A while ago, Jenson Button was quoted as saying that he didn't think the fact that the first six races of the season brought six different winners was a good thing. In fact, Jenson believed that having such variability was off-putting to us fans. Well, he'd be disappointed with the race we saw in Canada - a race that brought us our seventh different winner of seven different races!
Canada is always an interesting circuit. The infamous 'wall of champions' on the main straight has claimed many victims over the year - last year catching out Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the final practice session. Luckily last year this didn't seem to affect Seb too much, as he went on to grab pole position. This year, it was Heikki Kovalainen who suffered during the practices, although this incident happened on Friday practice, and sadly didn't lead to a Caterham pole! Pastor Maldonado however was caught by the wall during qualifying, and although he did his best to try and complete his lap with only three wheels, this was clearly a strategy that didn't pay off.
I think we can say that we had a pretty exciting qualifying session overall. It was a genuine mystery as to who would grab pole position. Red Bull had earlier suffered controversy once again over the holes in their car. Last race, a hole in the floor at the rear of the car was controversial, and between the races was deemed illegal - even though Red Bull had previously asked for clarification and were deemed legal. F1 in the last few years is a bit notorious for its sudden changes of mind on aerodynamics (in fact, I'd argue that this is perhaps the more off-putting to fans, rather than having different winners). So, in Canada another controversy arose with the Red Bull holes. This time, holes in the hub were deemed illegal for providing an aerodynamic advantage, and had to be changed before qualifying on Saturday - but whether this would disadvantage the drivers is another story.
Hamilton was perhaps one of the more favourited drivers for pole position in Canada - the circuit which granted him his first win. Q1 saw the Caterhams of Petrov and Kovalainen out-qualify the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne - quite an achievement for the team! Q2 was fairly straightforward, with the usual suspects (McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, the Lotus of Grosjean and the Force India of Paul di Resta) making it through to Q3. So, with the final part of quali to go, we were still no closer to understanding who would be on pole. Vettel set an early time in the low 1:14s, and took pole. However, the McLaren of Hamilton was still in with a good shot, as was the Ferrari of Alonso. Button seemed to opt for a race-strategy, choosing the soft (rather than super-soft) tyres, leading to him finishing in 10th. With the first runs out of the way, the leaders came back out for their final qualifying lap and we got our answer of who was fastest. While fantastic times were set by Alonso and Hamilton, Vettel took his 33rd pole of his career, with a 1:13.7! So, despite the controversy of their car, it looked as though Red Bull had the advantage in Canada.
Race day was another exciting affair - something we're all getting quite used to now. In the early stages of the race, Vettel did his usual trick of flying off into the distance at the start. However, he was swiftly followed by Hamilton and Alonso. When the first round of pit stops came up, there was a lot of switching around at the front. Hamilton took the lead after Vettel pitted, only to be replaced by Alonso after his own pit stop. With the top three still Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel, we could expect a fair amount of close racing. However, the leaders tended to bide their time during the second stint -possibly waiting for clues on each others' strategies. Tyre degradation was such that Hamilton was forced to make a second stop, although on the team radio he did ask whether Alonso and Vettel would also take second stops. As he was assured of the second stops of his rivals, Hamilton pitted. However, it seemed that Alonso and Vettel did not want to stop, having gained the advantage over Hamilton at last.
With this fact in mind, the team were back on the radio to Lewis and asked him to push as much as he could. Of course, the circuit of Montreal is much more suited to the McLaren of Lewis than it is to the Red Bull of Sebastian, and with much fresher tyres the move on Vettel was easily made. This prompted Vettel to pit himself, and eventually Sebastian finished the race in fourth place. With Vettel out of the way, Hamilton only had to pass Alonso - often easier said than done. However, the gamble of Ferrari to only one-stop did not pay off, and the pass was easily done with the aid of newer tyres and DRS. Hamilton thus became our seventh winner.
Things went from bad to worse for Alonso however, as due to his crippled tyres he was passed not only by Hamilton, but by Lotus's Grosjean and Sauber's Perez - people who had otherwise had fairly uneventful races! Now that Vettel was also on fresher tyres, Alonso was easily passed by the Red Bull, and Alonso eventually finished fifth. All of this in the final five laps of the race!
Someone else who has been suffering with a bout of bad luck is Michael Schumacher. Although he managed to qualify in the top 10 once again, SchumacherDRS failed in the open position - something which isn't meant to happen at all! I'm really hoping that Schumi's luck starts to pick up, as he has been showing more promise lately after his pole position a few races back.
Massa was driving an amazing race at the start, however a spin on lap six meant that his amazing form wasn't continued into a higher result. He did, however, recover from his spin to finish 10th. It seems as though Massa is having a second chance at the season, and hopefully we'll see more improvements from him as the season goes on.
So, overall another fantastic race. The next time out is at Valencia - surprisingly one of the races I rarely look forward to, largely because nothing ever really happens. However, the way the season's been going we could see a change in this trend, and maybe we'll end up with an eighth winner! The week after Valencia I am also happy to report that I will be attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed! So, expect a very long update when I return.
Showing posts with label Mercedes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mercedes. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Three to a Corner
After yesterday's qualifying giving us a mixed-up grid, we all knew we'd be in for a treat for China's 2012 grand prix. For the first time since 1955, it was Mercedes locking out the front row of the grid, while the bigger teams were somewhat further down the field. In the mix we had Saubers and Lotus-Renaults, so the prospects for the race were promising.
After the lights went out, Vettel had an absolutely terrible start and slipped from 11th to 15th - a disappointment for the Red Bull fans. However, if you're a fan of German drivers you'll be pleased to know that Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher maintained their place at the front of the field during the first stint. The McLarens also had a pretty good start, and Button and Hamilton made their way towards the front alongside Mark Webber's Red Bull. With all these top drivers at the front, there was a hell of a lot of close racing - it was a miracle that we only had one retirement during the race; Schumacher's spell of bad luck continued with a mistake in the pitstop and ultimately a loose wheel.
If you've not watched the race, you should just to see the epic battle towards the end of the race involving both Lotuses, both Red Bulls and both McLarens. Seeing three F1 cars heading into a corner at the same time is quite a sight to see, especially when getting off-line leads the car into the marbles!
China is a race when it's notoriously difficult to find a good strategy. A two-stop strategy was feasible, however the driver's tyre management would have to be sublime for it to be pulled off. Because of the tyre wear, the majority of the top teams elected for a three-stop - even though they'd lose the time of an extra stop compared to those on the alternative strategy. So, who did what? Well Nico Rosberg ended up on a two-stop strategy, and eventually went on to win the race by quite a comfortable margin. It could be argued that we were deprived of a battle between Rosberg and Button, as Button's third stop was less than perfect, however nobody can deny that Rosberg deserved that first win - especially considering that so many of us doubted the Mercedes' ability to maintain their pace in the race. Third and fourth place men Hamilton and Webber also elected for three-stop strategies, which allowed them to pass the fifth place man on a two-stop strategy, Sebastian Vettel. Yep, the guy who can't race managed to recover to fifth. Make of that what you will, but I'm pretty pleased...
Once again we had an absolutely thrilling race, with closer battles than anything I've seen for a while. It doesn't seem that any one team has a straight advantage, although for the time being both McLarens are leading the championship. As for who is the favourite for the title this year, I think it's way too soon to tell. In races like today's, anything can change in an instant - again it was a massive surprise that only Schumacher retired. As I said in a previous post, although we've had to wait so long over the winter for the season to begin, it was definitely worth it.
Next weekend is the race in Bahrain - something which has been subject to a lot of speculation given the situation there. The FIA confirmed yesterday that the race would definitely be going ahead, something which I'm in two minds about. I know there was a lot of talk about whether F1 should be going to Bahrain or not based on ethical concerns, however personally I'm not sure this has a lot to do with F1. My personal misgivings about the race taking place aren't based on the ethical dilemmas in the country (although obviously this situation isn't acceptable), but are more linked to the safety aspects. Mark Webber commented on this beautifully in an BBC article earlier this week, arguing that safety isn't so much an issue for teams and drivers, but the other people heading to and from the track every day. Overall, it's the FIA's decision whether to race or not, and obviously they wouldn't have chosen to attend if the situation was unsafe. With any luck, the race next weekend will be memorable for its racing, rather than the political situation surrounding it. Either way, 2012 is shaping up to be an interesting season.
After the lights went out, Vettel had an absolutely terrible start and slipped from 11th to 15th - a disappointment for the Red Bull fans. However, if you're a fan of German drivers you'll be pleased to know that Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher maintained their place at the front of the field during the first stint. The McLarens also had a pretty good start, and Button and Hamilton made their way towards the front alongside Mark Webber's Red Bull. With all these top drivers at the front, there was a hell of a lot of close racing - it was a miracle that we only had one retirement during the race; Schumacher's spell of bad luck continued with a mistake in the pitstop and ultimately a loose wheel.
If you've not watched the race, you should just to see the epic battle towards the end of the race involving both Lotuses, both Red Bulls and both McLarens. Seeing three F1 cars heading into a corner at the same time is quite a sight to see, especially when getting off-line leads the car into the marbles!
China is a race when it's notoriously difficult to find a good strategy. A two-stop strategy was feasible, however the driver's tyre management would have to be sublime for it to be pulled off. Because of the tyre wear, the majority of the top teams elected for a three-stop - even though they'd lose the time of an extra stop compared to those on the alternative strategy. So, who did what? Well Nico Rosberg ended up on a two-stop strategy, and eventually went on to win the race by quite a comfortable margin. It could be argued that we were deprived of a battle between Rosberg and Button, as Button's third stop was less than perfect, however nobody can deny that Rosberg deserved that first win - especially considering that so many of us doubted the Mercedes' ability to maintain their pace in the race. Third and fourth place men Hamilton and Webber also elected for three-stop strategies, which allowed them to pass the fifth place man on a two-stop strategy, Sebastian Vettel. Yep, the guy who can't race managed to recover to fifth. Make of that what you will, but I'm pretty pleased...
Once again we had an absolutely thrilling race, with closer battles than anything I've seen for a while. It doesn't seem that any one team has a straight advantage, although for the time being both McLarens are leading the championship. As for who is the favourite for the title this year, I think it's way too soon to tell. In races like today's, anything can change in an instant - again it was a massive surprise that only Schumacher retired. As I said in a previous post, although we've had to wait so long over the winter for the season to begin, it was definitely worth it.
Next weekend is the race in Bahrain - something which has been subject to a lot of speculation given the situation there. The FIA confirmed yesterday that the race would definitely be going ahead, something which I'm in two minds about. I know there was a lot of talk about whether F1 should be going to Bahrain or not based on ethical concerns, however personally I'm not sure this has a lot to do with F1. My personal misgivings about the race taking place aren't based on the ethical dilemmas in the country (although obviously this situation isn't acceptable), but are more linked to the safety aspects. Mark Webber commented on this beautifully in an BBC article earlier this week, arguing that safety isn't so much an issue for teams and drivers, but the other people heading to and from the track every day. Overall, it's the FIA's decision whether to race or not, and obviously they wouldn't have chosen to attend if the situation was unsafe. With any luck, the race next weekend will be memorable for its racing, rather than the political situation surrounding it. Either way, 2012 is shaping up to be an interesting season.
Saturday, 14 April 2012
Qualifying Surprises of a Different Sort
Once again it's a grand prix weekend, with this week's action coming from China. Qualifying took place at 7 this morning, and it definitely held a few surprises which should make for an intriguing race tomorrow. This season, McLaren have been confident in all the race weekends so far - despite Lewis Hamilton's sometimes grumpy demeanour. While 2011 was Red Bull's qualifying season, this year it looks as though McLaren have the advantage, securing a front-row lock out in Australia and a third place slot for Lewis in Malaysia. However, this weekend the team have had a few hurdles, with Lewis having to take a 5-place grid drop due to a gearbox change, meaning that his second position on the grid actually translates into seventh. Jenson Button also had a somewhat disappointing session, only qualifying sixth (translating into fifth after Lewis's penalty).
With the McLarens further down, you'd expect the other two big teams to be ahead. Well, this also prompted suprise this morning. Despite Alonso's promising win in Malaysia, Ferrari this week could only manage 9th and 12th, with Alonso out-qualifying Massa once again. Whether the team can turn this around in the race is a question to be answered tomorrow. So what of the Red Bulls? Well, this was perhaps the biggest surprise of all, with Webber no higher than 7th and Vettel not making Q3 for the first time since 2009, instead only managing 11th place.
Now, you should all be aware that I'm a Red Bull girl anyway, and Vettel is without doubt my favourite driver, so I'm leading on to a slight rant here. After Q2 with Vettel out of Q3, Twitter was awash with what I can only describe as childish tweets. Some people were simply laughing at the driver's misfortune, others were making sarcastic comments, and still more were questioning Vettel's ability in F1. While I understand that we all have our own favourites and not all drivers are to all tastes, the frankly low comments I saw on Twitter were embarrassing. I know for example that I'm not the biggest fan of Lewis Hamilton (largely for the fact that his personality has shifted since he first started driving and since he won the 2008 championship - that and the earrings), however I don't ever mock him if he gets a bad result. I certainly don't question his ability in an F1 car either. I recall a comment by Martin Brundle that there are seven billion people in the world, and only 24 F1 drivers in the sport right now. Surely then we should all have respect for every one of those drivers on that grid, as they've proven their talent throughout their careers? Thus, one bad result doesn't mean that the competitor isn't a good driver, and we have to examine other aspects to the session which could contribute to a poor result (for example, Vettel running an old spec exhaust while Webber ran the newer spec).
I think the Vettel-hate on Twitter is largely to do with the success of the driver, and from reading comments (and through personal experience in my academic career) I've noticed that people generally don't like successful people and rejoice when they fall. It seems silly to question Vettel's ability as a result of one bad qualifying session. The guy's won two world championships and was absolutely dominant throughout last year. Before you utter the age old cry 'but it was the car!', I'd ask you to consider that Webber could not match Vettel's performance in the identical Red Bull, so I think that this is a point which is null and void. This year, Red Bull clearly haven't got the dominance with the car, hence the poorer results for both drivers. A similar thing happened after Brawn became Mercedes - the car which dominated 2009 just dropped away in 2010. These things happen, even if the ability of the driver stays the same.
Another case in point is the performance of Alonso. Ferrari have obviously been having issues in the past couple of years, and yet I don't see anyone questioning whether Alonso is a good driver or not. So why the target on Vettel? Like I said before, all 24 of these drivers have exceptional talent to make it this far, and to post childish comments on a social networking site is just petty to me and I'm urging fans to grow up just a little, and at least form some coherent arguments! With any luck, as the season progresses we'll be able to see an improvement for the Red Bull guys, and hopefully the petty comments will stop so we can all go back to watching races and appreciating them no matter who is driving.
So, with the top three teams suffering in China's qualifying session, who took the top slots? Well, after Hamilton's penalty we've got an all Silver Arrows front row, with the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg occupying the first slot (a career first for Rosberg) and Schumacher following close behind. This is a phenomenal achievement, and Mercedes are proving that their car has the pace in qualifying. It could be argued that the aerodynamic system on the rear wing of the car is helping a lot during qualifying (as use of DRS is pretty much unlimited during quali and practice sessions), however we've yet to see this sort of advantage during the race itself. Again, tomorrow will tell us exactly what Mercedes can do.
The third and fourth slots on the grid are also occupied by some surprising drivers. Third place went to Kamui Kobayashi, which is promising for Sauber considering their excellent achievements in Malaysia. Fourth place went to Lotus Renault's Kimi Raikkonen
With the McLarens further down, you'd expect the other two big teams to be ahead. Well, this also prompted suprise this morning. Despite Alonso's promising win in Malaysia, Ferrari this week could only manage 9th and 12th, with Alonso out-qualifying Massa once again. Whether the team can turn this around in the race is a question to be answered tomorrow. So what of the Red Bulls? Well, this was perhaps the biggest surprise of all, with Webber no higher than 7th and Vettel not making Q3 for the first time since 2009, instead only managing 11th place.
Now, you should all be aware that I'm a Red Bull girl anyway, and Vettel is without doubt my favourite driver, so I'm leading on to a slight rant here. After Q2 with Vettel out of Q3, Twitter was awash with what I can only describe as childish tweets. Some people were simply laughing at the driver's misfortune, others were making sarcastic comments, and still more were questioning Vettel's ability in F1. While I understand that we all have our own favourites and not all drivers are to all tastes, the frankly low comments I saw on Twitter were embarrassing. I know for example that I'm not the biggest fan of Lewis Hamilton (largely for the fact that his personality has shifted since he first started driving and since he won the 2008 championship - that and the earrings), however I don't ever mock him if he gets a bad result. I certainly don't question his ability in an F1 car either. I recall a comment by Martin Brundle that there are seven billion people in the world, and only 24 F1 drivers in the sport right now. Surely then we should all have respect for every one of those drivers on that grid, as they've proven their talent throughout their careers? Thus, one bad result doesn't mean that the competitor isn't a good driver, and we have to examine other aspects to the session which could contribute to a poor result (for example, Vettel running an old spec exhaust while Webber ran the newer spec).
I think the Vettel-hate on Twitter is largely to do with the success of the driver, and from reading comments (and through personal experience in my academic career) I've noticed that people generally don't like successful people and rejoice when they fall. It seems silly to question Vettel's ability as a result of one bad qualifying session. The guy's won two world championships and was absolutely dominant throughout last year. Before you utter the age old cry 'but it was the car!', I'd ask you to consider that Webber could not match Vettel's performance in the identical Red Bull, so I think that this is a point which is null and void. This year, Red Bull clearly haven't got the dominance with the car, hence the poorer results for both drivers. A similar thing happened after Brawn became Mercedes - the car which dominated 2009 just dropped away in 2010. These things happen, even if the ability of the driver stays the same.
Another case in point is the performance of Alonso. Ferrari have obviously been having issues in the past couple of years, and yet I don't see anyone questioning whether Alonso is a good driver or not. So why the target on Vettel? Like I said before, all 24 of these drivers have exceptional talent to make it this far, and to post childish comments on a social networking site is just petty to me and I'm urging fans to grow up just a little, and at least form some coherent arguments! With any luck, as the season progresses we'll be able to see an improvement for the Red Bull guys, and hopefully the petty comments will stop so we can all go back to watching races and appreciating them no matter who is driving.
So, with the top three teams suffering in China's qualifying session, who took the top slots? Well, after Hamilton's penalty we've got an all Silver Arrows front row, with the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg occupying the first slot (a career first for Rosberg) and Schumacher following close behind. This is a phenomenal achievement, and Mercedes are proving that their car has the pace in qualifying. It could be argued that the aerodynamic system on the rear wing of the car is helping a lot during qualifying (as use of DRS is pretty much unlimited during quali and practice sessions), however we've yet to see this sort of advantage during the race itself. Again, tomorrow will tell us exactly what Mercedes can do.
The third and fourth slots on the grid are also occupied by some surprising drivers. Third place went to Kamui Kobayashi, which is promising for Sauber considering their excellent achievements in Malaysia. Fourth place went to Lotus Renault's Kimi Raikkonen
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Rain, Heat, and The Ice Man Melteth
For the second weekend in a row I'm having a break from university work having dedicated a few days to F1. This week's action came from Malaysia, a race known for its extremes of weather. After the spectacular race in Melbourne, Malaysia held high hopes for us race fans, to see whether the racing in 2012 would be staying exciting or whether Australia was a fluke. As it turns out, if these two races are anything to go by then we're in for one hell of a season.
In qualifying it was the McLarens who were the big winners once again, with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button locking out the front row. The surprises started with the occupation of the third grid slot. Red Bull? No. Lotus? No. A silver Mercedes. However, this wasn't the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, but rather Michael Schumacher; a man who many in the media have criticised since his comeback. I was delighted that Schumi managed to get this grid slot; I've always been an advocate of Schumacher's return, as is highlighted in a previous blog post of mine (as discussed on 5 Live F1 too I believe). It's nice to see that Schumacher still has the ability to drive these cars. So with the Red Bulls losing out again and the Mercedes powered cars at the front after qualifying, today's race was set to be an interesting one.
As Malaysia is another early race, I set my alarm for 7:30 (the start time of Sky's F1 coverage) after moving the clock forwards an hour due to British Summer Time. I'd thus prepared to get up that extra hour earlier - I often sacrifice my sleep for motorsport. Sadly, my phone decided that it would add an extra hour advance to my phone's clock, so I ended up getting up even earlier than planned... Something I feel I will probably pay for when at uni tomorrow. No matter, eventually the race coverage began and I can safely say that this one was a treat, and worth the sleep deprivation.
The Malaysia weather wasn't disappointing, with a shower 5 minutes before the start of the race. This brought back memories of 2009's race - yep, the one where Kimi Raikkonen abandoned his car during the red flag to wander off and have an ice cream. While rainy races are always exciting, there's a fine line between the weather making things interesting and making things dangerous. At the start of the race things weren't so bad, and so the race started as normal. However, the safety car soon came out and 9 laps in the race was stopped. For those of you who aren't so clued up on the rules of F1, when red flags are given the cars line up on the grid in race order. At this point of the race, we had a couple of surprises in the top 10: the Sauber of Sergio Perez and - please believe me when I say this - the Hispania of Narain Karthekeyan. After half an hour of halted running, the race finally resumed under the safety car, and it was from there on that things got really interesting.
Fairly soon after resuming, the track had dried sufficiently to move back on to intermediate tyres. The pit stops led to a lot of confusion on the timing screens, but when things eventually settled down we had our leaders: Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. Honestly, I knew we would have a surprising race, but this was completely unexpected! Perez's pace in the Sauber had to be a highlight of the race for me - at one point it looked as though he was going to take the race lead. No doubt Perez would have won the race had he not gone wide in the closing stages of the race.
Sadly, the races of the Mercedes cars didn't turn out as promised, with Schumacher claiming the last point and Rosberg finishing behind in 13th. To my disappointment, the Red Bulls also had a bit of a poor race, with Webber finishing fourth (ok, not so bad but considering last year's performance it could have been better) and Vettel finishing 12th after sustaining a puncture when lapping the HRT of Karthekeyan (yes, he sadly lost his 10th place). To be honest, Vettel was lucky to finish the race at all: radio messages from his engineer in the last couple of laps told him first to retire, then stay out, then retire again due to a serious problem. I can only hope that Red Bull work out where their problems are for the next race in China. Jenson Button also finished outside of the points, after again colliding with another car and having to have a front wing change. After this change, he couldn't get the intermediate tyres to work, and suffered through the remainder of the race.
There's no way I can do justice to the entire race here, you'll just have to go and watch it. It was one of the best I've seen in a while. After the chequered flag fell, we had the most surprising podium for a long time: Alonso, Perez and Hamilton (ok, the last one isn't so surprising). So, despite the speculation of the pace of the Ferrari, Alonso didn't get a bad result at all. In fact, he was probably as surprised as we were. However, I don't think anyone can argue that the driver of the day is Perez, and there are a lot of us who eagerly await to see what he can do in the future.
blogs. Until next time...
In qualifying it was the McLarens who were the big winners once again, with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button locking out the front row. The surprises started with the occupation of the third grid slot. Red Bull? No. Lotus? No. A silver Mercedes. However, this wasn't the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, but rather Michael Schumacher; a man who many in the media have criticised since his comeback. I was delighted that Schumi managed to get this grid slot; I've always been an advocate of Schumacher's return, as is highlighted in a previous blog post of mine (as discussed on 5 Live F1 too I believe). It's nice to see that Schumacher still has the ability to drive these cars. So with the Red Bulls losing out again and the Mercedes powered cars at the front after qualifying, today's race was set to be an interesting one.
As Malaysia is another early race, I set my alarm for 7:30 (the start time of Sky's F1 coverage) after moving the clock forwards an hour due to British Summer Time. I'd thus prepared to get up that extra hour earlier - I often sacrifice my sleep for motorsport. Sadly, my phone decided that it would add an extra hour advance to my phone's clock, so I ended up getting up even earlier than planned... Something I feel I will probably pay for when at uni tomorrow. No matter, eventually the race coverage began and I can safely say that this one was a treat, and worth the sleep deprivation.
The Malaysia weather wasn't disappointing, with a shower 5 minutes before the start of the race. This brought back memories of 2009's race - yep, the one where Kimi Raikkonen abandoned his car during the red flag to wander off and have an ice cream. While rainy races are always exciting, there's a fine line between the weather making things interesting and making things dangerous. At the start of the race things weren't so bad, and so the race started as normal. However, the safety car soon came out and 9 laps in the race was stopped. For those of you who aren't so clued up on the rules of F1, when red flags are given the cars line up on the grid in race order. At this point of the race, we had a couple of surprises in the top 10: the Sauber of Sergio Perez and - please believe me when I say this - the Hispania of Narain Karthekeyan. After half an hour of halted running, the race finally resumed under the safety car, and it was from there on that things got really interesting.
Fairly soon after resuming, the track had dried sufficiently to move back on to intermediate tyres. The pit stops led to a lot of confusion on the timing screens, but when things eventually settled down we had our leaders: Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. Honestly, I knew we would have a surprising race, but this was completely unexpected! Perez's pace in the Sauber had to be a highlight of the race for me - at one point it looked as though he was going to take the race lead. No doubt Perez would have won the race had he not gone wide in the closing stages of the race.
Sadly, the races of the Mercedes cars didn't turn out as promised, with Schumacher claiming the last point and Rosberg finishing behind in 13th. To my disappointment, the Red Bulls also had a bit of a poor race, with Webber finishing fourth (ok, not so bad but considering last year's performance it could have been better) and Vettel finishing 12th after sustaining a puncture when lapping the HRT of Karthekeyan (yes, he sadly lost his 10th place). To be honest, Vettel was lucky to finish the race at all: radio messages from his engineer in the last couple of laps told him first to retire, then stay out, then retire again due to a serious problem. I can only hope that Red Bull work out where their problems are for the next race in China. Jenson Button also finished outside of the points, after again colliding with another car and having to have a front wing change. After this change, he couldn't get the intermediate tyres to work, and suffered through the remainder of the race.
There's no way I can do justice to the entire race here, you'll just have to go and watch it. It was one of the best I've seen in a while. After the chequered flag fell, we had the most surprising podium for a long time: Alonso, Perez and Hamilton (ok, the last one isn't so surprising). So, despite the speculation of the pace of the Ferrari, Alonso didn't get a bad result at all. In fact, he was probably as surprised as we were. However, I don't think anyone can argue that the driver of the day is Perez, and there are a lot of us who eagerly await to see what he can do in the future.
blogs. Until next time...
Sunday, 18 March 2012
And we're back!
It's 8 in the morning, and I've been awake for 3 and a half hours already. The weekend's race in Australia has just ended and marked the start of the season. I have to say, it was worth sacrificing the weekend's sleep!
On Saturday, the qualifying session presented us with the first opportunity in which to see what teams had the edge. People who aren't so experienced in F1 might wonder why we had to wait until qualifying to see who was fastest what with the weekend's three practice sessions and the preseason testing. Well, testing is notoriously unreliable for predicting who will be the fastest, and so there is very little that anyone can glean from these sessions. In practice sessions, it's often unclear as to who is sandbagging and hiding their pace. So, it's on the qualifying sessions that we can see who is genuinely fast.
After Red Bull's dominance of 2011, a lot of people were wondering whether they could do it again. As the three quali sessions progressed, it looked increasingly like this wasn't the case. Q3 sadly confirmed that the massive gap of Red Bull had diminished over the break, and we didn't see Sebastian's perfect lap. Instead, the McLarens appeared to have the edge over the rest of the field, with Hamilton getting pole and Button second, locking out the front row for the first time in a few seasons. You might expect Red Bull to be just behind this, however you'd be surprised. Romain Grosjean instead took the third spot in the Lotus. So, where were Red Bull? Fourth? Nope. That spot went to none other than Michael Schumacher, suggesting that the experienced racer might be returning to his old form. Of course, it's early in the season so this is a question which may remain unanswered. Finally, in fifth and sixth positions we found the Red Bulls, with Webber out qualifying Vettel. Rosberg followed the two Red Bulls, himself followed by the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, again suggesting that this team might be having a much better season than in 2011. The Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo made up the last of those in Q3, and I think this year the mid-field battles will be much close than last year. You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned the Ferrari drivers. Well, qualifying for the red cars was a bit of a let down, with Alonso beaching himself in the gravel in Q2, and Massa just not getting up to speed in the session. They eventually qualified 12th and 16th. The final surprise of the first 2012 quali session was Raikkonen's inability to get out of Q3, qualifying 18th.
So, with a fairly jumbled grid set up all we had to do was get up at 6am to watch how the race would unfold. The McLaren of Jenson Button made a fantastic start, overtaking Lewis to take 1st. To my delight, Vettel also had a brilliant start, getting behind Schumacher and Nico Rosberg after another good start for the Mercedes. Alonso also appeared to come from nowhere and managed to get himself in the top 10. The race unfolded fairly eventfully, with a lot of overtaking (not least from Vettel, prompting me to ask whether we can leave behind the argument that Seb can't race - I think he's proven himself as a racer for quite some time now) and one safety car after the Caterham of Petrov pulled over on the pit straight. While the safety car was out, Seb pitted the Red Bull (named Abbey this year, following on from Luscious Liz, Kinky Kylie, Kate's Dirty Sister and Kate) and managed to leapfrog Hamilton's McLaren. From there on, there was a lot of close racing between second, third and fourth places, however eventually this resolved into a train of Vettel, Hamilton and Webber (Webber's best finish in his home race). Jenson Button ultimately won the first race of the season.
Further back in the field, there were a lot of surprises and disappointments. Schumacher's car broke down, so sadly we didn't get to see whether he had returned to his old ways. After Maldonado's close racing with the double world champion Alonso, he dipped a wheel on the grass and crashed into a barrier on the last few laps of the race. Despite Grosjean's amazing qualifying position, the race wasn't quite as favourable after he ended up in the gravel having almost lost a wheel. Raikkonen's fate, however, was much better. Even though he had an abysmal qualifying session, he eventually ended up in 7th place, securing six championship points on his return. Honestly, I think that Lotus will be a team to watch this season, providing their races go without incident and they have decent qualifying sessions. Again, it's early in the season so watch this space!
Overall, it looks as though the season will be a close fight between McLaren and Red Bull, with Ferrari having some catching up to do like last season. Sauber also appeared to be moving up the mid-field, with (the remarkably entertaining) Kobayashi ending up just behind Alonso in 6th place, and Perez finishing 8th. Williams appear to be having a better season than last year, however some bad luck during the race meant that they couldn't reap the rewards this time round.
2012 then looks like a good one. With 19 races left to go, the championship is far from decided and anything can yet happen. I can definitely say that the sleep deprivation was worth it, but if you weren't as keen on getting up a stupid o'clock then go watch
On Saturday, the qualifying session presented us with the first opportunity in which to see what teams had the edge. People who aren't so experienced in F1 might wonder why we had to wait until qualifying to see who was fastest what with the weekend's three practice sessions and the preseason testing. Well, testing is notoriously unreliable for predicting who will be the fastest, and so there is very little that anyone can glean from these sessions. In practice sessions, it's often unclear as to who is sandbagging and hiding their pace. So, it's on the qualifying sessions that we can see who is genuinely fast.
After Red Bull's dominance of 2011, a lot of people were wondering whether they could do it again. As the three quali sessions progressed, it looked increasingly like this wasn't the case. Q3 sadly confirmed that the massive gap of Red Bull had diminished over the break, and we didn't see Sebastian's perfect lap. Instead, the McLarens appeared to have the edge over the rest of the field, with Hamilton getting pole and Button second, locking out the front row for the first time in a few seasons. You might expect Red Bull to be just behind this, however you'd be surprised. Romain Grosjean instead took the third spot in the Lotus. So, where were Red Bull? Fourth? Nope. That spot went to none other than Michael Schumacher, suggesting that the experienced racer might be returning to his old form. Of course, it's early in the season so this is a question which may remain unanswered. Finally, in fifth and sixth positions we found the Red Bulls, with Webber out qualifying Vettel. Rosberg followed the two Red Bulls, himself followed by the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, again suggesting that this team might be having a much better season than in 2011. The Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo made up the last of those in Q3, and I think this year the mid-field battles will be much close than last year. You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned the Ferrari drivers. Well, qualifying for the red cars was a bit of a let down, with Alonso beaching himself in the gravel in Q2, and Massa just not getting up to speed in the session. They eventually qualified 12th and 16th. The final surprise of the first 2012 quali session was Raikkonen's inability to get out of Q3, qualifying 18th.
So, with a fairly jumbled grid set up all we had to do was get up at 6am to watch how the race would unfold. The McLaren of Jenson Button made a fantastic start, overtaking Lewis to take 1st. To my delight, Vettel also had a brilliant start, getting behind Schumacher and Nico Rosberg after another good start for the Mercedes. Alonso also appeared to come from nowhere and managed to get himself in the top 10. The race unfolded fairly eventfully, with a lot of overtaking (not least from Vettel, prompting me to ask whether we can leave behind the argument that Seb can't race - I think he's proven himself as a racer for quite some time now) and one safety car after the Caterham of Petrov pulled over on the pit straight. While the safety car was out, Seb pitted the Red Bull (named Abbey this year, following on from Luscious Liz, Kinky Kylie, Kate's Dirty Sister and Kate) and managed to leapfrog Hamilton's McLaren. From there on, there was a lot of close racing between second, third and fourth places, however eventually this resolved into a train of Vettel, Hamilton and Webber (Webber's best finish in his home race). Jenson Button ultimately won the first race of the season.
Further back in the field, there were a lot of surprises and disappointments. Schumacher's car broke down, so sadly we didn't get to see whether he had returned to his old ways. After Maldonado's close racing with the double world champion Alonso, he dipped a wheel on the grass and crashed into a barrier on the last few laps of the race. Despite Grosjean's amazing qualifying position, the race wasn't quite as favourable after he ended up in the gravel having almost lost a wheel. Raikkonen's fate, however, was much better. Even though he had an abysmal qualifying session, he eventually ended up in 7th place, securing six championship points on his return. Honestly, I think that Lotus will be a team to watch this season, providing their races go without incident and they have decent qualifying sessions. Again, it's early in the season so watch this space!
Overall, it looks as though the season will be a close fight between McLaren and Red Bull, with Ferrari having some catching up to do like last season. Sauber also appeared to be moving up the mid-field, with (the remarkably entertaining) Kobayashi ending up just behind Alonso in 6th place, and Perez finishing 8th. Williams appear to be having a better season than last year, however some bad luck during the race meant that they couldn't reap the rewards this time round.
2012 then looks like a good one. With 19 races left to go, the championship is far from decided and anything can yet happen. I can definitely say that the sleep deprivation was worth it, but if you weren't as keen on getting up a stupid o'clock then go watch
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Well, I'm Back.
It's Tuesday the 26th of July 2011 and I've been home for 16 hours having returned from one of the best weekends of my life. I know that I won't be able to give this weekend as much justice as it deserves through writing this blog, however I will do my very best to try and give you an overview of the five days I had away from England. You must remember that as much racing as I've seen over the years (regular trips to Brands Hatch mean I'm no stranger to motorsport), I've never seen an F1 race in person. My expectations for the weekend were therefore quite high, having seen F1 on the TV and watching every race religiously. I have to say, I wasn't disappointed and I have had the best weekend that I can remember. It was definitely worth the 107 day wait.
The weekend started on Wednesday for me. Dad had the day off work to get everything prepared for the trip. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us - from Dover to the Nurburgring would take us around 7 hours. Our ferry was booked for 9PM, however we left the house at 6:30 in order to be sure to arrive in time. The early leaving was kind of not worth it to be honest - we arrived over 2 hours too early! This did however mean that we were the first on (and therefore off) the ferry, and so we spent the time either sleeping or reading or eating to get ready for the epic drive.
We arrived in Calais at midnight (European time), and immediately ran into problems. We were expecting to go through the usual customs checks once off the ferry and so we were looking out for people to direct us. This never happened though, and the lack of street lights meant that we missed our turning towards the motorway! The sat nav proved a great boon in this case - although the "Turn around when possible" instruction got really irritating. We ended up going around the docks and through loads of little villages - places where we weren't sure we should be. In truth, it was kind of scary as we were expecting people to jump out on us at any minute. I guess things always look that much more terrifying in pitch darkness. Eventually, we found our way back onto the main roads and the journey was really underway.
We didn't spend all that much time in France, although it was really hard to tell when we got into a different country. We guessed that we had arrived in Belgium when the motorway signs changed and the language was ever so slightly different - talk about detective work! Most of our journey was taken up in Belgium, and it was the one place where we stopped for fuel. The Range Rover was absolutely brilliant in that respect - you wouldn't have thought that a 21 year old 3.9 V8 car would only need one stop on the journey but there you have it. It truly is the best car in existance - in my view at least!
Once we got out of Belgium we started the German leg of the journey. It was still dark at this point, and so we didn't get to see much of the Eifel mountains. All we knew of the mountains at this point was the height of them - we were just driving up, up, up and up! Eventually, the sun started to rise and we could finally see where we were. As we neared the track, the roads became like a motorsport circuit with tricky twists and turns. Now, if you were in a Caterham or something these roads would be so much fun - in a Range Rover designed for off road competitions driving in semi-darkness is slightly scary, but an adrenaline rush nonetheless! After spiralling round for what seemed like an age, we saw signs for the Nurburgring. At 6:30 AM, we arrived at the campsite, ready for the F1.
Saturday was of course quali day, when we would see the cars pushing like crazy to get to pole position. The night before we had headed to the shop at Camping am Nurburgring in order to buy some breakfast for Saturday. We needed to buy something that would keep, as we had no fridge and the only cooking equipment we had was fire. Let me tell you now, smoked croissant is an interesting dish, however it did set us up for the day.
Sunday came around really quickly for me. We woke up at 7, as I wanted to charge my camera up for the race day. Unfortunately, the inverter which we used to charge up our phones and things from the Range Rover's battery had broken - possibly because of the wet weather. So, I had no battery for my camera and I was relying on my camcorder for the biggest day of my year. Never mind though, as nothing could dampen my excitement. We had a breakfast of firelighter beans (so named because they had a certain smoky quality due to the cooking methods we used... Namely, fire) and then set off to the circuit.
When Monday arrived we said goodbye to the friends we had made, packed up the tent and left Camping am Nurburgring at 10:30. It was lovely seeing the Eifel mountains in daylight, they really are impressive. The journey home took us more or less back the way we came, however we took a slight diversion through Bruges to pick up chocolates and waffles. We arrived in Calais for our 10PM ferry, and made our way home. I was sad to leave Germany, it was a beautiful place, and I really did have the best weekend of my life there.
The Journey
The weekend started on Wednesday for me. Dad had the day off work to get everything prepared for the trip. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us - from Dover to the Nurburgring would take us around 7 hours. Our ferry was booked for 9PM, however we left the house at 6:30 in order to be sure to arrive in time. The early leaving was kind of not worth it to be honest - we arrived over 2 hours too early! This did however mean that we were the first on (and therefore off) the ferry, and so we spent the time either sleeping or reading or eating to get ready for the epic drive.
We arrived in Calais at midnight (European time), and immediately ran into problems. We were expecting to go through the usual customs checks once off the ferry and so we were looking out for people to direct us. This never happened though, and the lack of street lights meant that we missed our turning towards the motorway! The sat nav proved a great boon in this case - although the "Turn around when possible" instruction got really irritating. We ended up going around the docks and through loads of little villages - places where we weren't sure we should be. In truth, it was kind of scary as we were expecting people to jump out on us at any minute. I guess things always look that much more terrifying in pitch darkness. Eventually, we found our way back onto the main roads and the journey was really underway.
We didn't spend all that much time in France, although it was really hard to tell when we got into a different country. We guessed that we had arrived in Belgium when the motorway signs changed and the language was ever so slightly different - talk about detective work! Most of our journey was taken up in Belgium, and it was the one place where we stopped for fuel. The Range Rover was absolutely brilliant in that respect - you wouldn't have thought that a 21 year old 3.9 V8 car would only need one stop on the journey but there you have it. It truly is the best car in existance - in my view at least!
Once we got out of Belgium we started the German leg of the journey. It was still dark at this point, and so we didn't get to see much of the Eifel mountains. All we knew of the mountains at this point was the height of them - we were just driving up, up, up and up! Eventually, the sun started to rise and we could finally see where we were. As we neared the track, the roads became like a motorsport circuit with tricky twists and turns. Now, if you were in a Caterham or something these roads would be so much fun - in a Range Rover designed for off road competitions driving in semi-darkness is slightly scary, but an adrenaline rush nonetheless! After spiralling round for what seemed like an age, we saw signs for the Nurburgring. At 6:30 AM, we arrived at the campsite, ready for the F1.
Thursday: The Pit Walk
After much fussing, tripping over, tangling of ropes and fighting metal poles, the tent was up. It was so hard to find a camping space at the site, largely because the event was so popular and this was the Nurburgring's official campsite. Yes, there were other sites around and some of the car parks were converted to accommodate those who couldn't get in at Camping am Nurburgring, but this was definitely the best site. We managed to find a spot under the pine trees on a hill - one of the greatest things about the Rangey is the old 'You can go fast, I can go anywhere' saying; we needed it this weekend. After breakfast, we set off to collect our tickets from the Nurburgring welcome centre.
Getting to the centre was a hell of a walk. It must have easily been two miles to the centre of the track, and most of that was uphill. I don't think I've ever walked so far in a weekend! We got to the welcome centre way too early, and so spent most of the afternoon looking at the merchandise stalls and the shops. I can tell you now that despite being a 19 year old girl, I've never been on a spending spree in my entire life. Up until now anyway. I bought merchandise across the entire weekend, and I've returned home with a Red Bull flag, mug, badge, Vettel poster, cup (which came with a drink at the food stalls), Nurburgring mug, sticker and probably a load of other stuff. All I have to say is best spending spree ever! After we'd looked around we went to collect our tickets. Luckily we didn't get stuck in too much of a queue - with the sheer numbers of people there we were pleased that we got to the welcome centre so early.
With our tickets we were given a programme and we found out that the pit walks were scheduled to take place from 3:15 to 5 just behind the welcome centre. Realising that the Nurburgring was absolutely packed with people we decided to set off really early. It was just as well that we did really, as there was already quite a queue there. At this point, we got a taste of the famous Eifel weather. We knew that rain was going to be a problem at some point at the weekend; showers were scheduled for at least once every day. What we didn't expect was this amount of rain in a shower. Of course, we stood in the rain waiting for the pit walk - I wasn't letting water from the sky stop me from getting to go into the pits of an F1 circuit. 15 minutes into the rain and soaked to the skin I remembered that I had packed an umbrella - typical!
After what seemed like an age, we were allowed into the pits. The pit walk itself was crazy - people were everywhere just waiting for a glimpse of the workings of an F1 team, and how could you blame them? I was surprised at how open everything was. The secrecy of F1's technology led me to believe that the teams would shut their garages up for fear of people seeing something on the car that they'd rather the other teams didn't know about: Just look at the mechanics who are often to be found standing at the back of a Red Bull when it's on the grid. However, every garage was wide open, and so once we'd battled our way through the crowds we managed to see inside every one of them. I'll soon be uploading the pictures and sending some of the photos to the teams to play a little game of 'Name the Mechanic', once I get the results I'll be sure to post the pictures here with the names of the people working on the cars.
As well as being able to see inside the garages, I was hugely surprised when a certain person came past on a push bike. The person's name? Michael Schumacher. Yep, he just cycled past everyone waiting in the pits. He soon returned to the garages though - followed by one Nico Rosberg! Sadly, they both went past so fast that I couldn't capture a photograph, but I'm sure I'll remember the day that Schumi cycled past me for years to come. After a while, we reached the one thing I absolutely HAD to see: the Red Bull garage. And who was outside? Sebastian Vettel! After getting through the scrum, I eventually managed to get a photograph of Seb, to my immense delight. I also managed to get a photo of myself outside the Red Bull garage, a photograph which I will cherish for quite some time. Anyway, we continued along our pit walk and saw inside every single garage. We even saw Williams doing a pit stop practice. The noise of the wheel guns was awesome! I never expected it to be so loud! As soon as I have a chance I'll upload a video of the stop and post a link. As we made our way towards the end of the pits we stopped outside the Force India garage - where we saw Adrian Sutil. There certainly wasn't a shortage of drivers in the pits, and it was nice to be so close to these awesome racers!
After the pit walk and being awake for over 36 hours we began the two mile walk to the camp site. I think Thursday night was the only night when I got any sleep - the rest of the weekend I was running on adrenaline and Bratwurst...
Friday: The Night of the Techno Music
I woke up around 8 on Friday, feeling considerably less tired than Thursday but no less excited: today was the day I'd get to see 24 of the best drivers in the world drive 24 of the most technologically advanced cars in existence. We headed off to the circuit fairly early, as we knew that we had a long walk. We were expecting to have to stand in the zone where our tickets were allocated, however the circuit was open everywhere and so we stood at the hairpin around turn 9. The GP2 cars were out on circuit when we arrived, and even then the noise was quite something. I managed to take a few photographs and videos before the practice stopped. We then waited for the first F1 practice to start. During the waiting, we saw the course cars come out on circuit - Dad decided that he wanted the estate car that was on track, simply because the noise it made didn't fit the car at all! Of course, I took the opportunity to make a video.
Once the course officials were satisfied, the F1 practice began. The newer teams were among the first to come out on track, and although I had ear defenders I didn't put them on straight away as I wanted to experience the noise with no interruption. I fell in love. The sound of those cars is absolutely phenomenal and I have to tell you now that the television does not do that noise justice. I did, however, concede defeat and put my ear defenders on and thanks to that I still have my hearing! When more of the cars came out on track I noticed something that you really can't experience when watching F1on TV, and something that's been the centre of attention for quite some time: the sound of the car with the off-throttle blown diffuser. The horrible burbling noise that you can just about hear on TV is actually as loud as the engines when the driver is accelerating! That was perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend.
Over the day we saw so many different things during the practice. Schumacher went off circuit in FP1, right in front of us when we sat in the Vettel tribute stand (well, I couldn't not sit there really!). Once he regained the circuit the fans were waving and cheering him on - he really is seen as a kind of demi-god in Germany. Eventually, we moved around the circuit and sat where our tickets were allocated for the second practice. We were sat by turn 12 - one of the fastest parts of the circuit, just before the chicane. I was really pleased with where we sat, there's nothing like seeing those cars flying round at such high speed and braking hard for the twisty turns at the end of the straight.
On Friday evening we went back to the tent and spoke with the guys who were camped near us. I have to say this for F1 and motorsport in general, it really does bring people together. The English guys camped with us were mostly Hamilton/McLaren fans, so of course there was banter about Vettel and Red Bull - although I don't think the guys expected a 19 year old girl to start talking about engine regs in 2014! A good evening all round, although we had very little sleep due to the techno music played through the night. Seriously, I will never doubt Mark Webber again when he said that the camp site could be heard all the way to the drivers' hotel! I've never heard such a mix of music, and I think I've heard as much AC/DC as I can take in a year.
Saturday: The Autographs
Saturday was of course quali day, when we would see the cars pushing like crazy to get to pole position. The night before we had headed to the shop at Camping am Nurburgring in order to buy some breakfast for Saturday. We needed to buy something that would keep, as we had no fridge and the only cooking equipment we had was fire. Let me tell you now, smoked croissant is an interesting dish, however it did set us up for the day.
Because the quali is perhaps more popular than the practice sessions, the FIA helicopter camera thing was flying about much more than the day before - it was perhaps as impressive as the cars themselves. It was great to watch it flying around, and we could only assume that the pilot got bored as the helicopter dived in and out of the surrounding trees in quite an aerobatic display.
The qualifying itself was amazing to watch, mostly because of the atmosphere at the circuit. The fans were all urging their favourite drivers to get pole, and the final quali session was quite tense. I was surprised that I wasn't as disappointed that Sebastian wasn't on pole, however I was still thrilled that a Red Bull was on the front row.
Once the day's qualifying sessions were over (Porsches, GP2 and GP3), we headed to the driver autograph session. This was the most insane part of the weekend - the crowds were like nothing I'd ever seen! We got to the session early, but clearly not early enough as the Eifeldorf Grune Holle was completely packed. I had my doubts that I'd actually get close to the drivers (I had already given up on the idea of an autograph, and I was mainly concerned with taking pictures). However, luck was on our side as we were allowed in to the main square! Once we reached the throng the real madness started. Sebastian Vettel appeared from inside the hotel and the crowd went wild. I don't know whether I'd go to another autograph session to be honest, largely because I felt that I was in real danger of being seriously injured. At one or two points I felt faint and as though I was being crushed. But, being the hardy Vettel fan that I am, I persisted in pushing my way through the crowds and by sheer luck alone I got my photographs. Vettel eventually left the crazy session, only for more drivers to appear. I managed to see Heikki Kovalainen, Paul Di Resta, Daniel Ricciardo, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Vitaly Petrov and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Once Schumacher and Rosberg appeared we made our escape - not because I didn't want photographs of them (far from it), but because the crowd went so wild that I honestly believed that someone was going to be seriously injured and I didn't want it to be me.
After the madness, we returned to the tent for the evening: The night of the fireworks. Honestly, when I was packing for Germany it never crossed my mind to bring fireworks and explosives, nor footballs to blow up. The F1 weekend was definitely a party for the German fans.
Sunday: Race Day
Sunday came around really quickly for me. We woke up at 7, as I wanted to charge my camera up for the race day. Unfortunately, the inverter which we used to charge up our phones and things from the Range Rover's battery had broken - possibly because of the wet weather. So, I had no battery for my camera and I was relying on my camcorder for the biggest day of my year. Never mind though, as nothing could dampen my excitement. We had a breakfast of firelighter beans (so named because they had a certain smoky quality due to the cooking methods we used... Namely, fire) and then set off to the circuit.
We arrived just in time for the GP2 race, which had some pretty close racing actually! It was so cool to see the cars going three abreast into the chicane at the end of the straight, and it raised our hopes for an exciting F1 race. We also managed to see the Porsche supercup race, which was quite different from all the other races as the cars look like, well, actual cars so to speak. Once this race was over, we had a nearly 2 hour wait before the weekend's main event.
During the wait, the driver parade took place. This is one of many aspects that you never get to see on television, and it was fascinating listening to the interviews. I have always held the view that certain words get overused in F1, overused to such an extent that I've kept a count of them across the year: my Obviously and For Sure count. The weekend went to show that the words aren't just overused because of the TV coverage - the drivers really do say them that much! Joking aside, you get more of an impression of how personable the drivers are during these sessions - Fernando Alonso was the happiest I've ever seen him. You're also amazed when the drivers switch languages in a heart beat - Although it was hilarious when Timo Glock was asked to speak in German and answered in English! Luckily my camera held out just long enough to take some good shots.
Also before the race we saw something we didn't expect - David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen driving old Mercedes cars around the circuit. This was quite a spectacle, and you got a small sense of what it must have been like to see the old drivers take the cars out on the Nordschleife.
After the entertainment we watched the race. It was the most amazing atmosphere I've experienced. The noise of the crowd and the cheers and shouts at every drama was something I'm glad I got to witness. You really don't get this on the television. On the first lap, Heidfeld had a collision with Sebastien Buemi and went flying off the track, quite literally. This happened right in front of us, and you could hear the intake of breath from the crowd. Lewis Hamilton went on to win the race, with my beloved Red Bulls only third and fourth, however I wasn't disappointed as the race was such a spectacle. The icing on the cake was when Fernando Alonso pulled over on the track on the slow lap in and Mark Webber picked him up. This happened literally in front of where we were standing, and I have an awesome video of Alonso getting on to Webber's car.
The last thing that we saw on Sunday was the circuit closing, and the trucks leaving. This was an experience in itself, and it's crazy seeing just how quickly these teams work. Within half an hour of the race ending the trucks were all heading off, the course cars had cleaned up the circuit and it was as if nothing had happened over the weekend.
So, with the race done we headed back to the tent for our final night at Camping am Nurburgring, ready for a whole day of travelling.
The End of the Weekend
When Monday arrived we said goodbye to the friends we had made, packed up the tent and left Camping am Nurburgring at 10:30. It was lovely seeing the Eifel mountains in daylight, they really are impressive. The journey home took us more or less back the way we came, however we took a slight diversion through Bruges to pick up chocolates and waffles. We arrived in Calais for our 10PM ferry, and made our way home. I was sad to leave Germany, it was a beautiful place, and I really did have the best weekend of my life there.
So, worth the wait? Definitely. Would I go again? Definitely. And the camping? Well, it wouldn't be the same without it. Trust me, I'm going to the F1 again, and every motorsport fan should see F1 at least once. The noise, the sights and the atmosphere can't be replicated, and I'm in love with the sport even more.
Monday, 18 July 2011
Nurburgring Here I Come
Well this is it guys, I leave for the Nurburgring on Wednesday. I'm unlikely to be blogging in that time due to making the necessary preparations (in other words, trying to stuff all my clothes into my suitcase), so I thought I'd give a quick round up of everything I'm going to be doing and seeing when I'm at the legendary German circuit.
When I last looked at the Nurburgring's official website, there were a load of dates listed for when people could take their own cars around the Nordschleife. Sadly, only Monday the 25th was listed, and by that time my Dad and I would be on our way back to Calais for the ferry. However, recently another date has been added, so on Friday we'll be taking the big blue Rangey around the 22.8km circuit! We won't be setting any records, but it's going to be great fun anyway.
The weather forecast for the weekend doesn't sound so bright and cheery as we'd hoped. In fact, looking at a 14 day forecast the weather was: rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. So, I'm going to have to acquire some wellington boots in a hurry. Frankly though, I couldn't care less what the weather does. I'm going to be seeing some of the most amazing cars and drivers over that weekend, so water isn't going to make it any less awesome.
Of course, any holiday requires the necessary holiday photographs with which to bore family members and this one is no different. Well, it may be a little different in that these photographs aren't going to be boring at all. I originally bought myself an 8gb memory card, which would let me take 1,500 photos (this is in addition to my other memory card which gives me 300 photos). Now, 1,800 photos seems like a lot, but this is only the case if you're not as F1 obsessed as I am. When I went to the Autosport International show in January I took well over 200 photos, and that was just one day. Not trusting myself to take fewer than 1,800 photos I've gone and bought a third memory card - 16gb. I can now take nearly 5,000 photographs, so god help any family members who ask to see the holiday pictures...
Recently on the F1 website it was announced that Nico Rosberg would be driving Juan Manuel Fangio's 1954 Mercedes around the Nordschleife. I've not managed to find out the exact day on which Rosberg will be driving this amazing car, but hopefully it will be when my Dad and I are at the circuit. If I do manage to see it, then of course you can expect to see photographs.
So, to the weekend plan in a nutshell. On Thursday, we're planning on doing the pit walks and hopefully the coach tours around the circuit (whether this is in English or German is another story, but it'll still be good to get driven around the GP circuit). Friday is when the action all starts, with GP2, GP3, Porsche Supercup and, obviously, F1 practice sessions. In the evening I believe that the campsites have entertainment and of course we're driving the Range Rover around the Nordschleife. Saturday brings the usual qualifying sessions, and the autograph session arranged by the circuit. Whether I'll manage to meet any drivers is another story, but I'm going to give it my best shot! Sunday is race day - I doubt whether there's anything more I need to say about this! Dad and I are standing at T12, the long straight before the chicane where I believe the DRS zone will be placed. Monday is where it all ends and we go home via Bruges.
That's that then. Next stop, Nurburgring! I'll try and upload the photos as soon as I come back. If you click here you'll be able to bookmark the album, ready for when the photos go up. There's nothing on there yet, but come next Tuesday you'll be overloaded with F1 glory!
When I last looked at the Nurburgring's official website, there were a load of dates listed for when people could take their own cars around the Nordschleife. Sadly, only Monday the 25th was listed, and by that time my Dad and I would be on our way back to Calais for the ferry. However, recently another date has been added, so on Friday we'll be taking the big blue Rangey around the 22.8km circuit! We won't be setting any records, but it's going to be great fun anyway.
The weather forecast for the weekend doesn't sound so bright and cheery as we'd hoped. In fact, looking at a 14 day forecast the weather was: rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. So, I'm going to have to acquire some wellington boots in a hurry. Frankly though, I couldn't care less what the weather does. I'm going to be seeing some of the most amazing cars and drivers over that weekend, so water isn't going to make it any less awesome.
Of course, any holiday requires the necessary holiday photographs with which to bore family members and this one is no different. Well, it may be a little different in that these photographs aren't going to be boring at all. I originally bought myself an 8gb memory card, which would let me take 1,500 photos (this is in addition to my other memory card which gives me 300 photos). Now, 1,800 photos seems like a lot, but this is only the case if you're not as F1 obsessed as I am. When I went to the Autosport International show in January I took well over 200 photos, and that was just one day. Not trusting myself to take fewer than 1,800 photos I've gone and bought a third memory card - 16gb. I can now take nearly 5,000 photographs, so god help any family members who ask to see the holiday pictures...
Recently on the F1 website it was announced that Nico Rosberg would be driving Juan Manuel Fangio's 1954 Mercedes around the Nordschleife. I've not managed to find out the exact day on which Rosberg will be driving this amazing car, but hopefully it will be when my Dad and I are at the circuit. If I do manage to see it, then of course you can expect to see photographs.
So, to the weekend plan in a nutshell. On Thursday, we're planning on doing the pit walks and hopefully the coach tours around the circuit (whether this is in English or German is another story, but it'll still be good to get driven around the GP circuit). Friday is when the action all starts, with GP2, GP3, Porsche Supercup and, obviously, F1 practice sessions. In the evening I believe that the campsites have entertainment and of course we're driving the Range Rover around the Nordschleife. Saturday brings the usual qualifying sessions, and the autograph session arranged by the circuit. Whether I'll manage to meet any drivers is another story, but I'm going to give it my best shot! Sunday is race day - I doubt whether there's anything more I need to say about this! Dad and I are standing at T12, the long straight before the chicane where I believe the DRS zone will be placed. Monday is where it all ends and we go home via Bruges.
That's that then. Next stop, Nurburgring! I'll try and upload the photos as soon as I come back. If you click here you'll be able to bookmark the album, ready for when the photos go up. There's nothing on there yet, but come next Tuesday you'll be overloaded with F1 glory!
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
New Rules, New Spectacle
With the global economic crisis (or whatever you want to call it now) and global warming (climate change, whatever) surrounding us in the news it's easy to forget that sports are affected by such matters and to consider them exempt from the real world. Nevertheless, F1 and other sports are just as subject to money worries and green ethics as the rest of us. Formula 1 is perhaps the most expensive motorsport out there, and the sophistication of the cars doesn't necessarily mean that they are environmentally friendly. In order to try and combat this, the FIA proposed a number of rule changes for 2013 which would aim at making F1 more sustainable, both economically and environmentally.
The rules (which are fairly technical and so not for me to explain in too much detail - however you can read them here) basically hinted towards a move away from the 150kg-per-race 2.4 litre V8s which are currently in the cars to smaller turbo engines in a bid to reduce fuel consumption. In doing this, various other aspects related to the cars' aerodynamics would also be changed in order to reduce drag and gain more downforce from the floor of the cars, rather than the wings. As such, the cars would look radically different and, perhaps less important to F1 chiefs but something important to me, the sounds of the cars would change.
Is this a good thing or not? Well the sustainability factor is important, obviously. However, I don't want to see boring F1 cars. Formula 1 is about technical innovation and spectacle. Speaking on behalf of F1 fans everywhere I'd rather have an un-environmentally friendly sport which looks good than a boring sport which is kind to the planet. Selfish, I know, but I feel that there are changes that can be made elsewhere to reduce the environmental impact of F1 without losing the sound of those screaming V8s.
News from the BBC website today stated that FOTA (the Formula One Teams Association) have rejected the FIA's rules and proposed their own version - a version which wouldn't see us losing the spectacle and shouty cars but would still make the sport a bit more sustainable. While the sport wouldn't be as sustainable as perhaps chiefs would like, the sport would still see a bit more efficiency without losing the cars as they are now. While FOTA's proposed technical regulations have been approved, there's no guarantee that they will be accepted by the FIA, with Jean Todt arguing that F1 needs the new green turbo engines. What actually happens remains to be seen, but with such opposition from teams and engine manufacturers I'd be surprised if a compromise wasn't reached somewhere.
A new feature on the official F1 website asks drivers about their 'Formula 1 Fantasies', including what they would change on the cars. I loved this example of the differences between honest drivers and drivers who are perhaps saying what people (i.e., teams) want to hear. Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg have both taken part in the F1 Fantasy interview, and the differences in what each driver would change to the cars are hilarious. Nico Rosberg proposed that he would like to see F1 cars with electric engines in order to make the cars more sustainable. Sebastian Vettel's suggestion? V12 engines. There's a reason why he's my hero!
The rules (which are fairly technical and so not for me to explain in too much detail - however you can read them here) basically hinted towards a move away from the 150kg-per-race 2.4 litre V8s which are currently in the cars to smaller turbo engines in a bid to reduce fuel consumption. In doing this, various other aspects related to the cars' aerodynamics would also be changed in order to reduce drag and gain more downforce from the floor of the cars, rather than the wings. As such, the cars would look radically different and, perhaps less important to F1 chiefs but something important to me, the sounds of the cars would change.
Is this a good thing or not? Well the sustainability factor is important, obviously. However, I don't want to see boring F1 cars. Formula 1 is about technical innovation and spectacle. Speaking on behalf of F1 fans everywhere I'd rather have an un-environmentally friendly sport which looks good than a boring sport which is kind to the planet. Selfish, I know, but I feel that there are changes that can be made elsewhere to reduce the environmental impact of F1 without losing the sound of those screaming V8s.
News from the BBC website today stated that FOTA (the Formula One Teams Association) have rejected the FIA's rules and proposed their own version - a version which wouldn't see us losing the spectacle and shouty cars but would still make the sport a bit more sustainable. While the sport wouldn't be as sustainable as perhaps chiefs would like, the sport would still see a bit more efficiency without losing the cars as they are now. While FOTA's proposed technical regulations have been approved, there's no guarantee that they will be accepted by the FIA, with Jean Todt arguing that F1 needs the new green turbo engines. What actually happens remains to be seen, but with such opposition from teams and engine manufacturers I'd be surprised if a compromise wasn't reached somewhere.
A new feature on the official F1 website asks drivers about their 'Formula 1 Fantasies', including what they would change on the cars. I loved this example of the differences between honest drivers and drivers who are perhaps saying what people (i.e., teams) want to hear. Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg have both taken part in the F1 Fantasy interview, and the differences in what each driver would change to the cars are hilarious. Nico Rosberg proposed that he would like to see F1 cars with electric engines in order to make the cars more sustainable. Sebastian Vettel's suggestion? V12 engines. There's a reason why he's my hero!
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Random News and Updates
So Blogger was down yesterday meaning I couldn't catch up with my posts (what with missing Thursday's posting because of university business). Anyway, here's a quick round up of what I was going to post...
News of late has reminded us of Robert Kubica's absence from F1. Kubica was involved in an accident during a rally pre-season. He suffered extensive damage to his arm, meaning he is likely to be absent for most of the F1 season - a huge blow considering Lotus Renault's excellent form so far. We recently heard the news that Kubica is entering the next phase of his recovery and is so far recuperating according to plan. While it's still too early to speculate whether he will ever return to F1, he does seem to be progressing well and he seems determined to return as soon as possible. You can read the article about Kubica's recovery here, and an interview with Eric Boullier here.
My last post considered why the media were so obsessed with Michael Schumacher's form. I came to the conclusion that it was far too early to speculate whether Schumacher is still capable of racing in F1 and that the media seem to be questioning something which is irrelevant. The media jumped all over Schumacher's comment that he was not enjoying racing and took it to be a sign that he was due to retire. Schumacher has since come back at these comments, arguing that he is still motivated and that his Mercedes car should be gaining some more performance at the next Grand Prix in Spain. You can read the article here.
A final quick point that I'd like to talk about is motorsport's relationship with the social networking site Twitter. I have been a bit cheeky and have been sending the link to this blog to various drivers, journalists, teams and motorsport magazines asking them to look at it. I have received a positive response from everyone who has looked at it and I am incredibly grateful to those who have taken time to read what I have written. So if you're here from a link I have sent you then sorry for being so cheeky but thank you for reading! If you don't follow me on Twitter and you'd like to see my inane ramblings in 140 character form, then follow the link to my profile.
I love Twitter's links with motorsport, largely because it enables ordinary fans (like me) a bit more of an insight behind the scenes as it were. I find it fascinating to see what drivers get up to in their spare time, as well as hearing what goes on at a race weekend. The pictures and things that people post up on Twitter let us all see things that the regular media wouldn't be able to/want to show us (such as Heikki Kovalinen's paper boat at a particularly rainy Grand Prix weekend). I also like the fact that drivers will take the time to answer questions that fans pose - it's more of a direct response than a journalist would write up in an article and so the answers seem somehow more genuine. In general I just think that Twitter enables fans to "connect" more with their heroes - look at the drivers who responded to reading my blog, I was smiling for hours!
Hopefully now Blogger is back I will be posting more interesting content next week, for now thanks for having a look at my quick post! Have a comment on my articles if you like and if you're here from Twitter let me know! Have a lovely weekend.
News of late has reminded us of Robert Kubica's absence from F1. Kubica was involved in an accident during a rally pre-season. He suffered extensive damage to his arm, meaning he is likely to be absent for most of the F1 season - a huge blow considering Lotus Renault's excellent form so far. We recently heard the news that Kubica is entering the next phase of his recovery and is so far recuperating according to plan. While it's still too early to speculate whether he will ever return to F1, he does seem to be progressing well and he seems determined to return as soon as possible. You can read the article about Kubica's recovery here, and an interview with Eric Boullier here.
My last post considered why the media were so obsessed with Michael Schumacher's form. I came to the conclusion that it was far too early to speculate whether Schumacher is still capable of racing in F1 and that the media seem to be questioning something which is irrelevant. The media jumped all over Schumacher's comment that he was not enjoying racing and took it to be a sign that he was due to retire. Schumacher has since come back at these comments, arguing that he is still motivated and that his Mercedes car should be gaining some more performance at the next Grand Prix in Spain. You can read the article here.
A final quick point that I'd like to talk about is motorsport's relationship with the social networking site Twitter. I have been a bit cheeky and have been sending the link to this blog to various drivers, journalists, teams and motorsport magazines asking them to look at it. I have received a positive response from everyone who has looked at it and I am incredibly grateful to those who have taken time to read what I have written. So if you're here from a link I have sent you then sorry for being so cheeky but thank you for reading! If you don't follow me on Twitter and you'd like to see my inane ramblings in 140 character form, then follow the link to my profile.
I love Twitter's links with motorsport, largely because it enables ordinary fans (like me) a bit more of an insight behind the scenes as it were. I find it fascinating to see what drivers get up to in their spare time, as well as hearing what goes on at a race weekend. The pictures and things that people post up on Twitter let us all see things that the regular media wouldn't be able to/want to show us (such as Heikki Kovalinen's paper boat at a particularly rainy Grand Prix weekend). I also like the fact that drivers will take the time to answer questions that fans pose - it's more of a direct response than a journalist would write up in an article and so the answers seem somehow more genuine. In general I just think that Twitter enables fans to "connect" more with their heroes - look at the drivers who responded to reading my blog, I was smiling for hours!
Hopefully now Blogger is back I will be posting more interesting content next week, for now thanks for having a look at my quick post! Have a comment on my articles if you like and if you're here from Twitter let me know! Have a lovely weekend.
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