Tuesday 27 March 2012

I think Rob Smedley's face sums up Massa's recent performance




You can add Rob Smedley to the list of F1-folk I'm slightly obsessed with. (As many people on Twitter pointed out, that list is LONG.)

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The Malaysian GP

Credit: Sauber Motorsport AG
I think Sunday's race was most certainly the Perez show. He came second behind Fernando Alonso and in front of Lewis Hamilton after a rather interesting wet race.

The race was red-flagged early on due to rain. Although, Vergne managed to do the last few laps before the flag on inters so it can't have been that wet. Regardless, everyone got to take a little break and put full wets on.

No ice cream for the Iceman
Alonso got ahead during the restart and things stayed that way for the rest of the race.

Perez found himself up in second and he was gaining on Alonso. We thought that he was going to nab the Ferrari on the final laps. That was until Perez made a mistake and went wide putting him back five seconds from Alonso.

I'm, generally, not an Alonso fan but I'm pleased he won. He drove well. Nothing compared to Perez, though! A Sauber up in second was amazing to see and the shots of Peter Sauber all teary after the race was heartwarming!

Again, Mark Webber finished ahead of his team mate but it wasn't such a great result for McLaren. Hamilton seemed somewhat pleased with 3rd but Button finished down in 14th after having to make his way up from the back of the grid after a run in with Karthikeyan.

Third-placed Lewis Hamilton said: "I think we can be satisfied. First of all congratulations to Fernando and Sergio, they both drove fantastically well and it was very difficult to catch them.

"I can't really complain, I was on the podium for the second race in a row."

Although, I'm pretty sure he didn't look too happy as he said that.

Final Result: 1. Alonso 2. Perez 3. Hamilton 4. Webber 5. Raikkonen 6. Senna 7. Di Resta 8. Vergne 9. Hulkenberg 10. Schumacher 11. Vettel 12. Ricciardo 13. Rosberg 14. Button 15. Massa 16. Petrov 17. Glock 18. Kovalainen 19. Maldonado 20. Pic 21. Karthikeyan 22. de la Rosa 23. Kobayashi 24. Grosjean

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Thursday 22 March 2012

Why is Hamilton such a grumpy face?

Image Credit: McLaren F1 team
Despite getting a podium finish, Lewis Hamilton just wasn't happy after the race in Australia. Now, we all know he wants to win, above everything. But you'd think he'd at least be a little happy with 3rd place, even if he was still behind Vettel and Button.

I'm in two minds about this. For the most part I want to tell him to shut the fuck up, stop worrying about bad starts and what went wrong in the race and be happy that he got 3rd. This would lead to a more chilled Lewis Hamilton who would be focused on the race at hand rather than mistakes made in the previous race etc.

I think he's gone from not being focused enough to being too focused and as a result he's being a wanker.

However, I also think that with passion and determination - along with all that skill - why should he be happy with 3rd place? No one wants to come 3rd, you want to WIN. Hamilton won't be happy with anything other than that.

Ayrton Senna had it right. He said: "When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough."

So part of me thinks, good on you Lewis. Fight until the bitter end.

Senna also said: "Being second is being first to the ones who lose."

That puts it in another perspective. I want Hamilton to win races (although I'd rather Button won races) but I'm bored of him looking grumpy-faced on the podium. 

I'd kill to come third in a Forumula One race.



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Wednesday 21 March 2012

I'm excited about... Bruno Senna


I think he's got a lot to give Formula One. Firstly, he's beautiful. Secondly, I think it's time he did really well in a championship. His career so far has seen a few wins - in F3 and GP2 - and a number of podiums but he's yet to be a champion.

Although the Williams looks much more promising this year, it certainly isn't going to get Senna the championship win he's after. However, he's young and he has potential. I don't think his career will end abruptly like it has with other young drivers (namely, Alguersuari), I think we'll see him move steadily up the field.


I really hope he has the balls to beat his team mate this year. I'm starting to see that Maldonado has some talent but I don't like the way he drives. He's aggressive, which can sometimes be good, but he lacks the finesse needed not to elbow other drivers off the track.

I think Senna would've been impressive at Australia had he not danced with Massa-the-ballerina. I'm interested to see how he does at Malaysia but it's going to be a difficult and interesting race for all concerned. I wonder if it'll rain...


Senna said: "It is a very tough track, very physical and the heat is a big issue in Malaysia. It will be important to get acclimatised to the heat ahead of the weekend and get a good car set-up for these conditions. We will then try to chip away and continue what we learnt in Australia. I've been to Sepang before so I know the track, and I'm looking forward to the race weekend."

Of course, my Williams dream team would be Barrichello and Senna. If only.

Images: Williams F1

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Five place grid penalty for Kovalainen in Malaysia

Stupid sunglasses are stupid
Apparently Caterham's Heikki Kovalianen overtook Vettel under the safety car and as a result has incurred a penalty. Did I miss this happening during the race? 

Kovalainen said: “I've been looking forward to getting back to Malaysia and after the race in Australia it's good that we can get straight back on track so quickly. I've accepted the penalty I was given for passing Vettel under the safety car - it was definitely a bit harsh but the rules are set and it's just unfortunate I made a small mistake that will put me back five places on the grid at Sepang. It's not really a problem - we know we can pass the cars that will probably be ahead on the grid and I'll just have to do my best to put myself as far up the grid as I can on Saturday so we can minimise the effect of the penalty in the race."

I hope he can pass the cars ahead. But, just in case he can't, he's out of my Badger GP Fantasy F1 this week to be replaced by Petrov. Points please Caterham!

Image: Caterham F1 Team

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Sunday 18 March 2012

Australia - Race day

Image credit: Sauber Motorsport AG
You know what was missing today, sausage sandwiches. Remind me to not make that mistake again. The co-op isn't open at 4:30am.

As you'd expect, Mark Webber had a bad start, there was a collision at turn one and we saw the safety car. At least some things are consistent in F1.

After Romain Grosjean's great qualifying, a tangle with Pastor Maldonado on the second lap left him with broken front suspension causing him to retire. Nico Hulkenberg also picked up damage early on and had to retire the car.

Another disappointment was Michael Schumacher, after great performance during the rest of the weekend he slowed on lap 10 only to come into the pits with gearbox issues. He stopped the car and that was the end of his race.

Jenson Button stormed ahead early on. Not only is that car beautiful but it's got the pace to rival the less aesthetically pleasing cars on the grid!

Sergio Perez, who started 23rd on the grid after a five place penalty for a gearbox change, managed to carve his way up the field. As predicted, he was on a one-stop strategy which meant he could hold his position in the mid-field.

On lap 32 Kimi Raikkonen came on the team radio to say: "Why do I get all the time blue flags!" Kimi's race engineer replied: "The blue flags are not for you, Kimi, they are for people who need to be lapped." Another reason to love the Iceman.

Image credit: Caterham F1 Team
There was a lot of change of position and, as a Caterham fan, I was excited to see that Vitaly Petrov was up to 13th at one point. That was until lap 37 when he parked his car on the start-finish straight. He had to retire due to power-steering issues. (Jarno Trulli may have had cause to moan about that a lot last year, it seems.)

The parked Caterham called for the first safety car of the season. Both McLarens had just pitted but Sebastian was heading to the pits when the yellow flags went up. He was already out of the area so was able to continue at full speed to box. Hamilton had to slow down and as a result Vettel ended up sandwiched in between the two McLarens in second.

Lap 42 and we are back to racing! Button, Vettel and Hamilton lead the pack.

The following lap there's more disappointment for my beloved Caterham. Heikki Kovalianen retires with similar power-steering issues. That's a bad start to the season for the team.

Lap 47 and Felipe Massa finds a new ballet partner. He clashes with Bruno Senna and both sustain damage. Senna manages to make it to the pits for a quick fix but Massa has to retire.

For the last few laps I thought Webber, in 4th, was going to catch Hamilton and grab the 3rd podium place but even with the DRS wide open he couldn't close the gap.

On the last lap it looked like Maldonado was going to grab sixth, a brilliant result considering Williams only scored five points in 2011. However, he put a wheel on the grass and spun. I am not a Maldonado fan (because he bashes his way through the field) but I was disappointed for him. He'd driven well and the car is clearly much more worthy this season.

Chequered flag goes and Jenson Button is the winner of the 2012 Australian Grand Prix!

Final result: 1. Button. 2. Vettel. 3. Hamilton. 4. Webber. 5. Alonso. 6. Kobayashi. 7. Raikkonen. 8. Perez. 9. Riccadio. 10. Di Resta. 11. Vergne. 12. Rosberg. 13. Glock. 14. Pic. 15. Maldonado. 16. Senna. 17. Massa. 18. Kovalainen. 19. Petrov. 20. Schumacher. 21. Grosjean. 22. Hulkenberg. 

Both Marussias managed to finish the race without too much trouble. That in itself is great for the team who a few weeks ago couldn't pass a crash test and weren't even able to test!

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Saturday 17 March 2012

Australia - Qualifying

What a start to the season! Firstly, I was disappointed not to see Caterham get through to Q2, I thought their pace in testing and how the drivers had been talking about the car, that one of them would have a good enough lap to make it through.

Lots of offs with drivers. Looks like just putting a wheels on the astro turf is a great way to end up spinning/in the gravel/looking like a twat. I think the drivers, Vettel in particular, are struggling without the extra downforce of the blown diffuser. There was a lot of wiggly driving from Vettel.

Mercedes are doing something right, though! Their interpretation of the rules that allows them to have an f-duct that directs air to the front wing when the DRS is open is brilliant. However, Redbull and Lotus are talking to the stewards about this being an illegal development saying it is driver-operated aerodynamics. We'll probably see the outcome of this before the weekend is over.

I think Mercedes have done what they did with Brawn in 2009 and interpreted the rules brilliantly to bring a car with a slight advantage over the other teams.

Raikkonen made a mistake during Q1 and got knocked out. A huge surprise as I'd been rooting for him since he first showed good form during testing.

Alonso had a lovely spin and ended up in the gravel causing him to go out in Q2. I saw a Ferrari spinning and instantly assumed it was Massa, who eventually ended up 16th. The Italian papers are going to rip them to shreds.

In Q3 I was sure that Mercedes and McLaren were going to put in stonking laps until Vettel got out there and did what he does best. One final quick lap!

That wasn't the case. Hamilton flew, soon to be followed by Button. The icing on the cake was Romain Grosjean coming in at 3rd with the Red Bulls and Mercedes behind him. Just think what Kimi might have been able to do had he not got knocked out in Q1.

Rosberg would've been up there, perhaps on pole if his wheel hadn't locked on his hot lap. He ended up 7th but I think we'll be seeing great pace from both him and Schumacher tomorrow.

Now I'm looking forward to Mark Webber having a good start (yeah right), more pirouetting from Massa and the surprises at in the middle of the pack carving their way up to the front. Namely Kimi and Fernando.

Final Result: 1. Hamilton. 2. Button. 3. Grosjean. 4. Schumacher. 5. Webber. 6. Vettel. 7. Rosberg. 8. Maldonado. 9. Hulkenberg. 10. Ricciardo. 11. Vergne. 12. Alonso. 13. Kobayashi. 14. Senna. 15. Di Resta. 16. Massa. 17. Perez. 18. Raikkonen. 19. Kovalainen. 20. Petrov. 21. Glock. 22. Pic. 23. De la Rosa. 24. Karthikeyan

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Friday 16 March 2012

Iceman finishing position

While in the pub this evening we decided to make our predictions for the coming Australian GP. Naturally, we made quali predictions (I reckon Webber, Schumacher, Button) and also decided to put a pound on where we thought Kimi Raikkonnen would finish after Sunday's race.

Here I introduce you to the majority of my little F1 group.

Kimi will finish...
  • Jet - 6th
  • Ben - 4th
  • Adam - 5th
  • Chris - 3rd
Would anyone like to have themselves added to our list? Do you agree/disagree, want to hate on us for not saying he'll win all the things?

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Australia - FP1 & 2

Admittedly I haven't had the chance to watch much of the first two practices at Melbourne. It's on really early and I have to work, like most people. Thank god for Sky+ allowing me to watch some of the action whilst eating porridge and drinking tea.

Some observations

Kimi Raikkonen interestingly said that the cars don't differ much from when he was last in Formula One except for DRS, but that's 'just a button'. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Kimi is going to be brilliant this year.

Albert Park looks lovely during the day.

I'd normally be cheering for a wet track but that means teams didn't really get a good feel for race pace or the tyres. This essentially means that most of the times are crap and we really aren't going to get an idea of pace until Q1. This makes things super exciting and I will definitely be dragging myself out of bed for live Quali tomorrow morning. (Expect sleepy, rambly, live tweets from me - @Jetlbomb.)

Mercedes seem to be up there with McLaren and Redbull but will this translate when it comes to the actual race?

Wet racing in Melbourne, yes please! Although, to forecast says it's supposed to be dry.

Hamilton said: “We spent the morning making sure we could switch the tyres on.

“Then, in the afternoon, we didn’t do any running in the wet because the forecast says it’s likely to be dry for the rest of the weekend.

“In those circumstances, it’s important to remain calm, look after the car and make sure we focus on the rest of the weekend.”

It'll be nice to see a more focused Hamilton this year. As a personality, I don't really like him but he's an amazing racing driver, it's a pity personal issues and ego affected his performance last year. (I'd still like to see Button beat him.)

Welcome to the 2012 season!

Image credit: Caterham F1 Team

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Wednesday 14 March 2012

What I've missed about F1

The Australian Grand Prix is looming like a massive, excitable puppy. As a result this week is dragging for me (so much in fact that I decided to bide my time by creating an entire blog...).

To kill more time I've put together a list of what I've missed over the winter break. I think I might actually be having withdrawal symptoms. Although, the shakes are more down to the fact that I haven't had any alcohol since Saturday.

Anyway, what I've missed -

  1. The sound of the cars - Especially live, the noise when I went to Spa was glorious. Except when the Renaults went round with their exceptionally loud blown diffuser. 
  2. Mark Webber's grumpy relationship with the press conference orange juice
  3. Those rare moments were Sebastian Vettel wasn't leading the pack
  4. Sausage sarnies during the early morning races
  5. Weekend bets between my group of friends
  6. Jake Humphrey's trousers
  7. Eddie's shirts - Oh, come on! They were a source of amusement
  8. Shouting at the TV - There was a lot of that between our McLaren/Red Bull/Ferrari/Team Lotus-supporting group
  9. Martin Brundle's grid walks - And how endlessly uncomfortable they made me feel
  10. Silly BBC build up footage - Such as Eddie buying a shirt in India and the BBC vs. McLaren pit stops.
Anything to add, ladies and gents?

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Tuesday 13 March 2012

Caterham's CT01

The more I see the car designs the more I'm beginning to get used to them. This shot of the CT01 from the Barcelona testing actually makes the car look beautiful despite the silly nose. 

And this one of the most beautiful shots of an F1 car I've seen for a long time

Both images are from testing at Barcelona and are copyright: Lorenzo Bellanca/LAT Photographic

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Sky - It begins


When I found out Sky would be showing the GP2 and GP3 I decided to make the leap. £30 a month to watch sport. What's happened to me?

I watched the first show on the new Sky Sports F1 HD channel. Firstly, considering all the adverts were so flashy, it was a little dull. I know they haven't had the chance to go out and film any beautiful, high-def, slow-mo car shots yet but still. The show was a bit of a let down.

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I suppose I should say welcome

On Track6
I've decided to start a blog, if only to get the inane F1 ramblings out of my head and onto a screen.

I am shallow, dedicated and biased. Deal with it.

You are welcome to ignore all the labels attached to this post. I seem to have chosen the most complicated blog template in the world so this is necessary. (I don't understand the world any more. I'd be better off passing a notebook around that contains all the shit I want to write about.)

MGS2S2GF28BR

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