Rogue Review, Hungary 2007: Alonso in the naughty corner

Well we’ve been away visiting the island that seems to be overwhelmed by the sensation that is Hamilton. Yes, the United Kingdom as not seen anything like this since Clark, or Moss, or Mansell or in fact anyone else that went before him who was a) English and b) could *actually* win a race without having to wait for everyone else in front to retire (e.g. Button).

Needless to say Alonso is not happy about all this attention. Scenes of dummy spitting and the noise of his rattle hitting the floor of the pits are more or less common place at McLaren. But then it is not as if the new boy Hamilton is entirely innocent. Asked in qualifying to move over for Alonso he did not claming that Alonso was not fast enough. He might be the rookie but he does not need us to tell him that a) it’s a team order so you do it and b) its for clean air not because he is faster than you. But then again, we at F1Rogues can see through the butter would not melt act – which he was doing on ITV F1 – and can ultimately see that he’s pulling perfectly on the strings of Alonso’s Latin temper.

With Alonso down 6 places on the grid – the new FIA naughty spot - his threat of getting the lead of the championship seemed difficult but not impossible to achieve, but being held up for most of the race reduced the improbable to the impossible. Alonso had an early lap tussle of a Renault that did not help his start. Down a few places at the end of lap 1 he was unable to recover to the podium.

For most of this race there was no action at all. Spyker new boy Yamamoto made it into early retirement on lap 5 and Alonso followed his example but got it back on the grey stuff a number of times during the race. Davidson locked horns with Fisichella which resulted in retirement for the Englishman with broken suspension. He graciously called it a “racing incident” but like the rest of us we saw Fisi hit him. Either way it was a bad result for Davidson. Wurz made us cheer towards the end with some old school style actions directed at the “boy” Massa. The v’s were raised high and proud to show that Austria will take none of the Ferrari induced Brazilian nonsense.

What's hot and what's not in the race

Public enemy nr.1 Playing the game For Austria Solid Lurking Alonso Hamilton Wurz Heidfeld Räikkönen 6 of 1 and a half dozen of the other Ron D is not your best friend anymore Have fingers will use them 3rd place is the 2nd loser Catching up with Lewis

Posted by Jules at August 12, 2007, 3:40 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: davidson, wurz, hamilton, alonso, hungary, 2007, f1, formula1, formula one

Rogue Review, France 2007: Fields of nothing...

Like always, France has proved to be dull. It might be one reason why it’s going from the F1 calendar for the future. The last time anything interesting happened was when Jacques Villeneuve crashed on the sprint up to the Adelaide hairpin. This hairpin offers the most excitement of this entire track and this year this also proved to be the case.

The opening lap managed to provide two bits of fun and frolics. On the way up to Adelaide, Davidson thought he would have yet another go at Liuzzi. His first attempt during Qualifying paled into comparison with the a heavy collision which resulted in both drivers retiring from the race not having completed a single mile. Moments later Jarno Trulli made contact Kovalainen at the Adelaide hairpin in what I could only describe as “ram braking”. Why use valuable brakes when you can slow down on a Renault.

As the race settled Alonso and Heidfeld had an amount of exchanging places in what would turn out to be Alonso’s biggest headache for the entire race. Unable to shake off Heidfeld, Alonso finished two placed behind him down in 7th.

After the first lap action the race settled down. Scott Speed had a moment when his tyre decided to let go and end Speed’s race. Speed admitted that he had a slow puncture and was trying to make it to his stop in a few laps. If only he had come in. Kimi Raikkonen retired around the same time as the American ending his chance to take control of the championship.

After that there was a long, dark period of nothing, nothing but cars circling round the Nevers landscape; nothing at least until Lap 30. The Dutch driver, Albers, was called in for his regular pitstop, but surprisingly his team mate was already there, filling his spot. Much panic and activity later, Sutil had his fill of go-go juice and a new set of shoes allowing Albers to take *his* slot in the pits. But now critical time was lost. Time was now very much of the essence. Eager to leave the pits Albers made a critical mistake. He left too early. In doing this his dragged the refueling team and a large number of other mechanics over into a big mess on the floor. All this would not matter if Albers had still exited the pits cleanly, but sadly for him, his eagerness to leave had detached refueling hose from the refueling rig but not from his car. 200 meters later Albers parked up to ponder how really stupid what he had just done was. But at least we salute him! Sutil got his just deserts in the end with a drivethrough penalty for speeding in the pit lane on his quest to steal Albers’ pitstop.

Then, nothing; again the excitement was gone. Rain? No. Crashes? No. Overtaking? Not really… wait, Scott Speed! Off in the gravel trap! Yellow Flags, drama and the like… Er, No. He’s just parked in the gravel. Realisation turning to utter disappointment faster than an Albers pitstop.

Whilst the result of the race was good for Ferrari and Hamilton – when will he be stopped? – the race was not really good in our opinion. Bring back Canada, all is forgiven!

What's hot and what's not in the race

'ave it! Ram brake? Double d'oh Still there Smooth Davidson Trulli Albers Hamilton Räikkönen 2nd time lucky Renaults are soft Stop, Look, Listen, then drive! Does not want to miss the party The Iceman Cometh

Posted by Jules at July 1, 2007, 10:21 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: formula one, formula1, f1, france, 2007, trulli, alonso, raikkonen, albers, sutil, davidson

Monaco 2007: "D" is for Dull

"Dull" is a word I would never normally give the Monaco Grand Prix. Sadly however, this is what could be said about the 2007 race. The Mclarens were in top form which left the rest of the field trailing in their wake.

Things started promising with an early Casino Square exit for Liuzzi. Small mistakes cost dearly at Monaco and Liuzzi attempted to show what will happen to the remaining drivers when they all get a bit tired around 25 laps in. However, this early lesson seemed to stop anything remotely interesting happening for the remainder of the race.

Anthony Davidson provided the only real relief mid race after he received a drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags. Massa was trying to lap the Englishman when he got held up. We all know that holding up a Ferrari is a sin that will send you straight to Bernie’s sin bin so a penalty was issued. Not that it did Massa any harm. He was really too far behind for it to make a real difference.

Small incidents seem to continue with some pit stop action from Team Red Bull. Broken front jacks seemed interesting at the time, but on reflection it was at interesting as watching paint dry.

The last action of the race really goes to Sutil who, like Liuzzi found the wall at Casino too tempting to keep his car from it. His impact was not as bad as Liuzzi’s as it only deflated the tyres. But it was enough to put him out of the race.

After the race Ron Dennis of McLaren admitted to deciding in advance to allow Alonso to win. It seems Englishman Hamilton’s maiden win will be at the bequest of Ron Dennis.

What's hot and what's not in the race

Say hello to the wall Colour blind D'oh Team orders Too good Liuzzi Davidson Spyker McLaren Alonso The gamble at Casino was just too tempting Blue flags are easy to miss, right? Double DNF Team orders are back in the open Admitted that it was easy

Posted by Jules at May 28, 2007, 2:31 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: Sutil, 2007, davidson, liuzzi, mclaren, spyker, alonso, monaco, formula one, formula1, f1