“Set-up error” caused Toro Rosso’s Bahrain slump

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Toro Rosso’s lack of pace in the Bahrain Grand Prix is blamed on a mistake they made setting up the STR8.

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Sketches of Spain (Toro Rosso)

“We will be keen to make up for some missed points scoring opportunities at the first quartet of races, while also being relieved that Daniel Ricciardo’s very slow pace in Bahrain was quickly traced to a set-up error, rather than a design fault or failure with STR8.”

Food scares, the big four and F1: Justin King of Sainsbury’s on the retail race (The Guardian)

“King refuses to quash rumours that he is interested in the F1 job – he only ever says that he is “not aware of a vacancy”. He is a huge racing fan and has helped his son Jordan to become one of the most promising drivers of his generation.”

A Thriller In Manila (Lotus)

“For the first time in history, Philippine Lotus F1 Junior Team driver Marlon Stockinger hit the streets of Manila to showcase Formula One in front of his home crowd.”

Mark Webber to quit F1 (Daily Star)

The Daily Star claims Mark Webber has already decided to quit F1. Since the last race he said he hasn’t made his mind up about his future yet. Exclusive insight or speculative guesswork? Share your view in the comments.

What happened to the Non-Championship Grand Prix racing calendar? (McLaren)

“We didn’t know it at the time, but we were witnessing the end of an era. Soon afterwards, non-championship Formula One races died away, it being felt by the powers-that-be that there was no real place for them. With the relentless expansion to all four corners of the globe of the world championship proper, it was decided that they had become an anachronism.”

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Comment of the day

Should we be more prepared to take the rough with the smooth when it comes to racing?

The championships in “old F1” and something like the Premier League are still exciting. Just look at the Premier League’s 2011/2012 finale. Just look at how thrilling the championship in 2010 was, with Vettel somehow taking the title in the end, with a two-time champion stuck behind a Russian driving for the team that gave him the two championships he’s won.

It’s also processional racing, I believe, that makes great wins so great – that makes grand chelems so great, that makes this year’s Champions League semi-final results so stunning.

It’s also the thing that made it possible for Spain 1981 to happen. But while that win was great, it was perhaps very boring, if amazing at the same time.
@DavidNotCoulthard

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Tommy Byrne, who turns 55 today, had a colourful career after failing to gain a foothold in F1 following five appearances for Theodore in 1982 and a test for McLaren. His 2008 semi-autobiography is an entertaining read:

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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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39 comments on ““Set-up error” caused Toro Rosso’s Bahrain slump”

  1. The Daily Star claims Mark Webber has already decided to quit F1.

    I’ll believe it when I see it. Not a season goes by without rumours of an imminent Webber walk-out from Red Bull and it hasn’t happened yet. I’ll only believe it when I hear it from the man himself (or Eddie Jordan, at a push)

    1. Well, it won´t be a great loss, except for RBR. So “Adios Mark”

    2. Whether its true or not, this article is tabloid trash… Look at the banner, and then the highlighted paragraph in quotes, isn’t actually a quote, unless The Star is suggesting that quoting their own article is a quote.

      He has had an unhappy ­working relationship with his team-mate – and triple world champion – Sebastian Vettel.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a load of bull too, no other mentions or references or even quotes from “his friends”

      The Red Bull driver has told close friends this year will be his final ­campaign in grand prix ­racing.

    3. Fake prophets! Just like late 1990s and early 2000s when every wizard predicted the death Pope John Paul II starting each year…

      1. That’s because popes are like Russian Presidents – they’re not sick until they’re dead.

  2. It’s a shame we don’t have non-championship races any more. With countries around the world wanting a race, it would be nice if the non-championship circuit continued to either test new races or retain existing ones in some form.

    Of course, it would be difficult to stop the teams from treating such races as glorified test sessions, but maybe they could be contested by older cars. Perhaps they could be used to bring on young drivers and new technical staff under a strict budget cap. The Red Bull and McLaren B-teams against smaller outfits, perhaps?

    I doubt we’ll ever see non-championship Grand Prix again, though, due to the obsessive control exerted by the powers that be. I’m sure Bernie and Co. don’t relish the thought of cars from the recent past racing each other outwith their control. It’s a shame really, but really just a reality of modern Formula 1.

    1. For all those countries not able to sign a long term deal to hold GPs, I think FOM should have a slot for one-off contracts, i.e, races should be held for a single year being the next reserved for another one-race location.

      Some countries would be able to raise 20-30 millions USD to hold a single GP without a long-term commitment. Even if that single race is not profitable, it’s better to have a single loss than annual losses.

      1. The other problem with Non-Championship rounds would be the costs.

        Been Non Championship teams would not have transportation cost’s covered by FOM so teams would have to plan & pay for the transportation themselfs. They the teams would need to pay for use of the circuit & for things like fuel, tyres etc… Then if there’s any sort of accident that would bring the obvious repair cost.

        There’s no way teams would be willing to spend the amount of cash needed for a non championship event when they would not get anything significant in return.

        I know there may well be prize money & teams could perhaps get cash from ticket sales, However it would be nowhere near what they would have spent to put the event on.

  3. no mention of the indycar race?
    that was by far the best race i’ve seen for years in any category.

    came down to the final laps & without gimmicks like the drs we now have in f1 there was no guaranteed passing, the race leader (sato) was able to defend & keep the guys behind him as they swapped places & each had a go at him.
    the tension over the final 20 or so laps was incredible & the racing & battling truly exciting.
    also takuma sato did well over half the race without changing tyres on the softest compound available.

    you just don’t get any of that in f1 nowadays because the tyres degrade & the drs often ends those sort of battles fairly quickly & easily.

    i’ve been quite supportive of the current F1 with Pirelli & DRS, However watching that race today changed my mind on both.
    For all the passing we now see in f1, you don’t get the sort of excitement seen in the indycar race & you just don’t get that sort of tension building up over several laps & you don’t see the drivers pushing flat out like that in f1.
    you had drivers locking brakes, sliding the cars around trying to get the power down exiting the corners, you would never see that in f1 because it would destroy the pirelli tyres.

    i’ve never really been into indycar, ive always been an f1 fanboy & as i said i have been supportive of the drs & pirelli’s tyres.
    after todays race i’ll be watching indycar more often & be joining the calls to get drs banned & pirelli to bring harder tyres!

    Epicly awesome race which i’d encourage everyone to watch :)

    1. It’s under “From the forum” (as usual) and it’s also mentioned on the strapline on the homepage at the moment.

    2. i’ve been quite supportive of the current F1 with Pirelli & DRS, However watching that race today changed my mind on both

      Men learn through trial and error, right? Like John Maynard Keynes once said: “when facts change, I change my mind”.

      I think DRS rules should change, not the concept. On Pirellis, I think they’ve gone too far.

  4. I never understand when people bash the 2010 Bridgestone era as processional. I for one think the racing in 2010, for the most part, was brilliant. Also, it didn’t have any DRS nonsense, which made races like Turkey so great (boy I miss that track…).

  5. Tommy Byrne…great driver…notoriously vain writer..

    1. He did make a lot of excuses in that book (he seemed to spend his whole career driving cars with ruined engines if his version is correct) even though it was a good insight into racing in the junior formulae at the time. He seems to think the whole world was against him when in fact, if he’d just towed the line a tiny bit and not been quite so mental, he could well have got the break he needed.

  6. How coincidental it is that those rumours about Webber come at a time on the calendar when NOTHING is happening.

    I really do hope the Toro Rosso’s pace was an oversight/setup issue and not a deep seeded flaw with the car. How can either driver deliver if the car continually heads backwards?

    1. @nackavich let’s hope that the STR have more to come, in the end the spanish gp is not that different from china, kind of…

  7. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    6th May 2013, 4:26

    I truly hope the rumours of Webber stopping Formula 1 are false.

    He’s the last of a dying breed of drivers/athletes that aren’t media and PR robots.

    He, and Kimi are really the last two that truly speak their minds. Jenson is also possibly one of them as he seems more genuine than most drivers, but he still sometimes gets into “PR mode”.

    Oh, I also hope he stays in F1 because he’s still easily competitive.

    1. I don’t think Kimi and Mark are the only ones to speak their minds. Hamilton does. PDR criticizes his team a bit. Sebastian “I’d still break team orders again” Vettel, clearly speaks his own mind.

      Also speaking their minds doesn’t necessarily add lots of insight. Webber on tires “yeah they’re rubbish” versus Kimi on tires “they work okay”.

      To me Mark seems a little burnt out, and is struggling to find form this year. I also think it’s got to be hard to have Vettel as a teammate, not for the Malaysia thing, but that Vettel has had incredible success in the same car that Mark hasn’t.

  8. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    6th May 2013, 4:54

    Probably the rumors about Webber going out were inceased by the Malaysia inident, but if it’s about stamina, I don’t see him as an outdated athlete, remember Barrichelo was “left for dead” and then won a couple of races by Brawn.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      6th May 2013, 4:55

      “increased” and “incident” (small keyboard)

      1. @omarr-pepper I hope it isn’t as small as Max Chilton’s trophy cupboard…

  9. The Daily Star claims Mark Webber has already decided to quit F1. Since the last race he said he hasn’t made his mind up about his future yet. Exclusive insight or speculative guesswork? Share your view in the comments.

    Well it’s obviously guesswork. This is from the Daily Star, one of the worst British tabloids (possibly even worse than the Sun). I do believe that Mark will retire after 2013 but anytime a tabloid claims to have exclusive access I take it as complete BS.

    1. There’s an article which quotes Allan McNish saying (directly after the Bahrain GP): “Paul drove like the old Jackie Stewart” and “If someone gives him the right machinery he can fight for the world title”. Then they add the header: “ALLAN MCNISH: PAUL DI RESTA IS NEW JACKIE STEWART”. I mean, he doesn’t directly say that, nor does he imply that – but when you start mixing up his words, you eventually get that sentence. That’s tabloid 101.

      I’d say the round-up’s article is complete nonsense: the ‘friends’ are not called by name and there are no direct quotes – it’s just speculation.

      1. Nick.UK (@)
        6th May 2013, 12:57

        @andae23 To be honest I was quite surprised Keith even used an ‘article’ from a source like that in his round up. It’s probably even less reliable than me writing a blog of my own.

        1. @nick-uk Experience has shown that it’s better to put such articles, if they come from a sufficiently prominent source, in the round-up and tackle the question of whether they are reliable head-on. Otherwise I get people posting links to them in the forum with block capital headlines screaming “WEBBER TO RETIRE!!!”.

          Though this may still happen in a few days’ time when other sites are regurgitating the same story without attribution (not that the Star’s story offers anything to back up its claim).

          1. Nick.UK (@)
            6th May 2013, 14:01

            Yeah that makes sense I guess.

  10. If Webber were to leave Red Bull, I’d like to see him take over Toro Rosso. He is the “MW” in GP3 team MW Arden, with Arden being the junior team owned by Christian Horner. Just imagine the king of battles we would get between drivers managed by Webber in cars designed by James Key racing against drivers managed by Helmut Marko in cars designed by Adrian Newey. It would only work if Webber’s team was allowed to compete with Red Bull Racing and had a greater budget, but the potential would be amazing.

    1. Of course this is not gonna happen.

      1. But I agree that it would be awesome to have.

      2. But how awesome would it be if it did?

    2. thatscienceguy
      6th May 2013, 11:29

      He also manages Mitch Evans. I dunno, i just see him as more of a driver manager than team principal.

      1. Just imagine the king of battles we would get between drivers managed by Webber in cars designed by James Key racing against drivers managed by Helmut Marko in cars designed by Adrian Newey.

        LOL, that would be amazing.

        I’d like to see Mitch Evans hold up Vettel for some 50 laps at Monaco just to see the look on Helmut Marko’s face.

  11. Good job Lotus of bringing F1 to Manilla, its great these teams (Red Bull does a lot of it to, to their credit, and McLaren at times), but for me it really only highlights how little of promotion F1 is doing.

  12. Alexander (@)
    6th May 2013, 7:59

    On this day in F1, May 6
    1984: A.Senna fails to qualify for a GP for the only time

  13. I’d love non-championship races! They can be used to try out different rules etc or young drivers. For example, new tyres, changes to DRS rules, etc. Or a rule that teams must use young drivers. Or simply a standard race at a new track, to see if it’ll be a boring circuit or an awesome one.

    1. thatscienceguy
      6th May 2013, 11:38

      So teams who are struggling to stay in the ga.e partially due to operating costs are expected to be able to do a whole batch of non-champ races?
      Say goodbye to Sauber, Williams, FI, Caterham and Marussia, with Lotus probably also heading backwards.

      Races are expensive, and if they’re non-championship, well whats the point of using some of your budget?

      If you want more races, may as well just make them championship racs, at least that may attract ore sponsorship, not sure more non-champ races would to anywhere near the same extent.

      Non-champ races wprks in the past when the cars could be bought bu gentlemen racers and local teams, and they cost abput three thruppence to run. Asking the championship teams to run extra races, put their championship cars at risk, and fork out money and time taking away from the championship, well why would they? They appearance money would have to be astronomical to get them out for a race which doesn’t count for anything.

      1. thatscienceguy
        6th May 2013, 11:41

        Shocking spelling, on my mobile so a little difficult to type and proofread.

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