As this little island continues to pretend to reenact winter, the championship travels to the far end of Europe to the former home of the winter olympics in Russia. For the first time the start of the European season begins in Sochi having traditionally being held in Spain with the occasional trip to Turkey back when Istanbul featured on the calendar. Here at an equally wintery blog HQ the past couple of weeks have been rather problematic in terms of productivity - a dress rehearsal and a almost continuous week of rehearsals meant that is wasn't feasible to craft a report on the Chinese GP, which was again another entertaining installment of the unfolding championship. The bonus points for which will be added to this introductory post. But before we begin there is a slight problem with blog HQ's coverage of the Russian GP, and that problem is that I shall be in Nottingham throughout the weekend and thus will be rather unlikely to catch up with the races live on the day. Furthermore there will certainly be no time for any write-ups, not that they are any good to begin with - so things might not go to plan. I shall have to figure out what I am going to do with points and stuff over the course of the weekend, while at the same time avoiding finding out who won.
The News
In the past weeks the arguments that dominated the opening couple of races have finally subsided, for the time being, and instead discussions have been redirected towards the rule changes for 2017. With several deadlines coming and then going without these rules and design regulations being set in stone, the time needed to develop cars to meet the specifications continually ebbs away. The problem is that with the teams being significantly involved in the process, each of them will want to engineer the rules closer to their own strengths. Red Bull wanting more downforce, and Mercedes wanting engine stability and probably more power - and at the same time Pirelli are outlining their requirements for the tyres capable of withstanding the forces of a breed of faster race cars. We know some of the criteria the team have to build to - 2m wide cars with 'aggressive' aesthetics and wider tyres. What that will actually look like is a matter of debate.
For example in winter testing the first concept design of a head protection device dubbed 'The Halo' demonstrated by Ferrari - now Red Bull have stepped into that arena with their own creation "The Aeroscreen". This new creation is effectively a large visor glued in front of the cockpit, creating a solid barrier between the driver and any debris. While the device has obvious greater protective potential, it also presents the possibility for greater visibility problems. Oil, water and general dirt can accumulate on the screen and the driver doesn't have the ability to clear it himself. Special coatings can help reduce the problem but probably not eliminate it. Being a Red Bull creation I can imagine that the Aeroscreen will have been designed with any aerodynamic advantage in mind likely having a much larger impact on handling than the Halo. Test videos posted by Red Bull have illustrated that the screen can withstand the impact of a loose wheel or debris hit at high speed without deflecting too much or shattering. The only concern is that in a test with a loose wheel, after the initial impact the wheel still brushed the top of the driver's helmet - some minor changes may improve the ability of the screen to push large debris away from the car.
The Venue
Sochi is now entering it's third season as an entry in the calendar and the previous two races have been polar opposites in terms of levels of entertainment and competition. In the first incarnation of the race, Hamilton drove to an uncontested victory in a race which was dubbed the most boring event of the year. In contrast the second attempt was far more entertaining, there was good racing, a safety car intervention, and then another one later. A three way last lap fight for the podium involving a collision and an underdog taking home the silverware - one of the best races of the year. So when it comes to round three... who knows what to expect.
The track itself isn't going to go down in history as one of the most inspired layouts - with a lot of generic repetitive corners and enough tarmac run-off to land a passenger jet in. In the build up to the weekend several drivers were remarking that the space offline is a little excessive, and will undoubtedly be abused throughout the race weekend... especially at turn two and across the final couple of corners.
However the track does have the odd unique feature, the most notable of which being the enormous turn three - which saw Grosjean bounce off the wall in last years race. Also the technical braking area after the long back straight has been known to present an interesting challenge - a challenge that caught Carlos Sainz Jnr out in FP3 last time as he plowed into the barriers.
A couple of changes have been made to the track to minimise some of the difficulties with the track, the first of which being the excessive run off space on the exit of turn two. Astroturf has been placed on the other side of the curb so that drivers will at least be fractionally inconvenienced when cheating. The other changes are to curb heights at other locations and updates to the barriers that Sainz buried himself under at the end of the second sector.
The Form Guide
Well as a result of many things, all of which can be generally described as laziness this post is happening after the first two practice sessions. Which means you, and I already know what the rough running order its, and it is almost identical to how it was in China. Mercedes have a comfortable lead and Ferrari are the nearest rivals - it is estimated that in the cooler temperatures predicted for the coming days in Sochi, that their advantage will only grow. As to which of the two drivers will come out on top - who knows Rosberg comfortable lead FP1 and then Hamilton comfortably lead FP2 so neither is really showing their hand yet.
The middle of the pack once more looks magnificent - Williams, Red Bull and the vast majority of the mid-field are not too far away from one another which means that the chances of a repeat of the Chinese GP in terms of action are reasonable good - more so if we drop a Ferrari or Mercedes to the back. Even McLaren seem to be getting amongst the times near the points positions which is promising for their continued improvement. Toro Rosso and Force India seem to be the two teams towards the bottom of this mid-field group, but with reasonable straight line speed - more so for Force India - they could recoup some of the places lost in qualifying. All in all this group of cars might make up the bulk of the entertainment on Sunday.
At the back of the field the bottom four teams are starting to slip slightly from the core of the mid-field. Renault and Haas remain only just within sight of those teams in front mostly in the hands of their lead drivers, but in FP2 the two teams engineered a sort of no-mans land between the main midfield and the back of the grid runners closer to the latter than the former. Just behind them we have Sauber and Manor propping up the final rows of the practice grid. A new chassis for Nasr has him comfortably beating Ericsson and the two Manor drivers. At this stage Haryanto is out pacing his highly rated team-mate but Pascal did end FP2 with a technical issue.
Bonus Points that should have been Bonus Points a fortnight ago
As I mentioned earlier, it has been a busy time with one thing and another so the points for China race day were not listed. So without even more delay to proceedings - here are the results following that event
- 25pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Loses at tyre when in the lead, gets caught out by the safety car and still finishes in fourth place a great drive
- 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Dropped to the back on lap one, and finishes ahead of the other driver in the same spot despite a slower car
- 15pts - Daniil Kvyat - An opportunistic start caught Vettel by surprise and was completely unphased when the German complained before stepping onto the podium.
- 12pts - Lewis Hamilton - Started last, made contact on the first lap, was last again and still finished with points
- 10pts - Felipe Massa - Put up a strong defence against Hamilton as he attempted to carve through the field
- 8pts - Nico Rosberg - A crushing albeit unopposed victory, has to be worth some points
- 6pts - Pascal Wehrlein - After the safety car the Manor driver was running 4th... in a Manor. Yes it was just track position due to strategy but he held onto places better than Rio did on the restart
- 4pts - Sebastian Vettel - Lost several places at the start and still finished second, and the rant pre-podium was brilliant
- 2pts - Rio Haryanto - Wasn't last at the end of the race, finishing ahead of Jolyon Palmer's Renault
- 1pt - Esteban Gutierrez - Well done for finishing... well done...
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