Latest

Vettel scores his hat-trick pole in India

Sebastian Vettel took one step closer to his 4th World Championship title by claiming a commanding pole position for tomorrow’s Indian Grand Prix.

Vettel put in an incredible lap – the fastest ever recorded at the Buddh International Circuit – with a time of 1.24.119, a crazy 7 tenths faster than the rest of the field. Nico Rosberg will share the front row of the grid with Vettel tomorrow after qualifying second with a time of 1.24.871 followed by team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes did mention that Lewis may have been held up by Vettel but it would seem the incident was minor and there will be no further action.

Mark Webber brought his Red Bull home in 4th place with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa behind him. Massa outqualified his team mate Fernando Alonso once again but Alonso opted for the medium tyre strategy which will see him starting the race on the longer lasting medium tyres tomorrow.

Romain Grosjean made a shock exit out of qualifying after Q1 after only completing a time on the medium tyres, when everyone else except for Vettel had completed their laps on the softer compound.

Both McLarens made it through to Q3 today and have also opted for the medium tyre strategy.

One has to believe that unless something goes wrong with Hungry Heidi, Sebastian Vettel will be crowned World Champion tomorrow. The German only needs to finish 5th in order to clinch the title and the clear dominance he’s shown over the weekend so far shows his clear intention to wrap things up.

Join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for live commentary and interaction with other F1 fans, during the race tomorrow.

Here is the timesheet following today’s qualifying in India:

October 26, 2013
Vettel quickest again in shortened third practice session

Just as he was last year, Sebastian Vettel was quickest again in all three practice sessions in India.

The start of the practice session was delayed by 20 mins due to visibility issues caused by the heavy smog in India. It meant that the medical helicopter would not be able to take off if there were an emergency. The session was also shortened to 40 minutes instead of the full hour’s running.

Vettel set the fastest time of the session with a 1.25.332, thereafter spending most of his session testing longer runs on the soft tyres.

Teams are concerned about the longevity of the soft tyres and this saw quite a few them doing long run soft tyre testing.

Over half a second slower than his team mate, Webber ensured that Red Bull had yet another 1-2 at the end of the session.

Here is the full third practice timesheet.

October 26, 2013
Vettel leads Red Bull 1-2 in second practice

Second practice in India held the same result as the first practice session in India today as Sebastian Vettel again topped the time sheets.

Despite another KERS issue early on in the session, Vettel clocked a time of 1.25.722 with team mate Mark Webber trailing almost three tenths behind him in second place.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean came closest to the Red Bull drivers but his time was almost half a second off the mark set by Vettel. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen managed only eighth after running wide in turn ten during his fastest flier on the soft tyres.

Pastor Maldonado missed the final 20 minutes of running after a wheel nut came loose. The front right wheel nut on his Williams came off at turn 5 and forced him to stop just before the pit lane entrance. Williams received a large fine for his wheel coming off in Japan and there are fears that the same hefty fine will be imposed again but the wheel remained on his Williams this time around which may just save them from penalty.

There was plenty of wear on the front left tyres with many drivers complaining about the degradation. The soft tyres seem to start going off after about 6 or 7 laps and it seems unlikely that they’ll last longer than 12-15 laps.

For now, Vettel looks dominant in his Red Bull – without or without KERS trouble. It seems the champ is dead set on making it four in a row this weekend.

Here is the full timesheet for second practice:

October 25, 2013
Indian Grand Prix safe as hearing is delayed

This weekend’s Indian Grand Prix will go ahead as planned after a bid to have it cancelled was postponed by the Indian Supreme Court.

There were doubts around whether or not the Indian Grand Prix would take place after Activist Amit Kumar brought a petition to the court during the first free practice session this morning, in a bid to cancel the race, arguing that the organisers have not paid tax owed on last year’s race.

Doubts over the viability of Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix have however been erased after the court proceedings were postponed until after Sunday’s race.

Kumar had previously argued – successfully – that Formula 1 is a form of entertainment, and not a sport and as such should not benefit from tax exemptions. He has previously succeeded in blocking an F1 race from receiving tax-exempt status from the Uttar Pradesh government.

The Indian Grand Prix, which will be the third to be held in India, will be allowed to go ahead despite Kumar’s efforts. A new date is yet to be set but a lawyer told AFP this morning that, “The hearing will now take place next week. This means the race can go ahead”.

The decision came during the first free practice session this morning, in which Sebastian Vettel, who can clinch a fourth straight world championship title this weekend, topped the time sheets for Red Bull Racing. Read our full first free practice report here.

The Indian Grand Prix does not feature on the 2014 Calendar and these court petitions around tax will most certainly not bode well for the future of the race from 2015 onward.

October 25, 2013
F1 2013: Free Practice 1 Report – Indian GP

The first free practice session for the Indian GP was headed by the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Proceedings took nearly forty minutes to get underway at a hazy Budhh International circuit. The first driver out on track and setting flyers was McLaren’s Sergio Perez. The rest of the front-running teams seemed reluctant to venture out on circuit.

Nevertheless, several cars gradually made their way onto circuit and got on with the task of preparing for Sunday’s race. Lotus are believed to be trying some bit and pieces on the E21 this weekend as they bid for second place in the constructor’s championship. Britian’s James Calado took over the Force India from an “under the weather” Paul Di Resta. However, the Scot was seen in the paddock and pointed out that he had to give up some friday practice time to the young Brit at some stage during the remainder of the season.

Lewis Hamilton reported his car as being “all over the place” throughout the session but Nico Rosberg showed encouraging pace for the Mercedes team. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, still in doubt about his future with the Enstone team, featured near the top of the timing sheets while teammate Raikkonen went about his business quietly down the bottom end of the table.

Fernando Alonso spent the first half hour of the session sat in the back of the garage. And when the Spaniard did venture out a suspected gearbox issue brought an end to his session. Felipe Massa has also confirmed that he is in talks with Williams for the 2014 season.

Jenson Button is carrying Porsche SuperCup racer Sean Edward’s helmet emblem on the top of his lid for the weekend and Sebastian Vettel is sporting a carbon inspired design for the Indian grand prix. The Mercedes team is also running an Airtel sponsor for the weekend as Nico Rosberg invited some kids to the circuit earlier in the weekend to see a Formula 1 car and steering wheel up close. Apparently, the steering wheel shown to the kids was Lewis Hamilton’s and Rosberg later joked that should the Brit be missing some pace that a few adjustments may have been made on the wheel by the kids.

All images – www.twitter.com

October 25, 2013
India Preview Quotes – Caterham F1 Team

Preview Quotes from the Caterham F1 Team ahead of the race in India this weekend.

Giedo van der Garde, Caterham
“Korea and Japan were two quite tough weeks with races that didn’t go to plan for me so I want to get back to the performance levels that have been building up since Hungary at the next two races in India and Abu Dhabi. Japan obviously ended a whole lot earlier than planned and we’ve looked at all the data from the first lap off I had after the contact with Jules – when I hit the barrier the impact registered around 20g which is by quite a long way one of the biggest accidents I’ve had in my career. It just shows how far F1 safety has come that I was out of the car and back in the team’s hospitality unit within about 20 minutes and when I looked at the shots after the race I realised that it was, honestly, quite a lot of a bigger shunt than it had felt like in the car.

“So, on to India and another track I tried for the first time last year in FP1. It’s a proper drivers track, one that has elevation changes and a few really challenging corners and there’s a couple of overtaking opportunities, especially turn four at the end of the long straight. It’s going to be hot and hotter track conditions have suited us all year so the aim is to maintain the gap to our nearest competitors throughout the weekend and get back to fighting cars ahead on Sunday afternoon, putting ourselves in a position to take advantage of anything that happens up ahead.”

Charles Pic, Caterham
“Next we’re heading to India and then Abu Dhabi straight after for the next back-to-back flyaways this season. It’s a very tough schedule on everyone but, as we showed on Sunday in Japan, we keep fighting and the whole team is focused on grabbing any opportunity that comes our way.

“I raced for the first time in India last year and, like most of the drivers have said, it’s a great track, one of the best of the modern era. I had a strong race there in 2012, particularly at the start where I made up five places, so the aim is obviously to do the same again in 2013 and keep pushing the teams ahead where we can. The track itself is a good mix of a few quick bits, especially into Turn five and through 10 and 11 for example, and a bit more stop / start like Turns one, two and three, but the main thing is to find a good rhythm around the whole lap to get the most out of the car, like Spa for example. As the track evolves so much over the weekend you don’t really find the quickest pace until quali and then the race itself as the track is so dusty on Friday, and then again on Saturday morning. They did make some improvements last year to help manage that, including washing the track each evening, so hopefully it will be better again this year.

“With such a short amount of time in India I won’t have a chance to explore but that’s something I’d like to do one day. We go to so many cool places but the race weekends are always busy and there’s no time to properly look around, but from what I saw last year, India’s an amazing place and one I’d like to come back to one day to really find out what it’s all about.”

October 24, 2013
Sauber Indian GP Preview Quotes

Here’s what the boys at Sauber had to say in their preview quotes ahead of this weekend’s upcoming Indian Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber

“Last year I had a good result in India as I finished eighth, so it was great to get some points. It is quite a nice track and one of the modern ones with some tricky sectors, especially sector two as there are a lot of corners that are combined. It is not one of my favourite circuits, but it is still nice to be driving there. When I was racing for an Indian team I had to arrive quite early, do a big PR tour and do a bit of promotion for Formula One. India is a very exotic country. As regards the food, I am not that used to it and certainly don’t like spicy food, so that makes it quite tricky, and I always have to ask for a very, very mild dish. Paneer tikka is actually my favourite local dish there which is delicious.”

Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber
“I know the Buddh International Circuit from driving in free practice for Checo (Perez) last year, and I completed 29 laps. It is another track that I like, because it has really long straights, very good braking and fast chicanes, which make the driving experience very special. There is quite a lot of margin for error with the run-off areas, but in order to put a good lap in you need to be precise. You have slow and medium speed corners that are quite technical, like turns five, six and seven. This is quite challenging for the tyres. The goal will be to continue the rhythm we found and translate that into results.”

Tom McCullough, Sauber head of track engineering
“The Buddh International Circuit has similar characteristics to the track in South Korea. The first sector is dominated by long straights and low speed corners, the second sector is made up of medium to high speed corners, and there is a short, low speed final sector. There is some significant elevation change during the lap, which also contributes to it being a challenging and rewarding circuit for the drivers. Pirelli will provide the soft and medium compounds. The medium as the prime tyre is one step softer than last year. We are fighting in a very tight area of the grid where maximising what you have is the name of the game. As in the previous four races, our aim is to get into Q3 and continue to score valuable championship points.”

October 24, 2013
Indian GP Preview Quotes – Red Bull Racing

Here are the preview quotes from the Red Bull boys ahead of this weekend’s Indian GP.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Preview Quotes

“It is not an easy track, because of a few complicated rhythm-breakers that are in there. The most difficult part is the uphill entry to Turn 3, because seeing the apex is practically impossible. So to drive a perfect lap around the Buddh circuit, you need a good driving instinct. So far everything has always gone perfectly for us in India. There is also a very nice trophy at the end of the race – so it would be great to hold one again this year! It’s a circuit that I like, in a country that is very, very impressive every time we go there.”

Mark Webber, Red Bull Preview Quotes

“India’s an extremely unique country for lots of different reasons; culturally there’s lots going on and you’ve got some pretty spectacular cities, busy cities. I’ve tried some of the local food and it’s really tasty, and obviously spicy, but I don’t mind that! The track is good. I think they’ve done a good job with the circuit, it’s a place where you can really put a Formula One car on the limit and it’s quick. It’s a very demanding track for the car and driver. It’s probably very similar to the old Turkey circuit, but the middle sector is very similar to Silverstone – it’s very, very fast, but has some undulations as well. The undulations are quite good and quite cute; they’ve put them in some challenging areas for us.”

October 24, 2013
Indian GP Buddh International Circuit Preview Quotes – Lotus

Preview quotes from the Lotus F1 Team ahead of this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit.

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus

“The Buddh International Circuit is quite an interesting track; one of the better ones from the modern circuits. It’s quite similar to Korea; long straights, not terribly challenging corners and hard braking. It’s not as technical as Korea which was another new track for me last year, but it’s good. It’s always nice to go to a new place like India. It’s certainly a good track to go fast with a strong car in front of all the others! Hopefully we finally get it right in qualifying as the last five qualifying sessions have not been that great for me. If we don’t, it’s going to be a difficult Sunday afternoon, although of course we’ll keep pushing. If we do get it right, then we can really go for it!”

Romain Grosjean, Lotus

“I like the Buddh International Circuit. I first visited the track as third driver for the team during the inaugural race weekend in 2011 and was really impressed by the facility, then of course I drove it for the first time last year. The layout includes a nice mix of corners with a bit of gradient change which is always a good thing. There are some decent straights with wide corners at the end of them to help with overtaking, although it’s still not the easiest place in the world to pass somebody. Then there’s the linked Turn 10 / 11 combination, which is a bit like Turn 8 in Turkey in that it seems to go on forever. It’s quite a fun track to drive. Our car is really performing well at the moment so I think we could be strong again. It’s fair to say we struggled there a little last year with finding grip and getting the right setup for the cars, so hopefully we can perform better this time. The tyre allocation was quite hard for the track in 2012, but this year it’s softer which should help us and make for better racing.”

Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
“The Buddh International Circuit is a good track with a mixture of challenges, but nothing particularly tricky. There’s a steep uphill section into Turn 3 followed by a sizeable straight, a long banked right-hand corner and some quick changes of direction through Turns 5-9 and 13-14. It’s a circuit where we expect the E21 to work well. Although we saw in Suzuka that we can compete on the harder tyres, our car generally favours the softer compounds making this a race where we’re very much looking forward to continuing our run of strong recent performances. DRS overtakes are tricky at Buddh. There was a double DRS zone last year, but even though there’s a long straight it’s not the easiest place to overtake. That said, we’ve seen some reasonably good attacking moves in the last few races and the softer allocation should help with passing opportunities too when differing degradation levels from different cars are factored in.

“The change from hard and soft compound tyres last year to medium and soft this year should make for quite a different race at the Buddh International Circuit, where we saw one-stop strategies driven by the hard tyre allocation. Last year the performance gap between the tyres meant that everyone qualified on the soft and raced on the hard after a single stop. This year, the soft and medium compound open up the strategic permutations. With this season’s tyres also being a step softer than last year’s soft tyre, we have softer tyres to both qualify and race with. It could be a far more interesting race with strategy split between two and three stops.”

Photo Credit: Lotus F1 Team

October 24, 2013
Buddh International Circuit – Marussia Preview Quotes

Preview quotes from the Marussia F1 Team ahead of the Indian Grand Prix to be held at the Buddh International Circuit this weekend.

Jules Bianchi, Marussia

“It seems next weekend may be my first and last opportunity to drive the Buddh International Circuit, but I am very much looking forward to doing so because it is really a very special track. I attended the race there last year, so I got the chance to see it first-hand and to hear the drivers’ reaction to driving it. I’m sure I will be equally impressed. Turns 3 and 10-12 look particularly interesting. I’m working on the basis that Japan was my ‘jinx race’ and with that behind me I am very optimistic about the step we have taken with the car performance and the developments we have yet to bring.”

Max Chilton, Marussia

“The Indian Grand Prix represents another new race for me and my team mate, so once again it will be an exciting and challenging weekend in equal measure. The team have good experience of the Buddh International Circuit, having raced there on two occasions previously and, as always, the work we have done in the sim will be a huge benefit, so we have a good foundation on which to start the weekend. Having reflected on Japan in particular I’m really pleased with how things are progressing at the moment, so I’m hoping for a similarly productive time in India, making good steps at every stage of the weekend. A good two-car finish is our team target, but also from my point of view I would obviously be happy to maintain my record of being the only driver to finish every race – for another four weekends!”

John Booth, Marussia team principal
“We very much enjoy racing on the Buddh International Circuit, so we will take time to savour our final experience of what is actually a very challenging and technical track and one which has received a great deal of praise from drivers and engineering teams during the past two seasons. Once we have acclimatised Jules and Max to the circuit, we will be firmly focused on maintaining the positive upturn with car performance and indeed trying to extract even more in India and over the next few races with the smaller developments we are introducing.”

October 23, 2013