Chinese Grand Prix - 14th April

Well it was a little less controversial at this weeks Grand Prix although if you looked at the stewards office after the race you would possible question that this was the reality with over 8 drivers called before them. The majority were called because of the use on DRS when there was a yellow flag on on the circuit. Those have gone unpunished due to an error in the larger system. It was always going to be a difficult one to police if 8 drivers were guilty of the same offence. They probably will not be so lucky. Mark Webber will have a 3 place penalty at the next race in Bahrain for causing an accident, as will Gutierrez for hitting Adrian Sutil which put him out of the race.

The race itself was more about tactics rather than serious driving, although there were some good overtaking moves, and fast speeds. The tyres are providing a much talked about point. Its very difficult to know where to sit on the fence about the tyres being so influential. In many ways it is particularly brilliant, it shakes things up, there isn't one team at the front. Driver skills are on show, with the drivers such as Jenson Button, Nico Hulkenburg, Paul Di Resta, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa showing to be the smoother drivers whereas Alonso is particular driven with his tyres, diving into corners. If it wasn't the tyres providing the differences it would be something else, and if we want all the teams the same we may as well make the cars identical, and then its not formula 1. Formula 1 is the best of the best, the best designers, the best drivers, the best engineers and mechanics. On the other side, it is a pain for the fans in the early sessions with the drivers not coming out, as they need to save tyres, not going full throttle because it could change it. I miss fuelling as part of the pitstops, where you didn't know how much fuel was in the car. Maybe they should bring that back with the tyres being unpredictable too, it would shake it up quite a bit. But we would probably still find that the tyres are too bad. I am currently not sure what would be best.


The politics of F1 is still high in the press with Sebastian Vettel centre of attention. In my personal opinion he is appearing to be a little bit too big for his boots. At the moment, it can still be drawn back, and he can become the cheeky chappy, that the fans and the press love. It could be an interesting few weeks.

Malaysian Grand Prix

Well what an exciting grand prix, that is full of contention as well as results. There certainly was a case of the good, the bad and the ugly in the results and full out of todays race. So lets start with the Good.  

There was a lot of good performances on side from the back teams. Marussia having a 13th finish is certainly showing that they are performing well. Granted they were assisted by the bad luck that affected Force India, and Jenson Button, but Bianchi proved his worth by finishing both in front of his team mate Max Chilton, and also both Caterham's which is a huge difference and may benefit them later on in the season when it comes down to championship places. And that is where the things actually show true. It is not just about being one of the top teams with the higher budgets fighting for the constructors championship or the drivers, the lower teams places matter. Where they finish has an incredible amount with the split of the money they get. It is often hard to see this almost two even three tier championship that is running on race day. However, there is a lot that can be said for the drivers in these teams. Often they stay out of the limelight, you don't hear their team radios as often, but they also don't generally make a fuss. What was shown in today's race was a lot of lack of respect for other drivers. We had it all on the radio snippets that were released today, complaining that other drivers were too slow, in their way, move them out the way. It was completely stupid.  

So I've touched on some of the bad, I really felt for the Force India team, they tried so hard and have shown so much improvement, to have two cars that get a mechanical fault, and need to be retired is hard for anyone involved. The lots of workers that work towards making a race weekend, both there and at home it must be terrible for them. Both drivers with the adrenalin running through their veins to be told they need to pit because the car is unsafe. Must be terrible. They are a family of people.  

The ugly... Team orders, both the positive and the negative. Seb Vettel lost a lot of fans today. Through his actions. I don't agree with team orders, racers should be able to race. However, it is hard to police, and that is one reason why it is now valid to do it. Red Bull generally let the drivers race, but they also have a responsibility to get the cars home, so expectation is that there will always be a point where they have to call time on it. With the current times being hard to judge the tyres, added to the heat of Malaysia this makes sense, that they decided to call it at the last pit stops. Approximately 15 laps from the end. At that point engines are cooled, and cars nursed to the finish line. What happened next was a loss of Vettel's head, that will have repercussions throughout the sport, because of them being such a big team. The media are going to have a field day, and Red Bull are unlikely to escape scrutiny easily. They are Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Mercedes are likely to get less watching of them as the decision seems to have been made for a different reason. Lewis' car was not fuelled correctly, they wanted him to save fuel. Nico wanted to race, Ross Brawn's reaction seems fare that it would not have been a fair fight, and Nico might have got to urgent fuel.  

The difficulty is this early in the championship it isn't about the individual it is about the team. The cars still hold a lot of hidden secrets, and tracks plus tyres is still quite unknown. There may be some interesting conversations happening over the next couple of weeks in a few garages. We have an interesting few weeks ahead of us...

Sports

Me and Sports go fairly hand in hand (much to my brothers disgust) I love my sport. More than i thought I ever would, so I am going to try and share my knowledge in blog. I enjoy Sport, I enjoy writing it, speaking about it, watching it. So with the Formula 1 season in flow, the tennis just starting, the rugby lions speculation is just starting, the conversations about where the rugby players will be moving, is also starting. So there are lots of interesting things going on. I am not a huge fan of football, so this will perhaps not have too much on that, but I will try to contribute the best I can.