Williams and HRT go for budgets over brilliance
As rumoured in the Brazilian media as long ago as December, Bruno Senna has claimed the spare Williams seat for the upcoming season over veteran compatriot Rubens Barrichello. It’s nice to see the likeable younger Brazilian given a second (or third) chance at Formula 1, but it also seems strange that a guy who struggled against such luminaries as Karun Chandhok, Christian Klien and even (occasionally) Sakon Yamamoto at HRT in 2010 is now effectively team leader of statistically the third-best team on the grid.
If I worked in the Williams spares department I’d either be delighted by the probable overtime that the two inexperienced South Americans will generate through their, ahem, ‘enthusiasm’, or considering an alternative career due to the likelihood of a stress-related nervous breakdown due to a dramatically increased workload…
It’s also a shame that Barrichello will no longer be on the grid, even given his generally poor form last season. While it’s easy to be wise after the event, it’s now clear that Rubens should have treated Interlagos last year as his F1 swansong so that some kind of celebration could have been organised and his achievements as the most experienced Formula 1 driver of all time recognised.
More bizarrely, HRT have plumped for Narain Karthikeyan to fill their second car. The Indian driver performed adequately for most of last season and admittedly shone at his home Grand Prix, but was still thrashed by team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi who is left without a drive despite having apparently signed a two-year deal on the eve of last season.
Jaime Alguersuari has admitted some contact with new HRT boss Luiz Perez Sala, so it’s a certainty that the team were courting other drivers. It therefore looks to this observer that HRT went for Karthikeyan simply because no one else was able to bring as much funding (despite the team’s best efforts to find such a driver).
Since the Indian presumably ran out of funds midway through last season (with Red Bull paying for Daniel Ricciardo to take his place), and with well-heeled Spaniard Dani Clos signed as HRT’s reserve, I’d be surprised if Karthekeyan is still on the grid by the end of 2012. Although given that he’s the only current F1 driver I’ve actually met, I’d be quite happy if he is, and he is at least a known quantity for the team.
New cars released – look away now…
Hardly breaking news, but most teams have now launched their 2012 cars and tested them last week at Jerez in Spain. Normally this would be a time spent ogling the new designs for hours on end, but the 2012 machines are so hideous that looking at them for more than five seconds is a genuinely distressing experience.
The problem is the new regulations on nosecone heights, which has led to most cars having a bulbous lump on the front where the low nosecone rises up to a higher cockpit area. This gives the impression that the revised rules on crash tests extend to teams having to have some kind of weight dropped on the top of the nose before being able to leave the pit lane.
The one exception to this is the new McLaren, which retains the curves of its predecessor, instantly leading to talk that the team had missed a trick. However, the team have denied this and the car showed reasonably well in testing, particularly in the hands of a seemingly-refreshed Lewis Hamilton, though as usual it’s hard at this stage to gauge exactly how well each new car is performing.
For example, Ferrari appeared to be struggling (and even admitted as much) but Fernando Alonso then popped in the fastest time of the last day of the test. Force India and Toro Rosso both showed well at times, while Sauber and Williams had a lower key week.
Caterham (formerly Lotus) seem to have made real progress, but it was Lotus (née Renault…) who looked to have made the biggest gains, which Romain Grosjean impressively setting the fastest 2012-car time of the four days. Unsurprisingly though, Red Bull still looked to have the strongest car on long fuel runs and Adrian Newey even seems to have worked out a use for the ungainly lump on the front nose.
The next test starts at Barcelona on February 21st, where Mercedes will unveil their new car for the first time. HRT and Marussia (previously Virgin), prepared as ever, will bring their new machines to the final pre-season test on March 1st (god-willing).
BBC radio line-up foils UK RTL watchers
Normally I wouldn’t care too much about who presents Formula 1 on the radio – it’s not really a sport that translates particularly well to being covered without pictures. But with not all races being shown live on BBC TV (as you may have heard…) radio was starting to look like a viable option to keep up-to-date with live racing.
And some bright sparks had even come up with the idea of watching television coverage on German channel RTL and turning the volume down to enjoy English commentary from BBC Radio Five Live over the top. Well, any chance of enjoying such an experience has been eliminated.
The BBC, fresh from entering my good books by appointing the excellent Ben Edwards as lead TV commentator, have swiftly had their page ripped out after the announcement that James Allen will be joining Radio Five Live as their presenter.
This is the same James Allen that the BBC tried so hard to pretend had never existed when they first took on the Formula 1 coverage in 2009, even going so far as to mute his commentary over their ‘Classic F1’ feature and replace it with a bored-sounding Jonathan Legard. It’s the same James Allen who was subject of an (admittedly slightly harsh) internet campaign (even featuring official T-Shirts) to prevent him from ruining Formula 1.
And yes, the very same man who confused making excitable, guttural and sometimes disturbing noises with displaying a genuine passion for and knowledge of the sport. In terms of a retrograde step, it’s a bit like Williams attempting to revive their fortunes by hiring a now-65 year old Alan Jones as lead driver.
And if Williams were to hire Giovanni Lavaggi as their number two, that would compare with Jennie Gow being made the new Radio Five Live pit lane reporter. Yes, the same Jennie Gow who was deemed surplus to requirements after a single season presenting MotoGP for BBC TV in 2010, such was the appalling hash she made of it.
Time to dig out my German phrasebook methinks…
