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| Well this is it! |
Time for
the drivers to drop their trousers and show us what they’ve got (in a manner of
speaking). After weeks of smoke and mirrors, we are about to find out how the
grid will line up for the very first race of the season.
Double shot Americano at
the ready (it won’t be the last). I am going in.
Straight into a montage
with lots of glorious old footage (it gets me every time) the essence of which
is F1 used to be about inspiring and innovation and pioneers until it
sacrificed excitement on the altar of speed. And it all became a procession
(I’m sure we had processions back in the 80s but anyway). But now A New
Era has dawned and F1 is saved (let's check the lie of the land at Silverstone shall we?)
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| The stage is set (with slightly less blue sky in reality) |
There are some changes to
the rules for qualifying. The sessions are now Q1 - 18 mins, Q2 - 15 mins and
Q3 - 12 mins. Cars going out in Q3 have to start on the tyres they finished on
in Q2. So cars will probably use the soft ‘faster’ tyre in Q2 if they think
they’ll be in the top ten shoot-out. But if its doubtful that drivers would
make the cut for Q3 why would they bother wasting a set of soft tyres when they
would get a set of new options for the race.
This year we have 19
races but new in are Austria (yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss – I used to absolutely adore the Austrian GP!) and Russia (that won’t be oligarch central much – Lenin
will be spinning in his Bolshevik grave) in place of India and Korea. Thank the
Lord those two races have been binned. They were the F1 equivalent of a brain-eating
ameoba. The final race of the season in Abu Dhabi will be worth DOUBLE points. This
could be a stroke of genius or spectacularly implode. On the face of it, I think it could actually work.*
*Edit: heavy sarcasm
*Edit: heavy sarcasm
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| The old A1 Ring, now known as the Red Bull Ring (still its a welcome return!) |
Ah it’s Ted’s ‘F1 Aerodynamics Explained’ section. I
would look over to the husband but he is
not even up yet. At 8am. The decadence of it all. Nice life if you can get it <gritted
teeth emoticon at being up since 6am face>
We have a beachside
interview with Simon Lazenby and Lewis Hamilton – the most interesting part
being when Simon asked Lewis about the ‘wifey’ comment he made about Nicole ‘LOOK AT ME’ Scherzinger recently.
Apparently wifey is a ‘young’ term. Really Lewis? Really? It is hard to cut it
in the 'cool as' world of Lewis where anyone over 35 is probably seen as geriatric!
I’m with Team Simon on this one. Yes how things change!
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| Pat Symonds now at Williams |
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| ...and a much younger Pat Symonds with Ross Brawn in their Benetton days! |
Pat Symonds is back at
Williams as Chief Technical Officer – and what a brilliant brilliant signing that
is for them. Super experienced and a real heavyweight of F1. He makes a great
interviewee as well – talks about things clearly and simply which is unusual
sometimes in F1. Am so hopeful and excited for Williams this season. Also did I
mention their cars are sporting a tribute to Ayrton Senna this year on the side
of their nose which is a lovely gesture. Its 20 years this season since he was
tragically killed at Imola. How can it really be 20 years already!?
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| Ayrton Senna Sempre |
Another beachside
interview and this time Natalie is chatting to Jenson Button and oh poor
Jenson, he still seems so cut up about this Dad. Understandably of course and
how hard it must be for him to be back at a Grand Prix venue without his Dad
alongside him. I would dearly LOVE him to have a blinding race tomorrow!
It’s (finally!) time for
qualifying at the 2014 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. And excitingly
there is talk of cross-winds and tail-winds and that looks like an angry sky up
there <Ticks off Weather Monitor of Doom on the F1 Bingo>
Q1 – The husband (who has finally made an appearance!) has
commented on the different engine tone. Yes (I said) its like a raspy roar
(totally stealing Johnny Herbert’s earlier line but he doesn’t know that is a
stolen line because he was ASLEEP). I have just spotted Ron Dennis looking
scarily happy (which I think might be scarier than his cross face) in the
McLaren garage. This would be the same Ron Dennis who won’t be going to races
this season and will take a very backseat role. Ron, no one was fooled! But it
is of course brilliant to see him back where he belongs.
And with 7 minutes to go
it has started to rain. Poor bloody Lotus – their car is a total dog, they have
done sweet F.A. testing and now the weather gods are conspiring against them.
Maldonado is checking out different gravel run-off areas and his team-mate’s
response at being told to speed up is “I cannot”. It is now tippling down with
3 minutes to go so presumably that’s Q1 abruptly terminated.
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| Maldonado battling the elements but mainly the car during qualifying earlier today |
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| Last year's Australian GP winner. A lot has changed in 12 months. |
The Sky team are
currently taking shelter from the torrential rain in the Pirelli tent (actually
its quite a posh tent with Mac computers and a fruit basket). Note to self –
never ever book a holiday to Australia in March. Unless of course its to see
the Australian Grand Prix when I’ll happily get rained on! And there are men
with brooms on the track – we are already ticking off a lot of things on F1
Bingo.
Q2 – Currently now underway but am most obsessing about ‘KVY’
who is in 15th. Who ARE you? Clearly I should have done a bit more
pre-season blog prep. Okay a lot more! So with 5 minutes of Q2 to go, here is
the current top half running order:
Hamilton
Ricciardo
Hulkenberg
Rosberg
Alonso
Bottas
Kimi
Button
But apparently it now
going to get serious (because it wasn’t already?) as all the cars frantically
change tyres. Well Johnny (or Damon or Martin) was right – Q2 is way more exciting than last year. Vettel is currently in the dropzone along with Kimi. And in the final
minute, Kimi climbs into the top 10 as well as Hulk and…OMG…Kimi has
spectacularly CRASHED his Ferrari into the wall.
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| Taxi for Kimi |
Vettel is driving like a
mad man out on track (as well he might currently languishing in 15th
place). Magnussen goes 5th fastest but everyone’s eyes are on Vettel…he
can only finish in 13th place after a very wild lap (in tough
conditions to be fair) and you can hear the huge cheers from the locals. Which
of course means that home favourite Ricciardo (and who doesn’t love Daniel
Ricciardo – he is a bit like a big teddy bear!) has out-qualified his
illustrious team-mate in his first race! And International Man of Mystery ‘KVY’
has squeaked into 10th place knocking Button down into the drop
zone.
So dumped out of Q2 are: 11.
Button, 12. Kimi, 13. Vettel, 14. Sutil, 15. Kobayashi, 16. Perez
Q3 – Well here we go. The Moment of Truth. Its still raining
and all the cars are on wets except for Alonso (I think that’s the wrong call
though Martin Brundle thinks inters could be ok and he’s the expert).
Incredibly there are two Toro Rosso’s in the top ten. It really is an amazing
start to F1 by Kvyat (or ‘Fiat’ as Crofty calls him). Five minutes to go and
it’s a projected Mercedes 1-2 with Ricciardo in 3rd.
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| The man behind the KVY moniker |
And a random gravel
diversion for Rosberg which destroys his lap. The cars are twitching and
twisting wildly all over the track even on straight line sections. Massa comes
perilously close to hitting a concrete wall. The Williams cars are currently in
8th and 10th spot which is not where they would have
wanted or hoped to be. Hamilton grabs provisional pole as Alonso only crosses
the line in 5th. Then Nico Rosberg grabs pole back. Meanwhile more yellow
flags as Kvyat crashes off. And deafening cheers as Ricciardo takes provisional
pole (to deafening roars all round the track) but, at the death, party-pooper
Lewis Hamilton RE-TAKES POLE. Absolutely sensational edge of seat stuff.
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| This is the man who put Red Bull on the front row of the grid tomorrow - ha! |
So the top ten on the grid tomorrow will look like this:
1.
Hamilton
2.
Ricciardo
3.
Rosberg
4.
Magnussen (hugely impressive debut)
5.
Alonso
6.
Vergne
7.
Hulkenberg
8.
Kvyat (another great debut)
9.
Massa
10. Button (as Bottas has a 5
place grid penalty for new gear box)
You know what, I think
I’m going to like the 2014 season.
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