The 2013 Canadian Grand Prix was a pretty easy day out for Sebastian Vettel. Indeed those ‘Mounties’ were as close as anyone got to him on race day. We didn’t want you to miss out on the fun, so here’s 86 images from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that will bring you as close to Vettel as any of his competitors got.
Sebastian Vettel has made it back-to-back wins for Red Bull Racing at the Monaco Grand Prix by claiming victory in a dramatic race overnight. His fifth win of the year, and his first on the famous street circuit, has given him a seemingly unassailable 58 point lead in the drivers’ standings. Fernando Alonso achieved Ferrari’s best result for the season to date by finishing second, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
As always, Monaco provided plenty of action and gave us the first Safety Car laps of the year. The race was heading for a thrilling climax with Vettel, Alonso and Button all nose-to-tail with six laps remaining. All drivers were on different tyre strategies with Vettel, having only stopped once on lap 16, hoping to hold his track position by running 62 laps on the Prime tyres.
Vettel was somewhat forced into a one-stop strategy after the usually lightening quick Red Bull crew made a hash of his first pit stop (9.6 seconds) and followed that immediately after with a worse stop for Webber (15.5 seconds); all but ruining the Australian’s race, who did well to fight back to fourth place.
Meanwhile, in the closing stages Alonso’s tyres were fresher than Vettel’s, but still 20-odd laps old, while Button’s three-stop race meant he had the cleanest and quickest rubber of the top three.
On lap 72, while fast approaching slower traffic, the leading trio were lucky to miss a bit of kerfuffle immediately ahead of them involving Vitaly Petrov (Lotus Renault GP) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso). The pair crashed into the barriers and caused the second Safety Car period of the race, which quickly turned into a red flag after initial concerns over the well being of Petrov. With just six laps left to race it was first thought the race would end and Vettel would be declared the winner. Petrov was safely removed from his car and it subsequently appears he will be okay.
While Petrov was being attended to the cars formed up on the grid and under red flag conditions were able to make the most of a relatively lengthy delay by making minor adjustments to their cars if required. Crucially, this also gave teams the chance to fit fresh rubber if available to them. Ultimately, this handed Vettel the race who, after the restart, was able to hold off Alonso and Button for what looked like a comfortable win. Although, at various times all three men on the podium would have felt like they were best placed to win.
You can read what they had to say after the break. Video highlights are available at the One website.
[Pic: Ferrari]
Despite being teased by our own Mark Webber when he scored pole position, the Spanish GP ended up being yet another Sebastian Vettel victory. That’s four from five races for the 2010 champ and history suggests that impressive start is already enough to put Vettel at almost unbackable odds to make it a second world crown.
As usual there’s some great pics from the latest race and there’s a couple of shots where you can see how dramatic the marbles are with the new Pirelli tyres.
We’re already in another Grand Prix week with the classic Monaco GP just a few days away. Can Mark match his unstoppable performance from 2010, or is he fast becoming a broken man with shattered confidence?
In a little over six months the Formula One calendar will see the first ever Indian Grand Prix. The world’s latest F1 track is located 25km out of New Delhi in the Buddh district. No surprise, then, to learn the new facility has been named the Buddh International Circuit.
The new racetrack is the latest to roll out from Tilke GmbH and features 16 turns over 5.141km. Expected average speed is a shade over 210km/h and the predicted lap time is around 1 minute 27 seconds.
After the break you can see Karun Chandok preview the Indian track in a clip produced late last year for circuit owners, Jaypee Sports International.
UPDATE 17 October: Click HERE for a new preview of the the Buddh International Circuit from Red Bull Racing and Mark Webber.
Already the 2011 Formula One season is looking like it could be a Sebastian Vettel procession. Thankfully, there’s still another 17 races to go; with any luck someone else will get a look in very soon. This weekend in China, perhaps?
Until then, here’s 78 images from the Malaysian Grand Prix to keep you busy.
The newly branded Lotus Renault GP team was the third outfit to show off its 2011 car at Valencia on the eve of official testing. The R31 was presented to the media throng by drivers Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov.
Full quotes and press texts are available after the break. However, with the new adjustable rear wings being such an integral feature of the 2011 cars, we thought it pertinent to highlight some quotes from Lotus Renault GP Technical Director, James Allison:
“It’s true to say that the car has been designed in an ambitious manner and a quick glance at the layout will confirm that its entire concept differs considerably, not just from last year’s car, but from any car this team has ever produced. Those changes represent our attempt to extract the absolute maximum aerodynamic performance from the regulations, which have changed quite significantly for this year, and to further develop the concept of using the exhausts to blow the floor.
“Every team will be looking for a wing that delivers the optimum compromise of downforce in the corners, while shedding the maximum drag down the straights – the better your wing can do that, the better your lap time will be in qualifying and the more competitive you will be in racing conditions. In terms of how powerful it is, the gains from adjusting the rear wing will be more significant than the gains we saw last year using f-ducts. But, like the f-duct, it’s far from straightforward aerodynamically and we’ve spent a great deal of time in CFD and the wind tunnel to make sure our concept delivers the best compromise.”
More after the break.
Team Lotus (formerly Lotus Racing) has taken a rather unconventional approach to unveiling their new F1 car. It was first revealed in the launch issue of Team Lotus Notes, the team’s new magazine (hmm, do we sense another copyright drama ahead).
You can see a few pics of the car right here (there’s more after the break) but we would encourage you to check out the Team Lotus website and download the newsletter for yourself.
The T128 (or the TL11, it seems we can take our pick) will source its engine from Renault and its transmission from Red Bull Technologies. Chief Technical Officer, Mike Gascoyne, reckons this will help them move up the grid in 2011, “I think that basically this car looks like a front-running car in every area. We said very clearly that we want to start challenging the established teams and I think that’s very achievable.”
Remembering the whole Team Lotus v Lotus Group kerfuffle, things have been made even more confusing by Team Lotus listing the tech specs of this car (available after the break) under the heading Lotus Renault T128.
In case you were wondering, the other Lotus Renault will be revealed later today as well.
The recent launch of Ferrari’s F150 challenger marks the unofficial beginning of the 2011 Formula One season. So, for a quick reminder of the immediate season past, take the jump to watch an excellent highlights clip which celebrates the sport’s 60th anniversary year.
It’s a very entertaining piece of footage and is the perfect complement to our 2010 pictorial season review.
The current contract with Melbourne to host the Formula One Grand Prix expires in 2015. A statement from Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, published on the weekend speculates it is highly unlikely the Victorian Government will bid for the rights to host the race beyond the current deal.
Writing for the Sunday Herald Sun Doyle said, “Fast forward to 2015, the year the franchise ends. Though the documented benefits for the city may include hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising value, tens of millions of dollars of local revenue, an event that will draw between 250,000 and 300,000 people over three days will come at a cost that will approach 70 million taxpayer dollars.
“It is the old argument: pay up front but get many times the value of the upfront payment in downstream economic benefits.
“For most events that formula is persuasive. But $70 million?”
Doyle concludes with an even more frank assessment, “My judgment would be: Get ready. Time’s up.”
Ultimately the decision to seek an extension to the current deal rests with the new Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and his government. Controversy and Albert Park have gone hand in hand for most of race’s history in the Victorian capital. Would it be a prudent political move for Baillieu to announce his political leadership with a strong statement by snubbing F1?
So, if Melbourne lost the Grand Prix and it went elsewhere in Australia, would that be okay? What if the race was shipped off overseas for good? Let us know what you think.
[Source: Sunday Herald Sun]
The FIA has released a confirmed list of teams and drivers for the 2011 season. Following the news from overnight, we can now add Pastor Maldonado to the vacant Williams seat, which leaves nine drives still up for grabs.
Interestingly, Toro Rosso is shown as having no drivers confirmed, despite team boss Franz Tost already on record as saying Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi will return next year.
Williams F1 has just confirmed 25-year-old Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado will drive for them in 2011. Maldonado will take the seat vacated by Nico Hulkenberg and joins veteran Rubens Barichello.
Maldonado first caught the attention of Sir Frank Williams in 2007 when the driver won at Monaco in his debut GP2 season. Earlier this year a run of six vitories on end helped Maldonado pocket the GP2 championship.
He drove for Williams on all four test days at the recent young driver testing held immediately after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Sir Frank is happy to have him on board, “We are very much looking forward to developing his talent over the winter and a fruitful season with him next year.”
It’s closing in on three decades since a Venezuelan has driven in F1, the last man to do so was Johnny Cecotto, who would be familiar to touring car fans thanks to his time driving for BMW. Maldonado is looking forward to seeing his country represented in Formula One again, “I will be doing my best over the winter to prepare myself, and I know the team will be working hard to ensure a successful season. 2011 will be the first time in nearly thirty years that a Venezuelan has driven a Formula One car so I will be looking to get some good results in return for the support my country has given me to help get me to this position today.”
You can learn more about Pastor Maldonado in the Q&A interview included with the official Williams press release after the break.
On the weekend, some 13,500kms apart, the greatest assets of Red Bull Racing were at “home” spreading the word of Formula One. In German capital of Berlin the 2010 F1 World Champion, Sebastien Vettel, was living it large in front of the Brandenburg Gate. While, in sunny Australia, our F1 high priest Mark Webber and his young protege, Daniel Ricciardo, were burning rubber just outside of Perth at the Australian Festival of Speed.
You can see photos along with a mixture of professional and amateur video after the break. At times like these, the life of an F1 driver looks even more appealing than usual.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]