Massa’s punctures caused by debris, say Pirelli

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In the round-up: Pirelli say Felipe Massa’s punctures in the Bahrain Grand Prix were both caused by debris.

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Pirelli: debris to blame for Massa issues (Autosport)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “People are doubting that it was debris, and saying ‘yeah you would say that, sure’ but it is quite interesting that actually we got the [quarantine] bag back with the bits in today and they are not small pieces. It is very dramatic.”

Frustrated Alonso thought open DRS was tyre problem (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“‘With the DRS it remained open the first time, I informed the team that we finished the rear tyres, because at that stage I thought it was the rear tyres gone completely,’ he explained. ‘But they told me, ‘No, no the tyres are OK, it’s just the DRS, so we pit in this lap.'”

Bahrain GP protesters say: ‘No to bloody Formula’ (The Independent)

Deputy Prime Minister Crown Prince Salman: “The race should be a help in the political process. Keeping Bahrain connected to the international community is very important, as it stops us looking inwards and keeps us looking outward.”

Red Bull put a woman on the podium in F1 first (Reuters)

Christian Horner: “It was great to send an important member of our team up today, Gill Jones, who has done an awful lot.”

Lloyds puts brakes on F1 venture after 46.3m loss (The Telegraph)

“Lloyds Banking Group has sold its 25.3% stake in the Marussia Formula One team after it made huge losses and failed to perform on the track.”

Red Bull RB9 – rear wing variations (F1)

“Red Bull tried three different rear wings on Friday in Bahrain.”

Caterham brings first updates to CT03 (F1 Technical)

“The updates seem to have had an immediate effect, with Charles Pic saying after free practice that the team were to adjust the car set-up as the updates immediately brought in understeer thanks to increased downforce at the rear of the car.”

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Comment of the day

Why did everyone react so slowly to Alonso’s DRS problem, asks @Younger-Hamii:

Two questions: one for the FIA for not giving Alonso the black and orange flag for a mechanical problem and the other for Ferrari for allowing Alonso to lose so much time with the flap open.

Surely the telemetry, if not their screens in the garage and on the pit-wall, would’ve been enough to inform them that his DRS has some kind of a fault?
@Younger-Hamii

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On this day in F1

Happy birthday to Esteban Turo who is 35 today.

The Argentinian started a single season of F1 in 1998, making his debut for Minardi while he was still a teenager. His best result came at Imola where he finished eighth, two laps down.

His last race at Suzuka ended in a collision with Toranosuke Takagi, and he never returned to F1 after that, citing personal reasons. He subsequently spent several years racing in Argentina’s TC2000 touring car series.

Since then only one other Argentinian driver has raced in F1 – Gaston Mazzacane with Mianrdi in 2000 and Prost in 2001. Jose Maria Lopez was signed to race for US F1 in 2010, but the team collapsed before the season began.

Here’s Tuero experiencing a shambolic Minardi pit stop during his home race in 1998:

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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105 comments on “Massa’s punctures caused by debris, say Pirelli”

  1. Thanks so much for that pit stop video Keith ! It had me crying with laughter.

    1. haha, quite hilarious I have to admit!!

    2. Poor chap looked absolutely bewildered in the car!

    3. The worst stop I have seen is from Super Aguri at a race. They didnt even know the car had boxed!

    4. +1

      The part I loved the most was the refueling guy clapping on the end of the refueling nozzle, I was half expecting a cartoon like spray of fuel to hit him square in the face…

      The other part I liked was that the front right tyre was delivered to the left front, then handed over.

      41.8 sec pitstop, one of the funniest I’ve seen :)

    5. In the video commentarist says he pitted one lap earlier, thats why they were lost.

    6. “There is still a tyre missing!!! Quickly, get it from the garage!”

      “Which one is missing?”

      “Front right!”

      “OK, here you are.”

      “Hey, front right has a tyre already!”

      “Just put it on the other front right!”

  2. The attendance at the race was dreadful, there must have been next to no atmosphere. Any ideas on official attendance figures?

  3. no penalty for webber? ridiculous

    1. @sato113 Being thinking about it in the morning, but maybe they though that Webber has had enough bad luck in the last two races and didn´t feel like penalizing for a second week in a row.

      And on another note, is there any driver that have being penalized with grid penalty two weeks in a row? Maybe Pastor Maldonado? I can´t recall

      1. At least Kimi in 2005, two engine failures in the French and British Grands Prix practices.

        But for driving related penalties, can’t remember any.

      2. Being thinking about it in the morning, but maybe they though that Webber has had enough bad luck in the last two races and didn´t feel like penalizing for a second week in a row.

        never do the stewards think like this! sentiment does not play a part in handing out penalties like this.

        1. @sato113 sarcasm? I can´t tell… :P

          1. no sarcasm. don you really believe the stewards would refrain from giving webber a penalty because he’s had bad luck in previous races? dont think so!
            in fact they’d likely look at his crash with vergne in china and give him a penalty for repeat offending.

          2. @sato113 well we saw last year that if you are a championship contestant and you get taked out the other driver will be punished way harder than if you are not (remember Grosjean justification penalty). So I wouldn´t be surprise if they took pitty on Webber.

          3. they may take pity on webber, but they’d still hand out the penalty.

            the problem here is the stewards didnt see it as a serious incident, not because they felt sorry for webber lol.
            it was a bad incident in my eyes btw.

    2. They gave him a reprimand

    3. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
      22nd April 2013, 14:26

      Well last week he got a penalty for being in rosbergs shoes. He probably said by the stewards own decision making process that it was rosbergs fault for not magiking his car away like he should have done in china.

      I mean either jev should have given space in which case jev and mark should have been punished last week and this week or jev and mark were entitled to cut across the corner and mark and rosberg should have gotten a penalty last week and this week. Seems to be quite a few people watching the race through red burn markwebber coloured glasses.

      1. No. In China, Webber made a late lunge for the inside of Vergne and hit him, with his wing only slightly in front of the STR’s rear tyre (IIRC). In Bahrain, Webber and Rosberg were almost alongside, and Webber went left, hitting Rosberg.

    4. If you are not rich the bread always falls to the floor with the butter side down.

  4. I’m glad RBR put a woman on the podium. I’m sad she had to stand with Sebastian Vettel, who could not resist vomiting forth a string of awkward and faintly condescending comments about her, and then, later, appropos of nothing, offering his embarassing quip that he doesnt lift up his leg like a woman. My daughter was watching the end of the race and podium ceremony with me and I’m only too happy she is too young to understand the substance, tone, or implications of the comments. She did ask me if only boys could race cars. And I was happy to say no.

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      22nd April 2013, 2:06

      Get her in a Kart quick! :D

    2. @dmw I think you are over reacting, he only say that it was nice to have a girl in the wich it was.

      About the second comment maybe I´m being naive but I took it like he wasn´t flexible. So, yes I´m girl and I don´t feel like condening Vettel and calling on my sisters to burn on their bras on protest.

      1. @celeste Vettel and Coulthard on the podium=A recipe for disaster.

        1. @wsrgo ban DC from podiums interviews :P

          1. @celeste True. Three cheers for Martin Brundle!!! Hip, hip, HOORAY!

          2. @wsrgo Hip, hip, HOORAY! Hip, hip, HOOORAY! (Does a split) :P

    3. Yeah, I didn’t like how he said something along the lines that she does a good job of taking care of the boys. It struck me as a bit condescending which was a shame because seeing a women on the F1 podium was genuinely a good thing to see for the sport.

    4. Yeah, on of those fake “I want to be cool” classics by Vettel. He should stick to the finger, it much more natural to him :)

    5. I watched an awful stream of sky. Scanning through the BBC coverage it didn’t appear that they showed the podium (I must be mistaken though, as that is ridiculous). Who claimed the trophy, and what exactly did Vettel say?

      1. @matt90 He said

        Also to have a woman on the podium [is good], I think it’s not happening every day. Gill Jones, she takes care of our electronics in the team, she looks after the boys, so great to have her up here as well.

        And them:

        Q: Well, we’re very happy to see you up here. If I could just come back one more time to our race winner: I’m just spotting, you’ve got some lucky charms outside your boots, I’ve never noticed that before. Do you want to tell us about that before giving us your feelings about where you are in the championship right now?
        SV: I don’t know, probably in a good position regarding the championship…

        Q: Can you show the fans around the world or is it top secret?
        SV: Not top secret but I don’t get my legs so high because I’m not a woman… I’ve had them for a long time and they seem to work. One is actually from my grandmother, actually the other one as well.

        And I´m so failing to see the problem, because both comments seem to be innocent to me… unless you look for the double sence but what would a woman know at about what would ofend a woman… so carry on with your indignation…

        1. I think it was the way he said it. It wasn’t a big deal, but at the time I did think it sounded a little condescending (the woman bit, not the high heals).

          First woman on the podium being in the Middle East is quite ironic.

          1. I think it’s RedBull’s way to make a point, especially in the middle east!

          2. @john-h but what did he say, that he wasn´t flexible… who are normaly flexible women or men in gymnastics.

            We have a way to put it in Latinamerica, is like having a “dirty mind”, if you have a dirtymind you will find double sense to every comment, if you don´t you will simple heard what the other person wanted to say.

          3. @celeste I didn’t mean that bit, I meant the first bit (that I now can’t remember and don’t have access too)! It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s nice that Red Bull put some of the less well known people up there.

            & I haven’t got a dirtymind!! …. although I think Vettel probably has the way he names his cars :)

          4. @john-h sorry I worded in the wrong way my answer to you, I actually agree with you… Tone and words have a strong power on the way we comunicate.
            But I seriously didn´t take anything wrong from the first part of his stament, and for the last part, I didn´t think it necesarily has to be something wrong.

          5. @verstappen I was thinking the same thing, it wasn’t a coincidence that this happened in the Middle East instead of one of the other races or not until Europe.

            I also think it may have been a little shot at Jackie Stewart and his comment about women in motorsports.

    6. Am I the only one who was not really impressed when Red Bull sent the “mostly unknown” woman to receive their constructor’s trophy? Now, if they had sent a “mostly unknown man”, who has put in a lot of effort into the team, to receive their next constructor’s trophy in one of the million races they had won prior to this, then this would have been a nice gesture and would have stood out as awesome. Since they didn’t do that, it was, in my opinion, a purely sexist display simply for promotional purposes. Being a woman or a man shouldn’t be the reason for success. The work that one puts into the team should be the reason. Same thing stands true for being a driver, a team principal, or any other field in f1. Quality over sex!

      1. @rojov123 you son´t see lots of RBR podiums do you? Most of the time neither Newey nor Horner are there. They have send people like Marko, mechanics like Ole, who last year lost his father in the middle of a race weekend and instead of going home he decided to stay with the team, they have send both Vettel and Webber´s race engineers at some point and also Tim´s Vettel Performance engineer. And this are just a few examples.

        And that unknown woman is the chief of electronics, so she is not a nobody…

        1. I don’t think you understand my point. Helmut Marko is Red Bull’s adviser and hence a person of power. Race engineers are vital to a driver’s race strategy. The mechanic, i understand. He made a sacrifice most people would not. But, would they have sent him up there if he hadn’t lost his father? I think not!
          Also, I said “mostly unknown“. Have you heard this woman’s name before? I haven’t. You can argue that the woman has a hugely important role that would make or break a drivers race, but so does the guy who changes the right rear wheel. What I am saying is, before this weekend, only those people who hold substantial influence over the team or with the driver or someone who did something brilliantly noteworthy over the race weekend were sent to collect the trophy. I haven’t read or heard anything that she could have done this race weekend that would make her similarly worthy. There are numerous other positions in an F1 team that are just as important as the Chief of Electronics. Why wasn’t any of them sent before this? Admittedly, I could be wrong as the lady might have done something really impressive that was key to Vettel’s win that wasn’t reported by the media. If it is, then being up there was well deserved. On the other hand, if she didn’t do anything other than what her normal job dictates, then she was up there simply because she was a woman. I think that is a definition of sexist. I’ll absolutely change my opinion and am willing to stand corrected when I see Red Bull send a “mostly unknown” man up, to collect the trophy. They have all year to make me bite my tongue.

          1. @celeste I don’t think you understand my point. Helmut Marko is Red Bull’s adviser and hence a person of power. Race engineers are vital to a driver’s race strategy. The mechanic, i understand. He made a sacrifice most people would not. But, would they have sent him up there if he hadn’t lost his father? I think not!
            Also, I said “mostly unknown“. Have you heard this woman’s name before? I haven’t. You can argue that the woman has a hugely important role that would make or break a drivers race, but so does the guy who changes the right rear wheel. What I am saying is, before this weekend, only those people who hold substantial influence over the team or with the driver or someone who did something brilliantly noteworthy over the race weekend were sent to collect the trophy. I haven’t read or heard anything that she could have done this race weekend that would make her similarly worthy. There are numerous other positions in an F1 team that are just as important as the Chief of Electronics. Why wasn’t any of them sent before this? Admittedly, I could be wrong as the lady might have done something really impressive that was key to Vettel’s win that wasn’t reported by the media. If it is, then being up there was well deserved. On the other hand, if she didn’t do anything other than what her normal job dictates, then she was up there simply because she was a woman. I think that is a definition of sexist. I’ll absolutely change my opinion and am willing to stand corrected when I see Red Bull send a “mostly unknown” man up, to collect the trophy. They have all year to make me bite my tongue.

          2. @rojov123 Here it is a very unkown man collecting the trophy back in Singapore 2012, he is a mechanic

            So is that what you like, seriously are you man because they send a woman? The point that they roll the team members to go to the podium is so people know them so even if we haven´t heard from them before we get to know what they do.

            And I think this is the most stupid reaso to be mad at Red Bull

          3. uhm, I think there’s a mistake in your logic there @rojov123 – how does a not very well known person become a know, a well known, or even a famous person?
            That’s right, by getting in the spotlight. And If Red Bull feel the person who is on top of their electronics is key in getting the win and rewards her by getting on the podium, I think thats very good from them to show more of the team than just Newey, Horner and Marko

        2. @celeste Did you not read what I wrote? That mechanic is Ole Schack. He did something no man would possibly do by staying back for the team. The easiest way to explain this would be, unless a person does something special during a race weekend, he wouldn’t be allowed to collect the trophy. But in this case, the only special thing that the woman did was well, being born as a woman. And that is what I am against.

          1. @rojov123 Yes, and I STILL THINK is silly, she does her job, she is good at it, she helps her team, they tought she deserve it, now we got to know her. CNN is publishing a piece about her in comming days (Sara Holt tweeted about it), so I see no arguement to see what RBR did as something wrong, wrong is what BBC did by doing a program on Sussie Wolf, she is not even good and have no relevance to his team or this sport.

    7. +1. This was an important symbolic milestone for women in F1, entirely ruined by Vettel’s awful, sexist ‘jokes’

    8. I dont think Vettel was being very sexist when he spoke about Gill Jones. He said ‘she takes care of the boys’. Whats wrong in that? An electronics person has to look after the team. Why do u guys take a double meaning? And when it cmes to his foot comment, yeah it was very awkward. He probably felt it too.

      1. +1 some sense …

        1. @celeste – I have a feeling that this is because Vettel spoke! Anything he could’ve said would probably have been interpreted as sexist… ;)

      2. @malleshmagdum No, I don’t think Vettel was implying any sexual innuendo when he said that Gill ‘takes care of the boys’. But he was projecting a kind of nurturing role upon her which seems perhaps more suited to the feudal ages than 2013. I don’t think he intended it, and he was probably just trying to diffuse the tension a little, but it did somewhat undermine the occasion.

        1. @prateek727 I dont agree yaar…..Firstly if we give a “nurturing” role to a woman, its not sexist. Its like elevating them to a higher position. Now, if we have a world women’s day is it sexist because we don’t celebrate men’s day? Vettel spoke those words spontaneously. So, we should not criticize too much. Its always difficult to choose the right words in such situations.
          And going by your statement, he said she is the electronics person (ie taking care of the team) and takes care of the team (nurturing). Doesnt it mean that he is also saying that she is very important to the team? Lets see what @celeste thinks

          1. Expecting all women to fit into and comply with a particular nurturing role does not elevate them to a higher position, it prevents them from expressing aspects of their personality that are perfectly normal and commendable. It’s an odd cultural force that come into play whenever a woman enjoys even a small amount of success in a heavily male dominated space.

            As to why we celebrate Women’s day; we do so because it is appropriate. For the same reasons America celebrates Black History Month and not White History Month; because people acknowledge that one group has been historically oppressed compared to the other, and suffers in many ways even today at the hands of such oppression. Sexism is not much different than racism in terms of the power mechanism at play, so celebrating Women’s day while not celebrating a corresponding Men’s day doesn’t mean ‘inequality’, but is rather perfectly understandable.

            I don’t want to elaborate much further on this because this after all is website dedicated to motorsports, not gender studies. But at the same time, I think we can all agree that we’d love to see a F1 grid populated in good part by women in the near future. And it will require an overhaul in the attitude on the part of everyone involved. Which means we might have to give up on categorizing women either as nurturers or umbrella-toting objects and allow them to exhibit forceful, independent personalities instead.

          2. @Prateek

            Nobody has said that all women should fit into a nurturing role. If a person chooses to fulfill that type of a role, then it is a compliment to say that they do it well.

            But the idea of nurturing was never brought up on the podium. The comment simply implies that she is a woman who is in charge of her particular department, surrounded by men, and she gets the job done. It serves to highlight that she is one of very few women on the team, and she gets the job done.

          3. +1 Dwight_js – And you meant to tag @prateek727

          4. @Dwight_js @david-a

            Imagine if parallel universe where Red Bull had an electronics engineer who was male. Now honestly tell me whether you see Vettel saying something like “It’s great that Philip is up here on the podium today, he takes care of all the boys”.

            No, Vettel’s compliment for him would inevitably be more along the lines of “I’m glad Philip is up here with us today, he does a great job with the electronics”

            Both Philip and Gill Jones represent two individuals fulfilling identical positions within the Red Bull hierarchy, and both are just as accomplished. But while Philip receives accolades for his work, Gill is treated as if her only place in F1 is to support the men. It’s wholly uncool.

          5. @parteek727 –

            How do you know that he’d say that? Bear mind that Vettel often mentions his own relationship with his engineers in interviews, describing the guys at the team as his “boys”.

            I think you’re taking the idea of “taking care” out of context. To say Gill “takes care of the boys”, doesn’t mean that she’s being treated as if her only place in F1 is to “support the men”. Surely a person with authority and important position in a company could be described as “taking care” of those below them?

            I’m not even acting as if everything Vettel says is correct, or funny, or whatever. It’s just that what he said on the podium yesterday was no big deal, inoffensive, and not really worth a column of comments about him being “sexist” as you stated earlier.

        2. @david-a there are so many pratiks here, isnt it? @prateek @prateek727 @pratik007 So many guys from India joined last year :)

  5. I feel sorry for Pirelli, I feel like they are always on the defensive which is a shame because they are doing exactly what the teams asked them to do. The variety of tire compounds add a lot of strategy to the sport as does the need to manage your tyres effectively. It also adds another layer of challenge as teams need to develop cars that can work well with all compounds. For sure there are issues; I think the soft tyres degrade too quickly for example. But my major complaint about the tyres – that Q3 tyres carry over to the race – has nothing to do with Pirelli. In reality they are doing a great job, so I fail to see why they are getting so much stick for it.

    In fact they’ve done such a good job with the tyres, I fail to see why we need DRS anymore. I think that racing would be exciting enough without it. Maybe I’m just sore because I’m a Hamilton fan who still winces when I think about how easily Hamilton was overtaken from pole in China, but DRS strikes me as such an artificial, pointless device. DRS overtakes require almost no skill, they are predictable and they generally just result in endless place-swapping until something genuinely more exiting comes along. It’s so boring.

    1. I would be happy with 2 stops per race. Why 3 or 4 stops?

      I’m afraid those tyres are unsafe. Pirelli says it’s debris but some people, teams included, don’t buy it.

      1. @jcost Pirelli are doing what FIA told em to do. FIA just wanna spice up F1 which we want. I see no point in complaining abt number of pitstops as long as race is excitin.

    2. David not Coulthard (@)
      22nd April 2013, 12:05

      It’s not the DRS that’s pointless – it’s the implementation. If it’s implemented the way the original, vanilla F-Ducts were, we won’t be talking about it, even if Lewis still loses position so quickly (which I believe he would’ve).

  6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    22nd April 2013, 2:40

    When I read that Gill Jones is in charge of all the electronics in both Red Bull cars, it made me remember that documentary about “the woman in F1” (dedicated to Susie Wolff) and how much better and intereesting would be if they made a documentary about women with key roles in teams, like Monisha Kathelborn, or the mentioned Gill, rather a high shareholder’s wife with a tracksuit custome.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      22nd April 2013, 2:42

      custome Ouch… costume

    2. Fully agree with that @omar-pepper. I understand there’s more and more women working in interesting jobs in F1 so it would be great to see more of that if one wants to show how being female is not strange in he world of motorsports.

  7. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    22nd April 2013, 2:45

    I didn’t know Takuma Sato won Long Beach race at Indycars. Nice to see he’s alive and kicking!

  8. Is this the second tire failure in a row for Pirelli this season?

  9. When it comes Alonso’s DRS failure I wonder why he opened it again! One look and i knew that the stops, a part of a DRS, had broken. And the wide open rear wing was creating more drag and less downforce. He should hv been instructed by team not to use it again.

    1. Alex (@korbendallas)
      22nd April 2013, 6:37

      Yeah I was a bit surprised at that, but maybe the team wanted to see if it was a one off, since a second pit stop to flick it back into place would probably cost them less time than having no DRS for 50 laps. I was more surprised that it took so long for it to be noticed by the commentators (and presumably the team also), as it was obvious for at least a lap from the TV feed before Croft pointed it out.

      Fortunate for Alonso that the team were able to return it to the normal position! When the same thing happened to Schumacher last year in Canada it was jammed and he had to retire.

      1. I was almost ready to throw the television when they both didn’t see it stuck open. It took them a while even with the on-board shot to say it was stuck open. I think someone must have realised they had missed it and got the director to put the on-board shot on.

      2. @korbendallas Schumacher’s was a hydraulic cylinder failure. Probably oil had leaked. Thats when the piston gets jammed and u can’t do anything abt it. Much like hydraulic failure in planes which result in elevators/rudders getting jammed and hence a crash. When u hv such a failure the flap gets stuck at that position (open or close). But in Alonso’s case the flap beyond ‘open’ position ie the piston went beyond its limit, which indicates that stopper broke. In such a case the air flow takes over and holds it open. So without a stopper u should never use the DRS again. But Alonso’s decision to redo it baffled it.
        @philereid yeah they took quite sme time even with the onboard. Bcz by the time onboard was shown Vettel had pulled away with lead >1sec.

    2. I wondered that too. The linked article says his DRS got stuck open in lap 7, but it had failed already in lap 5. I can’t blame the team for not noticing immidiately though, because right after the feed started showing replays of the start. Seeing DRS open on the pit straight for themselves wouldn’t set off any alarms.

      1. @gebradenkip It definitely stuck open for the first time on lap five, as noted here.

    3. The team believed that DRS was OK, that the first failure was a one time thing, they didn’t told Fernando to not push the button, they acted like it was OK, of course it was not. Domenicali confirmed it to the Spanish media.

  10. kudos to Gill for not only being in F1, but also being an electronics engineer!!!
    Yes F1 is getting more and more women, but until we see more of them in just about every area of a team (not just as managers) they’re less likely to be treated equally.

  11. I think I’ve worked out the problem with Formula 1 this year: the television director. I don’t know if FOM has changed the person doing it for 2013, but he is terrible. If Joe Average turned on his television and stumbled onto Formula 1, he could be forgiven for thinking that there are only ten cars in the race, because we only seem to see the top ten. Fernando Alonso is a perfect example of this – as soon as it was established that his DRS flap was stuck in the open position and he was forced to make two stops, the television director forgot about him. We saw neither hide nor hair of Alonso until he suddenly appeared in the bottom end of the top ten, and even then, it was only because the cameras were focused on another battle. Adrian Sutil was another victim of this: after his first-lap altercation with Felipe Massa, we never heard from him again, unless he accidentally stumbled into shot.

    I know the races are so full of action these days that you need to be looking in a dozen different directions at once just to take it all in. But watching last night’s race, there was virtually no coverage of Williams, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Marussia, Caterham, Alonso or Sutil. At one point there, I distinctly remember wondering if Ricciardo and Hulkenberg were still in the race, because they were so totally anonymous – not because they had unmemorable races, but because the television director totally forgot about them. And I also got the impression that David Croft and Martin Brundle were annoyed with it, too, because they kept referring to drivers and incidents throughout the race as if they were calling in requests for the television director.

    This isn’t something new that I’ve noticed, either – qualifying is particularly guilty of it. At the end of Q3, we tend to ride on-board with the first driver to begin their final lap, and once they’re finished, we cut to each of the drivers coming through the final corner. Which strikes me as ridiculous, since those drivers tend to be on faster laps. How many times have we been set for a hard-fought battle between three or four drivers, only for the broadcast to ride along with the driver who qualifies seventh or eighth and we miss the fight?

    1. @prisoner-monkeys
      I also think directing has been awful this year. They’re losing a lot of important battles and pit stops and the battles are often from a very peculiar camera angle. I have been literally screaming tens of times at my TV this season because of terrible directing and, while I might be nuts, this has very rarely happened before this season

      1. The horrible direction during qualifying is nothing new; it’s been around since at least 2011, because we’d follow one of the early cars around and then Vettel would pop up at the last minute and steal pole with almost nothing to indicate that he was even on the circuit. But the terrible race direction is new, and I suppose it’s a byproduct of there being so much going on and no real demand to see what Caterham is doing down in twentieth place.

        At the same time, I felt the Button-Perez battles last night were absolutely ruined by the way there was no context to it. I had no idea whether they were fighting over fifth and sixth or fifteenth and sixteenth, simply because the director only seems interested in showing what is happening right now instead of considering the long term.

        1. and also they never showed Sutil and Massa incident. By the time the replay frame got to that incident, the feed cut away to Raikonnen’s camera replay!

      2. @hotbottoms @prisoner-monkeys atleast u get to see some action. We Indians have advertisements every other lap. It seems there was a crash involving a Caterham yesterday. We Indians never saw it. Also we are getting Sky commentary with Brundle and Croft this year which is pathetic. Steve Slater was much better!
        Regarding FOM director, I hope they really find a solution. And btw i hv no probs with them showing last corner all Q3 bcz i feel that is enjoying.

        1. We Indians have advertisements every other lap. It seems there was a crash involving a Caterham yesterday. We Indians never saw it.

          We didn’t see it in Australia, either.

        2. David not Coulthard (@)
          22nd April 2013, 12:18

          …and you’re the first one to have said that! Last year quite a few people complained at espnstar( .com) about how terrible Slater was. I disagree with them, but what can be wrong with the commentary that @prisoner-monkeys seems to also get (and the British audience as well, assuming that the coverage has indeed been from Sky)?

          1. @davidnotcoulthard love ur ID man :) btw Yeah last year everybody was fed up with Steve. He was our commentator since 2000. It was a classic case of ‘grass is greener on the side’. Although Steve is good he does make some errors and never corrects it. Now the same ppl who were anti-Steve want him back. Problem with Croft and Brundle is that there are some awkward silences during the event. And their voices seem to blend in with the background and u never ‘feel’ the commentary. Steve used to liven up the race….

          2. David not Coulthard (@)
            22nd April 2013, 15:26

            Now the same ppl who were anti-Steve want him back.

            I very much doubt that they’re “the same people” – and I’m OK with both anyway.

            I just hope, sound-wise, that the V6s sound decent, I believe that they do have the potential to better the normally aspirated V8s.

          3. @davidnotcoulthard I have never seen an F1 car. So the sound of the engines doesnt matter to me as long as the sound is not annoying on TV

    2. @prisoner-monkeys

      My problem now is keeping up with so many different tyre strategies and at some point I struggle to tell who’s “out of position” and what’s the “correct order”. Even though I hate Pirellis at this point (I hope teams get on top of this by GP#10) I gotta admit all that tyre management creates incredible suspense.

      On TV directing, I don’t recall watching improved Caterham racing yesterday.

    3. Are you sure it’s a “he”? Women are popping up all over F1 now…

      Still several laps ahead of the Indycar coverage though. In the Long Beach TV show there was a classic when the director cut away from two cars running side-by-side down a straight, then when we returned to them, they were both in the wall at the next turn.

      Maybe there should be different directors, with the free-to-air coverage focusing on the big names like now, and subscription channels getting extra coverage of 12th to 16th places.

    4. astonished (@)
      22nd April 2013, 9:59

      Not a problem in Spain. Even if the TV director is spot on (not the case) we would have commercials at any time there is a slight chance of action.
      I tell you it is damm difficult to be so much ill timed. I start to boycott the sponsors 😃

    5. The incessant replays are by far the most annoying thing for me, at one point we watched someone overtake in t1 live, cut away when they got to t4 (still fighting) to show a replay of what just happened at t1!

      If you’re going to show a replay for christ’s sake make it something we haven’t seen before, or at least of something relevant to the race (say a slow-mo of damaged bodywork). Half the time it catches the commentators out too, because one says something like ‘He’s going down the outside again!’ and the other commentator says ‘oh no, it’s just a replay of the move we saw earlier’.

      /rant

  12. Wow, makes you realise how far pit stop technology has come. The refullers seemingly ran from the back of the garage with the hose, not starting their jog until the car had come to a stop. The tyres were still in their blankets, and not even waiting by the side of the mechanics with the wheel guns. I’m surprised they even had wheel guns!

    Still though, loved the blue and silver livery on that Minardi.

    1. Still though, loved the blue and silver livery on that Minardi.

      This!

      Oh, and it really is amazing to see the difference!

  13. You know, it might be just me, but what with not everyone being positive about F1, and all these tyre problems, would it be strange to start thinking about some objects left at the track that damaged the tyres?

    Alternatively, Pirelli might want to have a look at the construction, and the pressures they are running, because it does get a bit much tyre trouble

  14. Whitmarsh: “I had a lot of noise in my ear from people suggesting I should stop them racing.”
    I’m so glad You resisted, very gutsy decision, honouring the true racing spirit, thank You, Martin:-)
    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106974?source=mostpopular
    (almost made me a McLaren fan)

    1. The Blade Runner (@)
      22nd April 2013, 10:44

      +1

      I do wish that Whitmarsh would show a little more “steel” though. His post-race interviews currently contain more blinking and stuttering than a tourette’s sufferers’ convention!

  15. Has anyone noticed how useless the drivers stewards have been this year.

    “Cars X and Y are under investigation by the stewards”… 10 minutes later “Incident between cars X and Y to be investigated after the race”.. every single time. It’s honestly a joke.

    1. @timi
      I find it amusing that in Bahrain the driver’s steward was Mika Salo, who is the commentator of the Finnish Formula One broadcaster MTV3, and he’s always complaining about how the stewards investigate the incidents after and not during the race. Yet in Bahrain (almost?) every incident was investigated after the race!

    2. @timi – I noticed that too: I wonder if it’s got some connection with the broken telemetry link?

    3. @timi yes!! i was beginning to think i was the only one irritated by this, whats the point of stewards even being there when everything is investigated after the race, what else are they busy doing that they can’t investigate there and then?? i mean when incidents are black and white..clearly one drivers fault which can be determined after just a few different camera angles. Now if the incident occurs in the final lap i understand, but if a straight forward incident takes place in the early laps or middle of the race there should be no excuse to investigate there and then and dish out the penalty.

  16. Re COTD: I was bewildered by that also, particularly the fact the commentators didn’t pick up on it for a long period of time on Sky whilst I noticed it immediately!

    That’s twice both the FIA and Ferrari have failed to pit Alonso immediately in three races after a technical problem – that’s got to reflect badly on Ferrari. Especially considering they ruined Alonso’s race well and truly by not instructing him not to use DRS!

  17. Holy COW !!! that was a a hilarious stop. Some body handing over the Tier with the warmers on across the car from the left rear to Right front….. OMG I am still not able to stop laughing.

    How did i miss this while watching the race back then. Maybe I was too involved in the Hakkinen Schumi battle.

    Felt so sorry for him. Well the same Minardi debuted Alonso and Webber and the same Minardi now as Torro Rosso gave Red Bull and Vettel their First F1 Win. What a change in 10 years.

    1. @KeithCollantine I sure did not understand the commentators language. Do you have a version of the same in English maybe with Murray Walker…. ?

  18. Michael Brown (@)
    22nd April 2013, 23:00

    “I don’t lift my legs high because I’m not a woman.”

    He’s talking about cheerleaders, obviously.

    1. Maybe we should ask his girlfriend about her well received movements.

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