Alvin's Formula One Blog

What a race. With everybody expecting a boring race, it turned out otherwise. Quite an entertaining and edge of your seat race I must say. The start was good and clean. Lewis lost a position to Vettel because he was on the dirty side of the grid, so did Button to Schumacher. I was worried that Button wouldn't have the balls to take back the position and would just sit behind Schumacher for 50 laps but he proved me wrong by taking back the place further down the road. On the whole, the whole race was worth watching as there were battles up and down the order. The most interesting part was the battle between the Red Bulls and the McLarens. It seems to me that McLaren has caught up with Red Bull on race pace as the four of them were trading fastest lap times and fastest sector times all the time. I'm happy to note that McLaren have found the pace to close to Red Bull and that their reliability is so much better. Now all they need is to do better in qualifying and to improve their...

Sunday 7th June 2009 After his pass on Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap, the Turkish GP may have been a boring race for Jenson Button, but it's one that puts his name in F1's history books. Button, who overtook Vettel on the exit of Turn 9/10 when the pole-sitter ran wide, strolled to victory at the Istanbul Otodrom, handing him his sixth grand prix win of the season. And that put Button in F1's history books where he joins the names of Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher in having won six of the first seven races. Vettel, meanwhile, also lost out to team-mate Mark Webber after opting for a three-stop strategy. But his inability to overtake Button for the lead cost him dearly and he eventually finished 0.7s behind Webber. Jarno Trulli claimed fourth place ahead of Nico Rosberg, whose flying start, saw him leap up from ninth place. Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Timo Glo...

Sunday 7th June 2009 Think that Lewis Hamilton endured a miserable Turkish GP? Think again. The World Champion has claimed that he "thoroughly enjoyed" the race despite finishing way out of the points in a car that was a full two seconds slower than Jenson Button's victorious Brawn. Smiling broadly despite the frustration of driving the deficient MP4-24, Hamilton's defiant and cheery response to his predicament was in sharp - and impressive - contrast to his monosyballic petulance of the early season when it become clear that defending his title would be impossible. "I thoroughly enjoyed the race," he assured the BBC. "I was very, very heavy and it was just impossible to keep up with the rest of the guys but I just pushed and pushed and pushed. I was way over the limit and that is why I am smiling: I fulfilled my driving potential." Having earlier in the weekend called for the team ...

To be honest, I was expecting a more interesting race than what transpired. Three reasons why I didn't enjoy the race at all. Number one - which is obvious to people who know me - because McLaren and specifically Lewis Hamilton had no chance at all of scoring any points. And I was right about that, plus the fact that the TV director hardly focused on Lewis or Heikki at all. Number two is because my other choice of winner - Sebastien Vettel, made a mistake early on in Lap 1 whereby he let Jensen Button overtake him after making a mistake and almost running himself off the track. All that after he stole pole from Button yesterday. The race could have been his but he lost it at the start. Number three - Jensen Button winning again. As he himself said it, he has become a "right boring bastard". The races nowadays are just that - boring. It reminds me of the Schumacher and Ross Brawn era when Schumacher won 17 out of 18 races. What's the point of watching. Other than that,...

Currently the state of McLaren is not good and it does not look good either for the rest of the season. The car is not performing at low, medium or high downforce tracks, in short it is not performing at all. The last few races we could see that Lewis is doing everything he can to wring out every inch of performance from the car and Heikki too but somehow when it matters most i.e. during qualifying and the race, it lets them down. The back is so twitchy that on-board footage of Lewis or Heikki driving it looks like a wrestling match between the driver and machine. I said it weeks ago that McLaren should forget about this season and concentrate on next year. They need to put resources where it matters as this season is too late for them. Brawn GP and Jenson Button has run away with the championship. It's a battle between Brawn and Red Bull. Now even Lewis has admitted it to the world. And talking about his despair , it is revealed clearly this year that not only does the driver mat...

Saturday 6th June 2009 Turkish pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel is officially packing less fuel than his rivals, although not much less. The FIA released the cars' post-qualifying weights in which was confirmed that Vettel is the lighter of the front-runners with his Red Bull coming in at 649.5kgs. That puts him six lighter than the man alongside him on the grid, Jenson Button, which should give the Brit the chance of staying one lap longer in the opening stint. Rubens Barrichello is also carrying a bit less than his Brawn GP team-mate, while Mark Webber is on a par with the Championship leader. Jarno Trulli's weight is equal to Barrichello's. However, sixth placed man Kimi Raikkonen is looking good as the Finn has a bit more fuel than all of those ahead of him. But whether this will translate into him being able to stay out longer and get the jump on his rivals remains to be seen. Felipe Massa, who qualified be...

Saturday 6th June 2009 Lewis Hamilton has delivering a damning verdict on McLaren's MP4-24, saying the team should have "scrapped" the car long ago. The angry and frustrated Brit, who didn't have the pace to make it through Q1 in Turkey and will therefore start Sunday's race 16th on the grid, let lose after qualifying, telling the world exactly what he thought of his McLaren. "Welcome to my world. We probably should have scrapped this car a long time ago. It is too late now," he told The News of the World. "If we scrapped it, it would have been a waste of money and hard work from all the guys. And with the way the economy is it could take five or six months to rebuild a car. And who's to say we would get it right?" Hamilton, though, isn't the only one who thinks McLaren have wasted a whole lot of money their 2009 car. "The car is quite simply hopeless. Possibly th...

Saturday 6th June 2009 Lewis Hamilton is a bit confused after witnessing his MP4-24 lose pace while his rivals' cars were going quicker. McLaren may have been the pace-setters on Friday afternoon in Turkey but it was a different story on Saturday as Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen failed to get into the top ten in qualifying. In fact Hamilton even failed to get into the top 15 as his MP4-24 lacked both grip and pace. "What can I do?" Hamilton told the BBC. . "I did the best job I could, just like the team; I had no grip - I think if you could see my on-board you will see I'm sliding everywhere. "It has just got slower and slower throughout the weekend as the track has got hotter. "It looked great yesterday but this morning it didn't look fantastic. I don't think we should rush anything, it's better that we take our time to refine it. It's not like we can cla...

Friday 5th June 2009 Lewis Hamilton will continue to 'hustle and grind' on Saturday in a bid to cause a qualifying surprise ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix. The reigning World Champion and McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen perhaps raised a few eyebrows in Friday's practice sessions at the Istanbul Otodrom. Hamilton was second quickest in first practice, knocked off the top in the dying embers by the latest showboating performance from Nico Rosberg as the Williams driver put in another low-fuel late blast. Then in the second 90-minute run, Kovalainen set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1:28.841, although it is fair to suggest there is more to come from pre-race favourites Brawn GP, Red Bull and Ferrari. Nevertheless, Hamilton was happy with his day's work, in particular as McLaren were not expected to be running anywhere near the top. "I was quite surprised by the pace of the car,...

Friday 5th June 2009 Heikki Kovalainen showed massive signs of improvement in Turkey on Friday as the McLaren driver topped the timesheets, albeit by only 0.006s over Fernando Alonso. Kovalainen hit the front of the timesheets prior to the halfway stage of the session and quickly set about extending his lead over the chasing pack. And although Alonso put in a late charge, the Spaniard found himself 0.006s off the pace. Robert Kubica went someway towards putting his Monaco disaster behind him as the Polish driver finished in the third place. However, it must be noted that all the drivers up and including Nick Heidfeld in 16th place were separated by just 0.7s. Report: Friday's second practice got underway with the track temperature already sitting at a very warm 43'C and cloud cover building over the circuit. Seb Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg were the first drivers out on track with Buemi and Rosberg...

Sunday 11th May 2008 Kimi Raikkonen was happy with his third-place finish at the Turkish Grand Prix after a problematic race weekend. The Finn made a poor start on Friday when he picked up a gearbox problem and also didn't have the best of time during Saturday's qualifying. To compound problems, the Ferrari driver's front wing was damaged during a collision with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen on the opening lap in Turkey. "I think it wasn't the best qualifying for me, and maybe our weakest point," Raikkonen said. "We had a bit more fuel than the others, that is the reason (we were slow) but also the lap was not as good as we wanted. It all started on Friday when we had a problem. "We had a difficult weekend and I'm happy to be third. I didn't lose too many points. We'll see what we can do in the next few races. "I didn't have a very good start. "I got...

Sunday 11th May 2008 Lewis Hamilton may have missed out on the victory in Turkey but the McLaren driver says for him his second-placed finish still gave him that winning feeling. Hamilton has failed to win a grand prix since Australia, instead having to watch as rivals Ferrari clinched four on the trot and took a commanding lead in both Championship races. However, instead of getting down on himself about his current situation, Hamilton is finding comfort from other aspects of his racing. "I am so thrilled with today's result, and I think this is the best race ever for me. It's not about winning, it's about feeling that you extract 100% from yourself and the car and I did that today," Hamilton said. "Before the race our prediction was that all being well I would finish fifth, so second is such a bonus." And he secured that second place using a risky three-stop strategy, which McLaren o...

Sunday 11th May 2008 From the outside, Felipe Massa appeared to be serene and unruffled throughout the Turkish GP as he secured victory. In reality, it would seem as if the young Brazilian was rattled by the unexpected challenge of Lewis Hamilton. On a surprise three-stop strategy, the Englishman kept pace with Massa from start to finish, and even overtook the Ferrari around the half-way stage of the race. While one thought was that Massa had allowed Hamilton to pass him without much of a confrontation because he realised that his rival was on a different, less threatening strategy, the Brazilian was in fact caught entirely unawares by the speed of the McLaren. "We had to keep him calm by telling him that Hamilton was three-stopping and the race would come back to him if he kept his head," Rob Smedley, Massa's race engineer, revealed to ITV. Massa himself made no attempt to deny he was alarmed by the sig...

11/05/08 15:54 F elipe Massa has claimed his third straight victory at Istanbul Park, taking the chequered flag four seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a race of tyre and fuel strategy. Kimi Raikkonen finished in third position to retain his lead at the head of the championship standings. Massa drove a great race, keeping his cool when Hamilton breezed by him to take the race lead. The McLaren driver also had a good race, opting for an unconventional three stop strategy to challenge for the race win and ultimately only lose out to the flying Massa by a small margin. Massa’s victory moves him second in the championship from fourth, tied with Hamilton. The start of the race saw Massa convert his pole into the race lead while Raikkonen lost ground to Robert Kubica. Front-row starter Heikki Kovalainen was the man to lose out as Raikkonen’s front wings caught Kovalainen’s rear tyre forcing the Finn to make an unscheduled stop for a new set of tyres. As Massa and Hami...

Sunday 11th May 2008 McLaren boss Ron Dennis has revealed that Lewis Hamilton's three-stop strategy in the Turkey GP was the consequence of concerns about tyre degradation. Hamilton surprised onlookers with his exciting but risky strategy, which required the Englishman to retain a dramatic on-the-edge pace throughout the two-hour race. While the strategy paid dividends in so much as Hamilton finished ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Dennis afterwards revealed that it was actually enforced on the team. "Our strategy was linked to a tyre problem that we experienced in practice on Friday in terms of the tyre structure. We had to take what was the very safe option of three stops." So rather than Hamilton ending Ferrari's run of 1-2 victories because of the strategy change, Dennis depicted Hamilton's second place as being secured in spite of the ploy. "We had the pace to win," he maintained. "W...

Well, the race is done and over with. The result - Massa, Hamilton and Raikonnen. Damn, another Ferrari domination. It would've been different had Kovalainnen not gotten a puncture as a result of Kimi hitting his rear tyres at turn one. It was quite an exciting race compared to the others so far this season. A lot of overtaking and strategy mixing up. Obviously Kovalainnen's strategy was screwed up at turn one when after the puncture he h dropped down to last place. His fight back up the grid to 11th place was incredible to watch. He should be the man of the race. Kimi didn't start very good, Kovalainnen lost a place but Lewis was great. He took 2nd straight away and stayed under Massa's rear wing for a long time. Lewis' strategy change where he did short pitstops to stay with the Ferraris was good too, I was thinking WTF was McLaren thinking but they pulled it off. All in all, a good race and now the championship race gets more interesting heading to Monaco. Monaco...

Sunday 11th May 2008 Heikki Kovalainen believes his bang on the head might have done him some good after chalking up a career milestone on Saturday. Kovalainen played down the fact, but for the first time since his arrival in Formula One the Finn will start on the front row of the grid for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix. That in itself is a remarkable achievement bearing in mind the 26-year-old was knocked unconscious 13 days ago following his horror shunt in Barcelona. Other than a massive headache, Kovalainen remarkably walked away unscathed from the accident, and was eventually cleared to race for this weekend following a stringent medical examination. Kovalainen completed his comeback with a superb qualifying performance, losing out to Ferrari pole-sitter Felipe Massa by 0.191 seconds, but ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.115secs. When it was suggested to Kovalainen he had bounced back stronger after his a...

It was and eventful practice 1,2 & 3. Watching the race live online (www.mad-max.coolpage.biz/f1player.html) with live timing from www.f1.com and chatting with like minded individuals at www.f1fanatic.co.uk was fantastic. I've been doing it since the Spanish GP. Anybody want to try it out, please do. It gives you a deeper sense of understanding of the goings on at a race weekend. Anyway, the qualifying is done and what a surprise. It's Ferrari-McLaren-McLaren. And the second McLaren is Heikki Kovalainnen! His first front row qualifying - congrats are in order. Lewis is P3, not bad but could've been better with soft tyres (he decided to go out with the hard option on that last attempt). I'm still thinking about Alonso's pace though, even since Spain. Suddenly Renault have some pace to play with the top 3 teams in practice and qualifying. It seems that Alonso is better at it than Nelsinho (obviously) but it's the car. Renault has done something to the car sinc...