well schumacher did shock me. how is that even possible? one week earlier the team was struggling for aerodynamic and tyre grip, this week they smashed the qualifying time with 0.9s to spare!
every front agrees, this was a heroic effort with a mighty lap time of 1min19.882sec. no car was faster than the time set by michael throughout the weekend, not even in practices. again, this was totally amazing.
did they forgo their race by removing tons of fuel from the car just for qualifying? reports indicated that indeed they have, by going light and on softer tyres. even so, do they need to be so agressive to be nearly a second ahead? this strategy doesn't really make sense. well, whatever works for them.
in my honest opinion, the tyres can't possibly make it till the end of the race. definitely not under hungary's heat, for god's sake, with track temperature of 50 celsius. judging from hockenheim, we know the tyres will degrade tremendously. plus with the twisty circuit layout, the bridgestones will surely be tormented.
will ferrari be banking on another wet weekend? weekends after weekends we have heard of a possibility of rain during the race. yet the rain never came. again, we heard that despite the bloody heat, rain is possible. well i wouldn't bet any money on that, and i hope ferrari isn't thinking of that either.
my best guess is this. michael has realized that 2005 is over and done for. so, there's no point concentrating on race wins. in fact, he has plenty of wins and no one can even come close. i didn't research on this, but i believe you could add up every driver's (including test drivers') win, and it wouldn't even come close to michael's tally. that's an amazing record.
one record that michael doesn't have is the most number of pole. currently held by the legendary senna, michael was two short of equaling that record. well, with today's pole, he has one more to go. there are still plenty of races more this year, so i believe it will be a record michael can take claim of.
to take pole in hungary is significant. having good grid position will help the team to hopefully get their first win on merit. this circuit is notoriously difficult to overtake, so hopefully pit strategy and good pace will help michael stay ahead. first lap is totally vital, so it is also important to stay ahead of montoya or the renault before the first corner. barichello must perform too, and give the team a good shout at the constructor's championship.
well, only one more day to go to know the result. one day seems a little too long.
michael had his strategy all planned out for hockenheim. he had the softer tyre compound, heavy fuel load to reach him mid race, a good qualifying spot, a good speed off the line, and his superb driving skills. all he needed was the rain.
unfortunately, it never came.
well at least that is what i suspect of their original intention. he made all the right decisions on the setup of the car, but he needed to gamble on the rain. the rain will allow him to change into the wet tyres when his dry tyres worn out. and boy did they wear out quick. that was the whole point though, so that he can go agressive on quick laps to keep in touch of the leaders.
we could see he overtook button after the second corner of the first lap, and he managed to tackle alonso for a while. yet after a couple more laps, he dropped behind and button was at his tail. he managed to keep a two seconds gap throughout much of the race, but after the second pit stop it was too much to ask of michael. he not only lost his place to button, but then to montoya and fisichella. it could have been worst if it wasn't due to his superb driving.
we can see that the f2005 has the speed and balance. instead, it doesn't have the tyre durability to provide the car the fast pace the whole duration of the race. it is more than obvious now, and there's nothing ferrari can do to protect bridgestone's good name. people aren't that stupid to know who's at fault.
they can blame their aerodynamics all they want, for this car isn't designed by rory bryne, but aerodynamics doesn't slow the car down midway through the race. they may blame the engine for lack of power, but we know that's not the case and reliability is excellent. they can't blame the drivers, pit crew, or the strategists for they have been so hardworking and flawless. bridgestone oh bridgestone, they not only lose the championship for ferrari, they embarrassed the champions.
with all that said, was it a good gamble? i would say it certainly was. if it wasn't for the gamble, michael would be like rubens. although rubens was on the hard compound, his car also had no grip at all. he only managed to scrap tenth place. despite running on bald rear tyre, michael managed to defend and hold on to fifth, which is pretty good considering the worst case scenario. without the tyre problem and with kimi's retirement, he would have been on the podium.
hungary is next. a circuit where ferrari had terrible races in for the past years. i forsee the team being lapped by the michelin cars. they would finish below the top 10, most probably just ahead of jordan and minardi. it's a harsh nightmare, but it is just my preperation for that sad scene.
oh yeah, dare i say alonso and renault is the 2005 champion?
it is amazing how fast a strong f1 team can crash to rock bottom. it happened to williams post villeneuve, and it happened to mclaren post hakkinen. this year, it happened to ferrari, albeit many agreed the reason was due to the radical rule changes.
the sad form continues this weekend, and it will only further continue in this horrendous season for ferrari. tyre is the number one reason for the dismal performance. seven strong michelin team will be more than enough to beat any championship team. the team also couldn't get the aerodynamics to perform, and they admit the chassis can be further improved.
for hockenheim, pessimism is the perfect word for ferrari. coming in this weekend, they have new aerodynamics which are supposed to be better. honestly, i don't see much difference, all those hard testing days wasted. i would rather say, pessimism truly describes the rest of the season.
it wouldn't be so sad for ferrari to keep losing, if they managed to put up a good fight. instead, for the past couple of races they are totally lagged behind. scrapping for points and tailing toyota or redbull is indeed a sad image to witness. if the champions were to be beaten, they ought to be beaten 'convincingly', ie with a close fight. currently, they appear to have given up, or not even trying. their lost is pathetic.
kudos to mclaren and renault though, for them to get it totally right. they look as though they run on rails, stuck to the tarmac and flowing the curbs with ease. it is a beauty how smooth they appear to cruise the circuit. their packages are flawless, speedwise. however mercedes still needs to do something about reliability. blown engine is somewhat a thing of their past, they shouldn't give anymore excuses. renault, on the other hand, is doing a clean winning job. period.
the condition continues in hockenheim with mclaren hogging the limelight during practices. how they will perform in qualifying, is another story. if mercedes can give kimi an engine that won't blow, we might witness something pretty extraordinary this weekend.
i hope to see a three way race between alonso, kimi, and montoya. that would be fun. hopefully they could throw michael into the mix. if the ferrari can perform, then that would be fun competition.
it was as though formula 1 can read my mind. after my comments complaining about the wrongs of this season's formula 1 qualifying, they are answering my doubts with new proposals of the qualifying format for 2006. this ought to be good:
proposal 1:
60-minute session, split into two 25-minute ‘halves’ with a 10-minute break.
drivers may run as many laps as they wish, but must set a time in each half.
each driver’s best times from the first half is added to his best time from the second half to produce a final time to determine the grid.
no fuel restrictions - cars may refuel during and after the session.
proposal 2:
60-minute session.
after 15 minutes, the five slowest cars must retire from the session and will qualify 16th to 20th on the grid.
after a further 15 minutes, the five cars slowest during that period (times cannot be carried over from the first 15 minutes) must also retire from the session. They will qualify 11th to 15th on the grid.
for the final 30 minutes the remaining 10 cars will compete for first to tenth place on the grid, based on the best times set in that period (times cannot be carried over from the first 30 minutes).
drivers may run as many laps as they wish in each period.
no fuel restrictions - cars may refuel during and after the session.
here are some great points with the proposed qualifying formats. firstly, there are no fuel restrictions. thus all cars will run on light fuel loads, and we will know how well the cars really perform. next, it is the unlimited laps the cars can do. this means the cars will probably take more risk to drive as fast as they could, because if they make any mistake, they can come back out again. finally, fans have a say in choosing which proposal. do so at formula1.com.
another point is, the formats will make it possible for the cars to run for the whole one hour period. it wouldn't be like before, where the first half of the hour the track would remain empty. in my opinion, this is a good move.
personally, i will pick proposal 1. as exciting as proposal 2 sounds, it seems to be more chaotic. 15 minutes for all 20 cars to come out seems a little dangerous and crazy. sure, the faster cars can just come out and do one lap to make sure they stay within the first 15 spots. then just wait till the second next session and do one lap to be at the first 10 spots. so i don't see how exciting it will turn out to be in the end.
plus, there's still the problem of penalizing your qualifying session if for some reason the car is not ready. for example, if the car cannot make it out in the first 15 minutes, maybe due to a mechanical glitch, then automatically you're penalized to be at the tail end of the grid.
thus proposal 1 seems more reasonable. albeit maybe not as exciting, it seems to be a rather fair qualifying format. you have free laps for two 25 minute sessions, it seems to be good enough to go as fast as they could. that, at least, is the true meaning of qualifying. however, there's still this aggregate thing that most people don't seem to like, but it is necessary to make sure all cars come out the first half hour. i'm not sure how that will work out with the public.
whichever one they chose, 2006 will definitely have a better qualifying session than what we have this year. something to look forward to.
the back-to-back races at magny-cours and silverstone brought about almost a carbon copy of each other. great races for renault and mclaren, but overall the f1 season is becoming a bore.
first of all, magny-cours presented a straightforward start to end lead for alonso, no thanks to trulli who bundled up a train behind him. at silverstone, trulli again blocked more cars behind him, this time with montoya winning from start to finish. secondly, kimi had an engine change yet again, and had to charge back to podium from mid-grid. we all wonder what it'd be like if kimi didn't need to change the engine. thirdly, fisichella amazingly stalled at the pit, a repeat of what he did at magny-cours. finally, ferrari and williams are horrendously slow, the camera didn't even bothered showing them at silverstone.
the main topic though, is the fight between renault and mclaren. there's nothing much in between these two teams. both teams have been performing exceptionally well in terms of raw speed. both teams have taken advantage of the new regulations to come up with fantastic aerodynamic packages to work the michelin. and both teams have very capable drivers in all cars who can deliver when it matters.
so which team and driver will come up top at the end of the season?
i can't really say, and i wouldn't want to put my money on either team just yet. things do change drastically at f1 from week to week. if i'm forced to choose at the moment, renault is looking really good, for several reasons. firstly, alonso is in the lead. secondly, renault is extremely reliable and mclaren not so. thirdly, renault is matching the speed that mclaren is throwing. finally, montoya can outrace kimi, but fisichella can't outrace alonso. so it seems like alonso and renault are going to win 2005.
i can't wait to get this season out and over with. there are so many things wrong with this season it's making the show very disgusting. let's not even talk about f1 politics here. instead it is the problem with rules and regulations that is making the show so inconsistent.
there are more bads than goods with the single tyre rule. that has just got to change, by making it one tyre company for all teams. this solves politics, cost, tyre safety, and reliability issues. i'm not sure about this, but maybe a seasonal rotation between tyre companies could make it interesting.
next, the efficiency of aerodynamic is a main cause of no overtaking. turbulence caused by the car in front makes it very difficult for cars to close in, what more overtake. no overtaking equals boring races.
then we have the horrible horrible qualifying woes. how many times have we changed the qualifying since 2002? none has worked wonders like the old format. i have no idea why they changed that in the first place. i'm still clueless. bring the old format back!
although there are eight more races to go, i wonder how 2006 will be like.
gorgeous. at a track where downforce is so important, ferrari has introduced more aerodynamic improvements. the team has introduced, most noticably, wings on the shaft of the nose. these wings are located on different position as compared to those on toyota or jordan. hope those wings would help.
after a much anti-climatic and expected result of the fia hearing for the michelin teams, we are now back in action for the formula weekend. magny-cours will be an interesting event after the disgusting usgp where the michelin teams controversially pulled out of the race.
punishment is imminent, but at least not yet for this race. i am suspecting that the fia is gathering more evidence to push michelin out of formula one once and for all. we shall know in september.
sure, michelin has offered to pay for the 2005 refund, and to purchase 20,000 of next year's usgp tickets. indirectly, the tyre company has admittedly judged themselves as guilty of the infamous farce. there's no way in denying that, but that doesn't stop the company to further point fingers back at the fia. although ridiculous, that is a smart move on their part. fia is formula one's number one public enemy, and this is just an opportunity too good to be missed.
michelin and the teams are guilty, but people are more interested in the fall of fia. it is such selfish thought that is going to kill the sport. frankly, i can't stand the threat of boycotts being thrown out by the michelin teams. and truly, paul stoddart deserves to be knocked in the head for being the biggest hypocrite in the world.
anyways, enough of the dirty politics and back to racing. practice one is over and done with. interesting result from the ferrari of schumacher finishing third (second race driver) behind the mclaren. unfortunately kimi will be dropped ten spots from the grid after his engine blew and had to be replaced. and williams are embarassingly at the tail end of the grid. although we can't read too much into the result, poll has it that michael will get the pole. will ferrari get the first pole of the season? is ferrari really making progress?
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