Category Archives: Cars

2015 F1 Grand Prix of Malaysia — Results & aftermath

Vettel roars back to the top step for Ferrari stunning Mercedes; Hamilton a disgruntled 2nd, Rosberg 3rd

Sebastian Vettel stormed to his maiden win with Ferrari at the sultry Sepang circuit on Sunday, earning the first victory for the fabled Scuderia in well over a year. It was also the 4-time former World Champion’s first win since 2013. Using excellent tire strategy calls and the improved Ferrari powerplant, Vettel stunned the heavily favored Mercedes Silver Arrows. Wisely staying out while the Mercedes duo pitted during an early safety car period, the German ace was able to gain both track position and maximum use out of the fast but fragile softer tires, thus enabling him to execute a 2-stop strategy and run the more durable compound effectively to the end of the race.

Pictures via GrandPrix247.com

Pictures via GrandPrix247.com

Converesely, the Silver Arrows were done no favors by their race engineers with a 3-stop strategy that wound up splitting them. Despite the extra stop, the were unable to match Vettel’s ferocious pace at the end of the race. An audibly peeved Hamilton was overtaken for the lead while in the pits by Vettel’s charging Ferrari and had to settle for 2nd over 8.5 seconds back. Rosberg ended up 12.3 seconds adrift in 3rd after an earlier delay in the pits when he was stuck behind his teammate in the queue for service. Ferrari’s surprising ascendency after a dreadful year last season and Vettel’s seeming ability to get the most out of the new chassis from the get go is just what Formula 1 needed to spice up what was predicted to be another championship processional for Mercedes and Hamilton. Now it’s game on and, as the old saying goes, that’s why you run the races.

Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen, despite a disappointing Q2 exit in Saturday qulaifying and a first lap puncture in the race, nevertheless picked up valuable points with a gritty 4th place finish. Seeing both Ferraris run so well despite some adversity strongly indicates that this year’s model is a serious challenger and at minimum a major threat to Williams’ and Red Bulls’ hopes for 2nd overall in the Constructors’ Championship. Speaking of Williams, they had a relatively poor weekend with mistakes in strategy and tire selection that could well have cost them a better finish. Valtteri Bottas, returning from injury, was able to make an oustanding and gutsy outside pass on his teammate Felipe Massa late in the race and they finished P5 and 6 respectively. Rookies Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz were again impressive for a very competive Torro Rosso, finishing P7 and P8. That was ahead of the senior Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo, whose Renault-powered chassis were again down on power and also struggled with brake overheating issues on the tropical circuit. No doubt Red Bull team manager Christian Horner’s head is about explode seeing his former championship driver back in winning form with another team and, adding insult to injury, getting outperformed by the kids at Torro Rosso .

Of course, all headaches are relative. McLaren had another migraine type of weekend and were forced to retire both cars before the checkered flag with various engine ailments, spoiling Fernando Alonso’s debut with the team and return from concussion after a testing accident. On the plus side, McLaren did seem genuinely faster than they had been in Australia so perhaps all is not lost for 2015… if they can somehow improve the reliability of the Honda powerplants. Also in the glass half-full category, Manor (formerly Marussia) actually managed to start one of their cars on Sunday, proving once again that in motorsport there are many different kinds of victories, some small and some large. But for Vettel and Ferrari, Sunday’s magnificent win in Malaysia was nothing short of massive.

Top 10 finishers for the Malaysian Grand Prix:

Pos Driver                  Car                          Gap
1     Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari                     1h41m05.793s
2     Lewis Hamilton   Mercedes                 8.569s
3     Nico Rosberg     Mercedes                 12.310s
4     Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari                       53.822s
5     Valtteri Bottas     Williams/Mercedes   1m10.409s
6     Felipe Massa      Williams/Mercedes   1m13.586s
7     Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Renault  1m37.762s
8     Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso/Renault  1 Lap
9     Daniil Kvyat         Red Bull/Renault      1 Lap
10   Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault       1 Lap

Complete results available at Autosport.com.

The next race weekend is on April 10 – 12 in Shanghai, China — hope to see you then.

2015 F1 Grand Prix of Malaysia — Qualifying results

Hamilton back on pole in Malaysia but Vettel’s Ferrari splits the Mercedes after downpour, Rosberg 3rd fastest

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was fastest again in Saturday qualifying after a typical Sepang circuit downpour and delay. But the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel also showed surprising speed on Intermediate tires, trailing the favored English World Champion by less than a tenth. That meant the Scuderia’s new prize driver split the Silver Arrows and will start Sunday’s second 2015 race side-by-side with Hamilton on the front row and ahead of Nico Rosberg, who claimed P3 on the grid. If the conditions are similar on race day look for Vettel, a top perforemer in the wet, to challenge for the win and the fans loyal to the Prancing Horse to go completely bonkers.

Red Bull were also much improved in the tricky wet conditions, with Daniel Ricciardo P4 and Daniil Kvyat fifth fastest. The youngest F1 driver ever, Max Verstappen, continued to impress and managed a solid P6 for Torro Rosso. Williams gambled and lost on tire selection and Felipe Massa could do no better than 7th with teammate Valtteri Bottas, returning from a back injury that forced he and his car to miss the Autralian Grand Prix two weeks ago, having only the 9th fatsest time. Lotus again looked good on Saturday and although Sunday will be the true test Romain Grosjean drove to a solid P8 (later dropped 2 spots for a pit lane passing infraction). Marcus Ericsson had a solid run for greatly improved Sauber to capture 10th position, the Swede’s own personal best qualifying effort.

Fernado Alonso returned from his enforced time off due to concussion, which saw him miss race 1 in Australia, but McLaren were still woeful. The proud two-time World Champion was the slowest of the runners in 18th with teammate Jenson Button barely better in 17th. Safe to say it’s going to be a long year for the storied team from Woking!

Top 10 Qualifiers:

P No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.269 1:41.517 1:49.834 13
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:39.814 1:39.632 1:49.908 13
3 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.374 1:39.377 1:50.299 13
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:40.504 1:41.085 1:51.541 16
5 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:40.546 1:41.665 1:51.951 16
6 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:40.793 1:41.430 1:51.981 16
7 19 Felipe Massa Williams 1:40.543 1:41.230 1:52.473 17
8 8 Romain Grosjean* Lotus 1:40.303 1:41.209 1:52.981 18
9 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:40.249 1:40.650 1:53.179 14
10 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:40.340 1:41.748 1:53.261 18

*Penalized 2 grid positions for illegal pass in pit lane

Full updated results at Autosport.com.

Sunday’s race airs live on NBC Sports at 3AM Eastern. Unless you’ve got a lot left in the tank after clubbing until then I’d recommend DVRing it and watching once you’ve had brunch.

12 Hours of Sebring alert

For those who enjoy multi-class sports car racing, the Tudor United SportsCar Championship offers up another American classic later this morning: The 12 Hours of Sebring. Beginning at 11am from the famed old airport track in western Florida, this bumpy 3.74 mile circuit is often said to be harder on man and machine than the 24 Hours of Le Mans. You can catch all the action, which is often spectacular and quite dangerous despite the flat course, live on a variety of Fox Sports platforms and IMSA.com’s live stream, as below:

Television Broadcast:
  • 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET (LIVE)

    FOX Sports 1

  • 12:30 PM – 07:00 PM ET (Live)
    FOX Sports 2
  • 07:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET (Live)

    IMSA

  • 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET (Live)
    FOX Sports 2
  • 08:00 AM – 10:00 AM ET (Recap)
    FOX Sports 1

    So all you sports car fans out there, strap in and buckle up for 12 hours of multi-class mayhem Sebring style!

2015 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Results & aftermath

The new season got off to a very strange start in Australia on Sunday, as nearly half the field failed to make it to the end of the race and several big names were out even before the grid was formed. Young drivers also showed that they belonged in the big time with standout performances that put pressure on the established stars. And a former 4-time World Champion came in from the cold and into the warm embrace of Maranello and the tifosi. But for all that was new and unexpected at the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne one thing was all-too-familiar for the chasing teams in the paddock: Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton continued to reign supreme.

Mercedes & Hamilton still untouchable in 2015 debut, Rosberg a familiar 2nd; Vettel takes Ferrari back to the podium

Running from Pole to the win in intense but seemingly effortless manner, 2-time and defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton laid down a fierce challenge to his teammate Nico Rosberg and any other pretenders to the throne. The Englishman badly wants a third title to put him the conversation of all-time greats and even if it was only the debut race of the season it’s hard to see how anyone is going to stop him. The Mercedes F1 W06 looks potentially more dominant than last year’s model with a season’s worth of race data for improved reliability under its belt and what appears to be increased horsepower squeezed out of the advanced hybrid engine. And Hamilton may well have broken Rosberg’s resolve with last year’s end-of-season rampage to snatch the title from the German for a potentially unbeatable psychological edge. So, with the near-perfection of the Silver Arrows, a once-defeated Rosberg seems to be the only driver that can pose a challenge to Hamilton on paper. Now, maybe the runner-up can rise to the challenge and wrest the Championship away. But at times in Australia it felt like Hamilton was merely toying with his German foil: Rosberg would close the gap to under 2 seconds as the race wore on and Hamilton would pull it out again at will. Rosberg never did get to within the 1-second margin, the magic number for DRS use and overtaking possibilities. Obviously, it’s only Race 1 of a 20 Grand Prix calendar. But barring unforeseen circumstances, we could well be looking at the beginning of one of the most dominant seasons ever for an F1 pilot.

Behind the orderly march to victory of the Mercedes factory duo, all was chaos. Continue reading →

What we’re listening to — I’m In Love With My Car by Queen

I’m not that big of a Queen fan — they were played to death on the radio when I was a kid and there’s something about the rococo pretensions of a song like “Bohemian Rhapsody” that makes me want to do violence to the local jukebox. But I do like this song, probably because it isn’t one of their big hits and also it doesn’t really sound that much like Queen for the simple fact that it’s a Roger Taylor composition and not a Freddy Mercury. Also, I’m sensing a theme around here so this one goes out to Graham while we wait for his report from Down Under. And really, all of us around here are in love with our cars whatever the make or model. Aren’t you?

2015 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Qualifying results

After a seemingly interminable winter, the 2015 Formula 1 season is finally upon us and Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Australia went down earlier today at Albert Park in Melbourne. Would Mercedes still reign supreme after last year’s romp to the double World Championship? Or would Williams, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren have found something to take the fight to the Silver Arrows? It was all there on display Saturday, the moment of truth after a long off-season of testing, driver changes and just plain waiting for the engines to be fired in anger for that one-of-a-kind thrill: the start of a new Grand Prix season…

Hamilton opens title defense with dominant Pole in Melbourne, Mercedes’ teammate Rosberg a familiar 2nd; Massa 3rd for Williams proving 2014 was no fluke

Ominously for the rest of the paddock, 2015 started out much like 2014: With the Mercedes chassis dominant from the start and the Drivers’ Championship looking like a strictly intramural battle between reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton and his runner-up teammate, Nico Rosberg. Continuing the momentum of his end-of-season rampage that clinched last year’s title, Hamilton got the better of Rosberg in the first Qualifying session of the new year, laying down a blistering 1:26.3 in Q3 at the beautiful Albert Park street circuit, which so often serves as the season’s first field of battle. His archrival Rosberg, whose car appeared to suffer from minor mystery maladies all weekend long, nevertheless cruised to second on the grid, a mere .6 behind the Englishman. Also following last year’s trend line, the Mercedes-powered Williams of Filipe Massa qualified a strong 3rd, just under .8 seconds behind Rosberg. Again, it looks like Mercedes is the engine to have in the rebirth of the turbo-charged era and that the factory team, along with its superlative duo of pilots, has the chassis to beat.

Sebastian Vettel in his new ride

Sebastian Vettel in his new ride

All was not an exact copy of 2014, however, and perhaps no team seemed more revived than Ferrari, who appear to have put last year’s dismal and dysfunctional campaign well and truly in the rearview mirror. Continue reading →

Cars we want — Alfa Romeo 4C

There is something delightfully impractical about Italian sports cars. They seem to sacrifice any pretense of driver and passenger comfort for the overall thrill of intoxicating design and performance. And there is no Italian manufacturer that embodies raw style over practicality more than Alfa Romeo. The debut of the simply named but exotic 4C, their pocket pasta rocket, also coincides with the return of the legendary marque to the American market after a generation’s hiatus. That means it’s time for Alfa enthusiasts to celebrate anew. Sure, its seemingly reasonable under-$60k base price can easily swell to the mid-$70s with options like “radio” and “tires”. Nonetheless, it may be time to reallocate some profits from the ongoing bull market in order to put your assets into the 4C’s form fitting bucket seats.

alfa_romeo_4c-2

An attractively visible reinforced carbon fiber tub is designed to meet U.S. crash test standards but only boosts the imported 4C to a still-featherweight 2500 pounds because of the almost total lack of metal bodywork. The heavily turbo charged engine with an eyebrow-raising 21.8 psi pumping into the tiny 1.7 liter block kicks out 238 horsepower for an impressive 10.4 power to weight ratio. Put another way, this slinky pocket-sized supercar will go 0-60 in 4.3 seconds and can be cranked up to a top speed of 158. Which is bound to feel pretty fast in something only slightly bigger than a Gucci loafer.

alfa_romeo_4c-1

Predictably for an Alfa, the 4C has plusses and minuses galore and it shows a definite split personality in terms of design attributes. With a laudable nod to purists, the car is equipped with a throwback fully manual steering rack that, while a bit of a handful in an urban environment, is sheer driving joy on any kind of twisty open road. It’s like going back in time to the golden age of roadsters. Likewise, the brake set up is super tactile in a less-is-more kind of way, making for almost balletic throttle to brake interplay. And the 4C is also classical in its mid engine layout, leading to exceptional balance and confident rotation through corners, a real driver’s car in terms of agility and unity with the road. And what gearhead wouldn’t love the over the top symphony of Latinate exhaust noises upon throttle application and gear shifts, not to mention the head turning only-from-Italy good looks?

But, as has been mentioned in nearly every review of the car, Alfa’s parent, Fiat Chrysler, has inexplicably declined to offer the 4C with a manual transmission, which borders on a criminal omission.

Continue reading →

Getting ready for the 2015 Rolex 24-Hours at Daytona

It’s finally that time of year when we begin to shake off the winter doldrums and high performance engines roar to life once again. Today sees the start of the legendary 24-hour sports car marathon at Daytona International Speedway that serves as the unofficial start to the new year’s motorsport seasons in the Western world. This year’s Rolex 24 is the second that will be run under the banner of the Tudor United Sports Car Championship, which last year merged the two predominant US sports car series, American Le Mans and Rolex Grand-Am, into one competitive body. It features four distinct classes of race car in order of power and performance: Prototype (P); Prototype Challenge (PC); GT Le Mans (GTLM); and GT Daytona (GTD).

rolex 24-roar2015

It should be interesting to see if the balance of performance within the top Prototype class has been evened out after the old Grand Am coupes, technically “Daytona Prototypes”, essentially blew away the Le Mans-style “P2” chassis last season.  But as the LeMans-style prototypes began shifting to enclosed cockpit bodies as the year wore on they gained competitiveness and in fact it was the Honda-powered Ligier P2 of Ozz Negri driving for Mike Shank racing that claimed pole for today’s race ahead of the big Daytona Prototypes. So perhaps that bodes well for overall competitiveness on this demanding hybrid road/banked oval course and the series as a whole going forward. One thing’s for certain: whoever wins tomorrow afternoon after 24-hours of grueling, flat out racing in a crowded, multi-class field will have earned a place in motorsport history. They will also have earned our gratitude for at last kicking off the 2015 racing season in earnest. Wishing everyone a safe race and may the best car and driver team win!

Here is the complete 53-car entry list for the Rolex 24

And here is the broadcast and streaming schedule — with a little work and a lot of coffee you can watch the every minute of the Rolex 24-Hours of Daytona from the drop of the Green to the Checkered flag:

Saturday, Jan. 24 (All Times ET)

– 2-4 p.m. (FOX Network)

– 4-8 p.m. (FOX Sports 2)

– 8-10 p.m. (FOX Sports 1) 

Overnight (Jan. 24-25)

– 10 p.m. – 7 a.m. (IMSA TV on IMSA.com – live video streaming and commentary)

Sunday, Jan. 25

– 7 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (FOX Sports 1)

F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Results & aftermath

Ham’s the man in Abu Dhabi to win race & World Championship, Rosberg’s dream stymied by gremlins; Massa & Bottas fill out podium to cap resurgent 2014 for Williams

LewisHamiltonF1AbuDhabi2014

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton grabbed his second Divers’ World Championship in the last race of the season with a flawless performance in Abu Dhabi. Starting from second position on the grid the Englishman shot by his pole-sitting teammate and closest Championship pursuer, Nico Rosberg, and never looked back. Meanwhile, Rosberg was forced to deal with a plethora of ERS-related gremlins just before midway through the race that robbed his car of critical horsepower and crippled his ability to put up a fight for the title. In a season where the only challenges to the Mercedes factory team have been occasional reliability issues, the finale showed the duality of the awesomeness and the frustrations inherent in any ultra-high performance machine. Rosberg was left to hope in vain that Hamilton’s identical car would suffer the same problems as his machine. It didn’t happen and the Englishman, who showed improved maturity in overcoming technical issues of his own throughout the year, sailed away into the desert sunset of the Gulf kingdom to grab the ultimate prize for any Formula 1 driver. With the way that Hamilton drove down the stretch to win six of the last seven races and a whopping 11 of 19 total Grand Prix, few would argue that he didn’t deserve it.

F1AbuDhabi2014HamiltonRosberg

Taking full advantage of Rosberg’s technical misery and putting an exclamation point on their amazing comeback season, the Williams team claimed the other positions on the podium, with Felipe Massa the only driver to even hint at pressuring Hamilton in P2 and Valtteri Bottas coming good in 3rd after a poor start. With the switch to the dominant Mercedes power plant after last year’s Renault-powered debacle and the increased role of Claire Williams in the team, as well as the major sponsorship of Martini, Williams finished a remarkable 3rd in the Constructors’ Championship. Continue reading →

F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Qualifying results

Rosberg fastest in the desert to take Pole & keep dream alive, Hamilton starts 2nd; Bottas a strong 3rd

In the last Qualifying session of the 2104 Formula 1 season, Mercedes’ contender Nico Rosberg kept his Championship dream alive and the heat on his points-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton by taking Pole in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Rosberg laid down a blistering 1:40.48 on his final lap of Q3, nearly 4-tenths faster than Hamilton’s best effort. The German heads into tomorrow’s title-deciding race with renewed confidence coming off a win in Brazil in the previous Grand Prix and taking a dominant Pole today. But Hamilton still controls his own fate and will wrap up the Drivers’ Championship with a win tomorrow. With both men piloting the fastest cars in the field and barring mechanical issues, it should be a dogfight to the end in the last race of the season to  determine who walks away as World Champion.

Williams once again showed that they were only just off the pace of the factory Mercedes team with Valtteri Bottas continuing his breakout season with an excellent P3 and Massa continuing his season of renewal with P4. The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo & Sebastian Vettel had the 5th and 6th fastest times respectively but saw their efforts disqualified in post-Quali scrutineering due to illegal, overly-flexible front wings. They will now have to start from the back of the grid come Sunday. Daniil Kvyat, who drives for Torro Rosso now but will move to the senior Red Bull team next year, had a sterling effort in his Ferrari-powered chassis to take 7th position and Jenson Button was a solid P8 for McLaren. The two factory Ferraris rounded out the top 10 with Kimi Raikkonen out-dueling Fernando Alonso P9 to P10.

Adjusted Top 10 after the Red Bulls’ exclusion here:

Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m40.480s –
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m40.866s 0.386s
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m41.025s 0.545s
4 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m41.119s 0.639s
5 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m41.908s 1.428s
6 Jenson Button McLaren/Mercedes 1m41.964s 1.484s
7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m42.236s 1.756s
8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m42.866s 2.386s
9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren/Mercedes 1m42.198s 1.718s
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso/Renault 1m42.207s 1.727s

Complete updated Qualifying results available at AutoSport.com.

Tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix airs live on NBCSports channel at beginning at 7:30am Eastern. It’s the last race of the year and will determine whether Hamilton or Rosberg comes away as Champion — how can you miss it?