#HitTheBeeps

'Down to the wire.' Four simple words, but enough to send a burst of adrenaline down the spines of motor racing fans.

I first heard that phrase uttered from the voice of Formula One, Murray Walker, as a bleary-eyed 6 year old, waking up in a part of the morning you didn't realise existed, to watch the 1996 Championship showdown in Suzuka between Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Damon Hill celebrating his 1996 World Championship after the Japanese Grand Prix

 The Canadian, who was on Pole, needed to win the race and Damon not to score any points for him to win the title.
To his dismay however (but to me and my mother's jubilation), it was he who retired and Damon Hill won the race and the Championship in a thrilling and emotional finale.

Those are the moments we remember and become forever etched into the history of the sport; unscripted, yet elegantly orchestrated to deliver drama audiences are gripped by.

And it is this that Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone wants to synthetically recreate with the introduction of the new double points system for the last grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi by allowing the fight for the Championship to be contested for as long as possible and keep spectators, and audience figures, captivated.

Although all the teams agreed to its implementation for the 2014 season (with Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemalo agreeing to it as long as it was only on a trail basis), many high profile figures, including Bernie Ecclestone himself, have raised concerns and anxieties over how it will impact the events to come and whether in fact, it may have the opposite effect and leave audiences perplexed by a skewed system that could turn 'down to the wire' sour.

Ecclestone, who in January wanted to increase the number of double points races from 1 to 3 (which would have included the USA and Brazil GP), admitted in April, ''(It is) probably not fair that somebodies done all that work early on and get so many points and somebody could just pop in and do a couple of races.''

As it stands now, the ones the double points system may haunt (and in actual fact be their biggest rival), is Mercedes whose drivers stand first and second, with Nico Rosberg currently 84 points ahead of 3rd place Daniel Ricciardo.

In previous years, we could be confident in predicting that the Number 6 or Number 44 silver arrow would be crowned World Champion, but, even though the likelihood of it happening is slim, it isn't out of the question that if Ricciardo, Alonso or even Bottas bridge the gap to the Mercedes by November and if they have the racing gods on their side, then with 50 points on offer for the winner in Abu Dhabi, the Championship is still open.

Executive Director of Mercedes AMG Petronas, Toto Wolff, who on Tuesday of this week sustained a fractured shoulder, collar bone, elbow and wrist in a cycling crash along the Danube River, stated it was a mistake by Formula One to award double points for the finale.

Toto Wolff

  ''I don't think it is fair and I don't think we should have done it.''

''But the commercial rights holders, who takes the sponsorship and cares about the TV audiences, said we need to keep the excitement until the last race, and it looks like he was right.''

It would be unimaginable for a driver to be denied the Championship because of the double points system; a cruel hand of fate robbing the title that all but had his named carved into it, being handed to another who clinched it in the dying embers of the season. Wolff pointed out that scenario would devastate the psyche and mind frame of the individual,

''I think the driver who loses the title because of double points will need some psychological treatment, but we are not there yet.''

How would double points in the past rewritten F1 history?

'If only...' Felipe Massa on the podium at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix

 In 2003, Kimi Raikkonen would have won his first World Championship beating the legendary Michael Schumacher by 5 points.
Felipe Massa was celebrating in Brazil as he thought he was the new 2008 Champion, only for Hamilton to cross the line in 5th and beat him by a single point. If double points would have been available, Massa would have been crowned champion.
And finally the image of Fernando Alonso standing statuesque and empty as he watched Sebastian Vettel bask in the celebrations of winning the 2012 World Championship would have been reversed as the Spaniard would have earnt his 3rd World Title with his 36 points for 2nd place and Vettel only finishing 6th, enough to win the Championship by 7 points.

Crowds love an underdog story; a tale of one rising from adversity and winning against all odds. But when that comes at a cost- not only for the drivers, but to fans and audiences across the world who invest their time following the sport religiously seeing events unfold only for the ending to be that of a champion unveiled who may not be, in essence, truly deserving of it, may leave a bitter taste in the mouths in those who believe the likes of Rosberg and Hamilton have already done enough to be deserving of called champion.

Would it be a bad thing to see Daniel Ricciardo or Valterri Bottas take advantage of the double points system? Of course not; the desired effect would have been attained- audiences glued to their seats and talk of what had taken place in a wider spectrum for many weeks to come, keeping the interest in F1 burning bright.
Beneficially, it would not just count commercially but prove the talents of this golden age of new up-and-coming drivers like Ricciardo, Bottas and Magnussen who rightfully sit equal alongside the current masters of the sport like Alonso, Vettel and Button.

That is the reason why we'll all be watching on Sunday 23rd November- there is still a long way to go in this Championship and in the back of our minds an inquisitive voice may sound over the V6 engines and red lights and say, ''...What if...?'' 

'Die Perfekte Woche'

The Perfect Week

In a week which Nico Rosberg will surely never forget, he won the German Grand Prix in front of his home crowd, edging out his lead in the Driver's Championship by 14 points to team mate Lewis Hamilton who fought his way from the back of the grid to take a podium finish.

Wet weather hung over Hockenheim prior to the race, and thanks to the cloud coverage it brought down the track temperature, that all the teams had to battle with throughout the weekend, which would help reduce tyre wear for the 67 laps to come.

The only drivers not to start on the super-soft tyre would be Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton starting in 20th place- but as he did not take part in Q2 or Q3 because of the crash at Sachs Curve due to brake failure, he would have 4 new sets of the option tyre at his disposal.
Caterhams Marcus Ericsson started from the pit lane after not setting a time in Qualifying and therefore not reaching the 107% cutoff rule.

Frightening moment as Massa flips onto the roll hoop of his Williams

 As the lights went out it was a good start by both Rosberg and Bottas on the front row of the grid. Watching as the cars made it down into the first corner, and everyones hearts were in their mouths as Felipe Massa's Williams was shunted from behind by Kevin Magnussen which caused the car to flip over and come to a rest back on all four wheels. Thankfully, Felipe was uninjured and is testimony once more to the stellar standards in driver safety in Formula One.
Massa's luck continues to desert him as once again he is taken out of a race where he was on target for a podium.
This accident brought the safety car out for 3 laps before normal race conditions continued. Lewis Hamilton was already making ground on the field wereas Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo suffered due to Massa's accident, finding himself down in 14th place.

Daniil Kvyat and Sergio Perez made contact on lap 9, taking the Russian off but Kvyat was able to rejoin.
A great battle then ensued for 6th place between Perez, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Hamilton that led to Lewis braking late and clipping Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari; taking off a part of the Scuderia's front wing. More of the Finn's front wing would again be taken off as he found himself sandwiched between 4-time World Champion Vettel and 2-time World Champion Alonso going into the hairpin.

The action didn't cease as more bodywork would fly as old team mates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button collided. The Mercedes, expecting a straightforward pass down the inside, made contact with the sidepod of Jenson's Mclaren, removing components of Hamilton's front wing. Although the damage was slightly affecting the aerodynamics of the car around his front left tyre, it was decided on changing the balance of the car rather than lose time replacing the nose.

On lap 46, the rear of Kvyat's Toro Rosso caught ablaze ending his race, but thankfully he was able to jump out of the car safely.
Disappointingly for Adrian Sutil in front of his home crowd, he retired from the race after a spin on the pit straight.
In the remaining laps, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso showed their class with wheel to wheel racing lap after lap in the battle for 5th place which would eventually be won by Alonso.

Das Beste: Rosberg celebrating after his win.

Rosberg crossed the line 20.7 seconds ahead of 2nd place Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton finishing in a crucial 3rd position to keep the gap between him and his team mate as little as possible as they prepare for the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. 

Race Results

 

Rosberg Takes Pole.

Nico Rosberg beat the Williams of Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa to claim Pole Position at his home Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton spun off into the barricade in Q1.

With the track temperature at just below 60 degrees, tyre degradation was a real concern for the teams, in contention with dealing with the decision by the FIA to ban the FRIC (Front and Rear Inter-Connected) System on the grounds of breaching technical regulations by positively influencing the aerodynamics of the car. Outlawing the system was thought to possibly damage Mercedes the most whose FRIC system was the most efficient on the grid, but there was no signs of this damaging the Mercedes performance in Hockenheim.

Q1 began with Marussia's Jules Bianchi taking to the 2.8 mile, 17 turn circuit as all 22 drivers looked to advance to the next session.
As the times kept falling, Kevin Magnussen, Lewis Hamilton and then Valterri Bottas, with a time of 1:18.213, all topped the timesheet. Then, with over 7 minutes remaining, the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton veered off the track, spinning through the gravel and into the wall which brought out the red flags to temporarily end proceedings.
From his team radio, Lewis was obviously shaken up by the impact, and was taken to the medical centre to check his knees. But the Brit was luckily uninjured.
The cause of the incident at the Sachs Curve was the right front brake disc failing which caused the front of the car to snap left and spin. Those brakes which failed were replaced that morning with ones from a different make- Brembo.

Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes after the impact at Sachs Curve

Once the action got back underway and the remaining time for Q1 end, it saw the cars of Adrian Sutil, Jules Bianchi, Pastor Maldonado, Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson who didn't set a time due to a hydralic leak from the throttle.

Hamilton would start in 16th place for the race as his time was enough to put him through to Q2 in the previous session. There was a dramatic end to the 15 minute session were Sergio Perez had just one lap to get his Force India into the final shootout and was able to knock Jenson Button down into 11th, knocking him outside of the top 10. Joining Jenson were Kimi Raikkonen who's still showing signs of finding the Ferrari's brakes difficult to master, as well as Jean-Eric Vergne, Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean.

The top 3 drivers for the German Grand Prix

 Going into Q3 and there were no scares for Nico Rosberg, not with team mate Lewis Hamilton unable to contend Pole Position. The Williams of Bottas and Massa were 0.2 and 0.5 of a second off of Rosberg's Pole time of 1:16.540.
Kevin Magnussen recaptured the form he showed at the start of the 2014 calendar with a solid 4th place in front of the Red Bull's of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull were promised 3% more power from the Renault engine for this Grand Prix, but four-time World Champion Vettel admitted that wasn't the case and the RB10 is still suffering with a lack of speed.

Rosberg, with his first Pole Position at the German Grand Prix, gave himself the best possible opportunity to edge his lead out in the Driver's Championship even more to capitalise on Lewis' misfortunes.

Qualifying Results 

* Esteban Gutierrez will start in 17th due to a 3 place grid penalty occurred at the British Grand Prix
**Lewis Hamilton had to change the gear box so he drops 5 places to 20th
***Marcus Ericsson failed to set a time and therefore will start in the pitlane.

Hat-Trick As Rosberg Ends FP3 Fastest

Nico Rosberg ended Free Practice 3 with a hat-trick for Mercedes as the Silver Arrows again topped the timesheets prior to Qualifying for the German Grand Prix.
Hamilton was 2nd- half a second down on his team mate and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was only fractions behind in 3rd.
The Williams duo of Massa and Bottas performed strongly, lapping times which saw them in P4 and P5.

Nico Rosberg awash in red, black and gold for his home Grand Prix.

Below is the full timesheet for Free Practice 3

Free Practice 3

 

Mercedes Continue German Celebrations

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets at Hockenheim today in Free Practice 1 and 2 for the German Grand Prix.
Rosberg, who this week got married, saw his national side lift the World Cup and signed a new contract with Mercedes looks to add winning his home Grand Prix to that list to round off an incredible 7 days.
Williams Development Driver, Susie Wolff, ran in FP1 and finished an impressive 15th- just 0.227 seconds slower than her team mate Felipe Massa.
Kimi Raikkonen returned to the track after a horrendous crash at Silvestone 2 weeks ago where he sustained bruising to his leg and knee. The Finn was fourth fastest in FP1, beating Alonso by half a second.

Below are the full standings of FP1 and FP2.

Free Practice 1

 

Free Practice 2

#HitTheBeeps

30 years ago, on the 3rd June 1984, a 24 year-old grabbed the attention of the world after sensationally taking a lowly Toleman to narrowly miss out on victory, from the closest of margins, away from Mclaren's Alain Prost around the rain-soaked streets of Monaco.

That, of course, was to be the prologue of a man destined to forever be immortalised as a Formula One legend. Ayrton Senna.

Now, 30 years later, on the 25th May 2014, a 24 year-old grabbed the attention of the world in Monaco...

It was not to be in quite the same scintillating fashion as Senna's charge through the grid in wet conditions, but Jules Bianchi's drive in Monte Carlo- the highlight of which being his aggressive, yet fair, overtake at Rascasse on Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi, is no less extraordinary; especially considering the Frenchman's 9th place would not only earn him his first two Formula One World Championship points, but also his team, Marussia, who had gone 83 Grand Prix's waiting to be the first new Formula One teams of 2010 (HRT, Lotus- now Caterham and Virgin Racing which is now Marussia), to see points against their name.

Bianchi in his Championship winning year in Formula 3 (2009)

Jules started his racing career in 2007 when he won the French Formula Renault 2.0 Championship, winning 5 races and achieving 5 Pole Positions. Over the coming years, more race wins and Championships in Formula 3 and GP2 helped him be the first signing of the Ferrari Driver Academy programme in 2009.
In 2011, he would become a test driver for Scuderia Ferrari before joining Force India as their reserve driver the following year.

Following Kimi Raikkonen's horrific crash at the British Grand Prix at the start of this month where he was fortunate to walk away with only heavy bruising to his leg and ankle, this meant he was unable to take part in the In-Season testing at Silvestone the following week. This allowed Jules Bianchi to fill in for the Finn. On the final day of testing, Bianchi was fastest of all with a time of 1:35.262, further signalling the potential this young man from Nice has and what he is capable of achieving behind the wheel of a car that can compete at the front end of the grid, unlike the Marussia which has masked the speed he naturally possesses.

Staring at a permanent seat in Ferrari?

Arguably, Bianchi's spike in performance could not have come at a greater time; as Ferrari look to drastically restructure the team and try and bring back the glory years the faithful Tifosi are accustomed too; with Marco Mattiacci taking over from Stefano Domenicali as Team Principle. There is speculation too of a quiet frustration building within Fernando Alonso who so desperately yearns for a third World Championship. Take into account as well the fact Kimi Raikkonen is highly likely to retire from Formula One after his contract ends in 2015, which presents the possibility of two empty Ferrari seats if Alonso does decide to leave for Red Bull or Mercedes.

If Jules continues to impress and maintain this form, he would have to be at the top of Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo's wishlist of drivers and in doing so would vindicate the youth programme of Ferrari that, as Red Bull have proven with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, is vital for producing the stars of tomorrow- motioning the start of a truly new era of Ferrari with one of the brightest new talents of this golden generation.

Will Bianchi follow in the footsteps of Jean Alesi, the popular Frenchman? Time will tell. But if Jules is given the opportunity to drive for the infamous prancing horse, we will look back on those two Championship Points of the 2014 season in Monaco that may prove to be the prelude to a future legend of the sport in the making.
 

#HitTheBeeps

The history of Sauber may not be as infamous as some of the more illustrious names in Formula One like Ferrari and Mclaren, but for 20 years they have been an integral part of the sports DNA.
And it's saddening to see a race winning team who, under BMW Sauber (Robert Kubica at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2008), and last year finishing 7th in the Constructors Championship, sat anchored with Caterham at the bottom of the table with no points so far this season.
Even more bitter is Marussia, one of the new teams of F1, overtaking them in the standings after Jules Bianchi's 9th place at Monaco.

Suffering on all fronts; be it reduced finances, a lack of resources and issues surrounding the C33 car itself; most noticeably down to the cars excess weight.
Having reduced 10 kilos off of the Barcelona spec car back in May, driver Adrian Sutil called for the need to lose a further 10 kilos for the car to be competitive.

Unsettling times ahead for Esteban Gutierrez?

 

What hasn't helped either is the poor performances of Mexican Esteban Gutierrez, whose highest 12th place finish was at the opening race of the season in Australia, and so far has had 4 DNF's.
This abysmal form was highlighted yesterday in the British Grand Prix when he caused a incident down the inside at Vale corner with Lotus' Pastor Maldonado, launching him into the air and awarding himself a 3 place grid penalty for the German Grand Prix in 2 weeks times.

At moments like these, 'rookie' mistakes only exacerbate matters more for Team Principle Monisha Kaltenborn, and as we reach the half way point of the season, it would be no surprise if a change in driver line up was instigated to rejuvenate the team and try something new to score those all important points which are worth millions of dollars.

Many would see Dutch reserve driver Giedo Van Der Garde as the obvious replacement for Gutierrez, who, after driving for Caterham last season, has been a part of 4 Friday Practice sessions including one back in April where he was over 2 seconds faster than Esteban Gutierrez at the Shanghai International Circuit for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Van Der Garde is also set to be a part of Wednesdays test session at Silvestone.

The 29 year-old's experience, going back to 1998 when he was crowned Dutch karting champion and then winning the Formula Super A World Championship in 2002, could be the catalyst that Sauber need to ride this storm and turn things around for the Swiss team.