Quieter Than a 2014 Formula 1 Engine...

Once again I find myself writing a blog post to apologise for the lack of updates recently. Again, I am not stopping but just taking a short break. Very good reason this time - my lack of it. VERY good reason for that - I am getting married this Saturday! Weddings take quite a lot of planning, and of course the blog was just 1 of many things that has been put to one side to make it happen.

Of course the moment that I don't have the time to write what I feel about Formula 1, the championship erupts with views, developments and intrigue! I found time to gradually do a Monaco write up, but Blogger managed to ruin that for me as well and I had to abandon that post halfway through. Knowing as well I may not have time to write a full report on all incidents, here is the 1 minute summary:

1. Rosberg has done a good job of breaking the Hamilton dominance.
2. I think Rosberg parked deliberately.
3. Hamilton could do with reviewing the safety car periods so far and why he always seems to lose out to Rosberg.
4. Red Bull on the up, fantastic job by Ricciardo.
5. Where are the other teams? Ferrari especially faltering
6. Newey's decision good for Red Bull. "If we can't have him, no one can".
7. Red Bull may rue losing Prodromou to McLaren.
8. What was Raikkonen thinking (Monaco move), or was it payback to Magnussen?
9. Great job by Marussia to score points!
10. Chilton unfortunate but definitely at fault for Canada collision.
11. Perez's fault.

 

12. Pirelli told to make tyres softer? They just can't win...

That's all for now, more in the near future hopefully!

Team Mate Struggles Surface

The first European Grand Prix of 2014 took place last weekend at the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona. The track is not notorious for providing stand out races, but it does highlight the cars aerodynamic strengths and weaknesses. With all of the teams bringing update packages to this Grand Prix following the 3 week break, it was hoped that the advantage enjoyed by Mercedes previously would be reduced. They of course brought updates of their own as they are pushing equally as hard to maintain the gap to the rest of the field.

Excluding the pitstops, Hamilton leads over Rosberg never exceeded 5 seconds.

GP3 2014 Preview

This weekend sees the Formula 1 world championship make its first visit to Europe in Spain. Local hero Fernando Alonso will be hoping to capitalise on the home support that last year propelled him to victory, whilst Pirelli are hoping it doesn't take 4 tyre changes to do so again. GP2 returns to the calendar again having missed China, but we will also see the beginning of the 2014 GP3 championship. The 2014 calendar is shown below.

Daniil Kvyat won the 2013 GP3 championship before his promotion to the Toro Rosso F1 team this year.

Remembering Senna

 

20 years ago to the day, the world lost one if greatest competitors. Formula 1 was still in mourning and shock following the death of Roland Ratzenberger just the day before, the first death at a Grand Prix weekend in 12 years. Safety was greatly improved between the 70's and 80's, where death and injury in the sport went from being common occurrences to rare anomalies. As the cars got faster and more complex over the 80's though, the sport became complacent over the safety of the drivers, and many foresaw the warning signs creeping back to haunt motorsport.

Change in China?

The 2014 Chinese Grand Prix was not the most exciting race to grace the Formula 1 world championship, especially following the thrilling Grand Prix in Bahrain immediately before it. Lewis Hamilton repeated his unchallenged ease to victory that he enjoyed in Malaysia, something that could become common when the Mercedes drivers don't have one another to race. Nico Rosberg's drive to second was a great save considering the team ran the entire race blind with no telemetry fed to them from the car, and after he gave Valtteri Bottas a hefty whack at the first corner. Despite leading the world championship, Lewis is getting away from him a bit now having won all 3 of the races that he has completed and has recovered much of the points gap that Rosberg inherited in Australia. Both drivers will still be wary of reliability hurting their championship chances, but Hamilton has the early form and maturity to keep his head and do what he does best when chasing a points gap.

How long will Nico Rosberg have to wait before he can hold a winners trophy of his own?

Blog Update

I wanted to give a quick little update on why this blog has been quiet over the last week. A lot has been going on within the motorsport world that I haven't missed, but similarly haven't offered my opinions on.

I enjoy sharing my opinions on motorsport, both on here and in person - there is always something to talk about and prophesise ahead of coming races and meetings. By not posting for the last week, I have missed a number of topics (that I will revisit shortly) that are certainly worthy of discussion and review but I simply haven't due to the time investment in doing so. I have got myself into a pattern of certain repeat posts that I like to publish on certain days either preceding or following a Grand Prix or event. It was all going well at the start when the 2014 Formula 1 season started, but the expectation I had placed on myself caught up with me in Bahrain when GP2 entered the schedule as well. I intend / intended to write about Formula Renault 3.5 and GP3 as well being the strongest links to a F1 seat, but I currently don't know how that will work out. Formula Renault 3.5 especially is going to be difficult when I can't actually watch the races...

To keep this blog fun for myself as I always intended, I certainly don't want to worrying about self imposed deadlines for posts when I don't always have the free time that I would like to write them. Keeping my opinions relevant, I will have to look at shortening some posts or breaking them down into shorts to allow more periodic updating when I maybe only have minutes spare to share opinions. I would rather take the second option if it helps, as I don't feel it would be worth barely touching on topics in the pursuit of post shortening...

In the meantime, thank you to those that continue to read my posts when they do get published. I am glad that from a small project I started to stop me going mad in unemployment between jobs, I have actually found something which has helped more people understand and enjoy a sport that I have wanted to be a part of almost my entire life.

Brilliant Bahrain

The Sakhir circuit in Bahrain has never been associated with the best Grand Prix, but in 2014 it delivered one of the sports greatest ever races. Combined with the launch of the 2014 GP2 season and some FIA announcements, there is plenty to be talking about between now and the Chinese Grand Prix.

The first Bahrain Grand Prix under the lights became an instant classic.