Honda! You Fools!

I am quite tired of blogging but with the results of today's qualifying in Melbourne, I just had to write this one. It was fantastic to see a complete change to the look of the grid. What was amazing to see was that the top 3 was dominated by privateers not manufacturers! This is how it should be done!!

But my main focus here is on the Brawn GP cars. About a month ago I was telling folks about its speed but as is usual, many seemed to dismiss their pace as running light showboating. But there was something different about this team. Whereas show-boaters go quick once at best, these guys were consistently setting the quickest times. And not just on banzai laps. Reports showed that they were consistently fast on the long runs and signficantly, their relative pace seemed undiminished towards the end of the long runs. And when they do go for broke, there's nothing to touch them.

Well, in Melbourne, so it proved in qualifying. One thing great about this new format is that you do get to judge race pace in the final session. And if you look at their speed in final qualifying there seems to be nothing to touch these Brawns. For the good of the sport, I dearly hope they take full honours tomorrow. And if not them then at least Vettel's Red Bull.

But really the point I would like to make in this post is Honda's shortsightedness in flogging off their team just as they were on the brink on greatness. Honda's pull out put the team in all sorts of trouble. They got the cars very late to testing. This alone I believe slowed the pace of their development. But so fast was the cars they they still ended up quickest.

And late into the game, the team had to adapt to the Mercedes engine. Now this car was designed with a Honda engine in mind. Do not underestimate the significance. You can't simply bolt in any old motor to the back of these machines. The design has been optimised for engine shape, configuration and drive characteristics and delivery. The Mercedes is an incredibly strong motor of course and I bet that help. But could you believe how fast the Brawns would be running the engine they were really built to run on? I would imagine had Honda kept with it, the cars would be untouchable and I would gather would have been at least a second quicker than the next fastest runners.

When Ross Brawn took over the team I had thought him and brave man and I admired his spirit. I mean, he could easily have found employment elsewhere but he went down the route of owning the team and doing this his way. But I suppose looking at the performance of the Brawns, he knew didn't he? He knew they had created something special even before it had turned a wheel. Knew it would be competitive and quick and be able to take the fight to the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, both of which are absolutely nowhere to be seen in Melbourne.

Honda! Long have I followed this company and rooted for them on the back of their exploits in the 80s and early 90s and the fact that they powered Ayrton Senna to all three of his world titles. I have always admired their inventiveness and competitiveness and have always prayed they would do well. But there was a difference between Honda of the 80s and the Honda company now. Soichiro Honda lived and breathed racing. Making road cars was more of a side activity for him to finance his racing, much like old Enzo himself. Many many racers around the world and especially in Japan felt a betrayal with Honda's pullout of grand prix racing. With only a single win to its name, it felt like there was unfinished business. When Honda previously talked of the power of dreams, it really refers to Soichiro's dream of taking on the best of the Europeans and kicking the living shit out of them.

But today, the Honda company has perverted that dream. Transformed it to that ridiculous "My Earth Dreams." A betrayal to its roots and to its spirit. Old Soichiro Honda should be turning in his grave. Ayrton Senna too for that matter.

How long can Brawn keep this up? God knows. Without some heavyweight backing I simply don't know. Maybe for the next 3 to 4 grands prix perhaps. Maybe less. Who knows? But they should milk their current successes for all its worth.

They say the best revenge after being dumped by a lover is to simply live well. Well the best way for Brawn to extract retribution against Honda is to put the car on pole and win the race. One out of two tasks are done. Here's hoping that win comes. That'll really be sticking two fingers up the air to those narrow minded idiots in Japan.

All this provided of course that the FIA doesn't rule their diffusers illegal. Well, I think the FIA have no problems with the design after all they passed it. But as usual they just might listen to Ferrari. Even if they do though, Ferrari would still not end up quickest. That'll be the Red Bulls! Long live the revolution!

Honda Quits

A few questions pop into mind at the announcement that Honda is leaving Formula 1. But the most important ones would be:

- What will Ross Brawn do now?
- What will Jenson Button do?
- Would Honda have left if they were winning races and world championships?
- Which team will be next?

Observations

We are one race short of the halfway mark of the 2008 Formula 1 season. And at this point, some surprises have emerged. BMW are second in the constructor's championship and leading driver Robert Kubica is also in second of the driver's race. Surprising to say the least and I would not have expected these guys to have kept their season opening momentum to go on for so long. Hopefully the guys in Hinwil and Munich keep pushing on to the end.

Toyota and Red Bull are neck and neck in the middle order. Toyota especially is a big surprise. The cars certainly are quick and they've even managed a podium spot in last weekend's French Grand Prix. Had they not shot themselves in the foot in 2006 with that last minute switch to Bridgestone tyres and then sacking the technical director for the marketing men's own mistakes I reckon they'd be at least on BMW level by now. As it is, this lumbering giant is making slow progress. But progress nevertheless and they are outperforming their customers at Williams. Deadly rivals Honda are absolutely nowhere this season as they were last year and Toyota's results must be hurting them a lot in Tokyo.

Red Bull on the other hand is a customer team that is completely whipping the works Renaults. Some say the Renault engine has huge flaws. That may be so but the Red Bulls are at this stage making better use of their motor and despite the presence of Fernando Alonso, the works cars can do nothing about it. Its good to see a "private" entry murdering the big manufacturer. Although in this case its a well financed privateer.

Lewis Hamilton didnt deserve to have the 10 spot penalty for France. Not at all. He deserved to have his superlicense sanctioned and placed under probation for his act of pure incompetence in Montreal. Its one thing for you to crash into another car whilst your brake balance is out of whack at 180 mph but to completely miss two stationary cars right in front of you whilst travelling at the leisurely speed of 80 km/h is a sign of pure stupidity. And the twit doesn't even want to admit his mistake. "If" he says, he has ruined Kimi's race then he is sorry. Its not an "if" moron. You bloody well chucked it out the window. And once again, in France he completely denies his any wrongdoing when it was clear that he gained an advantage by straightlining the chicane.

And apologising to the team for not doing his best. Oh come on. That was pure pretense designed solely for the benefit of the media. Ron has trained this one well. But of course, the British media are now quickly turning on him as is their habit. I suppose having enjoyed the adoring attention in the past, he likes it not one bit. But being the big mouth that he is, he's now taking them on with all sorts of trashy talk.

And just who was the idiot who suggested that he be suspended on wires and lowered on to a stage play in London? I really do not understand just what good he or the Porsche crashing train driver (son gets a little money and buy some nice toys for yourself eh?) thought that would do. Is he supposed to be a racing driver or a clown? That is just pure humiliation but it really befits him.

Without sympathising with Hamilton it brings me to the point on what Formula 1 drivers have to go through these days. Its no wonder Kimi is so fed up and there is talk of his retirement. All the stupid media responsibilities, meeting up with stupid corporate sponsors, annoying fans, I mean, who the hell needs that? Isn't his own display of skill and speed on the track enough? Thats what he gets paid to do. Drive the car like the devil himself. And while he doesn't put on a fake smile at least he is honest unlike these young PR washed robo-drivers like Hamilton.

Why do these people think they own him? I completely sympathise as this just reeks of rampant American style NASCAR commercialism that fools like Joe Saward of Grandprix.com keeps on preaching about. Hey this is racing. Its not supposed to wrestling sport entertainment. If thats what you want, then bloody well go watch stupid NASCAR where the good old boys will happily smile like idiots for "the show."

And note to Joe Saward, if you love NASCAR so much then bloody well write about NASCAR. I am really am so sick of reading about stupid theme parks, hamburgers and silly romance novels that you think are such fantastic ideas for grand prix racing. There is a cultural gulf between America and the rest of the world and guess what? We don't always care about, want or need American ideas. And what annoys me most is the increased American inspired commerical exploitation that is inevitably changing grand prix racing for the worse.

Ross Brawn And Honda

Back in 1994, Ferrari after 3 long win-less years, received technical assistance from Honda, who had by then long left Formula 1. Assistance that allowed them a victory and began the steady road back to championship level competitiveness. This was admitted by di Montezemolo himself before sometime after that retracting the statement. Ungrateful dog. But everyone knew Honda had a hand in helping them out in those dark days. And now it seems that by not allowing Ross Brawn to take the helm at Gestione Sportiva, Ferrari have returned the favour.

I have a great affection for both McLaren and Honda. I recall with great fondness the good old days when Ayrton Senna in a Honda powered McLaren was near unbeatable. Oh sure, there were the odd Williams or Ferrari victory here and there but over the course of the season, you could count on this combination to take championship honours. Back in the day, Honda's foray into Formula 1 was more of a technical R & D exercise to train its brightest engineers. The folks at Honda R&D literally ran the show on the engine side.

By contrast today, the needs of corporate marketing and promotion dominate the investment into grand prix racing. And as a result, Honda have suffered for it. Arguably their best years in this current era was during the reign of David Richards. A proper racing man you might argue (though not without his own devious set of practices). Since he left Nick Fry in charge everything's gone downhill save for a brief bright spell last year the culminated in Jenson Button's win in Hungary.

And now in only the second piece of good news I've heard in several months apart from Kimi's championship win, is the story that Ross Brawn will be Brackley bound for next season. Sure, it will take time for him to rebuild this year's disastrous team. But if he is given a free hand, I would dearly love to see him bring back glory to the Anglo-Japanese team. It might not be Senna, Prost and McLaren all over again but anything's better than the current state they are in and a proud name like Honda should be doing a lot better.

But Ross should fear the ever present hand of corporate interference. Not too long ago, fellow Englishman Mike Gascoyne a dose full of corporate bollocks but then again, Ross Brawn's track record (in addition to his considerable technical skills) should carry a lot more clout with the suits and beanies.

Make no mistake, the challenge to Ross Brawn is considerable. But here is man who knows all about the proper mix of ingredients for a championship winning team. Jenson Button has recently declared that he would leave if things did not improve. Well, Jense help is at hand. Hopefully, not too long from now, he'll have a chance to give Hamil-shit the spanking he deserves. And for sure, Ross Brawn will need everything his drivers have got to win.

Would it be too much to ask that along the way, Honda takes Maranello to the cleaners as they did in the eighties?

BTCC Thruxton

I don't get the British Touring Car Championship on the telly and therefore I have to wait a while before I can watch each round. But so far this season, I haven't been disappointed. Especially not in last weekend's round at Thruxton.

Thruxton is an absolutely fantastic racing circuit. Like Silverstone and Snetterton its an ex World War 2 airfield converted into a racing circuit. Unlike Silverstone that has been chopped and changed over the years and slowed down, Thruxton's layout has remained the same since its inception. It currently claims to be the fastest circuit in the United Kingdom and I say amen to that.

To be sure, the racing was perhaps not as bumper to bumper as the previous round at Rockingham or even Brands but the track itself is incredibly fast. Bloody hell, the slowest corner is a chicane and there are no hairpins! But on this circuit with its fast sweepers you can really watch a touring car lean hard on its suspension, skipping and sliding on the bumps and really testing the driver's bravery and commitment. The sheer speed of the cars round the corners is enough to keep one enthralled.

All the races were good especially early on but Race 3 was absolutely spectacular. On lap 2 with Colin Turkington in fourth (and slowing the fast guys behind) as a result of the reverse produced a real heart in the mouth moment. Quite how these guys can go side by side into Church corner is beyond me, but Gordon Shedden managed to take Colin into Church.




But what happened next was even more amazing. They were 6 abreast coming out of it, 7 cars altogether jostling for position (see image above). Giovanardi desperate to find a way through has his wheels on the grass doing 140 mph. Going into the chicane they were still 5 abreast (see image below). Somehow amazingly they all made it and funnelled through the chicane. I swear they weren't going to make it but somehow they all did. Fantastic stuff.



I'm glad to see that the latest Team Dynamics / Halfords Honda Civic Type Rs are exhibiting real speed now. They still need a lot of work though if they are going to regularly challenge the Vauxhalls and SEATs. Bad luck to Mat Jackson this weekend (again). The top 10 though are very mcuh close in terms of pace. Thruxton with all these fast corners is hard on tyres and it seems to me that the Vauxhalls and SEATs have only a slight advantage in speed but a big advantage in tyre management last weeked. Darren Turner in last year's Dynamics Integra Type R was looking bloody good for second if not first but alas his tyres gave up on him.

One of the attractions of touring cars is of course the cars themselves are modified versions of road cars. And therefore I am rather disappointed that BTC Racing simply cannot do a better job with the Lexus IS200s (rebadged Toyota Altezza RS200s). How I wish these cars are being run by Dynamics or WSR. These guys are simply off the pace in a car that theoretically could give the Beemers a good run for their money. I should know, I used to own one.

As I said before it looks like Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jason Plato all the way to the wire this season. The championship battle between these two is close and with Giovanardi taking two wins last weekend the gap between the two stands at 8 points. I'm certain that the others will play a big role in their battle.

The WTCC catchphrase is Real Cars, Real Racing. Real cars, for sure. But in the world of touring cars, the title of real racing belongs to the BTCC.

The Indy Awards - Round 3

Here are the results for the Independent Team awards after the Bahrain Grand Prix. For more information regarding the scoring system please consult this post.

Post race comments
Williams scored maximum points in the independents award at the Bahrain Grand Prix. They were however, very fortunate to do so for in the race it seemed that the Red Bull were absolutely in flying form. David Coulthard drove a storming race starting from 21st on the grid to catch his teammate Mark Webber during the race. At the point when the two Red Bulls retired, they were in fact not only ahead of both the Williams drivers but were also ahead of both the Renaults. Adrian Newey's design excellence whilst not yet up there with the front runners, is starting to show its worth relative to the works Renaults. The cars were fast and their drivers were clearly up for it. Mark Webber was also going quickly but his pace was perhaps hampered by a fuel filler that refused to close once the car got underway after the first round of pitstops.

Both the Red Bulls retired as a result of drive train failure, whilst both were leading the works Renaults. Or so the explanation goes. But you can never tell these days of corporate PR cover ups. Coulthard retired with a broken driveshaft and Webber with a broken greabox. All in all, it has to be encouraging for Red Bull at this stage. Pre-season of course, the expectation was that an Adrian Newey chassis coupled with Mateschitz money should have seen them challenging in the top 5. But they are progressing, no doubt about it. And with Mark Webber, they have a driver thats clearly quick and not short of motivation. Do not forget David Coulthard as well who was quicker than Webber this weekend. And in fact, his race fastest lap was quicker than that of Heikki Kovalainen's. Had Mark Webber not had his fuel filler out of shape, chances are he'd have been faster than both Coulthard and Fisichella. Their independents score below does not do justice to their race performance last weekend.

The Super Aguris continue to do well. Anthony Davidson was only beaten out of the top 10 in qualifying after some last minute performances by Williams and Toyota and for quite some time, he looked like he was going to start in the top 10. This weekend Anthony Davidson was much quicker than teammate Sato who up until this point had outperformed the Briton. During the race however, Takuma managed to battle it out with Ralf Schumacher's Toyota and looked well on his way to beating the German. But alas, his engine gave way as well. Davidson though a classified finisher, would suffer the same fate. If I were being cheeky I'd say that the Japanese pushed the self destruct button to ensure that the sole surviving Honda of Barrichello would finish ahead of both the customer cars. As it is, Davidson's fastest lap of the race was quicker than that of Barrichello.

So, with the demise of the Red Bulls, Williams are once again the leading independent. But despite pushing hard they only finished 9th and 10th overall in the race. (Both Williams had fastest laps quicker than both the works Toyotas) But as I said, luck had everything to do with this. I have a feeling though, that as the season progresses, Adrian Newey's Red Bull might just be consistently beating Woking. And do not be surprised if they win more Wag The Dog points for beating the works cars on a regular basis. Now thats a prospect to relish.

Comments On The Customer Car Row
As it is, as you can see from the points scored in Bahrain and the overall standings, the Williams teams are beating all comers including the Toro Ross and Super Aguri, both teams who have been threatened by Williams with litigation of the customer car row. But as you can see, Williams have been consistently outperforming these customer cars. Therefore, I shouldn't think that Frank Williams will be bothered about taking this matter to the courts. The Spyker team are a different story altogether. Whilst the points do show that they are ahead of Toro Rosso in race finishes but they are in actual fact slower than both Toro Rosso and Super Aguri. They have every reason to want to seek legal recourse.

Colin Chapman Award - For Best independent drivers / teams

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg (Williams)- 9
2. Alex Wurz (Williams) - 6
3. Christian Albers (Spyker) - 4
4. Andre Sutil (Spyker) - 3
5 Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) - 2
= Mark Webber (RBR) - 2 (1 for qualy + 1 for race finish)
7. David Coulthard - 1 (For fastest lap)

Teams
1. Williams - 15
2. Spyker - 7
3. RBR - 3
4. Super Aguri - 2

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 22
2. Alex Wurz - 15
3. Mark Webber - 13
4. Takuma Sato - 10
5. Anthony Davidson - 7
6. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 5
7. Christian Albers - 4
= Andre Sutil - 4
8. David Coulthard - 1

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 37
2. Super Aguri - 17
3. RBR - 14
4. Spyker - 8
5. Toro Rosso - 5

Wag The Dog Award - for independent drivers / teams who beat their respective factory teams

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 4 (1 for qualy, 1 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
=. Alex Wurz - 4 (1 for qualy, 1 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
3. Anthony Davidson - 3 (2 for qualy, 1 for fastest lap)
4. Mark Webber - 1 (for qualy)
=. David Coulthard - 1 (for fastest lap)
=. Takuma Sato - 1 (for fastest lap)

Teams
1. Williams - 8
2. Super Aguri - 4
3. RBR - 2

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 12
2. Takuma Sato - 7
=. Alex Wurz - 7
4. Mark Webber - 6
=. Anthony Davidson - 6
6. David Coulthard - 1

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 19
2. Super Aguri - 13
3. RBR - 7

Post Script

The Wag The Dog points for Bahrain has been a fair reflection of the season so far. The independents are strong during qualifying and have good race pace but are no match for the factory teams over a race distance.

Saturday Morning At Sakhir

How about that Super Aguri? Kimi Raikkonen may have topped the charts on Friday and today its Hamilton's turn but the surprise of free practise this Saturday must be Ant who managed 5th fastest time of 1m 32.900s. This was still some 0.357s behind Hamilton but still ahead of Filipe Massa who managed sixth fastest.

By contrast the two underachieving Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello managed 16th and 18th respectively, split by Ant's teammate Takuma Sato. Jenson Button was a little more than a second away from Ant and about 1.2 seconds quicker than Sato.

And this was the man who was considered surplus to the works team? For sure, this is merely the practise session and it doesn't count but come on. The big boys in the paddock must surely open their eyes and notice this!

Of the rest, championship leader Fernando has been slower than Hamilton all weekend long and the same thing has happened before when they tested here in the winter. God I hope he's not going to keep doing this in qualy and the race. I'm quite sick of the British press and their Hamilton suckfest.

But happily, Filipe Massa has been outpaced by Raikkonen in all the sessions so far and that is something new this year. Personally I hope this trend continues on.

The Beemers have looked threatening all weekend and are always in the top 5. The times are quite close in this last practise session. Just a shade over 1 second covers the top ten in this free practise. It should be quite a good qualy coming up in about an hour and halfs time.

The customer teams are once again doing very well thank you very much against their respective works teams.

Mark Webber's Red Bull Renault is once again ahead of the works Renaults. Oh, I can imagine the pain Flav is going through right now. A little pain wouldn't hurt the man after his cockiness in the past two (Alonso) years. His cars are back in ninth and tenth. Now if only Webber can do this in the race.

Both Nico and Wurz are in the Williams Toyotas have been outpacing the works Toyotas for most of the weekend except for first practise yesterday. I just hope all these customer teams convert their practise performances into factory beating exploits.

One thing's for sure the Hondas are going nowhere and I would imagine there is a good chance that both the Super Aguris will be heading the works cars to the chequered flag.

BTCC 2007

More than any other tin top championship, I'm really looking forward to this year's British Touring Car Championship. The entry list has been confirmed and just look at the variety on offer.

Whereas last weekend's Aussie V8 at the good old Adelaide circuit was a pretty decent affair, it really is a battle between two makes. And likewise in the WTCC, you have basically 4 makes of cars battling it out. And really it boils down to the Beemers vs the SEATs.

The BTCC is boasting a grid of 27 cars comprised of 21 Super 2000 spec cars and just 6 of the outgoing BTC machines. You've got Hondas, BMWs, SEATs, Vauxhalls, Alfas, Toyotas (or as they insist on calling it, Lexus) and MGs, some running different models of the same make. Sounds like a Super Touring series of yesteryears doesn't it? Some bemoan the lack of proper works entries. Only the SEATs and Vauxhalls are run by the factory. But I don't think this is a bad thing. And as Team Dynamics proved last year, its possible to beat the works teams.

However, Matt Neal's going to have a hard year ahead I think. His new Civic Type R is a new car thats never before run on Super 2000 in any other championship. Despite what some folks think, its mainly a private entry. Run by his dad of all people. If he does win some races this year, I would be surprised. As it is they have missed the first testing session of the season which leads many to believe that the car will not be fully prepared come the first race in April. BMW fans will be happy for it buys them a year of bragging rights. Next year should be far different.

I'm always going to have my eye on the Japan only Toyota Altezza, having once owned one. They call it a Lexus IS200 but no Lexus ever ran with the 2 litre Yamaha developed 3SGE engine. The interesting thing of course is that the Toyotas (oh alright, Lexus if you insist) is, like the BMW, a rear drive machine which means that they too will enjoy the latest weight advantages. Unless Alan Gow takes that away. I just hope they develop that car properly and I wish that it was Team Dynamics who're running them. Forget bloody Lexus giving any hand. They're too busy trying to sell luxury.

Fabrizio Giovanardi was fastest in the first official test in the Vauxhall. But if they thought they'd seen the last of the Honda Integras, they are sadly mistaken for Mike Jordan was close to them in testing taking second fastest time. Thankfully for the Vauxhalls, the BTCC spec car will not be competing for main honours this year. Only the Super 2000s will be eligible to take the overall title.

Since the Honda Civics are unlikely to be competitive, I'd back the BMWs for honours. For I simply cannot abide the bloody Vauxhalls and barely can stand the SEATs. Here's to a great year.