F1 2011 review - Sebastian's perfect season

THE 2010 Formula One season has gone down as one of the most special seasons ever and it ended with the youngest ever world champion.  Just what would 2011 deliver?  The new season began with new regulations, such as the introduction of DRS which was brought in to make overtaking more possible in races.  KERS made a return after its 2009 failure and Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli returned to the sport as the sole tyre supplier after a 20-year absence.  Uprisings in the Arab world forced the postponement and eventual cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, so once again, the championship would begin in Melbourne.

     From the moment he arrived at the Australian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel set a benchmark which no-one could live with.  He was untouchable at Albert Park, controlling qualifying and dominating the race to win the first event.  It was Red Bull’s first Australian victory and a sign of things to come.  McLaren arrived with a car that looked miles off the pace from their winter testing figures.  They were the surprise of the first race, as Lewis Hamilton produced a fighting performance to come home second, underlining the team’s hard work.  Team-mate Jenson Button had a fierce dice with Felipe Massa in the early stages of the race and got a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner and gaining an advantage on the Brazilian.  It left Button down in sixth by the finish.  Vitaly Petrov drove stunningly to register his first ever podium finish for Renault, a brilliant boost for the team deprived of Robert Kubica’s services this season after the Pole sustained serious injuries in a pre-season rally accident.  Both Sauber’s were disqualified for technical infringements which robbed Sergio Perez of points on his F1 debut, but it did allow Scottish rookie Paul di Resta to get a point in his first race.

Vettel started how it meant to go by winning the first two events

     In the heat of Malaysia, a Red Bull weakness was identified.  The tight packaging of their chassis meant they were struggling to keep KERS reliable.  However, this didn’t stop Vettel who was in a class of his own again, looking after his tyres and an intermittent KERS issue and claimed his fifth victory in the last six events altogether.  Button launched his championship assault with a brilliant second place and Kubica’s stand-in at Renault, Nick Heidfeld was an outstanding third, benefiting from a flying start that had him second into the first corner.  Talking of flying, his team-mate Petrov took to the air in a spectacular exit from the race with three laps remaining.  Old rivals Hamilton and Fernando Alonso clashed again, when the Ferrari misjudged an overtaking move.  For a separate weaving incident, a frustrated Hamilton was penalised and wound up eighth, with Alonso in sixth.

     After running out of fresh tyres in Sepang, Hamilton played the strategy game in China and it worked with a brilliant victory.  He overcame a major oil leak in the garage before the race and saved an extra set of tyres in qualifying to use them in a race that went down in the history books as one of the greatest ever.  Vettel beat Button to pole, but made a poor start and looked tense all afternoon, but showed his championship might with second place.  More KERS problems left Mark Webber in a dismal 18^th on the grid, but he put in a sensational fightback to claim the final place on the podium.  Button was a dejected fourth and produced one of the blunders of the season.  Having led the early stages, he made a terrible mistake and stopped at the wrong pit!  A comical moment, but Jenson would make up for it later in the season.  Felipe Massa’s inferior strategy left him down in sixth, but beating Alonso by 15 seconds made it a solid and sweet performance.  Another man who impressed in China was Nico Rosberg.  He led a significant chunk of the race, but faded badly to fifth by the end.  It was the closest Mercedes GP would get to finishing on the podium this season.

     Another tremendous Grand Prix followed three weeks later in Istanbul.  Pirelli’s tyre mileage left us with a four stop strategy for most of the top runners and overtaking galore with the effective DRS.  Despite crashing in wet practice on Friday and losing a day of race setup, Vettel was a comfortable winner on what turned out to be F1’s last trip to Turkey.  Webber ensured Red Bull had their first 1-2 of the season, coming out on top in a feisty scrap with Alonso, who claimed Ferrari’s first rostrum after a difficult start to the campaign.  A sticky wheel nut at a routine pitstop left Hamilton over 40 seconds adrift in fourth place and Button’s gamble on one less pitstop didn’t work and left him behind Rosberg in sixth.  While Rosberg was picking up points for Mercedes, Michael Schumacher’s weekend was a disaster.  Unnecessary contact with Petrov in the early laps and losing out in many midfield battles left him admitting to feeling ‘no joy’ following his 12^th place finish. 

 

Next stop on the Sebastian Vettel crusade was Barcelona, which surprised many with an exciting duel.  Despite being beaten to pole position by team-mate Mark Webber, Vettel showed his superiority on raceday.  However, he was made to work very hard for his 13^th career victory.  Fernando Alonso’s adoring Spanish public witnessed an incredible start as their hero catapulted from fourth on the grid into the lead.  Sadly, dreadful tyre wear left him ending a lapped fifth.  Vettel led from lap 19 onwards, but Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren was the faster package and hunted him down.  The German’s brilliant defensive driving was enough to take victory again and the team rightly praised his driving, rather than his ‘Crazy Frog’ impression.  Having made an awful start and dropping to tenth on lap one; Jenson Button produced two cracking moves on Alonso and Webber to complete the podium.  Michael Schumacher responded to his critics with a solid run to sixth, ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg whilst Nick Heidfeld came from last after a fire in practice to eighth.

Perez's rookie season was put on hold after this crash in Monaco

     Any driver will claim that winning in Monaco will be the highlight of the season and Vettel added Monte Carlo to his ever increasing trophy cabinet on a turbulent weekend in the principality.  The weekend started with a sickening shunt for Sergio Perez in qualifying.  The Mexican crashed out of the tunnel in Q3 and suffered a bruised thigh and concussion, keeping him out for two races.  In the race, Vettel, Alonso and Button produced a supreme afternoon of driver skill.  Sebastian survived a bad pitstop on lap 16 and stayed out on weaker tyres to hold off the Ferrari and McLaren.  Hamilton had a nightmare weekend, which included a qualifying demotion, then two more drive-through penalties in the race for controversial clashes with Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado.  He attacked race stewards in an unsavoury post-race interview, beginning a dark period for the Brit.  Vitaly Petrov was admitted to hospital after being involved in a multiple crash with Adrian Sutil, Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari late on which caused a race stoppage.  Fortunately, the Russian escaped serious injury.   

      If anyone thought F1 2011 had been crazy so far, then the drama of the Canadian Grand Prix exceeded everything.  Five safety cars, a two hour stoppage for a torrential downpour and an amazing finish which had avid fans jumping up and around at 10.15pm in the evening!  Vettel drove brilliantly again and led through most of the chaos, until around the last lap, he ran wide and handed Jenson Button a sensational victory.  Button stormed back from 21^st and last at half-distance, following collisions with team-mate Hamilton and Alonso, which ended both of their races.  For once, Vettel showed he was human and still could crack under pressure.  Webber recovered from his own contact with Hamilton to make it two Red Bulls on the podium, just ahead of Schumacher, who ran as high as second and produced the best drive of his comeback.  Further back, a hard-fought eighth place from a pitlane start saved Jaime Alguersuari from the sack at Toro Rosso.

     After that Canadian excitement, the European Grand Prix disappointed with the usual lack of action in Valencia.  Vettel bounced back from his Montreal slip-up to dominate in trademark fashion.  He took pole position and won at a canter, whilst Alonso beat Webber in a straight fight to take an excellent second for Ferrari.  Hamilton had a very quiet run to fourth, followed by Massa and Button.  All 24 cars that started in Valencia made it to the finish; only the third time in history this has happened, after the 1962 Dutch GP and the 2005 Italian GP.

Alonso was in top form at Silverstone, taking his only win of 2011

An incident-packed British Grand Prix at Silverstone saw our fourth different winner of the season.  Alonso benefited from a poor Red Bull pitstop and Vettel being held up behind Hamilton’s slower McLaren in the middle part of the race to take Ferrari’s first victory since Korea last year.  Webber claimed pole position on Saturday, but dropped behind Vettel at the start and was forced by team boss Christian Horner to “maintain the gap,” in the closing stages.  There were time when memories of Turkey 2010 came flooding back, but a 2-3 result kept Red Bull comfortably clear in the constructors championship.  The Brits had a largely miserable day.  Paul di Resta made contact with Sebastian Buemi and had a dismal pitstop to wreck his hopes of points after qualifying a brilliant sixth, whilst a loose wheel nut ended Button’s grand prix prematurely.  Hamilton stirred the motions with fourth, holding off Massa in an exciting final corner duel, despite fuel management issues.

     Next was a trip to the chilly Eiffel Mountains and the Nurburgring, where Lewis Hamilton put a great weekend together to qualify on the front row behind Mark Webber and win the race.  He jumped the Australian at the start and used great strategy and daring overtaking moves on both Webber and Fernando Alonso to take the spoils.  Alonso was second and Webber back in third.  An off-colour Sebastian Vettel spun early on and seemed unhappy on home soil all weekend.  Nevertheless, smart pit work from Red Bull saw him leapfrog Felipe Massa on the last lap to salvage fourth place.  Once again, Jenson Button was out of luck, forced to retire with hydraulic problems, handing Adrian Sutil a best finish of the season for Force India in sixth place.  The pressure was growing on Nick Heidfeld at Renault after a clash with Sebastian Buemi put him out of the race and his seat in severe jeopardy.

      A week later and the McLaren summer renaissance continued at an unseasonably damp Budapest.  In a race decided by getting on the right tyres at the right time, Button mastered everything again to win in Hungary for the second time in his career.  The race was Hamilton’s for the taking, as he led the majority of it.  However, he was left to rue a missed opportunity when he spun into the path of Paul di Resta, forcing his countryman off the road.  Lewis got a drive-through and pitted six times, but still finished fourth.  Second place for Vettel increased his championship lead, with near rivals, Alonso and Webber finishing behind him in third and fifth respectively.  Heidfeld’s Renault career ended spectacularly when his engine air bottle exploded on pitlane exit, leaving his car in flames.  Fans also felt fiery, when news came through of a new TV deal in Hungary which sees Sky Sports receiving live coverage of every race next season and the BBC settling for partial coverage of ten live events.

Hamilton's crash in Belgium summed up a messy championship

After the summer break, Formula One returned at the end of August to Belgium and the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit.  Despite safety cars and serious concerns over blistered tyres after qualifying, Red Bull took a 1-2 finish.  Vettel handled it all with his usual panache and Webber recovered from a shocking start which saw him ninth into La Source to finish a very strong second.  Hamilton’s faint championship hopes ended when he had a silly collision with Kamui Kobayashi, which speared the McLaren into the barriers.  Team-mate Button started 13^th after a tactical mix-up in qualifying and had to pit early after first corner contact, but produced a stirring fightback to third.  Alonso was hindered by Ferrari’s decision to use one less set of dry tyres and without the grip levels of his rivals, the submissive Spaniard had to settle for fourth.  On the 20^th anniversary of making his F1 debut, Michael Schumacher stormed through from last on the grid after a wheel hub failure in qualifying to record a fabulous fifth place, narrowly ahead of team-mate Rosberg.  Pastor Maldonado scored his first and only point of the season, whilst Bruno Senna qualified a superb seventh on his Renault debut, but blotted his copybook by running into Jaime Alguersuari at the start of the race.

     The final European race of the season was as ever, at Monza and Ferrari country.  Red Bull feared they wouldn’t be very strong, due to the power disadvantage of their Renault engine, but Vettel blew the opposition away.  He produced a meteoric lap to take pole position by half a second on Saturday and despite Alonso beating him off the startline, made a brave and decisive pass on the grass to record another fantastic victory.  Button overwhelmed Alonso later in the race for second place, but despite poor traction from his Ferrari, Fernando still managed to make the podium to give the Tifosi something to shout about.  Michael Schumacher pushed the boundaries in a vigorous defence from Lewis Hamilton for half the race, with Hamilton eventually coming out on top for fourth place.  Massa was a distant sixth after contact early on with Mark Webber; the Australian having a pathetic off into the barriers on his way back to the pits with front wing damage.  Vitantonio Liuzzi produced his nomination for accident of the season, by trying to move his HRT into the points from the back row into turn one!  His ambition backfired, torpedoing Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg out of the race at the first chicane.

     The flyaway finish began under the lights in Singapore, where Sebastian Vettel eased to another victory and within one point of the title.  Jenson Button came second, which was enough to take the fight to Suzuka, but third and fourth place results ended any mathematical hopes for Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso.  The weekend was dominated by two run-ins between Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, with a fuming Massa angrily confronting his rival in the interview pen after the race.  Paul di Resta was a notable sixth to achieve his best finish of his 2011 rookie year, whilst Michael Schumacher escaped injury after a nasty looking accident, when he went airborne over Sergio Perez.

Three wins for Button, including an emotional success in Japan

     Sure enough, as expected, Vettel sealed the world championship title at Suzuka, to become the youngest back-to-back champion in the history of the sport and only the ninth driver to achieve such a feat.  Button drove brilliantly once again to take victory, ahead of a hard charging Alonso, but third place was easily enough for Vettel in a gripping Grand Prix.  Once again, Hamilton and Massa made contact during the race, which saw a piece of McLaren bodywork deployed on the racing line and forcing the Safety Car out.  By their 2011 standards, the incident was relatively minor, but it was another flashpoint in a dismal season for both.  Michael Schumacher managed to split Hamilton and Massa at the chequered flag, whilst flu-ridden Perez drove well in his Sauber to eighth, as did Nico Rosberg from 23^rd on the grid to tenth.  However, Suzuka 2011 will be remembered for the place that wrapped up Sebastian Vettel’s glory season.

The German wasn’t finished yet though, as he cruised to his tenth victory of the season in Korea.  Combined with a third place finish for Webber, it sealed the constructor’s championship for Red Bull.  Hamilton blasted to pole, the first non Red Bull pole position of the season, but he was subdued all weekend as he finished second, his split from Nicole Scherzinger seemed to weigh on his mind throughout.  Button, Alonso and Massa completed the top six, leaving slim pickings for the rest.

      F1 made its inaugural visit to India and the sport gave the country the tradition in 2011 of a Sebastian Vettel pole position and a Sebastian Vettel victory.  He led every lap and was simply untouchable.  His 11^th triumph of the season put him within two races of equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season.  Once again, it was Button and Alonso who completed the podium positions which provided a great circuit, but sadly, very poor racing.  Massa and Hamilton became attracted again with their sixth collision of the season.  The Brit’s front wing was damaged and he limped home in seventh.  Massa was blamed this time by the race stewards and awarded a drive-through penalty, but it didn’t matter in the end, as he abused his Ferrari over the plastering kerbing and broke his front suspension.  Mercedes equalled their best result of the season, with Schumacher leading Rosberg home to fifth, as he did at Spa earlier in the season.

      However, Vettel’s hopes of equalling Schumacher’s wins in a season record ended on the second corner in Abu Dhabi.  A sudden deflation on the left-rear tyre sent the champion spinning out of the race.  Hamilton took full advantage and returned to form to secure a brilliant win in a very controlled and measured drive.  As so often the case this season, Alonso outperformed his equipment to take second place for Ferrari and despite a KERS failure, Button made it two McLarens on the podium. 

      Red Bull may have finished off the podium in Abu Dhabi, but they showed their class in the finale at Sao Paulo.  Webber finally ended his barren run by taking a magnificent victory in Brazil, although he was aided by a faulty gearbox problem for his team-mate.  Button wrapped up second in the drivers championship with a podium finish, but Hamilton was out of luck, finishing his largely desperate season off with gearbox failure.  At least he ended his public feud with Massa after the race.  Fourth place for Alonso wasn’t enough to hold off Webber for third place in the driver’s championship final positions.

Vettel and Red Bull were the class of the field in 2011

So, after 19 races in 18 countries and five different winners from three teams, the end has arrived for F1 2011.  Sometimes in the sport, you just have to appreciate greatness and we must hail Sebastian’s perfect season!

DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Sebastian Vettel 392, Jenson Button 270, Mark Webber 258, Fernando Alonso 257, Lewis Hamilton 227, Felipe Massa 118, Nico Rosberg 89, Michael Schumacher 76, Adrian Sutil 42, Vitaly Petrov 37, Nick Heidfeld 34, Kamui Kobayashi 30, Paul di Resta 27, Jaime Alguersuari 26, Sebastian Buemi 15, Sergio Perez 14, Rubens Barrichello 4, Bruno Senna 2, Pastor Maldonado 1

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP: Red Bull 650, McLaren 497, Ferrari 375, Mercedes GP 165, Renault 73, Force India 69, Sauber 44, Toro Rosso 41, Williams 5

The Finishing Straight - India (by HappyDude88)

IT WAS a brand new adventure for Formula One last weekend, as we entered a new country.  India hosted an event for the first time, but sadly produced a lacklustre debut race as far as on-track action goes.  The winner was Sebastian Vettel, but I’ve already done a special blog on the talents of this incredible German.  So, this week’s edition of ‘The Finishing Straight,’ will focus on the efforts of the midfield teams in India and how their performances have shaped up in comparison to the past and the future.

     Before I do that though, I need to digest and give my viewpoint on the latest clash between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.  The incident between the pair on Sunday was the sixth clash they have had over a race weekend this season.  On this occasion, the race stewards decided to blame Massa and give him a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.  Most of the contact this season has been triggered by mistakes or rash attempts at passing from a rather crestfallen Hamilton.  However, this time, I had to agree with the stewards and that Felipe was in the wrong here.  Lewis was down the inside line and had no more space to avoid the accident.  He was even backing out of a legitimate manoeuvre before the corner, realising that he wasn’t going to get the space that he rightfully should have been allowed.  From one of the televised replays, Massa was seen to be looking across to see where his enemy was on at least three occasions, possibly more, before deciding to turn in.  That for me is not on.  Although he was to blame, I do think a drive-through penalty was harsh, because it wasn’t like he got away scot-free.  He picked up superficial damage and ultimately, the Brazilian’s race ended when he decided to stupidly have another go at cutting the Indian plastering kerbs which had wrecked his suspension in qualifying.  The stewards have been far too insistent this year on dishing out penalties.  Whatever happened to the traditional ‘racing incident?’  In fact, out of the Hamilton/Massa altercations this year, only one out of the six deserved its sanction (Hamilton’s terrible attempt at passing into the Loews hairpin in Monaco.)  I feel sympathy for Massa on getting the penalty, but little else on another poor weekend for the Ferrari no.2.

      Okay, time to analyse some of the midfield performers and let’s start with the positives.  The form of Jaime Alguesuari in the second half of the season has been a revelation and a joy to see.  He had another superb weekend in India and has taken the Toro Rosso team forward.  He is outqualifying and outperforming Sebastian Buemi now on a regular basis.  The Toro Rosso looks like a missile in a straight-line at the moment and the radical improvements they brought to Japan have prompted a massive step forward.  I think they have been a real find this season and both drivers have impressed me this campaign. 

       The main Formula One rookies continue to shine as the season reaches its conclusion.  For the second time this season, Sergio Perez failed to pay attention to yellow flags in practice; picking up a three place grid penalty for not slowing down whilst marshals recovered Pastor Maldonado’s blown-up Williams on Friday.  Perez might need to check up the rules and regulations again over the winter, but the Mexican’s consistency continues to shine through.  The Sauber team have slipped down the pecking order in the second half of the season, as they have been simply out developed by the likes of Toro Rosso and Force India.  Yet Perez has kept the Swiss team right in the scrap for sixth place in the constructor’s championship.  I would even go as far to say that he is now Sauber No.1.

      Paul di Resta had a tough time in India, as for the first time since Nurburgring; he lagged behind Adrian Sutil all weekend.  However, the Scot’s weekend was made up with the news that he will be staying at Force India for 2012 and rightly so.  He has finished in the points on six occasions this campaign, outqualified his team-mate more often than not and firmly deserves to stay on.  The second seat remains a close battle between two Germans.  Sutil will hope to stay on if possible, but he has had five seasons with the team and might have to look elsewhere for options.  A seat at Williams is likely to be open, so he has some tough decisions to make.  It might be taken out of his hands if the Grove based team opt for Kimi Raikkonen to make a sensational return and if his current employers will put Nico Hulkenberg in the second car.  Hulkenberg has been a frustrated figure all season on the pitwall and told the BBC over the weekend that he won’t stay at the team if he isn’t racing for them next season.  Vijay Mallya has got a tough decision to make in the coming weeks.

     However, one driver who won’t have a decision to make on his future is Rubens Barrichello.  Sadly, the Brazilian’s career is whimpering towards a dreary conclusion, a real shame for a popular guy who has finished second in the driver’s championship on three separate occasions.  His 2011 campaign reached a new low, when he hit the back of team-mate Maldonado on the first lap in India and limped back with damage.  He finished behind Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus.  With Williams looking serious at Raikkonen and considering Sutil as an option, Rubens’s days in the sport look numbered.  At least he will be able to finish on home soil in Brazil in a month’s time.  Another driver who isn’t delivering at the moment is Kamur Kobayashi.  The Japanese driver has been outpaced by rookie team-mate Perez throughout the second half of the season and has only scored two points since the crazy Canadian Grand Prix back in June.  His Indian experience only lasted a lap, collecting damage in the incident with Barrichello and Virgin’s Timo Glock.  In fact, Kobayashi looks like he walked under an avalanche and out the other side came a twin who is half the driver he was in the opening stages of the season.  It was the same in 2010, when Sauber had a dismal car at the start of the campaign; Kamur struggled but radically improved when the car made strides forward.  I hope he can and will turn the corner in future.

       Final word goes to India, who did provide a wonderful spectacle.  The racing may have been disappointing, but the welcome F1 got was absolutely brilliant and the track is one of the best ever designed by Hermann Tilke.  After the disasters of Abu Dhabi and Valencia in the past, it is about time he got one which all the drivers seemed to like.  Hopefully the racing will be a bit more spectacular in India in 2012.

The Finishing Straight - Japan (by HappyDude88)

SO, IT is now all officially over.  Sebastian Vettel is world champion and becomes only the ninth driver in history to become a back-to-back title winner.  It’s a prestigious list he joins, with the likes of Fangio, Schumacher, Senna, Prost and Alonso among those to have achieved an incredible feat.  The emotion on his face when the BBC played back the wonderful montage of back-to-back champions was genuine and he is such a nice bloke too.  Sometimes in Formula One, you have to appreciate greatness rather than moan about domination.  Vettel totally deserves the title this season; he has been in a class of his own.  I will be doing a special blog about the back-to-back champion at a later date.

      However, Sebastian had to share the honours on Sunday with Jenson Button, who drove flawlessly again to record his first dry win in a McLaren.  His win was another example of stunning driving and he has totally proved those critics, including myself, who said he made a severe error of judgement in leaving Brawn GP for McLaren in 2009.  Button is now the defunct no.1 at McLaren and I hope he hangs onto second place in the championship.  Again, this win means a lot for Button – with his Japanese girlfriend, Jessica at his side, plus the seven seasons he spent driving for BAR/Honda.  He has a close affinity with Japan and is effectively a second home race.  Jenson is driving out of his skin at the moment and has the ability now to go on and potentially win a second championship.

     The talking point of the race was Vettel’s move on Button at the start of the race.  Having been pipped by 0.009secs in qualifying, Button was keen to get the lead from the start.  He made a slightly better start, but Sebastian gradually squeezed him out of space.  He left Button with a rather brutal choice; back off or risk a crash and sensibly, Jenson chose the former.  However, I’ve seen far worse moves at the start of the race and gone unpunished.  It deserved a closer look with the race stewards, but no more action was taken thankfully.  At last, a decision I agree with this season from the stewards, who sadly have gone back to the inconsistency of 2008.

     As Button continues to blossom, Lewis Hamilton continues to look like a lonely, depressed soul and he has a lot of soul-searching to do over the winter.  Whilst his team-mate has finished on the rostrum in the last five races, Hamilton has managed just four rostrums in 15 races; a sobering statistic for a driver of the highest calibre.  He finished an uneventful fifth at Suzuka and his race also included another run-in with Felipe Massa, AGAIN!  This time, it was a minor clash, which saw Massa come off worse on this occasion.  This time, Felipe attempted to make the most of it and Hamilton is completely blameless.  However, I do find it hard to believe him complaining about vision in his mirrors being impaired.  Come on Lewis, this isn’t the third race of the season, it’s the 15^th.  It is an issue that should have been dealt with by Shanghai at the latest, not at this late stage of the campaign.  These are the sort of issues that Sam Michael will need to address with his arrival next season.

     Having only scored four points in the last six races, Renault arrived in Japan under some sustained pressure from an ever-improving Force India outfit.  Vitaly Petrov stemmed their charge, with a fighting performance to ninth in Japan.  Bruno Senna wasn’t helped when he clipped Petrov in a scramble on the exit of turn two during the first lap.  With plenty of front downforce missing, his race was severely compromised.  It was interesting to see GP2 champion Romain Grosjean sitting on the pitwall, looking like a spare part.  Senna has done a good job in the four races he has competed so far for Renault, but Grosjean deserves a shot before the season’s conclusion, especially as there are continuing doubts about Robert Kubica’s pending return.  Renault’s strategy on tyres was dreadful; so it made Petrov’s drive even more impressive.  Fifth place now looks as good as secure for the team, who will want significant improvements next season.

     Force India now has some fresh investment in the team, from a major Indian company.  The future looks very rosy now for the Silverstone based outfit, but they will have to be disappointed with their Suzuka showing.  Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta both missed out on points, finishing 11^th and 12^th respectively.  Sutil produced the move of the race; on Sauber’s Kamur Kobayashi, which showed a lot of courage and bravery in 130R.  However, they struggled with tyre troubles like Renault and the timing of an unnecessary Safety Car severely hurt their hopes of a double points finishes.  Paul di Resta’s performance was quite admirable, considering as he looked awful all weekend, suffering from a flu bug.

     Also suffering from being under weather was Sergio Perez.  The Mexican looked incredibly pale when speaking to BBC’s David Coulthard on Saturday morning, he might have keeled over.  His non-show in Q2 gave me the thought that he might not participate in the race.  However, the Mexican surprised me, his team and probably himself with a fighting drive to eighth place, his first points since the seventh place result he achieved at Silverstone back in July.  His four points move Sauber, who’ve had a rocky mid-season, back onto Force India’s coattails.  Although Perez’s form has fluctuated over the course of the season, especially since that Monaco crash in May, he has produced enough to hint that he is Ferrari material in the long-term.  Kamur Kobayashi had a poor race and finished down in 13^th place, but qualified well and was supported stoutly by his home crowd.  Kobayashi has done so much to promote his country in the wake of the dreadful tsunami to have hit the country earlier this year and it was a shame he couldn’t bring his car home for points on Sunday.

     Having predicted that Toro Rosso might finish sixth in the constructors championship two races ago, it looks like I put a dark curse on the team.  They have failed to perform in the last two events and now look unlikely to improve on eighth in the championship.  Their cause will not be helped by their mechanics failing to tighten up their wheels in pitstops.  Jaime Alguesuari suffered in China from this and the same fates befall Sebastian Buemi at the weekend.  Had he not had this issue, Buemi might have been right in the mix for points when the chequered flag came out after 53 gruelling laps.    

      There is no doubt who was Driver of the Weekend and that was Jenson Button.  Fastest in every single session over the weekend, except the crucial Q3 session, he looked like he had a mission to accomplish over the three days in Suzuka and he achieved in with consummate ease.  However, Sergio Perez is my surprise nomination for Driver of the Day.  Considering that he looked barely 50 per cent fit, his performance on such a physical driver’s circuit such as Suzuka was very impressive.

      Although the constructor’s championship isn’t quite wrapped up, we can now go racing for fun in the final four races of the season.  Hopefully, F1 2011 can finish on a high and there are still plenty of questions to be asked.  Can Lewis Hamilton recapture his form?  Will Mercedes GP score a podium by the season’s end?  Has Mark Webber got the luck to win a Grand Prix this season?  However, we must salute Sebastian Vettel, a true modern racing legend.

The Finishing Straight - Monaco (by HappyDude88)

THE Monaco Grand Prix provided plenty of talking points, recriminations and celebration.  This is my view of an action-packed weekend;

     Lewis Hamilton’s weekend in Monaco was an absolute disaster.  It ended with a ‘joke’ about his racial colour which was distasteful and disgraceful.  Having said last week in the Spanish blog that I had been impressed with Hamilton’s discipline throughout the season so far, Monaco was totally the opposite.  In qualifying, he had been flying.  He was fastest in Q1 and Q2 and had a golden chance of snatching pole position from the king of Saturday qualifying, Sebastian Vettel.  McLaren made a grave mistake by gambling on just the one run for Hamilton, and when the red flag came out for Sergio Perez’s big accident, their strategy had backfired.  Before this, Hamilton claimed he had been held up by Felipe Massa as he came out of the pits, which certainly seemed a bit far-fetched.  To compound matters, Lewis cut the chicane at the Swimming Pool and had his one qualifying time deleted.  He started out of position in ninth and then frankly drove like an amateur who had failed their driving test miserably on Sunday.  Granted, he pulled off a spectacular pass on Michael Schumacher early on, but his run-ins with Massa and Pastor Maldonado were daft.  

CLUMSY: Hamilton and Massa got into a banging match

     The lunge on Massa into the Loews hairpin, where it is impossible to overtake was clumsy to say the least.  The pair interlocked wheels and continued their race into the Monaco tunnel.  Hamilton forced his way through, which pushed the Ferrari onto the dirty marbles and left Felipe clattering into the barriers.  This bought out the Safety Car.  Lewis got a deserved drive-through penalty for causing the collision, and had the cheek to blame Massa on his team radio; “I went up the inside and he turned in on me.  That was on purpose!”  Well Lewis, if that was on purpose, then I shall eat my summer hat!!  If he wants lessons on purposely turning into corners, then ask Michael Schumacher, he’s a proven expert!

      His run-in with Maldonado was just as bad, and it cost the rookie his first championship points.  After the red flag interlude, for which Lewis should have been disqualified for driving around with a rear wing about to collapse for at least two laps, he dived up the inside and rammed into the Williams at Ste. Devote.  His claim was that Maldonado turned in early, but the replays will indicate that when Lewis made contact, he even used the pitlane exit, not the track!  Stick to the road and you might have a point. . .  He got a time penalty after the race, which did nothing to his finishing position, so it was pointless and it isn’t going to get back Maldonado’s points place.  Afterwards, he called the race stewards a “freckin joke,” blamed Massa and Maldonado, slagged his team off for a diabolical pitstop, then said this; “I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m black.  That’s what Ali G says!”  Martin Whitmarsh ordered his driver back to the race stewards to apologise and Hamilton was ensured that the matter would be resolved there and then.  On Tuesday, it was clear that Lewis had regretted his words and he apologised to his fans, Massa and Maldonado via his Twitter page; “To Massa and Maldonado, with the greatest respect, I apologise if I offended you.  Both of you are fantastic drivers who I regard highly.”

      For me, the incident should now be drawn underneath the line and we must move on.  However, Lewis Hamilton is a lucky lad to not face any further action from the FIA for his derogatory comments.  Whether it was a joke or not, it doesn’t matter, his comments have no place in today’s society and he is experienced enough now to know better.  I hope in Canada, I can talk more positively about Lewis Hamilton rather than all the negatives of this race.

      Away from Hamilton’s horror weekend, the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix was the worst for serious accidents in a single weekend since the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.  In Melbourne a decade ago, Michael Schumacher walked away from rolling his Ferrari in practice, Luciano Burti suffered a suspension failure in his Jaguar during qualifying, which ripped his car into bits and pieces and finally, there was the tragic collision between Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve in the race that led to the fatality of 52-year old trackside marshal Graham Beveridge.  In Monaco, it was the drivers who were more at risk.  

     First, Nico Rosberg crashed during Saturday morning practice, when his Mercedes got unsettled under braking for the Nouvelle chicane.  Rosberg only narrowly missed the tyre barriers head-on by millimetres.  After this scary incident, race director Charlie Whiting insisted that the speed humps in the chicane be removed for qualifying.  It was this action, plus the strength of today’s Grand Prix cars that saved Sergio Perez’s life in qualifying.  

WRECKAGE: Only minor injuries for Sergio Perez after this shunt

      The Mexican rookie had done a brilliant job to reach the final part of qualifying, when he got off-line in the tunnel.  On the notorious bumps, his Sauber went the same way as Rosberg, but the side impact with the wall did its job, even though it was terrifying.  The lack of flailing movement from Perez inside the cockpit just added to the distress for his father and the Sauber team inside the pit garage.  It was a crash that bought echoes about Karl Wendlinger’s shocking shunt at the same place in 1994.  The Austrian went into a deep coma when he crashed his Sauber car in almost the same way as Perez did just a fortnight after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger.  Perez was ruled out of the race by concussion and a thigh injury, but he was released from the Princess Grace Hospital on Monday morning, following two nights in hospital for observational purposes.  He should be fit and raring to go for the next event in Canada next weekend. 

      24 hours later, and another driver was admitted to hospital in a far less significant impact, which could have been tragic.  Vitaly Petrov was released from the same clinic a day earlier than Perez, with minor concussion and bruising after a brush with the barriers which again worried many seasoned observers.  His crash came on lap 69, during a traffic jam, which nearly saw the three race leaders, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button end up being caught up in the melee.  The incident began at Tabac, when Maldonado passed Adrian Sutil and the Force India driver grazed the wall, puncturing a tyre.  As Sutil limped around, Hamilton braked to avoid him and was whacked from behind by Jaime Alguesuari.  With the Toro Rosso using the McLaren as a launch pad, Petrov’s Renault was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Remarkably, Sebastian Buemi, Rosberg and the three leaders got through the wreckage undamaged.  Again, although he had removed his steering wheel, there was a lack of movement from Petrov inside the cockpit, with the Russian complaining of pain in his ankles.  Thankfully, there were no broken bones, but it was the last thing Formula One needed after Perez’s brush with life 24 hours earlier.  In fact, the sport has had three lucky escapes this weekend and it is time to make some radical safety improvements to the Monaco circuit.  The harsh will say that racing cars have just simply outgrown the streets.  Well, without Monaco on the calendar, there’d be no point of a F1 world championship.  Just some urgent track resurfacing and barrier movements should be needed to improve the safety levels around the Principality.  However, this weekend was definitely a wake-up call.

      One driver who must be feeling the pressure now is Jaime Alguesuari.  Whilst Sebastian Buemi collected another point for Toro Rosso, Alguesuari is on seriously borrowed time, especially with the highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo sitting in the wings of the Toro Rosso garage.  Alguesuari struggled all weekend and was knocked out in Q1.  Even worse, he was comprehensively outpaced by the two Lotus cars and spent the first half of the race behind Jarno Trulli.  His race-ending incident, against Hamilton’s McLaren, considering he was a lap down in the melee won’t have impressed anyone.  Franz Tost is known for sacking drivers in mid-season.  Both Scott Speed and Sebastian Bourdais have felt that in the past, and more performances like this and Alguesuari will join them in the ‘Unemployed’ category.  As much as I don’t like to see these things happen to racing drivers, Jaime needs to raise his game and quickly if he doesn’t want to get the boot.  One man who has received the boot is Nick Wirth.  Wirth was the technical director of the Virgin Racing team and another shambles in Monaco has led to his departure.  For the second year running, Timo Glock suffered a scary suspension failure, where he looked to be driving on three wheels.  The Virgin’s are the best part of five seconds slower than the frontrunners and are nowhere near the midfield in Formula One.  In fact, Hispania seem closer to them, than they do to Lotus.  Excuses run very thin in this business and Wirth has paid the price for the 2011 chassis, which is simply, a dreadful racing car.  Handling a Skoda might be a better job and I know from Glock’s body language, that his frustration is plain to see.  Having said that, rookie Jerome D’Ambrosio finished again and the Belgian is doing a creditable job, considering the resources he has at his disposal, which is certainly very limited.

TOP: Another classy weekend for Sebastian Vettel

      Finally, it is time to crown my Driver of the Weekend.  Despite good efforts from Pastor Maldonado and Jenson Button, it goes to the runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel.  Vettel has never gone great around Monaco in the past, despite a fifth and a second place before.  His form over the weekend was once again immaculate.  His driving ability can’t be questioned and he did a wonderful job holding off Alonso and Button on far quicker tyres.  He turned Red Bull’s disastrous pitstops into a race-winning performance.  Of course, he received some well-judged fortune, through the late race suspension, which allowed everyone to change their tyres for the last five laps, but I think Alonso and Button would have struggled to get past anyway.  The champagne is on ice and Sebastian Vettel is walking away with the 2011 world championship.  Canada’s next; another weak Vettel circuit?  Well, considering his form in Barcelona and Monte Carlo, let’s make him the race favourite again then!

The Finishing Straight - Spain (by HappyDude88)

THE teams are gathering in Monte Carlo for the most spectacular and exciting weekend of the calendar.  This gives me the time to reflect on the events of last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.

PUSHED: Vettel was made to work incredibly hard for his win

     Red Bull Racing seems to have all the covers based, against main rivals, McLaren and Ferrari, particularly on a Saturday afternoon.  However, Barcelona showed signs that they can be beaten totally fair and square.  On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton seemed to have the faster, more stable package than Sebastian Vettel.  If only his McLaren could stay close through the last corner, it would be a similar result to China last month.  True, Vettel was hobbled again by the lack of use of KERS during the Grand Prix, but his car did look far more unstable compared to Hamilton.  He was far from comfortable and really had to work hard for his victory on Sunday, unlike previous successes in Australia, Malaysia and Turkey this season.  Some will say that Vettel’s regular successes are now getting boring for the sport.  Thankfully, there is plenty of entertainment further down the field to keep the purists interested. 

     Although Vettel won again on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton must be encouraged by the form and speed that McLaren had last weekend.  Traditionally, Barcelona is seen as a circuit which rewards those teams who have the best technical package around.  Consequently, it will suit Adrian Newey’s team, and it is no secret to look at the previous history of results at the Spanish Grand Prix and see the domination of Williams and McLaren in the 90s here, when Newey was the spearhead of those teams.  So, for McLaren to be so close to race-winning pace was very encouraging.  Hamilton is the best hope for many to challenge for the championship, as long as he stays consistent and continues the discipline he has shown so far in 2011, Malaysia aside.  It is disappointing to see him accuse the likes of Sebastian Buemi, Jamie Alguesuari and Michael Schumacher of deliberately blocking him last weekend, in his pursuit of Vettel.  From watching the race again, I saw no evidence of this, and if Hamilton has anyone to be aggrieved with for blocking, it has to be the Hispania of dopey Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan.  Karthikeyan never seems to check his mirrors at any stage, and is more of a stationary roadblock on the M1 than a racing driver!  Looks like Andrea de Cesaris influence on Grand Prix racing has continued into the 21^st century then!

     Mark Webber will be mystified by his lack of race performance on a circuit, where he has outshone Vettel significantly in the past.  Webber produced a perfect lap in qualifying on Saturday afternoon to end Sebastian’s pole streak, which had stretched back to Brazil last season.  However, 40 seconds behind at flag fall does tell its own story, and the Aussie is likely to be mentally shattered to have been outperformed so dramatically by his younger team-mate, on a Webber-style circuit.  Like Vettel, Webber had limited use of his KERS power boost button during the race, but I was disappointed to see him just sit behind Fernando Alonso’s much slower Ferrari and not do anything about it.  On harder tyres, Alonso was a sitting duck and I expected Mark to breeze past him.  He didn’t, and with the force that Jenson Button showed in passing both Webber and Alonso aggressively in just one lap, it highlights the fact that Mark Webber has never won the world championship, whereas Button has.  That’s the difference; you need to have that killer instinct as a racing driver at all times.  As sad as it is, Mark just doesn’t have that.  It is okay to produce stunning drives like the one he produced in Shanghai, but it has to be done on a consistent basis.  Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Button are all capable of it, and are all world champions.  Sadly, Mark Webber can’t.  I can only see him being an occasional race winner now this season, and riding shotgun to Vettel for the rest of the campaign.  It will have to take a staggering amount of bad luck on Vettel’s side of the garage to allow Mark a shot of the drivers’ championship in 2011.

REWARDED: Alonso got his desserts for a special start

     Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicalli has admitted that their hopes of winning either championship are looking increasingly slim, especially if Vettel continues on his victory charge.  Well, if that’s the case; Stefano will need to pick up his P45 from Luca di Montzemolo with immediate effect.  The highlight of the Grand Prix was Fernando Alonso’s incredible start.  From fourth on the grid, Alonso repeated Jarno Trulli’s trick in 2004 at the same circuit and vaulted into the lead by turn one.  There was a load of bravery, aggression and commitment from Alonso in those first few hundred metres and he deserved the rewards.  The onboard camera from his car off the grid was just a joy to behold.  For twenty laps, the home hero used all of his driving skill to keep the much faster cars from Red Bull and McLaren behind.  Ultimately, as Ferrari had a useless set-up on the harder Pirelli tyres, he was powerless to resist them through the pitstops.  By the end of the race, Fernando had been lapped.  Not his fault, his car is severely limited and Barcelona just highlighted how far Ferrari really is behind.  When a Ferrari is lapped, they will claim it to be a national embarrassment in Italy, and it is.  My advice would be to write this season off and concentrate on next year’s car.  Like Webber, they might win races, but have more chance of winning the EuroMillions jackpot than either world championship!  Felipe Massa had a very poor weekend and was struggling to even rescue a point from it when he stopped with gearbox problems five laps from home.  There is a lot of soul searching to be done at Maranello.

     Youth continues to shine in Formula One and Sergio Perez showed signs that he could be a natural successor to Felipe Massa at Ferrari.  After a breathtaking debut in Australia, which ended in an unfortunate technical disqualification, Perez has gone off the boil, but it has to be expected for the Mexican to have peaks and troughs in his rookie season.  He looked strong all weekend in Catalunya, outqualifying and outracing Kamur Kobayashi.  Plus, he passed Massa on-track, although the Brazilian was already struggling with a gearbox problem.  This time, his points stood and they won’t be the last this season.  Credit has to be given to Kobayashi too, as he had contact with Jaime Alguesuari on the first lap and had to pit to replace a punctured tyre.  To come back to tenth and the final championship point is then some effort.  Sauber have a very good motor car this season, and they could well be challenging Renault to be best of the rest behind the four main teams; Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull by the end of the season.

     A driver who is under a great deal of pressure, both on and off the track is Force India’s Adrian Sutil.  Sutil’s dalliance at not signing a contract extension last season with the Silverstone based team angered some members inside the team.  His 2011 season did start with points in Australia, but he is struggling to recapture the form he showed in the closing stages of 2009 and early exchanges of 2010.  After the Chinese race on April 17, Sutil is reported to have been involved in a nightclub incident with the chief executive of Genii Capital, Eric Lux.  Genii Capital owns the Renault Formula One team.  Lux has filed a criminal complaint against Sutil, who could go the same way as Bertrand Gachot did in 1991, when the Belgian was unfairly jailed for spraying CS gas at a London taxi driver.  With Paul di Resta continuing to outperform him on the circuit, this is a tough time in Sutil’s career, both personally and at his occupation.  It is clear that the German’s performances have suffered; due to the lack of technical development from his Force India team, plus the penalties that hang over his head should he be found guilty of this nightclub incident.  I’m pleased to see Vijay Mallya has come out in support of Sutil and will honour his contract.  The ‘innocent till proven guilty’ aspect is the right way to go, and I just hope that Adrian Sutil, who is one of my favourite F1 drivers can pick his form up, fight these charges off and turn his career around from this stalling point.

BLAZING: The charred remains of Nick Heidfeld's Renault

     Finally, Hamilton is my driver of the day, for his relentless pursuit of Vettel, but Nick Heidfeld deserves a special mention.  On Saturday morning, a spectacular exhaust fire saw Heidfeld forced to abandon his burning Renault chassis.  Despite the best attempts from his mechanics, Nick had no chance of qualifying, so he had to start last.  Granted, he had six sets of fresh tyres available, but on a track where overtaking is normally impossible – it looked set to be a fruitless weekend.  Come the end, Nick had been able to climb from 24^th to finish eighth, which was a great performance and had the race ran two more laps, it would have been sixth.  However, with team-mate Vitaly Petrov starting sixth, running fifth early on and ending up out of the points, it does reveal a qualifying flaw.  Saturday is starting to become a non-event, and I’d like to see the FIA make some tweaks to flatten out the Saturday failings with Sunday’s action.  Let’s see what will happen this weekend in Monaco.  It could be interesting to watch, especially with DRS available.  Don’t miss it!

F1 2011 preview (Part 2)

THE new Formula One season begins this weekend, two weeks later than initially planned.  The Australian Grand Prix takes over the mantelpiece of the F1 opener, after Bahrain’s cancellation, following the current unrest in the Middle East.  With another big shake-up in the rules, another new race in India to look forward to and a rather stable driver market this time around, 2011 can beat the drama of 2010.  Can Sebastian Vettel defend his title?  Will Fernando Alonso bounce back from last year’s Abu Dhabi heartbreak?  How will Renault fare without Robert Kubica?  Is Michael Schumacher going to prove his critics wrong?  Have McLaren been sandbagging in testing?  All the talking stops this weekend in Albert Park, so here’s the inside guide.  

Force India Mercedes

14           Adrian Sutil (GER)

15           Paul di Resta (BRI)

As 2010 continued, Force India dropped down the pecking order and 2011 could turn into a very tough one for the Silverstone-based team.  The loss of key technical staff is James Key and Mark Smith has hit the team hard and testing form suggests that they could be looking backwards rather than forwards in the incoming campaign.  Adrian Sutil is a proven point’s scorer and ditched his accident-prone image last year to score some solid points results.  He will do well to match his best results of 5^th in Malaysia and Spa last season.  After four seasons in DTM, culminating in the 2010 championship, Scot Paul di Resta joins the grid.  He deserves his chance, and is bound to be more of a match for Sutil than Vitantonio Liuzzi ever was.  However, the car’s ultimate lack of pace could be the downfall for these two talented racers.

Sauber-Ferrari

16           Kamur Kobayashi (JPN)

17           Sergio Perez (MEX)

The distinctive feature of the Sauber last year was no sponsorship whatsoever.  However, with rich Mexican businessman Carlos Slim onboard, that changes in 2011.  Young Mexican Sergio Perez’s arrival is a interesting move, as it means there will be a lack of experience on the driver front.  Perez looks either fast or wreckless and he is bound to add a lot of flair and charisma to the team.  They have plenty of that in Kamur Kobayashi already.  The Japanese is expected to thrill everyone again with his no holds barred attitude of driving and has all the talent in the world, if he tones down on the wackiness that can lead the Japanese into serious trouble.  The car looks very promising but it may need early development if they wish to be regular point’s scorers.

Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari

18           Sebastian Buemi (SUI)

19           Jaime Alguesuari (SPA)

The departures of Gerhard Berger and Sebastian Vettel hit Toro Rosso very hard at the end of 2008, and they haven’t recovered since.  The car looks very strong and far more consistent than its previous challengers.  Even Lewis Hamilton has told the media to keep a watch on them.  Sebastian Buemi enters his third season and was a massive disappointment last season.  The Swiss driver is under pressure to deliver, especially with the highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings as third driver.  Buemi will need to perform from the off, if he doesn’t want to go the same way as Scott Speed and Sebastian Bourdais; in earning the sack mid-season.  Plus, we know Franz Tost doesn’t accept any excuses.  Jamie Alguesuari is in a slightly more secure position and has the knack to pull off some daring overtaking moves.  He needs to improve his qualifying performances, and eliminate some of the careless driving which you’d expect to see from a rush hour driver on the M25’s hard shoulder!  With Ricciardo waiting and watching, the loser of this team-mate battle is likely to be out of F1, so this could be an intriguing watch.

Team Lotus Renault

20           Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)

21           Jarno Trulli (ITA)

Team Lotus, as they are now known were the class of the new teams in 2010, and have closed the gap to the midfield in winter testing.  With two experience racers and a strong reserve in Karun Chandok, excuses will be less vain this season.  The move to Renault engines and gearboxes has caused some severe reliability bugs, which has consequently hurt their testing mileages.  However, don’t be surprised if they begin to give Toro Rosso and Force India some severe headaches this season.  Points are a necessity this time around and Heikki Kovalainen looks a class driver, after his mere at McLaren.  Kovalainen is expected to lead the team from the front again and will cause some giant-killing upsets, similar to Takuma Sato at Super Aguri in 2007.  Jarno Trulli’s speed over one lap is still as strong as ever, but his racecraft last year was frankly dismal.  2011 is surely Jarno’s last chance to fulfil anything decent onto his CV, otherwise he will end up like Olivier Panis; winning the Monaco Grand Prix once and did very little else with so much supposed talent.

HRT-Cosworth

22           Narain Karthikeyan (IND)

23           Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA)

Is this becoming the ‘Andrea Moda’ of 2011?  Remember that joke of the 1992 team that evaded taxes, cars broke down meters from rolling out of the garage.  Well, having your entire car failing to get through customs certainly qualifies for this title.  Narain Karthikeyan is only on board for Indian sponsorship whilst Vitantonio Liuzzi will bring experience of driving for backmarker teams.  With no pre-season testing AGAIN, it is once again going to be a battle for survival till the end of the season for HRT.

Marussia Virgin-Cosworth

24           Timo Glock (GER)

25           Jerome D’Ambrosio (BEL)

They were F1’s joke team of 2010, especially by not building a fuel tank big enough to finish the early season races.  However, the future looks bright, especially with backing from Russian sportscar brand Marussia and a confident new rookie in Jerome D’Ambrosio.  Timo Glock drove brilliantly in the second half of last season and will be there to pick up the pieces and grab the odd point, but they will struggle to be regular midfield runners.

Rules

As with nearly every F1 season, there have been some changes to the rules this season.  The 107% rule returns for qualifying for the first time since 2002 to prove that cars are quick enough to race, this will only apply to Q1 and if the qualifying session is wet, the rule will not be used.  Pirelli replaces Bridgestone as the tyre supplier and has been challenged by the FIA to produce a tyre that grains more and causes drivers to pit more often.  So far, this seems to have worked and it certainly spice up the racing.

     KERS returns after a season away and is once again optional for the teams to use it or not.  The most innovative concept for 2011 is an adjustable rear wing, which will aid more overtaking particularly on very long straights.  Gearboxes must now last five races instead of four in another case of cost cutting measures and the safety car rules have been tweaked once again with the overtake line abolished after the controversy surrounding it last year, meaning drivers again can only overtake when they’ve crossed the start/finish line at the restart.

For the 2011 season, I will be posting the following on the Formula One season

- A race report from all 19 events in the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship

- NEW! F1 classic races (A brief lookback at six/seven classic events from the country that is about to stage a race that weekend)

- NEW! Replacing 'The Conclusions' will be a new personal blog.  'The Finishing Straight' by HappyDude88 will be online every Tuesday after the Grand Prix weekend, where I will be giving my own personal take on the weekend's events.