And so we head to China for the third round of the 2011 season where the common opinion dictates that Sebastian Vettel is on course to win his 3rd straight win. Red Bull have been fast, no question there but now the chink in the armour has been revealed; KERS.
Adrian Newey is famed as being the designer sans peril in Formula One circles and while he has yet again created a race-winning machine that is a title contender, he has sacrificed potential reliability over speed with the development of red Bull's KERS system.
There was much to suggest over the Australian GP weekend that the team were not running the device because of reliability concerns yet it was difficult to gain a 100% accurate reading on that. Christian Horner's admission after last weeks Malaysian GP that the reliability of the device was a severe worry has set tongues wagging in the pitlane that the title is far but assured to be staying in Milton Keynes for another year.
Although McLaren had made massive gains in the weeks between the final winter test and the first race, they were, over a single flying lap, still adrift of the Red Bull's, and by some margin. races however, are not won on Saturday's and Lewis Hamilton's second place in Melbourne and Jenson Button's second place last week in Malaysia would indicate that a McLaren victory is in the offing over the next few races.
China presents a different challenge with it's mile-long back straight and the fear for red Bull is that in the interests of winning once more, reliability concerns may have to go out the window as the team will need to utilise the additional power afforded by the KERS system which will obviously be used by their nearest rivals.
The Life and Times of a Motorsport & Formula One Journalist
Wednesday 13 April 2011
Friday 1 April 2011
New safety device for F1?
Formula One team bosses are meeting at London's Heathrow Airport to discuss the proposal of fitting full body-surrounding bumpers to all cars from the Malaysian Grand Prix onwards.
They are expected to all meet at the WHSmiths newsagents store in Terminal 5 before heading off to Starbucks for a coffee and croissant or two. The suggestion has come to light in response to the crashes that resulted in last week's Australian GP being found guilty of providing momentary entertainment.
After a visit to the Blackpool Pleasure Beach (a poor mans version of Las Vegas and Disneyland in the UK) during the off season, Adrian Newey, famed Red Bull designer, studied the 'bumper cars' he saw competing around the popular tourist attraction and was intrigued by the benefits of fitting a similar safety feature onto a contemporary F1 car.
Adopting the body-wrapping rubber sculpted design, Newey has proposed that drivers can now forget the 'one-move' rule when overtaking and focus instead on smashing into each other to see who has the strongest car.
"Drivin' standards are of a poor enough standard in 'tut sport anyways and ee by gum I thinks that by fittin' these thingymagigggs, Formula One is gonna be a right sport to watch on tut television," one luminary from the Pleasure Beach declared in his northern tones.
Rumour has it that in anticipation on the monsoons as witnessed during the 2009 Malaysian GP, drivers are to be fitted with mini wipers for their visors to help disperse the rain water should it arrive via mother nature and not Bernie's sprinklers...
Word just in too that Ron Dennis has, after many years searching, found his sense of humour and is poised to appear under the watchful guise of popular comic Michael McIntyre at the London Apollo theatre as a stand up comedian...
They are expected to all meet at the WHSmiths newsagents store in Terminal 5 before heading off to Starbucks for a coffee and croissant or two. The suggestion has come to light in response to the crashes that resulted in last week's Australian GP being found guilty of providing momentary entertainment.
After a visit to the Blackpool Pleasure Beach (a poor mans version of Las Vegas and Disneyland in the UK) during the off season, Adrian Newey, famed Red Bull designer, studied the 'bumper cars' he saw competing around the popular tourist attraction and was intrigued by the benefits of fitting a similar safety feature onto a contemporary F1 car.
Adopting the body-wrapping rubber sculpted design, Newey has proposed that drivers can now forget the 'one-move' rule when overtaking and focus instead on smashing into each other to see who has the strongest car.
"Drivin' standards are of a poor enough standard in 'tut sport anyways and ee by gum I thinks that by fittin' these thingymagigggs, Formula One is gonna be a right sport to watch on tut television," one luminary from the Pleasure Beach declared in his northern tones.
Rumour has it that in anticipation on the monsoons as witnessed during the 2009 Malaysian GP, drivers are to be fitted with mini wipers for their visors to help disperse the rain water should it arrive via mother nature and not Bernie's sprinklers...
Word just in too that Ron Dennis has, after many years searching, found his sense of humour and is poised to appear under the watchful guise of popular comic Michael McIntyre at the London Apollo theatre as a stand up comedian...
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