Ferrari once again showed their dominance by finishing 1 - 2 in the second practice session today. Raikkonen who had gearbox problems in session 1 and only did 3 laps, had it repaired successfully in time for this second session.

Massa who was setting the fastest lap times early ended up with the 3rd fastest time on the day at 1:27.682. It was Lewis Hamilton who snuck into 2nd spot on a late fast lap just .036 seconds back of Raikkonen.

Hamilton is quick, but the McLaren still looks slow and clumsy through the slow speed corners suffering still from poor mechanical grip.

David Coulthard was a surprising 4th and didn’t have a crash with anyone, but Mark Webber did. Webber spun after riding the curbs and planted his car head on into the wall. This car is fragile. The impact wasn’t that great, but the damage to the car was pretty substantial. It was a curious crash because he buried the front end axle deep in the wall, but when bounced off, the front nose seemed totally in tact.

Robert Kubica who was typically quiet in practice finished with the 6th fastest time.

Although Hamilton pulled off the 2nd fastest time, the car doesn’t look great especially in the slow speed corners. I saw Lewis and Heikki lock the breaks a couple of times and saw lot of steering wheel correction, certainly more than Ferrari or BMW-Sauber.

Fernando Alonso was pretty quiet through practice, much quieter than in Spain obviously and maybe they aren’t quite where they were 2 weeks ago.

Friday Practice 2 Times

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Now that Super Aguri have withdrawn from F1, qualifying has been altered to reflect 2 less cars.

Today the FIA have confirmed that 5 cars will be eliminated in both Q1 and Q2 to even things out so that 10 cars remain and challenge for pole in Q3. The sporting regulations were initially written for a field of 24 cars with a plan B if the field dropped to 22. Now that the field is officially 20 cars, plan C had to be written.

The statement from the FIA was this:

“The Stewards, having received a report from the Technical Delegate note that 20 cars will participate in the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix.

“Therefore under article 33.1 of the 2008 Sporting Regulations, the Stewards have decided that only five cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2 of the Qualifying Practice.”

That’s the news, and now the weather:

Tags: f1 qualifying, fia, grand prix weather, turkish grand prix

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Felipe Massa wants to win in Turkey to make it 3 years in a row. He has had a pretty good run there not only winning the last 2 races, but also getting poll and he is pretty clear saying it’s a special circuit to him and that there is ‘no 2 without 3′.

His car may complain a little having to use an engine for the second race and his gearbox on it’s 4th race. Massa doesn’t think this is an issue though and isn’t hiding his desire to win.

If Massa finds himself in 2nd place on the track behind Raikkonen will he try and get into position to attempt a pass or will ‘team orders’ prevent him?

I see something to this. In 2005 at the US Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello was told on radio to slow and let Micheal Schumacher get close enough to pass him. This, as he says was the last straw and he left Ferrari at the end of the season.

Felipe Massa has faced criticism this year for erratic driving and his seat next year has been rumored to be available. Given that Massa wants to win and really isn’t passive enough to only be Raikkonen’s aid, it is conceivable that if ‘team orders’ prevent him from winning this race, Massa may want out himself at the end of 2008.

Tags: felipe massa, ferrari, kimi raikkonen, turkish grand prix

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On to Turkey and one of 2 anti-clockwise circuits on the F1 traveling roadshow. It is a circuit with a good combination of high speed and low speed corners and once again, passing is at a premium in Turkey. Turn 12 offers the best opportunity to overtake. This hairpin turn is right at the end of the long back straight and heavy breaking to turn 12 at the end offers the classic outbreaking turning opportunity.

Aerodynamics

Aerodynamics are not quite as critical as in Spain, but are still very important. Turkey is traditionally a medium downforce circuit especially in order to carry great speed through the famous turn 8. That’s the most critical area for aerodynamics grip and virtually the rest is a track that relies on mechanical grip. Specifically through to turn 5 and 12, 13, and 14.

Tires

Tires are much a part of mechanical grip and in Turkey tires take a beating starting with turn 8. Opposite Spain where the track was hard on the left front, in Turkey the right front get the most wear. The choice of compounds that Bridgestone are supplying are hard and medium just like in Spain. Previous years saw this race in the middle of the summer with a very hot track surface. Now that the date is in May, track surface is cooler and less demanding on the tires.

Suspension

Being so new, the curbs (kerbs) and pavement are very easy on the car making balance fairly routine (hah) with a delicate balance between stiff settings for the high speed sections of the track and soft settings for the low speed sections.

Brakes

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Unfortunately it is now the end of the line for Super Aguri. After seeking backing from many different sources in the last year, the end of the line has finally come. Today Aguri Suzuki announced the withdrawal from Formula 1 of Super Aguri with immediate affect.

It has been a mammoth effort from Aguri Suzuki to keep his team alive. No stone was left unturned in this effort, but with Honda standing firm on it’s refusal to help, and then banning Super Aguri from the circuit in Turkey, the end was written on the wall.

Here is the statement from Aguri Suzuki

“In order to realize my dream to become an owner of a Formula One Team, I applied for a grid position in the FIA Formula One World Championship in November 2005. Since then, I have participated in the championship for 2 years and 4 months as the Super Aguri F1 Team, but regretfully I must inform you that the team will be ceasing its racing activities as of today.

“The team has competed against the many car manufacturer backed teams and has succeeded in obtaining the first points after only the 22nd race finishing in 9th place overall in the 2007 Constructors’ Championship. However, the breach of contract by the promised partner SS United Oil & Gas Company resulted in the loss of financial backing and immediately put the team into financial difficulties. Also, the change in direction of the environment surrounding the team, in terms of the use of customer chassis, has affected our ability to find partners.

“Meanwhile, with the help of Honda, we have somehow managed to keep the team going, but we find it difficult to establish a way to continue the activities in the future within the environment surrounding F1 and as a result, I have concluded to withdraw from the Championship.

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After dealing with my host Network Solutions and tearing my hair out, it’s time to lighten things up a bit. Man, I need it for sure.

If you haven’t seen this video of Nick Heidfeld showing off the much improved F1.08 to the employees who helped produce it, have a look. Poor old Nick is much better on an F1 track than he is on a road.

Tags: bmw sauber, nick heidfeld

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It’s been a bad couple of weeks for F1-ToGo. My host Network Solutions has gone down twice and the second time for most of last Sunday. I have had enough of their lack of reliability of late and the lack of information, and professionalism from them and am changing hosts.

The last straw was Sunday when I was out of service for most of the day and all they could come up with is ‘we don’t know what the problem is yet‘ or ‘please be patient‘.

I will continue to post as usual while at the same time completing the task of moving the blog.

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The story Surrounding Rubens Barrichello becoming the most experienced F1 driver ever isn’t a new story by any means. Throughout April many spins were written, but largely focussed on which race would be number 256 and how he may end his career as a big disappointment to Brazilian fans. Funny how controversy and the negative rule in the media, how the real story gets pushed aside as a trade in for readership. Now, a week before the Turkish Grand Prix, I say congratulations to Rubens Barrichello.

Yes, there is some confusion over just how many races he has qualified as having competed in. Statistics from the Grand Prix Guide have the Turkish Grand Prix as his 255th because it doesn’t consider Barrichello to have started the tragic 1994 race at San marino where Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger died and he himself almost died in a crash in Friday practice. The 2002 Spanish Grand Prix is another sticking point, a race he qualified for, but after encountering problems on the race formation lap, did not actually compete.

There are a few more discrepancies, and if you want to be picky, you may never agree on which race is the 256th. This is the reason the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix has been selected as THE race and that’s just fine with me. When he does compete in this race, Rubens will be surpassing Ricardo Patrese with his 256th grand Prix.

“As a boy, when I looked over the wall at Interlagos to look at Formula One, I always wanted to be there and to be a race winner.”

“I never thought I was going to be the longest driver in F1 history.”

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Vijay Mallya has given his reaction to the words of A1GP promoter Tony Teixeira. An interview with Teixeira hit the media and the clear message he gave Reuters was that Force India should be promoting Indian drivers (such as Karthikeyan) and show more of an attempt at promoting F1 racing through India.

“The Force India thing, although great for India, is a little bit negative in terms of youngsters and getting them to race if you are never going to win a race,” said Teixeira.

“It’s the wrong message. I think (Force India owner) Vijay (Mallya) is trying to set something up which is a long-term plan but it’s not the right message having Force India and non-Indian drivers.”

Being passionate about your country is a great image to portray, but Teixeira is showing his passion for racing and his country on one hand and on the other he is criticizing India’s brand new F1 team at a time when he should be on board. A team that is already putting India on the map along side the technology and scientific community. While Mallya is building an F1 team which seems to be going in the right direction, he is being criticized for not employing Indian drivers thereby not promoting India as a racing nation.

India has begun to flourish in the technology and scientific world of late. Take for example Hyderabad which with it’s rich history, culture and architecture have now added information technology, and the world of science, specifically biotechnology and has put India on the world map in these areas. This has been made possible through the Indian people and a tremendous influence from other countries. The starting point came from already established companies from other parts of the world who located to India after seeing great potential started by some influentially rich Indian people. Bring on Vijay Mally. He is marketing his country the same way India has marketed their tech and scientific industry.

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Are BMW-Sauber and McLaren Mercedes evenly matched? That depends on who you talk to I guess.
4 races down and the drivers championship standings Ferrari, McLaren, and BMW-Sauber look like this

1. Kimi Raikkonen 29
2. Lewis Hamilton 20
3. Robert Kubica 19

5. Nick Heidfeld 16
6. Heikki Kovalainen 14

In Australia Lewis Hamilton dominated with Heikki Kovalainen finishing 5th 18 seconds back of Hamilton and set the fastest lap of the race. Nick Heidfeld finished second 5.4 seconds back of Hamilton and Robert Kubica finished 9th with a retirement.

In Malaysia, Raikkonen was dominant winning the race easily, but second belonged to Robert Kubica 19.5 secs back and quite a bit ahead of Kovalainen who was third and 38.4 secs back. Lewis Hamilton qualified poorly in 9th and finished 5th 46.5 secs back. Nick Heidfeld finished 6th 49.8 secs back of Raikkonen, but set the fastest lap of the race.

On to Bahrain. Again, Ferrari dominated this race with Massa winning and Raikkonen 2nd. 3rd place was Robert Kubica 4.9 secs back of Raikkonen and 4th place to Nick Heidfeld who was 8.4 secs back. Heikki Kovalainen, the best of McLaren once again finished 5th behind both BMW-Saubers a full 26.7 secs back of Raikkonen. We can safely say that Lewis Hamilton didn’t figure in any leader stats in this race.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton bounced back finishing 3rd behind both Ferraris 4.1 secs back of Kimi Raikkonen, but only 1.5 secs behind Felipe Massa. Unfortunately Kovalainen had a bad crash, but until then was keeping good pace with a fastest lap time of 1:22.453 and was in 6th place at the time of his crash ahead of Nick Heidfeld.
Robert Kubica finished the race in 4th after starting 4th only 5.6 secs back of Raikkonen. Robert Kubica was pushing Hamilton and both cars pitted together and came out the same way. In this race it was pretty clear that as the race progressed BMW-Sauber and McLaren Mercedes were running pretty much the same pace as the gaps didn’t change through to the end.

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