(hopefully this video will not be taken down)

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.

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.

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!

Tomorrow I think I’ll touch on how obnoxious it is to hear blase journalists and people like Alain Prost say the unpredictability and close racing is bad. GET. OVER. IT. Sorry we don’t all get to travel to Monaco and get paid for it. Jeez.

First of all, the two drivers involved in yesterday’s antics in practice ended up dead last on the grid. Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez ended up starting P23 and P24 respectively after gearbox changes.

Mark Webber managed to win from pole today in Monaco, as the rain everyone kept talking about never happened during the race.

One driver, Jean-Eric Vergne, did attempt the gamble on intermediates at the end of the race, which led to him falling out of the points positions.

The first corner of the first lap was chaotic, with Romain Grosjean spinning out and causing a safety car to be brought out so his car could be removed from the track. It was the only time the safety car was needed all race.

Maldonado made his win in Spain look like a total fluke this weekend as he hit the wall on the first lap, taking himself out of the race before it even started.

Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa both had to retire after being involved in these incidents. De la Rosa’s wing was taken out in Maldonado’s crash, and Kobayashi went airborne in the Grosjean incident, and later had to retire because of suspension damage.

Michael Schumacher was also involved in the Romain Grosjean incident, but was able to continue on until problems with fuel pressure took him out of the race.

Jenson Button and McLaren’s woes continued. Button could not get around Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham. Button eventually had to retire towards the end of the race after a spin in his attempts to pass the Finn.

Kovalainen was almost in the points, but lost a few places after an incident with Sergio Perez, who also had a horrible day. Perez impeded Kimi Raikkonen on his way to the pits, causing Raikkonen to lose a position. Perez was given a drive through penalty for the late turn towards the pits.

Sebastian Vettel led the race for a good amount of time as he started on the soft tire. Red Bull were hoping for rain, which never came, but Vettel was able to maintain fourth place.

Lewis Hamilton didn’t enjoy himself much either, after complaining something hit his head near the pit boards, and also whining about not being kept up to date about drivers pitting. Both Fernando Alonso and Vettel were able to come back out of the pits ahead of Hamilton.

Webber makes an unprecedented sixth different winner in as many races. He is also one of the few drivers to win at Monaco from pole. This is however, the second win for Red Bull this season, so they easily have the lead in the Constructor’s Championship now.

Next race is in Montreal, which means I won’t fall asleep towards the end. Although I didn’t miss much of anything, it seems. Webber was able to hold on to his lead, despite having a train of cars behind him. Nico Rosberg was also on the podium once again, joined by Alonso.

Results after the cut: » Continue reading “Mark Webber Wins Monaco GP, Becomes Sixth Different Winner This Season”

Let me just say there’s nothing like waking up and finding out the Pastor Maldonado of last season is back and purposely crashing into people.

Maldonado hit Sergio Perez, barely giving him any room, during final practice. Maldonado eventually also just crashed out of the practice session. He has a ten grid spot penalty for the race, joining Michael Schumacher’s five spot for his incident last race.

So, not surprising that not even 5 minutes into Q1, Sergio Perez crashed out of qualifying. Perez looked completely unable to steer his car.

Drivers had to switch onto the supersoft tires, as the usual cars who qualify in the top ten were way down the charts, not even meeting the 107% rule! But all was well in the end, unless you were in a McLaren.

Knocked out in Q1: Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa, Charles Pic, Narain Karthikeyan, Sergio Perez

Many cars started off on the supersofts for Q2. Jean-Eric Vergne lost his car and took off his front wing, knocking it under the front of his car. He limped his car back to the pits, probably ruining many a fast lap for cars that had to pass him.

With under 3 minutes left, Felipe Massa pulled off a time under 1 minute, 15 seconds, finally dethroning Nico Rosberg’s time. With that time, it was the first Q3 appearance of Massa this season. Finally.

Kimi Raikkonen barely squeaked through to Q3, but Jenson Button failed to make it out of Q2. Button joins the Force Indias, Toro Rossos, Kamui Kobayashi, and Bruno Senna. That’s two races in a row where Button has failed to get out of Q2.

Knocked out in Q2: Nico Hulkenberg, Kamui Kobayashi, Jenson Button, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne

During Q3, more cars posted times in the 1:14 range. All cars were out on track for the last 90 seconds.

Mark Webber looked to be taking pole, and then Michael Schumacher went fastest.

…And while he held up a finger to indicate his number one status, and his engineer said pole position!…you’ve got that five grid spot penalty.

So, Schumacher will start sixth, and Mark Webber is actually on pole. That makes two races in a row where the driver who actually qualifies for first doesn’t start first. You are all terrible people.

Starting grid with two current grid penalties (hopefully no more come along):
01. Mark Webber, Red Bull
02. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
03. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
04. Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1
05. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
06. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
07. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
08. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
09. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India (was not in Q3, starts P10 because of Maldonado’s penalty)
» Continue reading “Mark Webber On Pole Because Grid Penalties Are Awesome!”

Friday May 11
First Practice Session: 4:00am
Second Practice Session: 8:00am

Saturday May 12
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday May 13
Race: 8:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 7:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com. All times eastern.

Last year’s winner: Sebastian Vettel

What to expect: We’re back after a three week break, and that means it’s time for the European/Canada leg of the season for the summer.

Teams had testing time last week, which should mean many teams will be sporting aerodynamic upgrades. With the season still wide open for this fifth race of the year, it’s hard to tell who will come out on top. Will it be a fifth different driver? Will Mark Webber finish fourth for the fifth time? Hopefully practice gives us a general idea of what to expect, but for now it truly is wide open.

American Alexander Rossi will get his first chance to drive in the first practice session for Caterham. Dani Clos will be driving for HRT in the first session also.

Ross Brawn, team principal for Mercedes, will miss out on the race due to illness on doctor’s orders. Get well soon, Ross!

Weather: Perfect for racing or at least watching it, I’d say…this forecast looks like quintessential European spring weather. Highs in the mid 70s, partly cloudy skies, and low chances for rain.

Tires: Pirelli has decided to use the soft and hard tires. This is a bit of a different strategy than usual, since tire compounds are usually in consecutive hardness order (like soft/medium, medium/hard, etc). This should suit the circuit better. Except I guess if you’re Michael Schumacher, the tires are scrambled or hard boiled.

DRS: There will be a single DRS zone at the Circuit de Catalunya. The activation zone will be down the start/finish straight, with the detection zone between turns 15 and 16. The DRS zone is 750 meters long, so expect to see some good fights.

Nico Rosberg got off to an early lead, especially with everyone held up by Michael Schumacher. Thankfully pit stops kept the race from looking like a Schumi train.

However, one of the front wheels on Schumacher’s car was not properly attached and he was soon out of the race after his pit stop.

At the start, Jenson Button zoomed ahead to P3 at the start of the race. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel continued to fall further behind everyone.

Massa had the lead as he hadn’t pitted, so Nico Rosberg once again regained his lead with both McLarens behind him.

Each round of pit stops brought on excitement. Kimi Raikkonen easily won in the first round when he just flew by Daniel Ricciardo on cold tires, and even battled for position with Lewis Hamilton down the pit lane.

Sergio Perez tried to hold off Lewis Hamilton about halfway through the race, but repeatedly locked up his tires and needed to pit.

And then there was a 5 car battle for fifth place…because of Felipe Massa. Mark Webber, bored with everything, attempted a take off with his car and had it up on the back two wheels. Thankfully he did not get flipping.

Leaders kept switching. Jenson. Nico. Lewis. Jenson. Nico. Lewis. And once again there’s a screwed up pit stop, this time for Jenson Button and he joined the Massa train to the vortex of boring.

But while SPEED was in commercials, Massa pitted, or just vanished; not sure, they never said.  (Just kidding, he was down in 14th at the time.)

But that didn’t make the fight for second through ninth any less competitive. If you just looked at the front of this race for anything, you would be incredibly bored. But when the other points positions got moving, they really got moving.

Grosjean, Maldonado, and Perez had a crazy fight that eventually was ruined by Alonso. Or, he just won it all because he’s Alonso…although he was only back there because he went off (which SPEED never showed).

Webber and Hamilton battled for 5th place, but Webber held it. Vettel nabbed second from Raikkonen, and Raikkonen went off, losing third place to Jenson Button with Hamilton right behind him.

AND BASICALLY I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING BECAUSE RAIKKONEN JUST ENDED UP EIGHTH. FROM SECOND.

And someone he just tumbled the hell down to 12th with both Saubers nearly hitting him going by. The team blamed the marbles but that does not make any sense.

Jenson took second place from Sebastian with four laps to go. Vettel ended up losing positions to Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber as well.

Rosberg’s win was the first for Mercedes in forever but obviously they didn’t have a team for a lot of that time, blah blah blah.

Only one car didn’t finish the race, and nobody crashed into each other badly! Hooray!

» Continue reading “Chinese GP Recap: Nico Rosberg Finally Wins A Race”

Nico Rosberg has finally managed to take pole position after many seasons of coming so close and yet never getting there. Because of Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox switch penalty, the first row will be all Mercedes, with Michael Schumacher starting second. Hamilton will now start seventh, behind Mark Webber and his teammate, Jenson Button.

It’s the first pole position for Mercedes since 1955.

Sauber once again had a strong showing, and Kamui Kobayashi will start third. Sergio Perez will start in the eighth spot.

It was not a good qualifying session for Sebastian Vettel, who could not make it out of Q2. For some reason, this surprises everyone to the point of obnoxiousness. If it’s so hard for you to tell one season from another, perhaps you should find other ways to amuse yourself on ocassion.

Times in Q2 were incredibly close together, making it quite obvious there was going to have to be at least one big name knocked out. Both Williams and both Force India cars were also out after this session.

HRT was well within the 107% rule for once, although Pedro de la Rosa was reprimanded for blocking, as was Williams driver Pastor Maldonado.

Race begins at 3am, I am going back to sleep. Full grid follows!
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
2. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
3. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
5. Jenson Button, McLaren
6. Mark Webber, Red Bull
7. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
8. Sergio Perez, Sauber
9. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
10. Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1
» Continue reading “Nico Rosberg Takes Pole For Mercedes In China”

Sorry this is so late, I thought I was going to be downtown for about 2 hours max and it turned into 4 1/2 rather quickly.

Thursday April 12
First Practice Session: 10:00pm

Friday April 13
Second Practice Session: 2:00am
Third Practice Session: 11:00pm

Saturday April 14
Qualifying: 2:00am

Sunday April 15
Race: 3:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 2:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com. All times eastern.

Last year’s winner: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren

What to expect: First and foremost, last year’s winner will be starting off with a five grid spot penalty for a gearbox change. Secondly, Lotus lodged a protest regarding Mercedes’ f-duct wing. The FIA deemed it once again to be legal, and the matter was unanimously rejected by the stewards. So seriously guys, jsut suck it up and make your own now.

Weather: Weather looks to be overcast, maybe rainy for the first two practice sessions, and then possibly rainy Sunday morning. It shouldn’t be a problem. Temperatures are forecasted to be mild, in the 60s.

Tires: Tire compounds for the race will be the white/mediums and yellow/softs. Tire strategy played a huge role in last year’s race and we should expect the same thing once again. A three stop strategy may be the way to go, as it worked last year.

DRS: The same DRS zone as last year will be used again. The detection zone will be at turn 12, with the activation zone the back straight.

Check back here for updates on practice and qualifying, I’m not sure I will make it to the second session, but I’ll have you covered in the morning!

Lewis Hamilton helped McLaren maintain their top spot over the rest of the grid during the first two practice sessions from Sepang. Despite rain in the area, both sessions were completely dry.

In the first session, Hamilton was half a second faster than Sebastian Vettel, with both Mercedes drivers coming in under a second slower than the McLaren.

It was still tough times for HRT. Narain Karthikeyan stopped on track with a gearbox problem, and both him and Pedro de la Rosa was over seven seconds off the pace.

The second session had a bit of a mix up of cars behind Hamilton, but the top four were all Mercedes powered cars. Michael Schumacher was second, Jenson Button third, and Nico Rosberg fourth.

Daniel Ricciardo was a surprise in fifth place, and plenty of drivers complained about a lack of grip. There were plenty of offs and tire degradation to be seen.

Speaking of tires, Pirelli asked on Twitter if people had problems telling the difference between the white and silver tires stripes. I had problems with this until they revealed something that would have been useful to know earlier: while the white comes off as silver to me, the actual silver blends into the black of the tire. Once there’s a good enough look at it, it makes it a lot easier. Of course, the easiest would be to use a live timing app.