Vettel Wins in Melbourne

Sunday saw the first race of the F1 season end much the same way the last race of 2010 did, with Sebastian Vettel on the top step of the podium. There were two stories that dominated the first weekend in Melbourne: the dominance of Red Bull, and the resurgence of McLaren. For Red Bull it is clear that Adrian Newey has cracked this generation of regulations and it is going to take some ingenious solutions by the competition to find answers to nullify the void in performance between the RB7 and the field. The resurgence of McLaren, who in the build-up to Melbourne were vilified by the media and press for having an absolute disaster of a car, now seem the likeliest to challenge for wins.

After a scary qualifying performance by Seb Vettel on Saturday, news broke that neither he nor Mark Webber had used KERS during their flying lap, "for reasons that will remain within the team" according to Webber. By all accounts the use of KERS over a lap is worth .3 seconds, meaning that Vettel would have been over a second faster than second-placed Lewis Hamilton, who also did not use KERS, albeit not by choice but due to a fault. Later in the afternoon suspicion in the paddock arose that the RB7 in fact does not have a normal KERS system, but a much simpler boost for the start only. This would allow for a much smaller system and much lighter batteries. There is still not a clear answer on what is happening with the Red Bull KERS, as after the race Christian Horner, the team boss, said that they did not run KERS at all Saturday or Sunday, as they could not get it working properly on Friday and, more importantly, Adrian Newey did not want to compromise the aerodynamics of the car. One thing that seemed to have been missed by some of the press coverage was the advantage Red Bull gained removing the system, which allowed them the extra 20 kg to place in ballast wherever they wished rather than a set battery KERS system within the incredibly tight packaged RB7. It seems the FIA might have to reconsider the KERS system if a team find that they can attain similar, if not greater, gains without the system.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were much happier this weekend. It seems that the team from Woking went with an aggressive and unorthodox approach to closing the gap to Red Bull this winter, as we can see with the external design of this year's car. The experimenting did not stop with the external features but also with other ideas, and it was these ideas that were holding the team back in winter testing. The solution: simplify. Instead of a very complex octopus exhaust they reverted to a much more standard solution as seen on the Red Bull and Ferrari. Quite simply, it worked. McLaren were the only team that were close to the Red Bull's in qualifying and if the past years are any indication, development is severely stymied by the fly-away start to the F1 season, so they may be the only ones with a chance in Malaysia and China.

All in all it was a great weekend for Vettel, but not as dominating as was expected. If the other teams can capitalize on the Red Bull KERS issue and begin catching them we could be in for another fascinating season. Special mention has to be made to Vitaly Petrov who completely outclassed Nick Heidfeld in the Lotus Renault gaining his first F1 podium, and also Sergio Perez. He may have been disqualified due to a irregular rear wing, but to have only made one stop during the race was incredible. Look out for more surprises from the midfield this year. It should also be mentioned that Pirelli seem to have done well also; two stops allow for a much more entertaining race and actually allow for strategic moves. The tires lasted, perhaps, too long in Melbourne but let's see what happens in Sepang in two weeks' time.

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F1 - Cars and Trends of 2011

During January we saw most of the teams unveil their challengers for the 2011 season. The new season does not bring with it a raft of technical changes drastically altering design at a fundamental level such as the wing changes of the 2009 season. However, from an engineering point of view, the banning of the double diffuser has required engineers and designers to revamp the car's rear end in an attempt to recover some of the downforce lost by removing the double diffuser. Many of the innovations that have emerged this spring have been influenced by Red Bull's Adrian Newey designed, championship winning, RB6. Newey reintroduced the blown diffuser concept, using hot exhaust gas directed in an specific way to increase downforce, last season. Many teams already installed blown diffusers last season and have improved the concept for this season.

Lotus Renault have decided to take another route, they have decided that rather than directing exhaust gases on the way out of the back of the car to increase downforce instead to make the exhaust exits at the sidepod. Their theory being that this allows for the exhaust gas to run the entire length of the second half of the car and thus increase the downforce gained by gases. The idea of forward exhaust gases has set the paddock ablaze with murmuring, with some teams such as Mercedes and Ross Brawn already working on a similar system. If the Lotus Renault lights up the timesheets in Melbourne one can rest assured that the forward exhaust will become this year's design trend.

Another technical achievement that should be noted on this year's cars is the rear end of the Williams. (above) The engineers at Grove have designed and manufactured the smallest gearbox in F1 history. The back of the Williams has been streamlined to an extreme both aesthetically and technically with this extreme approach requiring a very high driveshaft angle. It will be interesting to see if the effort has brought Williams back into the fold at the top of F1.

Finally the most striking and unorthodox of the new designs belongs to McLaren, who launched their car in Berlin this year. The car is dominated by the U-shaped sidepod inlets. The theory of the Woking brain trust was to clear up the flow of the air to the side of the cockpit to direct it straight to the rear wing. To cope with the loss of cooling, caused from taking the air that would cool the engine and directing it at the rear wing, the other parts of the inlets had to be increased thus leading to the striking design that we see. The jury is still out on the effect of these design features will have, the McLaren testing schedules have been blighted by numerous reliability issues meaning that Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have only done half the mileage of the the new Ferrari.

Be back again soon with some thoughts on testing and how it went

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Welcome Back F1

Welcome back to Formula 1, the testing season is over and the races are about to begin. It has been a short winter

for the teams with the ever growing schedule leaving less and less time to recoup from their campaigns. The offseason has seen the introduction of a new tire supplier with Pirelli taking over from Bridgestone, new rules regarding rear wings and the introduction of KERS, as of course the loss of the first grand prix.

Arguably the biggest headline grabber of the winter was the postponement of the Bahrain GP. No one can question the decision by the Crown Prince considering the political instability Bahrain finds itself in at the moment. As Bernie Eccelstone has said "Whether or not if we were there it would have given the opportunity for more unrest, I don't know, but I would hate to have it happen that we were the cause, so that people could get a lot more publicity for sabotaging Formula 1." News has broken this morning of the increasing likelihood that the race will not be rescheduled this year. A deadline of 1 May has been set by the FIA for a decision to be made. This year sees the team head to 20 races including a new trip to India.

From a technical aspect the re-introduction of Pirelli into Formula 1 as the sole tire supplier is a massive change for the teams to acclimatise to. The FIA gave Pirelli a specific set of instructions for this season's tires, less durability leading to more excitement. This is the theory anyway. The model for the FIA was the chaos we saw at the Canadian GP and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last season. The extreme climate of Montreal, very cold in the winter to very hot in the summer, gives tire suppliers nightmares. The Bridgestones last season were lasting only a few laps and caused multiple pit stops and on track excitement.

Following the winter tests it seems Pirelli have indeed met their goal. The drop-off of performance is very noticeable and teams are predicting 4 pit stops at some circuits. The jury is still out whether this will aid the spectacle, some drivers including Lewis Hamilton have voiced concerns about the about of rubber marbles on the track, from the tires wearing away, lessening the driver's ability to overtake by going off the racing line.

Overtaking is always the ultimate conundrum for those if Formula 1 and the FIA. This year sees two introductions to the cars in order to hopefully increase the spectacle. The first solution we have seen already in F1: Kinetic Energy Recover System. A distinctly green motivated piece of technology that relies of capturing energy wasted under braking to use again later in the lap. KERS first season in F1 was marred by its expense and weight causing problems for the team to implement it on the cars. However with the view of development trickling down to road cars it makes a return.

The second addition to the show is the Drag Reduction System (DRS) as it is called by race director Charlie Whiting. To others it is simply known as the moveable rear wing. This is quite a large undertaking for the teams and more so for the race direction. The system is fairly complicated, the driver is able to move a flap of the rear wing reducing drag, similar to the F-Duct concept of last year, thus making the car faster. During practice and qualifying the driver is free to use this whenever he pleases however, during the race he will only be able to do so when within 1 second of the car ahead of him within a certain zone on the track. There will be another marked zone 600 meters from the braking point on a straight where he will be able to use the DRS. It will be interesting to see how Formula 1 Managment work this into the television feed so as to let the viewer know when a driver has the ability and when he is using it.

We'll be back soon with an article on the most interesting aspects of the 2011 cars

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Coming Soon....

RBFormula1 will be up and running again soon, better than ever...bring on F1 2011!!

Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying Report

It is beginning to sound like a broken record, Vettel and Red Bull on pole. The German secured his sixth pole position of the season, with team-mate Mark Webber in tow. The RB6 enjoyed a distinct advantage this weekend, finishing 1.2 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari in 3rd.

There has been considerable controversy leading up to the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, first over the blatant issuing of team orders by Ferrari in Germany, and the botched execution of said order, and secondly the issue of the flexy-front wing seen on the RB6 and the Ferrari. The issue has caused such division in the paddock that McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has started to refer to the McLarens as "the fastest of the fixed wing cars".

As far a legality is concerned the wings meet the test of the FIA, which allows for 10mm of deflection when applied with a weight of 50kgs. However there is wide-spreading opinion that the test is far from adequate to police the intention of the FIA. The slowest corner in formula 1 issues almost 70kg of downforce so why test at such a negligible weight? Experts are estimating the deflection of the Red Bull front wing, the Ferrari is not as flexible, is 25mm. In fact from some pictures it seems that the front wing is in danger of touching the ground. This all boils down to the fact that the lower the front wing the more downforce created, thus the faster the car.

To touch on the issue of team orders, Ferrari did a horrible job of doing what was always going to be done. The message from Rob Smedley and the apology afterwards were ill-advised and really were not done in the right fashion. A longer pit stop would have done the job and no one would have been the wiser. Team orders are a part of F1 but Ferrari did not do themselves any favours in Hockenheim.

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING, Hungaroring

1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:20.417 1:19.573 1:18.773
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:21.132 1:19.531 1:19.184
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:21.278 1:20.237 1:19.987
4. Massa Ferrari 1:21.299 1:20.857 1:20.331
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.455 1:20.877 1:20.499
6. Rosberg Mercedes 1:21.212 1:20.811 1:21.082
7. Petrov Renault 1:21.558 1:20.797 1:21.229
8. Kubica Renault 1:21.159 1:20.867 1:21.328
9. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:21.891 1:21.273 1:21.411
10. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:21.598 1:21.275 1:21.710
11. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.422 1:21.292
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:21.478 1:21.331
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:22.080 1:21.517
14. Schumacher Mercedes 1:21.840 1:21.630
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:21.982 1:21.897
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:21.789 1:21.927
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:21.978 1:21.998
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.222
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:24.050
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:24.120
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:24.199
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.118
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:26.391

24. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:26.453

Canadian GP Race Report

This past Sunday the Formula 1 world was treated to an absolute classic race, there were incidents, overtakes crashes and importantly tyre issues. For those campaigning that tyres are the way to excite F1 and bring back wheel to wheel racing this is now the highlight of your argument. Unwittingly Bridgestone's tyres provided the catalyst for an example of what F1 can be as Lewis Hamilton won his second race in a row and continued a year of scintillating driving from him.

Both compounds of tyres were identified as problems as early as Friday with both graining very early on, meaning they lost their efficiency and the car lost performance. In other races this year we have seen the harder compound be able to withstand stupidly long stints, such as Alonso in Monaco lasting two laps short of the entire distance on the harder compound. The vulnerability of the tyres caused a fascinating set of circumstances, causing the teams for the first time to vary on tyre choice in Q3, in which cars that qualifying must use that same set the next day in the race. During the race both sets failed to hold up and the effect was brilliant. Multiple pit stops, multiple lead changes, exciting racing.

The example is there now what can be done, the problem however is that no tyre company is going to be willing to intentionally create tyres that grain as badly as we saw in Montreal. With Michelin and Pirelli vying for the contract for next season, neither will be happy to allow the teams to be constantly claiming the tyres aren't lasting long enough, F1 for them, afterall, is a marketing investment. They want people to buy their tyres because of their involvement in F1 not avoid them because of it.

It was most certainly Lewis Hamilton's weekend, a stunning performance in qualifying and the unorthadox scene of seeing a driver push his own car after stopping on the circuit afterwards. Jenson Button followed Hamilton home to give McLaren a 1-2 and put them top of the Constructor's Championship. Mercedes did not have a good weekend fufilling Michael Schumacher's predicting that they could not gain in Canada only fall back. Next stop the harbour in Valencia which will have a job to live up to the incredible classic at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Turkish Grand Prix Race Report

On Sunday we may have seen the turning point in the 2010 season. McLaren were handed a 1-2 finish after Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber of Red Bull, came together while in the lead with 14 laps to go. The incident has sparked all kinds of controversy throughout the paddock and conspiracies as to what happened, but this much is clear: Red Bull have slipped up again. The story of the season has been the dominance of the RB 6 over its competitors. The car is vastly quick, at one point on Friday it was 20kph faster through the landmark Turn 8 at Istanbul Park, during the race Webber and Vettel gained .4 secs through that turn. This incredible advantage, however, has not been taken advantage of. Problems have dogged their season and they may rue the chance they had to put away the championship. It seems that the inexperience of the Red Bull team is coming through, a situation like this should never have happened. Rumor has it that Mark Webber was asked to turn his engine down to save revs and thus Vettel could catch up and attempt an ill-fated pass, opinion seems to be against Vettel assigning blame to him. The team initially seemed to blame Webber. It always takes two to tango and Red Bull's handling of the situation has not helped the fall out at all.

Another story of the Istanbul weekend was the progress made by the other teams. Ferrari, celebrating their 800th Grand Prix, had a terrible weekend and were eclipsed by both Mercedes and Renault in terms of performance. Something seems to be lacking in Maranello, and that may emerge to be a storyline further on in the season if they cannot spur their development curve. The McLaren team for the first time were truly able to pressure the Red Bulls, Lewis Hamilton had a superb race and was on Webber and Vettel's tail the entire time perhaps pressuring into the accident at turn 12.

We also saw the McLarens sparring around the same turn 12, with Button overtaking Hamilton for the lead and Lewis winning it back at turn 1. This was a very strange situation and one that seems to have been overlooked in the calamity of the Red Bull collision. Lewis was abnormally stoic after the chequered flag barely showing any emotion in the car or on the podium. He was seen in conversation with Jenson Button asking what happened. Although Lewis was saying that as a racer he does not enjoy being handed wins, it seems there is more to it. Radio broadcasts through the race were telling him to save fuel and that Jenson was doing the same. This might not have been the case, Lewis said he was surprised that Jenson overtook him. As he would be if he was conserving power and fuel, and thinking his team-mate was doing the same only to have him suddenly passing you. The way he re-took the lead and then jetted off a few seconds in front tells much about how he felt hoodwinked, and could explain his post-race demeanour.