Tag Archives: Bernie Ecclestone

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 Midweek – Preparing for España

Kansas City – In most cases, I’d argue that when the Formula 1 circus comes to a particular country, nothing can possibly beat it in terms of media attention and popularity. However, two cases immediately stand out from the rogues gallery as exceptions to the aforementioned rule. 1. Here in the USA, because it’s America and there’s so very much always going on, and 2. Spain in May 2014, with the upcoming Derbi madrileño in the UEFA Champions League final on the 24th.

In general what I’d say should be expected from this weekend’s race in Catalonia is fairly simple: much of the same from the last race in Shanghai. Mercedes will most likely dominate the field, taking at the very least 1st place, if not 2nd as well, on the podium. What the viewer should watch most for will be how Ferrari and Red Bull fare in aiming for 3rd and the middle of the road in regards to points scoring.

My own prediction is that Fernando Alonso will drive well for his home crowd, finishing at least at 3rd place, followed close at hand by Red Bull’s Ricciardo. Given the recent trends in driver performance, I would not be surprised if Force India also drive quite well, perhaps with one of their two drivers even finishing in 5th or 6th.

Unfortunately, some clouds do hang over this coming weekend. For one thing this will be the closest race weekend to the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Germany’s Roland Ratzenberger and Brazil’s Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. On the ongoing side of things, in the period since Shanghai, the trial of Formula 1’s boss Bernie Ecclestone on corruption charges in Munich has begun. Undoubtedly the court’s final ruling will have a major impact on the sport as we know it today, possibly even advancing Ecclestone’s retirement date by a year or so.

The 2014 Pirelli Spanish Grand Prix will take place on Sunday 11 May, Mother’s Day here in the States, at 14.00 Barcelona (07.00 Chicago, 13.00 London.)