Hungarian Grand Prix Preview
Ah, the Hungaroring. Home to the Hungarian Grand Prix since 1986, the track is close to the capital city of Budapest and is a permanent summer fixture on the F1 calendar. Set in a countryside of rolling hills and greenery, the Hungaroring has a reputation for tedious races due to it's sinuous layout. Despite 'improvements' by Hermann Tilke over the last few years, the circuit remains a no-pass zone (however the current aerodynamic configuration of the cars themselves contribute to this problem, it's not just the tracks they race on).
Looking at the championship standings there is still all to play for, with Hamilton in front by four points from Massa, with Raikkonen and Kubica in third and fourth respectively. Hamilton's dominant form looks set to continue as the McLaren really seems to be working well for him now, whereas the Ferrari's seem to be at sea. Massa is leading the challenge despite making some very iffy form of late (five spins at Silverstone springs to mind), while Raikkonen is giving off the impression that he isn't really bothered about defending his championship title. I wouldn't be surprised if he announced his retirement at the end of the season and opened a used car dealership!
In many ways the Hungaroring is like Monaco, if your car is reliable, plonk it on pole position and drive off into the sunset. The corners are mainly slow and there are few straights, leaving any overtaking to be done in the pits. I mean, isn't pit-stop strategy just fascinating? (Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit...) However the track has thrown up the odd good one over the years, no more so than Nigel Mansell storming through the field from tenth to take the win. Click here to see it and enjoy!
Weekly round-up 28/07/08
Let's see what's been happening:
- F1: It's the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend and Lewis Hamilton is leading the Drivers Championship by four points from Phillipe Massa. Mr Hamilton is on a bit of a hot streak at the moment, probably having put his mid-season calamities to the back of his mind. In order to catch Hamilton, Ferrari need to get themselves in order and give Massa a kick up the bum. BMW also need to up their game a bit to keep on terms with McLaren.
- NASCAR: Those Dukes of Hazzard are having to address tyre issues after enforced safety car periods were required during the Sprint Car race at Indianapolis on Sunday. The effect of turning left lots of times caused severe wear and the safety car was brought out to stop any blowouts. Sounds like the US Grand Prix a couple of years ago, doesn't it?
- Spanking: Max Mosley has commented on his high court win against the News of the World, saying that the paper has robbed him of his dignity. I don't about you, but surely the dignity was lost before any photo was taken?
- MotoGP: This season's serial underachiever, Marco Melandri, has been confirmed to ride with Ducati for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno. How long he will last afterwards is another matter entirely.
Mosley beats the News of the World
Into submission. Quite right too. The News of the World is a nasty rag with no respect for peoples privacy. It deserves a sharp slap on the wrist. We're already the most watched country in the world, so the last thing anybody wants is a tabloid poking their nose in as well, trying to make a story out of someone's private life.
However, I have a few reservations about Max's intention to carry on as president of the FIA. He has put the nose out of a lot of powerful people in motorsport (and public life in general) over this affair. His arrogance and dictatorial manner in the way that he has dealt with things has not gone down well. He is not welcome in Bahrain, the Australian Prime Minister refuses to meet with him and the American Automobile Association is considering withdrawing it's membership of the FIA. Jackie Stewart is right when he says that if he was a chairman or CEO of a large private company, he'd have gone months ago.
Mosley is obviously a strong man who is not willing to have his name dragged through the dirt by a tabloid rag. Plus, what he does in his own time is entirely up to him, as long as it's legal! But the implications of the way he spends that leisure time, the court case and how they reflect back on the FIA mean that it is difficult for him to justify continuing in the job.
The Doctor strikes back! Hamilton wins too!
No, I'm not referring to some strange sci-fi crossover involving the TARDIS and Darth Vader. Valentino Rossi came out on top after a hard fight with Casey Stoner for the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on Sunday. Stoner refused Rossi's handshake afterwards, as he was angry at the overtaking manouevres the Italian pulled on him earlier on in the race. Dani Pedrosa may now be dropping out of the hunt, thanks to the injuries he sustained at the Sachsenring. Jorge Lorenzo suffered another injury, breaking a bone in his foot and James Toseland finished ninth with a shot rear tyre.
At Hockenheim, Lewis Hamilton won the F1 German Grand Prix, despite a safety car period bunching the field up following Glock's big accident and McLaren making it even harder for him. While most of the teams got their cars in for tyres and fuel during the SC period, McLaren left the Englishman out on the track, meaning that when he did pit, he had his work cut out to regain the lead. However, Hamilton is no slouch when it comes to overtaking, working his way past Kovalainen, Massa and Piquet. Yes, Piquet raced a good one too, coming home second, which has probably done his shakey position in the Renault team no harm at all.
MotoGP begin their summer break now, but F1 will be setting their sights on the Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest in a few weeks. Will Hamilton be able to continue his hot streak? Will Ferrari make a comeback? Is Max Mosley out of the dungeo...sorry, woods yet? Find out in our next exciting episode of....
In appreciation of Ronnie Peterson
Sweden's Ronnie Peterson was one of the biggest motor sport stars of the 1970's, a man who occupies that small list of truly great drivers who never won the F1 World Championship, but who was probably better than many of those who did (others on the list include Stirling Moss, Gilles Villeneuve, Jacky Ickx and Chris Amon). When it comes to the big hitters of that era, yearly tributes are written about Gilles Villeneuve, Jacky Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda and James Hunt, but it seemed that Peterson had became forgotten until recently.
However, read any book or see any film on Formula One in the 1970's and you will inevitably come across several key images: the super smooth Jackie Stewart in long hair, big shades and black cap at Monaco; Colin Chapman throwing his hat in the air as a Lotus takes another win; a car with all four wheels in the air at the Nurburgring; James Hunt with his arm around some winsome lovely; and 'Mad Ronald' in a Lotus 72, sliding sideways around Silverstone's Woodcote corner at frightening speed.
Generally regarded as the fastest driver of the era, Peterson was blessed with amazing car control and bravery to match. Teams up and down the pit lane used him as their benchmark during qualifying sessions, such was his pace. His dominant wins at classic tracks such as Monaco, Watkins Glen, Monza and the Osterreichring underlined his special talent, further compounded by excellent showings for the Ferrari Sports car team.
Rather like Kubica, his flashy, aggressive style won him many fans (including several of his rivals), yet out of the car he did not fit the image of a racing driver at all. Unlike the handsome Carlos Reutemann (who looked like the leading man in a hollywood blockbuster) or the rakish James Hunt, Ronnie was tall, blonde and occasionally chubby with an interest in keeping tropical fish.
The fact that Peterson never won the championship despite his stunning talent behind the wheel is examined at length in Johnny Tipler's excellent book, Ronnie Peterson: Formula One - Superswede. The reasons boil down to several factors, including poor management, a lack of mechanical sympathy, Colin Chapman's machinations and the idea that he was generally too nice a man. If you look at his career as whole, the facts tend to support this.
Peterson was often in the right car at the wrong time (outdated Lotus 72 and the Tyrell P34 being prime examples), putting him out of contention in '72, '75, '76 and '77. By his very nature, he drove all out to hammer the opposition into the ground and to take the win. However this sometimes resulted in breaking the car and missing out on those important championship points. In 1978, Peterson dutifully played the number two role to Mario Andretti at Lotus, effectively becoming his pace car at several key races. Can you imagine Andretti, Fittipaldi, Stewart, Senna or Schumacher accepting this role? For man who exhibited the killer instinct in the cockpit, he didn't retain it outside.
Unfortunately, Ronnie did not get to readdress the balance within the team after Andretti clinched the title (which was his aim, according to friends), as he died from injuries sustained in the 1978 Italian Grand Prix.
Spankathon!
There you go, that got your attention! I was going to entitle this post as 'Weekly round-up' but that is far too tame. Alas, unfortunately, that is all it is!
- MotoGP: Casey Stoner continued his hot streak by winning a rain drenched German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring on Sunday. Dani Pedrosa is now facing uncertainty as to whether he will be taking part in next weekends US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca after crashing out while leading the race. The Spainard was pulling out a massive lead before crashing out on lap 6. The incident has injured his fingers and he is now taking medical advice. Valentino Rossi finished second and is now the championship leader from Pedrosa.
- Spankathon: Max Mosley is continuing his case against the News of the World for running a story detailing his kinky dominatrix sessions. Max is portraying himself as the whipping boy in all this (sorry, I couldn't resist). His team appear to have the tabloid on the back foot however, as the Dominatrix who filmed the session, failed to turn up to be cross-examined yesterday. The plot thickens...
- NASCAR: YEEEEHAH! It's Nascar, folks! Can you hear the banjo playing in the background? The greatest race series on the planet (Disclaimer: only if you live in the US, have a mullet, own a truck and have never even made to your state boundary) have now started inventing their own words! Commonality???? WTF??? I know the majority of Nascar viewers probably can't 'read real good' anyway, but this takes the biscuit!
It is also the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim this weekend. Personally, I'm not sure if I'll watch it. Ok, the championship is excitingly close, but watching a race at Hockenheim is just tedious these days. It looks like a car park and the racing ain't up to much either. It's all point and squirt, break from top gear to first, don't bother overtaking, wait for the pit stop. The track has no individuality anymore, it's just another Tilke Snore-odrome.
It is almost as if Formula One is now too fast for racing to take place anywhere, so instead they are trying to give us an illusion of a race taking place, when in fact all it amounts to is a game of chess between the very clever (and not so clever) men on the pit wall. What is the point in all of this?
In fact, lets just screw all the hospitality nonsense, the celebrities, the paddock club and refuelling rigs. Undo all the changes that Hermann Tilke and his team have done to various tracks over the years, fuel the cars up for a full race distance and let them get on with it. Let refuelling be the domain of a long distance sports car race. Those that bang on about safety being paramount always seem to overlook the fact that refuelling during the race has to be THE most dangerous aspect of modern F1. Despite being jeered at and maligned over the years, Jackie Stewart has rammed home the importance of safety in motor racing more than anyone. He must feel that refuelling is against everything he has fought for over the last 40 years.
While we're at it, change the tracks. Make them more challenging and exciting without skimping on safety provision. A safe track does not mean endless chicanes and long straights going into first gear corners. It means proper run-off areas, armco barriers, the removal of dangerous hazards (unprotected trees close to the track or concrete walls on the exit of fast corners), excellent medical facilities and well trained marshalls. Additionally, position the grandstands so that the the crowd feels closer to the action, not so far away from the track that they might as well just watch it in their living rooms.
Right, rant over.
Of the Sachsenring, Trabants and MotoGP
This weekend we have the German Motorcycle Grand Prix held at the Sachsenring. We all know that it's tight at the top of the championship, so I won't wax lyrical on Stoner's revival and Rossi's aim to put Assen behind him etc. I think instead we'll take a look at the venue itself.
Celebrating it's eightieth year in 2007, the Sachsenring is a track that has a very familiar tale, a super fast road track becomes modern autodrome, but with added political intrigue and a car factory thrown in for good measure. Today's Sachsenring is not a bad track at all, there are perhaps too many slow corners but the track has flow and plenty of elevation changes. There are opportunities to overtake and the facilities look very good. All in all, despite the Tilke design, it is a lot better than some other 'modern theatres of racing' we have to put up with these days (Shanghai, Bahrain, Hungaroring, Jerez, the list goes on).
However, I am a sucker for classic road tracks, the daddy of them all being Spa. In fact come to think of it, Spa is the only major road racing track left to host a world championship race. Whereas most classic tracks have been abandoned and a new 'modern' track built in it's place, Spa's owners shortened the track and upped the safety facilites, something that I don't think has been done since. Which is a shame, as we may still have had some more inspiring tracks to race on.
However, I digress. The original Sachsenring was very fast and pretty exciting. Roughly triangular in shape, the start/finish area occupied roughly where the new track currently sits and ran through the town of Hohenstien-Ernstthal and out onto some very quick highways. You can get a taste of what this 8.7 kilometre thriller was like here. However, not quite so exciting was the Trabant factory next door to the Start/Finish area. Now considered a joke in car terms, the Trabant was probably one of the only cars most East German families could afford or was indeed available for many years. Check out the Trabant's legendary build quality here (and some star quality mullets).
From 1961 to 1972, the circuit ran the East German Grand Prix as part of the FIM Motorcycle World Championship, giving the crowds the opportunity to see two-wheeled greats such as Hailwood, Agostini, Read and Nieto. However, when West German rider Dieter Braun won there in 1972, the DDR government were enraged to see the East German crowds cheering for a decadent West German competitor and banned Westerners from taking part in the race. This then condemned the track to nearly twenty years of obscurity as only entrants from Communist states could take part in the various bike, single seater and sports car races held there.
Finally, after reunification, everyone was allowed to race there once more. Unfortunately due to three deaths in 1989, the 1990 race was the last to be held on the old track. Watching film of racing there in 1984, you can see why: no barriers on barely any part of the circuit, particularly as the cars streaked through the town past horribly exposed buildings, unprotected trees right on the edge of the track, no run-off area and woefully inadequate wooden pits. I may love these type of tracks, but there is no excuse for lack of safety features and decent facilites.
Predictions for Sunday? Rossi, Stoner and Pedrosa.
Splash! Hamilton dominates the British Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton did the best thing he could do to answer his critics by putting in a stunning performance to win yesterday's rain soaked British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Englishman pushed on through the spray to take his second win of the season and put the bad memories of Canada and France to rest. 'Quick' Nick Heidfeld made something of a comeback to take second in the BMW and Rubens Barrichello put in a fine drive to get third on the podium.
Elsewhere, Ferrari were having a dog of a day, with Massa spinning five times during the course of the race. With his copybook well and truly blotted, the Brazilian trailed home 13th and last. Raikkonen managed to salvage what was left by coming home fourth, but it was an important strategy decision that really mauled the Ferrari's chances. By lap 18, the Finn had cut Hamilton's lead to just 2.3 seconds but the different decisions made by the Ferrari during the pit-stop (surprise, surprise) really ruined Raikkonen's chances. McLaren put fresh intermediate tyres on Hamiltons car, however Ferrari chose to keep Raikkonen's original tyres. Then it rained again and Raikkonen's worn tyres couldn't do the job as well as Hamilton's. The Ferrari dropped down the order as Raikkonen lost touch with Hamilton and fell prey to Heidfeld at Luffield.
Ross Brawn must have been smiling on the pit wall as his old team floundered and Barrichello, on extreme wet tyres worked his way up the order to third. The Honda tech chief took no chances in the awful weather and his decision paid dividends. Ferrari on the other hand, must be taking turns hitting themselves with a very big stick.
So now we have a three-way tie at the top, with Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa all having scored 48 points each so far. Kubica (who found the sandtrap yesterday) is just two points off the top as well. The next round is Hockenheim in Germany and with a championship and the erratic form of the top drivers, who knows what will happen next?
Other news
David Coulthard has announced his retirement, however he probably won't want to remember too much of his last British GP, careering off the track with Vettel in tow. What he will want to remember are his thirteen Grand Prix wins, particularly his vitories at Silverstone in 1999 and 2000. Whilst I've not always been a fan, the man is a true racer, a proven winner and speaks a lot of sense. He reckons that he won't be hanging up his helmet just yet, so who knows where he'll go next? How about a crack at Le Mans? I'm sure any sports car team would welcome his talent and experience. Anyway, all the best David!
F1: British Grand Prix Preview
With the news today that Donington is to take over the running of the British Grand Prix from 2010 onwards, it is with sadness that I write this preview in the knowledge that this may be one of the last Grand Prix ever to be held at Silverstone. Those of you who read this blog regularly may be aware of my growing dislike of modern Formula One with it's reliance on fuel stops over proper racing, awful race tracks and the sheltered, brand-friendly, personality-free drivers (Coulthard, Webber and Raikkonen are excused from this sorry bunch). In fact, if it wasn't for the other categories I cover here, I probably would have shut up shop.
The thought of Donington hosting the British Grand Prix isn't a bad one, but Hermann Tilke has already been seen there this week, no doubt planning to flatten the place and start from scratch. You know how it goes, massive long straight followed by a first gear corner, fiddly infield resembling your local Tesco car park and a massive media complex. After all, it's more important to make sure that the Pussycat Dolls and the various Arab Princes you've invited are comfortable, than actually having a decent racetrack!
As for Silverstone, it has been well and truly neutered over the last ten or so years. With the exception of Copse and Becketts, the rest of the track has been robbed of it's flow as the driver negotiates his way around the numerous slow corners and chicanes. However, unlike most tracks on the calendar, you can actually overtake! Yes, the outdated way of moving up the order is quite possible at Silverstone. Some drivers even attempt to do so!
So who's looking good for this weekend? Well, never discount the Ferrari's as both drivers have been looking good recently with Massa taking victory last time out in France. If Lewis Hamilton can ignore the sticks and stones of the British media, he could do a 'Mansell' and take a very popular win. David Coulthard will be competing in his final British Grand Prix this weekend. David was a winner of the race in 1999 and 2000 and is probably hoping for at least a podium, even if the car isn't up to it. The BMW's were a little off the boil in France, but don't be surprised if they are straight back in contention this weekend.
Right, I'm off to get some beer, a deckchair then sit on a grass bank and shout "Nigel! Sorry..Lewis!" I can almost hear Murray Walker going wild.
Stoner dominates the Dutch TT
Casey Stoner dominated the Dutch TT at Assen on Saturday, cutting the gap between himself and second place man Valentino Rossi, in order to start the second half of the season with a real chance of gunning for the title. Stoner had taken pole for the event by lost out to Dani Pedrosa on the first corner, but had regained the lead by the end of the first lap.
While Pedrosa and Stoner fought for the lead, Rossi made an uncharacteristic mistake under braking for the first hairpin. Losing control in the pack, he skidded off taking Randy de Puniet with him. Fortunately for Valentino, the bike was relatively undamaged and he was able to work his way up through the field. Despite a spirited fightback, Rossi could only manage 11th.
Poor old James Toseland continues his mid season wobble with only ninth place to show for his efforts at Assen. The Englishman suffered an almost identical crash to that of the one he had at Donington. Hopefully his run of tough luck will come to an end soon.
The next race will be at the Sachsenring in two weeks time.