Race red flagged in Sepang

Jenson Button sealed his 2nd victory with Brawn GP in Sepang amidst utter chaos and drama, when the race had to be stopped due to torrential rain after 32 laps. The race never started again and ‘finishers’ got half points according to FIA rules. Heidfeld, Glock, Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg were declared as the points scorers.  Trulli, Webber and Rosberg received their tallies in fractions. And considering the fiercely aggressive competitiveness shown by teams this season, these half points may well decide the champion this year.

This is not a new affair in Formula-1. Here is a list of races that were red flagged. Out of these races, half points were offered at 4 races.

1. Spanish GP, 1975
2. Austrian GP, 1975
3. Monaco GP, 1984
4. Australian GP, 1991

The most significant 1 was Monaco GP, 1984 which changed the whole picture of the season. Mclaren star Alain Prost was declared the winner but got 4.5 points. Interestingly, he lost the season to his teammate  Niki Lauda by only half point!

Back to Malaysia. Before the rain, we witnessed some excellent racing action. Rosberg jumped to the pole from 4th position because of slow start by Button. Alonso found a weirdly empty passage on the grid and he was 5th from his original 9th position by turn 1. Kimi also showed some nerve by making some bold overtaking moves, but subsequently managed to settle down on 6th, gaining only 1 spot. For the first time this season, Brwan cars were struggling for pace. In the middle, Alonso was defending a convoy of Kimi, Glock and Webber for almost 8 laps, before conceading. As nobody was losing time, they were moving like a train as if an imaginary string was attached to them.

Then came the deciding moment; the pit stops. The rain delayed a bit from the initial prediction. As the first batch of cars tooks their first stops, nobody bothered to switch to intermediates. A few laps later, Ferrari brought in their lead driver for the race, Kimi and in a shocking move, put him on not even intermediates but directly on wet weather tyres. All the other drivers being on slicks, Kimi was losing 20s a lap to the race leaders. Ferrari desperately needed rain (I was picturing Stefano Domenicali and Michael Schumacher doing a rain dance in the pits!) Ultimately when the rain finally hit the track and everybody had taken their 2nd stop for tyre change, the classification showed Kimi with only 1 stop but on 16th spot! As always, a bold move by Ferrari ended up in disaster. In this chaos though, Massa surprisingly entered point scoring zone but again caved and ended up 9th.

Brawn GP were criticized for their slow and lazy pit stops in Australia. But here in Sepang, they showed perfection both in strategy and implementation which put Button back on the lead. The rain persisted long enough to summon safety car and finally when the drivers started feeling like swimming with a blindfold in their cars, the race was stopped. The long wait eventually ended with a completely different classification from what we expected.

2009 Formula 1 season Hamilton vs FIA update: FIA 1- Hamilton 0

In addition to the F1 season, I am now following yet another sport which turns out to be highly entertaining. The clash between Hamilton vs FIA is getting yummier. Last season, Hamilton won this game on sudden death by winning the title, which made all the initial troubles irrelevant. Its only been a week this season, and Hamilton already took his 1st blow from FIA. Although this time, it was altogether caused by his constructor.

We got a dramatic start to the season with 1st FIA hearing in 1st week. FIA, which has been trying to confuse itself with self made laws, ruled in favor of Toyota driver Trulli and excluded Hamilton along with its constructor. Surprisingly, this turns out to be a logical and fair judgement! (How often do you see that with FIA!) The stewards took into consideration the tape of team radio instructions to the Mclaren driver and ruled that Mclaren tried to  mislead them. How dumb are these stewards to get disoriented so easily? It takes them 2 hearings to reach such a simple  judgement. Apparently they did not have access to  the team radio tape during the 1st hearing. How convenient! I have started to imagine FIA office like administrative section of my college now. Nobody is accountable and nobody cares about the person on the other end.

Brawn GP creates a history at Melbourne

Ross Brawn is arguably the happiest man on the earth right now and he should be. He managed to put both of his drivers on top in first ever race under his own title, Brawn GP. Button and Barichello were ecstatic as they walked to the podium and the crowd in Melbourne was loving it. Another person who will be as happy as team Brawn is Bernie Eccleston. He got what he wanted; F1 is alive again with a new spirit. (It would be impetuous to claim that the whole season would be as exciting as this race, being that this race was in Melbourne. But the quality of overtaking maneuvers and overall competitiveness was excellent)

The turning point of the race was a crash between Kubica and Vettel. Fighting for 2nd place, Vettel was defending his position with all his might when an idiotic overtaking maneuver by Kubica on a turn kicked them both out of the race. The safety car was summoned and Vettel tried to limp behind it for a couple of laps on 3 wheels, but eventually gave up. This changed the whole picture. Barichello, who suffered an initial blow due to a poor start, jumped right on top with Button and Trulli came 3rd. Hamilton was at right place at right time and manged to score valuable championship points due to his ability to keep cool when others were on a rampage; unlike reckless Ferrari drivers. Both Kimi and Massa had an excellent start thanks to KERS but lost the positions due to poor tyre and fuelling strategies by Ferrari. In addition to that, the amazing skill of both the drivers to go off track without anyone’s ‘Help’ made sure that the team was well out of scoring zone. Just like last year, Ferrari got a start they didn’t want. Newbie Buemi also took advantage of last minute confusion to grab a few extras, along with Alonso.

P.S- Thanks to adamant BCQC Abhimanyu organizers, I had to miss the live telecast of the race. So I planned a media blackout, just like in How I Met Your Mother (The SuperBowl Sunday episode). And it was successful!

Australian GP Qualifying: How did this happen?

I am tempted to compare Brawn GP with a phoenix bird, very much rising through the ashes. A team which didn’t even exist a month ago managed to put both of the drivers on the front row of the grid for the start of the season at Australian GP, 2009. The relentless efforts put by team chief Ross Brawn seemed to have worked perfectly fine. Jenson Button grabbed the pole position followed by team mate Rubens Barichello (And the team managed to get sponsorship from Virgin group) Vettel manged to go 3rd fastest in Q3 to prove that he is worth the trust put on him by Red Bull management.

The biggest disappointment of the day would have to be Alonso and Hamilton, former and reigning world champion. Hamilton barely made it into top 15 but never came on track for Q2. He will start the race from that poition. Alonso failed to make it to the top 10 after all the speculation. He is 12th on the grid. It was a mixed day for BMW. While Kubica will start the race from 4th position on the grid, his teammate Nick Heidfeld managed only 11th spot. Interestingly, Heidfeld was using the new KERS while Kubica was not. Apparently, Kubica’s weight was a problem while accommodating KERS. But it meant better weight balance and that seemed to have worked.Next surprise was Nico Rosberg. He is 5th but he could well end up on the podium tomorrow.

The qualifying started under speculations over the performance of the tricky new rear diffuser designs used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota. Their design is able to generate more downforce leading to better car control and cornering speeds. Though FIA has cleared those designs for this weekend, they are still under the scanner and decision to an appeal made by few other teams is under consideration. Whatever the outcome is, it seemed to have worked well for the teams as except for Nakajima, rest 5 finished in top 10.

Ferrari had a rough day. Both the drivers managed to squeeze as much as possible out of a dull F60. Massa will start 7th and Kimi 9th. The car was not tuned properly. At a particular moment in Q3, Massa actually felt that a tyre was punctured! Looks like they will have to witness the others ‘Blitz’ past them tomorrow. Mclaren have already decided to let this race go without even thinking about the points. Force India, well, lets just say this shouldn’t be how a team has to start a season.

One thing is for sure; new rules have rejuvenated the sport like never before. All the teams look extremely competitive and there is hardly anything to seperate between the top 5. This will definitely make the season more interesting.

2009 Formula 1 season Preview

Minor changes in rules each year are common in Formula-1. But this year though, the magnitude of the change is quite large. FIA had a challenge of maintaining a delicate balance between cutting cost and increasing the competitive nature of the sport. They faced an immediate challenge of garrisoning 20 cars on the starting grid. The dilemma posed by exit of Team Honda was later resolved with Team Brawn GP under the same chief Ross Brawn. The chief maintained the same loyal driving crew (damn, no Sato!) Inspite of very very late start, Brawn GP has shown astounding pace on the track at testing in Jerez. This came as a huge surprise for Ferrari and BMW, the previous time chart leaders and were forced into recalculating the strategies.

Ferrari looks well preped with its new F60. In the earlier stage of testing, they faced few problems with cooling of KERS but looks like they are all set to use it in Melbourne. Both the drivers are happy about the progress. It is being said that though KERS will provide a huge boost in power  (85 hp for 6.6 sec), it has put forward a major problem of balancing the weight of vehicle which is a very delicate matter.

I believe that the real match for Ferrari’s pace this season is going to be BMW. They had an excellent run last season. Mid-season, they declared that their target for 2008 season was achived and that they will concentrate on development for season 2009. They started working on KERS way earlier than any other team and it worked. BMW is the only team that is confident about its KERS.

Mclaren is struggling. They are struggling at a very bad time of the season and the worst part is that its not the KERS, but the aerodynamics. The lack of pace is causing troubles for the new chief Martin Whitmarsh. They are working hard for Melbourne and I hope they catch up soon. The season needs to be competitive. Another potential front runner is Renault. Though R29 is slower than most of the cars, its Alonso’s skill that has been putting its name on top. So, for a more solid result, they need a better engineered car. Toyota and Williams desperately need more podium finishes this season with the caliber of their lead drivers, Trulli and Rosberg.

Toro Rosso and Red Bull are all set to rule the middle order. And now the big question- Force India. VJM02 is radically different than VJM01, primarily because it has a Mercedez-Benz engine instead of Ferrari. I hope it works as good as it has been working for Team Brawn. No need to stress on the need of scoring points!

FIA took a bold decision about the new scoring system. New medal system is need of F1 after what happened last year. Hamilton aiming at 5th place in a neck to neck fight for title was really disturbing. These Olympic style rules will make sure that drivers will aim at winning more than scoring. Somewhere, that will be a stimulus that the drivers require. But after protests from many teams, the decision was changed.

The season kick starts on 29th March and what better place to do it than the most dangerous circuit! I am planning to put Google Earth Images of all the tracks this season. Lets see how it goes. They all look beautiful from above. 2 for starters. Here is Albert Park for you with a beautiful lake in the middle (not distinctive being a street circuit)-

And now Sepang, Malaysia (This 1 looks awesome)-

Hope for a great season folks!

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On a different note I would like to mention Gadre’s this post here about loyalty towards your favourite teams. Its a really amazing article and it has given me a chance to answer my critics. I have always been accused of ‘Blindly jumping the Bandwagon’ in supporting ManU and Ferrari. I have to agree that I started supporting them during their glorious days. But both of these red giants faced major troubles during 2005-06 and I never stopped supporting them. Thats what supporting your team is all about. I don’t think I am quite there yet with football or ManU, but I will definitely walk anywhere to see Ferrari even if they start 20th and finish 20th. I stand by them no matter what. Even if they hire Fernando Alonso. (I believe Gadre will do the same if Ferguson hires Drogba!)

Heartbroken!

Yesterdays race was a perfect finish to a perfect season. Though Hamilton won the championship, Massa is true winner for me. He is an amazing fighter. He came close to winning the championship like no other driver in the history of F1. Championship was decided literally on the final corner.

Ferrari took their deserved Constructors’ trophy with pride! Bravo!

Vettel is a great driver. Overtaking a Mclaren, that too of Hamilton is a big deal. He has a bright future. I am supporting Red Bull next season just for him.

Toyota people are idiots. When it rains, you switch to intermediates. Glock created that created a momentary drama which lead the world to believe Massa was going to win.

I have lost all the respect for Hamilton. He is a brilliant driver. But he drove like a coward yesterday. That Lewis Hamilton did not deserve to win. He was not the ‘HAMILTON’ we saw in Silverstone and Monaco this year. No champion should be decided by Toyota’s tyre strategy. Hamilton did not fight, but conceded his place to Vettel. Its lame.

Thats all folks!

Accusations and Speculations

This week, leading to the Shanghai Grand Prix has been a wild one. As the championship title contenders leave no stone unturned to win sunday’s race, a lot has been happening ‘off-the-track’ as well. The round begins with ‘Former World Champ’ Fernando Alonso. In a weird turn of events, Alonso openly admitted that he will support Massa or Kubica to win championship over former team-mate (rival?) Lewis Hamilton. Was it really necessary? I mean the last thing Lewis needs at this moment is another controversy. Like a good boy, Lewis kept mum and showed his pace during qualifying, sealing the pole position. Alonso probably setting up the field for probable move from Renault to BMW or Ferrari in coming seasons. A lame act of damage control for being a jerk in the past and a desperate attempt of revenge!

Next in line was his boss. Briatore claimed that just like last year, Lewis will lose his lead in last 2 races and give away championship to Massa. He just likes to flap his mouth a lot. Words just come out. No need to pay attention.

Last was dear old Massa. Lewis has been under fire from colleagues for being over-aggressive. No man with a bit of sense of F1 would deny that. But Massa is also feeling the heat. So he came to Lewis’s rescue! The way Massa drove in Japan could easily be compared to a rickshaw driver in Pune. Both of them need to calm down. Otherwise it will be season 2007 all over again. Kubica could be this years Kimi!

Alonso makes it 2 in a row

And yet another disastrous race in F1. Alonso wins yet again, Renault look confident for the next season. Piquet also scored 5 points.

What looked like a normal grid, turned upside down as both the Ferraris were pushed back and Mclarens suffered heavily. Kovalainen failed to complete the race and Massa and Hamilton were penalized for their over-aggressiveness. But the aggression did not wear off. Massa managed to squeeze out 1 c’ship point. Though Kimi ended his point scoring draught, he is now officially out of race for championship.

Hamilton and Massa are getting really fierce. The remaining races will be amazing.

Hamilton loses hearing….so does F1

Another ‘what the hell?’ moment of the week.. The farce that this hearing turned out to be, thanks to the stupidest decision in the history of Formula-1, highlights the flawed structure of FIA. After a grueling 5 and half hrs of session, FIA panel has ruled that the appeal itself is invalid! Yeah! 6 hrs wasted straight away. It will be good for the season, making it more interesting….but that is not even the point. The point is FIA has insulted Mclaren and each and every Formula-1 fan by keeping us waiting for 2 weeks to give this lame decision which could have been given right away after the race. This wastage of time and energy is a madness!

Another reason for this is another case fought on the same line as mentioned in this ESPN-Star report involving Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil. This highlights the paradox!

Vettel enters Formula-1 hall of fame

After a flawless 306 km drive through Monza, Subastian Vettel became the youngest F-1 driver to win a race. 1st win for Team Toro Rosso. And we got to see another amazing race thanks to wet conditions. Results

The race started under safety car due to wet conditions; bit disappointing. Starting from the back, Kubica and Hamilton could advance comfortably through the track, but Kimi struggled to overtake drivers like Nakajima. It was a sad scene. Massa proved that he is a good wet weather driver by not screwing up. Thats good enough I guess. Almost all the cars followed the same pattern and used extreme wet weather tires for 2/3rd race and then switched to intermediates.

Every driver looked alert about illegal overtakings and conceded their places like good boys. Coulthard was involved in 2 accidents today- Nakajima and Fisichella….crushing the hearts of over a billion people. Fisi looked good in the initial stages. He held back Kimi and Hamilton for 7 laps.

Overall a good race. Lots of overtakings, lots of excitement. Massa went a point closer to Lewis. This is going to be an awesome season.

Now its the big day. 28th Sept… Countdown to Singapore begins… Hold your breath, its coming!