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.