Crime and punishment

Curbs,  the talking point of the week end.

Perhaps the main culprit is  Charlie Whiting,   if you don't consistently enforce track limits there's no point telling drivers they should stay off the curbs.

Almost every driver set times with flagrant track limit violations and nobody got laps taken away.  Why then would drivers have any incentive not to run wide and carry extra speed into the final two turn complex?   Yes, it's longer but nobody would be out there if it were slower.

Enter the curbs.  Should we feel bad about them causing issues for drivers and teams?   Of course not.

The RedBull Ring is a proper race track,  with gravel just off the racing surface around most of the lap.    Where there is no graven, drivers take advantage and hence the draconian triple curbs.

Race Control is to blame for not cracking down on track limits but drivers complaining about broken suspension?   

You know they bite, stay off the damn cubs!

On the plus side, tomorrow's race will be quite interesting, at least for the first few laps.  Keep an eye out for Ferrari starting on an opposite strategy, on the Soft rather than the Ultra soft Pirelli.

(Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel both have 5 sport penalties for new gearboxes)

Hamilton fastest but Red Bull schools Ferrari in Spanish GP Qualifying.

A shocker at the worst possible time for Ferrari:  after no breaks in the first four races in Asia, a dramatic loss of performance in qualifying for  the first European meet will do nothing to quash the rumor mill.
Another dramatic management shakeup before the end of the season is unlikely but at the very least Ferrari will need to ask how it managed  1:22.7 in pre season testing but could do no better than 1:23.1 today.

A Mercedes at each end of the grid for tomorrow's Chinese GP

Don't miss the Chinese GP tomorrow,  the setup is great:    Rosberg on pole, Hamilton dead last after  an engine issue in Q1 left him in without a time on the board.

To add to the spice, next to Rosberg in row 1,  not a Ferrari but Ricciardo's Red Bull with a lap that surprised even Christian Horner.    Row two is all red but with Raikkonen besting Vettel who has banked all on a single lap in Q3 and failed to deliver.

RAI first run on S second on SS. ROS the reverse

But that's not all.   Rosberg will start on a set of Soft tires while everyone around him will start on the Super-Soft.    Mercedes has shown it is happiest on harder tires but in FP2, which was run in temperatures thought to be close to what the race will be Sunday,  Ferrari was able to run the red SuperSoft  tire quite a bit longer than the Germans (graphic by Giroveloce.it)

Vettel only did one run in Q3 and saved a set of sticker red tires so,  from a strategic point of view, the race could be quite interesting.


Much will depend on the start, if the Ferrari's are able to get around and lead,  they will be able to control the tire wear and make the most of it.   There are a lot of variables, if it's colder, like it was in qualifying, the softer tire advantage in wear might be minimal,  if it's warmer it will be advantage Ferrari.

As for Lewis,  well he keeps saying how much he enjoys starting from the back and slicing his way though Manors and Saubers.   I guess he got his wish.   He should definitively make it into the points but I wonder how long it will be before the Hamfosi  start yelling "conspiracy"!

Full Results



Kravitz's is pretty sure Ferrari made a mistake, but then again he feels F1 cars should have bigger brakes too... face palm

Why Formula 1, WHY?

It seems F1 has approved a ridiculous new qualifying format which is likely to take effect in 2016.

Qualifying was one of the few things F1 had gotten right.

It made sense, it worked.

So of course, they changed it.

Blame people relentlessly complaining about wanting a better "show".  the threat of artificial reversed grids resulted in this abomination of a compromise.

Here is how it will work

Q1

-16 minutes duration;
- After 7 minutes, the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;
- 7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2.

Q2

- 15 minutes duration;
- After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;
- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;
- 7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3.

Q3

- 14 minutes;
- After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;
- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;
- 2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds.

Say goodbye to last minute hero laps, for one thing. Ayrton Senna who was electrifying finding time through a full field in qualifying must be spinning in his grave.

Rosberg fastest in Mexico qualifying

For the fourth time in a row Nico Rosberg had the measure of Lewis Hamilton in qualifying,  besting the champion by about 2/10th. On the second row will be Sebastian Vettel and Danil Kwyat.

Hamilton said afterwards he was using a better race setup. The forecast for tomorrow is calling for a 90% chance of rain. 2/10th is not a difference between a full dry and a full wet setup so it will be interesting to see how thing play out.

For sure the lack of grip is providing lots of entertainment for the capacity crowd in Mexico City. It must be especially satisfying for race promoter Tavo Hellmund after the fall out with COTA investors to have such a huge success in Mexico.

Here's Rosberg's qualifying lap.

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:20.436	1:20.053	1:19.480
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:20.808	1:19.829	1:19.668
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:20.503	1:20.045	1:19.850
4	Daniil Kvyat	Red BullRacing	1:20.826	1:20.490	1:20.398
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red BullRacing	1:21.166	1:20.783	1:20.399
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:20.817	1:20.458	1:20.448
7	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:21.379	1:20.642	1:20.567
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:20.995	1:20.894	1:20.710
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:20.966	1:20.669	1:20.716
10	Nico Huldenberg	Force India	1:21.315	1:20.935	1:20.788
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:20.960	1:20.942
12	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	1:21.577	1:21.038
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team	1:21.520	1:21.261
14	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:21.299	1:21.544
15	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:21.422	1:22.494
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:21.779
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:21.788
18	Alexander Rossi	Manor	1:24.136
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:24.386

Kvyat crash leaves Mercedes on pole in Japan

The massive shunt on the approach to the Suzuka turn 11 hairpin left Kvyat OK, a Red Bull in pieces and Nico Rosberg on top of the standings  by 7/100th over Hamilton and 4/10th from Bottas.

The Russian Reb Buller's off forced many drivers to abort their second attempt in Q3. Bottas, who was ahead of the crash improved his time.   Vettel is 6/10th behind in P4.




There is a very good chance of rain forecast for Sunday though the bulk of it should come after the race.