Formula 1 Jam

All eyes will be on Albert Park in Melbourne Australia this weekend for the 3rd round of the 2006 Formula One Season. Weather seems to be the major concern just before the start of the weekend.

Last year’s Grand Prix had a few spots of rain on race day but it was the rain in qualification that directed to how the weekend would end up… A Renault 1-3 showed where the rest of the season was heading. Gincarlo picked up his first win in the Renault in his very first race for the team and Alonso impressed with a drive thru the field (started at 13th) to take the 3rd spot on the podium. Barrichello took the 2nd spot on the podium after great comeback from 11th on the grid.

Micheal crashed out in lap 46 and Montoya and Kimi managed 6th and 8th respectively. David Coulthard did amazingly well in his new RBR-Cosworth to make it to 4th and Webber impressed by ending up ahead of both the Mc Laren cars.

If history is anything to go by… I would expect Renault to be the team to beat without a doubt, Ferrari are almost there and will be a much bigger threat in Europe… yet they are defiantly capable of springing a surprise or two. Mc Laren looked strong in Bahrain and if everything goes fine they will be fighting for the podium all the way. Honda and Button will be worth watching out for, he has been consistent this season so far and I wouldn’t bet against him.

All in all rain will only add a dimension to the calculations on who will win and will add a tint of mystrey as we watch tv… I guess the question of who will become the “Wizard of Oz” will be certain only by sunday evening.

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A couple of questions in the post race press conference clearly showed what the media is thinking… There has been indications of this before but is everyone happy inside the Renault Pits?

These were the questions that raised my curiosity… (full interview available here)

Q: (Juha Päätalo - Financial Times Germany) Fernando, on the podium you were kissing your trophy. Was it for the eight points you gained, after yesterday, or was it the gap you have gained over Räikkönen or Schumacher?
FA: I kiss the trophy normally at all the races when I finish on the podium because for me to finish on the podium means to be consistent in the championship and the key to win it again as last year is that. Yes, this race is more important than the first race to me because the championship points compared to Räikkönen and to Michael, who on paper will be the first two opponents in the championship, is good to have them at the back and to open the gap quite a big chunk here in Malaysia like I did last year in the first races. So I enjoy more these eight points maybe more than last weekend.

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Ferrari seems to be losing the sharpest edge it had towards it’s competetion. It’s strategies.

They are not the fastest on the field, haven’t been either. 3 years ago it was BMW Williams. Before that, McLaren Mercedes, of late BAR Honda and Renault. What they were the best was in their impeccable strategies, their planning and their clockwork like pit work.

But of late, extremely visible in 2005 and now in 2006, in the first two races, their strategies have been consistently been beaten by Renault and McLaren. Are Ros Brawn, Jean Todt slipping? What is happening to Ferrari?

Even their pit work has deteriorated. For the 2nd race in succession, Ferrari made mistakes when there should be none and where there used to be rare. Today, in the Malaysian Grand Prix, after the strategy fiasco due to which Schumi had come in for pit stop number two, they took far too long for a splash and dash stop which was needed for the last 10 laps..

Sigh, Ferrari need to rethink their strategy..

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Giancarlo Fisichella led the Dominant Renault’s 1-2 in the Malaysian Grad Prix. This is the first 1-2 in 24 years for a Renault engine and the first ever for Renault as a constructor. Followed closely by the current world champ Fernando Alonso en route to the start of an impressive title defense. Button followed the Renault’s Home about 5 sec behind Alonso and was trailed by the Mc Laren of Montoya a disappointing 40 sec behind the race winner.

Btw, my predictions came out perfectly… This is the second time in a row I have to 2 of the 3 people on podium right, I’m getting good at this

The dream weekend of Fici continued as he looks to be having the exact opposite of last season(win race 1 and lose out on rest of the season). The race truly belonged to the Renaults as none of their competitors could match them on pace. Alonso set the race’s fastest lap in his engine which had already finished 1 3/4th Grand Prix… Fisi was incredible in his initial onslaught setting 15 consecutive fastest laps(compared to every one on the track). These 15 laps probably won him the race.

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Giancarlo Fisichella put his Renault on pole in the Malaysian Grand Prix with a super quick time of 1:33.840. Button followed closely behind and Rookie Nico Roseberg giving Williams a lot to cheer by quaifying in the top of the second row.

Michael Schumacher recieved a setback before qualification blowing up his engine and costing him 10 grid places. Massa did a double change by blowing one more Ferrari engine in practice(he lost one in Bahrain). Coulthart made it a perfect pattern blowing the 3rd Ferrari engine of the weekend(that too before qualification).

Massa qualified 16 after not setting a time in the second session. Coulthart surprized everyone with a P3 time in session 1 but got knocked out of session 2. He looked to be going fast when the time ran out with 2 corners to go. Schumi out qualified Kimi and Alonso to be placed 4th he will start the GP from 13th(considering Ralf will now change an engine). Ralf blew his engine after setting the fastest session 2 time and could not get a car in time for the 3rd session he will start in 20th. This seems like a bad weekend for Ferrari engines.

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Alonso starts this weekend as the bookies favourite according to this blog entry…

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2006/03/15/bookies-back-alonso-again/

And why not I had the opinion that Renault was the most confident with their performance… so confident that they let their car out with about 2 min 30 sec left on the clock on the first 2 sessions, Giving Alonso and Fici just one shot at qualifying. The results of the sessions speaks for itself Fici did amazingly well and the King of One Shot Qualification Alonso topped with the weekends fastest lap.

None of the other 3 challenging teams ‘dared’ to do that…

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The Malaysian GP 2006 is right around the corner and looks like Ferrari will be caught in trouble again. Massa who had his previous race ruined by a mistake in overtaking and an unfortunate pitstop that took almost 40 sec will have a bit more bad luck… It looks like he will hv to change his engine prior to the Malaysian GP costing him 10 grid places.

Fisichella who on the other hand will also probably change is engine will not recieve such a penalty… Why???

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I think it was a smooth start for the season, looking at the result, its promising to take the championship[both drivers and constructers] down to the wire.

before i start with usual stuff, i would like to make point about the debutants in this season. As far as i have noticed there where four of them[correct me if i’m wrong here]. i have not heard about any of them before so its quite early, to say some thing that is concreate. but just a look of it, is what i want to express here above anything else.
first of all,

Ide-i think super aguri’s where not performing at all, so not sure about him.

Scot speed- the only American,his pace on track doesn’t go with his name. has a lot to learn before he do anything noticeable at this level.

Luizzi- i hope i spelled it correctly, he was quick and drove that car with some pace but is vulnerable, so has to curb aggression, i guess.

and finally Rosberg- what more can i say, than the fact that, he was the quickest man on track[1:32:400 odd ms] and got a couple points on his debut[another driver one would remember earning points on his debut is, his partner Mark Webber]. having said all, that williams car was flying around park.

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The change in qualification this year has already sparked of a controversy… It looks like the qualification rules was not clear enuf(atleast to me) and a deeper look into the rules cleared up a few things.

Firstly what was the meaning of that quote by Michael in the post race press conference

We got pole position yesterday, unfortunately I lost one lap in qualifying where, for traffic reasons I had to back off and I didn’t get the fuel, and if you look at it now, it’s the one lap that I was missing, in a way.

This is the explaniation of what Schumi meant and what we could not before the race read between the lines in the qualification specs:

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F1Jam.com is finally live…. This blog is co-authored by Anant Jain, Chandrahasa and Musavir. The idea behind this particular blog was simple… All 3 of us love F1. Here you can catch us “Jamming” our opinions about races, drivers and teams. The unique thing about our blog is each of us has a different favourite driver(Anant - Michael Schumacher, Haas - Fernando Alonso, MAK - Kimi Raikonnen) and that means only one thing “flame wars” .

Catch us analysing the latest races, gossip from the grid and everything about the fastest sport in the world.

PS: This site has been a while in creation (we got the idea 3 days ago and took us like 6 hrs to get everything from the domain name to the wordpress install up)

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