Tag Archives: ferrari

Apr201127

Rob

0

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 [...]

Apr201120

Rob

0

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 [...]

Mar201130

Rob

0

Australia provides an appetizer for the 2011 F1 season

Melbourne took on the task of staging the first GP of the 2011 season and did a pretty good job. Sure it’s a street circuit and doesn’t show up some of the real pace of the cars, and the new DRS systems couldn’t be used to their full potential but it was a good, interesting, and lively start to the year. I’m not sure that Bahrain would have offered the same experience.
So Vettel took his first win of the year and started his title defence in the best way possible, Hamilton showed that he’s not going to let Vettel get away if he can help it and Alonso showed that he is top dog at Ferrari. Button, Webber and Massa all had weekends that they would rather have gone differently but they all scored points which was important last year so they shouldn’t be as downhearted as guys like Kobayahsi [...]

Mar201118

Rob

0

Testing over, Australia is approaching

So testing for the 2011 season is done, the teams have their data and we have the times. There isn’t many surprises within the testing times though I would have expected more from McLaren – not another year spent catching up? If Red Bull stop throwing away points McLaren don’t have a chance. Ferrari should push them hard and expect Alonso to want that title.
Australia is an odd place, it doesn’t seem to be that indicative of the season and doesn’t always show the true pace of the cars. We also know that you can win by being clever here as Jenson Button has shown. Don’t expect the Red Bull to be off the pace though, or for the brakes to explode, they will be hard to beat.
The tyres will be the great unknown in Melbourne as there isn’t really anywhere to use the new rear wing or Drag reduction device, [...]

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