The teams are in Melbourne getting ready for the second race of the season. The early predictions for light drizzle during the weekend seem to have been right so far – it would certainly guarantee an exciting race on Sunday if it did rain. Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Jenson Button says F1 bosses must listen to drivers ahead of Australia Grand Prix (Daily Telegraph)
“We know what we need to overtake and the thing is this season we have taken away a lot of mechanical grip with going to a narrow front tyre. At the same time we have more downforce on the car than we had last year. The problem is when you come up behind someone, you lose that downforce and you don’t have the mechanical grip you had last year to follow.”
Ralf Schumacher to also contest the 2010 DTM season (DTM)
“The Mercedes-Benz works driver is going to contest his third season in the most popular international touring-car series and at the wheel of an AMG Mercedes C-Class.” There’s a lot of fluff in here about how he’s one of the series’ most popular drivers – he must be because they certainly aren’t keeping him in the top team on the strength of his results.
“I wouldn’t expect him to beat Nico – I expect it to be close. Rosberg is competitive and I would say Schumacher is too.”
Comment of the day
We’ve had loads of feedback from fans who’ve been to different F1 races around the world.
But one circuit it’s been hard to find out about first-hand has been Suzuka. Happily Jeffrey Balanag came along yesterday to give us some useful information:
I almost always take a tour ackage (I live & work in Tokyo), which makes everything easier (in a very efficient & organized Japanese way). Going RYO may even wind up more expensive.
For example, last year I stayed at the Leo Palace Inn (a popular businessmans hotel), since I’d been given tickets to the V2 section from a Toyota sponsor, and had 50% discounts at Leo Palace. It was located three stops from Nagoya, buy was convenient since you could buy round-trip tickets to & from Suzuka Circuit from the train station. It was roughly US$15 each way (JPY1100). Mind you it takes something in the order of an hour to get to the circuit trains station, and a (fun!) walk of a little over a kilometer to the entrance gate(s), depending on your seating. Food & souvenir stalls abound, and it was a good idea to go early, buy food of your choice for take-out, and picnic near where your ticketed seats are, or somewhere in the public areas. There is an amusement park across the circuit as well. And yes, there are scalpers around the circuit, but I don;t speak Japanese so I’ve never had a chance to bargain with them.
Jeffrey Balanag
Read more: Going to an F1 race in 2010? Read these top tips from F1 fans first
Site updates
Head on over to the Twitter Directory to find a new section for F1 fans who are at races this year. We’ve already got ten F1 fans who are going to be at Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix in our easy-to-follow list.
Their live Tweets from the circuit will also be included in our live blogs during the race weekend.
F1 Twitter Directory – F1 Fans at 2010 races
Happy birthday!
Two birthdays today – happy birthday to Gman and Sam!
On this day in F1
Surprisingly, it took Ayrton Senna eight attempts to win his home Grand Prix, which he achieved for the first time on this day in 1991. He had been leading comfortably the year before when he collided with Satoru Nakajima’s lapped Tyrrell.
He led every lap of the 1991 race but had to struggle to the chequered flag after his McLaren became stuck in gear and rain started to fall. Williams driver Riccardo Patrese cut Senna’s lead but was still three seconds behind at the end of the 71st and final lap.
Read more: Top ten?óÔé¼?ª home Grand Prix wins
scunnyman
24th March 2010, 0:38
happy birthday Gman bud.
scunnyman
24th March 2010, 0:38
and happy birthday too Sam.
Ben
24th March 2010, 3:09
Latest forecast for the weekend in Melbourne
Saturday
Partly cloudy. Isolated showers until evening. Winds southeast to southwesterly averaging up to 20 km/h becoming light later in the evening.
City – Shower or two. Min 17 Max 26
Sunday
Becoming cloudy. Winds north to northeasterly averaging up to 30 km/h.
City – Cloudy. Min 17 Max 31
Link to the BOM page for Melbourne
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml
macahan
25th March 2010, 0:41
Now call for evening rain on Sunday but might not come in “early” enough… But isolated showers until evening on Saturday can make for a VERY interesting qualification and we could see some blunders, mistakes and interesting happenings for a interesting grid line up that wouldn’t been expected. Cheers!!
Pinball - roadography.com
24th March 2010, 3:15
Jenson Button’s remarks are very sensible, and he is right, F1 needs the input from drivers on how to improve the overtaking situation. Given the drivers are the only ones that actually experience real severity of the problem.
Having said that, I’m not convinced that the overtaking problem is really a problem. I found the race in Bahrain interesting enough. I managed to stay awake throughout the race, even though it finished at about 12 midnight my time. Earlier that day I’d fallen asleep multiple times watching the V8 Supercars. So personally Formula 1 is still more interesting than V8 Supercars.
BasCB
24th March 2010, 6:42
I think, that what Button says in the article makes a lot of sense. The GDPA should be involved with FOTA and the FIA and FOM to agree a road to improvements in the coming years.
Quickfixes mostly backfired in the last years, the only good change was the 3 step qualifying format.
I watched Bahrain as well, it was the first race so there was a lot to see. But to say the racing as such was good, no it was not.
One thing the FOM should do and can easily do is improve the broadcasting. A lot of coverage was used in their race-clip that did not get on screen during the race.
Becken
24th March 2010, 3:23
Hi Keith,
Over there in SidepodCast Steven Roy wrote a hell of a post describing how F1 should be in his point of view.
It´s worth a read:
http://sidepodcast.com/2010/03/22/f1-how-it-should-be/
Becken
24th March 2010, 3:24
A quote:
“…My over-riding principle is that the sport does not exist as like a film, a play or a TV program put on purely for our entertainment. It exists as a sporting contest between drivers and teams and the most important thing for me is that the rules should be framed to make the result of the contest representative of the performance of the participants and should not include fake components to spice up the show to the detriment of the sporting contest…”
BasCB
24th March 2010, 7:00
I like the ideas put forward, althoug i do not agree with all of them.
A great part of the discussion to get to a Formula 1 all enjoy (Drivers, teams, fans, FOM and FIA)
BasCB
24th March 2010, 7:02
I like the ideas put forward, althoug i do not agree with all of them.
A great part of the discussion to get to a Formula 1 all enjoy (Drivers, teams, fans, FOM and FIA).
Jim
24th March 2010, 11:52
It’s kind of interesting, but I don’t think that the result would be F1.
What would be the incentive for the teams to compete in such a formula, when more technically interesting (for the teams) formulae exist? If you had a clean sheet and could reinvent all motorsport, maybe, but given the existence of all the other series, I don’t see where this one would fit in.
Don’t forget, there’s nothing to stop someone from starting up a racing series with whatever rules they want. The problem would be getting enough interest from teams, drivers, sponsors.
I think that F1 has painted itself into a corner. I agree that aerodynamics are a big problem, but at the same time if you take them away you’re left with a “pinnacle of motorsport” whose cars are slower than the series which feed it. The article talks about limiting downforce to 1g. Sure, there would be lots of overtaking, but who would be watching? What are the viewing figures for GP2? Or karting?
On the subject of “improving the show”. While I agree that F1 should be classified as sport rather than entertainment, at the same time could it exist without the TV money? It’s a balancing act.
People are competitive. When they succeed in lower formulae, they move to higher formulae. But there’s nowhere to go from F1, so the teams push the limits more and more until it becomes a war of wallets rather than anything else. As the regulations get tighter and tighter, the teams spend more effort exploiting loopholes, always looking for something to give them an edge. I’m afraid that the talk of “the spirit of the rules” is so much hot air: the rules are the rules, and the teams will push them as hard as they can.
Do I have any solutions? I’m afraid not :-( I think that bringing back steel brakes would be a step in the right direction. It might technically be a backward step, but then so was banning active suspension, traction control and a load of other stuff.
To summarise: it’s a mess.
Icthyes
25th March 2010, 0:42
There is, I would say, one way: grip from non-sensitive aero parts. Scaling back bodywork aero (including the sophistication of the wings) to the minimum and then opening up the floor of the car to aero development.
Dr Le Quack
25th March 2010, 13:18
Personally, I think that’s a bl**dy brilliant read!
I particularly like the following:
12 – More mechanical than aero grip
14 – More power than grip
Of course, there’s no chance of any of this happening as it’s hard enough to convince the fans that the status quo is boring, let alone the FIA, FOTA et al.
:(
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
25th March 2010, 14:02
I don’t think anyone’s having difficulty making that case. If they are, just wait until the Monday after Catalunya or Valencia…
Dr Le Quack
25th March 2010, 23:03
Oh, I dunno about that Keith: how many people here have commented wanting refueling, mandatory pitstops, more tech. etc.?
SeattleChris
24th March 2010, 3:27
“Surprisingly, it took Ayrton Senna eight attempts to win his home Grand Prix, which he achieved for the first time on this day in 1991. He had been leading comfortably the year before when he collided with Satoru Nakajima’s lapped Tyrrell.”
Weren’t we just talking about banning blue flags and such? Huh! I guess those who would ban them because only bad drivers can’t get past lapper’s would have to be of the opinion that Aryton Senna is just not that great a driver then. He couldn’t get past a lapper.
I’m of the opinion that he’s a great driver and some shi77y lapper ruined his win. Instead of banning blue flags we should ban lappers. Lose all the aero, up the mechanical grip and let the drivers determine whether they belong in F1 or not.
SeattleChris
24th March 2010, 3:29
…oh, not saying Satoru is shi77t at all by the way, but anyone in a lapped position needs to do everything but stop and pull off the track so as not to have an impact on people who are racing their hearts out.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
24th March 2010, 8:18
I’m of the opinion he’s a great driver but he should have taken a bit more care lapping Nakajima. Much like when he tripped over Jean-Louis Schlesser at Monza two years earlier.
Getting through traffic quickly is an important part of a racing driver’ skill and Senna was often phenomenally good at it. But sometimes the risks he took didn’t pay off.
Today we have no idea which of the front running drivers are good at getting through traffic quickly because backmarkers are waved out of the way as soon as a leader appears behind them.
More: Should blue flags be banned? (Poll)
SeattleChris
26th March 2010, 0:01
That’s a fair reply Keith… I can always count on you to improve my future arguments! I haven’t seen the footage of Schlesser so I will have to look for it. Cheers.
SeattleChris
26th March 2010, 0:40
Okay, I watched them both and still find that despite the fact that it was unnecessary for Senna to get around them as hurriedly as he tried, both lappers were at fault and annoyingly destroyed a race, impacted the record books and plain and simply should not have ever been in frame. Its just disturbing that this happened and continues to plague lead drivers. If this is simply a show and you enjoy wrecks and juiced results then watch modern tele programs. Racing at this caliber demands the best to have a race against their own kind. If a car can’t lap quick enough to be lapped only once in an entire race, then pull the heck out of the way. Nakajima pulled into the inside line after appearing to give the right of way. I’d have booted him from the next race and put him on probation for a calendar year from that date if I were in Ecclestone’s tiny shoes. It shouldn’t be some sort of guessing game for the person trying to win the race while some idiot decides what to do. Why not just block him as long as possible; especially if your teammate is in second. This would be the innevitable consequence of banning blue flags… Another scandal.
Chazzers
24th March 2010, 5:08
Happy Bday Gman!
Keith, though not directly F1 related, you’ll love this.
http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-a-500-craigslist-car-beat-400k-rally-racers
BasCB
24th March 2010, 6:34
I like the view on overtaking in this e-zine by FloodF1:
http://www.usf1formula1.com/2010/03/the-journal-second-edition-march-24-2010.html
It is a good addition to the discussions we had here about what to fix.
BasCB
24th March 2010, 6:36
Anybody jumping with joy for having Ralf in DTM for another year?
Good for him, but i am not sure what Mercedes gains by that (exept maybe for beeing seen as to block his chances).
George
24th March 2010, 7:17
“the most popular international touring-car series” DTM is more popular than WTCC?
Kovy
24th March 2010, 7:17
Which genius had the idea to reduce mechanical grip of the cars? I thought it was obvious it’d make overtaking harder because of the greater reliance on aero grip.
BasCB
24th March 2010, 7:31
Tonio Liuzzi does not agree, that it is impossible to overtake with the new rules. In their Australia preview he states that he had nice fights with Kubica and the Saubers (not to mention the new teams). According to him, it is only natural for the front runners not wanting to risk a DNF and being very cautious with new cars at the first race.
BasCB
24th March 2010, 7:47
Autosport has a more complete interview with Webber, where his comments on overtaking (getting a sniff here and there) are interesting and fun to read.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82311
RandomChimp
24th March 2010, 11:18
“That was just the surprise to me – not having even a sniff. In the past you got a few sniffs here and there and you could maybe have a crack, but it was a different ballgame in Bahrain.”
XD
K
24th March 2010, 8:48
Mozilla and Ferrari fans can now combine the two!
http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/93300
BasCB
24th March 2010, 8:59
They have a really nice one from Lotus F1 as well, with a redone livery that looks a lot more interesting (not as pure for the die-hard fans though) and i like the force india one as well.
Ned Flanders
24th March 2010, 11:52
Happy birthday Gman!
Interesting that Ayrton Senna retired from the lead after colliding with a backmarker in 1991, while Juan Pablo Montoya did the same in 2001. I think perhaps whoever is leading the Brazilian GP in 2011 ought to be extra careful when lapping drivers!
Ned Flanders
24th March 2010, 11:55
Oh wait, Senna’s accident was in 1990- this decade pattern I identified is useless. The leader in 2011 should be ok after all!
David A
24th March 2010, 15:22
The leader in 2012 and 2023 should watch out though!
Ed
24th March 2010, 12:14
I will also be in Melbourne on Saturday and Sunday.
My twitter ID is ed24f1.
Stealthman
24th March 2010, 12:29
Just found a cool story on the official F1 site: Jenson Button and reigning V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup traded cars for a bit. :)
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/3/10556.html
wasiF1
24th March 2010, 13:13
Webber to quit F1?
http://sundayafternoonclub.blogs.topgear.com/2010/03/24/hamilton-webber-quits-f1/
LewisC
24th March 2010, 14:28
Less “quit” and more “Thanks Mark, but we’ll have Kimi this year” I reckon.
Pinball - roadography.com
24th March 2010, 20:24
It’s called propaganda. McLaren must be worried about Red Bull beating them, because they have been doing it all week. First at Vettel with Ron Dennis suggesting that the Red Bull fuel tank is too small, and now Hamilton, saying that he thinks that maybe Webber might retire at the end of year. It’s pure speculation by McLaren to try and unsettle Red Bull.
Cacarella
24th March 2010, 13:14
Yesterday was my B-day and my wife got me tickets to the Canadian GP!!! I’m so stoked!
Question for all of you since this is my first ever GP:
She purchased the tickets from an online agency called grandprixtickets.com, and they told her they would mail us the tickets 10 – 7 days before the date of the event. Is this normal? Has anyone ever used this agency before?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Invoke
24th March 2010, 16:38
I have known ticket providers to do this for larger events to try and stop you selling the tickets on for a profit. Here in the UK I have had this happen a lot with music gigs/festival tickets. I can’t vouch for grandprixtickets.com however.
BasCB
24th March 2010, 16:42
The last time i had tickets for Hockenheim, they sent a confirmation of everything quit early and the tickets only a coulpe of weeks before the race.
I suppose this has to do with reselling them as with tickets for other sports events or concerts.
cacarella
24th March 2010, 22:43
Thanks so much for the responses.
I fell a bit better now, I just hope they make it here on time!!
BasCB
24th March 2010, 15:37
Related to the technical review i mentioned Rapid Prototyping using 3D printers (enabling quick and precise producing of new parts developed).
Today i read something very interesting, only somwhat further away from Formula 1. It is about testing 3D printers for building organs (a vein for now) using biological “ink”. In the future it might be done using human cells to create new organs!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124674635
ciaran
24th March 2010, 21:26
Intresting thing I found.Apparently Hamilton thinks Webber will retire at the end of the year.
http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/12144.html
Gman
25th March 2010, 0:51
Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone- it is always a pleasure to share my thoughts and opinion on Formula 1 with a great group of people from around the world! Hopefully I will get to meet more of you in the future at some Grands Prix, including right here in my native USA ;)
wasiF1
25th March 2010, 2:02
If any of you plan to get a job on F1 then this may help you.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/3/10559.html
Chaz
31st March 2010, 13:57
I really don’t know how Ralf managed to resign to race in DTM…