Apologies for no photo of the winning driver, apparently Red Bull’s media department is not approving our application to use their photos for editorial purposes.

Red Bull really did give Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber wings with the duo grabbing a 1-2 at the 2010 formula one Malaysian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg was third for the Mercedes GP formula one team (erstwhile Brawn GP) while his teammate Michael Schumacher was unlucky yet again as a nut came off his car’s wheel and he was forced to retire. Before that Michael Schumacher in a strong start had made up 2 places.

Sebastien Vettel proved that if you are good enough and if you drive good enough, victory will come and luck factor will diminish. After 2 unlucky races, Malaysia proved to be third time lucky.

Lewis Hamilton was another the start performer of the day though, the Briton made his way up from 20th on the grid to sixth place. His teammate Jenson Button was 8th at the finish line.

Meanwhile Spaniard and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso called the Malaysian Grand Prix the toughest race of his life. He suffered a gearbox problem and apparently no clutch in the race.

“Right from the start things went wrong. On the formation lap, my gearbox broke, and I had no clutch during the race,” Fernando Alonso said.

“So I had to brake in a weird way. I had to first gear down and then push the throttle hard so it would engage the gear for that corner.

“So it was probably the hardest race of my whole life in terms of driving, because I had to improvise for every corner.

Final Classification of the Malaysian Grand Prix 2010

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts

1 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 56 1:33:48.412 3 25

2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 56 +4.8 secs 1 18

3 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 56 +13.5 secs 2 15

4 11 Robert Kubica Renault 56 +18.5 secs 6 12

5 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 56 +21.0 secs 4 10

6 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 +23.4 secs 20 8

7 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 56 +27.0 secs 21 6

8 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 56 +37.9 secs 17 4

9 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 56 +70.6 secs 14 2

10 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 56 +73.3 secs 5 1

11 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 56 +78.9 secs 13

12 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 55 +1 Lap 7

13 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 19

14 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 24

15 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 22

16 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 52 +4 Laps 23

17 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 51 +5 Laps 18

Ret 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 46 +10 Laps 15

Ret 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 32 +24 Laps 11

Ret 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 +44 Laps 10

Ret 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 9 +47 Laps 8

Ret 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 8 +48 Laps 9

Ret 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2 +54 Laps 16

DNS 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0 +56 Laps 12

The German Red Bull F1 driver Sebastien Vettel edged Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso to grab the first pole of the 2010 season. Seven time formula one world champion Michael Schumacher who is returning to the track after a sabbatical was seventh in the qualifying with his team-mate Nice Rosberg doing better at 5th place. Vettel’s team-mate was 6th.

Ferrari were the team with most consistent performance in practice and qualifying alike, it seems that this season they might very well be the team to beat, but its still to early to tell.

Newcomer teams like Lotus F1 and HRT F1 (Campos Meta) struggled to make their mark. Some of their times were beyond 2 minutes with Indian rookie Karun Chandhok bringing up the rear for the grid in his HRT F1 car.

Sorry for no qualifying review, but tomorrow, I have an interview with the one of the best schools in India and I wish to get in

Fernando Alonso in Ferrari attire !

The 3 new Ferrari drivers including the newly signed Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella made their debut in Red on 11th January 2010 at Madonna di Campiglio in Italy. They made the appearance for the 20th edition of the Wrooom event.

Felipe Massa gives the thumbs up to fans at Madonna di Campiglio.

This season, Ferrari seem to have a very strong driver lineup with all 3 drivers being seasoned pros and add Alonso’s driver championships to the equation and we see a potential winner in Ferrari. While Felipe Massa is the experienced Ferrari campaigner, Giancarlo Fisichella comes fresh from an awesome season with Force India where he outshone his partner Adrian Sutil in a large number of races.

Third Driver for the Ferrari Team Giancarlo Fisichella in Ferrari Overalls

Ofcourse there is still a lot to be done at the machine end. Last year saw Ferrari struggle to keep up with smaller and much less experienced teams like Brawn GP and the Red Bull formula one team. This difference in power could be attributed to the smart interpretation of rules by these teams and the subsequent controversy that followed but that doesn’t change the fact that they struggled to give a competitive car to their drivers.

Its official now, Giancarlo Fisichella has dumped the Force India formula one team for a shot with the Ferrari formula one team. He will replace Luca Badoer who was filling in for the injured Felipe Massa. His recent podium finish for Force India (their 1st) and Luca Badoer’s pathetic performances acted as catalyst to the switch. The announcement of the switch wasn’t really a surprise, rumours in the paddocks were alive about the switch for around 1.5 weeks now with Vijay Mallya doing every bit to reject them until now.

Its often said that the dream of every formula one driver is to drive for the Ferrari formula one team, but its even more true for Italians, who probably dream of driving for the Ferrari formula one team even if they aren’t formula one drivers.

The move ofcourse is a big loss for the Force India formula one team and there are rumours that Ferrari did waive off the money Force India owed to them. Vijay Mallya insisted that there were no financial transactions which secured Fisichella’s release from contract.

Meanwhile Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo praised Fisichella in a press release on the Ferrari Media website. He hinted that Fisichella would be the third driver when  He was quoted as saying :

“I chose Fisichella for several reasons, starting with the fact he deserves it, that he’s on great form and that he is an expert driver. On top of that, we all wanted to have an Italian driver in our car for Monza and lastly, because it takes the long term view, as he will be our third driver.”

“It is an important moment, coming off the back of a great win with Kimi Raikkonen,” added the Ferrari President. “We also have the good and important news that Felipe Massa is recovering well and will be more than ready for the first race of next season.

“I wish to thank Luca Badoer who, once again has been so amenable towards Ferrari. Therefore, I look forward to Monza with confidence and especially with great pleasure at having Fisichella in the team.”

“the good news that Felipe will race again, that he is recovering and that he will be very ready to race next season is a further plus, after what was a terrible August for us, what with his accident, all the uncertainties and, unfortunately, Michael Schumacher’s fitness difficulties, when we would have liked to see him in our car. However, bit by bit, we are putting everything right again. Victory is the best medicine.”

Toyota had their rear wings marked illegal by F1 Stewards due to too much flexibility

Who in their right minds would have bet their money on Brawn GP, a team which until a few weeks ago didnt exist, the erstwhile Honda team whose fate was uncertain after a disastrous season and on Jenson Button who has often been called just another British driver and has been thoroughly overshadowed by McLaren’s own Brit Lewis Hamilton.

Wee this Saturday at Melbourne was not the place to make informed guesses and preditctions, because things didnt go as expected. The McLarens and the Ferraris werent the forces to be reckoned with, but it was the Brawn GP car of Jenson Button which took the pole position. And as if that wasnt enough, forgotten Brazillian driver and Jenson Button’s teammate at Brawn GP Rubens Barrichello was 2nd and will accompany Button in the front row.

Sebastien Vettel was a cool third in his Red Bull Racing car. While Robert Kubica (whom i had considered a favorite) was only 4th fastest. The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Raikkonen were 7th and 9th respectively. The McLarens were even more pathetic in 15th and 16th place with world champion Lewis Hamilton 16th.

Force India continued their dismal run despite more marketing efforts (that doesnt work, does it ?). Meanwhile Toyota were banned from the qualifying and relegated to last places after their wings were found to be too flexible. In a statement sent to use by their media team, they claimed :

Toyota Motorsport has been informed that the rear wing of the TF109 has been found to demonstrate “extreme flexibility” by the Australian Grand Prix stewards.

The design has passed our own internal test procedures which are designed to reproduce twice the proscribed official load tests. In light of this decision it is clear we must review these procedures to ensure there is no repeat of this situation and we will also review our production processes to ensure there is no variation between parts.

We naturally accept and respect the decision of the race stewards.

We intend to modify the components overnight and we are confident these modifications will not result in any performance drop.

2009 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying result :

Pos Driver Nationality Team Time

1. Jenson Button Britain Brawn GP-Mercedes 1:26.202

2. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn GP-Mercedes 1:26.505

3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1:26.830

4. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 1:26.914

5. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1:26.973

6. Timo Glock Germany Toyota 1:26.975

7. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:27.033

8. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 1:27.127

9. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:27.163

10. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:27.246

11. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 1:25.504

12. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault 1:25.605

13. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 1:25.607

14. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.726

15. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes No Time

16. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.508

17. Nelson Piquet Brazil Renault 1:26.598

18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 1:26.677

19. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1:26.742

20. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.964

Adrian Sutil was quoted as saying

“We won’t be using it for the first races, so we didn’t test it in Jerez – we just concentrated on the main things,” Adrian Sutil said.

“It’s not a real disadvantage to do the first races without it as we can see some of the other teams have had issues. At least you know what you have and you just run without KERS. There could be some reliability issues if you don’t fully understand it and then run it.”

Adrian Sutil was also happy with the performance of the new VJM-02 car ,

‘I’m quite happy because we could do some good testing in Jerez. At first we had a few problems with the car, but then we sorted it out and could do some good running. It was the first proper time on circuit, so we still need time to understand everything but the overall feeling was very good, definitely.’ the German said

It is interesting to note that Force India’s engine suppliers McLaren are planning to use the KERS system in their cars from the Australian Grand Prix itself.

The KERS system is also known as regenerative braking. Its a positive step towards environmental friendliness also. The Kinetic energy of the cars is stored whenever the brakes are applied. This energy may be stored in Flywheels or electrical circuits with the help of capacitors. This energy can later be reused, so instead of wasting all the Kinetic energy as heat or sound, part of it is stored

In the time of recession one would hope that teams cut down on unnecessary expenses and would focus on the game and also on satisfying the millions of fans due to which they are still in business. But who can predict Force India’s actions, they have roped  in yet another actor (politically correct term for actress) to promote their f1 outfit. Deepika Padhukone is set to be the new face of Force India F1.

While their brand ambassadors keep getting smarter and more expensive every year, how much their performance has improved over the off season remains to be seen. At the launch of their 2009 car also , the guest list included Bollywood actresses, but it remains to be seen whether any fans were invited to the event !

People in Europe and Americas are probably unaware of the kind of outrage that Vijay Mallya’s comments have caused in India’s formula one fans.

I really admire Vijay Mallya, mainly for the fact that he has brought India on the world map in a large number of places, liquor being 1. But formula one is not one of them. Narain Karthikeyan was the Indian who had brought India to the world stage in formula one. His sponsors like JK Tyre and TATA were the ones who put India on the formula one map not Kingfisher, not Vijay Mallya.

Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian driver in formula one, he was a test driver for Williams. Even in the defunct Jordans, he drove his heart out. Steve Slater and Chris Goodwin praised his guts and moves. The kind of aggression he showed in racing was praised by all. Michael Schumacher, Emerson Fittpaldi and Tiago Monteiro (his teammate) all praised his guts.

Then along came Mr. Mallya, bought over a defunct formula one outfit and named it after India. That was good, but his comments about Indian drivers was uncalled for. Karun Chandhok and Narain Karthikeyan are good drivers, better than if not as good as Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella. Both of them have WON races at every stage of racing they have competed in and are very much competitive when pitted against the best of drivers.

Mr. Mallya’s obsession with glamour and foreigners is not appreciated by this formula one fan. I would much rather have one of the Ambanis or the TATAs in formula one.

Lewis Hamilton steered his McLaren to a very important pole position today at the Fuji speedway. The rain from the morning had almost dried , and the conditions were ideal for the run of the mill qualifying session. Lewis Hamilton’s title rival Felipe Massa could only manage a fifth, while his teammate Kimi Raikkonen got the second place in his Ferrari behind the Brit.

Heiki Kovalainen made it in 3rd place making sure that McLaren can give a strong challenge in the constructor’s championship. Force India were as usual in dismal form and last place.

The Toyotas also fared well amongst rumours of bankruptcy and financial woes. They got 7th and 8th place respectively.

Result of the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying :

1. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.404

2. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:18.644

3. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.821

4. Fernando Alonso (Spn) Renault 1:18.852

5. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:18.874

6. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:18.979

7. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:19.026

8. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:19.118

9. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:19.638

10. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.167

11. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 1:18.187

12. Nelson Piquet (Brz) Renault 1:18.274

13. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:18.354

14. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota 1:18.594

15. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 1:18.672

16. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:18.835

17. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:18.882

18. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:19.100

19. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 1:19.163

20. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari 1:19.910

Photo : www.mclaren.com , media centre