F1 Insight
Wax Webber
Apr 8th
So the Monday after the Chinese GrandPrix, the new Madame Tussauds Sydney opens it’s doors for the first time. Hollywood celebrities and pop sings (aka Kylie) will be on display, but the so will a throng of sports stars such as Mark Webber. Get on over to Madame Tussauds Sydney from for the official opening on Monday 16th April. It’s located next to the Sydney Aquarium opposite Darling Harbour.
Eddie’s stuff
Apr 8th
So this is a reasonably pointless blog post and serves no purpose but to simply show off some F1 memorabilia I recently acquired. A mate of mine used to be a pit lane reporter back in the 90′s and spent some time with the Jordan F1 team. He was kind enough to give me a couple of special items he acquired back in 1994/1995. The first one was a team shirt worn by one of the mechanics. The mechanics name (Nick) embroidered on the shirt. Teams don’t bother embroidering individual names on team shirt’s any more, but it was a nice touch back in the 90′s.
The other item is a carbon ceramic brake disc (A right left disc to be exact) taken of Eddie Irvine’s Peugeot powered Jordan 195 which he raced in 1995.
I’d love to get Eddie Jordan to sign the brake disc and the team shirt. Might see if I can wangle that one next time i’m in the pits in Aus (was going to do it this year but ran out of time).
So, see below my gear (cool for an F1 nerd like me).
Jordan F1 Brake disc and Team shirt from 1995
The iceman cometh again
Feb 22nd
One of my favourite characters in Formula1 is Kimi. I’ve got to admit, I was a bit sad when he left the sport, there was a bit of a void left behind and F1 needs a world champion who doesn’t take themselves or the sport too seriously, not to take anythign away from Seb, I think he’s a nice down to earth kind of bloke too who’s also pretty checky, however Kimi has that “I couldn’t give a flying f**k” type attitude that’s rather refreshing.
When the Williams rumours were swirling around last year (About the time of the Singapore GP), I was really hoping the iceman’s return would be true, but to discover that the iceman will return to the sport driving for a team such as Lotus is even better news.
I really hope Kimi does well this year, I hope he gets on the podium and is able to really take it to the top 3 teams. With all the excitement of the Iceman’s return and being a Kimi fan from way back, it inspired me create this T-Shirt. I’m in the process of getting a trial batch screen printed.
So what do you think? Worth say $25 (USD) a piece for a quality T-shirt with screen printing on both sides..? I think so.
So check this space soon, i’ll be publishing details on how you can purchase them. My aim is to have them printed prior to the Melbourne GP.
So on that note, how about I leave you with a video of the infamous icecream incident from Malaysia a few years back:
The day I met Seb
Feb 21st
Well no doubt most people have formed their own opinions on the 2012 cars. I hope you’ve read my blog post about re-launching my blog, in which case you’d know that the 2012 “ugly” noses have already grown on me and even before we head to Melbourne, they seem the norm to me and instead McLaren are the odd ones out, the “ugly duckling” if you like (without being ironic).
So anyway, with the Melbourne GP just around the corner and my F1 withdrawals getting worse by the day, I took some time out tonight to browse through some photos I took last year and I paused on my time spent in Singapore. Without a doubt, Singapore was the best GP i’ve ever been to (baring in mind I’m heading to my first ever British GP later this year). The highlight of the race weekend for me was meeting Vettel and Ricciardo, both of whom were very friendly and very down to earth kind of blokes. But hey lets face is, this blog post is nothing more then an excuse to post up pictures of that day 
Sebastian Vettel and me (my wife tells me I should have removed my ugly $2 servo sunnies for this shot):
Nbj (left) Sebastian Vettel (right)
Yeah, sad I know, but it’s not every day you get to place your hand on the shoulder of a two-time Formula1 world champion at the peak of his career. (I can hear my wife’s eyes rolling in her head right now)
Anyway, like I said in my earlier post, expect some (hopefully) interesting, insightful and amusing stuff from me this year. I’m excited 
Oh as a side note, here’s the video I filmed (dogey and shakey as it might be) from my seat at the start of the 2011 Singapore Grand Prix. What a great night!
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Re-launching the blog
Feb 21st
Well after an almost 2-year hiatus…well more then a hiatus I guess, more like completely MIA, I have decided to Re-Launch my blog.
For various reasons (which I wont go in to now) I was unable to devote the time this blog deserved, but ratehr then shut it down completely, I simply failed to write any new posts. Lets face it, there wasn’t anything too edgy or too interesting in this blog that you couldn’t get from Autosport or any of the mainstream media sites. With that in mind I decided it was time to start the blog up again, only this time write about what interested me, what I was passionate abut and what I felt was worthy of some kind of attention.
I won’t be commenting on every race and every session, but instead i’ll be blogging about quirky things in the world of Formula1. I might start writing about my adventures in the world of F1 and experiences I have had visiting various races around the world or people I’ve met in the process, both in person and online.
I have made a vow recently to attend a minimum of 2 Formula1 races every year. In 2011 I attended The Australian GP and the Singapore GP, this year i’ll be attending the Australian GP (again for obvious reasons) and the British GP. I’ve never been to Silverstone so I’m very much looking forward to it. In 2013 I’m very excited about attending the inagural Grand Prix of New York. For those of you who don’t know, New Jersey (just on the other side of the Hudson from lower Manhattan) will be hosting a street race with Manhattan as it’s backdrop, it should be an absolute blast!
So 2012 should be a great year for F1, we finally return to USA with the race in the Austin Tilkerdome… should be fun. The stepped nose duckbills we’ve sen this season have already grown on me, in fact so much so, that I now find the McLaren the ugliest car on the grid. Amazing how F1 can brainwash you sometimes.
So I met Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo in Singapore last year. That was a buz, but more about that later, for now I’m just happy to be back and bloging, only this time with a differnece, I plan to bring my own unique angle, insight and opinion into my posts, i’m hoping you’ll find my new blog interesting. If you’re looking for a standard spiel post-race or post-quali news wrapup, then you’ve come to the wrong place, but i’m hoping you’ll find my posts interesting, insightful and entertaining. So hears to a great 2012!
Less then 30 days now till lights out in Melbourne, I can’t wait!
- Nathan
ps, i’ll post up the pics with me and Seb and Me and Dan later. That was a great day, one which i’ll never forget.
Spa Francorchamps – My favourite
Aug 26th
It’s been a long time between posts. Too long infact. I have not been regularly updating this blog due to a lot of other commitments in my life. The free time I do have is dedicated to other tasks. I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t plan on reporting post race, every race and reporting on quali, etc etc, instead I feel the need to just treat this blog as an outlet to share my love and passion for Formula1 with you. It is fitting then that I start the new era of this blog on the leadup to my favourite Grand Prix of the year…Spa!
After a long mid-season break we finally return to racing this Sunday in Belgium.
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps has what is arguably the most famous corner in Formula1…Eau Rouge. I love sitting down with a good glass of wine, watching the modern F1 cars completely flat through this corner as it then rises into valley and launches them into the Kemmel straight.
So what should we expect this weekend from the top teams? RedBull still clearly have an edge over their rivals. The F-Duct however will prove to be important here. McLaren clearly have a top straight line speed advantage over the RB6 and that should play out well for them at Spa. However, there are a lot of corners of medium and medium-fast speed that will very much suit the superior handling and grip of the RB6.
Ferrari are very strong again. The revised front wing has paid for them and in the last race we saw a very strong finish for Fernando and Massa (2nd & 4th place). Ferrari should also be on pace and could very easily outpace either RedBull or McLaren.
Personally I think RedBull have the edge, but Mark Webber has got a very difficult task ahead of him with drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso nipping at his heels. Webber’s lead over Hamilton in the championship is only 4 points and his car is not streaks ahead of them in performance.
Mark has traditionally enjoyed Spa and has had decent results here in the past, but i’m sure he knows his toughest rival is his team mate. IQualifying (as always) will be very important for the RedBull drivers as passing each other on track will be near impossible (unless it is played out through pit strategy). So there for the first RedBull driver through turn1 will (barring any collisions or breakdowns) remain the leading RedBull driver.
Some of the most memorable overtaking moves have happened at Spa. Who could forget the scarp Hakkinen and Schumacher had at Spa in 2000! Here is the video for those who forgot:
This season is one of the most exciting seasons I can remember in recent times. We have had many changes in the championship leader (granted this is in part due to the points chanegs) and we also have a full grid with new teams and a bunch of new drivers. We have multiple world champions and there is no clear leader, like the “senna” ere followed by the “schumi” era. This is the era of multiple champions, maybe similar to the days of Hill, Moss, Clarke, Brabham, etc. We may be seeing a return to the old days of Formula1 where anyone could be a winner!
Friday Practice also co-incides with my Birthday this year. I plan on being glued to practice and have butterflies hanging out for Quali. With such a long break all the drivers are itching to go racing again and with Spa being a favourite circuit amoungst the majority of them, it’s sure to be a cracking weekend!
For those of you on twitter, try following @f1livetweets. If you step away from the tele or can’t catch the race, you can follow the action lap-by-lap.
Webber shows they have the pace in 2010.
Feb 26th
As stated in an the earlier ‘live’ post I wrote on the morning’s proceedings at Circuit de Catalunya, the dryer weather in Barcelona was a welcome change to the conditions experienced in the Jerez tests and it was a good chance for teams to do some serious dry weather runs.
The day belonged to Mark Webber who set the fastest time of the day with a 1:21.487. He set this pace during the morning sessions and it was a clear warning to competitors the once again the Red Bull team meant business this season.
Webber’s closest competitor was Nico Roseberg in the MercedesGP, who were formally BrawnGP, Red Bulls main rivals in 2009. Rosberg showed fantastic pace in the Merc’, but was still around 1 second slower then Webber’s best time with a 1:22.407.
By Red Bull’s own admition, the RB6 was a bit light on fuel today, but none the less their genuine pace is un-deniable.
The main area of concern for the team however still seems to be the reliability of the Renault engine and the gearbox gremlins. The Renault engine is not as reliable as the power plants by Mercedes and Ferrari. They were plauged with engine trouble last season and already this year during their first test runs at Jerez the car suffered engine trouble and they lost a day of testing.
Webber’s car stopped out on track during the morning runs due to an issue with the Gearbox. When asked about the reliability of certain components in the car during his run at Barcelona, Mark said “to learn about the car sometimes you run parts close to the limit on mileage, which wouldn’t be the case on race weekends.”
He does make a valid point. The team brought new parts and ran them on the car for the first time in Barcelona. Adjustable front wing flaps this year are of many changes to the car that will take a lot of fine tuning and testing to get right.
The dry conditions also gave teams a good chance to look at tyre degradation of the soft and super soft compounds. Webber recorded his fastest lap on the super softs, but fuel loads also played their part and the super softs were not noticeably quicker then the softs.
Mark said that whilst 2009 was a good year for the team in regards to numerous podiums and wins, they plan on 2010 being even better and clearly want to win the next world championship.
He also did not want to get carried away with the teams pace today and made it clear that they still had a lot of work to do and plan on improving parts of the car prior to Bahrain.
“We still have problems, so we are not going on holiday tonight. We have more work to do, and we’re still improving this car.” said Webber.
The tests over the next few days will be the final opportunity for teams to refine their cars prior to the official start of the season in Bahrain.
The next few days should give us a much clearer indication of early season form. The conditions will be much warmer in Bahrain, Australia then Malaysia which are hosting the first 3 rounds, but with most teams now concentrating on practising pit stops, qualifying strategies and the likes, we shouldn’t see any new dramatic bits on the cars now and the times we will see in Barcelona this week should be much more indicative of the times we will see in the first official practice and qualifying of the season in Bahrain.
So early form now seems indicate that 2010 may start in a similar fashion to the way the 2009 season ending with MercGP (Formerly BrawnGP) and Red Bull being the two main front runners. However Ferrari have been very conservative so far in testing and it appears they have a lot more pace then has been reflected in the time sheets.
We very well may see over the weekend, Fernando Alonso impress his home crowd and up-stage Red Bull in the F10. The punters are tipping Alonso to win the Championship this year, whilst Bernie believes that it will be a Red Bull, either way we are now at the pointy end of the testing season and the teams form should now be indicating their race pace for the start of the season.
Below are the times from Day1 at Barcelona:
1. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:21.487 109
2. Nico Hulkenberg Williams 1:22.407 82
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:22.514 107
4. Pedro De La Rosa BMW Sauber 1:23.144 73
5. Jenson Button Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1:23.452 101
6. Tonio Liuzzi Force India 1:24.064 65
7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.170 74
8. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:24.173 74
9. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:24.869 111
10. Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing 1:27.057 31
11. Fairuz Fauzy Lotus 1:28.002 76
True pace of the RB6 starting to show
Feb 26th
Warmer and dryer weather in Barcelona for the first time this testing season was a welcome change for most formula1 teams.
Day 1 of test in Barcelona got underway today and Mark Webber today in showed blistering pace in the RedBull RB6, setting the fastest time of the morning with a 1:21.487. Mark was running quali’ simulations all morning and was over 1 second quicker then the next quickest driver, Nico Rosberg in the MercedesGP.
Ferrari brought some new gear to this tests with a special setup on their wheels with two inner discs designed to aid air-flow. With wheel covers or ‘spinners’ banned this year, this is the frist we have seen a team use something different as an alternative. Fernando Alonso was out on track infront of his home crowd today, but during the morning sessions he could only manage a best time of 1:24.580, nmore then 3 seconds off Webbers pace.
With RedBulls next rival (mercedesGP) being more then a second behind, this was the first firm warning we have seen from RedBull so far this testing season that it will again be a force to be reconned with in the 2010 championship.
The afternoon sessions will be kicking off shortly, however if the track conditions deteriorate, we may not see much of a change in the timesheets from the morning runs.
We will have a more concise wrap-up of the days testing later tonight.
Can RedBull make 2010 Webber’s best season yet?
Jan 17th
Mark Webber nearly didn’t make it to the start of the 2009 F1 season. He had a very serious fall from his mountain bike prior to last years season which left him with multiple fractures in his leg and for a short time his f1 future was in doubt.
As a result of his injuries, he missed the pre-season testing and instead was in intense rehabilitation and physiotherapy. He had almost no miles in the 2009 RedBull by the time the first race of the season came around and was still on a cocktail of heavy painkillers in order to even drive the car.
Mark still didn’t have full use of his leg and working the pedals as a result was very difficult for him, he was not even able to put the pressure required on the pedals nor was he able to move his feet as quickly as he needed. His personal trainer would be on the team radio helping him power through every painful lap.
Mark continued taking painkillers well into the season and it was not until the European rounds mid season when he had made enough of a recovery to no longer require the medication. 
Despite all this he was well and truly in the hunt as one of around 4 to 5 contenders for the 2009 championship, he was a regular visitor to the podium and scored two grand prix wins.
The 2009 RB5 didn’t really “come good” until about the 6th round of the season and the team spent the second half of the season chasing down the extraordinary lead BrawnGP had. Red Bull however appeared to be a far more successful and consistent team in the 2nd half of the season and they are most likely the strongest team going in to the 2010 season provided they have a reliable engine.
Mark Webber has had time off now to reflect on 2009 and what he and the team may have done wrong. He has been able to spend far more time with the engineers during the pre-season period and of course being healthy and physically ready (unlike 2009) will be a big advantage.
RedBull have opted not to take part in the first round of official tests at Jerez from 1-3rd Feb this year, instead opting to spend more time developing the car in the wind tunnel, fluid dynamics and other highly sophisticated tests that Adrian Newey seems to do better then anyone.
Adrian Newey is not even remotely concerned about missing the tests that most competitors will be present at. Adrian understands the importance of rigorous aero and fluid dynamic simulation, wind tunnel development and lab tests. I guess you have to hope your systems are absolutely calibrated right to be that confident, but it’s worked for him in the past on no doubt it will work again for him this year. Lets not forget that RedBull missed the first pre season tests in 2009 as well.
RedBull are coming off the back of a very successful 2009 season and they seem to be very strong still, but if the 2010 car will be as strong or maybe stronger then the 2009 car we are yet to find out. Many other teams, in particular Ferrari and McLaren started developments on their 2010 car after only 5 rounds in to the 2009 season. Obviously Ferrari and McLarens 2009 package lacked the pace they have become used to in previous years and as a result poured most of their development into the 2010 car rather then trying to improve the 2009. I expect those teams could be strong again this year.
Many believe that last year was Webber’s one and only hope at claiming a drivers championship, mathematically he was in contention in the later rounds, but ultimately he was too far behind Button and his own team mate, Vettell in the points to ever truly be considered as a contender.
If Webber could improve on last years performance and snag a bag of strong results early on in the 2010 season he may finish higher in the standings then last year, however the likelihood of him beating his RedBull team-mate who has already been tipped to be the 2010 champion by Bernie Eccelstone seems unlikely. This also raises the question as to who will be the favoured driver by RedBull or if they we give both drivers equal resources and let them fight it out in the points race.
The new Qualifying format this year will favour Webber, who is typically strong in qualifying anyway. There is every chance Webber could consistently out-qualify his team-mate, however he needs to back it up with race pace which he may not have over Vettell.
In 2009 both RedBull drivers were equal, but being the championship runner-up puts Vettell in a very strong position at the team, however Webbers long-standing relationship with the team and his experience is also a very strong point and it seems unlikely that the team will go into this season favouring one driver over the other.
Without seeing the 2010 car in action, it’s hard to predict form, in fact even with a month of tests we don’t really see a teams true colours until the first race of the season, I predict that RedBull will be the strongest team on the 2010 grid provided that the Renault engine does not let them down. RedBull could have claimed the 2009 championship if they had an engine as reliable as the Mercedes power plant in the Brawns. They have stuck with Renault as their engine supplier for 2010, so hopefully they can overcome some of the reliability issues that let them down last year.
If Webber really does want the crown, he’s arguably with the best team on the grid with every opportunity he needs. It is now or never for Mark, but ultimately I feel it will be his team mate Sebastian Vettell who could snag the drivers championship this year.
Webber is yet to confirm whether or not he will even be in Formula1 beyond 2010. Rumours are swirling that Kimi could return to F1 to take Mark’s seat in 2011, yet at the same town, Christian Horner denies these rumours and instead there are already reports that Mark has signed on for another year. I predict that if he has an even better year this year, then he’ll stick around and drive for the team again in 2011.
Mark still feels he could be world champion one day and he knows he’s finally at a team that could help him achieve that.
I’d like to finish this story with a video of Mark celebrating his first ever Grand Prix victory when he won at the Nurburgring against all odds, including a drive-through penalty. What you are hearing over the team radio is not a man possessed, but instead around 5 years of pent-up frustration and ‘bad luck’ all flowing out…
Ecclestone tips Vettel over Schumacher for 2010
Jan 2nd
Bernie Ecclestone said that he is looking forward to the 2010 Formula1 season, which will see 4 Formula1 world champions on the grid. The most talked about of these champions of course is seven-time winner, Michael Schumacher, who will return to Formula1 this year driving for Mercedes and has vowed that he intends to record his 8th world title with the Silver Arrows.
Ecclestone, however has tipped a different German driver for the 2010 championship, last years runner up, Sebastian Vettel. Bernie believes that the young German has what it takes to be the champion this year, with Red Bull still tipped to be a strong competitor in 2010.
Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula1 is a very good thing for the fans, media and the sport in general by Bernie’s own admission, however, there are a lot of young drivers who are very motivated to be the 2010 champion.
Bernie knows that Schumacher’s return will not be long lived, whether or not he will be racing in Formula1 in 2011 is still up for debate, however Vettel and the other young drivers will remain in the sport for many years yet and Bernie knows the value of neutering the younger drivers.
Sebastian Vettel has been tipped to be ‘the next Schumacher’ by the German press, he now has the chance to race with Michael and with the world championship at stake, Sebastian will be out to win it. Bernie told German publication Bild “There are five or six drivers that can race for the championship title but I predict that Sebastian Vettel will be the next World Champion in Formula 1.”
With Pre-season testing beginning just next month, it won’t be long before we see how the drivers compare in the new 2010 cars, it’s going to be a cracker of a season.
UBS Chinese Grand Prix