MorrisF1

Well, Vettel and Red Bull remain the champions. 2014 has the prospect of a change, but we’ll see. In the meantime, there are three races to finish off the season. Abu Dhabi’s a fairly narrow circuit with barriers close to the track (and pit lane exit), so a safety car is probable. The performance of the cars is largely locked in now, as any development on non-2014 relevant areas will have practically stopped. Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus are all fighting for 2nd in the Constructors’, but whilst this matters getting next year right is more important. I expect Mercedes to be a little better in Abu Dhabi. They did well in Monaco and had a reasonably result (4th and 5th) in Singapore, which are fairly similar to the Yas Marina circuit. Turning to the driver market, the prevailing rumours I’ve heard are: Massa to Williams (replacing Maldonado) Maldonado or Hulkenberg taking Raikkonen’s old seat Some argue that Hulkenberg should get Perez’s seat, but I think that ...

Although not a classic, the varying strategies did make the race fairly interesting. Alas, the Webber tip didn’t come off (or the hedge get matched) for various reasons I’ll explain below. Grosjean did manage a staggeringly good podium, so congratulations to Mr. Putney for his 8/1 bet. In addition, Vettel enjoyed a huge margin of victory, so Mr. M’s winning margin bet was also green. At the start, many things happened. Vettel just about retained the lead, Hamilton went backwards and Massa had a great start. Those on the medium compound (Webber, Alonso, Button) went backwards. Webber was 7th at the end of lap 1. Meanwhile, Grosjean had started on the soft tyre, rather surprisingly. Vettel pitted very early (lap 2, give or take) and was 17th. Many others followed him over the coming laps and I was hoping this would give Webber a nice cushion. The Aussie had lost some time (I’d guess 6-8s) due to his poor start and dropping down the order, but not enough to significan...

Before qualifying it emerged that Charlie Whiting, race director, had spoken to the drivers saying they could go outside the white lines as the astroturf beyond would slow them down and therefore they wouldn’t get an advantage. Given the penalties Grosjean received for a great pass on Massa and Ricciardo received in Suzuka earlier in the season this seems a very inconsistent line to take. Q1 threw up a major surprise. The pointless teams all went out, as did Maldonado, but, surprisingly, so did Grosjean. He went for the medium tyre and just failed to make it through. So, he’ll start 17th. That really shouldn’t’ve happened, and is a clear mistake. With the soft tyre (all save Vettel used it) he would’ve made it easily. Quite glad I didn’t back him to be top 3 now. Q2 saw both Force Indias and Toro Rossos part ways with qualifying, with Gutierrez in 16th and Bottas 15th. Q1 saw an extremely dominant Vettel pole. It’s possible he would have managed it even had he set it on ...

The compounds are medium and soft, 35-40 expected on the former, with a 2 stop expected by Pirelli (60 lap race). This was borne out by what I saw of the second practice session. As was rumoured on Twitter, Lotus have now confirmed they’re looking at the talented Hulkenberg and the bank manager-pleasing Maldonado for their second seat (Grosjean’s confirmed for next year): http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12473/8990514/eric-boullier-reveals-either-nico-hulkenberg-or-pastor-maldonado-will-join-lotus Both Grosjean and Boullier have said they’d prefer Hulkenberg, which is interesting. The decision clearly isn’t theirs, but they’re applying what public pressure they can. If the board went for Maldonado then it’d be clearly about the money, and there would be instant massive pressure on the Venezuelan. Red Bull were 1-2 in P1, with Vettel the faster. Rosberg, Grosjean and Hamilton followed, after which came Button, Perez, Massa, Hulkenberg and Bottas. In P2 we saw th...

“Looking ahead to India - a track where Sauber's traction and good top speed should be important - Hulkenberg said he hopes to repeat the recent strong results.” http://www.espn.co.uk/japan/motorsport/story/130033.html Sauber have had a very good run of late, and I suspect they’ll manage to overhaul Force India. McLaren would be more difficult for them to pass, but not impossible (unlikely, though). Not sure if there’s any market on them beating Force India, but if you find one you may wish to consider it. In the last 4 races Lotus have made 77 points, Ferrari 79 and Mercedes 52. The standings (2nd to 4th) are: Ferrari 297 Mercedes 287 Lotus 264 Whilst Lotus have had two great races I think they’ll have a job on to beat Ferrari for second (such a market is up on Betfair). Mercedes are in danger of being overtaken, however. At the time of writing neither market has gotten going for two bets (one qualifying, one race) I’ve got in mind. Grosjean to be top ...

Rather stupidly I managed to sleep in and so missed the first 12-13 laps or so. This was not only annoying in itself, but also meant I had no idea until after the race (when I checked Betfair) whether the safety car made an appearance or not. Happily (especially given the lack of hedging) both bets proved green, and this was the best result since the very first race when Ferrari top scored in Australia. When I started watching Grosjean was leading (I admit, this made me rather excited), ahead of Webber and Vettel. That was a near perfect situation. Hulkenberg was just outside the top six, and I had no idea if there was a safety car or not. A quick check of the first 10 seconds showed that Grosjean had a great start and Hamilton got a puncture. Meanwhile, Caterham and Marussia encountered one another, sadly meaning Mr. M’s bet on Force India retiring first didn’t come off. The gaps between the leading three cars was moderate, 2-3s or so. They were already some distance ...

Surprisingly, I managed to wake up in time to watch all of qualifying. It was more interesting in each session than might have been expected. Before we get to qualifying, some poaching news. McLaren have reportedly hired Peter Prodromou, an aerodynamicist and (as the BBC put it) a ‘chief lieutenant’ of Adrian Newey. It sounds like he’ll join McLaren in 2015, possibly as lead designer, and is reckoned to be quite a good signing. Q1 saw the pointless teams go out. Sutil was also to leave the stage here. Jean-Eric Vergne likewise left qualifying, but he did have the excellent excuse that his rear brakes burst into flames and he was forced to pull over (wisely finding a marshal station so that the fire could be extinguished swiftly, minimising the rebuilding work for his engineers). Q2’s slowest driver was Ricciardo, so his team mate will start just 2 places behind him. Both Williams were ditched here, but in 13th and 15th, which is a little better than they’ve been of lat...

News was breaking as I began writing this piece that Maria de Villota, the former Marussia reserve driver who lost an eye during testing a year or two ago, has been found dead in her hotel room. At the time of writing it appears to be a natural death, but this has not been confirmed. She was 33. The tyres for the weekend are medium and hard. In Gary Anderson’s piece about Suzuka, available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24446906 , he writes that the medium may become overworked, as happened in Korea (most notably with Perez). Flat spotting a tyre shouldn’t cause it to come to pieces. With that in mind, pace on the hard tyre may be critical. I doubt I’ll watch P2 live (starts at 5.55am) but I might see if it goes up on the iPlayer to try and compare times on the hard tyre. Worth bearing in mind that fuel load has a very significant effect and although the teams are likely to have high fuel runs they won’t have identical fuel loads. P1 saw only the hard tyre b...

As we enter the latter stages of the season we have multiple pairs of back-to-back races, hence this discussion starting a day after the Korean Grand Prix (which may be the last, incidentally. The circuit’s too isolated, surrounding developments haven’t been built and the organisers are annoyed by the high cost of staging the race which is the only use of the circuit all year). The Suzuka circuit is a proper one, with lots of elevation changes, a very fast flowing section (similar to Silverstone) and some very high speed corners. Sadly, I expect this will mean it’ll suit Red Bull. However, given their resurgence, it’s worth mentioning that last year Sauber had a strong result at Suzuka, when Kobayashi got third. Perhaps Hulkenberg will be able to get good points again (thanks to him Sauber are now tied on points but ahead of Toro Rosso in the Constructors’) and Gutierrez could nab his first point or two. Lotus benefited from some fortune with the safety car timing in Kore...

In betting terms that was red. I’ll go into detail below, but one could argue the case either way for bad luck or a bad call. For Webber getting a podium (tipped by Mr. Putney) that was more a case of bad luck. Mr. M, hogging the good fortune to a degree that can only be considered selfish, got a rather large number of bets right, so good for him. I forgot my Legard-repellent Batspray, so had to avoid the radio coverage and wait for the highlights, hence the later than usual post-race piece. Off the start the Mercedes and Ferraris were not as good as usual, and basically held station initially. Vettel had a good start and got away (quelle surprise) but Grosjean managed to pass Hamilton and Hulkenberg made up some ground too. Early on Massa spun, almost taking out his team mate, and caused a bit of difficulty for those outside the top four or five. From that point it was not the most thrilling spectacle, as Vettel built a small but consistent gap and Webber advanced...

Argh. I forgot that Webber’s got a 10 place grid penalty when I backed him at 6.5 for a podium spot. Oh well. From 13th he could yet achieve it. And, as I didn’t mention it before, the tyres for the race and supersoft and medium. Briefly looking ahead to next year, it sounds like weight/height will be critical, so I may well compare those for the drivers (if I can find the data) ahead of next season. Brilliantly, I managed to sleep in and missed the first half of qualifying, only to discover Radio 5 didn’t carry the coverage (despite me degunkifying the battery slot of my ancient Walkman, thanks to Mr. HD2 for that tip, specifically to listen to it). Once on Radio5Live it turned out I’d missed Legard’s grating voice (he stills talks over men far more insightful than himself, incidentally), so it wasn’t all bad. In Q1 the pointless teams continued their long habit of predictably leaving the stage, and this time were joined by both Williams drivers. Q2 was also a thr...

First off, apologies for the absence of an early discussion piece. Driver market news for 2014: Bianchi has been retained by Marussia. Not too surprising, as he’s probably the best driver in the pointless teams. I hope he gets the opportunity to drive for a more competitive team in the near future. Hulkenberg reckons a decision about his seat next year will be made later this month. It sounds like he’s been a bit unhappy (and unpaid) at Sauber, but has been professional enough not to kick up a fuss. He’s also very fast, so I think, and hope, he gets a Lotus seat. Interestingly, Barrichello, the 73 year old Brazilian, is in talks with Sauber. However, whilst he seems a nice guy I can’t help but think it’d be better for fresh talent to emerge. The third practice session concludes at 4am, hence the earlier than usual posting of this piece. I’ll skim through the markets but don’t intend to offer a bet. It’s well worth noting that a tropical storm is nearby and could ...