Racing | Dave Kean

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127 Words about Jerez (and ugly noses)

Written on February 12, 2012 by Dave in Personal, Racing

I was going to carve out a little time this morning to look at the times from the first F1 pre-season test at Jerez. But then I realized why?

I could put down five or six hundred words about times, but as with every other year no one really has a clue what’s going on.

The headlines are
• Times went down over the test
• The step noses on the cars are ugly
• Ferrari have a lot of work to do, but it’s promising
• Hamilton looked good
• Red Bull were fast
• Torro Rosso, Lotus and Force India did OK
• The step noses on the cars are really ugly

Absolutely nothing there we did not know before the test started and I just saved myself a bunch of time.
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And the 2012 F1 Season…

Written on January 15, 2012 by Dave in Racing

2011 was a good year for F1, the stats are excelent, more over taking thanks to a combination of aero changes, the Drag-Reduction-System (DRS), the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the tires that gave tremendous grip, for a while.

But it could have been more competitive. Perhaps we were just spoiled by maybe the best championship in the history of the sport in 2010. With Kimi Raikkonon returning for 2012 (admittedly with Lotus) there are 6 world champions on the grid, and that’s got to be good.

Lets be clear, Vettel won his second world championship in style. It became little predicable and was wrapped up with four races to go. But such was the speed of Vettel and the Red Bull that there was little real doubt after Valencia. The constructor’s championship (which is what the teams get paid by) was tied up one race later.

Vettels ability in the first couple of laps to pull out a significant lead over everyone was astounding. That first lap was critical and made it clear that baring a mistake, everyone else was running for second.

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And it’s all over now…

Written on October 9, 2011 by Dave in Racing

Sebastian Vettel finally tied it all up last night in a fascinating Japanese Grand Prix. Lets be clear, it’s been a while since there was anything other than mathematical doubt as to who was going to win the drivers titles this year.

It’s been another compelling season of racing and the comfort of Vettel’s championship, won with four races left, had taken little of the drama away.

The winning margin this year is impressive because both the driver and the team cut out the mistakes. Last year he was clearly the quickest, but errors by both parties cost him points on more than one occasion. This year there was none of that, just a team and driver at their very best.

I can think of only two significant errors this year, and that is remarkable. The last lap mistake in Canada that gave Jenson Button an outstanding win, and a spin in Germany, that’s it.

Nine wins and twelve pole positions in fifteen races is impressive. Yes, there were weekends where he was dominant, but there were others where he had to fight for every point and did so. But wait there’s more, he’s the only driver to have finished every race and what’s more finished every race except for Germany on the podium. That’s impressive.

Perhaps his most dominant weekend was Turkey, it was clear from the Friday times that everyone else was looking at second. Team principal Christian Horner was asked after qualifying by one of the press pack if Vettel had any weakness. He replied, “Yes, when he turned up this weekend he had quite a dodgy haircut.”

It was the same story in Australia, Valencia, Belgium, Italy and a couple of others. Monaco was shaping up to be an outstanding fight to the end before a safety car ruined the spectacle.

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Montreal GP – Qualifying

Written on June 11, 2011 by Dave in Pictures, Racing

So today was final practice followed a couple of hours later by qualifying. A very interesting day at the track. Vettel looked good, easily leading the practice session and took a fairly comfortable pole by almost two-tenths of a second.

Ferrari (and their thousands of supporters) must be content with their speed this weekend. A little distance behind Vettel, but clear of everyone else.

The practice session ended early when Sauber driver Pedro de la Rosa (who will be buying a lot of mechanics dinner tonight) brought out the red flag right at the end after damaging both the front and the back of his Sauber exiting Turn Four. It was clear early that the McLarens were off the pace this morning, taking fifth and sixth, and well over a second off the pace.

One note, Mark Webber never took part in the morning session after problems with the car.

Then to qualifying and times were not for credit. The Q1 session (to get the top 17) threw up a couple of surprises, the HRT have been (relatively) quick this weekend, both drivers qualified comfortably and for once was not bottom of the timesheets, that honour went to Jerome D’Ambrosio’s Virgin. Liuzzi had a big spin in Q1, but ended up 21^st (out of 24) and the team seemed very happy with having both cars in the race.

Best of the new boys was Lotus (as usual), but still a little space to make up with the rest. Jaime Alguersuari was the last driver not to make it to Q2, the team has looked good at times this year and this is about where he’s been all weekend (I love having the printouts, makes it easier to compare).

After Q2 it was the usual suspects, Red Bull, Renault (paint looks even better up close), Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes all made it through to the final qualifying session.

This Q3 session does make great TV and today worked well live. It’s a very exciting five minutes with drivers clearly driving right on the edge in the hunt for pole.

Vettel really did look in control and knew what he had to do, and did it. He does make it look effortless and that’s the sign of a great driver. And unlike that “other” German actually seems to have a personality.

Alonso won the battle between the two Ferraris, beating Massa by a tiny 18-hundreths of a second. Alonso’s final lap was on the monitors at the track and he looked like he gave it everything to claim P2. Great stuff to watch.

Mark Webber was fourth, while McLaren and Lewis Hamilton were disappointed with only fifth. Nico Rosberg was sixth, Button seventh ahead of Schumacher. There is a significant gap between these drivers and the top three.

I get the feeling McLaren fancied their chances this weekend; they are off the pace and seemed rather mystified as to why.

Qualifying behind both Red Bulls and Ferraris was unexpected. A lot of people felt this was the weekend they track were supposed to start to make up ground and the ultimate pace is not close. Tomorrow is race day, nothing counts for points yet, but there were a lot of worried looks on the faces of the McLaren engineers this evening as they try to work out a solution.

The biggest question is what’s the weather going to do. The forecast is for showers tonight and through out tomorrow. That will make for a very difficult and unpredictable day for all.

What ever happens it’s going to be fun tomorrow. All by itself the noise of 24 F1 cars live is earth shatteringly incredible. Tonight is a reception and once again I will use the trouser press for something other than making toasties…

Time to leave the track, back to the hotel and nap time!

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Monreal GP – Friday Practice

Written on June 10, 2011 by Dave in Personal, Racing

Made it to the track for the afternoon practice session. It was stopped a couple of times for accidents, but it ended with Alonso fastest, almost 0.369 seconds ahead of Vettel. Massa was third, Ferrari must be happy with that, even if in reality it means very little. McLarens are fourth and fifth, while di Resta ends a creditable sixth.

Good gosh it’s fun to hear F1 cars being driven in anger again. Very much looking forward to qualifying tomorrow when drivers start to push a little harder.

Big thank you for Brian for the tickets and invite to dinner tonight, time to press my trousers and put on a clean shirt . But first it’s nap time for an hour or two.

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Protected: Day 3 – How black can humour get?

Written on June 6, 2011 by Dave in Personal, Racing

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Here is the Barcelona thingie

Written on May 22, 2011 by Dave in Personal, Racing

Barcelona in the book and Vettel has made it four wins out of five this season, a dominance reminiscent of Schumacher at is best. Today he did not have it all his own way and worked hard to fight off a great effort by Lewis Hamilton.

Clearly the Red Bull is the class of the field, but McLaren can be encouraged by their showing and for a time Hamilton did something I don’t think anyone else has done this season and took the battle to Vettel. The Red Bull driver did what the greats do and responded with faster and faster laps in what turned out to be a great duel in an entertaining race.

The Red Bull car was at it’s best on the fast, sweeping parts of the track and able to pull out enough of a lead in the final corners of that Hamilton had no chance under braking into the first turn. It would seem that once we get past the lottery of Monaco the following two races in Montreal and Valencia could suit the Red Bulls very well.

Barcelona is not a track renown for it’s overtaking, and after the record number of on-track position changes in Turkey it was going to be interesting to see what the Drag-Reduction-System (DRS) did here.

DRS is complex, but essentially if the second driver is a second behind the leading driver at a certain point on the track (Activation Line) they are allowed to open up a rear flap, reduce their drag along a designated straight and gain a little speed to challenge for the corner.

In the second half of the race Hamilton was almost always within a second as they crossed the DRS activation line, by the time they went through the big sweeper onto the start-finish straight the gap was always too large for Hamilton to have a run on Vettel into the first corner.

While DRS was not as big a deal as it had been, the new Pirelli tyres were the dominant story and this led to a number of 3/4/5 pit stop strategies. As always this made for a very interesting race.

This is home turf for Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. He was fourth on the grid and made a lightning start. Overtaking Hamilton with ease and taking a run down the inside at the two Red Bulls into the first turn. He gave absolutely everything on the start and it was fun to watch Alonso have a go at the Red Bull’s over the first 8 or 10 laps.

Alonso could not keep that sort of pace up for long and did not have a spare set of the faster soft Pirellis after being forced to use an extra set in qualifying. His tires were done by lap 10, the first of his four stops.

Button on the other hand did a great job with preserving his tires and stopped only three times. After a bad start Button was 10^th at the end of the first lap. His fight to get back to 3^rd was a great drive and his run at Alonso down the outside of turn ten to take third was just superb. Today a three-stop strategy looked like the right call, but such was the speed of the Red Bulls and McLarens that they were the only four cars not to be lapped.

In the standings Vettel has a 41-point lead over Hamilton, that’s a big lead, but there is a lot of racing still to go this year.

And as good as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Buttons drives were (and they really were) I think the best performance came from Nick Heidfeld in the Renault. He had a big fire early on Saturday and never completed a flying lap in qualifying so was last on the grid. He finished a superb eighth, behind the two Mercedes’s drivers.

It was a fascinating race, next weekend is the race everyone should visit once, Monaco. It’s a special place and a total lottery. It seems the McLarens are good on the slow, more technical sections, could it be their turn? It’s a place that occasionally throws form out the window and as ever it will be fascinating and qualifying could be an exceptional battle around the streets of the principality as everyone looks for a clear track.

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Clean up time

Written on April 17, 2011 by Dave in Pictures, Racing

After two days of watching racing and helping out the organizers a little my car was rather muddy.

By the end of two days of racing the track surface has the consistency of wet concrete with a lot of gravel in the mix. Difficult to drive on and it gets everywhere on the car. I only tootled along some of the better bits of the track in the Miata, getting out long after racing was done, and the car was packed with mud underneath. I must have washed off 25 pounds of mud today.

It was fun, and spending a few hours today with friends over lunch was telling and important. I have a very, very rich life.

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Another great day at the races…

Written on April 17, 2011 by Dave in Racing

I did make it out to Snoqualmie this evening for the final couple of rally-cross races. I do enjoy this sort of wheel-to-wheel racing and while it’s not rally, it does not pretend to. It’s a very accessible (for the spectator) and all happens in a compact, controlled area with whatever obstacles the organizers want to build.

The finals were excellent, close racing and very spectacular. On the first lap of the race four very fast cars went over a jump nose to tail, this will make a great money-shot for the TV show on ESPN in a few weeks. The event overall was won by Tanner Foust, well deserved with a number of cars capable of taking home the big prize this weekend.

It was fun to spend the evening with rally friends, old and new. So many great stories and experiences around whatever form of racing floats your boat. The food was a secondary thought over dinner, it was a great evening.

This was only part of a very sport-filled day. Seattle earned a 1-1 draw in Philadelphia, and really did earn it with an injury time goal from Álvaro Fernández, his first goal of the season. It was not the most entertaining game I’ve seen this year, Philadelphia plays a very defensive game and while not what I’d call attractive they were tough to break down and score on. This was one where the outcome was certainly important, and coming away with a point was a decent result for the Sounders.

Finally tonight is the Chinese Grand Prix, will Vettel continue his streak? Can McLaren challenge Red Bull? Will Ferrari finally get their stuff together? We will find out tonight.

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And 2011 starts the way 2010 finished…

Written on March 27, 2011 by Dave in Racing

There was a lot of change over the F1 off-season. New tires, rear wings, aero regulations, more power for the stewards and of course politics by the truckload. However last night all that mattered for nothing and the cars ran in anger for the first time.

Discovery-one, not much changed. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull is the class of the field. If his maturity can match the speed of the car then he looks like he will be hard to beat. Not only did he win, he won in style. Vettel took pole by a huge margin, led from green light to checker flag.

Discovery-two, the new regs made a difference. The Drag Reduction System (RDS, or the “flappy rear wing”) is interesting and seemed to allow cars to have a decent run at each other under braking. The purist in me has issues with this, I think you need to earn the place and this aids the overtaking driver. However, in reality, it was awfully fun to watch cars overtake each other.

Hamilton had a great race; he had some undertray problems at the end, but was quick enough to hold a relatively untroubled second place. After the really poor showing in testing over the last 6 weeks McLaren have put in a huge amount of work, simplified a few things and found a lot of time.

Clearly this weekend Vettel was the class of the field.

Third place and maybe the best performance of the weekend was Vitaly Petrov in the very, very sexy looking Lotus-Renault. Kept away from the drama and stayed in front of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Ferrari looked to be close to Red Bull in testing and have to come away from the weekend disappointed with their performance with Massa unable to do better than eighth. However it was nothing compared to Mercedes race, Schumacher could not even make the final qualifying session and was out qualified by Rosberg. Neither car finished, Schumacher got a puncture early on and eventually retired, while Barrichello’s Williams took out Nico Rosberg.

Another team that looked good on the track was Sauber. New driver Sergio Perez made it a one-stop race, the only driver to do so. The tactic paid off when he finished seventh, one place in front of Japanese driver Kobayashi. Unfortunately the Saubers were later disqualified for technical infringements over the wings.

Lots of overtaking, clearly Vettel was the class of the field, and by some margin too. The circus arrives in Malaysia in a couple of weeks, a very different style of track. Some teams obviously have catching up to do; it’s going to be a busy two weeks for the teams.

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