2011 Italian Grand Prix - Another cruise and collect for Vettel

UNEXPECTED: RBR's season domination continued at Monza

SEBASTIAN Vettel can mathematically become the youngest ever back-to-back Formula 1 world champion in a fortnight in Singapore after another flawless performance.  The German won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza today by a canter.  It was his eighth win of the season and he could have pitted, had a cigar and a cup of coffee and still exited in the lead.  That’s how dominant he was.  Despite being beaten off the line by a flying Fernando Alonso, the shorter gear ratio gamble that Vettel’s side of the Red Bull garage made yesterday paid off handsomely.  He used grass to re-pass Alonso after a brief Safety Car period and led afterwards throughout the final European race of the season.

     Having stormed to pole position by half a second yesterday on what was supposed to be Red Bull’s weakest circuit; Vettel made an average getaway and had to fend off Lewis Hamilton on the rundown to the tight first chicane.  However, Alonso, coming from fourth on the grid repeated his stunning start in Barcelona to lead the cars into the first corner.  However, there was carnage behind the leaders.  HRT’s Daniel Ricciardo failed to get off the grid, whilst Jerome D’Ambrosio clutch broke yards into the start of the race.  Seconds later, the second Hispania of Vitantonio Liuzzi got onto the grass and spun into the middle of the pack.  His car collected the unfortunate victims; Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg.  All three cars were eliminated, whilst Adrian Sutil, Kamur Kobayashi and Rubens Barrichello all picked up significant damage which ruined their afternoons.

CLASH: Webber clouts Massa, which ultimately ends his race

      Alonso led Vettel, Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa behind the Safety Car, but the Ferrari was simply no match for the Red Bull accelerating out of the chicanes.  On lap four, Vettel made his move stick at the second chicane, despite a robust defence from Alonso and drove into the distance.  A lap later, Mark Webber, who had passed Jenson Button off the restart, attempted the same crushing manoeuvre on Massa.  He hit the high kerbs in the first chicane, clouted Massa and spun the Ferrari around.  With the front wing buried underneath his aerodynamic floor, the Red Bull didn’t even bother turning into Parabolica and Webber went straight to the scene of the accident.  It is the first time since Korea 2010 that one of the Red Bull’s has failed to finish a Grand Prix.

     The main dice on the track was between former champions Michael Schumacher and Hamilton.  Schumacher had pounced on a sleepy Hamilton at the Safety Car restart and the Mercedes GP’s useful speed on the straights, combined with some cautious Hamilton driving kept the Brit frustrated for most of the day.  There were times when Schumacher moved across the track to defend his position more than once, with one instance leaving Hamilton on the grass at Curva Grande.  Button took advantage of the scrapping duo and he passed both cars in quick succession before the first tyre stops, to set off after Alonso.

      Having been warned by the FIA for his defensive driving tactics, Schumacher eventually gave best to Hamilton shortly after the first pitstops.  Button had a near-miss in the pits, when Rubens Barrichello almost squeezed him into the pitwall whilst making his second stop.  This minor delay meant he failed to clear Alonso, but the Ferrari struggled on cold hard tyres and Button pounced on the exit of the first chicane with 13 laps to go to claim second place.  In the closing stages, Hamilton closed right in on Alonso, but ran out of time and opportunity to make a pass stick.

      Whilst all the action was happening behind him, Vettel had a lonely run towards another victory, which now leaves him 112 points ahead of nearest rival Alonso.  He looked emotional on the podium, three years after winning here in a Toro Rosso, largely because Red Bull was expected to struggle around this racetrack.  15 seconds behind and Button finished an excellent second to continue his recent rich vein of form, whilst Alonso picked up the maximum available again, with a podium finish.  With Hamilton and Schumacher next up, it was the first ever race in world championship history that saw five world champions finish in the top five positions.  Massa had to settle for sixth, whilst Jaime Alguesuari collected yet more points for Toro Rosso in seventh place.  With Sergio Perez being ruled out by transmission problems, Paul di Resta finished a creditable eighth for Force India, with Bruno Senna and Sebastian Buemi taking the final points on offer.  For Senna, these were his first ever world championship points since making his Grand Prix debut last season for Hispania.

     So, the European season concludes with yet another Sebastian Vettel dominant performance.  He has the title in the bag now, and it only needs conformation.  If things go his way, it could be settled in a fortnight’s time.  Let’s hope F1 2011 can go out with a bang in the final six flyaway events of the season, beginning with the fourth night race in Singapore in two weeks.    

F1 2010 (The Computer Game Review)

BY JASON WRIGHT

Although the support of Formula 1 has grown in recent times, for several years now, its place in the gaming market has been very much in the doldrums.  The axing of EA Sports’ take on the series in 2003 meant the titles became PlayStation exclusive as they were made by Sony.   Though these games still were massive bestsellers, Sony hardly developed and improved the format and with the titles became boring and repetitive, finally having its contract terminated in 2007.

It wasn’t until March 2008 when the FOM decided to award a new contract.  Codemasters was given the rights to restore F1 to its former glory in the games world.  The decision was soon taken to only release a 2009 version of the game on the PSP and Nintendo Wii, intending to put all its effort into 2010 for it to really attract the likes of Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the former of which has never had an F1 game until now.

Utilising their self-titled ‘EGO’ games engine, which has made the Race Driver and Colin McRae DIRT titles such a success, the task was simple but as always, complicated.  To not only give the player the experience of racing in F1 but to live the life off the track as well.

As expected, the game is mainly built around the career mode.  Unlike in the Sony versions, the player jumps straight into the championship, without having to go through the daunting task of earning a super license, compete in a shoot-out for a race seat or take part in pre-season testing.  Starting with one of the three new teams on the grid for this season, Hispania Racing F1 Team, Virgin Racing or Lotus Racing, it’s the player’s ultimate task to be successful, rise through the ranks to the point that they are eventually racing for a championship challenger like McLaren-Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing.  The player has the choice of stopping after their third of fifth season in the sport but after having done seven seasons (in this case, the year 2016), that’s it, they will have to retire.

It is what’s off the grid that adds excitement to the game.  Never before has the player been able to talk to media, which varies from whatever language the game is in, (the English version allows you to speak to BBC Radio 5 Live’s David Croft and Holly Samos.)  These interviews can seem innocent but players have to watch out, just the small word of criticism spoken can land the player in hot water with their team.  Performances in races also matter, out-race your more experienced team-mate and you can get first call in technical upgrades on the car.  You also get an agent, named Gabriella, who sounds Italian, who will handle contract negotiations and transfers to a new team.

Sony’s ultimate letdown in recent years was its tedious AI (Artificial Intelligence) system which usually had the cars racing around in a straight line with no action, changes in order only happened in pit-stops.  Codemasters has been extremely careful not to repeat this mistake and bases each circuit and weather condition on deciding whose best in those particular environments.  Good examples are that Felipe Massa may be the one to beat in Turkey as he’s won three times in the last five years there and Lewis Hamilton could be the one to watch out for in wet weather because of his strong drives in these conditions in real life.  It actually also has cars crashing into one another at any time.  Players have to also watch out for hazards such as bits of bodywork on the track or a stranded car on the racing line.  This does though have a downside that this game does not have any mechanical failures or a Safety Car.  Codemasters has had the decency to admit this before its release and has already confirmed it will work to bring back mechanical retirements for the 2011 game, although whether the safety car will also return remains to be seen.

Advanced technology in games has allowed the opportunity to provide the best wet weather racing yet.  Skill and nerve is what’s required now, just like in real life, in order to master the tricky conditions.  The dynamic weather setting will allow to automatically selecting the most common conditions for each circuit.  Malaysia, Belgium and Japan are perhaps prime examples of where it is most likely to rain.

Other missing features include no race commentary, instead receiving constant feedback from your race engineer via team radio.  Some players though might consider this as a good thing as in-race commentary could distract their progress in trying to listen to it.  After all, who wants to listen to the tedious Jonathan Legard!  It is also not possible to watch live footage of either practice or qualifying when in the garage, instead relying on just the live timing page.  Also, there is no World Championship mode this year though the grand prix weekend mode allows up to all 19 races on the F1 calendar to be contested at any one time, auto saving in between, so players can race the full championship calendar, or for the first time ever, ability to mix up the order of the races (e.g. you could possibly want to go to Singapore first and have Britain as the season finale).

In conclusion, the gamble that Codemasters in rushing through 2009 and fully committing to 2010 has well and truly paid off.  As long as they make significant improvements year after year, this completely heralds a new dawn for F1 games.

2010 Monaco Grand Prix - The Conclusions

In this piece, I will be assessing ten key features from each Grand Prix weekend from the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.  Just seven short days from the return to Europe, F1 moved to its more glamorous venue, the style and class of the principality that is Monte Carlo.  This race provided the typical Monaco, drama full of thrills and spills, despite a frontline procession and many talking points afterwards.  So, this is race six of 2010, which drivers need to improve with 33% of the season complete, and who is on top of their game so far.

Mark Webber – What a Difference a Fortnight Makes

Two weeks ago, Mark Webber was languishing in 8^th place in the drivers’ championship, having produced some very erratic performances, and his position at Red Bull Racing was looking under severe scrutiny.  Two races later, he has an equal share for the lead in the world championship, with two absolute masterful performances in Spain and then again, in Monaco.  Red Bull would now be making a severe error of judgement if they allowed this experienced Aussie out of their grasp.  Not only has Webber been impressive, he has dismantled the highly-rated Sebastian Vettel in the past fortnight, not bad going against the young German, who many people’s tip to become world champion this season.  Mark has looked so in control with his car throughout these races, he never put a foot and didn’t look it either.  You can’t ask more for two dominant back-to-back successes can you?  Mark Webber is now a serious championship player and momentum in Formula One is a big imperative to have, something which he currently has in abundance. 

Damon & Michael Clash Again – Fair Or Foul!

When BRDC president Damon Hill was confirmed as the expert steward for the Monaco Grand Prix, I was concerned of his appointment, largely because of his possible bias towards the British drivers, and the hatred with the great Michael Schumacher.  Sure enough, with the latter, I was sadly proven right.  Schumacher was punished after the race with a ridiculous 20-second penalty for overtaking Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari on the last corner of the race, under a Safety Car.  Now, in 2009 regulations, that is totally illegal, but the rules have changed for 2010, which allow drivers to start overtaking after the final white line before the start-finish straight.  However, article 40.3 in the complex rules state that doesn’t happen on the last lap of the race.  With two differing viewpoints from Mercedes and Ferrari, plus two such fiery characters in Alonso and Schumacher, this one was always bound to cause controversy.  Ferrari believed the rulebook, Ross Brawn was convinced we were racing, as backed up by green flags, no Safety Car boards and messages from race control ‘Safety Car in this Lap.’  Mercedes have chosen not to appeal, probably best for the interests of the sport, but urgent clarification is required to stop this from happening again.  As for Damon, swapping back the positions would have been seen as a fairer viewing, but a penalty that drops Schumacher out of the points is incredibly harsh.  The bitter enemies from 1994 and 1995 have clashed again, and Hill has done no favours for his integrity on this one.  Mercedes and Michael Schumacher have a firm right to be aggrieved about this questionable steward and his decision-making.

Robert Kubica – Is A Drive With The Scuderia Beckoning?

Robert Kubica is one of the star drivers of 2010 so far, and his performance around the streets of Monte Carlo was absolutely sensational.  Renault is steadily improving, but are still no better than scraping their cars into Q3.  So, Kubica, normally starting around 7^th-9^th, produced an incredible qualifying performance to bang his car on the front row.  An aggressive thought on trying to pass Webber off the line failed, as he was gazumped by Vettel and almost by Felipe Massa, but Robert dug in and kept Vettel firmly honest all afternoon.  A 3^rd place finish was a brilliant result, and points to the fact how much the Pole has been getting the maximum out of this chassis.  Actually, he looked a bit disappointed on the rostrum, which suggests he felt he could have done even better.  Team-mate Vitaly Petrov had another accident this weekend, and is struggling to keep up with Kubica, despite his flashes of speed and talent.  With Massa still not in the groove at Maranello and performances like this from Robert, these constant rumours about him moving to Ferrari are only going to get stronger with each race.

Fernando Alonso – A Costly Error

He admitted it on Saturday morning; Fernando Alonso made a costly error that could have severe implications for his world championship bid.  Having dominated Thursday practice, the Spaniard was early favourite to take the top step of the podium, until he locked up, ran wide and found the magnetic attraction of the Monaco barriers at Massenet.  It looked a slow crash, but the damage was very bad, so much so that he had to sit out qualifying with a cracked chassis.  Once again on Sunday, as in Australia and China, Fernando showed his class to fight through from a pitlane start to an eventual 6^th place finish, despite the final lap controversy with Michael Schumacher.  He was aided by the Safety Car and clever tactics more than demon overtaking for this result, but it is more essential points.  However, if Alonso loses the title by less than ten points, he will look back on this grave error on Saturday morning as the death knell in his championship charge.

Mercedes GP - Too Many Mistakes Are Hurting Them

Once again, it was a hard luck story for Mercedes GP in Monaco, with traffic errors in qualifying ruining their race prospects.  Nico Rosberg was quickest by some margin in Q2, but inadvertently blocked his team-mate Michael Schumacher on his best lap, and then lost the tyre temperature on his final run to launch a significant challenge.  Instead of giving Red Bull headaches for the front row, the German challenge wound up back in 6^th and 7^th.  Schumacher was highly critical of Rosberg, and Rosberg looked incredibly frustrated by another missed opportunity.  On raceday, Rubens Barrichello jumped them both off the line, finishing off any outside hopes of a podium challenge.  A meagre 7^th placed finish for Rosberg must be seen to the team as really disappointing.  Too many mistakes are hurting Mercedes and I now can’t see them launching any significant championship bid in either title battle.  Monaco could have been a turning point in their season, but instead it was just another backwards step from last year’s champions, in their Brawn GP guise.

Rubens Barrichello - How Not To Lose Your Cool!

In an F1 career, spanning nearly 300 races, Rubens Barrichello has been a lucky boy down the years, as apart from his horror shunt on the nightmare Imola weekend of 1994, he hasn’t had many brutal smashes down the years.  Sunday’s shunt in Monaco therefore must be seen as one of his biggest.  Barrichello was in top-form this weekend, doing well to make Q3 in the underperforming Williams, then rising up to 6^th with a great start.  Though he dropped behind the Mercedes pair after the pitstops, solid points were up for grabs until Lap 29, when a sudden failure of his right-rear tyre, saw the disintegrating wheel buckle underneath his car, and send him into two hard smashes with the guardrail on the run up to Massenet.  It was lucky that no cameramen, photographers or the closing cars, Vitantonio Liuzzi or Sebastian Buemi were struck by any debris from the Brazilian’s out-of-control Williams.  However, his next action was petulant and unnecessary.  Rubens tossed out his steering wheel, which was later run over by both Hispania F1 entries, which could have had worse consequences.  The stewards didn’t penalise Barrichello for this, which shows what a rubbish day they had, as he had no regard for anyone else’s safety.  A fine and slap on the wrist should have been fully merited.  This was the perfect way not to lose your cool.

Jarno Trulli - Retirement Beckons?

The two Lotus drivers are a total different breed at the moment, and for Jarno Trulli, he looks like he doesn’t want to be driving such a slow machine anymore.  Heikki Kovalainen is driving out of his skin at the moment, always with a smile on his face and very optimistic with the future, totally understanding that the Lotus plan is a long-term venture.  Quite clearly, Trulli wants instant progress and that doesn’t happen overnight.  An absolutely daft attempt to pass Karun Chandok’s Hispania into Rascasse with four laps to go showed he might have been thinking about growing more wine in his vineyard over in Italy.  It could have had terrible outcomes for Chandok, with Trulli’s errant chassis nearly striking the poor Indian on the head.  This incident sums up Jarno’s season, and if he doesn’t want to be in the circus anymore, he should walk before he takes Lotus’s promising morale with him.  I can’t see him lining up on the grid much sooner if he continues to put in these clumsy overtaking attempts and sleepy performances.

Sticky Airguns and a Near Fatal Outcome - A Weekend to Forget For The New Boys

For the new boys, Monaco just showed how far they are off the pace in what is turning out to be a trying season.  Having shown some improvements in the early flyaway races, Hispania have gone miles off the pace.  In fact, some GP2 cars were lapping faster around the streets than Karun Chandok and Bruno Senna, which must question the wisdom why, are they in the sport?  Virgin’s ridiculous season continued, with both Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi drowning at sea, in a car that is handling ugly and quite frankly, a tortoise has more chance of finishing a race at the moment.  Lotus has shown gradual improvement, especially with Heikki Kovalainen at the wheel, but they haven’t made the steps they were hoping for, both in reliability and speed.  None of the six drivers in the new teams finished, due to a catalogue of problems, including wonky suspensions, sticky airguns and outrageous overtaking passes.  Although I feel sorry for some of these drivers, namely Chandok and di Grassi for the equipment they have, these teams must buck up their ideas now; otherwise the 107% regulation needs to make an urgent return.  Only Kovalainen is giving them any valuable credit so far this season, which is disappointing to say.

Force India - Quiet, But Staying Out Of Trouble

Force India haven’t made a dramatic impact on the 2010 Formula One season so far, but they are staying out of trouble and consequently, are regular points scorers.  Only in China they haven’t registered a point so far this season and their first double points finish of the campaign will give the Silverstone-based team some more confidence of greater improvements.  Adrian Sutil is a changed man from last season.  Sutil has always been fast, but had a massive tendency to get involved in stupid accidents/collisions.  This year, he has calmed down, matured more and the results are starting to deliver.  Had it not been for a poor qualifying session, Adrian might have well been fighting for the top six in the race.  By contrast, Vitantonio Liuzzi has been coming under stern pressure from the Scot test driver Paul di Resta for his drive.  Following two excellent points showings early on, Liuzzi’s form has taken a major nosedive, with forgettable weekends in Shanghai and Barcelona.  However, the Italian reminded us what he could do in Monte Carlo, by outqualifying Sutil, making the top ten and finishing 9^th, having matched Sutil all weekend.  This was a very quiet, but encouraging weekend for Force India.  Watch them fly on the lower-downforce circuits such as Montreal, Spa and Monza later in the season; they could be serious podium contenders very soon. 

Six Races In - What Have We Learned So Far & What's To Come!

So, with one-third of the season complete, what have we learned so far?  Well, Red Bull are miles infront of the rest of the competition and have set some worryingly alarm bells off at many of their rival factories.  After a brilliant start in Bahrain, Ferrari has gone steadily backwards, and only luck is keeping them right in the thick of the title battle.  McLaren had a weekend to forget in Monte Carlo, and still need better qualifying pace.  However, their race pace is still a strong note, and they could well turn into McLaren’s closest challengers.  Renault, Force India and Toro Rosso have been surprises, whilst Williams and particularly Sauber need serious improvements fast, otherwise they will be cut off completely from the midfield group.  Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Rosberg and Kovalainen are the star drivers so far in 2010, whilst the likes of Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Massa, Kobayashi and Buemi need to up their game.  Istanbul is next, one of Tilke’s best tracks, and then comes a welcome return to Montreal, which always provides classic events.  There is a load more to come in F1 2010, it has been a encouraging start to the new formula.