Many of us would have come these titles in many websites and new links:

“Kimi wins Australian GP”
“Lotus is faster than Redbull”

“Kimi to win 2013 championship”

It’s ironical how people still state the above things just after the 2012 season, where a mighty lead by Alonso was crushed by Vettel, who ultimately took home the championship.

It’s very, very early to comment on such matters. Kimi might have won the first race with a huge margin over Alonso but does that prove they were actually so fast in Australian GP?

Lotus and Kimi went ahead with their two pit stop strategy, which worked out for them. After the race finished, I was looking at some earlier articles. One quoted by Pirelli “Two-Pit stop possible in Australian GP”. So, it’s wrong to say they have taken a risk. Both Pirelli and Lotus have known and trusted their findings about the tires.

The other teams didn’t want to bet on their cards, but they should have at least opened to find out their cards! A set of Aces was waiting!

Agreed, Lotus looks to be in a good position and their upgrades in Malaysia seem to work in their favour. So, they are a strong contention for the race. But never forget two teams – Red bull in qualifying and Ferrari in race.

The previous seasons have displayed the superiority of Red bull. Adrian Newey and his team can innovate and adopt. Any significant concept incorporated in their rivals can quickly be designed and tested in their car, only to work better than the original one.

Meanwhile, Alonso and Ferrari never lose hope and continue fighting. Also, one of the best examples of domination is Brawn GP. Mr. Brawn has waited for 2013 to showcase his new innovation and with Hamilton behind its wheels, they can be a serious consideration.

So, it would be unwise to comment about the championship at this early stage. Who knows, we can have different winners in different races like last time!

“Its not over until its over”

1. Three pitstops. That’s what Pirelli wanted this season. But as displayed by Kimi, teams would benefit out of a two pit stop strategy as the difference in speed of old vs new tires will not save enough time to do a pitstop.

Hence, drivers would rather stay out and finish the race than an extra third pitstop.

2. Super soft tires. No one can beat Red bull in that. But their setup doesn’t work on the harder tires. So, their race pace is compromised. Adding to their woes are the limitations of DRS use. But there is some time left before Newey finds an innovative solution and they start dominating.

3. Don’t underestimate the likes of Lotus, Mercedes or Force india. They have good drivers, and in their consistent search for improvement, they may make it to the podium.

4. No one has been able to find a way to match the launch speed of the Ferrari during the start. Both of the cars had an amazing start and quickly gained positions. They will continue it in the coming races and will be important to compensate their bad qualifying performance.

5. The last team in the grid, HRT, is gone and its competitors Marussia and Caterham look to be still significantly behind other teams. Three years in F1 and still in the same position? That’s disappointing and serves no purpose. Hope they do better this season.

The Malaysian GP is just a few days away. Its conditions are always tenuous for drivers and teams. Let’s see if the above conclusions are good for this as well.

His drive in the ill-fated team Hispania Racing Team is ruining his career progress and seriously hiding him from showcasing to the world the raw talent and speed he possesses.

The spectators call him slow, his team asks him to get more sponsors to retain his drive, his engineers echo a radio message of system failure every race.

He doesn’t showcase the world his worries, but instead hides those in his smile and pushes even harder to get the best out of his available resources.

A walk through the paddock and you can identify him by his wide grin and rustic Indian looks. Go ahead and have a chat with him and you will be astounded by his graciousness and humility. However fast the sport is, he will always stop by and honor your wishes of taking his signature or a photograph.

The world has forgotten his true identity. All that the audience notices is his broken car stopping in the middle of the race.

How many of the viewers have even looked back at his career highlights? Whatever impression they have of him will change instantaneously. He has proved his skills and talent in every event of the numerous he has participated. Here is the list of championships he has taken part in:

Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship, Formula Ford Zetec series, British Formula Ford Winter Series, British Formula Opel Championship, British Formula Three Championship, Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, Telefónica World Series, Nissan World Series, The 24 Hours of Le Mans, A1 GP, NASCAR and Superleague Formula.

Stunned?

Not just participation, but he has won many of them also. Even more surprising should be the fact that he is an Indian and achieved all of the above. An Indian, unlike European counter parts, faces many hurdles such as infrastructure, sponsors, technology, etc. But he did not let any of those to stop him from achieving his ambition: Drive in Formula One, the pinnacle of motorsport.

In 1996, he became the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. He tested a Formula One car for Jaguar Racing team as early as 2001, when he was just 24!!

His formula one drive in 2005 for Jordan team came to end as he could not satisfy their monetary demands. He continued as a test driver for Williams F1 team but it too came to a halt after his main sponsor TATA pulled out.

His efforts bore some fruits, when he returned to Formula One to drive for Hispania Racing Team in 2011. But it has done more harm than any good.

He is easily one of the Worlds Most Underrated drivers.

Politics and money have taken over the sport and have deprived many to survive and excel in the sport. Coming from a country where motorsports is not recognized as a sport, he has risen and successfully achieved his ambition of driving in Formula One. But his raw skill and ability gone unnoticed is very disappointing.

His growth story will distinguish him from rest of the drivers in the global motorsport community.

He is a true representative of India’s young spirit and he has set an example for the entire motorsports fraternity of India to follow.

His true identity is lost and the many may never realize it, but for me and other million Indians, he will continue to be our hero. #trueindian.

For all those who still criticize him, here is all I have to say:

Those who can-do. Those who can’t-criticize

MONZA, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 08: Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo is seen with driver Fernando Alonso in the paddock following qualifying for the Italian Formula One Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on September 8, 2012 in Monza, Italy.

The underdogs of this season are now clearly ahead of their rivals in the championship table. While rest of their rivals are ahead of them in terms of down force and speed, they seem to enjoy some other benefits. Listed below are five main secrets behind Alonso’s success in this season. All the reasons mentioned here have played a significant role to improve his performance. Read on…

1. Fantastic Starts

His starts have been brilliant. Ferrari has tuned the launch controls with its drivers and ensured they take maximum advantage in the first corner. The table shows the average position changes on lap one and Alonso has done 19 and his rivals are nowhere to be seen.

If you have a good start, you could get ahead of cars faster than you. Alonso overtook his faster rivals in the first lap and defended his position to prevent them from overtaking.  If he allows them to get ahead, there is no catching up possible. By following this technique, Alonso has been able to take advantage despite his slower pace.

2. Faster Pit Stops

Mclaren have lured their pit crews with more beers if they are able to achieve quicker pit stop times and this seems to be working as they are doing fewer mistakes now compared to before, but mistakes are still there!!

But Ferrari pit crews, WOW they seem to be just ahead of everyone. Not only are they fast, but are reliable and accurate. They have achieved the fastest pit stop timing on four occasions. There is no room for errors and this has benefitted Alonso. He has gained places in almost every one of his pit stops.  This has allowed him to overtake cars, which otherwise would have been difficult to overtake on the track.

3.  Zero Penalties:

The table below shows the total number of penalties awarded to drivers. While one can easily guess Pastor would be on top of the list, Alonso nowhere to be seen on the list. He is still yet to receive any penalty from the stewards. He hasn’t been penalized for any engine/ gearbox change also. This is significantly important as all his rivals have been penalized for various reasons which have affected their positions.

4. Conquering Wet Races

If there is one team that eagerly look forward to wet races, it surely is Scuderia Ferrari. Stats say it all. They hold fantastic results in wet races. When there was a heavy downpour in Malaysia, Alonso took advantage and secured his first win, though he starting position in grid was eighth.

Next up, it is Silverstone. To everyone’s disbelief he secured a pole in a wet qualifying session. He repeated his triumph again in the German grand Prix, where he secured pole and also won the race.  On all the three occasions, the Ferrari seems to be faster than its rivals, particularly Mclaren.

 5. Push harder and drive faster

I may state several reasons behind his triumph, but this one is the one. We have to laud and appreciate his fantastic driving this season. His driving skills and his attitude has matured and become a true Tifosi.  He has understood the tires and settings better than other drivers, particularly his teammate. The Ferrari though not as fast as the Mclaren, still manages to deliver under his control.  Alonso has beaten his team mate on 12 occasions and on an average, he is half a second faster than his teammate. This clearly validates his superior driving skills.

Against all the odds, he is up leading the championship table.

Let’s see if he can maintain the place till the end of the season.

Two experienced and brilliant drivers, who started this season with a faint of hope of winning the drivers championship, are now leading the driver standings. Fernando Alonso on 129 points leads Webber by 13 points. Vettel meanwhile is at 100 points, i.e. sixteen points behind Mark Webber.

The last two races have been a boon to the duo, with each securing a first and second place alternatively. Alonso did it in Valencia, and Webber managed it in Silverstone. With these wins, they are the only drivers to achieve two victories in this intriguing season.

While both the wins of Alonso have been emotional, the ones by Webber were inspiring.

Even though their season began on a disappointing note, Alonso changed the course of Ferrari as the season proceeded. A surprise victory at Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia brought the much needed motivation to the team, who were struggling to improve the car.

His second win at Valencia is not just a win; it’s a gift, a gift to the people of Spain and all his fans throughout the world. Defeating the likes of Vettel and Grosjean and crossing the chequered flag first in front of the home crowd is an emotional moment.

 Mark Webber, on the other hand, proved his worth by defending his rivals in an extremely close battle and sealed the victory at the famous Monaco Grand Prix.  His second win at Monaco marked the return of Webber, who has been on a low for more than a year.

The team’s strategy and his perseverance worked out as he overtook Alonso in the closing stages of the British Grand Prix, thereby winning his second race of the season.  He was fantastic throughout the weekend and the result confirmed it.

Overshadowed by his teammate Vettel, it has been a spectacular recovery for Mark Webber. After his win in Silverstone, his contract has been extended by Red Bull, thus ending the speculations of Mark quitting the team.

Both the drivers are now in a bid to win races and stop Sebastian Vettel from dominating the races. The return of Ferrari and recovery of Mark has been fascinating for Formula One and its viewers. But can they continue to stay above the rest?  Let’s wait and see…

Formula one is more like a high speed game of chess. Your moves have to be fast, planned and better than your rival.

This season, we have observed a situation like never before, six races and six different drivers have won. Many audiences love the trend but some criticize and label it as a lottery. Many blame the Pirelli tires for causing this randomness, but it is just one of the many factors which have caused this change.

None of them can predict the performance of tires in the races. Even the slightest change in temperature causes the tires to behave in a different manner and hence the car’s performance varies between the race and qualifying sessions. Some teams which are strong in a particular race seem to be under-performing in the subsequent race as their tires perform well in some tracks compared to others.

This has increased the pressure among all drivers and mechanics as they understand every step is crucial and any small mistake could be disastrous. There is an increased urge among pit crews to do their work perfectly in the shortest time possible.

The drivers on the other hand have to push and go faster, yet at the same time conserve and prevent excessive degradation of their tires. In Monaco, we witnessed the closest ever action with six drivers finishing the race within a span of five seconds.

Hence, the race strategy has become paramount and an early or late call for pits can shuffle the positions. This season, if a rival makes a pit stop, it doesn’t mean others have to follow suit. The drivers continue to drive as long as their tires perform well and lap timings are on par with other drivers.

The teams are not sure how their updates will perform; hence they run one car with the old specs and the other one with new updates during the practice session. We never saw such kind of practices in earlier seasons.

This entire chaos might worry the teams, but the audience love watching various scenarios and different winners. All the races this season has been action packed and awesome. It just seems to be getting better.

This season has been a spectacular journey and seems to defy the history of Formula One.

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Monaco Grand prix has been in existence since the inception of Formula One, and will continue to be on the race calendar for decades to come. The famous Casino Square, the tunnel and preceding chicane are few of the elements of the historic track, which drivers consider an honour and privilege to win.

The ecstasy and feeling of finishing first is unmatched and hence winning at Monaco equals to nothing else.

Let us explore what Monaco has to offer its fans this season:

On track | Excitement and Rush

The narrow and tricky corners of Monaco require utmost driving precision, and a small mistake could end anyone’s race.  Most of the times, the race extends to almost two hours, thereby making driving stressful as the clock ticks.

This season, various cars have experienced different rate of tire degradation like never before. It has lead to cars splitting into different sets of groups on the track. Each set includes three to four cars and each set stays aloof from rest of the action.

What we have observed this season is that, the first five cars are usually a lap ahead of rest of the field. Hence in Monaco, this situation could get a lot worse. The front runners will have to cross several back markers in the narrow track width and hence accidents are bound to happen. Hence we can expect the safety car to interrupt the race a few times. Some believe it might be a wet race, if so then the action will be doubled.

The qualifying will be very crucial, and the driver grabbing pole position has high chances of finishing first. McLaren and Hamilton head to the race as favourites, but with rise of Ferrari and Williams the situation could change.

Off track | Glamour and Charisma

While the engineers and drivers are busy discussing the car settings and strategies, the rest of Monaco are in a different mode. The entire city switches into festive mood.

More than the action on track, the guests and spectators are treated to the most spectacular parties in the world. Parties on Friday, on Saturday and on Sunday gives them an once in a lifetime experience.

Every hotels and yachts lined up along the harbour, host their unique late night parties that stretch till early mornings.

The amber lounge charity fashion shows are attended some of most esteemed guests from around the globe. The guests may give the race a miss, but they never fail to turn-up at the parties.

More liquor is consumed during the weekend than fuel used in a race car.

 Can we see a new winner in the sixth race? Well it is not guaranteed but don’t forget to watch the race.

 Track length: 3.340 km

Laps: 78 laps

Distance: 260kms

This season, Formula One grid is filled with many young drivers and many of their names were unheard a few years ago, but there are only two of them who are making their debut in their Formula One career. Surprisingly, both of them are French drivers and 22 years old. They are:

Jean-Eric Vergne | Torro Rosso

The young French driver became popular after he won the British Formula three championships in 2010 by securing 12 victories and with six races remaining in the season. He also set the fastest lap times on all three days of Young driver test in 2011 with the Redbull RB7, which eventually led to his seat in Torro Rosso for the 2012 F1 Season.

Charles Pic | Marussia F1 Team

The GP2 driver made his debut at the wheels of a Formula One car in 2011, driving for Marussia Virgin Racing at the young driver test held at Yas Marina Circuit. After the conclusion of the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, Pic was confirmed to drive in the 2012 F1 season with Timo Glock has his partner.

Let us assess their performance in the first four races of the season:

Race finishing positions

Round One | Australian GP

For Vergne, his first race was quite a spectacle. He dropped to sixteenth place in the opening lap and had to fight his way to the top but was trapped among slower cars, but was benefited by the safety car period which allowed him to pass Di Riesta. Alas on the last lap in the final sector, he pushed hard and made a mistake costing him his tenth place. But overall, his car was faster than other mid contenders and they were competitive the entire weekend.

Charles Pic on other hand drove a brilliant race without any faults. Despite a few problems at the beginning and at the end, he finished 15^th, in spite of the fact that he is a debut driver driving a debut car which never participated in pre-testing sessions.

Round Two | Malaysian GP

The race gifted those with the best strategies. Fortunately, Vergne was one of them and his strategy of staying on inters till the red flag period helped him gain positions. After the safety car period, he played safe and finished eighth place and scored the first points of his F1 career.

Whereas for Pic, he had to prove the cars reliability in the wet conditions and he successfully fulfilled his task of finishing the race. He held Kovalainen for a long time, but at the end had to give up and settle for 20^th place.

Round Three | Chinese GP

Vergne had modifications done to his car set up under Parc Ferme rules and hence had to start from the pit lane. The Torro Rosso drivers ran on different configurations and Vergne had to settle for 16^th place.

Pic finished 20^th again but the Marussia cars reduced their gaps to the Caterham cars and hence were happy with their progress.

Performance comparison

Round Four | Bahrain GP

Vergne’s struggle in qualifying continued as the car was slower in the qualifying than in the race. Bad Qualifying had sealed his fate and he could not achieve anything better than 14^th in the race. Fit with Ferrari engines, they seem to share their problems with Scuderia Ferrari.

Pic enjoyed a strong form in the practice and qualifying but on race day, he faced his first DNF in his career after he retired with a problem in the Air Valve System on lap 24.

Performance comparison

Clearly, Vergne is struggling in Qualifying and is half a second slower than his team mate. He needs to assess it quickly and become competitive to survive in Formula One. But a positive note is his race performance is been better than his team mate and if he solves his issues, he can be a serious rival to Di Riesta and Perez.

Charles Pic has been driving it safe in the first quarter of the season and he needs to pull his socks as the season continues. His main challenge begins now and the world will watch whether he takes a step ahead or remain at the same level.

Concluding, both the drivers are very talented and must push harder to obtain better results. Best of Luck to their future endeavours!

Amazingly, four different drivers from four different teams have won the first four races, a record that last happened in the 1983 season.

So what is special about this season?

First, it is the drivers lineup for this season. The return of Kimi Raikonnen has increased the number of world champions present on the grid and it made F1 more interesting to watch.

Secondly, it is the innovations that have been introduced this year.

Be it the double DRS of Mercedes, which reduces their drag drastically, or the exhaust layout of Redbull, which produces the maximum down force.

Not many of you know that the Renault engines are the most efficient and if you have closely watched the Bahrain GP, you would have noticed the cars with the Renault engine are faster than the ones with the Mercedes engine. The nose of McLaren and the front Pull-rod suspension of the Ferrari are also something that stand out from the usual trend.

The third reason is because of the new Pirelli tires that have made racing tougher, as all teams struggle to find ways to reduce tire degradation and improve traction. Though four races have been completed, very few teams are comfortable with the new tires.

The fourth, is the midfield battle that has spiced up things with rivalry between Sauber, Force India and the Williams. Several bold strategies have enabled some of them to squeeze between the top contenders.

At the back, our Indian hero Narain Karthikeyan in the HRT is struggling hard to defeat their closest rival, Marussia F1 Team and improve his level of performance.

Impressive starts, brave over takings, dramatic pit stops and unpredictable tire wear-out have provided the audience, the excitement they have been waiting for almost a year.

The fifth, is the Mid- Season testing that will take place next week. This will give an opportunity to all the teams to improvise their design and performance, thereby reducing the seconds between teams.

The stage is set for a close battle and the teams are working tirelessly to design the new parts and upgrades to their cars and test it at Mugello next week. When the teams return to racing after three weeks time at Catalunya, Barcelona there might be an another new winner. Michael Schumacher, perhaps?

When everyone expected a silver car to grab the pole position in Bahrain, it was very surprising to see Sebastian Vettel beat the four silver cars and pounce forward to first place. His first pole of the season is hundredth of a second faster than Hamilton and two-hundredth of a second faster than his teammate Mark Webber, who qualified third.

So what has made the Red Bulls charging?

At Chinese grand prix last weekend, as the paddock was busy appreciating the efforts of Nico Rosberg and the Mercedes Team, many weren’t too enthusiastic about the new exhaust configuration introduced by Red Bull and when Vettel decided to stick with the old configuration, they believed this was just an another ordinary update. But mind you, never underestimate their updates; they have always got it right.

This update might well turn their fortunes to a championship winning car.

So what exactly did they do in the last race?

They introduced a new exhaust layout and tested it in the practice sessions and at the end of practice, Webber decided to use it for the qualifying and race. But Vettel on the other hand said he was uncomfortable with it and decided to revert to the old specs.

The Result: Mark Webber qualified in a better position than Vettel and also finished ahead of his teammate.

So why didn’t Vettel use the update? They just had few hours of practice sessions to test their new update and hence could not adapt completely to the new package. So he decided to wait till he found the perfect setup to support it.

After the race, Redbull obtained all the data to deduce a perfect comparison between the new package and the old one. Observing the differences and discussing it with their drivers and engineers, they found the areas to change the settings.

In the practice sessions at Bahrain on Friday, they knew the exact areas to work on and found the answers they were looking for.

The answer actually roots back to the exhaust design introduced by Redbull at the last phase of Pre-Season testing.

They needed long stints of practice to utilize 100% of its capability and it seems that have done it. Their new package has improved their compatibility with the new Pirelli tires. Soon, other teams will start pondering over their design.

Just as Mercedes found their answers last week, Redbull has done it this week. But can they repeat what Mercedes did last week? A victory, perhaps?

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McLaren-Mercedes:

The McLaren’s, who are the only team who can challenge the Mercedes, started the race beyond fifth but managed to occupy two places on the podium.

A brilliant start by both the drivers coupled with some excellent overtaking made this possible.

At the start of the race, Button was chasing Schumacher and was being chased by Kimi Raikonnen. But shortly afterwards, Button entered the pits to change his tires.

When he came back, the competition had died as Schumi had retired and Kimi fell back to a different strategy.

Hamilton on the other hand had to push throughout the race to stay ahead of his rivals. At the start, he competed with Kimi, Perez, Webber and Alonso. When he was out of the pits, he had to overtake a number of mid-runners  to ensure that he stayed ahead of Mark and Vettel at the end of the race. Surprisingly, all his overtaking moves  were clean and this helped him grab third place.

Red Bull racing Team:

If there was one team that made excellent calls on when to pit and followed  a brilliant pit-stop strategy, it is Red bull.

Their team principals  understand their cars very well and know when to call their drivers for refueling and how to gain advantage over others.

An example of this is the early pit stops made by Mark Webber, which allowed the Australian to stay ahead of Alonso and the Williams. However, his car was not good to challenge the McLaren’s, else he could have easily finished second.

Vettel on the other hand started from eleventh place and finished fifth. All thanks to his two stop strategy which clicked perfectly.

At the start, he fell back to 14^th place and struggled to overtake Force India drivers. But later, his perfect timing at the pits, helped him regain his position and his second pit stop was also perfectly timed to gain advantage over other drivers.

Scuderia Ferrari:

According to the Chinese calendar, 2012 is the year of dragon and the horse is never compatible with the dragon.

This proved true as the Prancing horse suffered in the practice, in the qualifying and suffered in the race as well and could not finish any higher  than ninth.

The initial phase of the race was fruitful to Ferrari as Alonso overtook Webber and was challenging Hamilton, but they visited the pits much earlier than him and that was the turning point of the race. Ferrari failed to capitalise on Alonso’s potential.

Even at the end, Alonso failed to overtake Maldonado whereas Hamilton overtook all the midfield-runners to finish third.

The cars are slower than their rivals by a whole second, and their exhausts must be blamed for their car’s pace. Also, they still haven’t solved the issues of tire degradation and the car delivers only in a narrow constriction of conditions.

The next race at Bahrain might be worse because of the hot track conditions. The nightmares for Massa still continue as he failed to score points. Again.

Except the last three teams on the grid; every other driver has scored points in this season. With their current form, it is unlikely that the Maranello based team can finish in top five of the Constructors Standings.

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Two days back, Formula One and its fans experienced one of the most spectacular races in recent times.

The Chinese Grand Prix 2012 will be remembered for a long time due to the rise of Silver Arrows and the emergence of a new winner: Nico Rosberg‘s Mercedes team.

The spectators were treated to one of the most closely packed races in the history of Formula One with a train of cars racing with each other at speeds in excess of 300km/hr at one of the world’s most famous tracks, Shanghai International Circuit.

A remarkable race by Nico Rosberg allowed the Mercedes team to  finish first after a gap of 57 years in Formula One.

Their win is so historic that a few Chinese shops have started selling silver arrows rather than swords. Nico-soups, nico-noodles etc are to follow soon.

Here’s a small review of the Historic win of Mercedes:

The Mercedes duo started the race in front and maintained their positions as the race began. As Rosberg increased his gap after every lap, Schumacher stayed just ahead of the McLaren vehicles and protected his position.

Both the cars had a longer first stint compared to the other teams, but later, Schumacher did his first pit stop, and unfortunately, his right front wheel was not fixed properly. As a result, Schumacher’s car faced mechanical problems and he was forced to retire immediately. It was a blow for the Mercedes and Schumacher as they missed out on a good opportunity.

Rosberg continued his form and drove perfect laps. But things were looking a bit worried as the rest of the teams did their second pit stops but he stayed away. They decided to have a two-pit strategy and this was clearly not the best strategy on a demanding circuit like China.

But Rosberg still kept setting times like the rest of the grid and finally made a second stop when the rest of the cars entered the pits for their third stop.

After that, there was no looking back and finished the race a whopping twenty seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Reliability, tire issues and DDRS controversies are now a thing of the past as the Mercedes cars proved that they are capable of dominating races. The result of the Chinese Grand Prix will silence the mouths of the team’s share-holders as they wanted them to quit Formula One at one point of time.

Thank you and don’t miss the famous Bahrain Garand Prix this Sunday, till then hail the new samurai # Nico Rosberg

Visit our Official Website #MYF1EYE for interesting information about the sport of Formula One.

Some call them the Back Markers; we call them the “Twins of Formula One.”

Hispania racing Team:

The only Spanish team to race in Formula One, Hispania Racing Team [HRT] are still suffering as they are in their third season in F1.The Thesan Capital backed team has assembled the car in a hurry and their only priority now is to qualify and participate in the races.

Driven by Narain and Pedro De la Rosa, the team could not qualify the 107% rule in Qualifying Session of opening race in Albert Park. They failed their FIA mandatory crash test and hence had to skip the Pre-Season Testing. It has become a habit for them to skip these tests, during which the other teams tune and maximise the performance of their cars.

When asked about the issues in their car, their team principal replied “We have issues with power steering, DRS, Engine, Cooling etc”. Is there anything left out?

The mid season testing at Mugello, will be crucial for all the teams to test and tune their innovative / copied designs. But looking at the current situation, HRT is unlikely to improve their form to the extent of challenging other teams.

Disabled by financial constraints and absence of technical experts, they struggle to improve. They need to sit back and discuss their financial constraints.

After that they need to do some Shopping!!

Buying Engineers and experts from the field, deals with companies to borrow their facilities and labs is the pre-requisite to build a strong foundation. A systematic approach with strict deadlines can enable them to attend next year’s Pre Season testing. They should use this season solely to gather a database based on which the next car can be built on.

Marussia F1 Team:

Marussia, initially a team partner to Virgin racing,  purchased a controlling stake in the team. They are based in Banbury, United Kingdom.

Led by Technical Consultant Pat Symonds, Marussia had a 60% scale model of their 2012 car ready by September 2011. Ahead of the Season, they decided not to have KERS for the entire season.

Several delays and failing to clear the FIA mandatory crash tests postponed their launch and had to skip the Pre-Testing Season. Their lead driver Timo Glock secured 14^th and 17^th places, whereas the debutant driver Charles Pic finished 15^th and 20^th in the two races.

Their partnership with McLaren applied Technologies seems to be working out well.

Before Formula One enters Russia, the team needs to build a solid foundation and bring positive results.

Finishing last in the previous two seasons, the team has the best start ever this season. To continue their good form, they need to introduce new updates during Mugello test and effectively tune them to improve their performance.

Hiring experts from the paddock to lead and design their car, building more collaboration, creating research labs etc can take their level to greater heights. This requires a great deal of money, but it should make sense as they could apply the same technology to the supercars they manufacture.

Currently, they are ahead of the HRT’s, the Cateram’s and a Renault and also a Ferrari. With smart strategies and weather in their favour, either of them can grab a point or two.

They are always criticized by top teams, but you never know, some guy like Newey may be a part of their team and can change the course of the game.

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