The streets of Monaco supply the F1 drama

Monaco is always a fabulous weekend, with the drivers pitting themselves against the ultimate F1 challenge. Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa, Vitaly Petrov and all the other incidents just goes to show how little room for error there is on the streets of the principality. Vettel won a lucky race, Button and Alonso had the pace at various stages to beat him but circumstance prevented them from doing so.

The race was fantastic with the drivers overtaking around the streets, though some did it better than others, Hamilton was lucky to walk away from the weekend with any points, if I was the stewards I’d have given him a drive through for the crash with Maldanado which would have meant a lot more than the 20s he had tacked onto his race time. He needs to calm down and focus, Button was unlucky not to win the race and Hamilton was lucky to score points – let’s not forget he was only still running because of the red flag where McLaren fixed his rear wing.

The race was good but it was spoilt by the last saftey car and red flag, there’s not much the stewards could have done given what happened but it was a shame that we didn’t get to see Vettel, Button, and Alonso fighting it out for more laps. I think this is an area of the rules that have been overlooked, with so much focus on the tyres now being able to swap them in a red flag situation nullifies any advantage so perhaps they should have to keep the tyres for the restart [Edit: It seems I'm not the only one who thinks this with Pirelli themselves wanting the change! (from Autosport)].

Monaco showed that some of the cars out there have brilliant mechanical grip but lack in aero – which is where Red Bull are miles ahead of the rest, we will have to wait and see but that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season that Red Bull walked away with this one, let’s hope that McLaren and Ferrari pull something out of the bag for the next few races and bring the championship back from the runaway situation it is now.

Popularity: 6%

So Barcelona was a good race…

Yes I know that Sebastien Vettel won again but it wasn’t a walk in the park, and Lewis Hamilton nearly had him. But the race as a whole was good, Barcelona doesn’t always produce the best racing because the teams know the track so well – I guess it’s not as bad these days with the limited testing but still. It wasn’t even the DRS that helped, I don’t think it was massively down to the tyres either, though they clearly have an impact especially if this article about the Red Bull not being able to use all of it’s downforce is true.

Down the field there were battles between drivers all over though I think some of these were due to the tyres. This part of the racing seems to be settling down over time as people become used to the differential in pace and are running much more similar strategies, though Jensen Button has still yet to make that one less stop strategy work for him – I wonder when he’ll give up. It might just work at Monaco…

Ferrari will be wondering where they went during the race as it seemed they can only go backwards, Alonso may start to wonder if he’s signed the right deal – though it’s never stopped him before and I like Massa but he needs to up his game if he’s going to be driving that car next year. Heads are going to start rolling if they don’t win something soon.

Schumacher will be pleased that he finally beat Nico Rosberg fair and square – even if it was only by one place, that team battle is just starting to hot up. Sauber seem to have some momentum and Williams still need to find some pace, Sutil shouldn’t have been in the car – more on that later.

With Monaco around the corner it seems it could be a great 9 days of F1.

Popularity: 5%

Vettel reigns supreme in Turkey

Sebastien Vettel treated everyone to an F1 master class from Saturday morning onwards, despite the fact that he wrecked his car in Friday practice, he set the fastest time in morning practice, was so confident of pole that he didn’t do a second run in qualifying, and won the race without ever looking like anyone could beat him, I’m sure he’ll be pissed that Mark Webber got the fastest lap.

Alonso put in an amazing performance to finish third with the Ferrari and McLaren have some thinking to do going to Barcelona, as have Mercedes who again couldn’t hold it together during the race despite holding second after the first lap. It was a race full of disappointment for most of the grid really, Williams will wonder what they are doing wrong as the best they could manage was 15th and Felipe Massa will wonder how he managed to finish outside of the points.

The race was again action packed with pit stops, overtaking, and wheel to wheel action everywhere, it looks like most of this was due to tyre wear on what was the hottest day of the weekend as most of the cars came in for four stops to ensure that they didn’t get caught on old tyres (apart from Jenson Button). It looks like the penalty for making a stop could be much worse than not making one nowadays and so once one driver blinks the others all follow to ensure that they can’t lose out.

I’m still out on DRS, it does let cars pass but it did seem to give the cars a ridiculous boost at Istanbul Park, some of it was the tyres sure but F1 cars aren’t that different really and I wonder what the race would have been like without the DRS, could Alonso have held off Webber, would Button have stood a chance against Hamilton? We’ll never know but I’m still to be convinced about DRS. The TV figures don’t lie though and it seems it’s a hit, perhaps it’s just me?

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Istanbul

So F1 is off to Turkey to see if McLaren can still chase down the Red Bulls, will the Ferrari have found what was wrong with their car and improved – Was it just Alonso’s head adding drag to the car? Have Mercedes managed to get to the bottom of the tyre issues? Will Williams actually get going at all this year?

We’ve had a great start to the season, exciting races, close finishes – and some controversy on the track. All we need now is for the title race to close up and we’ll be on for a eye popping year in F1. It could however all go horribly wrong, Vettel could streak out into the lead, McLaren could falter and we could all be watching Mercedes and Sauber fight over 6th to 10th.

Turkey normally has an exciting race, turn 8 in particular takes no prisoners and punishes bad aero. It will be interesting to see how the tyres last, but with the weather set to be cooler for the weekend will that play into the hands of some different teams?

We’ll have to wait and see how it pans out but it looks like there’s another exciting race weekend in store for F1 fans.

Popularity: 4%