Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2011 – No You Hang Up!

Dear readers, firstly apologies for my recent absence. I became an Auntie a few weeks ago to the most perfect little chap named Iain therefore my world has been awash with baby-chat! Now though, I’m back….

Todays Grand Prix had one main event, which was Vettel sliding out of the race with a puncture. Of course my reaction to this was dignified and sympathetic… however I display dignity and sympathy by jumping up and down and busting out my ‘victory dance’… Just so you know. Hamilton of course took the race, a fact that many people are taking to mean Hamilton is better than Vettel though I will remain as unbiased as I can and say for the record that considering the fact Seb was already pulling away slightly when he came-a-cropper I think this would have been another runaway victory for Vettel. However it has given Hamilton the opportunity to ‘CHEER THE FRICK UP!’ which is something he’s been needing whilst he moped around the garages, lamenting the loss of his pussycat.

A seldom seen image

So now the focus is on 2nd place in the championship. With one race to go it will definitely be either Button, Alonso or at a long shot Webber. Considering my Fernando-love and the fact I’m really loving Button these days, it doesn’t make too much of a difference to me… I’d love to see either of them finish 2nd. Mark Webber would need to win in Brazil and Jenson get no more than 1 point if he were to take 2nd, so I’m officially ruling him out. My gut feeling is that it will be Button but my heart beats Fernando! As long as Jenson finishes either in front of Alonso or no more than 2 places behind he should find this an easy one.

It has been refreshing to see a happy Hamilton this race weekend though. I particularly enjoyed the fact he’s a total Mummy’s boy getting her in his pictures for her birthday… awww! Though I did roll my eyes at his declaration in Quali build up yesterday that he ‘doesnt want to be single for long’ seemingly forgetting that this is Formula 1 and not Match.com!! I was also slightly perplexed by the love-in between Hammy and Nando this weekend. Hamilton was pleasantly surprised to hear that Alonso had rated him as the “only driver capable of winning races in a car which is not the best.” He repaid the compliment in the post race press conference by referring to Fernando as “One of the best drivers in the World” which just gave me the image of two lovestruck teenagers crooning into their phones ‘No, YOU hang up first!’

Overall a pretty boring race other than Vettels first lap incident and Pastor Maldonado seemingly going colour blind and ignoring all the blue flags. In a fortnight however, we have Brazil, which will decide the rest of the top 4. Bring it on!

Till next time.

Love from Auntie Lynsey K

Korean Grand Prix 2011 – Some Kind of Crazy Cow

Korean Grand Prix 2011 Qualifying – The Mesmerizing Nose

First I will begin with a letter to the BBC F1 Producer type folk…

Dear BBC F1 Producer people,

Karun Chandhok filled in for EJ brilliantly today. I found him both interesting and entertaining. Please consider giving him a full time job if he doesn’t manage to get a drive next year. He will otherwise be a wasted resource

Love and Cuddles, Lynsey K

Seriously though, I’ve always had a soft spot for Karun so it was great to see him step up to a presenting role. I think that with all due respect to DC, it is great to hear from a driver who has just stepped out of the car rather than the usual “When I was driving in 2002…” which is often not entirely relevant to the current set up of the cars! I think the ideal situation next year though would be to have him in a car, preferably a good one.

On the subject of drivers I want to see more of, Ricciardo gave us a great tour of the track in the pre-race build up. He is another driver I really can’t get enough of and I’d like to see him do better in 2012, particularly after his qualifying session was a complete no-go as he failed to leave the pits for the first session at all. He deserves more coverage… even if it’s only because he has a very interesting and mesmerizing nose.

I thought that Force India were going to disappoint me again by not setting times in Q3, until Paul Di Resta exited the pits with 2 minutes remaining (ALthough this seemed to be just a formality to move him in front of his team-mate) I find it a massive cop out that Sutil didn’t go out as a lot of focus was put on the fact that this is a difficult circuit for fans to travel to… and so when I see a team deliberately sitting in the garage when they could be out giving the crowds a good show, I do feel slightly annoyed.

The big shock of the day was obviously Hamilton getting Pole Position. Absolutely fantastic to see McLaren achieve that, though I can’t help be the voice of pessimism and say that maybe that could have something to do with Vettel easing off since the Championship is in hand. That said, I really would like a McLaren 1-2 tomorrow (Though Button would be my choice to win!) so I may actually get up at the crack of dawn to watch it!

A short one today in anticipation of a fantastic race tomorrow. Till next time…

Japanese Grand Prix 2011 Videoblog “Most of you will be most used to…”

Monza 2011 – Jazz Hands!

A very happy birthday-eve to you all! What a lovely early birthday present BBC gave me this weekend with an action packed Italian Grand Prix!

Monza hasn’t been a race I was eagerly anticipating this year. As Spa is my favourite race I was fully expecting to still be coming down from my Belgian high and unable to fully embrace the next race. As has happened time and time again this year though, I was thankfully grabbed by the eyeballs from the word go!

Apparently this year Monza wanted to prove itself by having the worlds deadliest grass at it’s disposal… with most major incidents happening after a driver touched rubber to grass and lost an aspect of control. The main incident was the first corner carnage of course, where Luizzi’s car was obviously feeling it hadn’t had enough media coverage this year and jazz-handed into view from stage left. I’m wondering how the stewards would have handled it if Luizzi had simply slotted in to the pack and kept driving Ken Block style… Stop-go penalty for managing to gain 10 places on the grid in one swoop?! I’d be inclined to reward him for managing to rally his F1 car into a points position!! Fantasy aside, the reality was one F1 car sliding sideways into the pack, immediately taking out Rosberg and Petrov and damaging the race of a few other drivers, Barrichello and Hamilton in those numbers.

I’m in two minds over first lap incidents like this. On the one hand it ruins the race of (more often than not) middle-of-the-pack drivers who are often trying to get a few points from the race. Rosberg and Petrov have both been on pretty good form this year and it must have been so disappointing for them. On the other hand, crashy crashy!!! This shakes the race up and can be the cause of some surprise faces in the points. For example the 2004 United States Grand Prix may have seen only 9 cars still racing at the end following a first lap pile-up, but it was a point for consistent underdogs Minardi and Takuma Sato stood on the podium to collect the third place trophy. I do love to see a break from the normal 3 teams being the top finishers, therefore I can cope when a few of my favourites have to sacrifice their race to accommodate.

Moving on, I must make reference to Vettel’s return to race-leader after a spectacular pass on Alonso. As my regular readers will have already realised, this is not a situation that made for comfortable viewing for me, mainly because I love Fernando and mega-loathe Vettel. I will admit it was a fabulous pass, HOWEVER that makes for perhaps two decent overtakes this year? I still maintain that Vettel isn’t the all-round racer some people assume he is just because he can lead from the front. Look at Button, Schumacher and Hamilton this year. They are all about the wheel to wheel racing and working their way up the pack, which makes for a much more exciting race. I hated Schumi when he did the same almost a decade ago, all leading, no surprises…. no fun!

The result was fairly standard of this year, with representation of each of the top three teams on the podium. Points for my faux-brother Di Resta were a plus, good lad! Bruno Senna also made it into the points which should not be taken lightly. I had wondered if Spa qualifying had been a fluke, however I’m starting to think that given the right car Bruno is beginning to live up to the hype that surrounded him when he first started hovering around F1. It’s exceptionally difficult to live up to a legendary family member. The Villeneuves, the Hills, the Rosbergs… that’s one thing. However to be the nephew of Ayrton Senna, perhaps one of the most highly thought of drivers of all time, puts the pressure on big time. I’m excited to see what he has in store for us for the rest of the season. Please don’t do a Rosberg and disappoint me Bruno!!!!

Till next time folks, I’ve got to go and age a year

The Belgian Grand Prix 2011 – Quali Don’t Mean a Thing!

If 2011 has taught me anything, it is that you really cannot rely on Qualifying to judge the outcome of a race. Take Michael Schumacher for example. “Happy 20th Anniversary” scoffed my other-half as we watched Schumi fail to set a time, “It’s a shame he won’t get the chance to celebrate in style.” What happened on Sunday certainly caused red faces in my household, as we witnessed the veteran gain 9 places by the end of the first lap. Granted the first corner shook the order up significantly, however watching the replay as Schumi picked his way through the carnage with the precision of a surgeon was spectacular. Good on ya old boy! Keep the good times coming.

Of course Schumacher wasn’t the only one to have a fantastic race. Jenson Button managed to straddle almost every position on the track before ending on the Podium. An error in timing and judgement caused his dismal qualifying session and handed him the ‘lucky for some’ position of 13th on the grid. I won’t repeat my exact words on seeing he was out in Quali 2, but it was along the lines of  “Goodness gracious Jenson, that is not quite the result we were looking for!”

With regret, I move on to the bulk of my piece, the controversies. Oh my, were there not a few corkers this weekend? Firstly the shock of Bruno Senna replacing Nick Heidfeld for Renault. The horror! The outrage! The…. oh wait he’s qualified in 7th. If anyone…. ANYONE has footage of Heidfeld at that exact moment, please let me know and send me a copy. There’s a German word for what I would experience…. Schadenfreude. If you’re not familiar with the language… it means ‘shameful joy’.

My second qualifying shocker was Alonso’s poor position. The red flag in Quali 2 left me balanced precariously upon my seat as I began to fret that he may not reach the top 10 shootout, but he did not let me down. On to the shootout he posted a fairly so-so time, then Massa went quicker, so did Rosberg… then so did Alguersuari?! AND SENNA?! As previously mentioned though, qualifying seems to mean less and less this year, and thankfully my Spanish boy managed to get himself to 4th by the race end. Phew!

And so we get to Lewis Hamilton. Upon being posed the question on twitter ‘how many reprimands has Hamilton had this year now?’ my answer, which can’t have been too far out, was “73 million billion and 1.” I generally find Hamilton to be a smug little git, however I did react in a rather maternal way in qualifying where he was, in my opinion, deliberately sideswiped by Maldonado… by exclaiming “That was on purpose!!!! He just did that ON PURPOSE!”

Whilst it can be argued that Hamilton pushed his nose out towards Pastors car… there was still no reason for him to be that close post-qualifying. Hamilton had a similar incident with Kobayashi during the race, but was the only true casualty and has since come out and apologised, taking full responsibility. You really have to respect a competitive driver who will throw his hands up and say ‘I messed up’, so for the first time ever I give kudos to Lewis. Maldonado on the other hand has come across as a precocious brat in interviews after the race. Little bit of advice Pastor… if money got you in your seat, keep your mouth shut and prove you are worthy of your seat on the track rather than insulting the real racers. (oh yes, I went there)

Oh, and some guy called Vettel won the race… but I’m out of words so let’s just leave it at that!!

Till next time petrolheads

The German Grand Prix 2011

I just love this season. It has produced more edge-of-your-seat races than the last 5 years combined. Today was no exception. The Nurburgring has been eagarly anticipated this year not least due to the fact that a Quarter of the drivers on the grid are German and therefore it was the home Grand Prix of no fewer than SIX drivers. Four of those drivers ended the race in the points and the German fans must be ecstatic… I wonder how that feels…

Something finally happened in Qualifying worthy of sitting up in your seat, Vettel qualified 3rd behind his teammate and Lewis Hamilton. I’ve maintained through this season that if Vettel doesn’t start on the front row we see how good an all-round driver he truly is, which in my opinion he is not. Don’t get me wrong, he has the raw speed and he is fantastic off the line, but I genuinely don’t think he is a mid field battler. Until now that’s not been a problem however today we saw that he can really fall down under the pressure of having to work his way through the field. Seb secured some advantage through his final pit stop to leapfrog Massa, however he had basically followed Massa through the field until that point, overtaking right after the Brazilian and attacking drivers when they were already on the backfoot. Vettel NEEDS to lead from the start, it is just simply how he wins races. Compare him to a driver such as Alonso or Hamilton and it’s no contest. Much as I dislike Hamilton, it’s difficult to see him ever giving less than 100% and settling for a place lower down the field rather than fighting.

Something is beginning to concern me midfield, namely the fighting spirit of Kamui Kobayashi. Where has it gone?! Where is the spritely, slightly insane driving style we’ve come to adore? I would really hate to see him go off the boil, and today on a few occasions it really felt like he was rolling over for a tummy-rub like a pampered puppy. Kamui, wake up! We need you being a threat again and making sure the front runners stay on their toes. Today it was Rosberg who seemed to be terrifying other drivers, at long last!

And now for a slightly more sensitive subject… Race seats. I have been gently prodded by the admin of this very blog to share my opinions on who will be where next season. The way I see it there will be 2 seats open, those of Webber and Massa. Webber mainly because unless you’ve been living on Mars this year (and part of last year) you’ll have realised he’s not overly pleased with apparent favouritism at Red Bull and the fact that for a F1 driver he is cracking on a bit. Massa has not been the same man since his accident last year, and he just doesn’t seem to have it in him anymore. Couple this in with the fact that whilst McLaren like their British line-up, Button is not getting the results and Hamilton is just a walking PR disaster of late (though it is extremely obvious from his wooden, forced smiley-faced interviews from Silverstone and this weekend that he’s been beaten with the McLaren ‘silly-stick’ for opening his mouth without thinking) I can’t see McLaren wanting rid of Hamilton to be fair, he is a sublime racer, even if his maturity is severely questionable when he’s busy lobbing his toys out of his very expensive pram. Also he is very much a number 1 driver… he’s already proved he can’t be in a tea, with Alonso, and the chances of him being willing to play second fiddle to Vettel are just laughable. Whereas Jenson ‘wow it’s bracing’ Button doesn’t quite have the on-track aggression Mclaren are looking for. What do I want to happen? I would love to see Jenson go to Ferrari replacing Massa, Di Resta to replace Button in the McLaren and, controversially, Webber to stay put. (failing that I’d want to see what Rosberg could do in a better car) However, as always, that’s just my opinion and I am VERY sure the team bosses don’t need my help in deciding who will drive for them next year. I do think it’s going to be interesting… unless no one moves. Then I will pout.

To end on a happy note I have more on my affection for happy-go-lucky newcomer Daniel Ricciardo. Not only does he share my ‘I’m pretty sure my surname is pronounced differently in it’s origin language but I just say it like….’ approach to his name but he also happily announced that he wished they’d move Spa on the calendar so he would attend Reading Festival. Cute! Boy loves his music, how can you argue with that?