F1 Madness

Category: Opinion Pages

Opinion pages for fans of Formula One to voice their F1 opinions.

  • A fan’s Monaco F1 Grand Prix Experience

    A fan’s Monaco F1 Grand Prix Experience

    Almost every Formula One fan dreams of going to Monaco one day. Well Claire Jane Earley was lucky enough to do just that – and not just once either! She shared with us her experience at the 2013 F1 Monaco Grand Prix weekend and I’ll tell you now, we are all super envious! This lady clearly had a weekend to remember – pit pass and all! She’s also sent us a whole gallery of photos to share with you which you can find here.

    Follow Claire on Twitter: @ClaireEarleyF1

    Here is Claire’s post about her Monaco F1 GP weekend. Have you been to a Monaco GP or do you still dream of going? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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    IMG_1648I have always loved Formula One, right from the get-go. So when the chance came to travel to the Monaco GP six years ago, I jumped at it. And I’ve been jumping at it ever since.

    As the intro suggests, this recent trip to Monaco was my sixth. I know that some of you will be saying that I’m spoilt, but consider that I have friends there, so I invariably stay for free, and all I have to cover are my flights. I also work there (on a yacht most recently, which is an awful lot harder than it sounds), so it’s not all fun and games 😉

    There is something intrinsically special about Monte Carlo. Something that stems from the tiny country being packed to capacity for a week, as the jet set fly in and celebrate the Grand Prix in style. It is impossible not to be stylish in Monaco. You can’t help yourself. Everywhere you turn beautiful people, beautiful cars, beautiful yachts, and beautiful scenery surround you. You naturally up your game. It’s also impossible to take in Monaco completely during Grand Prix week, which is why I keep having to go back 😉

    IMG_1656Now let’s be honest, no matter how much of an F1 fan you consider yourself to be, you don’t go to Monaco for the race. The race is almost an afterthought. There are so many other things going on (parties, parties and more parties) that when Sunday finally rolls round you can barely keep your sunglasses on straight. Luckily, Monaco always turns out to be a bit of a procession race unfortunately; and although there was some drama this year, it really did very little to add to the race itself, so you didn’t have to concentrate too much.

    Thursday passed in a bit of a blur for me. I was lucky enough to be stationed on the Sylvia M yacht so I spent the whole day chilling on the top deck watching Free Practice with a bunch of really cool Aussies on their first trip to the GP. Being pretty comfortable with Monaco I showed them around when the sessions were over and partied a little with them at the legendary Rascasse that night. Rascasse is something of a party central, with there being around ten different bars and nightclubs you can go to along that whole strip between Swimming Pool and Rascasse.

    That is the one thing most people forget about Monaco, but all the parties happen on the track. It’s quite surreal to watch the cars race round all day, and then spend all night partying on corners like Rascasse and Swimming Pool. You can literally sit in the grandstands opposite where you were partying the night before. Nowhere else in the world can offer this kind of opportunity, and every year without fail, I take the customary “Me on the start line” photo!

    DSC02373This year I was fortunate enough to have a pit pass for the Friday, something I’ve never done before, so I was super excited! Sadly Fernando Alonso wasn’t waiting at the gate to greet me, but I did get the signatures of Giedo Van Der Garde, Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi! I also watched Force India practice their pit stops numerous times (and developed my new life ambition to be the person who sits in the car as it gets pushed in for tyre change practice), and watched the two Mercedes’ undergo FIA testing. It was pretty special for me.

    DSC02397I went out on the Friday night with some friends, and it ended up being a bit of a late one (whoops!), but it did give me the chance to walk home on the Saturday morning, on the empty track, as the sun rose over the port. Amazing. Nothing like having one of the most famous race tracks in the world to yourself.

    Later that day I found myself back on the Sylvia M watching some GP2 action and some Porsche Supercup. When you’re on the yacht you don’t actually realise how close you are to the action, but it is right there in front of you! You can almost touch it! For me, that is another reason why Monaco is so special, because you are never more than two meters from the track.

    IMG_1670Saturday night I was lucky enough to have access to a party on the Quid Pro Quo yacht where a French musician was giving a private party on the inside deck, and DJ was playing on the upper decks. The food and drinks were free, so needless to say the champagne was flowing (when in France and all that…), and I met some awesome guys from Essex who were extremely entertaining and good fun to hang out with so I had a good time.

    Race Day dawned nice and hot after the rain on Saturday, and I was sent off in my tender to the Talila yacht.  You need to catch a tender from Fontvielle to Monaco Port if you’re ever there. The view is like nothing else and it gives you an opportunity to see just how beautiful the place actually is. It truly is something special.

    DSC02578The Talila was moored right in front of where Pastor Maldonado crashed out. The crash itself I didn’t see until all the people on my yacht started sprinting to the trackside. I have seen red flags before in Monaco, but never for a crash like that, and although I am not a Maldonado fan, I am glad that he walked away from it uninjured.  Once all the excitement died down, and Rosberg took the top step, it was time to get back on dry land.

    DSC02615Wandering around the streets after the race I bought some gifts and things for the family, whilst watching how quickly Monaco returns too normal. It takes a month to put all the barricading and stands up for the race, and only two weeks to get it all down again. By the time I left on Tuesday, half of the grandstands were already down, and most of the barricading along the main road was down as well. Each piece of metal is specifically numbered to ensure that set up next year is smooth and efficient.

    I love Monaco. I love watching how it changes for the race, and how quickly things go back to normal. Every time I leave to come home I think I leave a small piece of me there, and I can’t wait to go back next year!

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    Click here for Claire’s gallery of photos from her Monaco Grand Prix experience.

     

     

     

  • Mercedes F1: Silver Arrows in the grey

    Mercedes F1: Silver Arrows in the grey

    There’s been plenty of talk amongst Formula One fans lately about the terrible form of the Mercedes F1 team. They’re performing really well over one lap for qualifying, but when it comes to race pace they’re just falling flat on their faces. Reynard Gelderblom wrote in to share his thoughts on the problems over at the Mercedes F1 team.

    Silver Arrows in the grey

    Three consecutive pole positions, front row domination and statistics favouring the front row starters at the Circuit de Catalunya. Still, Petronas Mercedes AMG F1 fell away like the American economy on Black Thursday.

    In the Chinese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton managed to salvage a podium. Not that this is much to write home about considering he started from pole. A week later in Bahrain Nico Rosberg again had the statistics in his advantage, but yet again he could only secure ninth with Hamilton at least salvaging some honour with a fifth place. After the three week break, the F1 circus moved to the traditional gateway to the European part of the season – Barcelona.

    With all teams utilizing the opportunity to improve the cars closer to home and race at the only pre-season test venue slotted into the calendar, Mercedes was looking forward to converting pre-season pace into race winning performance. Back in February during their launch, the team promised that the 2013 season will be the start of the next phase in their evolution – the return of the championship contending Silver Arrows. To back that up, they arrived in Spain with a car that included a little bit more silver than grey. Performance, however, still proved to be a grey area that outshone that silver lining. Despite their dominant showing in qualifying, Rosberg had to settle for sixth with Hamilton finishing a lowly twelfth – managing to pass a Williams as one of his highlights of the day.

    Mercedes F1Where do the problems lie? Both Rosberg and Hamilton are more than competent drivers. For three years Rosberg has been faster than Michael Schumacher – granted this wasn’t the Schumi of old, but still. Hamilton is a former World champion with McLaren and except for choosing the wrong pit box, he’s really started to look like the driver who burst onto the scene back in 2007.

    Tyres have been a great concern for Mercedes, but this isn’t a problem that just affects them. To some degree everyone has struggled with the tyres. Sebastian Vettel may have been very critical about them after Barcelona, but then again, Vettel and Red Bull have been competitive on days when Mercedes have just faded away.

    There certainly is no shortage of funding and knowledge in this team. All this brings me to one question: Are we seeing yet another Toyota here? They used to have a bigger budget than Ferrari and certainly enough resources to build the next shuttle, yet none of that materialised into anything worth writing home about on the circuit.

    I have been looking forward to a Silver Arrows revival ever since Sauber took to Kyalami in Free practice in 1993 with the “Concept by Mercedes-Benz” writing on the side. This was echoed by the McLaren livery change in 1997.

    In 2010 I was smiling when Mercedes purchased the Brawn team. Mercedes is indeed on the platform to regain the glory years. All the components are there, they just need to present the complete package. I hope that day comes sooner, rather than later.

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

    Keep up to date with the latest local motorsport news by following Street Motion on Twitter.

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  • Sebastian Vettel – The new George Bush?

    East Coast Radio Breakfast DJ, Darren Maule, shares his thoughts on Sebastian Vettel – and just how much the three-time Formula One World Champ has to say.

    sebastian vettel, michael Schumacher meme7 Quotes…says it all!

    Sebastian Vettel is fast, we know that, but recently in areas we didn’t quite expect.  We all know how fast he is on the track, but where he is seriously picking up the pace is just how quickly he is catching up with George Bush when it comes to live verbal gaffs.

    We thought he was going to be another one of those boring same-old, same-old politically correct post-race interviewee’s like Schumacher, Hakkinen and Button.

    Not so!  Vettel has proved himself as vocal, and opinionated, as the likes of Montoya, Irvine and Alesi.  Only Vettel has had a lot less censoring and is a lot younger – which is never a good combination!

    Here are a few of Vettel’s epic quotes to date:

    1.       We thought he was off to a good start in his career when he said;

                 “You can’t always say what you’d like to say.”

    2.       I’m not sure if Vettel is talking about his lack of patience or his prowess in the bedroom with this one;

                “Whenever I have to do something, I try to minimise the time it takes me to do it. I just cannot wait.”

    3.       Here Vettel gives us a glimpse at one of the personality flaws which made him overtake his teammate Webber  – when team orders had told him strictly not to;

                “There are a few things that make me angry. Mostly things not going my way.”

    Click here to read more.

    Darren Maule hosts The Breakfast Stack on East Coast Radio and is an MC, Stand-up comedian, Actor, Voice artist and Formula One fan.

     

  • Formula One Young Talent – Sergio Perez

    F1 driver Sergio Perez
    Sergio Perez may have been thrown in the deep end says Reynard Gelderblom.
    Photo: Mclaren.com

    Sergio Perez certainly caused a few Formula One fan’s hearts to skip a few beats during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Reynard Gelderblom sent us his thoughts on how raw, young talent is introduced to front running teams and how we can avoid such hot-headed rough-around-the edges type racing in future.

    A new hope in reckless abandon

    The 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix was for sure a cracker of a race. Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean drove their way to well deserved podium finishes. Paul Di Resta showed great heart and fight – in many ways he was my driver of the day.

    For some teams, it didn’t go as planned: Mercedes didn’t deliver on their qualifying pace and by now I’m sure you’ll get shot for uttering the word “wing” in the Ferrari garage. For others, it almost ended in tears: As if McLaren doesn’t have enough issues with pace to take back to the drawing board, they’ll certainly need to address another issue that came up during the last two races – Sergio Perez.

    Perez showed pace during the early part of the 2012 season and with Lewis Hamilton’s departure, he finally got his rewards when McLaren signed him as replacement. The problem is, since his podium in Monza, he’s gone right off the boil.

    A promising start to the 2012 season was concluded with some silly incidents and fairly mediocre finishes. Things didn’t start off too well at McLaren either. Constantly being outdone by team mate Jenson Button brought on some questions over his head as early as the Malaysian Grand Prix… but wait, it got worse when we got to China.

    In the early stages of the Chinese GP, Raikkonen became the victim of Perez weaving around excessively. Given that the damage was minimal this didn’t end up being too big an issue, but then we got to Bahrain. After having another fairly quiet first half of the race, Perez in the second half can at best be described as an utter lunatic.

    Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a good inter-team mate rivalry but a hot-headed, hammer and nail assault is hardly what you call good sportsmanship. Granted, Perez may be starting to feel the pressure, but there are surely more suitable ways to show that you belong in a top team like McLaren.

    This however does beg the question, how are future prospects being prepared for when they step up to a front running team. Didn’t we see this before? Felipe Massa was certainly a bit rough around the edges when he moved to Ferrari and I’m sure we’ll never forget Romain Grosjean during the early part of 2012. So much time and money is spent on new technology by all the teams each year, but are they making sure that the people they entrust this to are properly prepared to control it?

    Red Bull will certainly claim to have the right answer with the Torro Rosso team, yet we’ve only really seen Vettel progressing to the flagship team. Perhaps this is a good time to reintroduce the third car for Friday’s second free practice session where the third driver gets an opportunity. Maybe it’s time to look at a mentoring system where young guns get to spend some time with former drivers during the race weekend. I’ve never driven an F1 car so I don’t have any real answers, but I do have some valid questions.

    To me, it just looks like we’re taking tomorrow’s talent and tossing them into the deep end – like coins into a wish pond.

     

    By Reynard Gelderblom

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

    Keep up to date with the latest local motorsport news by following Street Motion on Twitter.

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  • F1: A game of chess, not checkers

    Reynard Gelderblom (@Reynardg), Motorsport Editor of Street Motion sent us his thoughts on the role that strategy plays in Formula one, following the Chinese Grand Prix.

    If you’d like us to publish your Formula One related opinions, just email us and we’ll add it to the Fan Pages of this website.

     

    F1: A game of chess, not checkers

    Formula One Strategy
    Formula One Strategy – much like a game of chess

    A thought which came up quite a few times while watching this past weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix is: “I don’t ever want to play chess against any of these team managers.”

    F1 is very much about strategy these days, with the tyres playing a huge part of planning throughout the weekend. All of us will still remember this same race in 2012 where one lap meant the difference between second and fourteenth for Kimi Raikkonen.

    I’ve heard many complaints over the past weekend though from people calling this boring, most notably during the third qualifying session on Saturday. For me, this was extremely exciting. Then again, whenever I go to the casino you’ll be sure to find me at the Blackjack table and never at a slot machine. Formula One is truly the thinking man’s sport.

    The race weekend starts on Friday morning with all teams receiving an equal amount of tyres from two Pirelli compounds. Friday practice teams need to gather enough information about the tyres, how long they’ll last, what will work in which conditions etc. Come Saturday morning, your strategy for tyres needs to be in place. Effectively Saturday qualifying is when you start your race these days. A good example was with Red Bull in China. There’s no doubt that Vettel could’ve qualified higher than ninth, but making up grid slots would’ve cost the team dearly in the race.

    Then comes the race: Webber’s failure to supply a fuel sample after qualifying got him pushed to the back of the grid. Again the team took advantage of this by changing the gearbox and gear ratios and thereby willingly choosing to start from the pits. Hamilton started first with Alonso third. Again, Alonso could’ve easily gotten pole position, but at what cost? As the race progressed, this played out as expected.

    Then there was the question of the option tyre. All teams must make use of both tyre compounds during a normal dry race. For this race, Pirelli’s softer compound clearly had no real lifespan to talk of – just six laps. Most teams just wanted to get this over and done with. For this one, Vettel had an entirely different strategy to anyone else: take the option tyres with six laps to go. All of a sudden, Hamilton was under pressure and with one lap to go third spot would’ve gone to the one who could keep it together on the tyres.

    Of course fingers can be pointed to Pirelli. Shouldn’t they maybe have supplied the teams with better tyres? Shouldn’t they gather as much team data as they can to come up with a better solution? One thing to keep in mind is that this is not 2005 when tyre changes weren’t allowed. We certainly won’t see any scenes like we did back in the USA Grand Prix of that year where all but six cars pulled off the circuit prior to the start for safety reasons. Tyre changes are part of the game now – and it’s a variable teams have to take into account.

    What’s more, it does in fact bring a level of excitement to a GP as well. I watched this race along with another group of motoring journalists at one of our favourite restaurants in Cape Town. I can’t remember when last it took me an hour to finish a proper fried up breakfast and the reason for this is simply because I didn’t want to look away from the screen. I didn’t want to miss any slight sign of the tyres starting to fade on someone’s car or a single radio message. This was pure thrills from start to finish.

    Balancing equations of minimum quantities of fuel, KERS, DRS, tyres, ideal track position after pit stops, when to make what move… all while trying to win a race. As I said, I wouldn’t want to play a game of chess against these guys.
    By Reynard Gelderblom

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

    Keep up with the latest local motorsport news by following for Street Motion on Twitter.

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  • Formula One Team Orders

    Formula One and @F1_Madness fan, Reynard Gelderblom (@Reynardg) sent us his thoughts on team orders in the wake of the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix where both Red Bull and Mercedes F1 issued their F1 drivers with team orders.

    Let us know what you think about team orders in the comments section below. Here’s what Reynard had to say:

     

    The order of things

    Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber Photo: Red Bull Racing
    Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber Photo: Red Bull Racing

    Every now and again controversy creeps into F1. Unlike other sports, this isn’t related to drug allegations or match fixings, although there are those who do compare this to the latter.

    Think back to Austria 2002 and USA 2012, Ferrari’s team strategies have been the cause for a fair amount of these talking points. Two weeks ago this again overshadowed the media reports after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

    Formula One Team orders: hate them, support them – they’re part of the sport. If you’re a team manager you would certainly do everything in your power to ensure the best possible result in a race. The third and fourth place finish for Mercedes F1 went a long way to consolidate their position as a front running team. This wouldn’t have been the case had Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg retired near the end. Yes, sure we would’ve talked about it, but nothing shows your worth quite like the results sheet.

    Red Bull Racing of course has been dominating the sport for the last three years, but the one-two finish will certainly have a lot of teams thinking during the three-week break.

    This didn’t come without a price though. For those who missed it: Prior to the final pit stop, Red Bull decided that in order to save the tyres and engines, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber would keep their positions after the last tyre change. Webber had track position, but Vettel didn’t back down. First, he blatantly asked the team to let him through. When that request was denied, he took matters into his own hands and while Webber had his engine turned down, the reigning champion took the first position. Afterwards the tension between the two drivers could be cut with a knife, and let it be said you would’ve needed a very sharp knife for that.

    Understandably, Webber felt robbed. He did what the team asked and in his mind he did enough to take the victory.

    Now before calling Vettel greedy or a cheat, let me put you into the three times Formula One World Champion’s shoes for a second. Imagine you’ve been the leading salesman at your office for the last couple of months. Around the middle of the month, your boss calls you in and says “Joe, it’ll be better for this company if we let John tie up those last four deals this month.” How will you feel? Given that you are paid to be the best in your field, to maximise your own and company profits – will you really be able to just buy into that strategy? Or will you also, like Vettel, look for ways to maintain your number one status? Do exactly what you love to and what you’re good at doing?

    Personally, I do think there is a time and place for it. Coming down to the last few races of the season there’s a need for this, especially when you’re in the hunt for either one of the two championships. As early as round two of the season – well that one is debatable.

    As team manager you’ve got to keep in mind that inside the car, there are two drivers, both with their own ambitions as well. Perhaps there is a better way of doing this. Given the fact that issuing instructions over the team radio is allowed, I don’t see why Red Bull couldn’t step in and instruct Vettel to fall back the lap after.

    One thing is for certain, the current way of enforcing team orders is a lot better than what we saw in the past with suspicious pit stops. Vettel did exactly the same thing we saw from the three former triple F1 world champs – Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. He’s a racer, not just a driver. I would like to see a fair race as well though.

    Personally, I think Red Bull’s decision was unfair to Vettel and by
    consequence, to Webber as well. The team got their finishes on the first two steps of the podium; I just wonder what the price for this will turn out to be.

    By Reynard Gelderblom

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

    Keep up with the latest local motorsport news by following for Street Motion on Twitter.

    streetmotion

  • F1 Testing in Barcelona

    Formula One and @F1_Madness fan, Laura Rocchigiani (@Yzzzma) was lucky enough to go to Barcelona and watch the pre-season F1 testing live. She sent us a few of her photos of the f1 cars heading around the testing track and we must say we are very envious and most impressed!