Round Three: China Review

Well, now the race is over an done with, and here I am looking at this page wondering how on earth do I document all that, with so much strategy being played out and drivers swapping places all over the show. You follow one cars strategy to find a completely different one coming out in front of them. But after watching some of the other racing of the day with the inherent madness of the BTCC over with where RML prove that nothing is unfixable... here goes.

Things this time started to go a little south before lights went out with fuel leakage on Hamilton grumpy-face's car as it was fired up to join the grid. But in a flurry of mopping of fuel and unscrewing of bodywork the Mclaren team managed to get the car out of the garage with 36s seconds to spare. Now if RML handn't managed to repair Plato's rolled Chevrolet today at Donnington then McLaren would have pulled of the greatest mechanical achievement of the weekend - perhaps Plato destroyed his car on purpose just so that his team could out-do the F1 crew. But I digress, the finishing touches to the bodywork were applied to Hamilton grumpy-face's car as it sat on the grid running to the limit of all the available deadlines.

Once everyone had finally lined up in their correct places on the starting line, all panels re-attached and sorted out it was time to get the Chinese GP underway. And for the vast majority of the grid things did get underway roughly anyway - Sebastien Vettel took the start at a more leisurely pace. This allowed Jenson Button clean through into the lead, with an open road out in front of him. Hamilton grumpy-face was also to take advantage of the slowed start of the Red Bull and joined his teammate in the front.

Rosberg came close to making it a silver trio at the head of the field, but ran out of space on the exit of three and four (because they are the official turn numbers). In the second Red Bull way back in the alternate reality that is the bottom end of the grid, Webber starting on the harder of the available compounds was making very little progress. Negotiating up to 15th from 18th but losing positions to Perez and then running off in the early laps knocked him back down to the end of the established runners.

Everything was running simply for the first few laps until people started making pit-stops and playing the strategic games. The top three were making a gap ahead of Rosberg and the Ferraris with fast starting Force Indias behind them. Out of the mid-field the Saubers managed to invert their positions with one-stop Perez falling behind Kobayashi and dealing with Webber.

Unusually the early running was contact free, no front wings were lost which was good for Heidfeld who more than likey destroyed all of the replacements in Friday practice and with the Renault not being supernatural off the line this weekend they could have done with all the help possible. It was at this point that everything made sense all the cars were circulating as best they could...Then....

Some strategy happened

Among the first set of people to open the pit lane account were the rather off pace Webber on the hard tyres onto softer tyres and Rosberg from soft to soft tyres. The change gave both drivers instant pace improvements and they set faster times which would bring them into play later. Another of the early stoppers was Torro Rosso's Alguersuari, things didn't go quite to plan here because I'm sure the idea is to attach four wheels to a car - and although STR did score 75% on that task that wasn't quite enough. The remaining 25% of the task soon parted company and bounced in a bid for freedom away on the exit of turn four.

Some more pit-stops followed this time for Button and Vettel - but things weren't too smooth here either, you see Button had a bit of an identity crisis and decided that being a McLaren driver wasn't for him and that the Red-Bull mechanics were far more entertaining. He decided to pull up to their team pit arrangement instead of going home. Post race one of the Red Bull mechanics claimed that it was an attempt on Jenson's behalf to cost Vettel time, but it sort of backfired because he lost out to Vettel in that pit lane exchange.

With the main stops taken care of the field settled down with one slight change everyone had been jumped on strategy by Nico Rosberg whose fast laps on newer tyres moved him in front of all the other cars and out into the lead. A similar process was unfolding for Mark Webber who was making up places and closing in on the points. Other movements up and down the grid saw Force India dropping back being replaced by Kobayashi and a massively improving Michael Schumacher who once again ended up in combat - of which the faster Mercedes had the edge.

This is where things start to get a little more complex as drivers having made second stops start re-emerging at all sorts of places Alonso ended up near Michael, Vettel with Force Indias and Massa with the McLarens. With all these cars out of position passing other drivers on other strategies and differing stages of tyre management. This of course brought about different interesting battles through the field with Hamilton passing all manner of cars and Webber sneakily making more progress on the newer tyres saved from qualifying.

Schumacher battle was an interesting insight into differing drivers in Ferrari's history coming together but also what was interesting was that during the battle Alonso's DRS activated outside of the prescribed zone - were Ferrari up to something (probably) or was it a technical issue (also probable but far less fun). Once evading the Mercedes - Alonso managed something incredible - something he'd had so much trouble with last year... He passed Petrov!

Elsewhere on the grid one-stop Perez was starting to be rather forceful - first up knocking Heidfeld wide on the entry to turn three opening the door to take the position. The stewards placed him under investigation for the challenge - but one-stop Perez decided to make their decision for them by performing a mad challenge on Adrian Sutil in turn two which earned him the penalty which was inevitable after one of the incidents. Damaging the Force India in the process.

And then some more strategy happened

Once the stops had finally settled we ended up with Vettel out front with Button and Hamilton who was on the freshest tyres. Grumpy face chased down his team-mate after dealing with the two stopping Massa, he caught the fellow silver car (or blue depending on Jenson's real affiliation) on the exit of the final corner and pressed all the KERS power he had left and applied it immediately after it recharged. Positioning the car on the inside of the first corner scooting just down the inside of the car from the other side of the garage.

The next car in line was the race leader for the resurgent McLaren. But that wasn't the only vehicle on a mammoth charge - a certain Mr Webber was in the process of completing the mother, father and estranged uncle of all comebacks, pushing the Red Bull from it's lowly placing right up into the points... and was far from done there. Powering past both Ferraris and Rosberg Webber now pulled up behind Button. Given his superior tyre compound and condition the pass was inevitable and un-stoppable.

Having left everyone else behind as they got held up by the slow Ferrari on it's older tyres, Hamilton grumpy-face caught up to Vettel. The leader was on the same sort of older tyres that were crippling Massa's pace, and to make matters worse his KERS was also in it's default condition of being broken. This made things easier for Lewis as Vettel had nothing to challenge the attacking McLaren with, and within laps conceded the lead. The situation was reversed for 3rd where the Red Bull was the aggressor with Webber managing to take a podium place from Button finishing what was an epic drive.

Just outside the points on the final lap Heidfeld and Di Resta decided to share the same piece of race track and succeeded in knocking parts off each other into the T14 hairpin - but their tussle was literally pointless as the final place was held by Kobayashi in 10th and Petrov in 9th. As this was the first time the top 8 places were filled by all drivers from the top four teams.

Grumpy-face managed to cross the line first from an ailing Vettel who just managed to stay ahead of his charging team-mate with Button 4th and Rosberg in 6th.

The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners.

After a race where there were so many people could be awarded points and some very strong performances it was difficult to assign points to only 8 entities. But I did and here are the winners from the Chinese GP.

10pts - Mark Webber, one of the greatest dry-weather comebacks ever, and only two places worse than Rubens German GP in 2000 but that was wet and and safety car affected.

8pts - Grumpy-face Hamilton - although no longer sporting the grumpy face it was a very strong drive with some good clean overtaking manouvres

6pts - Kovalainen - Although there was a lot going on at the front Heikki in the Lotus managed to finish ahead of a Willams on pure speed which is a marked improvement and a good drive. He was also ahead of one-stop Perez but his race was penalty affected

5pts - Rosberg - A strong weekend, showing what the car was capable off, perhaps lost some time in the strategy but very few people were stopping Webber so that position was not dependable so effectively finished where he started.

4pts - Schumacher - Finally getting the full pace out of the car and did a good job racing with other cars including Alonso and Kobayashi

3pts - McLaren - For doing the second best mechanical job of the weekend - it was the first until RML this afternoon eclipsed that and were given moral bonus points for their efforts.

2pts - Pirelli - For unleashing madness... that is all

1pt - Alonso - For finally passing Petrov

The penalty championship


Only two penalties were incurred this weekend both in the form of a drive through penalty - one for Perez because of his... innovative overtaking attempts. And one for Liuzzi for a jump start, not that jumping in the start in a HRT would be any help to them but never mind.

Dodgy dealings


While this championship still exists - there is a thought of merging it with the main championship in the form of negative scoring - the points for this race were only going to be assigned to one-stop Perez but the stewards took care of him. Then they were going to go to Button for what may have been a devious tactic to delay Red Bull by visiting their garage, but I reckon he just made an error.

But the most suspicious incident goes to Alonso with his anomalous rear wing activating outside the zone which is....odd to say the least. So until a better explanation surfaces he's going in the table.

Off to Turkey

Now there is a long break before everyone reaches Europe and I don't have to wake up at unnatural hours of the morning. There will likely be much development in the three weeks off so when wheels hit the track in Istanbul the form book will turned inside out and completely re-written so who knows what we are expecting so we shall have to wait in anticipation for some more tyre strategy madness.

China: Pre-Race

Greetings All,

Today the concept of an alarm was replaced by the good old fashioned VCR, the little grey box which will be very overused over the weekend as every major championship on the planet desides its a good day to go racing. Besides the obvious F1 event there is also the BTCC, F2, V8 supercars, and the Indycar series all to find space for. It's going to be very busy indeed, as well as being awesome.

SRC: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk

Developments since Malaysia

Considering it has only been a week since the cars last ran a qualifying session there was not going to be that much difference considering the relative pace of the field. Red Bull are still easily the fastest car but still having difficulties with the KERS system, especially on Webber's car where it still fails to work. Which is still to the bemusement of Webber who doesn't really understand how it works he just knows it's broke. McLaren have been dropped a little this weekend be that down to track temperature possibly but either way there is some ground to make up. 

Renault and Ferrari are in pretty much the same battle as the were last week, but issues in qualifying for Renault means their position does not match their speed, and they will likely be moving forwards on Sunday. Mercedes have improved - at least in the control of Rosberg who has been the faster of the paring since the team was created. Michael in the other silver and turquoise machine was still still having difficulties with the DRS which stayed broken from Malaysia.    

The midfield became a little rearranged this weekend, with Sauber slipping back both Kobayashi and one-stop Perez were down their normal pace, promoting Torro Rosso and Force India to the front of that group. But still ahead of Williams who are still lingering to the back of the mid-group which this week contains a few faster interlopers to make raceday interesting. 

Nothing changed with the back three teams, all lining up in the traditional two-by-two team order with Lotus still comfortable ahead of the other two. This time however HRT weren't in their own little world at the bottom of the time sheets where life is taken at a slower pace. The Virgin team were not too far in front of the Spanish outfit - only half a second being the margin there is a chance that HRT could finish ahead of another car... on pace. Then bonus points will be awarded if it is accomplished.

Qualifying 

For the third time this year the lights at the end of the pit lane went out and the session got underway. The first competitor to set wheels in the track for Q3 was one-stop Perez who enjoyed the free track time until the rest of the field came out to play initially joined by the Torro Rossos. This session really, as will all Q3 sessions, only has one relegation place up for grabs as the bottom three rows are already settled before the grid sets up. There were some surprising early nominees for relegation - the cursed 18th position held by the likes of Michael Schumacher and Kobayashi early on. 

As time passed the former holders of the position of doom improved their times and were safe dropping Maldonado in to the place that so far has only been occupied by Williams drivers one each so far. But with his last effort he jumped to 15th which placed Red Bull's Mark Webber into the bin. Webber was on the harder tyre through complacency and assumed the car had enough pace... this was not the case and out he went. Booted by rookie Pastor Maldonado

Q2 was more got under way without the bottom seven which included one of the fastest cars on the grid. This session was focussed on filtering the field down from 17 to 10 places. Early runs by Vettel, Button, and Hamilton-grumpy face placed them at the top of the sheets and were safe. Ferrari were at this point not too far behind within a second of the of the silver challengers. A strong lap from Petrov temporarily moved him up to fourth. Another notable early time came from Force India's Paul Di Resta who'd managed to slide his car up into second. 

In the other side of the Renault garage Heidfeld who'd knocked off a fair few wings in practice had not gone out to set a lap and was conserving tyres preparing to Q1. When he finally went out to make his singular run things went a little wrong in the camp, team-mate Vitaly after completing a very quick time soon discovered that his car was making rather unusual noises before completely seizing up on the entrance to turn 5 (or three on the video). The stationary vehicle brought out the red flag so that no further one would be disrupted by having yellows on track. This process means on the cars currently on a lap would be compromised, which included Heidfeld on his only prescribed run - a tactic often used at BMW. 

After Petrov's car was winched away the field lined up at the bottom of pit lane with one-stop Perez taking pit lane pole, with Massa in second. As the drivers were keen to get any form of clear running with only two minutes on the timer it wasn't possible to hang back for space or you wouldn't cross the line in time. The cars stormed out othe queue once the light turned green again. On the run down to turn 6 (or 4) Massa decided he wanted to be first and dove round the outside of one-stop Perez coming very close to making contact with the Sauber to the inside. 

Other battles down the field for track placing proved futile as there was no space to be gained, this predicament pretty much doomed Heidfeld to relegation as he couldn't get enough room for a quick time. The only real improvements being in the hand of the Torro Rosso drivers who both made it into the top ten along with Di Resta on his Birthday.

And then the attention turned to Q3 where the top nine drivers fought for pole, because Petrov couldn't compete as his car stopped out on track. Vettel and Button were the first contenders, Button setting the initial pace in the McLaren with a very strong effort. Sebastien was not perturbed by this and set a unbeatable time to claim pole in his first outing. Both STR entries filed out and held 3rd and 4th before the rest took to the circuit. Ferrari and Hamilton-grumpy face only opted for a single run mid session knowing that Vettel was not going to be caught. 

The top two abandoned their second runs knowing there was no hope for position change and to save tyres for the race. Hamilton grumpy face made third a tenth behind Button but a week behind Vettel.  In lieu of both Renaults encountering difficulties and Webber so far back he'll be starting the race via video conferencing from his house. It was Rosberg who jumped to fill the extra space on the second row beating back a still rather despondent Ferrari team. Di Resta managed to split the two STR team cars and take 8th and continuing a run of beating esteemed teammate Adrian Sutil.

The Offical Bonus Point Championship points winners.

1. Paul Di Resta - For an impressive showing especially with a quick time in Q2

2. Nico Rosberg - Very strong final section of the session, being faster than the car has shown so far

3. Pastor Maldonado - For being able to bin Mark Webber into the drop zone - punishing Red Bulls complacency

4. Felippe Massa - for turing Q2 into a race session with his pass on one-stop Perez.

5. Sebastien Vettel - For being fastest, though it's becoming a little predicable seb so you're 5th this time though ever nominee gets one point you get yours last for being boring.

Looking to tomorrow.

The race could prove very interesting tomorrow especially with some much faster cars out of position with Webber, Heidfeld and Petrov further back than their pace shows they're capable of. So they will be charging through the field and the Renaults will be making a fair bit of that ground off the start. And Petrov will hope to be obeying the forces of gravity this time and not fly though the air 

Out front it is very easy to perceive that Vettel will be away and gone barring any technical glitches like in Malaysia McLaren will be fighting themselves, which may result in Hamliton grumpy face being well... grumpy and Rosberg will drop back and annoy Ferrari for an afternoon - and annoying Ferrari is generally worth bonus points. 

The midfield will be a strategic minefield with cars on all sorts of strategies, it will be likely that Sauber will be on fewer stops maybe just one for one-stop Perez and could be an outside shot at some points. That would be FIA assigned points though and no-one wants those bonus points are far more important to them. Michael Schumacher will more than likely be in the middle of all this and from how he behaved in Singapore and Montreal last year things could get unstable. 

So either set the alarm or the VCR for what may turn out to be straight forward at the front but very changeable race everywhere else.

Round Three: China Preview

Greetings All,

Less than a week after packing all the gizmos and gubbins up in Malaysia everyone is setting up and planting their equipment over in China in preparation for the first session tomorrow morning. The transition from Sepang to Shanghai will be less complex than it was from Australia as the track in China is very Similar in format to that of Malaysia. All the way up to turn 11 is based follows the same format as the previous round with only the corner radius and length altered to feign variation.

SRC: http://www.f1-fansite.com

The Track


As previously suggested the track matches the basic plan of Sepang all the way up to turn 11, the opening sequence of corners is more frustrating than the bends the drivers were faced with last week with the most decreasing of all decreasing radius corners opening the lap. Overtaking opportunities here are rather limited the obvious chance coming into the back hairpin at turn 14, but chances are available into 6 or 11, depending if the car in front makes a mistake or has KERs problems.

To illustrate how all the corners do fit together and how things look, as with last week I have prepared a video showing me driving round the track in an Indycar painted up in the blog livery. This blog mobile was used as not to show bias to any specific contender - and until yesterday there was no F1 2011 mod for the simulator, still going to avoid using F1 cars though in future to improve variation.

So here is this event's offering - the timings are better than last week's Malaysia vid and gives you a look at the track in an alternative form than a map or some professional lap - because who wants one of them when you can have me messing it up instead.

Just in case the video failed - though I've gone for a different approach this week -  here is the youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMTcQog11yY 

So what to expect

In short most likely the same as last week given that the track is very similar and should reward the same cars it did in Malaysia - however with the long back straight being so vital in Shanghai if Red-Bull have KERS problems they are going to make it rather difficult for themselves. Because relying only on the DRS could leave them open to the opposition especially considering McLaren weren't too far behind last time out.

2

Behind them Ferrari who have already pretty much written off these first races as 'damage limitation' until updates in Spain, will be stuck with Renault across the weekend, the latter likely to gain the advantage off the grid with the additional starting power they've attained.

The mid-pack will be as close as ever - headed by Mercedes and Sauber, rounded off by Force India and Williams with Torro Rosso sitting in the middle but not too far from either end of the spectrum. While things at the bottom of the pack will far more predictable with Lotus being the fastest of that division by a fair margin. Virgin will be second and HRT which we can assume will qualify, will only have the back row to look after. 

Then there is the weather to contend with, over recent years the Chinese GP has been affected in some way by rain, the changeable conditions giving Jenson the win last year, and the same conditions trapping Hamilton-grumpy-face in the pit lane gravel trap in 2008, and was completely wet in 09. The forecast for this weekend however seems brighter with precipitation only scheduled for Friday. 

KERS and DRS

Where will the toys the drivers get to play with come into effect this time, well considering this time I actually know where the various lines are on the layout, everything makes more sense ah the power of clarity. So then the DRS detection line is located on the exit of turn 11 on the approach to 12.  The second of the lines is positioned on the back straight 907 metres before the only proper overtaking zone at 14. 

The KERS on the other hand is available when and wherever the driver wants to apply his seven second per lap allocation which could open passing chances into turns one, six and eleven. As with Malaysia the system is of an high advantage considering it is essentially free lap time available to those who possess it. Should the system fail if it is installed on the machine then the consequences are more far reaching then lack of boost. As KERS is linked to the rear axle when it fails the breaking efficiency also declines as the device that collects the energy won't be slowing the car down which distorts the brake bias and costs lap time. 

So overall look forward to what could turn out to be a very strategic race on a track where passing is not all too available. And if the showers do wash out the Friday practice sessions then the entire grid will have lost valuable set-up time and that could make the grid very interesting. And with the Renault team in possession of some form of start function turn one could be very interesting indeed. 

Round Two: Malaysia Review

Greetings all,

The weekend is now over and done with - in F1 terms anyway and as the sun sets on the Sepang raceway the teams are stripping down the garages and packing all the supplies away before shipping everything out up the road to China for next week. The unpredictable Malaysian weather only paid a passing visit and the field got off very lightly considering the amount of rain that fell in the day before the weekend sessions began.

Image from ITV F1

So how did things play out for the second race of the season.

As with Australia everything got underway in an unnaturally civilized fashion with the field managing not to hit each other and no wheels or wings were removed in the vehicular soup that becomes turn 2. One thing that was abundantly clear is that the off-the-line pace of the Renault demonstrated in Australia was not a fluke, both Petrov and Heidfeld made exceptional starts. Most efficiently in the case of Heidfeld who managed to shuffle his Renault from 6th to 2nd squeezing past Hamilton on the entry into the second apex.

At the other end of the scale Webber had an abysmal start as a consequence of his KERS breaking before making it onto the grid as a result he as enveloped by the field on the run down to the first corner, dropping down behind Schumacher at the bottom reaches of the top ten. Of course aside from all the other changes for position Vettel managed to stay ahead of the field and now with  Heidfeld as a buffer to Hamilton pulled out in front. Other drivers were having a difficult opening segment Sutil and Barrichello made contact in the early laps damaging Sutil's wing and puncturing Rubens' tyre.

Once things began to settle down certain battle groups emerged the most active of which was between the out of position Red Bull of Webber and Kobayashi. Webber's car was obviously faster but without KERS and with Kobayashi's tendency for passing people the position changed several times. I think Kamui must have gone past the Red Bull at least a billion times. The drivers further up the grid held position, with the Ferraris looking to improve as they cam up on Alonso's best friend Petrov, Massa was the first to get through when Vitaly ran wide at turn 14 (or 13 based on the video). Fernando was not too far behind in making the manouvre which this time was possible unlike Abu Dhabi last year.

The race stabilised with the Webber/Kobayashi battle raging on - but elsewhere in the field relability was beginning to wear thin a little with Maldonado retiring with transmission problems. And within a few laps Karthikeyan also joined the list of retirements with more technical difficulties. But as predicted the Malaysian weather swept in but somehow by some miracle the storm missed the circuit by two miles and only mild drizzle reached the tarmac. Because of the high track temperatures the moisture only had a minimal impact on laptimes and overall grip, there was no need to switch tyres or cancel the DRS.

The middle phase of the race was fairly settled with Kobayashi finding a new battle partner in the form of the old geezer Michael Schumacher whom over the course of the race he passed on at least three occasions including a brilliant move round the outside into turn one. The tyre strategies were taking shape at the front which saw Heidfeld shuffled down behind Alonso and the McLarens after a slow tyre change stop, outlap traffic switched the position within the Mclaren team putting button up front.   

Webber was making a recovery charge after the dilemma at the start cutting back through the field after escaping the attentions of Kamui he was under in the early stages. The middle of the pack was beginning to thin out with the retirement of Barrichello with mechanical issues, this was not long followed by the stopping of one-stop Perez after being hit by some debris falling off Buemi's Torro Rosso. Hamilton continued dealing with traffic which then resulted in going three wide down the back straight with Schumacher and Buemi with Michael being surrounded.

Image from ITV F1

The next car in Webber's sights was Massa's Ferrari who in in possession of the widest car on the grid so for after defending from Button in Albert Park. The battle lingered on because of Webber's lack of KERS functionality stopping him making an impression but his DRS was available once Mark was in position using the extra speed to get alongside the Ferrari and in a carbon copy of what Kamui did to Michael and launched around the outside of Massa in turn one.

Fernando Vs Hamilton.


Tyre degradation had dropped Hamilton's pace and had dropped him into the clutches of former team-mate and mortal enemy Alonso. He held the Spaniard at bay for a a couple of laps on the account that Alonso's DRS had failed and was eliminating the front stretch from the list of overtaking opportunities. After being stuck in the draft for a while Fernando got a good run out of two and pulled right up beyond the McLaren. However both cars inched to the inside occupying the same piece of tarmac as a result Alonso hits the back of Hamilton's car truncating his front wing and knocking some aero pieces off lewis. For some apparent reason both drivers have been penalised for what can easily be described as a racing incident but the stewards were displeased.

Anyway...


With Alonso pitting for a new wing and Hamilton losing time through tyres and damage, that brought Heidfeld and Webber back into play for a podium finish and eased the pressure on Button in second. Within laps Heidfeld caught and rounded up the ailing McLaren, Hamilton then ran wide on the exit of Turn 7 allowing a charging Webber through onto the back of Nick's Renault.

Further back, down the field through strategy Michael who was encountering the same DRS problems he saw in qualifying, had been re-united with partner in battle Kobayashi and the change of position resumed with the Japanese driver asserting superiority and defeated the Mercedes.

Since the opening lap things had been quite quiet for Petrov since he'd lost sight of Massa and pulled a gap over the Micheal/Kamui pairing. And because he'd become a little bored he decided to see what else could be done with this years car. And on the exit of turn 8 he found and answer to the limitations of the vehicle - running wide over the astroturf and onto the grass where he encountered a bit of a bump. At this point Petrov rejected the force of gravity and made for the sky in an impressive leap, alas the force of coming back down to terra firma removed the steering column and not doubt would have been rather painful.

Up front Vettel still in the lead - with a smaller gap then Australia as with his KERS being intermittent and tyre degradation condensing the field. Button was clear in second with a gap back to Heidfeld in third, whose place was severely under threat from a resurgent Webber but without a functioning boost system all Heidfeld needed to do was use his advantage strategically to maintain position and that's how things concluded.

 The Official Bonus Points


The winners of today bonus points are as follows

10 - Heidfeld - for a very strong performance scoring a podium and a brilliant start moving from 6th to 2nd
8  - Kobayashi - For completing several passes on Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber
6 - Webber - Very strong recovery drive after a KERS free start  dropping down to 9th but ending 4th
5 - Vettel - Suppose winning again deserves some points - especially with his KERS being offline too
4 - HRT - After failing to even start in Australia to get car to the end of the race here deserves points
3 - Button - Gets some points for a solid consistent performance and lapping in times not too dissimilar to Vettel
2 - Petrov - Points awarded for his aerial antics - would have scored more if he made the landing better.
1- Buemi - Gets the final point for that moment when Webber and Schumacher were racing he decided to make it three wide in replica of the Hakkinen pass at Spa.

The Penalty Points Championship

This week penalties were given to three competitors

Buemi - stop/go for speeding in pit lane
Hamilton - for 'weaving'
Alonso - for being red... or was it the mini contact with the McLaren who knows.

Dodgy dealings

I think it will take some days for things to be revealed, with little accusations floating about for example Button saying Petrov was up to no good in the DRS zone but it wasn't seen so I can't take sides on that. But for now I'm going to put the Race Stewards into the bin for the call on the Hamilton/Alonso racing incident.

The full standings will be amended in due time

That concludes this weekends action - but only seven days before the Grand Prix of China, see you all then.

Malaysia Pre-race

Greetings all,

After rendering the alarm clock obsolete by waking myself prior to it being needed in the early hours of this morning in time for the second qualifying session of the year. We now have a grid set in place for tomorrows Grand Prix of Malaysia, where the sky is filled with uncertainty - the rain was avoided today but is looking likely for tomorrow.

SRC: http://beautifulmalaysia.net/

Developments since Australia

Looking at the times and performances from all the sessions so far it looks like things have remained roughly the same as they did back at the opening event. Red Bull still have the fastest car especially in the hands of Sebastien Vettel as he managed another pole position and one of only two cars under 1:35. However the advantage he and the team has over the rivals has been cut this weekend, Mclaren are much closer to the lead car, with the deficit only standing at 0.14s which is a minimal gap to Hamilton in second also under 1:35. All four representatives from the two teams occupied the top two rows of the grid.

Further down the field the competitors pretty much held position, with the notable exception of Heidfeld who made a significant jump from Melbourne to join team-mate petrov inside the top ten for Renault, surrounding the Ferrari of Massa. Dropping further down the grid Kobayashi remained the dominant force in the Sauber team six places ahead of one-stop Perez.

At the back of the grid comes the biggest improvement out of the entire grid - HRT have got both their cars through the qualifying process and this time can bring their cars out and into their starting positions ready for their first race of the season. After practice session plagued by failures and lots of smoke leaking from Narain's car the team have found some pace to enter the race. Of course we can't lavish too much praise upon the team because although they've made the start they've only just reached the point they were are last year.

Qualifying 

The lights went green at the end of pit lane to declare the start of Q1, and a grand total of nothing happened - the field sat in their garages reluctant to venture onto the circuit. But after a couple of minutes of hiding from the Malaysian heat the first few contenders made their escape, starting with the progressing HRT squad, and once the floodgates opened the rest of the grid joined in. At the 12 minute mark, Buemi's car decided it was claustrophobic and shed some of its bodywork on the exit of turn four.

The discarded sidepod and other associated parts brought out a red flag to allow marshals to clear away the escaping cover while Buemi retreated to pit lane with the intricate cooling mechanisms exposed to the world with it's gold lining on the engine wall. At the restart Lotus were first on track and made some impressive times which temporarily placed them outside the relegation zone but the natural order returned and last years new teams were rejected in Noah's Ark formation on the last rows.

Williams were the major disappointment with both cars languishing around the drop zone, the final relegation place was finally handed to the slowest of the pair in the hands of rookie Pastor Maldonado.

And then there were 16 left to contend the second phase of the session. McLaren went to the top of the time sheets throughout the session with Button and his dubious shampoo advertising leading the field. But it was in the mid pack that things were interesting with the battle around the edge of the top ten was a lot closer. Where the mid-field were fighting over the two remaining places after the top four teams had claimed their entry. Initially it was thought their would be three available places for the others but Heidfeld applied some authority and joined his Renault team-mate.

At first the last two slots were held by Schumacher and Buemi with sidepod intact, but as time went by and positions changed with Kobayashi planting the well into the top ten to secure entry to Q3. The last place was in internal affair within the Mercedes outfit with Rosberg claiming the last entry place and booting his more successful team-mate into relegation which continues Michaels run of 11th place qualification finishes this year.

Then there was only the final ten to assign the rest of the grid positions. The session began with the top four opening their accounts with their first runs, the first victory went to Vettel taking a tenth out of Hamilton who held first for a few seconds. While the top four headed back to the pits for some new wheels, the rest of the contenders left to make their runs knowing that they were competing amongst themselves. This group was headed by Alonso in the off pace Ferrari and Heidfeld's Renault both were followed by their teammates. The final places in the top ten were claimed by the two entries from outside the top four teams Rosberg and Kamui in 9th and 10th respectively.

The official Bonus Points Championship points winners.


At the end of qualifying it is time to award a saturday's five bonus points - and without the aid of a gold envelope or some exciting intro music here are the award winners from today.

1, HRT - A point has to be awarded to them for making the grid and making the biggest step since round one in Australia
2. Vettel - Suppose you should get a point for being the fastest but this time this point is conreted by the continuation of Sebastien's naming convention for his cars dubbing the current chassis "Kinky Kylie" which is more... unusual then normal.
3. Rosberg - He gets a point for binning schumey out of the top ten zone still giving the old guy a good beating even though it only works out at two places overall.
4. Heidfeld - His comeback performance after being thoroughly beaten last time by Petrov is worth a point, after being top Renault throughout the weekend and scoring a 6th place grid slot matching Vitaly's performance in Melbourne.
5.Barrichello - The final point goes to Rubens after his unusual display of affection for Eddie Jordan after the session and deserves a point for bravery if not anything else.

These points will now be added to the championship standings page, along with the addition of Narain's speeding fine from Friday practice to be added to the penalty Table.

Looking to the race

Things at the front should be a lot closer then they were in Australia with McLaren only tenths behind Red Bull in terms of pace whether that translates into race pace is a different matter. Behind this group will be quite a void separating Ferrari and Renault from the leaders which in turn will be followed by the immense gaggle that is the mid-field.

It is in this main block where the change of positions are more likely with Williams and Force India looking to make some ground on the cars in front of them. And as this group contains the rookies of Maldonado, Di Resta and one-stop Perez this could also be the most volatile batch of drivers.

But all this will be at the mercy of the weather, some reports are expecting storms and showers tomorrow which may coincide with the race start time. Given the veracity with which rain tends to affect Malaysia things could become very interesting indeed especially considering very few drivers have ran the new wet weather tyres.

So set the alarms and get ready for Malaysia 2011.

Round Two: Malaysia Preview.

Greetings All,

A fortnight after the teams arrived for the first time in Australia the field rolls onto Malaysia, and they face a completely different challenge. Instead of lapping the temporary park circuit in Melbourne, this time a modern permanent circuits awaits, one of the first of the Tilke tracks which have become more prominent on the racing calender.

src: 

http://www.f1-fansite.com/circuits/circuits/sepang.jpg

Sepang exhibits a variety of corners from the high speed, to tight hairpins with the outright irritating thrown in for good measure. But what is often most interesting about this round on the calender is the climate, the circuit is situated in an extreme tropical environment where the choices are either extreme heat, or extreme heat plus monsoon. As demonstrated by the 2009 weekend where the race was shorted due to the extreme rains. Which saw Raikkonen chilling in the garage in his shorts under the red flag conditions.

The track

This time I have something extra to add to the blog, a new feature... moving pictures dun dun duuuun, and so I present the first Alternative track guide - which may end up on Youtube later for world viewing. But you people of the internet who view these rantings get preview screenings whether that's a good thing or not here goes.

So what to expect 

Things should me more straight forward than Australia as the added variable of a temporary track with overhanging trees depositing leaves on the circuit. Sepang is a high downforce track and will favour the better prepared teams so it is likely that red bull will be towards if not at the front and will be hard to beat. McLaren will be closest but just too far behind to make an impression in overall race pace. Ferrari will be looking to improve after what was a poorer showing then they hoped in Albert Park. 

The mid pack was a bigger group than I estimated pre-season with Mercedes being further from the front than anticipated and Torro Rosso easily joining the mid-pack and scoring points in the first race - even before Sauber were excluded. This now offically classifies the mid-pack as anyone from 7th - 18th. Renailt will be expecting to be heading this group after the performance in Australia, with Petrov's podium - and Heidfeld finishing with what was discovered to be a significantly damaged car, hence his lack of pace.

The bottom teams from last year remained in roughly the same position, Lotus ahead of Virgin with HRT stumbling at the first hurdle. This second race should show some progress for the Spanish team as Australia allowed them to put some laps on the car - about three in total. But this weekend there is another time for them to contend with, Sepang was used for the GP2 asia series which set times that HRT should be aiming to beat. It would prove embarrassing if an F1 car was defeated by a division two vehicle. The time to look for is 1:44.182 as this was the pole time set by Grosjean. 

Another thing to keep an eye on is the weather - it does have a tendency to rain and when it does rain is happens rather a lot. It rained today as per information from the Lotus team and rained hard - at approximately the same time the race will be starting on Sunday and Saturday's qualifying session which could add an extra dimension to what can all to easily become a processional event.

DRS and KERS

This weekend will be the first opportunity to see the systems running on a wide modern permanent circuit which does offer two main straights which will suit the KERS and one of which will be used for the DRS. I am assuming that the DRS zone will be placed on the fronts straight as it was in Australia but given the length of the front stretch and the radius of the first corner an overtaking possibility is more plausible. But should the monsoons arrive then DRS system becomes deactivated as well as the tyre regulations switching to their alternative state.

As for the KERS, because almost all of the cars will have the system installed and will be using it it will be cancelled out by both cars in a battle using it in on the two obvious straights. Fortunately there are two addtional locations which could be attempted should the power be available - into turn 4 and turn 9. 

So however things play out it should be an interesting weekend, though we don't have as interesting support races as we did in Australia but just hope the main event makes up for it.

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System

Greetings all,

Today I shall go over the other of this years overtaking encouraging devices, and after looking at the most recent of these gizmos the innovative DRS. KERS first reared it's power boosting head in 2009 where it was only taken on be the top teams at them time due to the cost of developing and then installing the technology in the car. During the it's first season it proved unreliable and was often a burden when it failed, both Renault and BMW who were running the system early in that season dropped it's use as it compromised performance.

The defining moment of the usage of KERS came at Spa of towards the end of the European phase of the season when the top teams with the enabled system were defeated by the non-KERS Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella. Ferrari were closest in the hands of Spa specialist Kimi Raikkonen, the red car was beaten to pole by the Italian and held for the opening few laps. But a safety car brought out by a collision at Les Combes involving Button, Hamilton, Grosjean and Alguersuari, packed the field back up again. On the restart Kimi was able to pass the Force India using the KERS boost and subsequently use the power to defend the position.

That demonstration showed that KERS was an effective addition to a car and was the only reason why Kimi won that race, against what was a faster opponent.

This year KERS is present on the majority of the field as is often incorporated with the engine supplier and as well as the manufacturer teams running the system - customer Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault engines will also be equipped with the same technology as the prime teams. The Cosworth powered cars however are bereft of the system,  hence Lotus (the green ones) and Virgin don't have the system but will likely not be near another car to apply the power anyhow. HRT don't have the KERS either but then again they barely have a car either - so adding 80hp to their machine would effectively triple the power they have to start off with.

So how does it work

KERS a temporary boost of additional power somewhere in the region of 80hp on top of what the car can normally produce. The extra power is produced electronically from a storage reservoir which can either be in the form of a flywheel system or a battery.

The energy is recovered from braking, where the kinetic energy that is lost when the vehicle decelerates it then captured from the rear axle and stored in the reservoir. And when the driver presses the button on the steering wheel - one of the many buttons to contend with - the power is sent back to the rear axle to propel the car forwards with increased velocity.

The rules on usage

As with the DRS there are limitations where the KERS system can used and the amount of time it is available. During a lap the system will be recharged under breaking and will become available to the driver at the beginning of each lap. Which will be indicated by an on-screen graphic - one that looks a lot better than the one demonstrated by the second blogmobile which is also in the obligatory yellow and blue TJR livery.

Throughout the course of a lap the driver has a certain amount of time for which he can use the additional power which will vary for individual circuits. For example Spa will have a greater allocation then a more confined space such as Monaco or Montreal, once a driver has used all of their allocation of power boost then they are down to the base power of the car. The usage quota of the KERS system is available for all sessions during the weekend, where in qualifying and practice sessions the system can be applied to improve lap time and hopefully grid position.

The power is used when behind a car to close a gap and being a driver into position for an overtaking manoeuvres, of course it is most effective once leaving the acceleration zone after a corner so that the car is not traction limited and the power does not translate to wasteful wheelspin. KERS cannot be used until the car has achieved 100km/h so cannot be used off the grid - but can be brought into play further down the straight after the start. But in places like Spa and Monaco where the run to turn one is relatively short than the impact will be minimal.

In addition to being used as an overtaking aid KERS can also be applied to defend a position, by counter acting the power gain by a attacking rival, thus maintaining the status-quo between drivers in a battle. Assumingly it was to overcome this stalemate that the DRS was also introduced to allow for an indefensible passing opportunity.   

KERS in Sepang


The track in Malaysia has a two main straights for the activation of the KERS system, the both of which lead onto quite slow corners which present the opportunity for changing positions. Also the run into the hairpin at turn 9 would also be a position where KERS could be used to an advantage as this is an area where DRS will likely not be applied.

However the decreasing radius bends that plague the circuit and the high speed sections where getting close to the car in front due to the aerodynamic wake of the car in front disturbing the air flow and causing understeer.

So overall Sepang may not see the full benefit of either of the systems due to the nature of the track and of course the temperamental nature of the tropical climate which can result in monsoon conditions and which eliminates the DRS from the equation which is not eligible in the wet conditions. We shall just have to wait and see what happens. 

   

The Drag Reduction System

Greetings all.

To fill in the gap before the next race on the calender in Sepang I thought I do a little piece on the new DRS system for this year, but is surrounded a series of odd and unusual rules and regulations determining when where and for how long the system can be used.

In essence all the DRS is, is a section of the car's rear wing that lifts up when a button in the cockpit is pressed, when in use the raised wing offers less downforce and then by relation lowers drag. The outcome of this is that the car with DRS activated has a greater top speed and can close in on the car in front. The picture of the blogmobile shows the wing element that is involved.




But because there is no button in the simulator to raise the rear wing here is a shot of a Williams with the system activated.

(source - http://ppf1.blog.hu/)









The rules


Of course things wouldn't be as simple as just pressing a button and powering past anyone and anything in your way, there are limitations on how it can be used and where depending on the session and track position. So I'm going to break things down into a session be session basis.

First Practice - Free usage, in the first session of the weekend the system can be applied whenever the driver wishes. but this cannot be throughout the duration of the lap because during activation the rear of the car will be unstable if cornering and the car will likely spin - as demonstrated by Sutil in Australia.

Second Practice - For the first hour of the session the rules match that of practice one where the DRS can be applied at any time round the track. But for the final half hour the operation switches to 'Race Mode' where it will only be accessible in the required conditions set for the race. As will be listed in the secion aptly entitled - Race.

Final Practice/Qualifying - As with First practice complete free operation of the device.

The Race Itself - Now this is where things get a little daft, where the FIA seem have gone a little mad, clearly when this section of the regulations was dreamt up there was a significant shortage of coffee in the building (they're not quite normal enough to be tea drinkers). It all starts off all sensible and orderly where every car has it's DRS remotely disabled for the first two complete laps of the race, this is to prevent early lap madness and lower the chances of collisions.


After these DRS free laps then the regular mad race rules come into play, where there are three important zones to take into consideration.

• DRS Detection line - This is a line on the track which determines if a car can use the DRS, under the consideration that the driver is one second behind the car in front. Which is the required range an attacking driver needs to be in to be eligible to run the system. In Australia the DRS detection line was before turn 14 - as demonstrated by the second outing for the blogmobile opposite.

• DRS Activation line - This marks the beginning of the zone at which the system becomes available to the driver - at this point it doesn't matter how close he is the car in front, so if any time is lost between the two lines it will not affect availability. In Australia this second line was positioned prior to the entrance to the pit lane on the entry to the final corner. of course a driver cannot press the button until the exit of the corner because the car will not make it through the bend with the lower rear down force. And yes I am pursuing a different car in this second shot because I hit the first car and parted company with my wheels.

• DRS Zone - This is the stretch from the DRS activation line up until the next breaking zone, it is in this zone where the driver once fulfilling the one second rule at the detection line - can press the button on the steering wheel and draft up behind the car in front to open a passing opportunity. The effectiveness of the zone depends on the development the teams have placed in their implementation of DRS, some teams will gain a better speed boost then others. And yes I managed to crash after this shot too - spinning into the pit wall, at least I am consistent. 

The problems

As I see it from my often very cynical point of view the current system is rather flawed and could - should adjustments be made - be a better. Firstly the concept of a strict DRS zone is a little bit mad because that way the defending driver will know precisely where he may be attacked by a pursuing rival and will be able to defend accordingly. Ideally the system should be available to all areas of the track to give the drivers more freedom and room for ingenuity, and of course space for some Kobayashi magic moves where no car realistically should fit. 

The evidence in Australia showed that the DRS was not able to complete all passes or even in some cases close the gap to a vehicle in front. This seemed to depend on the car in question, some teams have a more effective unit and can use it to a greater advantage, practice data showed that the Mercedes team were generating the highest top speeds with McLaren not too far behind. Racing conditions showed that McLaren's system works rather well as Button demonstrated on Massa (the second time round). 

DRS In Malaysia 

Looking ahead to the upcoming track where do I think the relevant zones will be placed, well the DRS zone (provided the FIA have not changed the rules by then which is not unlikely) will likely encompass the main straight as this is the most obvious passing opportunity. Based on this and how things were laid out in Albert Park the DRS activation line will be on the entrance to the final turn and drivers will be pressing the button on the exit as soon as they have enough grip. As for the detection line that could be placed on the exit of turn 14 which leads on to the back straight.

The effectiveness of the system may prove greater in Malaysia as the zone would be longer giving more time for drivers to draft the car in front and improve chances of a overtaking manoeuvre down into turn one. This is made more plausible by the nature of the opening corner which is much tighter than the one at Australia making it more accessible for passing rival vehicles.