Archive for 'teams'

Sauber’s sorry start to the season

Sauber have had a torrid start to their 2010 campaign, with only one finish in the first three races – even the new teams have done better than that. It’s not like the car is blisteringly fast when it’s on track either, all of that pre-season pace seems to have melted away and they look like they may soon be fighting with the newcomers.
It’s all a far cry from the hype that surrounding Peter Sauber’s return to the sport and the signing of the young Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi from the exiting Toyota team. I guess that they should get some credit from just making it to the grid at all as they were technically the last team to be given the go ahead. That said everyone at the team has enough F1 experience to know what needs to be done.
Both cars suffered the same fate in Malaysia, pneumatic issues [...]

Williams, Force India and Sauber

Before the season started the general opinion was that Williams, Force India and Sauber would be contesting those places that the big teams didn’t occupy. With four major teams and ten scoring places that leaves two slot and so it has played out with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Rubens Barrichello scoring points at both the opening races.
The drivers that have scored the points may raise a few eye brows as Adrian Sutil seems to be the driver that most consider number one at Force India and there was the expectation from some that Nico Hulkenberg would show up Rubens Barrichello this year. It seems that F1 experience may count for something when you’re running on the margin of the points and have to take advantage of what’s on offer.
Sauber are still lacking any points and given their pace in the pre-season testing this seems to be somewhat of a shock, it [...]

What happened to the Ferrari’s in Australia?

Ferrari promised from Bahrain that they were going to be one of the cars to beat this season and then they seemed to fade in Australia. How much of this was due to the weather and how much of this was due to Alonso’s first lap spin?And was there anything else at play?
It seems that the Ferrari team are playing it safe this year – they aren’t taking extra risks like coming in for tyres or changing to early – I’m not saying that it was the wrong decision but I think it is why we hardly saw the Ferraris all race apart from Lewis Hamilton’s onboard camera. They had a solid race, they finished 3rd and 4th after all but they had promised much more – it seems odd that they couldn’t pass the Renault of Robert Kubica but then if the paddock is to be believed you need [...]

Button wins in Australia for McLaren

Jenson Button gave a masterclass to the other drivers, he was the bravest man on the tyres and his smooth style meant that he could finish the race on the same tyres that that he drove 4/5ths of the race on. While all the other drivers were fighting and struggling on the worn tyres Jenson Button serenely drove on at the front on his way to his first victory at McLaren.
The race itself was a much better show than in Bahrain and it seems clear that it would have been even if there hadn’t been the rain at the start. The track lends itself more to overtaking than Bahrain though Michael Schumacher will probably disagree given the amount of time that he spent behind Jaime Alguersuari.
The Red Bulls suffered from mechanical failure again as Sebastien Vettel had a brake failure on his way to retirement and Mark Webber misjudged a [...]