terrible f1 accident

[ formula 1 ]

brace yourself.





previous posts:
from champions to insignificance
star of bahrain qualifying
missing schumacher and brawn
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained

from champions to insignificance

[ renault, bahrain, flavio briatore, formula 1 ]

how do you go from being back-to-back champions to not being able to win a race? that's renault for you. so far, they haven't won a race, and not even a podium. i'm predicting that they won't even win a race till the midway mark of the season.

funny thing is, the team doesn't know either:

Briatore said: "Unfortunately we do not understand our problems. That is the biggest problem..."

- f1-live.com

now that doesn't help, does it?

it was yet another dismal race at bahrain for the renault, with fisichella finishing 8th. heikki wasn't even worthed mentioning, plus we didn't get to see much of him. so let's hear what he has to say:

Heikki Kovalainen commented, "I made a good start off the line, and overtook both Williams and Trulli's Toyota. Last week, I was side by side with him and he got the advantage - and I was determined that it wouldn't happen again. After that, the rear tyres dropped off quickly on the heavy fuel load and I was struggling everywhere - Trulli got past me, then I tried to defend aggressively against Rosberg, but he overtook as well after the final corner. The car improved a lot in the second stint, and I could see I was catching Fisi and Jarno, and thought that maybe we could do something. But then in the final stint, the rear end was tricky again, and I couldn't maintain the pace of the guys in front. It was a tough afternoon, like we expected, and it was a shame not to score points. We know, though, that the hard work needs to be done back at the factory - and I am confident that they will be pushing to their maximum to improve our competitiveness for the next race."

- gpudate.net

doesn't sound too good at all. as flavio nicely puts it, "this is where we are at the moment, fighting for the final points positions."



previous posts:
star of bahrain qualifying
missing schumacher and brawn
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!

star of bahrain qualifying

[ super aguri, bahrain, anthony davidson, formula 1 ]

yeah yeah, we all know massa grabbed pole yesterday at bahrain. personally, i wasn't very surprised by it. lewis hamilton was second, followed by kimi and alonso. kimi and alonso could be on a heavier fuel strategy. well, we'll see who of the four will come out top on race day.

however, none of them was the star of bahrain qualifying. lewis hamilton did great to finish for his first ever front row. it was inspiring, and there's great future for this guy. he will be the star of the future, but not quite at bahrain.

it was anthony davidson who was the star. now, i must apologize to super aguri for labelling them 'f1's biggest waste of time' last year. what they had to go through to put a car on the grid must have been difficult, so i'm impressed to see how far they've progressed.

to be fair to spyker though, the super aguri team is ultimately a honda b-team. therefore, all sorts of information, be it mechanical setup, technologies, tyre informations, etc. are passed down from the top. even their chassis is basically last year's honda.

what is impressive is the fact that anthony davidson managed to not only out-qualify his teammate takuma sato, but also the not-quite-star-quality star drivers jenson and rubens of the parent team. we all know of his speed during friday's practice, and we have seen him performing when given the chance to race. so, i'm sure it's vindication for anthony after being denied of the race seat at honda year after year.

point to note, anthony was recently injured at the australian gp and wasn't quite fit for the malaysian gp. but from the look of yesterday's qualifying, he has made a speedy recovery and is eager to do well. he drove his heart out, and almost made it into q3 qualifying at 13th. positive result, i like.

well, i hope he continues to do well in the race tomorrow, and not get overly excited about his good performance and to throw his chances away. we all know how different a race is as compared to qualifying. so all the best!


read super aguri f1 team's qualifying statement

p.s. let's see if massa can utilize a second chance to lay his sepang ghost to rest at bahrain.



previous posts:
missing schumacher and brawn
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari

missing schumacher and brawn

[ ferrari, sepang, michael schumacher, formula 1 ]

first off, wasn't i right to say the first corner will determine everything? alonso passing massa and hamilton passing both kimi and massa before the first corner sealed the race for mclaren. although the ferrari was a quicker car in the first stint, they were not able to overtake the stunning mclaren.


ferrari must be missing micahel schumacher and ross brawn. the race at sepang fell apart for ferrari, with the uninspiring drive from the drivers and the horrible pitstop strategy. in this race, they seemed to have lost the touch.

let's start with felipe massa, from a hero on pole to fifth place loser after around 10 laps. his drive was amateurish, even behind a rookie with two f1 races under his belt. massa's overtaking maneuvers on hamilton were silly to say the least. he tried it once and failed, but then he decided to try it again at the same spot only to end disastrously. he was ballsy, i got to give him that, but silly. furthermore, he threw away his chance to be the number 1 driver in ferrari.

nothing very exciting from kimi either. i'm sure he tried as hard as he could, but it was truly uninspiring. i wonder if michael could have done more. and after the first pitstop, kimi was miles away from hamilton. i wonder if brawn could have done better. are they really the missing pieces?

furthermore, is this the beginning of the downhill for ferrari? personally, i hope not. sepang hasn't been kind to the scuderia recently, so i'm hoping this is just a one off this season. without ferrari there at the top, this season could well be mclaren's for the taking. within three weeks, mclaren has improved tremendously. they weren't lying when they said they have closed the gap to ferarri. in fact, they have surpassed ferrari. so game on!

overall, the race was alright. the first part was very exciting, with hamilton doing a fantastic job of holding back massa. he didn't crack under pressure, not with massa and also not with kimi. this kid is brilliant! now, i think the lewis-hype can get started. he is full of confidence and determination as well, announcing to the team that he will get a win. he just needs to qualify better, and the wins will be his.

i particularly liked ralf's overtaking maneveur on scott speed. ralf set speed up fabulously by making a few dummy moves, tricking speed to go to ther wrong side and opening up the corner. and with that, ralf coyly swerved in and take the spot. however, a horrendous drive for him as he dropped around 10 places to finish close to the bottom.

just a mention on poor nico, running brilliantly throughout the race but only to have the car breaking down. his teammate, wurz, however, redeemed the race for william with an amazing drive up to ninth, beating webber who qualified among the top ten. maybe it is the airasia sponsorship that helped - "now everyone can fly!" including wiliams.

winner of the race:
i think there are plenty of winners. rubens managed to come from the pit to climb to midfield, passing his teammate who qualified better. wurz, as above. mclaren, for getting their first win and one-two since 2005. so this is a tough one and no clear winner, but i'd like to say williams are definitely winners as they have found their momentum back to the glory days.

loser of the race:
simply massa.


bye for now. see you next year, sepang!



previous posts:
exciting qualifying for sepang
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari

exciting qualifying for sepang

[ ferrari, sepang, felipe massa, formula 1 ]

it must have been the best qualifying sepang has ever seen. plenty of action, and plenty of surprises. i'm sure the crowds would have been pleased. speaking of which, it also must have been the most populous qualifying for sepang. sepang is known for being empty during qualifying, but not this year though. this year, the crowds came.

that's good news. i'm happy for sic and the organizers, for after eight years, they may have finally done something right to draw in the people. they better, especially with neighbour singapore knocking on the f1-host door. i didn't bother to check out the price this year, but i do know that ticket sales were slow. to be fair, malaysians do like to do things slow. always waiting for free tickets and best bargains, perhaps.

as for the qualifying, it was surprisingly exciting. cars were eager to get out, even after they have done a week of testing here, so we did get actions for much of the hour. we didn't see much of the spyker, scuderia tr, and the super aguri, but as usual they took up most of the last few spots. among them though, is rubens (the one who said he could beat michael schumacher anytime of the day). well, maybe they need to work harder as jenson wasn't any better. so, honda is in deep shit.

horrible result for the renault as well. the renault mechanics' reactions said it all as they were utterly disappointed for becoming losers from champions, and sepang has confirmed it. best pals david coulthard and alex wurz didn't fare very well too and are stuck close to one another behind, so we might be seeing some budding actions again tomorrow.

bmw and toyota continued to finish in the top ten. good job, but just filling the gaps and nothing very exciting from them. ex-teammates nico and webber also finished in the top ten, with nico doing better in the car that webber left from. i do wish that nico continues to beat webber, nothing will please me more.

finally, the mclaren and the ferrari. it was really their show this afternoon as there's nothing between the two of them. neck and neck, from q1 to q3. when the rain threatened the show, the teams carried out their performances flawlessly, hitting the timesheet early on despite having full tanks. they continued to run completely mix of strategies, between the rival teams and even between respective teammates. bridgestone's white band on the tyres helped us to identify which compound they were using, and i got to say, it was very entertaining and informative.

but there could be only one pole sitter, and that belongs to felipe massa. he stole the pole from alonso, who had beaten kimi raikkonen at the very last second, with a 0.3s advantange. good stuff from massa. hamilton, who was shown to be disappointed with himself, took fourth. ferrari, mclaren, ferrari, mclaren. :)

so brace yourself for a potentially exciting malaysian gp tomorrow. with the element of rain, it could be chaotic and unpredictable. if there's no rain, then the heat will put the test on the engines. the beginning of the race, as usual, will decide everything. on a track like sepang, it's usually p1 to p1. if massa manages to keep his first spot, he could potentially gallops his way to victory. but so could alonso, kimi, and hamilton - if they manage to pass.



previous posts:
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari
melbourne gp... yawn

come! and get some airasia kisses

[ williams, sepang, nico rosberg, formula 1 ]



that's malaysian hospitality for you... besides, it is vmy2007.

airasia sponsors at&t williams for three years



previous posts:
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari
melbourne gp... yawn
indianapolis blew it open

four-mirror mclaren explained

[ mclaren, sepang, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

four mirrors. i'm not sure, but i think this is probably a first in formula 1.



the mclaren of lewis hamilton was recently spotted with four mirrors during testing at sepang. initially, i thought it was just an exercise for the driver to get used to a new position for the mirror. turns out, it was for the driver to keep an eye for smoke from the engine.

Lewis Hamilton's MP4-22 in testing at Sepang last week featured no fewer than four rear-view mirrors.

The English rookie, however, had not simply requested a better view of the cars behind him.

Instead, it emerges that the two extra mirrors - mounted on the top of the MP4-22's sidepods - were designed to give 22-year-old Hamilton an easy glimpse of engine smoke.

Italian sources report that Mercedes Benz engineers wanted to test and push the limits of the V8 engine on the Malaysian layout. Catching an engine failure early makes it easier to investigate.

Hamilton, who finished third on debut in Australia last month, stopped trackside at Sepang on both Thursday and Friday with oil leaks.

source: f1-live.com

interesting explanation. somehow i don't quite believe it though. instead, they should try explain this question.

although several teams have adopted ferrari's move to place the mirrors on the sidepods (redbull and renault have done that), my guess is the mclaren mirrors will stay at where it was in australia.



previous posts:
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari
melbourne gp... yawn
indianapolis blew it open