McLaren MP4-28 Launch

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McLaren MP4-28 launch

Today's McLaren launch gave the outside world a good look into McLarens preparation for 2013. This year McLaren celebrates 50 years of its existence, and I suspect they will have a fantastic year. Jenson Button drove into the McLaren Technology Center in the P1, their new road car, and he was simply oozing confidence as he stepped out of that car and into the glare of the cameras. This the Jenson whom we saw back in 2009. Now that the team, and crucially the car is his, he knows he has a fantastic advantage, and a good chance to win the championship. He stressed on the fact that the new car is not only more consistent but also faster than last year. And McLaren did end the 2012 season with the fastest car.
The car itself has undergone a few changes, so it's not radically different, and it still does not carry a nose step as seen on other cars.

Martin Whitmarsh also stated that 2013 was every bit as important as 2014, so this will be one very competitive year, and they will be aiming to win that championship. Sergio Perez meanwhile was simply pleased to be with McLaren and will be looking to make an impact. But there's no doubt that Jenson Button will be in a class of his own if the car is quick and more importantly consistent. 2012's MP4-27 was the quickest car by far, by poor reliability was a sore point and effectively took them out the running for the championship.

2013 is going to be epic. The best drivers, all in the best teams with good cars, fighting for the championship. This will be one of the most competitive seasons in Formula 1 history, and never will a season start will atleast 8 drivers each of which has a fighting chance to win the championship.

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Formula 1; Mechanics Win Races?

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Sebastian Vettel is team player. In fact, he worships his team. He's even got helmets with his mechanics faces and names on them. Mark Webber, senior driver, and who's been at Red Bull for two years before Vettel, hasn't won a single championship. And he doesn't worship his team as publicly as Vettel does.

Result? Vettel, triple world drivers champion. Webber? Handful of wins.

Of course, the Red Bull is a car designed specifically for Vettel's driving style. But why hasn't the car been designed for Webber?





Even in the Ferrari garage, Massa has been at Ferrari for about 6 years now. Alonso, barely 3 years. But the Ferrari F1 team is Alonso's team. Alonso, as you'll notice, is full blooded team player. He never ever blames the team. He might accept that his car is pretty shoddy, but he won't moan about it.

At McLaren, both Jensen and Hamilton credited their team for their wins, so there isn't much of a difference between them performance-wise.

Even at Team Lotus, or the Enstone team, Kimi has realized this and he too has started thanking and praising his team no matter where he finished. And he did finish in the points an awful lot of times. In Abu Dhabi, he shrugged of his victory, and told the media it was for the team. He barely smiled after winning.

But Vettel really does look at Formula 1 as a team sport, and I don't think he even thinks about shifting to another team, so good is his relationship with his engineers and mechanics who build his car. Of course, Vettel's mentality and driving style are also factors for his success, but the anyone can see that motivating the team is a major factor to win championships.

In Abu Dhabi, Vettel started from the pitlane and finished on the podium with P3. He kept thanking and motivating his team on the radio, "never lift boys. Even in the room before stepping on the podium, he was genuinely a happy man, joking around with Kimi. Alonso on the other hand, was in shock I think, to see Vettel on the podium, and he kept to himself.


So the team working behind the scenes, away from the limelight is a critical part to win a championship. Theoretically the team is supposed to give equal attention to both drivers, but of course, it is never that way...

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Formula 1 Spa-Francorchamps 2012 Crash Re-Analysis

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Carbon fibre galore

Earlier this year, in the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix, there was a catastrophic first corner pile up, and Grosjean, Hamilton, Alonso, and Perez were caught out in the whirlwind of carbon fibre. The blame was promptly put on Grosjean for being too aggressive at the start, and to some extent that is true. But looking at the race footage, I don't think Grosjean was the sole perpetrator. I downloaded the race edit, and saw the video frame by frame, and I think some of the blame can be put on Hamilton's shoulders as well.





Hamilton qualified P8, and Grosjean P9. But  Grosjean had a very good start, and Grosjean was almost a full car length ahead of Hamilton before La Source.

Red Circle: Hamilton; Blue Circle: Grosjean

Grosjean gets a good start, and heads towards clear tarmac ahead of Hamilton, as the track ahead of him is blocked by the Saubers and the Williams of Maldonado.

Grosjean and Hamilton fighting for the same piece of tarmac

So Grosjean goes for the clear track ahead of Hamilton, and this where the massive pile up started.

The stewards blamed Grosjean for being too aggressive at the start and colliding into Hamilton. This is slightly true as Grosjean gives Hamilton almost no space and squeezes him into the barrier separating the track from the pits. And this is also the point where Hamilton should be blamed for the accident which takes place just seconds from this picture.

Here you can see Grosjeans racing line blocked by the slowing Saubers behind the Ferrari, and now approaching toward the clear track ahead of Hamilton.

At this point, Hamilton still has a chance to retain track position and try to pull ahead of Grosjean. But he should have know that he only had a small chance.

Just moments before the havoc starts.

Grosjean now has a 3/4 car length advantage over Hamilton, and has, according to me gained the track position and is perfectly justified to expect Hamilton, which he should have done. Hamilton can clearly see that he has no space left, and should've lifted off and conceded track position. But he put his foot hard down, which wasn't the smartest thing to do, but even stupider on his part was holding his racing line. A collision was bound to take place. 

But Hamilton wasn't really in an ideal state anyway, having posted telemetry of his lap on Twitter!

Detailed as well....

And now as you'll see, all hell breaks loose.

BAM! and it's all over.

I really don't see why Grosjean alone is blamed for the mess. Hamilton had quite a large role to play in this pile up.

Also, Jenson Button has the best victory dance which he performed in his car itself. The man got style.

Now that, is how it should be done.

That is a superb way to celebrate. 

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McLaren vs Drivers

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Lewis leaving McLaren for Mercedes shocked the F1 world. Not me though. With McLaren's properly crap reliability record, it really is no surprise.

Lewis and the McLaren were a formidable force, just like Kimi Raikonnen was in a McLaren in 2003 and 2005. Lewis won his World Championship in 2008, but he achieved that on a last lap of the last race of the season. Cutting it very close indeed. He has had fantastic race wins since 2008, but McLaren's reliability hasn't helped. He could've potentially won another championship this year, but mechanical failures in Singapore and Abu Dhabi put paid to his ambitions. Lewis-McLaren was the fastest driver-car package ever since Kimi Raikonnen left McLaren in 2006.





This is again reminiscent of the Kimi Raikonnen-McLaren era, where Kimi and McLaren were the fastest package on any given track and they had Adrian Newey as well. How could they not win a championship or two? YouTube clips of the 2005 season clearly show that Kimi was always the fastest man on track in any given grand prix, but he still failed to win the championship. I bet the only reason people loved to watch Formula 1 in 2005 was to watch Kimi carve his way through the field for a podium finish after yet another engine failure penalty. Or watch Kimi suffer a mechanical failure after dominating the race in the first half.

Magazine article highlighting McLaren's mechanical failures.

After another disappointing season with McLaren in 2006, he went to Ferrari and instantly became world champion. Lewis-Mercedes for champion 2013? Who knows. But McLaren really did suffer. They lost the best drivers in Formula 1, Kimi and Lewis.

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Kimi Raikkonen, the modern day Ayrton Senna?

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Ever since his comeback Kimi Raikkonen hasn't really been a happy man. I don't think anyone has ever caught him smiling in 2012. Even though his fantastic driving has secured him 2 podium finishes in 5 races, he doesn't seem to be pleased with the result. In contrast, Schumacher hasn't yet had a podium finish since he returned to F1. Kimi finished 2nd in Bahrain, and 3rd in Spain, but in the press conferences he always expressed his anger at himself for finishing first. That sounds a lot like Ayrton Senna doesn't it? Ayrton Senna too had a similar mindset towards racing. He famously once said, "Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose."  Or maybe its just that Kimi has finally matured into an all round racing driver who "competes to win"(å la Ayrton Senna)?

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Overtaking in racing; hatke style.

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Racing in essence, is all about overtaking the guy ahead of you. And some pit-stop strategy. With a dash of technical wizardry. Like the F-duct on the Mercedes F1 2012 car. Well played.

However, after some lemonade and light thinking, I hit upon two new ways to overtake.





For the DTM drivers. Especially for those guys who have exhausts on the side of the car. DTM cars run V8's which heavily tuned and undergo a lot of stress. Often the engines de-stress by throwing out a bit of fire from the exhausts, on a trailing throttle or a sudden downshift. Actually it is quite a lot of fire. So why don't the cars with exhausts on the side, instead of having them at the back of the car, burn the flipping tyres of their opponents right off? I think it's quite possible if you're persistent. With good planning I think it's possible to set fire to those super-soft tyres in a few laps or so?

Fire!!!

Flamethrower.

Right. Now F1. Why can't the teams have alliances and stuff. Like, for example, "lets all screw Schumacher or some other poor sod everyone happens to hate at that moment" by overtaking him with planned teamwork. Like, a back marker such as Massa, and a front runner like Sergio Perez, or Kimi Raikkonen can overtake, let's say Webber by blocking him on the left and the right on the pit straight and then shutting the door on him before the first corner. Drivers should have the capability to radio each other mid race, plan their moves and overtake other drivers. There will be copiously epic amounts of overtaking, and not only because of the DRS activation nonsense which is extremely partial to the front runners. Seeing Narain Karthikeyan pulling a move on Vettel would be epic, and there'd just be so much unpredictability in the racing. There wouldn't be any Rosberg style pole-to-victory nonsense like in China anymore. Creativity and drifting will you earn you extra points. Of course, for proper racing fans there could be a ban on this stuff, say in circuits such as Spa and Monza. But nearly everywhere else, Kobayashi could very well get more points than the race winner even if he finishes outside the top 10 because of his drifting.

Something like this. Massa shutting the door on Webber while Alonso takes advantage. There could be inter-team overtaking as well.

What say Bernie? 

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