F1 Fanatic round-up: 30/8/2010

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Hope you all enjoyed the race weekend. Here’s today’s round up:

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Red Bull may face tough decisions, says Mark Webber (BBC F1)

"Mark Webber says Red Bull may soon have to start backing his world title bid ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Webber finished second in the Belgian Grand Prix to put the Australian 28 points ahead of Vettel, who came 15th.

"Asked if the team should concentrate its efforts behind one driver, Webber replied: ‘It’s still too early at the moment, but maybe not far away. We have a good trophy cabinet but not one like McLaren’s. So it depends on how hungry we are to do that.’"

Button blames ‘confused’ Vettel for Belgian GP accident (BBC F1)

"Jenson Button blamed a “confused” Sebastian Vettel for the crash which took him out of the Belgian Grand Prix.

"’I defended my line about three inches on the inside and perhaps Sebastian got confused as to which direction to go,’ Button told BBC Sport’s F1 Forum."

Button braked early, says Horner (Adam Cooper’s F1 blog)

"Not surprisingly Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has leaped to the defence of Sebastian Vettel after the German’s scrappy race at Spa.

"Horner insists that Vettel’s controversial clash with Jenson Button at Spa was triggered when the McLaren driver braked earlier than Seb had expected for the chicane.

"Vettel, who wasn’t actually trying to pass, lost control and slammed into the side of the McLaren. The damage put Button out of the race. The FIA later handed Vettel a drive through penalty for causing an avoidable collision, and the consensus in the paddock was that the German had screwed up in a major way. However Horner says he was caught out by Button’s braking point."

Why Vettel should not have been penalised (Doctor Vee)

"I have long felt that there have been too many penalties in F1. Many talk about the inconsistency. This is indeed a problem. But the main issue is that they are handed out far too often. Today I feel that the stewards overstepped the mark once again and interfered with the race when it was not necessary.

"That does not excuse what Sebastian Vettel did. I am a great admirer of Sebastian Vettel. But I am sorry to have to say that today he demonstrated just why he does not deserve to win the Drivers’ Championship this season.

"Vettel’s speed is not in doubt. But in a wheel-to-wheel situation his judgement is left in question. This season he has made several unnecessary mistakes. His clash with Jenson Button is just the latest one, and it would not surprise me if there is at least one more this season."

Sebastian Vettel continues to mix the brilliant and best forgotten (The Guardian)

"Sebastian Vettel will become world champion one of these years but not as long as he drives the way he did in the Belgian grand prix today. This was a performance seething with the sort of uncontrolled emotion that can undermine a great talent."

Barrichello sorry for early exit (Autosport)

"Rubens Barrichello apologised to his Williams team and Fernando Alonso after his 300th grand prix ended in a crash before the first lap was even over.

"Celebrations for the veteran Brazilian’s milestone start dominated the build-up to the Spa race, but Barrichello became the event’s first retirement when he ploughed into Alonso’s Ferrari under braking for the Bus Stop as the field encountered the first rain shower of the afternoon."

Bahrain will host 2011 F1 season opener (Gulf Daily News)

"Bahrain has been slated to host four days of pre-season winter testing leading up to the kingdom’s Grand Prix. F1 team managers met on the sidelines of the ongoing Belgian Grand Prix reportedly to discuss winter testing next year. There will be 15 days of tests in all."

Tilke: Korea will be ready in time (Autosport)

"Formula 1 circuit architect Hermann Tilke has no doubts that the new Korean Grand Prix track will be finished in time for October’s race – despite fresh doubts about the event over the summer break."

Lewis Blasts Signing Row (News of the World)

"Lewis Hamilton has hit back over a cash row, insisting: I’m not a money-grabber. The British ace rubbished claims he demanded payment to sign a helmet being used as part of a prize by Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organisers.

"The row broke out after it was revealed the other 23 drivers on the grid – including McLaren team-mate Jenson Button – had signed.

"Hamilton, 25, told the Sport of the World: ‘I would never ask for money to sign anything. The only thing I ever ask is whether it is for charity.’"

BUXTON: A Question Of Perception (Speed)

"As I put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard as I guess the modern adage would run, the rain is still pelting down outside the window of the media center here at Spa-Francorchamps. After the summer break, the assembled media throng of the Formula One world has a great race to write about and a tantalizing championship battle to sink its teeth into.

"But while most of the talk around me is of the changeable weather conditions and what my many colleagues are quickly drawing to be one of Lewis Hamilton’s finest Formula One victories, there is another thread of discussion which hangs in the air and in some quarters makes for the bigger talking point of the race.

"It hangs on something I mentioned during the SPEED broadcast of the Belgian Grand Prix – namely, the Formula One paddock’s increasing questions over the maturity of Sebastian Vettel."

Comment of the day

Have you rated the race? Harry obviously enjoyed the weekend:

What the heck I went for a 10.

What more do people want? My heart was pounding for a good 44 laps.
Harry

From the forum

Overtake/Defender of the Year

Happy Birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Michael Schumacher celebrated his first win on this day in 1992 at the Belgian Grand Prix – a year since he made a spectacular Formula One debut at Spa for Jordan.

Schumacher qualified third on the grid but a well-timed pit-stop for a set of dry tyres won him the race. He was followed by Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese both for Williams – a result which won the team the Constructor’s Championship.

This weekend is also remembered for Erik Comas’ crash during practice. Comas was knocked unconscious at which point Ayrton Senna stopped on the track and ran to his aid, cutting the power to his engine, thus preventing a fire.

50 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 30/8/2010”

  1. Button broke early! Maybe vettel should pay attention to the 2 seconds rule! Back of vettel!

    1. Button may have braked early, but it was raining, so any normal person would expect the driver in front to break early, and drive accordingly.

      The simple fact of the matter is that Vettel screwed up. Why Red Bull think they need to make excuses for that amazes me.

      1. Sanity prevails. Why Vettel thought that Button would brake at his normal dry weather breaking point on a damp track is beyond me.

      2. On the BBC Button said it was bone dry at that corner.

    2. The pictures of the accident show that the track was dry at that point. I doubt Button braked early, rather I think Vettel forgot where the braking point was.

    3. The only one saying that is Horner (you know, the one defending Seb’s driving here at Spa?). Button himself said, that it was bone dry and he or Witmarsh stated after the GP they are actually very comfortable with brakes, so no reason to brake early.

      Even Vettel himself didn’t imply anything like that.

      But you are Right, Vettel should take at least a 2 second gap to every other contender on track it seems. That might be his only chance of not crashing into someone!

  2. Vettel to go on the free transfer list?

  3. I think Crofty mentioned in one of the practices that when talking to Tilke about Korea, Tilke said that the track would most definately be finished, but whether the facilities would be is a different story! That could be interesting to see.
    Also on the Vettel front, not sure why everyone keeps saying Vettel will win a world championship, he hasnt proved anything yet, he’s had the best car for 2 years now and is not making the most of it. This is not, for me, a sign of a future world champion. The only reason I can think of is that he was a young guy a few years ago and people thought ‘Oh great, this guy looks pretty nifty, I’m sure he will mature into an unbeatable force’ but since his first win about 3 years ago he has never done too much to impress me. I think it’s about time redbull start recruiting some great talent – Kubica, Rosberg, Kimi etc.

    1. Excellent point. People just assumed he would mature and combine that with his speed, but 4 years in F1 and he’s still lacking in many areas. He hasn’t won a race where he wasn’t 1st into Turn 1 (he’s only passed someone for the lead once, and that was Webber’s own fault) apart from when Hamilton broke down in Abu Dhabi.

      With all respect to Webber, what happens when he leaves after 2011 and Vettel has to face someone like Kubica? (okay I’m assuming a lot here)

      1. bring kimi raikonen to redbull and he will definitely blow him up

    2. I remember Alesi being very quick and full of talent as well. Montoya was a mean racer as well. And quite a range of other drivers. Not all of them get to be champions.

      But Vettel is intelligent, has great speed and he can do some very nice racing when he keeps his head cool. Red Bull is not going to drop him any time soon, so he will get the chance to learn, which is more going for him than most will ever have. Don’t give up on his chances yet (Look at Button, it was 10 years, and Mansell took his time as well).

  4. Vettel is brilliantly quick. he can pull out amazing laps… but only when there’s no-one else around on track for miles.

    another point- why do commentators/presenters including jake humphrey and murray walker (in vid above) talk about rain as a bad thing. it’s brilliant!
    on bbc today, jake was like ‘ah good, there’s some blue sky coming this way’…

    1. In all cases, it’s great for the racing. But while it’s fine for us to watch home in our warm houses, it’s not so for Jake standing in the pit lane.

      As for Walker, Legard, Brundle (who are inside)? No idea :P

    2. You get that with the Aus commentators too! I don’t get it! the words rain and exciting just go together…

      1. Well my opinion of the Aus commentators are that they are useless, anyone could do a way better job then them. I hope we get straight live bbc feed soon.

    3. I think thats just a general turn of phrase.
      I love cold/rain but I still call sunny weather ‘good’ and rainy weather ‘bad’…

      1. Someone else other than me loves the cold & rain? Wow.

  5. Maybe they’re English and they don’t see blue skies everyday? :D

  6. Red “Bull” living up to their name…Seb admitted fault for once (kudos to him, by the way) but Horner has to make excuses for him?

    Also, anyone else see the irony of this is being the anniversary of the first win of a German driver famous for crashing into people!

    1. Seb admitted fault after the Kubica crash in Aus 09 too, but that was much less clear cut.

    2. I found that very interesting as well, Horner making up excuses for Vettel, when Vettel clearly did not need any, and just admitted to making a bad move and losing the car.

  7. Magnificent Geoffrey
    30th August 2010, 1:13

    Bahrain to open the season again?

    *groan*

    1. on the old layout and with those trial ‘proxy wings’ and KERS, could be a cracker. (could…)

      1. Yeah the Bahrain GP has always been a cracker…

        1. no it hasn’t. but next years could be with the new regs.

    2. No amount of money that Barhain and Abu Dahbi pay to host the season opener/finale can be worth to F1 what it costs in terms of the show. Perhaps they should take inspiration from the San Marino and Swiss Grands Prix and hold the races outside the country. If they both held their Grands Prix at Spa for example they’d be extremely popular.

      1. Hahahaha! That is a great idea!

    3. It won’t be that bad, they will use the normal track and this year was pretty good as well, only FOM did a horrible job of not showing any of it.

      And i prefer having a not so exiting race to start of the season, when we can still look forward to a great Melbourne race after that, it would be a lot wors the other way around.

  8. Red Bull should be asking Mercedes if they would be willing to trade Rosberg.

    Vettel could really do with Schumacher playing tutor like he did for Massa in 2006. Being fast and aggressive is fine, but you have to be smart about it.

    1. That is an interesting idea – I am sure that Schumacher would like to have a friend to switch places with – he and Rosberg have had quite a few blocking/contact moments this season.

    2. Jarred Walmsley
      30th August 2010, 10:37

      Personally, I’d rather see Schumacher and Webber swap but that would never happen because Schumi values Ross to much, and money won’t really come into it see as how Schumi already has 100’s of millions

  9. time for a Vettel-approve poll, Keith :P

    I liked the guy but this year has gone completely wrong with him… his frequent mistakes and his attitude towards them let you down pretty often.

    He needs to calm down.

    Looking at the other guys with same level of talent and speed, Kubica and Hamilton have the maturity AND speed to cope with the different situations Seb lacks.

    Just imagine Kubica in that Red Bull…

  10. thats all well and good but i very doubt it will happen

  11. Y’know, even though I’m not a Vettel fan and I was very angry that he took Button out, I have to agree that he didn’t deserve a penalty. It was inconsistent with Barrichello’s penalty, was pointless with him already being penalized by losing track position and now having a damaged car, and was not all that unexpected with the semi-wet conditions making things tricky.

  12. I don’t know if I’ve missed it, but I haven’t yet really heard any chat about what happened to the flexi wings.

    I imagine it’s not been the topic of the weekend a lot of us may have been expecting previously because of the various other crazy race day incidents, and partly because there’s more to come with new tests for Monza.

    But to my eyes, the RBR front wing was flexing just a small fraction of that as seen from the on board from the last few races. Has anyone seen comparison images from the onboard of the min and max movement?

    1. “But to my eyes, the RBR front wing was flexing just a small fraction of that as seen from the on board from the last few races.”

      I agree, but I think it’s got to do with Bus stop being a very slow chikane.

    2. HounslowBusGarage
      30th August 2010, 9:35

      That was going through my mind as I watched the race as well, but I didn’t see any super slow-mo shots in order to make a real comparison and I don’t remember any shots from onboard as the RBs went up Kemmel straight, for example.
      I’m hoping that one of the technical bods here such as John Beamer was watching closely.

      1. Somewhere on James Allens site he confirms – the general opinion in the pit lane is that both RBR and Ferrari have changed from the one they used recently and it flexing was similar to early season. But then they will have change the wing because the lower downforce configuration needed for Spa (less elements apparently).
        We won’t know for sure until the ‘fly aways’ personally I’m convinced they have changed to the pre Silverstone level flex (same as China etc)It certainly was nowhere as near the ground or hitting the ground like in Britain, Germany and Hungry. You don’t need to look very carefully to see that. I did have a quick look at the reply of the race though.

      2. There were some super slow-mo shots at Bus Stop in practice, and I’d say it did flex a bit still, but less than before. The question is if it was because of the slower speeds only, or if they actually have done something.

        1. Agreed, still flex’s but less alla China etc.
          They was some onboard footage along the straight on Saturday and it didn’t move too much

          1. some footage of the crash was put up by a fellow forum member, i D/L it and slowed the part just pry to Vettel cutting across the back of Button, you can clearly see the front wing jump up as the weight comes off from the slip stream.

            my thoughts are if these wings are passing the test then it needs to changed again, it also may have contributed to the crash.

            hope YouTube allow this footage to be seen.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5naInRFSP7A

  13. You guys are forgetting Button said that the track was bone dry at that moment of the race. If Button was breaking early it was due to the understeer he picked up due to the broken front wing – either way I was horrified by Vettel’s stupidity and had flashbacks of Turkey and Valencia, big tangle and I reckon he was trying to extract a big slipstream like Webber and Kova.

    1. Hm, yes, that is interesting. But the point remains that if Button was breaking early due to circumstances (understeer/wet), he had been doing that already for several laps, so hardly something to suddenly be surprised by.

      1. I think Horner was an idiot when he said that… Obviously it was Vettel who made the error, but rather than saying, Vettel got it wrong mistakes happen, he has made them all look a little silly.

  14. I don’t understand you DoctorVee???? Surely a drive thru is the lenient of penalties he could of asked for.
    After all, we are agreed it was Vettels fault, so he took another driver out of the race as a result of his inability to pass him on track. (Forget that fact it was a driver who has a legitimate chance to win the race and wdc)
    And, Vettels pen was handed out to him before he tangled with the force India and his points scoring chance was gone. That is what we been asking for isn’t it? Quicker decisions on penalties.

    I don’t know what you think Vettle should have got. A smacked bum and told to sit on the naughty step?
    Like every sport, he did something wrong and should be punished. IMO he got off lightly as there was still a chance he could have scored decent points as he continued in the race.
    I agree he’s a fantastic talent and a future wdc but sometimes he’s just a little too hot headed for his current ability.
    I really don’t know what you

  15. I actually think this season has had a huge lack of penalities. Remember not so long ago we were all getting sick of reprimands and wondering if we’d ever see drive throughs again. I think yesterday’s call was a toss up but at the end of the day it was avoidable. Perhaps the stewards kept in mind just how many incidents Seb has had; driving into Lewis at China and Turkey, driving into Webber at Turkey and then Sutil’s complaints at Silverstone all of which went unpunished and felt that now would be a good time to maybe calm him down a bit.

    I also don’t udnerstand Horner. He’s either accusing Button of suddenly brake testing Seb or Seb had dementia and forgot that Button ahd been braking at the same point lap after lap when he had been following him.

    1. I also think the penalty might have reflected some of Vettels driving earlier in the year, which makes it more reasonable.

      Let’s hope it’s not the return of every single move being investigated and penalized (altough a lot was investigated and not penalized here, that’s OK).

      Hearing Horner ‘complain’ was strange, Vettel himself did not at any point say something about Button, he knows it was his bad move. Again the RBR team states something stupid without any reason to speak up.

    2. We want turbos
      31st August 2010, 13:08

      Maybe Horner was trying to deflect attension from the front wing. I assume they may have spotted the front wing lift!! Who knows but you can name button lol

  16. I haven’t seen a stop/go pen in years, Singapore 2008 can they still do them ?

    1. Yes they can, they are still in the regs I think.

      Unfortunately, there is no Murray anymore to let us know what’s going on: “stop… stop….. stop… go!”

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