5/20/2011 0 Comments Diversionary Tactics Every driver has a different routine, a different habit or superstition, ahead of their time on track: some of them admit to it, some of them don't, but if you're given access to the pitlane and you look closely enough, you'll see them go through it, even though many of them are unaware of it. A day like today, with margins so close at a track they know so well, you need to look below the surface to see what's going on. No one wanted to give away anything to anyone. Romain Grosjean always walks into the pitlane with his engineer with that upright, almost-but-not-quite ungainly lope as his companion shuffles to keep up, but they don't talk about much: the session is already planned, so there's no point covering old ground. He strolls on, head high as he looks around, at the enormous grandstand, at the Formula One pits, back at the grandstand, until they arrive at their pitwall. Down at Trident things are happening faster: Stefano Coletti looks up the pitlane, waiting for his car and then, seeing it, head straight across to the spot his mechanics are pointed towards. He lifts his knees fast, violently, one after the other, a quick burst of movement to get himself ready for the session, while teammate Rodolfo Gonzalez, his car rolled to a halt in front of him, kneels down towards it, crossing himself as he stretches up and into the car, a fluid motion with no wasted movement as his mechanics swarm around him. Everyone looks up in this pitlane at some stage: you can't help it because the grandstand is so huge, looming over us like a football stadium. They might all test here regularly, but you can tell why they enjoy driving here, local knowledge notwithstanding: they're on display here, in front of a crowd more obviously than any other circuit. Everyone is waiting, waiting, waiting, keen but relaxed about the session. There's no hurrying, no urgency yet, as it's free practice, not qualy. It's important but not vital, so there's just an eagerness to begin the weekend, get things moving again. But the strategies are starting already: Arden don't go out until the end, a very slow lap for Josef Kral, the team clearly saving tyres ahead of a potential difficult race for tyre wear tomorrow. He's cagey about it afterwards, not wanting to give much away, but shyly acknowledges that they were surprised no one else followed suit, given the data logs for the circuit. In between the sessions it's quiet in the hospitality area, as usual for here: most of the drivers choose to stay in their trucks until lunch, apart from Luca Filippi and Marcus Ericsson watching the F1 session, chatting throughout, and Coletti wandering around in a new t-shirt with “I ♥ St. Stefano” emblazoned across it. Qualifying sees more strategic moves, with all of the grid bar Ocean Racing heading out straight away to take advantage of the F1 rubber on track: Fabio Leimer's problems hold everyone up for a lap, deferring the fast one, but next time by the order shakes out and Jules Bianchi is on top by a tenth. The Ocean guys head out just as their rivals come back in, hoping that the clear track will offset the less than ideal rubber on track, with most of the guys sitting in the pitlane waiting to see what happens next. Stefano is one of the few to go out halfway through the session, running a tenth over what he did earlier, with Dani Clos and Marcus Ericsson improving enough to prompt a few others to come out. When Sam and Giedo come out then Jules has to follow suit, just to cover, but none of them see much point in being there. “I could have gone a bit faster, but the changes we made didn't quite work,” Stefano says when he came back to the pits. The top three all disagree in the press conference, claiming there was nothing more to expect, but they were forced into going out just avoid getting pipped by someone finding something extra on the second set. We've seen F1 qualy strategies change, with Q3 turning into one run and a saved set of tyres: is this the start of a similar move in GP2? It will depend on the circuit, but they're all clearly thinking about new strategies. The press conference is all about baiting the guys to see what they will say: Sam can't help but have a go at psyching out Jules ahead of the race tomorrow (“I'll wave to him from behind, just before the lights go off, and say 'hello Jules' ... last year he had a little bit of the colly wobbles, didn't you mate?”), but is far more cagey about his own strategy (I ask about running race set up in free practice he won't admit it, stating instead “I think the work that we did this morning was important and good, so we'll have to wait and see tomorrow what it turns out to be...”), while Giedo just laughs at Sam's inability to say the word 'analyse' (“I thought you were English!”). And then they go back to their trucks once again, to pour over the data again, to see if there is anything they've missed at this most over-analysed of circuits. And there's nothing left for the rest of us to do but try and piece together the clues from today to apply to the race tomorrow. And there are plenty of clues there, just below the surface of a seemingly quiet day, even if they are doing what they can to hide them from us. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting race in Barcelona, for once.
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This morning announced itself with the sun peeking shyly into the room as I awoke, at last: finally some relief from the cold and rain, and even though it wasn't exactly hot when I stood outside the hotel waiting for Didier to bring the car around, at least I wasn't having to do it in a waterproof jacket. The GP3 teams were certainly happy about it too: they could have a clean, clear qualifying session in the dry, and ended up with almost the entire grid within a second of pole. With the gaps that close I don't really know what you can do differently to improve: I want to say close your eyes for turn eight, but I'm slightly worried that some of them do that anyway... I told Alexa to stay at the hotel and rest, but obviously she wasn't going to listen to any sensible advice: she turned up just after the session finished, hobbling over as a variety of people held the door open for her before coming to rest in Bruno's office, and not moving again until lunch. She really should have caught an early flight home, but I think she worries that all the boys will get up to mischief if she's not here to keep them all in line. To be honest, she's probably right about Trident drivers Stefano Coletti and Rodolfo Gonzales. I sat down with the pair to record the first of the new season's Know Your Teammate features, and they clearly can't help but giving each other grief and then laughing out loud at the other's torment. It should be a great feature though: keep an eye on the blog to find out why Rodolfo is jealous of Stefano's transport, which driver is actually a top line chef in training, and why they can't stop pinching each other. Unless you happen to be a traffic policeman between Monaco and Milan, in which case you should probably give it a miss... Then it was time to get a quick bite before F1 qualy and the first race of the season. Everyone is always a little tense before the first race of the season, and today was no exception: we all want a nice quiet lead in, safe with no problems, to ease us into the season. There will always be dramas later in the year – this is GP2 – so a calm start always gets the tension under control. But the drivers never listen, obviously. Out of the first corner Fabio Leimer went flying over the rear wheel of Max Chilton before going into a barrel roll, breaking both cars and putting them out on the spot: everyone held their breath until the pair got out and waved to the fans, and the safety car rolled around to keep everyone in check while the marshals cleaned the corner furiously to get the race back up and running. In the press release I mistakenly wrote that the Kevin Mirocha and Esteban Gutierrez's coming together bunched the field up into the corner, until the quiet German shyly came over and politely pointed out that he had been at the back, and therefore couldn't have done that: he was absolutely right, I'd been caught out by changing camera angles, and I changed it immediately. It was galling really, because I sat on the Ocean Racing pitwall to watch the race, and afterwards had said to team manager Tom Davis how impressive his race had been: Kevin had to make an unscheduled stop because of the impact but fought back hard, putting himself into a strong position before making his regular stop late in the race, fighting all the way up to P8 before a problem with his tyre forced him into retirement with a lap to go. When he came back to the pits to see the guys his mechanic got down on his knees and started bowing majestically, and the worship was not misplaced: he deserved all that and more, and hopefully he'll have some points as a more appropriate reward for his efforts in Barcelona. But there were battles up and down the field, with Luca Filippi putting in a top drawer drive too: he was pushed wide at the first corner but fought his way back up to P3, and was looking for more until he was denied by a spinning Johnny Cecotto. Of course, this being Luca, he couldn't stop with just that amount of bad luck: a fraction of a second before the impact he struck some debris that had left in the middle of the track too, breaking his front wing, so he was the innocent party of two impacts. Stefano Coletti had a great drive too, holding off the vastly more experienced Luiz Razia for the second half of the race for a strong fifth place, but there were great fights all through the field. After the race a Spanish journalist came down for the press conference and found Alexa hobbling around: he couldn't help but tell her that he watched the race in the McLaren hospitality area where Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were engrossed in the race. Halfway through, in the height of yet another battle, Lewis turned to Jenson and said: “I miss GP2.” He always likes a good scrap, that one. Will Buxton came down fresh from commentating on the race with Karun Chandhok, a grin spread wide across his face: I couldn't help but say “ how about that one, huh? It's like a proper old school GP2 race, from back in the day.” “Totally: this car, these tyres, and it's like we're back with the 05 car...” After the press conference I headed up to the Dams pits to catch Pal Varhaug for a new feature we're calling A Day In The Life: we are planning to talk to different people up and down the paddock, drivers, engineers, everyone, to see what they do on race day. I think it should be an interesting feature for you all, and bring you a little closer to life in GP2: we hope to get it up after the weekend, so there's something else to keep an eye out for. And hopefully you will enjoy it a bit more than Alastair, who had to come over and grab some photos for it: as we were walking out of hospitality a ... well, let's just say sizeable journalist here for the weekend pushed his chair out and then sat down, landing square on Al's foot. The poor guy was clearly in agony, but he managed to limp up the paddock to get the shot before sitting down to check his foot. I certainly felt sorry for him, but looking back now I can't help but wonder if he had been watching Alexa and wanted to get a bit of personal service for himself too. Time will tell, but if he claps his hands tomorrow and demands a coffee, I think we'll have the answer. 5/6/2011 0 Comments Back in the SaddleI'm sorry, I really am trying to write a blog to bring you all up to date with the start of the new season, but it is so cold in the paddock right now that I'm struggling to bend my fingers enough to type. Which is bad enough, but made far, far worse by the fact that Alexa is back in her toasty warm hotel room, ordering room service and probably watching TV while the rest of us shiver uncontrollably at the back of the hospitality area. I should probably go back a bit to explain. Excuse me while I blow on my hands to warm them up enough to continue. For the last few days everyone I knew was completely jealous that I was about to head out to Istanbul: this lasted right up until the moment I checked the weather forecast online and found out that it was going to be cold and wet here, upon which they proceeded to laugh and point out that London was due for mid twenties temperature and lots of sun. I honestly didn't think it would be too bad, even though I had to beg Marco to give me a fleece here a couple of years ago. I never seem to learn. At least it wasn't raining when I arrived yesterday afternoon, but the drive across town in the middle of peak hour (which usually lasts from 4.30 to 23.00) for the long crawl to the launch venue more than made up for it. The taxi driver apologised throughout the trip, but at least I only have to deal with it once a year, rather than as a profession. This year's launch was held at the Billionaire Istanbul, one of a string of venues owned by Flavio Briatore across Europe and located under a very exclusive hotel in Beshiktas, on the European side of the Bosphorous. Walking down to the bottom floor I finally found Alexa, her feet up on a cushion as she almost lay down on the sofa in front of the stage: she waved to me, but made no effort to get up and say hello. To be fair, I should probably point out that she broke her ankle in a car accident a few of weeks ago: someone ploughed into her car as her husband Yvan couldn't get away and avoid the impact, and she's been in pretty much constant pain since then. She finally got out of the regular cast and into a lightweight travel one just before flying here, but it's an awfully long way from ideal. I'm not completely sure which bit has upset her more: the pain, or the fact that she can't chase down a driver to give them a telling off when they need it. Luckily, the club was full of tall attractive Italian girls, who all work there: the drivers were all on their best behaviour as they tried to impress. Well, those who made it were, anyway: Sam Bird didn't even get to the venue, and gave a pretty week excuse for his non-attendance. “I was supposed to follow the bus, but he was driving all over the place, on the hard shoulder and everything!” “You're a racing driver, and you couldn't keep up with a guy in a bus?” “He was mad, though! But I was with him until we got to the toll gate: he went through the bit on the side without paying, I had to scramble around for some money, and he was long gone by the time we got through...” He wasn't alone: Fairuz Fauzy got stuck in traffic too, and arrived just as the show finished: I pointed this out and he just sighed and turned back around, looking to head back out again. Luca Filippi was delighted to be there though: the next morning he noted "I really, really loved the party last night. It's too bad we had to work today, otherwise I would have stayed much longer!" The climate can't have helped with that, either: we arrived in the paddock with rain falling, and little we could do to stop the freezing wind blowing through the hospitality area, which was built for a summer racing series... Everyone had heard about Alexa's injuries though, and went out of their way to make her feel a little better. ART were the first off the block, bringing a large blanket down and draping it over her gently so as to keep her warm (without bringing one for me, obviously), and even Karun Chandhok came down from the F1 paddock after his free practice to say hello. “Where's the patient?” he smirked as he walked across the paddock. “Everyone has heard about the accident: I thought I'd come and see how she's doing.” He sat with her for a while getting up to fetch her a coffee and swapping gossip for a while. Our free practice came and went, the conditions catching out the ART pair at turn nine as everyone worried about their wet weather tyre quota, but at least the rain stopped for qualifying, even if the temperatures struggled to get into double digits. It was about this time that Alexa told me she had to go back to the hotel: she was clearly struggling with the pain, and Marco gave her a lift back as we carried on, and she was soon emailing me with details she needed reports for. Which is why I was trying to find out details of Davide Valsecchi's penalty. I wanted to know why the Italian had stopped on track before rolling back down the hill, and I saw Gavin and Richard from iSport waiting in the queue for dinner. “So I didn't see what happened: did he stall, did he spin, or was it something else?” “I don't know: you'd have to ask AirAsia, he doesn't drive for us anymore.” “Oh, yeah...” At least I got through the press conference without saying the wrong team names... Which led me up to now, typing away furiously and trying to keep my fingers from seizing up. So what do you think, Alexa: is this enough? Can I please come back to the hotel now? I promise to fetch you coffee tomorrow... |