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F1 2013: Italian GP Post-Qualfying Report – Red Bull Romp To Front Row

Sebastian Vettel secured his thirtieth and Red Bull Racing’s fiftieth Formula 1 pole position in Saturday’s qualifying for the Italian GP.

Sebastian Vettel’s domination has been tempered by Lewis Hamilton in the last four races but the German maestro was not going to play second fiddle at the same historic venue as where he memorably won his first ever grand prix.

The pace of the Williams car wasn’t much to write home about but Pastor Maldonado still manged to drag his Renault powered car into the second part of qualifying. Teammate Valterri Bottas didn’t manage to emulate the Venezuelan as he joined Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez, Giedo van der Garde, Charles Pic, Jules Biachi and Max Chilton at the back-end of the grid.

Drama and a closely fought battle was predicted for the final pole position shoot-out but the second session of qualifying is where the real commotion materialized. Paul di Resta, in recovery mode after a practice crash, failed to advance to the top ten and was joined by teammate Adrian Sutil and Pastor Maldonado. The real kicker however was the failure of Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean to advance to the final session of qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton, notoriously hard on himself, was quoted as saying that he “drove like an idiot” in the second part of the qualifying session. Twelfth place is certainly not what the Brit expected but chin up LH there’s always tomorrow. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean bemoaned the fact that he was unable to heat up his medium compound tyres prior to his final effort and Kimi Raikkonen…said nothing. Nevertheless, it is rather peculiar that the Lotus team dedicated both free practice sessions on Friday to testing the long wheelbase car with Kimi Raikkonen and then electing to pursue it further this morning.

The final top ten shoot-out could not have worked out better for Red Bull if they had scripted it themselves. Untroubled be the rest of the pretenders Vettel and Webber locked out the front row of the grid for the 20th time.

Ferrari’s ‘towing’ system didn’t quite go to plan in the final minutes of the session much to the displeasure of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard could be heard during the run telling his team that Felipe Massa was too far ahead of him to gain an advantage from the tow. Sky F1 later reported that the former world champion allegedly told his team: “You are stupid, you are all stupid, you wrecked my qualifying.” Felipe Massa out qualified his teammate.

The undoubted star of qualifying was Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg who miraculously qualified third on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Nico Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top ten.

September 7, 2013
Vettel on top in Free Practice 3

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took the honours again in Free Practice 3 for the Italian Grand Prix to finish top of the time sheets.

Vettel, with a time of 1:24.360 was the fastest time of the session. Not far behind was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with a time of 1:24.643, only 0.283s slower than Vettel. Mark Webber in the other Red Bull finished P3 with a 1:24.677, Hamilton in his Mercedes with a 1:24.712 finished P4 and Sergio Perez in his McLaren finished in a very encouraging P5 with a 1:24.864.

Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes was out quite early in the session with an overheating car. The team will have to work hard to turn it around to get his car ready for qualifying.

Force India’s Paul Di Resta put his car into the barrier at the entry to Parabolica, after the car snapped on him. He managed to catch the over-steer but he ran out of road, and the only way from there was over the gravel and into the barrier.

It was a very encouraging session for McLaren who showed genuine pace with Perez finishing P5.

Qualifying is certainly going to be very interesting. At the moment it looks like Vettel is the man to beat.

September 7, 2013
Vettel quickest in FP2 in Monza

Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel, set the fastest time of the second free practice session in Monza for the Italian Grand Prix

Vettel, with a time of 1:24.453 set the fastest time of the afternoon with his team mate Mark Webber in P2 with a time of 1:25.076. Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean finished the session P3 and P4 respectively. The Ferrari of Fernando Alonso finished off P5 with a 1:25.330, some 0.877s slower than Vettel’s P1 time.

The session was relatively quiet with a lots of cars getting late on the brakes and running wide into Turn 1, and some cars running wide at the exit of Parabolica.

During the long runs, Red Bull once again seemed very strong followed closely by Mercedes, Lotus and Ferrari.

At this point it’s looking very good for another Red Bull victory.

Below is the full time sheet for the session:

September 6, 2013
Lewis Hamilton quickest after FP1 at Monza

Lewis Hamilton was quickest after FP1 at Monza ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, a fraction of a second faster than Fernando Alonso.

Alonso looked all set to beat Hamilton’s 1.25.565 but lost time in the final sector and ended the session on a 1.25.600.

Nico Rosberg showed off Mercedes’ potential at Monza by finishing the session in third place a tenth off Alonso’s time. Sebastian Vettel brought the Red Bull home less than half a tenth further back on the time sheets.

Kimi Raikkonen’s longer wheel base E21 took lots of getting used to but the Finn finished a respectable fifth after the session.

Here is the full time sheet for FP1 at Monza.

September 6, 2013
Super interesting facts about the Italian Grand Prix
Did you know that Monza is the most visited track in Formula One History, having hosted all but one Italian Grand Prix since 1950?

Here are some super interesting facts published by the FIA, about the Italian Grand Prix to get your mouth watering ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Gran Premio d’Italia 2013 at Monza.
- The Italian Grand Prix has been run 63 times and all but one race has taken place at Monza. The only exception was the 1980 Italian Grand Prix which was held at Imola, a track which is now more commonly associated with the San Marino Grand Prix.
- Monza was one of seven tracks on the original Formula 1 world championship calendar in 1950. There are three others that are still on the calendar – Silverstone, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps.
- The circuit layout for the first world championship race at Monza, in 1950, was mostly similar in shape to today’s, except without the chicanes. The chicanes were introduced in 1972 to slow the cars down and have remained ever since, with several revisions of course.
- Michael Schumacher holds the record for the most Italian Grand Prix wins with five. He is just one ahead of Nelson Piquet who won the race twice for Brabham and twice for Williams.
- Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel have the best records of any current driver at the Italian Grand Prix. They have both won twice at Monza. Vettel’s 2008 victory was the first of his F1 career and saw him surpass Alonso’s record as the youngest winner in F1 history at 21 years, 2 months and 11 days old.
- Ferrari are the most successful team in Italian Grand Prix history. The scarlet cars have 18 wins, 45 other podiums and 19 pole positions at the Italian Grand Prix. Their last win at Monza came with Fernando Alonso in 2010.
- The opposite is true for Red Bull. Very surprisingly, they’ve only recorded one podium in Italy (Vettel’s victory in 2011) – the same as Toro Rosso (whose podium was also Vettel’s, in 2008).
- The 2005 Italian Grand Prix is one of only four F1 world championship races in history in which there were no retirements.
- Monza is the scene of the fastest ever Grand Prix which took place in 2003. Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher completed the race at an average speed of 247.585 km/h.
- The same race was also the shortest full-duration race in Formula 1 history. It lasted only 1 hour 14 minutes and 19.838 seconds.
- The fastest pole-position lap in F1 history was also recorded at Monza. And, it was also in a Ferrari. But this time, the record was set by Rubens Barichello who completed his 2004 Italian Grand Prix pole lap pole lap at an average of 260.395 km/h.
- Only three Italians have the Italian Grand Prix – Farina (who won the first world championship Italian GP in 1950), Ascari (‘51, ‘52) and Ludovico Scarfiotti (‘66).
- The last Italian driver to finish the Italian Grand Prix on the podium was Giancarlo Fisichella in 2005.
- Rubens Barrichello holds the lap record for Monza in its current configuration – 1m 21.046s. The time was set in 2004 in a Ferrari.
- In the past ten races at Monza, the polesitter has won eight times. However, Monza does not favour the pole man. In fact, in the 62 previous world championship Grands Prix at the circuit, the pole sitter has won only 20 times.
- Of the last ten Italian Grand Prix races at Monza, four have featured the safety car.
- According to Mercedes, the drivers race at full throttle for a crazy 77 percent of the lap distance! The longest time at full throttle is 16 seconds. Drivers will change their gears an average of 46 times per lap which equates to 2,438 gear changes over the 53-lap race.
Photo credit: Ascari chasing down Fangio at the 1954 Italian Grand Prix.

Wikimedia Commons license. Photo is in the public domain.
September 5, 2013
Fernando Alonso is motor sport’s top earning driver

According to the authoritative business magazine Fernando Alonso has emerged as the highest earning driver in the entire world of motor racing. A title once held by F1’s Michael Schumacher.

Forbes said the Ferrari driver earns $30 million per year, of which $2 million is made up of personal endorsements.

Fellow F1 driver, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who reportedly makes $27.5 million per year, followed by Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, with $26m.

Another American, Jimmie Johnson, comes in next with $24 million, followed by MotoGP veteran Valentino Rossi ($22m), and yet another Nascar star Tony Stewart ($18.5m).

According to Forbes, F1’s reigning triple world champion and Sebastian Vettel makes $18 million per year, which is slightly less than Nascar’s Jeff Gordon.

Female driver Danica Patrick is not far behind Vettel with $15 million – more than the $14m reportedly earned by McLaren’s Jenson Button.

September 5, 2013
Video: Pirelli Preview for the the 2013 Italian Grand Prix

Mario Isola talks camber and tyre pressures in the run up to the 2013 Italian Grand Prix where Pirelli are bringing the Hard (orange) and Medium (White) compound tyres for the weekend.

September 5, 2013
Monza Memories – Hill hits Schumacher

Monza memories – At the 1995 Italian Grand Prix, Damon Hill hits Michael Schumacher. Hill goes on to blame Taki Inoue for the crash but it was clearly not Taki at fault. What do you think?

September 5, 2013
2014 F1 Silly Season Grid Predictions

With silly season in full swing and with rumours flying everywhere we thought it would be a good idea to flesh out a few grid predictions for the 2014 season.

Red Bull

Red Bull have confirmed Daniel Riccardo for their second 2014 seat, in what was probably the worst kept secret in Formula 1. While there was much speculation about the seat and that Kimi Raikkonen was in contention for the seat, and at some stage even Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was said to be interested, it all seemed rather certain that Ricciardo would get the nod.

Sebastian Vettel | Daniel Ricciardo

Ferrari

The Maranello based team announced on Wednesday 11 September that they’ve signed Kimi Raikkonen as their second driver. That came a day after Felipe Massa announced to his fans on Twitter that he will not be driving for Ferrari in 2014.

The opinion is divided amongst commentators on weather this is a good move for Ferrari. There are vast personality difference between Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. One the one hand we have the fiery, very political Alonso and on the other side we have a very cool and calm Raikkonen that doesn’t say much. Many are saying that it will be another McLaren 2007 situation, some think that being the strongest driver line up for 2014, Ferrari have their best chance of taking on Red Bull.

Fernando Alonso | Kimi Raikkonen

McLaren

With Jenson Button most likely to extend his contract at the Woking based team, Sergio Perez expressing his desire to stay at the team and Martin Whitmarsh determined to keep both his drivers, it is unlikely that we are going to see a change at McLaren for 2014.

Jenson Button | Sergio Perez

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has a contract to stay on until the end of the 2016 season and Nico Rosberg has been given the option to extend his contract at the end of 2013. So it seems as though Mercedes will also have an unchanged team for 2014.

Nico Rosberg | Lewis Hamilton

Lotus

Lotus have been a rather curious case. There is lots of controversy surrounding the team recently with their money problems, the falling out between Kimi Raikkonen and Allan Permaine, and the “will it happen, wont it happen” investment deal with investment group Quantum. The future of Nico Hulkenberg sort of depends on this deal. If the deal goes through, Hulkenberg will get the drive. If the deal does not happen, it is very likely that Pastor Maldonado will swoop in and get the drive at the Enstone based team.

It could mean that Hulkenberg will be left without a drive for 2014. This would be such a shame as he is a very talented driver. A good option for him could be McLaren. Martin Whitmarsh has made it public that they are looking for a driver, and with Jenson Button having signed a contract for 2014, its Perez’s seat that’s available. Lotus are not saying anything about the investment deal at this time. A few weeks ago it was a done deal. Nothing has been signed or announced till this day. The long it takes for the announcement, the more likely it looks that Maldonado will get the drive.

Romain Grosjean | Pastor Maldonado

Force India

With Paul Di Resta secured for 2014, we’re left with Adrian Sutil. The German has performed well in his comeback season. At the start of the season he has showed very good pace. While the changes to Pirelli’s tyres have resulted in the pace of Force India dropping considerably, Sutil has still been bringing home the points. It seems unlikely that he’ll be replaced this time round.

Paul Di Resta | Adrian Sutil

Sauber

Sauber have made it public that they would like rookie, Sergey Sirotkin to drive for them in 2014. This is obviously on condition that he obtains his Super licence. Sirotkin brings in much needed money from Russia which should hold the team over for the 2014 season. Another possibility is Pastor Maldonado. Having left Williams, the Venezuelan is looking for a drive in 2014 and the money that he will bring with him will be very welcome at Sauber.

With McLaren also looking for a second driver it could mean the return of Sergio Perez to his former team. The other option is that Nico Hulkenberg could return to Sauber if the deal with Lotus falls through. At this stage we cant say who we think could fill the space in Sauber.

TBA | Esteban Gutierrez

Williams

We got this one half right. Williams have announced Felipe Massa as their next driver, but they’ve kept Valtteri Bottas and have negotiated and exit payout with Maldonado’s sponsor, PDVSA. Next year we see Massa for the first time in an England based team. It is a good move from Sir Frank Williams to put Massa in the team. At a time where the new regulations come into play, you need a driver that can provide very good feedback about the car to the engineers as well as the experience.

We will have to wait and see how it goes for Massa at Williams. Thier 2013 car was not very good, but their new engine partner for 2014, Mercedes, will be very interesting and they are confident that they can bring the Williams name back to the front of the grid.

Felipe Massa | Valtteri Bottas

Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso have confirmed Daniil Kvyat as their second driver for 2014. This was a very unexpected move as we all here at F1 Madness were pretty sure that Antonio Felix Da Costa would get the 2014 drive for the Faenza based team. Dr Helmut Marko thinks that Kvyat shows more potential than the other rookies out there.

Coming from GP3 it’s going to be a very big change into F1 for nineteen year old Kvyat. No doubt that he will be bullied on track by other drivers. It’s up to him to hold his nerve and show them that he can mix it up with the best of them.

Jean Eric Vergne | Daniil Kvyat

Caterham

Charles Pic is already contracted for 2014, leaving only Giedo van der Garde’s seat with a question mark hanging over it.

There is word that Heikki Kovalainen will make a F1 comeback for 2014. He has already been driving for the team in Free Practice sessions. But since he is not a pay driver, it makes it less likely that Caterham will bring him back on-board. There is also a chance for Rodolfo Gonzalez to take van der Garde’s seat. However, money talks in F1 so it seems likely that Caterham will keep their existing line-up.

Giedo van der Garde | Charles Pic

Marussia

Both Marussia drivers need contracts for 2014. With Ferrari wanting Jules Bianchi in a mid-field team it will be interesting to see who Marussia signs up if Bianchi were to leave.

Being the test driver for Ferrari and for Force India does help him out a bit and with him finishing above his team mate, it would seem that Chilton might be the one that will get the chop. For now, there’s no indication that things will change though.

Jules Bianchi | Max Chilton

September 5, 2013
F1 2013: Italian GP Preview: Monza – Definitively Formula 1

These days there aren’t many truly classic racing circuits which still feature prominently. However, as the second half of the 2013 Formula 1 season is upon us the paddock travels to one of the sites that is definitively classic F1 – Monza.

The design of the 5.793 km circuit comprises primarily of lengthy stretches of asphalt interrupted by a couple of chicanes and the famous Parabolica. This layout demands the lowest downforce set-up of any circuit on the calendar, a supple car over the kerbs and a powerful engine.

What is the Italian Grand Prix if there is no mention of Ferrari’s fanatical supporters the Tifosi? The passionately devoted faithful will stream into the circuit by the crack of dawn to cheer and glimpse their heroes as they flash past the jam-packed grandstands in their scarlet Ferrari’s.

It’s more than just fanatical support that will be needed for victory however. Several teams are expected to roll out their final big upgrade packages this weekend in a bid to better their positions relative to the frontrunners; or become frontrunners themselves.

The Lotus F1 team needs improvement and has earmarked this weekend as the acid test for the remainder of their season. The team’s number one driver and most likely championship contender Kimi Raikkonen is 58 points adrift of leader Sebastian Vettel. Any result other than a top three finish this weekend will most likely put an end to the Finn’s F1 championship aspirations. Lotus will be unveiling a long wheelbase car at Monza which is seen as their last role of the dice for the year before turning their attention to the 2014 season.

Fernando Alonso brings his Ferrari home under a bit of cloud. A cloud of speculation at just how much the Spaniard’s loyalty has been stretched by an under performing scarlet Ferrari and rumours about his future with the Maranello based team. Nevertheless, he will be focused completely on the task of beating Red Bull Racing this weekend; and it may not be impossible. It was here where Alonso memorably boosted his F1 championship run with an ultra-passionate victory in 2010. The competition though will be stiff and it will more than likely come from the unrelenting Red Bull team and Sebastian Vettel.

But Red Bull will face their own set of challenges this weekend. Throughout the very successful run that Red Bull has put together over the last three years the compromise on top end speed has repeatedly been made in favour of a better overall aerodynamic package. Is it reasonable then that the champion team should expect the top step of the podium despite neither Vettel nor Mark Webber hardly ever featuring prominently on the speed trap standings?

The championship leader’s fortunes have been mixed at the celebrated Italian circuit. In 2008 Vettel won his first F1 race in wet conditions for Toro Rosso but it has never been a Red Bull stronghold. Therefore, if the triple world champion should take the 25 points this weekend it should also been considered a giant step towards a fourth consecutive F1 world title.

Victory isn’t going to be a foregone conclusion for Vettel this weekend. He is as a determined driver as has ever lined up on a F1 grid but he has to want it more than his Ferrari armed adversary Fernando Alonso and that won’t be easy.

Photo credits: All photos under Wikimedia Commons license.

September 5, 2013