A straightforward Race in Canada, 2013

I have to admit, it wasn’t the most exciting race of the year. In all honesty, even with all this tyre controversy that keeps popping up, it’s not been as exciting overall as some previous years. Even Sebastian Vettel’s title winning season in 2011 was more exciting at times than what I’m seeing. It’s a shame, as after the mixed conditions of practise and qualifying, I was expecting a bit more this time around. Although, he can now add Montreal to his collection of wins for the first time.

Vettel Strikes Back

As I mentioned before, this was a performance befitting Vettel’s 2011 season. He controlled the race perfectly from the outset. There was only a couple of laps he wasn’t in front and that is impressive, considering the complaints Red bull have been lobbying all season so far about tyres. To add to the dominance, Mark Webber, Vettel’s teammate took the fastest lap with a damaged front wing.

It has to be said, Vettel would have had it if he hadn’t been told to calm down. We know that the German likes his stats and at the end he was going purple but was told over the radio to let it go. This time, he listened to the team.

Back to ‘Real Racing’

So, there were much fewer complaints overall about the tyres this race. There were fewer pit stops and much less in the way of close racing. We still had some, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s battle being one example, but there was a lot more procession to this race than others so far – with the exception of Monaco. Is this the type of racing we want every time? For me, I’d like a bit more mixing up of the field and more battles but the drivers were flat out racing this time and that’s good for them too.

Force India Continue Good Form

My stand out team of the season so far has to be Force India. They have done a great job so far, achieving some good results – even on top of some poor decisions and qualifying results. I was surprised at the decision to bring back Adrian Sutil but he has done remarkably well – where was this Sutil last time? – And Paul Di Resta is going from strength to strength. I wouldn’t put it past a top team to pick this driver very soon. At 26 years old, he still has plenty more to show and I can see a world champion in him (Honest, I’m not biased about him being a Scot…much!).

At the same time, Toro Rosso are also doing well! Hopefully in another year or two, these teams will close the gap even further to the big four and be competing for the race wins!

The Mercedes Hearing

We have a date for this hearing – 20^th June. We can hope to have a result before the following weekend for the British grand Prix but I’m not sure we will. Since this is the first hearing with this body, they will want to get everything right first time and that takes time. It would be nice to get a verdict and put this behind us as soon as possible, regardless of where you stand on the situation.

Sombre News

I think it’s really important to mention this. A crash or accident at any time is worrying, and in a sport where there are so many dangers, you always hope that drivers and support staff are alright. Safety has come a long way over the last 20 or so years but this weekend we had an accident that few people could have predicted.

A marshal was run over by a crane lifting Gutierrez’s car. Reports have said that the man stopped to pick up his radio and the crane driver couldn’t see him and ran him over. Support staff did their best and quickly transported the man to hospital where he later died. It’s a tragic accident and it takes a lot of the shine off the whole weekend.

Drivers and teams have paid tributes to the man and I would hope anyone reading this does the same for the man’s friends and family. Without marshal’s at every event, most sporting events couldn’t take place and it is a dangerous job at the best of times that many people seem to forget about. Rest in Peace.

Summary

I haven’t mentioned Ferrari or Mercedes much today. They didn’t stand out much to me, other than Hamilton and Alonso’s battle for second. Ferrari really need to sort their qualifying pace out if they want to challenge Vettel for the championship, and Mercedes still need to work on rear tyre usage. It seems their tyre test didn’t help much.

Jean Eric Vergne had a fantastic qualifying and race result and force India’s Di Rest managed over 55 laps on one set of tyres, with competitive lap times for most of that stint which is very impressive. These two have been my stand out drivers of the race – and probably the season so far.

Onwards, to Silverstone!

Results

1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)

2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)

3 – L. Hamilton (Mercedes)

4 – M. Webber (Red Bull)

5 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)

6 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)

7 – P. Di Resta (Force India)

8 – F. Massa (Ferrari)

9 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus)

10 – A. Sutil (Force India)

11 – S. Perez (McLaren)

12 – J. Benson (McLaren)

13 – R. Grosjean (Lotus)

14 – V. Bottas (Williams)

15 – D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

16 – P. Maldonado (Williams)

17 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)

18 – C. Pic (Caterham)

19 – M. Chilton (Marussia)

20 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)

21 – N. Hulkenberg (Sauber)

22 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)

Time for a Party in Monaco, 2013

It wasn’t the most exciting race this year by a longshot, and even be Monte Carlo’s standards, it wasn’t amazing. It’s always a bit different due to the nature of the track and while there were a lot of cars bunched up, it was very slow. Once again, overshadowing the whole weekend was the issue of tyres and testing.

Rosberg’s Time to Shine

The worry coming into this race was the Mercedes would qualify on pole, which they did, but fall back during the race with excessive tyre wear. The tyre test is another factor to consider a bit later but with it being so hard to overtake, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had to be feeling reasonably confident. In the end, Rosberg controlled the race perfectly, even pulling away from the Red Bulls who did not seem to be on the pace this round. We didn’t see much of Rosberg as a result, there were too many things happening elsewhere but it was a great drive to win in Monaco. This will be a massive boost to the team.

Hamilton could have easily had second this time, and a one-two for the team would have been great. A mistake with the timing of his pit stop during the safety car period dropped him behind the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. He openly admitted after the race it was his fault.

The Overtakes

It is almost impossible to overtake on track at Monaco, and any opportunities are not always taken because the smallest mistake will lead to the barriers and the end of the race – not just for the ones involved in the overtake. This year, we saw some daring moves, most notably from Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil. Sutil made some great moves at the hairpin, passing Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso without incident. It was daring and you have to say that since his return this year, the Force India driver has been on great form.

Perez made his moves just after the tunnel, and while bold and daring, I’m not sure they were great moves. Each time, he forced the other driver off of the track to avoid a collision, and with Fernando and Button, it’s what they did. They wanted to finish the race but it wasn’t a great way to do it. Unfortunately, not all drivers are like that, and Kimi Raikkonen basically said no. The move was late this time, but Kimi left no space but there were nowhere to go. Perez retired later in the race and Kimi dropped way back, managing to finish 10^th.

Tyre Testing

After the last race in Barcelona, there was a three day tyre test with Mercedes. It’s been called a secret test and teams have been protesting (most notably Red Bull and Ferrari) but what does this mean?

The track was booked openly by Pirelli, and Mercedes asked to take part. Reports say that other teams were spoken to but that’s all we know. Current cars and current drivers on UNKNOWN compounds. While the team will have an idea of what was going on and with who, they were not told what each compound was for so it wasn’t going to be a massive benefit. On top of that, 1,000Km over three days between the two cars so not a massive amount of testing really, and yes, they may come across a compound next year or even later this year they’ve raced on but they can’t set a car up precisely for that compound, and next year the cars change anyway. Like I said, there will always be something the teams can take but in the time between races, how much could have been put to use? It will be interesting what the FIA does about this.

Summary

There were some great drives in Monaco, controlling themselves perfectly to get the best result. Well done to Rosberg and hopefully this will be an upturn in performance for his team which will help put up a bigger fight for the championship. Button drove a solid race and McLaren do seem to be turning it around, whereas Alonso just didn’t seem to have an answer for anything this weekend. That will be worrying given the Ferrari team’s form this year so far. On another note, big crashes from Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado this time out as well. Both seem to be okay but hopefully they will be back to their old racing selves next time as they are great drives and it’s never nice to see problems like that.

Results

1 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)

2 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)

3 – M. Webber (Red bull)

4 – L. Hamilton (Mercedes)

 

5 – A. Sutil (Force India)

6 – J. Button (McLaren)

7 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)

8 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)

9 – P. Di Resta (Force India)

10 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus)

11 – N. Hulkenberg (Sauber)

12 – V. Bottas (Williams)

13 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)

14 – M. Chilton (Marussia)

15 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)

16 – S. Perez (McLaren) – DNF

17 – R. Grosjean (Lotus) – DNF

18 – D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) – DNF

19 – J. Bianchi (Marussia) – DNF

20 – P. Maldonado (Williams) – DNF

21 – F. Massa (Ferarri) – DNF

22 – C. Pic (Caterham) – DNF