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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Another year over, and I have to say it has been a fantastic year of F1 racing. Also I must say, thank you all for supporting the FF1GP site.

Who would have expected Ferrari and McLaren being down the bottom of the grid at the start of the year? And who expected Brawn to win the Constructors and Jenson Button Drivers Championship?

I didn’t that’s for sure, until after the first race. However there was the double diffuser row, which was looking to upset things, but in the end the FIA ruled it legal.

There were some unacceptable movements in F1, like the lies in Australia and the Crashgate affair where the 2008 Grand Prix in Singapore. Thankfully the right heads in those cases rolled before any serious damage was done to the sport, and for once the FIA kept their heads for the sake of racing.

Also I don’t understand why F1 management limited won’t give a Grand Prix to Britain? Does Bernie Ecclestone not know that not having a Grand Prix in the UK means zero pounds to him, compared to a few more pounds for having a Grand Prix? With respect to Tom Wheatcroft who sadly passed away on Sunday, a British Grand Prix is better than none at all?

Thats the bad points, of this year and I don’t want to get hung on it, as I said earlier it has been a fantastic year in F1.

The year started with Brawn Grand Prix who was formally known as Honda. They were on the back-foot when Honda said they are leaving F1. It was agonising for weeks, not knowing if they would compete, and also since a few of my F1 friends are Button supporters, they didn’t know if he had a race seat. I’ll let the other F1 news sites around here talk about the story on that one in detail, but the upshot was as follows. Ross Brawn brought the team, he got a Mercedes Benz engine stuck in and with 2 weeks to go before the first race in a test session, the Brawn GP car blew everyone away!

Then the Red Bulls came onto form. They came back big time at Silverstone. Then the next race in Germany, Mark Webber won his first Grand Prix.

There was some more …if you can call it that…amusing moments in F1. First of has to be Jarno Trulli completely loosing it in trying to overtake Adriain Sutil at Brazil, and then Jarno trying to blame the whole incicent on Sutil. So I thought I should give Jarno the award of completely loosing it even more award, is him trying to blame it again on Sutil in the press conference. Didn’t he figure out that getting fined by the Stewards was for him that it was his fault, and to get on with racing? I’ll say now I hope Kamui Kobayashi and Timo Glock get a racing seat next year!

Anyway. It’s time to wrap this blog up. The 2010 FF1GP seaon, will open around February or March 2010 once the teams decide on their drivers, and how good they are in winter testing.

There will be some site changes, I’ll point them out in new blogs over the next few months.

Update:

As I started writing this blog on Sunday and then I had to stop to complete a dozen other things, this blog got a little out of date.

First Toyota pull out of F1.  Then Bridgestone announce they are not going to re-new their contract on supplying tyres to F1 in 2011. (They will still supply tyres for 2010 still). Then Renault have decided they may or may not continue in F1.

And also Bernie has completely lost his marbles by saying that Silverstone has 48 hours to sign a contract or forget it.

Only in F1 can you have madness like this after the season ends.

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Brazilian Grand Prix

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Well this is odd, this isn’t the final race of the season, but once again, the F1 championship has been decided in Brazil…again!

First things first, I’m enjoying a few pints so this blog is written slightly under the influence!

And next thing, congratulations to Mark Webber winning the Brazilian Grand Prix and his 2nd Grand Prix win this year. I do wish the camera’s did look at him more today, but if you are a F1 fan, you know where all the camera’s were looking at.

Next, congratulations to Jenson Button for winning the FIA world Championship, and to Brawn GP for winning the FIA Constructors Championship. The story of how they won it this year is one that won’t be repeated. I didn’t think Brawn had a chance at beginning of the year, until their first test at earlier this year, they was rated at the dirt bottom price of £4 million for the start of the FF1GP season.

If anyone is wondering how much they will be next year, it will be the top notch price of £16 million, however I will say the prices for FF1GP 2010 are yet to be fully confirmed.

So back to this Grand Prix weekend. I was away down in Plymouth seeing my family, who are all just as interested in F1 as me. I was staying with my brother and watching the F1 coverage on the TV until about 7.30pm where we had to head off to a meal at an Italian restaurant for 8pm.

If anyone was following the F1 qualifying, well it took a long time to decide the grid due to the rain. Qualifying was not decided until 9pm UK time, so I was using every means to see the qualifying. I had to resort to streaming the BBC on my N95 phone while working down to the restaurant and sneaking a few clips while in restaurant to see what was happening as well, but as I said earlier everyone was interested, even if it was a little bit of shock to find Jenson qualifying in 14th when the first course arrived!

Next to the race, I made it back to my home 10 minutes late for the start of the F1 coverage on the BBC, since the M5 was being dug up and I’m not allowed to drive quicker than a F1 car. (And my car can’t do 180mph either!)

Still it was fantastic race to watch. I do like Rubens Barrichello, and I do wish he did win his home Grand Prix. He has brought so much to Brawn GP. It’s rumoured he’s off to Williams, but I hope he stays at Brawn, as he and Ross Brawn can bring that winning experience to Brawn GP, not that I knock Nico Roeberg for his racing, I just feel Rubens with his 16 years of F1 experience can still make a difference at Brawn.

Now to the FF1GP results. They are marked provisional, as the results at the official F1 results are marked that way. There was a few collisions which the Stewards are looking at, but none that I think should have affected the results. If they do change, I will post them up here.

However this year’s winner isn’t decided yet. ARH F1 may have the lead of 22 points, but in FF1GP nothing gets decided until the last race, and with at least 16 (Or more) other teams in contention, it will go down to the wire here!

In the mean time, I’m going to join the F1 party…where is that pub in Somerset?!

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Hungary Grand Prix

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

It’s not been the best week in Motor racing.

The tragic news of Henry Surtees who was killed at Brands Hatch last week, and also the injury to Felipe Massa who was struck by an object during Qualifying on Saturday.

My thoughts go out to the family of Henry Surtees in these difficult times, and also I would like to wish Felipe Massa a speedy recovery.

Normally when I blog here, I usually dish out the dirt on drivers who I think are rubbish, and take the piss out of some race situation. This week I’ll just say how well McLaren have worked to get back in the season to take their first win this year, lets see you guys stir up the Championship, as at this time it can still go either way.

And now to a few FF1GP related matters.

Renault.

Late news has reached me that Renault have been banned from the European Grand Prix in Valencia. This was down to the wheel coming off after Fernando Alonso’s pit stop. So if Renault’s appeal is not successful, anyone with Renault or their two drivers will not score any points in the next grand prix.

Felipe Massa

I’m afraid no points to anyone who had Felipe Massa in their teams for this race, except to the 2 teams who correctly predicted Felipe Massa as a “DNF”. As the FF1GP rules state, prediction points for DNF’s are awarded since Felipe Massa did take part in Qualifying.

However we don’t know when Felipe Massa will return to racing. I’ll write a blog about this nearer the time of the next grand prix, when we all know what’s happening, but in the mean time, get well Felipe Massa!

See you all in 4 weeks time, and enjoy the break.

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Bourdais out - Alguersuari in

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

After 1 and a half year with the Toro Rosso team, Sebastien Bourdais has been dropped by the team.

It’s not suprising, since both Sebastien Buemi and formar team mate, Sebastian Vettel have both out-performed Sebastien Bourdais. Shame realy as Bourdais record from Champ Car did look very good.

There is a rumour going around the FF1GP office that Sebastien Bourdais was dropped because there was too many Sebastien’s in F1, but no-one can comfirm these rumours!

Bourdais is replaced by Jaime Alguersuari, a Spanish driver who is the British Formula 3 International Series champion, and is now the youngest F1 driver.

So how does this effect Fantasy Formula 1 Grand Prix?

For those who have the Toro Rosso team, you will score points as normal.

For those who have Sebastien Bourda, I’m afraid you don’t get any more points for him, and you can’t trade him for a replacement driver either. (Sorry this is more down to a technical limitation of FF1GP)

For those who want to create a new team with Jaime Alguersuar, you can. He is available for your FF1GP team for only 3 million.

Any other questions, drop me a line at admin@ff1gp.com

So…anyone taking any bets on how long Nelson Piquet Jr will last?

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FF1GP.com - Planned server downtime - Completed

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

On Sunday 12th July from 19:00BST FF1GP.com will be offline until about Monday 13th July 08:00BST.

This is due to the server hardware that hosts FF1GP.com being relocated to a new datacenter by our hosts.

I would like to apologise for the inconvenience this will cause anyone.

Updated: Looks like I got my dates and days mixed up - correct dates are now up.

Updated 13/7/2009: Server move went very smoothly, everything is up and running again.

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Silverstone Grand Prix

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

What a race to watch! Sebastian Vettel just blew the field away starting on Pole position and finishing 1st for his 2nd win of the season.

The race was much more interesting down at the back, where two World Champions were fighting it out for the best of the last few places.

The scrap between Lewis Hammilton and Fernando Alonso was great to watch, and it seems the crowd at Silerstone loved it when Lewis outbraked Fernando at Copse Corner. It may go down as the overtaking manoeuvre of the year, but it was one of the best of the race.

There also was one very unusual result as well today. Nelson Piquet Jr *beat* Fernando Alonso.

However one thing for sure is, there is now a fight for the world championship going on between Red Bull and Brawn Grand Prix. That’s good news for F1 fans, as we like to be kept on the edge of our seats, although last year’s finish at Brazil will take a lot of beating.

So in the next 3-4 races I expect the World Championship to be between 3 drivers - Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello. However I do expect someone to get in the show a little, and that is Mark Webber.

Silverstone memories.

Finally, is it Silverstone’s final F1 race?

Domington park may not be ready in time, and Bernie in the past has stated there will be no British Grand Prix in 2010 if Domington Park isn’t ready. However both Bernie and Max have now both stated there will be a British Grand Prix in 2010. Where it will be, is yet to be decided, maybe we will know in a few weeks time.

However I’ve been to a few Grand Prix’s in the last few years, I was at Silverwind in 2005. Here is a pick of a few memories I’ve found.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - A lot of support for Jenson Button, I bet there was more flags out today.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - A lot of support for Jenson Button, I bet there was more flags out today.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - David Coulthard's Red Bull car being towed back to the pits during a practice session.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - David Coulthard's Red Bull car being towed back to the pits during a practice session.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - David Coulthard taking time out to sign autographs with the fans.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - David Coulthard taking time out to sign autographs with the fans.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - Give's you wings! Well today, they did have wings by finishing 1st and 2nd.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - Give's you wings! Well today, they did have wings by finishing 1st and 2nd.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - Bring back Eddie Jordan. Who would have expected Eddie Jordan to be a F1 pundit for the BBC?

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - Bring back Eddie Jordan. Who would have expected Eddie Jordan to be a F1 pundit for the BBC?

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - Jenson Button in his Honda in 2005, taken at Luffield during the race.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2005 - Jenson Button in his Honda in 2005, taken at Luffield during the race.

See you all in 3 weeks time for the German Grand Prix.

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British Grand Prix - The oil slicks

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

In the run-up to the British Grand Prix, I’ve been looking for some amusing stories and clips. Here is the pick of a few I’m found so far.

First off, the famous black chair is back! David Garrido of BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, doesn’t give Jenson Button a mastermind test to remember…he give him a… Fastermind test!

Jake Humphrey on Twitter this morning certainly gave a little chuckle, when he wrote at 8.32am

“Quiet @ Silverstone bar the odd tyre gun in the distance. 8.30am, been up since 4…hot air balloon was amazing! Blog about it up soon…”

Only about an hour later for him to clarify why the Silverstone Bar was quiet about 45 minutes later.

“Just to be clear. It was quiet BAR the odd tyre gun. Not quiet in the BAR!! I wish!!”

I thought he was going to explain the Silverstone Bar wasn’t open at 8:32am…

Finally back to Jenson Button and Jake Humphrey again. Nearly every race, the tack is open for F1 drivers to show off their skills on the racetrack in a road car with a reporter in the passenger seat, who is having the time of his life.

However today there was a twist, they put Jake Humphreyin the driving seat and Jenson Button in the passenger seat. Read about it in Jake’s blog, and I’m sure the clips will be online in a few days.

In the mean time, rumours are circulating the F1 paddock that Ross Brawn has requested that cleaning bills for driver overalls are not part of the proposed 2010 budget cap.

Enjoy the Grand Prix this weekend!

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Why there may not be 26 cars on the F1 grid in 2010

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

The FOTA (Formula 1 Teams Association) vs. FIA row has been going on for weeks. For those who don’t follow the politics of Formula 1, I can’t say I don’t blame you for not following it or understanding it.

Let me sum it up in a nutshell it’s about a proposed budget cap, and also the rules for the 2010 season.

One thing I agree with FOTA, is there should be one set of technical rules, for whether you are spending £40million or £400million. One thing the FIA and FOTA agreed to is have one set of regulations for 2010. As many people pointed out, it would be confusing for people.

However what FOTA don’t like is the £40million budget cap. FOTA quite rightly argue, the cap could cost the teams spending £400 million a lot of jobs. Why the FIA have not agreed to accept gradually reducing budget cap, (Like £100million for 2010, then £40million for 2010) is beyond me.

Anyway, here is my clear and cut solution to the budget cap. If you decide to race under the budget cap, your cars and teams can score points in the FIA championship. If you want to go for the no budget cap option, you can’t score any points.

If by any chance Bernie or Max is read this article, and you do decide to suggest or use this idea please send me a cheque for £1million.

At this rate I think a breakaway series is likely, but knowing Formula 1 a deal will be reached by the morning of Qualifying at Silverstone and everyone will be smiling again.

However I suggested earlier that there would be only 20 cars on the Grid next year, where one of the changes in the Formula 1 rules for 2010 is the increase in grid slots from 24 to 26.

Now either the FIA have been very sneakily clever and saw this row coming or this is just pure co-incidence.

5 teams are defiantly on the 2010 grid, they are the 3 new teams (Campos Grand Prix, Team US F1 and Manor Grand Prix), and 2 existing F1 teams. (William and Force India)

Next we have the 5 other teams (McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota and Brawn) who have to submit unconditional entries by this Friday. If they don’t there are another 5 teams wating to take their place.

That brings us to 10 teams, and 20 slots on the grid filled up, leaving the 3 other teams - Ferrari, Redbull and Toro Rosso.

Now in the case of Ferrari, Redbull and Toro Rosso it’s slightly different. The FIA has said, they are on the 2010 grid, as they have signed the 2005 Concorde agreement, which contracts them to race until 2012. If this is the case this leaves an interesting dilemma.

If the 3 teams are indeed contracted to race in 2010, then the FIA cannot give their slots to anyone else, otherwise the teams could sue the FIA for breach of contract. If Ferrari, Redbull and Toro Rosso decide not to take their slots, the FIA could sue the teams for breach of contract.

Of course, I and I’m sure you will be wanting to see 26 cars on the grid next year, let’s just hope everything gets settled in the next few days.

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Spanish Grand Prix

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

What another great race, and being a Jenson Button supporter I was delighted to see him win again!

Many of us, me including was expecting Sebastian Vettel to beat the Brawns today. Even the BBC pundits, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard predicted Sebastian Vettel to win.

They, like myself got it wrong, but I thought it would be interesting to see who in the FF1GP tried to predict the race result. For this week, we had 874 out of a possible 1393 predictions, so good on you all for entering your predictions for those extra little points.

Let’s take a look at Sebastian Vettel. Out of the 1393 FF1GP teams, 225 had selected Sebastian for their teams. The ones who did their predictions for this race, 26 teams believed he would come 1st, 50 in 2nd place and 44 in 3rd place, 15 in 4th place and 10 in 5th place. One team predicted him to come in 11th!

Considering you can only put in your predictions before qualifying starts, it looks like you all got a good judgement on where Sebastian Vettel will finish.

If you are all interested in any more stats, just drop me a line at admin@ff1gp.com and I’ll be happy to do another post on them.

Ferrari - you got to ask, what is going on in that garage? You have to feel sorry for Massa who was fighting Vettel all the way to keep in behind, only to told you don’t have enough fuel to reach the end of the race, so please drive SLOWLY!

You would think with these state of the art fuel rigs would be able to deliver the precise amount of into a F1 car?!

Well I guess not, but if Ferrari need to get rid of those fuel rigs, I know of a petrol station close to me that would welcome a faster petrol pump! The other day it took one of their pumps took 5 minutes to put 42 litres into my car, compare that with F1 fuel pump which I would reckon it would take 4-5 seconds!

Next race is in Monaco, where I don’t expect any of the teams to run KERS around the tight street circuit. Although if anyone does use KERS, there won’t be many places to use it. The Tunnel, the Start Finish straight and between turns 1 and 3 are the places to me to use it, although anyone who does use it, will have to have balls of steel.

See you all in 2 weeks time!

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McLaren given a suspended race ban

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

I got to admit I was a little surprised with the decision in Paris today against McLaren. Then again, perhaps I wasn’t.

For those who don’t know, McLaren got found out for not telling the truth to the Stewards in Melbourne, and getting found out. You can read the story at the BBC.

The matter then got messy for McLaren. Lewis apologised, Dave Ryan got suspended and the fired. Then Ron Dennis left the F1 side of things in McLaren.

It seems all this helped McLaren side of things, as the World Motor Sport Council took this into account in handing out a 12 month suspended 3 race ban. What that means is they are free to race. However if anything comes to light that they lied again, or break any other rules, the 3 race ban will come into effect.

As I said, I was a little surprised, but in the end this is probably a good thing. We all want to see racing on the track, not championships decided in a meeting in Paris. I was expecting some sort of race ban, or even Max Mosley treating Martin Whitmarsh to his whip from that basement in London, but with the McLaren lawyer being present and observing the precedings, I don’t think anyone would have wanted to see that sight.

So how does this effect FF1GP? Well it doesn’t. However if McLaren are silly enough to get a 3 race ban over this season, any with McLaren in their team or any of the McLaren drivers will score zero points.

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