F1 Madness

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  • F1 2015: Brazil GP Qualifying Report – Rosberg Nicks Pole

    F1 2015: Brazil GP Qualifying Report – Rosberg Nicks Pole

    Nico Rosberg has secured pole position for Mercedes team ahead of the 2015 Brazilian grand prix.

    The first part of the hour-long qualifying session was highlighted by yet another issue for McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard grinded to a halt in the first session and them comically continued to sun himself at the side of the track.

    Whilst the sister McLaren of Jenson Button also failed to advance to the next session Alexander Rossi once against bested his Manor teammate Will Stevens in their qualifying battle. Surprisingly, the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado also failed to advance beyond sixteenth place.

    The second of the three sessions saw Lotus driver Romain Grosjean fail to advance to the top ten shoot-out after flat-spotting his yellow-marked soft tyres. An incident between the two Brazilian drivers Felipe Nasr and Felipe Massa is still being investigated. Massa, in the Williams, had to take avoiding action of the Sauber of Felipe Nasr who was driving, quite slowly, on the racing line. A penalty seems inevitable for the younger Brazilian.

    The final shoot-out commenced with Rosberg setting the quickest lap from Hamilton with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top three. The second run saw an improvement of roughly two-and-a-half tenths from Rosberg and whilst Hamilton came within less than a tenth it wasn’t enough to deny his teammate.

    Sebastian Vettel secured third on the grid and will share the second row with his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen after Valtteri Bottas’ penalty for overtaking under the red flag is instituted.

    Provisional Qualifying Standings:

    Brazilquali

  • Bottas Penalized for Overtaking Under Red Flags

    Bottas Penalized for Overtaking Under Red Flags

    Williams Valtteri Bottas was handed a 3-place grid penalty and two penalty points on his super license for overtaking Felipe Nasr under red flag conditions.

    The red flags were brought out after McLaren’s Fernando Alonso stopped on track after an engine failure in Free Practice 2. Bottas overtook Sauber’s Felipe Nasr between Turn 5 and Turn 6.

    After the session he was summoned to see the stewards where he admitted to overtaking Nasr under red flags.

    “The driver of car 77 admitted he overtook car 12 under red flags,” read the stewards decision document by the FIA

    The Stewards in applying the penalty took into consideration that despite the considerable speed difference between the cars, the driver of car 77 could have avoided overtaking under the red flag.”

     

    Photo Credit: Williams Martini Racing Formula 1 Team

  • Ricciardo to Drop 10-Places After Engine Change

    Ricciardo to Drop 10-Places After Engine Change

    Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will take a 10-place grid drop after an engine change.

    This engine change comes after Red Bull decided to take the upgraded engine from Renault after putting off the decision for some time. Renault have spent 11 of their 12 development tokens on the engine.

    Despite promises from Renault, Ricciardo remains skeptical. After Free Practice on Friday, Ricciardo speaking to Motorsport.com said that the new engine “is still lacking power”

    “The positive was it ran all day so we got laps and good information, but the power difference is not so much,” said the Australian

    He is expecting a top 5 finish for the race although he thinks that it will be a tough ask.

    Ricciardo ended Free Practice 2 in 5t place 1.2s off the pace but just 0.085s behind the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Despite the close finish in FP2 he expects the gap to widen during FP3 and in Qualifying.

  • Lowdon Confirms Departure From Manor

    Lowdon Confirms Departure From Manor

    Manor Formula 1 Team’s Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon has confirmed on Friday afternoon that he will leave the team at the end of the season with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix being his final outing with the team.

    It was reported last month at the Russian Grand Prix that Lowdon and Team Principal John Booth had both resigned from the team after differences in opinion with new team owner Stephen Fitzpatrick.

    Fitzpatrick rescued Manor from near collapse last year after the team went into administration. Both Lowdon and Booth were key in building the team back up and for keeping it going throughout 2015. Most recently Manor were able to secure an engine deal with Mercedes for 2016 which will put it in a good position for next year.

    Speaking at the team representatives press conference after Free Practice 2, Lowdon took the opportunity to announce his resignation and spoke about the task of building the team back up again. He made special mention to Bernie Ecclestone, FIA President Jean Todt and Ferrari’s James Allisson.

    “Abu Dhabi is going to be my last race with the team,” said Lowdon

    “Rather than focus on the reasons why, I prefer to focus on the fact the most important task this year was to make sure that the team continued racing.

    “That required a lot of hard work and a lot of commitment as well.

    “My belief in the team at that stage never wavered once, and we worked very hard to make sure the team was in a position to continue.

    “In that period – November, December, January – we received a lot of help from [F1 boss] Bernie Ecclestone in particular, also from Jean Todt”

    “I have to say everybody involved in the governance side and commercial rights side were constructive during the whole period and the team wouldn’t have survived without that input.

    “Also from Ferrari, who were really instrumental not just in the team being able to survive with the engine deal at short notice but also from very first race, the commitment from James Allison in particular.

    “He had a very public task at Ferrari, to ensure the team was in a good position.

    “From our point of view, as a customer team, we received some pivotal support from him.

    “And of course the staff at the team. We had to get the team back together very quickly.

    “That wouldn’t have happened had we not been able to attract a lot of the same faces back who were with the team in previous years.

    “That was extremely important as well. A lot of things had to come together.

    “This has been a pretty difficult season but that is secondary to the fact the team continues and that is the most important thing.”

     

  • F1 2015: Brazilian GP Free Practice 1 Report – Hamilton Quickest

    F1 2015: Brazilian GP Free Practice 1 Report – Hamilton Quickest

    Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton topped the timing sheets in the first free practice session for the Brazilian grand prix.

    The one-a-half hour session got underway with the track temperature soaring towards the 40 degree centigrade mark. The track surface provided a low level of grip for the drivers as they re-familiarized themselves with the famous Interlagos circuit. The Mercedes driver pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg traded quickest times during the initial part of the session before the Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel took to the track.

    Ultimately, Vettel and Raikkonen ended the session third and fifth fastest. The Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest with the newly upgraded internal combustion engine, from Renault, fitted to the Aussie’s car. No major incidents came to the fore during the session save for a few lock-ups into turn one and late session spin, into turn 4, for Raikkonen.

    Local heroes Felipe Nasr and Felipe Massa ended their session, for Sauber and Williams, in fourteenth and seventeenth respectively.

    Final Free Practice 1 Standings:

    brazilfp1

     

  • Video: Brazilian GP Memories: Elation for Hamilton, Anguish for Massa

    Video: Brazilian GP Memories: Elation for Hamilton, Anguish for Massa

    Who can forget the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, where Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was probably world champion for the shortest time. Massa did all he had to do by winning the race. Lewis Hamilton overtook Toyota’s Timo Glock at the final corner to take P5 which was enough for him to win the Championship by 1 point.

  • Weather report for the 2015 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix

    Weather report for the 2015 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix

    The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace formerly known as Interlagos has hosted the Brazilian Grand Prix since 1990 and has, marked the end of the Formula 1 season. For the second year now, the circuit hosts the penultimate race of the season and round 18 of the Formula 1 World Championship.

    At the end of last year, the circuit underwent a major upgrade to the pit complex and so the track surface. The upgrades were scheduled to be complete before the teams reach Brazil this year. Some of the upgrade was still going on as the teams started arriving but the Grand Prix will go ahead as planned.

    On the tyre front Formula 1 tyre supplier, Pirelli, are bringing the Yellow soft and White medium compound tyres to Brazil this year. This is the same compound that was chosen last year. They expect the surface to be vastly different to the previous races but they have stuck with the safest tyre option available to them.

    With the slow middle sector mechanical grip will be required to power out of the slow corners while in the first and 3rd sectors the cars will depend on aerodynamic grip through the medium speed corners. A good balance between mechanical and aerodynamic grip will be required at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace where teams tend to run quite high down force levels.

    Initial forecasts for the weekend were very good forecasting sunny weather with a few thundershowers. The forecast at the time of writing had changed slightly with more thundershowers forecast throughout the weekend with temperatures still quite high.

    Forecasts suggest that the practice sessions, qualifying and the race fall just outside of the rain window. Temperatures will range from the mid 20s to low 30s with Friday forecast to be the hottest. Apart from the spots of rain that is forecast, expect most of the weekend to be sunny and hot.

    Brazil 2015_Weather

     

     

  • Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix

    Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix

    The penultimate round of the Formula 1 World Championship takes us to Sao Paulo in Brazil for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

    The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace is a 4.209km track with 15 corners situated in the southern part of the City of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The land for the track was initially earmarked for property development in 1926. The parcel of land was unsuitable for a housing development and it was decided that a race track will be built.

    Construction on the circuit began in 1938 and was completed in 1940. The original layout of the track consisted of 26 corners and was 7.960km long. Formula 1 started racing at Interlagos in 1972 which was a non-championship race. The first championship race was hosted the following year and was won by Sao Paulo local Emerson Fittipaldi.

    The track underwent a few modifications in 1989 during which the Brazilian leg of the F1 World Championship was moved to Rio. The championship returned to Sao Paulo after Ayrton Senna came to the fore.

    The track layout has remained largely the same since 1990 with a few modifications being made to the corners and some resurfacing work being carried out.

    Overtaking opportunities are quite limited considering the slow and twisty middle sector of the track. Overtaking is usually done into Turn 1 at the Senna Esses and at the medium speed Turn 4 after the second DRS zone. The middle sector is slow and twisty where one corner leads to the next, Cars will rely heavily on the mechanical grip from the tyres through the middle sector.

    Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg will want to carry his momentum from his race in in Mexico into this weekend while his team mate, Lewis Hamilton battles illness to be fit to race this weekend. Ferrari on the other hand are aiming for the win. Sebastian Vettel seems fairly confident that victory is possible in the final two races of the season.

    Below are the broadcast times for the 2015 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix

    GMT GMT+2 Local
    Free Practice 1 12:00 14:00 10:00
    Free Practice 2 16:00 18:00 14:00
    Free Practice 3 14:00 15:00 11:00
    Qualifying 16:00 18:00 14:00
    Race 16:00 18:00 14:00

     

  • F1 2015: Brazilian Grand Prix Preview – Brazil – A spectacle for the ages

    F1 2015: Brazilian Grand Prix Preview – Brazil – A spectacle for the ages

    In the last several years the Brazilian grand prix has moved around quite a bit on the F1 calendar. It’s gone from the second race of the year to being the season-ender a few times. Now, it finds itself settled as the penultimate race of the year. But regardless of when the Brazilian grand prix is run it always delivers a stunning show.

    History reveals that the land which the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace is built on was first bought with a housing development in mind. Luckily, part of the Sau Paulo land was not suitable for housing and a so a racetrack, named Interlagos, was born. Several decades later the successful arrival of Emerson Fittipaldi on the world motorsport stage became the catalyst for a Brazilian grand prix in the 1970s. By 1981 Rio had taken over as host of the Brazilian grand prix. But thanks to the fervour that surrounded Ayrton Senna, a Sau Paulo native, the race has returned and been run at Interlagos ever since.

    The circuit isn’t a long one at 4.309 kilometres and its lap record is just shade over seventy-one seconds.  It doesn’t have any corners in its layout to really trouble the drivers either. “There’s just not a corner that gives you any real satisfaction. I don’t want to make it sound dull, because it isn’t, but like Russia, there isn’t a corner that makes you go ‘Woooo-Hoooo!’ It needs a few more corners and something really high speed,” says Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. “There’s a couple that look good on paper but because of the cambers, you never really have the grip to go barrelling in.”

    Autodromo-Jose-Carlos-Pace-Interlagos-Brazil-aerial-viewFrom the Aussie’s perspective it doesn’t sound very challenging and it looks like it could be a bit of a damp squib. But somehow, year after year, the circuit and the boisterous fans combine with an untouchable force to deliver astounding Brazilian Grand Prix races.

    The stunning 2012 race in which then Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel had to fight back through the field after a first-corner incident comes to mind. In 2007 Kimi Raikkonen beat the odds to win the driver’s championship. In 2008 the driver’s world title race between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa climaxed in the most dramatically breathtaking fashion. As local hero and Ferrari driver Massa crossed the line as world champion only to be denied as McLaren driver Hamilton found his way past the Toyota of Timo Glock on the last corner of the last lap. These stunning races are merely what are in the recent memory bank of Formula 1. The Brazilian grand prix has been delivering this kind of drama for decades.

    Nico Rosberg, Brazilian Grand PrixLast year Nico Rosberg put together a faultless weekend to win from pole. It comes as no great revelation that Mercedes is the overwhelming favourite for victory going into the weekend. However, there are a few factors that could change the outcome of Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. The weather around the Interlagos circuit looks set fair with temperatures predicted to reach into the early 30s. It will mean a considerably high track temperature which will play to the strengths of the Ferrari, as it did in Malaysia.

    The factor of racing on home soil should never be diminished and given Felipe Massa’s adoration for his home race he will undoubtedly feature in some way this weekend. A podium finish may not be out of the question for the Williams driver.

    Often we try to predict what will happen over a grand prix weekend. We base our view on car performance in relation to a specific layout, weather forecasts, and occasionally a gut feel. But in Brazil you do so at your peril. Because this race has the uncanny ability to surprise and deliver a spectacle to the level no one can possibly imagine.

  • F1 2015: VIDEO – Hamilton’s Controversial Comments

    F1 2015: VIDEO – Hamilton’s Controversial Comments

    Click on the link below to watch Lewis Hamilton’s controversial comments on seven time world champion Michael Schumacher.

    Lewis Hamilton- ‘I never done things like Michael has done to win a championship’