The weekend marked the end of the long F1 break and we were long overdue for our fix. Things picked up at the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit for the 2010 Belgian GP. The weekend started off with Mark Webber taking control of qualifying and earning pole but Lewis Hamilton was hot on his heels and managed to nab the second spot on the grid. Sebastien Vettel had a bit of a bobble in his performance and qualified fourth.
When the lights went out the next day Mark Webber fell asleep at the wheel and had a horrible start which Lewis Hamilton was more than happy to capitalize on and that was all she wrote. While Lewis was running away from the field Sebastien Vettel was trying to fight his way to the front after some bad tire decisions put him in mid-pack. He actually lost control at one point and slid into the back of Jenson Button, taking him out completely. Vettel’s car was ok but the stewards didn’t like his stunt at all and smacked him with a drive through penalty which pretty much threw him to the back of the pack. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton drove on to his first race win since June and preserving his championship points lead. While Sebastien Vettel’s championship chances may be totally done all because of a wet track and a bad decision. Check out a full race report on SPEED’s website.
Before the Indy Cars started a boring race that ended spectacularly (you’ll see in the post after this), Formula 1 put on a show in Sebastien Vettel’s hometown of Hockenheim, Germany which temporarily re-named “Vettelheim” in honor of Sebastien Vettel. The weekend started off dramatically with many drivers crashing hard during a rainy practice on Friday and Sebastien Vettel edging out Fernando Alonso for pole position by just .002 of a second at the end of Q3 in qualifying on Saturday. To make things even more dramatic for Sebastien, Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa qualified in 3rd position. This meant Red Bull’s young ace would have to start the race with two angry Ferrari’s right behind him.
It was Ferrari’s performance in qualifying that showed the world that they were definitely not going to lay down and let Red Bull or McLaren take away a championship which they feel is still within their reach. Despite having only one win so far this season (with Fernando Alonso taking the win at the first race in Bahrain) Ferrari strongly believes they have a fighting chance at the driver’s championship.
As the lights went out to signal the start of the race Sebastien tried to pull a classic Schumacher move and slice in front of Fernando Alosno but he failed miserably as both Felipe and Fernando split him and lead the pack 1-2 into turn 1. Felipe was actually the biggest benefactor from Sebastien’s blunder as he took first place with Fernando ducking in behind him. However, things didn’t stay quite in this order for the whole race.
At around lap 19 of the race as Felipe and Fernando weaved through slower traffic Fernando attempted a few moves to pass his teammate but both tries were expertly shut down by Massa. It was at this point (lap 22) that Fernando got on the radio and expressed his frustration stating that “this is ridiculous” expressing that he has a faster pace than Felipe and should be let by. Now, Ferrari can’t simply tell Felipe to “let Fernando pass you” because that would be considered “team orders” which are against the rules in F1. Instead the team got on the radio to Felipe and said something to the effect of “Fernando has a much faster pace than you, please respond if you understand this message.” Felipe did not respond but he did eventually and blatantly let Fernando pass him to take first place.
The race ended with a 1-2 finish by Ferrari with Fernando Alonso taking first and his bitter teammate Felipe Massa taking second while Sebastien Vettel landed third place.
When F1 officials learned of the radio transmission between the Ferrari pit and Felipe Massa they were not happy. They allowed Fernando Alonso to keep his victory however, Ferrari was fined $100k for violation of the “no team orders” rule. They were also submitted to the World Motorsport Council (WMSC) for further possible penalties. That is certainly a tough break for Ferrari who fought valiantly to get a much needed win.
Just after the Formula Drift party was winding down the Formula 1 jump-off at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix was getting started. Silverstone came back this year in a big way. The entire track was refreshed and extended making the total distance just over 3 miles. It was also announced that Silverstone just renewed its contract with the FIA and would be on the F1 schedule for the next 17 years.
With all of that pageantry out of the way the grid got down to business and like half the races so far Red Bull Racing dominated practice and qualifying with Mark Webber taking the pole and his teammate Sebastien Vettel taking the spot right next to him. However despite being next to each other on the front row things were not too friendly between the two Red Bull Drivers. Webber was put-off when the upper brass of the RBR team decided to take a new experimental front wing off his car and put it on Vettel’s car, leaving Mark with an out-dated piece that reduced his straight line speed. Although it didn’t seem to hamper his performance all that much since he ran away from the pack as soon as the lights went out. Meanwhile, in Vettel-ville Sebastian had a major incident at the start and cut a tire. After the tire was replaced in the pits he emerged at the back of the pack. Eventually he fought his way to a 6th place finish but it was Mark Webber who snagged the victory.
Mark is now third in points behind Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton while Vettel sits 4th in points. However the season is only half over so both RBR drivers are more than within striking distance to the points lead. I can’t wait to see how the rest of this season plays out!
The F1 grid visited Fernando Alonso’s hometown over the weekend for the 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. Since F1 started visiting Valencia the races have always been more than eventful. This year was no exception! Things started out normal enough, with Sebastien Vettel on the pole and the McLaren cars not far behind. However, when the lights went out things immediately got dicy. First Vettel got into Hamilton at the first corner and damaged Hamilton’s front left tire. Lewis fought with some severe vibrations until he was able to get into the pits and have his crew address the problem.
The real fireworks came just after the halfway point of the race. Mark Webber was barreling down on an off-pace Hekki Kovalainen. Hekki knew that he was off the pace and attempted to make room for Mark to go by but, Mark already picked the path he would take and Hekki crossed it. The resulting collision had Webber nearly flipping over in mid-air before landing right side up. Luckily Webber was just shaken and stirred but not seriously hurt.
Mark Webber/Hekki Kovalainen incident:
This nasty incident naturally brought out the safety car and that is when things really got interesting. As the safety car came out the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felpe Massa followed instructions per the rules and lined up behind the car, slowing down. Lewis Hamilton actually passed the saftey car which is a big no-no. As the race went on the race stewards announced that Lewis would face a drive through penalty. But Lewis’ pace was so fast and he was so far ahead that despite having to take a leisurely cruise through the pit lane he did not lose a single position. Ferrari was furious about this had have been spouting off about it ever since.
While all this drama was going on Sebastian Vettel was busy putting a 14 second gap on the rest of the pack. The young German kept things smooth and drove his Red Bull Racing Renault to a victory, making him the third different winner in Valencia in the last three years. Lewis still remains the leader in the points but with Mark Webber’s accident Sebastien was able to pass his teammate in the points standings. Good job Sebastien! You can check out the race re-cap by the SPEED trio.
While Audi was kicking butt in LeMans, F1 was putting on their own show in another French speaking country. Once again the Canadians got to enjoy the pageantry of F1 while us Yankees had to settle with watching it on TV. If you did get a chance to watch you would have seen Lewis Hamilton dominate the weekend and go on to win the race leading a McLaren 1-2 finish with Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari bringing up third. Lewis drove a pretty masterful race and with his teammate Jenson Button in tow they pulled off a second consecutive 1-2 finish. Lewis and Jenson now lead the driver’s points standings respectively while many are starting to question of the Red Bull show is over. Check out SPEED’s full post-race report for the juicy details.
Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! You may have been too busy BBQ-ing to pay attention to all the racing that went on Sunday so I’m going to attempt to give you all a quick re-cap starting with F1. This weekend the F1 grid landed in Istanbul, Turkey for the Turkish GP (go figure). As usual during practice and qualifying the two Red Bull Racing cars had strong performances. However the real surprise was Lewis Hamilton who stuck his nose in the battle of the two Red Bull teammates and qualified in row 1 for the first time this season.
When the lights went out on Sunday both Red Bull cars attempted to get a jump in the field but they couldn’t shake Hamilton who appeared to be on a mission from the speed gods. Once he found his opportunity he passed a increasingly slowing Mark Webber for the lead. While Lewis worked on building a cap an unexpected battle unfolded between Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel. For some reason Mark continued to get slower each lap while Vettel got faster. However, Webber fought with everything he could to keep Vettel behind him which led to the two drivers eventually colliding against each other in lap 40. This allowed Lewis and his teammate Jenson Button to move past the squabble leading to a 1-2 finish for the McLaren Vodafone team while Mark Webber limped to 3rd keeping him at the top of the points standings.
You can guarantee there was a long discussion in the Red Bull paddock after the race. You can read a full post race report on SPEED TV’s website. The next round will be in Canada and I’m sure we’ll learn about all the drama before the next race weekend.
With all the excitement going on in my backyard for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach I almost forgot that F1 was running in Shanghai in the same weekend. It was a rough and tumble weekend for most of the F1 grid as the weather in China was just maniacally random. One moment it was raining the next it was hot and humid. Even though Sebastien Vettel captured the pole position on Saturday everyone knew that once the race started it would all be a gamble on tire choice. So got lucky 7 after throwing the rubber dice? Believe it or not it was Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. They pulled off a 1-2 victory this weekend pushing Jenson Button to the top of the driver championship and McLaren to the top of the constructors championship. You can check out a full race-recap with the SPEED guys by clicking here.
The F1 grid landed in Malaysia over the weekend and battled unpredictable weather mixed in with severe heat at the Sepang Circuit. There was a lot of pre-race speculation on the ability of Red Bull Racing to get their ace driver Sebastien Vettel through an entire race. In case you forgot Sebastien had two consecutive DNF’s due to mechanical reasons and both came after dominant performances. The pressure was on the Red Bull garage to complete an event much less win. Fortunately it seems as if the Red Bull team does well under pressure because not only did Sebastien finish the race he won and with teammate Mark Webber right behind himRed Bull Racing got their first 1-2 finish of the season! Now that the fastest driver is in a car with no issues McLaren and Ferrari need to start sweating. It looks like there will be a three-way battle for the title this year.
There was talk after the Bahrain GP that perhaps the FIA took the gonads out of F1 competition with their new rules and such. In fact some were even referring to the Bahrain GP as the “Boring GP”. However all that was erased over the weekend in Australia. There was a ton of passing and dicing, including a demolition derby into turn one during the first lap. As I suspected Sebastien Vettel was on a mission to redeem the win he felt was rightfully his after his dominating performance at Bahrain was nullified by a busted header during the final laps.
This time Vettel shot his way to the front and wasn’t going to let a cracked exhaust header keep him from victory. Technically he accomplished this goal, because it wasn’t a cracked exhaust header that kept him from victory it was a busted wheel! Once again a dominant performance was dashed by a car malfunction. You can imagine that someone from Renault is getting yelled at right now by the young German.
After Vettel was taken out of the race by his own car Jenson Button took over the lead and held on as a epic battle between hometown boy Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, and Fernando Alonso raged on behind him. But those guys weren’t able to kick up enough dust to disturb Jenson’s drive and he cruised along to victory followed by Kubica (2nd) and Massa (3rd).
I would have loved to see Mark Webber win in his home country or Lewis get a repeat win in the place where he made his F1 debut but Jenson Button was just delt the right hand in this round. It looks like the old McLaren/Ferrari battle may be making a comeback for 2010.
About 24 hours ago on the other side of the pond (that’s the UK for those not down with the lingo) McLaren Automotive formally announced itself as an auto manufacturer and made the official debut of the MP4-12C. Media from all around the world were in attendance (except us) and sat front row as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button pulled the sheet off McLaren’s newest supercar. The 12C looks pretty hot and it has some of the most advanced technologies ever put into a road car and most of that was detailed in the presentation. What was not detailed were the three most important numbers: horsepower, price, and release date.
However with the company finally official, off and running I would expect those facts to become common knowledge within short order. You can check out some pics below as well as a video of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button taking a pair of 12C’s out for a little test run!
Press Release Excerpt:
McLaren Automotive today
Although McLaren’s heritage lies principally on the race circuit, the blend of qualities such as ambition, drive and commitment, with more tangible assets such as aerodynamic skills, rapid development through simulation techniques, supreme electronics expertise and a ruthless quest for reliability, have equipped the company to turn Ron Dennis and his shareholders’ dreams into reality.
Taking the vision and turning that into an effective, profitable and world-class car company lies in the hands of McLaren Automotive’s Managing Director, Antony Sheriff, and the teams run by his fellow directors, Alan Foster (Operations Director), Dick Glover (Technical Director), Paul Mackenzie (Projects Director), Mario Micheli (Commercial and Marketing Director), Frank Stephenson (Design Director), Mark Vinnels (Programme Director), Mark Wilson (Finance Director), and Ben Wright (Purchasing Director).
The first car in the range, the 12C is now in the final stages of development, and the first stages of production. It has been designed and developed by a world-class team of engineers and test drivers, and will be built to world-class levels of quality and reliability. All development processes have benefited from McLaren’s expertise in Formula 1, and constant integration with the racing team’s techniques and personnel will set new standards in performance for the road.
Sheriff summed up the focus for McLaren Automotive, inspired by high expectations laid down through the years at McLaren, “”The overriding principle that has driven us to where we are today is that every car will be ‘pure’ McLaren. This means that each and every component has been conceived, designed and produced to McLaren’s specification to meet the extreme requirements of the 12C. There are no carryover components, because they were not good enough. Similarly, our test programmes, production processes and aftersales plans are also brand new and bespoke to McLaren. We have considered everything from a blank sheet of paper to be the best. Being “as good” as everyone else is not good enough; we need to be the best
“Whether it’s the revolutionary carbon MonoCell to the switchgear, or a desire to design cars that can be repaired more quickly and accurately than our competitors, we will deliver cars and a service to our customers, of which we are personally proud.
“One fundamental result of this passion to produce a pure McLaren is that the 12C is what I call the ‘and’ car. Compared to its competition, it will have better performance ‘and’ be more fuel efficient; it will be lighter ‘and’ stronger, safer, and fully equipped; it will be smaller in its exterior dimensions ‘and’ spacious inside; it will better handling ‘and’ be more comfortable.
“As for the 12C’s performance, efficiency is a key aim; efficiency in performance is a goal that we believe our customers will appreciate. With 600PS it will be the most powerful car in its class, yet aiming to produce CO2 figures below 300g/km, we expect to produce each horsepower more efficiently than any car on sale today featuring a petrol, diesel or hybrid engine.
“And our performance goals do not just relate to the 12C, but the car ownership experience itself: McLaren Automotive will offer new standards of customer service through its dedicated network of the world’s best car retailers.
“When I came here, Ron inspired me with his belief that winning Formula 1 races was simply doing your job. After that, it was a question of how you won, how immaculate was the car, how polished the team that delivered that victory. That’s the winning attitude that permeates throughout McLaren Automotive and sets us apart from our competitors,” Sheriff concluded.
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