Tag: Formula One 2011

So I was watching a digest of the America’s Cup Preliminary series and if you think you can’t have crashes on water you’ve never seen catamarans dump after being rammed from behind.

Flaming chunks of twisted metal.

The problem with unlimited formula racing of some duration is that at a certain point dominant teams tend to… well, dominate and chances for an upset are vanishingly small.  The press part of the Sporting Press is overwhelmed by stories of how Vettel can clinch in Singapore this weekend, but the truth is it’s highly unlikely since even with a victory a top 3 finish by Alonso (who’s had good results at the track) will push the day of reckoning off until Suzuka.

Still you have to have something to write about and the other story line is silly season driver seat speculation with an emphasis on the backlog depth at Renault and Red Bull.  Those of you rooting for Kubica’s return are likely to be disappointed since his rehabilitation is incomplete.

Singapore is a street course run at night entirely under the lights.  It is hot, humid, and long with practically no straight sections to the point that they had some problem finding a suitable place to engage the DRS and you hear disparaging comparisons to Monaco.  It’s also known for parking cars with 5 Safeties in just 3 years.

Exacerbating that problem this year is that they’re having some difficulty keeping the racing curbs down.  These are slightly raised sections designed to keep the cars on the racing line and out of the barriers.  For drivers they’re like rumble strips and they regularly run their wheels over them which is a problem when the sharp, pointy anchor bolts work loose and they start working like tire shredders.

They took 30 minutes off the initial Practice for emergency repairs and were going to be doing some more work before qualifying so this will hopefully be a non-issue except for the time lost refining racing setups.

The tires for this race will be the Softs and Super Softs.  The Super Softs are from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds faster per lap and lose 6 seconds on full fuel.  Both McLarens had some trouble in practice with Button parking 50 minutes early and Hamilton damaging his under car diffuser on the curbing.

Surprises (if any) below.

Well, this is not likely to be exciting unless it rains, but at GP2 time it is merely hot and muggy.  This is the last of the 9 European races and after this they get really early or sleep in late.

The New York Times is asking the big questions which is another sign that the racing is almost over with Red Bull dominating for the second year in a row.  Scuderia Marlboro is talking about future directions and has given up on this year’s because Maranello is unable to master aerodynamics.

The last 7 races (including this one) are shaping up to be a contest of ‘the also rans’ and the field has stratified into 4 distinct groups with some fighting on the fringes-

• Contenders– Red Bull, McLaren, Scuderia Marlboro
• Wanna Bes– Mercedes, Renault
• Bums– Sauber, Force India, Toro Rosso
• Field Fillers– Williams and the n00bs, Lotus, HRT, Virgin

Lotus is demanding better results next year.  I suppose we shall see.

• F1: Autodromo Nazionale Monza Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

Speed coverage starts at 7:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

So what’s been happening these last two weeks?  I mean other than the commentators creaming their jeans over the new Senna and sucking up to Red Bull and Scuderia Marlboro and bad mouthing Hamilton and McLaren?

Not much, so this will be a short one.

Button is not moving to Marlboro Country.  Who wants a slower ride anyway?

India on October 30th may be canceled due to a tax dispute.  Seems India wants to collect taxes on 1/19th of team and driver yearly incomes.

Scuderia Marlboro is struggling in desperation, hyping the prospects of a 12 year old (A Twelve Year Old!) as a future driver, unable to master aerodynamics and whining for simpler and cheaper rules.

The rules committee will be enforcing a camber (tire slant) limit from Pirelli, but the Softs are still expected to wear quite quickly especially under full (heavy) fuel.

Why?  The Autodromo Nazionale is very straight and very fast which means that when you do have to slow down for corners you put a lot of stress on your brakes and tires.  The speed of the course also stresses engines (we had a Cosworth blow up in practice).  Teams will be running their lowest drag configurations and there are two, two, two Drag Reduction System zones.

This is supposed to make the teams more evenly matched.  I’ll believe it when I see it.

Surprises, not that I expect any, below.

As usual, you got the good stuff yesterday.  Today I’ll just ramble.

Overall Qualifying was more entertaining than it usually is.  Conditions were wet with rain in fits and a drying line at the end when they brought out the Softs.  If it rains again today many teams will be in trouble since you only get 3 sets of Inters for the weekend and you had to use them all during Practice and most of Qualifying.

Schumacher lost his wheel nut, no deeper explanation given yet.  Button walked back his rather harsh criticism of McLaren, he felt he had been called in too early but later said he lost track of the lap count and didn’t give it all he might have.  Senna did much better than expected despite a faulty KERS which is a big problem for Heidfeld, but also for Romain Grosjean who clinched his GP 2 title yesterday.  Hamilton’s contact with Maldonado after the end of Qualifying was resolved in favor of Hamilton with Maldonado suffering a 5 position penalty and Hamilton a mere reprimand.  All 4 drivers who failed the 107% rule were given passes to race.  So much for that rule.

As an aside, has anyone besides me noticed that there is much more media attention now that the season is almost finished?  Yesterday’s Evening Edition coverage came from all 3 wire services- AFP (11), Reuters (28), and AP (44).

What will we see today?  Well it kind of depends on the weather.  If Irene knocks out my power, internet, or cable I won’t see much, you’ll have to make your own fun.  It has rained all weekend at Spa and if it’s not dry enough for Softs I don’t know what the stewards will do (my Dad says they’d be idiots not to issue another set of Inters and Wets).  I note that as I write this during the start of the GP 2 preliminary you can see shadows, but there are clouds in the sky.

Other than that there are some fast guys at the back of the grid so there will be some off lead racing as people move up.  There have been no substantial changes to the cars except Renault who has been falling farther and farther behind Mercedes in the second tier group.

Scuderia Marlboro UPC has taken it’s engineering group off this year’s car and put it on next year’s machine.  ‘We must get off to a fast start!’ says Maranello.  They said that last year and the year before too.  The truth is that only 2 teams are strong enough to continue development for this year AND develop for next- McLaren and Red Bull (which is strong enough to support 2 teams).

The Driver’s Championship is all but decided.  Heidfeld’s mathematical chances were that he had to finish first and Vettel DNF for all the remaining races and everyone else is in pretty much the same boat.  The Constructor’s Championship would be closer if McLaren made better decisions and could ever finish 2 cars in the same race.

This is race 12 of 19, not halfway, and who knows, lightning could stri

• F1: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

Enjoy the rest of the season.  Speed coverage starts at 7:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

Well, during the break nothing much happens by mutual agreement and I found the practice session to be inconclusive since most of it was held in the rain and the last 20 minutes everyone sat in the garage, so I was poking around in Google when I came across the Gribkowsky Affair.

Who is Gerhard Gribkowsky you say?  He’s a German banker who’s been charged recently with corruption, tax evasion, and breach of trust (you’ll be pleased to know he’s actually in custody).  While this is only part of the case against him, in 2005 he helped organize the $1.7 Billion sale of the 100 year Formula One lease to the current holders CVC (headed by Bernie Ecclestone) and accepted $44 Million in payments from Bernie.

One of the former minority shareholders was a media group named Kirsh which put it’s shares up as collateral for a loan with the agreement that they would participate in the profits from any sale.  Constantine Medien, part of the Kirsh group, filed suit last month against Ecclestone, his lawyers, his family trust, and Gribkowsky contending that the $44 Million payment was in fact a bribe to reduce the price of the sale ensuring there were no profits to be shared.

It’s kind of like forcing a foreclosure instead of a principal reduction or a short sale.

German prosecutors are now investigating the deal and there’s definitely a very slim possibility Bernie might go to jail and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

In other suits Nick Heidfeld, the points leader of the Renault team, has been unceremoniously dumped in favor of Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton.  Heidfeld contends this was partly to grab the $3 Million bribe sponsorship Bruno brings.  Renault denies this of course and in turn accuses Heidfeld of being slow (did I mention he was points leader of the team?) and lacking leadership.

Last night’s Evening Edition noted this dispute in stories 10, 11, and 33 (other Formula One news in stories 9, 32, and 43).  It’s doubly difficult for Heidfeld because Renault is one of the few teams debuting substantial changes to it’s cars AND missing the race mathematically eliminates him from the Driver’s Championship (not that he had much chance anyway).

Mark Webber had a birthday and got a 1 year extension on his Red Bull contract.  Michael Schumacher is celebrating his 20th anniversary in Formula One.  Red Bull was quickest in the second practice session.  Teams are not allowed to use Down Force Reduction in Eau Rouge because of safety concerns.

The two teams claiming the Lotus name appear to be approaching a settlement of that dispute.  Robert Kubica who was badly injured racing Rally Cars has one more reconstructive surgery to go and is expected back in a simulator before the end of the season.  Heidfeld was Kubica’s replacement after the accident.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is one of the longest (4.4 miles) and fastest.  In dry weather it’s said that you can drive 85% of it flat out.  Of course it’s also one of those tracks where you will get tired of hearing it’s always raining or threatening to rain.

Speed coverage begins at 8 am.  Surprising developments below.

I told you most of what’s worth knowing yesterday.  Since then there’s been a lot of pushback from British Formula One fans on the BSkyB deal but Bernie seems to be exploiting a loophole in the Team agreement that says that as long as some of the the races available on free TV the teams can’t block it.  On the other hand there is no real team agreement, just a temporary letter of extension that expires at the end of the season and the sponsors, who are in this for the advertising are pissed, and they have deep pockets.  Bernie is tring to buy them off with a $1.7 million cut each from the $680 million deal.  Like the New York Times paywall, Bernie’s last experiment in Pay TV in the 90s had to be dropped because it was just flat out unprofitable.  He couldn’t deliver the audience.

Teams are also asking for a rethink of the 2012 Schedule because it has 7 races in 10 weeks.

You’re going to get sick of the phrase “Monaco without the houses“, but there’s no denying the 2.73 mile track is twisty with lots of elevation change and no long straights.  This is thought to disfavor the Red Bulls which won’t be able to show their speed.  Teams will be running their big high down force wings that we haven’t seen since the Principality (though they’ve been re-engineered) and McLaren is thought not to have as effective a Drag Reduction System as some.  Red Bull is having difficulties of their own charging their KERS electric boost system which sucks so much energy out of the cars that it’s effecting brake balance and causing slips and spins.

It’s also usually very hot which will stress engines, brakes, and tires, tires, tires.  You’ll hear a lot about tires since they were decisive at Nurburgring with McLaren doing exceptionally well on stop times and Hamilton extracting unexpected performance out of the harder compound to thwart 2 passing attempts by Red Bull and Ferrari.  Given the speeds (actually slower than Monaco) there is a one pit strategy possible despite the Super Soft compound.  Still, the alternate Softs are not much different in performance and while Buemi and STR may fancy themselves clever by saving all 3 sets of the Supers in Qualifying given their 5 position penalty (for which they got a bad rap in my opinion, I think the replays show Heidfeld is just as responsible) there might not be enough race to use them all up before they are forced to switch to the just plain Softs.

The Silverstone and Nurburgring results didn’t change the standings as much as the announcers would have you believe.  The Driver’s Championship is a 3 way tie for second between Hamilton, Webber, and Alonso.  In the Team competition once again McLaren failed to finish both of its cars.

Your half hour of hype starts at 7:30 am on Speed.  Rebroadcast 4:30 this afternoon.  I want to once again encourage you to read this great piece on the 1936 race.  My last year’s coverage is here and here.

• F1: Hungaroring Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

This is the 11th race of 19 and the last before the summer break.  We will resume August 27th in Spa.

Pretty tables below.

I’ve kind of been noticing the odd connections between the Murdoch phone hacking scandal and Formula One.  This week’s coincidence is the BSkyB pay TV network in Britain that the Murdochs were looking to acquire before the scandal broke and which they still own 39% of has inked a deal for the 2012 broadcast rights, taking them away from the BBC and leaving only half the races available on “free” television.

The New York Times kind of miscounts the number of Formula One Grand Prix held in Hungary, forgetting the 75th Anniversary of the very first one in 1936 (you should really click that link, it’s a fascinating read).

Jenson Button is celebrating his 200th start in F1.  He thinks his biggest mistake was the 2nd contract he signed with Williams that he had to buy his way out of for $17 million in 2007 to move to Honda (later Brawn).  The English language press is celebrating a McLaren resurgence conveniently forgetting that one race does not make a season and that last week Button had his second consecutive DNF.

The week’s big off track news was the announcement of the tentative 2012 schedule.  Turkey gets dropped.  USA gets added and shifted to the next to last race to avoid the Texas summer heat.  The desert races in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain get shifted to the end of the calendar too while the season starts with Australia and Malaysia.  They’re trying to group the races by region to cut down on travel expenses and schedule them closer together with more consecutive off time including a 5 week summer break.

The Hungaroring is frequently described as Monaco without the houses.  It’s a slow twisty track where they’ll be using lots of down force and the softest tires they can get.  This is said to be good for McLaren which is having trouble with its Drag Reduction System.  Charging the Kinetic Energy Recovery System is putting a lot of drag on most teams during turning and is causing the rear ends to hop around.  It’s traditionally a very hot track too and there could be engine failures.  Webber took the front end off his Red Bull during practice and they’re still usining the mystery wires which were clearly visible.  Buemi is going to be penalized 5 grid positions for an incident last week at the Nurburgring.

This is the 11th race of 19 and the last before Spa at the end of August as the teams take their summer break.  As usual surprises below.

• Wiki Nurburgring
• Nurburgring for Dummies

After Nikki Lauda died in 1976 they pretty much bulldozed the Südschleife and built a new 2.8 mile track that was used today.  Any ordinary person who happens to find themselves in the area can purchase a ticket and drive the Northern Ring which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.

As of yesterday they were predicting rain, rain, and more rain although the 6 am ET GP2 race took place in the dry (though it was threatening).

I’ve heard no more interesting rumors about phone hacking even though the irony of having this covered on Fox is appealing.  This is the last race that will be tape delayed this season which has drawn a surprisingly strong reaction from my readers.

Of course what’s surprising to me is that I have any readers at all.

I plead both distraction and fatigue for the brevity of my introduction and I’m afraid I can’t promise any better for next week’s Hungaroring when with any luck at all I’ll have a chance to visit my doggie friend and his owner too.

While there might be pretty tables below all that they’ll show is continued Red Bull dominance with Scuderia Marlboro UPC improvement and Renault decline relative to Mercedes.  Everyone else is an also ran even though the season is but half complete.

However wet has the potential to mix things up and Hamilton for one has opined he wouldn’t mind if they ran every race in the damp from now on.

Pretty tables will wait.  I think commentary is more important.

• F1: Nurburgring Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site

No use complaining, but sometimes the sport reporting gig gets tough.  I’ll just summon up my inner Armstrong and Barrichello and keep racing.  Since I’ve started off meta I’ll continue with this link-

• Speed Racecast

Tomorrow’s broadcast will be tape delayed on Fox at noon and I won’t be able to do those fancy lap position things because I get them from the Speed Racecast which since it’s live will be good only for spoilers.  Fortunately all the rest of the coverage will be exclusively live on Speed (thank you sir may I have another?) starting with the Hungaroring next week (what did I say about rest?).

Can you get more meta than that?

Oh my yes.  You remember Silverstone don’t you?

Things are not happy in the Formula One Teams Association, there’s also the fact the Concorde Agreement has expired and is extended only through a letter, not a contract, through 2012 following a heated dispute that led many teams to threaten to go CART.  While nominally guided by Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren and Ross Brawn of Mercedes the FOTA is widely viewed as a tool of Bernie Ecclestone who has a distinct conflict of interest and a hazy history of influence on the FIA itself with his cozy relationship to Max Mosley the fifth columnist Nazi’s son who got the boot for his sexcapades.

Interestingly enough this was the scoop of the recently deceased and unlamented News of the World who published sick Nazi Sex Orgy by Neville Thurlbeck so who knows what to think?

Well, Neville’s in trouble again-

Rupertgate Friday – “For Neville”

By Gordonskene, Crooks&Liars

July 22, 2011 03:58 PM

As was reported yesterday, there are now growing questions over the honesty of the testimony given by James Murdoch during the Inquiry hearings on Tuesday. One centers around Neville Thurlbeck, who was a registered unpaid Police informant and has been a key suspect in the phone hacking scandal and an e-mail and attached file that carefully listed transcribed hacked messages.

Murdoch denies any knowledge of the e-mail, however former NoTW editor Colin Myler and former head of legal affairs for News Of The World Tom Crone claim the younger Murdoch had full knowledge of the “For Neville” e-mail and file and has been lying to the Commission. If this winds up being true, and Murdoch is found to be lying, it tosses an enormous question mark over the entire testimony on Tuesday and puts James Murdoch in the position of being arrested and held for further questioning.

Oh, you want racing news.

Regarding the Scuderia Marlboro UPC hissy fit

Engine Mapping (changing the engine management software) between Qualifying and Race is out.  Off Throttle Blown Diffusers are in.

Renault has never found another taker for their forward blown diffuser project and is running an experimental setup developed during the confusion on one of it’s cars.  Both McLaren’s are running on new configurations, no doubt in part to a strategic decision by management to prepare for 2012.  In fact their problems are in the Pits and always have been.  Lost wheelnut!  Throttling back because you bet on wet in your fuel setup!?  Maranello seems to have finally figured it out to an extent and is betting on a late season charge for 2nd because Red Bull continues to dominate.

Mercedes seems to have a car at last while Renault is floundering so there’s kind of a race for 4th and 5th and then there are the remaining teams who will never ever be competitive unless they’re permitted and can afford to track test more.  I refuse to believe sponsor money is the problem.

• Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland

As usual, surprising developments below.

Scuderia Marlboro UPC has a hissy fit

You know it’s nothing unusual for the boys from Maranello to fail to engineer a competitive car and use their influence with the FIA to change the rules in their favor, but their days of influence may be over.  There’s no doubt at this point that they’re behind the mid season Off Throttle Blown Diffuser rule change and they’re looking pretty sad and pathetic when only Sauber (who uses their engines) supports them.

Things are not happy in the Formula One Teams Association, there’s also the fact the Concorde Agreement has expired and is extended only through a letter, not a contract, through 2012 following a heated dispute that led many teams to threaten to go CART.  While nominally guided by Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren and Ross Brawn of Mercedes the FOTA is widely viewed as a tool of Bernie Ecclestone who has a distinct conflict of interest and a hazy history of influence on the FIA itself with his cozy relationship to Max Mosley the fifth columnist Nazi’s son who got the boot for his sexcapades.

Interestingly enough this was the scoop of the recently deceased and unlamented News of the World who published sick Nazi Sex Orgy by Neville Thurlbeck so who knows what to think?

It’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small world.

Sometimes it helps if you sing.

There will be another meeting before Nürburgring (did I mention I like irony?) which probably won’t help much since the FIA is insisting on unanimous consent.

Oh, car racing.  Haven’t the foggiest.  No spoilers you know.

• F1: Silverstone Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

Eventually I’ll have pretty tables, stay tuned.