Archive for category: F1

The Italian Grand Prix will be characterized by high temperatures, so the choice of the tire compounds will be crucial. Last year, the race slipped away with just a single pit stop, but the presence of SuperSoft tires could determine more stops, even if the circuit is little abrasive. It will depend greatly on the temperatures and on the pressures imposed by the constructor.

Hamilton and Vettel have opted for a single set of medium tires, whereas their respective teammates have been tighter with two sets each one, like Verstappen and Ricciardo. Seven tire compounds of SuperSoft (in Monza for the first time) for Ferrari and Mercedes.

If at Spa-Franchorchamps, they touched 350 km/h, I am curious to see what will happen in the speed temple. They will have to pay attention especially in view of 2017, with regulations that will bring to a greater aerodynamic weight and more high speeds.

Be careful about Mercedes. I am almost sure that they want to show all their superpower in the Italian field and at Ferrari home. So far, they “have played” with their rivals, but what happened in Belgium makes me feel little serene. Thanks to a regulation, ridiculous and more, they  have homologated three engine for Hamilton making him pay  just a single penalty (he started at the bottom of the formation, gathering more than 60  penalty places) on a track where overtakings are possible, ending the race in the third place (thanks also to the yellow-red flags).Stopwatch in hand, the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari is great, in spite of many different announcements. At the 40th lap, Hamilton signs the best time in the race, 1:51.583 with Vettel stopped at 1:52.728 (35th lap), at that moment they were both struggling for recovering. 1:52 for Rosberg who was leading without any pressure.

At Ferrari, they will have to pay attention to Renault engines, especially to the incredible aerodynamic and frame of Red Bull.

Be also careful to Force India that could do well again, after the fourth and fifth Belgian places.

We will have the first confirmation with Friday’s free practice. Have a pleasant Italian Grand Prix.
 
 
 
 

Nico Rosberg – 9 he managed the diatribe between Mercedes and Pirelli very well. At Mercedes, they have a powerfull advantage as it proves the comparison between their lap time with that of their principal competitors.  They have been good at managing the tires given that the choice for tire compound had been made more than 40 days before.

Lewis Hamilton – 8,5 for the race and his recover. It is during a race like this one that we can evaluate the value of a team and especially of a driver. He managed each opportunity he had with great coolness.

Fernando Alonso -8,5 what I said for Lewis it is also true for the Spaniard . Considering the current resources of his McLaren, he raced at a very interesting pace.

Daniel Ricciardo – 8 maker of a great race he brought Red Bull in the second place.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez – 7,5 they achieved an important  and unexpected result that worth the current fourth place in the  constructor’s world championship, ahead of Williams. I see them in a great shape for Monza.

Kimi Raikkonen – 6 beyond the standings, complaining is not useful, especially if you keep on minimizing the problems of your car.

Daniil Kvyat – 6 it was his least worst seasonal weekend. He has not entered the point zone, due especially to a technical issue. Toro Rosso, at this moment, is paying its choice for a 2015 engine.

Sebastian Vettel – 5 he has some responsabilities in the first bend, where he closed Raikkonen. His start was excellent but it was frustrated immediately by a mistake that a four times world champion should avoid.

Max Verstappen – 4 you cannot ruin what you have done the day before with an unprejudiced Garibaldi style race. He has the complaisance of commissioners because they tolerate him doing what others dream. In Maldonado, they would have already revoked his license. This kind of behavior will have to be an argument in the meetings with drivers and sports commissioners. His talent is indisputable but has to be controlled. In addition, I do not find fair to complain by radio that way because the risk is to affect commissioners’ decisions.

Due also to the fifth and sixth place achieved respectively by  Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in the German GP, in confirmation of the qualifying result, even the standings condemns Ferrari as the third power in the world championship, in favor of Red Bull.

Adrian Newey’s creature, in the first part of the season, was capable to recover the gap, becoming protagonist of an important growth, till the conquering the “scepter” as a second power.  “I would add it was possible thanks also the healthy rivalry between Ricciardo and Verstappen. The arrival of the Dutch driver in the team has awakened Daniel, bringing important points for the world championship”, Gian Carlo Minardi explains to www.minardi.it.

“Red Bull started the season with a gap by 30″ that decreased to 7” after only twelve events. A goal that the Ferrari Stable has failed so far. Examining the gaps during the race, in spite of some developements accomplished, the gap remains about 30 seconds from Mercedes, letting down the expectations they had at the start of the season. In spite of any set phrases, also Vettel’s patience is about to run out”.

In the days before the weekend in Hockenheim, it arrived the announcement ratifying the end of the cooperation between Maranello and James Allison and the arrival of Mattia Binotto. “He grew up in Ferari professionally speaking, in the wake of important technicians, skilled coordinators and organizers as Ross Brawn and Pino D’Agostino. He has to reorganize the sports management and bring the lacking serenity. I think that he has all the capacities to find out the right people within the company, to reverse the course. As a fan, I say to him a strong “break a leg”. Ending the season in third would be a heavy defeat, especially after the announcements early in the year”, the manager from Faenza concludes. “Ferrari has all (economic, technical, and human) resources to be back to the summit. They need an internal restyling.  Doing this job requires a Team Principal  present 14/15 hours per day, who encourages  the Technical director supporting him in his choices, protecting him, updating himself in real time about all the steps in the different departments”.

While the weekend was in full swing, and in Hockenheim was preparing to live the qualifying before the summer break, the Team Principals gathered around a table to try resolving the set of problems emerged during the Hungarian weekend.

They made different proposals to make a step back respect the current regulations. As it had happened early in season with the new qualifying format that was annulled very quickly in favor of the current one.

The F1 Strategy Group decided to liberalize communications between drivers and pit again, except for the warm-up lap. They want to avoid any assistance to the drivers at the starting phase, instead drivers and engineers will have the possibility to talk freely during the race. They had also found a balance, especially between Mercedes-Ferrari-Red Bull Team Principals, on the track-limit as it is difficult to evaluate if the crossing of the white line gives or not an advantage to the driver.

Charlie Whiting started an arm wrestling and put on the scale “the responsibility” and “the rules”. So, we have consulted Gian Carlo Minardi. “The proposals of the F1 Strategy Group have to be approved and have to officially modify the current regulations for becoming operative. Otherwise, it is difficult to apply them, and Whiting relied on this very point. So, as we can read so far, even in Hockenheim drivers will be penalized if they cross the white line”, the manager from Faenza explains. “”, Gian Carlo Minardi continues.

Starting from 2017, the starts with the safety-car will be modified. If the start, due to track arduous conditions, will be done under the safety car, at the return of the safety car, all the cars will have to align on the grid for a “traditional” start, as it happens at the end of the classic warm-up lap. “I am absolutely favorable. Watching the start of a grand prix behind the safety car is not the best of the show. In Great Britain, as instance, we had a security excess. We are always talking about Formula 1, the ultimate expression of motorsport, where there are the best drivers racing”.

In Germany, it start the new path of Ferrari after James Allison’s greetings and the welcome to Mario Binotto as a Technical Director. “I think that Binotto is an excellent choice for Ferrari. He lived the golden age of Maranello beside Ross Brawn, Jea Todt&C. He will contribute for the renewal of this stable”, Gian Carlo Minardi concludes.

The Hungaroring is more like a karting track than a real racetrack due to his numerous turns that put cars, drivers, and tires to a hard test.

Pirelli will take the Medium, Soft, and Supersoft tire compounds with different strategies at Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull regarding “the yellow” and “the red”.

In 2015, Sebastian Vettel won ahead both Red Bulls, also thanks to some technical problems that affected Hamilton’s and Rosberg’s Mercedes. This year, the scenario could be different because of a Red Bull in strong growth, as Max Verstappen stressed in Brisighella at the prize giving of the Bandini trophy.Ferrari is in a delicate moment with some diatribes, which will surely lead to important changes in the Sports Management in the upcoming weeks. The top brass in Maranello met Ross Brawn, but so far the smoke seems very “grey”. They need a strong personality that can return a certain reliability to the project. Even Sebastian Vettel begins to get agitated… I can already see a difficult 2017…

We are getting to the seasonal turning point. Now we go downhill toward the finish line and the points begin weighting twice. At Mercedes, they are starting again “from scratch” with two drivers divided by just a point. Ferrari will have to safeguard itself from a menacing Verstappen and from a Ricciardo looking for his redemption. The hot could be an ally for Maranello, but (so far) they forecast a variable weather.