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  • F1 2013: Austin GP – Vettel Lone Star in Texas

    F1 2013: Austin GP – Vettel Lone Star in Texas

    In sporting terms the Oxford dictionary defines the word domination as playing better than your opponent in a game. However, this definition is just a few understated words contained in a book. A tangible example is more comprehensible and Sebastian Vettel’s eight grand prix victories in a row is the very definition of domination.   

    Sebastian Vettel led away from his 44th career pole in Texas and remained untroubled for all 56 of the Austin grand prix race laps. A one stop tyre-strategy resulted in the German momentarily relinquishing the lead of the race to Lotus’ Romain Grosjean but it was apparent that the four time champ was well in control of proceedings.

    The sister Red Bull of Mark Webber lost two places off the grid to Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton but before he could attempt to regain his position a collision between Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Williams’ Pastor Maldonado deployed the safety car. The first lap crash pitched the Force India into the barrier on the back straight of the Circuit of the Americas and out of the race with severe suspension damage. Sutil later commented that Maldonado was “on a planet of his own.”  “I was staying straight with my steering wheel and to the left and right there was a lot of space. I don’t understand why someone then hits you. There’s like an emergency area around him, you have to give room for two cars, not just one,” said Sutil after the incident.

    Circuit of the AmericasThe race resumed with Vettel at the head of the back timing his re-start to a tee and leaving Grosjean in his wheeltracks. Mark Webber seized an opportunity to overtake Lewis Hamilton on lap thirteen and set off after second placed Grosjean. The Mercedes pitwall instructed Hamilton to look after his tyres and the Brit was into the pitlane on lap 25 ruling out a possible podium finish.

    Behind the front four Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso resurrected their battle for fifth. Several brilliant overtaking moves between the two added some spice to an otherwise lacklustre grand prix. Alonso seemed set to snatch fourth from Hamilton but the Mercedes driver was able to withstand the initial onslaught after which the Ferrari’s tyres lost its edge. Hulkenberg in turn had a go at passing Alonso but had to settle for a solid sixth place finish.

    Out of favour at McLaren Sergio Perez delivered a good enough drive for seventh place. However, the stand out driver of the weekend was Williams’ Valterri Bottas. The Finnheikki set an amazing pace throughout the weekend which saw his advance to the top ten shootout in Saturday’s qualifying. Bottas, confirmed to be driving for Williams in 2014, was rewarded with an eighth place finish and the first points of his Formula 1 career. Nico Rosberg never truly recovered from starting 12th on the grid and was only able to manage ninth on the day. The final points paying position went to Jenson Button who spent his afternoon embroiled in the mid-field. Despite the fact that the McLaren has been nowhere near the pace for the whole of the 2013 season Button admitted that, as a driver, he has to do some work as well. “It’s not just that [the car is uncompetitive],” he said. This weekend I just didn’t put it all together. I’ve got to sort myself out.”

    Romain Grosjean delivered a solid drive for Lotus in the absence of Kimi Raikkonen but only narrowly kept alive the Enstone based team’s quest for second in the constructor’s title. Heikki Kovalainen, parachuted into the other Lotus at the last-minute, was struck by an on and off kers issue as well as an unfortunate problem with his front-wing. “The team found out there was something wrong with the front wing and I was losing more and more downforce so we had to come in and change the nose.”There is nothing physically wrong with the nose, so they suspect there is some rubber or something stuck somewhere,” said Kovalainen. Up until his unscheduled pitstop the Finn was running comfortably in the points.

    BZT_wgOCMAArQV5Sebastian Vettel proved that Texas truly is the lone star State. From Belgium to Italy to Singapore, Korea, India, Japan, Abu Dhabi and Texas the German super-human now holds the record for the most consecutive wins in a season. However, it isn’t all elementary to Vettel. He declared himself speechless over the radio to his team and added “we have to remember these days. We can’t guarantee they will last for ever. Incredible team — I love you.” The rest of the field are certainly praying for this run to come to an end.

    Vettel attempted to put his record-breaking run into some perspective after the race. “People tend to forget how much work there is behind all these this and how special it is. I remembered back in 2008 how happy I just was to, once in my life, to be on pole. I think you should never lose the passion and the joy,” he added, “and always remember the days when you were just dreaming of these things to happen.”

    Photo credits:

    @redbullracing

    @Lotus_F1Team

  • Quantam & Lotus deal “still on”

    Quantam & Lotus deal “still on”

    Quantam Motorsport chief Mansoor Ijaz has confirmed that the deal with Lotus has not fallen through.

    Ijaz went so far as to say that there is “zero chance” of the deal not happening. Quantam Motorsport (formerly Infinity) is aiming to secure a 35 per cent stake in the Lotus F1 Team. “There is no question about the fact that the deal will take place and there is no question that the monies have been debited from our side of the balance sheet,” he said. “There is zero chance that this deal will not happen. But it is important to understand that in the international banking system, when monies come from certain parts of the world, the correspondent banks have to be used. We also have to deal with the regulatory authorities like central banks and other institutional frameworks that do their checks as well, because we are not talking about transferring small amounts of money. When you transfer $1 million, it is a different compliance level to transferring $10 million to transferring $100 million. We are talking about transferring very substantial amounts of money to the company,” said Ijaz.

    Lotus team Principal Eric Boullier had said earlier that “time was getting short” to make the deal with Quantam; no doubt referring to the fact that Lotus choice of second driver between Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado depends on it.

    However, Ijaz has assured the team that it would be worth the wait. “It will compensate them for the loss of time and frustration, and different problems that they have all faced,” he said.

    Reports are that Maldonado has already been signed to the second Lotus seat thanks to his sizeable check from PDVSA.

  • F1 2013: US Grand Prix – Penalties for Gutierrez and Chilton

    F1 2013: US Grand Prix – Penalties for Gutierrez and Chilton

    Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez and Marussia’s Max Chilton have each been given grid penalties ahead of the US Grand Prix.

    Mexican Esteban Gutierrez has been given a ten place grid penalty for impeding Williams’ Pastor Maldonado in the first session of Saturday’s qualifying session. According to the steward’s statement “car #12 unnecessarily impeded car #16 between Turns 19 and 20 whilst performing manoeuvres that the stewards consider dangerous.” Gutierrez will start in 20th place on the grid.

    Marussia’s Max Chilton was also found to have impeded Maldonado in the first session of qualifying and will have to serve a drive-through penalty within the first three laps of Sunday’s race. The stewards imposed a drive-through penalty on the Brit as a grid drop holds no consequence for a driver who already starts from the last position.

    This is how the grid will look for tonight:

    USGP_ProvGrid2013

  • F1 2013: Post-qualifying press conference – US GP

    F1 2013: Post-qualifying press conference – US GP

    UNILATERAL

    Q: Sebastian, you saved the best ’til last there. A satisfying pole I imagine here in America, in very difficult conditions it looked like today, and also on a special day for your team boss Christian Horner, his 40th birthday.

    Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, happy birthday to Christian. Obviously a good result to have both cars in the front row for tomorrow. It was a tricky session because the wind, I think, picked up quite a lot from this morning and… yeah, it does influence the behaviour of the cars so, not that easy, especially around the high-speed corners. I wasn’t that happy with my first run in Q3 but I think I had a solid run at the end which I think was enough to put the car on pole. I think it was very close with Mark, he seemed to get closer and closer the longer the weekend went on. Fortunately I could just manage to stay ahead. I think he might have had a mistake in his final shot but yeah, obviously very happy with pole position today. I really like this place, I like the circuit and looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s important as well to start on the clean side, so we’ll see what we can do.

    Q: Mark, did you think you’d done enough after that first run? A tenth and a half over Sebastian in Q3, doesn’t happen all that often. Where did it go wrong in that final run?

    Mark Webber: No, I didn’t think I’d done enough, you need to improve. Obviously there are two shots, we both had two sets of options. The first part of the lap was very good, I was happy with that. Didn’t quite get 19 and 20 as I wanted. If I just repeated what I did initially in Q3 probably it was going to be enough but tried to squeeze a bit more out. It’s easy to unload the car a little bit in these conditions, so yeah, sometimes you’re happy that you’ve given your best and you’re on the front row but today one slipped through the fingers. But anyway we’re up there and well done to Seb, obviously. He put the three sectors together so… I put two-and-half together and just dropped it in the last sector, so, yeah, it’s not satisfying when you do that. It’s not your job to do that. Pushing the boundaries and overall, yeah, pretty happy to be there.

    Q: Romain, pretty consistent form from you, your third top-three qualifying in the last six grands prix, already five podiums in this season. Some good momentum behind you at the moment.

    Romain Grosjean: Yeah, I think we are doing a good job. It wasn’t an easy weekend for us. We struggled a little bit yesterday and this morning. I think conditions are not so easy starting early in the morning – and I don’t like to wake-up early as well so it doesn’t make it easy. And then I think quali went pretty good. We did manage to go through Q1 on prime. That wasn’t the plan but we were quick enough and then, quickest of the rest but it seems that those blue guys are very, very quick. We have to still try to catch them, the race is long and, y’know we will see what we can do with the strategy and everything but it’s good to be here and good to show that we are still in the front row.

    Q: Sebastian, looking towards tomorrow’s race. Are you someone who feels a sense of unfinished business, given what happened in the way you lost the race here last year? Is it important for you to tick this one off?

    SV: Ah, well, I think no regrets to last year. Obviously it was a tight battle with Lewis. I think in the end he was just a little bit quicker so we were having a hard time to stay ahead of him. Obviously the way he then passed was not the nicest way with traffic but, y’know, it’s a long time ago, so looking forward to tomorrow and, as I said, I like the circuit. Yeah, definitely, if you have the chance to win then you want to go for it. At the moment things are looking good. We did the job right today, focus on tomorrow but we go step-by-step. It’s a long race, tyres could be tricky. I think the strategy should be more or less clear but then again with these tyres you never know.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: So Sebastian, obviously you made it through Q1 only using the harder tyres, a tactic that all three of you adopted. I’m interested though in your final run in Q3. It’s not the first time that we’ve seen you do this where you perhaps hold back a fraction in the first sector in order to have more performance in the final sector which is where you seem to make the difference today. Is that a conscious tactic or just the way things worked out?

    SV: Well, I think first of all Mark is quick in the high-speed stuff, so I knew it will always be close. I think he was a little bit quicker in sector one. But you’re right, obviously, it’s a long lap. Especially the first run in Q3. I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable with the rears at the end of the second sector and then in the last sector, so… yeah, I think I got it a little bit better the last time around but also tried to… well, you can’t look after the tyres that much on one lap but just tried to keep it clean, get a clean lap. I knew I had more pace than the first run, so managed to do that and fortunately managed to get pole.

    Q: Mark, twice pole, once second in the last four races. A very competitive run of form at the very end of your Formula One career. Not having second thoughts about retiring, given how well you’re going?

    MW: No, that’s why it was so frustrating to not get pole today. Would have been good to get another one off Seb at the end with a few grey hairs – but didn’t happen, he did the lap. Anyway, I’m having no second thoughts. Good timing for me. Hand over to quicker guys.

    Q: You seem to be driving with a lot of confidence. Is it because you’re feeling very relaxed, heading for the exit door?

    MW: I don’t think so. I think the tyres, when they’re fresh-ish I can still turn not a bad lap. So, confident we can have a good race tomorrow. It’s a pretty nice circuit with some nice, fast sections at the start. All in all my form this year in terms of pace hasn’t been ridiculous. Obviously Seb’s been still pretty strong in quali overall but we know we’ve performed pretty strong in terms of pace in general. Obviously we’ve lost a huge amount of points for other reasons but want to finish the year strongly and hopefully we can do that again tomorrow.

    Q: Romain, you too got through Q1 using only the harder tyres. It’s not the first time that you’ve done that. It’s a fairly confident thing to do, given that the cut-off is quite marginal sometimes. It’s caught you out at other times. Can you talk a little about the confidence you’ve felt going into this session – and did you always feel throughout Q1 that you were going to get away with it again?

    RG: To be honest, it wasn’t the plan today. After India I think we had to take a little bit of caution, the team constructors’ is very important to us so it wasn’t the plan to go… we were prime and option but basically the car felt very good on prime, lap time was good enough and when I came back they told me “that may be good enough”, and then it was. So an easier time that what we knew previously.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, what does it mean for you, this pole position, after such a tough fight against Mark?

    SV: Well, I think both of us would like to have the upper hand. I think two weeks ago I felt like Mark probably feels now and I feel like he felt two weeks ago, so obviously very happy for myself. I had a good run in the end. I think it’s always tricky to go with the track on Saturday afternoon, as the track is changing, I think you are able to extract more and more from the tyres, given that you set up the car in the right way. It’s not that simple but I think it’s the same for all of us, so happy that we did the job today and as I touched on earlier, I think it’s important for the race, so now focusing on the start.

    Q: (Peter Hubbard – COTA PR) Mark, during qualifying and practice three there were several spins on turn 19; was it wet down there? What seemed to be the problem, several drivers went off at that point?

    MW:Turn 19 is quite blind, you can’t quite see the apex, you have to imagine that our eyes are very low in the cockpit so when you go there in a Formula One car it’s not easy to see the apex so you have a little bit of a leap of faith in terms of how accurate you can be in the first part. Sometimes you run out of road, sometimes you don’t. I was in that club in the last part of Q3. It’s easy to not get that right just because of the blind nature of the corner.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Seb, can you explain the shake ‘n’ bake reference that we heard over the radio messages at the end of qualifying between you and your engineer?

    SV: Well, he started it! Yeah, I think there was a movie a couple of years ago which was about racing and I think it was more a piss-take than an actual movie. It was a nice quote, I think it suits. Obviously we’re in America… especially my engineer has a lot of history here, knows a lot of people, he did a lot of racing (here) early in his career. You need to ask him whether it’s what he used to say when he secured pole position in the US.

    Q: (John Sturbin – Ft. Worth Star-Telegram) Sebastian, if you win tomorrow, will you continue the doughnut celebration thing, very American?

    SV: Well, to worry about that is a nice problem to have but first of all we have to focus on tomorrow’s race. I’m sure Mark will try everything to get past as well as the people behind – Romain and so on – so it will be a long race, there are a lot of things that can happen. I think we always push the car to the limit so you never know what might happen, therefore I don’t think it’s the highest priority to be honest to worry about that right now. I think it has to happen very spontaneously.

    Q: Because you are going for your eighth consecutive win tomorrow which would be a new record if you pull it off? Do the numbers matter to you at this point?

    SV: Well, I think maybe I’m not that clever so I’m not trying to think that much about these things. Lately I seem to have succeeded so I think it’s not the right mindset to go into the race thinking about a higher target than just the race. So I think we’ve done pretty well with that kind of approach so far, the last couple of years, so I don’t see a reason to change.

  • F1 2013: Post Qualifying Report – Vettel Storms To Texas Pole

    F1 2013: Post Qualifying Report – Vettel Storms To Texas Pole

    Sebastian Vettel has secured pole position for the 2013 US Grand Prix.

    In dominant form since hitting the Circuit of the Americas on Friday morning the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were untroubled as they locked out the front row of the grid. This is the 44th career pole position of Vettel’s Formula 1 career.

    The first session of qualifying saw the usual suspects cut with Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde qualifying ahead of Jules Bianchi, Charles Pic and Max Chilton. Adrian Sutil failed to advance to the second part of qualifying however the German was struck by a mechanical issue which may have contributed to his 17th place starting position. Pastor Maldonado will start tomorrow’s race in 18th and chose the post-race media interview to hurl accusations at the Williams team. “You have to ask the team why the car is so slow,” Maldonado said. Deputy team Principal Claire Williams later commented that the Williams team would never place one of its drivers at a disadvantage. It seems that the relationship between Maldonado and Williams has well and truly broken down.

    The second session of qualifying saw several high-profile drivers be eliminated. Struggling for pace throughout the weekend Felipe Massa’s elimination may not have been as big a surprise as that of Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg. Rosberg later contended that the tyres were to blame for his lack of pace. McLaren’s Jenson Button also failed to advance to the top ten shoot-out and will drop a further three places of the grid for overtaking under a red flag during Friday’s first free practice session.

    The final ten minutes of qualifying resumed an eerily familiar storyline as Sebastian Vettel secured pole position ahead of Mark Webber. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean underlined his qualifying speed with third on the grid ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso, suffering from back pain and headaches, somehow slotted his Ferrari into sixth overall followed by McLaren’s Sergio Perez. Stand-in driver Heikki Kovalainen hit all the right marks as he qualified an impressive eigtht. The star of the day was Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. The Finn qualified a notoriously difficult car in ninth overall. The top ten was rounded out Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.

    The full time-sheet:

      texas

     

  • Vettel and Webber make it a 1-2 in FP3 in America

    Vettel and Webber make it a 1-2 in FP3 in America

    Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber made it a Red Bull 1-2 at the end of FP3 at the Circuit of Americas.

    In a rather straight forward FP3, the two Red Bulls once again stamped their authority on the session with Vettel finishing off the session in P1 with a 1:36.733. Webber finished the session in P2, 0.203s off the pace of Vettel with a 1:36.936. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton slotted into P3 with a 1:37.064. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean were P4 and P5 respectively.

    The woes for Ferrari continued this session with Fernando Alonso finishing off the session in P11 and Felipe Massa finishing off in P17. Those were the same two positions they held with the prime and the option tyre, showing that there was no improvement in pace from them throughout the session. It will be very hard for them to make Q3 and it will be a surprise if one of them do make it into Q3.

    Williams’ Valtteri Bottas showed very good pace throughout the session, with his race engineer telling him that they were going quicker and quicker throughout the session.

    If the times of FP3 are anything to go by, we are in for a very interesting qualifying. We could see a few surprises.

    Below is the full time sheet for FP3 for the 2013 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix

    FP3_USGP2013

  • Vettel Fastest in Free Practice 2 at the Circuit of the Americas

    Vettel Fastest in Free Practice 2 at the Circuit of the Americas

    Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel topped the time sheets at the end of Free Practice 2 for the American Grand Prix at the Circuit of Americas.

    Vettel topped the table with a 1:37.305, his team mate Mark Webber finished the session P2 with a 1:37.420. The Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg (1:37.785) and Lewis Hamilton(1:37.958) finished P3 and P4 respectively. Lotus stand in driver, Hekki Kovalainen, finished the session in an admirable P5 with a 1:38.073.

    Red Bull once again showed that they are in a league of their own in long run pace with Vettel not even pushing with his race engineer, Rocky, telling him to manage his pace. Their pace combined with very low tyre degradation and the cars’ ability to manage the tyres so well, will make them unstoppable in the race.

    It was another horrible afternoon for Ferrari with Fernando Alonso finishing the session in P10 and Felipe Massa finishing in P12. They were struggling with plenty of snap over steer in the first sector of the lap. They’re making it rather tough for themselves to keep hold onto third place in the championship.

    McLaren’s Jenson Button had a three place grid penalty handed down to him for overtaking under red flag conditions in FP1. He finished the session in P9.

    As it stands, Red Bull have outright pace over everyone.

    Below is the full time sheet for Free Practice 2 for the 2013 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.

    FP2_America2013

  • Alonso on top of Timsheets in FP1 for the United States Grand Prix

    Alonso on top of Timsheets in FP1 for the United States Grand Prix

    Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished on top of the time sheets in a rather protracted first free practice session for the United States Grand Prix.

    The session began by being delayed for 10 minutes due to dense fog and because the medical helicopter was not at the track. 40 Minutes after the scheduled start of FP1 the session began but was shortened to 1 hour. Drivers that were only running in FP1 were keen to get out on track and show what they can do. But 15 minutes into the session, the red flag was out again. Oddly enough, the medical helicopter had not yet arrived at the track.

    After another long wait, the medical helicopter finally arrived at the track and the session was restarted. With just a little under 40 minutes of running all the drivers were out on track and setting times.

    Alonso set a 1:38.343 to go quickest. McLaren’s Jenson Button finished the session in P2 with a 1:38.371, just 0.028s slower than Alonso. The surprise for the morning was Williams’ Valtteri Bottas who finished the session in P3 with a time of 1:38.388.

    Hekki Kovalainen in his first outing for Lotus was 13th with a time of 1:39.487. His team mate, Romain Grosjean finished P11 with a 1:39.238, a gap of 0.105s to Kovalainene.  Not too bad for his first time driving a Lotus.

    Rookie Daniil Kyat, driving the Toro Rosso, finished the session in 17th, his team mate Daniel Ricciardo 16th. The gap between the two was just 0.2s. Not to bad for a rookie that just recently obtained his super licence.

    Below is the full timing sheet for FP1 for the 2013 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix

    FP1_America2013

     

  • Raikkonen undergoes successful back surgery

    Raikkonen undergoes successful back surgery

    Kimi Raikkonen has undergone successful back surgery according to the Lotus F1 Team.

    The team released a statement with regard to Raikkonen’s surgery a short while ago. The statement read as follows:

    “As planned, Kimi Räikkönen underwent back surgery yesterday at The University Hospital of Strasbourg.Lotus F1 Team is happy to report that the operation was totally successful, according to Professor Afshin Gangi….Kimi will now rest for a few days & he will start his recovery process as early as next week…Everyone at the track and at Enstone wishes him a quick recovery.”

    BZH1nfEIMAEAYSuThe Finn’s manager, Steve Robertson, confirmed last week that Raikkonen would undergo back surgery and, as a result, miss the final two races of the 2013 season. Lotus have signed the services of Heikki Kovalainen for the remainder of the season.

    The team, famous for the Twitter hashtags kept the Finn in mind as he starts his recovery process.

    Photo credit: @LotusF1Team

     

     

  • Confirmed: Kovalainen to replace Raikkonen for final two races

    Confirmed: Kovalainen to replace Raikkonen for final two races

    Lotus have confirmed that Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen will indeed be replacing Kimi Raikkonen for the remaining two races of the 2013 season. Raikkonen will miss the remaining two races of the season as he will be undergoing back surgery.

    It emerged yesterday that following Hulkenberg turning down an offer to take over, Kovalainen became the next favourite to drive out the season for the team.

    Lotus have announced the news via Twitter saying, “@H_Kovalainen will join the team for the final 2GPs this year #WelcomeHeikki #GetWellSoonKimi”.

    The move comes as a surprise for many who expected that 2012 GP2 Champion Davide Valsecchi – Lotus’ reserve driver – would step into the cockpit for the Austin and Brazilian Grand Prix.

    Lotus team principal Eric Boullier said in a statement on the team’s website, “Obviously we had to move quickly following the news of Kimi’s non-participation in the final two races of this season, and we found ourselves facing a difficult decision in terms of who should take the wheel in Austin and São Paulo. On the one hand we had our reserve driver Davide Valsecchi – who is a talented young driver that has shown a great deal of promise – and on the other we had the opportunity to bring in a seasoned Formula 1 competitor in Heikki.”

    “Whilst we have every faith in Davide’s abilities, we are obviously involved in a tight Constructors’ Championship battle, so it was decided that the experience Heikki could bring to the team would be invaluable as we aim to finish the year in the best position possible. We must thank Tony Fernandes and Caterham F1 Team for their professional conduct in allowing Heikki to join us for the final races of this season.”

    Kovalainen, who has experience with the current cars and tyres having done FP1 work for the Caterham team, is also gearing up for a full time return to the Caterham team in 2014.

    Kovalainen is very excited about the opportunity saying, “It is a fantastic opportunity for me to join Lotus F1 Team for the final two races of 2013. We’ve seen this year that the E21 is a car which can win races and finish on the podium, so I will be pushing hard for the best results possible. Jumping into a car so late in the year when you have not been competing in the races all season will be a challenge, but I know the team at Enstone well so I have no concerns about getting up to speed. This is a great opportunity for me, so I would like to thank Tony Fernandes and Caterham F1 Team for allowing me to take advantage of it.”