The Champ Shows What He’s made of in Belgium, 2013

Plenty of people – myself included – thought that when F1 returned from its summer break, we’d see Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes continue where they left off in Hungary. Although the practise sessions were of mixed conditions, there was a feeling that Hamilton was not showing his true speed. Qualifying almost seemed to prove that and the race was going to be easy, right? Wrong.

Vettel takes control

Although not as obvious as his 2011 campaign, when Sebastian Vettel gets the lead early on, he can still control the race. It’s been one of the key strategies from him and the Red Bull team and the race at Spa shows it still works well. How much the mixed conditions impacted his qualifying, and whether the Mercedes have really overcome all of their problems, are two key factors that will determine how the rest of Red Bull’s title challenges go. After this result, it brings things back into perspective about who has the momentum over the next few races.

McLaren’s direction

McLaren had a better weekend than they have had for a while, and a botched strategy cost Jenson Button a potential podium – which would have been a massive boost to the team. They have switched their focus to next year’s car but since they began this year with a car that would have some impact to next year, I’m left wondering how wise that move is. Time will tell, but it looks unlikely that a win is on the cards for Button or his younger teammate, Sergio Perez.

Misery for Di Resta

I really feel for Paul Di Resta this weekend. He was having a pretty stable race before Pastor Maldonado wrecked his car. We’re very quick to judge Romain Grosjean for accidents but Maldonado has had plenty of his own since he entered F1 and I think his penalty was light – but what other penalty was there to give?

The Force India team has slipped back a bit – probably because McLaren are slowly moving back towards where they would normally be – but it was a decent result for Adrian Sutil with a few more points in the bag.

Stepping up

Qualifying gave us all a bit of a surprise this weekend – largely due to the weather – but also with some excellent strategy calls. Caterham and Marussia surprised everyone by getting it right and making it into Q2 – with the Toro Rosso cars missing out. It was not to be in the race but at least they are making progress – and in the future they can be mixing it with the rest on a more regular basis.

Despite their poor starts, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne made it back up the field, with the former grabbing a point. The poor starting position wasn’t good but if the rumours are true and Ricciardo has signed a contract for Red Bull, it’ll be one less thing on his mind!

Summary

This was definitely not the most exciting race at Spa, which is a massive shame. It’s one of my favourite tracks and produces some of the most exciting races (and I would love to go there one day!). The weather might have mixed things up a bit more but I think Vettel had this one in the bag from the moment the lights went out. Two weeks until Monza and we get a change in the type of track.

Results

1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)

2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)

3 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

4 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)

5 – M. Webber (Red Bull)

6 – J. Button (McLaren)

7 – F. Massa (Ferrari)

8 – R. Grosjean (Lotus)

9 – A. Sutil (Force India)

10 – Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

11 – S. Perez (McLaren)

12 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)

13 – Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)

14 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)

15 – V. Bottas (Williams)

16 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)

17 – P. Maldonado (Williams)

18 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)

19 – M. Chilton (Marussia)

20 – P. Di Resta (Force India) – DNF

21 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus) – DNF

22 – C. Pic (Caterham) – DNF

X-Wing: Mercy Kill

I’ve got a soft spot for the Star Wars Expanded Universe for quite a few reasons. When I was younger, these were the books that really got me back into reading by taking advantage of the geek inside me and coming up with some fantastic stories. Not only that, and more importantly now that I’m older, the huge range of writers who have contributed to this universe is incredible, and they all offer something different – a different view on Star Wars – to keep me hooked.

The X-Wing series is an excellent way into the Expanded Universe (EU) for anyone looking for an entry point. They are suitably separate from the overriding stories present in other books, and are very easy reads – you can go through each book very quickly thanks to a superb flow from both authors, Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston. This series of books is probably the funniest in the whole EU – even though a lot of novels have their moments – The X-Wing books thrive off of this feature. Focusing on minor characters from the films, and new introductions all the time, this element keeps readers interested and invested in these characters, who rarely turn up elsewhere.

X-Wing: Mercy Kill is the tenth book in the series, taking place towards the end of the Fate of the Jedi series. Many of the characters are new, but the focus is on the leader of Wraith Squadron, Face, and our favourite Gamorrean, Piggy – although he prefers to go by Voort now! There are some family names too, with Wedge Antilles’ daughter carrying on her father’s work – that’s a nice touch to say Wedge is a fan favourite and X-Wing legend!

There are a lot of flashbacks throughout the novel, all focused on Piggy – I mean, Voort – and his decision to retire. Despite a thrilling, and often hilarious, adventure Piggy is battling his demons throughout and it was great to see a new side to the character, who was always one of my favourites from the Wraiths. There’s a lot for Piggy to contend with, including a Yuuzahn Vong (I know, right?!) and a second Wraith Squadron but nothing was given away too soon.

The flashbacks did annoy me a little, I admit. I think it was bordering on too many and took some of the focus away from the newer Wraiths, who all have their own stories to tell. As such, we missed out on some of that and it’s only because I’ve caught snippets of information from other stories I could put the pieces together. For the newcomer to the EU, Mercy Kill might not be the best starting point as the trips through memory lane, and the references to other Wraiths, will be lost.

This is a fantastic book, but not the entry point the other X-Wing books are. It’s much darker in nature and humour, following the path the Expanded Universe has taken since the New Jedi Order series.

If you have some knowledge of the EU, then this is definitely worth a read. If you're new to the Star Wars books, I’d read at least the older X-Wing books and the Fate of the Jedi series at the very least before tackling this one.  

F1 2013: The Story So Far

It’s been an interesting season this year, with plenty happening both on and off the track. McLaren are suffering horribly but with small improvements before the break, Mercedes have had mixed form but seem to be pulling things together, Ferrari are going backwards, Lotus not going anywhere and Red Bull still on top at this stage – but for how long?

Tyres

This year, a lot of the headlines, rumours and races have been dominated by the tyres. This has been true of every year Pirelli has been in the sport but never to such a negative degree. Prime examples of this are the blowouts in Silverstone and other races and the ‘secret test’ by Mercedes and Pirelli after Barcelona.

We have seen Pirelli go to extremes this year and it hasn’t worked, unfortunately. The problem is, using tyre compounds from previous years means teams already have data on them and a lot of the unpredictability the supplier is supposed to be bringing to each race won’t be there. It’s certainly an issue but it would be nice for racers to push flat out again and show what they can do. There have always been limitations of some sort and those who make the most of them end on top.

The drive everyone wants?

Mark Webber’s drive is probably one of the most desired seats in the sport right now – at least on one hand. Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso have all been named as potentials. I said recently that I didn’t think Raikkonen would go, and I still maintain that. Yes, it’s a good drive but he’s savvy enough to know that Sebastian Vettel will always be number one in the team, and with some of the stunts he’s pulled off, it wouldn’t be good – and Raikkonen wouldn’t be as nice as Webber.

The other side is this: Why would an experience driver go there with that knowledge? For someone in Ricciardo’s position it’s a no brainer – he gets a better car and that may help him down the line. Alonso and Raikkonen don’t need that; they need to rally their current teams around them to get the best results, in my opinion.

Looking to next year

New rules for next year should shake things up a bit (hopefully for the better as far as McLaren are concerned). It’s got that air of excitement about it that has been missing this year. I’m a firm believer that motorsport, especially at the top level like F1, should be pushing boundaries and passing technology down to road cars. That seems to have diminished recently, and hopefully this will encourage a return of that practice.

Stand out driver?

It’s hard to pick out a stand out driver so far – there’s been a few. I think it has to be Lewis Hamilton. He’s made the move to Mercedes work and its early days. They’ve done far better than he or anyone else thought – especially with their form from the end of 2012. If they really have got over their tyre wear issues, they’ll be a serious threat over the reason of the season.

Worth a mention

Saying that, we’ve had some impressive performances this year. Both Toro Rosso drivers have upped their game this year and produced fantastic results, with Ricciardo having a shot at the Red Bull seat for next year. Paul Di Resta has done very well this year, proving that he is going to be a top driver should he get the car under him, and his teammate, Adrian Sutil, has done a great job on his Formula One return.

Summary

It’s not been the greatest year, which is a shame. Politics and drama have come to the forefront again and are overshadowing the racing going on – and there is some great racing happening when we are allowed to focus on it. I get the feeling the whole sport is waiting for the rule changes next year to bring some new life to Formula One. I really hope so.