In the round-up: Rubens Barrichello wins the Brazilian Stock Car Championship in his second full season in the category.
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Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.
Barrichello wins first title in 23 years (ESPN)
“Barrichello, whose 322 stars accumulated over a 19-year career is an F1 record, finished third in the season-ending race in Curitiba to secure the championship for Full Time Sports.”
‘Flawless’ Massa back to his best (Autosport)
Rob Smedley: “I think in Abu Dhabi you saw the very best Felipe. He was absolutely flawless; he didn’t put a foot wrong, there was lots of information coming back, he was involved in the strategy.”
Tweets
Good to see Mark Webber (and Matteo Cressoni) escaped serious injury in this crash at @InterlagosTrack: https://t.co/431AX7aJG3 #FIAWEC
— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) November 30, 2014
Glad to see @AussieGrit is ok after his shunt at Interlagos @fiawec, that was a big one matey.
— Jenson Button (@JensonButton) November 30, 2014
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
The latest Caption Competition winners comes from @Hobbsy009:
Raikkonen: “So you do know how to put pen to paper…”
Thanks to everyone who played and a special mention to Ali, Pat Ruadh, Theo Parkinson and Jack who made some of the best suggestions.
From the forum
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to James Kehoe!
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On this day in F1
Pastor Maldonado’s Formula One debut was announced four years ago today. Williams confirmed it had signed the reigning GP2 champion after dropping Nico Hulkenberg, who had beaten Maldonado to the title the year before.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
1st December 2014, 0:20
Worst On this day in F1 ever, glad to hear Mark is alright that was quite an accident.
Dan Brown (@danbrown180)
1st December 2014, 16:46
How many races has Hulkenberg won? How much of Maldonado’s money made Williams the team they are now?
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
1st December 2014, 17:29
Hulkenburg got a pole in his first season in a terrible Williams. If Hulkenburg had that 2012 car, he would of got more than just a win and the terrible points total that Maldonado got that year. Toto Wolff probably helped more.
Scribe (@scribe)
2nd December 2014, 0:01
Toto who decided to sign Pastor?
SP (@jb001)
2nd December 2014, 14:48
Actually Webber had a pretty bad concussion to the point where he can’t remember the crash: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117001
Michael C
1st December 2014, 0:26
Brilliant caption.
Heart stopping moment when the camera cuts to the Porsche. You can take Mark out of racing (temporarily) but you can’t take racing out of Mark!
schooner (@schooner)
1st December 2014, 1:16
Yeah, that first look at Webber’s car was VERY scary. So glad that he’s ok.
Stig Semper Fi (@stigsemperfi)
1st December 2014, 0:31
Kinda reminiscent of 2003 (I think) that accident. Good to hear he’s okay.
Biggsy
1st December 2014, 0:33
Still remember when Alonso got out of his wreck. He was barely standing on his legs and looked like he genuinely didn’t have a clue where was he. Must have been some mild concussion. Good luck he didn’t break the leg though. He couldn’t stand on it when he got out of the car.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st December 2014, 2:11
@stigsemperfi I said it by the GP time and I said it 5 days ago and yesterday. Interlagos revitalization is a major flop, sand for your eyes fans, and also Brazilian people.
sato113 (@sato113)
1st December 2014, 8:15
Sand for your eyes???
Also what’s wrong with Brazilian people? @peartree
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st December 2014, 22:17
@sato113 I meant Brazilian people shouldn’t be happy with the work done at the venue.
Breno (@austus)
1st December 2014, 12:46
Interlagos made Webber lose his car (again)?
matiascasali (@matiascasali)
1st December 2014, 0:31
It seems that the aussigrit has some troubles with that particular turn in interlagos, Ask alonso if you don’t believe me :D
Atticus (@atticus-2)
1st December 2014, 1:13
Judging from the fact he came into view rear first and with a completely messed up right rear, I suspect he either had a sudden right rear tyre blowout or suspension failure. This sent him into a spin the end of which can be seen on the footage. In this case, the Ferrari must have simply been an innocent bystander.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
1st December 2014, 9:30
@atticus-2 Cressoni confirmed over the radio that Webber was already well out of shape before he was even involved in the accident. Both were basically passengers.
Nimba (@nimba)
1st December 2014, 1:15
That day would have been etched in Williams’ history forever… Still, I do not hate Maldonado the way many others do and still the undeniable fact is, despite the heroics of Massa and Bottas at Williams, their last race victory came at the hands of >>> MALDONADO .
Alex W
1st December 2014, 1:24
Maybe if Mal was in the Merc he would be peerless, he was perfect on the day he won from pole… incredible he is still around all things considered but this year was OK for him.
Nase (@)
1st December 2014, 10:21
Maldonado is a bit of an anachronistic driver. He can be stunningly fast, occasionally drive like a championship contender, but sometimes, he makes mistakes that make him look like a fool.
He could’ve been big in the first turbo era, but with cars that are nearly 100% reliable, his flaws are too obvious.
I think it’s good to have an exciting (and/or irritating) driver like him in the grid.
Theo Parkinson (@theo-hrp)
1st December 2014, 1:38
I’ve always wondered what Hulkenberg could have done with the 2014 Williams car. And most likely he would have stayed the next 2 years and we would have him and Bottas in the 2014 Williams car.
matiascasali (@matiascasali)
1st December 2014, 1:54
same here. But also wondering: what alonso could pull of this car? and Rosberg?
Park
1st December 2014, 15:38
At Malaysia,Bahrain,China,Monaco,Canada,Hulk’s car was faster than or as fast as FW36 in the races.
Park
1st December 2014, 16:07
I heard from Hulk that McLaren had never contacted him. Why Dennis rates K-Mag higher than Hulk? It is not very understandable, is it?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st December 2014, 2:15
Massa was flawless in Abu dhabi but in the end a trouble free Bottas would’ve done better as usual. I think it is coincidental that a star driver for a smaller team starts to wander off track by the end of its contract. Hulk and Bottas in 2014 for example, I hope Williams didn’t botch the seat belt and the starts and strategy.In Hulks case FI noticed problems with his chassis after his slump after the Hungarian mistake.
anon
1st December 2014, 6:53
What makes you so certain that Bottas would have done better than Massa? Whilst both Williams drivers had disrupted free practise sessions, the longer runs from the practise sessions suggested they were pretty evenly matched.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st December 2014, 22:26
The whole season anon. Massa never beat Bottas on a straight fight, Malaysia is the only case but that was because of team orders. If you exclude weekends with Nasr on FP or a wrong strategic decision or any other type of reliability issue, Monaco or the starts which apart from the launch are automatic, Bottas never lost to Massa.
@optimaximal I’m not inventing, I’m wondering, it’s written on my comment…
@xtwl if you take away all the issues in Brazil, I think Massa would still beat Bottas there but apart from that one race I can’t see any, in equal footing there was no occasion where felipe beat valtteri…
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
1st December 2014, 9:32
@peartree why are you inventing conspiracies where there are none?
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
1st December 2014, 9:40
Massa on more than one occasion was faster than Bottas….
beneboy (@beneboy)
1st December 2014, 10:19
@xtwl
Massa was faster than Schumacher, Raikkonen & Alonso on more than one occaission. Unfortunately the other 75% of the time he was significantly slower, running off the track or getting involved in accidents.
Massa isn’t lacking in ability or outright speed, he just lacks consistancy and that’s probably why he’s only been in contention for 1 WDC and has, more often than not, been beaten by his team mate.
Robbie (@robbie)
1st December 2014, 16:47
@beneboy I think your assessment of FM lacking consistency is probably quite accurate. Of the three drivers you have mentioned, I think in fairness to FM Ferrari was not interested in supporting him equally to MS and FA. With KR, I think they assumed he (KR) would be the rooster, but he never really was all that dominant so FM seemed more on an equal footing then. But overall, I think FM did always show promise, and shining moments, but along with that was inconsistency, and that made him a perfect non-rooster at Ferrari. So while I do feel FM was handcuffed at Ferrari, I also feel there is a reason he was hired to fulfill a role there, and it wasn’t to be WDC.
That said I was certainly impressed with FM in 08 in that with more DNFs throughout the year than LH, he took the fight down to the last laps of the season, having done everything within his control when the pressure was at it’s greatest, by winning the race, while LH did everything that weekend to lose it and nearly did. I, like Smedley, hope he has an even better season next year, and can fully understand how relaxed FM is at Williams where he is unencumbered.
Nase (@)
1st December 2014, 16:43
@xtwl: Absolutely. Pacewise, he was absolutely on par with Bottas. Sometime around the summer break, I made the specific research for another community and found out that Massa’s and Bottas’s lap times were almost always at a very similar level whenever they were on similar strategies and in clean air. It was even more common for Massa to put in a series of faster lap times, gaining several seconds on Bottas, than the other way around, if you don’t consider race situations in which Massa was stuck behind some other driver.
Nase (@)
1st December 2014, 17:39
The following list is a highly hypothetical glimpse at how the WC battle between the two Williams drivers could have turned out if they had never, ever experienced any problems:
– AUS: Massa is eliminated after Kobayashi’s brakes fail. Bottas, who was behind Massa, showed what could have been possible with P5, although he had a crash early in the race. MAS lost up to 12 points (which is what Bottas would have got if he hadn’t crashed).
– CHN: Massa loses the race after spending almost 80 seconds in the pits. Before the incident, he was ahead of both Bottas and Hülkenberg, whose gearbox was studied in detail for the rest of the race by Bottas. MAS: up to 8 points lost.
– ESP: MAS has a bad qualifying, gets stuck behind Grosjean and the Ferraris, and switches to 3 stops, which turns out to be even worse. Meanwhile, Bottas has a relatively trouble-free race and finishes P5. Points lost: none, as it was Massa’s qualifying that ruined his race.
– MCO: Massa gets literally knocked out of qualifying by a struggling Ericsson. In the race, Bottas drops out of P8 due to an engine failure, while Massa finishes 7th. Points lost: Up to 6 by BOT.
– CDN: MAS storms to the front after another botched pit stop had temporarily spoiled his race. An aggressive defensive move under braking by Pérez ends their respective races just as Massa was taking P4. Points lost: 12 by MAS.
– GBR: After a wet qualifying session and a start from the back of the grid, MAS has an extremely sluggish getaway. After catching the back of the field, he is taken out by Räikkönen, who had lost control over his car. Meanwhile, Bottas has his best race thus far and finishes second. Possible points lost by MAS: Hard to tell, as he would have had to make his way through the field, which he might have beenable to do, considering that Bottas was on P9 when the race was restarted. P8 was a realistic minimum. 4 points.
– GER: MAS starts from P3, just behind BOT, but is flipped over in a major accident with MAG in Turn 1. Replays show that there isn’t really anyone to blame for it. Poinst lost: probably 15 by MAS.
– BEL: BOT manages another podium finish while MAS collects chunks of tyre debris which slow him down significantly. His lap times return to a very competitive level after a lengthy “repair” pit stop, but he is already too far back to score any points. Possible points lost: At least 8 by MAS, who had been ahead of Button when he ran into trouble.
– RUS: A broken fuel pump means that Massa has to start from the back of the grid. His excellent first lap seemingly surprises his own crew, which calls him into the pits for an extremely early stop and a strategy that turns out to be a failed experiment. BOT has another hakuna matata race and joins the Mercs on the podium. Possible points lost: Maybe 12 by MAS.
– BRA: MAS is punished for speeding in the pit lane and loses some more time when he erroneously tries to pit at McLaren’s, but still manages to snatch P3, because BOT has problems with his seatbelts and a car that is off balance, only finishing 10th. Possible points lost: 14.
To sum it up, Massa has lost an estimated 67 points (including some very conservative estimations), Bottas 20. When adding these points to the real results, we almost end up with a draw: 206-201 for Bottas.
As I said, it’s a very hypothetical list, but it shows that Massa’s performances were actually pretty close to what Bottas achieved. All the more reasons for Williams to rejoice, because they can count on a very strong driver line-up.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st December 2014, 22:33
@nase Unfortunately, statistically Bottas was almost never on the same conditions as Massa. Often obstructed in FP and struck with start issues, engine in Monaco and more importantly team orders in Malaysia which showed how much Williams relies on Bank of Brazil petrobras dollars. Your assessment of Massa’s and Williams missed opportunities is quite accurate but you missed all the issues on Bottas side. Despite Massa beating Bottas a couple times there was no occasion statistically where Massa beat Bottas in equal footing…
Nase (@)
2nd December 2014, 9:56
@peartree:
I wonder if we really watched the same season.
– The engine failure in Monaco I mentioned. I even took the points he probably lost into account.
– While it is true that Bottas missed quite a few FP1s (7 times because Nasr or Wolff took the seat), the impact on his weekends is negligible, as I’ll show with the list of races where this happened:
– BAH (Nasr): Massa finishes P7, just ahead of Bottas
– CHN (Nasr): Massa loses almost a lap in the pits
– ESP (Nasr): Massa is stuck in the traffic
– GBR (Wolff): Massa crashed out by Räikkönen
– GER (Wolff): Massa crashed out by Magnussen
– USA (Nasr): Massa finished in P4 just ahead of Bottas
– BRA (Nasr): Massa loses time because of own mistakes in the pit, Bottas has a troublesome race.
In my hypothetical calculation, I assumed Bottas would’ve finished in P3 ahead of Massa
– I’ll add to this the statistics of qualifying battles:
In races where Bottas missed all or most of FP1, he won the battle 5:2. In the rest of the season, he leads 8:4.
– And I’ll add the complete FP statistics:
– BOT took part in 50 FP sessions, running 1773 laps and 9075 kms.
– MAS took part in 57 FP1 sessions, running 1816 laps and 9332 kms, less than 3% more than BOT.
– About the starts: Yes, Valtteri had a few bad starts, but none of them really cost him many points.
– Aside from those issues I didn’t mention because I didn’t consider them to have any significant impact on performance I don’t think I’ve missed anything.
Nase (@)
2nd December 2014, 10:16
Oh yes, and about that team order:
The transcript is pretty clear on this issue.
After telling Massa on lap 52 to switch to a different (presumably less powerful) engine setting to cool his engine down, the team also issue the order for Massa to let Bottas pass:
53: “OK Felipe. Valtteri is faster than you, do not hold him up. Valtteri is faster than you, do not hold him up”
53: “You’re faster than Massa, overtake him. You’re faster than Massa, overtake him. You’re faster than Felipe, overtake him now.”
53: “OK Felipe, Valtteri’s faster than you, he’s got fresher tyres, do not hold him up.”
53: “OK Felipe, Valtteri has got better tyres, we need to let him go.”
54: “Felipe you’re slower than Valtteri, let him past. You’re slower than Valtteri, don’t hold him up.”
At the same time, as Massa doesn’t follow the orders, Bottas’s engine temperatures start rising, too:
55: “Pull to the right to cool the engine on the straight, pull to the right.”
Finally, during the penultimate lap, Massa is told to take more drastic measures to get temperatures down:
55: “Felipe we need you to cool the car for temperatures.”
55: “OK we need to lift and coast to cool the car, we need you to lift and coast to cool the car.”
It is only then that Massa is told that Bottas won’t attack him:
55: “OK Felipe we’ll hold position, Valtteri will not attack you, Valtteri will not attack you. Just cool the car, keep cooling the car. Valtteri will not attack you, just cool the car.”
Bottas saw one last chance, but the team made it clear that they were worried about Bottas’s engine temperatures as well:
56: “I can get him in the next lap. Can I get?”
56: “We really need to cool the engine. Negative on the overtake.”
What does that tell us?
The first team order was for Massa to let Bottas pass. As Bottas couldn’t get past Massa on his own, this order would have had sizeable consequences.
In the following laps however, as it became clear that Massa wasn’t willing to give up his position and temperatures in both cars were rising, but neither Massa nor Bottas wanted to slow down, the team issued orders to cool the cars more. Finally, around the beginning of the final lap, the team told the drivers to hold their positions (which they would have done anyways), to ensure that they back off the throttle and finish the race.
I fail to see how team orders gave Massa an advantage.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd December 2014, 15:37
@nase Team orders in Malaysia are forgotten by fanatics. The radio com was an example of shocking team orders, the excuses the team pointed out to Bottas so he would rethink and not try something stupid to harm the guy that’s paying his salary and the whole team of williams.
Nase (@)
3rd December 2014, 17:46
@peartree
Oookay. This is so wrong on so many levels, I’ll just take this as a way of saying “I have actually no idea what I’m talking about.”
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
1st December 2014, 7:58
I’m a little bit scared right now, Formula E debut Heidfeld crashed and I extremely relieved that he suffer no injury, and then in Japan, Bianchi crash was horrible, and left trauma, and this time Webber, that also very dangeous but fortunately he’s okay. 3 huge crash in space of less than 4 months is never a good thing, FIA need to solve safety issues before next victim.
Martin (@mrtn)
1st December 2014, 8:18
Sorry matey, but I am an old school guy. I believe that risk, on the edge racing and crashes are part of Formula 1 and during the last decade FIA has done enough to kill the show, tracks, cars and competition.
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
1st December 2014, 8:22
If a lot of crash and some deaths in f1 in past, i think its relative, but because nowdays everything is more advanced, it should not happen again. While i agree that the risk add the “thrill factor”, safety is number one priority
Alex W
1st December 2014, 8:38
I think we can have both, more crashes and better safety. It is possible, and is more “road relevant” ;)
KeithR (@)
1st December 2014, 18:23
@mrtn I can’t agree they can do ‘enough’ for safety. In these three examples it’s easy to see how they could have improved things without affecting the show: the Suzuka tractor should not have been deployed while cars were at risk of aquaplaning off in the same place; Prost should have been banned for that crazy move to prevent a recurrence; and in Brazil they should have put back the tyre wall on the right and have designed the armco entry on the left properly so that the car couldn’t hit it at 70-80 degrees . Quite easy, if the governance thinks clearly about it.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
1st December 2014, 9:41
@deongunner
Given of the three huge crashes you mention, only one person has been seriously hurt, I’d say that’s a pretty good strike rate. Also consider the Massa/Perez shunt in Canada, the roll-overs in Bahrain & Germany and Loic Duval’s big practice crash at Le Mans, all of which had drivers out of their cars in short order with, at most, minor injuries.
Motorsport is dangerous. The *one* significant accident we’ve seen this year (that admittedly may have cost a driver his career, if not his day-to-day life) was a freak result born out of a combination of events.
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
1st December 2014, 10:02
@optimaximal Sure it was good strike rate, but those crash that you mention too IMO were quite lucky they’re unhurt because it could’ve been worse. had the weight, friction, force and wind change a little bit it will give huge diffence. Imagine if Massa and Gutierrez heads crash into the road, that may change little scientificly but gave huge impact. I still love motorsports, but I hope these things could be prevented more
pSynrg (@psynrg)
1st December 2014, 10:20
@deongunner Much safer than cricket!
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
1st December 2014, 12:50
@deongunner as classless as @psynrg‘s comment seems, there have been 2 deaths in Cricket in the last week. The question is – will the governing body knee-jerk (as F1 did in 1994) or look at any problems regarding safety with a level head.
As I see it, when you throw a ball, there’s a chance it might hit someone. Just as if you drive a car very fast, there’s always the chance you’ll crash it.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
1st December 2014, 14:51
@optimaximal Apologies if my post was insensitive . It certainly wasn’t meant to diminish the significance of the tragic events in cricket. I just wanted to highlight that unfortunate situations can arise, regardless of the type sport.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
1st December 2014, 15:50
@psynrg sorry if I came across as aloof – this is the internet, so sometimes people tend to throw crass comments into public forums without consideration – but as I clarified, it makes a valid point.
Statistically, it has been more dangerous to play cricket than to skydive in the past 2 weeks!
beneboy (@beneboy)
1st December 2014, 10:32
@deongunner
There isn’t a safety problem to be solved. Considering we’re talking about several internation racing series the safety record for FIA sanctioned events is amazing.
Accidents happen & sometimes people get hurt or even die, this is the reality of motorsport and no amount of improvements in safety will change this.
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
1st December 2014, 10:44
@mrtn @beneboy @psynrg @optimaximal Sorry, I misjudged the topic, I realize that i made wrong statements. First i thought it was safety first, but then without those stuff f1 will never be pinnacle of motorsports. I understand all your comments
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
1st December 2014, 12:48
@deongunner Safety is always the primary concern and the FIA hold themselves dearly to it, as they should.
When Henry Surtees was struck by a stray wheel in F2, the FIA instantly mandated better wheel tethers across all their series and heavily fined Renault for a loose wheel the following weekend. They have been similarly harsh on loose bits of car ever since.
The fact that through good organisation and planning, we’ve not had a fatality at the top level for many many years and even when there is a serious freak accident (Bianchi), the driver was stabilised, packed up and in hospital in the quickest time possible, even when the weather prevented the most ideal extraction route.
TheBullWhipper (@thebullwhipper)
1st December 2014, 12:13
@McL88ASAP Errrrrrrrrrrrrr, I don’t think the FIA can solve driver error, also if that Porsche wasn’t driven by Webber, would it be mentioned? As for the Bianchi crash, that was a freak accident, you can’t cover every eventuality, just the ones that happen on a more regular basis. If people want to drive cars very fast, then there is always risk involved.
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
1st December 2014, 13:30
Yeah I understand, I made wrong statements
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
1st December 2014, 9:38
Started watching the 6H of Sao Paolo and left at about 2h in. He was leading by 11 seconds. So I left to visit my parents and when I came back my twitter was full with footage of the crash but in all those tweets I couldn’t find one where it said he was OK. I was shocked for a moment there considering I’ve been a Webber fan since he got into F1. On top of that I’m a Porsche fan since I’m alive and was so hoping to come home to a #20/Porsche win. Happy to read the ‘good’ news tweets afterwards.
Glad the other Porsche won though it was hard to be that happy at the time.
– @keithcollantine I don’t know whether anyone here follows V8Supercars but Ford is withdrawing.
Glenn (@glennb)
1st December 2014, 16:38
Ford are pulling out at the end of 2015. As a Holden/V8 Supercar fan i find this news devastating. I had my 1 and only V8 Supercar ride in a Ford.
greg-c (@greg-c)
1st December 2014, 11:01
Re Caption
So it was really Kimi who got power to veto his team mate :)
Mayank (@mjf1fan)
1st December 2014, 12:44
Haha nice one ;)
João Leonardo Pires Carvalho Faria (@joaoleopires)
1st December 2014, 11:57
Congrats Rubens!!!!!!
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
1st December 2014, 14:43
Crazy to think that WEC runs on a track as short as Interlagos. The LMP1 cars must be lapping GT cars constantly.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
1st December 2014, 16:00
They were and it was fantastic viewing!
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
1st December 2014, 16:16
Looking at the results, why were Bernhard/Webber/Hartley classified 22nd, and not 6th? Theyhad the sixth most laps despite the accident.
matt90 (@matt90)
1st December 2014, 20:32
Seeing as it’s all about endurance, a requirement is that you must finish.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
1st December 2014, 21:26
Good news – Mark Webber has been released into the community:
<a href="http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/webber-released-from-hospital/"Webber released from hospital – Sportscar365
But not before a cheesy visit from the new V8 Stock Car Champion.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
1st December 2014, 21:30
let’s try that again.
Good news – Mark Webber has been released into the community:
Webber released from hospital – Sportscar365
But not before a cheesy visit from the new V8 Stock Car Champion.
Nikos (@azwris)
2nd December 2014, 21:05
well done Rubinho!!! :)
and good to see Mark is alright! :)