Race Review: Monaco Grand Prix

Tag Heuer grid girls atmosphere. Monaco Street Circuit 26/05/12. ©2012 WRI2. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: www.wri2.net

Beautiful location, Check. Royalties, Check. Challenging street circuit, check. The Monaco Grand Prix is like no other Grand Prix. Drivers who have won here show an extra twinkle in their eyes when they recall their win. The prestige of winning here is priceless.

Much of that, surely, is due to the mental and physical demands of racing at top speeds for 78 laps, where smallest of errors through the narrow streets can bring the race to an abrupt end; another part is that legends are made on this track. Ayrton Senna won 6 times at this track. Schumacher 5 times. All the championship top contenders for this season have won once or twice around this track before.

This year is no different. One particular contender, Mark Webber, often overlooked and over-shadowed by double World Champion teammate, came out a-blazing and took home the Gold medal. Vindication through victory has never been sweeter. It was as if stars were aligned for Webber to win at Monaco.

First, Schumacher lost the all-important pole position after qualifying due to a 5-place grid drop penalty, resulted from running into Bruno Senna in the last race. It must have been bittersweet for Schumacher to come so close to leading the race to fighting all the way, and ultimately out of the race due to car troubles. The luck continued for Webber when Vettel qualified 9th. With a pole position at hand on a track where it's nearly impossible to overtake, raindrops that teased but never came until after the race, Webber sealed the win with a spectacular well-deserved drive. He also won the Best Post-race Five o'clock shadow in my books. Rosberg still won Best Post-race hair though, someone please find out what shampoo he uses!

I didn't see too much of the grid girls on the race coverage, but the few shots I saw left me wondering where is the glamour and classy factor in the outfit. An upside-down triangle cutout near the bosoms in a white top over black shorts? I didn’t know what to expect but I certainly expected more from Monaco! Well, hopefully the grid girls outfit will improve in the Canadian Grand Prix on weekend of 6/8!

Red Bull Emerges From Bahrain

// Race Recap

Amidst the complexities surrounding Sunday's race in Bahrain, Red Bull finally took their first win of the season and re-entered the push for the 2012 championship.  Sebastian Vettel took both pole position and the win in Sunday's race with his teamate Mark Webber finishing fourth position for the fourth time in a row (a record of sorts).

A good qualifying session on Saturday began a great weekend for the Red Bull team, starting first and third in the race and setup for a decisive win.  Sebastian had a good start from the grid and maintained his first position, while both Ferrari's jumped quickly into the top ten after a poor qualifying session from both drivers.

Lotus Renault GP's Roman Grosjean also made up some ground quickly, with a superb start for the newcomer, Grosjean jumped from sixth to fourth in the first turn and then finally into second position after passing Webber and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.

Battling for position to gain world championship points got interesting very early on as Kimi Raikonnen in the Lotus Renault fought with previous race winner Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso before moving into third position.  With nearly half the race complete, Kimi was just behind his teamate Grosjean, chasing Vettel's Red Bull and setting a very quick pace. Raikonnen passed Grosjean on lap 24 of 57 but despite the rumors, there were no "team orders" which forced Grosjean to step aside, Raikonnen's pace was solid and gaining on the leader quickly.

With Rosberg pushing hard to regain last weekend's pace and catch up the the top three, he battled closely with Hamilton, pushing him off track and into the run-off area with a wheel to wheel skirmish which almost cost Hamilton the race.  Action regarding the incident was to be taken following the race, but the FIA Stewards (regulation enforcers) took no action.  Speculation about their abrupt departure from enforcing the incident was cited as a need to leave the track before sundown to avoid entanglement with potentially threatening protests.

Shortly after his close call with Hamilton, Nico repeated the defensive maneuver while also battling with Fernando Alonso; again, no punishment was assigned to Nico for doing so in this situation.

As the counter moved to lap 36, Raikonnen gained on Vettel and was just half a second behind the Red Bull car.  Kimi set himself up to make the move on Vettel on the main straight with both DRS and KERS giving him the speed to do so.  As he made his move to pass on the inside leading up to turn one, Vettel defended with a strong maneuver, keeping Kimi behind for the duration of the race.

The final podium was Vettel, Raikonnen, and Grosjean; all Renault powered cars and the first podium for the Lotus Renault team with returning champion Kimi Raikonnen in 2nd and newcomer, Roman Grosjean in 3rd.

// Mugello Testing

Following Sunday's race, the teams head to Mugello, Italy for a three day test session before the Spanish GP on May 13th.  We'll be following the testing to see how the technical improvements will influence the remainder of the season.

Race Review: Chinese Grand Prix

Perfect Hair from Winner Nico Rosberg - from "The Essence of Racing" on tumblrHoly silver arrows, Batman! The Chinese Grand Prix was A-MAZ-ING! The takeovers, the tyres performance that kept everyone guessing, the pit stops, the takeovers!! And may I also mention, in addition to taking home the top medal, Rosberg wins "Best Post-Grand Prix Champion Hair" in my books.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. The race started out with Mercedes in P1 and P2, no doubt the Mercedes team and Ross Braun were cautiously optimistic. I was also looking forward to see how fast Vettel can climb back from an abysmal  grid position. Usually I root for a driver or two based on qualifying results, but it’s been increasingly difficult to just root for one or two drivers, everyone is getting more competitive and tyres strategy can make the world of difference between qualifying pole position and race day results.

My first big “oooooohhhhhh!!!” moment of the race came in Lap 11. Raikkonen duked it out and lost a spot to Webber and then lost another spot to Hamilton. I imagine Ice Man saying obscene things in Finnish in his car with the coolest of emotions.  Those passes unfortunately would foreshadow the fall  to 14th place in the last ten laps for Kimi. Better luck next time, Kimi! The Lotus-Renault team should really sort out Kimi’s tyres strategy for next race.

The last 10 laps of the race had me glued to the screen! So many takeovers, so many wheel to wheel actions, not to mention almost everyone could take advantage of DRS zone because the drivers were very close to each other.

All in all, a superb race! I can’t wait until Bahrain this weekend!

Barcelona Testing: Day 3

//The following is a featured article from guest contributor Jamey Price, Jamey Price Photography, an American sports photojournalist on his first Formula 1 project.  You can read more about Jamey and his passion for his work in our feature: Intro to an American F1 Photojournalist - Jamey Price.

February 23, 2012

Another day of testing gone and we've learned a lot about the cars. The Red Bull, as expected is strong. But I'm not telling you that looking at timing sheets. In fact, out on track, all I have is my eyes. I have no connection to the outside world whatsoever. Not that I could hear anything even if I did.

I'm telling you the Red Bull is fast and that Adrian Newey has designed another stunning machine by watching it. I've walked this track 10 times over and I've seen it go through all of the corners and in every single one, it is planted. Rock solid. Steady. Fast. It just looks fast.

Ferrari on the other hand are not. And again, not looking at timing sheets or listening to what Alonso and Massa are saying in interviews. I know it's going to be a long first few races for the Scuderia because the car is unruly. It is out of balance and looks more interested in trying to kill the driver than win him races.

But as everyone at tests say, who really knows? I certainly don't. But thats the beauty of winter testing. You can play your mega hand close to your chest and tell no one how strong you are if you really wanted to.

It's been a fascinating experience being in the pit lane and on track and I look forward to sharing the final days images with you tomorrow.

Barcelona Testing: Day 2

//The following is a featured article from guest contributor Jamey Price, Jamey Price Photography, an American sports photojournalist on his first Formula 1 project.  You can read more about Jamey and his passion for his work in our feature: Intro to an American F1 Photojournalist - Jamey Price.

Feb 22, 2012

There's nothing like the sound and smell of formula one engines in the morning. It's such a distinct smell and absolutely a distinct smell. Hear it once and you'll never forget.

After getting my kit set up in the press room, I headed to the roof of the media centre, which runs the entire length of the pits and over looks the front stretch. With a few minutes left on the clock before the first of two sessions started, I took some time to look around and survey the countryside from the roof top vantage. Rolling Spanish hills surround the circuit. It is a gorgeous place to spend a day, much less four. I'm incredibly lucky to be where I am.

For the first sessions, I chased the light around the track looking for the best spots to shoot from. Eventually walking most of the corners on the outside access road. It's a haul and a grueling few hours on your feet carrying that much gear. Some of my morning was spent shooting turns 1, 2 and 3. Though not knowing most of the lap times, it is evident by the way the car looks sounds and feels to the naked eye who is fast and who is not. Red Bull is blindingly quick. As is McLaren. Ferrari looks to have a strong car, but a difficult one to handle. Alonso was struggling with it through most of the first sector.

My day wrapped up covering the last sector. The light is gorgeous at that time of day and I had to take advantage of it with most of the drivers being replaced by their teammates tomorrow.

I'm still in heaven being here and covering this test. I've worked for so hard and for so long that it's been a dream come true in so many ways....and I have two more days to cover!"

Taking It To The Airwaves

Last week we had the pleasure of joining Alex Franco, a.k.a Digitz from the Mix 94.7 JB & Sandy morning show, to talk about Formula 1 and Austin on "3 Guys Sports Show."

// Listen to the show here

The 3 Guys Sports Show airs at 10:00AM Sunday mornings on Austin's 96.3 FM & 1370 AM. Our UK friend Liam gave us the heads up that fellow overseas listeners could tune in via KJCE 1370 on the TuneIn Radio app (Cheers!). The show is hosted by Alex, Brandon Wark (Iowa Hawkeye Superfan) & Chris Sanchez (Pride of Westwood High) and their goal is to recap the week in sports with the heart, passion and views of the everyday sports fan and share them on their show.

We met Alex back in August 2011 at the Austin Infiniti dealership (he's their Radio Spokesperson) when the Red Bull Racing demo car arrived in Austin. While a decent-sized group waited at the dealership, curious Austinites tweeted reports of the 2005 RB1 chassis (with the Cosworth V10 and the 2009 aero package) travelling down Austin's main highway - MoPac - and shocking many Austinites! Since then, we've run into Alex on the F1 social scene as he is another Austinite excited and informed about F1's arrival this November.

Alex had a very cool Red Bull Racing jacket (see pic below). He shared an insider tip that we think is genius: he ordered F1 merchandise from Red Bull Racing via Milton Keynes but his order took almost a month to arrive. He gave up and decided to check out the Infiniti USA website, which is where he ended up ordering his RBR jacket from; it arrived much quicker, cheaper and in better condition by ordering via Infiniti USA. Here's the Infiniti page for ordering official Red Bull Racing merchandise.

Be sure to check out the 3 Guys Sports Show via their website, Facebook page or follow them on Twitter! 

Alex Franco, aka "Digitz," sporting his Red Bull Racing jacket after recording with Kerri and Kevin for 3 Guys Sports Show on Talk Radio 1370