Formula 1 2011 season vs Nikhil Mishra

Confused you might be and confused you must be wondering what’s with the title and what’s with me. Well, I am a die hardest fan of Formula 1 and there is no questioning this fact, period. I write and I write what I feel like writing and Formula 1 ranks quite high on my favorites’ list – the higher density of my blogs focused on Formula 1 (obviously Formula 1 2011 season in particular right now) is a proof of that and you would have realized that by now.

Moving on, there are not many people who I expect to tell me their true opinion to my face (or Facebook) and even fewer who would broadcast it to the entire world. One such person is Nikhil Mishra – the man whose comment on my last blog read – “Too much of Formula 1 in your blogs. I am writing “Formula 2″ NaCl+ H2O –> NaOH + HCl”.

I can’t blame Nikhil for either part of his comment and trust me I have my reasons for that. He stresses – “Too much of Formula 1 in your blogs.” That’s a fact what can I do? Guilty as charged. There is too much of Formula 1 in my blogs and I have already confessed to that.

He has dared to write –“Formula 2” NaCl+ H2O –> NaOH + HCl. Here again I can’t counter this part of his comment (or this formula – Chemistry was the subject that made cracking engineering entrance easier). Considering the fact that he has spent fair amount of his professional career as a Scientist and still does Research and Development stuff, this is least I could have accepted from him.

And last but not the least, as I promised Nikhil as my reply to his comment – “Hmm.. stay tuned for updates on gilli danda and kanche…” I am going to keep that promise. After all one can stray away from one’s favorite topics for one’s brother once in a while.

PS: Jenson Button has won 4 hour long rain soaked Canadian GP with Sebastian Vettel finishing second to strengthen his grip on what could end up being his second championship win. Sorry bhaiya could not help it, oops.

Sebastian Vettel wins a crash ridden Formula 1 Monaco GP

If you love Formula 1 then I am sure you know every Formula 1 race track has something unique and interesting about it but I think perhaps no track stands out as strongly as Monaco does. It has a small track length meaning the race has close to 80 laps, it has a tunnel that too with a turn, it has many turns and curves, it has gradient combined with a hairpin bend, and the track is so narrow that you hardly get space to overtake another car. The end result of all this is cars brushing against each other, too many crashes, and more than usual number of cars retiring.

No wonder David Coulthard – the former Scottish Formula 1 driver, once said that you bash your teeth so much during Monaco GP that post race you have to visit your dentist. And this year’s Monaco GP was no different.

A race full of crashes

Monaco GP winner Sebastian Vettel was pushed to the limit by Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in what was a three way competition for the top spot after a long time. But the race was so eventful that it’ll be remembered for many other things as well.

Take for example DRS – it was very popular especially during duels between Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button, and Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, with smarter driver getting the better of the other every time.

Then there were endless crashes – in fact Petrov and Alguersuari crash red flagged the race and DRS was disabled (enabled for last two laps) when the race restarted with most teams going for supersoft tires. Safety car (there were safety cars the second time) made two visits to the track. Fellipe Massa, Michael Schumacher (his car had in fact failed to start when the race got underway) and Timo Glock, among others, were the victims who could also not finish the race due to different reasons.

In the end Monaco GP lived up to its reputation in every possible way.

Sebastian Vettel wins Formula 1 Spanish GP, Mark Webber falters

Spanish GP win means Sebastian Vettel is on a roll and if he keeps going like this he’ll be crowned the best driver among his contemporaries by the end of the year. He may have been pushed to 2^nd on the starting grid by his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, but Baby Schumi worked his magic to move ahead and grab his 4^th win of the season in 5 races held so far.   

For Mark Webber this was in the end a rather forgettable race. He had looked the best driver during qualifying in Friday and Saturday but Sunday was not really his day. He failed to complete the sequence of 5^th to 1^st position but with 4^th position finish is still 3^rd on the driver’s points table.

McLaren-Mercedes had a great race

Lewis Hamilton had been looking a lot dangerous this weekend and he proved to be so by finishing second in the race and further consolidated his position at number 2 on the driver’s points table. His McLaren-Mercedes teammate Jenson Button also had a good race and was the third driver on the podium.

On a whole Spanish GP – Formula 1 2011 season’s first race on the European continent – was more or less less exciting than it usually is. All drivers except three made it to the checkered flag, with Narain Karthikeyan being the last of the lot.

With Malaysian GP win Sebastian Vettel makes it two in a row

In almost an identical fashion Sebastian Vettel once again drove like a champion to win Malaysian GP, his second Formula 1 2011 season victory in as many starts. And once again he made it from pole to win in a very comfortable manner.

Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld also had a great outing as they finished their races in second and third place respectively. But Mark Webber was still somewhat unlucky though Fellipe Massa and Fernando Alonso had a better outing for Ferrari as they crossed the finish line one after the other.

For the Indian fans it was a good day as Narain Kartikeyan finally made his 2011 debut, in fact his team mate also got the chance to make it to the actual race, though both were unable to actually finish the race. On a whole it was a more or less an incident free race except for one of the cars being airborne for a while and only 16 cars finishing the race.

Three-way battle seems to be on the cards

After two races Red Bull is at the top of the table with 72 points and McLaren is second with 50 points. Both the teams must be feeling quite satisfied with way the cars and the drivers have performed so far.

Going by what has happened so far, it appears that like 2010 it’s once again going to be a three way battle for the constructor’s title among these two and Ferrari. As for the driver’s title, well it’s really too soon to actually know how things will pan out.

 

FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon and Favorite Formula 1

Stars descend on the African continent, the cradle of human evolution, for the greatest glory they can hope to achieve in life. FIFA World Cup is all set to literally kick off today with Mexico taking on the hosts South Africa. And football crazy fans are up for a treat for many weeks to come.

The awesomely awesome event might be a little less awesome considering the long list of absentees including David Beckham, and likely miss outs like Drogba. But let’s forget about them and focus on the list of presentees, Messi is there, right. If you love football, you are up for a treat. If you don’t, watch FIFA World Cup and you’ll surely fall in love.

And for the fans of Lawn Tennis, this is the best time of the year. Wimbledon is just round the corner. With Rafael Nadal winning the French Open and snatching the world rank number 1 from Roger Federer, it’s going to be a really awesome fortnight for the fans in what’s likely to be fight for dominance.

What about poor Soderling, guess he’ll still continue to end up spoiling others grand slam parties for a long time to come before he can throw one of his own. As for the rest, it would be another chance to come and play and enjoy and come again next year.

But for Formula 1 freaks like me, it’s going to be all about Red Bull’s energy, McLaren’s engine and herd of fast paced cars. The focus right now is on the upcoming Canadian GP, which btw makes a reentry after a hiatus. Who is it going to be this time, Mark Webber or Vettel, or Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button?

All said and done, it’s for sure going to turn out to be a great time for all the sports lovers and wanna be’s alike. My money is on England/Spain, Roger Federer and well, you never know in F1.

Your Biggest Rival is Your Teammate

It may not sound like a politically correct statement to make but in the world of Formula 1 it’s the uncompromising truth that every driver has got to learn to live with. On the tracks of Istanbul, during the dying moments of the Turkish GP, as Vettel took upon himself to teach his teammate Mark Webber the same lesson, Webber’s dream of consecutive dream wins was ruined very much like the tire of Vettel’s car was.

This adage is one of the hardest truths about the highly competitive world of F1. In fact the very system of racing is such that you can’t escape being your teammate’s biggest rival. Things get worse when both you and your teammate is either a former champion or a shoe-in for the running season.

Wondering why so?

Well consider this. Your achievement on the race track is more or less most of the times as good as your car is. Now driving the best car on the circuit, like Red Bull last weekend, implies you are racing to win the race and hopefully the championship. Now who else is driving the similar best car except you? No prizes for guessing, it’s your teammate.

Now consider this. Championship is moving towards the middle of the season. You look like one of the eventual champions considering you are at the top of points table. But going by the best car on the circuit theory your teammate can’t be far behind. What’s worse, he has exactly the same points as you do, except you are at the top since you have more race wins under your belt.

Now consider this. If such is the scenario what do you expect would happen? Well, two drivers knew the answer and thought they would demonstrate it to everyone’s benefit. Mark Webber was at the top of table with more wins and was ahead of the rest in the race – looked like he was heading for his third consecutive win. His teammate Vettel was having same number of points but second on table due to less number of wins and was tailing him to finish line.

In his honest attempt to win the race and prove the adage right (not to forget the pressure at his rear from Button) Vettel took the risk, drove a little too close to Webber, caused the tires from both the cars to brush. The result, Vettel says good bye to the race and Webber is forced to say good bye to another race win.

But that was not all that happened. Vettel while walking away from his car gestures to indicate as if Webber had lost his mind! And in the post race conference, the unlucky third place poor Webber tried his level best to hide his frustration at loosing out on what would have been another spectacular pole-to-win race for him. By trying very hard to not say anything against Vettel he said everything there was to say.

All said and done, cars may change every year in F1, drivers may come and go, teams may come and go, what stays is history, which was reiterated during Turkish GP. Once again it all boiled down to one single F1 fact, your biggest rival is your teammate!

Formula 1 Season is On

The Formula 1 season is finally on and what a start it has been. New teams, former champions driving different cars, Michael Schumacher returning to the circuit, new and weird rules and some new tracks as well. Over the last decade, ever since I became a religious follower of the F1 mania I have always found something unique about every season and this year has more than ever reasons to create its own place in the history books.

19 races and 12 teams, that’s bigger and and I hope better too. The list of former champions in the fray is a lot bigger too; Alonso, Hamilton, Button and of course Schumi. In fact when Schumi was ruthlessly winning championships after championships one thing that was really missing was to watch champions racing down the track fighting for supremacy. Fortunately this time that wish has finally been granted.

There is even more excitement as we also have Bruno Senna, nephew of none other than Ayrton Senna as part of the driver line up. Though we’ll obviously need to give him some time to show how good a driver he actually is.

With two races already completed the excitement is becoming bigger with each passing day. Unfortunately for me though, I have not been able to catch either of the races on TV but this weekend I am going to take care of that. I won’t miss the Sepang for the world. With some really nice pace Hamilton is looking great after the first practice session.

And I wouldn’t mind airing my bias towards Schumi and I hope with my pledge to watch every race of the season now onwards I hope he’ll be back to his winning ways any time now.

F1 Rejuvenated With Return Of Michael Schumacher

Some thought it would never happen, most like me hoped it would and finally hope triumphed as Michael Schumacher put skeptics to rest by announcing that he is all set to enliven the F1 tracks in 2010 once again. Michael Schumacher’s comeback to the world of F1 is already being touted as the biggest story of the 2010, at least in the world of sports and certainly in the world of motorsports.

There are so many angels to the Michael Schumacher comeback story, right from how it happened, why it happened, whom it will affect and how it will be absorbed by different people and most important of all as to how it will affect the world of F1.

Ever since his F1 debut for the Jordan team, Michael Schumacher has been one of the star drivers and because of his racing abilities, controversial strategies, better cars and well deserving records has earned for himself a place in the annals of F1 history that no one can ever dream of overshadowing. That anyone would ever be able to surpass what Schumi has accomplished can only be treated as a dream that someone would have while hallucinating. In fact with all due respect to the champion driver, one who is the most important reason why I am a F1 freak, I don’t think even he can match the records he has set if he were to relive the past.

The most surprising thing though to me was the fact that he will be moving out of the Ferrari zone and joining the Mercedes team. Mercedes which takes over Brawn GP which had itself taken over Honda can be considered a good team with a great car. Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello did a great job behind the wheels of Brawn car in 2009 especially in the first half. With a great car and the greatest of them all driver Michael Schumacher driving it, it can be considered as a great combination for the fans to look out to and a threat to the fellow drivers and teams to watch out for.

With Michael Schumacher’s comeback the 2010 F1 season is going to be one of the most fiercely fought and thoroughly entertaining for the fans and I can’t wait for it to get started. To watch Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel (the baby Schumi), and the other new breed of racers driving alongside the champion of the champions Michael Schumacher would be a treat. But I can’t deny the fact that though Michael Schumacher’s reentry does make me happier and gives me enough reasons to enjoy the 2010 F1 season, yet I would be missing Kimi Raikkonen ‘the Ice Man’ behind a F1 car a lot.

Related Posts:

Schumi; Somethings Are Not Meant To Be, Atleast Not Yet

Schumi All Set To Return To The Racing Track