Race Report 3: A Shang-Hi to you all!
OK sorry that’s the end of the terrible
puns (probably). The King is dead. Long live the King. So AlanD aka MansellMan
has lost his crown and Becx has taken over the throne as leader of our
Predictin’ league.
Still very, very early days of course so
not much to be read into the league yet but it’s all still pretty tight and no
one has forged an unassailable lead, so all looks set for an exciting season.
Thoughts on the China GP;
It struck me that perhaps Mercedes looked
after their tyres better in China than previous circuits not only because it
was cooler in Shagnhai than it had been in Malaysia and Australia but also
because the circuit is not a heavily corner based circuit instead it’s a
straights dominated track. In fact watching the cars trundle down the longest
straight in F1 had me thinking why didn’t the designers put a curve in, or a
gradient, an s-bend or anything? There is no excitement at all in watching the
cars just parade down what seems not just the longest straight but the
straightest, flattest straight too. Plus they got the DRS activation point
wrong. Yawn!
Was the finish the most un-dramatic ever?
Rosberg rolled across the line at about 2miles per hour, 20 seconds clear of
everyone else. The last 10 laps of the race were great so that excitement was
rather punctured by Nico’s pedestrian roll over the line.
Typical. I thought that Mercedes might get
some podiums if not a win this season as I stated in previous blogs but it’s
flippin typical that they get pole and a win the week after I decided Rosberg
would never win a race. After backing him for 3 seasons telling Dad that I
thought he was a good driver and would prove it some day I finally deserted him
after his weak and wet performances in the first two races of the season.
Typical he should pull out a potential 35 points if predicted in this week’s
league. Fortunately for me I predicted Schumacher for pole and with Hamilton’s
penalty I score good.
Jenson Button seems to be the perfect
driver for Mclaren as he is pragmatic. He holds up other drivers by not making
overtaking maneuvers and not being aggressive enough and waiting for something
to happen. I felt he ruined the race by not making any attempt to catch and
pass Rosberg. After Schumacher retired he let Nico pull out a lead whilst
holding up Hamilton, Raikkonen et al behind him as he wouldn’t risk his tyres
by trying to do anything preferring to just sit back and wait for everything to
fall into his lap.
It wasn’t a great race overall. I don’t
think the track really encourages it. However lap 48 was superb. Raikkonen
dropped from 2nd to 14th and Vettel, Webber, Button,
Hamilton, the Williams drivers and the Sauber duo all involved in passing,
re-passing and general overtaking excitement.
My driver of the season so far has to be
Pirez. His ability to save his tyres, and still keep good speed in the car is
hugely impressive. However he made a ridiculous defensive move on his team mate
down one of the straights where he nearly ran Kobayashi off the track. I’ve
also noted he seems to lock up his tyres quit a lot. Although this doesn’t seem
to affect his tyres or pace. A lot like Hamilton did in his first season. Sadly
Lewis now seems to be becoming more pragmatic and less entertaining.
In regard to tyres Raikkonen should surely
have been pitted by his team. Losing 12 places in one lap is ridiculous.
Another piece of odd/amateurish driving
from Grojean as he tried to hold off Maldonado. He defended well but then
continued to defend even though Maldonado was no longer behind him as he
himself was fending off an attack from Pirez. Grojean seems a decent speedster
but I’m not sure he’ll cut it as a top F1 driver.
I was wondering if new main commentator Ben
Edwards is from Yorkshire? I only ask because he drops ‘the’ from ‘the pit
lane’ so we get ‘Button enters pit lane’ and read or said with a Yorkshire
accent this becomes quit amusing.
Watching the Raikkonen pit stop release
when he proceeded to drive down the pit lane alongside Hamilton not only made me
wonder how that wasn’t considered an unsafe release but if it is a safe release
why did Mclaren ruin Lewis’ race in Malaysia by holding him back for multiple
seconds to allow Massa to pass by. According to Irvine Raikkonen’s wasn’t an
unsafe release as there was no one in the pit lane. Something that I can’t
imagine Renault was really aware of or considered before releasing Raikkonen
into Hamilton’s path.
Coulthard Words of Wisdom – He
continues to point out the painfully obvious as if offering great insight (I
have a feelong this will become a regular feature)
Coulthard states he can’t recall Vettel
winning in a fashion as dominant as Rosberg at the weekend. Odd he must have
spent the last two years with his eyes closed. Vettel regularly shot off from the
pole position to drive machine like to a win without giving any other driver a
sniff of victory. If Sebastian didn’t win by 20 seconds then it was because he
had such a margin of safety he would turn the engine down and roll across the
line without stressing out the car or himself.
Apparently Mclaren would prefer to have a
slow pit stop than send out their car with a wheel nut not securing the wheel
to the car. Another example of startling insight from the mind of David
Coulthard. Without him where would we be? Watching SKY I guess.
Coulthard also feels the pole position grid
slot is on the wrong side of the track as it ‘always’ favors the 2nd
placed driver apparently on the fastest side of the track. This statement was
of course disproved by the start of the race and Rosberg racing away form the
field to maintain his pole lead. More bafflingly his point was even disproved
by his own clips. The BBC played two clips to back up Coulthard’s argument but
in both cases we saw a Red Bull on pole which was angled across the track to
block the 2nd place driver, Thus as the 2nd place guy
accelerates forwards the pole sitter gives up his own lead by focusing on
defense rather than attack. The argument was completely shot down by the fact
that in both clips the 3rd placed driver accelerated out and around
the pole sitter from the same side of the grid.
According to David F1 drivers “get”
overstear. Implying as usual that F1 drivers are guilty of nothing as they are
the poor unwitting victims of overstear, understear, locking brakes etc. Poor
babies are never to blame for anything are they?
Brundles’ departure seems to have let
Coulthard loose and he now passes judgment in a rather snotty manner on all
team radio broadcasts that feature an engineer giving the driver some advice.
Coulthard highlight of the race – “Clearly
the Red Bull is a faster car” as the Red Bull was trying and failing to catch
the Force India. Clearly how? If one car is out pacing another, is faster in a
straight line, and the speed traps support this, how is the Red Bull a faster
car? If he had said ‘better’ than that would have been a subjective point and
not one to argue but “faster”? Coulthard was left looking more foolish by his
statement immediately being followed by Vettel coming onto his radio and saying
“I’m nowhere on the straights!” What are you on about Coulthard?
Gary the pit man and Coulthard repeatedly
say “obviously”. Is what they’re saying obvious? If it is why are they
bothering to say it? Their job is to offer clever, witty, entertaining insight.
Coulthard is obsessed with talking tyres.
Is there any need for the races or even the cars? Would David in fact be more
happy with a tyre test? A wheel mounted on a frame spinning on tarmac for as
long as the tyre takes to wear out? Exciting? Well for David and a few others
on the BBC team hugely so!
|
Week 3
|
|
|
Predictor
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Becx
|
70
|
|
2
|
Alan D
|
69
|
|
3
|
Jack
|
61
|
|
4
|
Alan WA
|
58
|
|
5
|
Alex
|
57
|
|
=
|
Simon
|
57
|
|
=
|
James
|
57
|
|
8
|
George
|
50
|
|
9
|
Martin
|
29
|
So Becx is top of the league after 3 races.
Becx was also joint top scorer this weekend with Simon and James due to the
Button 2nd place and 5th place in qualifying.
There was mention of clarification of the
rules regarding a driver getting a grid penalty. Although other prediction
leagues may award points based on where the driver qualifies rather than where
the driver lines up on race day after penalties, we here at Fantasy F1
Prediction League want our competitors to experience all the real highs and
lows of being the driver so if you predict a driver that qualifies 5th
but due to a penalties lines up 10th on the grid on race day then
you receive the points for qualifying 10th. This may seem harsh but
I think brings a sense of the joy and or disappointment a diver will feel after
penalties have shaken the grid a little. For example this rule on this occasion
punished AlanD who predicted Hamilton for pole so rather than the 9 points for
second that would have been received based on qualification position 2nd
instead 4 points are awarded for the 7th position that Hamilton
actually lined up after penalties. On the flip side I predicted Schumacher for
pole. He qualified 3rd giving me 8 points but after penalties I received
9 points. I will apply this rule all season as it has been applied in previous
seasons. This might take points from you or award you points you didn’t imagine
could be yours.
It could happen to you.
Bahrain 22/04/12 Good luck
