Haug Confident Mercedes Are Moving Forward
Norberg Haug, Mercedes Benz’s motosport boss says he is happy with the teams progress and confident that they are making huge steps forward as the F1 circus moves to Round 3 at Malaysia next weekend.
The new team, born out of championship winners Brawn GP with star drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg has scored points but not fought for wins thus far, and is clearly the 4th team behind Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren.
However Haug says there is no trouble, and that the team needs a little more time to deliver quality.
“Yes [We are hitting our targets]. But why should I sit here and say no, we shall not fight for the title?” Haug said last night,
“That is our aim, that is our target. Hopefully we can make a big step, and the team is composed and working professionally together.
“I am not the loudspeaker here saying we are going to win the world title but of course, we want as many race wins, as many podiums and as many points as possible. Then hopefully we are in the hunt.
“Ask our competitors about it. I would be surprised if lots of them would say forget them [Mercedes GP], they are not good enough, they are not coming. They pay respect, like I do with the competitors.”
Wirth To Pay For Virgin Fuel Tank Upgrades
Nick Wirth, the head of Wirth Research the group behind the design of Virgin Racing’s VR-01 has said he will personally pick up the bill for the alterations needed to the fuel tanks of the cars in order for them to finish a Grand Prix.
With refuelling banned for the 2010 season, the cars are forced to run the entire race with the full fuel load. However it emerged in Australia that the Virgin car did not have enough fuel capacity and as a result the entire chassis would need to be changed, an issue which will cost around £1.5million + and not be sorted until the Turkish Grand Prix.
The cars could use techniques used in Sportscar racing to finish races, but Wirth was unwilling for his cars to crawl around some laps in order to get a finish on the boards. He said he was disappointed with their overall recent performance, citing issues with fuelling in qualifying as more problems.
“The chassis supplier is us. Nothing to do with engine supplier or fuel supplier. What that means is that we are fixing it for the team. We are not charging the team,” Wirth told Autosport Magazine
“It’s our responsibility to provide cars that can finish a grand prix. It’s down to us.
“We are not doing a very good job at the moment, particularly in qualifying, of picking up all the fuel.
“We are at liberty to carry on doing that [using heavy fuel loads]. That doesn’t affect the volume of fuel. But what we are saying is that even if we could pick up every last drop, which we can’t at the moment, we’ve got an issue.”
Wirth (L) under pressure from Richard Branson (R)
Australian GP 2010: Button Wins First Race For McLaren
Jenson Button turned a race of the highest quality today in Australia to win his first race for the McLaren team, on a circuit where he dominated with Brawn last season.
Robert Kubica grabbed a heroic second place for Renault, and Felipe Massa hung on to third mostly thanks to his team mate Fernando Alonso.
Race Review
There was always an outside chance of rain at the Melbourne circuit, and it came just before the race leaving everyone to start on intermediates on a damp, cold circuit. The race was always going to deliver the excitement that we didn’t get in Bahrain and it came thick from the first corner.
Fernando Alonso got a poor start, in contrast to team mate Felipe Massa. Alonso came into turn 1 and was punted from the inside by Jenson Button, pushing the Spaniard into Michael Schumacher. The two former World Champions got damage and were forced to the back of the field, Schumacher by a pit stop and Alonso by the virtue that he was spun 180.
Further down the first lap, Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber lost its front wing on the straight for no reason, sending him in an out of control slide into Sebastien Buemi and Nico Hulkenberg knocking all 3 out of the race and bringing the safety car out for the first time.
This allowed Alonso and Schumacher to bunch up the back of the field, and Alonso cut through the field brilliantly, while Schumacher got held back and only ended up finishing in 10th place, his overtaking less competent than Alonso’s and certainly less competent than we are used to from the former master. Is it the car or is it Schumacher?
Massa had got in front of Webber before the safety car, but lost position when it went into the pits, leaving the Brazilian scrapping with Kubica and Rosberg for 3rd, 4th and 5th. Jenson Button pitted early for some slick tyres, a move which seemed crazy but eventually led him to win the race. He was setting hot lap times and the rest of the field pitted, but it was poor timing for Massa who ended up well behind the pack of McLaren’s, Red Bull’s, Kubica and Rosberg, while at this point he was being caught by Alonso and Hamilton both of whom had worked their way through the field.
Only the Red Bull’s did not pit, leaving it a bit late. Vettel got away unscathed, but Webber on cold tyres made a mistake into turn 1, and cars zipped passed him with ease. However only a handful of laps later, and Massa looked poor once again, with Webber slotting passed and Hamilton following. Later on a similar move would cause Massa to force team mate Fernando Alonso off the track and to lose positions that he ultimately would not recover.
A scorching Hamilton now hassled Rosberg, whom he passed with ease around the outside into 13. His charge only cooled by waved yellows from Sebastian Vettel’s stranded Red Bull, the young cocky German had stuffed it into the gravel trap with suspected brake failure.
The crash handed Button the lead, and allowed Kubica second place which would ultimately be the final positions for the two who decided not to pit for fresh slicks. The optional second pit stop was instigated by Michael Schumacher, who down in 12th decided on some fresh soft Bridgestones and was lapping nearly 2s per lap quicker. Hamilton and Webber were notable names to pit, but both Ferrari’s did not pit.
Felipe Massa appeared to be holding up Fernando Alonso but it was lucky for the Brazilian his resilient team mate was behind as Alonso began a heroic drive to the finish. With Hamilton gaining 2seconds or more per lap on the Ferrari’s, Alonso managed to hold off the charge from the British former World Champion and his McLaren nemesis for over 10 laps to the finish a brilliant piece of driving skill which should have been rewarded with a trophy.
But with 2 laps remaining, a hot headed Mark Webber once again clashed with Lewis Hamilton leading them both to finish much further down the points than they should have done, but Alonso’s work was not done as Nico Rosberg charged to the back of the Ferrari but couldn’t make a move stick.
Liuzzi and Barrichello were 7th and 8th, having a quiet race amidst all the action. Schumacher took the final points position, with Alguersuari just behind the young Spaniard giving the old German a hard time and no doubt learning more than ever before. De La Rosa was 12th, but the best mentions have to go to Heiki Kovalainen who finished another race for Lotus and Karun Chadhok who managed to FINISH the race for Hispania, unbeliveable! Congratulations to both teams.
Race Results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | J. Button | McLaren Mercedes | 1.33.36.531 |
| 2 | R. Kubica | Renault | +12.034 |
| 3 | F. Massa | Ferrari | +14.488 |
| 4 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +16.304 |
| 5 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes Benz | +16.683 |
| 6 | L. Hamilton | McLaren Mercedes | +29.898 |
| 7 | V. Liuzzi | Force India Mercedes | +59.847 |
| 8 | R. Barrichello | Williams Cosworth | +1.00.536 |
| 9 | M. Webber | Red Bull Renault | +1.07.319 |
| 10 | M. Schumacher | Mercedes Benz | +1.09.391 |
| 11 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso Ferrari | +1.11.301 |
| 12 | P. De La Rosa | Sauber Ferrari | +1.14.084 |
| 13 | H. Kovalainen | Lotus Cosworth | +2 laps |
| 14 | K. Chandhok | Hispania HRT | +4 laps |
Retirements:
| Driver | Team | Lap | Reason |
| T. Glock | Virgin | 41 | Fuel |
| S. Vettel | Red Bull Renault | 26 | Brake Failure |
| L. Di Grassi | Virgin | 25 | Hydraulic |
| A. Sutil | Force India | 12 | Unknown |
| V. Petrov | Renault | 10 | Accident |
| B. Senna | Hispania HRT | 5 | Unknown |
| S. Buemi | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1 | Accident |
| N. Hulkenberg | Williams | 1 | Accident |
| K. Kobayashi | Sauber Ferrari | 1 | Accident |
| J. Trulli | Lotus Cosworth | 1 | Fuel Pressure |
Post Race Interviews
Jenson Button – McLaren Mercedes (1st): “It is very special. It has taken me a little while to get to grips inside the car, but the team has been fantastic and welcomed me in. It is difficult to put it into words, it is a very special feeling and we will take a lot from this. I feel I am building in confidence, and I hope in the next rate we can do something similar as this feels too good.”
Robert Kubica – Renault (2nd): “To be honest we were not expecting to finish on the podium, for Renault and myself it is a special result. We were pushing hard during the winter and this was the best result we could get for the beginning of the season. This is big thanks to all the guys. We have to stay realistic, we are not up to pace to finish on the podium normally. We need to keep pushing and I am sure we will manage sooner or later to be on the pace.”
Felipe Massa – Ferrari (3rd): “I had a fantastic start, without wheelspin, and I saw many cars, especially Fernando and [Mark] Webber having some wheelspin. I did a very smooth start and passed them in a very good way. I was happy with the start and whole race was very difficult, very slippery and low grip everywhere. My best result in Australia before was sixth, and in 2007 I had problems in qualifying and started last. It’s not the best race for me in terms of pace, and we lost some positions at the pitstop and a bit on track because of mistakes, so it is fantastic to have one second and one third.”
Fernando Alonso – Ferrari (4th): “It was a fantastic result in the end for the team, and for myself as well. So, I was ready to sign before the race for this result – if you win the race you take seven points to your main competitor. Now, I took 12 points to Vettel, to Michael and to some of the main rivals for the championship. So it has been a much better race in terms of points than Bahrain, if you compare with your main competitor. I was not convinced that I could recover the positions to get into the points, [but] the car was perfect, and now even thinking through the race and all the analysis – there is the possibility that you can win the race even starting last because the car was so much quicker today than all the others.”
Vitantonio Liuzzi – Force India (7th): “Another great race and another great result for the team,” said Liuzzi, who charged back from 13th place to score points for the second race in succession. It’s a confirmation of the pace we showed in Bahrain and the work the team did over the winter. We worked hard all weekend for this seventh place and it’s a brilliant result at the end of what was a crazy race.”
Michael Schumacher – Mercedes Benz (10th): “I could have had a good race today so it was a pity that I was hit right after the start,” Schumacher said. “That incident decided my race obviously. But things like that happen and you have to just say ‘that’s racing’. I had to take the remainder of the race from last position but I have to say that I was still having fun as our pace today was promising and for part of the race, we were going quicker than the top group. It was nice to pick up a point and we can take that good feeling into the next race where we will look forward to another challenge.”
Heikki Kovalainen – Lotus Cosworth (13th): “I enjoyed it today and had good fun out there. Our target was to finish the race and from the start we were quite comfortably ahead of the new teams. When [Virgin’s Timo] Glock dropped out I just focused on keeping up a decent rhythm, not making any mistakes and bringing the car home. Now we go to Malaysia with a good feeling and we’re all looking forward to that.”
Karun Chandhok – Hispania HRT (14th): “To finish was very difficult today, and all the more satisfying because of that. I dedicate this race result to all the mechanics and engineers who worked so hard since Bahrain, without any pre-season testing. This is a fantastic day for the team and a great step forward. I am proud to have ended our first race. We achieved the best result we could do today. We have to keep pushing and working and we will manage to finish even higher.”
Christian Horner – Red Bull Renault Team Boss: “Ultimately an extremely disappointing day. Having been in control of the race, the second in succession, Sebastian unfortunately retired with what looks like a wheel related issue (front left), which certainly cost him a comfortable race win today. It was cruel luck for him for the second year in a row here in Australia.”
Tony Fernandes – Lotus Racing Team Owner: “I’m disappointed for Jarno, but Heikki did us proud – three places away from a point, and he was keeping pace with most of the other cars throughout the race. Maybe it would have been nice if three other cars had gone out so we could get a point, but, joking aside, it is good that at this stage of the season we’re already thinking about points. We’re in a nice position for Malaysia.”
Australian Grand Prix 2010: Red Bull Race Away With 1-2
Red Bull Racing commanded the qualifying session in the second race of the season in Melbourne, securing a 1-2 start ahead of tomorrow’s race.
Sebastian Vettel had a ragged but very quick lap, complete with sparks flying to get pole position and Australian native Mark Webber is 2nd.
Not far behind was Fernando Alonso, and they were comfortably ahead of the rest. World Champion, and 2009 race winner Jenson Button was 4th, well ahead of Lewis Hamilton who only managed 11th – the Briton still reeling from his arrest last night in downtown Melbourne for reckless driving.
Mercedes were 6th and 7th, with Rosberg out qualifying Michael Schumacher again. The former 7 time world champion complained after the race about traffic and being blocked, he forwarded his argument openly at Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso in parc ferme, the Spaniard insisting he did nothing wrong.
Barrichello, Kubica and Sutil round up the top 10.
The 6 new cars stuck to the bottom of the timesheets, with the Lotus’ looking significantly ahead of the Virgin’s who know they cannot finish tomorrow’s race due to their fuel tanks being so small. The HRT’s were at the bottom, with Senna and Chandhok clearly struggling with their cars.
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:24.774 1:24.096 1:23.919 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:25.286 1:24.276 1:24.035 3. Alonso Ferrari 1:25.082 1:24.335 1:24.111 4. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.897 1:24.531 1:24.675 5. Massa Ferrari 1:25.548 1:25.010 1:24.837 6. Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.788 1:24.788 1:24.884 7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:25.351 1:24.871 1:24.927 8. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:25.702 1:25.085 1:25.217 9. Kubica Renault 1:25.588 1:25.122 1:25.372 10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:25.504 1:25.046 1:26.036 11. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.046 1:25.184 12. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.061 1:25.638 13. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:26.170 1:25.743 14. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:26.089 1:25.747 15. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:25.866 1:25.748 16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:26.251 1:25.777 17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.095 1:26.089 18. Petrov Renault 1:26.471 19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:28.797 20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:29.111 21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:29.592 22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:30.185 23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:30.526 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:30.613
Australian GP 2010: Hamilton Fastest In Rain Hit Practice
Former World Champion Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the second practice ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver took advantage of a dry track late on in the session to get a time in the 1.25′s.
Many drivers took the opportunity to better their times from wet to dry except Ferrari, who stayed 3 seconds off the pace declining a dry run.
The new teams did not have so much luck as Timo Glock had more gearbox troubles, as did Karun Chandhok. Bruno Senna did not even make it onto the track with fuel pressure issues.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.801 13 2. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.076 + 0.275 16 3. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:26.248 + 0.447 22 4. Schumacher Mercedes 1:26.511 + 0.710 16 5. Petrov Renault 1:26.732 + 0.931 26 6. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.832 + 1.031 29 7. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:26.834 + 1.033 22 8. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:26.835 + 1.034 17 9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:26.904 + 1.103 25 10. Rosberg Mercedes 1:26.956 + 1.155 22 11. Kubica Renault 1:27.108 + 1.307 28 12. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.108 + 1.307 25 13. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.455 + 1.654 23 14. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:27.545 + 1.744 25 15. Alonso Ferrari 1:29.025 + 3.224 20 16. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:29.134 + 3.333 19 17. Massa Ferrari 1:29.591 + 3.790 21 18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:29.860 + 4.059 15 19. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:30.510 + 4.709 43 20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:30.695 + 4.894 17 21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:32.117 + 6.316 9 22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2 23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1 24. Senna HRT-Cosworth
Australian GP 2010: Kubica Fastest In FP1
Robert Kubica took advantage of a clear track in the early part of the first free practice session in Australia to set the fastest lap time. The Polish driver, who was impresive in his early years with BMW Sauber has taken the bull by the horns in attempting to return Renault to glory, and he looks like he is going the right way about it.
The yellow and black car, sporting more new sponsors, set a time that was 2 tenths of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes.
World Champion Jenson Button was 3rd, just ahead of Felipe Massa by hundredths of a second. First race winner Alonso was 6th.
Paul di Resta was 11th on his Friday test debut for Force India.
The new teams did ok once again, with the HRTs moving themselves off the bottom of the timesheets with Timo Glock being slowest for Virgin.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Kubica Renault 1:26.927 22 2. Rosberg Mercedes 1:27.126 + 0.199 18 3. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.482 + 0.555 22 4. Massa Ferrari 1:27.511 + 0.584 18 5. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:27.686 + 0.759 23 6. Alonso Ferrari 1:27.747 + 0.820 21 7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.793 + 0.866 22 8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.014 + 1.087 21 9. Petrov Renault 1:28.114 + 1.187 25 10. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:28.192 + 1.265 18 11. di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:28.537 + 1.610 25 12. Schumacher Mercedes 1:28.550 + 1.623 19 13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.572 + 1.645 21 14. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:28.683 + 1.756 22 15. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:29.465 + 2.538 13 16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:29.712 + 2.785 18 17. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:30.249 + 3.322 26 18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.588 + 4.661 5 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:31.652 + 4.725 13 20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:31.654 + 4.727 26 21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:32.831 + 5.904 25 22. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:33.401 + 6.474 24 23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:34.251 + 7.324 19 24. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:34.924 + 7.998 8
Button Considers V8 Supercars Future Following Promo Test
Jenson Button, the reigning F1 world champion has admitted he may consider racing in the Australian V8 Supercars series when he retires from Formula One.
The 2009 Champion declared his intentions following a promotional test of V8 machinery in Australia, as part of a Vodafone event where he swapped cars with the champion of the supercars series Jamie Whincup. Button drove the Holden touring car around Albert park and was surprised with its handling and pace.
“I was surprised how much grip the car had – you are in the braking zone for a lot longer which you hope would open up the possibility of overtaking,” said Button.
“So it is very exciting, it is very heavy, compared to what I am used to, but I enjoyed it all the same. If the possibility arose in the future [to race] it would be very exciting for me.”
Whincup was delighted after emerging from the cockpit of a 2008 McLaren.
“The acceleration and the braking – I’ve never felt anything like it,” he said. “Nothing like it at all. It is completely unbelieveable! I can’t really explain it.
“The car just does everything right. It was great knowing the track and having done a few miles in it in a racing car – but the grip [of the F1 car] was unbelievable.”
Former Williams Driver Zanardi Going For Paralympic Medal
Former Williams F1 Team driver Alex Zanardi, who lost both legs in a freak accident in 2001 in Indycars has said he will be trying for a gold medal in the 2012 Paralympic Games which are set to be held in London following victory in a race in Rome.
The former F1 and World Touring Car driver, who raced for Williams alongisde Ralf Schumacher in 1999 has stepped up his training for the hand cycling event following his retirement from touring cars at the end of last season and hit gold in the Rome Marathon on Sunday.
“Racing here has been very exciting, a lot more than when I used to wait in a car for the lights to start a motor race – maybe because it had been habit,” Zanardi told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“To find myself among many people cheering me and pushing me on is completely different – you feel the warmth and the pleasure of the support right on your skin, you live it moment by moment.”
“I train practically every day for at least 60km and I’ve even done a 120km run to verify my stamina. The end result obtained here in Rome is excellent – it could have been better, but the route isn’t easy and I faced some winds towards the end.
“I have an objective and I won’t deny it. I hope to go to London for the 2012 Paralympic Games and fight for the podium.”
Zanardi is a hero and inspiration to us all, I wish him the best of luck for 2012.
Renault Allowed To Make Engine Changes
Renault, who produce engines for their own F1 team and also for the Red Bull Racing team have been allowed by the FIA to make significant changes to their powerunit despite the engine development freeze.
Originally at the end of last season, Renault applied to the FIA to make power adjustments so they could equalize horse power with the other engines produced by Ferrari and Mercedes Benz. This was rejected, however the more recent proposal to make adjustments to reduce part costs and increase reliability have been met with a yes from the officials.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said: “I think the problem is if you don’t allow some development, then you freeze in an advantage for one team or a disadvantage for another.
“So there has to be a balancing of that, otherwise we will end up with Mercedes-powered cars winning all the races – which I think is not good for F1. And other manufacturers may choose to leave F1 off of the back of that.
“The engine isn’t supposed to be a key performance differentiator and therefore hopefully the ruling body will balance out somewhat the differences there at the moment.”
Renault team principal Eric Boullier said about the changes: “Like every manufacturer here, we have some allowance to fit our engine and have a better integration with the chassis.
“So, I think, out of the requests that were requested – some of them were quite tricky so the FIA was not positive, but I think most of them have been approved.”
McLaren Regain Mercedes Share Holding In Team
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has announced that McLaren Autmotive Holdings have purchased back a significant amount of the shares owned by Mercedes Benz in the McLaren F1 Team.
Prior to buying Brawn GP and turning it into a works Mercedes Benz outfit, the German car manufacturer bought up a significant portion of the team during their close partnership between 1997 and 2009, approximately 40% of the team was owned by them at the end of last year.
Ron Dennis, the former team principal owns 15% and is now in charge of their road car division, which launched the eagerly anticipated MP4-12C yesterday, a 200mph supercar designed to compete with the Ferrari 458 Italia and Aston Martin DBS.
Mansour Ojjeh, a Saudi Arabian businessman owns another 15% portion, and Mumtalakat, a Bahrain investor owns 30%.
“I think it is about 11 per cent that is still owned by Mercedes, but it’s not an important or significant number,” Whitmarsh was quoted as saying by Reuters.
McLaren and Mercedes on the divorce road
Montagny Moves To Superleague
Former Super Aguri and Toyota driver Franck Montagny has announced he will be racing in the Superleague Formula open wheel racing series in 2010.
The series uses powerful Formula One style cars, based on football teams and since its inception has seen its popularity significantly rise despite not having a permanent television deal. Many former F1 drivers have raced in the series including Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso) and Antonio Pizzonia (Jaguar).
Montagny, a Frenchman will be driving for the French Premier League champions Bordeaux alongside his continuing commitment to the Peugeot 24h Le Mans programme.
“I’m very happy and I can’t wait to race in this championship which has a great future,” Montagny said. “Superleague will give me the opportnity to meet again with a lot of old familiar faces from F1 and other categories.
“The dedication of the Barazi-Epsilon team, who helped me to do some great things in the past, as well as the support from Bordeaux, the French champion football team, makes this challenge even more exciting for me.”
Schumacher Boosts German TV F1 Viewing Figures
Michael Schumacher has been, unsurprisingly, the cause of increased viewing figures of F1 in his homeland of Germany.
The 7 time world champion sensationally made his F1 comeback last weekend in Bahrain, and while national F1 broadcaster RTL expected slightly higher viewing figures they were astonished by the actual statistics.
In 2009, 5.3 million Germans tuned in to watch the Australian Grand Prix, the first round of the season. Last weekend, some 10.5 million people, about 50 percent of the available market share, tuned in to watch Schumi make his return with Mercedes.
“We did expect higher viewing figures but we never dared to think that they would be that much higher,” commented RTL’s Manfred Loppe.
De La Rosa Becomes Certina Ambassador
Pedro De la Rosa has become an ambassador for the Swiss watch brand Certina as the company increases links with the Sauber team.
Sauber have been lacking in sponsors, and currently run soley white cars but Certina have decided to continue backing the team who are based in Hinwil.
The logo’s appear on the wing mirrors of the cars, and are likely to take more of a prominent placement on the overalls in coming races.
“I am really happy to have such a reliable and dynamic partner as Certina on my side for my comeback into racing and also to be able to wear their sporty and distinguished watches,” Barcelona’s de la Rosa commented.
“With his wealth of experience and his speed, Pedro is a safe bet in Formula 1,” added Certina President Adrian Bosshard. “He is also a great sportsman, which is the ideal complement to the Certina team. I am convinced that he will move the team forward with his great technical expertise.”
Ferrari To Work On Cooling Issues and B-Spec F10
Ferrari have confirmed that they will be working on new aerodynamic structures and cooling vents on their F10 car to combat some of the cooling issues it suffered in the first race of the season in Bahrain.
In the extreme temperatures both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were told over the pit to car radios that their engines were running at dangerously high temperatures. Ferrari say they need to combat this now, despite finishing 1st and 2nd in the Grand Prix giving them the maximum available constructors points.
“The temperature of the engine is the result of the aerodynamics of the car, so we have to work on that in order to make sure we don’t have any more of these kinds of issues for the next hot races,” Stefano Domenicali told ESPN.
Meanwhile rumours of a B-Spec Ferrari F10 continue to circulate. Giuseppe Azzollini has been drafted in to Maranello, a former CFD expert for the now defunct Toyota F1 team and he is working on producing a new intricate diffuser that was supposed to be fitted to the Toyota TF110. Ferrari are hoping this new take on the design will blow the competition away.
Lopez Hits Out At USF1 Team
Jose Maria Lopez, the unlucky Argentinian racer who was supposed to race with the now defunct USF1 team this season has hit out at the failings of the American based outfit.
In an interview, Lopez along with his manager tackled the team and tackled the FIA wanting to know why they were allowed to enter, and keep the entry despite their early failings.
Lopez’s manager says he was mis-sold information by the team, and is very unhappy.
“I find it hard to say that we did it wrong,” he told a news conference hosted by the Argentine Automobile Club. “I think we put too much trust in what people were telling us.
“As soon as I arrived in Charlotte in February, I realised that everything they were saying was not true. What happened to us was unthinkable: in 60 years of Formula 1 it never happened that a team signed up and didn’t make it. They hid things from us.”
Lopez is hoping to continue along the path to Formula One, possibly in a test role.
“My idea is to go on, not lay my head down,” he said. “Everybody knows what happened. We are going to go on, even though as of today we have no firm project. Of course it’s not the same anymore. There have been many falls and I don’t know how long I can take it, or my family.
“It [testing] would be the easiest thing because racing in F1 is almost impossible this year. At some point I will be making the decisions.”
Windsor has questions to answer
Sauber Considering Name Change
Peter Sauber has revealed that his team are considering dropping the BMW part of their name following the German car manufacturer’s decision to pull out of the sport and sell the team back to him at the end of last season.
It was a surprise to many that eter Sauber kept the BMW part of the team name, especially considering that he is getting engines supplied by Ferrari but he has revealed he was hoping for a major sponsor to add to the team name.
“We will submit an application for a chassis name change, but the timing has yet to be decided,” he said when asked by Autosport Magazine about the naming situation.
“It will happen some time this season.”
He said that sponsors had been difficult to come by, and that he was disappointed his cars remained soley white.
“Today we are looking for sponsors for the 2011 season. I hope we will find some sponsors for this season.”
“If we find a title sponsor for 2011 in the middle of the year then maybe we can have them for this season too,” he added.
Exclusive: How Shell Prepared Themselves And Ferrari For A Season Without Refuelling
For the first time since 1993 refuelling has been banned in Formula One. Gone are the days of pitstops lasting 10 seconds or more, the chance of fires and the intricacies of fuel stop strategies and in their place have come 3 second pit stops as the tyre men throw on slick tyres at a lightening rate.
While those tyre men have had to work harder and train ever more with the tyres, what about the companies behind the fuel rigs? They have had to work even harder to ensure their fuel optimises everything from power, efficiency and weight.
Thanks to Shell, The F1Fanatics Blog can bring you an exclusive look at some of the challenges surrounding the fuel company who provide their V-Power mixture to the Ferrari F1 Team.
Lisa Lilley, who is the top manager for Shell’s racing fuels department and works directly with the Ferrari F1 Team told us “The 2010 refuelling ban is by far the biggest challenge we have seen in fuel development in 15 years, but it is also a really positive one for Shell. Over the last year we have put a lot of work into the formulation of the Shell V-Power race fuel for the new season, and our main objective has been to optimise the power and performance benefit of the Shell V-Power race fuel for Ferrari.”
Lisa Lilley of Shell Race Fuels
On top of just creating that faster fuel, efficiency is necessary so that the cars can complete the race as quickly as possible, yet the fuel needs to last them. While Bahrain’s Grand Prix yesterday was only 49 laps, the Monaco Grand Prix is 78. The fuel needs to work across the range of circuits to its top performance, and Shell have focussed on efficiency. Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader explains, “Engines, performance-wise, are tuned to run a rich, heavy type of fuel but you can then run them on a slightly leaner formulation, which will give you a small drop in performance but it will also give you better fuel efficiency. It’s getting that balance right.”
The more efficient the fuel can be, means that the fuel tanks can be smaller and can lead to the car being lighter and thus faster in race trim. Ferrari are well known for having one of the fastest engines in the pit lane, and when compared to the Renault equivalent in their rivals Red Bull Racing car the Ferrari engine guzzles its fuel much faster so this has been an added challenge for the fuel scientists. Mike Evans continues “[We have been] working hard for the last nine months leading up to the 2010 season, given the latest FIA rule changes.”
The heat of the engine on the fuel has been another concern for the manufacturers, with the engines and fuel tanks in a much more compact structure than they were back in the early 1990’s, there is a good chance of the engine heat affecting the fuel. This could occur even more frequently at races in locations such as Bahrain where the air temperature is usually around 36oC. ,Lisa Lilley continued her explanation “Without this cooling effect, and in addition to having the larger fuel tank sitting next to very hot engines, the fuel itself will be getting hotter while it is in the car this year.”
Lilley continued, “At Shell, our fuel experts have been working since last year to meet these challenges, and provide Ferrari’s Formula One team with a custom-made Shell V-Power race fuel that can provide optimum performance even at high temperatures.”
The drivers carried out extensive winter testing of various components including fuels
So it is very evident that Shell, like other fuel manufacturers have been working very hard. But what is the relationship between Ferrari, the most successful F1 team of all time and the Dutch fuel manufacturer? Stefano Domenicali was very happy with the links between the two companies “The technical partnership we share with Shell is key to our understanding of fuel development. Shell has unrivalled expertise and knowledge in fuel technology, and our close-working relationship means we can constantly push the fuel to its boundaries to achieve both power and performance.
Domenicali continued “The fuel is a crucial element that has always been very important to Ferrari and the refuelling ban in 2010 means the partnership will be absolutely fundamental this season.”
The drivers too seem very happy with the work Shell have done, newcomer Fernando Alonso told us “I think we are ready. We have some innovative new products from Shell, that we have spent a lot of the winter testing and I think we have found the right compromise. We have to be very optimistic for the season ahead”
Team mate Felipe Massa, who has been with Ferrari for many seasons alongside both Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen added “We are using V-Power from Shell, which is a great fuel anyway and we’re trying to make it even faster and even more reliable, because reliability is really really important now.”
So, after 10 constructors championships and 12 drivers titles with the Italian giants, we would be fairly confident that Shell know what they are doing with the fuel this season, and their expertise tied in with one of the best teams, Ferrari, and two of the best drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa could provide and unstoppable force in F1.
Ferrari are pinning their hopes on two time world champion Fernando Alonso to deliver great results
Gascoyne Really Proud Of Lotus Team
Mike Gascoyne, the technical chief at Lotus has said he is very proud of the new team following their first race in Bahrain yesterday.
The man who helped bring the Lotus name back to F1 said that his team had done exactly what it said it would, bring a near competitive car, with good drivers and that would be reliable. Lotus were the only team who had both cars finish out of the new teams, indeed Hispania and Virgin had neither car finish.
While Jarno Trulli was suffering with technical issues, Heikki Kovalainen had no such problems and dived in to overtaking manouevres only being lapped once.
“As we said, it does what it says on the tin,” he told Autosport this morning.
“We said we would be a professional team, we would turn up, we would be ready and we would be reliable. Then we could work on the performance.
“I think actually in the race, the performance of our quickest lap was not too bad. A 2m02, while a lot of guys didn’t get below two minutes. Our pace wasn’t bad and we felt from all the running we had done actually that single lap was our problem, and we were better over longer runs. It was just good to get to the flag.”
Domenicali: Ferrari Needed An Early Victory
Stefano Domenicali has said he is very happy with the early victory Ferrari have got in 2010, after dominating the Bahrain Grand Prix with a 1-2 finish.
The team principal of Ferrari Domenicali, said that after all the hard work the team had put in to get the F10 car working well, and following a difficult 2009 season it was a great remedy to any underlying doubts fans may have about the car.
“Well, for sure this race is very important for the team,” said Domenicali. “After a difficult season like last year, and after a very difficult decision that we had to take last year, everyone was ready with the gun to fire. But that is part of the game.
“This is the reason why I have to take certain responsibility. It is good because it shows that the decision was right. I have to thank all the people at home who worked very hard, they were staying together, because it is easy when you have a very bad season – everyone says you have bad people and it was better in a different period. But that is life. We know that. So the only way to react is to come back with results.”
Red Bull Racing looked very good in this race, with Sebastian Vettel leading the field until reliability problems with the Red Bull lowered him to 4th place late on. However Domenicali is just happy the car looks competitive.
“What is important to see is that the car we have seen this weekend is a good base to look ahead for the future,” he said. “The season is very, very long and we have to stay with our feet on the ground because I am expecting all the others to be very aggressive and very competitive.
“But we have seen a good car in both qualifying and racing conditions, and it proves that the work that has to be done is a lot still. But we are starting from a good pace.”
Bahrain GP 2010: Alonso Wins On Ferrari Debut With Impressive 1-2 For Scuderia
Fernando Alonso got his Ferrari career off to the perfect start with victory in the first round of the 2010 season in Bahrain.
The Spanish driver was followed across the line by team mate Felipe Massa, making it Ferrari’s first 1-2 finish in some time. The joy was evident on the faces of the mechanics post-race.
Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 world champion was 3rd.
Race Review
The anticipation pre-race was unbearable, following the drivers parade we discovered Ferrari replaced both engines and that the Hispania drivers would start in the pits.
The start of the race was fast and furious as expected, with Fernando Alonso managing to squeeze past Felipe Massa as the Ferrari boys snaked through the first few corners behind Sebastian Vettel – who would go on to pull away into a phenomenal lead.
Further back, Mark Webber’s car blew out lots of smoke with excess oil burn off, blinding Robert Kubica’s path and forcing him and Adrian Sutil to spin off. In the carnage, Michael Schumacher made the most of it and worked up into 6th, also making a good effort was Vitaly Petrov who ended up on the cusp of the top 10.
On the second lap, Hispania’s Karun Chandhok bowed out of his debut after crashing. Not the start he hoped for. A matter of laps later, Nico Hulkenberg another rookie spun off, just managing to save his Williams from the gravel trap. During this action, Lucas di Grassi pulled off and retired with hydraulic failure – something that would stop a lot of cars today.
The laps counted down, without much action until Robert Kubica pitted for harder compound tyres and lit up the track. The leaders soon pitted as Kubica’s times tumbled, this first and only pitstop for the majority of the field. The stop allowed Jenson Button, the current World Champion to get past Australian Mark Webber who had been struggling to keep a good pace following that oil blow off on the first corner of the race.
Kamui Kobayashi retired around this time with a hydraulic issue, the same issue would stop his team mate Pedro de La Rosa on lap 30 – the pair hadn’t had a brilliant weekend although De la Rosa had hooked up good pace in race trim. On lap 14, Vitaly Petrov retired in his pitbox with front wishbone failure – how it got broken is still a mystery.
The pit stops were quick, with the top 3 all being under 4.5 seconds.
From there on in it was relatively trouble free with only two more retirements, of Bruno Senna whose Cosworth engine sounded rather worse for wear, and just before Timo Glock who retired we believe due to a hydraulic failure.
All was going well for Vettel, despite Fernando Alonso attempting to gain on him after the Ferrari drivers were told to slow down as their engines were overheating in the dirty air. However, Vettel’s exhaust cracked and the Red Bull driver lost all power, Alonso caught him like his car was on fire and powered on passed – the clean air aiding the Ferrari’s cause.
This clean air allowed Alonso to put in a series of amazing hot laps, he is definitely the one to watch for these first few fly-away races.
Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton managed to get passed the ailing Vettel but he did hold off the Mercedes’ of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher who were making large gains on his Red Bull towards the end.
Button and Webber followed Schumacher over the line, and it was Tonio Liuzzi in 9th who had a quiet but consistent race. Rubens Barrichello held on to 10th to take advantage of the final new point scoring position.
Kubica and Sutil recovered to 11th and 12th respectively following their earlier spins, ahead of Alguersuari and Hulkenberg.
Heikki Kovalainen had a good consistent race for Lotus, overtaking and without technical problems. He finished ahead of Buemi who retired on the final lap, and Jarno Trulli who struggled to the line with a mechnical issue and also seemingly a seat fitting issue – the Italian was holding his back in pain after getting out of the car on the final lap.
While Alonso will take the glory, and will become the Ferrari fans new hero it is worth mentioning Felipe Massa’s performance finishing 2nd in his first race back following that terrible accident in Hungary last season.
Roll on Australia!
Race Results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1.39.20.396 |
| 2 | F. Massa | Ferrari | +16.099 |
| 3 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +23.182 |
| 4 | S. Vettel | Red Bull Racing | +38.713 |
| 5 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +40.263 |
| 6 | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | +44.180 |
| 7 | J. Button | McLaren | +45.260 |
| 8 | M. Webber | Red Bull Racing | +46.308 |
| 9 | V. Liuzzi | Force India | +53.089 |
| 10 | R. Barrichello | Williams | +1.02.400 |
| 11 | R. Kubica | Renault | +1.09.093 |
| 12 | A. Sutil | Force India | +1.22.958 |
| 13 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | +1.32.656 |
| 14 | N. Hulkenberg | Williams | + 1 lap |
| 15 | H. Kovalainen | Lotus | + 1 lap |
| 16 | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | + 3 laps |
| 17 | J. Trulli | Lotus | + 3 laps |
Retirements:
| Driver | Team | Lap | Reason |
| P. De la Rosa | Sauber | 30 | Hydraulic |
| B. Senna | Hispania | 18 | Engine |
| T. Glock | Virgin | 17 | Hydraulic |
| V. Petrov | Renault | 14 | Suspension |
| K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 12 | Hydraulic |
| L. di Grassi | Virgin | 3 | Hydraulic |
| K. Chandhok | Hispania | 2 | Accident |
Fastest Lap: F. Alonso 1.58.287
Post Race Interviews
F. Alonso – Ferrari (1st): “A very special day for me. Coming back the top of the podium is always special but even more special with Ferrari. We have history behind the team and all the expectations a driver has when he drives for Ferrari. There is no better way to start the relationship. This is the best team in the world, we worked hard all winter, the guys did a very good job in winter testing. We have done nothing so far – we only won the first race but to be first and second is the result that the guys in Maranello deserve because they have been working day and night to give us this fantastic car. This first victory is dedicated to all the people in Italy, the mechanics here and president di Montezemolo. This result is very, very positive.”
F. Massa – Ferrari (2nd): ”First of all I think it is fantastic to be here, so thanks a lot that everything is great. Being here with a competitive car and going through the whole race with good pace, so thanks to God I am fine and thanks to everybody who was supporting me in a difficult time. The race was really good and fantastic for us. For sure I didn’t have a good start, I lost an important position to Fernando at the first corner. After that the race was perfect for me on the soft and with the hard.”
L. Hamilton – McLaren (3rd): “I had quite a good race, unfortunately I lost a bit of ground, locked up into Turn 4 and went wide, got in a bad position and Rosberg got past me. I was then much faster but it’s difficult to follow here and look after the tyres. If I was ahead of him maybe I would have been able to follow the train these guys [the Ferraris] were creating. It is a strong result for me and the team,” he said. “It was more than we expected. We need to continue to push to keep up with these guys.”
S. Vettel – Red Bull Racing (4th): “All in all it was a positive except the failure this weekend. Under any conditions from Saturday morning onwards we were the quickest. I think we had very good control of the race, we had a very good strategy, I knew how my tyres were. We had quite good control of the tyres and the brakes, everything running smoothly. I think it was 15-20 laps to the end I just lost power. I don’t know what it was but I think something mechanical broke. Luckily we could continue but we should have won really.”
M. Schumacher – Mercedes Benz (6th): “It’s the start and then after it is just sort of go your pace and not do mistakes. Overtaking is basically impossible, other than if somebody makes a mistake – Lewis had a little one so Nico was able to pass him, but got back past at the pitstop. That’s about it. That’s the action we are going to have with unfortunately this kind of environment of race strategy. But, anyway, it was good fun. Especially the beginning and now we are going to work forward in order to catch up what is in front of us.”
Robert Kubica – Renault (11th): “All our hard work this weekend was undone by the incident on the first lap. I think Sutil just didn’t lift off because he couldn’t see anything and he hit me. I spun during the incident and that cooked the rear tyres: they were overheating from that point onwards and I eventually stopped very early on lap 12. I completed the rest of the race on hard tyres, and that was a big challenge: I just set myself the goal of finishing in the points, but we didn’t quite make it. Without the incident on lap one, I think we would have had a very strong points finish because we showed the pace to fight well. Overall, it was a positive weekend for us”
Heikki Kovalainen – Lotus (15th): “It was a good race for our team. To get both cars to the finish is a great achievement. My car didn’t have a single problem, I know Jarno did and managed to nurse his car to the end, but the primary goal was to get both cars to the end and we achieved that. So far the team has reached every goal we set ourselves, so that is fantastic.”
P. De la Rosa – Sauber (Ret): “I actually had a good start, but then lost positions when I had to go off the track to avoid colliding with other cars. On the grass I lost acceleration and some cars were able to pass, so when I arrived at turn four I had lost several positions. Then I felt we had a car that was good enough to fight for points, and there still was a chance to achieve this when I was called into the pits on lap 29 because of an hydraulic problem.”
Bruno Senna – Hispania HRT (Ret): “It was certainly a relief to have been in the race for so many laps. Everything was going well. I felt I had a little too much understeer. I had a good base set-up now after these laps and my engineers will have a better starting point to work from for next race. There was a vibration from the back of the car a lap earlier and then the car suddenly stopped. We’ll have to investigate what happened. But I am very happy for the whole team for their incredible hard work to ensure we are in a position to be racing again in Melbourne.”
Lucas di Grassi – Virgin Racing (Ret): “I got a great start and the car was feeling pretty good. I think we could have had a good race with the car that we had but then just a few laps into the race I had to pull over in turn 9 and my race was over before it had really begun. There’s no point being downhearted. We’ll be back in Melbourne with some new developments and a fix for the problems we experienced here. It’s race one of 19 and there’s a long way to go yet. I would like to thank the team for an incredible job here and over the past few months. It’s been a huge effort and I hope for a better result for the whole team in Australia in two weeks’ time.”
Bahrain GP 2010: Vettel Takes Pole On Scintillating Saturday In Bahrain
Sebastian Vettel did just enough with an excellent flying lap in Bahrain to take pole position for tomorrow’s first Grand Prix of 2010.
The German racer started where he left off for Red Bull Racing after a quality session where Red Bull really showed their pace after a poor Friday practice.
“In winter testing no one really knew where he was. It was clear there were four teams were pretty strong, but close to each other.” Vettel said post qualifying,
“To be honest yesterday was a tough day for us, we had not as much running as we hoped for. Another long night, especially mechanics with not much sleep and a lot of long faces, but they were keen this morning to keep pushing.
“I knew we had a great car, but obviously first of all we had to get it together.”
Felipe Massa managed to grab 2nd ahead of Fernando Alonso who will have to settle for third despite having a greater pace over the first two sessions. The Spaniard was satisfied with Ferrari’s pace.
“I am very happy obviously,” said Alonso. “At is the first race, there are many things to answer in the first race with a long winter with a big difference in fuel loads, in all the tests and yesterday in practice, you never know what the competitors are running.
“We were excited about the first qualifying of the season, so now to have both drivers in the top three means we have a very competitive car. We thought so, but you need to confirm and it has been great, a great day and I think it is some kind of nice feeling to realise that we are in the fight because you never know until qualifying.”
Lewis Hamilton managed 4th place after a poor first lap in Q3, but was significantly faster than Jenson Button his new team mate who had to settle for 8th, behind Rosberg, Webber and Michael Schumacher who didn’t make any big surprises on his race comeback with Mercedes Benz.
It was Kubica and Sutil who rounded out the top 10, the latter along with his team mate Tonio Liuzzi (12th) who made the big surprises with the Force India showing excellent pace – definitely one to watch for the season.
Rubens Barrichello in 11th will get to select his tyre compound andget a set of fresh rubber ahead of the race, giving him a potential advantage at the start of tomorrow’s GP over the top 10. Team mate Nico Hulkenberg looked to have the measure over Rubens in practice but the old master beat the young German who will start in 13th tomorrw.
The Sauber’s didn’t continue their successful test pace, down in 13th and 16th respectively, jostling with the Toro Rosso’s.
The new teams didn’t make ground but had a fairly successful day considering that it was their first ever qualifying sessions. Virgin took first blood over Lotus, but the green and yellow Cosworth powered machines looked to be more consistent than Virgin’s racers. Hispania got both cars out, and despite only a handful of laps they look ok for tomorrow – Karun Chandhok finally getting behind the wheel of an F1 car competitively.
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:55.029 1:53.883 1:54.101 2. Massa Ferrari 1:55.313 1:54.331 1:54.242 3. Alonso Ferrari 1:54.612 1:54.172 1:54.608 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.341 1:54.707 1:55.217 5. Rosberg Mercedes 1:55.463 1:54.682 1:55.241 6. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:55.298 1:54.318 1:55.284 7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:55.593 1:55.105 1:55.524 8. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.715 1:55.168 1:55.672 9. Kubica Renault 1:55.511 1:54.963 1:55.885 10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:55.213 1:54.996 1:56.309 11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:55.969 1:55.330 12. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:55.628 1:55.653 13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:56.375 1:55.857 14. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.428 1:56.237 15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:56.189 1:56.265 16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.541 1:56.270 17. Petrov Renault 1:56.167 1:56.619 18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:57.071 19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:59.728 20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:59.852 21. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 2:00.313 22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2:00.587 23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 2:03.240 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 2:04.904
Bahrain GP 2010: Mercedes Power Dominates FP2
Mercedes Benz power units dominated the second practice in Bahrain with Nico Rosberg going fastest, ahead of Schumacher in 3rd and the two McLaren’s of Hamilton and Button.
Rosberg set some hot lap times early in the session, before later joining the rest of the field on longer stints.
Red Bull’s Vettel managed 5th, but so far the Austrian energy drink teams cars (including Toro Rosso) have struggled significantly, suggesting that perhaps some of the other teams that have invested significant time in changing their cars heavily from 2009, as opposed to adapting it for 2010, have won the early technical battle. It is too early to make predicitons though.
Ferrari found themselves further down the times in 7th and 9th, but they were doing longer runs as opposed to hot laps like this morning.
Nico Hulkenberg proved himself and put the Williams into 6th, team mate Barrichello was 14th. the Sauber’s too had a good day overall with their cars scouting around the top 10.
The new teams continued their learning curve down at the bottom of the timesheets, Bruno Senna got testing under way properly of the new HRT with 9 laps and ended 6.5 seconds off the pace. Karun Chandhok will join Formula One tomorrow having being granted his Superlicence last night.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Rosberg Mercedes 1:55.409 23 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.854 + 0.445 22 3. Schumacher Mercedes 1:55.903 + 0.494 23 4. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:56.076 + 0.667 28 5. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:56.459 + 1.050 18 6. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:56.501 + 1.092 26 7. Massa Ferrari 1:56.555 + 1.146 30 8. Petrov Renault 1:56.750 + 1.341 26 9. Alonso Ferrari 1:57.140 + 1.731 25 10. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:57.255 + 1.846 24 11. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:57.352 + 1.943 27 12. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:57.361 + 1.952 29 13. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:57.452 + 2.043 21 14. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:57.833 + 2.424 29 15. Kubica Renault 1:58.155 + 2.746 29 16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:59.799 + 4.390 31 17. Webber Red Bull-Renault 2:00.444 + 5.035 12 18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 2:00.873 + 5.464 23 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 2:00.990 + 5.581 14 20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2:02.037 + 6.628 3 21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2:02.188 + 6.779 21 22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 2:06.968 + 11.559 17 23. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth
Bahrain GP 2010: Sutil Fastest In First Practice
The first blows of the 2010 season went to Adrian Sutil who slotted his Force India onto the top of the timesheets following a fast and furious start to the new season.
The German driver was narrowly ahead of Fernando Alonso who put in an excellent morning test with the Ferrari. His team mate was 4th, with Robert Kubica splitting the Ferrari duo.
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton engaged the first round of the Battle of Britain and finished 5th and 6th, with hundredths of a second to compare between them.
Tonio Liuzzi put in a good performance, and was faster than racing returnee Michael Schumacher who found himself down in 10th place.
The new teams got some running, with Lotus’ Jarno Trulli kicking off the test session and HRT’s Bruno Senna getting out for some shakedown laps 70 minutes in. The new teams filled the bottom 6 places in the timesheets.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:56.583 18 2. Alonso Ferrari 1:56.766 + 0.183 18 3. Kubica Renault 1:57.041 + 0.458 19 4. Massa Ferrari 1:57.055 + 0.472 19 5. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:57.068 + 0.485 19 6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:57.163 + 0.580 19 7. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:57.194 + 0.611 19 8. Rosberg Mercedes 1:57.199 + 0.616 15 9. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:57.255 + 0.672 17 10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:57.662 + 1.079 16 11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:57.722 + 1.139 18 12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:57.894 + 1.311 20 13. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:57.943 + 1.360 17 14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:58.399 + 1.816 13 15. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:58.782 + 2.199 11 16. Petrov Renault 1:58.880 + 2.297 13 17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 2:00.250 + 3.667 18 18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2:01.388 + 4.805 11 19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2:03.680 + 7.097 8 20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 2:03.848 + 7.265 21 21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 2:03.970 + 7.387 15 22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2 23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 3 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth
2010 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Preview
Well, here we are the start of another season and it will be the 4th full season covered on this blog. Amazing. The start of a new season is always very exciting with fans, drivers and teams alike all feeling like children on the night before chirstmas, the excitement and anticiapation hard to cope with. Few aerodynamic regulation changes, and just a handful of rule changes mean that there is a slight sense of continuity into this season, just to remind you the poitns now score down to 10th and first place scores 25. Also to remind you that in-race refuelling is banned.
Thankfully, the rules have stayed fairly similar as the main talking points of this off-season have been the drivers and these pesky new teams. Michael Schumacher is the headline grabber, coming back to race but this time with Mercedes. Fernando Alonso jumped ship to Ferrari (at last!), Jenson Button is over at McLaren for the titanic battle of Britain against Lewis Hamilton and the Senna name returns as the late great Ayrton’s nephew, Bruno, joins the sport.
The new teams are almost all here, with the exception of USF1 – who failed quite spectacularly it has to be said – and Hispania who only launched the car last week. Stefan GP, the Serbian team will not be racing as they weretold to pack up and go home by the FIA.
Right, now to the race preview.
We’re starting the season in Bahrain, the Arabian circuit hosted the first race once before in 2006 while Melbourne hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games and couldn’t cope with the Grand Prix at the same time. The track has had a couple of changes, which haven’t been well recieved (see Mark Webber’s comments below).
Pre-Race Driver Comments
Bruno Senna (Bra)- HRT: “I am enjoying it already! I have had a pretty tough year so far, starting from the end of 2008 all the way to this year, where things have got there only to be taken away. I was very low on expectation that the team was going to happen because we had spent so much time trying to be sold, trying to be bailed and this and that.”
Nico Rosberg (Deu) – Mercedes: “I’m going into the season very optimistically. I feel very, very comfortable in the car, very confident. But at the same time I know it’s going to be as difficult as ever, because obviously I have a rather strong team-mate. So we’ll have to wait and see.”
Karun Chandhok (Ind) – HRT: ”It is going to be extremely tough. We haven’t even done a shakedown – so it’s no secret it is going to be a bloody tough weekend. I think if you look on the plus side, at least Dallara are a respected [racing] car manufacturer and they have built cars before, so we should be in a slightly better position than if it was with someone else doing it independently.”
Felipe Massa (Bra) – Ferrari: “I am very happy and very motivated that we can start the championship in a better way not just than last year, which was not a very good year, but also than the other championships. My expectation [for this weekend] is definitely to score many points. Even if maybe we don’t know if it will be possible to win, it will be important to start the championship in the right direction. That’s our expectation and that’s what we’re looking for.”
Mark Webber (Aus) – Red Bull: [Speaking about the circuit changes] “Nothing but tight corners. Accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake …”
Timo Glock (Deu) – Virgin: “Here we are, heading into our first race, and I’m very excited. We’re as ready as we can be; we’re a small team but we have the resources and people to keep building something special together and that is what we must all keep in mind as we progress. Our objective remains to be the best of the new teams and that particular race starts this weekend.”
Jenson Button (Gbr) – McLaren: “I’m actually really looking forward to the start of the season. It will be a thrill and an honour to sit on the grid with the number 1 on my car – it’ll actually be the first time in my car racing career that that’s ever happened – but I won’t be spending too much time thinking about the drivers who want to take it away from me.”
