The Goodwood Festival of Speed

There's nothing I like more than fast cars and the Goodwood Festival of Speed sums up everything I love about motorsport. This year the event takes places between June 28^th and July 1^st.

Obviously, it's the Forumla One drivers and teams at the event that really interest me. My beloved Caterham will be there as will Red Bull, Force India, McLaren, Lotus, Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams.

There will also be appearances from past drivers such as Sir Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, Sir Stirling Moss and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Along with all the chances to see drivers up close there is also the exciting 1.16 mile hill climb. Jenson Button, for example, will be driving the MP4-26 up the hill and Mark Webber the RB6.

It's a great chance to see some fantastic cars, drivers and drink in some of the atmosphere that you really only can get from motorsport.

For more information please visit www.goodwood.co.uk

The Spanish GP comes to a fiery end

Overall the race was quite exciting and found myself torn between wanting Alonso or Maldonado to win. I'm actually pleased with how things turned out. What a loved birthday present for Frank Williams to have a win after so many years.

There was all sorts of excitement on track.

Lewis Hamilton ran over the wheel his pit crew had just removed as he headed back out after a pitstop.

Michael Schumacher was handed a five-place grid penalty after running into the back of Bruno Senna, taking them both out of the race.

There seemed to be issues with the Red Bull nose. Both Webber and Vettel went into the pits for a change during the race.

There was a lot of looking after tyres.

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

Race over and we all headed off to the pub. I tweeted about my lovely beer only for someone to reply 'did you see after the race?' What had I missed? Quickly scrolling through my timeline I soon realised there had been a fire in the Williams Garage. What a way to temper a great race.

A combination of SkyGo, YouTube and Twitter soon got us the story (and a lot of unfounded rumour).



 It actually amazes me how chilled the BBC lot were about it but I suppose they weren't right in the heart of the action in the pit lane like the Sky presenters were. 



That's a lot of smoke. It sounds like a number of people were injured, most with spoke inhalation but there's nothing too serious.

Although the fire was contained to the Williams garage and quickly put out, engineers from the surrounding teams were all rushing in to help. It looks like some Caterham and Force India staff were injured while helping to extinguish the flames. The official statement from Williams is below.

"After today’s Spanish Grand Prix a fire occurred in the team’s garage which originated from the fuel area.

"Four team personnel were injured in the incident and subsequently taken to the medical centre. Three are now receiving treatment at local hospitals for their injuries, while the fourth has been released. The team will monitor their condition and ensure they receive the best possible care.

"The team, the fire services and the police are working together to determine the root cause of the fire and an update statement will be released in due course.

"The Williams F1 Team would like to thank all of the teams and the FIA for their support in today’s incident."

I hope everyone involved is okay and am sad that this puts a bit of a downer on Maldonado's win.

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

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!

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

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

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?

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

I suppose I should say welcome

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.)

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