How to gain twenty positions in five corners.

From the ridiculous to the sublime.

Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia saw the final race of the 2012 MotoGP season and conditions were as nasty as you could possibly concoct for motorcycle racing, damp tarmac.

Conditions in the race were so tricky some riders actually just quit and newly crowned MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo was one of the many caught out by the conditions,  crashing from the lead as he was lapping riders.  Dani Pedrosa won that race helped by a correct setup and tire choice, the misfortunes of others and some great riding.

None of this phased Marc Marquez. The 19 year old spaniard rode his Repsol Suter Honda from DFL, 33rd on the grid to victory in the Moto 2 race. He passed 20 riders in the first five corners on his way to winning the 2012 Moto2 title...and all without safety cars!

I'm not going to far out on a limb saying we will see this guy a MotoGP champion in the next few years if he gets the right ride.

5 questions for Valencia

Photo: Felipe Ribas

A very interesting Italian blog, Yet Another F1 Blog, has a feature:  "Five questions for...".  As I'm on vacation please forgive if I translate their list, usually they raise the right ones :

1) Will we have the eighth different winner? 
The question is getting a bit old, but this season, it's impossible not to ask it. Who's missing: Raikkonen, Grosjean, Schumacher, Massa, the two from Sauber... Possible in theory but we say : NO

2) Will there be at least one Safety Car? 
We say YES
.
3) Another question we asked too much this season, who will lead the Driver's championship after Valencia?
We say Alonso, in great form.

4) Better Schumacher or Rosberg in quali? 
Schumacher, because Pirelli said so...

5) Will "poor" Jenson make it in the top five? 
McLaren will try to copy Hamilton's setup on Jenson's car, Will it be enough? We say YES, maybe he'll find his groove again.

Want to give it a try and see how you did after the week end? leave your answers below
Cheers!

BTW  have you seen how Red Bull have made an extra  wing profile by enclosing the half-shafts?   Expect "clarifications"

One Minute Of Noise: Moto GP's Tribute to Marco Simoncelli

It was his father's wish that Marco Simoncelli be honored not with a minute of silence but with a minute of chaos, "un minuto di casino" in Italian.
How cool of MotoGP to allow it to happen at this week end's Valencia race..

Riding Simoncelli's #58 San Carlo Honda is 1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz. The flag is carried by Valentino Rossi with all Moto GP, Moto 2, and 125cc. .

Sauber 2011-spec Movable Rear Wing in Action

Check out this edit of onboards shot from the Sauber C30's first day on track. Pay attention at about the 2:50 sec mark you will see clearly, for the first time, how these movable rear wings will work.

I have to say, it looks pretty dramatic but the idea of its FIA regulated use as an artificial passing aid is fairly repugnant to me. As you may know, in the race it will only be available if a driver is following another closely and only in predetermined part of the track! That is such a lame solution.

Anyway, check out the 2011 Sauber C30 in action



end of post

2011 Formula 1 testing begins in Spain:

Testing for the 2011 Formula 1 season started in Valencia. Have a look at new cars from Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Mercedes, Sauber and Williams. Someteams ran interim cars which you can easily recognize by the blown rear wing tunnel, banned in 2011.
The surprise was Bruno Senna appearing as a Lotus Renault (the black and gold one) reserve driver.

Alonso topped the first session times followed Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg testing the Force India.
Check out a big gallery after the jump.
Check ou

(F1Photos.org)

Ferrari 458 Challenge Driven and Reviewed (+ Video)

Exclusive for Axis of Oversteer.

One of my favorite things about Axis is finding out who reads it. I got in touch with Hideki Francis Onda after I noticed a comment he had left on a previous post, turns out he's a regular reader and agreed to share with us his impressions of driving the brand new Ferrari 458 Challenge at Valencia, during the recent Ferrari festivities. There are only a handful of people in the world who have driven this car and one of them is....one of us!

Thank you HFO.

read on....

Hideki Francis Onda is a car nut who in his spare time founded the company that has distributed Apple products in Japan for the last 20 years... He keeps a blog called High Frequency Oscillation.



"I was excited to see that Ferrari had four 458 Challenge cars ready for Corse Clienti drivers upon my arrival at Ricardo Torno circuit. Out of the 4 cars, 2 were in white thus making this the secondary color after Rosso Corsa. It just goes to show that Ferrari is selling a lot of white 458 in the general market.

Getting into the heart of the matter, the 458 Challenge is quite different from your regular 458 Italia road car. You immediately notice that the car is much lower, has two quick fill fuel openings on the side, wears a BBS wheel with Pirelli slicks and has only 2 exhaust outlets in the rear.

Since I own the 458 Italia road car and a 430 Challenge, let me compare them with the 458 Challenge.



Upon sitting in the drivers seat, the 1st thing you notice is that all the controls are on the steering like the 458 Italia. From top they are:

FLASH = high beam
PIT = once in 2nd gear and below 60km, any subsequent press on gas make the car maintain 60km pit speed like a GT car, SCROLL = to scroll LCD data for telemetry and functions
RADIO = voice on off for radio with pit staff,
LEFT and RIGHT = appropriately placed turn signals,
WATER = windshield fluid to clean front,
WIPER = front windshield wipers, and the most important switch of them all, the eDiff 2/1/OFF switch. There are no bars protruding from the steering wheel, just the good old shift paddles on left and right, slightly longer than the road car.

Instead a center rev counter and LCS's on each side, the Challenge has one single large LCD monitor showing you all you need to know. Turn signals, RPM and telemetry data can be observed here by using the SCROLL button. Needless to say the steering wheel is detachable.

The only other controls are located in the center area, the new IGNITION switch with cover and the ENGINE START button below it, LIGHT and RAIN LIGHT switch and the A/C ON/OFF switch with 0-1-2-3 AC FAN rotary switch. There is a power cut off lever wired to the outside of the car as well, standard in any racing cars. Thank god they placed the (R) reverse button where I can see and reach below the center console.




When I sat in the car, I felt very strange because it felt comfortable unlike my 430 Challenge. It felt very roomy like my road car.

By the time I drove the car, the track was partially wet and the Ferrari staff had changed to new rain Pirellis. Since the condition was partially dry and the rain tire was new, I had some problems on my out lap trying to heat up the tires, so time to let eDiff do the work.



Set on 2, the eDiff assists the driver so that brand new or worn out tires will still keep you in the race. After my out lap I tried the setting 1 but could not notice a big difference since I failed to warmup the car and conditions were not ideal. But once on the circuit you notice something about this car. It has endless amount of power and the traction is translated directly to the road in every way to push you forward. There is very very little loss of traction, so the car has abilities to push you out of the corner and achieve high speed immediately.

Ferrari were the first to develop traction control systems for F1 as performance enhancing aids, not safety nannies. Now banned, these same systems have been added to the 458 Challenge, with the 458 Italia benefitting from the technology transfer adapted for road use. The end result is an electronic system which does not interfere but rather, enhances the driver's ability.



The car also has very little roll. I tested the 458 Italia under similar semi wet conditions in Fuji Speedway and the car has very little roll, but the 458 Challenge absolutely does not roll, you are flat on the ground all the time. If you are used to rolling your head with the car like me on the 430 Challenge beware, it will be a good idea to train your neck for this car.



The brakes are also incredible, even at 100m and 220km the car will come to a sudden stop and turning the car is effortless as it just turns and turns and turns without understeer, the nose just dives in when you turn the steering wheel.
I am told the brakes are the same size as the FXX Evo but 8mm thicker in the front. Massimo, who helped develop the brakes with Ferrari, explained the software and pads are a more advanced version than the FXX Evo. Brake disk will last you one race season but pads will last only 2 day race weekends. The compound used for the pads is special and visibly is different from the street cars.



The shift up and down are amazing as well. The racing dual clutch produces no jitter when shifting, very similar to the road car. The engine under eDiff Off produces rapidly rising RPM, you need to be shifting quickly as the rev LED goes quickly from green to red zone.



All in all this is one of the finest race car Ferrari has ever produced, attested by the fact that they had to de-tune it because it had so much traction power on track, a testament to the achievement of eDiff traction control. Ferrari engineers shared some light on how one would use the 2-1-OFF settings. When asked "does the 2 or 1 setting interfere with drivers like the ASR on 430 Challenge?" Ferrari "No, a professional driver can drive just as fast on OFF or 1, this is a new concept not to be confused with ASR on 430 Challenge or 458 Italia road car. So if you are running a long race, you may start out by using OFF or 1 to start the race, as your tire wears out, or it rains, you can set to 2 to allow you to continue an aggressive race and survive."

The car weighs only 1150kg even with the 20kg air conditioner installed and has a 48:52 weight ratio. "Everything about this car is different from the road car. Even the frame is different." says Ferrari. To my delight I was told that Ferrari is developing a GT3 kit with Michelotto and will provide these in the later half of 2011 as genuine Ferrari Parts.



You cannot compare the 430 Challenge to the 458 Challenge. Like comparing 430 and 458 road car, there is no comparison so it is correct to assume that 458 Challenge is in a league on it's own and will win many many GT races all over the world in 2011.

In 430 Challenge you only have ASR, which is brake and engine cutoff control. In 458 Challenge in settings of 2, you have slight management of these both, but it is the pneumatically controlled electronic differential that does most of the job to keep you running fast without wasting any traction elsewhere. This is a real leap of technology. Although Ferrari would not admit it, a tuned 458 Challenge will probably beat a lot of their high end special cars like the XXs."



photos by Hideki Francis Onda HFO.JP

Ferrari 458 Challenge looks mean

Here, in real life, at the Ferrari World Finals festivities in Valencia last week. .

European GP Executive Summary

if it's slow, let it load...
end of post

Complaints, Lies and Videotape

As you read various sources and make your mind out about what happened in Valencia, be careful about what "facts" you are presented with. For example, GrandPrix.com is reporting a lengthy explanation as to why it took Charlie Whiting and crew 35 minutes to come up with a suitable penalty for Hamilton's passing of the pace car. Obviously the article is a "his master's voice" piece coming straight from the source, peeved about the worldwide criticism.

You can choose to believe what parts you like, for example that the footage could not be found for half an hour but just know what that footage actually shows when you read those convoluted excuses about transponder location on the different cars.

Keep it in mid too when you read Hamilton's " ...I don't remember very much to be honest, I got to turn 1 and I was already passed the pace car..."



It's certainly true the Safety Car was deployed quickly, just as Webbed tosses his steering wheel and begins to climb out of his car, which was off the racing line, on his own. It's tough to criticize an abundance of caution but this could have been resolved with a local yellow. Even if a Safety Car was needed, why have it dive in the middle of the pack? Why not display yellows and SC boards until the leader could be gathered? Needless panic that ended up ruining a race for all the fans that were waiting for the fight to come between Vettel Hamilton and Alonso.



Predictably, all the UK centric publications are slamming Ferrari for criticizing race control and Alonso for "complaining"... Let's go to the videotape!



How about term limits of race directors? Discuss.
home

Valencia Wrap.

Rather than the usual summary, I though readers might find the BBC's post race show interesting for a change.

I will refrain from commenting on Luca Badoer's performance, it would be like shooting on the Red Cross, suffice it it to say that I never thought I would see a race driver willingly give up a position while still in pit lane...

The race, amid the picturesque Valencia shipping container facility, was much less exciting than reports would have you believe especially as we were robbed of a potential exciting finish when Mclaren threw away Hamilton's first place with a botched pit stop. Mclaren are, bizarrely, spinning it as if the mistake did not make any difference. I don't think anyone is buying their story and many must be scratching their heads as to why they would prefer claiming they were slow rather than mistaken... a clause in Hamilton's contract?

Call me cynical but I had to laugh when I heard Berrichello's race engineer, Jock Clear, say that "winning in a top car like Ferrari is one thing but in Brawn..." and calling him "..a class act". All I can think about is Rubens' hissy fit after the German GP...

As usual I welcome your comments.

Home

Gigantic man infiltrates F1 paddock...

... attempts to intimidate small man for wearing the same color shirt.






Home

Valencia Support Races: Porsche Supercup, GP2 and Formula BMW

Porsche Supercup results
GP2 and Formula BMW after the jump






GP2 Results


Results

FTD vs DFL

For those who insist that a driver makes little difference in a Formula 1 car. You can grant Luca Badoer all the excuses you want but I can't remember the last time a Ferrari driver qualified Dead effin Last with a healthy car. But nobody can really blame Badoer, the fault is with those who put him in such a position. If it's true that Ferrari has given up on the season, why not use the opportunity to test some new viable talent? Why, because Ferrari is, as often heard, "where drivers go to finish their careers" rather than start them? Old thinking.

These two laps are not Hamilton's or Badoer's qualifying laps but they give the idea well enough. Hamilton was great as was Kovalainen in P2 with a slightly heavier car. Badoer didn't even look like he fit in the car properly, look how much his head gets pushed down under braking. Maybe since he's fuelled for one stop, tomorrow some safety car will play his way, as they say, from last place he can only improve.

And here is the rest of it.

Open Door Policy.

Pos Driver        Team                      Time             Laps
 1. Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:39.404           33
 2. Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:40.178  +0.774   33
 3. Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:40.209  +0.805   34
 4. Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:40.385  +0.981   39
 5. Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:40.503  +1.099   35
 6. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:40.596  +1.192   23
 7. Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:40.643  +1.239   34
 8. Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:40.681  +1.277   31
 9. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:40.723  +1.319   33
10. Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:40.738  +1.334   31
11. Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:40.739  +1.335   39
12. Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:40.770  +1.366   32
13. Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:40.787  +1.383   35
14. Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:40.956  +1.552   37
15. Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:40.985  +1.581   30
16. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:41.156  +1.752   34
17. Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:41.350  +1.946   29
18. Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:42.017  +2.613   37
19. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:42.089  +2.685   34
20. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:43.214  +3.810    3

All timing unofficial

Home

Inside Valencia

Stop it... no, it's not a Cinemax special! In this week's Inside Grand Prix, catch up with the news , watch Formula 1 drivers do silly stuff, check out the circuit...all the good stuff in one convenient location!





INFORMATION

Race Date: 23 Aug 2009
Number of Laps: 57
Circuit Length: 5.419 km
Race Distance: 308.883 km
Lap Record: 1:38.708 - F Massa (2008)

TIME SCHEDULE (LOCAL)

Fri 21 August 2009
Friday Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Friday Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30

Sat 22 August 2009
Saturday Practice 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00

Sun 23 August 2009
Race 14:00

WORLD DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIPS STANDINGS 10/17

1 Jenson Button British Brawn-Mercedes 70
2 Mark Webber Australian RBR-Renault 51.5
3 Sebastian Vettel German RBR-Renault 47
4 Rubens Barrichello Brazilian Brawn-Mercedes 44
5 Nico Rosberg German Williams-Toyota 25.5
6 Jarno Trulli Italian Toyota 22.5
7 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 22
8 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 19
9 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish Ferrari 18
10 Timo Glock German Toyota 16
11 Fernando Alonso Spanish Renault 13
12 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish McLaren-Mercedes 9
13 Nick Heidfeld German BMW Sauber 6
14 Sebastien Buemi Swiss STR-Ferrari 3
15 Robert Kubica Polish BMW Sauber 2
16 Sebastien Bourdais French STR-Ferrari 2
17 Giancarlo Fisichella Italian Force India-Mercedes 0
18 Kazuki Nakajima Japanese Williams-Toyota 0
19 Adrian Sutil German Force India-Mercedes 0
20 Nelsinho Piquet Brazilian Renault 0
21 Jaime Alguersuari Spanish STR-Ferrari 0

WORLD CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIPS STANDINGS 10/17

1 Brawn-Mercedes 114
2 RBR-Renault 98.5
3 Ferrari 40
4 Toyota 38.5
5 McLaren-Mercedes 28
6 Williams-Toyota 25.5
7 Renault 13
8 BMW Sauber 8
9 STR-Ferrari 5
10 Force India-Mercedes 0

Valencia, Executive Summary.

You can read about the race HERE


Valencia Executive Summary from Axis Video on Vimeo.




Main page

"Nice fireworks, they look like a Ferrari engine"

The quote is attributed to Norbert Haug watching the fireworks after the podium ceremony in Valencia. Love that dry German humor, of course the other Ferrari engine was much faster than the Mercedes lump behind Lewis Hamilton today, something that was curiously blamed on the flu....


Again you have to feel for Massa. He drives a fantastic race, pole, fast lap and win, nobody else even close and he does it in what will be forgotten as the most boring race of the season.

There was much hype regarding this new circuit in Valencia. As the race progressed I kept thinking I was watching a CART race minus the crashes and the passes. And while there happened to be, completely by accident I'm sure, gorgeous model types framing the panoramic television shots, you could not escape the fact that they were hiding what in reality looked like a race in an industrial park. For some reason I envisioned the cars ripping around Calatrava's space age buildings but all we really got is a rather ugly looking bridge.

On the plus side, the track is so wide that perhaps, if the new aerodynamic regulations for 2009 do their job, there might be some passing. Flavio Briatore said this is the model for many future Formula1 venues and Bernie Ecclestone was said to be so enthusiastic that he proposed the name be changed to Grand Prix of the World. I'm with one of our readers who is disgusted by a track which is nothing much more than a concrete gully.

Back to the race. Aside from the obligatory David Couthard crash and a Nakajima stupidly putting Alonso out (Fernando did not complain in the least when interviewed but blamed himself for having qualified so poorly) there was zero racing action on the track. This again punishes some drivers and teams who had excellent results: Kubica who destroyed his teammate once again. Trulli who never got to set up his car and just drove what he got to a fifth place. The Faenza Flash, Toro Rosso which will always be Minardi for true F1 fans, with Vettel was awesome.

Then of course there is the Kimi conundrum. OK, he was compromised by starting on the "dirty" side of the track at the start but he lost a position to Kovalainen and did nothing much until about lap 30 when he showed some fight.

Here we can take two tacks, either we believe in a crisis of confidence (which makes for more exciting headlines) or we can choose the party line laid out by Herr Schumacher before the race. We don't know if Ferrari who might have suspected a possible issue similar to the one in Hungary, had his engine dialed back. Certainly his best lap times were never close to Massa's or even Hamilton's.

I would cut him some slack with regards to the pit lane incident, it was clearly his mistake but it was in the heat of a battle with Kovalainen. If anything it shows he was trying, not being lazy. He took responsibility for his pit lane blunder, unlike others. IN the end it was all academic, he was not going to finish.

More worrying, as he was shown walking through the garage after his epic engine failure, none of the Ferrari crew paid any attention to him and vice versa. Maybe it's a wrong impression but it looked like some unusual tension there.

Other race notes, Mclaren played it conservative with Hamilton's second stop. They could have short filled Hamilton and gotten out ahead of Massa. On a track that had seen zero passing this might have been a good gamble weighed against the wear on the super soft tires. Mclaren are thinking championship and this time chose to just play it safe. With Kovalainen instead they adapted their strategy to try and keep Raikkonen behind so they brought the #2 car in maybe three laps sooner than planned.
Turns out there was no need.

As Schumacher said with a grin after the race when asked about Kimi's engine: "That's racing!"



.

Ferrari F2008 start procedure.

Massa and Hamilton will be drag racing to that first tight corner this afternoon in Valencia. In this clip from the practice session let's follow the procedure for getting an F1 car off the line.
The pit lane limiter would not be used pulling up to the starting grid and of course as you pull the clutch you'd also need to remember to select first gear...

That's the easy part, then you need to remember to choose the correct engine map, differential setting and brake bias all while dodging concrete walls and racin other cars at a 120 mph average speed. This, of course, is the new "simplified version" without traction control!


Know your buttons from Axis Video on Vimeo.



And here is the rest of it.

Valencia, Grand Prix of Europe 2008

Valencia will be the sixth different venue for a Grand Prix in Spain. The very first first Spanish Grand Prix was run on a street circuit in Pedralbes, Barcelona in 1951. Juan Manuel Fangio won in an Alfa Romeo.




More after the jump

Jarama, in Madrid, followed from 1968 and on and off up to 1981. It was a circuit were passing was near impossible. The now popular "Trulli Train" was in fact perfected in 1981 by Gilles Villeneuve at this Spanish circuit.





Montjuïc in Barcelona was a very challenging track, in part very fast but also with a very tight technical section that made car setup not easy. Track safety was atrocious and in 1975 five spectators were killed when the rear wing on Rolf Stommelen's Hill-Lola snapped off. That was the end of that track.




Jerez de la Frontera in the south of Spain, was the next venue. In 1997 it was here where one of the classic Michael Schumacher brain fade moments occurred when he turned in on Jacques Villeneuve. It's a bit in the middle of nowhere and not easy to get to, probably the real reason it got canned from the F1 calendar though the official one was that some local government official presented the wrong trophy at that 1997 race. Because of the nice winter climate, the track is used for testing.




Finally, Montmeló at the Circuit de Catalunya. Once, when cars were not so sensitive to wake turbulence, racing could be more exciting at this track. A perfect example was the duel between Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna. Hopefully the coming aero regulations will bring some sanity back to Formula 1, or at least the possibility of some creative driving!




Now Valencia, a street circuit none of the drivers has seen. With twenty five corners and a very long straight, projected speeds in the 200mph range and as you can see from the on-board shots below, quite wide in places, It should make for an interesting week end.