Tag Archives: mclaren

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 [...]

Apr201106

Rob

0

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 [...]

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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