F1 Madness

Tag: sebastian vettel

  • 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.

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  • Australian F1 GP Review: Raikkonen Devastating Down Under

    Australian F1 GP Review: Raikkonen Devastating Down Under

    For ten days before the Formula 1 paddock arrived Melbourne had been experiencing a heat wave of record breaking proportions. But the heavens well and truly opened just before Saturday’s qualifying session.

    Thanks to Mother Nature only the first part of qualifying was completed and the rest postponed to Sunday morning. The pace of Red Bull sent an ominous message as the team locked out the front row and Sebastian Vettel racked up pole position number thirty.

    Lewis Hamilton slotted his Mercedes into third place as McLaren barely made the final part of qualifying with Jenson Button. A noteworthy session from Felipe Massa saw the Brazillian out-qualify his teammate Fernando Alonso.

    The major talking point however, as expected, was the tyres. Jenson Button worryingly said that his set of supersoft tyres was completely shredded after only three laps of qualifying. It wasn’t just talk from JB either as five laps into the grand prix the McLaren pulled into the pits for a new set of medium tyres. It compounded a miserable start to the season for Button and Perez who eventually finished ninth and eleventh with what looks like a fundamentally slow car.

    Mark Webber followed suit a lap later but the frontrunners seemed able to push the performance of the supersofts slightly further. Under pressure from the two Ferrari’s, Vettel pitted on lap 8 followed by Massa (lap 9), Alonso and Raikkonen (lap 10).

    Lotus ended pre-season testing with several reliability issues and little to show for four days running. Seventh and eighth on the grid suggested that the same problems over one lap were still there. But Raikkonen had said that he was happy with the car and that reliability wasn’t a concern. He was right.

    A seventh place starting position only slightly delayed the prodigious progress Kimi Raikkonen would make throughout the race. He first dispatched Lewis Hamilton around the outside of turn 13 and set off after the two Ferrari’s and leader Vettel. Nevertheless, the first round of pitstops cropped up before the Finn could advance any further. However, it was the 23 lap stint on the medium tyres where the Finn came alive.

    Raikkonen delivered a sublime stint of driving and was able to stretch the performance of the tyres while simultaneously keeping up the pace. By the time he made his second and final stop of the race, Raikkonen had built up a fifteen second gap over now second placed Fernando Alonso. The first few laps after Alonso’s pitstops were substantially quicker than Raikkonen’s but the Lotus driver, seemingly always in control, had the capacity to up his pace whenever he pleased. And just to ensure a straightforward run to the flag the Iceman put in the fastest lap of the race and extended his gap to twelve seconds.

    Sebastian Vettel, unable to replicate his qualifying pace, managed the third step of the podium. The triple world champion was still happy to finish in the top three and believes that there is no need to worry about the pace of their rivals.

    Felipe Massa secured fourth place ahead of a struggling Lewis Hamilton. The Brit initially planned on a two-stopper but the tyre hungry Mercedes forced the team to opt for plan B and a three-stop strategy. Another difficult day on his home track relegated Webber to sixth as the Aussie struggled with a KERS issue throughout the race. Adrian Sutil’s return could scarcely have gone better with a solid seventh ahead of teammate di Resta and Jenson Button. Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten some one minute and twenty-two seconds adrift of his race winning teammate.

    If Raikkonen’s performance appeared effortless from the outside it’s because it was; Raikkonen called it one of the easiest victories of his career. Coincidentally, six of the last ten Australian GP race winners have gone on to win the world championship.

    After four tedious months of waiting the Malaysian GP follows immediately on the back of Oz. The Sepang circuit will be a bigger test of car design and will provide more opportunity for DRS passes with its two long straights. The weather in these parts tend to vary quite a bit too; from monsoon levels of rain to boiling hot temperatures in the region of 40 degrees.