Not too many rounds remain in the ongoing saga that is the 2015 world championship, a championship that is all but decided following the events of the Russian GP a fortnight ago. I suppose you are all wondering what happened to the post-race update from that event... well it sort of didn't happen, a combination of increased rehearsals and meetings that week meant that I had no evenings at home with the computer to type out the final verdict on what was a much improved Russian GP. It had intrigue, championship implications - high quality duct-tape barrier repairs and last lap drama. Things you wouldn't expect from a race which was rated the most dull race of 2014, it was also the first live outside broadcast in a long time... blog HQ moved up in the world... ok well 800 metres up the street. But to my defence that is up a very steep hill so plenty of motivation and effort was required to make it that far. Fear not, there will still be points following the Russian GP, and those will be revealed at the end of this post, as they were for the Italian GP - which couldn't be updated because I was in Vienna at the time. Not for an outside broadcast that is, because that would require levels of fanciness that a peasant like me could only dream about.
Back to the here and now, and in the paddock news, the world seems to have it's eyes firmly planted on Red Bull... especially in the case of many a pit-lane journalist who probably have had more than a few cans of the stuff to stay awake. Renault, their not so best friends have developed a new version of the what is a slightly lacklustre engine. But in order to use the new power unit, the team have to perform an engine change - to swap the old spec machine out and put the new one in. Ideally this wouldn't be a problem... except that Red Bull exceeded their allocation of Renault engines some time ago - one of the many reasons why the Austrian overlord is less than pleased about their French manufacturers performance. Therefore in order to take the new engine for this weekend, Red Bull would be faced with significant grid penalties for the engine change... Ricciardo has already suggested that there would be no point in taking the new engine as the performance gains (if any) wouldn't offset the penalty. This produces a sort of catch 22 situation for Renault, because they want to show that they can improve, but the act of installing the update will prevent any performance showing through on the day points are handed out. There is another reason why Red Bull might want to hold onto their qualifying places, but we'll get to that later.
In other news, a number of complaints have been raised over the release of the preliminary 2016 season calendar. Mostly due to the placement of the new European GP - set in Azerbaijan... a country not really in Europe... but that's not so much the argument. The issue is that the Baku Street Race clashes with the Le Mans 24hrs - normally that isn't an issue. In fact the Le Mans race has clashed with the Canadian GP for years - but this time the issue has been made more prominent by the achievement of Nico Hulkenberg this season. Nico was able to compete in the Le Mans race... and then won - with a lot of help from the team-mates Earl Bamber and a stellar performance by Nick Tandy. Setting a race on the same date prevents Nico from defending his win, or any other F1 drivers making the transition to the WEC for that event. Some see it as Bernie being a little greedy and keeping all the drivers to himself, and preventing F1 from casting some of its not inconsiderable influence on a 'lesser series'. These conspiracy theories cite the bizarre placement of the European GP - traditionally the European round, previously held at the Nurburgring... or Valencia (shudder) has been placed near the Canadian GP. But not on back-to-back weekends because logistically Canada is a long way to go, when travelling back to Europe. This issue is then exacerbated by placing a flight to the furthest reaches of our continent only a few days after leaving North America. The placement makes no sense. But in the mad, crazed world of F1, nothing really makes sense these days.
The Venue
The calendar moves from Russia to the United States of America - I assume someone back on the FIA planning committee was having a bit of a laugh putting Russia and America next to each other on the schedule. Afterall, we know how friendly those two nations have been in the past - but enough of the past and back to the future... (yes that joke would have made sense if I wrote this post on time...). The USGP will be held once more in Texas - at the Circuit of the Americas. Over the years I have spent many a Thursday (or Friday depending on how lazy the writing process has been) berating another Tilke created abomination in the middle of nowhere with all the character of a soggy cardboard box. This one however, well it's a little bit different - not perfect by any means - but echelons above the likes of Abu-Dhabi, Shanghai and Sochi. But before you all get the idea that I am warming up to the realm of Tilke designed circuits, the chap will likely come in for a good online kicking when it comes to discussion the 'modifications' he has done to the Mexican GP circuit when that makes a return to the calendar next week.
Back to Austin now and the circuit is almost a mix of cheating, and that stereotypical worldview of Texas. Borrowing ideas from other circuits and then super-sizing them as only the Americans can. Turn one is a prime example of this process, Austria has a climb up to a hairpin, and it also has a climb up to it's first corner. However in Texas, they have replaced the idea of a bit of a climb with a colossal mountain of an ascent - if it wasn't for the Texan sun, there would be snowcaps at the top of the first corner, and the frozen shells of cars that didn't quite make the summit lying by the side of the track. Somewhere past the clouds at the summit of Mt' COTA does lie turn one, a huge expanse of tarmac sculpted to encourage a variety of racing lines - the whole field could probably line up side by side at the apex. But what it does do is offer a range of overtaking options, or collision opportunities if you happen to be Pastor Maldonado.
After turn one America super-sizes it once again - this time stealing inspiration from Silverstone's Maggots/Becketts complex - creating a gigantic slalom of corners which winds itself all the way to the far end of the circuit. Forming a high speed, high energy sequence of corners - it's as if the old Silverstone first sector and Suzuka's esses had a child and fed it on steroids. It's massive and artificial but for some reason, we all still think it's brilliant. Which is exactly the sentiment echoed for this slalom, it is overkill and surrounded by excessively patriotic paintwork across the hectares of tarmac run-off. But it still remains a brilliant section of race track, even though it doesn't feel natural in the same way that Spa or Suzuka feel. More of a guilty pleasure than a state of pure enjoyment that you would get through a traditional circuit that meanders through the contours of the land. Once you've calmed down slightly following the slalom section, the circuit reaches another vast expanse of tarmac masquerading as a hairpin exiting onto the defacto long DRS straight. At the end of the straight... this is when we start to see a few problems, mostly due to another example of the epidemic that is infecting many new circuit designs - cramming as many corners into as little space as possible. If there is one thing that Sochi can be be praised for is not falling into this trap.
First off the trend of 'borrowing' track sections and then enhancing them seems to have shifted into reverse in the final phase of the lap. Their first effort is the stadium section from the Hockenheimring - which didn't translate well into American, as the method of adding more corners didn't work out this time. The reason why the Hockenheim's stadium section works is mostly down to the camber of the corners, as demonstrated by the Sachs Kurve. COTA didn't copy that part of the design and instead crammed a couple of sharp corners into a confined space and that just doesn't have the same impact. So on to plan B, and plan B involves borrowing some inspiration from Turkey's famous, but terribly named, Turn 8. That quadruple-apexed high speed corner we don't visit anymore, for those who don't quite get the reference. This time, bizarrely the Texan's took apexes out of the design and left us with two... three if you squint a bit, but not four. While it falls short of the corner it is trying to emulate, it is still a nice effort and presents an interesting challenge. In the spirit of competition, it probably is worth noting that Sochi delivered a bigger, longer corner than anything Texas has put together... but it wouldn't be like me to stir up rivalries. A lap of the circuit is competed by a deceptive off camber penultimate turn - where track limits will no doubt be abused, and a slightly generic final hairpin... which can be used for any more mad, optimistic last lap lunges... yes Kimi, we're all looking at you right now on that one...
The Delayed Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
For the second time this season the points for the preceding race are to be announced upon the eve of the next. I have come to the conclusion that the once generally ignored Bonus Points Championship probably has lost what little meaning it actually had. Lets face it, none of the title winners have even so much as acknowledged the face they have won something - even if it is something pointless and irrelevant. But sometimes, even in the face of total hopelessness recent events have shown me that you have to plow on ahead. So in light of that slightly stubborn approach to life as we know it - here are the points winners for that race a fortnight ago in Russia.
- 25pts - Sergio Perez - Yes he lucked into reclaiming the podium but was there in 3rd place on merit before it all kicked off and gets full points
- 18pts - Carlos Sainz - Slammed the car into a wall in FP3, spent the night in hospital and still turned up and competed in the race... until crashing again. But brake failure was at fault after a strong race up until that point
- 15pts - Daniil Kvyat - A strong finish for the local driver on a track where Renault were holding back the Red Bull team
- 12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Fought off the challenge of Raikkonen the first time round and was wiped out on the second attempt
- 10pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Deserves some points for the first fight he had with Bottas... not the second. And for his brief duel with Vettel. Kimi was in quite the feisty mood.
- 8pts - Nico Rosberg - Easily deserves consolation points for that, a simple mechanical failure ruined a fun race, a potential win and his championship challenge all in the space of a couple of laps
- 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - With Rosberg out of the way, he made that look easy, despite carrying a potentially significant issue with the rear wing, or so we're told.
- 4pts - Russian Marshals - After drawing some criticism during the Sainz crash, they upped their game on Sunday - using the most legendary of all repair mechanisms... duct tape... to fix the wall Grosjean smashed up. And then sprinting onto the track to retrieve Sainz's wing endplate in front of Vettel's Ferrari.
- 2pts - Romain Grosjean - One of the few people to smash into one of the fancy plastic barriers and not force a lengthy red flag delay for repairs.
- 1pt - Pirelli - Those Russian hats on the podium deserve a bonus point for creativity
- -1pt - Kimi Raikkonen - What on earth was that... I admire the effort and determination but the execution of the pass was a bit crap to be fair.
- -1pt - Carlos Sainz - If the car is damaged, you can't really expect to keep driving it normally and not expect to end up in the fence - after the first spin for brake issues you might have got the hint.
- -1pt - Mercedes - Unintentionally you robbed us of a potentially exciting race long battle for the win... and muted the overall title fight with one little mechanical issue with the throttle pedal... curses.
The Form Guide
Back to the business of Austin and the US GP, and this race looks like will be a Mercedes walkover - with Williams running around looking for that final podium place (potentially) This is because Ferrari have opted to take a brand new engine this weekend, and thus will be given the default 10 place grid penalties - placing them on the back foot before the weekend has really got underway. Furthermore the grandiose scale of many of the Circuit of the America's features means that a good engine will always come in handy there - which causes a problem for Red Bull. Whether or not they decide to go for the newer, updated Renault power unit remains to be seen - but like Ferrari, that change would incur a penalty.
However... and it is a big however... the weather looks interesting for the weekend and could leave our form book rather soggy. Heavy rains and thunderstorms are in the area and Texas itself has flood warnings issued across the state - some of that rainfall is bound to affect Austin. So it may be the case that periscopes and life-rafts may be part of the pre-qualifying setup options to handle the incoming storms. A wet qualifying/race scenario is bad for Williams - the damp conditions briefly experienced in good old rainy England confirmed that they still haven't conquered the issues of running in the rain. So with Williams washed out, Ferrari penalised and Red Bull slow - who is left to fight Mercedes.
Rain gives hope to the mid-field teams, Lotus and Force India and possibly even McLaren could capitalise on a bit of damp chaos and steal some points. It may also reduce some of the power deficit experienced by Red Bull and Toro Rosso because a wet track limits the range of usable power to begin with. But, I fear that in the sensitive climate we operate in now, a wet race would lead to lots of driving behind the safety car until every last puddle has cleared before starting again. As for qualifying, there are some folk saying that the rain on Saturday could be so bad it could wash it out completely - or take hours to complete due to several red-flag interruptions.
Whatever happens this weekend, it seems that the potentially championship deciding race may have a few surprises in store. Hopefully.
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