Round 2: Bahrain 2016: Pseudo-qualifying take 2

Greetings Internet, 

So despite the teams and drivers discarding the elimination format on an Australian morning we started this afternoon with exactly the same state of play facing us in Bahrain. However in some respects this iteration of the generally despised version of qualifying was bizarrely more tolerable than it was in Australia... well apart from Q2 which was as hopeless as it was last time. Naturally it still was far removed from the way things used to be, but potentially the fact there was a marginal improvement indicates that somehow a proper qualifying approach can be rescued from the depths of the elimination format. Of course there are some very significant limitations which would prevent those improvements from taking a real effect. These include tyre allocations, re-fuelling processes and the actual timings themselves. One thing that this second consecutive use of the format demonstrates that it has no real impact on mixing the grid up at the front of the field. All it can do is trap midfield cars out of position which is a long way from the actual evil master plan that Bernie had in mind.

Qualifying Part 1
So here we go again, the start of an elimination qualifying - and everyone queued up at the end of the pit lane waiting for the green light, the same green light that Magnussen will be faced with tomorrow as he has to start from the pit lane. Like we saw in Melbourne a little tussle for track position broke out at the front of the line as Raikkonen passed Hamilon out of turn one. But as normal in this mad new world of qualifying none of that actually matters because the attention is directed to the back of the field as the eliminations began. This started with Nasr and Haryanto being trapped at the bottom of the grid with no change of reply.

So Renault were next because they had enough time to fight back, Magnussen moved up but Palmer was less fortunate and ended up eliminated. Perez was next as Force India sent him out with not enough time to complete a lap, and just like Kvyat in Australia became the unfortunate victim of the new system. Where there are losers there are also winners, and in this case the big winner was Pascal Wehrlein on a giant killing mission of epic proportions, only a few tenths of breaking out of Q1. It is the highest qualifying position for any Manor driver since the rebranding 

Qualifying Part 2

Enthusiasm for the new system reached another all-time low when even the lighting system at the end of the pit lane refused to let the cars take to the track. Instead a well placed marshal found a green flag to get things underway... hurrah. The delay in releasing the field ate into the elimination time and resulted in a lot of drivers being left without a response after the first runs. Effectively only Hulkenberg had a chance to fight to improve his position. This was not good news for Grosjean - who after the first run had placed the Haas inside the top eight and poised for a Q3 position for the debut team.

Hulkenberg was able to beat Romain and thus drop the Frenchman into 9th place which under the new system becomes a very fortunate place to start the race. Becoming the first driver to have free tyre choice for the race tomorrow and might be in prime place for another points scoring run. At the front of the field Mercedes were finding that Ferrari were a lot closer than they expected and the middle of the pack was very closely matched so even if the second part of qualifying was about as lively as a morgue there is hope for tomorrow.

The grand finale of qualifying

This part of qualifying was the source of most concern after Australia because is it was a bit crap last time. This version was better by a little bit, but we still didn't have all the cars at the end of the session fighting for every place not just the ones at the very front. However the first runs in Q3 set up the second half to be very interesting. For a brief moment we had a Ferarri 1-2 because Hamilton slid wide in the final corner thus only setting the third fastest time. Third became fourth when Rosberg took provisional pole. 

Hulkenberg in 8th was eliminated before he completed his in-lap and the two Williams' had no time to fight back against Ricciardo's Red Bull. Because Daniel had no real competition from behind and no real hope of beating the top four he didn't come back out either. So one lap down and four cars effectively eliminated. 

At least there was a battle for pole this time as Hamilton fought back from the his unfortunate first run, and his next lap was devastatingly fast, and the fastest lap time of the Bahrain GP circuit ever... Rosberg tried to respond but fell 0.077s short of pole position, and we still ended up with the same top four as we had in Australia... Elimination qualifying certainly does produce mixed up grids at the front...

The Bonus Points Championship
Even though it was another daft qualifying session with this new format, I shall have to cave and give full points this time

• 10pts - Pascal Wehrlein - A giant killing performance, defeating both Renaults, both Saubers and a Force India
• 8pts - Stoffel Vandoorne - Alonso's replacement arrived in style by out qualifying his team-mate, world champion Jenson Button on his debut
• 6pts - Romain Grosjean - So close to making it into the final part of qualifying for the Haas team
• 5pts - Lewis Hamilton - The fastest ever lap deserves points, beating the records set in the V10 era demonstrating that the new cars may have smaller engines but can still be faster
• 4pts - Rio Haryanto - Even the other Manor out-qualified someone to place ahead of Nasr on the grid tomorrow
• 3pts - Valtteri Bottas - For taking to the track and setting a new faster lap in Q2 when no-one else felt the need to bother joining in
• 2pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Comfortably beating his team-mate and dragging Red Bull into the top five
• ,1pt - Mad Max Verstappen - Well done for not swearing today, well done you.

• -1pt - Bernie Ecclestone - For exclaiming that he was surprised that the drivers could read and write after the GPDA letter with is interview with Eddie Jordan
• -1pt - Jean Todt - For refusing to allow the drivers/teams the ability to vote to keep the older qualifying from last year persisting with the melee of this new format. 

Looking to Tomorrow

Well at the moment I don't know how tomorrow is going to play out especially in terms of blog HQ coverage with other things going at the time. But in terms of the race itself, some of it might be very interesting while other aspects might turn out to be far more mundane and far more traditional with the two Mercedes vanishing off into the distance. However if Ferrari can repeat their special trick off the start line, things might get very interesting indeed - and one hopes for interesting.

The middle of the pack however is very closely contested with lots of cars within a few tenths of one another on pace, in a race which hopefully won't be interrupted by a red flag intervention we might see a closer indication of the relative performances. We might also see a race where drivers have the ability to fight one another given the numerous overtaking options that the sakhir circuit offers. Hopefully the nocturnal venture proves to be another entertaining chapter in the early stages of this season. But with less injuries that is.

Round 2: Bahrain 2016 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

I know this was supposed to happen yesterday but, already even at this incredibly early stage in the season the ominous curse of laziness seems to found its way into blog HQ. So slightly later than billed I consider dealing with the fact that there is another race on the horizon... well slightly over the horizon considering that Bahrain is a considerable distance away from the this part of the world. Even so the second round of an already very turbulent and controversial championship has arrived and the hornets nest of angry drivers (not just grumpy teenager Mad Max) teams, and fans have descended into the middle of the desert for the Bahrain GP. There is another degree of irony involved in the ongoing turmoil throughout the paddock landing in Bahrain, a venue that was brought onto the calendar most likely for monetary reasons rather than sporting ones... Nevertheless the Sakhir circuit has provided some interesting racing in the past, and also some very dull and tiresome races with no scenery to look at instead. The transition to a night race does seem to have helped, whether the lower air and track temperatures encourage better racing on this particular surface or whether the drivers just seem to go a little bit mad when the flood lights come one. Either way here's to another hopefully enthralling installment in F1 2016... well maybe not the bit that happens on Saturday. 

The News

In the two weeks since the Australian GP, a lot of things have happened - in fact from various reports across the internet the whole world of F1 seems to be teetering on the very verge of a significant implosion. The catalyst for this whole argument was the debacle surrounding that failed qualifying session under the new, experimental 'elimination' format. Fans, drivers and team principles universally decided that the concept didn't work - in theory it would have been exciting but there were certain limitations in refuelling times, tyre changes and overall lap time that prevented it from doing to. Without considerably adjustments to the other rules and procedures it couldn't operate successfully. This was why an emergency meeting - conveniently timed with the TV broadcasts - was held to propose returning to the older tried and tested qualifying format. At the time it was unilaterally agreed that the older version would be reinstated from Bahrain onwards, and for a while things seemed settled...

But then things got a little angry it seems - the GPDA fired the first shot at FOM by publishing an open letter declaring the decision making process in F1 obsolete and ill-structured. It was a very bold statement pointing out that the decisions being made are leading the sport down the wrong path, something that us outsiders have noticed for a while, decisions that make it very difficult for smaller teams, pressing circuit owners for more higher race fees, and favoring venues in the middle of nowhere built on oil money. But the fact that those on the inside are now declaring enough is enough, is an interesting step in that debate. One of the things that the letter was aiming to point out was that the increased monetisation of coverage by handing a large amount of exclusivity to Sky TV was hampering sponsorship as the advertising space was worth less money. Less people can see the races so, less people see the adverts. 

In a direct example of the problem the drivers/teams/us poor fools are facing, in the space of 24hrs of this complaint letter being published - there was announcement that all UK TV coverage will soon be placed on paid TV. So this GPDA points out there is a deep and inherent problem, and instead of attempting to make things better the powers that be make another decision to further worsen the situation. At the time I was completely livid at this blatant disregard of the fanbase, the team's intentions and sponsorship opportunities. Here at Blog HQ have lucked into a fortunate situation by clinging onto Sky's legacy HD deal which included the F1 coverage but no other sports. But for everyone else outside of this - it becomes hideously expensive for 21 races, pricing so many viewers out of the equation. So sponsorship matters even less and smaller teams are further starved of the funding they need to go racing. Less than 10 years ago, cars were covered in sponsor logos because they knew their brands would be plastered over national TV every other weekend. Now this is just not the case... 

To rub salt into the wounds of the teams and drivers, the powers that be then announced only a few days later that the meeting which was held in Australia meant absolutely nothing. After deciding en masse to revert to the simpler and more effective qualifying format - it turns out Bahrain will use the elimination format... because reasons. I imagine it will be even worse this time around in some respects because the lap is longer, so the amount of time needed to pit for new tyres and try again increases... It appears that this elimination method is the only solution that Bernie and co will accept over his utterly ridiculous reverse grid method...

In other news

We will all likely remember the Australian GP of 2016 for the images of Fernando Alonso sailing through the air in his McLaren and smashing the thing to oblivion in his collision with Gutierrez. While we saw the indestructible Spaniard emerge from the wreckage almost instantly with only the smallest of limps, it has now later emerged that there was a little more damage lurking

beneath the surface. After returning home to Spain Fernando noticed that the natural discomfort from the shunt hadn't faded, and was instead getting worse - a visit to the doctor later discovered he had fractured ribs and a partially deflated lung. More scans in Bahrain this week have revealed that the injuries haven't completely healed and therefore would be vulnerable to severe damage in the event of another accident. So wisely it has been decided that Alonso will not race in Sakhir on safety grounds, and more CT scans will be performed ahead of the Chinese GP to make sure all is well.

This leaves McLaren one driver short, but fear not - they have a rather quick substitute up their sleeves to call upon in the form of Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgian dominated the 2015 GP2 series and will compete in the Japanese Super Formula championship this year. If McLaren didn't have two world champions on the books this season the rookie would be first in line for a more permanent position, and I imagine the very moment that either Fernando or Jenson consider retirement - the open seat will be gift wrapped for Vandoorne.

Anyway back to Bahrain

On the day of arrival at the desert racetrack everyone was greeted with quite the anomaly... rain. Hailstorms and downpours made a surprising appearance on Thursday, but the conventional dry weather conditions will be making a more traditional return through the rest of the race weekend. Even though I doubt a monsoon or three would breathe any life into the monstrosity of qualifying we are likely to experience tomorrow.

Because this document is quite late the first practice session has been completed and Mercedes headed the field by a more than healthy margin. Almost two seconds clear of Ferrari - but in FP1 fuel loads, tyre choices and setup decisions make a large difference to the actual lap times, so not too much can be read into it at this stage. Even if Mercedes are repeating that dominant performance in the second practice at the moment - with Ferrari once again being the cars looking most likely to give chase. If the performance gap really is this large, then Sunday might not be as interesting at the sharp end of the field - unless we have a repeat of the epic Rosberg vs Hamilton tussle we had at the 2014 Bahrain GP. Alas most of me thinks that might be a tad unlikely.

Elsewhere however the field does appear to be quite close, with a lot of similar lap times between Williams, Toro Rosso and Red Bull - all of which are not a county mile behind Ferrari in that fight for 3rd place. McLaren showed average pace in FP1 but seem to have stepped it up a little bit for the second practice session and moved a little closer to the sharper end of the grid. What is interesting is that Manor... well just Wehrlein is able to set times comparable to Sauber and Renault, on softer tyres that is. But is does show that there are no real struggling back marker teams this season, as Manor can run to some extent with the tail end of the field. Haas seem to be solidly in the mid-field as FP2 enters its final phase so there could be some very interesting battles for points on Sunday even if the top step of the podium may be out of reach for anyone other than a Mercedes driver.

At the bottom end of the points battle will probably be Renault, Sauber and Manor - despite being similarly paced as one another and maybe Haas too, they could do with about half a second more to bring them in sight of a McLaren or Force India. It will come down to who gets caught out the most by the cursed elimination format or who has the most consistent race pace on Sunday.

There is of course one slight problem that may hinder Mercedes over the weekend, and that is there tyre selection. Ferrari have selected more of the medium compound tyre than Mercedes and if tyre wear happens to be higher following the rain shower washing any remaining residual rubber off the track then they might have to make more stops in the race. The sand blasted abrasive track surface may prove problematic, and of course these tyre choices were made last year, before Mercedes spent days testing the medium compound in Barcelona. But I suppose if Mercedes can crush the opposition on tyres they have done a lot less testing work on, then that is a truly ominous sign for the rest of 2016. 

Round 1: Australia 2016: Review

Greetings Internet, 

The day in Australia started with a meeting between all of the team principles and powers that be to discuss the annoyance that was qualifying. A quick unanimous decision saw them reverse the decision they made in the preseason to go for the elimination qualifying. So in Bahrain we will go back to the older format which actually fits the way the current cars are configured. So there was positivity in the air - and by the end of the day it wasn't the only thing to be sailing through the air. The Sunday was considerably better than Saturday and delivered a race of extremes, from some questionable team radio, strategy decisions and of course some extreme destruction. But what we did have was a much better race than many of the outings of 2015 which does bode well for the rest of the year.

At the Start

Out of nowhere we were told that the start procedure had been reconfigured to a single clutch release approach in contrast to a double one - to give the drivers more control. Not that it mattered to Daniil Kvyat who broke down at the end of

the formation lap, and forced an aborted start. At the new start the new system didn't help Mercedes as Vettel jumped into the lead and Raikkonen followed suit. Somewhere near the back Magnussen made friends with someone and cut a tyre showing Jenson with sparks in the process.  The start worked out badly for Lewis who found himself down in 6th, which made the rest of the race looked better, it is always nicer to see Mercedes have to fight for something for once instead of just driving away from the field effortlessly. 

Things settled down and started to look quite interesting, and it seemed like cars were having great difficulty passing each other - as Hamilton struggled to deal with Massa. That battle was interrupted when Magnussen rejoined and got in the way and allowed Lewis to move ahead. He next came across Max Verstappen, and at this stage the dutchman was not completely livid, that would come later. Normally this would not be a problem for a Mercedes, catching and passing a car with a slower engine... except this time Toro Rosso have got themselves a faster power plant. This confused Lewis as he called the team to ask what to do. New radio regulations meant there was no available answers to the question. Then the first round of pitstops came into effect and released Lewis to chase Nico.

Rosberg and Vettel also pitted reasonably early - and rejoined ahead of traffic. In a galling state of affairs for Hamilton, Nico caught him before the briton pitted indicating he was an entire pit stop ahead. A few more laps went by as others played the strategy game before the race got turned upside down

A McLaren Gets Redesigned 

While we were staring at a Ferrari 1-2 the camera cut to Esteban Gutierrez sitting in the gravel with a deflated tyre. A wider shot didn't reveal much more until Martin Brundle pointed out that rolled into utter oblivion against a tyre wall was another car with Fernando Alonso staring at the anihilated wreckage of his McLaren. A slow motion replay revealed that Fernando touched the back of the Haas in front of him and fired into the wall before turn three, sheering off the entire left side of the car. It then hit the gravel trap and took off, completing a full barrel role in the air and flew for several metres before cartwheeling into the wall. Due to the magnitude of the shunt and the amount of debris the red flag was thrown. Which royally messed up the strategy for some drivers, but really helped others. Ironically it was the second Haas that benefited the most by gaining a free pitstop and tyre change. 

Some teams were drawn into an interesting strategy decision - Ferrari went with the softest tyres and attempted to outrun the competition while Mercedes played the long game with the harder option. 

On the restart 

When everything got started again it seemed as if Ferrari had made a bit of mess of the strategy, as had several other teams at the front of the race - with the exception of Mercedes. Over the coming laps several drivers started to see the error of their ways - having to pit to get rid of the softer tyres they put on after the red flag intervention. Raikkonen was the first one to come trundling down the pit lane - not so much because he needed new tyres, but because the Ferrari was on fire. Not in performance terms but in literal terms, and two Ferrari's became one... and the other one was clinging on to a tenuous lead. Jenson and the Toro Rossos pitted first - and it was the Red Bull junior squad who were causing a bit of bother. Sainz was pitted first, despite being the second car on the road - likely for strategic reasons, but when Verstappen pitted the tyres weren't ready for him. Who knows why - Max claims it was a miscommunication of some sorts but who knows.

But things were more entertaining at the other end of the points as Jolyon Palmer was making friends with the Toro Rosso team - headed by Carlos Sainz. Behind the Spaniard was Max Verstappen, who seemed to be losing his mind and was already very cross. Now Mad Max was positively livid - swearing down the radio demanding the team to force Carlos to let him past. Which was childish and absurd - Sainz eventually passed Palmer and Sainz followed. Even though the battle with the Renault was over, the complaints were not... and Max issued a tirade down the radio which was bang out of order. 

Elsewhere other drivers were also finding out that the soft and super soft tyres were not the right call, forcing them into the pits to ensure they could get to the end. When Vettel pitted it suddenly became a Mercedes 1-2, despite the carnage of the day the same result had already formed. 

The end is nigh

With laps running down to the end of the race, the running order had mostly settled - Vettel was trying to make amends for the strategy problem by and late stop by hunting down Hamilton. It seemed like an unlikely prospect but when Lewis locked up into turn nine, the gap instantly closed up. Leading to a potential fight for seconds place. Alas much like qualifying that didn't pay off, Vettel slid off the track in the penultimate corner losing too much time avoiding some debris before re joining.

Where did that debris come from I heard a grand total no no-one asking, well remember Livid Max Verstappen and the fight he was having with Sainz and Palmer. Well having passed the Renault the caught a train of cars headed by Romain Grosjean in the remaining Haas car. Romain benefitted massively from Alonso's exploding McLaren and got a free stop and lots of free track position. They stuck the medium tyres on and were set for the rest of the afternoon. Behind Grosjean was Hulkenberg and Bottas - followed by the squabbling Toro Rossos. Max was clearly furious and was throwing the car everywhere, including a massive sideways moment out of turn 12. Somehow he kept the thing out of the wall and kept chasing Sainz, in the end he tried ramming Carlos out of the way - spinning himself in the process. Karma strikes when you least expect it. 

So the race finished with a Mercedes 1-2 - with Rosberg taking a victory he earned at the first corner with a decisive move on Lewis in turn one. Vettel completed the podium for Ferrari - Ricciardo and Massa rounded out the top 5. A miraculous performance from Grosjean in the Haas, even if it was fueled by good fortune scored him 6th place. Hulkenberg, Bottas and the squabbling Toro Rosso's took home the final points. 

Bonus Points

Today there will be full points, and lots of them - that was an entertaining start of the season and better than most of the previous one.

• 25pts - Romain Grosjean - 6th place for a completely new team is a very strong result, yes strategy handed Romain the place, but ability kept him there
• 18pts - Fernando Alonso - Walked away from an enormous shunt, but that moment where he sailed through the air was mind blowing.
• 15pts - Sebastian Vettel - A brilliant start and pulled away from Rosberg for a while, and a spirited recovery charge after the red flag
• 14pt - Carlos Sainz - Didn't get riled by Verstappen's rant and complaints and kept doing his job under the pressure
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - After being mauled in qualifying Nico laid down the law in turn one and drove a very strong race after that
• 10pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Another fast starting Ferrari and held his ground until the strategy took over and then the car caught fire
• 8pts -  Daniel Ricciardo - Barring an unfortunate strategy call Ricciardo was on track for a home podium in an underpowered car
• 6pts - Jolyon Palmer - A strong debut today, racing Alonso on lap one, Bottas later on and then the two Toro Rosso drivers
• 4ts - Pascal Werhlein - That Manor GP car gained so many places on the opening lap, but lost out under the red flag
• 2pts - Lewis Hamilton - Still recovered to take home a podium after falling to 7th on the restart
• 1pt - Martin Brundle - How he spotted that McLaren against the wall I don't know

• -1pt - Max Verstappen - Was very immature on the radio today, under the illusion he should have things his own way... well tough
• -1pt - Rachel Brookes - Wrong Haas Rachel, the F1 team is based on the NASCAR team with Gene Haas, not the CART/Indycar team which is Carl Haas. Rather mixed up the introductions there didn't we...

Bahrain Next

Well hopefully the fun we had in Australia can carry across to the Bahrain GP in a fortnight's time - on a track where overtaking is slightly easier and we might not have colossal accidents. Although, the last time that Gutierrez was at Sakhir he was also involved in an accident involving a car sailing through the air - in that instance it has his car performing the acrobatics. But we don't have Maldonado to help out this season.

The night race in Sakhir has seen incredible races, notably in 2014... when Esteban flipped, so maybe with a new/old qualifying format and a close field we might be in for one again. 

Round 1: Australia 2016: Something that claims to be Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

I think I speak for the entire fanbase, the entire paddock and everyone else when I sit back question what in the seven hells was that... I suspected that there might be a few teething problems with the new format, but instead what we were faced with was a disastrous mess, chaos and confusion. Teams had no idea what was happening and even those who did realised relatively quickly that the whole thing was a colossal balls up. What I fail to understand is that with all the engineers, analysts and geniuses in the pit lane never saw this coming. The problem is that none of those clever people were actually invited to the meetings and it was down to the bosses of the individual teams to iron it out... which clearly worked so well. As a pure and theoretical concept it sort of makes sense that it might provide an entertaining and dynamic session... but almost none of that theory actually made it into practice.

In the end did any of these changes actually achieve what Bernie ultimately wanted - to mix up the grid, make Sundays crazy... In a word no. In fact not only did we still end up with a very stereotypical order throughout most of the grid - it took less time to get there and with a lot less track action. So in that respect every single part of this new system turned out to be a complete and utter failure... so on that positive note lets have a look at the story of qualifying.

Q1...ish

The first session of the first race of the season was met with some anticipation and a little dose of skepticism as everyone tried to predict how it was all going to work... or not work as it eventually turned out. So because the first elimination was due seven minutes into the session - they queued in the pits waiting to set an early time. There were a couple of small on track battles to secure track position, Rosberg and Grosjean pounced on Hamilton and

Raikkonen passed Hulkenberg. After the a few minutes the problems of the new format became very obvious... once a driver has set a qualifying lap on a set of tyres, they have to pit and refuel in the garage... This takes longer than the elimination period so it actually becomes impossible for drivers to really compete.

So both Manors, and Haas entries were eliminated without having a chance to do anything about it. Both Grosjean and Gutierrez were on stronger laps but under the rules, if the time runs out.. tough frankly. So it seemed Haas misread the regulations or got the timing wrong. Then Kvyat found himself eliminated due to much the same problem, it isn't possible to turn the car round and out again in 3 minutes same for Felipe Nasr. The only driver who could do anything was Jolyon Palmer, because the last elimination ties up with the end of the session so he was allowed to complete the lap he started unlike anyone else. So Jolyon improve and made it into Q2 at Ericsson's expense.

Q2... sort of

If the first session was a bit of a mess, Q2 was no better because there was even less time for those surviving drivers to set a baseline time. When they completed that first lap - so many were unable to change tyres, fuel up and try

again. If you didn't have the fastest cars at the beginning - you were doomed to elimination, this trapped both Renaults and both McLarens who either too far down to have time to set another lap or didn't really see the point of setting another lap. Only Ferrari and Williams really had enough time to make a real second go of it - which worked for Massa and the Ferrari team. Bottas on the other hand got a little sideways in a couple of places and that was that. 

And here is another problem, even if a car has time remaining in the session before the designated elimination period, it makes no difference because the cars can't perform multiple laps on a single set of qualifying tyres. So not only is the format a mess the tyre options are holding it all back. in the end of Q2 we had a track with no cars on it and no competition... well done everyone.

Q3... almost

So eight cars remained, Toro Rosso, Ferrari, Mercedes, Ricciardo and Massa and traditionally in a Q3 session that would mean some cars would head out for the first run and the rest of them would join in for an all out challenge in the second half of the session. It wouldn't surprise you learn that the reality was far worse than that... far worse.

All the cars went out to set a lap time and Hamilton took a provisional pole from Vettel, Kimi and Nico - Ricciardo crossed the line in 8th place and was eliminated on the spot effectively as there is no time for a reply. It became clear that everyone except the top four would not be able to have a second run, yes that is quite bad but maybe Ferrari and Mercedes would be able to have a fight for pole... But it got even worse when it turned out that the fact that drivers have to change tyres more often due to their poor durability and the nature of the format, Ferrari didn't have any left. So Vettel and Kimi couldn't compete either. With five minutes to go only Hamilton and Rosberg could take part. Nico tried to take pole, but fell 6 hundredth short... and then it was all over. With four minutes to go the track fell silent as Lewis set another devastating laptime. 

If the qualifying session wasn't crushing enough, the fact that Mercedes can comfortably annihilate the competition at will...

Bonus Points

It took a while before I even decided how to score that session, so little happened to actually award points to anyone for it... so as a compromise I have determined that it only deserves half points, and any decent action that might have happened wasn't even shown because the camera focussed on drivers getting out of cars and looking at those being eliminated. For the most part I have no idea what happened to most of the grid... As a result here are the points

5pts - Mad Max Verstappen - 5th place in a Toro Rosso is impressive and because of the system, we saw virtually none of it.
4pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - 7th makes it two Toro Rossos ahead of the factory team and close to the Ferrari's using the older specification engine
3pts - Romain Grosjean - Scores points for bothering Hamilton at the start of the firs session
2.5pts - Lewis Hamilton - Totally destroyed any competition today, with a comfortable margin to even Nico in the same car
2pts - Fernando Alonso - Got a McLaren close to the top ten... not that there is a top ten in qualifying anymore
1.5pts - Jolyon Palmer - Was the only person to beat the elimination system... but only because of the rules
1pt - Daniel Ricciardo - The only Renault powered car inside the final part of qualifying.
0.5pts - Martin Brundle/David Croft - Get a point each for giving the new session the kicking it needed.

Will Tomorrow be Better

I really hope so, I really do. If it gets much worse I dread to think what the course of action would be going forward. I imagine that Mercedes will, barring failure make complete mincemeat of everyone else. Ferrari might keep them in sight for a little bit before dropping back.

It's everyone else that might provide the entertainment - Verstappen near the front and Kvyat near the back means there might be intrigue throughout the pack. They haven't messed too much with the format of the race... which is the only part of the weekend that needs work... Hopefully tomorrow will give us something to forget the disappointment that was today...

Round 1: Australia 2016 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

The winter off-season has come to an end and everything is back to normal, well it will be in a couple of days time, and this also marks the sixth year for blog HQ... although after the disaster the second half of 2015 encountered I'm not sure that counts. This time around blog HQ knows that there will have to be a few adjustments to the way coverage is presented in this dark and underpopulated corner of the internet. Because in reality it is no longer practical to spend several hours on both a Saturday and a Sunday writing up precisely what the vast majority of people have already seen. In the past I have attempted, generally unsuccessfully to inject humour and other clever things into the monolithic posts, but that never quite went to plan - and it certainly didn't sort out the whole issue of taking up to five hours to produce a post race document. 

So for the next few rounds things might get a little experimental around here - playing with different formats and approaches until one settles and makes sense. At the moment I don't know what those formats will be, I do intend to keep this corner of the internet functioning but I need a quicker more easily produced version of it in all reality.

Enough about that, this is about the first race of the season and seeing if anything that happened in testng is actually relevant. Where we will see Haas compete in their first race and we might get a show and tell from Mad Max as he shows us what his parents got him for Christmas. We shall see if Gutierrez on his return to the grid can take over where Maldonado left off and whether anyone can actually deal with Mercedes. But first...

The News

You might have thought with the start of the season being so close they wouldn't bother messing with the core qualifying format... well it turns out that they in fact would. It was decided a little while ago there was going to be a change afoot - then Bernie being Bernie came up with a mad idea that added a 'handicap' time to the top finishers from the previous race. For example the previous winner or championship leader would have a mandatory block of time added to his fastest qualifying lap. Something to mix the grid up and to keep Mercedes off pole - to avoid this catastrophe the teams voted in an alternative solution. Something called 'Elimination' qualifying - in the beginning this wasn't going to happen until the Spanish GP. But then that was changed and a compromised version was going to be put in place for round one. Then things changed again... don't you just love consistency in the rule making process...

The original version suddenly became the plan and it is going to be introduced this weekend in Melbourne. So what is elimination qualifying, well it seems to be an idea borrowed from the old Burnout video game series - and if the FIA and Bernie are now learning about racing from EA we are well and truly doomed. Next we'll have races where the final few laps are only available as DLC and car physics mean that even the highest grip cars will powerslide through every corner. Finally bonus points will be added for oversized rims, neon lights and hydraulics. Mocking EA aside, the new system works on the premise that the car with the slowest time in a particular session will become eliminated and has to return to the pits. The next slowest then faces the same fate 90 seconds later until the required number of cars are eliminated - the survivors progress into the next round. In Q1 there is a seven minute amnesty on the eliminations and at the seven minute mark the first car is booted out. A total of seven cars are eliminated before Q2. The amnesty is cut to six minutes in Q2 before people start getting eliminated and again seven drivers are eliminated before Q3. In the final shootout the remaining eight cars have five minutes before the eliminations start and they continue until there are only two cars left fighting for pole position.

There are some potential gains for this sort of format - firstly there will be more cars on track at any one time because the only realistic way to avoid relegation is to stay on track and improve your time to avoid being last. So there will be less empty track running, secondly it will add more strategy and unpredictability to the session without necessarily artificially messing up the grid like Bernie wanted....but

There are also some problems, problems I don't think the powers that be have fully realised as of yet - firstly traffic is going to be a serious problem at some tracks, Monaco I am looking at you. Because there will be more cars on track at the same time, which will increase the number of complaints of blocking and drivers holding each other up. I don't think the current system has been developed with all the different permutations considered - what happens with red or yellow flag incidents. If the is only a 90 second window to avoid elimination then these sort of conditions will have a much larger impact on the results. The 90 second window could also become problematic on circuits where the lap is longer than that period - Spa and Singapore for example, furthermore during the elimination stage what happens when a car is on a lap which would move them out of the elimination window but the timer runs out. At the end of each qualifying session drivers can complete the lap they are on... will this carry forward into the elimination stages. The current suggestions indicate that it doesn't but I suspect that will lead to some very cross and potentially confused drivers on Saturday when this actually gets put into practice.

In other news Renault have found some paint for their car, for some bizarre reason the team elected to have yet another strange launch session where they revealed the new livery. Normally I'd complain a lot more but... WE FINALLY HAVE A YELLOW CAR!!. Yes since Jordan became Force India the grid has been sadly lacking in Yellow - Renault themselves were the last team to try a mostly yellow car in 2010 before they started targeting the Lotus name. 

This version, at least in the photos from the launch looks much better and they seem to have borrowed some of the matte finish the Red Bull guys have uncovered over the winter. Some say that the matte paint is lighter than the gloss paint used by the other teams - all I can say is that it is good that Pastor Maldonado isn't going to get his hands on this one and ruin the livery. 

Finally Red Bull have announced in the run up to the Australian GP that they are now making friends with Aston Martin - which must come to the disappointment to the people at Force India who thought they were on the cusp of a deal with the sports car manufacturer. The partnership involves a collaborative project between Aston Martin and Adrian Newey to build a new really quick car that no-one can afford - but one we all wish we could. 

So the Australian GP Weekend

Well the first race of the season has been held in Melbourne since 1996, after leaving the streets of Adelaide. In that time it has seen some interesting races and some less interesting ones. This time last season we saw that an extra year of developing the power units made them incredibly less reliable and most of the field broke down. Alonso broke down before reaching Australia and his replacement (now Renault driver in the Yellow car) broke down in the same car before the start. However testing this season has given us hope that the 2016 Australian GP will be a lot better, and will actually see more than a few cars complete the race.

The track itself if nestled in the middle of Albert park, with walls painted to look like grass lining the edge of the circuit - just to encourage the unsuspecting to crash into them. For the opening race of the season in the modern era we expect teams to be a little more tentative, especially as there more rounds in 2016 with the inclusion of Baku in June, each race means less for the overall championship. As outlined earlier qualifying will be an ultimate mystery - not just for cars working out where they rank in the pecking order but just in terms of seeing quite how the powers that be intend to implement the new rules. 

It is not too much of a surprise to assume that Mercedes will lock out the front row and vanish off into the distance - they are likely so far ahead already that they are travelling to Bahrain for round two. However the pre season testing did suggest that Ferrari have built a reasonably quick car and if one or both of the Mercedes drivers accidentally collides with the other - Vettel, and maybe even Raikkonen will be in close enough proximity to capitalise. 

The middle of the pack however looks quite close and like it was last season, will be the source of anything fun happening there are several teams which may be in the same performance bracket from Red Bull down to McLaren and Haas - with Toro Rosso, Force India, Renault and possible Sauber stuck in the middle. Manor have also made significant improvements - mostly down to actually having a car built the current regulations and with the best engine package bolted into the back. If things do get very messy and chaotic, and on a good day they may be able to pick up a point or two with Wehrlein... while Haryanto might have crashed into something. 

Winter Off-Season Update: More cars and Testing Begins

Greetings Internet, 

If you weren't bored to tears by the last post, I thought I'd make another one just to finish you all off. Because what the Internet needs is more pictures of cars that look more or less the same as one another, with some wierd northern bloke in possession of a quizzical expression attempting to sound knowledgeable. 

Manor

With new drivers and new engine, the team that struggled to make it onto the 2015 grid enter the new season with a more confident package. The new engineering staff acquired over the winter may not have an immediate impact on performance and the car still looks a little primitive in some respects compared to the better funded competition. But at least the team bothered to paint their car properly unlike so many others - the livery is a decent injection of colour into a largely monotone grid. Points may be possible this season through the far more effective power unit especially before other teams are able to develop and overcome and engine advantage held by a smaller team. Similar to the way in which Sauber scored good points in Australia, but fell away as other teams out-developed them. 

Testing so far has gone well for Manor, in the sense that nothing has exploded and the car has been running. Pascal Wehrlein completed a decent number of laps during his time in the car - while Haryanto span on his first day in the car and then crashed on his second effort. It may be speaking a little too soon, but we might have a replacement for Pastor Maldonado to provide an injection of chaos when we need it. The only question is, will the inclusion of a 2016 Mercedes engine bring Manor closer to any other car for the oil funded Indonesian something to run into rather than the barrier. 

Haas

The first new team since 2010 made its first official appearance as testing got under way, and it was rather obvious that several components fell out of the Ferrari spare parts bin. It has been no secret that Haas have been collaborating with Ferrari in their preparations for joining the grid and that collaboration has definitely had an influence on the design of the car. The front and rear wings along with the bargeboards and turning vanes have a slight Ferrari-esque nature to them. While the front and presumably rear suspension components have certainly been dragged from the same supply cupboard. 

With the American connections and a history in NASCAR, I was expecting the team to roll out with something that either screamed 'Murica or drew inspiration from the Ferrari collaboration - maybe a big American flag or fireworks in the exhaust all mounted on Pirelli Monster Truck tyres with a front facing flamethrower. There were even suggestions and rumours that the car might have been yellow... alas it is not to be they've gone with grey. Whoever did a deal with the F1 teams for black, grey and blue paint must be making a huge profit right now. In testing Haas have faired well - a front wing failure on day one didn't halt progress with only one technical failure on the final day of testing hinted at potential reliability concerns. Ferrari themselves had a similar run of reliability with only one breakdown for Raikkonen... or it might have been the car who knows. The pace has been reasonably competitive just of the back of the midfield - but we all know that pace in testing counts for nothing really.

Force India

Force India apparently have a new car, but from looks of it - there seems to be very little difference between the 2016 entrant and their B-Spec 2015 car. After all the team were a little behind on development last season so there may be more updates in the pipeline in time for Melbourne next month. Even though the livery is identical and the unique nose section remains largely unchanged from it's immediate predecessor there are some subtle differences. Like most of the 2016 cars the rear section of the VJM09 has undergone some resculpting probably to work with the newest generation of Mercedes engines that the team will be running once again this season.

However while it may not seem like the squad have been up to much over the winter other than wondering which of their funding sources will end up in court next - but the car does seem to be keeping pace with everyone else... most everyone else. Reliability has been reasonably strong as have all the Mercedes powered runners - and the team even elected to pass the first test day to an actual test driver. While that seems like a reasonable thing to do - Alfonso Cellis' record rather suggests that is was money rather than ability that scored him the lions share of testing milage in the new car. On day three of testing Hulkenberg finished the day with the fastest lap time - not that times matter too much but it does show that the car isn't a static replica of 2015... even if it might look like one. 

Mercedes

If there was a team that probably could have put their feet up during the winter it was Mercedes - with a comfortably dominant car and the best engine what more did they need to do. But when the W07 was presented to the world it appeared that they had been busy rolling out a '100 element' nose section on day two. I haven't counted but surely you can trust a team headed by an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. Ominously Paddy Lowe at the team has said that the W07 has been optimised everywhere - which involves resculpting the sidepods and air intakes to create a much more refined bodywork shape. If the W06 wasn't optimised enough 2016 could easily be an even more dominant season.

In testing I doubt the team have revealed the true pace of the car, but have been crushingly reliable and consistent. Covering over 1,000km more track time than anyone else without a hint of reliability problems - the car works impeccably well and if it has the pace we all suspect it does to go with that, it is going to be a tough act to follow this year. The only hint that things might be interesting is that on three of the four test days, Ferrari ended the testing session with the fastest time. But because times don't matter in testing and don't actually reveal anything - that hope of competition at the front may be a false one.

McLaren 

While Mercedes could have gone on holiday over the winter, McLaren certainly couldn't following a dismal 2015 campaign in which they only avoided finishing last because Manor were running with a very undeveloped car. Over the winter there were some promising rumours flowing from the Honda side of the equation - claiming they had found around 200hp, a rumour that slowly started to disintegrate as it turned out that figure only referred to the hybrid system. Therefore this sudden gain in power would only manifest for a few seconds a lap at maximum energy deployment. When the car was revealed to the world it looked angrier and more menacing than it's predecessor with a mainly black livery. But when it fired up it wasn't quite menacing the competition.

On the first day of testing Boullier pointed out that the updates were not good enough and the speed trap data still showed that the McLaren Honda combination was noticeably slower than it's rivals. If that wasn't damming enough on the day of the first test - the man in charge of the Honda partnership resigned from the post... if more key staff also start to go missing in the coming days, it becomes a clear sign that things have not worked at all well over the winter. However on the reliability front the car has been running, on three of the four days Button and Alonso put in a decent amount of laps. On day four however Fernando only managed three laps before the car broke with a fluid leak... if only Barcelona had some deck chairs to spend the rest of the day on.

Red Bull

After a season long argument with Renault ending in divorce - Red Bull have reluctantly jumped back into bed with the French engine manufacturer and in an effort to make things work, they've rebranded the power unit Tag-Heuer. What the watchmakers are actually allowed to do to make their mark on the engine is a topic for discussion between actual engineers. This hindered development of the 2016 car as the team didn't know which engine to make room for in the back of the chassis. Despite this the team turned up with the RB12 and like Mercedes have gone for optimisation rather than a radical design approach, focussing more on the rear suspension and diffuser. It has always been assumed that Red Bull under Newey's guidance have developed the strongest chassis designs and this newest iteration should follow suit.

This RB12 faired well in testing, setting the third fastest overall lap time, and completed a lot more laps that they did in 2015. Reliability seems to have improved on the Renault side and the engine seems to be integrating with the rest of the car reasonably well. But it is far too early too say if this season will be more fruitful than 2015 and if there will be fewer arguments between team and engine supplier...

Toro Rosso

The junior team decided that the current drivers weren't allowed to play with paint anymore and released a bland monotone testing livery leaving the paints back at HQ until Max is old enough to join in. After the engine divorce Toro Rosso went back and shacked up with Ferrari, but because it had been a long time - the Italians only handed them an older version of the power unit. Of all the teams it seems that Toro Rosso have been breaking down more often - probably a legacy of a late engine supplier change. However despite this, none of the breakdowns have proved terminal and the overall millage completed by the team surpasses that achieved by their supposedly more competent sister team. The only team to complete more laps were Mercedes, so despite a few minor hiccups, the car is quite reliable.

Hidden by the plain colour scheme the STR11 is an evolution of the previous model with a flatter nose and retaining the innovative central rear wing pylon that passes through the exhaust. The engine change has meant the rear of the car had to adapt to house the Ferrari power unit, with some breathing room for cooling. As the season progresses the car will get slimmer as the cooling is dialled back to meet the narrow sidepods. 

Renault

After a strange and slightly pointless launch event in which they didn't actually launch anything - I suppose that they just figured that replacing Maldonado was a good enough excuse for a party - Renault turned up with a 2016 car. But like Toro Rosso they too forgot to bother painting most of it - and settled for the same mostly black design they showed to the world in that odd party. As someone who isn't exactly well versed in the world of technical analysis - the R.S.16  looks to have a more exposed rear section in and around the rear suspension. You see the Ferrari and more so the Toro Rosso with flared bodywork while the sidepod tucks underneath. At the front Renault have kept the nicer looking nose that Lotus ran before Renault re-adopted the team but other than that nothing really stands out. 

In testing the car was slow to get off the ground in terms of laps completed dealing with early struggles and a very smoky engine early on. But on the final day of the test Magnussen achieved the greatest number of laps and set Renault's fastest time putting them on pace with the mid-field. The interesting comparison this season will be between themselves and Red Bull, since the latter is now a customer team and it would be most amusing if Renault were able to beat them after Red Bull were less than kind to the French manufacturer. Alas at the moment is does seem like the opposite is in play with Red Bull in front, but it is only early days yet.

As for Sauber

One team don't have a new car yet, and that is Sauber - although they did turn up to the Barcelona test with a 2015 car so that they could still get used to the new spec tyres and keep an eye on the competition. Using the older car didn't seem to harm the lap times as the C34 stayed on midfield pace, but that is a fully developed 2015 car versus the first running versions of the newer machinery. Unsurprisingly Sauber racked up a considerable amount of testing laps on par with Toro Rosso - both using a 2015 Ferrari engine. We'll have to see what Sauber brings to the playing field when their C35 is released in time for the second test.

Winter Off Season Update 1: We finally have new cars to look at - and other things

Greetings Internet, 

It has been a while since my fat stubby fingers were slammed against the keyboard in this part of the internet - but against my better judgment and disappointment of everyone else online Blog HQ is still here. Over the winter there have been many storylines and events which for the most part involved Red Bull complaining about engines... and then everyone else complaining about engines. The engine saga will likely rumble on for all of eternity, or at least until someone finally manages to build something that can give Mercedes a good kicking from time to time. For some reason I think the end of time might happen first - and as the universe collapses in on itself Christian Horner will still find ways of blaming the apocalypse on Renault. Speaking of Renault, there was a slight change in their driver line-up timed to coincide with a rather pointless launch event, but more on that later. 

Who else will build barrier forts now?

F1's demolition derby specialist Pastor Maldonado ran into a bit of a financial concrete wall as his Venezuelan overlords at PDVSA forgot to pay Lotus (now Renault) the money for 2016. So without money to cover the frequent flyer miles to the stewards office and those hefty repair bills - Pastor suddenly found himself sitting in the unemployment line. As a replacement Renault turned to McLaren exile Kevin Magnussen, when the Dane was announced earlier in the year Renault instantly noticed that their insurance premiums was significantly reduced. In some respects it is a shame to see Pastor crashing out of the sport, because his destructive madness and general lunacy was entertaining and the world as a whole had someone to laugh at. Magnussen is a better prospect in the long term we assume, but a lot less fun - that said he did equal Pastors tally of number of opponents flipped when he upended Massa in Germany. We have gained Gutierrez at Haas who came close to scoring as many penalties as Maldonado, and of course there is Mad Max Verstappen to inject a bit of chaos in the absence of the lord of destruction.

Elsewhere in other news Manor have now finalised their drivers and thus the grid is complete ahead of testing on Monday. With the acquisition of Mercedes engines for the new season Manor opened the crates containing the new power units only to find the German manufacturer had stashed a new driver in amongst the polystyrene packaging. Just like the Grosjean move to Haas - the rest of the world sort of knew that there might be a stowaway in the Mercedes deal. That stowaway is DTM Champion Pascal Wehrlein following the same route into F1 as Paul Di Resta and to a less successful extent Christijan Albers. 

Can we move the German GP to the Norisring?

The deal is similar to the one that placed Bianchi at Marussia with help from Ferrari - Pascal is quite highly rated and just like Jules did, have the potential to get the most out of the underdog chassis. Alongside Pascal is another new face, Will Stevens can return to England and pursue a career as a Danny Dyer impersonator as his seat was handed to another well funded rooker. Just like Pastor Maldonado, national oil money paid for a drive for Rio Haryanto from Indonesia. Rio finished 4th in last season's GP2 championship - it might have been third if the final race lasted more than two corners before being abandoned. He doesn't come with impeccable credentials but he has money, and for a small team like Manor - money is rather important. 

A new car at last

So onto to the main theme of today's surprise post - the first car has been revealed to the world. There have been other launches in the past few days and weeks but this is the first actual car presented by Williams. 

Williams' revolutionary idea to build race car designed to go round corners

On the surface it doesn't seem like the squad have done too much different, the livery is the same, the nose is the same and so on. But apparently the team have done some revolutionising - which could mean anything from setting the suspension up at a new angle or plotting to overthrow the government. The latter sounding more entertaining but I think they might need to re-hire a certain Venezuelan to truly make an impact in parliament. The idea Willams have had is to focus more on going round corners - which probably a solid idea given that there are quite a few corners - instead of focusing on ultimate low drag speed. The aim is to have a car which is more versatile and doesn't turn into a sloth as soon as the heavens open. The only evidence of this on the car is the emergence of a few winglets on top of the sidepods and some resculpting around the air intakes in comparison to the 2015 model. It might bring them closer to Ferrari more often, but we haven't seen what the Italians have built... even though several key personnel at Ferrari are actually British. The noises out of Maranello suggest that they have taken a 'radical' approach - whatever that actually means, probably that they've added more pepper and parmesan to everything in the catering truck or something 

Another New Car...

While I was writing about the revolutions at Williams and things Ferrari decided to get in on the act and present their new shiny car. Across the void of cyberspace... and probably the real world too but I try to avoid that place... people were concerned about the amount of white paint that rumours suggested would be on the car...

Williams would like their nosecone back

Well those rumours were not wrong when the new Ferrari finally broke cover today - the engine cover and the cockpit are have been bleached of the former scarlet paintwork. The other dashes of white don't seem out of place but while the engine cover is a evolution of the livery... it just seems wrong. Adding to the list of things that seem out of place  - the 2016 nose is almost identical to the Williams and is the first Ferrari to go with the... extension at the front since they made an appearance in 2014. The nose is probably more fit for purpose and for the regulations but looks less well designed than its predecessor. The rear of the car however does seem more delicately sculpted as the sidepod vanishes underneath the rear suspension housing. I'm not an aerodynamicist or even a proper engineer but it sort of looks like a car designed by a committee, or at least painted by one. However there is no real disagreement at blog HQ that is certainly is a departure from recent exports from the team and might make things interesting at the front... well almost.

Mercedes

While we are all looking at new pictures surfacing as testing approaches Toto and his gang have been running the new car at Silverstone in what will likely be called a filming day/shakedown. From the one photo that is doing the rounds on twitter at the moment it seems as if the Germans might find 2016 a little more challenging...

Mercedes already so far ahead they've won the British GP in February 

After all, going for a blurry, slightly pixelated design can't be the most aerodynamic option. Given the fuzziness of the shot it is unclear what changes have been made - but the team could probably slap the engine in a golf cart and lap the field with it... Besides since the rate of development is so high, the parts that are fitted to the car for testing in Spain might be completely different to those on the car at the Silverstone 'test' event. 

Red Bull... not a new car, but new paint

Red Bull took some time off from berating their engine this week to have a little launch of their own. After falling out with almost every other engine supplier at the back end of 2015, the team eventually crawled back to Renault and asked watchmaker Tag-Heuer to help out. Clearly Horner has decided that if he can't have all the power he wants from the car, he'll team up with someone who can tinker with the timing to make the lap time look more favourable. All this meant that the team have been a little busy trying to get the car ready so when it came to launch time - they slapped on some paint to an older chassis and showed that off insead. 

If losing - pretend to be Toro Rosso

It seems Red Bull have run out of the shiny paint they have been using over the past few seasons - perhaps Infiniti took it with them when the brand parted company with the team. The new paint is a lot darker than we've been used to and is probably geared to make them look more similar to the Junior Squad at Toro Rosso - because it is reasonably likely that those whippersnappers might have a faster car with their Ferrari engines. The matte paint may take some getting used to but we'll see when their actual car is revealed.

Renault... not really a new anything of sorts

Then there was Renault... they were the first out of the gate with a launch party event, but didn't actually launch anything. They announced that they were releasing Maldonado back into the wild and that Kevin was the named replacement but that's it. Yet the launch contained a car painted... well some of it was painted... in a livery they weren't planning on using, and the car itself was the 2015 model. So they didn't have anything to share with the world other than reminding us that they have officially taken over the Lotus team and have become Renault after selling the naming rights at the end of 2011. 

In an urgent appeal - Renault are asking for donations of yellow paint

As you can see Renault just painted an old car black and slapped some stickers on it - the rear of the engine cover used some of Red Bull's matte paint, something they probably claimed in the divorce. The team have said that this 'livery' isn't its final form - so with any luck they will pay a visit to their Formula E team's paint shed and stick a eDams-esque colour scheme on it before sending it back out into to the world. 

Blog HQ in 2016

I have received literally zero questions about the plans for 2016 from the tens of people who accidently end up on this part of the internet, and I'm not entirely sure I have any answers to those non-existent questions. I am aware that the latter half of 2015 did enter a little bit of a decline... well more of an accelerated spiral into a dark and endless silence. That was fuelled by many factors, most of those relating to time. Over the course of a standard race weekend, operating this corner of the internet does take up a large amount of time - which includes watching the race itself and delivering the reports and things afterwards. Time I was struggling to find in the latter races of last season and as a result several reports were not completed or were delayed by several days. I have been spending a lot less time in the house and as a result the simple act of sitting down and watching a race on a Sunday afternoon isn't as simple and as easy as it once was. A lot of this is Bernie's fault - because in the end it is always a good idea to blame Bernie - the price of F1 has made it increasingly inaccessible to the general public. Free-to-air coverage is a bleak shadow of what it once was and therefore when I am away from Blog HQ catching up with the sport is often far more difficult. 

Even on free TV weekends, other commitments mean that time is also thin on the ground. It took three days to watch the Abu-Dhabi finale last year over a series of lunch breaks. It isn't practical to devote eight or nine hours on a Sunday to watch and document each lap and each on track duel. But at the same time I would ideally like to keep this part of the internet operational in some shape or form, it would require a restructure of how things are delivered and since Blog HQ has been running since 2011 it would be a shame to see it die out. At this moment in time I don't really know how to proceed, whether it is through a series of sporadic articles rather than needlessly long qualifying and race reports. I would like to revive the bonus points tally after it fell into disrepair last season. There should be a couple of posts during testing as more cars are revealed, but as far as the main season goes that is very much undecided.