Formula 1 2011

I think there were enough viewers to justify the expense purely on numbers but F1 is one of the more divisive sports as some people absolutely hate it and yet their licence fee is going towards buying the rights for it. In the UK I would expect the viewing figures to go down as over 6 million people watched the Silverstone GP whilst not everyone can afford or get Sky and F1 is one of sports where you usually either watch most races or just one or two rather than watching half a season.

The main issue is that the BBC had an existing agreement that ran for another two years that they could have just held on to and then let Sky have everything afterwards which would have probably been a better option. Hopefully the teams / Pirelli will block the deal as there is an agreement for F1 to be on free to air TV.
 
Hungary:

Slowest F1 track on the planet (called Monaco without the buildings) + on and off rain = a decent number of surprises.

It was Hamilton's race to throw away, which he did by picking the wrong tires at the critical time, and then making it even worse by speeding in the pit lane.

But I guess any race that Vettel doesn't win outright by running away from the field must be considered to be a good race this year (even though things are definitely getting tighter for the top 3 teams). And Button was certainly due for a good finish, much less the win. But Vettel still got 2nd, so the points were again snarfed away instead of allowing anybody else who might possibly be in contention to close on him. That leaves Vettel with an 85+ point lead over Webber and everybody else.

Alonso fought back from a relatively poor qualifying effort and a bad start to finish 3rd. Hamilton recovered to 4th after passing Webber very late in the race. Massa finished 6th way back from the rest and nearly lapped. Again, only the top 3 teams finished on the lead lap.

Di Resta had a nice 7th place finish for Force India and Buemi came from 23rd to finish 8th. Schumi retired with a gearbox failure and Heidfeld had a spectacular fire.


Link to video.

I can't wait for Spa. It's my favorite track and anything is better than Hungary...
 
I think Hamilton was not punished for pit lane speeding, but for his ruthless turn on the track after spinning around. By doing so, he forced other drivers to move into the grass...

And sorry, but that video was not Heidfeld in Hungary!
 
Calis said:
I think Hamilton was not punished for pit lane speeding, but for his ruthless turn on the track after spinning around. By doing so, he forced other drivers to move into the grass...
Click to expand...

Yep, it was for forcing one of the Force India cars (I think) to drive onto the grass to avoid him as he turned back the right way.
 
Calis said:
I think Hamilton was not punished for pit lane speeding, but for his ruthless turn on the track after spinning around. By doing so, he forced other drivers to move into the grass...
Click to expand...
Ah. That's right. But in his defense, it is virtually impossible to see much in those conditions. Unless there is a marshal who is nearby to tell you when to move, it can be nearly impossible to do so safely.

Alesi says Hamilton penalty in Hungary harsh

Aug.2 (PVM) Jean Alesi believes that the Hungarian Grand Prix stewards were harsh to give Lewis Hamilton a drive through penalty when he rejoined the track, in front of Paul di Resta, after spinning out of the lead during the race at Hungaroring.

The former Ferrari driver and now Lotus ambassador said, “I must say, though, I wouldn’t have penalized Lewis Hamilton for spinning his car back around in front of Paul di Resta. Lewis was in the middle of the track and he was just trying to get out of the way. Di Resta wasn’t approaching fast. The speed in that chicane is only 60km/h, nothing dramatic. I felt this was a harsh penalty.”
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David Hobbes said essentially the same thing during the US coverage.

Calis said:
And sorry, but that video was not Heidfeld in Hungary!
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Two good catches! I wondered why the angle was different and why the marshals got to him so quickly! Here's video from a spectator of the actual fire in Hungary:


Link to video.

And I agree the F1 prices have become obscene at many venues. You might want to check out the race in Portugal instead, even though you would then have to pay for a mini-vacation as well.
 
I think they had to give Hamilton the penalty as Di Resta had to drive on the grass to make sure he avoided an accident. If he had been able to pull further to the right before spinning round then it might have been less of an issue.
 
As Jean Alesi pointed out, it was in an extremely slow section of track. And it was under yellow flag conditions which meant that di Resta should have been going slower than he normally would. It also didn't affect di Resta's race much, if at all, given that he still came in 7th place.


Link to video.
 
Yeah its true that it didn't actually end up affecting his race but it could have if he had picked upa puncture or spun himself whilst on the wet grass.
 
That's why at least some people thought it was unfair. It's one thing to penalize someone for making a clearly bad decision that actually results in someone else's race being ruined. It is quite another to penalize someone for a judgement call that really didn't affect anybody.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/07/hamilton-penalty-was-for-offence-eerily-similar-to-gp2-move/

Today Di Resta had to go with all four wheels off the track to avoid Hamilton and the stewards, featuring Allan McNish in the ex driver role, didn’t like it. McNish didn’t like Hamilton’s moves in Monaco either, the last time he was an F1 steward, handing him a drive through penalty for colliding with Massa and a further 20 second penalty for colliding with Maldonado.

Some of the experienced ex drivers in the F1 paddock expressed some surprise that the Di Resta incident warranted a drive through. On the whole ex driver stewards this season and last have persuaded their colleagues to give the driver the benefit of the doubt in close calls.

“I honestly have to apologise to Paul di Resta. I didn’t see him,” said Hamilton. “I had absolutely no clue. I don’t know what happened but I got a penalty for something, which is to be expected, I guess, sometimes. So I apologise to him.”

This contrasts with his reaction in Monaco that McNish’s and colleagues’ decision to penalise him was “an absolute fricking joke.”

Di Resta’s response was, “Thankfully I saw him quite early, I saw before I went into the chicane he’d had a moment. And just as I came out of the chicane, I was a bit surprised, but at the same time there was time to take action on it. I think Lewis was leading the race at that point so I can fully understand what he was trying to do.

“But there’s no harsh feelings. I spoke to Lewis about it, he just said he didn’t see me. But if it had cost us a lot of points then it would have been a hard one.”

Like the GP2 incident it certainly looked dangerous, but Di Resta’s comment that, from his perspective, “There was time to take action on it” in conjunction with the lack of penalty by stewards in 2006, makes one wonder whether that makes it a penalty worthy offence. Perhaps this will set a precendent.
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It sounds like Alan McNish might have a personal problem with Hamilton...
 
Maybe or because they are from the same country he might not want to seem lenient but I did think when it first happened that Hamilton would be penalised for it. This season the punishments seem to have been more harsh than over seasons in general, so for instance the Schumaker one at Silverstone in the wet comes to mind as it wasn't just a drive through although there was contact in that one.
 
I love Eliza Dushku and next-generation-Schumi-Seb winning

we had a bigg partyyy last year as Vettel won on very last race the world championship

this year he is superior from beginning and is upp and away in points and I dont think others can catch up until end of season
yeah it would be more enthralling if there would be a head to head fight between two or more drivers but the KERS and DRS system brought some more action this year and you can eventually outrun the car in front of you and more overtakings are needed and good to see to enjoy racing more other than the mostly boring column's movements
 
Renault axes Heidfeld, 8th in points at the moment. So Heidfeld sues them.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Nick Heidfeld plans to take High Court action in London against Renault in a bid to force the British-based team to honour his contract as their lead racing driver.

Heidfeld was ousted from his seat in the team on Wednesday by Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of the late legendary former champion Ayrton Senna.

An interim agreement has given Senna an opportunity to race for Renault at both this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix next month.

But Heidfeld is not prepared to take the slight lying down and intends to fight back and regain his seat.

In a statement on Friday, the normally mild-mannered racing driver said: "I was surprised by the team's intention to replace me and regret that things have developed this way.

"I just wanted to be in the cockpit to get the best result for the team and me. I still have a clear contract and I want to drive."
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That is certain to make them change their minds...
 
I guess no other mid pack team is going to pick him up anyway so he doesn't have much to lose but its still strange.
 
It was quite the topic of discussion during practice. Speed TV commentator Steve Matchett made the point that this is how F1 works. That the team controls the starter. If they don't want you in the car there is no sense whinging about it. But it is still pretty weird since he was 8th in points and even mathematically possible to win the championship. What were they expecting him to do? Be in 7th instead, since he clearly doesn't have a shot at the top 6?

This just in: Schumacher's right rear wheel just came off on the first lap during qualifying on his 20 year anniversary of racing at Spa. It's particularly bad because he was extremely fast in qualifying and may have even gone for the pole.

The track is wet again, although the sun is out. This should be extremely interesting as teams try to get in a lap before it rains even more...

Session 2 was incredible. Button was called in during a clearly drying track, so he got screwed by his own engineer. Same thing happened to Di Resta. Bruna Senna was in in 6th place after an inspired drive, then he was out, then he was in again finishing in 7th. Perez did another phenomenal job. Then Maldonado ran into Hamilton after the session ended because he was displeased being passed on the last turn on his fastest run. Then it appeared that Hamilton jinked back into him doing damage to his own front wing.

Now they showed it from a different angle and it appears to be more Maldonado's fault, but still Hamilton shouldn't have been anywhere near him after the initial contact.

Session 3 was also quite entertaining. Vettel squeaked out another pole on the last lap. Hamilton got 2nd but his car might be damaged. It was acting really weird going into the last corner on the last lap. Webber 3rd. Massa 4th . Rosberg pulled another one out of his posterior on the last lap to get 5th. Algaschwari got 6th in an incredible drive trying to save his job. Senna was 7th. Alonso is in 8th. He must be disappointed. Guess he either screwed up his last lap on a drying track again, or he came over the finish line just after the session ended so he didn't get the last chance everybody else did.

This had to be the most entertaining qualifying session of the year so far. Sesssion 1 was especially interesting because everybody stayed on the track due to changing conditions. F1 really needs to address this issue of drivers only doing a handful of laps so they can save their tires for the race. It is far better when everybody is out on the track.
 
Since nobody else seems to want to comment on the Spa race, I'll do so again...

Yet another win for Vettel, even though Spa should have been an opportunity for the cars with more power to do better. But Vettel drove masterfully to pass Rosberg twice and Alonso once.

Webber came in second despite yet another dismal start which dropped him way back at the start. I really wonder why he screws up so many starts. At first I thought it was due to problems with the KERS, but it appears to be more of a personal problem. But he certainly came back during the race to finish quite well.

Hamlton got taken out by Kobayashi which seemed to be the fault of the latter, but Hamilton later tweeted it was his fault for not giving him enough room after his pass. He also received a reprimand for his post-qualifying brouhaha with Maldonado, but Maldonado got tagged with a 5-place grid penalty for instigating it.

Button went from 13th to 3rd in a great drive.

Alonso fell back from challenging for the win to 4th. Not sure what happened there.

Shumacher had the drive of the race coming from dead last after crashing in qualifying after his wheel came off to an amazing 5th place. Rosberg finished 6th after having an amazing start that put him in 1st for a bit. Perhaps this is the start of some good news for Mercedes this year. Based on practice, both of them seemed to be in a position to vie for the win.

Sutil had another nice drive to come from 15th to 7th.

Massa had another disappointing race to finish 8th after qualifying well ahead of Alonso in 4th. Also not sure what happened to him either. Tire blistering may have been a factor with both of them, which is odd since it appeared before the race that Red Bull was the team having difficulties with that.
 
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