Combining my love of all things backpacking and F1.
From the category archives:
Yesterday after much speculation about who would partner Kimi Raikkonen next season, Team Lotus announced that Romain Grosjean will join the returning ex-world champion. Grosjean was dropped by Renault after failing to impress alongside Fernando Alonso in 2009 and returned to the GP2 feeder series, which he won in 2011.
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Last year was a unique year in F1, There were no off track scandals, the teams all got on and Bernie and co stayed out of the newspapers. With Sebastian Vettel romping away with the title on track it it may have been the quietest F1 year in living memory. The main talking point arose mid way through the year when it was announced that the BBC were forfeiting their right to be the exclusive broadcaster for F1 in the UK and the contract was passed onto Sky TV for 2012. Sky will now show every race live till 2018, whilst the BBC can show ten races a year live with extended highlights for the remaining ten races.
Yesterday the on screen team which will lead Sky’s F1 coverage when it kicks off next season was announced and what a great line up it is, Key to the Sky deal is the signing of Martin Brundle, who for my money is the best sports broadcaster on tv. Brundle will be the lynch pin of the new F1 channel and hopefully Martin will be calling all the shots and be able to create all the content he believes will give viewers what they want. His grasp of the intricacies of the sport and ability to get them across to a broad audience is excellent. Brundle has looked particularly bullish of late and has the look of an excited school boy talking about the new coverage. Great news for any F1 nut.
Joining Brundle in the commentary box is Radio 5 Live’s David Croft. I have really enjoyed his commentary work during the free practice on the BBC and his genuine enthusiasm for the sport shines through, His promotion to lead commentator on a prime time broadcaster was long over due. The chequered flag podcast on Radio 5 was excellent and I hope to see a tv version of this next year.
Ted Kravitz is going to be a big miss for the BBC, not only for his knowledge of the sport and technical nouse but mainly his relationships with the teams and their personnel, build up over many years. His post race reports for me was the highlight of the BBC coverage and I hope to see him in an expanded role on Sky.
5 Live’s Anthony Davidson will have a role as part time practice commentator and post-race analyst at the Grands Prix which do not clash with his Peugeot sports car racing commitments,5 Live’s Natalie Pinkham will do the traditional reporter roles in the pits and ITV’s former Formula One anchor, Steve Rider, will present interviews with racing legends.
Whilst not everyone was pleased with the announcement of F1′s switch to Sky I suggest that this will only benefit hard core fans who will now be able to access a whole host of new features as well as extended coverage of a sport we love. Sky have a wonderful track record of not only improving sports coverage but also increasing the fan base for sports. I have a lot of friends who are just casual fans, they do not want to get up at 5am to watch a race in Australia, never watch free practice and catch qualifying if it suits them. The main bulk of the races they watch are the midday European races which are the bulk of the races that the BBC can show live and the races which are shown early in the morning on Sky will be shown as extended highlights on the BBC on a prime time slot.
Martin Brundle typically has put it best “I know there’s a price point to get access to Sky,” he said. “If not, it’s on the BBC and there’s copious amounts of coverage elsewhere, so as a Formula One fan I just don’t see an issue and the important thing is every race is going to be covered live.”
I expect that Sky’s coverage is going to be awesome, in-depth and exciting. I can’t wait! Yes, Sky have put together the best team they could buy, to protect their investment, but let’s not pretend that this whole thing is down to some sort of chicanery on the part of Sky. It is the BBC who have let us down in the first instance. It is still they who should be castigated over this issue.
I know which channel I will be watching.
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Caterham who are expected to battle in the midfield next year would be a step of for Ricciardo and in Kovalainen he would have a highly rated team mate as a yard stick. Sebastian Buemi and Jamie Alguersuari are whilst highly rated drivers they are relatively unknown quantities as they have only had each other as team mates since mid 2009 when both drivers were in their rookie season.. The scalp of Kovalainen would make it hard for Red Bull to ignore Ricciardo for 2013.
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Like many single males who are almost thirty with no real friends, I spend a lot of time on internet message boards that are of interest to me getting all worked up about things that don’t really matter and F1 is most certainly one of those pointless things I like to indulge in. There are many decent message boards mainly filled with fan boys for certain drivers and teams which can make the debate a little school boyish at times, but then again it is an internet message board and BBC Radio 4 I am spending my spare time with.
We love gossip on the internet, there is always someone who is ‘in the know’ or people who love to make 1+1=3. Silly season in F1 is always at the end of the season when there are seats up for grabs. Name comes out of nowhere; I saw both Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve being linked with Williams by some crazy message board dweller, Which would be fine if it was for the 2002 season and not 2012. This would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that these people care so much about F1 to sign up for a message board yet know so little about the sport! Normally these types give me a good chuckle until I see the one post that I read every now and again that sends me into a ball of keyboard warrior fury. “What about Karun Chandhok for *insert team here*, he deserves a chance”.
Ok now don’t get me wrong, I think Karun Chandhok has shown himself to be; (a) a driver of decent pedigree in lower formulas (b) a very charming man, but that is it, and in no way deserves to be on a F1 grid. Chandhok struggled in GP2 and found his way into F1 with a team desperate for cash and even then he could not keep his seat and was replaced by the hapless Yamamoto who did just as good of a job. Before that Chandhok was out performed by fellow rookie Bruno Senna a driver whose own F1 abilities are yet to be proven. He found himself on the side-lines in 2011 at Team Lotus and was given a chance to replace Jarno Trulli at Germany but was once again well off the pace of his team mate. Chandhok was hired by Lotus to be an Asian driver in an Asian backed team and the fact that Trulli was utterly woeful this year and still raced the Indian Grand Prix ahead of Chandhok speaks volumes.
So why does Chandhok, a pay driver (just like the dastardly Maldonado) keep getting touted for seats in F1? I’d love to say this was a practise of the brainless keyboard warrior but there is no end to his fan boys in the press also. I almost fell off my chair when Jonathon Legard was touting him as a replacement for Vitaly Petrov at Renault last year. How many minutes of air time does he get on the BBC? I am guessing at least more than half the drivers on the grid and I am positive he received more coverage at the Indian Grand Prix for not competing than Narain Karthikeyan was in the race and did something that Karun will never do in a F1 car. A sterling job.
Chandhok is trading on being a very nice guy who is always keen to give a sound bite to the media when requested. The Harry Redknapp of F1. He is a knowable and well-spoken guy with a great personality. The more I see him TV as a pundit and not driving an F1 the car the better.
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So my last blog was full of backslapping and high fives for my top five drivers in F1 this year. Now the fun bit, Any blogger or message board keyword warrior knows it is much more fun to pick holes in other people who are living your dream and have more talent in their pinkies than we do in our entire bodies. So here are my worst five drivers for 2011.
Jarno Trulli
The only driver who failed to out qualify his team mate at any stage of the season.. A woeful stat which is made worse by the fact that until very recently Trulli was regarded as one of the finest qualifiers on the grid. Having entered F1 in 1997 Trulli is one of the most experienced drivers of all time but it looks like his time has now passed. Caterham it seems are retaining him for 2012 presumably for his abilities to develop a car but the general consensus amongst F1 fans is that he should have been replaced by a hungry young talent to push the excellent Heikki Kovalinen who is now entering veteran status himself.
Pastor Maldonado
Despite being the reigning GP2 Champion Maldonado entered F1 with a bit of a reputation for being a reckless driver with a large wallet. Slightly unfair but he did not enhance his reputation this season despite a couple of excellent performances in qualifying performances he finished the 2011 season with the unwanted accolade of being the lowest point scoring Williams driver ever, Whilst it should not be forgotten that it was also the worst Williams car ever incidents like the deliberate move on Lewis Hamilton at Spa made it incredibly hard for those keen to see him shrug off his ‘pay driver’ reputation to defend him. He has retained his seat for 2012 but a massive improvement is required.
Felipe Massa
The likable Brazilian had an awful season. Having the worlds greatest driver as your team mate doesn’t do a lot for your confidence and Massa has driven like a man deviod of confidence since the infamous ‘Fernando is faster than you’ incident in 2010. It’s hard to judge just how good Massa is now, It appears he is now a shadow of the driver he was before his accident in 2009 but I would argue that Alonso made that car appear much faster than it actually is and it maybe Alonso that is making him look bad. 2012 appears to be his last in a Ferrari, Another poor season may make it his last in F1.
Lewis Hamilton
In my opinion one of the three best drivers in the world, but there is no getting away from the fact that Hamilton had a terrible year in 2011, Extremely frustrated by the lack of out of the box pace from his team Hamilton behaved like a child who had just had his sweets stolen, In contrast, his team mate excelled under tough circumstances and made the most of a bad situation and came out of the whole episode smelling of roses. Hamilton’s bizarre choice to live his personnel life out in public view could be looked at as either a) a young man growing up after having it so easy for many years b) someone who is more interested in living the show bizness life. A similar year in 2012 could damage his stock permanently and with a whole new batch of young drivers coming through in 2013 Hamilton may find himself struggling to fight for another world championship. There is no doubt that Hamilton should have won at least two world championships by now.
Timo Glock
One has to feel sorry for Timo Glock, A strong upper midfield driver in his days at Toyota he had the carpet swiped from under him when Toyota withdrew from the sport in 2009. A decision to join Virgin on a long term deal instead of sitting out for a year and hoping to pick up a drive in mid season is probably a decision he now regrets given how many drivers have been dropped during the season in the last two years. His lack of motivation has seen him struggling to take the fight to Team Lotus and was out performed by the solid if not spectacular Jerome D’ambrosio who will be replaced next year. This was further highlighted at the Brazilian Grand Prix when he was not only out qualified by his team mate but also both HRT drivers in a car inferior to his.
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It’s that time of the year again, F1 is over for the year, pre season testing is a full two months away and Kimi Raikkonen has put us all out of our misery and finally announced he will return for 2012 and we F1 fans geeks left compiling list and desperately looking forward to the sight of any sort of new F1 car. Here are my top five drivers of the year.
1.Sebastian Vettel.
A no brainier this year, It’s very easy to say ‘well he had the best car’ which of course is true but to get a seat in a top car you have to earn it and the last time I checked Torro Rosso has even been close to winning a Grand Prix since his departure. He destroyed his well established team mate and had an almost flawless year putting to bed the label of ‘the crash kid’. Eleven wins and a record breaking fifthteen pole position it is hard to imagine another world champion having such a flawless season. A model world champion on and off the track.
2.Jenson Button.
Up until 2009 it was thought that he was always going to be a nearly man, winning a world championship did little to enhance his reputation given the superiority of his car and like many I thought he was committing career suicide by moving to be Hamiltons team mate. A solid 2010 but that idea to bed and I would argue that 2011 has been his finest year yet. Beating Lewis Hamilton in his own team has probably done more for his reputation than his 2009 world championship win.
3.Fernando Alonso
Still for my money the best driver on the grid. Completely destroyed his team and carried a Ferrari way above it’s performance levels. It is hard to judge how good that car was because Massa’s performance may never recover from his accident or put it simply Fernando is just that good. If Ferrari can provide him with a race car that can get within 0.5 seconds of Red Bull next year expect Fernando to be world champion in 2012.
4.Heikki Kovalainen
Easily the best drivers of the new teams with the best team mate head to head qualifying record on the grid. After a tough spell at McLaren it seems the penny has finally dropped for Heikki and he was able to drag his poor car into a midfield battle it did not belong in. If Caterham do not deliver on their promises for next year then expect Kovalainen to return to a top team for 2013. If he is not the first driver from the new teams to score a point next season I will eat my hat.
5.Adrian Sutil.
A slow start to the year in which he made more off track headlines than on track, Sutil turned in a fantastic second half of the season resulting in an impressive career high ninth in the championship table. Unbelievable is now scrambling around looking for a drive in 2012. F1 can be a cruel sport at times.
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One day after the official 2012 team list was announced, Williams picked a strange time to confirm that Pastor Maldonado will be kept on for next season.
“Pastor has proven this year that he is not only quick but also that he is able to maintain a consistent and strong race pace,” said Frank Williams. “Pastor has been responsible for all of our forays into Q3 in 2011 and his race at Monaco was outstanding. Pastor has also settled into the team at Williams very well, contributing strongly in the factory and with our partners. He will play a critical role in 2012 as we rebuild the team and move forward.
Maldonado had a tough rookie season and finished the season as the worst point scoring Williams driver of all time. That does not tell the true story as it was also the worst Williams car of all time and he put in a couple of excellent performances in qualifying getting into Q3 four times which was Williams only appearances in Q3 this year. An excellent drive at Monaco would have ensured a high points scoring position before Lewis Hamilton took him out at turn one.
He has suffered a lot of negative press this year also, The decision to replaced Nico Hulkenburg with a cash flush Maldonado was widely criticized by F1 fans and it seemed the BBC thought his first name was ‘Pay Driver’. It was seemingly forgotten that Maldonado won GP2 in 2010 which is supposed to be the feeder series for F1. One could ask what else could he do to prove his worth. A cash strapped Williams were left with the choice of hiring the GP2 Champion of 2010 who came with a bucket load of cash or the GP2 Champion of 2009 who came with no backing. F1 is a business and they made the only decision a cash strapped business would make. It should also be noted that every team under the ‘big four’ requires at least one pay driver to help balance the books.
Maldonado will have to show a big improvement next year and most drivers who get a second year do normally see an increase in performances. Vitaly Petrov who also had a poor rookie season showed this is 2011.
Williams also announced that Valtteri Bottas will run as their Friday driver next year. The current GP3 Champion impressed so much at the young drivers tests that is was speculated that he may have even get a seat in the race team for this year. Force India have shown that the Friday driver programme is a great way of assessing young driver and if he continues to impress it seems highly likely the Finn will find himself in a Williams in 2013. It also seems likely that Jules Bianchi the Ferrari number three will replace the soon to be promoted Nico Hulkenburg as the Friday driver at Force India although given Ferraris links with Sauber and the possibility of Sergio Perez moving to Ferrari for 2013 that they would be a more sensible destination.
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Yesterday we got a first glimpse of the official F1 entry list which gave us a rough idea of which drivers were safe for next year. Rumours of Petrov heading over to the new Russian Marrsuia team and Riccardio heading over to Catherham look like they can be put to bed, for now.
There are technically nine seats left on the grid next year with the main talking points of who will take the remaining seats at Force India and STR. Hopefully STR wont make an announcement before the end of the week when I publish my blog on their options for 2012!
Force India are in the luxurious position of having the choice of three highly regarded drivers. Paul Di Vesta and Adrian Sutlil both did well for them but last years third driver Nico Hulkenburg is hotly tipped to be driving in one of the seats in 2012 and I would suggest he would have taken a reserve driver position at a team much higher up the grid if he had not been guaranteed a drive at Force India in 2012. Hulkenburg came to F1 in 2010 with a fantastic lower formula pedigree and did a sterling job at Williams in his rookie season and even managed a spectacular pole position in a rain soaked Brazilian Grand Prix. As any F1 fan knows, at the back end of the grid talent is not enough and Williams replaced him with Pasto Maldanado the successor to Hulkenburg as GP2 champion but crucially with hefty wedge of Venezuelan bank money.
The common consensus is that Hulkenburg will replace Adrian Sutil for 2012. However that is the common consensus spread by the British media who seem to think that Paul Di Resta is a champion in the making. Make no doubts about it, Di Resta had a good rookie season in F1 but still finished way behind Sutil in the championship. Sutil has improved year on year in his time on F1 and I would argue that it would be extremely unfortunate to find himself without a seat in F1.
Much has been made about about Di Restas performance this year with the BBC mentioning him as rookie of the year at every chance, I would suggest that accolade belongs to Saubers Sergio Perez. I was born in the same town as Di Resta and have every reason to want him to sucseed but find it difficult in the face of such outrageous nationalism from the BBC. Di Resta is also no spring chicken at 26 which is by no means old by F1 terms but does not have the time to develop that the likes of Hulkenburg and Perez have and seems to be living on the reputation of beating Sebastian Vettel in a junior formula back in 2006. One has to ask, if he is so good why has he been comprehensively beaten by a team mate who has never been on the radar of any of the top teams. I do not see Di Resta being more successful in F1 than the likes of Daniel Riccardio or Nico Hulkenburg and the likes of Romain Grojsean and Julian Bianchi are also on their way.
All the indications seem to point towards Hulkenberg and Di Resta as Force India drivers for 2012. But Sutil’s stock has improved, over the course of 2011, and hopefully a deal will be done to retain him in F1. I am guessing Williams is the most likely place.
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The announcement of Kimi Rakkionen signing for Group Lotus in 2012 got many including myself by surprise. He had been widely expected to join Williams but his appointment at Lotus has thrown a spanner in the works for many drivers desperately competing in a crowded market place. Whilst like most I am delighted Kimi is back, It is one less slot available for young drivers whom are seemingly out of fashion in F1 at the moment. Here are my thoughts on those who maybe lining up as Kimi’s team mate next year.
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Like most F1 fans I was utterly delighted to hear the news that the Kimi will be returning to the grid next year with Group Lotus or whatever that team is going to call itself next year. It leaves us with the exciting prospect of having six world champions on the grid for 2012.
His choice of Group Lotus is an interesting one, not only because he had a very public spat with team principle Eric Boullier last year. Given the teams lackluster performance on track last season and a quite frankly woeful off track performance the signing of Kimi it does leave Boulliers position under question. The team formally known as Renault have been on the decline for sometime now whilst there out of the box car looked the part in the early part of the season, a lack of in season development coupled with the loss of key team members have seen them slip back into the midfield and at times fighting with Team Lotus at the back end of the grid.
So why has Kimi returned to F1? Like almost all sportsmen it is very hard to walk away from the top . He is only 32 which is relatively young by current F1 standards and I believe Kimi found out what Michael Schumacher found out during his sabbatical, The grass is not always greener on the other side nor can the adrenaline of F1 be replaced by by other replaced by other forms of motor sport.
Kimi’s motivation has always been under question and we will find quite soon how dedicated he is to F1 if the car is of a similar standard to this seasons. I would reckon there are quite a few drivers at the moment who are eying up that number three seat at Lotus as they most likely path back or into F1.
The new rule changes to be implemented in 2013 are for me the reason he has came back. Any top team would be taking a risk employing him for this year given he has been away from the sport for two years and his motivation has always been under question. A sucsessful year at Lotus will see a host of top teams being linked with a hungry Kimi for 2013 with this expected to be Mark Webber and possibly Michael Schumachers last seasons in F1. Another unsuccessful year at McLaren may see the easily disgruntled Lewis Hamilton seeking pastures new. McLaren were keen to re sign Kimi for 2010 until they could not match his pay off fee from Ferrari and found a cheaper British option in Jenson Button.
Kimi Raikkonens return is certainly just the tonic F1 needed after what was a rather drab season in 2011 and has already wetted the apetite for 2012 already. Is it March yet?
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