Pastor Maldonado’s season turned from bad to worse, as his Williams car was seen exiting the circuit with a KERS problem on lap 14, meaning two retirements from the first two races for the Venezuelan.

The second stops kicked off around lap 20, and it remained “follow the leader” for the top 4. Webber pitted first, switching from the harder compound to the mediums, after a flirtation with the hards in order to help the wear rate on the RedBull. Vettel pitted 2 laps later and rejoined right behind the Aussie once again.

The second stops however, appeared to be a complete disaster for both Force India drivers. Firstly Di Resta came in for his second stop of the day, however was stationary for over a minute in the pit lane as mechanics could simply not attach the front right.  A wheel nut or gun issue seemed to be the case, and he rejoined well down the order in 18th.

His teammate, Sutil came in a lap later to suffer the same problems. Both cars eventually retired a lap down, which seemed to sum up the entire Force India weekend – frustration.

For the third round of pitstops, Hamilton decided to once again try something different in leapfrogging the RedBull’s as the top 4 closed to be within 5 seconds of each other. Whilst Mark responded straight away, and rejoined ahead of Hamilton, Vettel once again tried to run longer, and after his 3rd stop had been completed he found himself the meat in a Mercedes sandwich.

That did not stop Vettel however, after earlier frustration, was in no mood for games. Several laps passed and the RedBull man found himself closing in fast on the Briton – at this point starting to struggle for pace due to fuel and tyre woes.

The German sized up Hamilton down the start-finish straight and breezed past in his pursuit of Webber, with Rosberg next in line to capitalise. For Hamilton’s ex team however, the sky was no brighter, as Jenson came in for his 2nd stop whilst trying to secure a brilliant 5th place. But the team made a catastrophic error, as the McLaren man was released too early for the front left wheel to be tightened, and he found himself going down the pitlane with 3 wheels on his wagon – he too retired.

In a bid to try and stop his drop through the field, Hamilton made an early 4th stop back on to a scrubbed set of medium tyres. Ross Brawn was constantly on the radio to remind Lewis to “lift and coast” as he will was extremely marginal on fuel at this point. Rosberg rejoined behind Hamilton once again in 4th, and was quickly closing in again on his teammate.

Upfront, Vettel took the initiative as he made an earlier pitstop, reacting in most part to the Mercedes cars behind him. When Webber rejoined from his 4th stop, the pair were incredibly close going into turn 1, with both Red Bull drivers fighting all the way up to turns 4 and 5.

At this point it was revealed that both drivers were to follow a “multi 21” code by the team which would see them hold station to the chequered flag. However, 2 laps later, and with Mark Webber into “preservation” mode, the engine turned down on the car and preserving his tyres, found himself under attack by Vettel.

Getting the DRS benefit off the pitstraight, Vettel pulled alongside his teammate on the near side, coming up close and personal with pitwall, before the pair continued to squabble for 4 consecutive corners – with the German coming out on top going round the outside of Turn 4.

It was something that Webber appeared to be extremely unhappy about, gesticulating what he thought of Vettel’s move, as it seemed he had disobeyed direct team orders in passing Webber.

Further down the road, and Mercedes were having their own team problems. Hamilton, who was still struggling with fuel worries, was now evidently holding up Rosberg who passed his teammate going into the final turn, before being repassed on the pit straight.

He immediately went on to the radio, explaining that Hamilton was holding him up. Ross Brawn however repeatedly was heard telling Rosberg to hold station, and for both cars not to be risked in a battle on track – something the German was extremely frustrated about, but had the grace to accept and hold station.

All this meant Vettel crossed the finish line to take his first victory of the season, ahead of a very unhappy Webber, who clearly felt he had been cheated out of a certain victory by Vettel. Hamilton, after slowing hugely in the last 5 laps, as planned, was followed home by Rosberg to take 3rd and 4th – a good result for Mercedes.

Further down, Felipe Massa had a rather anonymous afternoon, not showing the promised Ferrari pace, with a late 4th pitstop allowing him to overtake Hulkenberg, Raikkonen and Grosjean for 5th place and another solid haul of points.

For Lotus it appeared to be a missed opportunity, as the team had the pace during the Grand Prix, however found themselves horribly out of position. Raikkonen had a hugely frustrating afternoon, finding himself tucked up behind, firstly Perez and then Hulkenberg for the majority of the Grand Prix – before passing the Sauber driver late on to claim 7th behind his teammate Grosjean.

It was a very promising afternoon for McLaren at times, as they appear to be getting to grips with the new MP4-28 finally. Button stated he felt a podium might not have been out of reach given Mercedes problems late on, and Perez, with a better qualifying could have achieved perhaps better than 9th.

But let’s not forget both rookies Bottas and Bianchi, who had sterling drivers to 11th and 13th respectively for Williams and Marussia. Both managed to conditions beautifully, and capitalised on others mistakes, Bianchi’s stock is definitely rising race by race, and it will be interesting to see if the Marussia driver can claim the teams first points as the season progresses.

But going into the 3 week break before the Chinese Grand Prix, the headlines solely look set to be dominated by the controversy caused by both Mercedes and RedBull. Team orders are very much still part of Formula 1 and I am sure Sebastian Vettel will have a lot of explaining to do, not only to his team, but also Webber. For the Aussie, it looks set to be the final straw for a team in which his relationship with has been stretched to its limit – has it reached breaking point?

~ by thejudge13 on March 24, 2013.

Posted in F1 Race Reviews

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Malaysia GP 2013 The Verdict: A tale of 2 team mates

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Well, well, well. The prospect of the race in Sepang was truly mouth watering. Usually the threat of rain adds for most fans the prospect of extra excitement and seeing the best driver’s in the world challenged by a slippery surface demonstrates another dimension of their skills.

Yet the current situation with the top teams being either quick over one lap or quick at race pace offered enough intrigue and many possibilities without the need for rain. Okay there was a Red Bull on pole, but analysts within the team were predicting 4 stops would be necessary were the circuit dry from the start to the very end.

And so to the drama. How was this allowed to happen? What on earth was the team thinking? Why did we have a driver apparently not communicate with the pit wall?

It was inevitable eventually. Fernando has been so consistent and played the percentages brilliantly, but today there was driver error from the Spaniard and a collision with the rear of Vettel’s car. Yet why on earth did he not receive the call to come in and change the wing when it was clear on the TV world feed that the wing was at a terminal angle. Other teams could see the big risk as Jenson was told to give Alonso a wide berth on the radio.

Alonso said after the race, “Today, unfortunately, we were very unlucky. After making a good start, I touched with Vettel at the second corner: it was a surprise to find him there, almost stopped and I don’t know what speed he was doing. Despite the fact the car was damaged, it didn’t seem to be too bad and, together with the team, we decided to keep going, because if we’d stopped immediately and then again on lap 3 or 4 to fit dry tyres, we would have dropped too far back and definitely lost the chance to finish up the front. It’s easy to criticise this decision, but at the time it seemed like the right one”.

It may be that Fernando is covering for his team but this was never his call to make. The driver would have no idea the exact extent of the damage and the team were then responsible for a reprehensible decision which created probably the most fearful of dangerous situations a driver can face. Failing to call Alonso in both put him in a great deal of danger and proved to be a delusional assessment of the risk to the points scoring opportunity for the day.

Further, if this is the case then it makes the comments over driver safety from Ferrari in the wake of Grosjean’s ‘reckless’ behaviour in Spa appear to be ‘weasel words’. Stefano has been handed a massive get out of jail free card with the media over this due to other matters developing later in the race.

We then had the entertaining sight of Lewis rocking up for a tyre change at the McLaren pit. Amusing but in fact this was a really big mistake and one which certainly cost Hamilton the opportunity of exiting either in the lead or right behind the leader. McLaren’s twitter account the @thefifthdriver tweeted, “feel free to pop in and say ‘hi’ anytime @lewishamilton”.

The huge surprise is how quickly McLaren appear to be rectifying their problematic car. On the hard tyre the 2 fastest laps of the race were from Sergio Perez 1:39:199 and Jenson Button with a 1:40:556 but once again McLaren shoot themselves in the foot with a calamitous pit stop. There are those back at the MTC who were calculating Jenson had a real chance of beating the Mercedes and getting a podium and fifth place would have been more than achievable. Points thrown away again by McLaren appear this time to have benefited Lewis Hamilton, ironically because he is not driving for them.

Bob builder of fast cars ought to pay attention to building nuts that facilitate a fast pit stop too. Apparently whilst the Silverstone team have a technology sharing arrangement with McLaren they did not run their new McLaren style wheel nut design by the techies at the MTC and this looks a very costly mistake.

Paul Di Resta was most chipper in the media pen, probably because the calamitous pit stops meant he didn’t lose further ground after a tricky weekend to his team mate.

Once again Jules Bianchi is stealing the rookie limelight and he is now 17th in the WDC ahead of Ricciardo and Maldonado. A strong thirteenth place finish may be tough for Caterham to beat in 2013 and thus secure the team the tenth position and the cash from Bernie.

Marrusia say they are expecting to score points this year and were most secretive about their front wing when the SKY camera tried to take a look at it. For Caterham it was another tale of woe and maybe we will see Heikki back in the green goddess and sooner than we think.

Toro Rosso were fined 10,000 euro’s for an unsafe release and Ricciardo’s retirement was as in Australia due to an exhaust issue.

Maldonado lost KERS so he retired the car and Bottas was close to his first point in F1 finishing 11th and is just ahead of Bianchi in the drivers’ standings.

Hulkenberg was indeed quick early in the race and then after dicing with Kimi managed to eventually stumble into his first points.

Romain Grosjean was the highest placed of the 3 stoppers and the car’s easiness on the tyres was evident with Kimi Raikkonen running the longest stint on the hard tyres managing 22 laps.

Mercedes clearly underestimated their fuel consumption as Lewis commented that they were on ‘a knife edge’ from very early in the race. This led to the team ordering Rosberg to hold station over the final 12-13 laps of the race, something he questioned several times yet he complied and duly allowed Lewis to take a podium third.

Hamilton was impressive in his podium humility and for giving his team mate the recognition he deserved. “I have to say big congratulations to Nico. He drove a smarter and more controlled race than me this afternoon and deserved to finish where I did”.

Rosberg was asked whether he felt the team owe him and without edge and smiling he replied, “Owe me one? No, I wouldn’t say that because I understand I drive for Mercedes, for all the guys at home who put their lives into building this car over the winter and doing such a fantastic job. So I’m pleased to get a great result for the team.

But of course there is a small side of me who wants to go flat out all the way to the end and be up on the podium myself. But the time will come for that”.

This appears to be one of the best relationships amongst F1 team mates – maybe ever – even Ross Brawn commented on that Lewis and Nico relate to each other more naturally than did Schumacher and Rosberg.

So that’s one team and its team mates but we we have another to discuss – Red Bull. In a way the race had fizzled out so the fuse that Sebastian Vettel chose to light gave us something to talk about instead of a final 15 laps procession. Ignoring team orders he attacked his team mate, giving us a thrilling 1 lap battle before squeezing between Webber and the pit wall using DRS on the pit straight.

Following the cars being shut down in parc ferme, Webber was first to the weigh in but didn’t appear in the drivers’ ready room behind the podium for quite a while. Vettel was in there with a stern faced Newey making small talk about the tyre performance in the early part of the race.

Mark Webber arrived with just around 1 minute to spare before the presentation ceremony began. Stern faced and ignoring Vettel he grabbed a towel and a drink and sat down. He then gave Vettel a withering stare and said “Multi 21 Seb…. Multi 21”. Vettel says nothing and Adrian Newey doesn’t interfere.

Apparently Red Bull sent two of their PR people to meet the driver’s before the podium ceremony, but the FIA doorman refused them entry.

On the podium Vettel claimed that it had been a good battle and his 27th F1 win – matching the record of Jackie Stewart – was because he had more in hand than Webber and indeed it was he who managed go gain the ‘upper hand’. Webber claimed he had been told twice to turn down his engine and that the team wanted to protect the 1-2.
“I won a race as well… but in the end Seb made his own decisions today and will have protection as usual and that’s the way it goes. I was disappointed with the outcome and I did my best”.

Helmut Marko was asked in the pit lane for his views on matters and was pretty forthright saying, “We told the drivers to stay in their positions because we were worried about the tyre wear but at this stage it got out of control I have to say“.

He was then asked was Vettel’s decision to ignore team orders acceptable and responded, “No,  the team will have to have a word because we have to control the drivers. Its not like it is at Mercedes where there is a clear number one and number 2, we basically treat the drivers the same”. Good one Helmut, deflect the attention and stir some grief for Niki and co.

Christian Horner, never one to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when 10,000 words can be used was asked directly whether Sebastian Vettell had disobeyed team orders had this to say (eventually). “After the final round of pit stops we gave instructions to both cars. Of course Mark’s going to be aggrieved by it but the instructions were clear, they were clear for all to hear”.

This was evident to the world as Horner told Vettel on the radio that he was being ‘silly’ and Rocky commentd following the chequered flag, “you clearly wanted that badly, but you’ll now have to give some explanations”.

The team photograph with the trophies was cancelled. During the FIA drivers’ press conference for the written media, it was reported that Sebastian apoligised to Mark Webber, however the Aussie was in no mood to hear it.

Here’s what the drivers said during the post podium media interviews in the ‘pen’, firstly from Webber.

He was asked whether he accepted Vettel’s apology. “I respect Sebastian, but it is still very raw at the moment because we have a plan before the race how things will be given this scenario”.

The reporter then suggested there was no point to an agreement if both parties don’t adhere to it  and Webber replied, “I was completely reassured twice that we were not going to abuse the cars on each other because it was very easy for us to not get any points. It’s very hard for everybody to understand the whole scenario there’s a lot of people who think they know the whole situation but unfortunately it’s not possible for them to understand everything”.

The next question Webber fielded was regarding team morale going forward and he was coded in his reply. “It puts a lot of heat on certain people for sure – inevitably it does. Unfortunately there is no rewind button now so the scenario is now a bit more challenging for certain people.

Its 3 weeks to the next race, so we are fortunate we have 3 weeks. I will catch some waves in Australia on my board so this will be good medicine for me. But there were a lot of things in my mind during the last 15 laps of the grand prix to be honest but whether the medicine is enough – we’ll see”.

Sebastian was asked how he intended to build bridges with his team mate. “We respect each other so in that regard there is nothing that has to be fixed. We don’t hate each other so there is nothing to worry about for going into the next couple of races. I messed up today and I want to apologise for that but right now I want to tell the truth – I wasn’t aware of it otherwise I wouldn’t take that much risk to pass someone I wasn’t supposed to pass at that moment.

But just before we got out on the podium, I had a very quick word and yeah it was quite a shock and not easy for me to admit but that’s the truth so I want to stick to the truth”.

Sebastian was asked if the victory was a sour one and he responded, “I don’t care about the criticism, I owe an explanation to mark and the team – everyone is entitled to their opinions – but for sure this is not a victory I’m very proud of because it should have been Mark’s”.

Vettel is clearly maintaining he didn’t know he was being told to hold station, despite both Horner and Marko’s crystal clear assertions. In a later interview sebastian appears to modify his position.

“I got the call and I ignored it. Mark and I are used to fighting each other when we’re close, but with the tyres how they are now, and not knowing how long they will last, it was an extremely big risk to ignore the call to stay second”.

The problem for Red Bull is that since team orders have been allowed they claim that the drivers receive equal treatment and it is the interests of the team that come first and the driver is an employee of the team. Well the genie is out of the bottle, and should Vettel find himself in a situation where the WDC is tight and 3 incremental points make all the difference; and should he need those points to be delivered with the co-operation of his team mate – What will Webber do?

I have heard today that there are a number within the team believe that Sebastian today went too far. Ruthless in pursuit of winning is fine, but in taking an unfair advantage of his team mate who had out manouvred him all race, Vettel’s actions are tantamount to cheating.

Webber had turned down the engine as instructed when he was mugged by a dangerous move adjacent to the concrete pit wall. Further, David Coultard commented live at the time of the Vettel ‘pass’ that it Mark could easily have run him wide and defended the  position coming out of turn 4. This analysis was borne out by SKY presenter and racer Anthony Davidson.

Mark Webber is the oldest driver in F1 at present, he has a contract to the end of the year, who knows what he will decide to do when presented with wheel to wheel racing with his team mate.

Vettel was heckled on the podium in Australia and he should be careful because it does matter what people other than Mark and the team think. Today there there are those in the media who shape the news and what F1 fans read that are asking “is Vettel in fact Schumacher in disguise?”

~ by thejudge13 on March 24, 2013.

Posted in F1 Race Reviews

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Daily News and Comment

AppId is over the quota

Massa – part of the strategy

It appears horses heads are aplenty at present. Charles Pic must have received one for almost taking out Alonso in Melbourne and Felipe has been clearly ‘got at’ by Il Padrino and the boys.

Protocol amongst a number of teams is that the leading car on the agreed lap for a planned pitstop get’s the call to come in first – or at least the option, and despite running ahead of Alonso in the Melbourne GP Alonso got the nod for the first stop ahead of Massa.

This appeared to give Fernando the undercut which put him past Massa and Vettel when the round of pit stops had been concluded. Flavio Briatore commented, “Felipe should not be at all happy,” and following the race itself Felipe was clear when he stated, “Yes I was upset when Fernando got ahead of me. That was the only problem of my race, where I lost two positions.”

One week and a horses head later, Felipe is singing a different tune. Speaking to Brazil’s Totalrace he now claims, “I was not penalised or disadvantaged. When we were in a group of cars, Fernando came in earlier … it’s always easier when you take more of a risk.

“It looked like it was going to hurt him, but it ended up working out. Of course, if you’re fighting for the best and that happens, you’re upset, but of course it was not a disadvantage or even team orders. Not at all. I was part of that strategy and it didn’t work out. It was not easy to understand the tyres with such little practice.”

TJ13 is hearing that lovers and friends of the equine fraternity are concerned about their recent rapidly dwindling numbers in the Italian countryside.

UPDATE: Felipe has also been replaced as one of the 2 directors of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GDPA) today by a vote that has promoted Jenson Button. Pedro De La Rosa, chairman said “”It’s good for the GPDA as we have two world champions as directors now.” The other ‘director’ is Sebastian Vettel.

Matters under discussion included the recent fines handed out by the stewards in Australia. The drivers understood that were they to pay significantly higher fees for their F1 super license that they would not be fined for misdemeanours. Two drivers were fined for pit lane speeding in Melbourne.

The decision was to leave the matter with the FIA for now.

Kubica rejected  DTM

Robert Kubica tested a DTM car in Portugal over the winter break and it was believed that he would race in that series during 2013. However, with little notice Kubica announced he was entering the WRC, in modified class 2 car.

DTM as a circuit racing event may have given some indication as to whether Kubica could realistically expect to return to F1 at all. Following the DTM test and the failure for Kubica to be declared for the series it was presumed in certain quarters that the team had declined to offer Robert a drive.

However, today in Spanish publication AS, Robert informs us “I had an offer to race in DTM, but I chose rally even though it’s a hundred times more difficult. I made the decision late because I wanted it to be right and, hopefully, later this year I will be happy with my choice. DTM is a very difficult championship, with a very high level, and maybe for me it would have been easier to race on circuits, as it’s what I know.”

Dissapointingly for many Kubica confesses, “I don’t think much about Formula One. Definitely the easiest choice would have been to do the DTM. But today my limitations mean I cannot drive Formula One on some of the most physically demanding circuits.

I also have limitations to do the rallies and so I will work hard this year and if I can overcome my limitations, I’ll have time to think about returning to Formula One,” he added hopefully.

Grosjean gets B-spec car again

Many people were not aware that in Melbourne, Romain Grosjean did not have the same specification of car as did his team mate Kimi. Certain parts arrived late on Saturday which meant he had little time to properly set up the car. The result was Grosjean qualified nearly 3/10ths of a second slower than Kimi and finished a disappointing 10th in the race.

Speaking in Sepang today James Allison confirmed this, ”He’s [Grosjean] not had an easy weekend either here or there, because we haven’t been able to provide two cars in exactly the same configuration on either occasion. Here, once again, we only have one set of kit and we’ve chosen to run that with Kimi and Romain is disadvantaged for that.”

TJ13 believes the missing bits are a key aero upgrade and Allison explains, “We will always try to get two sets available but (it’s) not always possible. So he’s had a difficult set of circumstances and he’s also up against a team-mate who is really firing on all cylinders.”

When Eric Boullier answered in the principal’s press meeting last week that the team had the budget for the development fight, I didn’t realise it meant by just planning to do this for just one car. Romain is entitled to expect as many buttons on his steering wheel as Kimi – in my humble opinion’

Hey, but that is the life of a number 2 Formula 1 driver. Unfortunately, this disadvantage will not be reflected in Adam’s adjusted ‘Victim’s of Circumstance’ table for publication next week.

The word is that Lotus will try their passive DRS system this weekend which could make Kimi even quicker. Air is taken in above the driver’s head, either side of the main air intake for the engine – via 2 ‘ear bud’ like slots and piped down the car. The air exists at the rear and is used to reduce drag at the rear of the car when travelling at high speed.

Surprise surprise – not

The worst kept secret in F1 is sneaking out. TJ13 was one of the first to report the Paddy Lowe story and from the moment Toto Wolff bought a share in the AGM F1 team there had to be a question mark over Nick Fry’s position of CEO in Brackley. Whilst Toto has managed to fudge the issue with Ross Brawn nicely and slipped into the FIA press conference last week, “Ross does not report to me”.

Apparently despite stating last week that ”the team has gone through many shareholdings and restructurings. It was BAR, then Honda, then Ross brought the team, it won the world championship and now it is Mercedes. So it is about calming down the situation and giving the long term view and commitment”, the hungry Wolff has decided on his first prey.

Nick Fry will step down quietly as CEO of Mercedes but will retain a consultancy position with the team for the rest of the season. He joined the team in 2002 when the were called BAR and so a 12 year association with Brackley will slowly fizzle out by the end of the year. I wonder if he and Paddy will be ‘consulting’ together over the coming months – on how to make the perfect cup of tea.

~ by thejudge13 on March 22, 2013.

Posted in Daily News and comment

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Ross Brawn: “The pace of progress at the front is ferocious…”

Ross Brawn says he has no regrets about not pitting Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for fresh intermediates at the end of Q3, a strategy that helped to propel Sebastian Vettel and the two Ferraris to the head of the field.

Hamilton and Rosberg had to settle for fourth and sixth, having looked stronger earlier in the session.

“We’d obviously considered it before the session started,” said Brawn of the alternative strategy. “We’d seen some indications that the intermediate both held on and maybe even improved as it wore down, but I don’t think that seemed to be the case. It was as simple as that.”

Nevertheless Brawn says he’s happy with the way the Malaysian weekend has turned out thus far.

“I don’t think we were able to see the full potential of the cars in the dry, but I think we’re certainly top six in terms of our cars. So I think it’s a measure of where we are right now that we’re disappointed with fourth and sixth. Fourth and sixth would have been very welcome in the second half of last year, this year we’re a bit disappointed.

“We’re in that group. I don’t think we’re the fastest team, but we’ve made some encouraging progress, and we’ve got to keep pushing hard to keep progressing, because the pace of progress at the front is ferocious. We’re going to keep working hard to keep bringing new improvements to the cars.

“What will really count is where everyone is tomorrow, how they’re using their tyres, how they’re getting the most from them, good strategy, so on and so forth. The next measure will be tomorrow.”

Asked if he would be disappointed to still be fourth and sixth on Sunday, Ross said: “It would be OK. There are worse positions, and there are better positions. I think the drivers have worked really well this weekend, and the engineers have worked really well to have the car that we want to have. If that all comes together in the race, then fourth and sixth probably would be a bit of a disappointment.

“It’s difficult to speculate where we will end up, but we’re not in a bad place. We spent a lot of time getting the car dialled in for the race, and if that carries through – and it doesn’t always carry through, you get different conditions on a Sunday, and you suddenly find the car you tuned to heat the sweet spot doesn’t hit the sweet spot on Sunday. If it doesn’t then with these tyres, you can start to struggle. But if we carry that through, we should have a good race.”

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Raikkonen lands three-place grid penalty

Kimi Raikkonen has been handed a three-place penalty in Malaysia for impeding Nico Rosberg in qualifying.

Jenson Button now moves up to seventh, ahead of Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez. Kimi will now start 10th, right in front of team mate Romain Grosjean.

“It got a  bit close in Turn 14,” said Rosberg. “They were on out laps, him and Sutil. So it was a bit close. The stewards have to judge if that was impeding or not.”

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Fernando Alonso: “This is a very real test for us”

Fernando Alonso says that another podium finish in Malaysia this weekend will confirm that Ferrari is on target with the F138.

A year ago Alonso won in Malaysia, but only after rain handed him a chance to flatter the troubled F2012.

“There is no comparison with last year, we were coming here out of Q3, and nowhere near where we wanted to be,” he said. “This year is a little bit better in this aspect. We have a more or less competitive car, and in Australia everything worked quite fine for us, and we showed a good potential. It’s true that in Australia strategy was very, very strange, a very unusual circuit, so this weekend for us is a little bit of confirmation.

“We need to confirm that the car is performing well after some positive feelings in the winter, and some positive feelings in Australia. This is a very real test for us, and we want a clear weekend and hopefully a good result. A podium will be again a very good target to achieve, and if we do so, I think we can be very, very happy.”

Alonso has not won a race since Germany in July last year: “It’s not frustrating at the moment. If I have the best car on the grid and I do six pole positions and I finish second every race, it will be frustrating. If we are outside the top five in the qualifying and we finish in the podium always, then I’m very proud.”

He says he was not fazed by Kimi Raikkonen’s performance in Australia.

“I think the pace of the Lotus was very good, but nothing we could not do. I think they had a very clean race, with no traffic, good strategy, but the pace was nothing out of reach. I think here we can fight a little bit closer.”

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