The official blog car.

Greetings All,

TV broadcasts for differing racing series often have a generic car they use for demonstrating different things - and yes they have all sort of fancy 3D modelling at their disposal and teams of individuals to sculpt the polys and pixels to make a accurate representation. They also have all sort of fancy 3D animations to show off things like DRS and KERs for this year.

I have a grand total of none of these things - so don't be expecting all manner of special graphics and visualisations, however there should be some upgrades to the blog in preparation for Malaysia in little under two weeks now - depending one whether I can get certain things to work and edited into position.

But the first phase of these upgrades has been completed and tested over the past two days and my be altered during the season should I get bored of the livery - because at this stage it is very rudimentary and plain. That has a lot to do with my very minimal graphic artistry skills which does rather limit what I can do in design terms, and the base model - which may change during the year for something a little less generic.

I have held you - the readers though the plural may be pushing it a bit - for long enough and now here is the current official Blogmobile in the obvious livery given my design tendencies...

The car is not of my build - I just painted it, the model is the FormulaIS from the racing game rFactor and is designed as a general top level single seater race car.

The livery design would not have come of a surprise to those people familiar with my eclectic design normals and is adorned in the default Team Jenkins livery - a fictional racing organisational that has featured in anything that required me to think up a team name. The team has been used in everything from school woodwork projects - which was an articulated truck containing a stock car...which went suspiciously missing and still makes me mad, to a name for a Worms team (because there is never a time in life when holy hand-grenades are not entertaining).

These shots were taken on a virtual version of the Sepang circuit which the field will be approaching soon, so people of the internet as the countdown to Malaysia continues this corner of the internet shall not go into hibernation till then (unless I forget or get too busy with lines) as more things shall appear they may not be exciting but they'll be here nonetheless.

Round One: Australia Review

Greetings all,

Race one has now been completed and the field is now packing up and heading off and preparing for the next event in the tropical climate of Malaysia. But what about this mornings event... well the race was a little down on madness then some previous Australian GPs the field were being to well behaved with the odd exception.

Things started in an unnaturally orderly fashion with brilliant starts for both of the Renault cars, a speciality of their design that was prevalent in the Trulli/Alonso days back when they were at the top of the grid. Both Heidfeld and Petrov made improvements on their grid slots, with Petrov diving to the inside of Button into the first corner. Suffering contrasting fates in the opening sequence were the Ferraris - Massa who had a disappointing qualifying managed to jump from 8th to following Petrov into 5th. Alonso however got held out on the outside of Button and lost places to Rosberg and Kobayashi.

The orderly nature of things came to an end in turn three when Torro Rosso pilot Aguersuari determined the field was all together too German and removed Schumacher in his Mercedes from the equation. The contact punctured Schumey's rear tyre which upon his return to the pit shredded and damaged the bodywork and suspension. Rubens Barrichello also had an excursion into the gravel at the same corner after approaching three wide with Perez and Di Resta.

The cars then settled down with Vettel as expected ran off into the distance pulling 2.5s in the first lap alone. Lewis and Webber followed in behind and the opening quartet being fairly spread out with Petrov rounding off the group in 4th.

The field was in smaller tighter groups behind them with Button held up by a much slower Massa in his Ferrari the battle raged on for several laps Massa proving to be an immovable object. In the pursuing group of Rosberg, Kobayshi and Alonso - the recovering Ferrari was making up ground for some unfortunate positioning early on. Kamui was the first to be passed by the charging Fernando being passed all to easily in to the fast turn 11. Rosberg fell to Alonso in quick succession as he charged up to the back of Button who was still pinned behind Massa.

Futher down the field things were close between the Force Indias, Perez and the two Willams, with Perez moving to the front of the queue ahead of Paul Di Resta. The struggle ahead between Button and Massa was coming to a conclusion as Button dove to the inside at T11, but ran out of room as the track curved back for T12. Instead of introducing his wheels to Massa's sidepod he opted to cut the corner and re-emerged ahead of the Ferrari. Now Ferrari being the devious team they are moved Alonso ahead of Massa and then pitted Massa so they the illegal position gain couldn't be redressed, consequently Button was given a penalty and dropped down the field.

This left Alonso chasing the next car in line - his buddy from Abu-Dhabi last year Vitaly Petrov, who managed to keep Fernando at bay then effectively stifling his championship challenge. We were spared a resumption of the epic battle when Petrov pitted. Tyres were preforming roughly as the previous sessions of the weekend had shown 12-15 laps before becoming less effective - Webber was having more problems with the wear rates having to make three stops during the race.

The mid-race was mainly populated by the charges of both Barrichello and Button after their respective difficulties, Jenson was far more efficient getting by Kobayashi and finally and legally past Massa using the DRS into T1. Rubens was more entertaining making his was past Buemi and motoring on after his next target Rosberg in the Mercedes, making use of the DRS to close the gap to get into position. Then in a bizarre lunge into T3, the corner he ran off on the first lap, Rubens came from a long way back and also had decided that the field was too German, and plunged into the rear section of Nico's sidepod. The Mercedes started leaking fluids from the assault and retired a few corners later. As a result of his manic attempt at a pass Rubens became the second driver to be penalised by the stewards.

Out front things were very straight forward Vettel was more than comfortable in the lead and was an untouchable force, with Hamilton in clear air in second now with a broken floor after an off in the first chicane. By virtue of making one less stop then those around him Petrov had jumped into 3rd ahead of Alonso and a unusually slow Webber still struggling with tyres. In very contrasting fortunes rookie Sergio Perez had only made one stop during the race and was still keeping a strong pace, even to the point where he held the fastest lap before being bested by Alonso.

In the final few laps of the race the order settled with the only changes occurring after Massa had given up hanging onto his ruined tyres and pitted handing more points to the single stopping Sergio and Sauber team-mate Kamui for a double points scoring finish for the team. At the other end of the grid reliability was becoming an issue with both Williams dropping out along with Kovalainen and Glock. Of course both HRT cars were absent as a result of being awful.

Vettel headed the field to the chequered flag with Hamilton's damaged McLaren second and an impressive final place on the podium for Petrov for his and Russia's first podium finish.

Picture from eurosport

Bonus Points


It is time to award the bonus points from todays race and after some more deliberation between myself and a packet of today's race snack - which was coated peanuts Mmmmm - anyway the bonus point system will award 8 cars/drivers/ anyone in general points for events over the course of the day.

And the winners are as follows:

1. Perez - For defying all the pre-season worries about major tyre degradation and managing to finish the race in 7th ahead of a faster teammate in Kobayashi by making only one stop. (10 Points)
2. Petrov - Very strong performance in what isn't the fastest car on the grid, and giving a more experienced Heidfeld a thorough beating. (8 Points)
3. Vettel - Suppose winning the race and being miles faster than anyone has to count for something including being a lot quicker than Webber in identical machines (6 Points)
4. Button - Strong recovery drive after a penalty that Ferrari ensured happened, pulling places back to only being two spots behind his starting place (5 Points)
5. McLaren - For making such a turnaround after pre-season pace and a developing a car that can still work reasonably well when in a state of disrepair (4 Points)
6. Buemi - Gets some points for a strong passing manouvre round the outside in turn four of Di Resta in what is an usual spot. (3 Points)
7. Barrichello - For having a go, a mad unreasonable go but for being entertaining none the less (2 Points)
8. The grid as a whole - For completing an Australian GP without hitting each other too much and not needing to see the safety car.

So now lets look at the current overall bonus points table.

1. Sergio Perez -     10pts
2. Vitaly Petrov -     9pts
3. Sebasten Vettel - 7pts
4. Jenson Button      5pts
5. McLaren             4pts
6. Sebastien Buemi  3pts
7. Barrichello           2pts
8. Hispania Racing   1pt
9. Adrian Sutil          1pt
10. Ron Dennis          1pt
11. The grid               1pt

And now to look at the penalty box table with two entries 

• Jenson Button  - 1 Drive through
• Rubens Barrichello - 1 Drive through

And to finish off a final championship for dodgy dealing that weren't flagged but were very suspicious.

• Ferrari (no surprise) - swapping team order and pitting Massa to doom button (1 penalty point)
• Force India - Using team orders to swap Sutil ahead of Di Resta mid-race (1 penalty point)

Now we look forward to the next race in a fortnight's time over in Sepang Malaysia - see you then.

Australia: Pre-race

Greetings all,

The first qualifying session of the year has now been completed and we now the grid for the opening charge down to turn one of 2011 is set. Tomorrow 58 laps of the Albert Park race circuit await the field in what will be an enthralling opener to an exciting season in prospect.

So what have we learned


Qualifying was the first opportunity to see where the balance of power lies across the paddock, it became clear that some things remain very much the same from the form of the previous season. The front of the grid still belongs very much to current champion Vettel - who opened a very large can of domination through the session and delivering a final crushing blow in the final segment. Finishing the day with an unprecedented 1:23.5 miles ahead of the competition.

Following in behind the un-naturally quick German up front was one of the surprising performances of the session, the Mclaren of Hamilton pinched the final front row slot from local Webber showing the Mclaren had a lot more pace then any pre-season tests had shown. Grid order remained for the second row, seeing a Red-Bull heading the second Mclaren with Webber pipping Button to the inside of the track.

Then came the first of the under performing Ferraris in the obvious hands of Fernando who is already looking forward to Sepang. The second of the red cars was having a less productive day, Massa was severely lacking  in pace suffered a severe beating at the hands of his team-mate. His unproductive weekend ultimately ended in spinning the disappointing barge in turn one coming out of the pits.

Other interesting performances we afoot at Renault - Petrov who managed to break several cars in the previous season, pilotted his car up into sixth making him the best of the rest - if we discount Massa's failings. His performance was a direct opposite to his opposite number Heidfeld who failed to exit Q1 perhaps as a result of being a stand in for the severely injured Kubica. Mercedes were also a lot slower then expected with Michael once again being out powered by Rosberg and failing to join his younger team mate in Q3.

Another thing that can be deduced from qualifying is that despite what the practice sessions had shown, now prepare yourselves for this revelation... the Hispania exist and have cars that can move. But that's about it after a couple of laps at what has to be a the most disappointing effort I've ever seen since watching the sport in 97.  A paralysed sloth could have gone round faster, and surprise surprise they failed to make the 107% cut-off with a time in the hands of the fastest driver at 109% pace and for Narain at a pathetic 111% and hence they've been banned from the grid for being well crap.

Image from the Daily Mail online

Qualifying


Session one kicked off with the first car that hit the track for the start of Q1 was Lotus-Renault's Vitaly petrov and was soon followed by last years new teams. As was expected the first segment was pretty much a formality as the default six were relegated, it was the final drop zone place was the only one up for grabs. Massa came close to being dropped but a last lap run rescued his session. This was the first time the HRT cars tried to do anything and may as well not bother - continental drift was their only rival. An unusually slow Heidfeld was the final victim in the session. Koybayashi was a entertaining managing to get the Sauber more sideways than any other competitor.

Q2 was started by the Torro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi and he held the opening pace, Rubens in the off pace Williams made an unusual error on the run to T3 and buried it in the gravel, ending his session and confirming a 17th place grid slot. Fighting on the drop zone cut-off point of 10th place was between Schumacher and Buemi - the elder losing out by less than a tenth but gifting him the coveted 11th place - the first car with free tyre choice. Further back Force India were down on last seasons pace, both Di Resta and Sutil only contending with GP2 rookies Maldonado and Perez. Struggling with the new DRS concept Sutil dropped it on the exit of the final corner and by some miraculous driving skill avoided any of the walls.

Red-Bull further opened the taps for the final session and Vettel crushed the field with an eight tenth abyss separating him from everyone else. The top three teams occupied the front section of the grid with the only interloper of Petrov in the Renault, behind them was the only top 10 Mercedes of Rosberg and of course the lead Sauber of Kobayashi who should get extra points for being awesome, with Buemi in a faster than expected STR rounding out the final session.

Bonus Points


And now the moment you may or may not have been waiting for, and after some careful deliberation with myself because there is no-one else to deliberate with, there will be bonus points allocated for qualifying as well as the race. For qualifying there will be five winners all getting one point each all going towards the final score.

So the winners are - in no particular order.

1. Vettel - For being super-humanly fast, destroying the competition to that extent has to be worth something. 
2. Sutil - For completing his spin of the final corner without reducing the Force India to a box of spare parts and saving what would have been an expensive moment.
3. Petrov - For out preforming the car, and having such a huge gap to his team-mate with a 12 place difference. 
4. Hispania Racing - For giving me something to laugh at, being such a diabolical team and falling the 107% rule at the first hurdle. 
5. Ron Dennis - For spontaneously deciding that Eddie Jordan needed cake after the session, a strange gesture deserves a point.

So after qualifying the bonus point title is a five way tie between the five above. 

Looking to the race

With the pace shown today there is a high chance that Vettel will run off into the distance and never be heard from again. But this being Melbourne there is a chance of the safety car being deployed after an inevitable collision. On top of that is the unpredictability of the tyres which have already caused two unusual spins - one for Massa today and one for Chandok in FP1. So nothing is for certain and looking at last year the key to success is spinning Alonso at turn one, making an odd tyre decision and running off the track later on after the stop. So maybe whoever rams Fernando has a good chance. 

It should be brilliant. Race on here we go.





  

Round One: Australia Preview

Greetings all,

The season is now finally upon us with the first practice session getting the green light in around three hours, releasing the cars onto the track for the first time. For the tail-ending HRT team it will be the first time their new car will have operated at all since they missed the Barcelona testing to go to a media event in Monza, it's nice to have priorities in the world of motor racing - I just thought that the car would have been one of them - but what do I know. The rest of the grid will be facing off in a competitive session for the first time and we the audience get a first look at the running order and who will be on top.

This weekend will also determine whether the new gizmos the teams have been developing over the winter work or become a cataclysmic failure, and whether we all get to laugh at the FIA for the KERs and adjustable rear wing combination if it all goes tits up. Of course all the teams won't be running KERs, those folk at the most distant region of the grid, those teams who need to use their passport to find their starting positions. Which on race day could widen the void between the front and the rear, and scenarios such as Spa 2009 where a faster non-KERs Force India couldn't pass a slower but KERs enabled Ferrari. Then there is the tyres which seem to be as durable as cheese and will last about as long, Pirelli have sent extra tyres to Australia because of the high rates of degradation - where we will have a race of cars crawling around on mashed tyres.

The Circuit

Now the track, the 5.3Km of twisting tarmac that the 24 drivers (22 once the HRT cars break) have to take on. The circuit is a temporary stretch of road that circulates Albert Park in Melbourne winding around the boating lake in the centre of the park - it makes for an exiting opening to what could turn out to be a tremendous season. The promise of Melbourne as an opener offers much more than the original setting proposed in Bahrain which often drags on especially with the introduction of the elongated section track in 2010. The layout is composed of 16 corners and several overtaking opportunities, so that mixed with the tighter confines of the temporary track is often a recipe for some general mayhem, with those half-chances turning all to easy into safety car periods.

What to expect


At this really early stage of the season the formbook lies blank on it's opening page, with only the sketchy and unrevealing testing data to look at. So who do we expect to be close to the front - well of course the usual suspects should be guarding the top of the timesheets. The likes of Red-Bull, Ferrari and McLaren should be battling for ultimate supremacy - but the grid certainly does not end there competition at the front could well be interrupted by the Mercedes duo of Schumacher who is still around, and Rosberg.

The group following in behind these will be the most intense with Renault, Sauber, Force-India, and Williams  all running around the same pace and fighting for any points on offer left by the big four teams. These four teams will make the second phase of the opening qualifying edge of the seat as long as a space is reserved for Kamui - not that I'm biased or anything - everyone else can fight for entry into the final top ten shootout.

What about those at the back of the grid, the three new arrivals from last year coming back for another go at chasing the established runners. I think that the gap between Lotus (the green one - not the black one which is also renault)/Marussia Virgin and the bottom end regular Torro Rosso, which should be abolished to bring back Minardi - the greatest team ever (not that I'm biased... again) will close. This may have nothing to do with the newcomers getting better, but STR getting worse and falling into their clutches.

And then there is the HRT team, well I can imagine the back row of the grid from now to the end of the season being booked by the persistent tail enders. Though pre-season comments suggest that the car is completely new with now parts carried over from last year, but with no testing and no experience on the new unpredictable tyres there is a high chance of being last. The team is piloted by Force India refugee Liuzzi and blatent pay-driver Karthikeyen who will be battling competitively for last.

What about this season's rookie driver line-up, GP2 graduates Perez, Maldonado and D'ambrosio will be looking to make an early impression. How many people will they hit is another question, last year rookie Petrov racked up a significant repair bill - though mostly by colliding with more inanimate objects like walls. Other grid newbies include Force India's Di Resta graduate of Germany's DTM series and progressing from a test role into a race seat. It can be assumed he'll be less of a destructive risk than Perez or Maldonado, but the inevitable safety car interventions in Melbourne have to start somewhere.

So people of the internet get ready for round one of F1 2011!

F1 2011 - Blog Intro

Greetings Internet,

With only one week to go before the first race of the new season over on the other side of the world in Australia, I introduce to you another foray into the world of online communication with a blog dun dun daaaa! (or other cinematic music effect). Now people of the internet this blog is to take a somewhat alternative approach to the analysis of the upcoming F1 season.

So people, what do have to look forward to over the upcoming months, well I'd guess they will be some rather fast motor cars travelling around an assortment of circuits, and that pretty much sums it up. There will be some new gizmos for the competitors to play with, KERS will return and inevitably with it come a myriad of explanations of it's operation as the brains of average Jenkins are dissolved at the thought. To add to that we now have adjustable rear wings, where a flap opens in the wing plane to lower drag and increase speed for passing. Simple eh?.... Well this system can only be applied once you are within a one second window of the car in front controlled remotely by race control using tracking data.

Then there is the tyres, new manufacturer for the year with colour coordinated sidewall graphics - which makes perfect sense so that the audiences can work out compound is being used at any given time... Ah but the hardest two compounds are being coloured white and silver which depending on colour degradation or lighting could be indistinguishable.

So looking to the competitors, with 12 teams and 24 drivers who will be at the front - well it will likely be the same cast as last year but with the gaps between the mid-field and the front closing up. Bringing teams like Force India, Williams and possibly Sauber up to Mercedes and catching the front runners. As for those people floundering at the bottom end of the grid, hmm, looking at the pictures of the new cars some of them seem.... well... exactly the same as last year. The STR looks completely unchanged and could fall prey to the three newer teams from last year (OK two, HRT probably got the back row pre-booked).

What about the drivers, the squishy organic bit behind the wheel - that consideration brings with it certain questions:

When will Alonso start shouting at people.
Will Massa stop been dominated
How many times will the words "For Sure" be uttered.
How grumpy will Schumacher get, and will he realise he's old
Will Petrov's crash bill go down, and will he ever let Fernando past
And how many drivers will be defeated by the awesomeness of Kobayashi.
.
Now how is this blog thing going to work, well the honest answer is I have no idea lots of guesswork mixed with a likely lack of punctuality and consistency. But one thing i do know for sure is that it will contain an exceptionally arbitrary bonus point championship, where I'll assign points for whatever I feel fits to anyone, the power and all. The idea behind this is purely for humorous effect, seen it done before on another site and thought it was good so I'm stealing some of that.

So people of the internet, as the season draws near, and hopefully the quality of the writing gets better with some races to report on and mad bonus points to award should be rather interesting.

Note this is the first post, so may seem a little naff, and may be inaccurate but that's blogging for you always full of crap but over the year should be humorous.