2014 Belgian GP Executive Summary: Dramarama Edition.

Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images/Infiniti RedBull F1

So a few days have passed since the Belgian GP and basically it's been all about that second lap racing incident between Rosberg and Hamilton.

What drama!...

Lewis Hamilton shows off his purple Zonda

Lewis Hamilton put pictures of a couple of his toys out there.   Two things are clear, they are nice toys and he really likes purple!.

Above the interior of Lewis' one off manual gearbox Zonda LH which can occasionally be seen on the streets of Monaco.   Like the outside, it's  also very purple!

#youcanthandlethis

NASA Nationals diary

Axis PeteThibault's off on a 12 hour drive from dirty Jersey to Road Atlanta for NASA eastern Nationals Championship this week end.

Pete's racing in Spec e30 but many of our friends are racing across classes, in GTS, Spec Miata and Honda Challenge.

To all: turn in early with big speed and,  don't lift!

Follow along after the break

Hamilton and Rosberg crash: who's at fault?

Hamilton and Rosberg touch at Les Combes (via BBC Sport)

Let's have a look at that Hamilton-Rosberg incident for a sec.

Some segments of the motoring media have come down hard on the side of Hamilton while some more sensible, less partisan voices saw it for what it was, two top dogs trying to see who can pee higher on the pole.

Epic Spa .Gif

Kimi Raikkonen through Eau Rouge/Radillon.

(it's a large gif,  give it time to load)

"I don't want to depress you mate but..."

If anything summed up qualifying at Spa it was Vettel's race engineer Guillaume "Rocky" Rocquelin's radio transmission to the four time champ right after he secured P3 with a,balls out,  hail Mary lap:

"P3 Great lap. I hate to depress you mate, but we're over 2 seconds off the Mercs..."

Two seconds is crushing. How?

It's probably more than just "the engine" because certainly none of the other Mercedes engined teams came close.

One thing is certain however, nobody else came close to the Silver Arrow top speed at the end of the Kamel straight.  322 km/h 200.8 mph for Rosberg... in the rain.

Vettel hit 317 once but then didn't make the corner at Les Combes.

Some amazing pictures from Rally Deutschland

Alexander Rossi will not race in Belgium after all.

"This is just a reflection of how the industry has to work sometimes."

#491240407 / gettyimages.com

It looked like it would be the best week end of Alexander Rossi's career, He was going to take the green flag, at Spa of all places, the same place where Michael Schumacher made his debut, the first American to do so in seven seasons... but it's not going to happen.


Max Chilton wrote the check after all and that's that.
From Andrew Benson's BBC column

" Marussia said on Thursday that Chilton, 23, would be replaced for the weekend by reserve driver Alexander Rossi as a result of "contractual issues".  The team refused to give details but on Friday morning Marussia said Briton Chilton would be racing in Spa.
Marussia chief executive officer Graeme Lowdon suggested the issue had been related to financial payments.  Lowdon said: "I can't go into too much detail on the individual instances but we are running an F1 team here.
"There are a large number of commercial agreements that are involved and sometimes it just happens we reach a stage where for contractual reasons it's not appropriate for a driver to be in the car and we took that action.
"These things happen. It's the drivers' jobs to be flexible. Both Max and Alex are professional drivers who will take this in their stride."

Or maybe Marussia just got a bit of free attention after watching Caterham get in the news with Lotterer taking Kobayashi's team.

Both Marussia and Caterham were about six seconds off the pace after the first practice session

Pos Driver               Team                  Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m51.577s           25 
 2. Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m51.674s  +0.097s  24 
 3. Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m51.805s  +0.228s  16 
 4. Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m52.404s  +0.827s  21 
 5. Kimi Raikkonen       Ferrari               1m52.818s  +1.241s  17 
 6. Sergio Perez         Force India-Mercedes  1m52.903s  +1.326s  24 
 7. Kevin Magnussen      McLaren-Mercedes      1m52.922s  +1.345s  23 
 8. Nico Hulkenberg      Force India-Mercedes  1m52.937s  +1.360s  22 
 9. Daniel Ricciardo     Red Bull-Renault      1m52.972s  +1.395s  19 
10. Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Mercedes     1m53.172s  +1.595s  20 
11. Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m53.369s  +1.792s  11 
12. Daniil Kvyat         Toro Rosso-Renault    1m53.594s  +2.017s  21 
13. Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m53.597s  +2.020s  20 
14. Adrian Sutil         Sauber-Ferrari        1m53.703s  +2.126s  14 
15. Felipe Massa         Williams-Mercedes     1m53.968s  +2.391s  20 
16. Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Renault    1m54.189s  +2.612s  20 
17. Giedo van der Garde  Sauber-Ferrari        1m54.335s  +2.758s  16 
18. Pastor Maldonado     Lotus-Renault         1m55.336s  +3.759s  21 
19. Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Ferrari      1m55.782s  +4.205s  19 
20. Alexander Rossi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m57.232s  +5.655s  20 
21. Andre Lotterer       Caterham-Renault      1m57.886s  +6.309s  24 
22. Marcus Ericsson      Caterham-Renault      1m57.977s  +6.400s  24 

#453951410 / gettyimages.com

Lotterer in the spotlight

Not Jean Claude Van Damme

If the new management at Caterham plan was for headlines, they are winning big time.  After new Spa aero package, today comes news Kamui Kobayashi is being sacked (at least for one race) in favor of Andre Lotterer in Belgium.

Lotterer gets a second chance at F1, he used to be a test driver at Jaguar twelve years ago but was passed over in favor of Webber and the incomparable Antonio Pizzonia.   Jaguar F1 was soon after sold to a certain energy drink manufacturer.

Usually, it's F1 drivers who go to Sports cars, not the other way around but I guess with F1 taking on more and more of Endurance characteristics, who knows...

Cosmetic rhinoplasty.

Sometimes a nose job is needed to improve  breathing, most of the time it's a cosmetic procedure meant to improve looks.

A birdy told us a new, more conventional looking Caterham nose, to debut at Spa this week end,  performed worse than the old, weird looking one in the wind tunnel.

But the new management at Caterham wants something new, to signal change if anything so they got a new nose.   Given the team's rather disastrous results under Tony Fernandez's leadership, why not?   Frankly, Caterhams have been so bad it might be hard to tell.

In the end, cosmetics may indeed be as useful to the team as aerodynamics as it seeks to attract sponsorship for the future.

Lotus night also be seen in practice sessions with a conventional nose as it prepares for next year when its forked nose will not be allowed.

The greatest car test ever?

I'm not even going to add anything.  If you  haven't already, watch it and see if you can.  

It's perfect.  EVO is still king,

Human after all

Marquez and Iannone getting physical 

Marc Marquez could not break the record with an eleventh consecutive win this year.
Marquez, said it's a weight off his back.   Maybe but I think all sportsmen are lying when they say they don't know or care about records.

It's not impossible the weight of expectations finally got to Marquez at Brno and if that's the case, it only makes him more likable,  nobody likes a robot.

Giacomo Agostini is probably happy, his record (of consecutive wins) is equalled but not broken.

After the race, attended by almost 140000 spectators,  it was always a pleasure to see Rossi, who was racing with tendon exposing road rash on his pinky because of a practice crash,  smile and be happy even with third.  "...and it was great to beat Marquez... finally...for once".

You got to love the guy.

Smoke in your eyes

In the week or so since the events at the upstate New York dirt track, blame for the accident has been squarely put on Tony Stewart's shoulders: The big bad racing superstar who, in a moment of rage, mowed down "the kid".

Almost the totality of media immediately convicted with headlines that included some form of "...Stewart killed..."

Only Tony Stewart and perhaps an onboard camera know what happened with certainly but at the time I, like almost everyone I know who is in any way involved in motorsport,  wondered why Kevin Ward Jr. would crawl out of a wreck and run around a live racetrack looking for a fight with a moving car.

Clearly, I'm not a oval racing enthusiast...



Now, aside from a shocking lack of any safety protection for infield workers, public or drivers, as pointed out by Motorsport Safety Foundation's founder Henrique Cisneros,   I would argue that when you have a form of racing where policemen are regularly on hand to restrain drivers, you have a systemic problem.

Motoring journalist Jack Baruth,  explores  in a piece in his personal blog:

...I think young Mr. Ward knew this was his chance to get on television and raise his profile as a driver. I think it was a calculated move. I think he wanted to maximize a situation. Face it — even if Stewart hadn’t hit him, it would have made highlight reels and would have put his name on people’s lips... 

...So Kevin Ward, Jr. saw a chance to make a name for himself. To get lucky. To be the kid who faced down Tony Stewart on the highlight reel. But in his haste to do that, he didn’t think about the risks. Which, I would add, is a characteristic of nearly all successful drivers. If you sat and thought seriously about the risks, you’d never go wheel-to-wheel racing at all. He made a quick decision, a judgment call. That’s the way racing works.
It cost him his life.

Wasn't  Kevin Ward Jr. trying to give what so many of those so quick to condemn Tony Stewart, exactly what they wanted?

Certainly, it was not racing because crowds are regularly whooping and hollering with delight at this kind of crap.

Oh great, fake Brembos now....

If you read Axis regularly, chances are you don't need us to tell you a $1500 set of new Brembos is fishy.  What's worrying here is that these Chinese counterfeits are so convincing,  that an unscrupulous  reseller or tuning shop might be tempted to pass it off as the real thing for the real price.

The story was dug up by AppleNews Hong Kong and reported by ZeroToHundred where you can read more about it.

I remember once  a mechanic at the Nürburgring, when I asked if he would kindly put some pads that were more than just a backing plates in my rental car,  say

"Brakes? who needs brakes, they only slow you down".

That was funny at the time, not sure it would be so much when your fake big brake kit fails bombing at 140 into turn 1 at the Glen or at 10 at Road Atlanta.

And lest you think it's just Brembo, mr Chen also trades in AP.  Stop Tech and Performance Friction can't be far behind so, Caveat Emptor and buy from a reputable dealer.

Racing at Le Mans and the Nürburgring in the same seven days.

Imagine racing sports cars on two of the world's most famous race tracks, in two of the wold's most prestigious events in the same week.  A number of elite professional drivers have dome it but not too many "gentlemen" have.   Lucky for us, we have an inside line.

Segini with an Australian fan

In the same week in  June of this year, Sergio "Sergini" Negroni took the green and checkered flags in the  Le Mans Porsche Carrera Cup race in support of the 24 classic and then was off to the Nürburgring for the 2014 ADAC 24 Hr Rennen.   An amazing experience Sergio agreed to share with Axis.

Negroni is an enthusiastic and capable "gentleman" driver from Bologna.  He has competed in multiple 24 hour races at Spa and the Ring as well as national and international events, mostly with Porsches.   In fact you could fairly describe Sergio as a rabid "Porschista".    In his piece he touches on the differences between the 997 and 991 generation race cars,  the 991 was just released to the general race customer public for the 2014 season so it should be of particular interest to some of you.

Oh and today happens to be his birthday...so happy birthday Sergini!

June: the Month of Awesomeness!

After a number of busy years racing, my plan for 2014 was to race less but at a higher events.  That's how I decided to enter the big Carrera Cup race in support of the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans and the following week end, the 24 hours of the Nürburgring.  It was so cool to see some of the same faces at two such different tracks.

At Le Mans, I was racing a 991 GT3 Cup with Antonelli Motorsport, a top team in both Porsche Supercup and Porsche Cup Italia.  It's a team I know well, from my hometown of Bologna.

The 991 is a completely different machine from the outgoing 997.   Its longer wheelbase makes it much more stable  mid corner and the wider tires help speed both in corner entry and exit.    The engine is the same in both cars (you can barely feel the extra 10 HP of the newer model) but the much improved traction of the 991 allows you to get on the power sooner than the 997.

What's changed the most are the brakes.  On the 997, pedal travel was very short and that made it difficult to modulate pressure and not lock up tires.  The 991 still has no ABS but travel is longer and the action is more boosted.  the result is a more friendly and effective system, and less flatspots.

The new gearbox on the 991 is fantastic:  it's very quick both up and down and has over rev protection.  On the 997  it was very easy to damage the gearbox or even blow the engine.

The schedule for Le Mans gave us a one hour practice, one of qualifying and a 45 minute race, just a head of the main event start.



It was my first time on the Circuit de la Sarthe but I was quite happy with my performance.  I  started way down the pack,  50th out of 62!.  Despite intense practice on rFactor, unfortunately the reality of the track is quite different.   But I made up many spots and made some good passes,

My confidence in the car grew lap after lap, I braked later and powered out of corners sooner.   Braking for Mulsanne and Indianapolis is especially tricky:  they look straight but they are actually on a kink which makes locking wheels easy.

Turn in for the famed Porsche curves is a major pucker moment.  You approach full throttle in 6th gear at about 270 km/h, 170 mph.   To do it right you have to be right on the edge of the grass on the right, brake all crooked, come down a gear and turn in full throttle in 5th.   I have never driven a corner as fast, Monza feels slow in comparison.   The two chicanes on the main Hunaudieres  straight are quite fast and technical as well.

I finished 35th and was very happy especially considering that  the world's top Porsche drivers, Estre, Bamber, Barker, Aiello were in the race.

Towards the end, the car lost some speed and picked up some oversteer in the fast turns.   In the post race debrief my team explained we had started with higher than normal pressures to avoid problems with tire explosions.  A number of my competitors had just that happen in the later stages so a big hand to Antonelli, it's this kind of attention to detail that separates the top teams from the rest.

After the race we were able to relax and as guests of Team Porsche we had all access passes and could go more or less wherever we wanted.

Watching LMP1 cars at night between the Dunlop bridge and Tetre Rouge was insane, they were like slot cars glued to the ground while GTE cars were able to of full throttle in sections GT3 Cup cars could only dream of doing.  

Amazing how low to the ground the Porsche 918 Hybrid is, Sparks shooting out from its titanium skid plate as it pounded the curbs at the "essex and at Tetre Rouge without ever losing its composure.

Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Two days after the thrill of Le Mans, I was ready for the next: the 2014 ADAC 24 H Rennen.  It would be my 7th time at the German classic.    Obviously, I would be driving a Porsche again but this time a tried and true 997 GT3 Cup S.   I was asked to drive by Team GDL Racing.

GDL Racing is an Italian team which has been concentrating on top level endurance racing abroad. With them I had raced in the 2011 24 Hours of Spa as well as the Fun Cup 25 Hours of Spa where we came in 3rd overall and 1st in class.

This year my co-drivers were all Nürburgring veterans: Nicola Bravetti from Switzerland, Jim Michelian from the US,   Rob Thompson from Australia, all with multiple N24s under their belts.

To prepare for the 24 I had earlier entered a VLN race, in a team HRT 997 GT3 Cup co driven by a cear friend and Ring specialist Kim Hauschid and Renger Van Der Zande a Mercedes development driver in DTM and IMSA Tudor LMPC.  That race made it clear that too many drivers this year were treating the Nordschleife as just another track, causing dramatic accidents, both in that practice race swell as in the 24 Qualifying which was interrupted by many red flags.

Any reverence towards what is the world's most dangerous track seems to have vanished and many drivers, especially in the top classes are truly taking too many risks.

AT the drivers briefing, it was Olaf Manthey himself who took to the microphone to say that the Ring had already lost F1 and endurance racing because of too much danger, if everyone wants to keep touring cars there they should consider calming down.   As an example he played an onboard video clip of a very famous professional driver cursing out anyone who would not give him way, an attitude the organizers said they would not stand for.

Practice and qualifying were a bit of a disaster for us. We had setup issues and only two out of the four drivers were able to get some seat time.  What's worse is those two lapped with used rubber as we were keeping the sticker tires for the night time cooler session when we hoped to set our fast lap.   Rain ruined our plans.  We ended up qualifying at the bottom of the first group because on top of it all we picked up a penalty for not slowing enough for a yellow flag.

Race day is always a thrill, crowds swarm the starting grid and the paddock, we see old friends, kids ask for autographs and pictures.   But we're focused on the race: Thompson the Australian would take the start, I had the second stint.

But on lap two the car comes back into the pits, an electrical issue with the power steering was resolve in five minutes but we go a lap down, this could have to be a comeback race!

After an hour and a half it's my turn.  I climb in but after four laps I feel an odd vibration though the steering wheel that is getting worse.   I thought it might be a tire and though the radio they ask me if I can work though it because stopping again would seriously compromise our race.

Unfortunately, the vibration continued to get worse and I'm not able to lap under 10 minutes>  it made no sense to continue like this,  I radio that it had to be a bearing or a suspension issue, not a tire and that I would come in.
Turned out a wheel had two broken spokes and the other three had cracks!

After she swapped wheels, the car felt fine but man that was a close call for me.

I'm in the car again at 11PM and we decided to double stint.  Three hours at night at the Nürburgring, the maximum allowed time for a single driver under the regulations in order to try and catch up.   When I get out of the car at 2 AM, I feel fresh and rested...or so it seemed for the first few minutes until the adrenaline rush subsides and I realize how wiped out I actually am.

Night passes without major dramas and I get back in at 9AM for my final stint.   After 17 hours the car is still perfect.  Only the water pressure light comes on often but if you know these cars you know this can happen when you add cold water quickly to a hot engine, no problem.

I lap calmly at a 9:30 pace and hand the car over to my teammates in 45th position overall.  We had been good at avoiding crashes during the night and lucky not to have mechanical issues....   so far.

At 3:20 pm we do a final splash and go but the driver notices a drop in power, the engine will not rev properly at high RPM.    There are just 15 minutes to go, maybe a frayed wire or a broken plug.  Jim does a great job slowly dragging the car home on 5 cylinders.

But we finished!

Only one regret, without those issues (power steering, broken wheel and engine trouble) which forced us to spend a total of 50 minutes in the pits, we could have completer 5 or 6 laps more and finished, rather than 59th overall, probably 33rd to 35th.  That would have been a very respectable result.

But that's motorsport, especially endurance on a track like the Ring. the unexpected always happens.

Throwback Thursday, Parabolica Edition.

@unpocoloca/twitter/WTF1

The gravel runoff at Monza's Parabolica  is being paved.

I  have memories of sitting in the stands as a little kid with my dad,  watching GT cars go off in a huge cloud of dust there but my son will never see it.

Bit of a shame really.

Opinions will vary, paved runoff is certainly more forgiving in most circumstances but there is no denying that it takes away from this historic track.

Granted, for modern race cars - certainly for F1- the Parabolica is not the challenge it once was but still, I'm sure most would still rather see a driver error penalized with dirty tires or radiators full of gravel than by a steward's decision after reviewing tire position vs a painted white line.

But I'm sure teams, mechanics and track officials don't see it that way.

Hopefully, the work was done in the context of fixing the drainage issues with the turn which in the past have caused the pavement to buckle and bubble causing big problems for bikes.   This was a know issue that track management was aware of yet kept hidden.   The circuit's top brass was recorded (in the context of a public funds investigation) discussing how to keep the issue from the public.

Aldo Costa gets a few things off his chest.

Aldo Costa is an Italian engineer who spent most of his career at Ferrari until 2011 when he was pushed out as technical director of  the Scuderia.    Costa was promptly hired by Mercedes and the rest is, as they say, history.

Costa was interviewed by Italian motoring journalist and author Leo Turrini, an old hand in the business and someone rarely off the mark.  It's an interesting read and while most of whatever happens outside the British press usually gets ignored by the internet, I thought Axis readers who follow F1 would find this interesting.  

I'll translate ,  hopefully Leo will not mind.

"Aldo Costa gets some pebbles out of his shoes"

by Leo Turrini

In summer when the heat is oppressive it's always good to look for anything refreshing.  I had a pleasant and refreshing conversation with my friend Aldo Costa.  

Do you know who he is?

Up until the 2011 Spanish GP he was technical director at Ferrari.

He was brusquely removed from that position after that race.

Soon after he was hired by Mercedes.  Today he leads the team currently dominating F1.

I asked what it feels like.

"...professionally, it's a very happy moments, I would be lying if I said I did not feel a certain satisfaction..."

"At Mercedes we have twelve Italians.  Twelve engineers on the Grand Prix squad.  I recruited them myself when I was hired.  Some came from Ferrari, some straight from universities.  We are a little Italian colony inside this giant multi-national..."

"I can assure you Mercedes will not give any preference between Hamilton and Rosberg.  It is not in our interest.   What's more,  within the team we have one imperative:  as we have two very competitive drivers, ready to bang wheels at every race, we have the duty to give each equal cars..."

"I know, I know, you want to ask me about the radio call to Lewis in Hungary.  I admit, from an outsider's point of view it sounded bad but it was logical:  Nico had to come in to change tires soon and was faster, it made sense to ask Lewis to let him pass.  But there were no ulterior motives, trust me..."

"I'm now working on the 2015 car.  That's normal in my line of work. I will not go to races for the rest of the season, except maybe Belgium and Monza but that's it, I have different priorities..."

"Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari....must we really talk about it?"

"OK, write that I saddened,  I'll be hones, I'm from Emilia (ed: Emilia Romagna is the Italian region where Ferrari is based) I used to work in a company that is a legend.  I'm not happy to see what it is reduced to, in F1, even is they sent me away in a manner that I cannot exactly describe as "elegant" ..."

"Let me say that there are a lot of great people working in Maranello, people I gave great affection for and pains me to see involved in such a complicated situation.  I'm not being condescending, I left many friends there, why would I want to see them suffer?..."

"Having said that, I don't think that in 2015 Mercedes headaches will come from Ferrari. We are worried about Red Bull which is demonstrating and has demonstrated in the past extraordinarily quick reactions."

"What are the reasons for the Scuderia's decline?  It's not the definitive answer, just my opinion. There have been some huge errors but strategic and in vision.  And, clearly, there have been mistakes with hiring and firing of personnel."

" I'll give you and example, in 2008, us from the Reparto Corse made a request for a new wind tunnel.  We thought it essential in order to remain competitive.  We were told it was not needed..."

"At Ferrari, decisions on strategy and personnel, were always taken by "l'avvocato" Montezemolo.  He has made them when Ferrari was winning  and when it stopped winning,  I want to be clear about that."

" I don't think that in 2011, after the Spanish GP, it was Alonso who had me fired.  I consider Fernando one of the greats when inside the car, when he's racing.  Out of the car, I never understood him, for me he remains inscrutable and enigmatic.   In any case, he will not come to Mercedes, I don't see any reason why Hamilton would want to leave a team like ours..."

"Allison? I met him when he was at Ferrari as an aerodynamicist and I will tell you that in that position he is really good.  He has done well in other capacities afterwards, but I have no way to judge him.  I hope he does well."

"Tombazis?  listen, when they sent me away they said it was me who was stifling the creativity  to the Greek designer.  since, he's freed his imagination,  the results re there for all to see..."

Domenicali?   I have no ill feelings towards him,  sometime we exchange texts.  Ferrari belongs to his and mine and Marmorini's (ed: recently dismissed Ferrari engine man) 

Would I go back?  Actually, I'm quite fine where I am..."