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.