2012 European Grand Prix Results and Maria de Villota Update

In my last piece, I wrote that Valencia needs to be gotten rid of because it is just a parade lap with the same weather, but lack of history and theater that makes Monaco so special still. Well, I know when I am wrong. And how wrong I was! Did I need to wait this long to write this? No. Was I just lazy and not willing to sit at my computer for a few minutes to write this? Yes. But now I am and it was a phenomenal race that had me yelling and screaming and jumping and fist-pumping throughout. In a few words, it was the best race we have seen this season. As if we didn’t have enough of a wild ride already with seven different winners in the first seven races, Fernando Alonso comes through from 11^th on the grid (with the aid of some bad luck for other runners, including two alternator failures on the Renault and the Renault powered Red Bull, and another horrendous pit stop for Lewis Hamilton). Plus, it was a remarkable showing for both Michael Schumacher, making his way to third on the podium, and Mark Webber, who started a lowly 18^th to finish fourth. Overall, quite the exciting race, and one that will hopefully propel this season forward to continue as one of the greatest ever.

1. Fernando Alonso

2. Kimi Raikkonen

3. Michael Schumacher

4. Mark Webber

5. Nico Hulkenberg

6. Nico Rosberg

7. Paul di Resta

8. Jenson Button

9. Sergio Perez

10. Bruno Senna

In much sadder news, it was revealed today that the test driver for Marussia F1, Maria de Villota, after a freak accident during testing wherein she crashed into one of the team’s support trucks, is in critical, yet stable, condition, but has lost her right eye. No doubt the car she was driving is being inspected and picked apart and having loads of information culled from it to see just what happened to destroy this promising young woman’s racing career in one fell swoop. Marussia will hopefully find the problem and things will be done to correct it, but it no way can replace what would have been a very big achievement for a woman race car driver. I wish Maria all the best in her long recovery. Because of this accident, I have to believe that the FIA will take an even harder look and do more testing on the front roll cage. After Felipe’s freak accident and now this (along with many other freak roll-over and tire detachment accidents), there might be some more new rules coming down the pipeline shortly.

European GP Roundup and News

Although I missed this past weekend’s European Grand Prix, it took place in Valencia, so in reality, I didn’t miss a thing. In fact, the only two notable things to come from the weekend were that Fernando Alonso came in second, and that every car finished the race. Yes, you read that correctly. Every single car actually finished the race. At least last year Mark Webber went flying and flipping all over the place to give the race a little more gravitas than normal, but this year, it seems like it turned into a long, boring parade in which Vettel dominated from the word go… again. I’d have more, but all you really need for Valencia is who won the race because it is generally the most boring race out there and still needs to go away. Bernie should just count his losses on this one and let it go. Valencia is just simply a bad, boring race to watch and it proved that once again this year. Here is the finishing order.

1. Sebastian Vettel

2. Fernando Alonso

3. Mark Webber

4. Lewis Hamilton

5. Felipe Massa

6. Jenson Button

7. Nico Rosberg

8. Jaime Alguersuari

9. Adrian Sutil

10. Nick Heidfeld

In other, more interesting news, there are now officially official new engine regulation for the 2014 season. Formula one will downsize again, this time to 1.6 liter V6 engines with a maximum RPM of 15,000. Supposedly this will appease those who didn’t want the 4 cylinder engines and still make the sport appear to be environmentally conscious. It was also revealed that Audi would have come into the sport if the 4 cylinder engines were approved, which would have made for an interesting field, but I still think that F1 is nothing with 4 cylinder engines (even though I know that 4 cylinders with turbos have been fielded in the past). Also, it should be noted that F1 does have a distinctive sound. I brought this up when I talked about going to Montreal. I do believe it has lost some of its power moving down from the V10s to the V8s, and now it will lose even more with the switch to a turbo’d V6. There will still be a distinctive wail, but it really won’t have the same impact that it used to.

Also, the Austin GP got its funding from the state and is moving ahead. This is good news and hopefully should be the last hurdle (other than actually completing the track) to get over before the US GP at Austin is put on next year.

Silverstone is up next. I will be out of town again for this race, so updates will be scattered. However, I can tell you that the tire choices are medium/hard compounds, making for some scrambling from Ferrari to try and figure out how to make their car work on those, and that the track was updated and changed last year so the layout will be new to all the teams and be sort of like going to a new venue. It should be interesting how that plays into Vettel’s hands. And yes, I think Vettel will win. Some other team needs to prove me otherwise, because unless it rains and he has a brain fart, he will simply dominate the field like normal.

Another Austin Hurdle

Well, this is one of the big concerns that I had for the proposed US Grand Prix. Traffic is going to be a big factor in making this thing actually fly. If the organizers want the race to go off without a hitch (and not turn into the US version Silverstone based on traffic) they are essentially going to have to build a new highway system, or widen the one that is in place already. However, the Travis County planners have said that the widening of the lanes and making other improvements would not be completed by the proposed race date of 2012, even if they began work now. This all stems from people wanting to jump the gun and get a race underway in this country as soon as possible, despite the fact that they failed to actually study the traffic requirements and problems that an event like this will undoubtedly bring about. And, as usual, there are also concerns as to who will foot the bill for all these new things. The saga, it seems, will continue for now, and I am still very much in doubt of this US GP taking place in Austin, Texas by 2012. Click this link for more.