A new season of F1 is upon us once again, with the first round coming next Sunday in Australia. New rule changes have caused radical redesigns to cars (which I think are fugly) with lower front wings. Driver wise, many new drivers are taking to the grid, while a former champion returns after a stint in rally. As far as tracks go, the United States returns (so long as the track gets finished) at a new course in Austin, Texas, while the Turkish grand prix disappears. But the questions we all want answered; will Vettel continue his dominance with Red Bull, or will McLaren, Ferrari, or another team take the head of the field? We find out next Sunday!
This year's drivers and teams
Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber McLaren: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button Ferrari: Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa Mercedes: Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosburg Lotus (formerly Lotus Renault): Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean Force India: Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenburg Sauber: Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez Toro Rosso: Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne Williams: Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna Caterham (formerly Lotus): Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov HRT: Pedro de la Rosa, Narain Karthikeyan Marussia (formerly Virgin): Timo Glock, Charles Pic
Schedule: March 18- Australia March 25- Malaysia April 15- China April 22- Bahrain May 13- Spain May 27- Monaco June 10- Canada June 24- Europe (Valencia) July 8- Britain July 22- Germany July 29- Hungary September 2- Belgium September 9- Italy September 23- Singapore October 7- Japan October 14- Korea October 28- India November 4- Abu Dhabi November 18- United States November 25- Brazil
Quite a good race though results and performance were definently warped by the weather conditions. Ferrari don't have a race winning car for example. But it does show they have some pace (in the hands of Alonso anyway). Plus it is good to see the middle-teams pushing the top teams.
Great to see Williams back slightly closer to where they should be; they truely are (with Ferrari and McLaren) one of the most important teams in F1. Even though, again, Maldonado was very unlucky.
I'm disapointed with Vettels comments about 'idiot' backmarkers. Hamilton made similar comments last year (though I think they wre about Massa) and it's pretty pathetic. At the end of the day it's racing and you have to accept that, in difficult conditions, incidents happen.
Before the race the BBC mentioned that if Ferrari got rid of Massa the most likely replacement would be Sergio Perez since he is on their young driver programme..... well what an advert for himself! Despite his mistake drifting wide at near the end he had a great race.
And again poor Schumacher. Hopefully next race he'll have no mechanical problems and no Grosjean spinning him and can show how close to his best he is.
Hey I almost forgot there was a thread about it. xD I'm disappointed with the Mercedes team. I thought I would see Schumacher on the podium but I guess we'll have to wait a little longer. Anyway, the middle teams seems to be doing well which should make this year's competition very exciting. Now we have to wait 3 weeks before the next GP. I wish they'd had them every weeks instead. This wait is killing me!
Just read the news that Red Bull and Lotus kept on whining about the rear wing of the Mercedes car and now the F.I.A. is looking into it a second time around...
I HATE those political games always being played in the paddock! This really ruins the whole sport! =(
Another qualifying has passed and... Schumacher is in the top 3 again!! And what's even more amazing... his teammate Rosberg has the pole!!! Now, who would have thought... (o.O)
But "the bullsh** stops when the flag drops", so we will have to wait for the race to be over and see what they both are able to do with that starting position... =/ Can't wait till tomorrow!!! =D
Some more news in starting positions and F-1 in general:
# Hamilton has second position in qually, but will be dropping 5 positions due to a gear box change.
# Vettel out of the top 10?! What a blunder! How can this happen to the former 2-time world champion F-1?! Seems a little dissapointing to see how he can't get the car running again... were his previous years just lucky then? I wonder... =/
# Dutch driver Guido van der Garde was able to test a Caterham car in the first practice session on Shanghai and made a nice 19th time, only a little behind Kovalainen! Even though there is a Dutch guy in F-1 right now, I still don't see him racing any time soon! But hey... it's F-1, so never say never!
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I'll be looking forward to the race with Kobayashi and Raikonnen in the front lines again! This should be good! And especially because the whole top 10 of this Grand Prix has only 4 cars out of the top teams from last year in it! Imagine... 6 cars from other teams now rule the top 10? That's great! A good day for racing I say! =)
Wow, what a race!!! Racers passing, getting passed, re-passing! Non-stop action! I wish Schumacher could have finished the race. Hamilton passed Vettel with to laps to go, that was great!
The race started as a high expected feast of racing, but after a few laps quickly turned into a dull merry-go-round... the action only returned for the last 10 laps in the race and that was a bit of a dissapointment for me...
Biggest dissapointment was of course the early retirement of Schumacher due to (what I believe was) a failure with the wheel lock that forced the tire into the suspention and thus terminating his race... WHY can't the guy catch a break?! Geeeessshh... =(
Plus points for this race are short and simple... GREAT effort and result for Nico Rosberg! He had this coming for a while and finally was able to cash in the prize for all the hard work!
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton did phenominal work on damage control with the 2nd and 3rd places in the race, making it a complete Mercedes podium for the first time this year!
Vettel struggled, was looking good for 2nd place a short time there, but finally had to give in and fold... awesome effort for someone driving a car that is way worse than last year's!
Raikonen made a gamble and lost... stupid, stupid, stupid! How can a team as experienced as Renault make such a critical mistake and choose to stay out, rather than get a final pit stop and secure a nice points-position?! I'll never understand... =/
Let's hope Schumi will retaliate next race and make it a Schumacher-fest with the hattrick because he deserves this for this work! So that's pole, fastest lap and a win! *fingers crossed* =)
And he's probably on his way to make this his calling card or nickname, whatever you want to call it, because he has done it before! Only that time around it was a half 360 'Spanish Salto Mortale'... =)
I guess whenever a driver makes a wheely or a salto in the future, we'll be talking about him 'doing the Webber' huh?! LOL
And the first pole for Vettel is here! He finally made it into this year... and the fact that all cars are so close to eachother means a LOT of competition and thus excitement for the championship! YUZ! =D
Here are the final results for tomorrow's starting grid :
Starting grid 04/22/2012 : Bahrain International Circuit ___________________________________________________________
( Pos - Driver - Team )
1. Sebastian Vettel - RedBull Renault 2. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes 3. Mark Webber - RedBull Renault 4. Jenson Button - McLaren Mercedes 5. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes 6. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso Ferrari 7. Romain Grosjean - Lotus Renault 8. Sergio Perez - Sauber Ferrari 9. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari 10. Paul Di Resta - Force India Mercedes 11. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus Renault 12. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber Ferrari 13. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India Mercedes 14. Felipe Massa - Ferrari 15. Bruno Senna - Williams Renault 16. Heikki Kovalainen - Caterham Renault 17. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes 18. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso Ferrari 19. Vitaly Petrov - Caterham Renault 20. Charles Pic - Marussia Cosworth 21. Pedro de la Rosa - HRT Cosworth 22. Pastor Maldonado - Williams Renault 23. Timo Glock - Marussia Cosworth 24. Narain Karthikeyan - HRT Cosworth
Surprises allover! Vettel's first pole!; Ricciardo did an AWESOME job with 6th!; Kovalainen steers the Caterham into Q2!; Schumacher eliminated in Q3 already?!; Alonso's car definitely NOT up to speed?; Massa flunked once again!
I wonder how long it will take for Massa to get kicked out of his seat by Ferrari... =/
I need to get this out. F1 should not be in bahrain right now. The protests are still bad out there. Apparently, either Thursday or Friday night, some sort of explosive went of close to a car full of Force India team members (at least 1 of which has left the country because of it). Also, apparently earlier today they found a protester dead near the track. If there is that much going on near the track, there should be no way F1 should have even considered going to Bahrain. /rant
Anyways, it seems Red Bull is back again. I hope it doesn't turn into absolute domination again. I'm a bit disappointed by Shumi's pace; nothing seems to be going right for him this year. I may comment more later, but I need to food.
I hated this qualification! Nooo, not Vettel again! :O And I agree that the F1 teams shouldn't go to these uncivilized countries who treat their people like garbage anyway. I'm sure many European countries would love to have the Grand Prix there and I bet that even practice days would have a big crowds, unlike in Bahrain where there were nobody watching.
Before the race in Bahrain, I'm sure most people didn't even know that country existed. Like you said SSTG, a lot of European countries would love a race. Bring back Portugal or France or San Marino. Those would be good races to see come back.
I would agree with you on San Marino -Imola there waluigi! I've always missed that race on the F1 calendar ever since they stopped racing there soon after Senna died back in 1994... we should start a petition!! =)
Did Redbull found a way to cheat again or is it only temporary? I'm so mad that if I didn't like F1 so much I would quit watching it. Good job to the Lotus/Renault team and shame on Mercedes for disappointing me again. > Did I mention before how much I dislike Vettel?
I would agree with you on San Marino -Imola there waluigi! I've always missed that race on the F1 calendar ever since they stopped racing there soon after Senna died back in 1994... we should start a petition!! =)
Umm... the last race there was 2006. It hasn't been quite as long as you're thinking.
So Vettel wins again. I hope this doesn't become a regular occurrence again since I've seen enough of this last year. I'm more impressed by the pace of the Lotus cars. Kimi was right up on Vettel for a few laps before dropping back after pit stops. And Grosjean did just as well, catching up to the battle little by little, though he never actually made it. Perhaps Lotus will be able to win this year. On a side note, I love watching Kimi interviews and laughing at the lack of emotion. Also, I'm a bit miffed that Rosburg received no penalty for his aggressive defending moves on Hamilton and Alonso that forced both into the run off. That is incredibly dangerous to be doing.
Did Redbull found a way to cheat again or is it only temporary?
I'm really hoping it's temporary there SSTG! If they would have found a way to jump ahead of the rest of the pack, it will become a dull season once again! But I'm actually confident that this season is going to be a different winner at every track! Every track has it's specifics and one track might be crappy for a car, but the next is awesome for it, making it virtually impossible to beat it there! Just have faith there SSTG, it will set itself right in the end I'm sure!
Did I mention before how much I dislike Vettel?
Yes you did! LOL =P
Umm... the last race there was 2006. It hasn't been quite as long as you're thinking.
LOL Yes, I know!!! I saw a short item during the preview of this race. They had a question for the viewers which stated what the best italian Grand Prix was, result: Imola! And they showed a recap of the 2006 race! *facepalms* A race that was epic because Schumacher and Alonso battled it out during the whole race and in the end, Schumi prevaled! How could I forget?! (o.O)
As for the race, shame that Ricciardo failed at the start. It would have been a good one if he had managed to get of the spot as he should have... Schumacher started to do what I thought he would at the beginning, but getting 1 point at the end is just ridicoulous!! I really hope they (and he) get their stuff together and race for the win next time around! Allthough that might be difficult like I stated with the different tracks above... =/ Raikonnen (mumbler) and Grosjean (yuck) did an excellent job with finishing 2nd and 3rd behind Vettel (oh nowz) and it made for an interesting finish this GP... but I DO hope it's not the start of a new 'Rain of Vettel' this year, that would be a real shame! (o.O)
