2010 Spanish GP and GP2 Race

This morning, I stayed up after work and watched the GP2 race and the F1 GP from Spain. I was really impressed with Sam Bird in the GP2 feature race, what an aggressive strong performance after problems early. I enjoyed watching his drive through the field, it was more fun to watch than the F1 race was. The F1 race was honestly a snoozer, as a matter of fact I slept through the start and the first 20 laps, waking up in the middle of the first set of pit stops. As much as I was impressed with Sam Bird's drive in GP2 I was disappointed with Button's drive. It seemed as if he really wasn't making an attempt to get around Schumacher, who seemed to be slower and was holding Button up. I can't help but think if it would have been teammate Hamilton in the same position, a pass would have been attempted if not made. Here are my weak attempts at punditry from this morning:

• @MrSteveMatchett, David Hobbs, and Bob Varsha in fine form this morning! Flying like a Bird, Riccing, Hope In Tung, Tung in Cheek...

• Sam Bird in the ART GP2 car is impressive. Very aggressive and so late on the brakes. What a blast to watch!Botched pit stop by Mercedes on Rosberg's car following a blazing one on Schumacher's car. #F1

• Already dozed off and missed start of #F1 race, woke up in middle of pit stops.

• Schumacher really holding Button up at Lap 25. Can't help but think a more agressive driver (like his teammate) would be around him by now.

• Don't know if I can stay awake thru this #F1 race; it is like Button isn't evev trying to get around Schumacher.

• Methinks Hulkenburg should be glad #F1 cars don't have fenders or Rosberg would used them; Hulkenburg blatantly blocking and weaving.

• Wil Buxton just took the cover off of the elephant in the room and I'm glad he did. Rosberg has been screwed by Mercedes...

• Rosberg was doing very good but the team changed the car all around to suit Schumacher! Been thinking this since Friday practice results.

• RT @Formula1Blogger: If Button overtakes Schumacher I'll eat my face! #F1 >> Don't worry, he isn't even trying.

• Hobbs just said what I tweeted, Hamilton would've passed Schumacher. At least he would have TRIED!

• Hamilton loses a left front with 2 to go! Game Over! Will Vettel be on podium with failing brakes?!

• Webber wins, Alonso takes P2 and Vettel is a lucky boy as he takes P3 with failing brakes. Wee bit of drama at the end.

• Next weekend: Monaco. Now that I've used #F1 for a sleep aid I'm going to bed.

This afternoon, Pressdog tweeted the following in regards to Speed TV's new pit lane reporter Will Buxton. My reply to him follows; so far I really like Buxton, he is a good addition to the Speed TV F1 team.

• pressdog Really like Will Buxton addition to F1 posse. Makes some great points like Rosberg greating hosed in favor of His Worship.

• kf4lmt @pressdog Very much agreed. He stated something that others chose to ignore. Welcomed honesty from Buxton in the pit lane.

Mac McCormick III

Thoughts on the F1 Chinese Grand Prix

Once again, I offer up a collection of my thoughts from the latest F1 race. Originally posted on Twitter either during or shortly after the race depending upon whether I was able to watch it live or not:

• Hamilton really racing hard, but it could be all for naught depending upon the stewards' decision on the pit lane episode with Vettel.

• I just don't understand why a decision can't be made during the race on the Hamilton/Vettel pit episode, it is on video

• Wisdom of Schumacher's #F1 return? He was just passed by Petrov. Schumacher could very well be tarnishing his career.

• Petrov doing well late in the race in the rain. He's passed both Schumacher and Webber

• Button wins over Hamilton. Good finishes by Rosberg in P3 and Kubica in P5. What will become of the Stewards' investigation?

• What might have been for Alonso if he hadn't jumped the start?

• Once again, the rain has made for an interesting #F1 race. Would like to have had more timely Stewards' decisions though.

Well, essentially the Stewards investigation into Hamilton and Vettel in the pits came to naught. That is truly a shame as racing side by side in the pit lane as they did, with Hamilton in the area where crewman could be working, was dangerous. The whole episode makes a mockery of pit lane safety. Seems to be a NASCAR-like decision to me.

Mac McCormick III

I watched the F1 Malaysian Grand Prix last night but I wasn't able to tweet any live comments on it like I've been trying to do with some races. I did tweet some thoughts later in the morning, though. I'll pull them together here to give my thoughts on the race:

• Overall the F1 Malaysian GP was pretty good. There was really no podium fight but the fight for P5 back with McLaren and Ferrari was great!

• It was a shame Alonso's car gave up on the last lap. He put up a heck of a fight with a car that had downshift issues.

• Could it be a Red Bull season in F1? They are certainly the fastest and seem to be sorting out the reliability issues.

• Well Done Force India! A solid drive from a good starting spot by Sutil yields P5 in a dry race

• Well Done Nico Rosberg. 2 straight P5s now a P3 finish. He's outperforming Schumacher on a regular basis too.

• Re: Hamilton blocking early, Don't think he was blocking but instead trying to break the draft on the straight. Once common in NASCAR.

Mac McCormick III

F1 Australian GP

I stayed up early this morning and watched the F1 Australian GP and I'm glad I did. It was an exciting race and provided my only racing fix today; both NASCAR and IndyCar have been rained out until tomorrow. For much of the race Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, and Webber had a great fight (up until Hamilton tried to pass Alonso and Webber slammed into the back of him). Vettel went out due to brake failure and left the race in the hands of Button, who had stopped first for slicks after the track began to dry. Button ran a tire management race and did a great job of it; he went close to 3/4 distance on soft tires while some of the other cars stopped for new softs halfway through and used up the new tires trying to get back toward the front. Kubica did an outstanding job in a lesser car, finishing second in the Renault with Massa coming in third.

Here's some of my observations and commentary from Twitter (end of race at top, beginning of race at bottom):

• Good race by Button and Kubica, Massa follows in P3. Thinking McLarens are being built by Audi after seeing Hamilton's car survive! #F1 (Hamilton's car survived several instances of contact; it reminded me of how well the Audi R-8 and R-10 stood up to crashes)
  
• Webber and Hamilton crash as Hamilton tries to pass Alonso! #F1
  
• Heck of a race for P4-P6 now. Great Stuff!! #F1
  
• Hamilton and Webber almost to rear wing of Alonso and Massa. Business is about to pick up. #F1
  
• Kubica doing great job holding off the Ferraris, surprised that Ferrari hasn't pulled a shennanigan to get Alonso in front of Massa. #F1
• Can't see these tires lasting the whole #F1 race, already blistering on rears. (Boy was I wrong!)
  
• Vettel Off!!!! Brand New Race in #F1. Bad luck...
  
• Good action for P5-P8 in #F1
• Massa holding up Hamilton and Alonso is stalking them both. Still the Vettel show at the front though. #F1
• What a series of passes and errors: Webber, Hamilton, and Massa #F1
• Button is the guinea pig for slicks, let's see what happens #F1
  
• At least 4 cars off to start the race and the Safety Car is out due to massive crash. Good start by Massa though.
  
• I NEVER get tired of Sam Posey's intros to the #F1 races on #SpeedTV.
• Rain starting to fall in Melborne! #F1 race could get interesting

Mac McCormick III

Suzuka F1 Practice

Last night I stayed up late and watched the live practice session from Suzuka for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix. Out of the 90 minute session, there may have been cars on the track for 20 minutes, out of that the bulk of the cars were out for less than 10 minutes; maybe 7 at the most. There was heavy rain and a lot of standing water on the track that made conditions too dangerous for most of the session. Fernando Alonso ended up seventh for the session but I believe that his performance was the best of the session. He set his fast time before the bulk of the cars went out, thus doing it in worse conditions. Once the other cars came out, there wasn't as much water on the racing line making for better grip. I believe even more that Alonso has been carrying Renault the last two years. His performances have been far better than what the car is.

Mac McCormick III

Renault F1 Discraces F1 and Demeans Motor Sports in General

NASCAR likes to use the blanket violation of "Actions Detrimental to the Sport" to penalize those that transgress against NASCAR. Over the past year, Renault F1 has defined what "Actions Detrimental to the Sport" truly are. There are several versions of the story, but essentially here is what transpired at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Flavio Briatore, team principal of Renault and manager for driver Nelson Piquet Jr. along with chief engineer Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr. arranged for Piquet Jr. to crash out of the race at an opportune time for the other Renault driver Fernando Alonso. Piquet did so and it essentially handed the race to Alonso who ultimately won the race. It took over a year for this to publicly come to light; Piquet Jr. went to the FIA when he was fired from Renault by Briatore in the last couple of months. In the ensuing investigation, Piquet was given immunity for his testimony, Briatore and Symonds left Renault ultimately being handed by the FIA a lifetime and five year ban respectively. I don't believe that the FIA went far enough; those actions truly were detrimental not only to F1 but motor sport in general. It put the whole sport into disrepute.

• Some reports indicate that Nelson Piquet Sr. informed the FIA of the above at the 2008 Brazilian GP. No further action was taken because no one involved stepped forward? The FIA was informed of cheating and attempted race fixing and no investigation was begun because no one INVOLVED stepped forward? As if you really expect them to?
• Nelson Piquet Jr. waited until he was fired from Renault to go to the FIA. He was given immunity for his testimony. The FIA already knew that he was involved if you believe that Nelson Piquet Sr. had already told the FIA what happened. He didn't deserve immunity. Ultimately, it also came to light through testimony from multiple sources that Piquet was the one who thought up the stunt; because of the immunity he got off with no punishment.
• Renault was allowed to keep the win. If it was proven that they cheated and attempted to fix the race, the win should have been stripped. Simply put, the FIA rewarded cheating.
• The FIA should not allow the same person to be both a team principal and driver manager. It is a conflict of interest. Imagine yourself in a young driver's position when your boss, who is also your manager tells you to "do this or else." You are forced to chose between evaporating your developing career and committing a dishonorable act, essentially a choice between worse and worse. Not a position that I would envy.

Mac McCormick III

McLaren's Unsportsmanlike Conduct

The last time McLaren was in trouble, I defended them. This time, I cannot defend the actions of former McLaren Sporting Director Dave Ryan and driver Lewis Hamilton. In the recent fracas over whether or not the allowed Jarno Trulli to pass Hamilton during a yellow flag both Ryan and Hamilton told the race stewards a bold faced lie. The next week at Malaysia, they continued to lie about it despite being presented evidence to the contrary.

What is worse, Hamilton called a news conference at Malaysia to tell eveyone that he didn't want to lie, but was directed to by the team. He was lauded by some in the media for doing so. Hamilton is a grown man. If he didn't want to lie, he should not have. He should have done the right thing even though his team may have directed him to do otherwise. Dave Ryan is no longer with McLaren from the team over this incident. In my opinion, if Ryan is gone then Hamilton should be sent packing as well; he is just as guilty as Ryan is.

This whole episode has been a sorry example of sportsmanship for youngsters interested in motor sports and young people who are moving up the motor sports ladder of talent. A world champion and multiple world championship team should be setting a better example.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net

F1 News - 18 February 2009

A couple of F1 news items caught my eye this morning as I was checking the Autosport website:

1. The USF1 program is interested in testing Danica Patrick. I can only see this as a publicity and marketing move. Danica Patrick would not be a good choice as a team driver for an F1 team, especially a new or lower rung team. She has proven an inability to communicate with her engineer to improve the handling of her IRL car during a race so it would follow that she would be unable to communicate with engineers to develop a new race car. That would be disaster for a new team. Danica would bring a lot of publicity and a lot of sponsorship to USF1, but she likely wouldn't be able to bring anything to the table in regards to car development.
2. Dietrich Mateschitz says that team owners should own F1. I think that he should look back at the history of the CART series here in the US and realize that team ownership of a series is doomed to failure. You need one strong person to run the series. The teams will be concerned about what is best for them and fight politically amongst themselves. That one strong individual would be better able to do what is best for the whole. As much as I dislike many of NASCAR's decisions, it seems that their model for running the series has worked better than others. Although you can use Tony George and the IRL as an argument against it, CART is the series that eventually failed.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Lewis Hamilton - F1 World Champion

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, the new Formula 1 World Champion. He is both the youngest every F1 World Champion, he is the first black F1 World Champion. Congratulations must also go to Felipe Massa on how he handled his championship shortcoming. Crestfallen as he obviously was to come so close, he was gracious in defeat. How he conducted himself during the podium ceremony and post race interview was an object lesson in sportsmanship.

I was glad to see Hamilton win the championship given that it seemed late in the season that the FIA was doing almost everything in it's power to see that he didn't. Some of the penalties issued to Hamilton and not issued to Ferrari drivers were close to being blatantly biased.

That said, it was also sad to see Massa not win the championship. In my opinion, he is the most improved of any driver in any major series this year. If anyone had suggested that Massa would have been one point from World Champion at this time last year, he would likely have been laughed at. Despite his horrible performance at Silverstone, Massa has improved drastically in both pure performance and racecraft since last season. Against the predictions of most, he outperformed Kimi Raikonnen in most races and was heads and tails above Raikonnen in the overall championship.

Mac McCormick
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Lewis Hamilton Penalized, FIA Ferrari Bias Obvious

I was looking forward to writing this morning about how great the last 4 laps of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on Sunday were. Before taking to the keyboard for that task, however, I checked the motor sport headlines at the Speed TV and Autosport websites. Reading the F1 news was like having a bucket of cold water poured on my head. The FIA has penalized Lewis Hamilton 25 seconds for, in their belief, not fully giving Kimi Raikonnen a position back after being forced off track by Raikonnen. The penalty gave Felipe Massa the win and pushed Hamilton back to third behind Nick Heidfeld.

I fail to see what Hamilton did wrong. He fully allowed Raikonnen back into first place after going off track. Do the rules specify that he must allow Raikonnen to keep the lead into the next turn as well!? Hamilton placed himself fully behind Raikonnen, he was not partially alongside, so it seems to me that he was within the rules. Quite frankly, it was exciting racing and thrilling to watch. It was precisely the kind of racing the F1 needs! Yes, Hamilton placed himself behind Raikonnen so to draft him down a straight and pass, but he could have done this if he hadn't gone off of the track in the previous corner.

The FIA's argument, to me, is transparent. It is a blatant attempt to give Ferrari what they could not take on the track. Hamilton could have drafted and passed Raikonnen as he did even if the did not go off of the track. Raikonnen later spun and crashed taking himself out of the race and eliminating the possibility of passing Hamilton again in a straight fight. One has to wonder whether the FIA would have given the penalty had Massa been more the 25 seconds behind Hamilton.

After not penalizing Ferrari for a dangerous move in the pits at Valencia, the FIA's actions at Spa reinforce a popular belief that the FIA is biased toward Ferrari. The FIA penalized McLaren for good hard racing and let Ferrari go after almost causing a serious accident in the pit lane (there was almost a collision with not only another race car but with a safety or medical car at the end of the pit lane as well!).

This has every appearance of being an attempt (and not even a thinly veiled one at that) to give the drivers championship to Ferrari. At the very least, it exposes an FIA grudge against McLaren.

Mac
kf4lmt@comcast.net