KL-racer's F1 2009 ROTY Podium FINALLY UP!

KL-racer · Post by **KL-racer** » 30 Jul 2015, 21:31

Pre-season test at Catalunya

Yes, it’s the traditional pre-season test at Catalunya. This ought to be interesting with 20 teams on the entry list! Let’s see who seems to hit all of the new aero, KERS, engine air restrictors and driver moves right, and who is on the back foot before the first race of the season.

The Lap Times

1 Michael Schumacher 1:30.568 (Ferrari)
2 Felipe Massa +0.402 (Ferrari)
3 Lewis Hamilton +0.962 (Force India-Mercedes)
4 Nico Rosberg +1.266 (Sauber-BMW)
5 Sebastian Vettel +1.324 (Toyota)
6 Nick Heidfeld +1.469 (Sauber-BMW)
7 Christian Klien +1.508 (Honda)
8 Jenson Button +1.511 (Prodrive-Mercedes)
9 Heikki Kovalainen +1.512 (Carlin-BMW)
10 Andre Lotterer +1.544 (Prodrive-Mercedes)
11 Fernando Alonso +1.596 (McLaren-Renault)
12 Pedro De La Rosa +1.645 (Renault)
13 Kimi Raikkonen +1.720 (McLaren-Renault)
14 Rubens Barrichello +1.720 (Brawn GP-Honda)
15 Mark Webber +1.761 (Manor-Toyota)
16 Robert Kubica +1.789 (Williams-Renault)
17 Ralf Schumacher +1.843 (Toyota)
18 Kazuya Oshima +2.034 (Red Bull-Toyota)
19 Vitaly Petrov +2.076 (DAMS-Cosworth)
20 Timo Glock +2.153 (Williams-Renault)
21 Davide Valsecchi +2.187 (Caterham-Honda)
22 Giorgio Pantano +2.268 (Euskadi-BMW)
23 Kamui Kobayashi +2.284 (Force India-Mercedes)
24 Adrian Sutil +2.442 (Carlin-BMW)
25 Karun Chadhok +2.470 (Red Bull-Toyota)
26 Luca Filippi +2.471 (Caterham-Honda)
27 Romain Grosjean +2.552 (DAMS-Cosworth)
28 Bruno Senna +2.630 (Brawn GP-Honda)
29 Giedo Van der Garde +2.674 (Euskadi-BMW)
30 Sebastien Bourdais +2.748 (MSR-Spyker)
31 Pastor Maldonado +2.799 (Manor-Toyota)
32 Nelson Piquet Jr. +2.829 (Renault)
33 Nico Hulkenberg +2.834 (Honda)
34 Kaz Nakajima +3.069 (Lola-Cosworth)
35 Javier Villa +3.122 (Campos-Ferrari)
36 Mike Conway +3.956 (Campos-Ferrari)
37 Alvaro Parente +4.119 (MSR-Spyker)
38 Jose Maria Lopez +4.238 (US F1-Cosworth)
39 Narain Karthikeyan +4.514 (Lola-Cosworth)
40 James Rossiter +4.754 (US F1-Cosworth)

A whole boatload of things to talk about here, of course. Let’s start out at the top of the sheets and work our way back. Ferrari are looking like the early team to beat in 2009, concluding the day 1-2 on the sheet. Really careful readers will notice the massive time gap from Michael Schumacher in 1st to 3rd place Hamilton in the Force India-Mercedes, almost a full second. The defending team’s champion, Sauber-BMW ended up 4th and 6th on the sheet. If there’s one team that can close the gap to Ferrari quickly enough, it’s going to be these guys, especially with Rosberg suddenly looking like the 2007 version of himself, not the 2008 version.

Meanwhile, Vettel had a great first test in the Toyota, finishing 5th on the sheet, Ralf Schumacher in 17th in the other Toyota is kind of alarming to say the least. It was a nice relief that both Prodrive-Mercedes are in the top 10 on the sheet. Two of the many surprises came from Christian Klien, who finished 7th in the Honda and Heikki Kovalainen who finished 9th in the Carlin-BMW. The first ever test for the Renault Powered McLaren was decent but not exactly world-breaking, Alonso ended up 11th, and Kimi ended up 13th. A very mixed bag at Renault is the theme of the day for them, with De La Rosa 12th and looking solid as a rock but with Piquet Jr. stuck in 32nd and not looking like the top GP2 series driver that they were hoping for. Rubens Barrichello ended up 14th in the Brawn GP-Honda, with his new teammate Bruno Senna in 28th. The car seemed better but they still need some work to do before they can score points. Mark Webber, fully recovered from his injury last season, ended punching the Manor-Toyota to 15th on the time sheet. However, with Pastor Maldonado in 31st, they are expecting upgrades to come soon anyway.

The Renault powered Williams ended up disappointing big time, with Kubica the defending WDC in 16th and Glock in 20th. Reports are coming out that the Renault engine got hit the worst with the air restrictor requirement for 2009. A pleasant surprise came from Red Bull-Toyota with Oshima in 18th and Chadhok in 25th, after receiving the funding needed to run in the 2009 season. The good news for DAMS is that Petrov is in 19th, but the not so great news is that Grosjean is the first man outside of the cutoff in 27th. Ironically, the only new team that had both cars inside the top 26 was the Honda Powered Caterham’s. Pantano managed to squeeze the Esukadi to 22nd. For Kobayashi and Sutil, they need to do better than 23rd and 24th, if they are going to help their teams out.

Among those on the back foot to begin with were MSR-Spyker with Bourdais 30th, and Parente 37th, thankfully they have enough money to turn things around in time. Lola-Cosworth, who was initially on the fence in terms of running KERS, will probably have to consider using it sometime this season because their cars were 34th and 39th. Over at Campos, despite having the Ferrari engine, they couldn’t do much better than 35th and 36th. Finally, US F1’s first test session might seem horrible with their cars 38th and 40th on the time sheet, but at least they actually built a proper F1 car in time, unlike in real life!

Now you guys know where your cars are at relative pace wise, you can now do your first batch of upgrades before the season opener at Melbourne. You have until August 3rd at 12:00 PM MST to post upgrades.

Post by **Miguel98** » 30 Jul 2015, 21:49

Race pace for Prodrive.

Normal32 · Post by **Normal32** » 30 Jul 2015, 21:52

KERS power for McLaren

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 30 Jul 2015, 23:10

7th for Klien maybe this year Honda will be more competitive. To help achieve this Honda will work on Race Pace

Dom_Wings · Post by **Dom_Wings** » 30 Jul 2015, 23:26

Webber's pace is very promising :O

Race pace upgrade please.

W12 · Post by **W12** » 30 Jul 2015, 23:55

Race Pace for Williams.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 31 Jul 2015, 00:29

Well, that's a quite promising start. Aero for Caterham, please

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 31 Jul 2015, 00:38

Aero for DAMS please

Rabbi Gordon · Post by **Rabbi Gordon** » 31 Jul 2015, 01:47

Qualifying pace for Euskadi.

To win races, you must finish races, to finish races, you must start them. Albeit Pantano would have been convincingly in the field, it would be great if it remained the same and Giedo at least made out of pre-qualiy cometh round 1.

TheFlyingCaterham · Post by **TheFlyingCaterham** » 31 Jul 2015, 04:31

Race pace and Aero (if it is possible to have 2 upgrades right now) for Brawn.

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 31 Jul 2015, 11:47

Force India are pleased with Hamiltons performance as we welcome him back into our fold. To ensure he is not let down by the car this season we would like a race pace and reliability upgrade (If only 1 is allowed then we will choose reliability)

RedEyes504 · Post by **RedEyes504** » 31 Jul 2015, 13:00

Let's try and catch that Ferrari with a Race Pace and KERS upgrade

Ice1Racing · Post by **Ice1Racing** » 31 Jul 2015, 22:33

May Carlin have a Qualifying and KERS update

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 31 Jul 2015, 22:53

Well, Toyota would love some additional race pace before the season begins.

KL-racer · Post by **KL-racer** » 03 Aug 2015, 21:42

Round 1 Melbourne

Alright then, it’s past the deadline to apply upgrades. The first post has been updated with the new budgets. And before we start the season, in case you haven’t noticed it in the first post as well.

BREAKING NEWS: Lola will use KERS effective right away

They were previously on the fence about using it, but after the pre-season test at Catalunya, Lola has made an obviously easy decision to use KERS on their car. According to Lola’s PR department, "the chassis itself had enough room to install KERS, if we ever going to need it, but we feel that the time is now to install it and hopefully get out of Pre-Q at Melbourne."

Speaking of Pre-Q, which happens to be the first Pre-Q session of this new era. For the first 4 rounds the following teams will have to participate in Pre-Q: Carlin, Red Bull, Brawn GP, Lola, Esukadi, DAMS, Manor, Caterham, Campos and US F1. The quickest 8 cars in this Pre-Q session will move on to the main Qualifying session joining the other 20 cars in it. After Qualifying is over, the slowest two cars will not participate in the race itself, leaving just 26 cars on the grid for the race. So let’s kick off the season shall we?

Pre-Q results

Advancing on to Qualifying

1 Heikki Kovalainen 1:26.146
2 Rubens Barrichello +0.138
3 Giorgio Pantano +0.644
4 Kaz Nakajima +0.646
5 Mark Webber +0.682
6 Luca Filippi +0.731
7 Giedo Van der Garde +0.849
8 Adrian Sutil +0.933
DNPQ
9 Davide Valsecchi +0.933
10 VItaly Petrov +1.068
11 Romain Grosjean +1.114
12 Bruno Senna +1.360
13 Kazuya Oshima +1.441
14 Narain Karthikeyan +1.495
15 Javier Villa +1.619
16 Pastor Maldonado +1.744
17 Karun Chandhok +1.785
18 Mike Conway +2.597
19 Jose Maria Lopez +2.861
20 James Rossiter +3.194

Really careful readers will note that Sutil and Valsecchi turned in the same exact lap time, but since Sutil set the lap time before Valsecchi did, Sutil gets to move on to Qualifying. Guess the decision to install KERS on the Lola paid off with one car making it into the qualifying session.

Qualifying results

1 Michael Schumacher 1:25.386
2 Felipe Massa +0.209
3 Lewis Hamilton +0.686
4 Jenson Button +0.773
5 Christian Klien +0.935
6 Heikki Kovalainen +0.940
7 Ralf Schumacher +1.021
8 Nick Heidfeld +1.071
9 Kamui Kobayashi +1.201
10 Giorgio Pantano +1.270
11 Mark Webber +1.314
12 Nico Rosberg +1.365
13 Rubens Barrichello +1.397
14 Andre Lotterer +1.442
15 Kaz Nakajima +1.442
16 Robert Kubica +1.491
17 Giedo Van der Garde +1.572
18 Sebastian Vettel +1.748
19 Luca Filippi +1.780
20 TImo Glock +1.782
21 Pedro De La Rosa +1.910
22 Kimi Raikkonen +1.957
23 Fernando Alonso +1.964
24 Adrian Sutil +2.123
25 Nico Hulkenberg +2.262
26 Nelson Piquet Jr. +2.382
DNQ
27 Sebastien Bourdais +2.764
28 Alvaro Parente +3.185

An interesting Qualifying session to say the least! Hamilton is closing the gap slightly to the Ferrari’s. Button is rebounding nicely after a miserable 2008, and Klien continues his impressive pace in the Honda. Heikki ended up 6th on the grid is nothing short of amazing, maybe the Carlin’s didn’t deserve that they were forced to Pre-Q for the first four races of the season. Likewise, Kamui Kobayashi will start 9th, rebounding nicely after a poor pre-season test. It’s just improbable that Pantano ended up 10th on the grid, for Esukadi, Webber will start 11th for Manor and Nakajima will start 15th for Lola. Disappointments all around including both Williams, both McLarens, and both Renaults barely scrapping the way into the race. Meanwhile, for MSR-Spyker, both cars DNQ. Hulkenberg and Piquet Jr. will finally make their F1 debuts on the final row of the grid.

Race Summary

On Lap 1, turn 3, De La Rosa suffered huge damage to both wings, forcing him to take a lengthy pit stop. On lap 2, Alonso had throttle issues in the new Renault-powered McLaren and was forced to pit. On Lap 10, Lotterer’s engine blew up on the front straight from 9th, forcing the first DNF of the new season. On Lap 13, De La Rosa’s day was done with a puncture. On Lap 32, Sutil’s day was done from 22nd, with brake failure. On Lap 39, Nakajima’s day was done as well with suspension failure. On Lap 44, Klien was forced to DNF from 5th with an oil leak. In the end, it was an easy Ferrari 1-2 with M. Schumacher leading the way from teammate Massa. Hamilton hangs on to 3rd. Kovalainen managed to finish 4th for Carlin-BMW. Ralf Schumacher gets 5th for Toyota. Button will come home 6th for Prodrive. Kobayashi gets 7th in the other Force India. Rosberg gets on the board with a 8th place finish. Finally, you have to tip your hats to Esukadi’s Pantano and Manor’s Mark Webber for getting their respective teams first points ever on debut for 9th and 10th.

Race Results

1 Michael Schumacher 1:46:00.015
2 Felipe Massa +32.798
3 Lewis Hamilton +50.281
4 Heikki Kovalainen +1:14.294
5 Ralf Schumacher 1 lap
6 Jenson Button 1 lap
7 Kamui Kobayashi 1 lap
8 Nico Rosberg 1 lap
9 Giorgio Pantano 1 lap
10 Mark Webber 1 lap
11 Giedo Van der Garde 1 lap
12 Rubens Barrchello 1 lap
13 Robert Kubica 1 lap
14 Sebastian Vettel 1 lap
15 Nick Heidfeld 2 laps
16 Luca Filippi 2 laps
17 Timo Glock 2 laps
18 Kimi Raikkonen 2 laps
19 Fernando Alonso 2 laps
20 Nico Hulkenberg 2 laps
21 Nelson Piquet Jr. 2 laps
DNF Christian Klien Oil Leak
DNF Kaz Nakajmia Suspension
DNF Adrian Sutil Brakes
DNF Pedro De La Rosa Puncture
DNF Andre Lotterer Engine

ROTR: McLaren, Just as we all thought that McLaren gets turned around from 2008 by convincing Alonso to sign along with Kimi, they slipped further back down the order and it makes us wonder did they switch to the Renault engines at the wrong time.

Paddock News:

MSR to sign Jarno Trulli?

After both MSR cars DNQ in the season opener, they were already on the phone lines to look for a replacement for Alvaro Parente. The PR department for MSR stated to the press that “we are looking to avoid being dropped to Pre-Q for the second quarter of the season. And to do that, we must make sure that we have two drivers that are capable of qualifying the car fast enough while we are in the qualifying session automatically.” Jarno Trulli’s agent also stated that “we are close to a deal to bring him back to MSR.” Followers of this alternate universe might recall that Trulli almost won the WDC in 2006 with the same team known back then as Midland, but the Mercedes engine let him down at the final race of that season.

Ferrari: “we are confident that we can finally reclaim the teams’ title”

After Ross Brawn left to buy out the old Super Aguri team, the new team principal, said to the press that finishing my first race as Manager 1-2, is the “best possible way to reclaim that elusive team’s title.” Followers of this alternate universe will recall that the last time that Ferrari won the team’s title was 2006, when they managed to win the team’s title despite not winning a single race all of that season.

Vijay Mallya and Force India: “We are pleased that both cars finished in the points! A race win this season will be a huge boost”

Over at Force India, team Principal Vijay Mallya, has some strong praise for the team’s two drivers for finishing in the points. “When we look at it, reclaiming Hamilton after a year at Ferrari was our big story, but if Kobayashi keeps scoring points, we can start going for race wins again.” Followers will recall that this is the second season for Mallya after buying Toro Rosso’s equipment and entry slot at the end of the 2007 season.

Carlin: “that was simply a great race from Heikki”

Meanwhile, Carlin are thrilled to be oh so close to being on the podium for Heikki Kovalainen. After the race, one mechanic from the team said “that being close to a podium is a huge step forward for our F1 program.” Followers will recall that Carlin entered the sport in 2006, along with Prodrive.

Button and Rosberg relieved that they left Red Bull and they started scoring points again with their new teams

After a tough 2008 with Red Bull, Button and Rosberg wisely jumped ship and as a result, they were rewarded with points in the first race of 2009. Button went to Prodrive to be their new #1, and Rosberg took the #2 seat at defending team’s champion Sauber. After the race, both drivers are now enjoying being in F1 racing again, because they are now in meaningful fights for points positions.

Joan Villadelprat: “hopefully this result is an indicator of long-term sustainability and eventual success in F1”

After the race, Epsilon Esukadi’s team Principal Joan Villadelprat was so joyful that one car scored points for 9th and the other finished just outside of the points in 11th. Said Villadelprat, “The last few months were so tough on us, from building the car, getting the KERS unit and the BMW engine to be reliable enough and convincing two drivers to buy into our long term plans. Obviously, this is the first step into a long journey, but we feel that we passed it with flying colors.”

John Booth: “we effectively got a steal acquiring Mark Webber”

John Booth, team principal at Manor, said that “acquiring Mark Webber was a big steal for a new team like us. Scoring points on our debut, even if it’s just 1 point for 10th is a big accomplishment especially when we didn’t use a wind tunnel at all to design this car!” We all relied on CFD and Nick Wirth to design this first car, and we are pleased to say that this bold experiment is heading into the right direction.”

Head of the Renault engine program: “we are going to be in for a very long season”

Finally, over at the Renault Engine program, the director said that “at this rate, we are in for a very long season, and if results don’t get better at the end of this year, who knows if we are still committed to F1.”

Normal32 · Post by **Normal32** » 03 Aug 2015, 21:57

...time to enter recovery mode i guess.

We will hire Ho-Pin Tung and Jaime Alguersuari.

Or if that drains our funds, i will just bench Alonso for Tung.

Or if we can change engine, i will change to Toyota

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 03 Aug 2015, 23:08

Not a good start

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 03 Aug 2015, 23:37

It could have been better, yet we were only one thousandth of a second short of getting through PQ with both cars...

TheFlyingCaterham · Post by **TheFlyingCaterham** » 04 Aug 2015, 01:19

I'm happy with Barrichello's performance, but I am not very impressed with Bruno's DNPQ. I'll give him a couple of races to see if he can improve though.

Dom_Wings · Post by **Dom_Wings** » 04 Aug 2015, 14:26

Wow, a point in the debut race? Somebody should pinch me.
Sterling job Mark, not bad for a number one driver!

As for Pastor, it looks that he will be struggling to get into the actual race for at least the next couple rounds.

Rabbi Gordon · Post by **Rabbi Gordon** » 04 Aug 2015, 17:13

WOW! That is much more than expected. We scored points and our 2 guys are both in the best 3 "expansion team" drivers.
Amazing job for Giorgio to come in 9th after starting from a stellar 10th. Also happy with Giedo's finish, having picked up 6 places in the race.

Also congrats to our fellow debutants Manor for their point. This looks like a start of a good battle between us :pantano:

KL-racer · Post by **KL-racer** » 08 Aug 2015, 23:28

Round 2 Sepang

Okay, so I’m back. Before we get started, this just in, just in case you haven’t noticed in the first post.

BREAKING NEWS: Jarno Trulli signs with MSR

Jarno Trulli will be indeed be replacing Alvaro Parente from this point forward, the contract will be for the remainder of the season. Trulli’s salary will be $1.2 million. However, Parente will still be on the MSR driver roster, just in case an injury does occur.

Other than that, let’s get it started

Pre-Qualiyfing Results

1 Heikki Kovalainen 1:32.720
2 Rubens Barrichello +0.147
3 Mark Webber +0.531
4 Luca Filippi +0.765
5 Kaz Nakajima +0.847
6 Bruno Senna +0.916
7 Giorgio Pantano +1.036
8 Adrian Sutil +1.103
DNPQ
9 Davide Valsecchi +1.118
10 Giedo Van der Garde +1.376
11 Javier Villa +1.461
12 Romain Grosjean +1.495
13 Pastor Maldonado +1.499
14 Kazuya Oshima +1.531
15 Vitaly Petrov +1.701
16 Karun Chandhok +1.926
17 Narain Karthikeyan +1.993
18 Mike Conway +2.739
19 Jose Maria Lopez +3.236
20 James Rossiter +3.396

Qualifying

1 Felipe Massa 1:31.708
2 Michael Schumacher +0.035
3 Nick Heidfeld +0.765
4 Jenson Button +0.924
5 Lewis Hamilton +1.042
6 Heikki Kovalainen +1.283
7 Kaz Nakajima +1.423
8 Andre Lotterer +1.466
9 Christian Klien +1.501
10 Robert Kubica +1.514
11 Nico Rosberg +1.543
12 Rubens Barrichello +1.582
13 Kamui Kobayashi +1.587
14 Fernando Alonso +1.655
15 Sebastian Vettel +1.655
16 Ralf Schumacher +1.700
17 Kimi Raikkonen +1.733
18 Mark Webber +1.738
19 Luca Filippi +1.974
20 Timo Glock +2.053
21 Pedro De La Rosa +2.121
22 Giorgio Pantano +2.128
23 Jarno Trulli +2.165
24 Adrian Sutil +2.394
25 Bruno Senna +2.432
26 Nico Hulkenberg +2.631
DNQ
27 Nelson Piquet Jr. +2.861
28 Sebastien Bourdais +2.890

At least, Trulli made into the race itself for MSR, but for poor old Bourdais on the other side of the MSR garage, he DNQ for the second race in a row.

Race Summary

On Lap 1, Turn 5, Nakajima in the Lola damaged his front wing, requiring a pit stop. On Lap 3, Rosberg spun off at Turn 1, but was able to continue on. Meanwhile, on lap 4 Heikki was forced to retire the Carlin from 6th with engine failure. On lap 9, Rubens Barrichello was forced to DNF. Lap 14, Webber was forced to pit due to an electrical issue. Just a couple laps later, Kimi was forced to retire the McLaren. On Lap 19, Button, in the Prodrive was forced to DNF while running a solid 6th. On Lap 21, Lotterer also had to retire the other Prodrive. Meanwhile, on lap 30, Ralf Schumahcer had to retire the Toyota from 8th with an engine failure. And once again, at the end of the race, it’s another Ferrari 1-2, but this time it’s Massa that wins followed by M. Schumacher. Heidfeld finishes on the third step of the podium. Hamilton ends up 4th, Klien is on the scoreboard with a 5th for Honda. Vettel finished 6th, salvaging Toyota’s day. Kubica ends up getting 4 points for 7th in the Williams. Kobayashi finishes 8th for Force India. A big relief for Alonso to score 2 points for 9th in the McLaren, and finally Lola gets a point from Nakajima after all by finishing 10th.

Race Results

1 Felipe Massa 1:38:53.574
2 Michael Schumacher +9.036
3 Nick Heidfeld +47.284
4 Lewis Hamilton +1:10.169
5 Christian Klien 1 lap
6 Sebastian Vettel 1 lap
7 Robert Kubica 1 lap
8 Kamui Kobayashi 1 lap
9 Fernando Alonso 1 lap
10 Kaz Nakajima 1 lap
11 Timo Glock 1 lap
12 Luca Filippi 1 lap
13 Pedro De La Rosa 1 lap
14 Mark Webber 1 lap
15 Jarno Trulli 2 laps
16 Giorgio Pantano 2 lap
17 Bruno Senna 2 laps
18 Adrain Sutil 2 laps
19 Nico Hulkenberg 2 laps
20 Nico Rosberg 2 laps
DNF Ralf Schumacher Engine
DNF Andre Lotterer Engine
DNF Jenson Button Transmission
DNF Kimi Raikkonen Engine
DNF Rubens Barrichello KERS
DNF Heikki Kovalainen Engine

ROTR: Prodrive, Both cars retired while running in the points, hopefully it’s just bad luck this time around.

Paddock News:

McLaren Management: “We were originally planning to use Ho-Pin Tung as an one-off in China, but we changed our minds.”

The Original plan after this race was to replace Alonso with Ho-Pin Tung as an one-off for the next round at Shanghai, but after Alonso scored McLaren’s first points of the season, Ron Dennis has decided to ditch that idea for now stating that “we might as well suffer our lumps with the Renault Engine for the next race.”

Ferrari: “we are very bullish on a perfect season. Please don’t mention it!”

Meanwhile, after a second straight Ferrari 1-2, a select few people in the Paddock had mention the slim possibility of the first ever perfect season, but Ferrari has been very bullish about it, even to the point that they don’t want to hear about it. According to their PR department, “we are not going to even think about it until maybe the last round of the season, if we can get that far.”

Kubica: “A big relief to at least salvage a few points from this race.”

The defending WDC, Kubica is relieved that he is on the scoreboard, but admits that he will probably be unable to defend his title, but he is more focused on enjoying the experience of being a WDC rather than winning another one, if this season continues to be a struggle.

Nakajima: “Overjoyed with scoring a single point for Lola.”

After having wing damage on lap 1, Nakajima fought his way back up the field to score Lola’s first point in this era. Said Nakajima after the race, “Obviously, it didn’t go to plan at the start but I did just enough fighting to score a point, and that’s all it matters to a new team besides finishing the race.”

The next round from China will be posted next weekend, at the earliest. In the meantime, comment away!

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 09 Aug 2015, 09:34

We were closer to the points than in the first race, that's indeed a positive sign. Shame Davide has yet again just narrowly missed the cut in PQ: we would have deserved to qualify both cars.

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 09 Aug 2015, 17:07

When next time of updating come, we are going to get some more lof that qual pace

Post by **Miguel98** » 09 Aug 2015, 20:44

Crap. :/

Time to work on that reliability people at Mercedes!

KL-racer · Post by **KL-racer** » 22 Aug 2015, 22:35

Round 3 Shanghai

Alright, after being so loaded at work that I forgot to post last week as originally planned. But thankfully, I remembered to do the next round this week. So, the biggest question of the day is can anyone stop Ferrari from scoring a third straight win to start the season?

Pre-Q results

1 Heikki Kovalainen 1:31.449
2 Rubens Barrichello +0.078
3 Giorgio Pantano +0.089
4 Kaz Nakajima +0.210
5 Mark Webber +0.676
6 Giedo Van der Garde +0.678
7 Vitaly Petrov +0.752
8 Davide Valsecchi +0.756
DNPQ
9 Bruno Senna +0.834
10 Adrian Sutil +0.882
11 Narain Karthikeyan +0.906
12 Luca Filippi +0.913
13 Romain Grosjean +1.109
14 Pastor Maldonado +1.185
15 Kazuya Oshima +1.495
16 Javier Villa +2.085
17 Karun Chandhok +2.125
18 Mike Conway +2.675
19 Jose Maria Lopez +3.021
20 James Rossiter +3.418

Davide Valsecchi finally made out of Pre-Q, but once again the other Caterham didn’t made out of Pre-Q. In addition, one DAMS car made it out of pre-Q as well.

Qualifying Results

1 Michael Schumacher 1:30.287
2 Felipe Massa +0.035
3 Jenson Button +1.011
4 Nick Heidfeld +1.171
5 Lewis Hamilton +1.213
6 Andre Lotterer +1.297
7 Heikki Kovalainen +1.513
8 Christian Kilen +1.522
9 Kamui Kobayashi +1.678
10 Giorgio Pantano +1.681
11 Giedo Van der Garde +1.720
12 Nico Rosberg +1.762
13 Rubens Barrichello +1.832
14 Kimi Raikkonen +1.833
15 Ralf Schumacher +1.833
16 Sebastian Vettel +1.838
17 Kaz Nakajima +1.873
18 Fernando Alonso +1.876
19 Robert Kubica +1.964
20 Mark Webber +2.033
21 Vitaly Petrov +2.178
22 Pedro De La Rosa +2.357
23 Nico Hulkenberg +2.382
24 Davide Valsecchi +2.493
25 Timo Glock +2.545
26 Jarno Trulli +2.776
DNQ
27 Nelson Piquet Jr. +2.974
28 Sebastien Bourdais +3.247

For the third race in a row Bourdais DNQ, raising some serious questions about if he can last the season or not. Meanwhile, Piquet Jr. may be on the hot seat at Renault depending on the race outcome.

Race Summary

At first, Button got through massa for 2nd on the back straight, but that didn’t last that long because Massa overtook him back on Lap 8 on the front straight. After the first batch of pitstops, Button was forced to DNF while running in the top 10. On Lap 26, Pantano retired from 10th with an oil leak. On Lap 38, Nakajima was forced to DNF. On Lap 44, De La Rosa was forced to retire. Finally, on lap 51, R. Schumacher was forced to retire with an engine failure. In the end, it’s a third straight 1-2 finish for Ferrari, with Hamilton settling for 3rd. Of note, Barrichello gets Brawn GP’s first points of the season with a 7th place finish.

Race Results

1 Michael Schumacher 1:26:46.967
2 Felipe Massa +6.302
3 Lewis Hamilton +1:25.007
4 Nick Heidfeld 1 lap
5 Christian Klien 1 lap
6 Nico Rosberg 1 lap
7 Rubens Barrchello 1 lap
8 Kamui Kobayashi 1 lap
9 Giedo Van der Garde 1 lap
10 Andre Lotterer 1 lap
11 Kimi Raikkonen 1 lap
12 Sebastian Vettel 1 lap
13 Heikki Kovalainen 1 lap
14 Fernando Alonso 1 lap
15 Robert Kubica 1 lap
16 Timo Glock 1 lap
17 Mark Webber 1 lap
18 Vitaly Petrov 1 lap
19 Davide Valsecchi 1 lap
20 Nico Hulkenberg 2 laps
21 Jarno Trulli 2 laps
DNF Ralf Schumacher Engine
DNF Pedro De La Rosa Engine
DNF Kaz Nakajima Engine
DNF Giorgio Pantano Oil leak
DNF Jenson Button Engine

ROTR: Jarno Trulli, this is not what MSR was hoping for out of him, the last car to finish the race and 2 laps down simply isn’t getting it done.

Paddock News:

Renault to sign Giancarlo FIsichella as a last-ditch effort to prevent being regulated to Pre-Q?

After the race, the Renault team is facing a real possibility of being demoted to Pre-Q. As of now, Renault is in talks with Giancarlo Fisichella to race for Nelson Piquet Jr. for at least the Monaco GP and maybe the remainder of the season depending on the outcomes. According to reports, the salary would be $800,000.

The next round will be from Monaco, it should be up by next weekend, if I can remember to do it of course.

Post by **Miguel98** » 23 Aug 2015, 08:06

Damn it another car failure. Another reliability update needs to come then...

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 23 Aug 2015, 20:57

Race pace for us, please.

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 23 Aug 2015, 21:24

Can we update now?

Dom_Wings · Post by **Dom_Wings** » 25 Aug 2015, 22:32

Quali pace it is.

KL-racer · Post by **KL-racer** » 07 Sep 2015, 21:58

Round 4 Monaco

Alright, sorry about that long delay. First things first, upgrades can be posted after Round 5. The second thing to keep in mind is that the Pre-Q list will be updated after this race. Finally, Giancarlo Fisichella will be a driver at Renault for the time being.

Pre-Q Results

1 Rubens Barrichello 1:18.444
2 Heikki Kovalainen +0.082
3 Mark Webber +0.416
4 Kaz Nakajima +0.423
5 Luca Filippi +0.674
6 Vitaly Petrov +0.755
7 Kazuya Oshima +0.764
8 Davide Valsecchi +0.878
DNPQ
9 Giedo Van der Garde +0.879
10 Adrian Sutil +0.969
11 Giorgio Pantano +0.970
12 Karun Chandhok +1.052
13 Romain Grosjean +1.168
14 Bruno Senna +1.381
15 Pastor Maldonado +1.434
16 Narain Karthikeyan +1.555
17 Javier Villa +1.794
18 Mike Conway +1.798
19 Jose Maria Lopez +2.764
20 James Rossiter +2.803

Qualifying Results

1 Felipe Massa 1:17.443
2 Michael Schumacher +0.082
3 Nick Heidfeld +0.711
4 Jenson Button +0.793
5 Lewis Hamilton +0.874
6 Heikki Kovalainen +1.054
7 Robert Kubica +1.251
8 Andre Lotterer +1.267
9 Fernando Alonso +1.298
10 Nico Rosberg +1.299
11 Kimi Raikkonen +1.343
12 Sebastian Vettel +1.377
13 Christian Klien +1.377
14 Rubens Barrichello +1.417
15 Ralf Schumacher +1.427
16 Mark Webber +1.458
17 Kamui Kobayashi +1.466
18 Vitaly Petrov +1.547
19 Luca Filippi +1.680
20 Kaz Nakajima +1.680
21 Jarno Trulli +1.711
22 Pedro De La Rosa +1.713
23 Timo Glock +1.754
24 Giancarlo Fisichella +2.088
25 Kazuya Oshima +2.129
26 Sebastien Bourdais +2.310
DNQ
27 Davide Valsecchi +2.424
28 Nico Hulkenberg +2.587

Race Summary

After a fairly clean start, the race was unusually boring until lap 50, when M. Schumacher was forced to retire the Ferrari from 3rd. On Lap 54, Kaz Nakajima was forced to DNF. On Lap 58, Klien retired as well. In the end to an unusually clean race was won by Massa. Heidfeld and Button round off the Podium. Hamilton ended up 4th, Lotterer in the other Prodrive was 5th. Heikki was 6th in the Carlin. Alonso was relieved to get points for 7th, Ralf Schumacher ended up 8th for Toyota. Vitaly Petrov was the surprise of the day, he ended up getting DAMS’ first ever points for 9th place. And Rosberg grabbed the final point for 10th despite Luca Filippi trying hard to get by him.

Race Results

1 Felipe Massa 1:48:15.084
2 Nick Heidfeld +12.595
3 Jenson Button +23.364
4 Lewis Hamilton +35.787
5 Andre Lotterer +1:13.529
6 Heikki Kovalainen +1:15.943
7 Fernando Alonso 1 lap
8 Ralf Schumacher 1 lap
9 Vitaly Petrov 1 lap
10 Nico Rosberg 1 lap
11 Luca Filippi 1 lap
12 Mark Webber 1 lap
13 Sebastian Vettel 1 lap
14 Rubens Barrichello 1 lap
15 Kamui Kobayashi 1 lap
16 Kimi Raikkonen 1 lap
17 Robert Kubica 1 lap
18 Timo Glock 1 lap
19 Kazuya Oshima 1 lap
20 Jarno Trulli 1 lap
21 Pedro De La Rosa 1 lap
22 Ginacarlo Fisichella 1 lap
23 Sebastien Bourdais 2 laps
DNF Christian Klien Puncture
DNF Kaz Nakajima Transmission
DNF Michael Schumacher Puncture

ROTR: Giancarlo FIsichella, guess the Renault quit rumors are getting just a taste stronger after all!

Paddock News:

Renault Engine Department: “we are still undecided on our future commitment to F1.”

Desptie McLaren scoring some points in Monaco, the Renault Engine department overall has been questioning their involvement in F1, especially after the air restrictors were put on all of the 2.4L V8 engines for 2009 onwards. According to the newest set of rumors, Group Lotus is looking to buy the troubled Works Renault team for next season after failing to get the needed points to remain an automatic bid for Qualifying.

The updated Pre-Q list will come in a later post, after I updated the driver’s and team’s standings. As for the next round of the season from Catalunya, I will try to fit it in next weekend.

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 08 Sep 2015, 03:03

Awesome! Go DAMS GO! Petrov was amazing!

TheFlyingCaterham · Post by **TheFlyingCaterham** » 08 Sep 2015, 03:26

Bruno really needs to step up his game. Rubens has qualified for all of the rounds so for and even has scored some points, while Bruno's only got out of pre-qualifying once. If his form doesn't imrpove, I will be looking for a replacement.

EDIT: Well at least we barely got out of pre-qualifying for now. Hopefully Bruno can qualify easier now.

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 08 Sep 2015, 12:31

Hamilton keeps his run of being the only non-ferrari driver to remain on the winning lap every race!

When testing comes, it will be qualifying and race pace upgrades (If only 1, then qualifying)

Rabbi Gordon · Post by **Rabbi Gordon** » 08 Sep 2015, 22:07

Aw dammit, double DNQ and we are the top ranked team to remain in Pre-quali, I believe. At least that might prevent further DNPQs.

If I'm correct Brawn and Carlin escape Pre-qualifying at the expense of Renault and MSR, while we (Euskadi) just failed to overtake Williams.

Post by **Miguel98** » 09 Sep 2015, 07:55

Whoo, podium!

KL-racer · Post by **KL-racer** » 17 Sep 2015, 23:11

Round 5 Catalunya

Yes, it’s me again. Before I go any further. Here’s the Pre-Q list for the next 4 races

Renault
MSR
Red Bull
Lola
Epsilon Euskadi (despite scoring the same number of points as Williams and Brawn GP)
DAMS
Manor
Caterham
Campos
US F1

Essentially, what Rabbi Gordon posted was indeed correct! Now, let’s resume our originally scheduled plan!

Pre-Q results

1 Mark Webber 1:22.253
2 Kaz Nakajima +0.074
3 Giancarlo Fisichella +0.318
4 Vitaly Petrov +0.346
5 Romain Grosjean +0.353
6 Pedro De La Rosa +0.386
7 Giorgio Pantano +0.475
8 Kazuya Oshima +0.509
DNPQ
9 Jarno Trulli +0.629
10 Luca Filippi +0.674
11 Giedo Van der Garde +0.911
12 Sebastien Bourdais +0.947
13 Javier Villa +1.037
14 Pastor Maldonado +1.108
15 Davide Valsecchi +1.189
16 Narain Karthikeyan +1.341
17 Karun Chandhok +1.705
18 Mike Conway +2.388
19 James Rossiter +2.698
20 Jose Maria Lopez +2.946

Qualifying results

1 Felipe Massa 1:20.572
2 Michael Schumacher +0.107
3 Nick Heidfeld +0.880
4 Lewis Hamilton +0.989
5 Jenson Button +1.032
6 Heikki Kovalainen +1.317
7 Robert Kubica +1.389
8 Andre Lotterer +1.540
9 Christian Klien +1.548
10 Ralf Schumacher +1.594
11 Sebastian Vettel +1.627
12 Nico Rosberg +1.638
13 Kimi Raikkonen +1.703
14 Fernando Alonso +1.756
15 Kamui Kobayashi +1.789
16 Rubens Barrichello +1.831
17 Mark Webber +1.987
18 Kaz Nakajima +1.988
19 Pedro De la Rosa +2.030
20 Vitaly Petrov +2.074
21 Timo Glock +2.120
22 Giancarlo Fisichella +2.353
23 Romain Grosjean +2.556
24 Kazuya Oshima +2.582
25 Adrian Sutil +2.623
26 Bruno Senna +2.783
DNQ
27 Giorgio Pantano +2.792
28 Nico Hulkenberg +2.876

Bruno Senna can breathe a sigh of relief, he made onto the grid. The biggest surprise was Robert Kubica qualifying the underpowered Williams-Renault to 7th on the grid.

Race Summary

On Lap 1, turn 1, Vettel crashed out. On Lap 21, the Red Bull of Kazuya Oshima DNF’Ed with a water leak. 3 laps later, Kobayashi was forced to retire one of the Force India’s after crashing out of turn 3. On lap 30, Kubica was done with a blown engine. On Lap 32, Petrov was done with a transmission issue. On Lap 39, Rosberg’s day was finished early with a blown engine as well. A lap before that, Barrichello’s engine was also done. On lap 61, Heikki was forced to retire inside the top 10. A couple laps later, Button was yet another DNF victim, this time while running in the top 5. In the end, M. Schumacher bought Ferrari’s fifth straight win to begin the season. Heidfeld in 2nd was almost a minute behind and held off Hamilton and Massa, who managed to went off 2 times earlier on in the race. Lotterer finished in the top 5, after Button’s bad luck. Alonso and Raikkonen finished 6th and 7th for McLaren. Klien gets 3 points for 8th, Ralf Schumacher ends up 9th and Webber gets the final point for 10th after holding off the desperately hard charging Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella for the final few laps of the race.

Race Results

1 Michael Schumacher 1:33:46.563
2 Nick Heidfeld +58.671
3 Lewis Hamilton +1:01.707
4 Felipe Massa +1:01.788
5 Andre Lotterer 1 lap
6 Fernando Alonso 1 lap
7 Kimi Raikkonen 1 lap
8 Christian Klien 1 lap
9 Ralf Schumacher 1 lap
10 Mark Webber 1 lap
11 Giancarlo Fisichella 1 lap
12 Pedro De La Rosa 2 laps
13 Romain Grosjean 2 laps
14 Timo Glock 2 laps
15 Kaz Nakajima 2 lap
16 Bruno Senna 2 laps
17 Adrian Sutil 2 laps
DNF Jenson Button Engine
DNF Heikki Kovalainen Engine
DNF Nico Rosberg Engine
DNF Rubens Barrichello Engine
DNF Vitaly Petrov Transmission
DNF Robert Kubica Engine
DNF Kamui Kobayashi Accident
DNF Kazuya Oshima Water leak
DNF Sebastian Vettel Accident

ROTR: Massa, for making some small unforced errors on track which ultimately cost him a podium finish.

If you haven’t posted your upgrade plans yet, now is the time to do so, my next post will be In-season test #1 coming within the next week or so.

TheFlyingCaterham · Post by **TheFlyingCaterham** » 17 Sep 2015, 23:56

Brawn shall improve Qualifying Pace and Aero.

W12 · Post by **W12** » 18 Sep 2015, 11:07

Qualifying pace and Race pace for Williams.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 18 Sep 2015, 11:15

Qualifying Pace and Race Pace for Caterham.