Ba-never-rain(s)

That was the worst blog title in history

Yes the blog title may have been as bad as watching a man eat a live kitten on national TV (I heard this happen in Croatia, but I'm sure it was a joke... I hope) but the race I'm mentioning was rather good.

Very close racing, wheel to wheel stuff and a double lotus podium, so what's the story this week?

Top 5

Hamilton takes part in a remake of
Apocalypse Now

Winning was Vettel, not shocking really, but he did well on the first lap and just commanded from there, a few good overtakes against Rosberg and Alonso, but apart from that nothing spectacular. The rear exhaust shizzle that RBR run aided the car massively and does compliment Seb's driving style, clearly it does not suit Webber's quite as much.

Kimi came in second with a different 2-stop strategy, impressive considering he started 8th on the grid, he ran a good race and had some good passes.

Kimi's teammate Grosjean, again didn't crash, and came third; the careful driving is still there as he was wheel to wheel many times during the race with various people but his speed has returned.

Being a Di Resta fan I was ecstatic when I realised that a podium was in sight for the Scotsman who had his 27th birthday just last week. Then cruel fate, and lack of tyres forcing him to do a 2-stopper, snatched third place from him when Grosjean shot past with DRS about 10 laps 'till the end. Then I noticed something that

So close, but no Rose Water

many of the main media outlets didn't, with 3 laps to go Grosjean slowed RIGHT down, loosing about a second per lap to Paul, in fact they were just over one second apart when finishing, I think Roman's tyres went straight down the cliff, if the race was only a few laps longer. Still I can hope for the future.

Finally Hamilton somehow made it to 5th, ahead of his teammate who started on Pole, again showing that the Merc has good speed, but not-so-good race pace.

The Others

Ferrari where uncharacteristically unlucky, Alonso's DRS got stuck open so he had to pit to have the mechanics thump it back down, then he immediately forgot what just happened and opened it again, only to have to pit for a second time in two laps because rather shockingly whacking a precise piece of engineering and aerodynamic bodywork does not fix the problem permanently and the DRS was stuck open again. With Alonso not able to use DRS throughout the race, and Massa's sudden tyre explosions that were caused by divine intervention, Ferrari had a bad day finishing 8th and 15th.

The man who literally never stops

McLaren had some issues too, but this time it wasn't their car which was almost looking competitive enough to start winning races in Europe, the issue lay with their drivers. Button and Checo had some of the closest racing we've seen all year, lap after lap they raced wheel to wheel, one forcing the other slightly off the track; but no team orders. You have to give it to Whitmarch, he must have nerves of steel because I was terrified that they were going to punt (Slang for push, for the non-brits) each other off.

Paul Di Resta had some luck for once, but the curse of the Force fell onto Sutil who suffered damage when Massa gave him a little knock on the first lap, nothing serious but it pushed him down to 13th, shame considering how strong that car looked this weekend.

Are these toy cars, it's genuinely hard to tell

Merc had an alright race, except Rosberg inexplicably going backwards at an alarming rate.

Webber had an adequate race too, he tweeted it was an "Interesting day at the races" and he was wheel to wheel with several drivers all day, fantastic to watch.

All in all, a great race that was fantastic fun to watch, side by side, nail biting stuff, we all hope that this kind of racing can continue in Barcelona in a few weeks time.

Side Note: The article that I promised on McLaren is coming some time this week, so yay for that.

Lewis Hamilton announces move to.....

Mercedes... Ok well I know it's not new news but I thought that now we have the benefit
of hindsight it's best to look at the controversial move now and see just how well he is doing.

I need a dollar, dollar, a dollar is what I need!

At the time of the announcement a lot of people assumed that what he was doing was almost entirely motivated by money, however it has come to light recently that the already highest paid driver was actually offered more money from McLaren when it was suggested he was looking at moving.

With every corner, he's better than Schumacher was
at Mercedes

Money is not something that motivates a F1 driver, the thing that motivates them most is winning and being in a team that they are comfortable in; and although McLaren brought him up through the ranks and gave him one world championship, he felt stifled and a bit mollycoddled, understandably they always saw him as the young-un the brought up.

Now just because Lewis was brought up into racing by the Woking based team, that doesn't mean he should had undying allegiance to them, your primary school (or equivalent in your respective country) technically brought you up, but you still left. Hamilton does have great respect and thanks to McLaren for all that they have done for him, I'm sure his last day wasn't easy, he has always said that he has a place in his heart for the team and hopes that nothing ever bad happens to them.

Moving On

Mercedes hope to emulate their past

Mercedes last year was a basic , almost struggling team, everyone thought it was suicide to move from the fastest car to the silver arrow; however little did know what Merc where planning on doing, Hamilton sure as hell did. Poaching people like Lowe from McLaren and I'm sure many other mechanics from other teams, they are looking to build themselves right back to the point they were at 70 years ago, winning championships. 

The financial support from Mercedes-Benz is huge, and they are willing to back their team with maximum resources, something that any driver would jump at, and they needed a non-german to market themselves, much in the same way McLaren needed a non-brit. Mercedes put an offer Hamilton can't refuse, a seat in a team with steely determination, grit, and Ross Brawn at the helm. 

Another aspect that could have prompt his move was his now teammate Rosberg, the two get on very well, being old friends and karting with each other from a very young age, they make great teammates, respect each other and I'm in no doubt that they'll help one another massively in the future.

And now?

"I've had better trophies"

Now McLaren have a week car, and a currently struggling driver line up, so everyone is saying what an inspiring move Hamilton made.... Hypocrites. Mercedes are going to be racing for a long time from now on, and they will just get faster, and better, it's only a matter of time before they start winning championships, hell they could still do it this year. They've made a huge improvement from last year and if they keep that rate of development up they'll rocket ahead. 

Keep an eye out on McLaren though, their time is not over yet, and I have a feeling they'll commit to a pull back of the century.

Why did Hamilton make the move from McLaren, only he will ever know, we can only speculate, will he ever go back in 5-6 years time, I can almost guarantee that before Hamilton retires he will race for McLaren again, the question is, how many world championships will he have collected in his time away?

Side Note:I see alot of people suggesting that he moved to escape a corporate atmosphere and to escape doing the sponsor stuff, I've seen him in more PR related stunts since he joined Mercedes than I ever did when he was working at McLaren.

Hamilton moved to escape PR work?.....No I don't think he did.

Shanghai Grand Prix

The Dragon and the Prancing Horse

So the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix is over, and after a very lackluster qualifying where it seemed no one particularly could be bothered to even set a lap, because tyres do that now, we had a very interesting race that went right down to the wire. The race was all about strategy and therefore Force India were never going to get good results because they make the word's strangest decisions.

Top 5

Less awkward than Malaysia

Commandingly winning the race was Alonso, he got himself up into first and just controlled it. If he needed to go faster he could, likewise he would slow down and look after his tyres. 

Kimi came second, and although he had Hamilton right behind him nearer the end he was able to pull away, despite missing a sizable chunk from his nose (his car not his actual nose) after running on some grass and grating his nose against Perrez's rear left tyre (again not his actual nose, that would really hurt) so all in all an effective race from him, showing how good that Lotus actually is.

Hamilton came in a very close third, he had a dynamic race and seemed to be jumping up and down the running like a madman but his strategy worked and ended up quite nicely in third, although he did have a determined German chasing him right at the end.

Vettel started 9th but because he did not set a time but he was able to choose to start on the softer tyre, this was an interesting point because it meant that he could run further than most people in front of him and it did meant that he was able to go to the super fast but super degrading Option tyre just 5 laps before the end, which meant that he could claw back the 10 seconds gap in about 3 laps, he was phenomenally close to passing Hamilton but a few uncharacteristic mistakes meant he couldn't quite pass him.

Jenson Button had a similar strategy to Seb, but the McLaren is not nearly as fast and was just able to scrape 5th place. Although he did do over 20 laps on the harder compound tyre, maybe this McLaren car is very good with it's rubbery grip makers.

Other moments

Spot the missing component

Webber started last after his team didn't put enough fuel into his car in quali and was given a penalty, then he drove slightly into the side of a Torro Rosso, which meant he had to pit to fix his wing. In his pitstop his rear right tyre wasn't seated correctly and was basically just resting on the wheel hub, then Red Bull told him to drive back to the pits slowly (Which is a really dangerous thing to do when you think about it), and not surprisingly his tyre came off and the three wheeled car came to rest in the inside exit of a chicane. Then to add insult to injury he was given a three place penalty for next weeks race for crashing into Vergne. All this compiled on what happened three weeks ago has made the conspiracy theorists come out in droves about how Red Bull would purposely sabotage one of their own cars, frankly the money that you would loose from that is ridiculous and it won't ever happen but people seem to like to think it would.

At least they remembered to brake for this corner

Esteban in the Sauber forgot to brake at a corner and just drove into the back of Sutil ending both their races, something that may have cheered up Scotsman Paul Di-Resta after being punted off the track and loosing about four places on the opening few laps by his own teammate.

A shout out to Ricciardo, he continued Torro Rosso's improving force to get 7th, and Grosjean again didn't crash!

All in all it was an entertaining and strategic race, and one that will keep the forums a-buzz for another week until Bahrain. 

Red Bull has so many options for the future

What will they do?

Red bull are not exactly lacking in people wanting to take a seat, so if Mark Webber was to drop out for say losing trust in the team for not backing him up (That would be crazy, right?), then it's fair to say Red Bull would not have a problem in filling that space.

Existing drivers

Firstly there is Toro Rosso, the sister team of Red bull, which receives significant financial aid and is effectively a junior team, although this year the car developed by James Key, seems to be pushing ever closer to the parent car. Toro Rosso is basically Red Bull's young driver test, it's where Vettel drove and things seem to have panned out with him quite nicely; and although you could argue Toro  Rosso is used to bolt development parts onto to do some sneaky testing before it's put on the Horny Hereshell (Or whatever insane name Vettel has given his car this year), you can also argue that the italian team is breading some fine talent.

God damn it Ricciardo, stop smiling!

Scuderia Red Bull Jr. seem to circulate drivers, giving them a good chance at proving their worth so that they might fly into bigger Renault powered cars, they gave Alguersuari and Buemi three year chances, more than what other mid-field teams give their younger drivers, and the young spaniard obviously impressed as he's been Pirelli's test driver for two years now. Then they got two new drivers Ricciardo and Vergne, with the former having raced at HRT (Under Red Bull's expense) and the latter having his first season in F1. Obviously these two are fighting for a seat in the parent car and it should provide some interesting battles both on and off the track.

Then there are other drivers on the grid, we all know Paul Di-Resta is hungry for a better car (But he may have that this year) and was overlooked by McLaren for being too British, which is a bit harsh for Scotland but whatever. There have been talks about Kimi and Red bull, Massa and Red Bull, Grosjean and Red bull and even Hamilton and the Austrian team; but these all seem a bit iffy.

New drivers

I don't think Red Bull would hire from any other teams, they invest a lot of dosh into new driver programs and into Torro Rosso, so it would be insane to get a driver who hasn't come up in this rather expensive route.

What's over there? A Red Bull seat?

Just today Red Bull has signed a new driver to their junior team, Beitske Visser, where just five other drivers stand and two of which are Red Bul and Toro Rosso's reserve drivers, impressive.

The thing that got me though is the media coverage, they keep going on about how she is a woman, and this is shocking. Recently there has been a big push on women in motor sports, we're starting to see our first ever woman team principles and more women are getting involved in the sport, but to be honest who really cares what gender you are? If you can race Red Bull will have you, hell if you can race any team will have you; the question isn't 'Why aren't women any good at motor sports?' it's 'Why are they encouraged not to be good at motor sports?' but that is a question for another time. 

Red Bull seem to sponsor every sport under the sun, and they've run out of things to sponsor so they just started to make their own (Red Bull Air Race anyone), so the raging Bulls would have no problem in filling a vacant seat if they ever need to, especially filling it with someone who can instantly contend for race wins. What they've done is smart, not only have they financially ensured their future in F1, they have ensured that they keep getting good, world class, championship winning drivers in their cars so that they can continue to be one of the top teams.

Side note, I do also have a small hope that Visser and Vettel never race in the same team, the similarities their surnames have is far too confusing.

Welcome to the F1 grid

I'd like to formally, and informally, welcome you all to my new Blog all about F1, and I suppose some introductions are in order. My name is Matt (but I go as The Lemon online, because apples get all the glory) and I'm a software developer, I live in the UK, am (at the time of writing) 20 and a passionate F1 fan. A quick side note, the blog's page itself is very basic and I will be adding some more pazzaz to the blog, fancy headers and things, I just wanted to get a post going so I can properly motivate myself.

Well upon writing my introduction I realise that my life isn't vaguely interesting and you probably don't care so I'll move right along to what lies ahead and what you're all here for, Formula 1!

2013 season so far

So far we've had two races, Australia and Malaysia both have created some heated debates within forums and the media.

Kimi - "Yeah, it's alright I suppose."

Australia

The Australian Grand Prix promised to deliver, and it did. The season opener was always going to be under close watch as last years season was so tight for the first seven races, this year again threw surprises into the spectators. Kimi Raikkonen won, which in itself is a good start to a season, showing the Lotus has promise to be a title contender, and rather shockingly Grosjean didn't crash, even in the wet!

Alonso and Vettle came predictably second and third respectively; then Massa who is looking on fine form and causing a headache internally for Ferrari, and Hamilton beat all the nay-sayers and came fifth (I'll come to him and his move in a later post). The real pleasurable shock came with the Force Indias, Sutil was leading the race for some time, and he earned being there, it wasn't a fluky pit stop or anything like that, but as he was on a different strategy he dropped back and finished just ahead of his Scottish team mate. The surge we saw Force India have with Hulkenberg at the end of last season may have followed through and might not be a one shot thing.

Malaysia 

Vettel won, Webber second, Hamilton third and Rosberg fourth. I didn't even have to look at my notes (Wikipedia) to know that, sod the rest of the race, the last 18 laps are all anyone wants to talk about, but let's start backwards.

A picture speaks a thousand words, and this one says
"Fuck you Seb!"

At the tail end of this podium were a very strong looking Mercedes, Hamilton was up with the big boys and Rosberg was never too far away at any stage in this race, however due to under-fueling the german was right behind Lewis and trying to pass at the latter stages of the race. Fearing that both cars would either A) Take each other out or B) Run out of fuel doing it, Brawn decided to tell them not to fight, and for Nico to hold station behind Lewis. Understandably this upset Nico, but considering  the two DRS zones kept meaning Nico would jump ahead of Lewis, only for him to be passed again on the next straight was causing the cars to be beside one another for a worryingly long time, it was probably best they didn't run out of fuel dueling. Rosberg did continue to shout about how he was faster, but this is just to say to higher ups 'Look I can battle just as well as my teammate!' which is fair enough. Eventually though he calmed down and stayed put, mostly because Brawn is a scary, scary man and I don't think there is any resentment in the team.

Staying put is something that Vettel seems to not understand, nearer the end of the race he was told not to pass. It was a team order directly from his team principle. He then just completely ignored it and later claimed he...Well I'm not sure what he claimed, he said he did hear it but thought it mean't something different, I think. I'm not saying Webber hasn't done anything in the past, but Vettel's win at all cost attitude put the team at risk of loosing some serious points, and potentially has caused a large rift in the team.

The most awkward podium in human history - Fact

Both of these situations meant that we had the most awkward podiums in the history of motor sport, Webber hated Vettel for stealing his win when he thought the race was over, Seb at the time apparently didn't realise he did anything wrong and Hamilton was insistent that Rosberg should have been where he was standing. Three guys all on the podium who didn't want to be there, albeit in that order, which is ironic because there are 20 chaps behind them who would all love to be up there. And the interview with Martin Brundle was actually quite amusing, because to be honest I don't think even he wanted to be up there.

Notice how I haven't mentioned McLaren in either of the two races, this is because their issues deserve a whole post dedicated to them. Aren't they special.

Well that's it for now, hopefully I'll be able to post some more comments before this Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix.

Side Note: The podium to end all podiums did give us this fantastic GIF

I thrust in your general direction!