SofaF1

[I wrote this originally as a comment on Sidepodcast. This was in response to a number of people saying that it was already becoming boring that Brawn were winning all of the time. Here is a link to the context: http://www.sidepodcast.com/2009/05/26/daily-26th-may-2009/]

I like Jenson but I don’t think he’s as good a driver as some of the others on the field. However, some are saying that Jenson doesn’t deserve to win. It’s difficult for me to understand what “deserve” means when this season shows so strongly how important the car is to a driver.

It’s fair to say that Lewis beat / is beating Hekki pretty easily. And depending on your opinion he beat Alonso in his rookie season (if you don’t believe that bit then read the sentence as “he got very close to Alonso in his rookie season”). Jenson hasn’t really been able to dominate his team-mates. That has always worried me about him.

Jenson deserved a win (or several) to make up for all the years of terrible cars that he had. But then people started asking the uncomfortable question… Does he deserve to win the world championship. Like they did with Massa last year.

It’s the same question people have been asking about Brawn earlier. Do they deserve to win when they just arrived in the sport?

The answer to all of these questions is very simple for me. Formula 1 is not a driver sport, it’s a team sport. The team works together. The team are hugely influential on the drivers performance.

Jenson had faith in Ross Brawn. Brawn knew that if he built Jenson a good car he could win the championship. They, as a unit, have pulled off possibly the largest upset in F1 history. And people are asking if he or they deserve the championship?

Regardless of the jokes that people make, your granny could not drive an F1 car. It is hard to do. But a large part of the sport is working as a leader in your team. It’s what Schumacher did before and in many ways it’s what Jenson is doing over at Brawn. He is the lead driver at Brawn.

Lewis works for McLaren, the mechanics don’t seem to look up to him. Who do the mechanics look up to at Ferrari? Nobody. The mechanics are unled. They don’t want to do it for their driver. But I bet everyone in that Brawn team over the off season knows how much Jenson committed himself to that team. They know that he cut his salary to keep the team going. They were working for their driver.

That doesn’t make Jenson a faster driver, no. But it might well make him a better driver. And Brawn definitely deserve it.

As Bernie said when Ferrari won all those times, “it’s not Ferrari’s fault they are so fast, it’s everyone else’s fault that they are all too slow”.

But yes the racing isn’t very close, moment to moment, the racing isn’t as exciting as it could be. But what Brawn are doing as a whole really is very exciting. At least it is to me.

The almost unbelievable season for Brawn GP continues with another great 1-2 in the sunshine at Monaco, less overtaking this week on the tricky streets but still plenty of action as the drivers pushed the barriers to the limits. SofaF1 predicted race winners Vettel, Hamilton, Kovalainen and Nakajima all had their afternoons seriously compromised by the Armco as the Brawns relentlessly pounded round lap after lap to take the chequered flag, and with it half the championship for Button. It was a bit of a shame for Red Bull that their new double decker wasn’t quite as quick as expected, but hopefully it will put them on the pace at the faster circuits.

Ferrari have upped their game though and could well be in the mood for making up some ground over the next few weeks.

So here on the sofa, Igor scores another solid haul to extend his lead at the top of the table, while the midfield gets a bit crowded behind.

Round 6

Igor 10
Pete 8
GrifF1 7
Christine 6
Rod 6
PatW 6
Lou 6
Sean 6
Nick 5
Alex 5
Bearded Stew 5
Mr C 3
Fourstar 2
Piqued 2
Jeremy 2
Takuya 2
Aitch 2
RG 1
Jackie 1

Championship

Igor 41
Nick 35
Lou 31
Rod 28
Christine 27
Bearded Stew 25
Pete 23
Mr C 22
GrifF1 21
Alex 21
Jackie 20
PatW 19
Sean 17
Aitch 16
Jeremy 14
Fourstar 13
RG 11
Piqued 9
Takuya 8

A quick note to say that I will be on the Parade Lap morning radio show on sidepodcast.com this week. It’s on between 11.10 and 12.10 so it brings you right up to the BBC coverage.

It should be fun / I should embarrass myself like normal.

Here’s a direct link:

http://www.sidepodcast.com/2009/05/24/live-the-jewel-in-the-parade-lap-crown/

Sorry… Late… What we need… is who is on pole and the top eight finishers in the race…

Sorry for the slight delay in this summary, I have been a tad busy!

Well the F1 spectacle has now landed in Spain for the start of the European leg of the season. Many parts were expected for the cars to catch the Brawns, but would they work?

A flurry of new prediction devices swung into action here at SofaF1 but would they be any good? Jeremy’s certainly looked pretty impressive, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other teams tried to copy his infuser.

Ferrari seemed to take the biggest step forward with their car, but somehow got the strategy bit really wrong again, there must be a few testa rossas back in Maranello trying to explain way Massa had to give up a few good places because he was fuelled too light.

Great work from Webber who grimly held on to take a well deserved podium place, the move on Alonso was justifiably well talked about, but frustration for Vettel stuck behind Massa and his KERS. Red Bull need a bit of that KERS action soon I reckon, that would give their wings a boost, which they will need if they are going to be in the championship fight at the end.

Anyway, talking of championship fights, Igor this week snatches the championship lead with another solid points finish. Mention must be made of Alex too, who thought about it all too much and ended up scoring less than some people who hadn’t revised their predictions for about 4 races! Nice.

Round 5

Lou 13
Bearded Stew 12
Pete 10
Christine 9
Nick 8
Rod 8
Igor 8
PatW 8
Aitch 6
Fourstar 5
Jeremy 5
Sean 5
Mr C 4
GrifF1 4
RG 3
Jackie 3
Takuya 3
Alex 2
Piqued 0

Championship

Igor 31
Nick 30
Lou 25
Rod 22
Christine 21
Bearded Stew 20
Mr C 19
Jackie 19
Alex 16
Pete 15
GrifF1 14
Aitch 14
PatW 13
Jeremy 12
Sean 11
Fourstar 11
RG 10
Piqued 7
Takuya 6

Reset your prediction devices this may as well be a new start to the season. The number of new parts being brought to Spain for this race would probably be enough parts to run the three new F1 teams we’re supposed to be getting next year.

Some teams have been slowly but surely adding bits over the races (McLaren, Renault and Force India) others have been waiting for this race to spring their big updates (Ferrari, Brawn and BMW) and finally there are teams like Williams, Red Bull and Toyota who have been banking on their advantages to stem the need for new parts until Turkey.

The ones who have been adding bits as they go along will not be expecting big steps however McLaren’s slow but steady pace has been bringing them closer and closer to the front. They have a new double diffuser this weekend. This could well bring them up to the level of Toyota and Red Bull. What it means for their position versus Brawn is hard to say as we don’t know quite how many tricks they have up their sleeves.

Renault have also brought some new parts along and while they have likely moved forward they haven’t moved forward as fast as McLaren in previous weekends and you’d have to guess it will be the same again.

Ferrari and BMW are the big unknowns. In essence they have both brought B spec cars. So many changes have been made to both of them. However BMW haven’t quite finished their set of changes so there will be again no KERS for them and still no double diffuser. They think they have moved half a second a lap forward. The only problem is that so has everyone else which is why they were so far back in Bahrain.

Ferrari have it all done however. A super light car for Kimi. His car is 10kg lighter than Massa’s (the weight difference between Kimi and Massa). Presumably this makes the car less reliable or or more expensive or you have to wonder why they haven’t given it to Massa as well. They have the double diffuser and KERS. They are getting all of their presents at once.

The only question is how tricky this Ferrari will be to set up. In the old days it was the law that while it was tempting to bring bits and prices one at a time, the big teams held their nerve and brought several prices at once. It allowed them to be much more efficient in the way that they worked back at the factory. Small teams would do the bits as they could afford them. The big teams did big projects that took three or four races and then they delivered it.

But Renault and McLaren have bucked that trend this year. Perhaps it was a mistake from the less experienced Martin Whitmarsh, perhaps Flav had to be seen to be doing something by Renault? But since the banning of in season testing perhaps they have called it correctly? Ferrari have changed a lot of things at the same time and have no time to test them. At least McLaren and Renault added bit by bit allowing them to measure each of the changes.

The principal question is Ross Brawn’s sleeves. What has he got up them? At this stage a small 0.2 of a second a lap update might be enough to keep them ahead. But McLaren will be bringing new updates each race and Ferrari will gain more and more performance as they get to grips with all of the potential of their new car.

Finally this race will be the traditional benchmark for the season. Will the rule changes allow overtaking at Barcelona? Oh and it might rain on Sunday.

All of this is to say, your guess is as good as mine. Which is exactly what we’d like to prove.

Please, before qualifying starts, let us know who is on pole and who you think will be the top eight for the race.

Good luck!

A bit of a return to normality this week, with no extreme weather conditions, but still a bit of a shock Toyota front row to start the race. The pace faded though as we have so often seen with Button coming through to take his third win of the season, Vettel with a second keeps his points tally racking up, it will be interesting to see which of these teams has the edge when we get to Europe in a couple of weeks.

But what about here, well, some good predictions this week, not from me though I hasten to add!

Round 4

Igor 9
Lou 8
Nick 7
Alex 7
Jackie 6
Rod 6
Sean 6
Christine 5
PatW 5
Piqued 4
Mr T/C/S 4
Aitch 4
GrifF1 3
Fourstar 2
Pete 2
RG 1
Jeremy 1
Bearded Stew 1
Takuya 1

SofaF1 Championship

Igor 23
Nick 22
Jackie 16
Mr T/C/S 15
Alex 14
Rod 14
Christine 12
Lou 12
GrifF1 10
Bearded Stew 8
Aitch 8
Piqued 7
RG 7
Jeremy 7
Fourstar 6
Sean 6
Pete 5
PatW 5
Takuya 3

Will we ever get a standard race without rain? Well if you thought Bahrain was the answer then James Allen may have some disappointing news for you: “The weather forecast isn’t good for the weekend, sandstorms, like the ones which blighted the test here…could spoil (or stop) the show..”

I for one am hoping for something approaching normality. So for now all we’d like from you is your predictions.

Who will be on pole on Saturday? And who will be the points scorers on Sunday (the top eight). We need your answers by Qualifying tomorrow! Good luck!

The excitement continues into the third round.

Beautiful race for Red Bull, not just to take the pole but their maiden win and 1-2 to cap it all off. Great racing from Vettel and Webber as they fought with the Brawns through the rain. I bet they are all glad to be in Bahrain for a bit of warmer weather. Where were BMW though? Their progress seems a bit up in the air at the moment and Ferrari? What is going on? I bet Alonso is glad he didn’t sign up there this year.

Anyway a good round for most here at SofaF1 despite the rain.

Round 3

Rod 5
Igor 5
Christine 4
Nick 4
Jackie 4
Aitch 4
Lou 4
Fourstar 2
Piqued 2
Jeremy 2
Bearded Stew 2
Mr T/C/S 1
RG 1
Alex 1
GrifF1 1
Pete 1
Takuya 0
PatW 0

SofaF1 Championship

Nick 15
Igor 14
Mr T/C/S 11
Jackie 10
Rod 8
Christine 7
Alex 7
GrifF1 7
Bearded Stew 7
RG 6
Jeremy 6
Fourstar 4
Aitch 4
Lou 4
Piqued 3
Pete 3
Takuya 2
PatW 0