F1 - 2010 Season.

[88GreenVN]

The F1 season is well under way with heaps of chages.

Some have said the Melbourne race was boring. I think the racing has been well mixed up and all the teams have started working the with the new rules. It may take a while to sort the cars out - but I think the year in F1 will be the best in many many years.

Adding more cars to the grid has been a big winner and made the qualifing very tough to get through with a clear run. It really has mixed up the grid this year and proved that even the best in the business have missed the boat at times.

I give F1 a big vote of A1 goodness for the changes for this year.

And GO MARK WEBBER .

[Blown V6 Hatch]

I wonder how many people are jumping on the Webber bandwagon now? LOL

[dirt drifter]

i had to laugh after the monaco gp. on the ninemsn homepage there was an article about how since webber is having the best run of his career, and his contract with red bull expires at the end of the season, as does massa's ferrari contract. webber is now apparently somehow linked to ferrari for a possible seat in 2011?! we can only dream.

im sure im not alone in thinking that vettel needs to be bitchslapped, hard

[88GreenVN]

Mark Webber may get dumped for racing the golden boy or Red Bull.

The F1 Red Bull team blame MW for the crash on the weekend - he should have moved over they have said on the news report - but instead MW held his line. We shall see in the comming races if the Ferrari rumor has any cred....

[Pub247]

If he winsd the world championship this year he'll be going to ferrari no doubt about it. But now i dont think he's got a chance to wini dont think red bull will or have been willing to put 100% behind webber.

The only way i see it happening if he gets a big lead over vettel who crashes out a few more times. Then they'll back webberfor their own good and not mark webbers

[minux]

I am not a fan of webbers, but for Red Bull to be blaming Webber for the accident is a joke.

Vettel needs a good slapping. I now hope Vettel crashes out, Webber leaves to a diff team and red Bull goes backwards.

[88GreenVN]

A report on the issues at Red Bull - scabbed off the internet.....

It seems that Red Bull Racing have hung Mark Webber out to dry on the unfortunate, and probably unnecessary, incident between himself and teammate Sebastian Vettel in Turkey.

The crash cost RBR an almost certain one-two and left the team scrambling to get Webber to the line for third place. The incident occurred on lap 41 and appeared, at first glance, to be a simple racing incident caused by Vettel moving over to claim the racing line after completing a clean pass—almost.

Unfortunately, Vettel hadn’t quite completed the pass and moved across quite sharply on Webber, collecting the latter’s front wheel and wing with his rear wheel causing the young German to spin out and leaving him with little more to do than make silly hand gestures.

Commentary teams, experts, and journalists alike seemed to unanimously blame Vettel for moving across and hitting Webber’s car. Even Lewis Hamilton, who was directly behind the pair, laid the blame squarely with Vettel. The only exception was Eddie Jordan and there will be few surprised by the fact that Eddie took a contrarian stance.

But all was not as it seemed.

To everyone’s surprise, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have come out and dropped the blame at the feet of Webber. In doing so, they have left themselves open to some interesting questions about what’s going on behind the scenes at RBR.

In the world according to Horner and Marko, Vettel had no choice but to do what he did. They were apparently under the impression that people were blaming Vettel for trying to overtake. They would have us believe that Webber, who had led for two-thirds of the race, should just pull over and let him pass.

The reality is that Webber effectively did yield the position. He didn’t shut the door on Vettel, he simply held his line, forcing Vettel to try to complete the pass on the dirty side of the track. The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button did exactly the same thing a few laps later; neither yielded to the other, but nor did they collide. It can be done.

The two team bosses claim that if Vettel did not try the move, he would have been overtaken by Hamilton. Apparently, the fact that Hamilton was unable to complete the maneuver for the previous 40 laps didn’t mean much.

Nor did the fact that they still expected a one-two finish. In an interview for F1.com, Marko was adamant that RBR would still finish on top of the podium, claiming it was, “A sure-fire, one-two to be exact! It leaves you speechless.”

But, if Hamilton was fast enough to overtake Vettel, and Vettel was fast enough to overtake Webber, logic would tell us that Hamilton should have been able to pass Webber too.

This is a grade-school logic problem, but it seems that logic is apparently in short supply at RBR.

Even more intriguing is what brought about the pass. Marko initially claimed that Vettel had better tyres, which apparently gave him a massive straight-line speed advantage.

The reality is somewhat different.

It is slowly becoming evident that there is a hierarchy at RBR. It wasn’t noticeable before when Vettel was outgunning Webber in qualifying and on the track, but Webber has had the temerity to come to terms with the car and has started to dominate his young teammate.

Naturally, RBR cannot publicly declare team orders, but they had to somehow redress the inconvenient fact that Webber was doing well.

When asked if Webber had been told to let Vettel pass in an interview for F1.com, Marko replied, “That is not correct, because that would mean a team order. We informed Mark about the situation and it is for the driver to decide.”

Webber apparently decided that he was just going to keep racing, however, just before the pass, he was told to switch his engine into fuel-saving mode.

Suddenly, it’s pretty clear why Vettel had such a massive speed differential—he was still running on full power—it had nothing to do with tyres.

So now we know what’s going on. Vettel is the team’s No. 1 driver and Webber needs to learn his place. Perhaps there really is life in the rumor that Webber and Ferrari are looking to get into bed together.

After this, you could hardly blame him

[Full Spectrum]

Protecting the golden child. Blind freddy could see what vettel did, maybe he needs to watch the replay for the first time.

[88GreenVN]

Vettle figured if he could not win - nor should Mark.

[Jarrodscv6]

Vettel is like the collingwood of F1 for me now. Big long time Webber fan but I really just want to see Vettel get smashed by everyone now. It will bring me so much joy everytime Webber beats him now.

[88GreenVN]

A news report scabbed from the net on the Red Bull crash.

The high profile and dramatic collision between the Red Bull Racing drivers, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, not only cost them the Turkish GP but could potentially end up being the turning point of the 2010 season.

All Formula One championships have that one major turning point which many agree was the pivotal moment which swung the championship one way or the other.

If you look back to last season it was the British GP when the season completely changed. We saw an end to Brawn GP’s total dominance, and Red Bull began to make a fight for the championship, but ultimately lost in the end.

In 2008 many regard Nelson Piquet Jr’s deliberate crash in Singapore, which led to the events that cost Felipe Massa race victory, as the turning point. Massa would have been champion if he had won that race.

Then there was 2007 at Hungary when civil war broke out fully at McLaren when Fernando Alonso blocked Lewis Hamilton in the pits and Alonso supposedly blackmailed Ron Dennis over the spygate affair. McLaren never recovered from the repercussions of that weekend.

It lost them both championships to Ferrari. This is a feat which Red Bull has to avoid now. Although when there is a big disagreement within the team it’s so easy for things to spiral out of control as we saw in 2007.

If the Red Bulls hadn’t crashed into each other it’s likely that the positions at the front wouldn’t have changed. The McLarens had more straight line speed thanks to their superior Mercedes power and F-duct but couldn’t get close enough to comfortably overtake the Red Bulls.

If the positions on lap 39 at the front (the lap before you know what happened) had remained the same this is how the constructor’s championship would have looked:

Red Bull – 199
McLaren Mercedes – 156
Ferrari – 148

As you can see if Red Bull had held on to their one-two position they would have extended their lead in the constructor’s championship. Not only that, but their lead would be looking pretty handy too.

However, thanks to those few seconds of pure madness the complexion of the 2010 championship has completely changed:

McLaren/Mercedes – 172
Red Bull – 171
Ferrari – 146

Instead of Red Bull comfortably leading the championship by 43 points, they are now trailing McLaren by a single point. So that is effectively a 44 point swing in McLaren’s favour due to the Red Bulls going on a collision course. At the end of the season that 44 point swing could make all the difference as to which garage has an end of season party in Abu Dhabi.

Furthermore, Red Bull have now lost their momentum, which had been gathering alarming pace in Spain and Monaco. Instead, they have now gifted that momentum straight to the McLaren boys.

This result has now given McLaren a huge unexpected boast, which they will thrive on in the next two races in Canada and Valencia. McLaren have also taken confidence from the fact that Red Bull’s civil war could help them in the championship.

Jenson Button told British newspapers, “When you disagree with someone like that and have a coming together, you might take your eye off the ball a bit and you might think the most important person to beat is your teammate,”

Button added, “That could really hurt your performance. But they might be fine when they get to Canada. I hope not.”

McLaren will also be very pleased with their pace in the Turkish GP. If you exclude turn eight, where the Red Bulls were superior, McLaren had the faster car.

Canada and Valencia should suit McLaren even more with longer straights, and less fast corners where the Red Bulls can stretch their legs. This is why Red Bull really needed to win the Turkish GP, and why losing it in the way they did will be even more galling.

All of a sudden from what should have been a strong position, Red Bull could find themselves playing catch-up to McLaren. Had Red Bull sealed their one-two finish, it would have just been a case of defending their lead on their upcoming weaker tracks.

Now they are playing damage limitations to try and stop McLaren from extending their lead at the next two races. All of a sudden the philosophy has changed completely.

There is also the question of how the tension and damaged morale from Turkey will effect the team’s on-track performance. This is in complete contrast to the jubilant mood and high morale the team would have taken to Canada, had they won those 43 points on Sunday.

The incident could also prove a major turning point in the drivers’ championship. Imagine if Webber had left more room and Vettel had been able to make the move stick, and the Red Bulls had finished in that order.

The points positions between the Red Bull drivers would look like this:

1. Sebastien Vettel 103
2. Mark Webber 96

Instead the situation now looks like this:

1. Mark Webber 93
5. Sebastien Vettel 78

This results in a 22 points swing in the Aussie’s favour (albeit with the McLaren drivers closing on him). However, it’s not just the points and championship positions that matter but also the psychology involved.

Had Webber been softer in his defense and let Vettel through, the psychological advantage would have shifted to Sebastien. Vettel would have left Istanbul flying high and full of confidence heading to Montreal. The immense amount of pressure that was on Vettel’s young shoulders coming into the event would have now been lifted. Vettel would have been looking very good for the championship with more wins probably following.

Webber’s hard defense on Vettel may not have endeared him to the higher hierarchy of Red Bull, but in terms of his credentials of winning the championship, he’s just ticked one of the crucial boxes on the list.

If Webber had resisted and just let Vettel through he may as well have just said to Christian Horner, “Alright mate I will be Sebastien’s No. 2.” Instead he held his ground.

Webber’s previous team mate David Coulthard, was asked by McLaren and, allowed Mika Hakkinen to overtake him to win on two consecutive occasions. The first time was in Jerez 97. At that time Hakkinen had never won in Formula One.

The fact that Coulthard allowed Mika through to win allowed him to get the monkey off his back, and from that moment he stepped up to a completely new level. He went on to win the next two championships.

For DC this was very damaging for his career as this allowed Mika Hakkinen to assume the No. 1 status, which Coulthard was then never able to change back. Had Coulthard denied Hakkinen race victory David’s career could have turned out much differently.

Webber has now effectively told his team that he will never settle for being Vettel’s number two. He has now also increased the amount of pressure on his young team mate even further.

Vettel could well be very tentative next time he starts behind Webber on the grid, and knows the only way to win will be to have to pass him. He will be very wary of a repeat incident.

One wonders if this will make Vettel push harder in qualifying, making himself more likely to hit the wall in Montreal. It’s certainly a possibility.

Webber has now made himself very difficult for Vettel to beat, who now has a massive challenge on his hands to beat his teammate.

In conclusion Red Bull have been the class act when it comes to their car in 2010. On the other hand their self-destruct button is starting to show signs of heavy wear. However in Istanbul it may have just taken a whack too far.

[dirt drifter]

this just in.... i read the other day webber did sign with red bull again for another year

[88GreenVN]

Some more from the net:

Christian Horner has finally conceded that some members of Red Bull were out of line when he blamed Mark Webber for the team's Turkish GP shunt.

Webber and Vettel crashed into each other, earning widespread condemnation. But while most blamed Vettel for the shunt as he turned in on Webber, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko reckoned it was the Aussie who was at fault.

In the immediate aftermath of the grand prix, he ranted: "It was Vettel's line. It was Vettel's corner. Mr Mateschitz (Red Bull's owner) is not happy."

Looking backing, though, Horner believes it a bad move by the team to publicly put the blame on one driver.

"There were a few opinions that were voiced without all the facts available. Emotions are running high, one or two comments were made without all the facts to hand," the team boss told the BBC.

"In the cold light of day it was a racing accident, nothing more, nothing less. It was wrong to blame either driver.

"Both drivers are professionals, they're both grown-ups, they've both been in that position racing wheel to wheel, both with themselves and with competitors, and I'm sure it won't happen again.

"It's wrong for us as a team to apportion blame. They both got themselves into a situation which was arguably over the limit.

"The result was that both of them found themselves in a situation that they didn't want to be in, the result was contact and a loss of points for the team and a gift of points to our rivals."

And although there are some concerns that there could be retribution in coming races, Horner insists both men had "learnt from what happened at Istanbul - (that) if they find themselves in that situation again, they don't push themselves so hard."

He added that Red Bull will not be "instructing one driver or the other to concede or overtake. They will be racing each other; the most important thing is they respect they are driving for a team and I believe they do."

As for whether there will ever be a full apology from one of their drivers, Horner says that won't be coming as both Webber and Vettel believe they were in the right.

"I don't think either driver is going to stick their hand up and say 'yes, it was all down to me'. As Mark has said, both drivers will go to their graves with differences of opinions.

"We got the drivers together, sat down with Adrian [Newey, the chief technical officer], with Helmut and we had a very positive and constructive meeting.

"Mark is one of the hardest guys in grand prix racing, he's is a tough racer, a tough competitor.

"He's mentally very strong and he's in the form of his career at the moment and he won't give a quarter, and arguably the person you least want to be overtaken by is your team-mate.

"I think both drivers recognise from a team point of view that it was a disastrous outcome.

"They were sorry for the team, the body language between them was very relaxed because they are good team-mates, they work well together and they have raced each other successfully wheel to wheel on several occasions and an incident like this we won't allow to disrupt that relationship."

[88GreenVN]

The Canadian race was a ripper - with heaps of action - HEAPS. (not giving resault here yet as some may not have stayed up to watch it like I did)

Mr Schummaker disgrased him self tho with very poor driving.

[88GreenVN]

From F1 Internet news

by Craig Christopher Written on June 27, 2010

There is a cartoon that you may have seen that has a bird eating a frog. The frog, as you might expect, is not keen to be swallowed and has his little froggy hands wrapped tightly around the bird's throat. The caption reads “never, ever give up.”

Obviously, Lotus F1’s Heikki Kovalainen has this cartoon on his bedroom wall as a motivational poster, because his battle to keep Mark Webber at bay, like that of the frog, was the ultimate exercise in futility.

When Kovalainen found himself in the unlikely position of being ahead of Webber in the European Grand Prix at Valencia, he exercised his racing right to defend his position. This apparently came as something of a surprise to the Aussie.

Webber had a massive speed advantage over the hapless Lotus pilot and obviously had better brakes too as Kovalainen braked early and stayed to the inside to protect the corner. Webber had initially moved to the inside, but looked like he was trying to second-guess Kovalainen by going around the outside.

What followed will end up on highlight reels for years to come. Webber's car plowed into the back of the Lotus, became airborne and performed a graceful backflip before slamming down onto the roll bar, bouncing itself upright and sliding into the tyre barrier.

It was a one of those heart-stopping impacts but, in a tremendous testament to the quantum leaps in F1 safety design, Webber was able to walk away looking decidedly grumpy. Perhaps when the adrenaline has left his system, he’ll realize how lucky he was to walk away at all.

Of course, Mark Webber is no stranger to flying in a race car. His 1999 triple backflip in a Mercedes Le Mans car is the stuff of legend. That one had the added excitement of flying off into the trackside trees, but this one was still a very spectacular crash.

Naturally, this incident will generate a whole lot of excited chatter about whether the slower cars are good for the sport or not. In the wake of the Canadian Grand Prix, we had Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo attacking the slow teams for costing Fernando Alonso victory—that’s worth a whole other article—but the detractors will now have a whole new cornerstone for the argument.

There is no question that there is a gulf between the top teams and those at the back of the grid. There was a more than five-second gap between the fastest and slowest qualifiers at this race which, if Formula One terms, is an eternity.

Despite this, the gap would not be sufficient to exclude anyone under the 107% rule that will be returning to F1 in 2011.

That’s not to say that this incident can be ignored. When there is such a massive speed differential between cars, incidents are going to happen. Equally, however, it is the responsibility of the overtaking car to ensure that they get around the slower cars safely.

Was Kovalainen within his rights to defend his position—absolutely. Should he have done it, probably not. Certainly, Kovalainen couldn't have kept Webber at bay for the remaining 47 laps of the race. His team mate finished four laps down at the end of the race, the Lotus simply isn’t competitive.

Lotus Chief Technical Officer, Mike Gascoyne, defended his driver on Twitter from the pit wall, tenaciously arguing Kovalainen’s right not only to race Webber, but to defend his position. Some have cruelly pointed out that instead of Twittering, Gascoyne could perhaps better use his time on race day trying to make his cars go a bit faster.

They have a point, but it’s hard not to see this accident as being at least partially Webber’s fault. Dealing with backmarkers is like juggling chainsaws—when it goes wrong it can end very badly indeed. Setting aside the fact that the backmarkers are driving slower cars, they are also often the inexperienced drivers and are known for doing unpredictable things.

This was just another one of those incidents, more spectacular than most, but not really a surprise. Perhaps that's the really important lesson

[D3CID3R]

F1 2010 exclusive video - BBC Top Gear Australia
Video of the upcoming 2010 game

[88GreenVN]

Great race last night with lots of action. Hamilton hit Vettle's rear tyre and the race was almost over for him. Great fight back through the field without hitting anyone (how it's ment to be done) .

Three F1 wins for Mark W this year. Great stuff.

[minux]

88, i thought commentators said the touch couldnt have caused the puncture?

Regardless, this is getting petty. Mark Webber row rumbles on at Red Bull as Christian Horner denies favouritism claims - Telegraph

As much as I dislike Mark, I think he is the better driver, not only this, he is the senior member of the team. Vettel is just a fly in kid.

[88GreenVN]

If you look at the replay closely you will see bits fly off Hamiltons wing. This would have been the cause of the puncture for sure. Some commentators on the news reported that Mark ran Vettle off the road - what a laugh. Mark was first into the corner and Vettle stuffed his start and had to give way. Not in his nature I think as he bit the dust a little on turn 1. By this time the rear tyre was cut by lewie's front wing and he was all about saving the car from a big crash.

[88GreenVN]

Congrats to Mark Webber on wining his 4th race for the year - in his 150th F1 race.

[D3CID3R]

Bit of an eventful race wasn't it. Vettel stuffing up restate. Rosburg losing a wheel. Luizzi and cubic smash in pits. Shcumi nearly ramming off Rubens.

Overall a pretty good win for webber and a good lead in terms on times:-)

[88GreenVN]

Schuwie will get a kick up the bum for that move. Should have stayed retired I think.

[Lumps of cheese]

A good drive from webber. I lol'd at vettel's dummy spit at the drive thru, what a tick turd.

[88GreenVN]

A good drive from webber. I lol'd at vettel's dummy spit at the drive thru, what a tick turd.

We needed to clean up a little mess from all the laughter and jollies after he stuffed up. Vettle may still win the title as he is by far the fastest driver in the feild at the moment - but has a lot to learn about race craft.

On the other side Schuwie needs to go play with the go carts where he can show off is killing skills. What a turd way to drive.

[88GreenVN]

Schewie gets handed a 10 place grid penalty at the next GP for dangerous driving.

Sucks to be in a slow car. Hope he gives up soon!