Alonso gives Red Bull pause for thought

The 2011 Formula 1 season is not yet a quarter done but it is already difficult to see past Sebastian Vettel ending a second consecutive season as the world champion.

A third victory in four races has given the Red Bull driver a 34-point lead in the standings and the man in second place, Lewis Hamilton, could finish only fourth in Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.

There is no doubt that the German is now in total control of this season. The word "domination" is being bandied around and it is easy to see why but, in each of the four races so far, the performance gap between Vettel and his pursuers has not been as great as the stark results suggest.

Just as in his wins in Australia and Malaysia, Vettel's afternoon at Istanbul Park was made easier by delays suffered by his rivals.

This time, Nico Rosberg, who started third on the grid behind Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber, was the man responsible for allowing his fellow German to make a break. That ensured he could ease into cruise control as early as lap five, when Webber was finally able to pass the fast-starting Mercedes.

The key to all of Vettel's victories has been his searing pace in qualifying. Turkey was his fourth pole position in a row this season - his seventh in the last eight races if you count the end of last year - and it was one of his most impressive so far.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.


Vettel had no dry running on Friday following a hefty crash caused by pushing too hard on intermediate tyres at Turn Eight in the wet conditions on Friday morning. Yet the following day he put his car on pole by nearly half a second from Webber.

Even in the wild and whacky races of 2011, pole position is proving a vital weapon for Vettel. It is allowing him to steer clear of the craziness behind him, and allowing him to run at his own pace, putting him in control of races from very early on.

Would Webber or Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who finished second and third, have been able to challenge him on Sunday had it not been for Rosberg? Neither man sounded very confident of that after the race.

Webber said it would have been "difficult to beat Sebastian today", while Alonso - the race's big surprise - described Vettel as a "99% favourite".

However, Alonso added that "this 1% (is what) we had lost in the first five laps with Nico because more or less the seven seconds distance to Sebastian was consistent all through the race. Without those five seconds, maybe we could have raced in the pit stop and forced something".

And that's the point. Vettel, as he said himself, is not unbeatable. But his life is being made easier by the frenetic battle behind him, which he is surveying from above for now.

Heading into the Turkey race, few would have predicted that it would be Alonso taking the fight to the Red Bulls - and certainly not the man himself.

The Spaniard arrived in Istanbul talking about Ferrari having taken a "small step". But new front and rear wings and brake ducts added up to a lot more than that.

Alonso has qualified fifth for all four races so far this season, but he and Ferrari reduced their deficit to Vettel from 1.4secs in China three weeks ago to 0.8secs in Turkey. And in the race he went toe-to-toe with Webber and very nearly came out on top.

Alonso drove a superb race, taking advantage of Hamilton's lap one error to slip into fourth place, following Webber past Rosberg and then slugging it out with the Red Bulls for the rest of the afternoon.

He was, then, the deserved winner of our new BBC F1 driver of the day vote, in which he took 18.5% of the support, just ahead of Vettel (17.9%) and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who fought from the back of the grid to 10th place (17.2%).

It was a remarkable turnaround by Ferrari and there is more to come from them after some soul-searching and intense analysis at Maranello following their disappointing start to the season.

It immediately revived memories of last year. Leaving the British Grand Prix last July, nearly two clear wins off the championship lead on points, Alonso famously declared that he was more confident than ever that he could win the championship. And had it not been for some bungled Ferrari strategy in the final race of the season, he would have done.

Alonso might be 52 points - more than two wins - behind Vettel right now, but he has 15 races, or possibly 16 depending on what happens to Bahrain, to recover it and it would be a fool who wrote off now such a formidable fighter. After last year's experience, Red Bull certainly won't be making that mistake.

"Ferrari," said team principal Christian Horner, "they're back. They pushed us very hard today with Fernando."

Alonso felt confident enough after his third place in Turkey to talk about winning races. For now, though, the only person to do so this year apart from Vettel is Hamilton, for whose McLaren team Sunday was a chastening experience after their driver's breathtaking win in China.

That error on the first lap, running wide at Turn Four challenging Webber, put him on the back foot and a fumbled pit stop, caused by a sticking wheel nut, dropped him down still further. In typical style, Hamilton stuck with the task and he fought back to finish fourth.

Jenson Button was sixth after he and the team erroneously chose a three-stop strategy when four was the way to go.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh rightly described it as a "fairly average day at the office" but Hamilton talked about battling for second without his problems, and there is no reason to suppose McLaren have lost the ability they have showed in the first three races to keep pace with Red Bull.

The next phase of the season, then, promises to be fascinating, with Mercedes, too, in the mix - even if Rosberg's race pace did not match his superb qualifying performance.

For his team-mate, though, the future looks less bright. Sunday was another difficult day in Michael Schumacher's ill-starred comeback.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.


Trounced by Rosberg in qualifying, when he was - just like for much of last year - guilty of over-driving, Schumacher had another poor race, wrecking any hopes of a recovery by completely misjudging his defence against Renault's Vitaly Petrov in the early laps and ripping off his own front wing.

"I don't know why he doesn't know when to give up," David Coulthard said in the commentary. "On the track or in his career?" replied Martin Brundle, sharp as ever.

BBC pundit Eddie Jordan's post-race analogy with an aging and punch-drunk Muhammad Ali when he fought Larry Holmes in 1980 was perhaps a touch harsh, but you could see where he was coming from.

Fascinatingly, Schumacher's mask slipped a little for the first time since making his comeback. He had always insisted that he was enjoying himself, and that the pace and touch would come back. On Sunday, though, he admitted "the big joy is not there right now".

I've known Schumacher for a long time, and he looked and sounded like a man beginning, as Coulthard put it, "to ask himself some questions".

Perhaps it was the immediate post-race emotion talking, perhaps not. But, not for the first time, many in F1 will be asking whether his second career will last the three years for which he signed up.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/05/the_2011_formula_1_season.html

Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder

New season providing memories to savour

I'm sitting on the plane that is bringing me home from the opening trio of races, and I'm reminiscing.

I'm not daydreaming about the first time we heard the engines roar for 2011 in Albert Park, Sebastian Vettel's dominant start to the season, Vitaly Petrov flying or Lewis Hamilton's slow, steady reeling-in of Vettel this weekend.

Nope, I've gone a little further back: I'm re-living 1995. Trawling through the plane's CD library I've stumbled upon the breakthrough album Different Class by Pulp. It reminds me of my mum's pistachio green VW Polo, studying for my A-levels, David Coulthard's first Formula 1 win and me, at 17, thinking the world started and stopped at the Norfolk county border!

However, one thing slightly tainting the fun of air-drumming to Common People is that I've just realised Vettel would have been seven years old at that time. Ouch!

OK, I'm going to park memories of my oversized The Sweater Shop jumper - which was a must-have item for a lanky lad in Norwich in the mid-90s - and cast my mind back to the more recent memory of two races that have set the benchmark for the 2011 season.

Lewis Hamilton celebrates victory at the Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton celebrates victory at the Chinese Grand Prix. Photo: Getty Images

To be totally honest, I think that, while we all enjoyed the opening round in Australia, it disguised just how frenetic this year is likely to be. I was chatting to some guys in the paddock on Sunday who were speculating that if that race was run again tomorrow, Pirelli would bring the even more marginal Supersoft tyre to Australia.

I think that is an indication of the success of having these new tyres. As DC said at the end of the commentary on Sunday: "Thank you Pirelli".

While I agree with that sentiment, I think we should be thanking F1. I've been sharing this flight with the likes of Ross Brawn of Mercedes, Williams designer Sam Michael and Paul Di Resta, who has been mightily impressive for Force India. Those three guys, and the rest of the designers, technicians, drivers and team principles up and down the pit lane, want cars that are fast in every circumstance.

The drivers ask for consistency and reliability, while the manufacturers want something that is so quick it helps shift their road cars. However, they have agreed to totally compromise their work for the sake of you guys sitting at home.

To improve the show. Vettel didn't want a car that simply "dropped off a cliff" as its tyres were worn at the end of Sunday's race. The strategists aren't keen on the pit wall resembling Air Traffic Control as they desperately try to outwit their opponents and make themselves look clever, and team bosses don't want to have to defend strategic mistakes after every race.

Look back to 12 months ago in Bahrain. Hardly an overtake, and most cars stopping once. This year the sport is totally unrecognisable, and it makes for compelling TV.

I don't envy the boys having to call such frenetic racing in the commentary box but I think they're doing well. Particularly DC, whose experience, knowledge, eagle-eyes and quick wit have surprised even me.

As for Martin Brundle, he's welcome to have his grid walk back! Logistically, it was impossible for him to do it in China so I bravely took on the challenge. But I have enough to think about doing 60 minutes of live TV pre-race, with stories developing around me, and I really didn't like having to doorstep the drivers. It felt a bit like walking into your office and shoving a microphone under your nose as you sit at your desk.

Martin has done more than 200 of them whereas Sunday was, believe it or not, the first time I've been on the grid pre-race. I'm just happy to have survived interviewing a seven-time world champion despite DC totally abandoning me!

After I'd finished that, it was time for the racing. Almost 60 stops in Malaysia, a further 55 in China. And amongst it all a chance to look like a real hero. McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh told me on the pit wall after the race that his team had actually got their strategy wrong and wanted to do only two stops.

Yet, while Vettel demonstrated that, even with his skills it was impossible to make such a tactic work, Hamilton and Mark Webber made a stop more and it paid dividends. In fact, the success of the tyres has totally overshadowed the introduction of DRS (Drag Reduction System) and re-introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System).

It is clear the FIA is still fiddling with the DRS rear wing to encourage overtaking. I don't find it artificial as it still takes skill to make a move stick. What I think we need to avoid is drivers overtaking in only one place, following their rival and not making a move until they can use their DRS advantage. We may also see two zones in Turkey.

You couldn't accuse Lewis of lacking ambition when overtaking though, could you? I was watching the race unfold in the McLaren hospitality area and while everyone was leaping around, hands on heads, almost unable to believe what was happening, the messages coming in thick and fast on Twitter were almost identical.

A good example of the power of Twitter was someone tweeting me a photo of Fernando Alonso's DRS operating outside the prescribed zone. I told the producer what I'd seen and the guys in VT called up the same clip and played it to the nation while Martin and David commented on it.

Anyway, the Pulp album has now rolled around to Monday Morning so I'm going to return to the 90s and leave you guys to a lovely shortened working week. We've stacks of stuff planned for a few weeks' time when we get to Turkey.

Thanks for setting your alarms in your droves the past month - it's good to know that plenty of you were watching as we marched around the pit lane and paddock. Below are my five favourite moments of the season so far - here's hoping for plenty more until 27 November!

1. Lewis's interview in the garage after his first win of the season. He was as open, honest and relaxed as I've ever seen him. I was blown away by the clarity of thought that he described as he closed in on Sebastian.

2. Petrov''s podium. What a car Renault have produced this year, and how cool was Vitaly in Australia? The first ever Russian podium in F1 and a great reward for the team's faith in him.

3. Eddie Jordan totally forgetting his question to Jenson Button on the F1 Forum in Malaysia. Thankfully DC stepped in as JB and I were both corpsing at that moment. Classic EJ and I missed him in China.

4. The RB7. Adrian Newey is an enigmatic individual who seems to have a God-given ability to design the most incredible racing cars - Williams, McLaren, Red Bull. They must all be so grateful they could afford him.

5. The racing. Paul Di Resta beating his classy team-mate Adrian Sutil, Felipe Massa beating Fernando Alonso, Vettel's dominance, Webber's doggedness, Team Lotus mixing it with the midfield and Kamui Kobayashi's racing instinct. Bodes well for the next seven months, eh?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2011/04/new_season_providing_memories.html

John Cordts David Coulthard Piers Courage Chris Craft Jim Crawford

Power play over new F1 rules

A major revolution in Formula 1 engine and car design scheduled for the 2013 season is under threat.

The plan is to replace the current 2.4-litre V8 engines with 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbos fitted with extensive environmental technology and for the cars to be made more efficient.

The idea is to help popularise sustainable technologies, which are already being used in road cars, and therefore to insulate F1 from any accusations that it is profligate with resources. As a result, it is hoped F1 will become more attractive to other car companies.

Except that the changes, which we have discussed extensively on this blog over the last year or so, might not happen - at least not in two years' time.

They are already formally part of the regulations for 2013. But F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone has recently given voice to a view within the sport that the changes should either be postponed or abandoned. And he has a powerful ally in the shape of Ferrari.

Publicly, Ecclestone's objections to the new engine focus on three fundamental areas:

  • Spectacle - he believes the new engines will sound flatter, quieter and less dramatic than the current ones, reducing an important part of the sport's appeal

  • Money - he is worried the sport cannot afford the cost of developing the engines, which will be between 40-100 million Euros (£36-89m) depending on which estimate you believe.
  • Ferrari - the Italian legend runs F1's most famous and therefore most important team and its views need to be taken seriously. It is opposed to the new engine formula because it feels it has no synergy with its road cars and because it feels there are cheaper and more effective ways of making F1 more fuel-efficient.
  • Ferrari is as aware of the need to market energy-efficient technologies as anyone. It is embracing environmental technology on its road cars - it has, for example, released a version of its California GT car with a version of the stop-start systems that are becoming increasingly common in road cars, and it has developed a hybrid version of its monster 599 supercar.

    It has objected specifically to the size of the engine - why restrict it to four cylinders, president Luca di Montezemolo has asked, branding the current rule "pathetic"?

    Felipe Massa's Ferrari suffers an engine problem during winter testing

    Will Ferrari's opposition mean the 2013 engine changes go up in smoke? Photo: Getty

    Ferrari is also pushing to ensure the 2013 chassis rules reflect its belief that the importance of aerodynamics is out of all proportion in F1. It wants them to be reined in so other aspects such as the mechanical and suspension set-up have more relevance, as is the case with road cars

    But it is not just Ecclestone and Ferrari. Although the teams approved these rules, which they worked on with Jean Todt, president of governing body the FIA, other team principals have reservations, too.

    One told me the arguments put forward for introducing the new engines do not stand up, in his view.

    One of those arguments was that F1's use of increasingly outmoded engine technology was a barrier not only to attracting new sponsors of the kind that want to be associated with sustainability, but also to new car manufacturers entering the sport.

    The engine change was proposed after German giant Volkswagen Audi indicated that it could be interested in F1 if the engine formula mirrored the future direction of road cars.

    Doubters point out that not only have no new sponsors obviously been attracted, but that VW has since decided not to enter F1 for the foreseeable future.

    As a result, the critics say, all the new rules will do is increase the cost for the existing participants. That is a major concern at a time when, according to one team boss, "there are a few teams on the breadline".

    Equally, it seems that, among the current engine manufacturers, not only Ferrari is getting cold feet.

    Mercedes would prefer not to change the rules; it is concerned about the expense and questions whether it is necessary, although I understand it has told fellow stakeholders it will go along with what everyone else agrees. Independent Cosworth is said to be not that keen either, although it told BBC Sport it was "neutral" and dismissed suggestions that it could not afford to build the engines. Only Renault will publicly say it is in favour.

    The environmental argument is getting a bit of kicking, too.

    The emissions created by an entire season of F1 races are less than those produced by one Boeing 747 flying to Japan. Road car manufacturers are already developing these engines. So why, some say, is F1 bothering? F1, the argument goes, should be about escapism, and the sport should be focusing on delivering more races like the recent thrilling Chinese Grand Prix.

    In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.


    So why not abandon or postpone the plan? Well, it is not as simple as that.

    Renault's backing is rooted in marketing - it does not, unlike Mercedes and Ferrari, run its own F1 team and, unlike Cosworth, racing engines are not its core business.

    Renault's F1 managing director Jean-Francois Caubet says the fact the sport is changing to a new more sustainable engine formula is one of three reasons for staying involved.

    "The proposed rules are road-relevant and completely in line with Renault's road car strategy," he says. "We have already started design concepts on the 2013 engine, as this dovetails with our plans in road cars."

    The French company plans for such engines - let's call them small capacity turbo-hybrid - to make up at least 70% of its road-car portfolio by 2015. It accepts the new F1 rules will cost money, but believes that is a price worth paying.

    Caubet says Renault's presence in F1 is not "dependent on any future engine regulations", but does add the company is "very supportive of any regulations that make F1 more relevant to the overall aims of the Renault group".

    Equally, proponents of the new engines point out that it is unfair to say no new manufacturers or sponsors have come in as a result of the new rules.

    The change is still two years away, so how is it possible to know whether new sponsors will be attracted?

    And just because no new car manufacturers have entered yet does not mean they will not. VW got cold feet, it is believed, because F1 took so long to agree the rules. Either way, the only sure thing is that new companies will not enter F1 if the engine rules stay the same.

    As for Ecclestone, cynics in F1 - and there are many - believe his objections are at least as much about a couple of other issues he has not mentioned publicly.

    One is that he and Todt simply do not get along. As someone who knows Ecclestone well said: "He's against it because Todt is for it."

    FIA president Jean Todt and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone

    Todt and Ecclestone do not see eye to eye on the new rules. Photo: Getty

    There is also the fact that the sport's stakeholders are embarking on what will be tough and protracted negotiations aimed at extending the Concorde Agreement, the document that binds together the teams, the FIA and the commercial rights holders.

    Ecclestone - representing the commercial rights holders, CVC - knows that both the teams and the FIA are unhappy with their financial arrangements and are asking for an improvement.

    The teams are a potentially major headache for him. Currently, they get 47% of F1's revenues divided between them - and they are angling for as much as 80%. The teams are united under the umbrella group Fota, and have resisted all attempts to break them up over the last few years. Some believe Ecclestone sees the argument over engines as a chance to annex Ferrari and split Fota.

    Of Ecclestone's public concerns, the least plausible is over the sound of the engines.

    F1 used 1.5-litre turbo engines - and a formula restricting fuel usage, which is also part of the new rules - in the mid-1980s. Far from driving fans away, this is looked back on as one of the most exciting eras in the sport's history.

    Insiders point out that only a handful of die-hard aficionados care about the sound of the engines - and that these people will watch anyway. The wider TV audience - which is of far more critical importance to the financial health of the sport - would probably not even notice the difference.

    Equally, even if the sound of the engines is a concern, this can be addressed at least to some degree by tuning the exhaust.

    As for affordability, the argument that the smaller teams will not be able to afford the new engines is easy to resolve - the manufacturers simply have to agree not to pass on the cost of development, and to keep the sale price of the engines the same as it is now.

    In such situations, F1 usually finds a compromise - although that would mean Todt being seen to publicly back down, which is far from an easy sell when this is the first big change in F1 rules under his presidency.

    But what would the compromise be?

    An influential figure has recently proposed that the new rules could be postponed for a year until 2014. This would coincide with the fact that Pirelli's contract as tyre supplier runs out at the end of 2013 and allow the planned change of wheel-rim diameter from 13 to 15 inches to coincide with the new chassis rules, on which the wheel change has a significant impact.

    Perhaps the current engines could be retained but with their Kers systems increased in power, and used to promote efficiency - such as running the cars purely on electric power in the pit lane. Perhaps a fuel restriction - part of the new rules anyway - could be introduced but not the new engines. Or a combination of some or all of the above.

    The problem is that while all these arguments are going on, 2013 is getting ever closer, and engines have a long lead time. Manufacturers have already started work on the new designs, because that's what the rules say will be required.

    Insiders say that, realistically, any decision will have to be made by the end of the summer. Any longer than that, and any objections will be academic - enough money will have been spent on the new engines that they might as well be adopted.

    So if Ecclestone and Ferrari are going to spike the 2013 engine rules, they are going to have to get on with it.

    Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/04/power_play_over_new_f1_rules.html

    Brian McGuire Bruce McLaren Allan McNish Graham McRae Jim McWithey

    Fighting Schumacher continues to dream

    This blog entry is being penned as I fly over Quanzhou on my way to Shanghai at 3,9101ft, travelling at 616mph.

    I've just watched possibly the greatest boxing movie ever made, in my humble opinion. The Fighter is a gritty, emotive film about human endeavour, sporting brilliance, and defying the odds. Christian Bale is a master of his craft, isn't he?

    It got me thinking of some of the greatest sporting tales ever told. I grew up with my Dad regaling me with tales of watching George Best's electrifying feat at the 1968 European Cup final. We all know about the sheer bravery and mastery that Sir Steve Redgrave displayed in winning Olympic gold number five or Red Rum's historic third Grand National win in 1977.

    Now, imagine seeing Michael Schumacher crossing the line to bag win 92 of his career. In his 40s, having had three years in retirement, his return initially fails to deliver... and then, finally, it happens. Where would that rank, do you think?

    I know opinion is divided on Michael and it's a shame some of his incredible drives fight for space in our memories with the controversial battle with Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997 or his demotion to the back of the grid during qualifying at Monaco in 2006. However, don't underestimate what a win would really mean and tell us about him.

    This sport moves at such pace that, within a season or two, reining in these cars is like going into a cage with a totally new species of wild animal. They react differently; the cars evolve during the race to such an extent a completely new driving style is suddenly required.

    Michael Schumacher (centre)

    Fans of Michael Schumacher would love to see him do something special again (AFP)

    The demands on a driver's time are greater than ever and unlike in his first career, Michael's perfomances are immediately live on the internet, being discussed on message boards and the subject of 140-character reviews courtesy of the Twitter revolution.

    Not only is Michael compared to contemporaries in his 20s, but perhaps even more unforgiving is that he's compared to himself in his 20s.

    We arrive at a circuit and immediately mention Michael 'has won here more than anyone else', 'took pole here by over a second in 2002' or said it is 'where Michael secured his seventh title'. Sometimes, living up to your own legacy must be that hardest act of all.

    One thing is for sure, just like the film, Michael is a fighter and will battle on. Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn will be aware every time he looks at 'Schumi' that if he can produce the car, Michael can produce the drive.

    Mind you, he'll have to go some way to beat the current drivers' championship leader. The last time a driver won the first two races and failed to take the title we were watching Back To The Future and listening to Bros, so history is on Sebastian Vettel's side, but I get the impression that the sport isn't.

    What I mean by that is that these days the rate of development and evolution is so unrelenting and punishing that I'd be surprised if the lights at Brackley, Woking, Milton Keynes, Grove or Maranello are ever turned off.

    The same incredible process of change also applies to each grand prix itself. Pirelli deserves a huge round of applause for giving us tyres that are delivering precisely what the sport wanted - drivers flying on one lap and driving like my Grandpa Bernard used to in his white Maxi on the next. The 24 gladiators may hate having a chariot that performs so differently during the space of 50-something laps but it makes it great for you at home.

    I know with DRS, KERS, tyre degradation, Plan A and B along with all the other elements of a Grand Prix, at times it must seem like a Higher Maths A-Level lesson but I must say Martin Brundle and David Coulthard do a great job at making sense of the madness.

    Lewis Hamilton

    Some bad luck and his old adversary Fernando Alonso cost Hamilton in Malaysia (Getty)

    Ooh, we've just been told 30 minutes to landing, as the season-long treadmill really gets into its stride. We'll be at the track before we know it and I think this is a good weekend to keep your eyes on the men straining every siney, making every move on and off track, and not resting for a moment in an attempt to ramp up the pressure on Seb.

    Lewis Hamilton. I saw him after the last GP, a race where strategy, bad luck and his old pal Fernando created the perfect storm to wreck his race. He said 'that's racing' but he knows the facts tell us he was as quick in race-pace as Seb, and he'll take heart from that.

    How about Mark Webber? If something is going wrong with one of the Red Bull RB7s it seems to go wrong for his. Two difficult GPs, a dodgy KERS system and four stops compared to just two made by Kamui Kobayashi in Malaysia. However, 12 months ago Seb had no luck and hardly any points. Mark, by contrast, has had two strong finishes - and points mean prizes.

    And what of Fernando Alonso? I spent a week at the same holiday resort as him after the Australian race and we were laughing together as he went out day after day to play golf in the driving rain whilst I used the weather as an excuse to do a LOT of sleeping. A bit of rain? No problem for Fernando and that sums up his single-minded determination to achieve what he wants and it won't change this year. A car noticeably slower than McLaren and still managing to race Lewis on the track.

    Two races in and I think that the competition at the front seems more aggressive and competitive than I've seen since I started this job. Another great reason to leap out of bed early on Friday morning, hey?

    And finally, on that note, thanks to the millions who sacrificed a Sunday morning snooze for last weekend's race. The Malaysian GP enjoyed the highest viewing figures on record and the whole production team were delighted when we discussed it the morning after the race over a breakfast of roti bread and vegetable dhal. Great motivation for all!

    Looking forward to sharing this Sunday morning with you too.

    Jake

    Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2011/04/this_blog_entry_is_being.html

    Tom Pryce David Purley Clive Puzey Dieter Quester Ian Raby