Posts Tagged ‘f1’

Yes, I realise I am rather late writing about this. I’ve been busy. Where possible, though, I have tried to make sure that parenting did not get in the way of watching the Grand Prix.

I am glad Nico Rosberg won. He earned it. Hamilton has not had any more reliability problems than Rosberg has. Rosberg does not whine about it, though, he just gets on with the job. He also comes across as a really nice, genuine guy. Slow and steady wins the championship: famously, his father Keke Rosberg (1982 world champion) is one of only two drivers to win an F1 World Championship while only winning one race (the other being Britain’s Mike Hawthorn in 1958).

I am also pleased that he has retired, though. It will save the family arguments. Keke Rosberg was Finland’s first world champion, and as such, Finland considers Nico Rosberg one of their own. However, Nico grew up in Monaco and races under a German flag. Therefore, Elina cheers him on, while I, being British, could naturally never support a German (unlike Finland, we were against Germany in the world wars). It will be nice to have that tension resolved!

The 2015 Formula One season has arrived. What’s changed?

Team changes

The ten “big teams” remaining the same this year, but there are two changes further down the field. Caterham entered administration at the end of 2014 and never made it out. Their property is currently being auctioned off. Marussia did make it out of administration under the name Manor, but failed to make it in to the Australian Grand Prix.

Driver changes

The following drivers have not returned:

• Kevin Magnussen drops from McLaren’s front line to their test driver slot
• Jean-Eric Vergne leaves Toro Rosso
• Sauber drops both Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez (who has gone to Ferrari as a test driver)
• Kamui Kobayashi has no team left after Caterham folded
• Max Chilton has not survived Marussia’s change to Manor

Sadly, Marussia’s other driver, Jules Bianchi, remains in a coma following his crash during the Japanese Grand Prix.

Heading back from my weekend away, looking forward to watching the Grand Prix on BBC iPlayer, I walked into a pub and saw Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso standing on the podium. Race ruined. Why would you put that on the TV behind the bar? It’s just inconsiderate!

Still, upon arriving home Norm said it was worth watching anyway. I joked that technically I only saw a Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari on the podium, so I’m holding out hope it is Rosberg, Webber and Massa.

Little did I know, such a result turned out to be entirely possible (almost). As the race went on, Hamilton had a tyre blowout and Vettel’s car died – even having had the result spoilt for me it turned out to be an amazing race!

No Patrick Stewart on the grid, but you can’t win them all.

Last weekends Malaysian grand prix turned out to be a bit of a sour one.

There was simply outright anger between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, as Mark thought he deserved to have the race win, while Lewis Hamilton felt similarly guilty about taking third place ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg one suspects entirely due to team orders.

As I mentioned in my post about the Australian GP, being a Button fan is only ever going to end in disappointment, as he retired only a few laps before the end of the race, with Di Resta well below him and Max Chilton spent most the race in last place – only Hamilton was flying the flag for Britain, and that was in dubious circumstances too.

Meanwhile, over in my adoptive nation, Kimi Raikkonen only managed 7th. Let’s hope for better results in China.

Seems like no time at all since we started the 2012 Grand Pix season, yet here we are, back at Albert Park for the start of the 2013 season. Indeed, by the time this is actually published we’ll probably be a few races in!

As a Jenson Button you would think I would be used to constant disappointment by now, but unfortunately not, as I watched him cruise home to 9th place, beaten by fellow Brit Paul Di Resta in his Force India, while Lewis Hamilton led the way for British drivers, finishing 5th.

Luckily, as an adopted Finn (I assume, Elina’s mum seems to like me), I can of course now legitimately support both nations and luckily for me, Formula One, along with rally driving and ice hockey, is one of the few sports that Finns are really good at. Kimi Raikkonen might be the only Finn in the sport at the moment, but what does that matter when he leads the world championship.

When I first started watching Formula One, I was just a child, and the racing it was between Michael Schumacher, at his peak, and everyone else.

Williams were doing great too, Damon Hill had a far better car than Schumacher’s Benetton, but still the master could not be beaten. Then the MacLaren rose back to peak performance, while Schumacher climbed into a slower Ferrari, and still he was incredible.

It was incredible. Your skill as a driver actually makes very little difference – it is mostly how fast the car you are sitting in can go, that determines how well you do. But Schumacher defied rules.

As a seven times world champion, he is easily one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time – but that is possibly meaning miserly – perhaps only Ayrton Senna can contest the title of the greatest of all time.

After retiring in 2006, he came back to the sport in 2010, and drove for a further three seasons. He certainly wasn’t at his peak any more – he didn’t have a great car, but he was often beaten by his team mate (who obviously sits in the same car) and made mistakes that resulted in him not finishing races.

But this only makes him more of an inspiration. Why do I think that, when so many people said he was ruining his legacy? Because who cares about that! I want to do what I love in this life and if nobody ever remembers me again after I’m dead – so what?

Not that there is much doubt of that. As Schumacher leaves Formula One for a second time, he does so as someone that will forever remain in the history books of the sport.

What a grand prix season it has been – almost certainly the best in memory!

We started the year with half a dozen different winners in as many races, tyres went on and off like lightening and if you didn’t manage them probably – you could lose it all at the end. Exciting, wheel to wheel racing continued all year.

After all that, we came down to the final race of the year – and the championship race was still open with Vettel and Alonso only a few points from each other! We couldn’t have asked for a more exciting ending. Well, we could have, but it would have been entirely unreasonable.

It did get better though! The first lap, Vettel finds his car facing backwards, but he is able to keep the engine running and now he is on a mission to get right through the field, and catch Alonso to stop him tacking the title away from him.

In the end, he did, and what an amazing end it was. I hope 2013 is just as exciting, even if we are going to have to mange without Jake Humphrey.

It has been a fantastic start to the Formula One season.

With Perez coming in second in his Sauber at Malaysia, Rosberg and his Mercedes qualified on pole and converted it to a win in China. That means that the top two steps of the podium for the first three races – a total of six positions – has been shared by five teams! McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Sauber and Ferrari are all looking in great shape this year and the other teams aren’t far behind.

Last year was an enjoyable season but it did often feel like 23 cars following Vettel round a track. This year has already seen some amazingly competitive racing and long may it continue. Ideally, primarily on the races, the BBC are showing in full.