Fun F1

Could the suspension of Renault for the next round of the championship pave the way for Fernando Alonso to take to the grid in Felipe Massa’s Ferrari for his home grand prix? Suspending the whole team seems a little harsh, so maybe it’s a ploy to guarantee what would be a massive headline (Alonso to Ferrari for the European Grand Prix).

Other candidates for the 2nd Ferrari seat include:

• Michael Schumacher – again, that would be another huge headline.
• Sebastien Bordais – he has the same manager as Felipe Massa, Nicolas Todt (Jean Todt’s son). He also has experience of the Ferrari engine through Toro Rosso.
• Marc Gene and Luca Badoer – Ferrari test drivers.
• Any others..?

While the Hungarian race was very interesting, I can’t help but think about Felipe Massa and his freak accident on Saturday. The way he was struck in the head by the spring was sickening and I really thought the worst when seeing the replay. Thankfully he seems to be stable, but I don’t think we’ll know just how bad things were until he comes out of the induced coma. Early reports suggest he’ll miss the rest of the season. In any case let’s hope he makes a full recovery. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Felipe.

Now to the race itself…

Lewis Hamilton – Unstoppable. He looked like he would have been fast in the last round and this round confirmed that. Great drive.

Kimi Raikkonen – Bit of a surprise here. Both McLaren and Ferrari seem to have had a nice surge in performance at almost the same time. Kimi was lucky not to be penalised for his swerving at the race start – but I guess there were so many cars around that their movements influenced his (as opposed to Mark Webber in the previous round who swerved for seemingly no reason).

Mark Webber – Another solid drive. These podium places will certainly help especially as teammate Sebastian Vettel keeps having DNFs.

Nico Rosberg / Williams – Looks like Williams has decided that if the “great” teams like Ferrari and McLaren are going to go faster, they should be on the list too Shame that Nico will change teams next year. Or will he http://canadianviagras.com/pill/kamagra-oral-jelly-canada/?

Heikki Kovalainen – I haven’t wrote about this guy for so long I almost forgot how to spell his name hehe Seriously though, his result shows how far McLaren has come. But it also shows how far behind his teammate he is.

Timo Glock – Keeps making a name for himself. Bye bye Jarno Trulli next year?

Jenson Button / Brawn – For a while I didn’t think the prediction that they’d be beaten later in the year would come true, but now they’re going backwards very fast..

Sebastian Vettel – What a shame he’s had 4 DNFs. He could have started to put pressure on Button by now otherwise. We’ll just have to leave it up to Mark Webber to give the championship a little bit of excitement.

Sebastien Buemi – Even though the result doesn’t say much, Buemi’s performance in qualifying is worth a mention. This guy is very very good. As for new boy Jaime Alguersuari, he didn’t exactly shine on debut did he?

Fernando Alonso – Probably would have been good for about 5th or 6th if it wasn’t for his tyre coming off.

KERS – Good on McLaren and Ferrari for sticking with KERS. Looks like they’re going to have a big advantage at the start of every grand prix now that they’re getting on top of their system. I agree with Martin Brundle – next year they need to either mandate KERS be used, or get rid of it completely. It seems like a technology that could be good in road cars, so hopefully it’s made compulsory next year – but that’s unlikely.

A massive congratulations to Mark Webber on winning the German Grand Prix. By doing so, he’s the first Australian to win a Formula One race in 28 years (last Aussie winner was Alan Jones in 1981).

Not only did Mark win, but he completely dominated the race. That’s a huge achievement against a teammate like Sebastian Vettel and to do it for a team that isn’t traditionally a “top team” is even sweeter.

The points:

Mark Webber – Apart from a stupid swerve at the start that gave him a penalty he deserved, he was simply brilliant. I didn’t think of Mark as a championship contender, but now I do. Let’s hope his bad luck doesn’t stop his roll

Sebastian Vettel – Strong race although for him to finish second puts Mark Webber’s pace into perspective – despite a drive through penalty Mark was still that much ahead at the end of the race.

Felipe Massa – Felipe continues to impress me immensely. He’s making his teammate Kimi Raikkonen look ordinary. And I’m sure Kimi is still a very quick driver. Good drive.

Nico Rosberg – Rosberg and Williams certainly do look to be getting stronger lately.. A fairly anonymous race resulting in a very solid 4th place

Rubens Barrichello – Rubens must have the 2nd worst luck in F1 after Mark Webber. Although even if he wasn’t forced to a 3 stop strategy because of the fueling problem I don’t think he could have touched Webber still.

Jenson Button – How quickly the tide turns. It’ll be very interesting to have another hot race to see if the Brawn cars are suddenly quick again. Otherwise Jenson will have to worry about not only being beaten by Red Bull cars but by the ol’ Ferrari and McLarens amongst others.

Fernando Alonso – Did some Michael Schumacher magic tricks All the race he’s running in 11th or 12th then bang, 5th place! And some very very fast laps to boot!

Kimi vs Sutil incident – A racing incident, but if you had to lay blame it looks like Sutil slid into Kimi so one cross against Adrian’s name

Webber vs Barrichello start – Clearly Webber was a bit too agressive this time. The on-board shots made it look like a solid thump against Barrichello. Although the non-on-board stuff looked fairly light and he might have got away with it if it wasn’t for the on-boards

In Summary – Brawn starting to slip a little. McLaren and Ferrari still clawing away. Red Bull at least on par with Brawn (some circuits suit one car, some suit the other.. and interesting how the Brawn car can run in dirty air better than the Red Bull)

I know everything doesn’t have to be symmetrical on a car, but during the British Grand Prix I noticed how completely different the 2 sides of McLaren’s exhaust were.

Now there’s nothing wrong with trying new things and setting up a car to be baised for a particular direction, but I think McLaren needs to get to basics with their car. The 2 different exhaust exits are symbolic of their problems. Forget the fancy stuff – just keep the car simple and work on making it fast.

Mark Webber demonstrated what the HANS (Head And Neck Support) device is useful for during the British Grand Prix weekend…