Alonso vs. Sauber in fairness

In Australia Sauber’s cars crossed the line in seventh and eight places, they were then disqualified because of a technical infringement on the car. A (supposedly) non performance critical part was a few millimetres outside the allowed margin, Sauber sucked it up, said they were wrong, improved their process and got on with their lives. Ferrari weren’t punished at all for the malfunction on Alonso’s DRS in China.

So what is different about the two cases and why were Sauber punished and not Ferrari? If Sauber are to be believed then their infringement wasn’t a performance gain whereas Ferrari’s most certainly could have been so that argument is moot given that Alonso wasn’t punished. Could it have been the pure infringement of the rules that caused Sauber’s penalty? Well Ferrari’s DRS system was clearly active in an area of the track where it shouldn’t have been and so directly contravened the rules so that can’t have been the motivation behind the difference in punishment. That leaves safety, I can see that the radius of a wing element can be seen as a safety issue where the Ferrari issue might not, but do we want rules applied on the basis of safety? I’m not saying it isn’t important I’m saying that it shouldn’t be the basis for the application of the rules – or not.

There are only two other explanations, one, the perennial conspiracy claim that the FIA are in Ferrari’s pocket or, two, that the stewards just got it wrong and they should have punished Alonso and Ferrari in which case there needs to be more transparency about the decisions they make. So which is it F1?

Popularity: 4%

Hamilton beats Vettel in China

What a weekend for Lewis Hamilton, fast in practice, third in qualifying, then a storming race where he showed why he’s a world champion. Jenson Button had no answer and neither did Sebastien Vettel, Lewis took the race win, he wasn’t gifted it, he didn’t have the ultimate fastest car and he had to pass people to win. It was another busy race but it already seems that the new rules are sinking in and if they provide racing like that then it can only be a positive thing.

Special mention must go out to Nico Rosberg who did a fantastic job and led the race for a good few laps, and to Felipe Massa as his form improves and he finishes ahead of Alonso again. The Toro Rossos did well in qualifying too, we’ve still yet to see the form of the new teams as they aren’t anywhere near the pace yet.

Williams have had a bad start to the season and they need to improve, China didn’t improve this either. They normally improve for the european season but that seems to get shorter every year.

There are some points that I’d like to explore further are why Alonso wasn’t punished for his rear wing issues when Sauber were disqualified in Australia and why Red Bull and Ferrari wanted to only stop twice, what on earth is going on with the difference between qualifying and race pace and could Webber have won the race had their been five more laps – or he hadn’t been held up in the early stages.

Popularity: 2%

Lots of action in Malaysia except for Vettel who marches on

The Malaysian GP was full of overtaking, pit stops, accidents, etc… but is was serene for Vettel at the front as he waltzed off to his second victory and a 24pt lead in the championship. Jenson Button who described his own race as “confusing” finished up in second as he put his McLaren where it needed to be and kept hold of his tyres for long enough to make it stick. Heidfeld confirmed the pace of the Renault as he took the last podium place with Webber taking a hard earned fourth spot.

The DRS was used for the first time really in Malaysia and seemed to work quite well at certain points, i.e. getting people along side the other guy (Mark Webber used it a few times), but sometimes it seemed to spoil the show as the car using it just drove clean by – though you have to ask what would have happened without the device. One of the things that I haven’t seen yet and that I was worried it would create would be the predictable swapping of places lap after lap of two equally paced cars. Hopefully that is a good sign that it’s working well.

The tyres held up pretty well again, meeting the requirements of more pit stops without becoming undriveable, though maybe some of the drivers who made 4 stops did push that a little. It is an interesting dynamic though as the mid level teams can pick up points by hanging on to the end if some of the faster guys need to stop near the end because they’ve over worked them.

In terms of the overall action I think it’s improved the show and I’d expect more people to be interested but from a long term fans perspective some of it seems a little fake, I’d like to see more reduction in the aero and push the balance back towards mechanical grip to give the drivers more to work with. Something else that needs addressing is the state of the track offline during the GP, after a few laps anyone going offline tends to be punished with less grip and so it reduces the scope for overtaking maneuvers.

Lets see how the next few races play out but someone needs to mount a challenge to Vettel before he gets too far  ahead – we’ve all seen how strong Red Bull are in the latter parts of the season.

Popularity: 43%

2nd stop – Malaysia

With a decent start to the season in Australia behind us the F1 circus moves to Malaysia. The Red Bull cars look unstoppable and with Martin Whitmarsh dampening hopes of McLaren staying in touch does this leave the fighting for third place as the best hope for anyone but Sebastien Vettel or Mark Webber?

The teams will come to Sepang and regard it as the first proper racing track – Australia is a street circuit and as such doesn’t have the same characteristics as a racing circuit. Sepang should let the DRS actually work and should show some more of the aero effects from the new rules.

Ferrari and McLaren will be hoping that they can get on terms with Red Bull and Mercedes will be hoping that they can figure out how to use their car. The tyres will play an important role and all the teams will be keen to see how they hold up in the heat of Malaysia.

With a reasonable length lap the Hispania cars will be close to the limit of competing, if they get to run their proper front wing they claim they will be on the pace of the Virgins, hardly top pace but at least it would let them race.

Hopefully Sauber can field a legal car and actually score some of the points that they deserved (well looked too if the offending part really was inert), I doubt that they will be making that mistake again.

It should be an entertaining weekend – hopefully Red Bull don’t waltz away with the race though it’s on the cards.

Popularity: 1%