Archive for category: The Point by Gian Carlo Minardi

The spectacular nature of this Grand Prix has surprised us. In a way this Russian week-end has been one of the best of the entire season thanks to all the vicissitudes that have occurred, starting from the fuel on track during free practice and bad weather till the extraordinary crash of Sainz during FP3 (luckily without consequences). The race itself has been rich in overtakings, coup de théatre till the last lap with the contact between Raikkonen and Bottas who were fighting for the third place along with Perez.

Dismissed from hospital, Carlos Sainz Jr, has came back in the cockpit of his Toro Rosso in time for the race becoming the protagonist of an unbelievable race as long as his car has worked. Unfortunately the brake system has failed. What a pity Max Verstappen’s race that has been affected by a collision (inculpable) during the first lap that has forced him to close the race outside zone points.

It has been a very unlucky day for Nico Rosberg who could have kept open the final result of the World Championship. After his good pole position he has been forced to retire because of the breakdown of the accelerator pedal just few laps from the start.Once again, Hamilton has managed the race to his liking achieving a new victory, but he did not seem at his best as the better lap signed by Vettel (his 51^th lap) demonstrates.

Thanks to his second place, the German at Ferrari oversteps the other German at Mercedes in overall standings and opens a good challenge in view of the upcoming four events.Ferrari confirms itself as the second power of the World Championship, at ease with Soft and Supersoft tyres despite quite low temperatures. A good race also for Kimi Raikonnen, maker of numerous over-takings, also at the limit of rules.

What a pity the collision that has annihilated his compatriot at Williams delivering the third place directly to Sergio Perez. This accident has been under investigation. After having questioned both drivers, Commissioners have inflicted a penalization of 30” to the driver of Ferrari who has fallen in eighth.

Excellent performance for the Mexican driver and Force India with their risky strategy that consisted in a sole change of tyre at the 13^th lap. Perez has been great in managing his car despite tyre complications donating an important podium to his team after his team-mate Hulkenberg had been forced to leave the track due to a contact with Ericsson’s Sauber. The Swiss team, anyway, has gained some points thanks to the sixth place of Nasz who closed behind Kvyat and ahead of Maldonado, Raikonen and the couple of McLaren Button-Alosno who close the top ten and the point zone.

With the penalty to Kimi, Mercedes mathematically wins his scond Constructors’ World Championship. In fifteen days we’ll come back on track with the Us Gp.

We  moved from the podium at Monza to the pole position and victory in Singapore. Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari scored an almost perfect week-end, also spiced with Kimi Raikkonen’s third place. The German missed just the fastest lap of the race  signed by Daniel Ricciardo, in second place at the finish line.

Maker of a perfect lap in qualifying, Sebastian run its race to his liking pushing hard and managing the speed when it was necessary. Not even the (real and virtual) safety car ruined the “red party”.Vettel was great at every departures in keeping his ex team-mate behind. He responded to the Australian’s attacks placing a safety gap between his Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. In my opinion, Race Director’s choice about SC has been really unreasonable: he decided to keep the safety car on track for even 5 laps due to an invasion which lasted less than 30”.This kind of events can make you fail the victory. Therefore Ferrari has its third seasonal success. Earlier this year the goal was two “seals”. It was a week-end to forget for Mercedes and its two color-barer Hamilton and Rosberg. They has never been “at stake” and it is the first time in the last two years. Even in qualifying they had to settle in the third row. Now it is critical to understand why it happened because such an overturning is quite crazy. It could have been a complication due to the pressure of tires or to hot temperatures. After dominating far and wide, Hamilton was forced to retire because he was short on power with Nico in fourth at the finish line. Thanks to his team-mate’s zero points, Rosberg has decreased his gap in standing (41 points), but he will have to pay attention to Vettel ( just 8 points behind). Ferrari strengthened its second place in the Constructors’  standing, also thanks to Raikkonen’s third place, even if he was unremarkable and slower than his team-mate.

As I have predicted, Red Bull regenerated in this city circuit. It is very likely that Renault Power-Unit works well at low speed letting its light shine. Complications arise when you need the maximum power as it usually happens in tracks at low loan. An approval also goes to Toro Rosso which is again in points with both its drivers. Marx Vestappen has been excellent. After his mistake at the start he recovered till eighth making us enjoy amazing overtakings once again. On final he didn’t succeed in overtaking Perez. Sainz Jr. was good too, he finished in nineth, ahead of Nasr’s Sauber.

                                                                     

We watched a fascinating Belgian Gp in its 60th edition, 48 of which raced at Spa. At the same time we celebrated the 900th Ferrari’s Gp, a really important goal for the family from Maranello who has deeply contaminated the racing world and particularly F1’s world with its Dna.

After an amazing Qualifying, Hamilton gained the pole position and outstripped his mate-driver by 0”458 with a perfect lap. The Mercedes World Champion did not miss anything starting ahead and managing the race to his liking without being troubled by Rosberg who instead failed the start and was committed to regain the second place which has been occupied by an excellent Perez.
After a good start from the eight place, Vettel achieved a difficult third place thanks to a brave strategy based on just a pit-stop at the 15th lap. Unluckily this strategy has been frustrated by the bursting of the right rear tire that put him KO two laps from the end.
So an excellent Grosjean reached the third place of the podium with his Lotus making his box smile in a difficult W.E. distressed by the financial complications his Team is facing.

Surely Ferrari’s strategy has been a bit risky. I think, anyway, that Pirelli should better investigate what happened also as a result of a comparable problem spotted by Rosberg (however Pirelli underlines that Mercedes case was caused by debrises). Yet, in both events it happens to a tire not resting and surely the excellent Pirelli Technicians could tell us if it was about a technical construction problem or it was a problem of structure tiredness considering that in Vettel’s case any drop of performance ascribable to a tire compound wear wasn’t displayed. Indeed Ferrari Champion’s lap times has been stable till the moment of the burst.

Once again we have some problems at Williams’ with mistakes at the box that frustrated Bottas’s great performance in qualifying with the third time. We have to observe, anyway, that during the race both Bottas and Massa had a car which had erroneously stressed the tires. An optimistic note about this Gp comes from the two young Kvyat (4th) and Verstappen (8th) who juiced up the race with their grit and overtakings demonstrating in this way that bet on young sometimes is good.
There is not much to say about the unlucky Kimi in practice, capable for a 7th final place in spite of a start from the 15th place, but the ’55 seconds gap from the first and the lack of competitiviness of his car compared with Pérez and Massa who preceded him, didn’t permit the Finnish to celebrate in the best possible way the contract renewal for 2016.

As usual, the next fifteen days are going to be caracterized by a strong work in view of the next Gp at Monza, that is one of the historical F1’s showcase.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The Austrian Grand Prix ends quickly with the new Mercedes’ double. This time, Nico Rosberg win over his teammate that closes in second position, before Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel.

Nico Rosberg was perfect throughout the weekend, taking the lead of the race a few meters away from the start, leaving behind Lewis and the Ferrari driver, maintaining the first position until the end. As we expected, the two Mercedes were the focus of the whole race, with Vettel trying to keep up the pace, racing constantly with interesting chronometric results, just a few tenths behind Hamilton.

The pit stops of the top-four were opened by Nico Rosberg at the 34th lap, followed by Massa, Hamilton and Vettel, who stopped to switch to the yellow-Soft compound at the 37th lap. He slipped the change of the podium because of a problem with the right rear tyre, which is repeated for the second time this year, finishing behind the former Ferrari driver. It was not a perfect stop also for the World Champion, who touched the white line getting back on track. As on Saturday in Q3, Hamilton committed some imprecisions under pression, but they were just painless mistakes, because the 5” penalty guaranteed a second place, given the good lead over Williams. Thanks to the soft tires, Rosberg also signed the fastest lap in the race, with a 1.11.235.

Sebastian Vettel, with the only Ferrari remained in the race after Raikkonen and Alonso’s crash in the early stages, tried to go for broke to close at 6 dec from Massa, ahead of Bottas, Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Verstappen, Perez and Ricciardo.

We experienced a very exciting comeback with Sergio Perez that recovered till the ninth position. Hulkenberg’s sixth placement completed the great weekend of Force India. Toro Rosso gained again important points through Max Verstappen, the author of an amazing overtaking against Kvyat’s Red Bull, which closed the race in the eighth position, with Daniel Ricciardo who gave up also to Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus in the long straights of the Ring.

This will be a grand Prix to be remembered for the record of penalties (70 positions in total) given to the drivers of McLaren, Toro Rosso and Red Bull for Power Unit’s replacement. Some of them turned into drive-through and stop&go of 10 seconds. A record that could be beaten again and let us understand the problems of Honda and Renault, making race’s results difficult to read for all fans.

Also this year the Legends Parade took place, dedicated to the 80’s turbo cars. I experienced wonderful moments of my past, reviewing some cars that have colored the 80’s with the drivers who made history, such as Lauda, Piquet, Prost, Alesi, Patrese and our Pierluigi Martini, at the wheel of the Minardi M186. Together with them, there were also the actors of motorsport history as Brenda, the Secretary of Mr. Enzo Ferrari and the “father” of BMW engines, Paul Roche. Congratulations and thank to Red Bull for making the public relive these incredible emotions.

Gian Carlo Minardi

We have just experienced a Grand Prix that at the beginning of this year was almost unexpected, even if the forces involved are at the moment Mercedes-Ferrari-Williams with a German Power-Unit command, as shown by Vettel-Bottas battle. Sebastian proved, once again, to be among the fastest of the Circus in lap time under the wall of 1’33 in Qualifying only with Hamilton.

The first three rows of the grid reflected very well the current values on track. We are experiencing a Formula 1 where the slightest mistake is paid heavily. We saw this especially with Rosberg and Vettel. The match was played on strategies – excellent especially for Raikkonen –, on all mistakes that drivers could commit and on reliability. Mercedes in the last laps suffered of brake problems, as stated after the race by Nico himself. With one-two laps more, Kimi could attack Lewis. The Finn was extraordinary, managing masterfully both the Soft and Medium tyres. Vettel, instead, paid the two mistakes, passing from the 2nd to the 5th final placement.

Mercedes confirms itself on command, as proved by Hamilton’s third win (of four races) that takes full advantage of his potential. Behind him, however, we have Ferrari in recovery, which must continue to work trying to put pressure on the opponents. We saw some good battles, overtakings and the true potential of many cars, such as Lotus and Force India that despite the problems won important points. Engineers and technicians are making us see unthinkable things, overturning technical situations. Sportingly speaking, we feel again Red Bull missing; it had to face once again the problems of Renault. Ricciardo crossed the line with broken engine, risking to repeat what happened to Verstappen in China, who was forced to retirement just three laps from the end. It went worst for Toro Rosso, which saw its two drivers withdrawn for problems.

Besides Button’s bad impression, who was unable to start, because of problems since Friday, McLaren is making some progresses in every race. Positive race for Alonso, even if the road is still long. The work, however, begins to bear fruit.

Now we have three weeks of relaxing, waiting for the Spanish Grand Prix. As per tradition, the first European event coincides with the most important innovations, including tokens for the engines.

Gian Carlo Minardi