Archive for the ‘formula 1’ Category

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#Jenson200 – a great win for Jenson Button!

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

It was Jenson Button’s 200 F1 race and it was a great way to celebrate with an excellent win in an exciting race. The Hungarian GP was in slightly wet/changeable conditions which are perfect for Jenson Button with his driving style and experience.

F1 is now on a little summer break – I think its a 4 week break before its back at Spa in Belgium. Vettel is still miles ahead and actually extended his lead this weekend. However, Red Bull have only won 1 of the last 5 races and McLaren have won 3. Its all hotting up for an exciting 2nd half of the season. McLaren have done really well recently – even improving qualifying performance. The a few races ago, Martin Whitmarsh’s job was apparently at risk! Ferrari are improving too – I hope we get to see the old Massa and he picks up some form.

Its not that I don’t like Vettel – hes a top bloke (as shown on Top Gear few weeks ago). Its just boring the same driver always getting pole and winning. I suppose if your a fan of them then its different. I am a Jenson Button fan so I wasnt complaining in the year he was at Brawn!

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Formula 1 – Moving to Sky next year :(

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

OK, the headline above may be a bit mis-leading as the BBC will still have some of the races. It will have half the races including the British Grand Prix, Monaco and the last race of the season. Details of the other races has not been revealed. I hope the BBC still have the Canadian Grand Prix as thats probably my favourite. Also like the Australian Grand Prix and would be good to have the night race of Singapore.

Sky will have all the races and when the BBC doesnt have the live race, they will  have “extended highlights”. However, I have read today that Bernie Ecclestone has apparently said it won’t be highlights but actually the whole race repeated?? We will see. As well as the BBC race coverage, its everything else thats made it brilliant on the BBC. The whole build-up, all the analysis, the red button coverage with all the practices and most of all the F1 Forum. Its brilliant!! They get some excellent coverage of what happens after a race and quite often get right in the middle of it. Where else would you see Eddie Jordan end up fully clothed in a swimming pool – about 3 times!

It will be interesting to see if all the current BBC F1 team stay. I think they are all great from Jake, Martin, DC, EJ, Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie. The radio 5 team including David Croft and Anthony Davidson are great too. Martin Brundle only found out on Friday himself. He says hes out of contract and not impressed. Heres his tweet on Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/MBrundleF1/status/96854735444901888

I don’t have Sky Sports and not planning to spend £360 a year for the full Sky Sports HD pack – although I do have it on my mobile with Sky Mobile but thats just £8 a month.  One question is the ad breaks will be back when its on Sky. When it was on ITV, there were ad breaks and you often missed things. In a sport like F1, leaving the action is just not ideal. (I have read somewhere that they may be going ad break free?? They will still have ad breaks during the pre and post race show though!

There is a deal/agreement somewhere that it needs to be all on free-to-air TV. With it going to Sky it kind of isn’t – although its been argued it technically is with the highlights being on BBC. However, this could mean a big drop in audience figures and with less people watching, it will mean less money so people arent going to be happy!!

Its a real shame that in the UK, where most of the F1 teams are based, that you won’t be able to watch all of the races from 2012 live! :(  Barbara Slader, director of BBC Sport says “We are absolutely delighted that F1 will remain on the BBC”. How can she be “delighted”??

On the bright side, at least its not completely axed from the BBC. There was talk that it could been in deal between Channel 4 and Sky.

The British government should have added F1 races to list of protected events when it last had the chance to do so in 2009. In suppose, at the end of the day its all about money and the BBC need to  save money!

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Canadian Grand Prix

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

It was the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend and it was one of the best ever. The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal is one of the favourite. Its usually one of the most exciting – plenty of chances to overtake. Stuff usually happens.

This years was no different. I missed the qualifying as I was at a wedding and was busy during some of the actual race. Thank goodness for Sky +.

It was raining on race day so the race started behind the safety car. It didnt seem that heavy the rain but it seems this year they are being “safe then sorry”. Instead of millions of £££ of F1 car being damaged, they are “playing it safe”. Seems a shame as its always good to see a bit of carnage and some sliding and aquaplaning!! The rain stopped after the start and some cars went on to intermediate tyres. However, it then got really heavy, so heavy in fact that the safety car was out again. It was SO heavy that the race was red flagged and stopped for about 2 hours.

Because of the 2 hour “break”, I almost managed to catch up with the race in real time. The last 20 or so laps were some of the best for a long long time. Vettel was out in the lead as usual and every time the safety car came out – I think 4 times – he managed to get away from the chasing pack really well. Button was having an eventful race having contacted Hamilton and also Alonso. In the end he went in pits 6 times. 5 times for changes to tyres and 1 time for a drive through penalty for speeding behind the safety car.

Best 20 laps ever??

The last 20 laps of the race were with a drying track with all cars changing from intermediate to slick. Vettel was about 12 seconds ahead at one point but Button was catching him fast – about 1.5 to 2 seconds a lap. Its debatable if Button would have caught Vettel (and crucially passed him) without the final safety car. On the final lap, Button got within the crucial 1 second between him and Vettel so would have been able to use DRS. Maybe Vettel was worried about this and ended up making a mistake before the “DRS active zone”. Button got past and won the race.

Elsewhere in the race, Schmacher ended up finishing 4th. Very close to 3rd but Webber was just fast enough to overtake. Hamilton had another race to forgot, going into Webber and coming into contact with Button.

Tumbling marshall

This race really did have everything with the rain, overtakes, crashes. Even marshalls falling over. First there was the one who fell over Vettel hit the wall of champions in Friday practice. Then the one during the race who tried to remove debris from track. It didn’t seem very organised and just a load of blokes going on track and throwing and kicking bits of carbon fibre off the track. One guy slipped and fell, then Kobayashi almost crashed into him and he fell/dived again.

If your in the UK, you can see the video of the guy falling here – http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13748154.stm

(If your in the UK, you can see the race summarised in 90 seconds on the BBC Sport site. Depending when you read this, you could watch the actual race on the iPlayer).

Its turning into a good F1 year 2011. Some really good races, especially Canada and China.

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Spa Grand Prix

Monday, August 30th, 2010

A pretty good race this weekend. Whenever it rains its makes it more interesting and stuff happens and our almost guaranteed rain in Spa.

Hamilton won with a great drive, Webber 2nd and Kubica showing what a good driver he is finishing 3rd. It was helped of course by Vettel taking out Button.

Button was in 2nd but stuggling for balance with damage to front wing. He was holding off Vettel well. However, Vettel made a silly move to overtake him. Went for the inside and then sharply turned to the outside which resulted in he sliding and crashing into Button. Vettel damaged front wing but Button was out.

It was not the only incident involving Vettel who seemed to be involved in all incidents! Vettel is clearly a talented driver and still very young but he crashes a lot and makes contact with other drivers an awful lot. Some people also say hes great when leading but when not at the front and he has to overtake people hes not that good. Unlike the likes of Hamilton, Alonso and Button hes not as good with the close “hand to hand” action.

2 horse race??

It was be interesting to see how the season pans out now. Is it now a 2 horse race?? There is still 6 races to go and thats 150 points. Ferrari will still go for it with Alonso but both McLaren and Red Bull have 2 drivers in the top 5 and the whole team orders issue. Will McLaren and Red Bull have to favour Hamilton and Webber now – even if they wont say it?? If it is a 2 horse race I hope Webber wins. Although Hamilton is British and should support him, I have never been the biggest Hamilton fan. Hes already won the championship and may well win more. Webber has never won it and this may be his last chance. He also comes across as a top bloke.

Things change quickly in F1 and a bad race for Hamilton/Webber and good one for Button/Vettel will change things again. Bring on Monza!!

PS – It was a real shame that Ruben’s 300th race ended with a DNF when he crashed into Alonso. He misjudged the wet conditions and sled into Alonso so was his fault but still a shame.

PPS – Note to BBC Sport. Your Formula 1 coverage is brilliant, love the F1 Forum with the extra coverage and interviews with drivers (once again Jenson Button gave a good interview – talking about getting the boxing gloves ready to face Vettel! :) ) but Jonathan Legard is rubbish. I am not the only one with so many people complaining about his commentating.

PPPS – Why was Massa not penalised for overshooting his grid place at the start??

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Hungary Grand Prix

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

It wasnt the most exciting race this weekend. The race livened up with the safety car which caused a couple of the main talking points. One was the crash because Sutil and Kubica and the other was Rosberg and the loose bouncing wheel. Both of them could have been really dangerous. Sutil’s car could have gone up into Kubica and the bouncing wheel had have hit someone or gone into it garage. Very dangerous!

Schumacher v Barrichello

However, the main talking point was the Schumacher v Barrichello incident. I am sure you have all seen it but basically Rubens was faster than Schumi and was catching for a few laps. Schumacher went wide on the last corner and Rubens got into slipstream and went to the right to pass. As he was next to Schumacher, he was “pushed” towards the wall and it was all very close and tight. Rubens was lucky the pit wall ended so he could go wider and had room to “escape”. If he hit the wall it would have been a big crash, if a car was exiting the pit lane it would have been a major incident!! Rubens was rightly angry and called for him to be black flagged.

After the race Schumacher said he gave him enough room and wanted him to go to the left. You can see in replays he was looking in mirror to the right. He knew what he was doing! Rubens was on the BBC F1 Forum afterwards talking about it. He talked about it and asked ppl on Twitter to let him know if he was right or was Schumacher right – who always calls him a bit of a “cry baby”. Schumacher has been given a 10 place grid penalty.

Lenient punishment

Personally I think he should be banned for a race at the very least. The fines/bans/punishment issued by the FIA seems very inconsistent! Three years ago McLaren were fined $100m for using Ferrari date. Then you look at just a week ago when Ferrari were fined just $100,000 for manipulating a race result. Back in 1997, Schumacher was thrown out of championship for crashing into someone. Hes now been given a 10 place grid penalty for what Rubens (most experience F1 driver in history) has described as “the most dangerous manoeuvre against me I have ever known”.

(Schumacher has since said sorry but his team boss has said he gave Rubens enough room). Maybe its a coincidence but the 2 drivers hes tried to “put into the wall” this season have been ex-teammates. Is that a factor??

Back to the actual race result and I am happy Webber won. (Once again Vettel has not converted a pole position into a race win). If Button doesnt win, I would rather a driver I like to win and thats Webber or Rubens. It was the worst race weekend for McLaren for awhile with a DNF for Lewis and Button finishing in 8th. The Red Bull car is just so much faster!! This track was almost the perfect track for them and it showed with them being about a second faster than anyone else!

Its not a mid-season break for F1 and back in a month in Spa. Can’t wait!

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