From an unexpected pole position to a superb victory, Sebastian Vettel has become the youngest ever F1 race winner by taking his maiden win in Italy.
The race got underway with a safety car start due to the weather conditions, but it was only a couple of laps before racing began proper. Vettel pulled out an early lead, whilst team mate Bourdais was a lap down having stalled on the grid.
The first few laps were amazingly clean, with very few incidents. In fact, the race itself only saw one retiree in the form of Fisichella. He collided with Coulthard during an overtaking manouvre that dislodged his front wing. The wing went under the car and the Force India headed straight into the tyres.
Hamilton one-stopped his way up the field, but made another bad tyre decision by taking on extreme wets when the rest of the field had inters. He had to pit an extra time, but finished a respectable 7th, just behind Massa. Raikkonen woke up towards the end of the race and finished 9th.
Congratulations to Vettel, and the other podium finishers Kovalainen and Kubica. I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
It looked as though we might have had a strange couple of front rows as qualifying kicked off in Valencia today. Kubica led Free Practice 3 in the morning, adding to the list of drivers who are showing well around this new circuit. In qualifying, Vettel led two of the three sessions, and both Toro Rosso cars got into the final qualifying shoot out.
Unfortunately we lost both Honda and both Force India drivers plus Coulthard in the first session, and with the Toro Rosso’s scraping through to Q3 we also saw some big names knocked out in the second. Alonso finished the day in 12th.
However, it was business as usual for the Ferrari and McLaren boys. Hamilton posted a provisional pole, only to be knocked down by Massa. Kubica slipped into third and Raikkonen finished up fourth.
The pole position has actually been moved this morning from it’s orginal position on the left hand side of the grid to the right, after Charlie Whiting observed the practice sessions and decided that was the more favourable line to take.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
You’re listening to F1 Minute for the 8th August 2008.
Two interesting takes on the future of F1 today, from Mike Gascoyne of Force India, and David Coulthard.
First up, Gascoyne has been talking about ways to make the sport cheaper as per Max Mosley’s instructions, and to help the independent teams stay in business. Here are his main ideas: “I think we need regulations like reducing testing, we shouldn’t be testing during the season, plus longer-life engines. That will reduce costs, and I don’t think anyone can argue that shouldn’t be the way we go.”
In his ITV-F1 column, Coulthard has said he thinks refuelling should be banned in races as it has made strategies predictable and the racing dull. Running a full race fuel load has been tried in the past, and Coulthard thinks that the unpredictable nature of the tyres under such a system would bring a spark of life back into Formula 1. Let me know what you think about both suggestions at F1Minute.com.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
As the weekends are scarce for important, headline grabbing news, I thought it would be good to look at two more reactions to the KERS problems we’ve seen recently.
BMW and Red Bull have both had the most public issues with the technology, but Heidfeld believes that it will all be okay in time. “KERS is very new. I think we are one of the first to use it on track. Everyone knows what happened and everybody tried everything in advance to be safe, but when you introduce new technologies these things can happen. I am quite confident for the future that it can be made safe.”
Meanwhile, Coulthard has said in his latest column for the ITV-F1 site that there was always bound to be teething problems. “I know there are working groups looking at how to manage and overcome these issues, so hopefully a satisfactory solution will be found, but the timescale is certainly pretty tight to be ready for the start of next season.” He also said that when he consults for Red Bull next year, he’ll be wearing a full rubber body suit just to be on the safe side.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Heikki Kovalainen put McLaren on top in Jerez for the final day, leading Bourdais in the Toro Rosso, and David Coulthard in the Red Bull. McLaren were running brand new nose wings, similar to Honda, although more elegant, but notably, Kovalainen’s fastest time was set without them. There were three red flags during the day, one from Heidfeld, and two from Kobayashi in the Toyota. He started the day by running into the gravel, and ended it by stopping out on track.
Elsewhere, Max Mosley has launched a new lawsuit against the News of the World. After successfully winning his case for invasion of privacy, he is now suing them for libel, after saying he was lying about the Nazi element of what went on. He is also suing German newspaper Bild. Quite a few top names have come out and said that whilst Mosley has successfully won his court case, he should now step down. They include Jackie Stewart, Eddie Jordan, Paul Stoddart and Stirling Moss.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Another one of those stories that falls into the most unsurprising news ever category, is today’s announcement by Red Bull that they havesigned Toro Rosso star Sebastian Vettel for next year. As predicted by pretty much everyone, Vettel will replace the retiring Coulthard and team up with Mark Webber for the 2009 season. Team boss Christian Horner says he knew Vettel was the one: “As he was already part of the Red Bull family, choosing Sebastian as Mark Webber’s team-mate was not a difficult decision.”
And the man himself, Vettel, is obviously happy with the announcement: “I am very proud to be joining Red Bull Racing and it’s always good to have an early decision on what you are doing next year. As a driver your target is always to be with the most competitive team possible and, over the past couple of years, Red Bull Racing has proved it has great potential…”
Finally, this puts pay to the rumours that Alonso will be joining the team. Horner says the timing just wasn’t right for that to happen, whilst Alonso says that doesn’t mean he will have to remain at Renault.
That’s all for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.
Today seems to be the day for looking to the future. Bridgestone have said that next year, they may try widening the gap between the two tyre compounds to try and spice up the racing action a little bit. The teams have apparently been complaining that the tyre choices are too similar and therefore make very little difference. However, Bridgestone are looking at this very carefully, because they’ve said that if they make the compounds too removed from each other, there will be one clear favourite, everyone will follow the same pit stop strategy and the whole process will have been a waste of time.
Elsewhere, Vettel has said he would rather be in a competitive car than be paid loads to stay in mediocre machinery. He said: “As long as I have enough to eat and go out to a restaurant some nights for me the most important thing is the racing.” Vettel remains the favourite for the Red Bull seat, but Coulthard has hedged his bets on who will replace him, saying he thinks Alonso would fit into the team just as well as Vettel would.
That’s all for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.
Hamilton has topped the timesheets for the second consecutive day at testing in Hockenheim. Rosberg was second for Williams, and Raikkonen third in the Ferrari. There were three red flags throughout the day, caused by Sutil, Barrichello and Alonso. The weather was slightly improved from yesterday, although there was a shower in the morning.
During the session, a photographer crossed the track, without an official tabbard on, to take pictures from an out of bounds area. The FIA recalled all the photographers and their tabbards and banned them from taking pictures until they had all sat through a briefing. They were then given new tabbards and allowed back to their posts, although the original photographer is under investigation.
Finally today, Coulthard has said that he has no plans to race in any other series after he retires from Formula 1 at the end of the season. He’s not ruling it out but says his thoughts remain within the F1 world for now.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
This is F1 Minute for the 8th July 2008. Please excuse my voice, I picked up some lovely germs from Silverstone.
Testing got underway in Hockenheim today, in preparation for the German Grand Prix. Rain caused plenty of chaos throughout with showers on and off. McLaren were running a brand new addition to their car in the shape of the shark fin engine cover used by many of the other teams. It seemed to help them, with Hamilton posting the fastest time of the day. Raikkonen was second and Rosberg third. Wurz was behind the only red flag, when his Honda spun off in the wet.
Elsewhere, David Coulthard has said that he’d like to see Vettel take his place at Red Bull when he retires at the end of the season. Over on F1.com, he said: “For me Sebastian Vettel has everything that a future winner in Formula 1 needs. Also his maturity and approach shows me that he is the best man for the job.”
Finally, Super Aguri are putting their assets up for sale at an online auction later this month, and the Mosley court case continues with several of the women involved backing up the presidents claims that there was no Nazi element to proceedings.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Today is the 6th July 2008, and you’re listening to F1 Minute.
It’s always hard to get a full picture of what’s happening in a race from the side of the track, but I will do my best for you, and give you a rundown of what happened at Silverstone today.
Hamilton had an amazing start, overtaking a couple of cars to sit behind team mate Heikki who was in the lead. It was only a matter of laps though, before the spirit of the crowd cheered Lewis on to overtake. From then on, despite a few rain showers, and some close calls with spinning cars, Hamilton was cool, calm and collected and took a win at his home Grand Prix.
The spins I was talking about? That would be Webber, Nakajima, Massa, Coulthard, Vettel, Massa again, Sutil, Button, Kubica, Piquet, and probably Massa once more. Essentially, it was a wet race and only those who kept clear heads and more importantly, their cars on track, were successful. The final podium was Hamilton, Heidfeld and Barrichello. The championship now has three leaders all on 48 points, although Hamilton is actually in first place.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.