Valencia, the Low Point of an Exciting Season

The European Grand Prix at Valencia was definitely more exciting than the last three times it has been run. But sadly in a year of stunning races, this was definitely the most dull. Can anything save this race from being a bit rubbish or is it just a lost case? And how can anyone persuade Bernie to get rid of it? It showed promise early on though...

Qualifying

Photo Courtesy of Team Lotus

It was very hot for the start of qualifying and continued to get hotter throughout the session, combined with the slippery track here there was a chance of some errors creeping in. Predictably, Vettel set the early pace but Jenson found a little more speed shortly after as the track improved. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull were all very close as the session continued and then Nico Rosberg jumped up to fourth as the last runs began to show that Mercedes are still involved as well. The shuffling started to push Webber and Massa down towards the drop zone but they both saved themselves at the last with Massa taking fastest lap by 0.6 seconds.

In Q2 most of the drivers had their fast laps done nice and early which was lucky for them. Pastor Maldonaldo broke down in the middle of the track and bought out the red flags for a few minutes as a crane had to rescue him. The fast guys didn't bother to go out again after that. Paul di Resta was trying hard at the end but his lap was too scruffy to be quick and he lost out on a place in Q3. His team mate, Adrian Sutil, did make it in though, which made for a good result for Force India.

With 5 minutes of Q3 remaining  the top six was Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Webber, Button and Massa. The top 4 all decided to do another run at the end, Webber set off first and Vettel was the last. By the end of his flying lap though, Vettel hadn't improved and jumped into the pits to save his tyres. Webber managed to get a faster time but only good enough for second. Button somehow ended up in 6th place as the cars all came home and another slightly disappointing qualifying session ended.

Race

The cars lined up on the grid on an even hotter day than Saturday which was making the teams nervous about how long the tyres might last.

Photo Courtesy of Force India

As the lights went out both Ferraris got good starts with Massa getting the best of all. Hamilton bogged down a little and both of the red cars were past him by the first corner. Alonso made the best of the second turn though by running around the outside and putting himself into third on the way out of the corner. Massa tried to continue his run off the grid but had to back out of it and settle into 4th. In the confusion Button ended up knocked down to 7th as Rosberg squeezed past into 6th behind Hamilton.

By lap 2 Sebastien Vettel had opened up a 1.3 second gap on Webber and didn't look as though he would have any trouble keeping it. As the DRS became active it was Button who was in the best position to take advantage to it. Sadly it didn't seem to be working to well for him, he was getting closer to Rosberg with the flap activated but not close enough to get past. Rosberg started to get a bit ragged as the pressure built, but it was on the way into turn 2 where Jenson finally just forgot to brake for a few metres and dived through on the inside.

Fernando Alonso was closing on Mark Webber up to lap 6 but didn't seem to be making enough headway to get through. In trying to hard he ran very wide on turn 20, right across the astroturf section and giving Webber a little more breathing space. Vettel was widening the gap as Fernando started again on catching Webber.

Lap 10 saw Massa overshoot turn 17 but Hamilton wasn't close enough to take advantage. The pit stops began on lap 12 with Heidfeld and Kobayashi being the first to blink. Hamilton was in the next lap and it was clear that nobody would be able to make the tyres last much longer as Vettel was starting to get some oversteer moments. Webber was the first of the Red Bulls to stop followed by Vettel on lap 15 with Alonso right behind him and Massa the lap after.

Michael Schumacher came out of the pits and tried to take the inside of turn 2 as Petrov was coming past. Vitaly thought the corner was his and turned in, loosening the front wing of the Mercedes. It proceeded to get more broken and despite managing to get past a Force India it ended up trapped under the side of the car by the tie he made it back to the pit. After an investigation by the stewards no action was taken.

The top three drivers were still less than 4 seconds apart by this stage. Webber found himself stuck behind some traffic at this stage which let Alonso get a little closer and the Spanish crowd were starting to get up on their feet every time he went by. He finally found a space and out-braked the Australian on the way into turn 12 and started to open out a gap.

By lap 22 Button was being told on the radio that the cars in front would start "degging" soon, indicating that their tyres would be degrading fast. A couple of laps later and Hamilton was informed that he was on the same pace as the cars behind. Normally this would get Lewis asking what about the cars in front, but not this time. The McLaren cars didn't seem to be showing the same pace they have had in the last few races, and it seemed as though this might be as far up the field as they could make it.

Later on during lap 27, with a fresh set of tyres, Lewis still found enough to put in fastest lap of the race up to that point. His engineer was on the radio asking him, "please manage your pace," or in other words, "don't wear your tyres out too quickly!" Webber made his second stop on lap 29 with Alonso coming in one lap later but he came back onto the track behind Webber.

By lap 30 Lewis was getting warnings from the pit again, this time his rear tyre temperatures were too high. To which he replied, "I can't go any slower." That's the sort of attitude we like to see! As Button pitted for his second time, Webber was catching Massa fast and dived past him as the Brazillian dealt with some traffic on the way into the pits.

Button was on the radio on lap 33, being told that his KERS was not working. This prompted the McLaren engineers to go and get their rubber gloves out. Hamilton was again not doing the right thing and on lap 40 he got another message from the team to up his pace. The reply this time, "I'm going as fast as I can go!"

Now the track started to make its mark on the race properly as no real progress was made by anyone for a long time. There were some good scraps in the midfield, but compared to the races so far this year it was quiet and almost processional. Despite the top three still being within 12 seconds on lap 50 nothing really seemed to be heating up and the top 6 finished as they had been for more than 10 laps.

Vettel seemed to be particularly pleased with this victory for no reason that anyone could fathom out. It just looked like another of his pole to flag victories, despite his romantic claims that its him against the car and the track. Sadly for us it seems to be the track that is the problem. As Tiff Needell tweeted afterwards, "Even Pirelli's best efforts and the wing flappy thing can't turn a truly boring circuit into a racing track."

The final result ended as Vettel from Alonso with Mark Webber taking the final podium position. Hamilton stayed in fourth with Massa, Button and Heidfeld behind that. Jaime Alguersuari got himself a good eighth place to boost his season, despite this being one of only three Formula 1 races ever where everyone who started also finished. And one of those was the infamous Indianapolis race where only 6 cars started.

Valencia is just a track which doesn't seem to inspire any racing and its hard to say why. It's a great location, not as narrow as a street circuit but still with walls that should make mistakes count. Long straights, tight twisty sections. Everything it should need is there, but just put together in a way that makes it dull.

Still, next time out is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and that is a track that often produces a good race. It can be helped out by the Great British weather of course, but this year there are also major changes to the circuit. Specially designed to create mistakes and introduce more passing. With the added bonus of the Pirelli tyres and DRS this should help make it the sort of race that has been keeping us interested for the first part of the season. Come on the Brits!

Full Result

Championship Standings

Valencia Weekend Starts Grey and Dull

The weather in Valencia for the European Grand Prix started grey and dull. Much like the last few races here really. This year though there are hopes it may brighten up on the racing side of things at least. The Pirelli tyres, DRS, KERS and now the engine mapping changes are all working together to give us a good chance of the best race ever at this track.

Photo Courtesy of Force India

Paul di Resta swapped his drivers seat with Nico Hulkenberg for Free Practice 1 and probably wished he hadn't shortly after. Nico almost immediately flat spotted his tyres and followed that with losing the back end under braking and putting the car into the wall early on in the session. There was some confusion for Hamilton as he told his engineer that his rear wing flap wasn't working and was informed it had been disabled for testing.

Red Bull were seemed to be running two very different sessions. Vettel was not going quickly, there was speculation that this could be because they were testing engine map settings for Silverstone, where the hot blown diffuser ban is to be introduced. Webber meanwhile was at the top of the time sheets and stayed there as the session ended a little early. That was thanks to Glock, who half spun his car and stalled it on the exit of turn 4. Petrov was next on the list followed by Alonso, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Massa and Button with Vettel only able to get up to 16th place.

He made up for it Free Practice 2 though by posting quick times straight away. Button complained about low rear grip as he tried to improve. It didn't seem to be affecting Hamilton's car too much as he was challenging for the fastest time with Vettel, Webber, and Alonso. Di Resta finally managed to get his freshly fixed car out of the pits with only 10 minutes of the session remaining and proceeded to do his best to make up for lost time.

At the end of the session Alonso had the fastest time just 0.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton with Vettel less than 0.1 behind that. Schumacher, Massa, Button and Webber were also close with Webber ending up just 0.563 behind his team mate. Paul di Resta only pulled himself up to 16th place but considering his very limited time in the car, that's a pretty good result. Hopefully he'll get a better run on Saturday.

Photo Courtesy of Team Lotus

After the dust settled it appeared that the soft tyre was around a second a lap faster than the new medium tyre. It also appeared to be lasting fairly well with some drivers continuing to improve their times after 2 or even 3 laps. The final times show that this could be a closer qualifying session than we have seen so far this year. But Red Bull are becoming infamous for pulling something special out of the bag at the last minute. Will the new parc fermé rules stop that? We'll find out tomorrow afternoon!

That throws a few more unknowns into the equation for predictions so I'm going on pure gut feelings! Lets see if Alonso can make the most of a home advantage and bring in a pole to give Ferrari's season a boost. For the race, I think that if he does get pole he will get mugged in the double DRS zones and not be able to bring it home in first. So the top three could be Vettel, a newly calm and focussed Hamilton and then Alonso. Sorry Button fans, I don't think this is his track, but he might hang on to fourth. What do you think?

Bring on the racing!

Rule Changes, Rule Changes and Changes to the Rules

The FIA have finally decided to implement the long discussed ban on blown diffusers from the British Grand Prix onwards. But of course, that on its own would be too easy, so an there is an extra change to the rules (effective immediately) which bans any change in engine mapping between qualifying and the race. Just to add a little more entertainment it has also been decided to postpone the major engine regulation changes to make Formula 1 greener, from 2013 to 2014.

The ban on hot blown diffusers has been talked about for a little while now and the FIA have finally got round to making a ruling on it. From Silverstone the teams must change their engine mapping so that when the throttle is closed no more than 10% of the maximum fuel flow is allowed into the engine. Some of the teams have been using a system where the fuel flow is kept high but the ignition is retarded so much that the fuel burns in the exhaust. This allows hot gas to exit the exhaust and create more downforce under the car. Now that this is to be restricted, we are left to wonder which cars will be most affected by the change. Its widely believed that Red Bull will see the biggest hit but nothing is certain until the British Grand Prix.

The teams have also been issued another ruling which will take effect this coming weekend in Valencia. Once qualifying is finished there are to be no changes to the engine mapping until the race is underway. Previously it was not regarded as a breach of Parc Fermé rules to plug in a laptop and make alterations to the ECU settings. This allowed the cars to use a far more aggressive mapping during qualifying, and then change the setting down for the race in order to stop the floor and exhaust from overheating. Again Red Bull are thought to be the biggest loser in this change. Their cars never quite seem to have the domination in the race that they show on Saturday.

It should be interesting to see if this has any noticeable effect during the European Grand Prix. Theoretically it is possible to change the engine mapping during a pit stop. But due to the time required, no-one seems to believe that it will happen, which means that the other cars may be a little closer to Vettel than normal. Some are unhappy that these changes weren't left until the end of the season but it does seem to slow down another (presumably) expensive line of research and may even help to close up the championship race. Which is never going to be a bad thing!

Finally the major engine changes that were to be introduced in 2013. It was believed that the FIA had secured agreement for a change to 4 cylinder turbo-charged engines to be introduced in 2013 but now, after a meeting with all the teams a new agreement has been reached. And this time that means that everyone agrees. This will see Formula 1 moving to 1.6 litre V6 turbo-charged engines instead of the current 3.5 litre V8. There will also be a reduction in fuel flow along with a rev limit reduction from 18,000 to 12,000 rpm which should see fuel usage drop by up to 35%. These changes should see the current power output of around 750bhp stay roughly the same. KERS will also be beefed up to twice its current output.

These changes are intended to make the sport greener, but how green can a sport like motor racing really be? These are cars that have no purpose other than moving one man around and around in a circle as fast as possible. Not going anywhere as quick as you can is, by its very nature, a waste of fuel and energy. It is hoped however that the turbo chargers and energy recovery systems may boost the use of the same  technologies on road cars, which can only be a good thing.

In my opinion, the only real way to make F1 greener would be to limit the total amount of fuel used per race and drop that amount season by season. The teams would be allowed to use whatever other sources of energy they can (KERS, solar power, Mr. Fusion etc.) to make up the shortfall and increase the efficiency. Then we might see a technical battle worth watching and it might have a greater impact on the rest of the road-going world.