Two weeks ago the season opener in Qatar was full of excitement with many thrills and spills and a slightly surprised winner in Valentino Rossi.  F1 doesn’t need to add water to its tracks it just needs to take a look at Moto GP!  For China I found it quite easy to predict that Jenson Button would take the win, however this weekend the field is virtually wide open, with wild-card entries coming in thick and fast that I have virtually no idea what to predict for the inaugural Twitegi race.

Special Twitegi GP livery from Yamaha

As it stands right now Lorenzo is on-line for the top step of the podium, having seemed to have mastered the twists and turns of the brand new electronic race way.  But hot on his heels and bearing down on him through cyberspace (if he can get some good directions) will be young gun Bradley Smith.  Other contenders expected to make good showings are the boys from Team Texas Edwards and Spies who will be joined by fellow Texan the ’93 world champ Kevin Schwant albeit using a rival operating system.  Max Biaggi and Mick Doohan will also certainly add an extra element of unpredictability to the event, lets hope the old timer’s are not still using 56k dial-up connections.

The track which has been designed by legendary driver and presenter Tiff Needell has an impressive 18 corners and combines a high-speed straight with some long tricky curves, an off camber downhill section and 2 hairpins plus some other tight left handers.  All in all the circuitry should be a challenge to all the competitors this weekend.

Living in Spain where two-wheeled racing is so dominant, it’s been impossible not to notice the excitement and tension growing in the build up to this weekend.  The Spanish are very loyal fans although they also love VR, but does Vale have the equipment for this event? does he even have so much as a netbook?  Knowing him he’ll probably surprise us all by whipping out a state-of-the-art Macbook air with its lightweight unibody design and aerodynamically advanced curves he could still storm ahead of his more tech-savvy team-mate.

As far as predictions go, I hope for the sake of my Spanish flat-mates that their man Lorenzo comes away with his first win of the season as a Brit I hope young Bradley does well too, hopefully this is one event where his youth will be a huge advantage in this digital age and finally I’d like to see new boy Spies have another great race to follow-up his 5th in Qatar 2 weeks ago.  Where will the wild cards end up?  I’ve no idea, what do you think?  Who will be connecting at the speed of light and who will have buffering issues?  It’s anyone’s guess for this the first event of it kind, comment here or respond to @brawn2bwild with your predictions.

First practice kicks off at 18.00h BST on Friday with Qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday, tune into @TwitGP to follow all the action.

The layout of the track is supposed to resemble the Chinese character that can mean ‘to rise above’ which is certainly what McLaren did today with their first 1-2 of the season, having started from 5th and 6th. There’s so much to talk about following the race that I hardly know where to start! I’m very happy to say that my prediction of a 2nd Button win of the season came true and he did it in style, with intelligent skilful driving and yet again showing that his ability to look after his tires can pay dividends over his team-mate who can supposedly “adapt his driving style”. The result is great for my fantasy racers predictions although not so good for my teacher v student league. Privately I had a sneaking suspicion Macca might be able to get a 1 – 2 but I didn’t dare say anything for fear of giving them to the kiss of death. I’m also very happy to see that yet again Rosberg scored a podium and put Schumacher in his shadow. I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I said Schumi might do better this weekend, I’d clearly taken leave of my senses.  Jenson Button now leads the drivers championship with Nico Rosberg in second place!

Many may say that the intermittent rain is the only reason the race was exciting and they may be right, as while there was a lot of over-taking it was mostly due to grip levels which is an issue that won’t come into play during dry races. I was happy to see that Button was once again shown to be good in the rain, I think he always has been but has been somewhat over looked. Lewis was also very good, pulling off a number of aggressive over-taking manoeuvres which I’m sure will lead many to say that he was better than his team-mate. However JB didn’t have to drive so aggressively as he used his brain rather than brute force to get to the front and when Lewis started to close up at the end, he effortlessly extended his lead to 10 seconds on heavily used tires.

Interestingly Schumacher the supposed ‘rain-master’ was a shadow of his former self. When watching on-board during practice and qualifying, he doesn’t seem to be attacking the corners in his usual exuberant style. While it could be said he doesn’t have the quickest of cars he’s in the same machinery as his monumentally less experienced team-mate AND he was always praised for being able to get more out of a car than was ever expected from it’s baseline performance. He also seems to have had a bit of a personality transplant, in his interviews these days he seems like a happy chappy, taking time to answer questions and generally being very philosophical, that’s good in a way but it seems like he doesn’t have the fire in his eyes any more. He did however do a little bit of stirring when he referred to ‘The English team’ in a post race interview and seemed to be criticising the fact that so far (on the surface at least) JB and Lewis seem to be getting on well. He’s possibly just doesn’t quite understand the concept of team and mate. Later Norbert Haug was full of excuses for Michael, saying that maybe the car had a problem although there had been absolutely no mention of anything previously.

I don’t want to go on too much more I but have to mention that there were also a number of controversial incidents which threaten to change the result retrospectively. The first that fortunately isn’t under investigation was the bunching up of the field at the final corner caused by Button at the restart after the second safety car. Looking at it initially it looked a bit dodgy and the rules say the lead car can’t excessively brake or accelerate but as the TV feed wasn’t on him at the start of the incident and we didn’t know what speeds he was doing prior to the final hairpin we can’t say whether did anything excessively or not. I’m sure many JB detractors will criticise him but at the end of the day it’s up to the rest of the field to drive sensibly and pay attention to the man in front.

There were also a number of pit lane incidents; Hamilton overtook Vettel literally at the last second going round a 90 degree corner in the pit lane entrance a move that Alonso later pulled off against his team-mate. Later Vettel was released from his pit box which is directly behind McLaren in the pit lane a fraction later Lewis was also released and catching some wheel spin wasn’t able to stay in front, as they went side by side down the pit lane Vettel pushed Hamilton over towards the mechanics of Williams. In my mind the issue of the timing of the release and the actions of the 2 drivers should be looked at separately. It’s debatable as to whether McLaren should have released Lewis but it’s probably too close to call and I’d have to agree with Eddie Jordan here (a first) and say it was a racing incident. However driving side by side down a narrow pit lane in close proximity to lots of people is just plain dangerous. Lewis should have realised he’d lost his position and backed off, likewise Vettel should never have deliberately forced him yet further over towards the hanging air-hoses of the other garages. As the BBC’s red button forum went off the air there was no sign of a decision coming from the stewards.

In regards to the second safety car – why it was even sent out is a big question, there was a little bit of debris at the entrance to the pit lane but everyone I was chatting to on-line and all the different commentators seemed to agree that it was a bit of an over-reaction.  My theory is that it was a re-emergence of the ‘red-rule’, bunching up the field to take away from JB’s lead and to allow Alonso’s Ferrari back into the hunt following his drive through penalty – without it I doubt he would have been able to finish 4th having done 5 trips to the pits.

My 3 favourite comments:

3: Jake Humphrey to Nico Rosberg “how confident were you that you could keep Alonso behind you at the end? Nico: (laughs) “not at all! my tires were shot!”

2: JB apologising to his team for scaring them towards the end of the race.

1: David Coultard at the beginning of the Forum “actually I just need to leave for a minute, got to do a live link for DTM” he promptly gets up and leaves, don’t think Jake knew anything about it – proper funny.

Final thought: so far no driver has won a race from poll, is it turning into a bad omen for 2010?

It also seems that the Mercedes powered cars are going to go well at this circuit so I won’t be surprised if the Force Indias make it into the final qualifying session either.  I also think that at either this or the next race we’ll see Schumacher further up the field and finishing ahead of Rosberg (unfortunately).

The only change I’m going to make to my predictions made earlier in the week is to move Alonso down the order to be replaced by either Hamilton or the other Red Bull.   How Ferrari can continue to claim they don’t have a major worry over their engines is beyond me.  With only 3 races and a couple of practice sessions gone Alonso is already down 2 engines.  I therefore think he’s liable to have problems again this race and that this won’t be his day to come out ahead of Massa.

That’s about all I have in the way of predictions for now, except to say I’m going to pick De La Rosa as the first out and that the weather is going to play its part at some point too.  What do you think?

Early on in the (academic) year I had found out that they were interested in F1 (and MotoGP) and 2 of them are especially knowledgeable.  This was great as it provided some common ground to talk about.  That’s why at the beginning of this season I started the predictions game, we spend the last 5 minutes of class on a Thursday recording who we think the top 6 will be on the following Sunday.

After the first week a small discussion ensued which I was reasonably happy with but wasn’t anything compare to what happened last week.  In the first class back after our Easter holidays when there had been both the Australian and Malaysian GP’s the first 2 students to arrive at class literally burst into the classroom while asking where they stood in the class standings.  A very educational (for both me and them) discussion followed where they excitedly explained to me what Alonso’s problems had been in Malaysia and what they thought of the races.  I explained that I’d had to watch the 3rd round on Spanish TV and therefore didn’t understand much about the problems that Alonso had had etc.   This led to them enthusiastically giving their own accounts of the way the race panned out learning new vocab along the way (clutch, gear box, over-take etc).  Our conversation lasted 25 minutes and probably could have gone on all class but I had to cut it short when some late arrivals came in and also as I had an actual lesson plan to teach!

I was very encouraged though by their enthusiasm and ability to maintain a proper conversation for such a length of time.  For boys that don’t normally like to talk or give their opinions very much it was a bit of a break through and I think they proved to themselves that they are able to communicate well in English which can only help to motivate them in the future.  Of course every teacher knows that finding something that your class is interested in to talk about is a useful tool, but I think that linking that into some kind of ongoing activity or game such as predicting results, gives an added element of competition and motivation and creates additional things to talk about.  It does require a bit of extra work, it’s not as easy as just saying “so which football team do you support”" or “who won on Saturday?”  But I’d recommend it to any teachers out there because as with anything the more you put in, the more you get out.

Since I last wrote there has been a lot going on, both personally and in the world of F1.  First there was the Bahrain GP which I had to watch with my 2 Spanish flatmates (more on that later), then the public outcry of “F1 is broken/boring”.  Then my younger brother came to visit me for a few days in Seville, he delivered my laptop but obviously I couldn’t spend any time on it while he was visiting. 

Then it was Easter, or ‘Semana Santa’ as it is called here, the most holy week in Spain which is celebrated in the week leading up to the Easter weekend.  Sevilla is generally considered to have the most, and the most spectacular processions in all of Spain.  Apparently an extra million people flood the city during this week.  It was for these reasons that I made my escape up to the Costa Blanca on the East coast of Spain and to a small ‘urbanisation’ where my Grandfather lives.  On the plus side this gave me a week of relaxation, with nothing to do but hang out with my Grandfather, watch movies and sunbathe, while my friends were home in the UK getting rained and snowed on.  On the downside there wasn’t any internet  .  However possibly the single best thing about my granddad’s house is that he has a feed from the BBC’s red button on his television.  So I got to watch the BBC’s coverage of the Australian race (more on that later too). 

Returning from my week away on Easter Friday I was looking forward to having a quiet weekend in my flat on my own, knowing that both my flatmates would still be away visiting their families.  As I would still be in ‘avoidance of massive crowds mode’ I didn’t intend to go out anywhere and to stay in and spend lots of time on the internet playing with my new laptop.  But it was not to be, on arrival I discovered that our router was broken   This meant that I had to watch the Malaysian GP on Spanish TV’s ‘la sexta’  or channel 6, complete with incomprehensible commentating, blatant bias towards Ferrari, interviews with spanish drivers only and the dreaded ADVERTS!    not good.  In fact I slept through quite a lot of it and only woke up about 1 lap before Alonso’s engine blew which did at least put a smile on my face! 

Since Easter I’ve also been pretty busy with work and in fact had to work last Friday, which is not normal for me and sort of screwed up my weekend, as on Saturday I felt it was Friday and so kept thinking I had more time to do stuff than I actually had.  Net result, no time for blogging.  I did however re-watch the Malaysian GP via i-player on friday evening and to be honest I almost fell asleep again.  I think it’s fair to say that despite the weather effected grid, the race still suffered from a lot of the same problems as Bahrain and to an extent Australia in that there just wasn’t enough of a performance difference/advantage between the top teams to allow over-taking.  Due to dirty air, over-reliance on aero, too durable tyres etc. 

In other news my first J5 class after Easter with my teenagers was great as they had so much t say about the Oz and Malaysian races that 2 of my boys were able to maintain a 25 minute conversation with me, of course I could have gone talking for ever but as a third student had turned up who’s not into F1 (and I had a lesson plan to get on with) I had to cut the conversation short.  As a teacher though it is very rewarding that my teacher vs student experimental class competition seems to be paying off.  Although I wasn’t too happy that Bea managed to score more points than me without knowing anything about the drivers she had picked other than their names and whether or not they are good looking!

What do you think?

 My Season Predictions – some serious, some not so serious

My Bahrain Predictions

So that´s my two pennies´ worth, what do you think?  Who will be on the top step in Bahrain? Which of the new teams will have the best season? Who is going to cause the most havoc?  Let me know your thoughts.

Background:  Last year saw some major  rule changes.  Brawn (formerly Honda now Mercedes) came off best and won the championship.  Ferrari and McLaren weren´t so good although McLaren caught up a lot.  Red Bull looked like challenging for the title but it was largely engine reliability and power problems that held them back.  At the end of the season Toyota and BMW quit the sport.  The regulations have not changed much for this season which has allowed the rest of the field to catch up to Mercedes and Red Bull.  

Teams: This year there will be 3 brand new teams – Virgin Racing (VR), Lotus (not really Lotus) and Hispania Racing Team (HRT lol).  BMW Sauber has been re-bought by Peter Sauber and now have Ferrari engines although they still have the BMW moniker in their name.  Mercedes has taken over Brawn and stopped their involvement with McLaren beyond supplying engines and Renault is now mostly owned by Genii Capital.  

Drivers:  There are 5 brand new drivers – Lucas Di Grassi (VR), Karun Chandhok & Burnno Senna (HRT), Nico Hulkenburg (Williams) and Vitaly Petrov (Renault).  Additionally Kamui Kobayashi has joined Sauber after only 2 races last year.  

There has also been a lot of driver movement this year; only Redbull, Force India and Torro Rosso have unchanged driver line-ups.  The most noteworthy of the new driver pairings are Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at McLaren and Fernando Alonso and Phillipe Massa at Ferrari.   Keep an eye on both of these two teams, as many expect there to be conflicts and internal politics which may get in the way of racing.  Lastly, Michael Schumacher is returning to F1 after 3 years he´ll be partnered with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.  

Rules:  Of course there´s hundreds of different rules and regulations.  The ones you most need to know about concern qualifying, tyres, refueling and points.                                                                                                                                 Qualifying: lasts for 1 hour on a Saturday afternoon and is split into 3 parts of 20, 15 and 10 minutes with breaks in between.  It takes the form of a knockout competition where the slowest drivers are eliminated until the fastest 10 go through to the final 10 minute session.  The twist this year is that although they won´t be qualifying on race fuel loads meaning they´ll be able to go faster, the top 10 will have to start the race on their qualifying tyres.                                                                                                                                      Tyres: There is only one supplier – Bridgestone and they bring 2 different sets of tyres to each race weekend referred to as ´prime´ and ´option´ which are made of different compounds, one harder than the other.  The teams are limited to the number of sets they are allowed to use each weekend (11 sets of slick dry weather tyres).                                                                                             Refueling: This year for the first time in 16 seasons there will be no refueling during the race.  This means each car must start it´s race with all the fuel it needs.  There will still be pit stops to change tyres which are likely to take less than 3 seconds.  This rule is where the skill and intrigue will come from this year – which cars and drivers will be easier on their tyres? Who will be able to handle their cars better as the cars change from being heavier than they´ve ever driven them to running on fumes at the end?

Races:  There will be 19 races in 2010 starting in Bahrain on 12^th March and finishing in Abu Dhabi on 14^th November.  There will be one new track in South Korea and the British GP has been retained by Silverstone but the track will be different from previous years.  

Politics:  There is always politics in F1, currently things seem to have settled down following the demise of USF1.  Talking points at the moment are the legality of the McLaren rear wing which will is predicted to be deemed legal and the fact that we have not yet seen the Mercedes diffuser, rumours say we´ll see it in Bahrain which could potentially give them a big step forward.  

And Finally Points:  This year the first 10 drivers to finish will get points starting at 25 for the win then 18, 15, 12, 10, 8,6,4,2,1.  Meaning a win will be a lot more valuable than it ever has been previously.  

And that´s your ultra-condencsed F1 guide in less than 800 words, watch it and enjoy!

I´m so excited right now, not only is it 1 week until the first qualifying of the season but I´ve finally managed to find a way to listen to the BBC commentary on my iPod. 

Not being the most knowledgeable person when it comes to IT issues and especially my iPod touch this is quite an achievement.  In a perfect world I would be able to use a proxy on my laptop to access the coverage but as my computer is completely broken and my brother won´t arrive with my new on until after the first race, I´ve been desperately trying to find a way to listen to the BBC in my living room.  While I will be able to watch the race on Spanish TV, albeit with adverts and no decent pre or post race coverage, with my level of Spanish and the speed at which the commentators talk it´s the lack of English commentary that really sucks for me.  But I think I´ve got that sorted, which is great news as I can now allow my excitement about the season and the first race to build ahead of next weekend, without the pessimistic anticipation that I won´t get to hear about all the ins and outs of how the race pans out with the new drivers, teams, regulations and therefore new strategies which will come into play.  Woohoo

My reasons for this are primarily three-fold: new teams, new drivers, new regulations.  Whilst having new drivers & new regs introduced in any given season is not unusual.  I think the specifics of this season bear closer inspection.

Firstly there will be three new teams (at the time of writing) competing – that’s 6 cars which have not yet turned a wheel in anger.  One of those teams hasn’t even tested yet and won’t be able to before their first race (whenever that is). This is a safety issue in and of itself.  From the looks of things these 6 cars are going to be considerably off the pace and as the 107% rule has been abolished they could be acting not just as mobile chicanes but as veritable road blocks,  maybe even shedding parts as they go.

Secondly and probably most importantly is that half of these new cars will be piloted by rookies.  Perhaps a scarier thought is that three other, presumably faster cars will also have new boys behind the wheel. If we include Kobayashi in this rookie group as he only raced twice last year then 25% of the grid have little or no experience and we can probably add Alguersuari to this group too.  With 6 newbies on the grid there could be some interesting first laps, just look at last year with half as many first-timers. Added to this there are three drivers returning from time off, fortunately Massa is back but he’s had 7 months away from racing and De la Rosa and Schumacher last raced in 2006.  Granted Schumi is a 7 time world champion but F1 is an ever-changing beast and neither have been wheel to wheel at this level for a few years, in fact prior to 2006 De la Rosa’s last full season was 2002.  These three push the stats of drivers who weren’t present at the end of last year (when the cars were as closely matched to what they’ll be driving this season as possible) to one-third of the grid.

When we add all this inexperience plus the 8 drivers who’ve moved teams and who could still be getting used to new equipment having only had limited testing, to the new no refueling regs, we can see that we may be in for some fireworks.  Only Rubens and Barrichello have experience of racing with such heavily fueled F1 cars, but that was 16 years ago so we can reasonably expect this to cause a few problems of its own, regardless of the experience level of the driver. 

To top this all off the master of the somewhat “dodgy maneuver” is returning to the paddock to show all the young guns how to win by any means.

It’s not hard to imagine races where a third of the field are taken off by some of the rookies in the opening laps, another couple get caught up in Hansel and Gretel style debris from the Virgin Racing cars, HRT breakdown / blow-up halfway through and take down whoever is lapping them at the time, then Kobayashi seeing potential for a podium takes a leaf out of Schumacher’s book and runs off whoever’s left in his way.

No wonder the FIA messed with the points system, anyone who can make it across the finish line will deserve a medal!