Tag: Sebastian Vettel

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Is Ricciardo being favoured over Vettel?

Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel

Right from the season outset Daniel Ricciardo has shown he’s neither intimdated nor inferior to Red Bull Racing’s golden child Sebastian Vettel. The young Aussie is comfortably ahead of the four-time world champion in the 2014 standings and has more often than not been the best of the drivers left in the wake of the runaway Mercedes AMG drivers.

Neither of the Red Bull drivers had a weekend to remember in Austria, but Ricciardo collected some consolation points, while Vettel suffered yet another retirement. Is Vettel’s poor run simply down to bad luck, or is it something more?

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion who now works in the media, says something more sinister is at play.

“He’s a four-time World Champion who has earned the titles won, but now Red Bull Racing is treating him like they were to Mark Webber,” Villeneuve said in an interview with OmniCorse.it [translated].

Villeneuve goes on to suggest that the season is all but over for Vettel, as far as Red Bull is concerned.

“They seem to have decided to focus only on Daniel Ricciardo,” he added. “Now they want to ‘kill’ Sebastian because the German is not able to give another image of Red Bull. Of course, he cannot stand one more season.

“Helmut Marko has now also started to criticise him. When you lose control of the team and the policy begins to have an ever-increasing weight, you’re finished.”

Yet, Villeneuve’s most emphatic statement was yet to come. The former F1 champ says Vettel must leave Red Bull Racing.

“Vettel is finished there, he needs to change team.”

According to Villeneuve Ferrari would be Vettel’s most likely destination, claiming Alonso will be tired of carrying the team on his own, while Raikkonen lacks the finesse to drive a modern F1 car.

These comments from Villeneuve, made early last week, may well be chasing headlines, but what a headline!

[Source: RichlandF1 | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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2014 Canadian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

DAN IS THE MAN!

It’s always special when we can bring you a pictorial update of an Aussie winning a Formula 1 Grand Prix. It’s been a while between drinks, but let’s hope we see a lot more of young Daniel on the top step.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Canadian GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Hey, guess what Australia, Daniel Ricciardo just won the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix! His first ever F1 victory—how cool is that.

Here’s what he said after being asked what it was like to join the small but elite club of Australian drivers who have won a grand prix:

Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s still sinking in a bit. I’m just really pleased that I was able to – as I said – to really capitalise today on the opportunity. I could see it in front, when Nico was there and Perez was in between us. I was – like – if we can just get Perez, I think we’ll be able to make a charge on Nico. Really pleased. Yeah. It’s going to take a little bit to sink in but OK, so very proud, great to hear the Aussie anthem. It’s been a few years since I won a race, I think 2011, Monaco in World Series or something, so like three years, it’s a long time, standing on a top step. It’s a feeling I missed a lot.

You can read a lot more from Daniel, as well as Nico and Sebastian, after the break.

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Daniel Ricciardo wins 2014 Canadian GP

Daniel Ricciardo wins 2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo claimed his maiden grand prix win this morning with a thrilling victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Australian overtook Nico Rosberg’s failing Mercedes AMG with just two laps to run before taking the chequered flag behind the Safety Car.

While dicing for P4 in the closing stages Felipe Massa (Williams) and Sergio Perez (Force India) came together and crashed out in spectacular style, flying into the crash barriers either side of a fortunate Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull). The incident brought out the Safety Car and secured Ricciardo’s win.

Vettel escaped that late drama to finish the race in third. Jenson Button (McLaren) put in a late charge to claim fourth after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) on the last flying lap.

Earlier, it was looking like the usual Mercedes procession we’ve come to expect in 2014. It wasn’t always perfect, Vettel got past Hamilton to briefly hold P2, but could not defend that position when DRS became available. Rosberg and Hamilton soon resumed their position at the head of the pack and cleared off into the distance.

The lead changed in Hamilton’s favour thanks to some scrappy work during Rosberg’s second pit-stop, only to see Rosberg regain P1 shortly after when Hamilton ran wide at the hairpin allowing his teammate to get by.

The Mercedes 1–2 result was scuppered, with 24 laps remaining, when Hamilton’s rear brakes faded badly forcing him into the pits to retire. Rosberg was plagued by the same problem but drove a masterful race thereafter under instructions to simply get to the flag. The chasing group, headed by Perez, closed in quickly on Rosberg but the German was able to do enough to maintain a lead of around one second.

Ricciardo made a race-defining move with six laps to run when he was able to force his way past Perez. His timing couldn’t have been better, as he soon overtook a backmarker in Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) and set about chasing Rosberg. Gutierrez did his best to get out of the way of the group behind but stalled them enough to give Ricciardo some respite.

Rosberg still appeared to have enough to in the kitty to hold Ricciardo at bay, but on Lap 68 of 70 the Australian was able to get by the failing Mercedes with DRS on the back straight. The Perez-Vettel-Massa grouping had dropped back a little to give Rosberg some relief.

However, Vettel bullocked his way by Perez to take P3 and might have had reason to believe he could also chase Rosberg down. Any such thoughts were brought to an abrupt end when Massa clipped the left rear of Perez’s car, shooting both cars off track and out of the race. Fortunately both men appeared to escape injury and a necessary Safety Car brought an end to some chaotic and breathtaking racing.

After taking the chequered flag Daniel seemed to be in a state of disbelief and shock, such was the drama and speed with which the fortunes of his race changed. Once he stood on the podium’s top step for the first time, though, his trademark beaming smile was there for all to see.

Ricciardo was a popular winner and hearing Advance Australia Fair brought an equally broad smile to thousands of race fans down under who were rewarded for braving the 4am (AEST) race start.

Daniel becomes the fourth Australian to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, joining Sir Jack Brabham (14), Alan Jones (12) and Mark Webber (9). He also moves to third in the drivers’ championship, behind Rosberg and Hamilton.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Canadian GP: Qualifying report

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg’s battle to wrest championship momentum from Lewis Hamilton took another step this morning when he claimed pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Rosberg’s time of 1:14.874 was less than a hundreth of a second quicker than Hamilton’ best lap (1:14.953) and the Mercedes pair enjoyed a gap of almost half a second back to the rest of the field.

Sebastien Vettel (1:15.548) heads the chasing pack after pulling out a great final lap to elevate him ahead of the more fancied Williams duo and into P3. The Mercedes-powered Williams was expected to have the pace on the Montreal layout to claim the lockout the second row, but they have to be content with Valtteri Bottas (1:15.550) in P4, with Felipe Massa (1:15.578) in P5.

For only the second time this year Daniel Ricciardo (1:15.589) has been out qualified by his teammate and he finds himself starting from sixth. Amazingly, just 0.041 seconds separated P3 from P6 and Daniel says he could have gone faster.

“It was a bit scrappy on the final run, we made a couple of adjustments and it didn’t quite work out” he said. “We’ve made progress throughout the weekend and we were not too far off, but it’s disappointing to just miss out. The times were close, but it could have been better. Hopefully we can get a good start tomorrow and see how we go, the strategy will be interesting.”

The top 10 was rounded out by Fernando Alonso (1:15.814), Jean-Eric Vergne (1:16.162), Jenson Button (1:16.182) and Kimi Raikkonen (1:16.214).

The full starting grid, along with the post-quali press conference transcript can be viewed after the break.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Chinese GP: Qualifying report

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton made light work of the wet conditions to comfortably claim pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. It’s his third pole position for the year and his 34th career pole, a new British record.

Hamilton’s time (1:53.860) was almost six tenths faster than Daniel Ricciardo’s best lap (1:54.455), who outqualified Sebastian Vettel (1:54.960) for the third time in four races. Vettel will start from P3, alongside Nico Rosberg (1:55.143).

Former teammates Fernando Alonso (1:55.637) and Felipe Massa (1:56.147) will line up on the third row, ahead of Valtteri Bottas (1:56.282) and Nico Hulkenberg (1:56.366).

The top 10 is rounded out by the Renault-powered duo of  Jean-Eric Vergne (1:56.773) and Romain Grosjean (1:57.079).

McLaren will be wondering where its pre-season pace has gone, only able to qualify in P12 (Jenson Button) and P15 (Kevin Magnussen).

Technical problems prevented Pastor Maldonado from setting a time in Q1 and he will start from the rear of the grid at the stewards’ discretion. Given he has a five-place grid penalty for flipping Esteban Gutierrez at the last race it would spice things up a little if the stewards said, “No race for you!”

Weather conditions for the race are expected to be cool and dry, which should see Mercedes increase its advantage over the Red Bulls who need rain to have any chance of closing the gap over a full race distance.

The full post-quali press conference transcript can be read below and Sebastian Vettel’s response to having a “more competitive teammate” is worth a read.

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2014 Malaysian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Can you believe it’s over 58 years since we saw a Mercedes driver on steps one and two of a Formula 1 podium, that was at the final race of the 1955 season, the Italian Grand Prix.

Back in 1955 Mercedes won 70% of the races in the season and Juan Manuel Fangio won the third of his five world championships. The mighty W196 silver arrow was powered by 2.5 litre straight eight producing 220kW at 8500rpm.

Now, some 21,386 days after the last Mercedes 1-2, the podium feat has been repeated. Not at a legendary racetrack in Europe, but in Malaysia. Using a 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine mated to an arsenal of energy recovery systems that would make Fangio’s head spin. That’s if he knew what the hell it all meant in the first place.

At least we know Juan Manuel would have loved logging into AUSmotive to relive the race in pictorial form. And that’s what you can do after the break as well.

“What’s that Juan; how can you see all these photos?”

“It’s called the internet.”

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Would Red Bull really drop the Ricciardo appeal?

Daniel Ricciardo and Helmut Marko

In the build up to the Malaysian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel was asked to describe the sound of the new V6 power units. His reply: “It’s shit”. This comment could land him in hot water with the FIA via a disrepute charge.

What’s that got to do with Daniel Ricciardo and the appeal—due to be heard on 14 April—to have his disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix overturned? There’s been a suggestion that Red Bull could drop the appeal in a deal with the FIA which could see Vettel escape sanction for his comment.

In his column for The Sunday Times British journalist Mark Hughes said: “Threatening to punish Vettel for his negative comments could conceivably be used as leverage by the FIA to convince his team to withdraw their appeal.

“[Jean] Todt was dismayed that the World Champion should be so publicly critical. During the era of Todt’s predecessor, Max Mosley, occasional use was made of article 151c of the regulations—bringing the sport into disrepute—to quell dissent. This is not Todt’s style, though the regulation provides an underlying threat to Vettel and Red Bull.”

We couldn’t care less what happens to Vettel, aside from the belief that his comment was pretty harmless and he should be free to air his views. However, we would care a lot if Red Bull chose to drop its appeal on Ricciardo’s behalf in order to protect Vettel.

We can’t imagine they would be that piss weak.

[Source: Sky Sports F1 | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images | Thanks to John for the tip]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Malaysian GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Here’s the full post-race press conference transcript from the Malaysian Grand Prix. It’s worth reading some of the exchanges between Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. At the start Vettel pushed Rosberg towards the pit wall as the Mercedes powered past. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was a little tight.

If anyone had a reason to kick their cat after the race it was Daniel Ricciardo and he is to be admired for his positive attitude shown in his post-race comments via Red Bull: “It was looking like we could have a solid points finish today; the race was going pretty well,” Daniel said. “The start was really good and I made up a couple of positions and I was starting to, let’s say, mix it up at the front, which is nice. It’s fun being up there and fighting for the top few spots, but then we had a problem at the last pit stop and then we had a puncture.

“I think we had a front wing failure and a few other things went on and then the stop-go penalty, so the race ended pretty quickly for us, it went from looking good to looking pretty bad in a short amount of time. I’m really disappointed, but at the same time there’s a little bit in me which is happy because I think I’ve come out the first two races how I wanted to, in a way. I still want to improve, but we’ve started off on the right foot, so for that I’m pleased and with a little bit of luck we’ll turn things around soon and I’ll get some points.

“I love racing up the front, it’s been a privilege so far and a lot of fun in the last couple of races. It’s a bit addictive actually, I want more, so you’ll see me up there plenty of times this year.”

What a guy!

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Malaysian GP

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton has continued Mercedes AMG’s strong early season form by driving to a comfortable victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix today. He finished 17 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Amazingly, it’s the first Mercedes 1-2 finish since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel collected Red Bull’s first official points for 2014 by coming home third, ahead of a largely anonymous Fernando Alonso. The dual world champion did have to fight hard for that P4, enjoying a nice late race scrap with Nico Hulkenberg.

Jenson Button came home in sixth for McLaren. While the Williams intra-team rivalry went up a notch with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas fighting on track and over the radio waves. Once again Felipe got the “your teammate is faster than you” radio call, but he’s learnt not to be pushed around so easily since his Ferrari days and did not let Bottas through as instructed and held on for P7.

The top 10 was rounded out by rookies Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat who have both continued their promising Formula 1 careers by collecting points in their first two grands prix.

Alas, once again the hard luck story was Daniel Ricciardo. At the start he made good ground dicing for position with Sebastian Vettel and claimed P3 in the early stages of the race. Vettel soon got past with the benefit of DRS but Daniel was looking safe for a solid fourth place finish. Then, on lap 41, through no fault of his own, it all went horribly wrong.

Daniel came in for what should have been his final pit stop. The wheel change seemed to go to plan but he was released without his right front wheel being secured properly. He was forced to stop in pit lane and then get pushed back into his pit box so the team could see to his wheel. Worse was to come. On his out lap his front wing broke and he had to pit again for a replacement.

The hard luck was still not done with as under new regulations he was given an automatic 10 second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release, wihch also brings with it a 10 place grid penalty for the next race. The disappointment was complete when he retired from the race seven laps from the end.

So once again Mercedes AMG showed it is the team to beat and Red Bull is the best placed team to challenge for race wins. We can expect that form to continue in Bahrain next weekend.

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2014 Malaysian GP: Qualifying report

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton claimed his second pole position of the year during a rain affected qualifying at the Malaysian Grand Prix. In doing so the 2008 world champion has moved alongside Jim Clark and Alain Prost on 33 career pole positions.

Qualifying was delayed for close to an hour due to heavy rain and difficult conditions, with terrible visibility, endured throughout the three sessions after the lights finally went green. As you might expect a couple of red flags came about due to minor incidents which added to the overtime for the TV networks.

At the end of it all Lewis Hamilton’s time (1:59.431) was only just enough to hold out a surprised Sebastian Vettel (1:59.486). Nico Rosberg (2:00.050) and Fernando Alonso (2:00.175) complete the second row.

Alonso was lucky to progress to Q3 at all after Daniil Kvyat made a rookie error during Q2 and collided with him. Alonso appeared to suffer a broken steering arm, but his Ferrari mechanics were able to put things right during the red flag required to clear the track of debris and away he soon went.

Daniel Ricciardo (2:00.541) again kept his name at the upper end of the timesheets and perhaps he may have wished for more than P5.

“When it rains here, it definitely pours and the weather was our biggest challenge today,” said Daniel. “Finding space on the track can be tough and the visibility is so bad, the spray comes from hundreds of metres away, so just getting some clean road is something you really have to try and take care of. I was a bit off in Q3, so I’ve got to try and understand why, but nonetheless I think top five is not too bad, considering the conditions.”

Kimi Raikkonen (2:01.218) secured P6 meaning the first six includes two cars each from the three engine manufacturers.

Further rain is a possibility for the race and should that come to fruition it will be sure to provide an exciting and unpredictable grand prix.

The full starting grid can be seen after the break, along with the transcript from the post-quali press conference.

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Multi 21: The movie

Multi 21 movie parody

Cast your mind back to the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix and the subsequent Multi 21 controversy between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. Instead of filling yourself with rage, go and see the movie!

Yes, really. Okay, maybe not really. But there is a parody movie trailer ready for you after the break.

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