Category Archives: Motorsport

FIA launches Formula E in Beijing

Beijing – Saturday marked the inaugural FIA Formula E race. Formula E is the FIA’s attempt at expanding international motor sport into the up and coming world of electric cars. The 2014-2015 Formula E season has 10 rounds, with races announced to be run in China, Malaysia, Uruguay, Argentina, the United States, Monaco, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Saturday’s opening round featured 10 teams of 2 drivers each. Among the drivers and teams are a fair number of famous names from Formula 1, including former Formula 1 drivers Charles Pic, Nelson Piquet, Jr., Lucas di Grassi, Franck Montagny, Karun Chandhok, Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Stéphane Sarrazin, Jamie Alguersuari, Nick Heidfeld, Takuma Sato, Sébastien Buemi, Jarno Trulli, and Bruno Senna. Of the drivers yet to enter Formula 1 on the Formula E grid, perhaps the most notable is Nicolas Prost, whose father is 4-time Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost, and two female drivers, Briton Katherine Legge and Italian Michela Cerruti.

Formula E differs from Formula 1 in many other ways. To begin, Formula E is entirely run by electricity rather than by petrol as F1. Likewise, FE requires that drivers remain in the pits for a minimum pit-stop time. That being said, FE drivers have to switch cars at their pit stops, reentering the field in a newly charged car.

The two elements of the race that I found most frustrating were 1. the Beijing street circuit was too narrow in most places for passing, and 2. the FE cars sounded like a cross between a jet engine and a child’s remote controlled car. At first annoying, I found myself drowning out the buzzing of 20 electric cars through paying closer attention to the beauty of their design, the fine curvature of the fuselages.

The race finished with a dramatic crash between then 1st place Nicolas Prost and 2nd place Nick Heidfeld, resulting in the latter being valuted by a kerb into a set of high barriers at the last corner, flipping his car upside-down, leaving the German finishing the race on his head. The race was won by Brazilian Lucas di Grassi of Audi Sport ABT. The Brazilian finished the 25 lap race with a time of 53:23.413.

The first retirement of the race came from one of the biggest names in motor sport, Bruno Senna, nephew of Formula 1 legend Aryton Senna. Bruno collided with another car on Lap 1, forcing his early retirement.

Another difference from Formula 1 is the awarding of points for earning pole, and driving the fastest lap, given to Nicolas Prost and Takuma Sato respectively. Likewise, according to the Formula E website, Daniel Abt, Jamie Alguersuari, and Katherine Legge were handed 57-second penalties for exceeding the allowed battery usage limit of 28kW.

In general, I do recommend Formula E to my Formula 1 readers. It is quite a spectacle to see. And considering that this sport is in its infancy, I’d watch just to be a part of history. Formula E is broadcast in the United States on Fox Sports 1, in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland on ITV 4 and BT Sport. Television coverage will be provided in 80 territories including Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia by Fox Sports. Canal + diffuse la Formule E en France.

The 2014-2015 inaugural Formula E calendar is as follows:

  1. China – Beijing ePrix – 13 September 2014.
  2. Malaysia – Putrajaya ePrix – 22 November 2014.
  3. Uruguay – Punta del Este ePrix – 13 December 2014.
  4. Argentina – Buenos Aires ePrix – 10 January 2015.
  5. TBA – TBA – 14 February 2015.
  6. United States – Miami ePrix – 14 March 2015.
  7. United States – Long Beach ePrix – 4 April 2015.
  8. Monaco – Monte Carlo ePrix – 9 May 2015.
  9. Germany – Berlin ePrix – 30 May 2015.
  10. United Kingdom – London ePrix – 27 June 2015.

Mercedes, Williams lock out Top 4 at Monza

Monza, Italy – Monza can be described simply by one word: fast. The 53 lap grand prix tested not only the cars, but also the physical and mental abilities of the drivers. From the starting grid Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg took the lead, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton having an ERS problem that put him down from 1st to 4th as he was passed by McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Felipe Massa. By Lap 3, Hamilton began to battle Massa for 3rd, forcing Massa to overtake Magnussen for 2nd on Lap 5.

Lap 6 saw the first retirement of the race as Marussia’s Max Chilton went into the wall at the second chicane. By Lap 8, the general theme of the race was beginning to unfold with the standings as: 1. Rosberg, 2. Massa, 3. Hamilton, 4. Magnussen, 5. Vettel, 6. Button, 7. Alonso, 8. Pérez, 9. Räikkönen, 10. Bottas. The pack of drivers fighting from 4th to 11th generally stayed quite close together throughout today’s race, resulting in some fantastic overtaking.

Rosberg made his first major mistake of the race on Lap 9 when he missed Turn 1, choosing to weave between the obstacles on the escape-way. This soon was capitalised by Hamilton’s overtaking of Massa on Lap 10, leaving only Rosberg between the Briton and 1st place. Both Hamilton and Massa were quite smart to avoid colliding, as both drivers are working for top points this weekend. By Lap 11, Hamilton had set the fastest lap of the race, narrowing Rosberg’s lead down to 2.1 seconds.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas’ start was hardly what anyone at Williams was hoping for. Having fallen back from 3rd to 10th, it took until Lap 13 for Bottas to overtake his fellow Finn Kimi Räikkönen for 9th, after which Bottas began making his way past Pérez, Alonso, Button, and Magnussen taking 4th on Lap 21, which he would hold for the remainder of the race.

By Lap 17, tyre degradation was becoming a major factor in lap timing, leaving many with no choice but to pit. By this point, Hamilton was a mere 1.4 seconds behind Rosberg, ever closing the gap. The first to pit for fresh tyres was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who did so on Lap 19. Choosing the hards, Vettel resumed his race, taking 5th from Magnussen upon track reentry.

On Lap 22, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso pitted together, rejoining the field in 9th and 11th respectively. Lap 24 saw Sergio Pérez and Felipe Massa pit. Pérez rejoined in the middle of the pack, whilst Massa returned to find himself in 5th. Rosberg pitted on Lap 25, followed by his teammate Hamilton on Lap 26.

At Lap 28, Lewis Hamilton began to put more and more pressure on his German teammate, taking the race lead on Lap 29 as Rosberg cracked, missing Turn 1 yet again. At Lap 30, the local Italian fans found themselves aghast as Ferrari’s superstar driver Fernando Alonso was forced to retire at Turn 1 due to an engine shutdown. At Lap 31, an equally daring Valtteri Bottas attempted a pass on Magnussen, but to no avail as Magnussen forced Bottas off the track, resulting in a 5-second stop and go penalty for the young Dane.

By Lap 32, Hamilton had increased his lead over Nico Rosberg to 2.9 seconds with Felipe Massa a good 10 seconds behind Hamilton and Rosberg in 3rd. In 4th was Sebastian Vettel. Laps 39-42 saw an excellent battle between former McLaren teammates Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo joining in the fun and games as well. Pérez won the duel at Lap 42, however Ricciardo had already left the pair in the dust, passing Magnussen at 6th to take on the Australian’s 4-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel for 5th. Lap 47 saw the Aussie make his move on the German, making quite a spectacle. No doubt Ricicardo will be heard from again in the years to come.

At Lap 51, Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez had a puncture after clipping the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. This was soon followed by the hair raising run off of Toro Rosso’s Russian Daniil Kvyat at Turn 1 on Lap 52 when his breaks failed, resulting in the Russian running far off the track into the grass. Amazingly though he was able to return to the track and finish the race with decent points.

The race finished with Hamilton taking the win followed by Rosberg in 2nd, Massa in 3rd, and Bottas in 4th. They were followed by Ricciardo (5), Vettel (6), Pérez (7), Button (8), Räikkönen (9), and Magnussen (10). With today’s results, Williams has jumped Ferrari in the constructor’s championship to take 3rd behind Mercedes and Red Bull.

Formula 1 returns on the 21st from the famed night race in Singapore.

Ricciardo takes Belgium as Mercedes suffers from internal troubles

Spa-Francochamps – Formula 1 returned this weekend from its Summer Break with a roar. The race in Belgium, which swiftly broke away from the plans set out by the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, was quick to be taken up by their rivals at Red Bull, leaving Australian Daniel Ricciardo to claim Sunday’s race victory.

After dominating both practise and qualifying, the two Mercedes drivers locked out the front row of the starting grid, leaving the possibility of yet another Mercedes 1-2 seemingly more of a probability. However, with the start of the race Red Bull shot into action, with 4-time champion Sebastian Vettel briefly taking 2nd on Lap 1, splitting the two Mercedes. However Vettel lost his place following an unfortunate loss of control, which led him off track for a moment too long.

Meanwhile, the Ferrari camp found themselves in serious trouble with the FIA following Fernando Alonso’s pit engineers staying out on the starting grid past the 15 second warning mark that began the pacing lap. Alonso would later be penalised with a 5-second stop-and-go penalty, which he served soon there after.

Perhaps the biggest incident of the race came quite early on at Lap 2, when the two Mercedes drivers made contact whilst German Nico Rosberg attempted a pass on Briton Lewis Hamilton at Les Combes, a chicane in the track. Rosberg’s front left wing made contact with Hamilton’s rear right tyre, resulting in the tyre going flat and Rosberg needing a new wing and nose. Unfortunately for Hamilton, his tyre damage also resulted in severe damage to the floor of his car, which caused the 2008 World Champion to retire on Lap 39.

As the race progressed, the problems for Ferrari’s Alonso kept coming, with the penalty bringing him back out onto the track behind rookie Danish driver Kevin Magnussen of McLaren, who kept the veteran Spaniard at bay for the majority of the race. In the last five laps, the Spaniard and Dane found themselves engulfed in a four way battle with Magnussen’s British teammate Jenson Button and German Sebastian Vettel. In the end Alonso suffered front wing damage, which left him finishing in 8th, with Vettel coming in 7th, Magnussen in 6th and Button in 5th. As a result of his blocking, Magnussen was handed a 20-second penalty and 2 driver penalty points by the FIA following Sunday’s race. These will come into effect on 7 September at Monza.

The race concluded with Ricciardo on top, with Rosberg in 2nd, and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in 3rd. Off the podium, but scoring points were Ferrari’s Finnish veteran Kimi Räïkkönen (4), Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (5), McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen (6) and Jenson Button (7), Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (8), Force India’s Sergio Pérez (9), and Toro Rosso’s Russian Daniil Kvyat (10).

They were followed in the non-points scoring category by Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg (11), Toro Rosso’s Jean-Éric Vergne (12), Williams’ Felipe Massa (13), Sauber’s Adrian Sutil (14) and Esteban Gutierrez (15), Marussia’s Max Chilton (16), and Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson (17).

Sunday’s retirements were Marussia’s Jules Bianchi on Lap 39 (18), Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on Lap 38 (19), Lotus’ Romain Grosjean on Lap 33 (20) and Pastor Maldonado on Lap 1 (21), and Caterham’s stand-in driver Andre Lotterer (22) whose Formula 1 debut ended on the first lap.

Formula 1 will return once again in 2 weeks time on 7 September, this time to the fast-paced circuit at Monza in Italy, possibly for the last time according to reports that came out earlier this year from Bernie Ecclestone’s office. Looking forward from Belgium, the championship is now open not just to two, Rosberg and Hamilton, but quite possibly to a third, Ricciardo. Will the Western Australian make his country proud and win a third straight on the 7th? We will just have to wait and see.

F1 leaves Hungary Full from a Fantastic Race

Budapest – Australians all let us rejoice, for Ricciardo has won! To say that the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix was anything less than racing at its finest would be criminal. The 70 lap grand prix began with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton far from his usual place in the first two rows, as he began the race from the pit lane after a disastrous fire brought his qualifying to a close early on Saturday. With him was the unlucky Dane, Kevin Magnussen, who slid off the rather wet track and into the barriers during Q3.

The grid was set as 1) Rosberg, 2) Vettel, 3) Bottas, 4) Ricciardo, 5) Alonso, 6) Massa, 7) Button, 8) Vergne, 9) Hülkenberg, 10) Kvyat, 11) Sutil, 12) Pérez, 13) Gutierrez, 14) Grosjean, 15) Bianchi, 16) Räikkönen, 17) Kobayashi, 18) Chilton, 19) Ericsson, 20) Maldonado.

All began well, save for Daniil Kvyat whose car shut down as the formation lap was just getting under way. In the first lap of the race, Rosberg was able to break away, holding his lead ahead of Bottas and Alonso, who were able to get around Vettel. Hamilton and Magnussen got their race off to a start from the pit lane, Magnussen quickly making up his unlucky starting place to come into 19th by Lap 4. Hamilton did not have quite as good of a starting lap, spinning off the track at Turn 2, just barely bending part of his front wing out of place.

By Lap 3, Jenson Button had made great pace, rising from 7th to 5th, while his former McLaren teammate at last began to move up the grid, who by Lap 8 had made it up to 13th. At Lap 9, Caterham’s Swedish rookie Marcus Ericsson hit the wall quite hard at Turn 3, leading to the first appearance of the safety car for the day. Thankfully, Ericsson was able to get out of his car and walk away.

The safety car period led to Button, Ricciardo, and Hamilton pitting, putting on dry weather tyres as the rain seemed to be clearing. They were soon followed on Lap 10 by Rosberg, Bottas, Vettel, and Alonso.

The safety car was forced to remain on track for a little while longer than expected, as Lotus’ Romain Grosjean crashed into the barriers at Lap 11 on Turn 3. With the safety car on track, the field was led this time by Ricciardo, Button, Massa, Rosberg, and Magnussen leading. Rosberg had some rear-break issues at this point, and there was some worry that they too might catch fire like his British teammate’s car had done on Saturday.

Thankfully, no such event occurred, and by Lap 14, the safety car was happily returned to the paddock. At that point, the racing recommenced, with Button passing Ricciardo to take the lead. Rosberg’s troubles continued, as he began to lose pace to Toro Rosso’s Jean-Éric Vergne, leaving the German down in 5th. Meanwhile, Hamilton continued to ascend, climbing up to 9th.

At Lap 16, Button pitted, his tyres worn beyond use. Ricciardo retook the lead, followed closely by Felipe Massa in 2nd. At Lap 17, the 10 race scoring streak of Nico Hülkenberg came to a sudden end after, as BBC Sport’s F1 team put it, the German was “punted out of the race by his team-mate Sergio Pérez.”

A collision between Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado and Marussia’s Jules Bianchi on Lap 20 led to both drivers returning to the pits for repairs. Likewise, Sergio Pérez found himself in close proximity with the wall just past the final corner, forcing his retirement from the race, resulting in the return of the safety car to our lives. At the same time, Ricciardo continued to lead the field, followed by Massa, Alonso, and unusually enough, Jean-Éric Vergne of Toro Rosso, who from 4th place continued to hold the Mercedes of drivers championship leader Nico Rosberg at bay in 5th.

The safety car remained on the course until Lap 27, at which point, following pit stops by Ricciardo and Massa, the race leaders were Alonso, Vergne, Rosberg, Vettel, and Hamilton. Rosberg and Hamilton continued to have trouble passing their respective Toro Rosso and Red Bull competitors for the next 6 laps. At Lap 33, Rosberg went into the pits, whilst Vettel caught the kerb on the start-finish straight, sending him hurtling into the wall, which due to amazing skill, and a fair amount of luck, the 4-time world champion missed hitting by a hair.

At Lap 34, Hamilton, finally past Vettel, also made a fantastic pass on Vergne, taking second just 5.4 seconds behind Spanish race leader Alonso. At Lap 38, Rosberg passed Valtteri Bottas for 9th, whilst Lewis Hamilton continued to cut Alonso’s lead down quite dramatically. Hamilton took a brief one lap lead from the pitting Alonso, until the Briton also went into the pits for a tyre change on Lap 40. This left the lead with Ricciardo, Massa, and Räikkönen, who also went in to pit, returning to the track to conduct a beautiful pass on Vettel at Lap 42.

At Lap 51, more fuel was added to the rivalry at Mercedes, when Rosberg began to ask the pit-wall why Hamilton wasn’t letting him through, despite the obvious distance between the two Mercedes cars. Soon there after, Hamilton responded to the pit over the radio, “I’m not slowing down for Nico – if he gets closer he can overtake.” At Lap 54, Ricciardo pitted from the lead, as his rear tyres had begun to give way. He rejoined the field in 4th just behind Rosberg. This left Spainard Fernando Alonso once again in the lead at the Hungaroring, with a 2.1 second gap between him and Hamilton in 2nd place. At Lap 56, Hamilton pitted, rejoining the field in 7th with 3 seconds between him and Räikkönen in 6th place.

Rosberg continued to work on getting onto the podium, climbing to 4th with a pass on Massa at Lap 61. At the same time, his teammate was fast being caught by Ricciardo, as the young driver from Western Australia was running only 0.9 seconds behind the Briton. At Lap 62, with 8 laps remaining, the lead was very much still up in the air, as Alonso was only 0.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who in turn was only 0.4 seconds ahead of Ricciardo. At Lap 65, Ricciardo attempted a pass on Hamilton at Turn 2, which did not go the Aussie’s way. At the same time, Rosberg continued to press on the top three, with the pace to catch the leaders by the final lap.

At Lap 67, Ricciardo made the pass, and a brilliant one at that, on Hamilton at Turn 2. One lap later he made a similar move on Alonso at Turn 1, taking the lead of the race. To quote David Coulthard, “There’s just one word for that. Brilliant.” With Ricciardo ahead, Alonso and Hamilton now found themselves with another determined driver on their tails, this time in the form of Hamilton’s German teammate, Nico Rosberg. On Turn 2 of the Lap 70, the final lap, Rosberg attempted a pass on his teammate, but to no avail for the German who had to settle for a 4th place finish.

The results for Hungary stand as follows:

1) Daniel Ricciardo, 2) Fernando Alonso, 3) Lewis Hamilton, 4) Nico Rosberg, 5) Felipe Massa, 6) Kimi Räikkönen, 7) Sebastian Vettel, 8) Valtteri Bottas, 9) Jean-Éric Vergne, 10) Jenson Button

11) Adrian Sutil, 12) Kevin Magnussen, 13) Pastor Maldonado, 14) Daniil Kvyat, 15) Jules Bianchi, 16) Max Chilton.

The following did not finish the race: Esteban Gutierrez, Sergio Pérez, Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean, and Marcus Ericssson.

Formula 1 is heading into its mid summer break, which will last for 3 weeks. I will be back with more on the world’s greatest motor sport in 3 weeks time with the beautiful Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

Nico Wins Brilliant Race at Home in Germany

Hockenheim – To say that the 2014 Formula One Santander German Grand Prix was anything less than amazing would be a gross understatement. From the very beginning, the race was bound to be a masterpiece of motor sport.

With four German drivers on the grid: Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg, and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, the home crowd was guaranteed to have quite a few supporters for each of their countrymen, though Vettel and Rosberg did seem to have more supporters than the other two Germans.

The race started with a troublesome situation for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, whose crash at the end of Q1 left him initially starting in 16th place. However, due to the need to change his gear box, Hamilton was handed a 5 spot grid penalty, resulting in the Briton starting at the back of the grid from 21st. Hamilton’s teammate, Rosberg, started the race at pole, with Williams’ flying Finn Valtteri Bottas starting at P2.

The second row of the starting grid was the first to garner the attention of the crowd in person, on television, and on radio, as Williams’ Felipe Massa (P3) appeared to run into McLaren’s rookie Kevin Magnussen (P4) at Turn 1, resulting in Massa’s car flipping upside down before rolling back to its proper upright position. Magnussen left the scene mostly unscathed, despite falling back to 21st position. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo took evasive action, running between the capsized Massa and the wall. The FIA ruled that no further action was “warranted” regarding the incident, as, in their point of view, the offending party had eliminated himself from the race.

At the same time, Lewis Hamilton began his steady ascent up to the front of the pack, by Lap 14 sitting comfortably in 5th place. At this point, Hamilton’s march forward was bogged down, in large part due to the immense skill of the drivers that he was now facing, world champions such as Alonso, Vettel, Button and Räikkönen. 

At Lap 15, the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen fought a magnificent battle, which became a bit of a Kimi-sandwich upon Sebastian Vettel’s reentry onto the track from a pit stop as the German and Spaniard caught the Finn in between them at the hairpin turn. Vettel came out winning fourth, whilst Alonso took fifth and Räikkönen took sixth. Upon being sandwiched, Räikkönen also lost more of his front wing, which had already sustained some damage earlier in the race.

By Lap 20, Nico Rosberg’s lead on Valtteri Bottas (2) was up to 9.2 seconds. From this point on, Rosberg had won Hockenheim. The main bit of racing continued behind him for the second through tenth positions. At Lap 28, Romain Grosjean, the unlucky Frenchman at Lotus was forced to retire at the hairpin, reporting to the pit of some issues with the car’s power unit.

Perhaps one of the more strange incidents from Sunday’s race was the brief contact between Hamilton and his former McLaren teammate Jenson Button, when Hamilton’s front wing was slightly broken upon making contact with Button’s MP4-29. The damage would cost Hamilton a second place finish.

At Lap 47, Toro Rosso’s rookie Daniil Kvyat found himself forced to retire after his car went up in flames. The Russian’s frustration with his poor luck was evident. Following the extensive use of the fire extinguishers, Kvyat’s car’s distinctive Red Bull deep blue was well covered by the whitish foam of the extinguishers.

Likewise, at Lap 52, the only of the Germans to retire this weekend, Sauber’s Adrian Sutil did so in the middle of the track after the car spun and stalled at the last corner. Mercedes called Hamilton back into the pits, perhaps in anticipation of a safety car being deployed whilst the marshals removed the Sauber from the track. Unfortunately this plan did not work so well, as no safety car was deployed. Despite this, Hamilton’s fresher tyres were able to take him past Alonso at Lap 56, leaving the Briton in 3rd.

The final six laps of this 67 lap race featured a fantastic fight for fifth between Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso. Not only did this six lap duel leave the crowd cheering with excitement, it also showcased the excellence in driving that is a hallmark of these two drivers.

By the chequered flag, the order stood as 1) Rosberg, 2) Bottas, 3) Hamilton, 4) Vettel, 5) Alonso, 6) Ricciardo, 7) Hülkenberg, 8) Button, 9) Magnussen, 10) Pérez scoring points. The non-points finishers were 11) Räikkönen, 12) Maldonado, 13) Vergne, 14) Gutierrez, 15) Bianchi, 16) Kobayashi, 17) Chilton, and 18) Ericsson, with Sutil, Kvyat, Grosjean, and Massa in the Did Not Finish category.

This leaves the drivers’ championship with Rosberg with 190 points, leading Hamilton’s 176 points by a margin of 14 points. Behind the two Mercedes past the century mark is Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo with 106 points.

In constructors, with Valtteri Bottas’ fantastic third straight podium finish, Williams currently stands in 3rd with 121 points, behind Red Bull’s 2nd place at 188 points and Mercedes’ dominant 1st place at 366 points. Williams is followed by Ferrari’s 116 points (4th place,) Force India’s 98 points, McLaren’s 96 points, Toro Rosso’s 15 points, Lotus’ 8 points, and Marussia’s 2 points. At the bottom Sauber and Caterham’s general lack of points scored has left both teams concerned for their futures, as they both should be.

Next weekend, the Formula One Circus returns to Budapest, where they will compete in this year’s instalment of the always fascinating, and often scorching hot, Hungarian Grand Prix.

F1 Midweek – Channel Crossings

Kansas City – With this year’s British Grand Prix said and done, the circus has begun its cross-Channel journey to the ancestral home of Britain’s monarchy: Germany. Where Silverstone holds a solid place in the F1 history books, the Hockenheimring’s connections to the sport are about 20 years more recent.

Formula 1 first came to Hockenheim in 1970, following a driver boycott of the ever-perilous Nürburgring. Today, the two competing German circuits alternate hosting the annual German Grand Prix. What could be said most about Germany is that this race will be focused on three drivers in particular: Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, and Nico Hülkenberg. The trio of Germans have all done quite well thus far this season, each of them earning points at multiple races. I have little doubt that Rosberg could take Germany just as Hamilton took Britain.

On the Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry, Lewis Hamilton decided to start goading at his German teammate. In an article published Monday by The Guardian, Hamilton is quoted as having said, “Nico Rosberg is not a real German.” Rosberg responded on Tuesday, according to The Guardian, “describing himself as ‘100% German.'” This entire tit-for-tat seems to be just a simple matter of team rivalry intended for the press to know about.

In the other paddocks, less bickering appears to be going on. For one thing, Caterham has changed ownership in the last week, having been sold by former owner Tony Fernandes to a Swiss and Middle Eastern consortium. Perhaps the biggest question that I have on the matter is whether or not the team will seek a different country’s license than Malaysia? Perhaps with the new ownership, come 2015 we will see Caterham joining Sauber under the Swiss flag. For now though, the new ownership will certainly have an Everest-sized uphill struggle in the attempt to score some points on the drivers’ and constructors’ leaderboards.

Caterham’s rival, Marussia on the other hand seems to be doing something right. Considering that Jules Bianchi has scored a couple of points this season, and that Max Chilton has come very close to doing so as well, the Anglo-Russian team seems to be on the verge of breaking through the lowest glass celling in the sport, that being the one between the non-points scoring teams and the middle of the field teams.

Williams likewise seems to be on the verge of good times. With Valtteri Bottas earning his second career podium this past weekend at Silverstone, and Felipe Massa equally doing quite well when he has the chance, the team from Grove in Oxfordshire could be on the edge of breaking back into the top level of the sport, challenging the Mercedes and Red Bulls. Despite the brevity of her inaugural Formula One drive, Williams test-driver Susie Wolff has shown great talent. I do hope that she gets a seat at one of the teams next season, as she could be fantastic competition. On top of that, her appearance in Free Practise 1 was cut quite short due to an engine failure.

As Formula 1 prepares to return to Germany, there will be much to watch out for. Perhaps soon we will see Williams win their first Grand Prix since Pastor Maldonado’s victory at the 2012 Spanish GP. What will happen with the Mercedes duo is yet to be seen. Equally, will Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull roar back into life? We will all find out on the 20th.

British Grand Prix – Hamilton wins at home

Silverstone – To begin, the British Grand Prix is one of my all-time favourite races on the calendar. So it was with great pleasure that I write about today’s nail-biter of a race. After a surprising Q3 result on Saturday, the race began with Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg at pole, with four-time defending world champion Sebastian Vettel next to him starting at second.

The second row consisted of McLaren’s British driver Jenson Button and Force India’s German Nico Hülkenberg, followed by Button’s rookie Danish teammate Kevin Magnussen and the race favourite Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on the third row starting in fifth and sixth.

The fourth row was taken by Force India’s Mexican driver Sergio Pérez and Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull. In ninth and tenth position they were followed by Russian Daniil Kvyat and Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne of Toro Rosso.

Those who were eliminated in Q2 included Frenchmen Romain Grosjean of Lotus (11), and Jules Bianchi of Marussia (12). Bianchi’s Marussia teammate, Briton Max Chilton and Mexican Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber qualified 13th and 14th. However, Chilton received a 5-spot grid penalty for a gearbox change, resulting in his starting from 18th.

Q1 saw the elimination of a number of the unusual suspects, namely the two Ferraris of Spaniard Fernando Alonso (17) and Finn Kimi Räikkönen (19), along with the two Williams of Finn Valtteri Bottas (15) and Brazilian Felipe Massa (16). Alongside these shockers, Sauber’s Adrian Sutil qualified in 15th. The back of the grid was made up of the two Caterhams of Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi (22) and the Swede Marcus Ericsson (21) along with Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado (20) of Venezuela, whose qualification time was disallowed following his running out of fuel on the circuit at the end of Q2.

The race itself began with quite a bang, with Vettel’s Red Bull quickly being outrun by the two McLarens along with Hamilton’s Mercedes. Things came to a standstill when Räikkönen lost control of his car on the Wellington straight, “At Turn 5, I went off the track and while trying to get back on, I must have hit a kerb.” Räikkönen said in a press-release on his Facebook page. Hitting the barriers at 150 mph, Räikkönen hit Massa who was also forced to retire due to damage to the left rear of his car. Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi was quite lucky in avoiding the wreckage, swerving far to the left around Räikkönen into the grass before returning to the track.

The next hour was red flagged, leaving the top three at the race’s recommencement as Rosberg, Button, Magnussen. At the time that the red flag was raised, Chilton decided to reenter the pits in order to have work done on his car. Doing so during a red flag stoppage was an infringement upon the sporting regulations, resulting in his needing to serve a drive-through penalty. It really was too bad for Chilton, who had up to that point been running in 10th.

With the race restarted, Rosberg quickly left the McLarens in the dust. Those two drivers were steadily overtaken over the next few laps by Rosberg’s British teammate Lewis Hamilton, who began his long fight for first.

Another driver to take advantage of the McLarens’ situation was Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who quickly passed by Nico Hülkenberg of Force India and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. Also moving up the field was the surviving Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.

On Lap 11, Esteban Gutierrez attempted a pass on Pastor Maldonado, which went spectacularly wrong for the latter’s Lotus. Gutierrez’s Sauber ended up hoisting the Lotus up into the air, allowing for its unintended wings to spread in flight. The collision forced the Sauber to slide off into the gravel too damaged to continue, whilst the Lotus did go on in the race.

Nico Rosberg pitted at Lap 19, having a fantastic 2.7 second pit stop. Soon thereafter, once back out on the track, the German began to report gear box troubles. His British teammate, Lewis Hamilton, continued on the track for another 5 laps, pitting at Lap 24. Hamilton had a far worse pit stop, which lasted for 4.1 seconds, a full 1.5 seconds longer than Rosberg. This was largely due to the fickleness of the rear left tyre in it’s installation onto the car. Nonetheless, Hamilton rejoined the race in second, just behind the gearbox-maligned German.

By Lap 29, Lewis Hamilton took the lead from Nico Rosberg, who began to slow down due to that worrisome gear box, which resulted in the German’s retirement at Lap 30. Hamilton kept the lead of the race from there on out, charging on his way to becoming one of a select number of British drivers to have two wins at Silverstone.

By Lap 31, Hamilton’s lead was already by 24 seconds over the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, who after a pit stop at Lap 32 led the rest of the field to the chequered flag.

Perhaps the most dramatic duel of the latter stages of the race was the one between Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. With the British fanbase cheering on the Spaniard, the fight lasted for ten laps from 38-48, with Vettel eventually forcing his way past Alonso, much to both drivers’ dislike as their radio messages to their respective pit walls can tell.

The final fight of the race was between McLaren’s British driver Jenson Button and Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo. In a fashion rather dissimilar to the most recent Ashes, the Briton actually had a shot at catching the Australian, with Button finishing a mere 0.8 seconds behind Ricciardo.

The results from this year’s British Grand Prix leave the championship wide open, as Rosberg’s lead now narrows to a mere 4 points (165 to Hamilton’s 161.)

F1 Midweek – The Restoration of Williams

Kansas City – This past weekend’s resurrected Austrian Grand Prix was a rebirth in many different ways. Firstly, the obvious rebirth of Formula 1 in Austria. Secondly, the awakening of Michael Schumacher from his long coma in the week prior to the grand prix. Thirdly, the restoration of Williams Martini Racing from their slump of recent years. The old champions of the 80s and 90s came back in full force at Austria, with their two drivers taking the front row in qualifying and finishing in 3rd and 4th in the race. Between Brazilian Felipe Massa and Finn Valtteri Bottas, Williams has a dynamic duo that could very well earn more points for the team than could have been imaginable in the last four years.

Williams is one of those teams that generally everyone seems to like. They have been referred to as the sort of “everyman” of Formula 1. Team head, Sir Frank Williams, worked his way up in the motor racing world, running cars in GP2 races among other lower tier events before making his way into Formula 1.

With many famous drivers having worn the Williams white, including legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna, the team has quite a storied history. It also has the third most world constructor’s and driver’s championship victories, winning the constructor’s title 9 times and the driver’s title 7 times. All of their championships took place in the 80s and 90s. Only Ferrari and McLaren have won more driver’s and constructor’s championships.

So it is rather sad that over the past few seasons, since 2004, Williams has been unable to finish the season higher than 4th place. Yet after this past weekend, that may be liable to change, as the team was able to finish quite strongly at Spielberg. If not this season, then certainly in 2015 I believe we will see Williams up at the top alongside Mercedes AMG Petronas, Ferrari, and Red Bull. They certainly have the talent between their crew and drivers, and should under all circumstances be able to win a few grands prix this season, with more to come next time around.

On a final note, about this fellow who stole Michael Schumacher’s medical records:

How stupid can you get! The poor man has just woken from a long coma! I know you want to make some money, but the least you can do is leave the poor fellow in peace to recover.

Rosberg wins Spectacular Austrian Grand Prix

Spielberg – If the Formula 1 world was looking for a good way to reboot the classic Austrian Grand Prix, they couldn’t have had a better race. It began with the surprise front row of Williams’ Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, who were closely followed by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Mercedes’ other half, British driver Lewis Hamilton started from 9th after a very poor qualifying round. The two Red Bulls equally did not fare so well in qualifying at their home circuit, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo starting from 5th and his German teammate, the 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel starting in 13th after having not made it out of Q2.

The race began with strong starts from Massa, Rosberg, and Hamilton. The Brazilian was able to keep 1st place for the first 12 laps of the race until he had to pit due to tyre degradation, whilst the German briefly took 2nd from Massa’s Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas. Bottas made Rosberg’s conquest brief, as he restored his second place by the end of Lap 1. Meanwhile, Hamilton was able to advance by 5 places on the opening lap, overtaking a number of cars on the opening straight.

A major factor that played merry hell with the various team strategies, and in my opinion did not do a good deal of help for Massa in particular, was just how heavy the tyre degradation was within just a handful of laps. Both of the Williams had to pit by Lap 13, resulting in their 1,2 lead being lost and never really recovered. On the tyre side of things, Sergio Pérez performed outstandingly, being able to stay out for the first 30 laps on his first set of tyres, resulting in the Mexican maintaining first place in the wake of the Williams pit stops.

This race should very well have gone to Williams if it weren’t for their poor timing for pit stops, often, as the NBC Sports commentating crew made note of, having their drivers box a lap or two too late to keep a good advantage over the rest of the field. For this reason, Mercedes AMG Petronas was able to advance ahead of the two Williams to take the race victory.

On another note, Red Bull was once again plagued by electrical trouble, as Sebastian Vettel suddenly lost power in his car on Lap 2. Luckily for him, power was restored within a couple of laps and the German was able to continue in the race. A subsequent radio message from the team to Vettel’s Australian teammate confirmed at least somewhat that the issue arose when Vettel used the overtake button on his steering wheel. Eventually, Vettel would be forced to retire on Lap 35 after Vettel and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez made contact, damaging the nose of Vettel’s car. Gutierrez had another troublesome incident at Lap 14 when his car was released from a Pit Stop without the back right tyre fully in place. The Mexican would serve a 10-second stop and go penalty on Lap 23.

Red Bull’s Italian sister team, Scuderia Toro Rosso had an even worse day than the rest of the pack, with both drivers retiring from the race. Russian Daniil Kvyat retired on Lap 26 after his brakes gave way, resulting in his right rear tyre being shredded and bent horribly out of shape. His French teammate, Jean-Éric Vergne returned to the pits to retire at Lap 61 with a rear brake issue.

The race finished spectacularly, with the two Mercedes in front, Nico Rosberg (1st) beating Lewis Hamilton (2nd), followed closely by Williams’ Valtteri Bottas (3rd) who won his first career podium. Close behind Bottas was his teammate, pole-sitter Felipe Massa (4th) with Massa’s old Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso finishing in 5th. Alonso was followed by Force India’s Sergio Pérez (6th), who overcame the 5-spot grid penalty given to him following his crash with Massa on the last lap two weeks ago in Montréal. On the last laps Pérez had just passed rookie Kevin Magnussen of McLaren who finished in 7th. Magnussen was followed by Red Bull’s currently most successful driver, Daniel Ricciardo (8th), who finished just ahead of Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg (9th), who came just ahead of the Iceman, Kimi Räikkönen (10th) of Ferrari.

The non-points-scoring positions were taken by McLaren’s Jenson Button (11th), Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado (12th), Sauber’s Adrian Sutil (13th), Lotus’ Romain Grosjean (14th), Marussia’s Jules Bianchi (15th), Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi (16th), Marussia’ Max Chilton (17th), Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson (18th), and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez (19th).

One element of this race that made it unique from those that have come thus far this season is the fact that only 3 drivers had to retire! In comparison with the 9 out of 22 drivers who retired in Canada and and 8 of 22 who retired in Monaco.

F1 Midweek – Schumacher update and looking ahead to Austria

Kansas City – If you haven’t heard, on Monday seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher at long last came out of his coma that had been caused by a skiing accident on 29 December at the French resort of Meribel. That being said, after having been in a state of comatose for that long, it will undoubtedly take quite a while for the German to fully recover, which in itself is unlikely.

News bulletins flew around the world on Monday from the Grenoble University Hospital, announcing that Schumacher had been taken out of France to University Hospital Lausanne in neighbouring Switzerland. Despite this, The Independent reports that Schumacher still is unable to talk. According to a 16 June article by John Lichfield of The Independent, Schumacher has a “one in ten chance of making a full recovery.”

That being said, at least the poor man is out of his coma at long last. I can’t imagine what his family has been going through during all of this. No doubt the F1 world will continue to have “Schumi” in their thoughts as they descend on a circuit which was last won by the seven time world champion, the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria this weekend for the resurrection of the Austrian Grand Prix, which was last run in 2003.

Formerly known as the Österreichring from 1969-1995, and the A1-Ring from 1996-2004, the circuit has since been bought by the energy drink company Red Bull, who have since become famous within motorsport for their ownership of two of the current eleven Formula 1 teams, Infiniti Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso respectively. I have little doubt that the pressure will be on the two Red Bull drivers to win their team’s home grand prix.

At the same time, as we have seen throughout this season no one has been able to compete with Mercedes AMG Petronas as long as the silver arrows make it through the race damage free. We saw two weeks ago in Canada one of the weaker points of the Mercedes cars, namely brake failures, which resulted in Lewis Hamilton retiring and Nico Rosberg finishing in second behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. At the same time, knowing the Mercedes team I have little doubt that the will have fixed that problem by now in preparation for Austria.

The Red Bull Ring track runs clockwise, with ten corners. It runs 4.326 km (2.688 mi) in length. To date, the fastest lap record stands with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, who finished Lap 41 during the 2003 Austrian Grand Prix at 1:08.337. Only three of the current Formula 1 drivers, Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button, and Fernando Alonso have driven in the Austrian Grand Prix before, Button having competed in the 2000-2003 Austrian Grands Prix, whilst Räikkönen and Alonso have only competed in the 2001-2003 Austrian Grands Prix.

We will have to wait until this Sunday to see how the teams compete at the Red Bull Ring in Formula 1’s triumphant return to Austria after 11 years away. Hopefully Schumacher will be well enough to see at least a couple of the races this season.