Alvin's Formula One Blog

Re-published from Planet F1 Sunday 24th August 2008 In a ruling eventually published almost two hours after the end of the European GP, Felipe Massa has been fined and reprimanded for being released into the path of Adrian Sutil following his second pit stop. No further explanation was provided, leaving PF1 to ask three questions about the ruling: Why Did It Take So Long? Having announced they would investigate Massa's pit stop release within a few minutes of the actual incident occurring, only three more laps had passed before they announced that a judgement would have to wait until the end of the race. Why the wait? It could be for only three reasons: 1) The evidence was complex and required detailed analysis as well as the testimony of numerous witnesses. 2) The stewards were too busy dealing with another case to consider a separate incident. 3) The incident took place near the end of the race, leaving the stewards ...

Re-published from Planet F1 Sunday 24th August 2008 Star of the Race Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1st An immaculate race from Felipe Massa and a perfect response to his disappointment at the Hungaroring. He and Lewis Hamilton were a class apart at Valencia, but it was the Ferrari driver who set the majority of Fastest Laps in a race where only the two of them got a look in. If Ferrari are to favour one driver now, then he's making it a very easy choice, he was faultless. What a pity he should ruin all that good work with the tossiest of comments in the press conference afterwards. To brand Adrian Sutil's failure to slow down in the pitlane and let him out as "not very clever" takes the kind of arrogant stupidity only an F1 driver could conjure up. Massa was toe-curlingly embarrassing. Did he really expect the Force-India to cruise down the pitlane on the rev limiter waiting to stand on the anchors should the Ferrari emerge? Com...

Typical FIA and as expected, Massa gets away with or should I say Ferrari got away with it. Not only did he get to keep his win, he got off scott-free . And people wonder why the FIA is called Ferrari International Assistance or why there's so many Ferrari haters out there. I may not have been watching F1 for very long but I've seen enough to know that there is a bias towards Ferrari with the FIA. Ferrari said that they'd be surprised if they get a penalty (maybe because they own the FIA and the FIA shouldn't bite the hands that feed). And it would seem that when Ferrari tries to cheat by using some banned or un-approved modification to their cars, it's ok (think the movable floor device in Melbourne 07) and they get away with a slap on the wrist. But if other teams try to do the same (either intentionally or not), Ferrari will jump and complain to daddy dear (that's you Max) and all sorts of punishment is meted out (in the interest of sporting fairness of cou...

Well, the race didn't turn out as expected. I mean, I knew Ferrari was strong but the race didn't turn out to be as exciting as I'd thought. There was never any danger of a safety car and it didn't rain. Only 1 car was taken out in the first lap and that was Alonso losing his rear wing courtesy of Nakajima. Lewis ran a strong race but he was no match for Massa, who got off to a good start and never looked threatened all the way. I knew that Lewis couldn't catch up with Massa and was hoping that Lewis would keep his cool and look at the bigger picture i.e. the championship is more important than winning this race. Just finishing second was better than trying too hard to chase Massa then losing the race altogether. My only gripe with the race was Massa and Ferrari. What else is new right? First off, the FIA changed the starting grid from the left to the right, thereby handing Massa the cleaner side of the track and the results speak for themselves, Massa got off to a...

Re-produced from Planet F1. Saturday 23rd August 2008 Lewis Hamilton faces an uphill struggle to win the European GP as he takes on a man desperate to erase the heartache he suffered in his last race. Current Championship leader Hamilton starts from second on the grid at the impressive Valencia street circuit behind a fired-up Felipe Massa, on pole for the 13th time in his career. The Brazilian, eight points adrift of Hamilton in the standings, is still smarting after victory was snatched from his grasp in a cruel fashion three weeks ago in Hungary. Massa would have taken over at the top but for his Ferrari engine blowing three laps from home when he was coasting to the win. The 27-year-old has had to carry that pain through the summer break and is now eager to atone and take the chequered flag in Valencia, making its debut on the Formula One calendar. With a determined Massa ahead of him, Hamilton knows he will have h...

Re-produced from Planet F1. Saturday 23rd August 2008 Felipe Massa made history on Saturday when he became the very first F1 driver to take pole position at the new Valencia street circuit. The Brazilian continued his good run of form when he clocked a 1:38.989 during Q3 to take pole position away from Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver posted a 1:39.199 to fall 0.210s short of Massa's time while Robert Kubica was third quickest for BMW. Kimi Raikkonen was the only other driver to get within half a second of Massa's P1 time while fifth place on the grid goes to Heikki Kovalainen. Qualifying Report The temperatures at Valencia's new dockside circuit were unusually low as the first ever qualifying session got underway. The ambient temperature was just 26C and the track at 30C with the potential for slight showers to come in from the south-east and the grey skies making teams very attentive to their weather rad...

I suppose everybody's excited about Valencia, it being a new circuit and all. Street circuit that's new with features of street circuits and permanent tracks. First thing comes to mind when looking at the track is safety cars, which Force India is planning for. Here's some more information about the track and some trivia for you. Plus, I'd be putting my money on McLaren this weekend as I feel they are better at twisty tracks and it seems that they have a power advantage this year.

It seems that everybody had a good break during August with many drivers and teams doing different things just to relax and recharge. Everybody had a good time and are now returning to work with renewed enthusiasm except for Lewis perhaps. He was mugged in Spain. I wonder if he had any bodyguards around (according to the news report he did) and if they were sleeping on the job. I suppose I'll have to think about that if Lewis decides to go holidaying here in Malaysia one day.

It's been a while since I've put anything here, so today I've got a few stuff to update. I can't believe it's been such a long wait for the Valencia GP and now it's race week. The race is this weekend. Woohoo!. The Olympics has been exciting and filling up my time. It's a shame that this weekend is the Olympics closing and the Valencia GP, so I'll probably have to miss out on some of the Olympics to watch the race. Valencia is exciting as it is a totally new race and a street race at that. No teams have experience of data there so they have had to use whatever information they can get their hands on such as simulators and descriptions from the previous races held there such as the GT Championships . Button has had to use simulators to learn the track. So has Lewis and Heikki . Here's what Mercedes race boss Norbert Haug had to say about their prep for the race. Things don't look too good for Nelson Piquet at the moment. yes he's had a few g...

From 22 to 24 August, 2008 , Valencia will be the focus of the motoring world. More than 500 million spectators worldwide will watch the Formula One Grand Prix of Europe which will be held for the first time at the Valencia Street Circuit . A special event in the Formula One calendar, this spectacular sport will take place in the unequalled setting of the port of Valencia, previously venue for the 32nd America's Cup . The 21st-century urban circuit is designed to ensure the safety of the drivers and, the comfort and enjoyment of the supporters. A look at the circuit has made my mouth water at the potential. It has long straights and lots of turns. It also wants to be another Monaco with the race whizzing by the marina lined with yatchs and boats. Singapore wants to have the same effect also but Valencia will probably beat them. Here's the track specs: Track specifications Total track length 5.473,5 metres Estimated lap time 1 min 37 seconds Estimated maximum spe...

This issue of up and coming F1 stars losing their focus when they're on the uptrend is not new. So many potential stars and world champions lost the racing line when they were distracted by girls and partying. Lewis has so much potential but it seems that his penchant for girls is getting dangerous for him. I'm not his mother or father so I can't tell him to stay away from the girls and just focus on racing but as a concerned fan, I have to voice it out. A good example is Adrian Sutil who said that he doesn't want a girlfriend now as he wants to concentrate on his career and achieve something at it. I suggest Lewis pay attention.

Well, it's going to be a 3 week break for the F1 boys and to be honest, I feel that 3 weeks is quite long between races. Probably, the only news that we'll get would be bits and pieces of the drivers' personal life or the teams' progress. Reading the news today, which is quite a lot before it dries up over the next 3 weeks, I've come across some interesting comments. it would seem that Ron Dennis doesn't think much of Ferrari's pace here but Lewis is staying grounded here . I've said a lot of things in the past and usually I get kicked in the head after that, so I think I'm just gonna keep it low here and just say that I hope Lewis keeps focussed and aim for the championship. His idea of training extra hard makes sense. As usual, Alonso just can't talk nice and is still sore at not being put on a pedestal and labelled "God" here . He's a good driver I admit but his attitude just spoils it. Then there's talk of him joining Ferr...

Re-published from Planet F1 Sunday 3rd August 2008 Lewis Hamilton has expressed his relief that his lead in the World Championship is still intact. The Englishman's recovery from a potentially disastrous puncture, coupled with Felipe Massa's luckless engine blow-up on the penultimate lap of the Hungarian GP means that his advantage at the top of the standings has been extended when, for most of the afternoon, it appeared as if Massa would deliver a remarkable turnaround. The Brazilian blitzed Hamilton, expected to cruise to victory, off the start-line and then steadily built up a five-second lead before the McLaren suffered a puncture. At that point, disaster loomed large for Hamilton but Massa's late misfortune transformed the afternoon's complexion. "I salvaged the best of the worst," reflected a relieved Hamilton. "It's nowhere near as bad as it could have been. What can you do with...

Re-published from Planet f1 Sunday 3rd August 2008 Heikki Kovalainen was gifted his maiden grand prix victory when Felipe Massa's engine failed him just two laps from the end of the Hungarian GP. The Brazilian had been leading ever since the first lap when he pulled off the overtaking move of the race to take the lead off Lewis Hamilton. Massa made good work of it, etching out a gap over Hamilton before the Brit's charge came to an end on lap 42 when he suffered a left front puncture, dropping him well down the order. The drama, though, wasn't over as Massa suffered an engine failure just three laps from the finish line, stopping his car on the pit straight, his third retirement of the season. Massa's bad luck, though, was Kovalainen's good fortune as the Finn was handed his first grand prix victory, finishing 11 seconds ahead of Toyota's Timo Glock. Kimi Raikkonen was third ahead of Fernando ...

Re-published from F1-Live. Lewis Hamilton claimed his tenth career pole position this afternoon in Hungary as he chases his third straight victory tomorrow afternoon at a circuit where passing is traditionally all but impossible. There was none of the controversy that dogged the qualifying session 12 months ago as Hamilton , cruised to a relatively comfortable pole ahead of McLaren Mercedes team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Hamilton ’s fourth pole of the season was confirmed in the very final seconds of the session as he improved on his own best time by another tenth of a second with a best time of 1:20.889s. Kovalainen really did leave it until the final opportunity as he started his final flying lap of the session in ninth position after problems on his first run. The Finn, recently confirmed by the team for the 2009 season, calmly posted a lap just over two-tenths slower than Hamilton but it was enough to make it all McLaren front row. Felipe Massa has been carrying the hopes of Fer...