Posts Tagged ‘Formula 1’

F1 2010

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

For all the controversy we’ve had in Formula 1 over the past 3 years – Spygate, Crashgate, Liegate, the mass manufacturer pull-out, double diffusers – we’ve actually had some pretty good racing too. 2007 was a fantastic fight between the McLaren drivers and Kimi Raikkonen; 2008 featured a great battle between Hamilton and Massa; 2009 was a season split virtually down the middle, with a storytale start to the season for Brawn, with McLaren and Red Bull pushing them all the way at the end of the season – but ultimately coming up short.

You could be forgiven for thinking that we must, therefore, be due a dull season this year – especially with double diffusers legal until the end of this season (thus affecting overtaking). If you thought that, you’d be wrong.

For a start, we have four teams who will be realistically expecting to mount a serious title challenge this year, all with good driver line-ups.

There’s McLaren, with current world champion Jenson Button – the most precise driver on the grid – and Lewis Hamilton, who was champion in 2008 and has more points than any other driver in the last two seasons; they were also the form team at the end of last year.

There’s Red Bull, who probably had the pick of last year’s cars, and have the mightily quick Vettel, alongside Webber who will race this year without the impediment of metal plates in one leg. When they get their heads down, both can be virtually unstoppable, but also get caught up in drama regularly when in the middle of a pack.

There’s Mercedes – formerly Brawn GP – who have Nico Rosberg, who has never quite fully realised his potential yet. In the other car, they have a mere 7-times world champion whose name must surely BE the definition of “winner” – Michael Schumacher. He may be 41, but he’s in it to win it, and he’s shown he can still do it – beating many F1 drivers in regular karting events since his retirement.

Finally, and most excitingly, there’s Ferrari, with Alonso – a 2-times world champion, and Massa, who was, in my mind at least, comfortably the pick of the drivers in 2008 (from the third race in at least), and who drove the socks out of last year’s Ferrari until he himself was socked in the head and was conked out for the season. Alonso will bring excellent and much needed technical input to Ferrari and never has an off day; Massa is, quite simply, astoundingly quick, and has got more and more consistent every year. There is nothing to suggest he won’t bounce back from last year’s awful accident.

So, who will come out on top? Until testing, we really won’t know much. However, I would hazard this much: the McLaren may well start as the car to beat, with Red Bull and Mercedes very close behind. Hamilton will beat Button. Vettel will beat Webber, and will make less mistakes, giving him a real chance this year – as long as he can learn to overtake better. Schumacher will beat Rosberg, and will, after 3 years out, be hungry to win. He won’t easily be bullied off track in a fight because he’s laid so much on the line to come back. Ferrari will likely start a little behind the others, but with Alonso in their armour, they will start to catch up. Being slower than the others won’t matter too much either – they have the strongest line-up in F1, and there are no two better drivers to extract more speed out of a slightly slower car (Hamilton excepted – possibly).

The key to F1 2010 lies with Schumacher and Ferrari. If they are both strong, we’re in for the most exciting season in living memory. Otherwise, it’ll be Hamilton v. Vettel – and Hamilton will win.

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Witch-Hunt Successful, But Little Justice Delivered

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Photo by cairnlee_cres from Flickr Today, Renault were hauled in front of the World Motor Sports Council (WMSC) as the investigation into allegations of race-fixing at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix were wrapped up. Unfortunately, the punishment dished out bore little correlation to the seriousness of the crime, and did little to draw on the context of how previous offences have been dealt with.

The charge – just to recap very quickly – was that three members of the Renault F1 team (Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet) conspired to fix the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 so as to gain an unfair advantage for the team’s other driver, Fernando Alonso (although without his knowledge). The claim originated from Nelson Piquet. Briatore denied the charges, Pat Symonds chose to say as little as possible to avoid incriminating himself, but did nothing to say that such a plan was not in place – an implicit admission of guilt.

The WMSC could have permanently thrown Renault out of F1 today, such was the seriousness of the crime. However, they could take little action against the three men involved as Piquet was granted immunity, and Symonds and Briatore no longer are employed by an F1 team, and so therefore technically fall outwith the jurisdiction of the body.

The penalties actually imposed were: a suspended two-year ban for the Renault F1 team. Oh, and that’s pretty much it. Apart from billing Renault F1 for the costs of the investigation, and requiring them to take part in FIA road safety campaigns (which they actually offered themselves).

As the WMSC technically couldn’t personally punish Briatore or Symonds, they have resolved to refuse to sanction any events that either of the two involve themselves in – Briatore for an indefinte period, Symonds for a period of five years.

Here is an extract of the statement from the hearing regarding the punishment imposed upon the Renault F1 team:

The World Motor Sport Council considers Renault F1’s breaches relating to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to be of unparalleled severity.  Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself.  The World Motor Sport Council considers that offences of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship.  However, having regard to the points in mitigation mentioned above and in particular the steps taken by Renault F1 to identify and address the failings within its team and condemn the actions of the individuals involved, the WMSC has decided to suspend Renault F1’s disqualification until the end of the 2011 season. The World Motor Sport Council will only activate this disqualification if Renault F1 is found guilty of a comparable breach during that time.

So, what’s the problem? Well, for one thing, Piquet – the guy who smashed his car into the wall, the only person with the physical capacity to enact this plan, as the driver of the car – walks away. No fine, no ban, not even so much as a slapped wrist. Of course, he won’t be employable to any self-respecting racing outfit, but still, there is no formal punishment. This is a result of the immunity agreement, which is unfortunate. If someone needs immunity to tell the truth, can they really be trusted in the first place?

The second problem is the lack of any real punishment to the Renault F1 team. Remember Schumacher taking out Villeneuve in 1997 at Jerez? He was excluded from the Championship that year. Remember when Schumacher passed Damon Hill on the parade lap at the British Grand Prix in 1994, and then ignored the black flag? He was given a straight 2-race ban. Remember in 2007 when McLaren were found guilty of possessing Ferrari documents? They were given a $100 million fine and excluded from the Constructors’ Championship.

Yet, none of these crimes were anything compared to the seriousness of a driver crashing on purpose, endangering himself, other drivers and spectators, in order for his team-mate to win a race. This was not like Schumacher instinctively trying to punt his rival off the track to win the World Championship desperately in the realisation that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t get another chance. This was not like Schumacher ignoring a 5-second stop/go penalty for a trivial offence. This was not like in the case of the Spy Scandal of 2007, where a McLaren held Ferrari technical documents that meant they could potentially steal ideas to gain an unfair advantage.

No, this was a blatant attempt to steal a race relying on no technical ability, but on the fact that their driver would be certain to be at the head of the field in the event of a safety car.

And let’s remember, McLaren were punished despite the fact that the Spy Scandal had nothing to do with an institutional desire to cheat at McLaren. No, it was one individual there too, albeit not one at the top of the team.

Quite simply, Renault should have been thrown out of F1, at least for the rest of this season, possibly longer. The idea that the perpetrators of the plot in Singapore last night have left the team matters little. Yes, the team have dealt with them, but it was also the team that brought the sport into disrepute. Symonds, Briatore and Piquet all worked for Renault, and Renault have to take responsibility for the actions of their staff. They are also responsible for the power structures that existed in the team that allowed this to happen – power structures that are not replicated in any other team in the pit lane.

Now I know that many will say F1 needs Renault, we mustn’t make them run away. Rubbish. We’ve survived without them before, and we could do again. Few teams are indispensible, and Renault sure aren’t one of them. They have a place on the grid next year and as such could potentially be an attractive investment – their facilities as Enstone may not be the best, but they are solid, and the team has a history of winning (albeit with Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds).

F1 should not be subject to the whims of manufacturers. Let them come and go as they please. But if they want to stay, they should understand the rules of the game, and the punishments for breaching such rules. That didn’t happen today, and that is bad for F1.

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The Singapore 2008 Crash Investigation Witch-Hunt

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

The investigation into Nelson Piquet Jr’s crash in the Grand Prix of Singapore last year rolls on, with more details emerging every day – and, like most stories like this, with each turn, the story gets uglier.

The furore started shortly after the Hungarian Grand Prix this year, after which Nelson Piquet was sacked as Renault’s second driver. To be honest, it was a long time coming and was bot unexpected, but the revelations that followed – that Piquet was asked to purposely create a safety car situation last year in the night race in Singapore – came out of the blue and caused quite a stir.

It should be noted that questions were asked of the crash at the time. Some people had remarked that it was incredibly convenient that the crash benefited Fernando Alonso so well. Indeed, he went on to win the race – comfortably, in fact. However, it is not the details of the crash that I am interested in here. If you want more details, feel free to check out the accounts on F1 Fanatic (an awesome Formula 1 website) and on James Allen’s website.

What I am more concerned with here is the slightly concerning dribble of information slowly leaking out of how this enquiry is being dealt with. Firstly, some of the documents submitted by Nelson Piquet’s family were leaked, which was met by Renault with a writ for attempted blackmail by the Piquet family.

Then, in a move similar to that which was granted to McLaren drivers Pedro de la Rosa dn Fernando Alonso in the 2007 Spy Scandal, it transpired that Nelson Piquet Jr has been granted immunity if he promises to tell everything he knows. Martin Brundle described the 2007 case as having the feel of a witch-hunt – an accusation the FIA met with a writ themselves. However, today it transpires that Reanult’s Pat Symonds has also been granted immunity if he is willing to come clean and tell all himself. This is, apparently, because the FIA think he may not have told everything he knows (that is, assuming there is more to know).

So what is so interesting and dangerous about this? Well, the problem is that the whole case hinges on a meeting involving Piquet, Symonds and Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore. The problem? No such offer of immunity has been made to Briatore. It looks like the FIA have already decided that Renault are guilty, or, more specifically, Flavio Briatore.

Whether that is right or wrong, that is not the way to go about things. It is well known that Flavio Briatore and Max Mosley are hardly the best of friends, and the issues with FOTA, Flavio and the FIA this season have done to help that. So, is the FIA (or just Max Mosley) out to get Flavio, come what may?

It does have all the hallmarks of a witch-hunt. But, obviously, to avoid a writ from the FIA myself, I couldn’t actually come out and actually say, “by the way, it’s a bit of a witch-hunt, isn’t it?”

So I’ll leave that to your imagination.

Edit: Two links for you: firstly, a transcript of Pat Symonds’ FIA interview in Belgium, and secondly, a piece on the rights and wrongs of immunity. An interesting read.

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