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Worldwide F1 Survey

Well, all you fans of Formula One and any other interested parties now have a chance at voicing your opinions of the sport, with a chance at possibly influencing it’s direction in the future. Read more

Singapore GP: Alonso Ups His Value

Fernando Alonso and his ING Renault F1 team took an unexpected victory at the first night F1 race in history, followed by equally unexpected Nico Rosberg in second and Lewis Hamilton in third. Read more

Shock And Awe From Monza: Vettel And Toro Rosso Win!

In yet another wet race ( two in two weeks) Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Vettel converted his pole position into a convincing win, leading Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica to the podium. Read more

Ferrari Benefit From FIA Intervention Again

Whoda thunk it. Lewis Hamilton wins the Belgian GP in a wet, sliding, mixed up closing two laps, only to be screwed by the FIA and gets demoted to third place. Massa “wins” and Nick Heidfeld benefits by inheriting second place.

The race at Spa Francorchamp is noted for its unpredictable weather, which can dump rain on all or parts of the course at a moments notice. The opening laps and closing laps were affected by the rain. But there was no greater effect on the outcome than the race steward’s clumsy and obvious effort to hand yet another win to Ferrari.

The stewards claimed that Hamilton gained an unfair racing advantage on the penultimate lap, at the bus stop chicane, by cutting the chicane in a passing attempt on Kimi Raikonnen.

Hamilton did in fact cut the chicane, but he was in effect driven off the road by Raikonnen. After coming through the chicane Hamilton was in front of Raikonnen but gave the position back as he knew he must. He repassed Raikonnen by avoiding Kimi’s obvious block and out braking him into the turn one hairpin.

I have tried to be objective in casting my opinion of the incident and here’s how I see it. Hamilton was on a charge, coming down the straight to the bus stop chicane and attempted an outside pass. That part is incontrovertible. Where differences of opinion may form is whether Kimi drove him off the track or if Hamilton had an opportunity to brake and fall back in behind Kimi without cutting the chicane.

There is some doubt, given the damp and wet conditions that Lewis could have braked and not cut the chicane. The McLaren was well beside the Ferrari entering the corner. Surely Kimi was under no obligation to make room for the McLaren (and he didn’t), so cutting the chicane was the only sensible option. Granted he came out ahead of the Ferrari but allowed Kimi to repass. In any other race between two other cars (none named Ferrari!) this would be an accepted maneuver, without penalty to either driver.

Alan Donnelly, Max Mosley’s hand picked supervisor of the stewards at all races, has a lot to answer to over this travesty of racing injustice. Just like the lack of penalty added to Massa’s time due to his unsafe exit into pit lane at the Valencia race, this too should not have earned a penalty. Why? The driver most impacted by the controversy self destructed (Kimi) and could not benefit from any imposed penalty. So why impose one at all?

Anyone who has watched F1 for any length of time knows the answer to that question. The Ferrari Intervention Association is there specifically to assist and abet the Scuderia whenever required.

McLaren have promised to appeal the decision but we all know the outcome of that effort, don’t we?

Hamilton and Massa take the fight to Belgium

The F1 driver’s championship took up right where it left off, with Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa going head-to-head and qualifying one-two respectively for tomorrow’s Belgium Grand Prix.  Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen was outpaced by his teammate and both McLarens again, qualifying in P4.

Massa seemed poised to take the pole position after posting the fastest time in Friday practice, but the McLaren team had something to say about it.

Read more

Watch Your Back Kimi!

Luca Montezemolo has announced that Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikonnen will be Ferrari F1 drivers next year. This is the same guy that stated Michael Schumacher could drive for the Scuderia forever. Read more

Massa dominates Euro GP

I had a chance to catch up on my DirecTV playlist over the weekend, and watched an F1 race that featured a couple hours of boredom interrupted by moments of excitement and/or sheer terror.  Felipe Massa and Ferrari  won the race in dominating fashion, which helped to soothe some of the disappointment of a horrible day for Kimi Raikkonen.  Raikkonen ran what seemed to be a loafing pace compared to Massa, but that may have been due to a lagging engine. 

But that wasn’t the worst of it for Kimi.   Near the end of the race, Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen pitted on the same lap within seconds of each other.  And let’s just say that the race out of the pits was a little bit too exciting.  Raikkonen got a little bit anxious and left his stall before the fuel hose was detached, causing a huge debacle.   The launched car dragged the fuel hose through a group of crew members, knocked down the crew like a set of bowling pins, and causing one man to nearly get run over by Kimi’s right-rear tire.   It was a frightening incident, and fortunately nobody was terribly hurt, and there was no fire.   Reports I’ve found are that the injuries are limited to bruises, scrapes, and a broken toe. 

Read more

Massa holds off Hamilton for Europe GP pole

The F1 circus turns toward the shores of Valencia this week for the Grand Prix of Europe. The street circuit in Valencia is a winding 3.4 mile course that highlights the beauty of this Old World city and it’s Mediterranean shore.

Today’s knock-out qualifying session had a few surprises at the tail end of the field, but the pole sitter is not surprising. Felipe Massa will start P1 for tomorrow’s race, but will have to fight Lewis Hamilton who starts from P2 for early control of the race. Massa was the class of the field, setting a torrid pace in the first few turns of the circuit that nobody, including Hamilton could compete with.

The first two rounds of qualifying were actually dominated by Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso machine. The German phenom was quickest going into the final round of qualifying, and ended up qualifying fifth, which is a fantastic result for Torro Rosso. Likewise fellow Torro Rosso teammate, Sebastian Bourdais, qualified 10th in a solid showing.

The back end of the field yielded some big suprises as Button, Coulthard, Fisichella, Barrichello, Sutil all were knocked out in the first round!    And in a huge disappointment for the hometown fans, Fernando Alonso was knocked out in the second round of qualify, although he starts a respectable 12th.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on Speed TV at 7:30 AM ET.

Results for Qualifying:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:38.176	1:37.859	1:38.989	19
2	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.464	1:37.954	1:39.199	15
3	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:38.347	1:38.050	1:39.392	18
4	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:38.703	1:38.229	1:39.488	21
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.656	1:38.120	1:39.937	18
6	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:38.141	1:37.842	1:40.142	19
7	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:37.948	1:37.928	1:40.309	21
8	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:38.738	1:37.859	1:40.631	19
9	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:38.595	1:38.336	1:40.721	18
10	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	1:38.622	1:38.417	1:40.750	18
11	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:38.667	1:38.428		15
12	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:38.268	1:38.435		12
13	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:38.532	1:38.499		14
14	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:38.559	1:38.515		15
15	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	1:38.787	1:38.744		15
16	16	Jenson Button	Honda	1:38.880			6
17	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:39.235			9
18	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:39.268			10
19	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:39.811			10
20	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:39.943			9

Silverstone friday: Massa crashes, Ecclestone announces British GP moving to Donnington

Formula 1 returned to Silverstone this weekend for the British Grand Prix for the second to last GP to be held at the historic circuit. Bernie Ecclestone announced this weekend that the British GP will be moving to Donnington Park starting in 2010.

The loss of Silverstone is a great one for the history of the sport. Silverstone has been a part of Grand Prix racing since the late 1940’s and hosted the first Formula 1 World Championship GP in 1950.

Read more

Canadian GP: BMW Rules

 

I tuned into the Canadian GP this afternoon and a funny thing happened: An all out race……including (gasp) passing! Read more