(hopefully this video will not be taken down)

photo credit: Flickr user ph-stop

With Mercedes signing Lewis Hamilton for the next three seasons, and admitting Sergio Perez was plan B, Michael Schumacher was definitely being squeezed out from the team.

Although Sauber expressed interest in the seven time world champion, Schumacher announced today his retirement from Formula 1.

Schumacher said he feels relieved to retire after a second three year stint in the sport following his first retirement in 2006. He was unsure of his future, but Hamilton’s signing all but sealed the deal for him.

You can read his speech in full on Autosport.

Sergio Perez, photo credit: flickr user nic_r

Let it sink in: Eddie Jordan was actually right.

And so were the first reports, for the most part. Lewis Hamilton will drive for Mercedes next year, but Schumacher has not announced his retirement, and from the looks of it doesn’t even want to retire.

Sergio Perez has already signed with McLaren to replace Hamilton, leaving an open seat at Sauber for next season.

Additionally, Jaime Alguersuari tweeted a few days ago that we will find out where he’s driving soon, which could possibly be that Sauber seat. Peter Sauber reportedly has said he will seek out Schumacher for the team if he’s available.

Welcome, silly season.

The FIA has confirmed the 2013 calendar, although the Grand Prix of America set to run in New Jersey next summer remains provisional.

A calendar was released last week during the Singapore Grand Prix, but some slight changes have been made. The Korean and Japanese Grands Prix have switched spots. The German Grand Prix’s weekend was changed, as was the Belgian race.

2013 Calendar

03/17 – Grand Prix of Australia
03/24 – Grand Prix of Malaysia
04/14 – Grand Prix of China
04/21 – Grand Prix of Bahrain
05/12 – Grand Prix of Spain
05/26 – Grand Prix of Monaco
06/09 – Grand Prix of Canada
06/16 – Grand Prix of America *
06/30 – Grand Prix of Great Britain
07/14 – Grand Prix of Germany
07/28 – Grand Prix of Hungary
08/25 – Grand Prix of Belgium
09/08 – Grand Prix of Italy
09/22 – Grand Prix of Singapore
10/06 – Grand Prix of Korea
10/13 – Grand Prix of Japan
10/27 – Grand Prix of India
11/03 – Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi
11/17 – Grand Prix of USA
11/24 – Grand Prix of Brazil

First I want to completely apologize for going AWOL. I haven’t been feeling well for ages for a variety of reasons and I was pretty annoyed with Formula 1 at that.

photo credit: Flickr user Martin Pettitt

But things are getting hilarious, as you can see.

A number of British newspapers are reporting that it’s only a matter of hours until Michael Schumacher retires and Lewis Hamilton replaces him at Mercedes next season. McLaren supposedly offered him the same amount of money, possibly even more, but if you’ve ever seen Hamilton’s twitter account, then you can understand how this might be a possibility.

Mercedes would allow Hamilton’s management company to be able to get him more endorsements, so a couple extra million pounds is nothing when personal endorsements are in the mix.

The deal is supposedly for three years at £15 million a year, with the opportunity for Hamilton to receive win bonuses.

The Telegraph claims that Sauber driver Sergio Perez will take Hamilton’s place at McLaren. Another possibility is Paul di Resta, currently racing for Force India. Perez is part of the Ferrari Academy, which makes me question the chances, whereas di Resta raced for Mercedes in DTM, and well, you probably know McLaren uses Mercedes engines.

Morning comes in probably 5 hours over there in Stuttgart, so this should be good!

Yeah yeah first day already happened. I thought this was set to post but apparently I just saved it instead. So now I will update it to include today’s events.

RAIN.

LOTS OF RAIN.

TRAFFIC.

LOTS OF TRAFFIC.

So much rain and traffic, up to 30,000 people might not be allowed in for qualifying if they have passes to park on grass lots at the circuit. Though because F1 fans are the best kind of people, there is an effort underway to get people to rideshare and get less cars on the road outside the circuit.

Grosjean was fastest in the first drenching practice, and Hamilton fastest in the second. Thankfully the cars went out on track unlike other times it’s raining, well, because here it’s never going to stop raining.

Everything else then!

Saturday July 7
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday July 8
Race: 8:00am**

All times Eastern. In the US, you can watch the second practice session and the qualifying session on SPEED, and the other two practice sessions on their website.

**THE RACE WILL NOT BE SHOWN LIVE but on a tape delay on Fox at 2pm on July 8.

Last year’s winner: Fernando Alonso

What to expect: Rain.

Weather: See above.

Tires: We should probably just expect wets.

DRS: Same as last year, though there’s no telling it’ll ever even be used. Because rain.

The latest update on Marussia test driver Maria de Villota’s condition just recently came out. She lost her right eye in the accident, and remains in critical but stable condition.

She went into surgery yesterday afternoon and was there until this morning. Surgeons addressed both her facial and head injuries, however her right eye could not be saved.

John Booth, team principal of Marussia, thanked everyone for their support. The team will update when appropriate on Maria’s condition. The team is also analyzing what occurred. It is possible de Villota could have been caught out by the anti-stall system on the car.

Best wishes, Maria.

photo posted by teammate Timo Glock on Twitter (@realTimoGlock) before testing began

Not what I want to come back to…

Maria de Villota was testing Marussia upgrades during a testing session. While returning to the pits, the car suddenly accelerated into the transporter truck that brought the car to the Duxford airfield.

Emergency services were called the the scene. A BBC reporter eyewitness said her helmet took the brunt of the impact.

Emergency services also have said the injuries are life-threatening.

Marussia has released a statement that Villota was taken to a hospital, and they will update on her condition when further details are known.

This story will of course be updated then too.

Best wishes, Maria, everyone is thinking of you. Perhaps the douchebags who think this is a time to make sexist remarks aren’t, but those of us sending you our love and prayers more than make up for them.

I have yet to sleep

photo credit: Flickr/Ezio Armando

Fox rant: they totally sped the race up, did anyone else notice? I am usually pretty sensitive to movement on TV and I just noticed the race seemed WAY more chaotic than it should have been, plus the cuts in commentary seemed edited. It was just weird. Thankfully towards the end it seemed like the cars were moving at their actual speed.

So, we finally have a two-time winner in home country hero Fernando Alonso. Alonso started 11th and managed to finish first after both Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean suffered alternator problems. His move up the grid was not as impressive as Mark Webber finishing fourth, given the fact there was clearly a problem with Renault powered cars.

Okay I don’t like Alonso.

On the plus side, this was actually an interesting race in Valencia since not every car finished. Hell, not every car even started. Timo Glock did not race because of his stomach bug.

Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in the very last lap by Pastor Maldonado. Hamilton would not give up the position to Maldonado and squeezed him out.

Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen collided, as did Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna (and later Massa), as did Vitaly Petrov and Daniel Ricciardo, and so on. So there were cars taken out, which sadly makes this race more interesting.

Maldonado and Vergne both received penalties. Vergne has a 10 spot penalty and a $25,000 fine for the next race. Maldonado was penalized 20 seconds this race, dropping him down to 12th. He had finished 10th, and Hamilton had been unable to continue. Fair enough.

Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher joined Alonso on the podium.

Jenson Button managed to finish in the points, although it was just 8th. Both Force Indias finished in the points, as did Nico Rosberg, Sergio Perez, and Bruno Senna.

Senna had to serve a drive-through penalty after Kamui Kobayashi smashed into the back of his car. It did not look like Senna’s fault whatsoever, especially given Kobayashi later also hit Felipe Massa.

Next time around we head to the UK for a race that sucks less.

Results
01. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
02. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
03. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
04. Mark Webber, Red Bull
05. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
06. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
07. Paul di Resta, Force India
08. Jenson Button, McLaren
09. Sergio Perez, Sauber
10. Bruno Senna, Williams *
» Continue reading “Alonso Becomes First Two Race Winner This Season”

Sorry this is late, I’ve been somewhat out since last night due to what I think might have been food poisoning. NOT fun. Also we continue to have on and off WordPress issues here at Aerys where it decides none of us should ever be able to load the new post page.

(photo credit: Flickr/Infiniti Global

Let’s start with someone who feels like I do. Timo Glock did not qualifying today due to a stomach bug that’s been bothering him since Thursday. The stewards decided he can race tomorrow if he’s feeling better.

So that made Q1′s knockout group the slow six instead. If you thought it would still be the usual suspects, you would be wrong.

Mark Webber will start 19th in tomorrow’s race due to hydraulics problems with his DRS system. Jean-Eric Vergne was also knocked out. However, Heikki Kovalainen made it to Q2 for the first time ever in the Caterham!

Q3 knockouts: Jean-Eric Vergne, Mark Webber, Vitaly Petrov, Pedro de la Rosa, Narain Karthikeyan, Charles Pic, Timo Glock (did not qualify)

In Q2, Heikki also left the other Toro Rosso behind, making his way to 16th place. Both Ferraris also failed to get out of Q2, much to the disappointment of Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo, who is attending this race for some important reason or another. Michael Schumacher also failed to make it to Q3. The same can be said of Bruno Senna, who continues to be completely outpaced by his teammate.

Q2 knockouts: Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa, Bruno Senna, Sergio Perez, Heikki Kovalainen, Daniel Ricciardo

Q2 was a fiercely fought battle, with the top thirteen cars all within three-tenths of a second of each other. The same could not be said for Q3.

Sebastian Vettel put on an absolute flyer of a lap, leaving the rest of the drivers well over three-tenths of a second in his dust. Lewis Hamilton was the closest competitor, with a time of .32 seconds longer than Vettel’s time. Love him or hate him, it’s absolutely amazing to watch Vettel get in the zone and qualify like this.

Vettel is now tied for most career poles with Jim Clark and Alain Prost at 33. With 34, he’ll take the third most spot for himself. He’ll then still have to get 30+ pole positions to make it up to Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher’s numbers, but considering he’s gotten 33 at the age of 24, this might not take too long.

Pastor Maldonado continues to impress while in Spain. He’ll start third tomorrow. The Lotuses of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen will start fourth and fifth respectively. Nico Rosberg starts sixth, Kamui Kobayashi seventh, and the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta eight and tenth respectively.

Jenson Button will start ninth, perhaps finally overcoming his problems in the car.

Lewis Hamilton had to meet with the stewards after Nico Rosberg complained that he slowed him down, but no further action was taken due to there being tons of traffic on the track at the time.

Remember, the race is on a tape delay in the states tomorrow. Practice Makes P1 will NOT ruin the results for you beforehand, promise. Blacking yourself out from social media is quite difficult, but I wish everyone the best if they’re choosing to take the same route.

Valencia Street Circuit

Friday June 22
First Practice Session: 4:00am
Second Practice Session: 8:00pm

Saturday June 23
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday June 24
Race: 8:00am**

All times Eastern. In the US, you can watch the second practice session and the qualifying session on SPEED, and the other two practice sessions on their website.

**THE RACE WILL NOT BE SHOWN LIVE but on a tape delay on Fox at 2pm on June 24.

Last year’s winner: Sebastian Vettel

What to expect: The usual borefest that is Valencia. Maybe we’ll get an eighth different winner.

Weather: It was disturbingly hot there today, apparently reaching 98 FREAKIN DEGREES. Thankfully it’s going to cool down dramatically, but it’ll probably still be that hot on the track come Sunday. It should be sunny, maybe a little cloudy, for the whole weekend, so don’t expect rain to perk this race up.

Tires: Softs and mediums are the compounds of choice for this street circuit. Pretty sure we’ll once again see hardly anyone going out for Q3 since everyone will want to use the soft tires.

DRS: There will also only be one zone in Valencia this year, a change from last year. The detection point will be prior to turn 8, with the activation zone after turn 10.

Sorry this is hardly even 200 words. I seriously can’t stand this race. I’m glad it’s wasted on tape delay.

And yes, since I cater to an American audience, I will not update this blog until the tape delayed race is over. I am a nice person on occasion.

WordPress is a jerk.

So let’s see, what has gone on in the past week? First if you missed Sebastian Vettel on Letterman…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsc_62uNcKI

Definitely haven’t been trying to upload that for a week! Warning: if you can’t stand David Letterman, don’t even press play. His absolute obsession with Indy (as in the track) just ruins it.

- Some former drivers participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend. It’s the first time in years I haven’t watched the entire thing but I was feeling rather apathetic towards it considering the lack of Peugeot. The usual ex-F1 suspects participated, with a few new faces. Sebastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima, Karun Chandhok all made their first ever appearances at Le Mans. Things did not go too well for Buemi or Nakajima, as Toyota’s debut lead to neither car finishing. Chandhok’s team placed 6th overall.

For Anthony Davidson, it was quite a weekend. His Toyota prototype went flying through the air and landed him in the hospital with two broken vertebrae. Things were better for Giancarlo Fisichella, who brought his team home to a first place finish in their GT class.

- Michael Schumacher is being touted as the next winner of a race, which would be the snorefest that is Valencia, according to Paul Hembery from Pirelli. Kind of a weird thing for him to suggest given Schumacher’s criticisms of the tires so far this season.

- Lotus F1 are hoping to finish the season fourth in constructors points. Romain Grosjean is pretty close to victory that he’s appearing in my dreams as my roommate.

- Sauber is also hoping a win isn’t too far off, given Sergio Perez has had two podium appearances so far this season.

- There’s a new round of calls for cost cutting measures, which should come as no surprise. The FIA is hoping measures can be set in place for next season, but time is running out.