Formula 1 2012

Eventful race today - great result for Sauber and Perez in P2 but really they had the pace to win it.

Really interesting race after the first 15 laps.

It is amazing what a bit of rain will occasionally do to an F1 race. Too bad Grosjean got into Schumacher on the first lap ruining both their races. And who would have expected the McLaren pit crew to screw up so badly?

Mclaren didn't really screw up Hamiltons pitstop. Hamilton missed his marks, then the rear jack was stuck and finally Massa was coming down the fastlane so they had to keep him in.

It really had little to do with Hamilton missing his marks a bit on one stop.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/03/25/2012-malaysian-grand-prix-tyre-strategies-pit-stops/

Consistently quick pit stops from Ferrari helped Fernando Alonso on his way to an improbable win. His lap 14 stop allowed him to leapfrog both McLaren drivers – the corresponding pit stops for Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were three and five seconds slower respectively.

Hamilton lost time in this visit as the rear jack did not go on properly and the team had to hold him in his pit box. His lap 41 visit was little better – as one mechanic struggle to remove tape from one of his brakes, Hamilton made an early departure.

Hamilton lost 8.5 seconds to Alonso over his three pit stops – more than half his deficit of 14.5 seconds at the finishing line. “In general, we lost some time in the pit stops and I was pushed out of the fight somewhat,” said Hamilton after the race.

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4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 22.534 0.913 40
7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 22.864 1.243 14
37 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 24.653 3.032 4

30 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 24.271 2.650 5
58 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 26.338 4.717 41
62 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 27.961 6.340 14

31 Jenson Button McLaren 24.305 2.684 4
54 Jenson Button McLaren 25.922 4.301 13
72 Jenson Button McLaren 36.517 14.896 15

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McLaren's pit stops were quite mediocre to terrible while all but one of Alonso's were blindingly fast.

Forgot about the tape issues, still those seconds didn't really matter anymore to Hamiltons result.

The Chinese GP was simply amazing.

Mercedes had its first poll since 1955 and Nico Rosberg won from there for his very first victory in 111 starts. I certainly thought it would happen long before now.

Michael Schumacher again showed what a gentleman and team player he is by not whining that his pit crew ruined what was likely a second place finish after qualifying there.

Jenson Button got a very nice second place with Lewis Hamilton finishing third. Button would have likely contended for the lead, but he also suffered from pit lane problems.

Webber finished fourth ahead of Vettel, who came from 11th in another brilliant drive. He was up to second for a while, but getting there cost him his last set of tires.

I think Massa also showed great heart despite again receiving a lot of criticism by the Speed commentators. He qualified within .3 seconds of Alonso and finished the race just 5 seconds behind, even after being forced to let Alonso pass him because he was "on a different strategy". Vettel only barely out-qualified him as well.

There was enough passing and close competition for even the most jaded fans.


Link to video.

Î missed China ohhhh
Former weaker teams got stronger in the rain race of Sepang


wooow Nico won in China with Schumi dissapointing all the way

Bahrain was yet another huge surprise in so many ways. Hardly anybody was in the stands, Arab Spring didn't provoke any "terrorist" related activities, at least at the track, and Lotus was on the podium for the first time since Ayrton Senna drove for them back in the late 80s.

The Daily Mail has an interesting montage of photos showing the protests and the race intertwined:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-despite-death-protester-clashes-police.html





Sebastian Vettel again tried to play the run-away-and hide game, which probably would have succeeded thanks a great deal to two more completely bungled pit stops on Hamilton's car. But the Kimster saved up 4 entirely new sets of tires and almost chased him down despite starting 11th. His teammate, Roman Grosjean, finished 3rd. It was the first time a French driver has finished on the podium since Jean Alesi.

Webber finished 4th.

Nico Rosberg drove both Hamilton and Alonso off the road in a display of how badly he now wants to win, but could only manage a 5th place finish. But the stewards somehow saw things differently after stating they would review both incidents after the race.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17808396

"At the time Rosberg made the move, Alonso was behind him and no part of his car alongside the Merc," they said. "Rosberg made the move to the right before Alonso.

"For more than half the distance travelled by Rosberg in moving in a straight line towards the right edge of the track, Alonso remained behind him.

"Because the speed delta (difference) between the cars was quite significant it was difficult for Rosberg to detect the exact position of Alonso in relation to his own car. No part of Alonso's car was alongside Rosberg."

In explaining their verdict for the Hamilton incident, the stewards used almost identical phrasing.

After learning Rosberg would not be punished, Alonso wrote on Twitter: "I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy! ))"

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I am shocked that F1 now apparently allows such dangerous blocking. I was fully expecting him to be penalized for doing it not once, but twice.

Here is the Hamilton incident where Rosberg actually whined on the radio that Hamilton made an illegal pass by going off course to avoid being hit!


Link to video.

Paul Di Resta had another great finish in 6th by using a 2-pit-stop strategy when everybody else used 3.

Alonso was 7th and Hamilton finished 8th after being delayed for 25-30 seconds with two bungled pit stops caused by difficulties with the left rear.

Filipe Massa finally scored two badly needed points after Button retired with only a few laps left.

And Schumacher came from 22nd place to finish 10th. His team royally screwed up by thinking his first laps were fast enough to qualify for group 2, but he got bumped at the very last second. He had a 5-spot penalty on top of that for having to replace his gearbox.

It's 30 years since the death of the magnificent Gilles Villeneuve. In fond memory of what was:


Link to video.

Alonso thinks that, combined with aerodynamics, there is not enough mutual respect to be able to race like that anymore:

BBC: Fernando Alonso: F1 drivers lack on-track respect

And he's right.

Yes, everyone feels, oh how to put it, 'entitled'. Too much money breeds a worsening of the environment.

If you'll forgive me talking about bikes (my primary stuff), Capirossi used to wax fondly over his early years in the circuit, remembering al the pilots spending their free time playing football together... now in the world championship even teenagers try to pose as superstars. SBK thankfully still has a healthy dose of accepted testosterone.

Wow. Maldonado wins the Spanish GP. Bet no one saw that coming before the start of the weekend.

Well now I'm hungry for a bowl of pasta maldonado

Maldonado and Kimi make F1 essentially suspensefull
their teams follow the top teams line

Maldonado wins with Williams motored Renault bringing Williams back to top after 8 years
Kimi is making Lotus proud of having that ex wc

Renault engine in both teams are closing gap to top teams

while Schumi diappointing again in driving into Senna instead of normally overtaking him
Schumi accused Senna to drive zigzag to avoid being overtaken, but one could not see any trace of that in the replays

while Senna said that his tyres were old and wanted Schumi to overtake innersidely
but Schumi surprisingly and rather unprofessionally changed to outside and induced collision himself

MajKira said:

while Schumi diappointing again in driving into Senna instead of normally overtaking him
Schumi accused Senna to drive zigzag to avoid being overtaken, but one could not see any trace of that in the replays

while Senna said that his tyres were old and wanted Schumi to overtake innersidely
but Schumi surprisingly and rather unprofessionally changed to outside and induced collision himself

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I don't know what sort of personal grudge you have against Schumacher based on your continuing negative comments, but Senna clearly moved to the left as Schumacher approached for the turn after initially taking a middle-of-the-tarmac path to make passing difficult.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18053192

"If you look at the overhead shot you can see he moves right to defend his position and then in the braking point he moves left," Schumacher said. "And I couldn't avoid him.

"It's in the braking phase. I'm very much annoyed about that. In Brazil (last year there was) a strange manoeuvre from him, and just before (in this race) he had an incident with (Lotus driver Romain) Grosjean. I don't know what happened there."

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Senna even finally admitted he did so despite initially claiming he had not when interviewed on TV immediately afterwards:

"I moved a bit left because I thought he was going to the inside. I never thought he'd go to the outside."

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The overtaken driver should never move from his current line like that for obvious reasons. The person behind is no mind reader. This is especially true in the braking zone. Even though Schumacher was eventually penalized by the stewards with a 5 position penalty at the next race, I thought that Senna was also responsible for the incident. It also appeared that he slowed far too early for the corner even with old tires. But the closing rates with many other similar passes at that corner were far higher than I would have expected as well. Many of the passes were even completed long before the braking area. However, it is the responsibility of the driver behind to make a safe pass.

In unrelated news, there was a tragic fire in the Williams garage after the race which left one person with burns over 40% of his body. People are claiming incompetence on the part of the Spanish officials to properly deal with it. The video shows various team members fighting it with no firemen in sight and a track fire safety crew arriving many minutes later:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...Prix-win-for-Pastor-Maldonado-turns-sour.html


Link to video.

The FIA have confirmed in a statement that 31 team members were seen by circuit medical centre staff, the majority for smoke inhalation, with 24 released.

Seven, however, were transferred to a variety of local hospitals for treatment, one from Williams in particular for severe burns, understood to be to 40 per cent of his body.

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Force India deputy team principal Bob Fearnley was fiercely critical of the response of the circuit's fire crews to the Williams garage incident.

"Incompetent would be a very polite way of saying what these people have done here today," Fearnley said.

"There's no training, no procedures. I went down to see how my man is, and I had to fight my way in.
"We need to look seriously at the training of people at the circuits. I'm not impressed at all."

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Just about to watch the race. Webber on pole, fingers crossed he can hold on to 5th leading into the first turn.

Formaldehyde said:

I don't know what sort of personal grudge you have against Schumacher based on your continuing negative comments, but Senna clearly moved to the left as Schumacher approached for the turn after initially taking a middle-of-the-tarmac path to make passing difficult.

Senna even finally admitted he did so despite initially claiming he had not when interviewed on TV immediately afterwards:

The overtaken driver should never move from his current line like that for obvious reasons. The person behind is no mind reader. This is especially true in the braking zone. Even though Schumacher was eventually penalized by the stewards with a 5 position penalty at the next race, I thought that Senna was also responsible for the incident. It also appeared that he slowed far too early for the corner even with old tires. But the closing rates with many other similar passes at that corner were far higher than I would have expected as well. Many of the passes were even completed long before the braking area. However, it is the responsibility of the driver behind to make a safe pass.

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Not having grudge against Schumi, I liked Schumi, but his performance before he cameback, being 7time WC.
But in a quick interview before he went to the stewards after the race Senna said he wanted Schumi to overtake him right innerside. But Schumi was surprised Senna got on brake earlier with his old tyres. So one could not see that Senna blocked Schumi intentionally. Senna was surprised Schumi getting left side too and braked with his fresher tyres later. But Schumi was not professionally enough in my opinion as I saw the collision. He got the fault because every driver coming from backside gets the fault. But maybe it was more surprise in that so Schumi could not do better. Because Senna got on brake too early for Schumi, Schumi was surprised and couldnt avoid anymore drive into his heck.

The Monaco race was very suspensefull having 6 cars head to haed to finish line. So the princely family could have invited all six to the After party than only the three on podium.

Webber, what a man.