On The Podium

Dear Readers, Here is an encomium on one of my favorite drivers Sebastian Vettel. The link is posted below, so please do give it a read! :) http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/05/27/footprints-on-the-sands-of-time-sebastian-vettel/

 < Pic 1: Humor - This was in the McLaren garage. You can see the component box underneath it!  Pic 2: Start - just how close the battle really was in the opening stages of the GP.  < Pic 3 : 2 champions - Sebastien  Ogier and Seb Vettel, exchanging technical talk, probably!  <Pic 4: "He's gotta stop running into me. Seriously guys." - Jenson Button. < Pic 5: Credits to the fan. A brilliant photograph of the immortal Ayrton Senna. < Pic 6: No justice is done if the fastest men around Monte Carlo aren't a part of the picture! Here they are.

Yachts, models, casinos and money just a few words to describe Monaco. Crashes, barriers, historical and special are a few words to describe the Monaco Grand Prix. There are many things to look forward to this weekend. The tyres, upgrades and of course, how well the drivers are prepared for the 78 laps around the most treacherous street circuit on the calendar. Since the 'T-word' is highly inevitable when we talk about F1, Pirelli have decided to bring the Monaco usual soft and super-soft compounds and are expecting a 2 stopper, while we expect Lotus to make do with a single stop. Following the Monaco tradition; Free Practice  and 2 got over on Thursday, and by the time I'm writing this, I'm sure few teams will be analyzing why they were lagging behind, and a few would be analyzing their unexpected super pace.  Qualifying is 70% here. It's a track in which overtaking is not very possible and not impossible either, the narrow streets here, it's ...

Pic 1 <: Super Fans : Ferrari is religion for the Spanish fans. And Alonso made it a weekend to remember for them after having won his home grand prix. Pic 2: It just rained away.. This picture was taken during the very wet session of FP1. That looks like Nico Rosberg making his way into the pits. Pic 3: Forza Ferrari: Here's Alonso flying the Spanish flag up high, luckily didn't get penalized for it! Pic 4: Driver's parade cars. Pic 5: Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Management Board and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler AG                                                                          ...

Back to where it all began.. Catalunya. The difference, though, is now we’re going to see racing here. It’s said that the Spanish Grand Prix is where the ‘real season’ starts, because that’s where all the major changes happen, like the upgrades brought in by the teams. But this year, it was an awful lot different. Coming to Catalunya was like the second start to the season. Pirelli, who have been under constant pressure and criticism from RedBull Racing and few other teams, finally decided to make amendments to the hard compound tires, hoping to make it similar to last year’s hard compound. And since Formula One is no more than tyre management now, it looked like a positive step from Pirelli to promote more racing. And the fans loved it! Practice 1 was disrupted by heavy rains and to no surprise, many of the drivers didn’t run. And those who did, unable to hold in the impatience, ran on wet or intermediate tires. The rain did not give any break to the Hard compound ...

Apr 30 I remember having almost choked on fake Webber’s  [yes, those aren’t Mark’s words, in fact I think even he choked on those words]  words on ‘Camaraderie’.  Anyways, jumping back to why I named this article ‘who’.  In the last 15 laps, Webber ran a lot of things in his head, and nearly made that decision  to quit F1 and move to a whole different motor sport ; Le Mans with Porsche. Back in those 15 laps, they just seemed unconfirmed decisions, but after the grand prix he made it pretty clear why he  wanted to go ahead and confirm it. A few days later, F1 websites validated his move to Le Mans in 2014, but just to be denied by Mark himself who said he had ‘a long way to  go, and still had that hunger’. But yet if Webber does decide to leave this year end because of Red Bull racing’s unrequited love, then who is to fill in for him? That’s why they  have Toro Rosso. Their drivers Jean- Eric Vergne (JEV) and Daniel Ricciardo are the pos...

Apr 29 If everything happened the way it was supposed to between Mark and Seb in 48th lap of the Malaysian Grand Prix, will the Bull family live happily ever after? This is probably the way the world wanted to see it; Mark Webber leading the grand prix from his teammate and keeping the lead till the chequered flag. And I don’t see why the world wouldn’t want to see this happen considering all that sticks to people’s minds is ‘breaking the rules’, myself included. Say, Mark Webber takes the win, and the podium isn’t all that very depressing. There will be another child in this story who’ll crib about the team that held him off from a potential victory and that’ll be Sebastian Vettel. You may think ‘ah he’s had 26 victories before! what’s with 1 which couldn’t be put in the bag’?, but every victory is a huge deal in F1. It’s good for the sport, and of course, it’s good for the driver and the team. But fighting against a teammate, disobeying some orders, ability to take all the cr...

BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX IN PICS   Apr 26 PIC1 ^ – It’s the first lap for the race. You can see how Alonso managed to pass Vettel -taking him on the outside. Felipe and Sutil fighting it out. All smiles before the race, and modelling now Jenson? Jessica’s influence probably! The new best friends in the paddock? Or it is ‘just a friendly meet’? RedBull racing finally sent a woman on podium! Gill Jones, Ladies and Gentlemen. She’s the second woman to be up on podium. The first was Sir Frank Williams’ wife, she came up on podium in 1996. This race just got Vetteled. Here’s the famous finger against a beautiful blur backdrop.

A RACE WE DIDN’T SEE   Apr 26 4th race  of the season..and scattered thoughts. Bahrain Grand Prix is the first race that we really never saw this season. I mean that literally, and also it really was never a RACE. The weekend again fell down to the great Pirelli tires. Handle them well -> win the race. There’s no doubt they add the ‘flavor’ to grand prix racing, but when the real deal, racing, is compromised for bits of rubber.. doesn’t seem legit, does it? Anyways, on the whole; It was a fly away weekend. Though Nico Rosberg started on pole, he really wasnt up for the fight given by his rivals behind for the lead. And guess who was behind? reigning 3 time world champion, Sebastian Vettel and his arch rival Fernando Alonso. It was a very typical start from Alonso. Knowing that in front of him was a car that lacked straight line speed, he took full advantage to get ahead of Vettel. But clearly being champion means you have the ability to take back the p...