Fun F1

EDIT (1 Feb 2009): This post was made in April 2008 people! YES, we know it’s an older car modified to some 2009 specs (obviously not all the specs). And YES, we think the realy 2009 cars are ugly as hell!

With F1 testing resuming this week, it looks like we’ve been given a sneak peek of the 2009 grid courtesy of McLaren (picture from gpupdate.net):

I have to say, the car looks a lot better. While the rear wing is technically much less effective, it’s cleaner, and thus looks faster (important for the fans ). The front wing is still a bit ugly, but the limited flip-ups again make the car look cleaner svenskacasinon24.se.

Best feature all up though has to be the return of slick tyres!!

Caitlin had a great theory that the reason Kimi Raikkonen never performs well in Bahrain is because he doesn’t get to enjoy any champagne after the race, as alcohol is banned there. This means there’s absolutely no motivation for him to do well there

We managed to find a picture on the web that suggests Ferrari have been testing some new fuel just for Kimi:

Every litre promised to Kimi after the race is said to be worth up to half a second per lap!

There were 2 standout things about the Bahrain Grand Prix. First was the fantastic performance of Robert Kubica and BMW in general. Second was the fall of Lewis Hamilton (and McLaren in general too). While Ferrari continues to be a benchmark up the front, McLaren seems to be slowly slipping into reach of BMW.

Before we get to the points, a quick video from YouTube (be quick before the FIA take it down ) of the start of the race from the view of various drivers. You can clearly see Hamilton’s wing break up well before he rear-ended Alonso:

Felipe Massa – Well, the guy won the race so we have to put him first on the list of points I guess. He did a great job in qualifying and in the race. Bahrain is certainly a track he likes and when he likes a track he’s very hard to beat. For me, there was nothing spectacular about the performance though – but I think that’s because there were so many other highlights in the race and the points tally still leaves Felipe behind par in the champsionship. Still, full credit to him.

Robert Kubica – Very happy to see the Pole on pole. We saw pole position coming for Robert in the last round, but didn’t expect it so fast! His start was a bit poor but he still drove a brilliant race for BMW. Next box on the list is a race win…

Lewis Hamilton – 3 words – lots of mistakes. Crashing in free practice. Messing up the start. Crashing into Fernando Alonso (possibly crashing into someone earlier to dislodge his front wing?). The final result really was worthy of his race weekend (sorry Lewis fans).

Giancarlo Fisichella – Fisi has impressed so much at Force India. He looks like he’s driving better (more inspired) than he did at Renault and he’s certainly punching above his weight.

Jarno Trulli – Another ex-Renault driver doing fantastic work in an under-performing car. Although Toyota certainly does seem to be making some good progress.

Martin Brundle – I find it amazing that someone who has actually raced in F1 would jump up and down and accuse Fernando Alonso of brake-testing Lewis Hamilton when the fault was clearly with Lewis (or at least clear enough to not jump to conclusions without data). Alonso didn’t slow suddenly, Lewis just misjudged where to put his car. Martin is probably the best commentator I’ve heard, but sometimes he sinks down to James Allen’s level. 

Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd place is normally good in most peoples books, but Kimi didn’t look strong at all in Bahrain. It’s the reverse of his teammate. Felipe Massa performs great in Bahrain whereas Kimi always seems to struggle. Again though, 2nds and 3rds aren’t really bad but you just feel Kimi could perform better here.

Nick Heidfeld – Not so strong in qualifying but always strong in the races. A fantastic result for BMW.

Heikki Kovalainen – One minute this guy seems like he could improve to be a star, then the next minute he seems very average.

Jenson Button vs David Coulthard – Face it Jenson, the accident was completely your fault.

The Malaysian Grand Prix confirmed what many had suspected during winter testing – Ferrari have a lot of pace in their car.

Kimi Raikkonen – A perfect drive from the Finn after making a few mistakes in the previous round. The high point of his race was a super quick lap near his pit stop to get him track position ahead of his teammate after the stops. The highlight for me personally was what he said about champagne after spraying some in his eyes on the podium – “we should put it in the mouth not in the eye”. Classic Kimi

Felipe Massa – 2 rounds and more than 2 mistakes. You can see why people are starting to question his position at Ferrari. But with that said, he did do great in qualifying. Overall though I think he’s one driver who is really struggling with the lack of traction control unfortunately.

Lewis Hamilton – Didn’t look that comfortable most of the weekend but still ended up with a fairly good result given the bad things that happened.

Robert Kubica – Another super performance. This guy is getting so close to a pole (sic) position or even a race win…

Fernando Alonso – Soldiering on.

Heikki Kovalainen – Many people were very impressed with Heikki in Malaysia. He certainly is improving quickly so will be exciting to see how he shapes up to Lewis when they’re both feeling good about the car. Is it just me or does he have similar mannerisms to Michael Schumacher in press conferences…?

Jarno Trulli – Wow. Glad to finally see some rewards for all that money Toyota have put into F1. Now we have to get Honda up to speed too…

Nick Heidfeld – Not too bad from Nick, until you compare it to his teammate’s results…

Mark Webber – Did well to keep Fernando behind him. Expect to see more good results from Red Bull and Toro Rosso this year.

We’ve had a late start with our first GP review for the year – just like the Melbourne Grand Prix itself which started at 3:30 PM local time. We were fortunate to be live at the event and the recovery process has only just finished (I pity the drivers in that heat!)   Our summary points below have the benefit of hindsight, but we’ll try to remain objective:

Lewis Hamilton – Unstoppable. Clinical. A really great performance.

Kimi Raikkonen – Very unlucky in qualifying. Had great race pace and pulled off lots of great passing moves. But he also made some mistakes, so he doesn’t get top marks for this round.

Felipe Massa – Very lucky the front of his Ferrari is very strong after making a mistake in the first corner and sliding off. As for his move on David Coulthard, it looked 50/50. It was somewhat ambitious, but at the same time David could have squeezed him a little less. Just a racing incident.

Heikki Kovalainen – Somewhat embarrassing that he’s gone from a mid-field car to one of the top cars, then finished behind one of the mid-field cars he used to drive… But I guess the McLaren pit lane speed limiter is partly to blame..? The thing is though, the same sort of thing happened to Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and has happened to McLaren drivers a few times since. They all seem to get a box full of neutrals, then suddenly the car is back to life and continues through the race like nothing happened. What gives?

Fernando Alonso – Very lucky to end up where he did but he did well to put the car in a position to take advantage of others misfortune. Looks like he’ll barely get a podium this year though (maybe Monaco?).

Nico Rosberg – Williams looked very quick in Australia and Nico finally got a result he deserves

Nick Heidfeld – Great to see another good driver getting results he deserves

Sebastien Bourdais – Performed better than I expected. I mean, with all his Champcar championships we know the guy can drive, but he just seemed to be another cursed driver when it came to F1. Thankfully he proved us wrong in the first race.

Sebastian Vettel – This guy was magic in qualifying. This guy continues to impress us. We’ve always rated Sebastian Vettel and still believe he’s a big name for the future (as do Ferrari now it’s rumoured )

3:30 Start – Starting the Grand Prix later for the benefit of European audiences was brilliant not only for them, but because it meant that half was through the race we got to enjoy some shade over our grand stand!   Qualifying started at the normal time the day before and the sun was brutal. So thank you to the organisers.

Melbourne Grand Prix in General – I’ve never been to the Melbourne Grand Prix before and I was extremely impressed. I’ve been to the Adelaide Grand Prix and the Indy 300 on the Gold Coast. I was much more impressed with the Melbourne GP than I was with the Adelaide GP. The facilities were extremely clean and best of all the transport was a dream! Even after the race when the crowds were at their worst it took less than half an hour to get on a tram to the city. Very very impressed (I was expecting to be disappointed but was pleasantly surprised)