FIA Formula 1 Championship 2012

[simplicity]

natawa na nga lang ako dun sa sinabi ni Kimi.. kala niya para sa kanya.. hahaha..
tsk tsk tsk.. for FM.. baka palitan na siya ni Jaime (from STR).. hehehe..
too bad for Merc.. they need to address too much tire deg on their cars..
I wish no same driver wins consecutive races.. hahaha.. 1 driver each from the top 5 teams (but not FM though)

[niky]

Since I was not online yesterday, my usual race-end report is here:

Action-packed Australian GP starts 2012 Formula One Season with a Bang!

It was an exciting race in Melbourne this weekend, as the 2012 Formula One season kicked off with the Australian GP. For some drivers, though, it was exciting for all the wrong reasons.

Perhaps not surprising, considering last year's championship standings, is who was on the podium. It was Jenson Button for McLaren taking the victory, a British-on-British win in the colonies. God save the Queen and all that, chaps. Second was 2011 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who'd overcome a disastrous qualifying (7th) to bring the Red Bull Racing Team up into the points, through blisteringly quick driving, incredible overtaking and shrewd pit-stop strategy. Third was Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren, wondering how a pole position had translated into a third place finish, considering that he was, at times, faster than both Button and Vettel during the race.

Mark Webber, in the other Red Bull, should be pleased to finally finish higher than 5th in his home grand Prix. He'd be happier to be on the podium, but as he was sick with the flu, and got boxed in the ears in a first lap scuffle to boot, we'll forgive him.

Ferrari have had a disastrous start to the year. Outsider observers have pegged their car as an absolute disaster. Even the team admits that it will be a challenging season. Qualifying saw Fernando Alonso fly into the kitty litter in Q2 (qualifying 12th) and Felipe Massa qualify way down in 16th place. During the race, Massa tried to make a comeback, but found it very hard going, and was taken out by fellow Brazilian Bruno Senna during the race. Alonso, on the other hand, shot up to 8th on the start and deftly weaved his way through the field to an amazing 5th at the end, proving once again who the Ferrari Number One Driver is. Massa's seat for 2013 is starting to look pretty unsure.

Mercedes GP started the weekend in excellent form. Michael Schumacher had qualified 4th and Nico Rosberg had made a slight mistake in qualifying but still ended up seventh. Yet during the race, the quick-starting Mercedes cars, despite their clever aerodynamics and powerful engines, started to fade after the first few laps, falling back to battle with the mid-field teams. Near the end, Michael Schumacher succumbed to a gearbox failure, and Nico Rosberg suffered a punctured tire after a clash with Sergio Perez. It was a day to rue at the Mercedes garage. We won't know the true form of Ross Brawn's team until the Malaysian GP.

Lotus Renault came into this season pumped up with the return of Romain Grosjean after a year's absence and a successful GP2 Championship. The young driver was hungry and proved it with a 3rd place in qualifying Saturday. Unfortunately, his start was a disaster, as he slipped down the order on the first lap before being unceremoniously punted off the track by another driver, retiring with a broken front suspension.

Lotus Renault's other returning driver, former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, suffered from a disastrous team decision that saw him released too late in qualifying to complete a quick lap. He started in 18th. But the Finn was flying in the race, and wound up an incredible 7th at the checkered flag. He even had time to ask the team why he was seeing so many blue flags. Those were for all the backmarkers you were lapping, Kimi!

The surprise of the race was the strong performance by the Sauber team. Kamui Kobayashi's fantastic back-and-forth overtaking battle with Kimi Raikkonen was perhaps one of the highlights of the race, and he ended up in 6th. Sergio Perez started all the way from the back of the grid after a gearbox change and penalty, and still wound up 8th.

Rounding off the top ten are rookie Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso in an excellent debut and Paul di Resta for Force India. The last man behind them on the lead lap was Jean-Eric Vergne in the other Toro Rosso, in a race that saw only 13 cars cross the finish line.

Could this be the start of another, long delayed, championship season for McLaren? Or will Red Bull pull something out of the bag next race? We won't have long to wait. The Malaysian Grand Prix is next week.

[Monseratto]

Since I was not online yesterday, my usual race-end report is here:

Action-packed Australian GP starts 2012 Formula One Season with a Bang!

No mention of Maldonado's rather unfortunate drive?

[niky]

No mention of Maldonado's rather unfortunate drive?

Maldonado who? The guy who went from zero to hero to zero to hero to... whoops... zero fo' sure!

Not much to remark on. He took out Grosjean (arse!) by outbraking himself then took himself out by oversteering off a curb. Not worth giving him publicity and condoning that behavior...

-

Really, though, given the number of people who went off, pushed other people off, banged into other people (Perez on Rosberg) and flew off the track all weekend, it wasn't really worth mentioning except for the fact that Maldonado managed to go off on the next-to-last-lap.

[Retz]

The two Kimi Raikkonens



There are, it turns out, two Kimi Raikkonens.

The public face of the 2007 world champion, who has returned to Formula 1 this season after two years in rallying, is of a monosyllabic, monotone, unsmiling figure, energised only the moment he steps into a racing car.

The one who emerges in private is very different - a talkative, jocular man, who can happily sit and shoot the breeze like anyone else.

As Lotus trackside operations director, Alan Permane has worked closely with Raikkonen since he joined the team last November.


more.....http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/the_two_kimi_raikkonens.html

[CVT]

Another race weekend :
02 2012 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX (Kuala Lumpur) 23 - 25 Mar
15.2K

[Retz]

Trulli, Sutil and Perez proposed to replace under-fire Massa



Mar.21 (GMM) Felipe Massa’s F1 career with Ferrari appeared to be in deep crisis on Wednesday, as the influential and vocal Italian media lined up multiple candidates to replace him in the team alongside Fernando Alonso.

Felipe with his father in the Albert Park pit garage
Earlier, the weekly Autosprint suggested out-of-work grand prix winner and Italian Jarno Trulli is available to step in immediately to replace the beleaguered Brazilian, whose contract expires this year.

On Wednesday, the authoritative daily La Gazzetta dello Sport said Ferrari is considering dropping a driver mid-season for the first time since Rene Arnoux in 1985.

The newspaper said Ferrari development driver Sergio Perez, who is currently at Sauber, is an option, as is the former Force India driver Adrian Sutil.

more....
Trulli, Sutil and Perez proposed to replace under-fire Massa | YallaF1.com

[niky]

It may be too early to say.

Let's face it, Massa's competitive days are over. He hasn't been the same since the accident, and who can blame him? But the Ferrari F2012 itself isn't in great shape. It's an absolute mess.

Bringing in another driver midseason will likely only highlight the problems with the Ferrari chassis rather than solve them. They should get the car sorted first, then Massa next.

[CVT]

Puwedeng si Trulli iyan para magkaroon ulit ng Italianong driver sa F1....
15.2K

[Monseratto]

Second free practice results - 2012 Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix

Friday, 23 March 2012
Position Country Driver Car number Team Fastest Lap
1 great britain Lewis Hamilton 4 McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.172
2 germany Michael Schumacher 7 Mercedes GP 1:38.533
3 great britain Jenson Button 3 McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.535
4 germany Nico Rosberg 8 Mercedes GP 1:38.696
5 australia Daniel Ricciardo 16 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.853
6 spain Fernando Alonso 5 Ferrari 1:38.891
7 australia Mark Webber 2 Red Bull-Renault 1:39.133
8 france Jean-Eric Vergne 17 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.297
9 switzerland Romain Grosjean 10 Lotus-Renault 1:39.311
10 germany Sebastian Vettel 1 Red Bull-Renault 1:39.402
11 venezuela Pastor Maldonado 18 Williams-Renault 1:39.444
12 germany Nico Hulkenberg 12 Force India-Mercedes 1:39.464
13 great britain Paul Di Resta 11 Force India-Mercedes 1:39.625
14 japan Kamui Kobayashi 14 Sauber 1:39.687
15 finland Kimi Raikkonen 9 Lotus-Renault 1:39.696
16 brazil Felipe Massa 6 Ferrari 1:40.271
17 brazil Bruno Senna 19 Williams-Renault 1:40.678
18 mexico Sergio Perez 15 Sauber 1:40.947
19 russian federation Vitaly Petrov 21 Caterham-Renault 1:41.464
20 germany Timo Glock 24 Marussia-Cosworth 1:41.681
21 finland Heikki Kovalainen 20 Caterham-Renault 1:42.594
22 france Charles Pic 25 Marussia-Cosworth 1:42.874
23 india Narain Karthikeyan 23 HRT-Cosworth 1:43.658
24 spain Pedro de la Rosa 22 HRT-Cosworth 1:43.823