F1 Insight
Formula 1 analysis and race pondering
596 posts
- Races
Qualifying in Bahrain
Well, it has happened for the first time - a driver from Poland has managed to secure prime spot on the grid for a GP (no obvious jokes about "pole" from me - I'm waiting until they have an Antarctica GP for that).…
- FIA
Max Plays for Time
To my amazement, everyone seems to be taking seriously Max's announcement of an Extraordinary General Meeting of the FIA. The moment I heard of this, I knew it was just a case of Max playing for time, hoping that the…
- Races
A Bahrain GP Ponder
With the public announcement of the manufacturers that the FIA must attend to the matter of its president immediately, the battle has begun. This one will be fierce and without quarter, you can bet on that. But there is…
- FIA
Max Writes a Letter
I was going to leave Max alone today but it has struck me as strange that no-one has yet examined Max's letter of "apology" to the FIA in any depth. The generally easy acceptance of so much of the letter demonstrates…
- FIA
A Song for Max
Today I was going to write an explanation of the necessity that Mosley resign his post as FIA president but, with even Bernie Ecclestone abandoning him with his latest statements, it seems that most people are getting…
- Politics
Max and Morality
It would be reasonable to think that, given the general distaste for Max Mosley amongst the fans, the allegations against him by the News of the World would have set the F1 world alight with joy at the possibility of…
- Drivers
The Language of F1
One of the things we take for granted when watching F1 is that all the drivers speak English. It is the language of F1 for historical reasons but it still surprises me that even new arrivals from feeder formulae have…
- The Future
Reversing the Mindset of F1
Patrick Head said recently that it might be an idea for F1 to adopt reverse grids, with the fastest qualifiers at the back and the slowest car on pole. Max Mosley is said to favor a system whereby the drivers swap cars…
- Teams
Sepang Thoughts - McLaren
Martin Whitmarsh has made some interesting statements regarding McLaren's performance in Malaysia - Pitpass has the whole interview . Significantly, much of what he says has to do with the relationship between Lewis…
- Teams
Sepang Thoughts - Ferrari
It seems there are only two matters to talk about when it comes to Ferrari's performance in Malaysia: the car's dominance over the opposition and Massa's mistake. The first was not entirely unexpected, considering the…
- Races
Sepang Thoughts - BMW Sauber
Somewhere, I think in a comment on this blog, I mentioned that we will know when BMW have swapped their expectations from Heidfeld to Kubica: they will put Nick on low fuel in qualifying instead of Robert, who will have…
- Regulations
The Real Problem with Qualifying
It is easy for F1 enthusiasts to criticize the FIA rulemakers from the virtual sidelines - we all do it at times. Creating rules for a sport as complex as F1 with its high tech, obscure opportunities for cheating and…
- Teams
Ferrari and the Old Men
I really do not understand Ferrari. Most of my predictions concerning the team over the past couple of years seem to be coming true - but I'm not kidding myself, I do not understand why the Italian team behaves in the…
- Drivers
Batman and Rubens
The Pink Peril has acceded to our many requests for more after her brilliant debut with the post Melbourne Memories . This time, she is speaking up for a driver who has had a pretty bad press of late, culminating in the…
- Teams
The Authorities of F1
In the comments to F1 Fanatic 's post, 2008 Malaysian GP preview: Lewis Hamilton vs Heikki Kovalainen , Wesley was kind enough to point out that I was correct about BMW being better than their winter testing times had…
- Politics
The Conundrum of American F1 Fans
Please, Mister, Can We Have Our Ball Back? Sidepodcast are running a F1 Fantasy League at the moment and, in a recent post , they published some statistics on the countries of origin of the entrants. From the very…
- Races
Melbourne Memories
Many of you will recognize the name Pink Peril, one of my regular and insightful commenters. It gives me great pleasure to post an account that she has sent me of her experiences at a "Behind the Scenes" tour before the…
- Drivers
Poor Piquet's Problems
As Andrew pointed out in the comments to F1 Fanatic 's race report , Melbourne 2008 was almost a re-run of the Canadian GP of 2007. Perhaps this was a consequence of both tracks being "green" but I think it is safe to…
- Teams
BMW Break Through
It seems that the loss of traction control is having a lot more effect than predicted by anyone. Practice/qualifying was a wild assortment of tail-happy slides and slips for everyone; the cars are obviously more…
- Races
Thoughts on Friday Practice in Melbourne
There is no need for me to rehash the actual times from Practice Sessions 1 and 2 - they're all over the net ( Grand Prix dot com is probably the most comprehensive). My five-hour handicap is a bit difficult to overcome…