Archive for 'teams'

Full year report: Red Bull

Red Bull have had the fastest car all year, I don’t think that there is anyone up and down the pit lane who would challenge that but they have continually failed to capitalize on it. Accidents, failures, strategy they have all played their part – it is a testament to how fast the car is that they won the constructors title. Adrain Newey built them a car that was very quick and there have been a good few races this year where the winner was only ever going to be one of the Red Bulls.
Mark Webber’s year has been one of consistently good performances, he has had a couple of mistakes but in general the he has brought the car home and brought the points along with it. He hasn’t been favoured by the team but I think that helped him to motivate the mid season push that saw him [...]

Will Porsche return to F1 with Williams?

The Mexican grand prix in 1991 was the last time that a Porsche powered F1 car raced. In the hands of Michele Alboreto and Alex Caffi, the Footwork Porsche cars failed to qualify for most races and when they did make the start the cars wouldn’t last long before suffering reliability gremlins. It was an unfitting end to the German manufacturer tenure in the sport, with them having won three world championships in the 1980s with Mclaren. However, Porsche may be about to put all of this right.
The appeal of F1
Formula One is still massively popular, with Formula One Management suggesting that a global audience of about 600 million people see at least some F1 action every single year. It’s appeal is universal and it has made global megastars out of the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. Nigel Mansell can still make money from his association [...]

How can all of the teams improve so much?

It seems that nearly every team in the paddock has come out over the past few weeks and said that they have massive improvements for Valencia and that they’re now going to be much faster. While all very well in itself, it doesn’t really mean much unless your improvement is faster than the other teams around you. Since the start of the season all of the teams, even the new ones, have made massive strides forward in pace. It’s just that so have all the other teams and the status quo remains about the same.
The fight at the front seems the closest out and out battle but even there the track conditions and drivers seem to make more of a difference than the car – which is arguably what should be happening. It’s not that the teams are making progress, that’s great, it’s that they should make a noise [...]

Ferrari and Alonso getting on terms

Ferrari started the season with the best possible result, they beat everyone. Neither was it that unexpected, they had spent the best part of last year developing their ‘10 car at the expense of the ‘09 car, they had Felipe Massa back, and the former world champion Fernando Alonso joining to take them back to the front. Since then however it’s gone downhill and fast. We’re seven rounds in and they are only in touch because the other teams have squabbled over the wins.
So what has happened? Some of it is simple mistakes, they got in wrong in qualifying for the Malaysian GP and then add to that Alonso practice crash in Monaco and his latest error in Turkey that ensured a 6th row start and it’s always going to be hard to rack up serious points. Massa hasn’t been himself all season though whether that is Alonso showing [...]