Hispania Racing F1 Team (HRT) Narain Karthikeyan: This design is obviously inspired by the Indian flag. Vitantonio Liuzzi: Note: On the other side, the design is kept in red. Together with the white, this gives us the Italian flag.
Team Lotus Jarno Trulli: Like Liuzzi, Trulli sports the Italian colors. Heikki Kovalainen: Kovalainen changed the color of his helmet from red to green after joining Lotus last year.
Scuderia Toro Rosso And here we have one of the things I really hate about Red Bull...the fact that they force their drivers to sport a Red Bull inspired design. This takes away the individuality and it also makes it harder to differentiate between the four Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers. Sébastien Buemi: The Swiss flag on top makes this helmet unique. Jaime Alguersuari: Here we have the Spanish colors, interrupted by the Red Bull logo.
Sauber F1 Team Kamui Kobayashi: Inspired by the Japanese red sun. But be careful, Kobayashi is known to tinker with this design, so it may well change. Sergio Pérez: Here we obviously have the colors of the Mexican flag.
Force India F1 Team Adrian Sutil: My interpretation is that Sutil took the colors of the German flag (black/red/gold) but replaced black with silver, which is the color of Germany in motor sport since the 1930s...but that's just a guess on my part. Paul di Resta: Even though di Resta is a Scotsman, he sports the Italian flag on his helmet, due to his Italian roots.
AT&T Williams Rubens Barrichello: A big Kudos to Barrichello who (except for special occasions) hasn't changed his helmet design in over 300 races. Pastor Maldonado: The Venezuelan flag is sported prominently.
Lotus Renault GP Nick Heidfeld: Heidfeld started wearing a black helmet last year. It fits in perfectly with Lotus Renault this season. I'm guessing that the 'Q' stands for 'Quick Nick', the nickname Ron Dennis gave him when he was a test driver for McLaren in the late 1990s. Vitaly Petrov: Obviously, you're looking at the Russian flag.
Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team Michael Schumacher: The red helmet has become a Schumacher trade mark by now, but he used to have a different design (blue/white with the German flag on the side) only later during his time with Ferrari did he change the helmet. Nico Rosberg: Nico has had the yellow helmet for a long time, but when he was driving for Williams, the part that is now grey used to be blue.
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Fernando Alonso: Baby-blue is the color of Alonso's home region, Asturias. It was a perfect fit for Renault. Since driving for Ferrari, the Spanish flag has become more prominent though. Felipe Massa: The Brazilian colors...the way they're arranged he looks like some sort of exotic bird...
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Lewis Hamilton: Lewis did worship Senna since he was little, so that's where he got the inspiration for his helmet from. Jenson Button: Button's helmet sports his initials JB and the coloring of the Union Jack.
Red Bull Racing Sebastian Vettel: Don't count on this design. Sebastian pretty much has a different design for every race. Mark Webber: Again we see the colors of the national flag. In this case Australia.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJAL4BPv8KA"]YouTube - Michael Schumacher explains the MGP W02 2011 changes[/ame]
We're almost there...the cars have already arrived in Australia: And the Pirelli tyres degrade even while standing still...
With the cars about to hit the streets of Melbourne for the first time, I think it's time for some predictions. This year it's of course harder than ever to make predictions. Last year, Vettel was the clear favorite for me. By the end, he turned out to be somewhat lucky in his last race, but if it hadn't been for the many technical problems, he would have been crowned much earlier already. This year, Ferrari and Mercedes seem to be right at Red Bull's heels with Ferrari having had a bullet proof car in pre season testing. McLaren seems to be off the leading pack, but they are never to be underestimated and Lotus Renault are the dark horse. However, should Red Bull get their reliability under control, I don't see how they could be stopped. So I'll once again say that Sebastian Vettel will walk away with the championship. As for the constructor championship, a lot depends on Massa's form. He certainly has the quality, but after his head injury he hasn't looked as sharp as before and even worse seemed to have been the order to let Alonso pass. After that incident, Massa seemed to have lost his spirit. This season, he can start from zero again, but I doubt that Massa has the mental strength to deal with a teammate like Alonso. That's why I think the constructors championship will be decided between Red Bull and Mercedes with Red Bull clearly being the favorites. So my vote once more goes to Red Bull. Finally, it's time to predict the race in Melbourne. Without any previous races to base any evaluation upon, this is of course very difficult. Red Bull is of course the clear favorite, but picking them again would be too boring, plus Red Bull doesn't have a particularly great history in Australia. So I'll go out on a limb and pick Schumacher as first winner of the season.
After the first day, McLaren is on top of the time charts. If that is for real, then I have severely underrated them. But in any case, their new exhaust has definitely improved the car a lot. Red Bull are still the fastest team in my book, but now it could be very close right behind them, with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes fighting it out for second place. I'm slightly disappointed by Lotus Renault though. I would have expected them to do better. But it was only two practice sessions, so this still means nothing. We won't know for sure until qualifying.
Awesome Mercedes ad: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9DBlGpnzqY&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - Mercedes-Benz.tv: Formula One TV Commercial 'Compliments'[/ame]
The first qualifying session of the year is over and here are the results: Code: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m23.529s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.307s + 0.778s 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m24.395s + 0.866s 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.779s + 1.250s 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m24.974s + 1.445s 6. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m25.247s + 1.718s 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m25.421s + 1.892s 8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m25.599s + 2.070s 9. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.626s + 2.097s 10. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m27.066s + 3.537s Q2 cut-off time: 1m25.882s 11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m25.971s 12. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m26.103s 13. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m26.108s 14. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.739s 15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m26.768s 16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m31.407s 17. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth Q3 cut-off time: 1m27.222s 18. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m27.239s 19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m29.254s 20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m29.342s 21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m29.858s 22. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m30.822s 23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m32.978s 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m34.2932 107% time: 1m31.266s Unfortunately I didn't get to watch it, but I still find it interesting. Here are a couple of points: 1) I'm once again quite let down by Mercedes. I really would have expected more. Apparently they did have technical problems throughout the weekend and Michael didn't have KERS in qualifying. Still, this is not good. 2) McLaren on the other hand is the positive surprise. Incredible how they turned their fortune around with their new exhaust. 3) Lotus Renault seems to be up there, but only Petrov who has been quicker than Heidfeld throughout the weekend so far. After praising Nick a couple of days ago, this also comes as a surprise. Sure, Nick was a late addition to the team and the car was not build for him, but for Kubica and Petrov. Still, if he wants any kind of future in F1, he has to beat Petrov and he has to do so soon. 4) The midfield pack is predictably close. This will be a tight battle all season. 5) HRT didn't make the 107% time...unsurprisingly, given the lack of test time with the new car.
Massa's lack of pace has cemented Alonso's reign at Ferrari. Unbelievable, Massa has a great start and placed well ahead of Alonso then team orders must of taken place because next thing I know Alonso is ahead of Massa. Now, the only reason I'm fuming is that it will be 1 ferrari driver vs 2 mclaren and 2 redbull drivers. Therefore, Alonso maximizing on points since Massa won't be taking any away from Alonso.
Ok, the first race is over, here are the results: Code: [B]PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS The Australian Grand Prix Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia; 58 laps; 307.574km; Weather: Sunny. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time[/B] 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h29:30.259 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 22.297 3. Petrov Renault + 30.560 4. Alonso Ferrari + 31.772 5. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 38.171 6. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 54.300 7. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:05.800 8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:16.800 9. Massa Ferrari + 1:25.100 10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 14. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap 15. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps 16. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps [B]Fastest lap: [/B]Massa, 1:28.947 [B]Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap[/B] Glock Virgin-Cosworth 50 Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 49 Rosberg Mercedes 22 Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 19 Schumacher Mercedes 19 Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 10 Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1 Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1 [B]World Championship standings, round 1: Drivers: Constructors: [/B] 1. Vettel 25 1. Red Bull-Renault 35 2. Hamilton 18 2. McLaren-Mercedes 26 3. Petrov 15 3. Renault 15 4. Alonso 12 4. Ferrari 14 5. Webber 10 5. Sauber-Ferrari 10 6. Button 8 6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 7. Perez 6 8. Kobayashi 4 9. Massa 2 10. Buemi 1 As most of you probably know, both Saubers have been disqualified due to illegal rear wings. It was most likely a manufacturing mistake and not deliberate, but that won't change the disqualification. I posted the preliminary results in order to show how good Sauber was. Now a couple of thoughts: 1) As expected, Red Bull is the fastest one. But Vettel's dominance was outright scary. Webber on the other hand seemed to have problems. We'll have to wait for the next couple of races to see whether Vettel can remain this dominant. 2) McLaren really turned around their fortune. Incredible how they went from a dog of a car to the only ones who were anywhere close to Red Bull with updates that they hadn't tested before. Congratulations to their engineers. 3) Ferrari was of course a slight letdown. They were not right behind Red Bull as they hoped, but further behind. 4) Lortus Renault turned out to be as good as I thought they could be after all. A very competitive car. 5) Mercedes had a terrible weekend. They lacked the pace and then lost both cars in accidents without any fault of their own. It seems as if the roles are reversed. Now McLaren looks good and Mercedes look like they have a dog of a car without the slightest idea why. 6) The remaining midfield teams all looked good...as expected, with Force India looking much better than expected and Sauber being very soft on tires, so that Perez could finish the race with only one pitstop. 7) Also unsurprisingly, HRT did not make the 107% during qualification and had to sit out the race. So here's my revised ranking: --------------------- –1. Red Bull ˆ2. McLaren --------------------- ˆ3. Lotus-Renault ˇ4. Ferrari ˇ5. Mercedes ˆ6. Sauber ˇ7. Williams ˇ8. Toro Rosso –9. Force India --------------------- –10. Team Lotus –11. Virgin --------------------- –12. HRT ---------------------