Is that a steering wheel or what ?!

At Monaco, McLaren unveiled their new steering wheel. Now, we always suspected that a F1 car steering wheel was more like the inside of spaceship cabin than a steering wheel, and that suspicion has been confirmed by this new steering wheel. With so many buttons on it that could even put Captain Kirk to shame, F1 cars' steering wheels are so complex that you cant help but wonder how these drivers manage to keep their cars on the road and off other cars. Have a look :


Now, of course those buttons make no sense to us mortals. So, here's Kimi Raikonnen explaining what those things actually do. And if you always wished that F1 cars had a 'overtaking' button, well guess what ? They do have one !! Its called the "increase-the-max-engine-rev-button" :) Read on for more..

From top:

+1 and +10 (green, far left and far right)
Used in conjunction with the MSG OK button (marked with a cross, right) to flick through car function menus, allowing the driver to override certain functions in the case of malfunction. The MSG OK button changes the respective menu of each of the two buttons.

PLS (yellow, with P, left)
Activates the pit-lane speed limiter when entering the pits.

PTT (red, left)
Pit radio button. Used to call the pit crew via radio communication.

DRINKS (grey, left)
Provides drinking fluid to the driver. Operates an electric pump to bring the liquid from a reservoir in the cockpit through a tube to the driver’s mouth.

TC OFF (blue, left)
Switches off the traction control. Mainly used during the formation lap to allow the driver to spin the rear wheels and generate heat in the tyres. Also used when exiting the driver’s pit position, allowing wheelspin, which deposits rubber on the tarmac, providing more grip during pit stops.

A and B (black/purple, black, left)
Used to change the traction control setting ,for hi revs and low revs. The various positions enable the driver to find the correct level of traction control interevention. The optimum level changes due to numerous variables, including the level of grip provided by the tarmac, the track temperature, the amount of rubber deposited on the track etc.

Lower left switch (with positions 2 through 8)
This presets the lowest gear for each corner, allowing the driver to change down through the gearbox quickly, without fear of selecting too low a gear.

C, D and E (black/red, black/white, black/blue, along base of wheel)
These switches adjust the car’s differential setting. These depend on various factors related to the overall set up of the car, the fuel load variation, low gear revs and high gears revs.

F (black/green, bottom right)
This button - a very important one - operates and changes the engine braking settings. As the race progresses and the car’s brakes become gradually less efficient, it is useful to be able to increase the amount of engine braking action.

G (black/yellow, right)
This button sets the rev limit for the engine - the highest revs it can reach in each gear before changing up. A higher setting allows the driver to extract more performance; a lower setting puts less stress on the engine.

H (black/orange, right)
This switch changes specific traction control and differential settings in accordance with the tyres being used - grooved, intermediate or wet - to account for the different levels of grip provided by each type.

R (red, right)
Allows the driver to select neutral and reverse gear.

OT (yellow, right)
The overtaking button. This temporarily increases the engine’s maximum rev limit when extra power is needed for a short period. When the button is released the rev limit returns to its default setting.

Random Pictures from Monaco

Some random pictures ...

Here is the Kimi, the iceman in a icecar. The occasion ? Unveiling of the new McLaren ..err.. steering wheel.


This is the steering wheel : lets just hope it doesnt go flying across the McLaren garage out of Kimi's hands.


Here is Michael Schumacher on track during practice. Beautiful landscape, no ?


And in case you forgot him, Narain Karthikeyan is still around ! As a test driver of Williams F1 team, he was at Monaco too.. (well, who isnt ?!)


More later, folks !

Where did Johnny Walk away ?

Currently, a few teams, including Red Bull, Toyota, Renault and McLaren are testing at the French race track of Paul Ricard.

Now, it so happens that alcohol advertising seems to be banned there (not sure why though), and so McLaren have had to take off their Johnny Walker decals on the sidepods which said "Keep Walking". (As an aside, their cars do seem to be just walking right now).

So, what do the brilliant designers at McLaren do ? They decide to put in some efforts to eradicate global illiteracy, and put in half of the alphabet on the sidepod. Here is a photo :



I am extremely curious to see the other side of the car and see if they have the remaining alphabets on the other sidepod. For the sake of completeness, I do hope so !

More Spanish Delight

Ok, so this post is not about F1, but the amazing run Spanish sportsmen are having deserves mention here.

Following the triple delight on Sunday, Spain had more to cheer when Barcelona won the Champions League final against Arsenal last night. And to complete an amazing week for the Spanish (and a miserable week for English football) Sevilla won the UEFA cup, beating Middlesborough in the final.

More on flexy wings

Just as expected, other teams are now going to copy Ferrari's revolutionary flexy wing design to improve their performance, after FIA refused to rule that they were illegal.

An article here says McLaren are scheduled to introduce some flexible parts for the Monaco race, and even Williams are tipped to do the same. Renault have also been noticed to be running some flexible parts in Barcelona (wonder if that made the difference in the race result ? - apparently, these flexy parts can save upto 3 tenths of a second per lap - which is huge, and more importantly less than the gap between Alonso and Schumacher's average lap times)

We can be sure that this controversy will go on, and we could even have cars writhing around on the track at this rate !!

Spanish Triple Delight

Sunday was a good day if you were a Spanish - Spain had triple successes in the world of sports on Sunday.

First, Rafael Nadal won the Rome Masters, beating archrival Roger Federer in a thrilling five setter. He equalled the record for most consecutive clay court victories - 5 - held by Guilerimo Vilas.

Second, Dani Pedrosa, "the 51kg kid genius from Barcelona" won his first MotoGP race at China, in his first season in the premier Queens category. He was the winner of the 250cc championship last year, and he has firmly answered all critics with this brilliant race. He achieved a hat-trick of successes - pole, fastest lap and victory - in yesterdays race.

Third, Fernando Alonso won the Spanish GP - the first Spanish to win at home in over 50 years - beating Michael Schumacher into second. He regained his 15 point lead in the championship, and has a total of 54 points from a maximum of 60.

It was that kind of a day, when even a Spanish cricket team could have hoped to beat Australia !!

Showdown

With 15 minutes to go for the race to begin, I found some interesting comments made by Renault engineering director Pat Symonds here. I will just copy the relevant parts here :

"My main concern really is the times Michael did on Saturday morning with old tyres, just before he changed to new tyres," Renault engineering director Pat Symonds told Autosport. "It makes it look like their tyre degradation is going to cause us real problems to do anything with today."

After Schumacher's victory in Imola the team conducted many simulations to see if they could have done anything differently to match the Ferrari's pace on old tyres, but to no avail.

"I am not saying that we could have done better," said Symonds, "But you still learn a little about the approach and what to look for. And here we were looking very, very carefully at what their (Ferrari's) time was on old tyres, and it scared me when I saw it."

The Bridgestone tyres seemed to cause some slight understeer problems for the other teams, but Ferrari was far from crippled by the issues in qualifying. "Ferrari are amazing," said Renault boss Flavio Briatore after qualifying. "The Michelin tyre is working very well here and it looks like Bridgestone only works with Ferrari. It is something really, really strange. It is something that we need to think about."

Race on !

Sebastian Montoya

Juan Pablo's son Sebastian was at the Spanish GP.

F1 Future Secure

Planet F1 reports that the long-standing dispute between Bernie and GPMA (comprising Toyota, Renault, McLaren, BMW and Honda) has finally been resolved at Barcelona today. They have agreed to be a part of Formula One for 2008 and beyond. The existing 'Concorde' agreement expires at the end of 2007.

The five manufacturers had been holding out for a larger share of the financial pie, among other things - and while the terms of the agreement are not yet clear, they have now reached a settlement with the commercial rights owner Ecclestone.

The deal is expected to be completed when Donald McKenzie, the head of CVC - who own Formula One - arrives in Barcelona today for the Spanish GP. With this, all existing 11 teams are sure to be on the grid in 2008, when they will be joined by the new team Prodrive.

Schumi plays football

Here is a pic of Schumi playing beach football, in a promotional event for Vodafone.



Looks like having a Brazilian in the team for soo long has taught him lot of footballing skills !

The timing screens of Q1

At the Montmelo race track, the intense testing during offseason has led to the teams being really really close this weekend. And this is why every tenth of a second is so crucial. All teams are at their best here, and this is where you get to see the real potential of the cars. As they say in the paddock, if your car works here, it will work everywhere.

And so, as the first qualifying session unfolded, the time difference between teams was so small, that a couple of tenths could get you up 5 or 6 places. Indeed, at the end of Q1, from Alonso in P1 to Raikonnen in P12, the drivers were covered by 0.8 of a second, and Nico Rosberg in P16 was just 1.4 seconds off the pace.

This is a track where every millisecond counts, which is why Renault have gotten themselves into a nice position - they can control the pace of the race in the first stint, and really pull away when they need to. Michelin have a slight advantage at this track, but Ferrari seem to have the superior race pace and strategy.

This is about as close as it gets.

Strategy-wise

Remember last week ? Nurburgring ?

Michael had more fuel in his car which meant he was not on pole. Alonso compromised his race strategy by going for pole. Renault seem to have the same strategy this weekend too. They seem to have fuelled both cars light, and the idea must be to have Fisi hold back Schumi while Alonso pulls away from the field, making the most of his light fuel load. If it works, this situation will lead to Alonso pulling out enough of a gap that he can manage for the rest of the race, for Schumi will surely get ahead of Fisi in the first round of stops.

However, this strategy has the following problems :
a) Fisi is a championship contender too. He is not around to help Alonso, and he will be desperate to prove himself after a couple of bad races. So he is going to be pushing Alonso hard, though the team will tell him to hold back Michael.
b) Ferrari's straight line speed advantage + the long straight => if Schumi gets close to Fisi, this blockup will last no more than a couple of laps.
c) Finally, this strategy will fall flat on its face when Schumi just gets past Fisi at the start itself. Then, it will be a repeat of the 'ring, and while it is a lot lot closer here, in a straight fight between the two, MS is going to come up trumps.

The key question really is how long will MS get bottled up behind Fisi ??

Top Speeds

This is the most interesting part of the qualifying session. Ferrari have a HUGE HUGE advantage down the long main straight, because of their top speeds:

1. Felipe Massa - 319kmh
2. Michael Schumacher - 314kmh
3. Giancarlo Fisichella - 311kmh
4. Jacques Villeneuve - 308kmh
5. Nick Heidfeld - 308kmh
6. Fernando Alonso - 308kmh

Looks like the rear flexy-wings are doing an awesome job. This has always been an aero circuit, and with such a strong aero advantage down the long straight, Ferrari are clearly the car to beat tomorrow.

Schumi to wait till end of season

This one is a rumour about all those "where will schumi go" rumours. The rumour is that these rumours will not end until the end of the season.

Full Story


Schumi is now expected to wait till season end to make his decision, as Ferrari are willing to wait for him to decide and have given him a free hand. My suspicion is that Schumi is waiting to see how the development of next year's car progresses and how well this season ends.

More fodder for rumour mills though !

If you cant beat 'em ....

... join 'em. So goes the famous saying.

Here, I had mentioned how Honda were crying hoarse about the new flexy wings of the Ferrari. FIA later ruled that the wings were legal and not in violation of any rules.

Now, most other teams intend to do what Ferrari have done and go for these flexy wings.
[ Source ]
"It's pretty obvious what Ferrari are doing and we're going to have to do something similar to compete," an unnamed source told Autosport magazine.

He added: "We won't be the only team doing this, either, and you'll see the changes pretty quickly - certainly within weeks."

We can be pretty sure Honda will be amongst the first teams to copy the flexy wing design, seeing that they have been in considerable discomfort with Ferrari's wings all throughout the season.

Villeneuve's form this season

To be really honest, Jacques Villeneuve has been having a really solid season. He has been doing better than his team-mate, who has remained largely anonymous. Jacques is really driving well, pushing hard and occasionally even getting into the final 10 of qualy.

But rather unfortunately for him, Mario Theissen does not seem to be noticing. Despite a great qualy and a hard fought one point during the race, all Dr. Mario said was that they were too slow and had a miserable weekend. Which perfectly described Nick's weekend.

JV drove a solid race at BMW's home track, and there wasnt even as much as a hint of thanks and support for JV from his team director. Super-Mario seems obsessed with Nick, and he should be grateful for JV saving the team's face to some extent.

JV, on this form, could earn a race seat next season without resorting to obscure clauses in agreements.

Catalunya - the known devil

Teams test so often at this circuit that all drivers and engineers know this circuit better than the back of their hands. But all the data that they collect while testing is almost obsolete now, because of many reasons - reasons which make Catalunya more like a known devil.

Firstly, the track conditions have changed a lot since the winter testing conditions. The track has been recently relaid and while the surface is usually considered abrasive, the re-laying means that not a great deal of data is available.

Secondly, the wind conditions make evaluating any setup a difficult task. We already saw that last week at the 'Ring, when drivers complained of winds making braking difficult. With changing wind conditions, the challenge is to find a robust setup to achieve good aero efficiency.

Thirdly, the cars themselves have changed a lot since the winter testing, with most cars having atleast one upgrade, and the performance of these newer parts has never been tested.

Finally, the changing track and air temperatures mean that the grip levels also cannot be accurately estimated, and a robust setup is again crucial.

So, while all teams test here often, Friday practice is still very important (as in other races) to get the right setup and the right kind of tyres. This is considered a "Michelin" circuit, but with B-stones improving, and Michael driving a rejuvenated Ferrari, things could get interesting.

Broken engine !

We have all heard of an engine failures during the race. How about engine damage in transit ?

Jacques Villeneuve's BMW engine was apparently dropped during transit from Nurburgring to Catalunya, which means he will have to cop a 10-place penalty for the starting grid at Barcelona.

Full story

The German press agency, SID, has reported that the engine was dropped during transit from the Nurburgring and therefore a change is necessary. "It happened at Nurburgring on Sunday when the engine was prepared for transportation," team boss Mario Theisson told Autosport.

"It was probably damaged so we decided to give him a fresh one and take the penalty of ten grid positions," he added. "We thought the risk would be too high to have him race that engine here."

Teams seem to be finding newer and newer ways of having an engine replacement !

Pedals on Spa

With the Giro d' Italia (the cycling race) starting this year in Belgium, stage 4 included the legendary motorsport circuit Spa-Francorchamps. Here are some pics :

On the foothills of the Ardennes mountains..


Through the Eau Rouge..


The peloton riding through the Spa..

The Bleeding Obvious !

Aguri Suzuki has put in his entry for the stating-the-bleeding-obvious award with this statement made to f1total.com :

"The performance of our car is lower than the others and we will struggle until we have the SA06.".

It would also perhaps qualify for the hope-springs-eternal award, but Jenson Button leads that race by a mile. Perhaps the only race he could ever lead by a mile, and even win !

Chiefs and their cars

Reportedly, Super Aguri team chief Aguri Suzuki, will test the controls of the current SA05 car when its successor SA06 is ready in a couple of months. Aguri have been using a modified 4 year old Arrows car for their first few races, and work is on to complete their own car in time.

Once the new car is ready, Aguri plans to try and drive the old SA05 himself. Aguri drove in more than sixty grands prix in the 80s and 90s and even tasted a podium finish. He said that he wouldn't want to drive the current car because, if he crashed, the team could be left with a shortage of parts for the upcoming grands prix !!

Coming to think of it, since SAR team want an all Japanese lineup, Aguri himself could be the second driver for the team, now that Ide is out. After all, one cant do too badly than Yuji Ide, and surely not someone with 60 GPs worth experience !!!

Bit of trivia :
The last F1 chief to try a formula one racer was Niki Lauda, who in 2002 steered a Jaguar around the Valencia track.

$143m

That is package offered to Kimi Raikonnen by Renault to drive for them for 4 years (according to some paddock sources in Nurburgring).

Click here for the story.

Germany's 'Auto Motor Und Sport' magazine reveals this week that Kimi secretly met with Flavio Briatore at the Nurburgring.

Reportedly, the Renault principal offered Raikkonen - under contract to McLaren but possibly already with a pre-agreement Ferrari deal - an incredible $143 million for four years, or nearly $36m a year.

A Lap of Circuit De Catalunya (Montmelo)

From Pedro De La Rosa:

Accelerating downhill along the start-finish straight you hit 316km/h in sixth gear before braking hard for the right-hander of Elf. You can hit up to 2.4G under braking as your speed reduces to 137km/h in second gear.

"The second corner is an uphill left flick taken at some 187km/h in third and flat out in qualifying to get a quick time. The long, fast sweep of Renault follows, which is taken in fourth and is also taken pretty much flat.

"You come to a short straight before Repsol, reaching some 286km/h in sixth gear before braking hard for this right hander. You enter Repsol in third gear at 131km/h, carrying as much speed as possible as it allows you to brake very deep into the corner.

"A short burst of acceleration and you reach the Seat hairpin, the slowest corner of the circuit. Hard on the brakes the track drops as you swing through this tight left-hander at 97km/h in second gear. Accelerating out of Seat, the track sweeps through a gentle left curve reaching 265km/h in fifth gear before once again braking hard for the left hander of Würth, which is taken in second at 145km/h and where it is important to run over the exit curb to make a wider exit.

"A short uphill straight leads you onto Campsa, negotiated at 256km/h in fourth gear. It is important to carry a lot of speed through this corner and come out very fast, using all the exit curb again, as this will give you extra speed onto the Nissan straight.

"You arrive at 295km/h to La Caixa, which has been modified last year, with a tighter entry to the corner and short straight taking the circuit back to the previous track. It is taken in second gear and is the slowest section of the circuit. There is a small left kink before you rejoin the old track, but it is taken flat using all the inside curb.

"Banc de Sabadell, another hairpin follows. You just have to brake gently but with speed as you turn in, as the rear end always tries to snap away here. There are only two corners left which are the best and fastest of the circuit. The first one is taken flat out in qualifying, and in the race you lift slightly to negotiate it at 237km/h in fourth gear.

"You come out directly onto the last corner, New Holland, which is taken in fifth gear at 228km/h, with a small lift on entry. It is very important to come out quick of this last corner as the pit straight that follows is very long.

EA F1-2002 does not have the modification at La Caixa :( But, I have always managed to do well on this track :)

Race over for Ide

In a expected move, the FIA has withdrawn Yuji Ide's license, meaning he will not take part in any FIA sanctioned events for the rest of the year.

Click here for the story

Montagny will get his second and third chances at a Grand Prix in Barcelona this weekend and Monaco after that.

But Super Aguri team, who were the first to introduce an all-Japanese lineup into F1, are hunting for replacement for Ide. One possibility touted for the future is Sakon Yamamoto, who tested for Jordan at his home race last season and is currently racing in Japan's Formula Nippon. Ide was runner-up in that series last year. GP2 driver Hiroki Yoshimoto has also been linked to the team.

The team owner, Aguri Suzuki, said "Discussions with a number of parties continue regarding the permanent positions of second race seat and third driver ".

This looks like its race over in F1 for Yuji Ide. Though Suzuki hopes he will come back to F1, it is unlikely he will ever race again in a GP for a long long time.

One comment sums up his short stint in F1 : He made the much-missed Alex Yoong look like Michael Schumacher.

Montoya 'the second choice' for McLaren !

As if it wasnt bleeding obvious, McLaren's chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh has said the team would prefer to retain Kimi Raikonnen as Fernando Alonso's team-mate next season. The point really is if Kimi wants to continue at McLaren.

The start to McLaren's 2006 challenge has not been exactly spectacular, but neither has it been a disaster. Compared to this point last season, they have more points and better reliability. But while the MP4-20 was clearly the fastest car, MP4-21 seems to be way off the pace of Renault and Ferrari.

And this is what could convince Kimi to leave McLaren. In 4 years, they have failed to give Kimi a championship winning car. He was close in 2003, and 2005 - and clearly in both cases, it was the car's unreliability that cost him dearly. Kimi would love to drive in a car that can be both fast and reliable - cars like the Renault or Ferrari.

It is a decision thats going to be tough. He could be shown up by the maestro at Ferrari. He could have trouble adjusting to a new team after 4 years at one team. But, he could have a better chance of winning a championship.

But what about Montoya ? Where does this leave him ? Montoya himself is not too happy with McLaren treating him as "No.2 driver", even though he has managed more or less to be as fast as Kimi this season and late last season. Rumour has it that he could leave McLaren even without waiting for Kimi's decision. Where he could go is another question (and fodder for another post!), but it does explain why McLaren are desperate now to hang on to the Iceman Finn, and have given him a free hand to decide about his future.

Lots of possibilities could emerge out of this situation. Some young faces could come in, some well known faces could go out. Keep watching this space for more.

Montagny's first race...

... unfortunately ended in a retirement.

The Super Aguri reserve driver is now hoping to get another chance at Spain this weekend, and possibly even at Monaco. With the tight twisty lanes of Monaco a nightmare for the rookies, Yuji Ide is unlikely to be granted permission to race until he has more practice in a F1 car.

The choice between Ide and Montagny is a no-brainer really, but Super Aguri have a lot of sponsorship riding on the "All Japanese" driver line up, and it may be difficult for Montagny to race more than an odd race now and then this season.

The choice of Super Aguri second driver is to be made in the next couple of days after Aguri Suzuki, the team owner is through with some important meetings with the sponsors.

The Alonso turnaround

Just a week ago, Fernando Alonso was claiming that Ferrari's win at Imola was a one-off. Through the Nurburgring weekend, he was forced to gradually revise that opinion until yesterday, he finally said this :

"I think it's not a surprise that Ferrari are fighting. I expect McLaren will arrive also. Honda are really strong in some races, so nothing changes from the beginning of the championship. There are four teams, sometimes one is quicker, sometimes another one is slower, but all four teams are strong and ready to fight."

But he just spoiled it for himself with this last comment :

"Michelin has been in a dominant position in Barcelona.. I think in the next two races Michelin will be stronger than Bridgestone. "

He perhaps needs to be reminded that out of the last 5 races at Barcelona, 4 were won by Michael on Bridgestone tyres.

He may or may not win this years WDC, but he is surely on target for the Foot-in-the-mouth award.

Barcelona Tech File

From Eurosport :

Barcelona is a circuit that every F1 team knows well as they complete thousands of miles there in testing throughout the season. The mix of high-speed corners, a very long straight and an abrasive track surface, makes the Circuit de Catalunya a uniquely complete circuit.

CHASSIS

Aerodynamics: Aerodynamic efficiency is always a key factor at this circuit. Barcelona offers every type of corner in its layout, and the straights are invariably preceded by quick corners. This means the team actually runs quite high downforce levels, in spite of the long main straight, as it is important to get good exit speed from these corners. That, ultimately, is what conditions the car's speed on the main straight. That means this a race where we use a high downforce set-up.

Suspension: When we look at suspension settings, we have to find the best compromise to give the drivers a well-balanced, responsive car. This means we will use relative stiff settings at the front of the car to get a good change of direction, while the rear will be slightly softer in order to get the best possible traction out of the slow corners. Ride height is also an important parameter to consider -- generally we can run the car quite low, which allows optimum aerodynamic performance.

Tyres: The Circuit de Catalunya is well known for being a particularly tough circuit, particularly because it includes so many long, high-speed corners. These put the tyres under high loadings, and particularly the front left tyre which has to work very hard in all the quick corners. We will therefore pay particular attention to tyre degradation when making our choice, and we may alter settings such as camber angles to limit tyre wear if necessary.

ENGINE

Performance: Barcelona is not generally thought of as an engine circuit as the engine is not under particular stress at any point. There are relatively few hard accelerations from low revs, and the main priority is for the power delivery to be progressive and driveable in order to maintain the best handling balance, and limit tyre wear. 69% of the lap is spent at full throttle.

Gearbox: Given the length of the main straight at this circuit, the choice of gear ratios is quite tricky. In fact, for top gear we have to contend with possible over-revving if the wind blows down the main straight, or if the driver is in a competitor's slipstream. Similarly, a headwind can cost performance. Choosing the final drive is an important part of the work during the practice sessions.

Giles Villeneuve

There is so much to write about Giles, that its a monumental task. Someday I will get to it.
Perhaps, his own words say a lot about him:

I love driving the car right to the limit, feeling it drifting and knowing the car is right at its maximum. Hitting that limit, the absolute flat-out fastest that a car will go through a corner, is a tremendous feeling - an absolutely fantastic sensation. It doesn't matter if there's anyone watching or even if there's a stopwatch on me. By itself, it is enough.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of photographs of the greatest racer in F1.

Here is Giles doing a lap on three wheels with a broken suspension in his Ferrari at Zandvoort in 1979. He always gave his 100% even when the car was way below his potential.


Giles was a simple, uncomplicated person. Here he is with his family (Joann - his wife, and Jacques and Melanie - his kids)


Dad at work ! Jacques and Melanie with their father.

Interesting Pictures from the 'Ring

The Ferrari Team celebrating their 1-3 at Nurburgring.



You couldnt have missed this pair at the 'ring ! Jean Todt with Michelle Yeoh.



Felipe Massa with girlfriend Rafaela Bassi at the 'ring before the race.



Flavio Briatore with Miss Germany.



Cora Schumacher - the wife of Ralf Schumacher - was there too.

24 Years.

Date : May 8, 1982
Place : Zolder, Belgium

Giles Villeneuve, trying to get pole to beat his team-mate Didier Pironi and make up for the gross injustice at the previous race in Imola, was on his flying lap. He came up to the slow moving March of Jochen Mass, and in an unfortunate coincidence, Mass moved away from the racing line just as Giles prepared to overtake him. The Ferrari went flying, landing nose first. Giles was thrown into the barriers.

That was the end of one of the best drivers ever to have been in F1.

A true racer, he died doing what he loved best - always pushing to the maximum.

Cheers to the great man.

Confessions !

Confirming all suspicions that Alonso gave up the fight as soon as Michael went into the lead ( see here for an earlier post on this matter ), Alonso has admitted that he turned down the revs and settled for second.

Click here for the story on F1 Central

Alonso, said: ''Ferrari were a bit faster than us today, and while our tyre performance was okay, they certainly had more speed.''

Renault boss Flavio Briatore, too, confessed that the Ferrari-Bridgestone-Schumacher package was 'too strong' in the Eifel region.

Hamilton at McLaren ?!

This is surely one of the silliest and least credible rumours to arise :

Click here for the story on Planet-F1

Lewis Hamiton is now loeading the GP2 championship with a double victory at Nurburgring this weekend. He has been sponsored by McLaren right from his karting years, and with such inspired form, he is not too far away from a Formula One seat.

However, Ron Dennis has often said in the past that he would rather have Hamilton enter F1 through another team and make his way to the top teams. Plus, with so much moolah now floating around in McLaren, they can easily afford drivers of much better and proven calibre than a rookie.

The race for Alonso's team-mate is getting interesting by the day.. !

The Championship scene

Schumacher might have won the Euro GP in spectacular style, but the fact remains that he could only make up 2 points on Alonso. But with the tyres being so evenly matched, Alonso remains at a slight advantage.

This is because (as Martin Brundle pointed out) there are more Michelin runners likely to do better than Michael on a Michelin friendly track , than there are Bridgestone runners likely to do better than Alonso on a Bridgestone friendly track.

What that means is that when Michelin are on top, Alonso will win and he will find some of Montoya/Kimi/Button/ between himself and Michael. On the other hand, when Bridgestones are on top, Michael will win, but there is no one from the Bridgestone camp to challenge Alonso for second, and Alonso will gladly take second.

Michael and Ferrari need to hope that a) there are more Bridgestone friendly circuits and b) Massa and perhaps Kimi need to get ahead of Alonso when Michael wins.

Jubilant Ferrari Pit Crew

Ferrari pit crew did an amazing job to turn around Michael in 6.8 seconds to ensure he came out ahead of Alonso.

Nurburgring Foot-in-the-mouth Award

This award, for the European GP goes, in general terms, to the Renault F1 team for so spectacularly counting out Ferrari, and thinking Imola was a one-off.

More specifically, this award goes to Rod Nelson, who is Fernando Alonso's race engineer, for saying this :

To be totally honest, I thought their performance in Imola would be an isolated thing and I was surprised to see them so competitive in qualifying here. However, I think they have gone for quite soft tyres this weekend. They are quick on one lap, but they seem to lose performance after two or three laps. So we are feeling pretty confident.

Rod must be busy eating his words now, as must the entire Renault team including Alonso .
Renault failed to see the obvious signs in Free Practice and quite clearly, were shocked and rattled by Ferrari's consistent pace throughout the weekend.

Alonso was mentally prepared to lose ??

Alonso lost the European Grand Prix all right, but it was the manner in which he lost that is quite perplexing. Quite obviously, Michael was in a class of his own - but Alonso didnt even try and put pressure on Michael once Michael got ahead at the pitstops.

When Michael came out ahead of Alonso after the second stop, the gap was about 4 seconds. In the next 2-3 laps, it had grown to around 8 seconds. Alonso readily settled for the second place.

Even after the race, he said it was a matter of when the Ferrari would overtake him, which clearly indicated that he was not even going to try for the race win. Indeed, he found himself under pressure from Massa late in the race !

It is quite a shame that Alonso should not even try for wins, and that too so early in the season, because he is a good driver and is capable of pulling off great moves (like the one in Suzuka last year). He is already thinking of protecting his lead in the championship, with just 5 races gone. He did the same last year when Kimi had a better car and was starting to win most races - just sit back and take the second place without any risks.

Quite a shame really.

Norbert Haug -the Rumsfeld of F1!

Before the race on Sunday, Norbert Haug, competition director of Mercedes, comparing McLaren's Michelin tyres and Ferrari's Bridgestones:

We can't really say that we have a tyre disadvantage, but perhaps they have a slight advantage.

Donald Rumsfeld would have been proud of that one.

F1 Truckies

We have all heard of engineers, mechanics, press officers and even lollypop men in a F1 team (thanks to Button's pitstop at Imola!, but have you heard about F1 Truckies ?

Well, if you think thats oh-so-unattractive, think again. For the chief truckie of a F1 team earns about 30,000 pounds as salary, and the other truckies in late 20,000 pounds.

Why do they get paid so much ? Martin Popple, the chief truckie of the former BAR team answers :

I joined BAR from Arrows and I've been with them since the team started so I've helped to build everything up. I designed the layout of the trucks and supervised the build, and I also helped with organising all the pit and garage equipment and flyaway kit - including our new paletiser system; we are the first team to do that. Now it's all up and running my job is to keep everything operating smoothly; to make sure the equipment is always in good order, ensure everything is on the trucks before we leave for the race and make sure we get to and from the circuit on time. There are 6 truckies who travel to races with BAR and in addition to making sure the trucks are operational and functional all the time, we all have specific jobs during the race weekend. Two guys look after the tyres, two guys look after fuel, one does the air hoses and I'm floating between all of them keeping an eye on things.

Hmmm.. that was an interesting glimpse into the working of an F1 team.

By the way, if this job description sounds interesting to you, go get an HGV1 license and apply to some teams !!

Alonso running light ??

Alonso managed to get pole at the Nurburgring today, just about getting ahead of Michael Schumacher by a mere 0.2 seconds.

However, it is likely that Alonso was running light on fuel to get that pole. If we look at how far down the grid the other Renault is, and even allowing for the fact that Fisi was held up by Villenueve, it is quite apparent that the Ferraris are more than a match for the Renault this weekend. Especially if you consider that both Ferraris were consistently quick throughout the weekend and finished 2-3 in the Qualifying.

Important in this context, are Alonso's comments to 'Gazzetta dello Sport' today morning :
"The risk of incidents in the first corner are reduced if you start right at the front," he said. "So far our strategies have worked well, but stupid things can happen". He said he wanted a fuel strategy geared to give him the quickest car after an hour of qualifying.

Also, F1 Racing has just carried an article which quotes Ross Brawn also predicting that Alonso is running light.

"I will be surprised tomorrow if they have more fuel on board than us based on all the times we've analysed since first practice," Brawn said after qualifying. "I think in the last few races they've carried too much fuel in qualifying and they've obviously changed their approach here."

However, Ferrari are renowned for their mindgames, and this could just be one of them. But it is quite clear that Ferrari have proved to be genuine challengers this weekend.

Alonso's Friday Dinner - The Humble Pie

Alonso looks like he is going to have the humble pie for dinner tonite.
Before the Euro GP race weekend, Alonso practically ruled out Ferrari as a contender for this race. He also reckoned that Imola was a flash in the pan for Ferrari.
Here , he says "I expect more competition from McLaren than Ferrari this weekend".

Now, after Friday practice sessions, which saw Michael finish ahead of all the racing drivers (testing drivers are in a separate class on Fridays!) in Free Practice 1, and finish just 0.04s behind Alonso in Practice 2. See here for the timings of all drivers.

It does seem that Ferrari are able to sustain their form. Alonso had this to say after the Friday practice (click here for the complete story) : "The pace looks quite good but the times are very close, and we need to do more running to get a clearer picture of who our rivals will be."

Alonso clearly looks rattled !! This is going to get more and more interesting, but this circuit is traditionally a Michelin circuit, so Renault should be able to win here. The important thing really is if Michael and Ferrari can keep up with the pace and challenge them here.
This race could set the tone for the championship.

Kimi Raikonnen and the Nurburgring

Just a couple of points to ponder for Kimi fans before he starts off this weekend at the Nurburgring :

2003 Euro GP : Kimi was leading the GP when an engine failure meant the end of his race. Michael Schumacher, despite a spin after collision with Montoya, went on to finish 4th. Kimi lost the championship by 1 point.

2004 Euro GP : Kimi was running second until the first round of pitstops, and in an almost Trulli-like manner, had held up an entire train of challengers. His V10, expectedly failed, and once again, Raikonnen left the 'ring with nothing.

2005 Euro GP : Kimi, leading the GP was on his last lap. Engine failure again you ask ? Naah. The suspension gave way this time, and what could have been 20 point lead for Alonso became an eventually unmanageable 32 point lead. Kimi effectively lost the championship here.

2006 Euro GP : ????

This is going to be a really crucial race for the McLaren team in terms of their hopes for the championships.

The Town of Adenau

The town of Adenau falls in the path of the Nordschleife race track. Here is a picture of it. The track is in the foreground - notice the greenery and the hills surrounding the track.

I tried to get a screenshot of the onboard footage from the 956, but it was not too clear. So, this will have to do until I get to the more detailed post about Nordschleife.

Truly awesome track.

History (Nurburgring)

No, this is not a history lesson.

This weekend is the Euro GP at Nuerburgring. This post is not about Nurburgring though. Its about the Nordschleife. A 22 km race track which was deemed too dangerous for modern F1 cars.

I happened to see a video of Derek Bell doing a lap of that track in a Porsche 956, and you have to trust me - its an awesome circuit. And just as well that modern F1 cars dont race on it, for they simply wouldnt survive the steep rises, the bumps and the sheer damage to the suspension that could occur. You only have to go about an year back to see what suspension damage a flatspotted tyre can do to a F1 car of today.

Not only is the Nordschleife considered a difficult track, what makes it legendary is the place itself. Surrounded by hills and forests, with a great view of the Nurburg castle, this track could only possibly be rivalled by the equally legendary Spa-Francorchamps.

I am going to write a more detailed post on the Nordschleife and Nurburgring and the now-extinct Sudschleife sometime soon. The history lesson will have to wait.

Flexy Ferrari !

This post should have come a few days ago, but got lost in a power cut. So here goes again.

At the start of the season, Ferrari F248 was rumoured to have an "aerodynamic advantage" over the grid. Nobody of course knew what it was, and no one would know until the start of the season.
In Bahrain, Ferrari got pole and Michael finished in 2nd place. The Ferrari seemed to be able to carry a lot more speed going into the corners. Honda complained that the front wings were "flexing" in motion, which was illegal.

So, in Sepang all cameras were trained on the front wing of F248, and sure enough, the wings seemed to flex while braking into corners, ostensibly allowing the car to take more speed. Ferrari agreed to modify the wings for Oz GP, where they had a largely anonymous race.

Now, move to Imola. Ferrari on pole. Michael wins. Honda complain. Again.

This time though, Ferrari have challenged Honda to complain to FIA about their wings. Honda boss Nick Fry says he has video evidence of the "flexy" wings of Ferrari, and Ferrari have retorted by saying they too have video evidence of cars which could be deemed illegal.

Honda really should quit whining. If there are any car videotapes they should be watching, it is of their own cars. They should realise that they are better off improving their car rather than complain about others.

And to be honest, the flexible wings looked really cool and it was an innovative design by the Ferrari team to improve the aerodynamic performance. Quite unlike the pathetic and woeful attempt by Honda to conceal, of all things , a fuel tank (Imola '05) !!!

A Lap of the 'ring

From Planet-F1 :

McLaren test driver Gary Paffett describes what it's like to put in a lap at the Nurburgring in a F1 car...

"Powering along the start-finish straight at the Nürburgring you reach 300km/h in sixth gear, before braking hard for the entrance to the Mercedes Arena, which is a tight right hand hairpin that sees you drop into first gear.

This is immediately followed by a long 180-degree left hander and a 90-degree right hander, which swings you back round onto the straight. Powering up through the gears on the approach to the fast left of Valvoline Kurve, you brake from speeds of 275km/h in sixth gear to 196km/h in fourth gear to negotiate the sweeping bend.

A short burst on the throttle takes you to the second gear Ford Kurve, this bumpy right hander is taken at 112km/h. On the exit you accelerate downhill up to 297km/h in sixth gear as you approach the hairpin, which is taken at 94km/h in second. It is crucial to take a good line through the hairpin so that you can push hard and early on the throttle on the exit.

Up the hill towards the Michelin Kurve you reach speeds of 258km/h, lifting slightly for the left-right flick of the chicane, before braking hard for Michelin, dropping down to 148km/h in third for the 90-degree left-hander.

A similar right-hander, which is one of the most crucial corners on the circuit, follows and takes you onto the back straight. Taken flat-out, the fast, sweeping straight, with a slight right kink, sees you reach 310km/h in sixth gear as you approach the Veedol-S chicane, the main overtaking opportunity at the circuit. This is another tough braking point as you drop from the highest speed at the Nürburgring to 107km/h in second to negotiate the chicane where you have to drive aggressively over the curbs in order to carry the speed through the corner.

Accelerating out, a short burst on the throttle sees you reach 254km/h in fourth before dabbing the brakes for the final corner. Taken at 113km/h and using the whole curb as you exit, the right-hander flicks you back onto the start-finish straight to begin another lap."

Having played on this track often in the EA Sports' F1-2002 game, I absolutely agree with Gary that you need to take the curbs of Veedol-S chicane aggressively for a good lap time - countless have been the times when I have got a drive-through penalty for being a little too smart in that chicane !!!

Ide Axed !

Super Aguri reserve driver Franck Montagny will replace Yuji Ide in the second race car for the Euro GP this weekend. Apparently, the FIA recommended that Ide get some more miles in a F1 car during testing rather than risk other drivers safety.

Click here for the story

More than Ide going out, I am looking forward to seeing Montagny race. A former Renault test driver (during 2003 and 2004), he was also the third driver for Jordan last year. It is high time he got to drive a race car in a GP, for he is one of the more deserving drivers out there - definitely more deserving than the man he is replacing.

It will be interesting to see how he does in comparison to Sato, even if it is in a Super Aguri. It is really 'phenomenal' for this guy from Fuers in France to finally race in GP !! Here is hoping he has a great first race !