Monaco GP 2006

A good race for the first hour, then everyone seemed to start dropping out! Very nice to see Mark Webber go longer than Alonso and Kimi in the first stint, many people thought he hadn't got much fuel on board but he obviously had! Hopefully means that Williams are on their way back - didn't I say that this time last year?!

I think it has to be said that despite blatently cheating yesterday, Schumacher had a good race, with plenty of overtaking until he found Button, who had a poor weekend. Why haven't that team been able to go well since David Richards left?

I have two points of contention, the first being DC's front wing, how much did it flex when hit by Fisico?! It looked like it was made of rubber! A couple of seasons ago it would have shattered, in a way I'm glad it didn't as it was good to have him back on the podium but these flexi-wings have gone too far if they can bend like that.

Point two is the fact that when Mark Webber's Williams Cosworth was parked up at the side of the road, all the cars that exited the Pit Lane crossed the Pit Exit line illegally, but with no punishment. Some of you may say that they couldn't help it as the Williams was in the way, I would say that if that was the case the Pit Exit was clearly blocked and so for safety reasons the Pit Lane should have been closed until the car had been removed by Marshalls - who were quite clearly put in danger by the other cars coming out off the Pits.

CPT F1 Star Drive - David Coulthard [Red Bull]

Monte Carlo Qualifying - Scandal!

Even though Mark Webber had a brilliant Qualifying session and got his Williams Cosworth up into third on tomorrow's grid, all the talk will be of Michael Schumacher and his 'off'.

Did he do it deliberately? I must admit that is what I thought as it happened, but I don't want to believe that he is still capable of that kind of thing, A few years ago maybe, but now after achieving so much in F1 you'd like to think he was above that. But at the same time it's always when he's almost but not quite at the top that he has historically done things like that. Last season he (and Ferrari) knew after a couple of races that he had no hope of the retaining the Championship so there was no need for shenanigans. This season he is in with a chance of winning the Driver's Title, but know's that maybe his car isn't unless he does something about it like in the mid-nineties, when he was regularly going off track with other drivers. This time he didn't take any other drivers with him, but he certainly stopped anyone beating him to Pole Position.

Renault went straight to the Officials to discuss the situation, but I don't feel that they'll protest officially as I think that their cars improved their lap time with the yellow flags being waved, ok Alonso didn't improve his position on the grid, but I think Fisico did (I may be wrong about this, but I'm sure that's what I saw), and if they complain about Ferrari, Ferrari may make a counter protest.

But well done Mark Webber and Williams Cosworth, it will be interesting to see their strategy in tomorrow's race. With Rosberg seemingly on a one-stopper and Webber looking to be on a two-stop plan, Williams look to have all the bases covered.

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edit @ 2215

Schumacher has been stripped of his qualifying time after Race Stewards decided that he deliberately stopped on the track at the end of Qualifying

He will now start at the back of the grid next to his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa. This is excellent news, not only for both Alonso - now in Pole Position - and Mark Webber, who is now on the front row of the grid, but for fans of F1 in general. This is the first time for a while that Ferrari has been penalised in such a way - next they need to sort out these flexi-wings!

Looking forward to the race even more now!

War and Peace!

The 'peace' part is that Bernie Ecclestone has finally signed the 'bit of paper' that Nick Fry mentioned at the Spanish GP. This agreement will form the basis of the new 'Concorde Agreement' once the FIA has sorted out the regulations.

The 'war' part is an email I have sent off to F1 Racing Magazine in response to one of their contributors and his comments regarding football in the preview of the British Grand Prix. My email is as follows:

I'm writing in response to your correspondent, Maurice Hamilton's snobbish attitude to Football. He mentions that the media devotes 'valuable space' to 'League One matches attended by 10,000 people' and then goes on to say that ten times that attends the Grand Prix, a fair point, however, he doesn't point out that the same media devotes valuable space to the Grand Prix also. In fact most papers have four or five pages per day of the British Grand Prix.

Also he doesn't mention that there are 12 matches per weekend in League one, so 10,000 multiplied by 12 is a greater figure than he gives for the Grand Prix. Actually, I'd bet there are more football fans Worldwide than Formula 1 fans.

I am a fan of both Formula 1 and Football - my teams are Williams and Oxford Utd - and feel that his dig at the media, and Football in general, was out of place in your otherwise excellent preview of the race.

Not something that I wanted to do, but felt it necessary after he decided to deride the decision to move the British Grand Prix due to the World Cup Finals.

Flexi Wings

Well I'm glad that I wasn't the only person to notice the flexing front wings of Ferrari, McLaren and Renault at the last race, and the fact that nothing has been said, or done, about these and Ferrari's rear wings by the FIA - even though they are technically illegal - means that both Williams and Mclaren are supposedly going to introduce their own, possibly at the next race in Monaco.

Back in the old days, the FIA would have done something about this situation, such as stripping points or suspending teams - see BAR Honda last season - but apart from asking a few teams to change their wings earlier this season, the FIA have done nothing. The FIA's Technical regulations 2006 state that:

Bodywork may deflect no more than 5mm vertically when a 500N load is applied vertically to it 700mm
forward of the front wheel centre line and 625mm from the car centre line.

and

Bodywork may deflect no more than 10mm vertically when a 500N load is applied vertically to it 450mm
forward of the rear wheel centre line and 650mm from the car centre line.

so by doing nothing they have, in theory at least, declared these banned devices as legal and their own technical regulations as meaningless.

Indeed McLaren were one of the teams advised to change it's front wing design, however, it was clear that their front wings were moving just as much as before they changed them, and that was definitely more than the 5mm stated by the Technical Rgulations.

Apparently, Ferrari have got around the ruling on the rear wing because as their wing flexes, it closes the gap between the elememts of the rear wing. The top element rests upon the lower element, and by doing so does not flex more than the permitted 10mm for rear wings. An intelligent interpretation of the rules, however, I would say that this then makes the wing effectively one element and therefore against the regulations that stipulate a rear wing must consist of two separate elements.

But then the car is red, and has a prancing horse on the front.......

Spain '06

Another dull one, although Sato's 360 was rather special! Coulthard's 200th race didn't go as planned after a water pipe burst pouring water all over his rear tyres during qualifying, the resulting crash forcing him to start from 21st on the grid. Apparently they spent as much time rebuilding the car as possible overnight, but it just wasn't right for the race, better luck next time DC.

If it hadn't been for Rubens Barrichello hold him up, Jenson Button would surely have finished in front of Kimi Raikkonen. Unfortunately that isn't what happened, but Button had a solid race anyway.

Superb drive by Alonso to take the win, everyone thought they were running light, and compared to Ferrari they were, but it didn't matter as Alonso stormed off at the start never to be seen again!

Renault have signed the new 'Concorde Agreement', with Honda's Nick Fry revealing that the other GPMA teams have signed an agreement and are waiting for Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA to sign it too. About bloody time, no-one seriously believed that the threatened break away series would happen, so why did it take so long?!

CPT F1's Star Drive - Fernando Alonso [Renault]

Random Thoughts I

Yuji Ide has had his Super license revoked by the FIA, this news comes a week after Super Aguri Honda were advised by the FIA to rest Ide for the European GP. Super Aguri were hoping to race Ide this weekend, so I would guess that the FIA have taken this step to prevent that eventuality, in fact Ide cannot race for at least the rest of the season. He will be replaced this weekend by Franck Motagny, and possibly at Monaco, however, expect to see a Japanese driver - Hiroki Yoshimoto? - before long due to sponsorship reasons.

Surely it was the FIA that issued Yuji Ide's Super license? So surely they should have realised that he was not up to the job when he was tested for the licence? I'm not saying Ide is a great driver, in fact being consistently off the pace of his own team mate, Takuma Sato, kind of proves that he's not ready for F1 yet. I am, however, disappointed by the way the FIA has handled the situation, and the fact that they issued a license to a driver that was obviously not good enough at this time.

Maybe it is time for the FIA to take a good look at itself, changes are definitely needed.

Is Jenson Button going to win in Spain this weekend? Probably not, to be honest, even if Anthony Davidson was the fastest in practice today. With his being British, I have been following Jenson since he first joined the WilliamsF1 team, and signed up to his website last year, for some reason, today I receive an email from said website giving me Jenson's views about his chances for this race. They've never done this before, so either they know something we don't, or they just haven't sent them out until now and they will continue to come after the race. I guess I'll find out soon enough!

More teams are apparently working on Flexi-wings after Ferrari have refused to change their rear wing, which although (allegedly) Flexes to close the gap between the elements at speed, it does so within the constraints of the FIA's limits. So the wing is illegal in theory, but legal in practice.

David Coulthard starts his 200th Grand Prix this weekend, and shows no signs of slowing down. I must admit I've not always been a fan of his simply because I don't think he did as well at McLaren as he should, but since his move to Red Bull Racing I have a new found respect for him and would like to see him score a few points on Sunday.

So, who will win on Sunday? Fernando Alonso

European GP 2006

Certainly not a great race, especially for Williams, Honda or Red Bull. Coulthard's race came to an early end after contact with Toro Rosso's Liuzzi, Jenson Button suffering engine failure, and Williams just having a bad weekend in general.

Ferrari, mainly Schumacher, had the race largely in their control, even though Alonso led until the second round of stops Ferrari were always there. Massa driving a very mature race to grab his first podium finish.

Both Williams' Drivers had a ten place grid penalty as both had to change there Cosworth engines prior to Qualifying, Webber ultimately retiring after his hydraulics gave up. Rosberg, it could be said, had a good day, however, it could and should have been better. After making his first pitstop on lap 33/60 everyone thought he was on a one stop strategy. Wrong. He pitted again 11 laps from the end of the race. WHY?! After starting 22nd, Rosberg finished an impreesive seventh, but for that second stop he would have finished fifth (by my estimation). So why didn't he fuel to the finish on lap 33?

A lot of retirements for modern times with only 13 cars crossing the finish line. I wonder if it's to do with the hills and the lesser torque of the V8's putting extra stress where before there was none - or at least not as much - which could also explain Toro Rosso's relatively good pace as they are still running the V10?

CPT F1 Star Drive - Felipe Massa [Ferrari]

Nurburgring Qualifying

Absolute farce again in my opinion, Formula 1 is far too rigid in it's set up. The same kind of thing happened last week in the DTM, except that their red flag was a real one! They now use the same system as F1, the first session of Qualifying was halted due to a crash, it took a while to move the car so instead of just restarting the session for ten minutes to see who would get knocked out, they added the the remaining minutes to the second session and allowed ALL of the cars to take part. Considering the confusion that was caused, the hot laps that were halted and the fact there were only three and a half minutes left, I think that the same thing should have happened, it's fair to everyone then.

FOM have since apologised for the 'phantom red flag' blaming it on the circuit's Starting Lights Panel.

Fisichella showed that F1 Driver's do still have emotions by storming up to Villeneuve's BMW and giving him grief for not getting out of his way on his fast lap, Renault say this cost Fisi seven tenths. The Stewards agreed with Fisi and Villeneuve's fastest three laps were removed leaving him to start Ninth, one place behind where he was going to start anyway! Obviously, Fisi is under pressure and I can't understand why he is always so far off the pace of Alonso when he is a talented driver.

Yuji Ide has swapped positions with Super Aguri test driver Franck Montagny after advice from the FIA, citing inexperience as their main reason. But it's the FIA that allowed him to race with so little experience anyway, so for them to suggest that he should go on testing duties for a while shows them up too! I always thought there used to be rules about doing a certain amount of milage in an F1 car before you were allowed to race, if this isn't (or still is) the case, surely the FIA have ballsed it up again?

I'm beginning to worry about the future of F1 now as the FIA don't seem to get it anymore.

Drivers want Qualifying Changes....

According to this report from the BBC The Drivers have asked to meet with the FIA to discuss changes to the Qualifying format. What they want is the last 20 minute session to be a one lap shoot out, like last year's format.

Excellent Idea. In fact, it IS the idea I wrote to F1 Racing to suggest late last year, having seen the process work in the DTM. F1 Racing didn't print my letter, which I was obviously disappointed by, but if the format does change to this will people like it?

Just for the record, DTM have now changed to three, ten minute sessions in which the slowest cars get knocked out at the end of each session. Just like F1, except for the last session isn't run on Race fuel.

To me that is the only change F1 needs to make, I no longer want the 'one lap shoot out' final session. Just make the final session 15 minutes of low fuel, all on track qualifying - it would work.

Malaysia 2006

I'm currently watching this race again, and the one thing that has struck me that didn't before, is that on lap 32 we had some onboard footage from Montoya's McLaren Mercedes and the front wing of that car was really flexing, you could see it move, especially under braking - no wonder they were one of the teams that were told to change their wings! Kimi crashed out on Lap 1 after getting tagged on the right rear.

Now if you change your engine before it has run two race weekends, you get a ten place grid penalty. A simple rule that has been in place a while now, but what happens if you change your engine three times at the same race - as happened to Felipe Massa at this race? You get a ten place grid penalty, and start in front of people that have only changed their engine once, doesn't really seem fair, does it? At the very least he should have started from 22nd and last, if not from the Pitlane with a 30 second time penalty or something! Although I'm not sure it's fair to penalise the driver for Engine failures, maybe the Teams should have points deducted from the Manufacturer's Championship for engine failures?

I was quite surprised to see Nico Rosberg push his team mate so close to the Pit Wall off the start, instead of concentrating on Alonso in the Renault. Also disappointed that both Williams Cosworths retired from this race with Engine problems as they were incredibly reliable in pre-season testing, but I guess that's Sod's law working again, I was really hoping that Williams would piss all over the BMW Team this year, just to make a point!

Fisi had a good race, leading basically from start to finish, seems he has to win at least once a year these days, I'd like to see him win a few more this year.

Jenson Button had another average weekend, good qualifying position, but still unable to win, there is something wrong with that team, it amazes me that two years ago B.A.R Honda came second in the constructor's championship, then Honda bought 45% of the team, sacked David Richards and gone backwards ever since. At least you used to think they stood a chance of winning, now I just wonder if they manage to get even a podium, even if they start from Pole.

CPT F1 Star Drive - Giancarlo Fisichella [Renault]

Bahrain 2006

What a Season opener, the first running of the new Qualifying process was a success, with Kimi Raikkonen crashing out of the first session with suspension failure. The only problem with this new three part shoot out for me is the third part, With Max Moseley himself stating that F1 is likely to soon be the target of environmentalists, it seems somewhat strange that this third session is largely used for burning off fuel so the car is light enough to set a fast time!

The race was good, Felipe Massa almost taking out Fernando Alonso as he slid off the track, after which his Pit crew had problems getting the right rear tyre off of his car, and that was effectively the end of Massa's race. Jenson Button didn't have as good a time as expected, losing three places in the first two laps. Quite what the Honda Drivers were thinking by battling each other that early in the race when they should have been concentrating on staying in touch with the leaders is anyone's guess! Unfortunately for Rubens Barrichello, his gearbox decided to forget where third gear was, so he dropped out of contention.

Mark Webber had a suprisingly quiet race, the surprising bit being that although you didn't see or hear about him all race, he managed to finish 6th, ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg, who undoubtedly had the best race of the day. After having to replace his nose cone due to an incident on Lap 1, he battled his way back into the points, capturing the fastest lap of the race on the way - not bad for a debutant!

Super Aguri, unsurprisingly, had some teething problems. A team set up because of the uproar in Japan of Honda dropping Takuma Sato, you wonder why they bothered.......

Ferrari seemed quick, possibly because of the wings on the car that they would later change, although Honda still believe that the 248's rear wing flexes illegally.

I expected more from Williams to be honest, but I guess I hoped for too much from them and especially the Cosworth V8. The drivers are both up to the job, but will either of them be there next season?

CPT F1's Star Drive - Nico Rosberg [WilliamsF1]