2006 GP of Turkey

A somewhat action packed race lead from start to finish by young Felipe Massa to record his first F1 victory. Cars flying all over the place at the first corner on Lap 1 led to Kimi Raikkonen's retirement, and put a stop to Fisichella's hopes of a good finish.

Massa led a Ferrari 1-2 until the first round of Pit Stops which happened under the Safety Car - whilst we in the UK were watching some adverts - that was brought out after Klien spun off, again at the first corner! It was at these stops that Alonso was able to pass Schumacher due to the Ferrari's queueing in the Pit Lane. Schumacher was unable to find a way around Alonso despite having the faster car in the later stages, if Schumacher had qualified ahead of Massa he would surely have won this race as he would have been first in the Queue at the first stop.

Button had a solid, if anonymous, race to finish fourth. He was never in contention for a higher finish in this race, but everyone knew that before the grid formed.

Albers had a great race for Midland before spinning out later in the race.

CPT F1 Star Drive Felipe Massa [Ferrari]

GP2 @ Istanbul

Race one yesterday afternoon was totally dominated by Nelson Piquet Jnr. with Lewis Hamilton coming in second.

Race two this morning was absolutely brilliant, with the reverse grid meaning that Hamilton and Piquet Jnr. started 7th and 8th respectively, Zubar and Carroll stormed off at the start, with Piqurt Jnr. getting the better of Hamilton. Hamilton spun on lap two leaving way down the field, which in a way was good, as it gave us an exciting 21 laps watching him fight his way back up! He managed to get to fifth, behind Piquet Jnr. and that's where the real excitment began with Hamilton pushing and fighting his way past the Brazilian twice, then going wheel to wheel with ex-Jordan F1 racer Timo Glock for the first few corners of the circuit, before he got past and set about hunting down Adam Carroll. With only three laps left it looked unlikely, but Hamilton was on such a charge he made it look easy and claimed the second step on the podium.

Hamilton now leads Piquet Jnr. by ten points going into the final round at Monza

Istanbul Speed Park Qualifying

Quite a good Qualifying, Albers managing to get through to Q2 was a surprise - not least for him as he had to ask if he was to stay in the cockpit or not!

Jenson Button started slowly but managed to pull through to get 6th on the grid, whilst the Ferrari's locked off the front row, with Massa getting his first Formula 1 Pole Position.

On to the subject of Coulthard, why is it that he always has traffic, or some other problem that isn't his fault? He consistently underperforms in qualifying, today he was out-qualified by his teammate Klien - who will be replaced by Mark Webber next season. Anyone else think that maybe he's hit that 'comfortable' place in the Red Bull team that he was in at McLaren? Come on DC, with your experience you should be able to do better than you are.

Massa - "I Will Race in 2007"

Further to my post from the other day, Felipe Massa has told the press that he will not be taking a step backwards to become Ferrari 'Third Driver', he says nothing has been confirmed and that it will take a few more days, but his testing days are over.

But where will he go? McLaren look set to move De La Rosa, Paffett or Hamilton to thier second seat if Kimi leaves, Renault seem sure to race Kovalainen, BMW are likely to keep Kubica in a race seat and with Red Bull, Williams, Honda and Toyota having already confirmed their line ups, it only leaves Midland, Toro Rosso and Super Aguri with seats available - unless either Kimi stays at McLaren - or moves to Renault - or Ferrari run three race cars next season!

Good luck Felipe, and hold out for that race seat!

Mercedes Buy Out of McLaren - Deal Done?

Reports are coming out of Germany that the Mercedes Benz buy out of McLaren is done and dusted, the rumours are that Ron Dennins met with Mercedes' bosses at Hockenheim and signed over his 30% share of McLaren, with Mansour Ojjeh owning the other 30% (Mercedes already owning 40%), the report estimates the price Mercedes have paid is $400million.

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In almost related news, Bernie Ecclestone believes that JPM will return to Formula 1 in the future, Ecclestone says he will miss Montoya, who hails from Colombia, because he is a 'special character'.

"F1 needs drivers like him"

What of Felipe Massa?

So the rumours of a Schumi-Kimi line up at Ferrari next year are getting stronger, and it could make for an interesting season - after all, we haven't had two 'top' Drivers at the same team for a very long time - but what about poor Felipe Massa? He's already signed to drive for Ferrari next year, but obviously if the above line up comes off, he'll be the best payed Third Driver in the Paddock.

He is so much better than going back to being a team's Third Driver, he deserves a race seat and has more than proved that this season. I'm sure he'll toe the company line and say that he'd rather be Third Driver for Ferrari than Race Driver for anyone else, but he won't mean it, how could a Racing Driver truely feel that way?!

Ferrari should loan him to Renault for the Season!

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edit@0850 16/08/06

Rumours this morning surrounding the (already rumoured) Mercedes Benz buy out of Mclaren suggest that Mercedes have offered Kimi $64million for the next two years if he stays at McLaren Mercedes. So who knows, maybe Massa will retain his Race Drive after all - can't see it myself though.

Villenueve Out II

As predicted by me on the 1st August 2006 - as soon as I read the Press Release from BMW regarding JV and Hungary - Jacques Villenueve will play no further part in this year's F1 schedule, a statement from JV said

"Last week, the Team informed us of its decision to review its options for next year, including assessing Robert Kubica in a race environment at Hungary without offering me any assurance about my race seat beyond Hungary. Therefore, the Team and I agreed to part ways with immediate effect. This is really disapointing as I was looking forward to working with BMW on longer terms - going into next season capitalizing on our common experiences . I will now have more time to concentrate on future projects.
Finally, I would like to thank the Team, especially my engineers and the Team's sponsors with whom I have had real pleasure working with in the last year"

BMW boss Mario Theissen had this to say

“Jacques has performed well for us this year, scoring the Team’s first grand prix points in Malaysia, He has made a significant contribution to developing the newly formed BMW Sauber F1 Team and the performance of the car. However, after Jacques’ accident in the Hockenheim race the team decided to review its options for next year, including assessing Robert Kubica in a race environment.
Our decision to look towards evaluating our driver line up has naturally impacted Jacques’ position for the remainder of this season. We fully understand that it is difficult for Jacques to maintain his natural level of commitment in circumstances of uncertainty. We respect his position and wish him well for the future.”

Which basically means that BMW were unhappy with how many times JV had crashed recently, so wanted to see if Kubica could do better, so they dropped JV for Hungary, without telling him if he would get his seat back after the race, Kubica had a good race so they Paid JV off for the rest of his contract.

Expect him to go fishing for a NASCAR drive for 2007.

In other news, Red Bull have today confirmed that Mark Webber will partner David Coulthard next season. Good news for both Drivers, and a strong line up for the Team. With a Newey designed car, I expect them to do very well next season.

Grand Prix of Hungary '06

Or

Button Breaks His Duck

Just when you're about to give up on a Formula 1 Season cos you're becoming bored Hungary throws up one of the best and most emotional races seen for years!

Not only because Jenson Button and his Honda finally came good and got the result - although that's where the emotion comes in! But also because of all of the action, it was non-stop. Thankfully we didn't start behind the Safety Car, and I certainly think that helped the race become interesting fast, especially with Michael Schumacher's monster start launching him from 11th on the grid to 5th by the first corner. Raikkonen showed why I think he's not ready to be Champion yet by slamming into the back of Luizzi whilst trying to lap him, no-one's fault, just a misunderstanding of each others intentions - all very diplomatic between the two afterwards!

Schumacher undid all of his good driving at the start by driving unfairly towards De La Rosa and Heidfeld at the Chicane, but it ended badly for himself when he had to retire, following contact with Heidfeld. Alonso retired with Driveshaft failure, seemed strange that the car was fine going into the pits, and was broken coming out, but they say it was driveshaft failure, and that's that!

Robert Kubica drove a great race, after spinning on the warm up lap, and losing his front wing by hitting the wall early on, but still managed to get a couple of points on his debut race.

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edit @ 2130Robert Kubica has been disqualified from the GP after post race scrutineering found his BMW F1.06 to be 2Kgs underweight, this was apparently due to "excessive tyre wear". This promotes Felipe Massa to 7th and Michael Schumacher to 8th which gives him 1 point.

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So on to the brilliant drive from Button, people have commented that he needed other Drivers to fall off the track, but if you look at the race, he drove solidly and brilliantly. His, and the Team's, strategy was spot on, he was catching Alonso when the Renault broke, and was easily the smoothest and most consistent Driver on the Track today. A well deserved and overdue victory for the Englishman.

CPT F1's Star Drive Jenson Button [Honda]

GP2 Hungary

Race one took place yesterday after F1 Qualfying and was totally dominated by Nelson Piquet Jr. - his fastest lap was two seconds clear of everyone else - Adam Carroll managed to go from 2nd to 9th during his pitstop. As Hamilton managed to spin during Qualifying he started last on the grid and worked his way up to finish tenth.

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Race 2 started behing the Safety Car as it was wet - and it looks to stay that way for the F1 as it's still raining now! Now I'm not a fan of bringing out the Safety car for rain - they've got rain tyres on, let them go for it - and I was disappointed that this race started that way, but after the Safety Car pulled in it all kicked off! Cars were sliding off all over the place for the entire race, but somehow Nelson Piquet Jr managed to move from 8th at the start to win, with Hamilton starting tenth and finishing second. The race didn't go for the full distance, they only had time to do 23 of the 28 laps, but it was so action packed it didn't matter!

It looks like the Porsche Supercup will also start behind the Safety Car - I really hope they don't spoil the F1 Race the same way......

Hungaroring Qualifying

Today, for the first time, I have watched Qualfying with the laptop on my lap and the formula1.com live timing screen on, and it's a bit weird! for one thing the live timing screen is about five seconds ahead of the ITV coverage so you know what's happening before you see it, and secondly, it's a bit tricky to keep your eye on both screens at once!

During Q1, it was confirmed by Race Stewards that Michael Schumacher would face the same penalty as Alonso for overtaking three cars whilst the red flags were being waved during free practice this morning. Even so Both driver's got great times, but the penalties meant that neither driver progressed past Q2. Both penalties were fair in my opinion, both drivers had made dangerous moves during practice.

An electric debut Qualifying for BMW's Robert Kubica sees him start tomorrows race in 9th on the grid, as Button drops ten places due to an engine change in his Honda. I can't see JV coming back now, especially if Kubica does well in the race.

Webber will start fifth tomorrow, which is a great result, albeit gained by three cars having penalties! It is now rumoured that Webber has penned a deal to partner Coulthard at Red Bull next season, driving a Newey designed car could be a very good move for him.

Alonso Penalised, Da Matta Injured

Alonso has been penalised for his erratic driving in Free Practice yesterday, apparently he was blocked by Robert Doornbos, and when he overtook he waved his fist, weaved in front of Doornbos's Red Bull Racer and brake tested him several times, and also for overtaking another car after the session had finished, under waved yellow flags. The FIA Stewards have decidied that this is unacceptable and dangerous and have served a penalty of two seconds be added to each of Alonso's Qualifying laps today - thereby killing any chance of a good grid position for tomorrow's race.

Briatore has slammed the FIA for tinkering with the World Championship, questioning why they have decided that the Mass Damper system is now against regulations even though Renault have been using it for almost a year, and six other teams have used it this season. He also wonders if a certai red team has influenced the FIA's decision in this matter - he has a point, after all, it wouldn't be the first time....

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Just to remind us how dangerous Motorsport is, former Toyota F1 driver Christiano Da Matta is currently in intensive care after hitting a Deer during Champ Car Open Testing at Road America on Thursday. He has sustained serious head injuries and is under close observation. I hope he makes a full recovery, my thoughts go out to him and his family and friends at this time.

Williams Announce Driver Line Up for 2007

Whilst we all expected an unchanged Driver line up at Williams next season, Mark Webber will be leaving to be replaced by Alex Wurz. Nico Rosberg remains in the second Williams Race seat for next season.

I can't understand why they have announced this so early, it was only the other day people were saying that Webber was prepared to take a pay cut to stay at Williams as they couldn't afford his wages anymore. Still, it would explain why Webber wasn't excited about the Toyota Engine deal yesterday!

People are placing Webber at Renault for next year, as Briatore is his Manager as well as the Boss at Enstone. Seems logical, but what about BMW? With Villeneuve obviously not having his contract renewed (Robert Kubica's manager has hinted that he will not return to BMW at all, as I thought yesterday) and Webber's experience with BMW's engines I think he could end up there. Maybe he'll replace Raikkonen at McLaren, but I'd like to throw Ferrari into the pot. People have said that Webber has a Schumacher like presence and intelligence in the car and with the team ever since his time with the Minardi Team, so could slot in there very nicely if Raikkonen decides on either Renault or McLaren.

Villeneuve Out.....

BMW have issued a statement to the Press stating that Jacques Villeneuve has declared himself 'Not ready for Hungary' after crashing in the German Grand Prix last weekend. Nothing majorly interesting there, until you get to the part that explains that Robert Kubica will race in Hungary but

"we have not made a decision on who will drive the car either in the remaining races of the season or next year."

Which seems a very curious statement when put together with the fact that no medical reason has been given for Villeneuve's absence.

Will he race again this season? The press release would seem to point at a negative answer, which would be a shame. Up until recently he's been driving well this year, but we are all aware of the fact that BMW didn't really want him to drive for them this year, but were forced to have him because of his contract. So what's changed if he doesn't race again?

Too many questions, which I hope will be answered soon by BMW confirming that Jacques will drive for them for the rest of the Season.