Tag Archives: mercedes

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 [...]

Team play in turkey for Hamilton and Button

The Turkish GP promised some close racing after qualifying with a McLaren managing to split the Red Bull’s on the grid and the shows in practice but it was the Red Bulls that seemingly had everything in the bag, though the McLarens were by no means done when the Red Bulls got together. It was Lewis Hamilton’s first win of the season as Button continues to pick up solid points as did Mark Webber after the incident which saw him pit for a new front wing and still hold out for third ahead of Michael Schumacher.
The 1-2 for McLaren seemed to mask something between the drivers after the race, Button’s move for the lead 11 laps from the end showed that he’s not going to let Hamilton get away with anything though the somewhat lacklustre defence of that position a few corners later seemed a little odd. I wonder what [...]

Schumacher, Alonso and the punishment

With Schumacher taking a penalty for overtaking under the safety car and Mercedes not appealing that means that Schumacher will go down in the record books as being beaten by Rosberg again – not something that he’s going to enjoy making a habit of. It seems that everyone other than Ferrari thought you could race to the line, even the commentators but then everyone knows which team has the ear of the stewards.
The punishment at first seems fair, a 20sec penalty, but when it’s taken in the context of a safety car finish it’s clear that it’s about as damaging as disqualification as all the cars will be finished. Some have talked about swapping the cars back as punishment but a) that’s not in the rule book, and b) that doesn’t really punish anyone. It seems that the 20s penalty was the lightest reprimand that they could hand out – [...]

Red Bull look unstoppable in the streets of Monaco

Red Bull provided the text book display of how to go about winning an F1 race, the only thing that they didn’t manage to get right was both cars on the front of the grid. Mark Webber was in a class of his own for the entire race and it seemed that he had plenty of extra pace in the bag if the others started to push him. It seems that the championship this year may very well be between the two Red Bull drivers as their car looks unbeatable.
Fernando Alonso put on a rather impressive display of driving to go from the back of the grid to take 6th place and ensure limit the damage caused by his off in free practice on Saturday although I wonder what he could have done had he started from the front, yes he was helped by the safety cars but then he [...]