Sidepodcast

2009 Rookie Starts

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

Sebastien Buemi is the only rookie in F1 this year, and as ever, he has a lot to live up to. Taking over from Sebastian Vettel, the pressure was always going to be high for him, and since Lewis Hamilton's amazing rookie year, we expect more from our first time drivers.

However, with just three races under his belt, Buemi has picked up points in two of them. On his debut, he finished 7th, securing two points, and last week in China, he picked up the last points position. So far, he has shown some really good driving, overtaking others where necessary, but there are still signs that he is a rookie. Small mistakes creep into his performance sometimes, but that can be forgiven if he continues to improve from here.

Clearly, Toro Rosso are far from where they were last year. With Vettel behind the wheel they picked up their maiden win, ahead of sister team Red Bull. Now Vettel has moved up to the top team (and given them their maiden win as well), the team will be hard pushed to repeat anything like the success they enjoyed in 2008.

This could be a really good chance for Buemi to shine though. He was snapped up almost instantly by the team, whilst they struggled to decide on their second driver. Finally option for Bourdais, they have seen the Frenchman struggle and complain that the car doesn't suit his driving style. This can only make Buemi seem even better as he continues to do well.

Boss at STR, Franz Tost, has suggested that they never expected Buemi to do quite so well as he has, although they were hoping for points in the second half of the season. Now that the rookie has secured those points in only the first three races, Tost says he needs to keep on pushing to score even more as the season progresses.

For Buemi, his aim at the start of the year was simply to learn and find his feet within the team. Now, with an underperforming teammate, he may find himself leading the way as they aim to pick up those ever important points.

F1 2009, Round 3 - China

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

When Vettel took pole in qualifying on Saturday, it wasn't a complete surprise. The Red Bulls have been threatening the Brawn GP drivers in terms of speed and it was only a matter of time before they made it stick.

Webber held a provisional pole, before Vettel took it from him, and the real surprise in qualifying was Fernando Alonso in second. Lining up on the front row of the grid, very light on fuel, we were eager to see what he could do at the first corner.

Unfortunately, we were robbed of the chance, as on Sunday, it had been raining all morning and wasn't showing any signs of stopping. The race began behind the Safety Car, which stayed out for 8 laps. Alonso pitted just as the safety car came in which meant the battle never happened.

Nevertheless, Vettel streaked away into the lead, navigating through the puddles, whilst the best battles happened behind him. Trulli and Kubica came together, with the Pole riding up over the Toyota and breaking off it's rear wing. Webber and Button scrapped through several corners, with each driver running wide to allow the other through, and then the Australian putting in a fine overtaking move to eventually grab the position.

Sutil was running up in sixth, before crashing out in the last few laps, after being unable to turn the corner. Another crushing disappointment for the Force India boys who could use a good points haul as motivation, if nothing else.

Massa also retired, his Ferrari just coming to a halt out on track. Raikkonen didn't have a much better day, finishing out of the points. The pair of them not benefitting from the lack of KERS. Hamilton also struggled today, spinning five times in the wet conditions. Teammate Heikki kept it much cleaner, and both finished in decent points positions - an improvement for McLaren.

Finally, Vettel took the top spot, with Webber making it a Red Bull 1-2, and Button joining them on the podium. Vettel's second career victory was Red Bull's first, and no doubt they celebrated late into the night.

Teams Change Mind on KERS

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

We've had two rounds of the championship already, with teams sticking to their decision to run KERS (or not) during both races. Now, though, BMW and Ferrari have changed their minds and heading into the Chinese Grand Prix, we're looking at a different KERS lineup on the grid.

BMW
BMW have struggled to encorporate KERS into both their cars, due to the differences between their drivers. Heidfeld has been running the device since the start of the season, with varying degrees of luck. Kubica, though, is much taller, and therefore heavier - despite going on a crash diet over the winter. He couldn't run it, but BMW have worked hard on making a lighter car, and therefore allowing the Pole to fit the device. He will be able to run it on Friday to test out whether it works or not. Presumably the weight difference will affect the handling of the car, so it may be that Kubica decides not to run with it until they can sort that problem out.

Ferrari
Ferrari were a surprise KERS entrant at the start of the season, as they'd suggested development wasn't going well. However, recently, Massa suggested that without their KERS device, there really wouldn't be anything that worked on the car. I can't quite figure out why, then, given the disasters the team have already experienced, they are taking off the one thing that has made them even slightly competitive. Neither Ferrari car will run the KERS device in China, and the reason they give is safety. I do understand that it is better to be safe than sorry, especially when we're talking about stored electricity. Raikkonen suffered a face full of acrid smoke at the last race, and it's understandable that precautions need to be taken. However, they really need the device to get any kind of results, and I worry that this will be another decision that doesn't work in the team's favour.

We'll be keeping a close eye on what other decisions are made during the Grand Prix weekend, because I have a feeling these won't be the only ones.

Rear Diffusers Declared Legal

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The FIA International Court of Appeal met on Tuesday of this week to discuss the issues regarding the rear diffusers of the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars. Since before the season started, the other teams have protested against these three designs, suggesting they are exploiting a loophole in the regulations that is not in the spirit of the rules. The stewards at both races have ruled in favour of the diffusers, so the matter had to go to the Court of Appeal.

Now, the FIA have ruled the diffusers legal, after deliberating the decision overnight.

The official FIA statement reads: "Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations."

It is a relief that the decision has now been made, and therefore the results of the previous two races no longer hang in the balance. All the points allocated so far remain as they are (pending any sanctions McLaren may pick up in their hearing later this month). Now it falls to the teams who do not have the diffuser to decide whether to build their own.

There is clearly a performance advantage to the device, although that won't explain the outright pace that Brawn GP have over their rivals. For some teams, it will be tricky. For example, Red Bull's suspension design has meant that incorporating the new diffuser would be very tricky. However, the Red Bull has shown some decent pace over the last few weeks, anyway, and may not feel it necessary to play catchup to the three teams with the now-legal diffuser.

It is only a matter of time before we see the new parts on the cars, though, with many teams suggesting they will have new diffusers ready in time for the Spanish Grand Prix, whilst some who were working on the design already could even bring them to this weekend's race in China.

It will be very interesting to see how much difference the diffuser actually makes to the cars, and whether the complaints of the other teams were founded or not.

Ferrari Reshuffle to Solve Problems

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

It's no secret that Ferrari haven't been very impressed with their performance so far this season, and if you think back, they had already started to go off the boil towards the end of last year.

In the last few races of 2008, Ferrari suffered way too many pit stop problems, and diasters such as the Singapore fuel hose incident were part of the reason that Massa lost out on the championship by just a single point.

At the time, the team were insistent that they win together and lose together, and no blame was going to be apportioned.

The start of the 2009 season hasn't exactly gone to plan for the team, with zero points for either driver after two races already completed. Although Massa had a bad start to the year last time out, this year, it is both drivers who are struggling. It seems as though the no-blame policy is being abandoned, because although this latest development is being billed as a simple "personnel reshuffle", it is specific people being moved about.

The team met at the factory in Maranello to discuss and pinpoint where the problems are occurring. They have been reported in the press as "crisis talks" but it isn't a surprise that the team took some time to evaluate what has gone wrong so far this year, and come up with some solutions.

For a start, current team manager Luca Baldisserri is being moved to a factory-based role, although his main duties will be to co-ordinate activities between the factory and the track. A new group is being set up to "fast-track" some improvements to the car for the drivers as soon as is humanly possible. There is talk that new parts will be on the car by the time we go racing again in China. Current technical director Aldo Costa will be concentrating on this group, who will be looking at the car as a whole and working on some new technical improvements.

This means that the trackside operations will fall under the guidance of Chris Dyer, who is chief track engineer with the team. It remains to be seen how well this shakeup will affect the performance out on track, but as the team's troubles in Malaysia stemmed from bad decisions from the pit wall, it may be a good place to start.

Qualifying Strategy - Last Minute Laps

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

There are many elements that affect where a driver qualifies on the Saturday of a Grand Prix weekend. The speed of his car, whether the driver has everything setup to his liking, and in the final session, how much fuel is in the car.

Outside of the car, though, there are still strategic decisions to be made that can make all the difference to a drivers performance during qualifying.

The three sessions of qualifying get shorter as they get more important, so the window of opportunity to squeeze in a fast lap is smaller the nearer you get to the top ten. During the first session, there are twenty minutes to choose when to set a lap time. Most drivers will head out of the garage to get at least one time on the board. For those cars that are on the pace, this will usually be enough to guarantee them a place in the next round, but the chances are they will set another lap nearer the end of the session.

The plus side to waiting towards the end of the session, is that the more cars that have been out on track, the more rubber is down on the circuit and the faster the lap times will be. However, if you wait until the dying moments of the session to post your only time of the day, you are running the risk of making a mistake and being knocked out.

The other problem occurs with traffic. It's all very well waiting until the last few minutes to put in your flying lap, but if every other driver is doing the same thing, then it gets pretty crowded out on track. Although a driver will try his best not to get in the way of another, for fear of penalty, it does happen, and the more traffic that is out there, the more chance of a lap being ruined. As each session passes by, there are less cars out on track, and therefore less traffic, but of course, there are less minutes to get your lap completed in.

Patterns we are starting to see in F1 include Force India heading out early in any sessions they are in (they usually don't make it out of Q1), whilst BMW will always wait as long as possible before leaving the garages. They quite often bypass the banker laps, as well, which is taking quite a risk.

Next time you sit down and watch qualifying, take a look at who comes out when and see if you can spot any patterns.

Car Liveries

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

Every single part of a Formula 1 car is regulated, right down to the very paintwork and stickers that are applied. The rules are quite strict, although of course, there is no mandating what colours are allowed. That decision is strictly down to the team, and their sponsors. It can sometimes make for very beautiful cars, and sometimes make even the sleekest bodywork look terrible.

However, the FIA mandate that both cars in a team must run the exact same livery. We have seen a few deviations from this recently - in 2008, Rubens Barrichello ran a special livery to celebrate his 257th race start, and in Brazil last year, Coulthard ran a livery dedicated to promoting a charity, albeit for only one lap. This can be approved, as long as everyone agrees to it beforehand.

There was a situation in 1999, where BAR had to change their liveries at the last minute. They wanted to run a different branding on each car for two different cigarettes, but this wasn't allowed. Instead, the team went for a livery that was one half blue, one half white, with a weird zip up the middle. It wasn't a popular livery at all.

All cars must carry the race number and name of the driver within. In recent years, the numbers have been made smaller and smaller, seemingly less important. It used to be that the number was a big part of the car, Nigel Mansell's Red 5 springs to mind, but that gradually died out. However, it does seem to be making a comeback, particularly with the drivers who get to run the number one on their car. The number must be visible from the front of the car, whilst the name just needs to be on the chassis somewhere. The team also have to display their own logo on the nose of the car.

The only other real stipulation comes from the need to be able to tell the two cars apart. Above the drivers head, the onboard cameras are situated, and for the number one driver in any team, it must be coloured a flourescent red, and the number two driver has flourescent yellow. I can tell you from experience, this is only useful if you can remember which way round the colours are assigned and which driver in each team is the number one.

Follow F1 on Twitter

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The Twitter phenomenon just keeps on getting bigger, and F1 isn't about to step aside and miss out. A few teams have picked up on the concept, plus some influential journalists have also started sharing their thoughts in 140 characters or less. Here are some of the ones I have noticed so far:

Renault F1
Twitter ID: rf1paddockpass

These are mostly links to press releases and news items on the Renault F1 site, however, there are occasional quotes and I expect there will be some news snippets in the future. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

James Allen
Twitter ID: Jamesallenonf1

Allen commentated on ITV for the UK coverage last year, and he writes for the Financial Times. This year, he's got his own blog and is "live-tweeting" during all the sessions, so if you miss anything, this may be the place to be.

Force India
Twitter ID: clubforce

Another Twitter account that is used mostly to link away to other things on the official site, however there is more than just news. Recently, there has been scope to wish Sutil and Fisichella birthday greetings, plus news of a discount at the merchandise store.

Radio 5live
Twitter ID: 5LiveF1

The UK radio coverage is provided by BBC Radio 5live, and they are tweeting some interesting backstage snippets during each race weekend. The updates aren't as regular as you might hope, but are usually worth waiting for. You are also quite likely to get a reply, unlike with the official team Twitters.

McLaren
Twitter ID: TheFifthDriver

I'm not sure why they are called the Fifth Driver, but there are plenty of updates here from both site update acknowledgements, to news from the track during each race weekend. Don't expect scoops, but it's good to follow the official word.

And of course, you can always follow me! My Twitter ID is mrschristine but I don't solely discuss all things Formula 1, other things creep in there as well.

Also, if you have got this far and are confused about what Twitter is, there's a great article by Jill on the subject.

Driver Profile - Mark Webber

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

Name: Mark Webber
Date of Birth: 27th August 1976
Place of Birth: Queanbeyan, Australia
F1 Debut: Australia 2002

Most drivers start out karting when they are very young, and progress through the lower formulae before entering F1. Mark Webber took a slightly different approach, not starting until he was 14 years old. He had a go at motorbikes, then switched to karting, and from there, he followed the traditional route. He had a go at the Australian Formula Ford championship, and moved to the British version, then up to Formula Three. After a short time in the FIA GT series, plus a go at Le Mans 24 Hours in 1999, he was snapped up by Paul Stoddart for Formula 3000.

With Stoddart's connections, Webber found himself as test driver for Benetton, and then he moved on to a race seat at Minardi, when Stoddart took over business there. He finished fifth on his debut in Australia, and continued to improve over the season. He moved on to Jaguar in 2003, and that's when it became obvious that we had another qualifying specialist on our hands. Although the car couldn't hold it's own come race day, Webber was usually fighting for positions in qualifying that shouldn't be possible.

Unfortunately, a mistimed move to Williams meant the Australian was stuck in an underperforming car for two more years. When Red Bull arrived in 2007, they snapped Webber up. Although the pace was good, reliability was not, and that is how it continues to be to this day. Webber secured the team's first second grid slot at Silverstone last year, and this year the car looks to be good to score a lot of points. We're just waiting for that first win.

Webber is recovering from a broken leg this year, and whilst he can be seen limping down the pitlane quite often, when he's in the car it doesn't seem to be making any difference. The two races we have seen so far haven't gone Webber's way, and he will have his work cut out not to be shown up by Vettel. However, the car certainly has improved pace this year, and anything could happen.

F1 2009, Round 2 - Malaysia

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The Malaysian Grand Prix was approached with some excitement, as we'd seen a great season opener, that really didn't match up with what we'd expected. The Brawn GP boys were really, really fast, and they didn't let up when we got to Sepang.

Jenson Button took pole position in qualifying, but it was to the back of the grid that we turned our attention. Both Ferrari drivers posted a lap in the first session of qualifying, and then returned to the garage to wait it out. They assumed that their laptime would be fast enough, but the track conditions just got better and better. Gradually the pair slipped down the order, until Massa found himself 16th and out of qualifying, with nothing he could do about it. Raikkonen only just managed to slip through in 14th.

Race day dawned, and we found ourselves looking at an ominously dark sky. The race got underway with the only two retirees of the entire afternoon out on the first lap. Kovalainen spun off before completing the first lap, whilst Kubica went nowhere off the line, and had to stop off track as his car caught fire. The BMW driver later said he'd had engine problems around the formation lap as well.

Button had a bad start and had been overtaken by Rosberg, but as pit strategies and tyre changes played out, the Brawn GP driver got his lead back. The rain gradually made it's way in, and Glock found himself on the right tyres at the right time, and able to storm his way through the field, overtaking wherever possible.

Then, the rain came fully, and the race had to be red flagged. We'd only completed 32 laps which wasn't quite 75% race distance - the amount required to hand out full points to the finishing order. Therefore, teams and drivers lined up on the grid, waiting to see if the race could be restarted. Mark Webber canvassed the drivers opinions and all seemed to think it wouldn't get going again. Eventually, the time ran out. The clock keeps going even when a race is red flagged, so the two hour limit was upon us and the race was won. Button took his second victory, albeit at a standstill on the grid. He was joined on the podium by Heidfeld and Glock.