Save the Canadian Grand Prix

When Bernie Ecclestone killed the 2009 Canadian Grand Prix, that just confirmed that F1 became too much business and too little sport. Boring tracks are added to the calendar, while the classic venues are discarded like paper cups. I am out of words, so here is a great initiative by Manipe F1, a petition that can be signed by everyone who is as disgusted as I am with this situation:

http://www.savethecanadiangrandprix.com/

That is no world championship. That is a money race that has to stop. Otherwise all the races in the future will be in Asia... In countries that have no auto racing heritage at all. Tell me about logic venue selection. And I am not even going to get into two races in tiny Spain and none in North America.

--Andre N.

2008 Canadian Grand Prix - Race Analysis

Sitting on the grandstands at the hairpin exit, I was able to watch a good race in Montreal. At one point, though, I had to ask myself: 'I am really paying almost 400 Canadian dollars for this?' When? Here is a hint: FIA's safety car rules are plain stupid. When half of the field pitted under the safety car, Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica had to stop at the pit exit, waiting for the green light that would come after the pack of driver on track went by. Then Lewis Hamilton made a stupid mistake and hit the back of Kimi's Ferrari. Kubica took the opportunity and won the first grand prix of his career, the first of a Polish driver in F1, the first of BMW as a constructor on its own.

The safety car rules shall be changed because they are always affecting the race results in a way they should not. Who in the world wants to see two of the three main contenders of a race retiring inside the pit lane? I guess that FIA's president Max Mosley did not have the time to think about that, though, as he spent the better part of last month using his influences to stay in power, something he somehow managed to do even after being caught in an orgy with prostitutes. It may not be so bad if it is true that Formula One Management's big boss Bernie Ecclestone wants to create a parallel championship without the FIA. More than 10 years of grooved tyres and no overtaking is the biggest achievement in rulemaking in the recent years.

Enough with that and back to the race...


Leading all Young Promises

All in all, the race had a deserving winner. It is true that Kubica's main contenders made it easier for him. Besides Hamilton and Raikkonen, Felipe Massa was excluded from any hopes of winning when Ferrari messed up while refueling his car on the first pit stop, and he had to return to the pits on the next time around. That does not take anything away from the magnificent job by the Pole. Because many drivers did not stop under the safety car, he was in the middle of the field for a while. He knew how to keep his cool, waited for everyone to pit, overtook his teammate Nick Heidfeld - who was returning from the pits heavier on fuel - and later drove 7 or 8 superb qualifying-like laps before his final pit stop. He rejoined the race as the leader, showing qualities that not many 23 year-old drivers have.

Robert Kubica is a member of my list of young drivers who are talented enough to add their names to the history of the sport. He will be around with Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel for a long time to come. And trust me, Nelsinho Piquet will join that group soon. Right now he is just suffering because of the lack of testing in 2007. Oh, and Massa, Raikkonen, Kovalainen are a little older, but they will also be around for a while! Right now, though, one driver is ahead of them all, and that is championship leader Kubica.


An Improved Massa

As impressive as Kubica was, the crowd favourite was Felipe Massa. When Ferrari had to call him back to the pits due to the aforementioned mistake, he returned to the track in anger, 15 seconds behind the last of the other drivers. He drove an aggressive race as no one else did, overtaking many cars in the process. The move of the day was when he passed both Kovalainen and Barrichello at the same time. That was right in front of me at the hairpin and at that time I had no doubts that my money was well spent.

He scored valuable points by finishing 5th. Had he not thrown away 8 points by spinning in Malaysia, he would be the championship leader now. That is Massa, though. He will make a few mistakes, but his good moments will more than compensate for those.


Quick Notes:

- Rubens Barrichello did what he could with the lousy Honda, and held back as many cars as he could while going for a one-stop strategy. He finished 7th.

- Nelsinho Piquet cannot be blamed for his spin this time. His brakes simply became black dust. After the spin, he was breaking earlier and earlier every lap before the hairpin, until he was so slow that he had to stop. The fact that Alonso also spun out during the race counts in Nelsinho's favour, showing that the Renault may be faster, but still has a 'nervous' behavior.

- After starting from the pits, Sebastian Vettel held back Heikki Kovalainen in the late laps and scored 1 point by finishing 8th. He is taking everything that he can from driving a bad car. This kind of experience will help him a lot when he eventually gets a job at a top team.

- As I expected, Lewis Hamilton was actually lighter in qualifying. Maybe not as light as I thought - I even wondered if he would be 3-stopping - but he had less fuel than both Kubica and Raikkonen. Therefore, he needed more time to refuel when the safety car put everyone who pitted on the same strategy. When both the BMW and the Ferrari overtook him, he lost his concentration and threw his race - and Kimi's - away. It is a good thing that he was penalized with 10 grid positions for the next race, because his mistake was completely avoidable. As usual, he at least admitted his fault.


Star of the Race
Robert Kubica


Shame of the Race
Ferrari, for throwing Massa's race away due to a faulty refueling operation.

--Andre N.

Is Hamilton 3-stopping in Montreal?

After a short while away, I am back with my F1 analyses. I was sitting at the hairpin grandstands today (Saturday), so I could see - and hear - a little more than the TV coverage shows. Lewis Hamilton was definitely displaying great car control. He is the fastest driver this weekend. He is so fast that maybe McLaren decided to try a different strategy. It looks like he will make 3 pit stops tomorrow, or at least go for a very short first stint.

His McLaren certainly looked light, because of the way his car was oversteering coming into, in the middle and going out of the hairpin. If he was oversteering like that with a full tank, as the fuel lowers and the tyres go away, the tail will become looser and looser. If that is the case, Hamilton will have a hard time keeping the car on track tomorrow.

My belief at this point is that McLaren is searching for the extra edge that they need tomorrow by trying a different strategy. They have had problems with tyre consumption this whole year, so why not drive less laps with each set of rubber? Hamilton is probably light, and that seems like a good strategy.

Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, and Heikki Kovalainen seemed heavy. They were braking for the hairpin a little before than Hamilton. Robert Kubica seemed light - not as light as Hamilton. I could not 'read' Fernando Alonso, but if I had to guess, I would say that he is light. His braking point for the hairpin was before Hamilton's, but maybe that is because the Renault is not that good a car.

Whatever happens, the race tomorrow will be fun. Thanks to McLaren and Hamilton for adding excitement to the Canadian Grand Prix! Oh, did I mention that the forecast for tomorrow shows 60% chance of rain? It will be fun!

--Andre N.

Canada – Race Analysis

Let’s start by saying that the good news is that Robert Kubica only broke a leg after his huge crash [note: this was the information at the time of the post; later it was known that he only sprained the ankle!].Everything else, though, was very complicated. Whenever you have to read the rulebooks to understand a sporting event, something went wrong. This is the case of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. After four Safety Car entrances, the race itself became a mess. At least the race winner was preserved from the chaos. Lewis Hamilton became one of the youngest ever race winners and keeps showing that he is there to fight for the championship. However, besides the British fans – who must be ecstatic – most of the rest of the world is still trying to understand a confusing race.

Hamilton shines, but not as much as he could

Lewis Hamilton won his first race. The guy is great, everyone knows that by now. I have a feeling, though, that he has not shown us what he is capable of. Driving the best car in F1 is just too easy for him. Beating Alonso is impressive, but something is missing. Maybe I feel like this because Alonso self-destructed yesterday.

I said before and I will say it again: I wish Hamilton started off his career driving for a worse team. It would be exciting to see him doing the impossible with a slower car. Like Fernando Alonso did with Minardi and then the improving but not yet no.1 Renault. Like Michael Schumacher with Jordan, then the not so great Benetton. Like Ayrton Senna and the lousy Toleman, then the inconsistent Lotus.

The only other recent driver who had such an easy start to his F1 career was Jacques Villeneuve. But when he got to F1 and the dominant Williams team, he was the reigning Indycar (CART) and Indy 500 champion – at a time when Indycar was really competitive. And he had great battles against teammate Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher before he became world champion. I just wish Hamilton has at least one good fight against someone before he becomes champion.

Hamilton was lucky to get a contract with McLaren at a very young age. I just wish this does not become the trend for the top teams, or else we are going to have two championships in one. One with the top teams’ protégés and one with the drivers who will never make it to the top teams because someone wearing diapers already owns the seat that will become available.

I deviated to another subject because there is not much to say about Lewis’s race performance yesterday. It was perfect.

As Alonso self-destructs, Ferrari never had a chance

Fernando Alonso had a really bad race yesterday. He overshot the first corner because he was trying so hard to overtake Hamilton. He did not need to do that. The world champion version of Alonso is the driver who finishes 2nd when he cannot win, like Alain Prost or Emerson Fittipaldi. Yesterday Alonso was more like Mark Webber or the F-3000 version of himself. Unimpressive, to say the least.

Also outrageous was Kimi Raikkonen’s performance. He almost took both Ferraris out of the race in the first corner as he hit Massa’s rear wheel. At one point he was losing ground to Nico Rosberg. He is earning too much money for what he is doing. I mean, for what he is NOT doing.

Felipe Massa on the other hand seemed very self-controlled given the circumstances. He had a great start and would give Nick Heidfeld a run for his money in the fight for 2nd place. The safety car messed up his race. He could still finish 3rd, but then he made a mistake while leaving the pits under the red light. I think this rule is confusing – not to say that it makes no sense, as I will explain below – but rules are rules. Massa was wrong and was disqualified. As was Fisichella who was also having a good race.

Someone’s got to be blamed for the lousy race. Why not the FIA?

After 4 drivers from 4 different teams were penalized in safety-car-related incidents, it was clear to me whose fault it was: the FIA’s. For about a century racing events in the United States have been using a safety car – or pace car, as they call it – without the problems we usually see in F1. How many odd incidents have you seen during the F1 SC periods? I have seen too many. Have you seen two cars trying to stop on the same pit stall at the same time and blocking the car behind? I have. Have you seen drivers slowing down on purpose to hold back the other drivers so that their teammate completes his pit stop? I have. Have you seen drivers stopped at the end of pit lane because the pit exit is closed, although the entry was open? I have. In fact, I have seen it all once again this weekend.

The easy thing for the FIA to do is to carbon copy most of the IRL or CART regulations for the safety car period. But no, they have to be the clever ones, they must innovate. So they create a different set of rules that never works and has to constantly be changed because it interferes negatively with the race results.

Why complicate what is simple? Here are some ideas for the FIA:

1. Clearly indicate when the pits are closed – both entry and exit – by having a steward signaling with a flag.

2. If the pit entry is open, so must be the pit exit.

3. Drivers who hold back other cars while following the safety car should be penalized, including during the pit entrance.

These ideas were all taken from the American race series. So was the idea to close the pits before everyone lines up behind the pace car, new to F1 until this year, but so old in other race series. Since F1 has only one pit stall for every two cars, they should also give more room between stalls so that an eventual waiting car does not block the team behind him. Something has to be done!

Canada’s quick notes

- McLaren is suddenly the fastest team. What is their secret? It seems like they are able to exit the slow corners better than Ferrari. At first this would probably seem like they have better torque and traction. However, that extra front wing element just above the car’s nose seems too flexible in my point of view. ‘Slow’ corners in F1 are still pretty fast to the point that aerodynamics still makes a difference. Having higher apex speeds due to the extra downforce generated by the wing element, while not having the drag as it bends on the straigthways certainly helps. The FIA cannot scrutinize every type of wing element – they are too different, so no standard test can be created. Therefore these kinds of wing elements should simply be banned.

- Robert Kubica had a tremendous crash after he hit the back of Jarno Trulli. It is good to know that he is alive and almost unhurt after this crash. And I am not exaggerating by saying ‘alive’. Fifteen years ago the same crash would be fatal. Nevertheless it was a reminder that F1 is a dangerous sport, even 25 years after we lost the great Gilles Villeneuve who gave his name to the circuit.

- Takuma Sato took advantage of the many safety cars and was able to finish 6th with his Super Aguri. He is still a very talented showman indeed, as he overtook the struggling Alonso on the outside, entering the last chicane.

- Alexander Wurz finished third, but that does not save his job at Williams for next year. He was so lucky that it is hard to believe it will happen again.

- Heikki Kovalainen was also lucky, but his 4th place finish counted more than Wurz 3rd. What was special about Heikki’s race is the fact that he bounced back from 2 crashes on Friday and Saturday and was still cool enough to keep his car on the track during Sunday.

- Toyota scored one point with Ralf Schumacher, after the dismal performance during Friday practice. Two suspensions were broken when Trulli rode the curbs like all the other cars.

Star of the race:

Lewis Hamilton.

Shame of the race:

Fernando Alonso. Yesterday it seemed like he was a different person in comparison to the Alonso who won my star of the race award two weeks ago.

--Andre N.