MorrisF1

No more F1 for quite a few weeks, and Hungary provided us with an absolutely fantastic send-off. From start to finish there were crashes, weather changes, the safety car actually made an appearance (only the third Hungarian race it has ever done so), on-track passing [gasp!] and a riveting fight for the win right at the end. The bet looked bad initially, good halfway through, bad again in the third quarter and finally, just, came off. Huzzah! Two bets, two wins, greenest race weekend on either measure (bet-and-forget or hedged). After a few red races in a row it's nice to return to the positive side of the balance sheet. So much happened it's going to be hard for me to include everything relevant, but I'll endeavour to cover the key points. It had rained heavily prior to the race start, so everyone began on intermediate tyres. Kvyat failed to get off the line for the formation lap and joined Magnussen and Hamilton in the pit lane. Bottas cleverly kept ...

Hamilton must be cursed. His Mercedes burst into flames before he could set a time. Good for the bet, but yet more abysmal luck for the Briton. In Q1, before Hamilton's fire, Maldonado also retired without setting a time. The drama did not stop there, as Raikkonen, who suffered no problems I was aware of, was knocked out of qualifying at this stage. Bianchi put in a great lap to knock the 2007 world champion out. The Caterhams and Bianchi's team mate Chilton also left at this stage. Bianchi was on the soft and Raikkonen on the medium tyre, which turned out to be a crucial error of judgement by the Finn/Ferrari. Nevertheless, a great lap by Bianchi. Immediately afterwards Hamilton suggested the engine and gearbox would need replacing. He also said it was “beyond bad luck”. I would guess that's implying reliability is simply not good enough, rather than implying there are dark arts at work. Initial word was that it was a fuel leak. In Q2 Perez suffe...

Tyres for this weekend are soft and medium. The Hungary track is very hard to overtake on, typically, but so's Bahrain and Hockenheim, so maybe we'll see more than usual this year. It's nature (not many straights) may help out Red Bull. McLaren and Williams are both bringing upgrades, and Bottas has reported that whilst the team's providing fewer this year, they're actually working, unlike in 2013. Hamilton's got a great record in Hungary, so he'll be confident of winning, if reliability doesn't harm him. The circuit's also notable for being the least likely to see a safety car on the calendar. If it's dry, I might well back that. The reason is the lack of barriers near the circuit and the wide run off areas. It's also quite hard to follow a car (for aerodynamic reasons), meaning you rarely get multiple cars abreast. In P1 Hamilton was two-tenths up on Rosberg, with Raikkonen almost half a second down the road. Then came Alon...

Rosberg's week of wonder has seen him sign a new contract, Germany win the World Cup and the driver himself get married. Can he top it off with winning his own home race, and thereby stretch his lead (now just 4 points) over his team mate? FRIC suspension is front-rear interconnected suspension. This has been banned after the FIA limply said it could be retained for the season if all teams agreed. As all teams agree on nothing, ever, this didn't occur so the teams are not running FRIC. This will disadvantage almost every team (Force India least of all, Marussia quite a bit and it may also help Williams), but won't have a critical impact, I feel. In Hungary the effect may well be more pronounced. It's going to be hot until race day, when rain is forecast, and it could absolutely piss it down. Well worth comparing the probably dry qualifying pace with the wet qualifying in Silverstone and Malaysia (the former's more recent but Williams/Ferrari cocking it up...

Well, that's probably the worst misjudgement of a bet I've made this season. Slightly annoyingly, most of those I considered would've come off, and the one I went for was miles wrong. I'll go into that in more detail later, but that's two red races in a row, alas. Hat tip to Mr. Putney, whose bet on Button for points at 8/11 (pre-qualifying) went rather better. The race was quite entertaining, though probably not a classic. Vettel and Hulkenberg had bad starts (possibly because they started on the slower, even side) allowing Hamilton to rapidly climb to 4 th , with Magnussen in 3 rd , early on. However, Raikkonen lost control on the opening lap. Massa could take only minimal avoiding action as a Caterham immediately ahead of him blocked most of his view, but was able to avoid a T-bone collision which could've been even worse. Raikkonen seems to be ok, but the accident took not only himself but Massa out of the race. [Massa had a dreadful start an...

Well, I said the grid could be unexpected and it was certainly that. Quite probably the most surprising qualifying session of the year, which resulted in an intriguing grid for tomorrow. Q1 started off a bit wet, suitable for intermediates, but then started to rapidly dry towards the end. Everyone managed to get out during this window, except Ferrari and Williams. Those two teams missed the optimal time, and when they were trying for their fast laps the rain fell again and the window of opportunity slammed shut. Shockingly, we lost, as well as both Caterhams, all four Ferraris and Williams. A minute or so late, and they line up 17-20 th . Almost as surprising, both Marussias made it through (although Chilton, alas, takes a 5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change). Q2 couldn't quite match the drama, but it also started off a bit wet then dried up towards the end. Sutil was fast enough to escape Q1, but unfortunately went off and was unable to compete in the second part ...

Exciting, and stupid, news: idiots in suits (I would guess the same idiots who decided double points in Abu Dhabi makes sense) have decided that next year we're going to have standing starts after a safety car. What that means is that, instead of what happens now (cars trundle around behind the safety car then return to racing when it comes in) they'll line up on the grid. This will offer some exciting new disadvantages, such as: The leading cars may well overheat It'll greatly reduce the advantage leading cars rightly enjoy It'll increase the chances of a crash There are no upsides. Yes, crashes are exciting, but a sport involving moving at 200mph doesn't need less safety. Maybe the FIA has a bet on that it can dream up a different totally mental rule each year... In less idiotic news, Caterham has been sold by Tony Fernandes to a Swiss/Middle East consortium, which will retain the Caterham name. Team principal Cyril Abite boul has ...