Räikkönen takes his first podium in Bahrain

I didn’t watch the Bahrain race for obvious reasons but of course there is one thing I have to comment on. Kimi Räikkönen took his first podium of the season by finishing second behind reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel. The outcome didn’t affect Räikkönen’s standing in the drivers’ championship, which is still seventh, but Vettel made a huge rise in standings to the very top of the championship board, this being only the second time this season Vettel’s been on the podium since his 2nd place finish in Australia.

Over-all, the outlook in Bahrain was very grim. A pair of Force India workers even packed up and left because their car escort was caught in the protests in the nearby area. Over-all, it still feels to me that the race shouldn’t have taken place, but I guess I should be happy that no-one was seriously injured or hurt, but it’s also annoying that two drivers I really like finally accomplished good results in this race specifically.

The Barcelona Grand Prix is next and I may watch that if BBC has the full coverage.

Rosberg takes the Pole in Shanghai, Meanwhile in Bahrain…

Thanks to BBC’s iPlayer I’ve been able to watch the qualifyings of the Shanghai Grand Prix and tomorrow I’ll of course tune in (online) for the actual race. The qualifying was quite the shocker. Double World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, did not make it into the final qualifying and will be starting from grid-11. However, the day was extremely good for Nico “Son of Keke” Rosberg who finally drove to his first pole-position. The result is especially good since Michael Schumacher, his team-mate, landed in grid-3 behind Hamilton, who will have to start from grid-7 because of a penalty for a changed gearbox.

Sauber also did fantastically, Kamui Kobayashi will be starting from behind the Mercedes cars and Sergio Perez from Grid-8. I feel sorry for Vettel and even his team-mate Webber won’t have an easy time as he’ll be starting from in front of Hamilton and behind Button and Räikkönen.

There’s also an investigation going on about whether Pastor Maldonado blocked Heikki Kovalainen during the first qualifying, but it’s unlikely that Maldonado will receive a penalty.

Then of course, there’s Bahrain. I really wished I wouldn’t have to discuss Bahrain past last season, but the situation in the country is still unstable. It’s quite shocking how Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA have reacted to the whole situation. Bernie has a sort of callous “those pesky peasant folk” attitude and the FIA, known for their long history of bad decision making, has kept their mouth shut and pretended like there is no Bahrain Crisis.

Team Lotus have also been made the unfortunate mouth-piece of the Bahrain government that apparently wants the race to go ahead, but apparently the clear majority of teams has said that racing in Bahrain at this time would be “a pretty bad idea”. At least someone has taken a firm stand in the matter: The Finnish F1 Broadcasters, MTV3. They will not be sending their commentator team of Erkki Mustakari, Oskari Saari, ex-F1 driver Mika Salo or the pleasantly plump Timo Pulkkinen to Bahrain in fear for their own safety. I applaud them for this.

I have serious doubts whether the Bahrain race will go ahead. I’m even affraid of deciding whether or not I should watch it if it does. The whole matter is such an utter mess, I wish they would just call the whole damn thing off.

Vettel is a Kung Fu Fighting Man

Two time Formula One World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, is due to appear in a Kung Fu short film. This is just beyond awesome. If you’ve never heard of Vettel, he’s a German driver for the Red Bull Racing team and World Chapion of 2010 and 2011.

Vettel vs. Button: Is the rivalry back?

One of the things I hope the Australian Grand Prix was a prelude to is the possible return of the rivalry between Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button. In 2009, Jenson Button won the driver’s championship and also helped bring the Constructor’s Championship to the Brawn GP team on its maiden season, the only time that has happened in F1 history. Vettel was the only one who could stand up to Button during the 2009 season but the unreliability of his Red Bull car ruined his chances of catching up to Button who dominated the first half of the season.

2010 was a more even season where Vettel came out on top and unfortunately Button, despite being in the top-tier of drivers and even winning two races, was well behind his own team-mate, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. Last season, of course, Red Bull was unstoppable and no-one seemed to be able to topple them, though Button did win three Grand Prixs.

This year, Button is off to a good start, winning the Australian Grand Prix and by a clear margin to Vettel. I hope the Red Bulls will catch up to the McLarens this year, so that we can have a truly exciting season of watching Jense and Der Seb duke it out on track. There are plenty of other great drivers on track, however, and I’m certainly looking forward to Kimi Räikkönen’s exploits in Malaysia (Kimi had a botched qualifying in Australia but was still able to drive to points).

However, I’ve been looking forward to the revitalisation of the Vettel-Button rivalry and will hope that these two will still be in the top-5, running for the championship at the end of the season.

First Qualifying of the Season

I’m really disappointed that I will not be able to watch the first Grand Prix of the season which is, once again, driven on one of my favourite circuits, Albert Park in Australia. For Finnish F1 fans the qualifying was quite disappointing. Kimi Räikkönen (World Champion, 2007) and Heikki Kovalainen both dropped out during the first of the three Qualifying sessions and will be starting back-to-back from positions 18 and 19. However, at least for Räikkönen, the position is not reflective of his potential, neither is probably Felipe Massa’s 16th starting position or Paul Di Resta’s 15th. Sure, Alonso was only 12th on the starting grid, but from what it seems there was quite a clutter of cars on the track at the same time which is why so many seemingly top-tier drivers did so poorly in the first and second qualifying. The Hülk for one thing will be starting from grid-9 and Pastor Maldonado from grid-8, a good sign for Force India and Williams.

At the same time, it feels rather frustrating that Heikki Kovalainen seems to be right back where he was last year, grid-18, in front of his team-mate and the Marussia (former Virgin) cars. Also, a distinct feeling of deja vu was brought on by the HRT cars once again not qualifying for the opening race of the season. This is quite disappointing but I’m certain that just like last year, this will be the very final time that HRT are not allowed to participate. FIA has a very broad-minded interpretation of its own 107% rule so we will certainly be seeing Karthikeyan and De La Rosa on track in Malaysia. At the same time, HRT were apparently the cause of a lot of the poor qualifying performances. They really need to get their act together.

What I find most interesting about the qualifying is that for the first time in a long while, we didn’t have two Red Bulls on the front line. Vettel and Webber not only lost out to the McLarens, but Lotus-returnee Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher as well. I don’t personally see Schumi fighting for Grand Prix victory, but Grosjean’s strong showing at least is giving hope that Räikkönen will be able to improve his position massively in tomorrow’s race, granted he doesn’t get into an accident. What fortunately or unfortunately makes the Australian Grand Prixs worth watching are the high amounts of retirements we tend to see almost every year. The track is bumpy as it’s built on civilian roads and even a seemingly minor slip-up can prove fatal for a driver’s chances. Again, I’m really disappointed that I’ll be missing it.

For my own part, I’ll have to wait for the Chinese Grand Prix before I may be able to watch a full race, though this is only if BBC decides to post/broadcast the race online. At least now it’s confirmed that I’ll be coming back home in May and will at least catch the excitement at the Monaco Grand Prix, which at least in the last few years has hosted some awesome races.

How’s it at the back?

The Formula One Season will kick off next month and nearly all of the teams have managed to get their cars out. All except for Marussia and Hispania Racing Team. I normally don’t comment on pre-season testing because in all honesty, they don’t mean anything. The first place where one will see the power-relation of each car is the first race of the season. A good example of why one shouldn’t put too much weight on what happens during pre-season testing, was the re-entry of the Sauber (sans BMW) team in 2010, when they were looking super fast in pre-season tests and it then turned out that they couldn’t even keep up with the middle-group until halfway through the season.

However, that’s not to say that pre-season tests don’t mean anything. This is where each team works out the kinks from their vehicles so that they’ll be up to speed come the first Grand Prix of the season. Therefore it’s slightly worrisome what’s going on at Lotus, but at least they’re working on their problems.

What of Marussia then. They will apparently be making the final test-session of this year, which doesn’t fair well for them. Marussia has also decided not to adopt the platypus/crocodile style beak of the car, similar to McLaren. This probably won’t make the Marussia car any faster, but it’s interesting to see that at least one other team besides McLaren breaking the trend. HRT has had problems getting their car to pass the FIA crash-tests, but unlike last year and the year before, HRT will finally make it to the final pre-season tests.

This is actually a good thing. Being stuck at the back of the lot is even more embarrassing with the knowledge that you didn’t even prepare for the season. However, for Marussia I feel things are getting a little bleak. HRT may be a laughing-stock but they have shown tenacity and effort, they are genuinely improving. Marussia has really fallen from its high-horse in the last few years, I doubt Richard Branson would even want to admit that he used to own the team and that it once carried the name of his airline.

HRT may not score points this season but I actually think they might continue on in the sport, Marussia however, I feel are at the end of their rope, and unless they can at least catch up to Caterham who are themselves trying hard to catch up to the middle group, I don’t even see any point in them continuing. This all is beginning to resemble Jordan and Minardi circa 2004-2005.

Edit: 29.2. Marussia is apparently not going to make it to the final test-session because they too have failed FIA’s crash-test. This all unfortunately proves my point about Marussia going down the drain. =(

Arrividerci Jarno Trulli, Dobro pozhalovat Vitaly!

Surprising news from the Caterham F1 Team ahead of the on-coming racing season, Jarno Trulli has been let go from the team. Ever since Caterham entered the sport in 2010 (then under the name Lotus), Trulli has been disgruntled and disappointed, as well constantly losing out to his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Regardless, Trulli and Caterham have apparently parted ways on good terms.

Trulli’s exit however is good news for Russian F1 Driver, Vitaly Petrov, who found himself out of a job when 2007 F1 champion Kimi Räikkönen and 2011 GP2 champion Romain Grosjean were announced as the Lotus team’s drivers for this season. Petrov has signed up to drive for Caterham and I do have to say that I’m happy for him. Petrov has been steadily improving as a race-driver and, last year, he was clearly better than either Nick Heidfeld or Bruno Senna, who were substituting for the injured Robert Kubica.

At this point, it’s hard to say what Trulli’s employment opportunities will be like, but unless he’s decided to leave the sport for good, he might get a test-driver’s spot in some other team.

Karthikeyan’s Back and Ugly Car stories…

Narain Karthikeyan has surprisingly managed to grab himself the final free seat at HRT for the 2012 season. As a result, the driver roster for the on-coming season is set. Karthikeyan drove for Hispania Racing Team last year in the first seven races but was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo (now signed with Toro Rosso) for much of the rest of the season. Karthikeyan did get back behind the wheel for the debut of the Indian Grand Prix last year.

At HRT, Karthikeyan will join another F1 has-been, the somewhat more sympathetic Pedro De La Rosa, who’s had a long career as a McLaren test-driver as well as short stints in the current incarnation of the Sauber team. Although, I still have very little faith in Karthikeyan’s skills as a driver, its nice to see HRT for once giving a continued contract to one of their former drivers, rather than just picking someone who can bring in a lot of money, although undeniably Karthikeyan is not getting to drive for the team for nothing.

In addition, the hot topic of recent car revelations from the F1 teams has been the extremely ugly nose-designs of the current F1 cars. Both Caterham (former Lotus) and Ferrari’s cars have attracted a lot of attention for their ugly “crocodile” design noses. However, I maintain the same policy when it comes to the appearances of F1 cars that I’ve had for years: It doesn’t fucking matter. Jesus, you’d think the F1 fans around the world are a bunch of prissy little bitch princesses, the way the go on and on about how ugly the cars now look. The only thing that matters is that the car is fast and that it has a talented driver behind the wheel.

Who is Narain Karthikeyan?

Narain Karthikeyan entered F1s in 2005 in the Jordan F1 Team. With his entry, Karthikeyan became the first Indian Formula One driver in history. However, he entered the sport during the very final year of the Jordan team’s existence and during a time when the team had lost almost all of its prominence in the sport. As a result, Karthikeyan’s maiden season was unmemorable, both his and his team-mate running the back of the lot, in front of the Minardis.

Karthikeyan’s only note-worthy achievement was fourth place in the highly controversial 2005 Indianapolis Grand Prix, which was driven amongst six cars when the Michelin tyre-sponsored teams pulled out of the race due to safety concerns.

Karthikeyan stepped out of the sport for five years after the Jordan Team dissolved and became the Midland F1 Team (and through a number of other changes before becoming the current Force India team). Karthikeyan finally returned to F1s last year, after HRT fired all of their former drivers and started the season anew with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Karthikeyan. However, Karthikeyan’s results were uninspiring which is why HRT made a contract with Red Bull to allow Daniel Ricciardo drive  in his stead in preparation for his upcoming position at Toro Rosso.

However, in the India Grand Prix of 2011, Karthikeyan became the first India driver to race on his native soil.

Senna joins Williams

Williams has finally announced its second driver for this season. The driver, rather surprisingly I’d say, is Bruno Senna – one of Robert Kubica’s replacement drivers at Renault (now Lotus) team last season. For the past month or so, Williams has been one of only two teams that had not announced both of their drivers for the up-coming season. Though I’m a little sad Valtteri Bottas didn’t grab the second seat and therefore become the third Finn to be driving in F1 this year, I’m at least glad that there’s no further need for speculation.

The Brazilian Senna will be joining the Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, who debuted last year at Williams. Senna will be replacing his own countryman and F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello, who seems to be about ready to retire. Williams admittedly had their worst season ever last year, but hopefully they can shape up for the up-coming season.

In the meanwhile, Hispania Racing Team – in which Senna debuted in 2010 – is now the only team not to have announced both of its drivers. There is a very slight chance that we may see Barrichello jump to the HRT team as they are in the habit of hiring F1 has-beens. However, my advice to Rubinho is “One season out of F1s is better than any season at HRT.”

Formula One in 2012 and more…

As I will be staying in Glasgow, Scotland until late May, I will not have the privilidge of seeing the first five, possibly six of the Grand Prixs of this year’s Formula One season. This is a crying shame because with a bunch of new drivers, comebacks from several fronts, F1s returning to the US and many new surprises along the way, it looks to be one of the most interesting seasons of the past few years. Thankfully, I’ll only miss the start but because of that I’ve decided that 2012 will be the first time ever that I will not be bringing Race to race Reports on the progress of the season nor will be there a ranking on the excitement level of the races unlike last year and the year before.

However, I will be making comments and possibly posting race reports on the later races of the season, but they will be much more free-form and not as strict as the ones from this year and the year before.

In addition some things are still left hanging in the air about next season. For instance, we still don’t know what will become of Robert Kubica but I certainly hope he will return to the sport in the near future. Rubens Barrichello seems like he’s been pushed into retirement and rumours are all wild about Adrian Sutil’s fate in the sport as well.

Some clarity has thankfully been brought to the firing of both Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi from Scuderia Toro Rosso. It appears Alguersuari and the Red Bull company are currently not talking to each other due to differences in opinion and this is why the young Spaniard was let go from Red Bull’s number-2 team. Right now, I wish all the best to Jaime and hope he’ll land a test-driver’s spot at some team to keep himself relevant and ready. Buemi’s firing has still not been explained but he’s been able to keep himself in Red Bull’s good graces and has been confirmed to be working as a test and replacement driver for next season (in the event anyone from either Red Bull Racing or Toro Rosso is injured during the season). So at least Buemi is doing okay.

At this time HRT and Marussia (former Virgin) have not yet revealed their number-2 drivers but I’m still holding out hope for Valtteri Bottas to claim the second spot at Williams because I think it would be cool if there were three Finnish drivers in F1 next year.

At any rate, it looks to be an excellent season and I can’t wait for it.