It’s a 4 Way Battle Now…

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- Contributed by Debraj B

Just after a week of the Malaysian outing, we are here in the deserts of Sakhir for the 3^rd GP of this calendar. This GP is the end of the first leg of this season. As expected the weather was pretty hot, but a couple of showers during Friday practice, Saturday qualifier and then the race made things a little pleasant.

From the Friday practice itself, it was pretty evident that both the number 2 drivers of Ferrari and Mclaren were faster than their number 1 colleagues. Also BMW looked like breathing on the neck of both the teams in terms of pace. Honda was as usual disappointing, while Williams looks getting better by every race. The fact that they had the fastest straight-line speed of the weekend makes me believe that they are gonna be competitive in the near future.

On Saturday’s qualifier, Massa was the strongest as expected, followed closely by Hamilton. But the biggest disappointment was the reigning double world champion. He looked off pace from the word go and never recovered finishing at 5^th place. Kimi was equally disappointing finishing at third. I somehow felt that both were not strong enough in their intent. Nick finished at 4^th for BMW.

But when I aw the first few laps of the race, I thought I was wrong. Fernando showed all the intent to move up despite staring from the dirtier side of the track. He moved up 2 places overtaking Nick and Kimi in a slower and heavier Mclaren. For the next set of laps, till the first pit, the cat and mice game was on between Fernando and Kimi. But what disgusted me most was Fernando’s driving immediately after the first pit. He went to pits a lap ahead of Kimi and had a pit 0.1 second faster than Kimi. Now when he went to pits, he was 0.5 second ahead of Kimi. And I am still trying to figure out how badly he would have driven when Kimi was in the pits. It has to be very bad because Kimi was easily able to leapfrog Alonso coming out of the pits. On the top of the order there was another fight going on between Massa and Lewis. But the move of the day came from Nick when he humbled Alonso through the outside at turn 6. Well done Nick! At the end Lewis fell short by 3 seconds, some credit has to go to Christijan Albers for blocking Lewis. There were few more good drives in the race. The best came from a known but unexpected person, David Coulthard. After a long time he looked like the old David we all know. Kudos to the old Scot for making his way up till 7^th place when bad-luck struck him again and his engine let go.

Overall, nothing special as a race… Massa did what he can do, win from pole. Hamilton is the start of the season so far with Nick and he had a superb race again. As I said before Kimi and Alonso were the most disappointing. I can’t believe Kimi did not push the rookie for more than 3 laps. If the buzz has to be believed, Fernando went for a conservative race to preserve his engine for his home GP at Catalunya which is next on 13^th of May. But this can’t be an excuse from a champion for such painful driving.

Anyways, we are off for almost 4 week now. Mclaren is expected to cover the gap with Ferrari in terms of speed by then .So we can expect some better races after Catalunya. So we shall meet after almost a month as Imola is no more a part of the F1 fixture. I know it is boring but there is nothing we can do about it.

So, take care have a nice time. Till Catalunya, ADIOS!

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The Table has Turned...

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- Contributed by Debraj B

Well, well, well, it’s quite amazing to see what difference two weeks can make. In Albert Park, about three weeks ago, we had an over-joyous Ferrari team at the pits. Today, the same pit looked contrastingly different. Now, we are getting into business…

From 19^th March it-self there was a strong buzz that Kimi’s engine had a problem with its cooling system and was leaking water. He himself had expressed concerns over his engine. When the Friday practice was over, it was pretty evident that Kimi was not as strong as he was at Albert Park. Massa though, had a good practice along with both the Mclarens. Even the Renaults looked good in second practice.

From the very first session of Saturday qualifiers, Mclarens looked much better than what it was at Albert Park - be it handling or speed, the difference was pretty evident. The first two sessions were dominated by Fernando Alonso, but in the closing moments of the final qualifiers, when everyone started to believe that Fernando would definitely start at the top of the grid, Massa came up with a stunning lap to snatch the pole away.

The guys at the Met department proved themselves wrong once again (when have they been proved right? J ), as the weather turned out to be the exact opposite of what was forecast.

So the race eventually started on a dry, sunny and extremely hot afternoon. Though the race had 56 laps in all, I think the fate of the race was sealed in the first 2-3 laps. In the very first corner itself, Fernando went past Massa, courtesy a superb start. But the stunning move came from the one race old Brit rookie, Hamilton, who in his Mclaren was 4^th on the grid. First he tried to go past the outside of Kimi and suddenly changed the line going through the inside of both Massa and Kimi. Felipe Massa tried in next 2 laps to regain his 2^nd place from the young Brit. But he didn’t help his own cause by not being to able to hold on to his place in-spite of overtaking twice. To make things worse, he spun off the track. Truly this guy has strengthened my belief that though he is a good driver, he is not even an average racer. When all these were happening, the reigning champion just sped away to a safe and distant position. He was just in his own world…

Mclaren looked a wonderful unit altogether, whereas Ferrari seemed to be falling apart, though it might be little early to say so. What disgusted me most is their pit strategy. Both the Ferrari drivers were pitted for 10 seconds on first stop, which is a good 2.5 to 3 seconds more than the Mclarens. With that extra fuel I thought they will be out for 3-4 extra laps on softer compound than Mclaren. But to my surprise, I found Massa pitting earlier than both Mclarens and Kimi pitting just 1 lap later than Mclarens. Looks like Ferrari pit is missing the technical brilliance of the big man named Ross Brawn. Mclaren got their first 1-2 finish since 2005.

Rest of the race was pretty much free from incidents. Fernando just cruised to victory followed by Lewis and Kimi. Heidfeld had another strong race at 4^th followed by Massa.

So, couple of things are clear now. Ferrari has not been able to hold on to the edge they had in Australia. Secondly, Mclaren seems to be going from strength to strength. And I am sure some credit will go to Fernando as well for this revival.

The few disappointments were Rosberg having to retire from a strong 6^th place and Robert Kubica having to drop down from an excellent 5^th place, due to problem with the Traction Control.

Though both the races so far have been a little boring, it has made for some terrific backdrop to the fight for WDC and WCC.

If we look at the Oz race and then the Malaysian leg, we can definitely say that the table has really turned now.

That will be all from me for now. We shall meet in exactly a week’s time in Bahrain. Till then ADIOS!

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F1 - from the ages...

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Vintage F1 Racing at it's non-technical best... Pure driving skills...





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Flying Finn conquers Australia

-- Contributed by Debraj B

Finally! After four and a half months of extensive testing and development (and restless wait for us), the teams were all ready at Albert Park for the season starting grand prix on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It’s not only in India but in Australia as well, that the Metrological department seems to be predicting wrong. Both the qualifiers and the race were predicted to be wet. But other than the Friday’s practice session, it was all a bright and sunny affair. And there was the rise of a new sun in Albert Park as well - Kimi Raikkonnen. After a disastrous 2006 season, he has started with a bang. It’s not easy to get into a new team and replace an all time great; but Kimi did it – and did it with style as well.

Let’s get on to the team wise analysis.

1) Scuderia Ferrari: At the moment this team looks like a class apart. They are definitely a touch above all other cars, maybe except Mclaren. They could have definitely had the perfect weekend too, with a 1-2 finish. But it was not to be; Massa faced a huge setback when he had a gearbox problem in Q2 of Saturday’s qualifier. That placed him at number 16 on the grid. But Ferrari made a smart move by replacing his engine and fuelling the car fully to go down another 6 places. So, Massa started from back of the grid. But nothing could go wrong for Kimi, as he started from the pole and kept clocking consecutive laps at a good half a second faster than the rest of the pack. Eventually he took the top spot of the podium by 7 seconds.

2) Mclaren-Mercedes: It’s very clear now that during this season if anyone can challenge Ferrari, it has to be this team. With the arrival of Fernando, this team looks much more competitive. And what a fantastic debut from Lewis Hamilton. For me, he was the man of the day. In the very first corner, the way he took the 3^rd place from Fernando was stunning. To be frank, I have not seen a better debut since Mika and neither have I seen Fernando be so slow at the starting line. But Fernando again proved that he does deliver when it matters by taking the 2^nd place back from Hamilton during the 2^nd pit stop. And after that, with soft tyres Fernando was just flying…

3) BMW-Sauber: This is the most surprising package of the season. We all knew that they are very fast. But no one thought they could be this fast – fast enough to overtake the Mclarens. But that is exactly what Heidfeld did in the very first corner. But as expected, they could not keep it up throughout the race distance. For me the disappointing moment was to see Kubica retire from 4^th place. But at the end Nick got them a wonderful 4^th place finish. Well done BMW. All you need to do is make the car a bit more reliable.

4) Renault: Many people thought that Renault would struggle this season, especially at the season opener. And they did struggle – but only in patches. Though, after a good 2 years, we all could witness some inspired driving by Fisichella. Looks like getting out of the shadow of Fernando is working for him. The way he defended his place from the much faster F2007 of Massa was incredible. But the new kid, Heikki did disappoint. Being in Renault for more than 2 years did not seem to be very helpful as he spun and skidded out of track on a number of occasions. But if you ask me, Fernando’s departure has left a huge vacuum which will be very tough to fill in.

5) Williams-Toyota: Looks like another story of comeback. After a very forgettable season last year, they have started the season with a very impressive note. The package looked much more balanced and the Toyota engines definitely looked much more consistent than last year’s Cosworth. Nico Rosberg was mighty impressive with a 7^th place finish. Here again, the customer’s team has beaten the engine manufacturers. Alex Wurz was having a strong race until he had to retire for no mistake of his.

6) Toyota: It was a disastrous testing schedule for Toyota. But the race looked much better; looks like Toyotas were sandbagging. Ralf finished at last points position, while Trulli just out of it. But still a lot of work ahead…

7) Honda: Rather disappointing start to the season, after such promising second half last year. Throughout the race they looked off pace and the handling of the car was no better than an airport trolley. It took an outstanding drive by Rubens to secure the 11^th place finish that they did manage. Button’s drive-through penalty did not help the cause.

8) Red Bull: Adrian Newey’s arrival does not seem to doing any magic so far. This team is really struggling with the Bridgestone tyres. Webber tried his best but could not manage a place above 13^th. And the match’s worst move came from Coulthard when he flew across Alex Wurz from nowhere. Looks like time has come for the old Scot to say goodbye to racing.

9) Super Aguri: This is another surprise package of the season opener. They almost humbled their engine supplier. Mr. Chaos, Takuma Sato, had a wonderful race. Anthony Davidson could have done better if his car would not have stalled in the first lap.

10) Spyker and Torro Rosso: Nothing much to write about them. They did what they do best by making sure the last row is also full.

Overall not a very exciting race… To be very honest, a very boring one actually...

But as it is still only the season opener and we have both the front runners in close proximity, we can definitely hope for a cracking season.

Lastly my wishes to a few people…

- Very well done Kimi. You actually deserved this long back itself.

- Excellent start Lewis. Hope to see you on the podium many more times.

Well, that’s all from Albert Park. The next race is on 8^th of April in Sepang. So until then, it’s goodbye…

The Wait is Over… Now the War is on

-- Contributed by Debraj B

So after a long and boring lay-off of three and half months, we are back for the excitement of race-day… Yes folks; Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport is back with a bang… and boy - O - boy, what an exciting season it promises to be ahead…

Let us quickly see where we stand at the beginning of what looks like a wonderful season -

First thing first - we need to come to terms with one truth; and a mighty (bitter for some, sweet for other) one at that… The truth is that team Scuderia Ferrari will no longer have in their cockpit one of the most dreaded conqueror of an F1 circuit… After 16 long years of wonderful success (and a fair bit of controversy), the F1 icon named Michael Schumacher has hung his racing helmet.

But like how the world shifts its gaze every fortnight from one circuit to another, we need to do too and look into the season of 2007, which we can all rightly also call as the year of changes. Be it the drivers, engines, rules, chassis, everywhere there is a change; and surprisingly most of them are for good… So, why don’t we look at the changes first?

If you look at the driver’s line-up, it tells you a significant amount about the changes of the year. Our double champion will not be wearing the blue dress any more, as he has moved from Renault to Mclaren Mercedes. Ferrari has got a perfect replacement for Michael in the flying Finn, also called as Kimi Raikkonnen. Definitely a great move for Kimi as Mclaren had been consistently inconsistent over the last two years. Then there are other changes like Mark Webber moving from Williams to Red Bull, Christian Klien moving from Red Bull to Honda as a test driver and Anthony Davidson moving from team Honda to Super Aguri

Now let’s get onto the engines. Williams, after a hugely unsuccessful year, has finally switched over to Toyota engines from the ever so fast, but never reliable, Cosworth engines. Similarly Red Bull Racing has moved from Ferrari engines to Renault in search of better consistency. But they have been wise enough to keep Ferrari engaged too, as Ferrari will now be supplying engines for their second team Scuderia Torro Rosso.

Since the late nineties FIA has been initiating ideas and technologies to make F1 more competitive and enjoyable. They have taken quite a few steps this year to make the competition more even. And the biggest step is the engine freeze, which stops any engine development after October 23, 2006. This engine homologation saves a lot of money in F1 development - estimated to be close to $ 1b – big money indeed… This engine freeze will be applicable till 2009. During this period no changes will be allowed to the homologated specification other than the changes deemed as ‘Fair and equitable’ by FIA (Something like changes in revs specification). Then comes the tyre rule for this season. We have bid adieu to Michelin as tyre suppliers at least for the near future. Now with only one tyre supplier (Bridgestone), the competition really gets tighter and closer. And finally dynamic keel has been fixed on to 0 keel. These minor but important changes will surely bring a lot of uniformity to F1.

But the technical changes apart, the year’s most exciting feature are the driver line-ups of all the big teams. Just look at the driver line up of Ferrari - We have the fastest man on the track in the form of Kimi. And what a partner he has; the man whom most of the pundits have unanimously chosen as the dark horse for this year’s WDC. And I need to confess - the way Massa has improved over the last year… I have never seen anyone else improve at that rate.

Now have a look at team Mclaren. They have the reigning World champion, side a side with the most talked about rookie for decades. Alonso is definitely going to boost the morale of Mclaren after what was a dreadful last year (for the first time in a decade they did not win even a single race). Lewis Hamilton, the second driver, is the reigning GP2 champion and is rated quiet high by peers and critics alike.

The 2 times WCC champions Renault have another very exciting rookie in Heikki Kovalainen. This is the same guy who beat Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Loeb in their own machines while racing in the Race of Champions. With a team like Renault at his disposal, doesn’t the prospect look awesome?

There are few more names which are grabbing a lot of attention. We have a fantastic driver in Robert Kubica, who with BMW has proved his mettle last year. Then we have another super kid on the block named Adrian Sutil who will be driving for Spyker.

But all these speculations and excitement finally boils down to one thing - cars. If the winter testing is any indication, then Ferrari looks the peak of them. Mclaren has also been very good, but a touch slower than the Scuderias. Surprisingly BMW looks the 3^rd fastest team on the grid. Renault has looked considerably slower so far. There is definitely going to be a challenge adjusting to Bridgestone tyres - not only for Renault but for all the Michelin runners of the previous year.

So I am sure it will be a fascinating year for F1, especially as the fortunes are definitely bound to change among various drivers as the season rolls on…

Can Raikkonnen achieve what he has not been able to so far? Can Fernando match Michael and Fangio in winning three consecutive WDCs? These are just some of the questions… Added to these is the fate of many of the old warhorses, who might have to leave the battlefield of F1 if their performance doesn’t match up to their own expectations… Ralf, Fisichella, Coulthard, Webber, Jarno, Heidfeld… the list is definitely long.

So let’s fasten our seatbelts and get set to watch the 22 cars conquer the 58 laps of Albert Park…

Good luck to all the Tifosis…

Good luck to all the Maccas…

I also need a good amount of it – so wish me the same and Adios till the chequered flag…