So Melbourne done. Congratulations to Brawn and Button. A great start to a season when a smaller team starts by winning, so we know the major teams will tend to get better during the season, so good to have a dark horse start off by leading in both championships.
Jensen Button's race was pretty uneventful and he led from pole position and with Barrichello falling back and then still climbing all the way to second place, clearly Brawn was a superior car in Australia. Not much more to say really, about that. Lets examine the fortunes of the three champion drivers.
LUCK OF THE ALONSO
Alonso the two-time champion had a disappointing preseason, the Renault seemed to be faster than the McLaren but not on par with Ferrari, and the cars with the radical diffuser were clearly faster. So Alonso probably thought that this was headed to a rough season. But Alonso had little bits of luck going his way. He started on 9th position but was unlucky in the start midfield crashes and was down to 15th. From there you'd think there is not much to do except finish the race and hope for the best. Melbourne tends to be an endurance race and many cars retire. A point or two were best he could hope for. And annoyingly team mate Piquet was 6 positions ahead of him in 9th place.
At the first safety car roughly speaking half point of the race, Alonso was running 13th and Piquet 7th. A long-shot to get any points from there. And most cars were still in the running. Looked bad for the Spaniard. So then Alonso's luck starts to get better. Piquet loses it at the restart, beaching his car. Alonso starts to move ahead, and is in 11th place at Lap 27. Perhaps a point or two are in the cards after all. But after the second set of pits, and Alonso's was very late, he has only climbed up to 9th place. It looks like he is going to have that worst feeling, to be the first driver not to score a point in this race.
Then we get the late incident with Kubica and Vettel, and we get the second safety car. Alonso is in luck and Alonso is able to finish the race in 6th position, three points. A less-than-impressive finish, but considering he started 9th, the start went badly and he was back to 15th, and at half point of the race was running 11th, to finish 6th is not bad. What is better for Alonso is the luck that befell his three primary rivals if we consider the past season (Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa). And this was before the reviews and relegations of the aftermath, where in the end, Alonso gains yet another position and is classified 5th with 4 points. Not at all a bad start for the season, all things considering.
LUCK OF THE KLIMSTER
Kimi's luck is not nearly as good. He headed to Melbourne with a car that was considered best of the three front-runner teams (McLaren, Ferrari and Renault). Obviously not as fast as the new diffuser cars, but Kimi is clearly in a faster car than his two primary rivals, Hamilton and Alonso. His qualifying did not go too well, so Kimi starts in 7th place one behind Massa. But Kimi has one lap more fuel than Massa. And knowing Hamilton is starting last on the grid, should also add a bit of a smile to the Ferrari pilot.
Taking advantage of KERS, Kimi is able to jump to 5th but Massa gets up to 3rd. Kimi tries to get up but soon ruins his soft tyres and then struggles to finish the first stint. By mid-race and the safety car, Kimi was still in 5th and Massa still in 3rd. This was not looking like a great race for Finnish champ but at least the McLaren and Renault drivers were behind him.
Kimi's luck seems to change, and its all bad luck from here to Kimi again. He makes his late race mistake - these are becoming alarmingly common for Raikkonen - and throws away a position that was likely to give a 4th or 5th place finish before Kubica-Vettel - and put Kimi on the podium if he had only held his position from mid race. With Massa retiring with 12 laps to go and Kimi retiring a few laps before the end, this meant also no points for Ferrari.
LUCK OF THE LEWIS
If Kimi has bad luck, Lewis has positively miserable luck. Cruel, is how we must consider Hamilton's fortunes. He starts on a very weak car, and in last place 18th on the grid. He drives like a maniac and is up to 10th place by mid race and after the second set of pit stops he is in the points, running in 6th place. Considering that Kimi is out of it and Alonso behind him at this point, Lewis should be quite happy for how he's managed his race.
It then gets even better. With the Kubica-Vettel incident and both out, Lewis is headed to 4th place and 5 points. A very impressive points-haul for a "lost race" and starting from last on the grid, with a non-competitive car. Very impressive indeed.
So then the Toyota Trulli incident after the race. Trulli is first penalized and then - mysteriously - it emerges that McLaren had not been truthful (so they lied) - to get one extra point for Hamilton. WHY? Why not be happy with the 4th place, all their real rivals were far behind. But yes, the worst fate. He is briefly teased with a 3rd place 6 points finish, in the race aftermath, and then it is removed and he has nothing. That must hurt!
LUCK OF THE ROSS
So there is Ross Brawn. Wow. He does know how to design cars, doesn't he. Two championship cars at Benetton, five championship cars at Ferrari and now he has clearly the fastest car for the start of 2009. He is another champion even though Ross Brawn himself doesn't race them.
LUCK OF THE BUTTON
But then there is Jensen. He won fair and square. He now has the fastest car. And even more, he knows from many seasons in the midfield and backfield, how much to cherish this one chance he has. If the Brawn is not disqualified due to its diffuser, and if Button manages to turn this second race into his second win, as his nearest rival seems to be Barrichello, and not quite as fast as Button; and as the four other fast drivers in fast cars - Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso and Massa - are in such weak cars at the start of the season, ie losing points to Toyota, BMW and Williams - this is very strongly Button's season to win the championship...
That is why five champs in this blog. If Jensen wins this race today in Malaysia, then he is probably our champion too.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
New Season about to start. First on the top 4 drivers
The best time of the year in F1. The first qualifying is only hours away but being the first race we don't really know who is strong and who not. Everybody has the greatest amount of optimizm about the upcoming season.
So this year we have a new champion (Congrats Lewis) and last season saw four manufacturers regularly contest for wins and also winning - McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW. In the starting season we have three returning champions - Lewis, Kimi and Fernando - who are enticingly each in a car by a different manufacturer, but also all three are in the car (or back in the car) that won them the championship last.
But this season sees the biggest amount of technical regulation changes that the sport hsa seen in more than a decade. I personally don't like the shape of the new car (and am not alone) but tbat will pass. These will soon become familiar to us and the older F1 cars will seem.. old
DRIVERS
First lets look a bit at the top drivers. Three champions and all well into the early parts of their careers. Kimi is 29 years old. Fernando is 27 and Lewis is 24 years of age. These are young drivers. They also have a lot of experience and in particular a lot of success under their belts. Alonso has won two championships, 21 race wins, and earned 551 points out of 123 races entered. Kimi has one championship, 17 wins, 531 points out of 140 races. Hamilton has 1 championship, 9 wins and 207 points out of 35 races. If we toss in Felipe Massa into the mix as the fourth young experienced lion, the 27 year old has no championships but otherwise very comparable stats, 11 wins and 298 points out of 106 races.
Two interesting statistics I would like to mention. The points-per-race average and the winning percentage. Kimi and Fernando are very close on both - with Alonso ahead on both - and very high marks for the two drivers far into a career with over 500 races for both of them. Alonso has been bringing an average of 4.5 points per race over his career and Kimi 3.8 points. Felipe Massa is significantly behind on this measure, averaging 2.7 points per race. As to winning percentage, Massa and Raikkonen are very close, Massa at 10.4% (winning one in ten starts) and Raikkonen winning 12.1% of his races or one in eight starts; but here Alonso is well ahead, winning a very high percentage of 17.1% of his races. That is one win in every six starts.
Compared to the three, Lewis Hamilton has far better stats, but these have been generated in only two years, when the McLaren has been a top car both seasons. That will not be how any F1 race driver will have his whole career, so Lewis's stats may be artificially high because of good luck in being with the right team at the right time. Even so, his stats are most impressive. Lewis has been delivering 5.9 points per race started and his win percentage has been amazing at 25.7%. He has been winning one out of every four starts!
In terms of evenly balanced drivers, these four are now very even in every way, the top 3 have all won a championship and Massa came within a point last year, and headed to the championship up to the last lap of the last race. All have multiple wins in multiple seasons. The two older champions, Kimi and Fernando have won races on two different teams and both wanted away from the other team (funnily enough, McLaren in both cases) and are now with the team where they won their championships. As to Alonso whatever unhappy feelings he had about Renault early last year seemed to vanish once he started to win again for Renault.
Lewis was happy with McLaren all along and is now the youngest champ of all time. And Massa must feel much more confident this season knowing his team mate Kimi can be defeated and that Massa has an even chance within the Ferrari team.
As to Lewis. He became champion last year. This must be a big boost to his young racing mind. He has already achieved it. He is still learning F1 and still learning the circuits, the team, the car. He will still get better simply because he is so young and has so little experience (35 starts).
And a mention of Kimi. He has had a near perfect pairing of seasons, up in one, down in the next. It was all his life at McLaren and now also last season the pattern continued at Ferrari. I would believe that Kimi thinks this is his year again and believes he will be contesting for the championship again this season to the end.
But we have a new season. Ferrari tends to be consistent going from one successful season to the next. Renault tends to have spurts of a couple of short years of success then trouble. They might well be strong this year. But McLaren is notorious for up-and-down years. Very competitive one year, and mid-field the next. A see-saw performance team. They were up last year, this bodes badly for McLaren for 2009.
The big change however are the new regulations. This season will offer the midfield teams - even some backmarkers - the chance to jump up because of new opportunities in the new regulatios. We see it early in the three teams with the new diffuser.
Over time the big teams with big budgets and experience - Ferrari, McLaren (perhaps Renault) and BMW will all be able to force their teams ahead simply by size and effort. But early in these new regulations it is a golden moment for the smaller teams like Williams, Red Bull and even backmarkers like Force India and Brawn.
Very exciting times. Can't wait!
So this year we have a new champion (Congrats Lewis) and last season saw four manufacturers regularly contest for wins and also winning - McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW. In the starting season we have three returning champions - Lewis, Kimi and Fernando - who are enticingly each in a car by a different manufacturer, but also all three are in the car (or back in the car) that won them the championship last.
But this season sees the biggest amount of technical regulation changes that the sport hsa seen in more than a decade. I personally don't like the shape of the new car (and am not alone) but tbat will pass. These will soon become familiar to us and the older F1 cars will seem.. old
DRIVERS
First lets look a bit at the top drivers. Three champions and all well into the early parts of their careers. Kimi is 29 years old. Fernando is 27 and Lewis is 24 years of age. These are young drivers. They also have a lot of experience and in particular a lot of success under their belts. Alonso has won two championships, 21 race wins, and earned 551 points out of 123 races entered. Kimi has one championship, 17 wins, 531 points out of 140 races. Hamilton has 1 championship, 9 wins and 207 points out of 35 races. If we toss in Felipe Massa into the mix as the fourth young experienced lion, the 27 year old has no championships but otherwise very comparable stats, 11 wins and 298 points out of 106 races.
Two interesting statistics I would like to mention. The points-per-race average and the winning percentage. Kimi and Fernando are very close on both - with Alonso ahead on both - and very high marks for the two drivers far into a career with over 500 races for both of them. Alonso has been bringing an average of 4.5 points per race over his career and Kimi 3.8 points. Felipe Massa is significantly behind on this measure, averaging 2.7 points per race. As to winning percentage, Massa and Raikkonen are very close, Massa at 10.4% (winning one in ten starts) and Raikkonen winning 12.1% of his races or one in eight starts; but here Alonso is well ahead, winning a very high percentage of 17.1% of his races. That is one win in every six starts.
Compared to the three, Lewis Hamilton has far better stats, but these have been generated in only two years, when the McLaren has been a top car both seasons. That will not be how any F1 race driver will have his whole career, so Lewis's stats may be artificially high because of good luck in being with the right team at the right time. Even so, his stats are most impressive. Lewis has been delivering 5.9 points per race started and his win percentage has been amazing at 25.7%. He has been winning one out of every four starts!
In terms of evenly balanced drivers, these four are now very even in every way, the top 3 have all won a championship and Massa came within a point last year, and headed to the championship up to the last lap of the last race. All have multiple wins in multiple seasons. The two older champions, Kimi and Fernando have won races on two different teams and both wanted away from the other team (funnily enough, McLaren in both cases) and are now with the team where they won their championships. As to Alonso whatever unhappy feelings he had about Renault early last year seemed to vanish once he started to win again for Renault.
Lewis was happy with McLaren all along and is now the youngest champ of all time. And Massa must feel much more confident this season knowing his team mate Kimi can be defeated and that Massa has an even chance within the Ferrari team.
As to Lewis. He became champion last year. This must be a big boost to his young racing mind. He has already achieved it. He is still learning F1 and still learning the circuits, the team, the car. He will still get better simply because he is so young and has so little experience (35 starts).
And a mention of Kimi. He has had a near perfect pairing of seasons, up in one, down in the next. It was all his life at McLaren and now also last season the pattern continued at Ferrari. I would believe that Kimi thinks this is his year again and believes he will be contesting for the championship again this season to the end.
But we have a new season. Ferrari tends to be consistent going from one successful season to the next. Renault tends to have spurts of a couple of short years of success then trouble. They might well be strong this year. But McLaren is notorious for up-and-down years. Very competitive one year, and mid-field the next. A see-saw performance team. They were up last year, this bodes badly for McLaren for 2009.
The big change however are the new regulations. This season will offer the midfield teams - even some backmarkers - the chance to jump up because of new opportunities in the new regulatios. We see it early in the three teams with the new diffuser.
Over time the big teams with big budgets and experience - Ferrari, McLaren (perhaps Renault) and BMW will all be able to force their teams ahead simply by size and effort. But early in these new regulations it is a golden moment for the smaller teams like Williams, Red Bull and even backmarkers like Force India and Brawn.
Very exciting times. Can't wait!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Doing the math: Lewis holds keys to his championship
So, three races to go. The race is still mathematically alive for Robert Kubica, Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld, but statistically they are already out of it. For example Kimi would need to win all three remaining races, and if Lewis scores even one point in every remaining race (ie finishes 8th), Lewis would tie Kimi, but with more wins, Lewis would win.
So great effort Kimi, Robert and Nick; but you are statistically eliminated already. And Heikki Kovalainen, he is mathematically eliminated. Even if he won the remaining 3 races, and Lewis scored no points, Lewis would finish ahead of Heikki, so Heikki cannot win the championship anymore this season.
So it comes down to Felipe Massa or Lewis Hamilton. And seven points between them. Yes, last year, Lewis was able to throw it all away with a lead of 17 points, but that was with his team mate racing him to the last race (now Heikki is clearly in supporting role, as he is mathematically eliminates) and Massa has not shown the steel and dedication race-in and race-out as Kimi did last season.
In any case, Lewis has the keys in his hand. He is in control of his destiny. If he finishes ahead of Massa in every remaining race, Lewis is the winner, obviously. But its better than that. Lewis can finish one position behind Massa in every remaining race (Massa first, Lewis second; or Massa second, Lewis third, etc) and still win the championship.
So for Felipe now, it is not enough that his Ferrari be faster than the McLaren for the last 3 races. Felipe can win the remaining three races, and if Lewis comes in second, Lewis takes the championship, by one point. In effect it would be the "Singapore effect" - the six point cushion, due to the pit stop failure with the fuel hose.
What Massa now needs, desperately, is for Kimi to show up, and finish second, behind Massa, but ahead of Hamilton, for at least one of the last three races (and Massa finish ahead of Hamilton for every remaining race). Thats much to ask, especially as Kimi has had a horrendous second half of the season, while he was still competing for the championship. I do doubt it whether Kimi will truly give his 100% now in the last races, when he's crashed out several times quite spectacularly at the end of the race, and still those times (Spa, Singapore) been behind Hamilton when Kimi crashed.. If he can't beat Hamilton when Kimi is racing for his own championship, how much will he push "more" to bring a supporting second position for Massa.
So its looking very promising for Hamilton. But now, what he needs is solid podium finishes to the last three races. What Lewis cannot now do, is to make the mistakes we saw last season, such as beaching his car in China for example..
Yes, it will be exciting, and yes, we could well see the two drivers within a couple of points to the last race, and what more can we honestly ask for in a season, than a competitive season. And that is what we've seen this year.
So great effort Kimi, Robert and Nick; but you are statistically eliminated already. And Heikki Kovalainen, he is mathematically eliminated. Even if he won the remaining 3 races, and Lewis scored no points, Lewis would finish ahead of Heikki, so Heikki cannot win the championship anymore this season.
So it comes down to Felipe Massa or Lewis Hamilton. And seven points between them. Yes, last year, Lewis was able to throw it all away with a lead of 17 points, but that was with his team mate racing him to the last race (now Heikki is clearly in supporting role, as he is mathematically eliminates) and Massa has not shown the steel and dedication race-in and race-out as Kimi did last season.
In any case, Lewis has the keys in his hand. He is in control of his destiny. If he finishes ahead of Massa in every remaining race, Lewis is the winner, obviously. But its better than that. Lewis can finish one position behind Massa in every remaining race (Massa first, Lewis second; or Massa second, Lewis third, etc) and still win the championship.
So for Felipe now, it is not enough that his Ferrari be faster than the McLaren for the last 3 races. Felipe can win the remaining three races, and if Lewis comes in second, Lewis takes the championship, by one point. In effect it would be the "Singapore effect" - the six point cushion, due to the pit stop failure with the fuel hose.
What Massa now needs, desperately, is for Kimi to show up, and finish second, behind Massa, but ahead of Hamilton, for at least one of the last three races (and Massa finish ahead of Hamilton for every remaining race). Thats much to ask, especially as Kimi has had a horrendous second half of the season, while he was still competing for the championship. I do doubt it whether Kimi will truly give his 100% now in the last races, when he's crashed out several times quite spectacularly at the end of the race, and still those times (Spa, Singapore) been behind Hamilton when Kimi crashed.. If he can't beat Hamilton when Kimi is racing for his own championship, how much will he push "more" to bring a supporting second position for Massa.
So its looking very promising for Hamilton. But now, what he needs is solid podium finishes to the last three races. What Lewis cannot now do, is to make the mistakes we saw last season, such as beaching his car in China for example..
Yes, it will be exciting, and yes, we could well see the two drivers within a couple of points to the last race, and what more can we honestly ask for in a season, than a competitive season. And that is what we've seen this year.
Alonso also wins in 2008, Singapore review
The Singapore race was impressive on TV, a most beautiful town in the night race view, from the helicopter shots, with the race track sparkling like a diamond necklace..
The qualifying had a somewhat familiar setting. Massa first, Hamilton second and Raikkonen third. The race also seemed to follow predictable form, with Felipe running away from the others and seemed to be headed for an easy win.
Then came Piquet's accident and the safety car. And like so often with the safety car, the resulting pit stops turned into a total lottery. Massa was further caught in an accident with the electronic lights of the Ferrari pit, and left (with the green light showing) while the fuel hose was still attached, wrecking the fuel rig. His race was ruined.
Kimi was also a victim of the unscheduled pit stop. It seemed that Kimi was fuelled for longer than Massa, now he came in right after Massa and had to wait behind Massa at the pit stop, while most cars refuelled and rushed past him, until Kimi got to be refuelled. Still, Kimi was able to claw back from a backmarker position after this horrendous Ferrari pit stop, to a respectable 5th place towards the end of the race. But Kimi's horrible luck again hit him hard, at the end of the race, with 4 laps to go, he crashed into the wall. This is not Kimi's year (his career seems to go see-saw, a great year, a horrible year, a great year, a horrible year; this pattern was true like clock-work at McLaren as well. Is this more Kimi than the car?)
Lewis was able to get out best of the front-runners, and turned it into a safe third place finish, with precious 6 points, with Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen all failing to score.
Meanwhile, the lucky frontrunner out of the pit stops was Alonso. He turned the pace car situation into his advantage, and raced to challenge for the win. Nico Rosberg led at mid-point but was penalized for taking a pit stop when the pits were closed, which then demoted him down, and he finished second.
An exciting race yes, but mostly so because of the pace car mixing up the pack. Still, we saw plenty of overtaking, so this Singapore circuit is definitely worth the racing..
But Hamilton? Now holds a 7 point lead with 3 races to go... He's sitting pretty.
The qualifying had a somewhat familiar setting. Massa first, Hamilton second and Raikkonen third. The race also seemed to follow predictable form, with Felipe running away from the others and seemed to be headed for an easy win.
Then came Piquet's accident and the safety car. And like so often with the safety car, the resulting pit stops turned into a total lottery. Massa was further caught in an accident with the electronic lights of the Ferrari pit, and left (with the green light showing) while the fuel hose was still attached, wrecking the fuel rig. His race was ruined.
Kimi was also a victim of the unscheduled pit stop. It seemed that Kimi was fuelled for longer than Massa, now he came in right after Massa and had to wait behind Massa at the pit stop, while most cars refuelled and rushed past him, until Kimi got to be refuelled. Still, Kimi was able to claw back from a backmarker position after this horrendous Ferrari pit stop, to a respectable 5th place towards the end of the race. But Kimi's horrible luck again hit him hard, at the end of the race, with 4 laps to go, he crashed into the wall. This is not Kimi's year (his career seems to go see-saw, a great year, a horrible year, a great year, a horrible year; this pattern was true like clock-work at McLaren as well. Is this more Kimi than the car?)
Lewis was able to get out best of the front-runners, and turned it into a safe third place finish, with precious 6 points, with Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen all failing to score.
Meanwhile, the lucky frontrunner out of the pit stops was Alonso. He turned the pace car situation into his advantage, and raced to challenge for the win. Nico Rosberg led at mid-point but was penalized for taking a pit stop when the pits were closed, which then demoted him down, and he finished second.
An exciting race yes, but mostly so because of the pace car mixing up the pack. Still, we saw plenty of overtaking, so this Singapore circuit is definitely worth the racing..
But Hamilton? Now holds a 7 point lead with 3 races to go... He's sitting pretty.
Monday, September 15, 2008
This is how bad Kimi has been since Silverstone..
I went back the blogs to the magical moment of Silverstone, when 3 drivers were tied for 48 points (Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen) and Kubica was only 2 points behind them.
Obviously Kimi has been falling behind since then. But how had is bad. Since Silverstone, in 5 races, here is how they have performed (in order of best to worst, down to Kimi)
Best Hamilton 30 points (ave 6 per race)
2nd Massa 29 points (ave 5.8 per race)
3rd Kovalainen 27 points (ave 5.4 per race)
4th Kubica 18 points (ave 3.6 per race)
5th Heidfeld 17 points (ave 3.4 per race)
6th Alonso 15 points (ave 3 per race)
7th Vettel 12 points (ave 2.4 per race)
8th - tie
Glock 10 points (ave 2 per race) and
Piquet Jr 10 points (ave 2 per race)
10th Kimi Raikkonen 9 points !!! (ave 1.8 per race)
Since he had clawed up to tie the championship lead by Silverstone, and was poised to run away with his second championship, Kimi was not just weaker than his two tied title-rivals, or weaker than the three other valid championship contenders. Kimi has scored less points than NINE other F1 drivers..
This is not when the season "was over" and Ferrari would have shifted focus to Massa. No, this was from Silverstone where Kimi was tied with Massa in points, and as Ferrari's reigning champion, clearly the number 1 driver.
Its not that the car has been the fault - Massa has essentially tied Hamilton (lost only one point over 5 races to Lewis).
WHAT HAPPENED ?
is he injured ? Ferrari just re-signed him as the highest-paid racer in the world, knowing he won't be winning this season. What is wrong with Kimi. A lousy 9 points over five races when - rookies like Nelson Piquet Jr and Sebastian Vettel outscore him during these races..
Obviously Kimi has been falling behind since then. But how had is bad. Since Silverstone, in 5 races, here is how they have performed (in order of best to worst, down to Kimi)
Best Hamilton 30 points (ave 6 per race)
2nd Massa 29 points (ave 5.8 per race)
3rd Kovalainen 27 points (ave 5.4 per race)
4th Kubica 18 points (ave 3.6 per race)
5th Heidfeld 17 points (ave 3.4 per race)
6th Alonso 15 points (ave 3 per race)
7th Vettel 12 points (ave 2.4 per race)
8th - tie
Glock 10 points (ave 2 per race) and
Piquet Jr 10 points (ave 2 per race)
10th Kimi Raikkonen 9 points !!! (ave 1.8 per race)
Since he had clawed up to tie the championship lead by Silverstone, and was poised to run away with his second championship, Kimi was not just weaker than his two tied title-rivals, or weaker than the three other valid championship contenders. Kimi has scored less points than NINE other F1 drivers..
This is not when the season "was over" and Ferrari would have shifted focus to Massa. No, this was from Silverstone where Kimi was tied with Massa in points, and as Ferrari's reigning champion, clearly the number 1 driver.
Its not that the car has been the fault - Massa has essentially tied Hamilton (lost only one point over 5 races to Lewis).
WHAT HAPPENED ?
is he injured ? Ferrari just re-signed him as the highest-paid racer in the world, knowing he won't be winning this season. What is wrong with Kimi. A lousy 9 points over five races when - rookies like Nelson Piquet Jr and Sebastian Vettel outscore him during these races..
Vettel ! Another new winner and first win for another team in Monza
And here is my utter and unreserved congratulations to Sebastian Vettel. Yes, it was a fluke race, the rain making the qualifying a lottery. Still, someone had to drive fastest in that, and Sebastian did.
Then it is not easy to take your first pole position and turn that into a win. Again, Vettel was supremely lucky, in that this was an extremely wet race - to start behind the pace car (no risk of anyone passing him at the start) and also - a drying race, meaning that drivers behind him would have to try on the intermediate tyres before him and thus no risk for him - the opposite would be the total lottery, if it was a dry race getting wetter and anyone behind him might switch at the right moment, and then overtake him. But that won't happen with the drying race as long as his team was vigilant, he held the lead, and they brought him in at the right moment for intermediate tyres.
And of course the biggest benefit, being able to drive without the spray, in a race with a clear view.
The Toro Rosso, the junior team of Red Bull, won a race before Red Bull had. And young Sebastian Vettel did everything perfectly right, and made no mistakes, and won. Briliant. Congratulations. I would have hoped this to have happened back when the team was still a Minardi, but even so, this is magnificent for all the backmarker teams, and any underdogs in any race.
Beatiful. I hope that your career Sebastian will be long and have many many wins in it.
A funny coincidence. The podium at Monza had actually the three first-time winners this year. Vettel the newest winner was first; Heikki the previous first-time winner was second. And Kubica the first of the first-time winners of this season, was third. So the podium was also the celebration of the new talent of F1. Funny to think, that Lewis Hamilton (the likely new champion this season) is no longer new talent ha-ha..
Talking about Lewis. Amazing. He started 15th. He had to take an unscheduled pit stop (bad strategy choice, one-stop strategy, but forced to make second pit stop to change tyrees for intermediate tyres). Yet he finished seventh. Kimi... started 14th, had no problem with pit stops, and finished 9th. Who is the best driver right now? It is quite clearly Hamilton.
And yes, I'm a Finn. But come on, Heikki Kovalainen started second - behind a Toro Rosso of all cars - and finished second. I think I heard the commentator count that Lewis had passed a total of 15 cars during the race. Heikki in the same car was unable to pass one rookie driver in a Toro Rosso.. There is a significant difference in class between these two drivers.
And Massa. I am not impressed. He was there stuck in mid-field, started 6th, finished 6th. Made no progress at all.
So yes, now its a direct race between Hamilton and Massa for the championship. One point between them, Lewis in the lead. It is certainly exciting.~
But more than that, we've had the enormous delight, of six different winners, in four different cars, and three first-time driver winners, and two first-time car manufacturer winners this season. And we still have 4 races to go, including the night race of Singapore, and the often wet Japan and often dramatic Brazil to go.
It is a great season, one for the ages. I am just trying to get over the fact that Kimi is no longer in the hunt for it this season (unless some silly error like Massa and Lewis crashing into each other in the next race or something)
Then it is not easy to take your first pole position and turn that into a win. Again, Vettel was supremely lucky, in that this was an extremely wet race - to start behind the pace car (no risk of anyone passing him at the start) and also - a drying race, meaning that drivers behind him would have to try on the intermediate tyres before him and thus no risk for him - the opposite would be the total lottery, if it was a dry race getting wetter and anyone behind him might switch at the right moment, and then overtake him. But that won't happen with the drying race as long as his team was vigilant, he held the lead, and they brought him in at the right moment for intermediate tyres.
And of course the biggest benefit, being able to drive without the spray, in a race with a clear view.
The Toro Rosso, the junior team of Red Bull, won a race before Red Bull had. And young Sebastian Vettel did everything perfectly right, and made no mistakes, and won. Briliant. Congratulations. I would have hoped this to have happened back when the team was still a Minardi, but even so, this is magnificent for all the backmarker teams, and any underdogs in any race.
Beatiful. I hope that your career Sebastian will be long and have many many wins in it.
A funny coincidence. The podium at Monza had actually the three first-time winners this year. Vettel the newest winner was first; Heikki the previous first-time winner was second. And Kubica the first of the first-time winners of this season, was third. So the podium was also the celebration of the new talent of F1. Funny to think, that Lewis Hamilton (the likely new champion this season) is no longer new talent ha-ha..
Talking about Lewis. Amazing. He started 15th. He had to take an unscheduled pit stop (bad strategy choice, one-stop strategy, but forced to make second pit stop to change tyrees for intermediate tyres). Yet he finished seventh. Kimi... started 14th, had no problem with pit stops, and finished 9th. Who is the best driver right now? It is quite clearly Hamilton.
And yes, I'm a Finn. But come on, Heikki Kovalainen started second - behind a Toro Rosso of all cars - and finished second. I think I heard the commentator count that Lewis had passed a total of 15 cars during the race. Heikki in the same car was unable to pass one rookie driver in a Toro Rosso.. There is a significant difference in class between these two drivers.
And Massa. I am not impressed. He was there stuck in mid-field, started 6th, finished 6th. Made no progress at all.
So yes, now its a direct race between Hamilton and Massa for the championship. One point between them, Lewis in the lead. It is certainly exciting.~
But more than that, we've had the enormous delight, of six different winners, in four different cars, and three first-time driver winners, and two first-time car manufacturer winners this season. And we still have 4 races to go, including the night race of Singapore, and the often wet Japan and often dramatic Brazil to go.
It is a great season, one for the ages. I am just trying to get over the fact that Kimi is no longer in the hunt for it this season (unless some silly error like Massa and Lewis crashing into each other in the next race or something)
Fate can be so cruel, Spa review, Kimi's hopes crash in late rain
This was the cruel race for Kimi's hopes.
The reigning champion had just had misfortune with the previous race with his engine failing. Had he finished fourth there, he'd have been 8 points behind Lewis and just 2 points behind Massa, going into his favourite race, in Spa. As it was, after the blown engine in Valencia, Kimi was 13 points behind Hamilton and 7 points behind his team mate. After the Belgian GP in Spa, there would only be 5 races left. So if Kimi intended to catch up to his team mate, and show a real challenge for the championship to the end of the season - and get his team to support him as the number 1 driver - this was his must-do race. His must-win race.
But going into Spa, since Kimi started winning, he had won each of the race held in Spa (it is not held every year) ie three times. Thus neither of his rivals had won there. Spa is considered a driver's circuit demanding very brave and precise driving with real chances of overtaking. Just what the champion needed to re-ignite his championship chances. Incidentially, it was now 9 races since Kimi last won (in Spain, at Barcelona)
So, the qualifying did not go to plan. Kimi was down in 3rd position, with Massa in second and Hamilton at Pole Position. And my first comment here - Kimi has been horrendous in qualifying all season. Very much of the race is the qualifying position. Massa has outqualified him better than 2:1..
So, it was a wet race. Right at the start, Kimi takes a bold start and manages to pass Massa on the first lap. He's up to second. Then while the track is still very wet and slippery, Hamilton has a spin, and Kimi gets to his side, and then because Kimi has the better momentum, he out-drags Lewis and takes the lead. Then pushing hard, Kimi builds about a 10 second lead.
This is just what we wanted, a top driver, overtaking, brave moves, slippery, dangerous race, and a magnificent result, which would bring the title race even more close. Had the race finished with Kimi first, Lewis second and Massa third, the championship would have become 76 for Lewis, 70 for Massa and 67 for Kimi. He'd have been 11 points from the lead, with 5 more races to go. Kimi certainly would have know these numbers in his head, as he was comfortably leading the race.
Lewis admitted in post-race interviews that he thought he could not catch Kimi. But the racer instinct in Hamilton rose to the occasion. Lewis gradually worked the gap and towards the end of the race, he had caught Kimi.
So towards the end of the race they expected rain. It arrived four laps to the end. Lewis made a courageous overtaking move - which Kimi partially blocked - which forced Lewis to cut a chicane. He gave the position back to Raikkonen, but right afterwards, Hamilton attacked the Finn and passed the Ferrari in the next turn. This move would later be penalized.
Nonetheless, in the racing situation, Hamilton was now ahead of Raikkonen, leading the race once again. It did not last long. As the rain got heavier, the track turned into a skating rink, and lewis spun, Kimi passed him. Not a moment later, Kimi spun, and Lewis took to the lead again. Then - the cruel of cruellest fate - Kimi crashed.
Of all the cars at the rain in the end, only Kimi crashed. It seemed like fate had decided to crush Kimi's hopes in a most dramatic way. First to let him pass both of his rivals, and lead the race. Then with a couple of laps to go, take it all away.
As it ended, Lewis won, and brought his points total to 80. Massa finished second to 72 points. But Kimi received no points, and left Belgium with 57 points. 23 points behind the championship leader and - painfully - 15 points behind his team mate.
This was the de-facto end to Kimi's champhionship chances as Ferrari has to shift focus now to Massa for the championship. It did make me particularly sad, personally, that the brave race by Kimi did not get its just reward. If he was to crash, then not on this track, not after he had passed both Massa and Lewis to take the lead. This was crushing...
Now, as to the championship, its now a two-man race. I do admire Lewis's style and courage. He reminds me of Montoya when he joined F1, and seemed to invent overtaking places where they were not supposed to exist. If there were points given for overtaking, Lewis would be in the lead of that champhionship too. If I can't have Kimi (or Heikki) lead the championship, then certainly Hamilton is the most amazing driver out there, and I wish the champhionship to him.
Sorry Kimi, two-in-a-row was not to be. I truly hope Kimi is not thinking of retiring, but equally, this season, we haven't seen that Kimi we saw for so many years in the McLarens and now last year at Ferrari. He has not really pushed this year. I don't know why..
PS - the stewards penalized Lewis 25 sec for the advantage he got cutting chicane. I thought that was very rough penalty for Hamilton, but I also recall the rule was perhaps at some point, that you give back your gained position, and wait until after the next turn, to attack the car in front of you again.. if this was the rule (if I remember correctly) then the penalty is fair - for Lewis. It won't bring Kimi's broken car (or lost season) back.. McLaren have appealed the decision and we should know in a few weeks or so..
The reigning champion had just had misfortune with the previous race with his engine failing. Had he finished fourth there, he'd have been 8 points behind Lewis and just 2 points behind Massa, going into his favourite race, in Spa. As it was, after the blown engine in Valencia, Kimi was 13 points behind Hamilton and 7 points behind his team mate. After the Belgian GP in Spa, there would only be 5 races left. So if Kimi intended to catch up to his team mate, and show a real challenge for the championship to the end of the season - and get his team to support him as the number 1 driver - this was his must-do race. His must-win race.
But going into Spa, since Kimi started winning, he had won each of the race held in Spa (it is not held every year) ie three times. Thus neither of his rivals had won there. Spa is considered a driver's circuit demanding very brave and precise driving with real chances of overtaking. Just what the champion needed to re-ignite his championship chances. Incidentially, it was now 9 races since Kimi last won (in Spain, at Barcelona)
So, the qualifying did not go to plan. Kimi was down in 3rd position, with Massa in second and Hamilton at Pole Position. And my first comment here - Kimi has been horrendous in qualifying all season. Very much of the race is the qualifying position. Massa has outqualified him better than 2:1..
So, it was a wet race. Right at the start, Kimi takes a bold start and manages to pass Massa on the first lap. He's up to second. Then while the track is still very wet and slippery, Hamilton has a spin, and Kimi gets to his side, and then because Kimi has the better momentum, he out-drags Lewis and takes the lead. Then pushing hard, Kimi builds about a 10 second lead.
This is just what we wanted, a top driver, overtaking, brave moves, slippery, dangerous race, and a magnificent result, which would bring the title race even more close. Had the race finished with Kimi first, Lewis second and Massa third, the championship would have become 76 for Lewis, 70 for Massa and 67 for Kimi. He'd have been 11 points from the lead, with 5 more races to go. Kimi certainly would have know these numbers in his head, as he was comfortably leading the race.
Lewis admitted in post-race interviews that he thought he could not catch Kimi. But the racer instinct in Hamilton rose to the occasion. Lewis gradually worked the gap and towards the end of the race, he had caught Kimi.
So towards the end of the race they expected rain. It arrived four laps to the end. Lewis made a courageous overtaking move - which Kimi partially blocked - which forced Lewis to cut a chicane. He gave the position back to Raikkonen, but right afterwards, Hamilton attacked the Finn and passed the Ferrari in the next turn. This move would later be penalized.
Nonetheless, in the racing situation, Hamilton was now ahead of Raikkonen, leading the race once again. It did not last long. As the rain got heavier, the track turned into a skating rink, and lewis spun, Kimi passed him. Not a moment later, Kimi spun, and Lewis took to the lead again. Then - the cruel of cruellest fate - Kimi crashed.
Of all the cars at the rain in the end, only Kimi crashed. It seemed like fate had decided to crush Kimi's hopes in a most dramatic way. First to let him pass both of his rivals, and lead the race. Then with a couple of laps to go, take it all away.
As it ended, Lewis won, and brought his points total to 80. Massa finished second to 72 points. But Kimi received no points, and left Belgium with 57 points. 23 points behind the championship leader and - painfully - 15 points behind his team mate.
This was the de-facto end to Kimi's champhionship chances as Ferrari has to shift focus now to Massa for the championship. It did make me particularly sad, personally, that the brave race by Kimi did not get its just reward. If he was to crash, then not on this track, not after he had passed both Massa and Lewis to take the lead. This was crushing...
Now, as to the championship, its now a two-man race. I do admire Lewis's style and courage. He reminds me of Montoya when he joined F1, and seemed to invent overtaking places where they were not supposed to exist. If there were points given for overtaking, Lewis would be in the lead of that champhionship too. If I can't have Kimi (or Heikki) lead the championship, then certainly Hamilton is the most amazing driver out there, and I wish the champhionship to him.
Sorry Kimi, two-in-a-row was not to be. I truly hope Kimi is not thinking of retiring, but equally, this season, we haven't seen that Kimi we saw for so many years in the McLarens and now last year at Ferrari. He has not really pushed this year. I don't know why..
PS - the stewards penalized Lewis 25 sec for the advantage he got cutting chicane. I thought that was very rough penalty for Hamilton, but I also recall the rule was perhaps at some point, that you give back your gained position, and wait until after the next turn, to attack the car in front of you again.. if this was the rule (if I remember correctly) then the penalty is fair - for Lewis. It won't bring Kimi's broken car (or lost season) back.. McLaren have appealed the decision and we should know in a few weeks or so..
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