Hey guys. Just a short post on the Silverstone race. I’m about to go on vacation to Denmark so I have to cut it a bit short. And after the result, I was not that motivated either. Even though the race was very eventful in both good and bad ways.
QUALIFYING
So the Lotus team introduced the “device” or passive DRS on Kimis car this weekend. And some other updates as well. Kimis feedback was that it is an improvement, but not the improvement it was hoped to give. Qualifying once again saw the Lotus problem of heating up the tires. As a result Kimi wound up on 9th (later corrected to 8th due to Di Restas penalty for being low fuelled), while Romain qualified on 8th (7th). Starting ahead of Kimi for the first time this year.
Ferrari had a miserable quali session. Alonso just made it into Q3 and stayed 10th (9th). While Massa started 11th, penalty corrected. Rosberg was 2nd and Vettel 3rd.
Hamilton was the man of the day as he took pole position by the largest margin this year. Almost half a second. Those Mercs sure have some qualifying pace. And their race pace are rapidly improving. Perhaps because of the now deemed illegal Pirelli test in Spain? Penalty was given by FIA. A slap basically. By being excluded from participating in the young drivers test.
THE RACE
Hamilton get away clean as the lights go out. Vettel jumps Rosberg and gives chase to the Mercedes. Mark has another horrible start and finds himself 14th. This time it wasn’t his own fault. He tangled with Grosjean. Which, unbelievably wasn’t his fault either. Grosjean had to take evasive action to avoid crashing into the McLaren on his right. And he made contact with Mark which damaged his wing and sent him down the order.
It’s me front wing! Git back heah ya little peddlah. I will git you for thees, Grosjeeeaaan!
As for Kimi, he gets an ok start. He gets up to 6th from 8th. But is stuck behind Massa who has made a fantastic start from 11th. Alonso has had an uncharacteristic mediocre start and only made up one place due to Webbers misfortune.
Bummer..
On lap 8 the mayhem that would set its mark on the race, started. Hamiltons rear tire blows up in a spectacular fashion. A real pity since he was looking very strong for the win. To the shocked dismay and anger of the big British crowd. And that anger was directed immediately towards Pirelli. As if they had not been under enough fire lately. It did not improve, as Massa was the next victim to suffer the rear tire failure. Then later, the Toro Rosso of Vergne, then Perez and Gutierrez.
We see Pirelli personnel scrambling back and forth and are quick to state that it is not down to the delamination we had seen before. Instead attention is turned towards the kerbs. Especially the kerb on turn 5. BBC took a closer look at that after the race. And it seems it played a part in the failures:
We have a silly situation happening with the Lotus team on lap 12. Kimi has just emerged from the pits. And Grosjean has been pushing like mad, setting fastest lap to get ahead of Kimi. And he just does. As a result, Kimi being held up by Grosjean, Alonso is able to pass him. This goes on for 2 laps before the team finally tells Grosjean to move over.
Lotus doesnt seem to learn. They did the same thing in Bahrain last year and told Grosjean way too late and Kimi had used up the part of his tires that most likely would have given him the win. Just as he passes Grosjean, Vergnes tire gives way. And the SC is sent out on lap 16 so debris could be cleaned. Kimi actually got chunks of smoking hot tire flung into his cockpit and onto his helmet. And yet the madman just kept his foot down.
Nevertheless, the race goes on after the safety car period. Vettel obviously took over the lead after Hamiltons big blowout. And it looks like another win in the cards for the WDC leader.
Kimi eventually catches up to Alonso and Lotus makes a great call to call Kimi in early to jump Alonso. Kimi gets out, sets some blistering purple sectors and voila, Alonso is beaten out of the pits.
He is tough to get rid of though, but Kimi gets some unexpected help from Webber coming up from behind and fighting a while with Alonso before he makes his pass. Except now the pressure from behind is Webber. Kimi is in 3rd position though, and looks set to get a nice position.
Bummer..
Lap 41, Kimi goes up to 2nd. This time it’s due to Vettel losing his gearbox and slowing to a halt. To the delight and cheers of a lot of people in the grandstands. The car stops in such an inconvenient place on the old start/finish, that the SC has to be called into action again. And what happens next is what really grinds my gears – much like they grinded in Vettels car. Lotus has at least half a lap to make the call to pit Kimi or not. Meanwhile, Rosberg, Webber and Alonso all pit. For some reason, Lotus chooses not to pit Kimi. Something that baffled him afterwards: http://youtu.be/xx5Dy8lCy5Q
Webber: “Hahaha.. heheheheh.. MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!”
And the teams response is, “I dont know, Kimi.” Oh great. Thats comforting. What are they paying all the strategists for then? Because of this he is on tires that are 15 laps older than his competitors. He puts up a great fight. But the wear of the tires cannot be ignored. And Alonso, Webber and even Hamilton gets by and demotes him to 5th. He felt that decision cost him 2nd place easily. This is one pissed off Kimi after the race:
http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/formula-1/8799673/raikkonen-team-made-wrong-call
“Derp”
Anyway, Rosberg is the first man across the finish line for the second time this year. Race pace and tire management have improved significantly for the silver arrows. Webber follows suit and Alonso in third showed how much better the Ferrari is on race pace. Congrats to young Rosberg. Even if he had finished behind Vettel without his DNF, he sure kept up pretty good with the Red Bull before that. Could he turn into a contender this year? Perhaps. It would take just a little more performance from the car and another Vettel DNF. It’s a long shot but you never know.
One thing is for certain, they have definitely leapfrogged Lotus on race pace. Lets hope Lotus can still extract more from their updates. And lets hope the teams do not boycott the German GP. I need my F1 fix. And the Germans have been pulling out the big PR and are expecting a Vettel win there.
OPINION ON KIMI AND RED BULL
Time to turn our attention away from this race. To Germany nest week? Sure. But first, the hot topic of where Kimi will race next year. Both Kimi and Red Bull have acknowledged a serious interest and also talks. And Steve Robertson has even said there there is interest in Kimi for next year from McLaren. Whatever that means.
Listen, I get that many people want Kimi to stay at Lotus. They have been fabulous. They have given him a dream comeback. A perfect team to make a comeback with. Its not a top team but they have had a good enough car to challenge for podiums and even supplied 2 wins. Had he started in McLaren or Red Bull, it would have been more difficult and any good performance is merely expected more than it is praised. They have also been good to Kimi in catering to his needs. Less sponsor days and so on.
That’s… different.
But lets get real for a moment. We also need to look at the many team blunders the past one and a half years. Blunders that top teams seldom make. Botched up and slower pit stops as well. Its incredible what they have done with the budget they have – but a reality check tells us that F1 is also an arms race. And to win that arms/development race, you need resources. Something that Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and RBR all have. Thats why Ferrari can turn a dog handling car into a winning car over the season. Same with McLaren. And its also why Mercedes is becoming the major threat to Red Bull now.
So, if Kimi wants to have a winning car, I am absolutely convinced that he has to change team now. Of course, you can never know in F1. But there are big rule changes for next year. And we all know that Adrian Newey is a fox to find performance in places that others don’t even think of. Until they see it on his car. I would even take McLaren over Lotus even if Red Bull is my preferred choice. McLaren may be in a slump now. But you can never count them out. Especially when they have already begun to focus and develop the 2014 car.
Where are you going, Kimi?
As for the sceptics saying that, “oh, don’t put Kimi in Red Bull. Its built around Vettel. He owns that team. Kimi will be number 2 just like Webber.” To that I say, baloney!
Sure, Vettel is a 3 time champ and the team will obviously tend to meet his needs. But there is not a shred of evidence that Webber is a number 2 in the team. I have said this many times – but if he truly was a number 2, why on earth did the team desperately try to keep Vettel from overtaking Webber in Malaysia. They would have just asked him to move over. But they didn’t. Fact is that they have always been allowed to race. And they also have the finances to keep the cars to both drivers liking. Besides, you really think Kimi and the Robertsons wouldn’t have covered all bases in a contract?
I am aware it could backfire. Kimi might need extra time in getting the car to his liking. But I would still rather see him in a winning car. I know there are new blood in Lotus now. New owners have bought into the team and are making big promises. Promises that they are sure Lotus will be on top. Those are big words. But talk is cheap and now that the only designer that could challenge Newey is gone, I have my doubts. Lotus plays it down but James Allison was worth his weight in gold.
Thats my opinion and I am sure we will know more before August. I have to add, that even if he stays at Lotus I will be happy just to be able to see Kimi racing. Even if I will be a little disappointed. But Kimi knows what he is doing. So I’m glad he is making the call and not me. By the way – Lotus got a home run with their Twitter hashtag this weekend: #GodSaveOurTires.
Enjoy the summer. Do a good deed. Maybe also pet a dog. But not if you don’t know the dog and it is tied up. It could bite you know.
Love
Soren
P.S. This is where you find the chilliest Kimi community on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kimifanclub/
P.P.S. I guess the review wasn’t that short after all..
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F1 Race Reviews 
Hi there, I guess you won’t be reading this till you’re back from your long holiday, but just in case you do …
First, Kimi was definitely onto a p2 here. Sloppy pitwall strategy can not be acceptable to a serious team. It’s not the first time, won’t be the last. Eric B himself seems to be involved in those decisions and maybe he should not be as he is obviously not bright enough. Keeping Grosjean in F1 this year was another of his wrong decisions.
It’s a shame the Lotus adventure will not have a dream ending, like another title for Kimi ! Looking back at last year and this, it was certainly possible. But from here on, that is going to get harder and harder to achieve, IMO. Moving to RB is the obvious decision, and there can be no other. Kimi did not come back to F1 just to beat Grosjean as team mate.
As for the burning question of the moment: which of Kimi’s girlfriends shaved his head while he was asleep?
(and is he still seeing her?)
Hi John. Leaving later this afternoon, so I just caught your comment 😉
Yea, sloppy. And I also just recalled Kimi being screwed before in Silverstone with a wrong tire choice. That was back in 2008 with Ferrari. He was all over Hamilton until they decided to put on inters instead of full wets. Genius..
We all would have loved to see that. Kimi bringing the ultimate prize to Lotus. But it’s time to face the facts. Like you point out. The lack of resources are hurting them over the season.
Haha. The rumor about the hairstyle is that it’s because of a bet that he lost. I don’t know anymore than that 😀
Hi Soren, first of all I would like to wish you happy holiday 😀
We don’t have Summer here in Malaysia and therefore no holiday for me :-p I love 4 seasons and wish I could live in any 4 seasons country in the near future 🙂
I am watching the BBC video you attached, hmm a kerb can caused the chaos but the tires puncture incident is not the first time anymore.
That edge is steep but its not exactly that new, we have similar kerbs elsewhere. Well maybe this ‘might’ can cause it because of that extra concrete green area give the drivers reason to go out of the track even more and then can cause a puncture. In my opinion, they should remove that concrete region and force drivers to be on the inside of the kerbs not outside. So if the drivers are trying to cut the kerbs too much can cause it.
BUT..
If the tires puncture it should not explode, that is the biggest problem we saw. Even if there is delaminations the tires should not explode. Last year tires never exploded, they changed the bonding and that resulted in weak tires.
I still think, tires need changing even if the cause was possible this kerb. The kerb doesn’t save Perilli, they are still having a crap tires that is a dangerous. Ehen it explodes, the small particles are travelling at higher speed hitting the face for a driver. It was so close ( I think it happened to Kimi and Alonso, the tires puncture and both of them are so close to it) the same thing that happened to massa in 2009 can happened again.
I personally don’t see Ferrari having a race pace at all. I am not counting on their qualifying pace. Alonso might be catching up quite quickly even in the beginning of the race but those cars like Mclaren certainly are slow. It was when he reached up to STR of Ricciardo that he didn’t managed to passed that easily.
I still think if those tires puncture issues are not there and the SCD was not deployed. I don’t think Alonso will finished in podium. He was just lucky to be able to collect points thrown away by others. He for one that claimed others having ‘luck’ is actually the luckiest man on track.
I am sorry for Vettel, that too retired from the lead. But this had happened before and he usually comes back strong 🙂
Kimi’s tires not change was a fool! I remembered a picture where a Lotus crews were all in Donkey faces posted in your FB comm. Hah! we don’t insult donkeys here cause I am sure the decision they made is even worst than a donkey could do. Kimi’s interview after showed he was so damn pissed off. Infact he is more like controlling anger. Poor Iceman I wish all the best for him next year.
With Webber ruling out and the rules are completely different next season, there is no way Kimi should stays in Lotus. 2014 is the beginning of everything and Kimi should be in a decent / best car.
By the way, DAMN when Kimi was in third place before Vettel’s gearbox issue i was so happy for I can finally see his secret hair xD Jeez, another time then 😦
Thanks for the review and once again happy holiday.
Sorry for double post, I forgot to include this in my last reply.
Oh by the way Soren, I don’t know if you noticed the speed trap info on FP2 and FP3, there’s something caught me and make me think why their DDRS had no effect.
You see, it seems that Lotus setup the car on the rev limiter. It is no wonder the DDRS had no effect
Both Kimi and Romain constantly hit the same top speed in FP2 and FP3.
The final gear that is 7th gear, if its not geared in the right ratio you will hit the 18,000 rpm rev limiter then no matter what you do your car wont get that much DRS advantage.
You need to gear your 7th gear long enough to make use of DRS or any stalling effect to give the car extra grunt to push it faster. These people have geared both Gros and Kimi short
No wonder kimi cant make any use of their final gear to make this DDRS actually work. Not just 7th gear also the 5th and 6th gear should be geared accordingly.
Ok, like this ( to avoid confusion because I tend to confuse everyone all the times)
1st to 7th is like that mosquito sound, the sound that lasts before it changes gear like eee-kuch-eeeeeee-kuch-eeeeeeeeee-kuch-eeeeeeeeeeeee that needs to geared properly so it actually has some speed increase by the final gear. If you make it short you will hit 18,000 rpm sooner and you wont have top speed.
Both Kimi and Gros had the same damn tops peed regardless of stalling so it had no effect on Kimi. No wonder he couldn’t pass that Massa for so long.
Lotus is really run by argh I don’t know what else to describe them
Thanks jenni. A double post is fine 😉
As for the gear ratios. I agree, it seemed strange to let them hit the limiter that early. But we also have to remember that a higher gear ratio also means slower acceleration. So it’s a tradeoff. Im not an engineer. But it seems like they could have benifited with a click or two higher ratio in the final 2-3 gears.
About the tires. I am sure those kerbs in that place, played a big part in the failures. Turn 5 is a high speed corner and the cars slide outwards while accelerating. On Vettels tire, you could see how it had been scraped sideways. He was lucky not to suffer a puncture as well.
Perhaps a Bridgestone tire might have tolerated the abuse more. But I only think Pirelli is partly to blame, the kerbs the most.
You have a good “no season” there in Malaysia 😉
Ya, I thought about it too but then I think slower acceleration is only a problem if the down force is constantly high. So was thinking ‘why not’ in my head because they certainly has nothing to lose at this moment.
I keep having faith, with the passive DRS system they have the ability to have higher down force that gets stalled to have less drag on the straights and high speed corners. Less drag means less effort to push the vehicle forward. The gear ratios should be kept to have have longer duration on the final gears to actually make the system count for something.
I am really thinking Lotus is in desperate situation and thus just go and try out everything *sigh*
{Perhaps a Bridgestone tire might have tolerated the abuse more.}
Maybe, we will just have to see if Silverstone is really that bad or it is really just the tires problem. There still a minor puncture before so we need to see more to proof it is Pirelli problem entirely. I haven’t see any official news about they are rolling back to 2012. I am waiting.
Pirelli has come out with a full report on the tire failures in Silverstone. Interestingly it seems another reason was that the rear tires were swapped. They are asymmetrical and has to be placed on the side of the car it was designed for. I will just link to Adam Coopers blog: http://adamcooperf1.com/2013/07/02/pirellis-full-report-on-the-silverstone-debacle/
Wow … -_- speechless. Maybe I am just having personal grudge on Pirelli, but ..
They have been doing that since 2012, oh god, I think they are merely finding excuses now. If that’s the case why are they changing construction again if its not their fault? They agreed to change construction and also at the same time say they are not at fault.. wow -_-
On both Lotus’ similar top speed:
Grosjean had the newer more tidy and sleek engine cover fitted,so that might have contributed to higher top speeds as well. But we need to note that higher top speed isn’t the sole purpose of the “device”: it enables the use higher downforce levels without sacrificing top speed.
Kimi and McLaren: maybe James Allison is heading there as well 😉 ?
Hi there 🙂
But there are no attributes to this engine cover changes between the two lotus cars. Plus the speeds are way down in the list of all the drivers, these are not even good speeds to be considered a trade off imo. The down force gained here is redundant because Kimi wasn’t any quicker than Grosjean in any of the high speed sections or low traction corners. He was in fact consistently slower to Grosjean’s best throughout to the weekend. Either you see an improved high speed corner sector time or you see higher speeds on the speed trap.
Actually, I think the lotus is already good on down force balance, their weakness was the pathetic top end speeds making them unable to over taker slower cars in front. A lot of time was wasted chasing people rather than actually racing flat out. That’s why I having hope and and this is the purpose of the passive system not down force gains. *sigh* I want Kimi to do the best this season.
Disappointing to see a great talent wasted just like that.