The Haphazard Blog

I’ve watched the first three F1 races this season and there has been a good mix to this point.

The first race had three new teams (six cars) and some rules changes. They took out KERS (I wish they would’ve kept it as an option) and banned race refueling. I like the safety implications of banning race refueling. I’d complain that it makes all the cars have the same weight throughout the whole race, but I don’t think it really mattered since they went back to a single tire manufacturer. So the race felt somewhat like a parade. It was relatively boring at the front of the field. Most changes in position occurred via pit stop timing or attrition.

The second race was a rain affair. Rain always makes a race interesting. Somehow, the tool Jenson Button managed to win the race with pit strategy. Sebastian Vettel once again was leading the race before he had another problem. That is two races for him. That is the kind of problem that could cost a driver a championship.

Today’s race was the best of them all so far. Two of the top teams (McLaren and Ferrari) royally screwed up qualifying. They started near the back and had to get their way to the front. The driver I’m supporting this year (I seem to pick a team and/or driver to get behind a couple races into the season), Lewis Hamilton, was able to get through the field. He was able to pass guys that no one else could in the beginning of the race. I think this also displayed a huge flaw in the cars. We would see guys like Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso gaining up to two seconds a lap on the guy in front of them, but as soon as they caught them, they were unable to get past them. I feel like they should be able to get by with that kind of advantage. They still have work to do with the aerodynamics and get even more mechanical grip. My other (minor) complaint is that they warned Lewis Hamilton for excessive weaving. There’s no question he was weaving side-to-side, but he was the lead car. The FIA consistently lets people block by weaving with no warning. Hamilton wasn’t making the move in reaction to another car, so I don’t get the complaint.

In the end, Vettel finally got the win that alluded him in the first 2 races. I want to see a race where the fast guys qualify as expected and the race is dry to see if the first race was an aberration, or if that was a preview of what the majority races will bring in 2010. Also, I’m surprised we are 3 races in and there haven’t been any technical controversies.