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Renault point the finger at Nelson Jr
Posted Thursday, 10th of September 2009, filed under News
In a piece written on Autosport today, Jonathan Noble reveals that Pat Symonds, Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet Jr held a meeting prior to the race in which the idea to crash deliberately to allow Alonso to win the race was discussed. Both Flavio and Pat confirmed that the meeting took place but both have pointed the finger at Nelson Piquet as the instigator of the plan and that no order had been given by either of them instructing their driver to crash.
Briatore: "I confirm the meeting with Piquet on Sunday morning, but nothing like that was ever talked about. I also remember that Piquet at Singapore was in a very fragile state of mind. Besides that, there are the audio recordings where I express disappointment when I see on the screens that Piquet had crashed."
Symonds: "It's true, during the Sunday meeting with Piquet the issue of deliberately causing a SC deployment came up, but it was proposed by Piquet himself. It was just a conversation."
The case was brought to the attention of the FIA after the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July, Piquet Jrs last race with the team. Sources claim it was Nelson Piquet Senior that blew the whistle on the situation. Piquet Jr then met with representatives of the FIA on the 30th of July where he allegedly told them he had been ordered to crash his car on lap 13 or 14, shortly after Alonso's scheduled pit stop, at Turn 17 where no crane access meant any stricken vehicle would surely bring about a safety car.
Telemetry recorded during the race allegedly shows that Piquet was at 100% throttle where normally drivers would lift off as the rear wheels lost traction through that stretch of road.
For Jonathan Noble's report go to Autosport... http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78446
Fascinating case of he said, she said we have on our hands. Determining who is telling the truth is an exercise in folly at this point I feel, as both sides have motive to pull off such a stunt. As shady a character Flavio is though, I still find it too far fetched that Renault would have endorsed such a maneuver. On the other hand, if it was Nelson Piquet Jr that acted out on his own, hoping for a pat on the head and some "job well done" from Flavio then it makes no sense for Piquet Sr to have blown the whistle in the first place.
Life in the fast lane
Posted Wednesday, 9th of September 2009, filed under Analysis
Monza is the fastest race on the calendar and in addition to a car that rides the curves and is stable under braking, a good power plant can really make the difference, just the way Enzo Ferrari would have wanted it. Enzo once said that aero was for constructors who didn’t have a strong engine. We’ve come a long way since then, but this year has seen the entire grid separated by finite margins and the ban on track testing could mean teams will have to rely on horse power more than their specialized Monza packages have bailed them out in the past.
So with the intro out of the way I can get to the point of this article. I’ve compiled the speed trap readings from numerous races this season to reveal which cars will be leading the charge at Autodromo Nazionale Monza this weekend.
In the first chart we see that two teams are consistently topping the charts. It was these two teams that battled it out at the last race, Force India and Ferrari. A third team has been amongst the quickest all season and that is McLaren, who shares the same Mercedes power plant as Brawn and Force India. The one race McLaren figured poorly was at Silverstone, where the team ran without KERS for the first and only time this season. It was McLaren’s home race that turned out to be a nadir for the Woking team who have been much closer to the pace ever since.
The two slowest teams have been Toyota powered. If this chart is an accurate representation of how things will play out on Sunday we could very well see an end to Rosberg’s impressive run of points scoring finishes. Perhaps the most surprising numbers are those of the Red Bull team. Not only has the Renault been one of the least reliable power plants for the energy drink team, it has also been amongst the slowest.
This chart is an average for each team and shows that the three Mercedes propelled teams, Ferrari and Renault whom will run with KERS for the first time in several races should be amongst the front runners on Sunday.
How valuable will KERS be? It's been predicted that off the start line the KERS boosted cars will have an 18 metre advantage which is quite substantial. We've seen Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton put KERS to good use this season to pick up many places off the start. Keith over at F1fanatic compiled a list of the best starters this season which revealed Giancarlo Fisichella to be right up there. With the Italian switching to KERS power this weekend look for him to make a great start in front of his home crowd.
If I had to make a call right now I'd say Ferrari and McLaren will be very strong. Alonso could be a chance at a podium too, he's been very good at this circuit in the past. Williams and Toyota look set to struggle and it will come as a relief to Jenson Button that Red Bull aren't amongst the quickest cars on this list so any progress they can make into his championship lead is set to be insignificant.
| Car No | Driver | Bahrain | Turkey | Britain | Germany | Europe | Belgium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | 310.0 | 309.5 | 289.0 | 300.8 | 311.2 | 312.3 |
2 | Heikki Kovalainen | 307.8 | 308.0 | 293.7 | 299.2 | 311.8 | 312.0 |
3 | Felipe Massa | 309.8 | 309.9 | 293.7 | 301.2 | 308.3 | 324.3 |
4 | Kimi Räikkönen | 309.4 | 309.6 | 296.2 | 301.3 | 312.1 | 314.5 |
5 | Robert Kubica | 309.7 | 303.4 | 295.3 | 297.8 | 305.2 | 310.5 |
6 | Nick Heidfeld | 309.3 | 307.0 | 295.8 | 299.9 | 305.6 | 311.9 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | 309.6 | 308.6 | 295.1 | 300.9 | 304.0 | 313.2 |
8 | Nelsinho Piquet | 310.1 | 308.0 | 295.8 | 298.5 | 307.7 | 314.5 |
9 | Jarno Trulli | 304.2 | 306.0 | 296.9 | 295.0 | 306.7 | 311.1 |
10 | Timo Glock | 304.3 | 304.6 | 293.0 | 293.3 | 308.0 | 312.0 |
11 | Sebastien Bourdais | 312.4 | 300.8 | 290.7 | 302.4 | 309.3 | 305.2 |
12 | Sebastien Buemi | 310.0 | 301.0 | 291.3 | 300.6 | 309.8 | 306.9 |
14 | Mark Webber | 306.3 | 307.2 | 293.9 | 299.7 | 303.7 | 309.1 |
15 | Sebastian Vettel | 306.1 | 303.7 | 295.0 | 296.8 | 304.0 | 310.3 |
16 | Nico Rosberg | 304.8 | 305.5 | 294.6 | 295.6 | 307.2 | 305.2 |
17 | Kazuki Nakajima | 304.8 | 307.5 | 294.0 | 294.6 | 306.0 | 305.0 |
20 | Adrian Sutil | 312.9 | 307.1 | 297.6 | 300.8 | 313.5 | 315.6 |
21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | 313.4 | 309.8 | 295.7 | 299.5 | 313.0 | 310.3 |
22 | Jenson Button | 307.6 | 303.5 | 295.3 | 297.7 | 310.9 | 309.9 |
23 | Rubens Barrichello | 306.9 | 303.5 | 295.4 | 298.3 | 312.9 | 312.2 |
Friday analysis from Bahrain
Posted Friday, 24th of April 2009, filed under Analysis
Let's start with the top 3 times from each session...
Session 1
| 1. HAMILTON | McLaren | 1m33.647s |
| 2. HEIDFELD | BMW | 1m33.907s |
| 3. KUBICA | BMW | 1m33.938s |
Session 2
| 1. ROSBERG | Williams | 1m33.339s |
| 2. ALONSO | Renault | 1m33.530s |
| 3. TRULLI | Toyota | 1m33.616s |
The two sessions had very little parity, but a deeper look into the lap times in Free Practice 2 reveals a few trends.
Group 1: BrawnGP, Toyota, Red Bull
Of the three favorites going into this weekend, only Toyota (along with BMW and Ferrari) tested here during the winter. Any advantage they may have received from doing that hasn't made itself obvious at this stage of the weekend, here is how their times compared.
| Button 25 1:33.694 26 1:34.087 27 1:33.768 28 1:34.355 29 1:34.546 30 1:34.328 31 1:34.366 32 1:34.314 33 1:40.951 34 1:34.099 | Trulli 17 1:34.579 18 1:34.783 19 1:35.133 20 1:40.980 21 1:34.632 22 1:34.536 23 1:35.058 24 1:34.845 25 1:34.828 26 1:35.179 | Webber 23 1:33.945 24 1:33.676 25 1:34.232 26 1:34.250 27 1:34.468 28 1:35.145 29 1:34.689 30 1:34.869 31 1:35.040 |
The three teams are only separated by a couple of tenths but Brawn still appear to have the measure of these two over several laps.
Fuel corrected they were the quickest cars last weekend but played it too conservative which allowed Red Bull to get out and control the race. Of course they couldn't have predicted such a volume of rain to fall from the heavens but it's going to be interesting to see how much longer Brawn GP continue their conservative approach in qualifying with teams like Renault and McLaren starting to come on. We know Alonso fancies a light fuel load and with KERS equipped he would be a handful in the race. The front row is absolutely vital for these three teams, it's going to be a fascinating Q3 tomorrow afternoon.
Group 2: Everyone else!
The midfield is an enormous jumble of cars right now, with teams bringing new parts and running comparison programs it's very hard to tell where everyone stands. Right now I'd stick with Alonso, Hamilton, Rosberg and a Ferrari along with the six from the leading trio to make it into Q3.
BMW were near the top with Lewis in session 1 but didn't look particularly threatening during long runs in the afternoon. Both drivers times started in the high 34's, but were a second slower by the end of their stints.
| Kubica 21 1:34.910 22 1:34.605 23 1:34.802 24 1:35.054 25 1:35.218 26 1:35.004 27 1:35.207 28 1:38.286 29 1:35.825 30 1:36.057 | Heidfeld 24 1:34.790 25 1:34.849 26 1:43.980 27 1:35.145 28 1:38.590 29 1:35.539 30 1:35.591 31 1:35.875 32 1:38.809 |
Ferrari and McLaren showed no steep drop off in performance. Massa's 11 lap stint is worth taking note of, his first lap was a 1:34.659 and capped the run off with a 1:34.733.
Hamilton made the most of McLaren's new developments, he didn't do a run as long as Felipe's, instead he ran a program more similar to Raikkonen's of shorter 7 lap stints. One of which was run at Red Bull pace in the 34.3's. Kovalainen ran a program more focused on longer runs but was half a second off Massa's times. It's a hard one to call for sure.
| Hamilton 18 1:34.367 19 1:34.432 20 1:41.217 21 1:34.157 22 1:34.272 23 1:35.487 24 1:37.062 | Raikkonen 15 1:35.067 16 1:34.873 17 1:35.191 18 1:35.591 19 1:35.114 20 1:38.852 | Massa 17 1:34.659 18 1:34.733 19 1:34.761 20 1:34.953 21 1:35.138 22 1:34.978 23 1:34.944 24 1:35.237 25 1:38.328 26 1:43.067 27 1:35.018 28 1:34.733 |
Nico Rosberg set the fastest lap time but ran in the high 35's on his runs. I'm afraid that Williams time at the front might already be coming to an end, but Nico likes it around this track and will make it into Q3 I believe.
Renault looked awful early in the session, lapping in 36's along with the STR's. Pat Symmonds told BBC Radio that their Friday programme featured a much larger fuel load than normal so that's worth taking into account, but I think that like Williams, or more accurately, like Rosberg, Alonso will make it through to Q3 and then get in everyone's way in the race.
One final point, I don't usually talk about them but Force India has brought a new floor and interim diffuser to this track and it's paying dividends for them. Sutil had a several lap stint where put in 35 flats and both drivers were featuring in the top 10 at points throughout the session.
As always, the rest of the timing information can be accessed through the Timing Application.
My Prediction
1. BrawnGP
2. Toyota
3. Red Bull
4. McLaren
5. Ferrari
6. Williams
7. BMW
8. Renault
9. Force India
10. STR
Chinese Grandprix.
Posted Friday, 17th of April 2009, filed under Preview
Update
Just a quick update to give a break down of Fridays Free Practice, I apologize for no full analysis this weekend, but I promise to bring you full coverage of next weekends race in Bahrain. Anyway, once more into the breach...
Brawn and Red Bull are looking the best. Brawn capable of dips into 35 while running low 36, Red Bull are more in the mid 36 range. Rosberg for Williams did very long runs and had the car in the high 36 range even towards the end of runs so they look better on the tyres here than in Melbourne. Nakajima is really falling behind Nico.
Toyota had a perculiar day, Trulli looked locked into the mid 36 range but then did two long runs that were slower than the Williams. They might just be very confident and had the car brimmed with fuel, watch out for them in the race.
McLaren has made improvement, Ferrari has dropped right back, so now they're about even. In the race I'd give the nod to McLaren given they have kept their KERS system. Low to mid 37's is where their times are right now. Next is BMW right? Nope. Alonso? Nope. It's the one and only Sebastien Bourdais. New updates that bring the STR closer to its Red Bull cousin has propelled the Frenchman into the middle pack, he was running mid 37's.
Quick Nick is in the high 37's, Kubica has to be disgusted with KERS and BMW, his lap times were grounded in the 39's, slower than the Renaults and Force India. BMW are the one team that hold a bit back on Friday so they should improve but it's a long way from "Vettel cost us a win" quotes from Australia.
My Pace Prediction
- 1. Brawn GP
- 2. Toyota
- 3. Red Bull
- 4. Williams
- 5. McLaren
- 6. Ferrari
- 7. BMW
- 8. STR
- 9. Renault
- 10. Force India
/end update
It's been a busy week so no preview this week. Session times are up for Free Practice 1 and 2, they can be accessed through the timing app.