Hi All
I have started to blog about the new F1 season and will keep you up to date with all the races of the 2011. As the Melbourne Grand Prix was non eventful I decided to start with the Malaisian Grand Prix this weekend.
First of all congratualations Nick Hedfeld this weekend and Welcome back to the big time. Being one of the only few Renault fan's left (after Piquet/Briatore-gate) I was devastated for Kubica when he crashed pre-season and injured himself badly. I truly believe he is right up there with Alonso in terms of all round driving ability. As you often saw last season when he finishes comfortably so far in front of Petrov (although it has yet to be decided whether it is an actual achievement to finish so far ahead of Petrov). Heidfeld has a lot to live up to. Now that Petrov and Heidfeld have had consectutive podiums finishes in the first two races as delighted as I am, the euphoria that I should be experiencing is slightly overshadowed by the fact that if Kubica was racing there is a chance that he could really be chasing Vettel and Hamilton down and getting amongst them like a bee in a bonnet.
The Driver of the day along with Heidfeld was Webber, I am not a huge fan of Webber I think people have taken a shine to him since the 'handbags/ not bad for a number two driver' situation with Vettel last season. As soon as he started you knew he was going to have a fight on his hands without the KERS. Everyone just shot past him at the start - it was like he may as well have had an anchor attached to his car. After Petrov and Heidfeld passed most of the front runners on the outside of the first corner including Alonso and Webber, it left Webber down in nineth place which left Horner and his strategy team needing to think of a plan B fast. Webber continued to get let down by Lady luck especially when the pit strategies didnt come off properly with the timing as he came out behind traffic, which wasn't in the plan at all. Having to do four pit stops did help Webber as the new tyres gave him so much speed as the Pireli tyres wore away so quickly. The rest of the field decided to favour the extra 20 seconds from not taking an extra pit stop but were losing speed by running on worn tyres allowing Webber to catch up even without KERS.Lady luck did later return the favour for Webber when Hamilton careered off the track so far that Webber didnt have much trouble passing him into 4th Place. She obviously got tired of trying to ruin his race and grant him fortune for all his hard work.
It was a tough weekend for Alonso and Hamilton who both incurred penalties after the race. Hamilton should be feeling more annoyed as he actually lost a position due to the penalty where as Alonso didnt. You can see why Hamilton was annoyed for getting penalised for changing direction twice to defend his position along the home straight /first corner because he was the only one punished for breaching the rule as some of the other drivers also commited the offense including Vettel on the first lap. Alonso was penalised for causing an accident when he crashed into the back of Hamilton which was undeniably careless but nothing more however this wasn't the start of Hamilton's collapse, as bad tyre management from Hamilton/McLaren meant he struggled to keep a consistent out and out pace.
Alot of opinions have been floating around about both KERS and DRS which have been implemented to increase overtaking opportunities. I couldnt help noticing that DRS was pretty pointless as drivers were taking it in turns to overtake each other at exactly the same place each lap. The battle between Kobayashi and Schumacher created a lot of overtaking manuvers being made between them but it soon became mundane as it became almost predicatable. However you cannot deny Kobayashi is exciting to watch, he is bold and brave although I do have my concerns over his positions when he is defending and also his pit strategies (I will blame the Sauber team for this though).
Of course RedBull drove pretty much the whole race without the use of KERS and were effectively carrying the extra weight with no advantage being gained from it. Christian Horner has a choice to make, it is not a huge decision but with the help of Adrian Newey he should decide whether to try and make KERS work and risk carrying pointless extra weight around for the next few races or scrap the idea and decide to make the car lighter without carrying KERS. Personally i would go for the latter and try and get KERS working. Although Vettel doesnt need it as he has enough talent to shave seconds off lap times not needing KERS, which other teams would create by having KERS. I believe Webber would need KERS in order to atleast maintain his positon he qualifies in and make it to the first corner without being overtaken as his starts aren't the best on the grid.
On a non racing topic it has been raised that Martin Brundle is taking a reserved role at BBC and now doesnt feature in the build up and post race coverage as much as he should be doing. He no longer does the starting grid walk interacting with the drivers minutes before they turn on race mode. Although he has taken over Jonathon Legard as the leading commentator during the race for the BBC people still feel he should be out doin all the interviews and chatting with Eddie, David and Jake pre and after the race. As much as I love listening to Martin talk endlessley about F1 I feel it would be asking a lot for him to do. However it does mean that whenever he does come onto air it makes it more special.
All in all there were a lot to talk about which is slowly drawing away attention from what Eddie Jordan is wearing at the race meetings.
It is only 4 days until we start all over again in Shanghai, China where hopefully there will be more talking points and the race will be just as exciting as it was in Malaysia.
See you in Shanghai!
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