Posts tagged Mark Webber
Three on the Trot for Webber in Turkey
May 29th
Mark Webber has bagged a qualifying hatrick by claiming pole postion for the Turkish Grand Prix.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing this weekend for the Aussie. On Friday an engine failure in practice was played down by the team but it did mean less time on track for Mark. The during 3rd practice on Saturday Mark had a issue with the throttle system on the RedBull which saw him crawl back to the pits under idle and not record a time.
Vettel was a step ahead of Mark, recording better times during Q1 and Q2 however Sebastian locked a front wheel in the dying stages of Q3 and lost time, as a result he lost time and only narrowly finished in p3 splitting both the Mclarens. Mark had an excellent final run in Q3, lighting up the middle sector purple. He managed to beat Lewis hamilton to pole by more then .1 of a second.
Fernando Alonso had a dreadful day, making a mistake in Q2 and unable to recover he was knocked out and will start tomorrows race from 12th position. It continues a string of bad luck for Fernando who was forced to start from pitlane in Monaco due to a heavy crash in practice. Filepe Massa however was able to get his Ferrari into the top ten and will start from 8th place for the race.
Hamitlon was 2nd and Button 4th, making it an all RedBUll and Mclaren front two rows. Lewis Hamitlon said he believes they are in a good position tomorrow, claiming he felt the McLaren had very good race pace. Lewis noted it was a boot for the team and that he expects their pace to improve further when more ‘bits’ arrive for the car in the coming races. With Lewis Hamilton notoriously quick off the line it will be a made dash to turn1 with the Briton now doubt expecting he can beat Webber through the first turn.
Sebastian Vettel was upset about the front left wheel of his car. He said he locked the front wheel briefly under brakes, which usually wouldn’t be much of an issue, however the wheel for some reason stayed locked up and as a result he ran wide. Vettel spent some time inspecting the car as it was parked in parc’ ferme and was clearly not happy with his Q3 performance. He was quicker then Mark in the earlier session and no doubt was expecting to claim pole in Turkey, let alone be starting from the 2nd row.
The Big shock of the day was Michael Schumacher who bottom out int he high speed left hander and as a result lost control of his Mercedes. Schumacher had to park the car and is now left with enormous flatspots on his tyres. Michael will have to start the race on his damaged tyres, but since he recorded a time earlier in Q3 before his spin, he will start the race from 5th place just ahead of his team mate Nico.
The complete time sheet from all the sessions is below:
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:27.500 1:26.818 1:26.295 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.667 1:27.013 1:26.433 3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:27.067 1:26.729 1:26.760 4. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.555 1:27.277 1:26.781 5. Schumacher Mercedes 1:27.756 1:27.438 1:26.857 6. Rosberg Mercedes 1:27.649 1:27.141 1:26.952 7. Kubica Renault 1:27.766 1:27.426 1:27.039 8. Massa Ferrari 1:27.993 1:27.200 1:27.082 9. Petrov Renault 1:27.620 1:27.387 1:27.430 10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.158 1:27.434 1:28.122 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:27.951 1:27.525 12. Alonso Ferrari 1:27.857 1:27.612 13. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.147 1:27.879 14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.534 1:28.273 15. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:28.336 1:28.392 16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.460 1:28.540 17. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:28.227 1:28.841 18. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:28.958 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:30.237 20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:30.519 21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:30.744 22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:31.266 23. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:31.989 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:32.060
Mark Webber wins in Monaco
May 17th
Mark Webber after his greatest victory to date (Photo: AFP)
Mark Webber kept his cool in a thrilling race and became the first Aussie to win in Monaco since Sir Jack Brabham in 1959.
“Absolutely incredible, for sure this is the greatest day of my life today,” He said shortly after the race.
Mark had a good start and was the first man into turn1 and up the hill. From here he built up a very impressive lead until the first of what would be four safety cars periods where he lost all the ground and hard work he had put in building a buffer to his team mate.
Mark kept his cool through safety car period after safety car period and each time was able to get a good break and build up his lead again. Mark was able to stay out of trouble right up til the dying stages of the race when Trulli and Chandhook took each other out just meters infront of Marks car. This crash brought out the fourth and final safety car period of the race and Mark was faced with the potential of having to endure a last lap dash under green to the finish. The safety car however stayed out till the final lap and pulled into the pits as Mark cruised over the finish line.
Sebastian Vettel made a crutial move on Robert Kubica off the start to take 2nd place into turn 2. This move was the turning point of the race for both drivers and ultimately they remained in those positions across the line.
The win was a critical one for RedBull. The team is nowleading the constructors championship and Mark and Sebastian Vetel are now equal first on 78 points each in the drivers championship.
A complete race wrap-up of Monaco will be online soon. In the meantime below is the final standings from the race:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1h50:00.000 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 0.448 3. Kubica Renault + 1.600 4. Massa Ferrari + 2.600 5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 4.300 6. Schumacher Mercedes + 5.700 7. Alonso Ferrari + 6.300 8. Rosberg Mercedes + 6.600 9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 6.900 10. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 7.300 11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 8.100 12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 9.100 13. Petrov Renault + 4 laps retirements: Driver Team On lap Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 71 Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 71 Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 59 Senna HRT-Cosworth 59 Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 28 Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 27 Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 26 Glock Virgin-Cosworth 23 De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 22 Button McLaren-Mercedes 3 Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1
Webber on pole in a thrilling rain affected Malaysian Qualifying
Apr 3rd
Mark Webber on Pole for Sunday's Malaysian GP - Photo: AFP
A sensational Qualifying session ahead of Sunday’s race saw both Ferrari’s of Alonso and Massa and also the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton failing to make it into Q2 .
Light rain started falling in the early stages of Q1, the teams who put in laps early benefited. Unfortunately for Ferrari, they waited to long into the session to go out on track and by the time their cars were sent out, they were lapping well under the target time. McLaren also had the same problem, however Jensen Button set a good enough time to put him through till Q2, but aquapolaned off the wet track after he set his lap and was unabled to rejoin the track, relegating him to the bottom of Q2 and qualifying in 17th position.
Lewis Hamilton separates both the Ferraris of Alonso in p19 and Massa in p21. This is the worst qualifying result for Ferrari and McLaren all season.
Q2 saw most drivers start on Intermediate tyres. The rain had eased and the track. Adrian Sutil was the early pace setter but was quickly upstaged by Schumacher, Kubica and Hulkenberg. As the track dried it became clear the inters were needed to set good pace. Vettel pitted for inters and as a result he was able to respond with the quickest lap time of the session. Webber finished Q2 in 7th place, after struggling to show similar pace to Vettel, however it was Michael Schumacher who got lucky and only just held on the the final position, closing out the top 10 to go in to Q3.
As the lights went green for Q3, there was a very long line of traffic. Everyone was keen to get out early and set a good time before the rain got even heavier. The rain did get very heavy and the session was red flagged before anybody had a chance to set a time. This meant there would be only just over 7 minutes left in the session when it is restarted.
When the session was finally restarted, the rain had stopped falling, however there was a lot of standing water. Nobody hung around in the pit garage very long, with only 7 mins left, all the remaining 10 cars went out quickly. With the standing water on parts of the track all the cars except for Mark Webber elected to use full wets.
Sutil and Hulkenberg again proved to be quick in the wet with early pace as Mark Webber struggled on his out lap on cold intermediate tyres. However on Marks first flying lap his sectors were suddenly very quick and in no time he posted the quickest time of the session. He stayed out for a second flying lap and bettered his pole time by 1.1 seconds. It was obvious that nobody on full wets was able to break Webbers time, his gamble on inters paid off. Team principal Christian Horner confirmed that the decision to use inters was Webber’s own.
Mark Webber is joined on the front row by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes and Marks RedBull team mate just behind in P3. RedBull once again dominating the qualifying for the seccond race in a row. However whether or not RedBull’s qualifying performance is able to be translated into a similar finish in the race is yet to be seen this season.
With more rain forecast for tomorrow’s race, it will come done to tyre strategy and cautious and consistent driving to win the race. Many teams will be analysing closely the performance of the inters vs the full wets in the constantly changing Malaysian conditions.
The final Qualifying times from all sessions is below:
| Pos | No | Driver | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | 6 | Mark Webber | 01:51.89 | 01:48.21 | 01:49.33 |
| 2 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | 01:52.56 | 01:47.42 | 01:50.67 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | 01:47.63 | 01:46.83 | 01:50.79 |
| 4 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | 01:49.48 | 01:47.09 | 01:50.91 |
| 5 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | 01:49.66 | 01:47.35 | 01:51.00 |
| 6 | 11 | Robert Kubica | 01:46.28 | 01:46.95 | 01:51.05 |
| 7 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | 01:50.30 | 01:48.37 | 01:51.51 |
| 8 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | 01:52.24 | 01:48.40 | 01:51.72 |
| 9 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | 01:48.47 | 01:47.79 | 01:51.77 |
| 10 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 01:49.92 | 01:48.24 | 01:52.25 |
| 11 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | 01:47.95 | 01:48.76 | |
| 12 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | 01:47.15 | 01:48.77 | |
| 13 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | 01:48.95 | 01:49.21 | |
| 14 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | 01:48.66 | 01:49.46 | |
| 15 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | 01:52.88 | 01:52.27 | |
| 16 | 24 | Timo Glock | 01:52.40 | 01:52.52 | |
| 17 | 1 | Jenson Button | 01:52.21 | no time | |
| 18 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | 01:52.88 | ||
| 19 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | 01:53.04 | ||
| 20 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 01:53.05 | ||
| 21 | 7 | Felipe Massa | 01:53.28 | ||
| 22 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | 01:56.30 | ||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | 01:57.27 | ||
| 24 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | 01:59.98 |
What’s in store at Albert Park?
Mar 22nd
With the dramas of the ‘un-eventful’ season opener in Bahrain now yesterdays fish n chips wrapper, we look ahead to the AustralianGP which is now less 6 days away.
Melbourne has traditionally hosted the first round of the season so it will be interesting to see teams turning up to this track and for the first time having a clearer understanding of who the pace setters are heading into the weekend.
Lewis Hamilton has been quoted as saying that “The Red Bull is ridiculously faster than anyone else’s car,”
Downforce in Melbourne is very important with the most important corners being very slow speed yet at the same time there are large sweeping corners on the back straight taken at full throttle.
The reliabilty issues that plauged Sebastian during Bahrain will hopefully not be an issue in Melbourne. Sebastian dropped from a comfortable lead down to 4th place when a faulty spark plug caused issues for him and greatly reduced power. Sebastian will be using that same engine this weekend in Melbourne, however RedBull have made assurances the issue has been rectified and there is nothing wrong with the engine itself. Having siad that, the Renault engine is still down on power and was 10 km/h slower then the McLarens through the speed trap in Bahrain. With the speeds topping 300km/h at Albert Park, this hopefully won’t become an issue for RedBull.
The majority of the grid believe that the best two cars going into this weekend are the RedBulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
Mark will be under a lot of pressure to perform infront of his home-crowd. He has not had good luck in past seasons in Melbourne however with the local press already touting 2010 as ‘being his year’ at Albert park, there may be much disapointment if he doesn’t atleast claim a podium this weekend and with such a car beneath him, there should be no excuses not to perform.
The weather in Melbourne is always un-predicatable. We have seen the temperature on the race in recent years vary from the low 20′s (celcius) to the low-mid 40 degree temperatures.
The forecast is for a mixed dry and wet weekend. Possible showers on Saturday for Quali and whilst Sunday will start out fine, strong winds could also bring rain in the late afternoon. Temps will be in the mid-high 20′s on Saturday and it will push into 30 degrees celcius for the Sunday, so not a relatively hot weekend.
Melbourne has a very large Italian community and one of the largest Ferrari fan bases we see at any GP outside of Italy.
Fernando Alonso is who many fans have come to cheer on and the Red and Yellow will be out in force cheering for this man.
Whilst Ferrari may not have the aero package the RedBull have, they do have reliability on their side and in a race like Melbounre which always claims casualaties and is always prone to safety car periods, reliabilty may win the day.
Most of the F1 teams are already in Melbourne, many of the dirvers flew in over this past weekend to adjust to the time-zone differnce and the change in timezone will put them in good stead for the malaysian GP the following weekend.
Albert Park is a street circuit only a few Kilometers from Melbournes CBD. The circuit is just over 5.3km’s in length and the lap record set in 2004 by Michael Schumacher of 1:24.125 still stands.
Michael has been a local crowd favourite at Albert Park ever since he won his first AustralianGP for Ferrari in 2000. There will be a very large legion of “schumi fans” out to see their man. We don’t expect him to break that lap record however, the MecredesGP team hasn’t had the pace of the Ferrari, RedBull or even the McLarens so far this season.
Lets go for a lap around Albert Park on-board with Michael Schumacher in 2004. This was his pole setting lap:
A wet day of tests in Jerez
Feb 11th
Rain affected the day of testing at Jerez on Wednesday. The fastest times of the day were set very early in the morning before the first drops fell and fromt hat point on the times were never going to be beaten with all teams on inters and full wets for the rest of the day.
It was the first chance the world had to se RedBull’s RB6 in action, however it was a disapointing day RedBull. The RB6 stopped out on the track and brought out the red flag due to an oil leak. The team tok that car back to the garage but then spent a large amount of time working on he car, even removing it’s floorpan. Webber didn’t return to the track until 45 mins prior to the end of the day.
Despite this setback Webber did manage to put 50 laps in, all be it in mostly wet conditions. Mark remained upbeat however.
“It was a pretty positive feeling actually,” said Webber “It wasn’t exactly a clean day of testing with the changeable conditions but that is the same with everyone.
Webber admitted that the team was going to be doing a shakedown of their car over the next few days, and do not intend to even ‘look’ at lap times until later in the month. He said that the car felt as it should on a wet day in Jerez, but did hope for dry weather tomorrow so that they could continue their shakedown.
Engine reliability has been the only variable that could be the downfall of the RedBull team. The Renault engine was no-where near as good as other engines on the grid in 2009 and it could be the soar point of the team again in 2010. Regardless of the team and drivers remaining upbeat about todays test, the fact that and oil leak let them down was not a good first outing.
The day in contrast was far better for the MercedesGP team who were finally able to knck Ferrari off their perch and claim the fastest time of the day. Nico Rosberg put some strong laps in early in they day before the rain set in and his time was obviously not beaten. The times however may not mean much with most teams evidently concentrating more on shakedown and development rather then trying to prove pace.
McLaren tried to water down the concern onlookers had to the large metal rig stuck to the side of the car, used for measuring windflow and aerodynamics and comparing it to CFD and wind tunnel data.
Virgin Racing were also present for the first time, however they spent most of the day waiting for the fitment of new parts to the car and in the end.
Timo Glock only managed to venture out for 5 laps before the end of the day, not surprisingly coming bottom of the times on a day where thankfully the timesheet really didn’t mean much anyway.
Most teams are hoping for fine weather tomorrow as they continue their shakedowns.
For those interested, the times from today are below:
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:20.927, 57 Laps
2. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:21.031, 84 Laps
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:22.243, 118 Laps
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:22.895, 88 Laps
5. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:23.287, 55 Laps
6. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:24.947, 68 Laps
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India, 1:24.968, 71 Laps
8. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:25.440, 27 Laps
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:26.502, 50 Laps
10. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:38.734, 5 Laps
Webber and Vettel unveil the RB6
Feb 10th
RedBull released images of it’s new car on Wednesday morning via it’s website, about an hour ahead of the official launch at Jerez where drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were on hand to pull back the covers on what they hope will be a championship winning car in 2010.
Adrian Newey has said the RB6 is a progression of last years car, however it has been designed from the outset with a double diffuser in mind and RedBull believe they will be successful this year with their new interpritation of the rear diffuser.
The RB6 has a scooped-out nose or chasis top, similar to last years car, however it is even more pronounced and dramatic on the RB6.
Last years car made use of the double diffuser part way through the season once they were deamed legal by the FIA, however RedBull were never able to full capitalise on the potential of the diffuser on the RB5 due to other mechanical parts of the car such as it’s rear suspension. Whilst the RB5 was successful and was able to put a huge dent into the lead the Brawns had made early on in the season, the team knows if the car was designed from the outset with a double diffuser in mind, they would have experience their success from the start of the season and could have won the 2009 championship as a result.
The RB6 is out on track today at the hands of Mark Webber. Many teams are treating today as a as a shakedown. RedBull should be out to prove their car is fast however after missing the first round of official tests due to spending some more time developing the car at their factory.
Below is a shot of Webber out on track this morning on his installation laps, this is the first glimpse the world has been able to get of the new dramatic double deck diffuser which was covered up and concealed from the press when the covers were pulled off the car:
Webber in the RB6 showing off the diffuser at Jerez
Webber will also test the car on Thursday before handing it over to 2009 runner-up Sebastian Vettel who will take over for Friday and Saturday.
There will be a lot of interest to see how the 2009 runner’s up compare to the current front runners in testing, the Ferrari F10.
A swag of gongs for the Aussies at the BRDC Awards
Dec 9th
It was a big night for Mark Webber and Danniel Ricciardo who both won awards last night at the British Racing Drivers Club annual gala. Webber won the Innes Ireland award for ‘the driver best displaying the qualities of courage and sportsmanship’ and the Bruce McLaren Trophy awarded to the Commonwealth driver who ‘has established the most meritorious performances in international motorsport.’
Murray walker and Pat McLaren (Bruce’s widow) presented Mark with his awards.
Fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo who recently wowed the powers that be when he tested the RedBull F1 car and toped the time sheet over 3 days of testing picked up the John Cooper Trophy after winning the British Formula 3 Championship. Daniel also won the Henry Surtees Award for an outstanding performance by a BRDC Rising Star.
Fellow RedBull driver Sebastian Vettel was given the Johnny Wakefield Trophy for setting the fastest lap of Silverstone, which he also claimed victory at in this years F1 Championship.
We also expect an official announcement sometime soon in regards to Daniels position as reserve driver for RedBull next year.
Vettel is a perfect fit for MercedesGP – No Bull
Nov 30th
Sebastian Vettel is hot property after becoming the runner up in this years F1 World championship. He is more then 10 years younger then his RedBull team mate, Mark Webber, and just like his idol, fellow German driver Michael Schumacher, Vettel has already made history as the youngest Formula One driver to ever win a Grand Prix after winning at the Italian GP in 2008.
He is also the youngest driver ever to be a runner up in the championship and of course the youngest driver ever to score pole position during quaili’. Predictions are, records will keep falling to Vettel in the future.
Vettel is constantly compared to Schumacher and with good reason. He has already smashed a number of records, not only is he the youngest driver ever to win a Grand Prix but when he was 19 years old he became the youngest driver to lead a race behind the wheel of the BMW Sauber.
Despite the expectations that he is the next Schumie, Vettel admits he is not feeling the pressure, instead he is focusing on one season at a time and just enjoying racing.
Vettel has a very bright future ahead of him. Ross Brawn and Norbert Haug are no doubt itching to get him to drive for MercedesGP and if it weren’t for his ironclad contract with RedBull that doesn’t expire until the end of the 2011 season, no doubt he would be signed for 2010 with the Silver Arrows.
For Mercedes however, having the best German on the grid driving for a German works team is something not only the top execs would want, but also Vettel himself.
But if Mercedes were to get desperate by the end of 2010 they might start looking at options and also be prepared to pay a hefty price to release Vettel from his contract early.
We could see Sebastian Vettel drive for the Silver Arrows as early as the beginning of the 2011, but really what is the rush? He is with a very successful team now. RedBull is coming off the back of a very strong season and Vettel is very well embedded into the team and can now focus on winning the championship.
No doubt he will be fighting for the title next year and if the team can be strong right from the beginning of the season rather then finding their form part way through, there is no reason why he can’t be the 2010 World Champion.
When asked after the Monza round this year who he thought would win the 2009 Championship, Vettel replied “I hope myself. I will fight to the last breath and minute.” It is this attitude that will see him remain in Formula1 for some time yet – hopefully winning multiple titles.
note: Sebastian Vettel will get to test the 2010 car for the first time next February. We will be following his progress in the lead up to round one very closely.
