SofaF1

Since the delay in getting these results out has been far too long, I’ll keep it short.

So starting off at the new circuit in Valencia

Round 12

Stew: Hamilton 2, Kovalianen 2 and Vettel 1.
Alex: Hamilton 2, Kubica 2
Nick: Hamilton 1, Kovalainen 2, Rosberg 2
Fourstar: Massa 2 for Pole, Hamilton 1, Massa 1, Kubica 2, Rosberg 1
GrifF1: Hamilton 1, Kubica 1
Igor: Hamilton 1, Massa 1, Kovalainen 2

So… Round 12 Valencia

1 Fourstar 7
2 Bearded Stew 5
2 Nick 5
4 Alex 4
4 Igor 4
6 GrifF1 2

Then onto Spa……………

Round 13

Stew: Hamilton 1, Alonso 1, Kubica 2
Alex: Hamilton 1, Vettel 1, Glock 1
Nick: Hamilton 2 for Pole, Massa 4, Hamilton 1, Alonso 1, Vettel 1
Fourstar: Hamilton 2 for Pole, Massa 1, Alonso 1, Kubica 2
GrifF1: Massa 1, Hamilton 2, Kubica 1
Igor: Hamilton 2 for Pole, Massa 1, Kubica 1

Round 13 Spa

1 Nick 9
2 Fourstar 6
3 Bearded Stew 4
3 GrifF1 4
3 Igor 4
6 Alex 3

and down to Monza……..

Round 14

Stew: Kubica 2, Heidfeld 2, Webber 1
Alex: Heidfeld 1, Webber 2
Nick: Nil Point
Fourstar: Kubica 2, Heidfeld 2, Webber 2
GrifF1: Kubica 2, Heidfeld 2
Igor: Nil Point

Round 14 Monza

1 Fourstar 6
2 Bearded Stew 5
3 GrifF1 4
4 Alex 3
5 Nick 0
5 Igor 0

Wet races are great aren’t they?

Monza! Home of fast cars, a fast track and … er… fast cars going round a fast track.

And also possibly home of rain. Will this be the kind of rain that spices up the racing or will it be the kind of rain that drags the whole championship into controversy?

Monza is a place where McLaren often look like they are going to go well and then at the last minute Ferrari pull something out of the bag.

So who will be on Pole? Who will be in those points paying positions (and what order will they be in)? Lets have your answers…

People have been talking about the difference between Vettel and Bourdais. I have to say that I’ve been vastly more impressed by Vettel’s performance this year.

But several commentators have suggested that this is only because Vettel has more experience than Bourdais.

Is this really true? Vettel has been in more F1 races than Bourdais. 8 more. But Bourdais has actually been racing in professional single seaters for many more years.

How many champ car seasons is the equivalent of an F1 race?

Hamilton misses the chicane and passes Raikkonen. He slows down to let him back through, then overtakes him into the next corner. Due to his shortcut he didn’t have to slow down as much as Raikkonen, and therefore gained an unfair advantage. I wonder, though, what a fair advantage is? Aren’t all advantages unfair? Isn’t that the point of them? Anyway, as far as I can see there are no rules governing what happens after you’ve let a driver back through who you’d unfairly passed. It doesn’t say how long you have to wait before attempting to overtake them again. The team told Lewis to let Kimi past, and then would’ve told him ‘ok, now you can overtake him’. He relied on them for the information.

The stewards, however, must have taken all this information into account, and more information than is available to us. But there’s an extra point. Waiting to make a decision until after the race gives the stewards the advantage of being able to look at the big picture. What was it? Surely it was this: Hamilton was quicker in the wet and would’ve overtaken Kimi eventually, who anyway crashed within a lap. Should the stewards take this information into account, or focus (as they surely did) on the few seconds of the incident alone?

So as we thunder through the Ardennes Forest this weekend we will probably be be remembering that Kimi has won here for the last three races held (this is phrased weirdly simply because of that 1 year gap we had).

Spa is a great circuit. It’s so long that it can be raining at one end of the track and dry at the other. So far this weekend it’s been raining on and off and that looks like it might continue. Kimi, Webber and Fisi all have had offs already. There have been a few stalls too. At one point today Kubica had to get out and push his car!

So will Kimi keep his streak? Or will this off cost him too much time?

Perhaps you’d like to guess?

We’d really like to see who you think will be on Pole and also your top eight.

Kubica has recently said what a great job Massa is doing and how he thinks he should win the championship: Kubica tips Massa to win title this year. Of course, we don’t know how or when he said this, or what the interviewer did to get him to answer like that, but aren’t his comments a little suspicious? Could it be that he’s moving to Ferrari alongside Massa next year?

This is one of the photos from my trip to Silverstone Friday practice a few months ago. I keep forgetting to post them. As I think I’ve already said, Trulli crashed his Toyota right in front of us. They then lifted the car and put it on the grass only a few feet away, so I acted the F1 spy and took photos of his damaged rear suspension. That weekend Toyota were being sponsored by the new Batman film.

As you may know, Rules is London’s oldest surviving restaurant. Rules, however, are also crucial to the structure of Formula 1. Unlike many other sports, the rules are constantly changing, sometimes significantly (for example the recent engine modifications, or next year’s aero reductions). Rules define not only how the sport operates, but how the sport, i.e. the cars, look. I’m sure F1 blogs all over the internet have been debating whether Massa should have been punished for almost colliding with Sutil. In Sofaf1’s attempt to tackle less mainstream issues, we should try to stay clear of this, but before moving on to my main point I would just like to add one thing. There are people who argue: ‘It wasn’t Massa’s fault, he shouldn’t be punished’. But since when have the driver and his team been so easily separable? The reason F1 is so enjoyable (sometimes painfully so) is because one depends upon the other for their success.

I haven’t seen the F1 rule-book, but I’m sure it must be a lengthy tome. The question is, should we keep adding rules until we have every situation covered? A regular steward was introduced a few years ago in order to attempt to have some sort of consistency between races. This has only been marginally successful. In expensive restaurants, you can’t order à la carte, and have to choose from a set menu. Perhaps what F1 needs is a set of general principles that can apply to many circumstances? For example: ‘in whatever situation, a lapped car should always cede to a lapping one’, or ‘if two cars crash, it is always the car who was originally behind that is at fault’. These are just my suggestions, but could the method work? Should we dispense with à la carte rule-making and switch to a set menu?

How is it that McLaren and Ferrari are so closely matched in pace? We now realise that Hockenheim was the exception rather than the norm. McLaren and Hamilton are not going to run away with the title. That dominance must have been particular to the track and the conditions on the day. The two teams are neck and neck. This weekend, all that separated Massa and Hamilton (besides Lewis’ illness) was a couple of tenths a lap – and this can probably be accounted for by the extra fuel he carried. Hence Ron Dennis saying ‘we lost the race in qualifying’.

But remember last year McLaren were told to remove any elements on their car that may have been copied from or influenced by last year’s Ferrari design? How well was this process monitored? Despite such apparent initial divergence, the cars are extremely close on pace again. In certain conditions, or on certain tracks, one of the other will have the advantage. The difference that there is, then, which will decide the championship, and which surely we should be celebrating, is made by the driver alone. Surprisingly it is Massa, not Raikkonen, achieving this at Ferrari so far.

The excellent Formula 1 podcast Sidepodcast very kindly had me on to talk about the European Grand prix this weekend. I was able to talk about the controversial penalty for Massa, the traffic light system for Ferrari and whether Valencia really did live up to the hype or not.

One listener commented*:

Your guest on the phone, Alex, really seems to know his stuff… this is much better than hearing what Mark Blundel fort on the ITV program, lol

So there you have it! A future in broadcasting becons. I shall quit my job and go and travel the world talking about Formula 1 on podcasts. Or perhaps not.

Episode 74 – You’re Not Supposed to be Here, I Haven’t Changed Alonso

*The recording of the show was broadcast live on the internet here: You Know We’re Going to Talk About It. This is how I was able to read the comments that people were making live. The second video is the unedited on that I’m in.