The Nürburg Report

Well, after a rather lackluster weekend, it still feels as if there's something to take from this year's German GP.

1. A point, even 1 is better than none at all and encouraging, from the perspective of a Petrov fan at least, is the fact he managed to achieve this point despite a weak strategy.

2. Vitaly once again demonstrating that not only is he a great defensive driver, he's equally fair as he is tough in his driving. This view was reflected in some post-race thoughts from the Group Lotus ambassador and ex-F1 race winner Jean Alesi:
"Vitaly is proving to be a great fighter who doesn’t give up. He can make his car very wide, but he also drives in a fair way, so I think he did well to stay ahead as long as he did and probably made the most of his opportunities today."
You can read the rest of his interview here.

3. A short article of Renault Team Principle Eric Boullier's thoughts was posted on AUTOhebdo.fr here. Which, roughly translates to:
"After abandoning the German GP, Eric Boullier did not mince words about Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica's replacement. "It's clearly a disappointment," said the director of the British team on Eurosport, reported of LRP-inside.fr. "He did not take the status that we consider. We prefer to rely on Vitaly (Petrov) for performance. Nick is more suitable for the development of the car.""
While I take no pleasure in Eric's rather brutal style of driver management, displayed here towards Nick Heidfeld, the fact Vitaly has become recognised as the source of performance in the team is a great compliment considering the comparison to someone as experienced as Heidfeld. And in perhaps related news, Bruno Senna, the team's official third driver will take part in FP1 in Hungary this coming weekend in place of Heidfeld, perhaps the German won't even make it to the end of the season.

Have Red Bull Embarrased Themselves? (Silverstone - FP1)

Here's a little theory, has Mark Webber's simultaneous success and failure in the first session on a wet track revealed some attempted psychology on Red Bull's part. If Mark's apparently unintended stop at the end of the session reveals his fuel load as a number of people have speculated, it would certainly serve as a reason for why he was top of the timing sheets. So was running the ultra-low fuel an attempt by Red Bull to deal a psychological blow to the other teams by demonstrating the altered regulations haven't effected them at all?

What a wild theory, no doubt utter rubbish! Probably.

Valencia and The 'Value' of Vettel

In the wake of Canada, Valencia was always likely to wilt somewhat in terms of excitement. That being said, at least there was overtaking at all, before the critics bite too hard, it's worth taking into account how difficult it clearly is to pass in Valencia, even with the double DRS zone. With that out the way, on to the criticism!

First target; Pirelli. I'm unsure whether they truly warrant this, but I'm an unheard of and completely unread blogger and they're a multi-million pound company, so.... yeah, I'm well aware my thoughts will have no influence whatsoever. My concern stems from something I think I heard during the practice sessions from the commentary team, they were saying that Pirelli were making steps to increase the endurance of the tyres because of concerns it was making them look bad as a tyre company. This is just speculation from what I gather but if there's any truth to it then shame on Pirelli, it's simply insulting to the viewership of F1 that Pirelli think that if we see degrading tyres in the race, we'll think they'll degrade the same on our cars. With cars as technologically advanced as F1 cars, designing a range of tyres with degredation rates evenly spaced must be incredibly difficult, especially since they can't test on current cars. You'd have to be an idiot to draw any conclusion other than Pirelli must be bloody good at making a tyre fit for a purpose, and assuredly, they're not making tyres for road cars that start degrading after 30 miles.

Second Target; Renault. Not much needs to be said here, once again strategy execution was poor, unquestionably outsmarted by Toro Rosso, Force India and Sauber and coming away with 1 more point than they frankly deserved today. Both Nick and Vitaly drove reasonable races today but the team are asking miracles from them if they expect placings higher than achieved today.

Lastly, I want to say something with regards to Vettel. I offer the possibility that his strength is a psychological one, he's still young enough to not question himself or second guess but when he matures and perhaps begins to question his ability, he may start to slip. That being said, he's likely to be a competitive driver for at least the next decade in F1, someone else needs to get a foothold though and perhaps start taking away some of those statistics he values so much since he's clearly taking confidence from the breadth of his dominance, not just the race wins. Of course, it's come up a few times now this seasons, comparing the Red Bull-Vettel partnership to the Ferrari-Schumacher one, always with negative connotations attached but this is misleading. On the face of it, it may appear as if the young German's dominance is making the sport boring, on the contrary, I think it has the effect of spacing the excitement, creating peaks and troughs rather than an even plateau across the season. After all, would Button's victory in Canada  have been as spectacular if missing from the list of his achievements there was overtaking the dominant championship leader on the last lap after putting him under uncharacteristic pressure? I don't think so. Every story needs a 'villain' and for now, this is what Vettel will be for everyone outside his circle of fans. Hell, I openly dislike Alonso, but I'd be lying if I wasn't quietly hoping for a last minute surge of pace to put him ahead of Vettel.

Valencia - Friday & EBD Changes

I'd say so far so good sums up the day at the end of both Friday practice sessions. P2 for Vitaly in FP1, in which all drivers kept to the prime tyre (The medium compound making it's full weekend debut as the prime for this meeting). Obviously 2nd place on the board looks great and you can't really extrapolate any negatives from this result but there are a few considerations to take from this.

1. Renault have consistently been more competitive on the prime relative to the rest of the field versus the option. (I should say though that the most stark example of this was surely Monaco, where the prime tyre was the soft compound, which is the option compound for this weekend, so maybe we'll see an adequate improvement once we strap the options on, FP2 results suggest this might be a tad optimistic).

2. At least three places are potentially unaccounted for from this session. Allegedly Vettel was running with the modified engine mapping required to meet the regulations that are coming into play next round at Silverstone. (More on this later in the post, for now suffice to say it took him out of contention for the top end of the FP1 leaderboard.) On top of this, both Mclaren's were supposedly running with their DRS disabled.

With these factors taken into account, it's not a great surprise that come the end of FP2, the Renault's found themselves 9th and 10th after 'hot laps' on the options.

Also, I wanted to say a little bit on the EBD (I'm unsure, but I'm assuming Exhaust Blown Diffuser) changes, the official F1 site says "Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had a troubled morning", from being able to listen to the onboard and with the insight of David Croft and Anthony Davidson, it seems more likely that Vettel was actually using FP1 to test the performance of the car once it had been restricted to the upcoming regulations with regards to the EBD. And with regards to Renault, let's hope that the amount of noise caused by the EBD isn't an indication of how important it is to our downforce. The difference for the Red Bull at least seems to be pretty considerable with 2.5 seconds between FP1 leaderboard topper Mark Webber and teammate Vettel, perhaps throw in a few more tenths as well considering the average difference between the two in raw pace this season.

Montreal - Post-Race

First of all: Wow! What a race, despite the best efforts of race control, this was surely one of the greatest races of the modern era, if not among the greatest races of all time.
This of course being made doubly sweet for myself as Vitaly brought the Lotus Renault home in 5th place, scoring himself 10 more championship points and going from 9th to 7th in the driver standings. Although there doesn't seem like there's a great deal to say on his race today, despite all the action going on around him, Petrov kept largely anonymous, perhaps taking a leaf out of his new teammate's book. Nick was unfortunate I believe, but there's not much more to be said, in those conditions you have to allow for errors such as Kobayashi's.

The other issue that seems begging to be discussed after this race is how much safety is too much safety? I understand that for me, sat in my warm home, waiting to be entertained, less safety can't detract from my health or wellbeing. It sames fair to ask though, why is there a full-wet racing tyre, if the safety car is going to parade the grid around until the track is dry enough for intermediates? I don't resent the time I spent watching, waiting for the cars to get off the grid after the red flag, in fact, I might posit the idea that the waiting increased the ultimate pleasured gained from the race, tension building if you like. More on this, considered in a broader scope but with more detail, in a later post.

Montreal - Practice

Well, official word via the BBC pit reporter (the new female one, sorry, I forgot her name) is that the reason for lack of running for Vitaly this morning was due to radio failure. I'm sceptical though, we saw an onboard 10-15 minutes prior to that of him coming out of the hairpin and then getting to about forth gear and just 'coasting' down the straight. Possibilities:

In/Out Lap - Seems unlikely based on the aggression of the gear changes etc

Gearbox/Electronic Problems - Possible as seemed stuck in gear at max revs

Throttle Stuck Open - Also seems a possibility based on the revs, why else coast down the straight overheating the engine like that

That's all I can think of right now but from what was reported I'd say we're likely to see him get some times on the board before the session's over.

Open Q&A with Vitaly

Earlier this week, fans were given the opportunity to post questions on twitter, with the best being selected and answered by the man himself, here's how it went:

Are you happy with your season so far? (asked by Tasha Dragonfly)
VP: Not entirely happy as we are still not yet at 100%, and we can go a lot further than we have done already. We can achieve better results once we have upped our game in qualifying. Then, more points will come.

In what ways have you improved as a driver since last year? (asked by KIMLAWL)
VP: I now know what I can ask of the team in order to improve my results and how to get a better understanding of the car. I know the circuits better this year too, so that is obviously a massive help.

What’s the best thing about driving an F1 car? (asked by LIAM_PC79)
VP: Everything about it is amazing. The speed, G-Force, everything is great. It really is an incredible feeling being in that car.

What do you say to yourself if you have made a mistake in a race? (asked by NAUSE8)
VP: You don’t have time during the race. Of course you know when you do something wrong and you will want to improve on it next time, but there is no time to think about saying any particular words during the race.

What is your favourite track and why? (asked by CHRISHALL)
VP: I love all the tracks. It’s very special to drive at each individual circuit because they are unique in their own particular ways.

Edit:
Also earlier this week, the 2011 range of Renault merchandise is on display at the Lotus Renault GP site, take a look!

Vitaly Post-Monaco Video

Here's the man himself, confirming his status health-wise is ok and all that's required is a few days of rest and then there'll be another check before I assume he'll return to fitness training if his ankle seems fine.
Also in the video he describes how the crash evolved from the chain of events on-track and it sounds largely like my description in my last post is accurate.
The other thing of note was his condemnation of Sutil and applause for Rosberg as to how they handled being overtaken when they clearly had awful tyre condition. Vitaly's the racing driver and clearly much more knowledgeable than myself on the subject of overtaking but whether his complaints against Sutil are justified or not, I'm not sure. It would easy to take a fanboy-esque stance and declare everyone who doesn't let Petrov through an idiot and everyone who lets him pass easily a gentleman but objectively speaking it's never going to be that clear cut. That said however, passing at Monaco, as we have clearly seen this weekend, is something that requires co-operation on the overtakee's part and can't be done simply with pure speed or skill, no matter who you are or think you might be. As we saw, the only way Sutil was going to let someone pass was in getting physically shoved out of the way ala Kobayashi and I'm glad to say that Petrov was clearly sensible and cool-headed enough to not let that happen. This is clearly a topic with more meat on it, when to concede your position and when to defend it to the teeth, but I'll leave that for another time and devote an individual post to it I think.
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for Vitaly.

p.s and here's a nice picture, courtesy of the Lotus Renault website.

Monaco: Further Sunday Analysis

The simple interpretation of what's going on here seems to be: Sutil connects with the barrier after trying to push too far and too long with his tyres and in the process of Vitaly slowing down to avoid this, both Hamilton and Alguersuari come straight past Petrov. (Interestingly here, you can see what's presumably a piece of carbon fibre from Sutil's car get kicked up and hit Petrov's mirror.) Then as the train get to the swimming pool complex, Hamilton then realises he's going to have to slow down, causing the following car to tail-end him and this leaves no place for Vitaly to go and he hits the barrier, damaging his ankle.

If indeed this is accurate, and it's up for debate, it shows Petrov in a much better light than the more experienced guys in the other two cars, both of whom fail to react to what is clearly a developing incident on the track and while Alguersuari gets punished for it, Hamilton gets off lightly and then has the audacity to still be moaning after the race despite being able to finish and get points, unlike Vitaly who gets a no points and a hospital visit but interestingly doesn't have a public moan about it, he's already talking about getting to Canada.

“First of all, I would like to thank all my fans for all their well wishes, the medical teams at the circuit, the hospital for their efficient and friendly assistance, and the team for their concern. It was quite a big impact and I could not feel my legs very well after the crash. I thought it was best for the medical team to assist with removing me from the car as it was difficult for me to move and my legs were trapped in the cockpit.

“I did not lose consciousness but I was in quite a lot of pain when I was inside the car. I’m now looking forward to Montreal. We need to sort out our problems in qualifying and we will get some good results, as our race pace is usually very good.”

Monaco: Sunday

What a dramatic race, a lot of mixed emotion, concern, disappointment and frustration. Concern first of all for Vitaly, it seems like from all the reports that he's ok, there were multiple rumours, some saying brief concussion, others suggesting back pain/damage but it seems the official word from Boullier is that Petrov sustained some bruising to his legs, hence the difficulty in extraction, but no other more serious injuries. Hopefully that's the case and Vitaly is fine, hope he's back to full strength as soon as possible.
Next of course is disappointment, it wasn't going to be among the highest finish Vitaly has achieved but the Renault had struggled this weekend and he really worked hard to achieve what was likely going to be 8th or 9th and hence the points to deservedly close the gap to his team mate, instead because of all the incidents it'll be Heidfeld, who was frankly poor this weekend, who'll extend his lead once again.
Lastly, frustration, not mine but apparent frustration of some of the other drivers. Hamilton first, some really poor racing today, quite accurately demonstrating how to drive like an petulant kid, you can't keep trying to recreate the life of your idol, create your own legacy Lewis. Secondly for the poor driving from Sutil, Alguersuari and possibly Buemi which caused the accident late in the race, it's hard to establish what actually went on yet but it was amateur.

Monaco: Saturday

Another disappointing display from Renault today, I think it's fair to say Vitaly pushed the car to it's maximum capability but 11th really isn't where the team should be. The problem seems to come down the lack of pace on the option tyre, while we look pretty good on the prime, other teams are making over a second of improvement once they switch to the option, where as I think Vitaly made up only 4 tenths. Still, I think a place in the points is still well within our reach, it's just simply a case of devising a strategy that takes advantage of our prime tyre pace.
Of course, Perez's incident became the main talking point of qualifying today, it's never a pleasent sight seeing those tarps being used to shield the driver from view and it has been pointed out that these really do cause more panic and concern than any other aspect of dealing with an injured driver. Thankfully however, it transpires that Perez is doing good, he suffered a concussion and a strained thigh, which does however rule him out of tomorrows race but hopefully he'll be back by Canada, he was really looking promising this weekend. Get well soon.

Monaco: Thursday

Not particularly encouraging so far, we very much look like we're solidly behind the front four teams now and my guess is that we're going to see a repeat of last year in terms of Mercedes not ever becoming a realistic target to beat. That being said, the race will still be somewhat unpredictable even if we're talking 3 stops max for each, clearly passing won't be on the cards anymore than it usually would with the DRS banned for Monaco. Perhaps Renault should consider utilising that.

Also, here's Petrov's off at the end of FP2, as pointed out by a lot of Autosport Forum posters, very similar to the Raikonnen/Sutil incident from 2008 and also in the same year Coulthard managed a similar stunt in qualifying.

Here's to a more promising Saturday!

Off-hand Driver Judgements - Beware Opinion!

1. Sebastian Vettel
It's hard to be too critical of Vettel from a performance point of view, he's taken his opportunity this year and run with it. Often it's been mentioned that his ability to deal with traffic is still in question but there's nothing he's done this season that should be attracting that sort of criticism, rather he should take it as a compliment that the only fault people can find is one that most likely doesn't exist. That being said, I can't stand to watch him win, his celebrations irritate me to the point where I have to turn off the TV and this is exacerbated with the BBC encouraging his awful sense of humour. Has the potential to be a good villain, let's leave it at that.

2. Mark Webber
Scary. My own personal conspiracy is that Mark has semi-psychotic tendencies and if Vettel continues to show Mark up as nothing but an average driver in a fast car, he will snap in someway. He's already shown numerous times that he's not afraid to let his emotions influence his driving, running into Hamilton in Melbourne 2010, Heikki at Valencia and of course the collision between him and Sebastian at Turkey last year. Literally speaking there wasn't anything wrong with his action in this one of course, he held his course, what is true though is that usually the defending driver in this position will move to take the corner in the ideal way rather than the route Mark was taking, almost as if second guessed Vettel. Anyway, that's pure conjecture. The other incident I have in mind is his crash at Korea, I find it hard to not see his action after the crash as a deliberate attempt to take out one of his tital rivals, instead ruining Rosberg's race.

3. Lewis Hamilton
I don't particularly like to admit it but he's probably the best driver on the grid. In his first years I couldn't stand his press-personality, I can't help but feel he was so intent on not making the wrong impression, so dedicated to the idea of being this perfect-fronted role model, that he forgot to be a person at all. He's much more likable now, despite his speed, he'll never be the type of driver I'll support, being something of the anti-thesis to the underdog.

4. Jenson Button
Driving wise, I think he often has to use his head to make up some of the difference between him and Lewis, he clearly hasn't got the raw speed but he can usually make time back through just being calm and clever. Good to see him bring out some character from Lewis and also making the pre-race interviews and features a bit less sterile. My theory with Jenson is that he's won the title, he's content now, he'll never be completely competitive with Hamilton on the track mostly because he simply doesn't have the same hunger for victory Lewis has.

5. Fernando Alonso
Undoubtedly fast, probably second only to Hamilton. Unfortunately I have nothing else nice to say about Alonso, so I'll keep it short. Germany 2010, Singapore 2008. Maybe he was naive and innocent with regards to both of those but I seriously doubt it, the fact he could perfectly happily celebrate despite what had clearly happened nails the coffin for me anyway.

6. Felipe Massa
Nice guy. but then, they say nice guys finish last. Well, nearer the back anyway. Unfortunately that's just how F1 seems to work, I would genuinely like to believe that Massa's gap from Alonso is due to the injury but I'm not so sure, perhaps he's also suffering from the Alonso-effect, he should have a word with Piquet and Grosjean.

7. Michael Schumacher
Shouldn't have come back, his legacy will always be intact, but he's doing nothing for the sport any more as far as I see it. The sport is going to have a hard-enough time getting new blood trained and up to speed, it doesn't need old veterans making a mid-life-comeback.

8. Nico Rosberg
Something of an enigma, could definitely win races but I guess that's going to heavily rely on where he's driving over the next few seasons. Would not be unhappy to see him get a competitive car and regularly take on the top 4, he would be my pick in a title race is Vitaly was out of the picture.

9. Nick Heidfeld
Largely same as what I said about Schumacher, seems nice enough, I can't help but be biased against this guy though.

11. Rubens Barrichello
Once again, hanging around for nothing, no good for the sport as far as I can see, I want to see the fastest race car drivers in the world on the grid, not the most experienced. Whiner.

12. Pastor Maldonado
Nothing much to say about Pastor so far, small glimpses of future hope are often buried in sand-trap excursions, not something I'm unfamiliar with though.

14. Adrian Sutil
Strange guy, probably a natural to racing in general but always seems a little clumsy when around other cars.

15. Paul Di Resta
Has potential, nice down-to-earth personality, likable. It's just a shame the BBC feel the need to overdo the coverage on him. I love seeing more of the midfield and back of the grid drivers but you can't use all your allocated time for them on one guy, that's just naive to assume british people always support british drivers.

16. Kamui Kobayashi
Currently a bit of a favorite amongst the reporters and forum-goers. I think they've probably over-exaggerated it a bit now, I'm sure he's a good driver but I feel a few chance circumstances have come his way and to his credit, he used them to shine but whether he's genuinely some sort of overtaking god seems unlikely to me.

17. Sergio Perez
Promising young talent, another being touted for a Ferrari seat, it would be a mistake at this point, he needs at least another year in the midfield but has shown nothing but future potential, undoubtedly the most promising Sauber line-up and a good display of why we don't need old-hands who run in the midfield in the sport.

18. Sebastian Buemi
Not much of an opinion about Buemi, average in a below average car I think, unlikely to warrant an opportunity with a better team.

19. Jaime Alguersuari
Again, average in a below average car, seems nice enough though.

20. Heikki Kovaleinen
A great ambassador for the sport, has never let his drop despite a tough time at Mclaren and now an even tougher time at Lotus, great attitude, good driver.

21. Jarno Trulli
I'll be blunt: old and miserable. If you're not enjoying it, get out, stop taking up space on the grid if you're not going to even bother trying just because the car you're in is still being developed.

22. Narain Karthikeyan
Yet to hear anything from him and not really had a chance to see him race, so to speak, but being on par with Liuzzi isn't exactly the highest honour.

23. Vitantonio Liuzzi
Average driver, probably not F1 worthy anymore, had his chance but at least he seems to be making an effort with HRT

24. Timo Glock
So much wasted potential in an awful car, Timo would probably be fighting for wins and podiums in the right car, definitely something of an overlooked talent.

25. Jerome d'Ambrosio
Not much to say so far for Jerome, has occasionally looked like he might be on Glock's pace but more often than now he's a fair amount off, still needs time.

Recap: Turkey & Catalunya

Right, so I've decided not to keep reporting the races like I have been, instead I might just have a brief post with more opinion and less statistics for each race. There are enough statistic based blogs and a list of laps times doesn't really provide much for anyone.

Turkey
Getting a wheel-to-wheel tap with Schumacher was clearly the defining point of Vitaly's race in Turkey, it cost him one place at the time and probably a few more due to a suspected slow puncture which he received as a result of the tap from Michael's wing. He went on to finish 8th, from 7th on the grid, overall a respectable performance given incidents and questionable Renault pit stops and strategies.

Catalunya
Once again, Renault displaying their lack of competitiveness in the strategy department, Vitaly showed in the first stint that he and the car were capable of finishing comfortably ahead of the Mercedes with the possibility of challenging Massa and Button. However, the slow pit stop cost him the places and then the extended time he was allocated to run on the Prime tyre cost him places to Heidfeld as well as the 2 Sauber cars. Overall an incredibly disappointing race and the team must seriously considering revising their strategy on both Saturday and Sunday as well as doing a few pit stop drills for good measure.

I may be being a little over-critical, perhaps on some things I'm wrong but what I do know is that there's no point building a car with every hundredth of a second in mind when you lose 3-4 seconds per pit stop due to lack of practice.

Round 03 - China: Qualifying and Race

Firstly, I've decided to revise to approach to writing up the results, the lap time etc are a bit too formal and while I might allude to them, I won't put them on the blog. (Additionally, I'm too lazy)

Overall Result:

Classification: 9th
Grid Position: 10th
Laps: 56
Time: 1:37:55.630
Gap (to leader): 57.404
KPH: 186.913
Fastest Lap: 1:41.261 (Lap 50)

From the perspective of a Petrov fan this was a very mixed feeling race. It was undoubtedly one of the best dry races of the modern era but only from an objective (or Hamilton/Webber) perspective, because Renault were definitely disappointing.
From the start things weren't looking great, Vitaly's getaway was poor, no doubt it was his worst this season and consequently was battling for 12th and 13th for the early part of the race.
Things didn't improve much later on, consensus seems to be that the strategy was the ultimate flaw in both Renault drivers performances this weekend with both opting for a 2 stop strategy of Soft-Soft-Hard. Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber clearly displayed the superior effectiveness of the 3 stop compared to the 2 and evidence could be seen of this all over the track. Each stint the Renaults were being required to nurse their tyres, even extending their stints long after the lap times were dropping away. Although they were managing to get round the Force Indias and Saubers, by the time they'd come out of the pits again, they found themselves with the same job of getting around them again. Thankfully since Vitaly's stop came later in the race than Nick's, Vitaly still had some pace in the last stint to catch and pass the Heidfeld-Kobayashi-DiResta train and got himself into 9th for some crucial championship points.

Ultimately the race was a success, Pirelli definetely ought to be commended for their efforts, today they've proven just how accurately they've been able to produce a Canada-2010-like race at other circuits. Bring on Turkey and a more progressive Renault strategy!

Round 03 - China: FP1 & FP2

Practice 1

Number of Laps: 16
Fastest Lap: 1:41.231
Classification: 9th

1:45.735
1:43.451
1:42.155
1:44.992
1:42.354
1.47.933
-Pit-
1:47.287
1:49.261
1:41.231
1:41.727
1:43.469
1:41.857
1:52.762

Practice 2

Number of Laps: 31
Fastest Lap: 1:38.859
Classification: 9th


1:48.244
1:41.866
1:50.506
1:41.117
1:53.711
-Pit-
1:40.622
1:46.389
1:41.611
1:41.379
1:56.883
-Pit-
1:43.092
1:41.008
1:47.577
-Pit-
1:38.938
1:57.939
1:38.859
1:48.006
-Pit-
1:45.796
1:45.563
1:45.350
1:45.501
1:46.413
1:44.666
1:45.051
1:46.274
1:54.333
 
I think if I'd told you that one of the Renault drivers would make two mistakes during Fridays running and the other would be safe and consistent, you may have believed me but not if I'd also told you which one was which. With plenty of drivers making mistakes across the circuit, Heidfeld isn't entirely blameworthy but in his respectable fashion, he only holds himself to blame.
In general the Renault drivers both seemed to do ok today but while Nick looks like he could trade times with at least the Ferrari's, he'd struggle to be satisfied if in doing so he go for another off-track excursion. On the other hand, we still haven't really seen the Vitaly of Melbourne, he may be just holding back, consciously or unconsciously, after the incident in Malaysia but neither his one lap pace or his race simulation pace show the promise of another podium. This is only practice though and practice that compared to last week, has been available setup time, which can only be a good thing.

Here's what Vitaly had to say about Friday:
“We managed to run the whole way through both sessions, and then we were able to work on some directions for set-up so we’re quite happy with that. I think we need to be happy with today, of course not on the pace and the lap time as we can be quite a bit quicker. What is good is that we don’t have any mechanical problems, we can still continue to work and push hard. The option tyres were a big improvement, as usual, with much more grip.”

The Inevitable Autosport Forum Reaction!

I guess it's no surprise really, but after Sunday's little airborne excursion, Vitaly became the star of the 'Photoshopped!' thread on Autosport's Racing Comments Bulletin Board (Not for the first time I should add!). Here are a few of the more creative:

(TommyB89)

(SNiko)

(CaptainJackSparrow)

(bitsandbobs)

(Marley)

The forum name of the creators in the brackets below their respective creations, thanks for the effort, I hope no-one minds me using them. Incidentally, a variation of the first image was used in the Chinese GP Preview press release from Lotus Renault. You can find the whole release here.

Round 02 - Malaysia: Race

Overall Result:

Classification: 17th
Laps: 52
Time: 1:31:40.647
Gap: DNF
KPH: 188.641
Fastest Lap: 1:41.057 (Lap 49)

Firstly let me say commiserations to Vitaly and I sincerely hope his back is ok after the incident, fortunately I haven't heard any news to suggest he was injured in any way but that can't have been a comfortable landing. And additionally, congratulations to Nick Heidfeld, obviously wanting to demonstrate that anything VP can do, he can do as well, going from 6th on the grid to a 3rd place podium.

In short, clearly this wasn't where Vitaly wanted to be at the end of Sunday. There are, however, some positives and consolations to consider after what was unquestionably an exciting and action packed Malaysian Grand Prix. Here's what he had to say at the end of it:

""First of all I am happy for the team as we got another podium, so we can consider this a great start to the season for us. It was a strong performance by the team in an unusual race. I made a small mistake which shouldn't have had the consequences it had. I went wide and the car took off on the curb, landing hard. Both cars should have been in the points today, but the good news is that we clearly have the pace needed to compete this season.""

The Start:

Unfortunately I can't find a video from the onboard camera that was shown on the coverage today. It must be out there somewhere and if I run into it I'll add it to this post later. The reason for wanting to include it in this post was it serves as yet another example of Petrov getting an amazing start, even when surrounded by arguably faster cars. Of course, the evidence points to the Renault being a flying started this year in general, Nick Heidfeld also demonstrated it's potential today.
To briefly decribe though, Webber had an awful start from 3rd allowing both Heidfeld and Alonso to get alongside him before they'd even reached the corner. It was this triple bank of cars that Vitaly soon found himself coming up on, so in order to continue making progress, he dived left to get on the outside of turn 1 and luckily, Nick was brave enough to pull alongside Hamilton in the corner and this allowed Vitaly to follow him round, giving both Renault drivers the inside line into turn 2. Unfortunately though Vitaly was squeezed out by both Hamilton and Button as they came out of the corner but 5th was a great position to be in from 8th on the grid.

Strategy and Race Pace:

Without looking at any extensive data or comparing lap times directly, just from watching the race, the impression I got was that Petrov (or the car, or both) didn't have the same pace displayed in Melbourne. With the great start he was up into 5th straight away but he never looked to challenge Button and more telling was that Massa was matching his pace and it was looking likely that he'd be able to get past. Which is what happened on lap 4, with both Massa and Alonso getting past. By the time he pitted on lap 15, his speed looked considerably off the pace, whether it was his decision or the teams to come in so late, 2 to 3 laps later than the other top ten runners, I think was definitely a mistake. From then on Petrov never looked like challenging the cars running P1 to P7 and my suspicion is that due to lack of setup time with the car, one of the tyre compounds just wasn't working for him. It was only in his last stint, as you'll see in the lap time chart later, that Petrov really picked up the pace and consistently lapped in the 1:41s.

Here are his lap times, including his pit strategy:

1:45.530
1:45.451
1:45.737
1:48.704
1:46.032
1:45.520
1:45.235
1:45.138
1:45.723
1:45.648
1:46.496
1:47.601
1:47.773
1:51.124
-Pit-
2:04.569
1:44.045
1:43.916
1:43.442
1:43.410
1:44.194
1:44.117
1:43.711
1:44.065
1:44.392
1:46.559
1:48.677
-Pit-
2:01.946
1:42.689
1:42.578
1:43.210
1:44.115
1:43.752
1:43.038
1:43.014
1:43.162
1:42.673
1:43.328
1:43.459
1:43.527
1:44.125
1:44.615
1:45.112
1:48.969
-Pit-
2:05.963
1:41.383
1:41.311
1:42.302
1:41.054
1:41.551
1:41.160
1:41.404
1:43.752
1:43.038

I should additionally point out that during his last pit stop, he lost something in the region of 5 seconds. However, nothing was broadcast as far as I could tell to show where that time went.

The consolations are there though, Vitaly's fastest lap put him third in the fastest lap charts behind Webber and Alonso and he set the fastest sector 1 time of the whole race with a 25.728. He also set the 5th and 4th fastest times through sectors 2 and 3 respectively.

Retirement:

Firstly, I think, unless any counter-evidence is provided, Vitaly will have to concede to making at least one error here. However, what I don't think is up for debate is the amount that he was 'punished' for that error. Potentially his first error was a simple case of running wide, not uncommon and certainly not a retirement-worthy mistake, he would have known before he left the track that he was going onto the run off area but he chose to try to maintain speed, presumably so that he could avoid slowing to get round the corner and almost certainly losing the place to a charging Hamilton who had come out of the pits behind him and lap or two prior.
The second potential error was keeping his foot in when rejoining the track across grass. This is a considerably greyer area than running wide, it would have come as quite a surprise to Vitaly that as he attempted to rejoin the track, he would be launched at least a foot in the air. His retirement shortly followed of course due to the other surprising thing, which was that the steering rod had seemingly become almost completely detached from the car.
Anyway, here's a video of the incident, and hopefully Vitaly can turn this weeks fortunes around next week, in China.

Round 02 - Malaysia: Qualifying

Overall Result: P8, 1:36.324

Initially the result felt a little disappointing, coming off the back of a podium finish at Melbourne to then qualify 8th and two places behind Heidfeld. However, in retrospect, the result is reassuring more than anything else. Firstly, with the incident in FP1 taking at least 1.5 to 2 hours out of potential running time this weekend, there was always the chance with this amount of lost time that Vitaly wouldn't be able to find a good setup at all. So for that reason alone, P8 is perfectly credible.
The other reassurance, with regards to being behind Nick on the grid, is that Q1 and Q2 times suggest that Petrov has the edge over his more experienced teammate with Vitaly being quicker in both and a mistake in the last  two corners serving as a credible reason for him losing ground to the German. (See the video at the end of post.)
Here is how Qualifying went for Vitaly:

Q1

Number of Flying Laps: 1
Tyre Choice: Option
Time: 1:37.210
Placement: 7th

Q2

Number of Flying Laps: 1
Tyre Choice: Option
Time: 1:36.642
Placement: 8th

Q3

Number of Flying Laps: 1
Tyre Choice: Option
Time: 1:36.324
Placement 8th

Speed Trap

Placement: 6th
Speed: 306.4km/h

Best Sector Times

S1: 24.777 (6th)
S2: 32.424 (9th)
S3: 39.123 (7th)

Everything seems very consistent, which in a way is reassuring, consistency is the first step in improving on the driver from last year. Everything also points to the position of the car, relative to the other teams, clearly Red Bull and Mclaren are out of reach in terms of raw speed at the moment but compared to Ferrari, there seems to be very little between themselves and Renault.

Here's some onboard footage of qualifying, I believe this is from Q3, at the end of his one and only flying lap where you can clearly see him locking the right front into turn 13 (I think? not sure on the number exactly) and consequently flat-spotting the tyre. Then into the last corner he runs perhaps a little wider than would be ideal (whether this is due to the flat spot, I don't have the experience to say), although it must be said that quite a few drivers were taking the corner wider than usual during the session as a whole.

 
 

Round 02 - Malaysia: FP1, FP2 & FP3

Practice 1 - 1:47.932, 24th

Practice 1 was ruined for Vitaly who after setting just the one lap time (1:47.932) ended up in sand trap at turn 9. The reason for this is open to some conjecture, especially since Heidfeld suffered a similar issue a few laps previously, limping back to the pits with a completely locked left-front. The initial thought and speculation was that it was a brake failure, however, this was denied by Renault, who claimed that it was a faulty material batch.

"We quickly established that the two failed items had come from the same material batch and that nothing from this batch had run prior to today." - James Allison

"We suspect there is a materials issue because it is the same design, everything is the same except it was a new part." - Eric Boullier

There has been some additional rumours (and I stress, rumours) that in trying to re-create a Red Bull-esque flexible front wing, Renault fitted both cars with a new part but with an obviously disastrous outcome.

Anyway, this is what it looked like from onboard the car:

(Yes, the title of the video suggests FP2, but the incident happened in FP1)


Practice 2 - 1:39.267, 13th

Unfortunately, the incident from the morning session had a knock on effect into FP2, with Renault wanting to ensure the car was completely safe before sending the drivers back out. Eventually though both drivers managed to get some laps in, here are Vitaly's stints:

1:51.111
1:45.546
1:43.608
1:42.070
1:50.123
-Pit-
1:39.267
1:43.984
1:39.414
1:48.579
-Pit-
1:46.642
1:46.216
1:47.174
2:18.412
2:15.852

Here's what Vitaly had to say at the end of Friday:
“It wasn't the best day. The problem in the morning was quite a surprise and we decided not to run until late in the afternoon when we had understood things properly. When I did finally get out, the car felt fine, but the time we had was very limited and we didn't really manage to do any set-up work. As we expected, the degradation rates are very high here, especially for the soft tyres, but they definitely had more grip and were a couple of seconds quicker than the hard. However, tomorrow is a new day and I think we can still have a good weekend."


Practice 3 - 1:37.297, 7th

Vitaly proving his statement from the day before, tomorrow really is a new day with both Renaults finally showing some of the speed he displayed in Melbourne, Nick finishing the session in 4th and Vitaly 7th.

1:47.673
1:39.884
1:46.244
1:39.324
1:51.672
-Pit-
1:42.619
1:39.698
1:49.345
1:55.958
-Pit-
1:37.297
1:52.574
1:37.662
1:45.210

2010 Highlights

Here are the moments from 2010 that gave perceptive viewers a look at Petrov's genuine potential.

Flying start in Australia:

 

  

Cutting his teeth with Hamilton in Malaysia:

Overtaking the 7 times world champion in China:

The first encounter with Alonso, holding him up for most of the race until finally having his wheel punctured as he was passed. Additionally, Turkey was where Vitaly recorded his first ever fastest lap during a race.

Petrov qualifies 7th for the Hungarian GP with an awesome lap, bettering Kubica for the first time and then has a great race to 5th, his best finish of the season.

 Despite a disappointing mistake in qualifying, has a fantastic race in Spa, going from 23rd to 9th, including one of the overtaking maneuvers of the year on Rosberg.

And finally ending the season on a high note, keeping world championship contender Alonso behind him with a truly skilled defending drive and then giving another perfectly weighted media response afterwards.

2011 Qantas Australian Grand Prix - Post-Race Reflections & Blog Introduction

It goes without saying that as a follower of Vitaly Petrov for 2 years and a fan since he made his Formula 1 debut, the 2011 Australian Grand Prix will be one I won't soon forget. This time last year I was deeply considering whether my newfound driver was going to cause a repeat of the disappointment I'd had the previous few years following Nakajima.
This probably already explains two things about my personality when it comes to following Formula 1:
1st: I'm a sucker for an underdog.
2nd: I'm not opposed to 'pay-drivers' in the sport.
There was no point in regretting my decision however, there is no satisfaction in changing which driver you support based on his on-track performances. If that was the type of mentality I subscribed to, I may as well have just decided to support Hamilton or Alonso from the start.
Besides, as it turns out, it was his personality off-track that endeared me to him much more than his early performances. His simple and often blunt understanding of English, his honesty and of his genuinely pleasant demeanor. Clearly it's just a personal thing but I simply can't support a driver who I also wouldn't want to be friends with.

As I'm starting this blog two weeks after the Australian Grand Prix weekend, I won't put up any timing or technical information from Australia but I fully intend to from now onwards.

(March 26, 2011 - Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images AsiaPac)