Is it really only May? It is, and the start of ’silly season’ may have begun already for one driver anyway at least. The talk is around BMW-Sauber driver Robert Kubica and who wants him? BMW-Sauber have him this year and have an option on him for 2009, but now Ferrari and Renault have started early and are knocking on his door.

Kubica has driven his BMW ‘to the max’ so far this year and has out driven Nick Heidfeld in just about every race so now his stock is beginning to go up substantially. This hasn’t escaped the eyes and ears of Ferrari and Renault and they have begun poking him to see where he’s at with BMW.

This could all be ‘bogus’ and a ploy on the part of Kubica’s agent Daniele Morelli to ‘up’ his salary and it probably is, but 2009 is an option year for Kubica and maybe a better offer will swing him one way or another.

Problem is, Ferrari have Kimi Raikkonen and don’t plan on sending him packing any time soon. Renault have Fernando Alonso and they hope to not have him packing any time soon either. Where would this leave Robert Kubica then? BMW-Sauber, that’s where.

Kubica is showing a great talent with his aggressive driving style and will to win and with the stats to back him. This doesn’t jive with being a second driver to anyone. BMW-Sauber have a no number one driver policy and so far it works for them. Ferrari and Renault on the other hand have a history of number one drivers and blatantly so, despite weak attempts on their part to convince us they don’t. Felipe Massa is suffering with this and Fernando Alonso certainly wouldn’t take driver equality or number two status under any circumstance.

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 0 Comments. Leave one because we like them.

Luca Baldisserri, Ferrari Sporting Director isn’t happy. He says Ferrari could have easily finished one - two in Turkey if Felipe Massa kept Lewis Hamilton behind him for a couple of more laps. Lewis Hamilton caught and passed Massa on lap 23 in a much lighter car. Later of course Massa re took the position.

I’m not sure Baldisserri really knows how much faster a car is when light on fuel. After watching the pass a few times, Massa didn’t fight to the death over the position, but did keep his line as long as he should have before giving in to Hamilton and his faster car.

After the pass, Lewis Hamilton who was on a 3 stop strategy was 7 laps through his 16 lap session. That meant that he had 22 kilos of fuel left. Felipe Massa was only 4 laps into a 21 lap session and therefor his car had 48 kilos left. That’s 26 kilos more than Lewis Hamilton. That means that Hamilton is just about 9/10ths of a sec per lap faster than Massa. That’s just about a full second and in F1, that’s a lot faster.

Short of blocking Hamilton or maybe taking too many chances, he couldn’t hold Hamilton up. Massa was out to win the grand prix and compromising that position by continually defending against a faster car that in the end would not challenge him for the win is never a good idea.

Felipe Massa has turned his season around after 2 retirements in the first 2 races and up to now, but despite this turnaround (a turnaround where he has been better than Raikkonen over the last 3 races) his performance and results are pushed aside in favor of criticism.

Last 3 races:

Raikkonen

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 3 Comments

This was race that could have been a little boring, but with Lewis Hamilton on a 3 stop strategy and more passing and re passing on the track than usual, there was plenty to watch. In the end, Felipe Massa does own Istanbul Park as he won his 3rd consecutive Turkish Grand Prix.

The race started in typical fashion with the cars bunching up into the first turn. Kovalainen and Raikkonen had a minor touch which slightly damaged Raikkonen’s front wing and punctured Kovalainen’s left rear causing a slow leak. Kovalainen after going in for a tire change re entered the circuit way back. Being loaded heavy with fuel and at the back of the grid, Kovalainen spent the rest of the day fighting hard to move up.

Even though bad luck hit Kovalainen, he put on a good show for us with some great passing. He and Timo Glock went back and forth for a while including a pass and re pass before Kovalainen’s faster McLaren got rid of Glock on the long straight. It was a bitter pill for Kovalainen because in the end 11th was all he could manage.

After Jarno Trulli was almost stopped after being held up in the first turn, Fisichella came storming up behind everyone and before he could even think of stopping his car, he was hard into the back of Nakajima and then up in the air and over top stopping dead in his tracks in the gravel trap. Nakajima with horrible damage to the rear of his car initially thought he could continue, but in the end, both he and Fisichella were the first lap casualties. There was something new however, Sebastian Vettel made it past lap one and actually finished the race.

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 2 Comments

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

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 0 Comments. Leave one because we like them.

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

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 2 Comments

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.”

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 0 Comments. Leave one because we like them.

Another race of attrition today along with a serious looking crash by Heiki Kovalainen. In turn 9 what looked like a left front wheel rim broke sending Kovalainen straight and hard into the tire barriers. Thankfully he will be ok with what looks like no serious injuries.

Kimi Raikkonen led the race from start to finish with perfect pit stops, smooth driving, and a fast (not fast enough according to him) car winning the Spanish Grand Prix in fine style.

As I said, this was a race of attrition with only 13 cars finishing the race and that’s got to be disappointing to many of those teams. This track has seen kilometers and kilometers of testing by all of the teams including just last week. Brand new aero packages as well as other improvements yet crashes and failures littering the track.

The race started with Massa getting the best start moving quickly past Fernando Alonso and right up behind Raikkonen, but predictably backed off of a pass attempt on Raikkonen.

Heart break kid Sebastien Vettel was again knocked out of the race in a first lap crash. David Coulthard and Adrian Sutil bumped, Sutil spun and Vettel had no where to go but into the side of Sutil. Three first lap dnfs for Vettel is hard to take. Sutil, who had been squeezed onto the grass, but had plenty of room to get back to the track bumped Coulthard, was sent spinning, taking out Vettel. Too bad for Sutil with a dnf as a result, but to me, the crash was his fault and bad luck continues for Vettel.

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 1 Comment

First qualifying since all the new aero parts and there certainly is some improvements and changes in the top 10. First is Renault and wow, Alonso 2nd after holding pole until Raikkonen pulls out a last lap to squeeze by Alonso. It’s a good bet that Alonso was light on fuel and will be one of the first to pit in the race. Both Renault in Q3 with Piquet in 10th. Now that’s an improvement for Renault with their new fin and Alonso driving.

BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica looked great throughout, but last laps of Q3 send him to 4th when Raikkonen and Alonso battled for pole. BMW sits 4th with Kubica and 9th with Heidfeld.

It was up and down for McLaren all through qualifying and in the end, they still need some speed from that car. Hamilton finishing 5th with Kovalainen in 6th.

Down the grid a bit and disappointment for Honda who had hoped for at least one car in Q3, but not today. Barrichello just missing in 11th and Button 13th.

Both Williams made it to Q2, but that’s as far as they got. Nakajima out qualified his team mate Nico Rosberg by 3 places and starts 12th with Rosberg in 15th.

Mark Webber did his job well today covering for a David Coulthard who failed miserably. Webber into Q3 and will start 7th ahead of Jarno Trulli in 8th and Heidfeld in 9th. His team mate Coulthard, the fast Coulthard in morning practice didn’t even make Q2 and will start 17th in more crash territory. Coulthard did have trouble with traffic and said he wasn’t able to get his tires up to temperature.

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 1 Comment

What’s up with the weather in Barcelona? I read reports that light rain is forecast for some of the weekend, but looking at the weather widget on my right sidebar, the weather forecast looks good. I’ll wait a little longer to be sure. Anyway, time to have a quick look at the 3 top teams and their drivers coming into the Spanish Grand Prix.

At the top of the leader board Ferrari, BMW-Sauber, and McLaren seem to be a little psyched out by each other and really don’t know what to expect. Who knew McLaren would stumble out of the gate and who knew BMW-Sauber would charge to the front. So far the only sure bet is Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen looks good to go now after his shaky drive in Australia finishing 1st in Malaysia and 2nd to his team mate in Bahrain. Maybe he had an ear infection in Bahrain that bothered him and maybe he didn’t. I see no reason Kimi won’t be 1st or 2nd this weekend.

Felipe Massa has narrowly escaped the media after easily winning in Bahrain in what seems like years ago now. It’s not unlike Felipe to bounce back after a shaky start to the season and if he has the form of Bahrain he may get some believers back. I think he’ll be in the fight this weekend.

Is the new Ferrari ‘hole in the nose’ effective? I couldn’t tell in testing because Ferrari is fast anyway.

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 1 Comment

First test session out of the way and second under way. Some new and interesting changes are being tried out as we thought might be the case and the new nose from Ferrari is the first to catch the eye of everyone. A nose with one hole is better than a nose with no hole is the thinking I guess and if this new nose had anything to do with their times yesterday, watch out. Yesterday it was Felipe Massa who was testing for Ferrari and indeed he was fast.

Today, in an effort to bring their car up to par, Renault are looking strangely like Red Bull by sporting their version of the Red Bull fin over the engine cover which is designed to improve stability under breaking. As of yet, no results on how this improved handling, but we’ll know shortly. If you can’t beat them, join them as they say.

Times on the day (Monday April 14th)

Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m18.613 67
Alex Wurz Honda Racing 1m21.059 70
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren 1m21.566 103
Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1m22.109 93
David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1m22.193 59
Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1m22.431 72
Timo Glock Toyota 1m22.590 85
Nelson Piquet Renault 1m22.629 78
Tonio Liuzzi Force India 1m22.846 79

Tags: alex wurz, barcelona, bme, David Coulthard, f1 testing, f2008, felipe massa, ferrari, force india, mclaren, nick heidfeld, pedro de la rosa, r28, red bull, renault

Popularity: 19% [?]

If you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe to F1-ToGo RSS feed!

• 2 Comments