race reviews

#F1 Race Review: 2016 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55 Ambient 17° Track 18° Humidity 91% Wind 2.1 m/s Prelude Rain Rain don’t go away…… IT’S WET!!!! Not the utterly catastrophic mess of yesterday’s Nurburgring 24h but looking SC start as the minutes to the start ticked off. Bit of a shame for Danny Ric’s clever tyre stratagem, but … Read more

#F1 Race Review: 2016 FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPANA PIRELLI

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55 Ambient 22° Track 39° Humidity 48% Wind 1.9 m/s Prelude Brilliant weather for the Spanish Grand Prix as the sun glittered in the Catalonian sky and the wind gusted the occasional cloud about the horizon. Another meeting of the big chiefs as luminaries including Dr Zetsche and Marchionne … Read more

#F1 Race Review: 2016 FORMULA 1 RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55 Ambient 16° Track 40° Humidity 73% Wind 3.2 m/s Prelude Brilliant blue sky, scintillating with sunshine offset by large puff balls of clouds on the horizon set the stage for this year’s Russian Grand Prix. In addition to Lewis’ reliability woes and I quote here from my last … Read more

#F1 Race Review: 2016 FORMULA 1 PIRELLI CHINESE GRAND PRIX

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55 Ambient 21° Track 45° Humidity 36% Wind 6.1 m/s Prelude Apparently a gearbox wasn’t enough for Lewis as it was a brand new Power Unit that was required to solve his woes. Add Rosberg’s ignition issues and almost dead brakes in Bahrain and perhaps it’s time to wonder … Read more

#F1 Race Review: 2016 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55 Ambient 22° Track 29° Humidity 37% Wind 3.1 m/s Prelude Alonso v Herbert and Take Two for the Quali revamp dominated the pre race circus. As twilight descended on the desert, the eyes of the media shifted to the start and whether or not Mercedes’ clutch would once … Read more

Rate the Race Poll result: Bahrain GP 2015

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The TJ13 readers were relatively uninspired by the 2015 Bahrain GP, as the race scores its lowest reader rating since we began running polls. Not even a late charge from Kimi and a comfortable win for Lewis could get the 2015 Bahrain GP race score above a 7. 2013 – TJ13 reader score – 7.58 … Read more

#F1 Race Review: Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55   With the predicted rain having gone on holiday, the viciously high track temperature and generally brutal sun were surely increasing Pirelli’s pucker factor as the race start loomed. Mercedes management, too, no doubt were suffering an odd moment of fear or two as visions of the start … Read more

Interlagos: Race review

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Predictable unpredictability

I have no intention of producing a detailed lap by lap, stop by stop report – the BBC and others have the resources to do that better than I do. Yet what has happened to F1 in the past few years? 6 of the last 8 WDC’s have been decided on the last race of the season.

This is the antithesis of what preceded when I almost stopped watching the sport after the borefest of Ferrari dominance from 1999-2005. Madmax Moseley changed something, and it was definitely for the better. My guess it was the beginning of engine restrictions in 2005 and then everything flowed from there.

@F1photographer was mocking those of us who have spent all week checking out weather forecast reports – because 1 hour before the race it was sunny. Having searched for and studied websites I didn’t know existed like some saddo trying to glean 3-4 day forecasts for the weekend, I didn’t take kindly to the picture man’s sneers. For example, The Brazilian ‘National Institute for space research’ is a most interesting proposition and a great read for those who suffer the ignominy of insomnia.

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Korea GP review: Alonso and Kobayashi know the game is up. More poor marshalling ruins the race

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The rather limp wristed waft of the chequered flag by Psy, of “Gangnam Style” fame, probably encapsulated the event that was the 2012 Korean GP.

The headlines are, Vettel takes the lead in driver’s WDC from Alonso for the first time since Valencia, and Red Bull extend their lead in the constructors’ table, with Ferrari significantly overtaking McLaren for 2nd place.

Marshalling ruins another race

As I suggested following Singapore, the marshalling of the event had a significant impact today and  robbed us of what could have been a very exciting race. How it took until lap 10 to move Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes is beyond me, particularly when considering where it was. Races with high tyre wear are often fascinating in strategy and can produce exciting finishes. By lap 2 when the DRS was available, the cars were still tightly bunched any number of drivers may have been able to have a go at Vettel and a number of position interchanges would have occurred.

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Japan GP review: Kimui enjoys more pressure, Massa’s 1st podium for 36 races, Grosjean hounded again

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We’re pretty fortunate in the UK in the amount of TV coverage we now have. Many UK fans were distraught last year when it was announced that the BBC would not be getting more than 10 races live and that SKY TV (subscription) would be covering all the races.

Of course having to pay a few hundred pounds a year to watch F1 for some is too much, but if we just look at coverage SKY F1 now provides, it is of the highest quality.

Of course most countries get the official podium interviews and some of the press pen interviews the drivers are compelled to provide. Yet where we are fortunate is we get many post race unofficial interviews with the various SKY (and BBC when they’re live) presenters from team principles, race engineers, drivers and many others.

In these informal chats away from the pack of photographers and mass microphones, the F1 players are often emotional, positive or negative, and can be very, very revealing

The main reason for me saying all of this is that when I’m fortunate to be at a race, I get to spend several hours after the chequered flag has fallen pouring through the race and post race footage.

So for those of you without SKY here’s some stuff I picked up.

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