End of F1

Formula 1 has experienced what most of the nations and civilizations have sometime or the other in history. Monopoly and dictatorship always lead to destruction. In case of F1 it is destruction by its own subjects..the teams. Only future knows who will win this battle but its not that hard to predict.

Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone stretched the string too far; the string that held FIA and FOTA together for all these years; the string that relied on mutual trust and understanding. FOTA said enough to their tyranny and we now have F1 without 8 main teams: Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, BMW, Brawn GP, Toyota, Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

FOTA has already declared that they will start a rival series with more or less same rules but with better governance. Important thing is they have suggested that in addition to suggestions from teams, opinions of millions of fans will also be taken care of; primarily by reducing ticket prices!!Current drivers are also showing loyalties to their teams rather than FIA so we can hope to see same excitement only under different name.

Now that we know the facts of this situation, this is what I (or any non-retard for that matter) can deduce:

1) F1 WILL face extinction. If Mosley and Ecclestone think that fans like me watch F1, they are wrong. We watch the teams, who cares about the title! We watch for the teams and drivers, not because these two idiots make the rules.

2) FOTA already has the infrastructure and technology in place. All they need is some thinking space, which is not a big deal. The new series will be a hit.

3) Force India will sunk even lower without FOTA support. They will face the immediate challenge of finding a replacement for its Mclaren-Benz engine and transmission. Williams, well I can only wish them luck. It will be intersting to see what Fisichella, Sutil, Rosberg and Nakajima do next season. If they are sane, they will break away from F1.

4) Both FOTA and FIA will find a few more teams to join on the grid. It will be easy for FOTA with huge sponsorships and excellent technology. F1 will find even lamer teams with unknown drivers.

Remember what happened when Schumi retired.. many people stopped watching F1. This is same case only much much grander. For me and millions of fans its a vey easy choice. I don’t know what FIA is thinking but it is definitely getting screwed.

Rule changes for Formula-1 season 2010

A day after FIA let Mclaren off the hook for showing “honesty” in lie-gate scandal,  revised rules for 2010 season were announced. FIA has gone into a damage control mode after an outcry over stringent cost cutting norms last year. First and foremost, the budget cap has been increased to 40m £ from earlier limit 30m £.

This limit doesn’t include following costs:

• Marketing and hospitality
• Remuneration for test or race drivers, including any young driver programmes
• Fines or penalties imposed by the FIA
• Engine costs (for 2010 only)
• Any expenditure which the team can demonstrate has no influence on its performance in the Championship
• Dividends (including any tax thereon) paid from profits relating to participation in the Championship

“Any expenditure which the team can demonstrate has no influence on its performance in the Championship??“…that rule is going to be the back door escapeway for all the teams who will be accused of overspending.

FIA: You have exceeded the cap with your latest wind-tunnel testing.

Team: Oh no…that was not for Aero….we were just checking if the stickers are firmly in their places. Got to keep the sponsors happy!

Thats how dumb it can get. For the big teams, it will not be a big deal to show random expenditures on non F1 related products and get away with it. FIA will obviously try to avoid such things by choosing best possible commissioners but ultimately, they are also humans. Its not easy to keep a watch on companies as big as Ferrari and BMW with huge R&D budgets. It will however be difficult for a team like Brawn GP, which has no existance outside F1.

Additionally, there will be 13 teams next season to spice things up a bit. FIA has agreed to provide support to all the new teams.

“Those teams accepting the cap will be able to run constantly adjustable wings, engines with no rev limit, more powerful KERS systems, and – in theory – four-wheel drive. They will also be allowed unlimited out-of-season track testing with no restrictions on the scale and speed of wind tunnel testing.“

The best move by FIA in recent years. Within limts, teams will have full freedom to choose their priorities. This year we have seen 3 way competiotion: Double Decker Diffuser vs KERS vs Both and it is amazing to watch how your priorities affect you on different parts of a circuit. We saw Piquet defend his position from Trulli by cleverly using KERS to match Toyota’s superior aero. With new rules the competition could get more dimensions.

“Tyre blankets will be banned and the ban on other tyre-heating devices will be maintained”

Postponed rule from last year; will have a major impact on race start-ups and out laps after pit stops. Speaking of pitstops, look at the next rule:

“Refuelling during a race will be forbidden in order to save the costs of transporting refuelling equipment and increase the incentive for engine builders to improve fuel economy (to save weight)”

This will severely change the importace of pit stops. All teams can change tyres in less than 5sec. It was the refuelling strategy that made pit stops both interesting and influential. Though timing of pit stop will matter,  it won’t play much part in deciding the outcome of race like it does now. A step backwards according to me. We do not want all teams running on same weight for the entire race! Reduces chaces of good overtaking. This overshadows the effect of all the technical freedom.

Overall, FIA has done a good job in creating good will. Perks for minions and freedom for the giants. Should bring them to a same level by next year.

First championship point(s) for Ferrari

Burning hot Sakhir International Circuit proved lucky for Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen scored 3 valuable championship points in Bahrain GP.

Superficially, these points hardly matter for a team like Ferrari in its championship bid (which looks like long lost). But it was a huge morale boost, which the team needed badly. The main issue of reliability apparently seemed solved for one Ferrari, ended Massa’s chance of scoring after 5 laps. Huge questionmark over feasibility of KERS system still lingers over Ferrari pits as a malfunction only made KERS a burden for the rest of the race. It was really painful to see race leader Jenson Button lap past him halfway through the race! In addition to development of rear double decker diffuser, sorting this mess up will be a huge challenge for the team before F1 enters Europe on 10th May, at Spain.

If experts are to be believed, all the teams will be ready with their versions or equivalents of rear double decker diffusers. So it will be interesting to see whether Brawn GP will continue to dominate due to their headstart or not.

Only nailbiting finishes can save IPL now

Though IPL-2 is doing better than any other TV show, even Lalit Modi agrees that TRPs are lower than expected. In addition to that, rain is playing a spoilsport and influencing outcomes. As the tournament is being held in SA, profit margins have declined and thus Lalit Modi had to come up with 7 and half minute “Strategy Break”. No team or fan enjoys such a disturbance. People like me (severely impatient viewers) do not wait to watch Sameer Kocchar and Arun Lal discuss about how fascinating Shilpa Shetty looks in such breaks. Extra Innings has gone extra stupid this year with Gaurav Kapoor, Mandira Bedi and Mayang Chang gracing the screen with their complete ignorance. Chang just wanders around SA to give us random updates, which is ok I guess. Mandira Bedi, who has cranked it up a notch with her annoying hairstyle, has become even dumber. Gaurav Kapoor carries as much nuisance value as in Football Locker Room.

Lalit Modi expects viewers to sit and watch the pre-match talks, discussions in lunch breaks and post match analysis. But the crew selected by Sony makes sure that I do neither. In fact I am so repelled by all this, that I check whether match has started on Cricinfo and directly join in on Live action. Extra Innings is in a complete disarray with poor editing and mediocre knowledge-base. Even Charu Sharma sounds like a better option; the guy atleast knows what to talk about and how to stall.

Thankfully what hasn’t changed is quality of games. Hardly a week into the tournament and we had 4 thrilling finishes. Two matches yesterday were terrific entertainment. First one was Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Superkings. AB de Villers played an awesome inning; first century of the tournament. While chasing CSK were quite comfortable after Hayden’s awesome start but in the end they just blew it. They couldn’t get 40 off 29 when Flintoff and Raina were still playing. Dhoni, Badrinath and Morkel just watched as DD literally stole the victory.

2nd game was even better; Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders. RR put on an amazing show while defending a paltry total of 150. Kamran Khan, 18 yr old kid kept Ganguly’s valuable inning under check. It all went to last ball, 2 needed off 1 ball and Ishant Sharma on strike. KKR took 1 run and we had first ever Super Over in IPL. With 15 needed off 6 balls, Yusuf Pathan played a sensational knock and finished off the total 6-2-6-4. Only more and more close games can save IPL’s popularity.

P.S. – I did not like the concept of super over. Teams took half an hour to bowl 12 balls and it was rather boring. Bowl out was more fun. Cricket pundits believe that it only depended on bowlers’ skill while batsmen had to just sit and watch. But it brought pace to the proceedings and was actually more thrilling. Super over is a bit too predictable. Incidently Lalit Modi also believes that bowl out is the way to go. When KKR needed 6 off 6 he was cheering for a bowl out instead of super over!

Vettel clinches his 2nd win in Shanghai

Raging bull of Brawn GP was stopped by Red Bull drivers, who sealed first victory for the team since its inception. A stylish 1-2 finish in a soaking condition marked the arrival of new championship contenders on the block. Though they have performed consistantly well in both the earlier races a win will certainly boost the confidence levels in the pits. Two Brawn GP cars came 3rd and 4th maintaining their good record this year. First time this year, both the Mclarens finished in point scoring positions ensuring that their development efforts are on track.

Another major blow for Ferrari as the team finished the race without a single championship point. The start was good in a very very wet condition as they managed to climb up to 3rd and 5th position at one stage. But Massa retired halfway with electronic failure. Sans KERS and with ordinary aerodynamics, the car had neither pace nor grip as car after car overtook Kimi who finished 10th. Ferrari is clearly not in its comfort zone anymore and need to take quick action if they hope to salvage something out of this season.

Kubica’s plan to enter the race with KERS for the first time was shattered after a disastrous practice session and as a result his car was out of balance for the rest of weekend. He showed a rare case of recklessness when he took a flight from Trulli’s rear wing only to miraculously jump into pit lane. Poor Trulli had to retire but Kubica manged to continue inspite of heavy damage to front suspension.

Dream of every Indian was shattered once again when Adrian Sutil failed to complete the race at 7th position with only 4 laps remaining. This time there was no Kimi to take him out as was the case in Monaco last year. He crashed into barriers with his own skill and left billions of people heartbroken. The hunt for points continues for Mallya’s Force India. But the picture looks promising as Force India managed to generate good pace in wet conditions.

Moral victory for Formula-1: Double Decker diffusers here to stay

FIA court upheld the decisions made by stewards during both the races and deemed the new Double Decker rear diffusers legal. Though this brings trouble and extra hard days ahead for the rest of the teams, a ban on this innovation would have meant a journey backwards in time (just like Samajwadi Party crying out ban Computers and English during elections) F1 can look ahead to a glorious season ahead with clash between the titans with ‘powerful’ minions. With three unexpected teams having the technological superiority and potential of giants (Ferrari, BMW, et. al) to catch up with them, it can well get to the last centimeter of Abu Dhabi GP this year.

Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams will definitely have an upper hand in Shanghai, it will not be impetuous to say that others will not be far behind in catching up. BMW and Renault have a prototype ready which they expect to test during this weekend. We can expect the same from Ferrari and Mclaren as well. For some teams it will be easier but teams like Force India will be struggling to keep up. It is not all about the money and effort, but there are some more fundamental problems before these 7 teams for this major adaptation. Accommodating this rear double decker diffuser can mean redesigning the chassis and suspension for some teams. With ban on independent testing, it is not going to be a cakewalk. Looks like FIA’s motive of cost cutting will be lost this season, if the teams want a competitive season.

Some F1 pundits are speculating a whitewash with Brawn GP dominating the entire season. Though this still might be a possibility, when it comes to F1, its not as simple as that. Team needs more than a fast car to stay in F1. Its not like an equation in which you enter values and get an answer. The biggest challenge for any team is of course, reliability; in case of both car and driver. Button is a calm composed fellow with a positive racing mentality, but I do not see that in Barrichello. It was evident from both the races. I am willing to put my money on either Rosberg or Trulli for the coming races based on their performance. It is also interesting to note that Red Bull minus the diffuser advantage and KERS were outstanding on the track as was Robert Kubica. All the factors have to combine to give good results. Who knows, maybe the 8 engine per car rule might well turn out to be the decider in the end!

There has been a lot of reshuffling ahead of Chinese GP. First up its Ferrari. Off the track, they have made some serious changes in staff with technical director Aldo Costa sent back to Maranello to lead the efforts on making F60 faster. In another huge step, they have decided to enter Shanghai GP without KERS. Up till now KERS has actually worked as a ‘Curse’ for the champions. It will definitely provide a major boost to team’s reliability if not speed.

Interestingly enough, BMW think that its time to test KERS on their other driver Kubica this weekend. It will be interesting to see how they manage his weight issues. Mclaren and Renault are keen to improve their performance with their diffuser models. Here is a snap from above Shanghai International Circuit. (This picture was probably taken when the track was being built and probably never updated by google earth. With the Chinese you never know!)-

The projected track

The integrity of Formula-1 will again be tested on 29^th of April in Paris when Mclaren along with Lewis Hamilton will face the judges of FIA in the alleged fraud controversy. F1 is getting uglier by day with new scandals sprawling every now and then. What Alonso and Kimi said earlier this week might just turn out to be the fact-‘Championship will be decided in court this year’.

Race red flagged in Sepang

Jenson Button sealed his 2nd victory with Brawn GP in Sepang amidst utter chaos and drama, when the race had to be stopped due to torrential rain after 32 laps. The race never started again and ‘finishers’ got half points according to FIA rules. Heidfeld, Glock, Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg were declared as the points scorers.  Trulli, Webber and Rosberg received their tallies in fractions. And considering the fiercely aggressive competitiveness shown by teams this season, these half points may well decide the champion this year.

This is not a new affair in Formula-1. Here is a list of races that were red flagged. Out of these races, half points were offered at 4 races.

1. Spanish GP, 1975
2. Austrian GP, 1975
3. Monaco GP, 1984
4. Australian GP, 1991

The most significant 1 was Monaco GP, 1984 which changed the whole picture of the season. Mclaren star Alain Prost was declared the winner but got 4.5 points. Interestingly, he lost the season to his teammate  Niki Lauda by only half point!

Back to Malaysia. Before the rain, we witnessed some excellent racing action. Rosberg jumped to the pole from 4th position because of slow start by Button. Alonso found a weirdly empty passage on the grid and he was 5th from his original 9th position by turn 1. Kimi also showed some nerve by making some bold overtaking moves, but subsequently managed to settle down on 6th, gaining only 1 spot. For the first time this season, Brwan cars were struggling for pace. In the middle, Alonso was defending a convoy of Kimi, Glock and Webber for almost 8 laps, before conceading. As nobody was losing time, they were moving like a train as if an imaginary string was attached to them.

Then came the deciding moment; the pit stops. The rain delayed a bit from the initial prediction. As the first batch of cars tooks their first stops, nobody bothered to switch to intermediates. A few laps later, Ferrari brought in their lead driver for the race, Kimi and in a shocking move, put him on not even intermediates but directly on wet weather tyres. All the other drivers being on slicks, Kimi was losing 20s a lap to the race leaders. Ferrari desperately needed rain (I was picturing Stefano Domenicali and Michael Schumacher doing a rain dance in the pits!) Ultimately when the rain finally hit the track and everybody had taken their 2nd stop for tyre change, the classification showed Kimi with only 1 stop but on 16th spot! As always, a bold move by Ferrari ended up in disaster. In this chaos though, Massa surprisingly entered point scoring zone but again caved and ended up 9th.

Brawn GP were criticized for their slow and lazy pit stops in Australia. But here in Sepang, they showed perfection both in strategy and implementation which put Button back on the lead. The rain persisted long enough to summon safety car and finally when the drivers started feeling like swimming with a blindfold in their cars, the race was stopped. The long wait eventually ended with a completely different classification from what we expected.

2009 Formula 1 season Hamilton vs FIA update: FIA 1- Hamilton 0

In addition to the F1 season, I am now following yet another sport which turns out to be highly entertaining. The clash between Hamilton vs FIA is getting yummier. Last season, Hamilton won this game on sudden death by winning the title, which made all the initial troubles irrelevant. Its only been a week this season, and Hamilton already took his 1st blow from FIA. Although this time, it was altogether caused by his constructor.

We got a dramatic start to the season with 1st FIA hearing in 1st week. FIA, which has been trying to confuse itself with self made laws, ruled in favor of Toyota driver Trulli and excluded Hamilton along with its constructor. Surprisingly, this turns out to be a logical and fair judgement! (How often do you see that with FIA!) The stewards took into consideration the tape of team radio instructions to the Mclaren driver and ruled that Mclaren tried to  mislead them. How dumb are these stewards to get disoriented so easily? It takes them 2 hearings to reach such a simple  judgement. Apparently they did not have access to  the team radio tape during the 1st hearing. How convenient! I have started to imagine FIA office like administrative section of my college now. Nobody is accountable and nobody cares about the person on the other end.

Brawn GP creates a history at Melbourne

Ross Brawn is arguably the happiest man on the earth right now and he should be. He managed to put both of his drivers on top in first ever race under his own title, Brawn GP. Button and Barichello were ecstatic as they walked to the podium and the crowd in Melbourne was loving it. Another person who will be as happy as team Brawn is Bernie Eccleston. He got what he wanted; F1 is alive again with a new spirit. (It would be impetuous to claim that the whole season would be as exciting as this race, being that this race was in Melbourne. But the quality of overtaking maneuvers and overall competitiveness was excellent)

The turning point of the race was a crash between Kubica and Vettel. Fighting for 2nd place, Vettel was defending his position with all his might when an idiotic overtaking maneuver by Kubica on a turn kicked them both out of the race. The safety car was summoned and Vettel tried to limp behind it for a couple of laps on 3 wheels, but eventually gave up. This changed the whole picture. Barichello, who suffered an initial blow due to a poor start, jumped right on top with Button and Trulli came 3rd. Hamilton was at right place at right time and manged to score valuable championship points due to his ability to keep cool when others were on a rampage; unlike reckless Ferrari drivers. Both Kimi and Massa had an excellent start thanks to KERS but lost the positions due to poor tyre and fuelling strategies by Ferrari. In addition to that, the amazing skill of both the drivers to go off track without anyone’s ‘Help’ made sure that the team was well out of scoring zone. Just like last year, Ferrari got a start they didn’t want. Newbie Buemi also took advantage of last minute confusion to grab a few extras, along with Alonso.

P.S- Thanks to adamant BCQC Abhimanyu organizers, I had to miss the live telecast of the race. So I planned a media blackout, just like in How I Met Your Mother (The SuperBowl Sunday episode). And it was successful!

Australian GP Qualifying: How did this happen?

I am tempted to compare Brawn GP with a phoenix bird, very much rising through the ashes. A team which didn’t even exist a month ago managed to put both of the drivers on the front row of the grid for the start of the season at Australian GP, 2009. The relentless efforts put by team chief Ross Brawn seemed to have worked perfectly fine. Jenson Button grabbed the pole position followed by team mate Rubens Barichello (And the team managed to get sponsorship from Virgin group) Vettel manged to go 3rd fastest in Q3 to prove that he is worth the trust put on him by Red Bull management.

The biggest disappointment of the day would have to be Alonso and Hamilton, former and reigning world champion. Hamilton barely made it into top 15 but never came on track for Q2. He will start the race from that poition. Alonso failed to make it to the top 10 after all the speculation. He is 12th on the grid. It was a mixed day for BMW. While Kubica will start the race from 4th position on the grid, his teammate Nick Heidfeld managed only 11th spot. Interestingly, Heidfeld was using the new KERS while Kubica was not. Apparently, Kubica’s weight was a problem while accommodating KERS. But it meant better weight balance and that seemed to have worked.Next surprise was Nico Rosberg. He is 5th but he could well end up on the podium tomorrow.

The qualifying started under speculations over the performance of the tricky new rear diffuser designs used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota. Their design is able to generate more downforce leading to better car control and cornering speeds. Though FIA has cleared those designs for this weekend, they are still under the scanner and decision to an appeal made by few other teams is under consideration. Whatever the outcome is, it seemed to have worked well for the teams as except for Nakajima, rest 5 finished in top 10.

Ferrari had a rough day. Both the drivers managed to squeeze as much as possible out of a dull F60. Massa will start 7th and Kimi 9th. The car was not tuned properly. At a particular moment in Q3, Massa actually felt that a tyre was punctured! Looks like they will have to witness the others ‘Blitz’ past them tomorrow. Mclaren have already decided to let this race go without even thinking about the points. Force India, well, lets just say this shouldn’t be how a team has to start a season.

One thing is for sure; new rules have rejuvenated the sport like never before. All the teams look extremely competitive and there is hardly anything to seperate between the top 5. This will definitely make the season more interesting.