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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One again the safety car rules ‘bit’ another driver and most likely cost him good championship points.
When Heikki Kovalainen speared off the track in his dramatic crash, the rescue and on scene medical treatment caused quite a lengthy safety car period where the pit entrance was closed to drivers. Nick Heidfeld whose race strategy had him ready to pit at that time was now forced to stay on the track with little but fumes in his car. To avoid running out of gas, he did pit and was forced to take a 10 second stop and go penalty and in the process, throw away possibly a good finish with good championship points.

The safety car rules regarding pit stops during a safety car period were first raised in Australia this year when Rubens Barrichello had the same issue and was forced to pit during the safety car period and take a 10 second stop and go penalty.

Well, the wheels of F1 rule changes sometimes turn very slowly and in the case of the safety car rules, slowly is the word and the current rules most likely won’t be changed in any form before the end of the year. This issue is on the agenda for the next sporting working group, but likely that will be just talk.

I do agree that any changes need to be thought through carefully and all angles looked at thoroughly. Safety is the number one issue. The safety car is to ensure the cars are slowed down and no one races by the yellow area to get to the pits and gain an advantage. Any rule changes must ensure this safety measure remains, but also that all loopholes teams can jump through to gain an advantage are closed.

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David Coulthard is at it again and this time his ill timed and ’stupid’ remarks pushed a very stressed and frustrated Anthony Davidson over the line. Coulthard (another frustrated driver) whose mouth seems to have a life of it’s own these days referred to the 2 Super Aguris as the “stupid Aguris” for being in the way when getting lapped.

In response to this, Davidson had this to say:

“They can shut right up.”

“When you can hardly see what the hell is going on because the car is shaking around so much, and you’re just fully focused on keeping the damn thing on the track, the last thing you can do is be bothered about others trying to lap you.”

“I’d love to swap cars with these drivers. I really believe some of them would struggle, or even crack, if they were in our position.”

Davidson also referred to his car as a “botched job.” Ouch!

Given Anthony Davidson’s position driving a tough car, I have to agree with what he said and probably would have blown up just as he did. I can’t imagine the stress and frustration Sato and Davidson (especially Davidson) go through every day wondering if they will have a job when they get up in the morning.

I have been pulling for Super Aguri all along in their battle to stay alive and still do even though they are almost past the 12th hour now, but in reality should they be out on the track with these unprepared cars? I’ve struggled with this for a while, but in the end, my answer has to be ‘no’ they shouldn’t and should never have been aloud to. An F1 race is only a place for the best prepared and maintained cars otherwise safety on the track is voluntarily compromised.

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