(NB you must have seen the movie “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” to get that reference)

And why could’t they be used in free practice? The regulations do not say anything about free fractice.Ferrari believes the old units will still be suitable for use in practice sessions at later races that is exactly what their statement says (and that’s what has attracted my attention). As far as I know nobody from the FIA denied that statement.

Parc ferme starts when the car leaves the pit lane for the first time in quali until the start of the race.
so the engine was changed sunday morning and that was, by definition, in parc ferme conditions.
Such an engine cannot be used for any quali or race with the exception of the last.

Because the rule doesn’t mention anything else then this engine can be used for ANY FP of ANY race weekend.

So in Australia they can do the whole FP1/2/3 with the engines used in FP1/2/3+Q in Bahrein. Came the saturday lunch time, they unmount the engine and re-use the racing engine from Bahrain for quali and race…

In fact another way to put 28-4 (e) is: If you change your engine between the beginning of quali and the beginning of the race then you will never ever use again this engine for a quali or a race with the exception of the last one. (and they don’t care about that because they never intented to!!!

So in half of the races their race engines will have less milage than the others, and in the other half they will have as much…
I’m afraid Luca (to my huge disappointment) doen’t need me.

Ago, Article 34.1 contains the parc fermé restrictions. Since parc fermé only applies between qualifying and the race, then that is when the case you’ve quoted functions.

Engines changed over before qualifying (be it in free practise or the two-hour gap between the last practise session and qualifying) can be used at any time afterwards because nothing in the regulations prevents that occurrence. You might have been quite explicit in your mathematics, but sadly Ferrari does not appear to have taken them into consideration when making its statement. If Ferrari had been truly smart they would have followed your advice – hopefully henceforth they shall do so.

Ones changed after qualifying (as Ferrari did in Bahrain) can only be used at the final race of the season (for the whole weekend, be it free practise, qualifying or the race). They can’t be used in free practises until that race. One race does not signify a plural.

Teams don’t need a justification to change an engine (unless the team has a particularly rebellious bunch of mechanics, in which case it has bigger problems), though I think it was useful in this case because it suggests that the engine could be re-used and it hasn’t simply broken or exceeded its mileage capacity (both of which would suggest a major problem in the long run).

In short, you and Ferrari said different things. You got it right, Ferrari got it wrong. Maybe you should ask Luca di Montezemelo to hire your services as a regulation reader-cum-strategist

Do you read anything about Free Practices? I don’t.
Am I wrong? Do I miss something?
I was quite explicit writing FP1+FP2+FP3=Q+Race…
About the “abnormal readings” : This is what they say, but nothing in the regulations says you have to justify yourself for changing an engine. You can do what you want with your 8 engines…

Icing on the cake announcing it on the sunday morning put all other teams on their backfoot… Total surprise, too late to react for anybody else
Smart guys I think… But maybe there really was a problem, we’ll see.

And I think that for one of my teams I’ll just take your picks for the previous race since you’ve demonstrated your skill at this game last year.

It certainly was

Let me draw a parallel. In disability swimming, the competitors are largely capable of carrying a drinks bottle if they want one in the race preparation area (analogous to the F1 grid, consisting of a seated waiting area with competitors arranged by event, race and lane; connected to the side of the pool where the race is due to start) and don’t need umbrellas. However, no team would consider sending a swimmer down to poolside without having a coach or management assistant help prepare them in the immediate run-up to competition (in fact, they’re known in swimming parlance as “escorts” because one of their roles is to escort swimmers to and from poolside and through the administrative elements of the competition). Note: this applies even if the gala is a regional one involving only teams from a handful of counties and run on a shoestring.

To compete at your best, you need to get yourself into your peak physical and mental state by the time the race starts. What the escort does in disability swimming is:

- remind the swimmer of what is required (ranging from “get to the other end of the pool and stay on your front until you hit the wall” to advanced tactical discussions of when exactly to put the hammer down and technique improvement sessions)

- keep the swimmer calm (some competitors can get very over-excited and/or scared of apparently-faster opponents, especially if they’re new)

- make sure they’re alert and attentive (otherwise you get false starts, slow starts and general sluggishness)

- assuage any worries the swimmer may have (a moany swimmer is a slow swimmer)

- check they’re actually using the bottle they’ve brought with them (I admit to forgetting that sometimes)

- check the swimmer is remembering to keep warm and doing any appropriate stretching to prepare

- check the swimmer is in the right place at the right time in the right gear (swimming in the T-shirt and flip-flops usually worn over swimming gear while awaiting a race is generally inadvisable and swimming in the wrong lane gets you weird looks and/or disqualified)

- check the swimmer remains in compliance with the gala rules and is/continues to be in a fit state to attempt to compete (no gala organiser wants to be compelled to activate a drowning alarm…)

- interact with officials (the press aren’t allowed in the race preparation area even for big galas, but there are still volunteers who ensure a smooth flow of participants)

The list of things a racing driver might conceivably need help with is somewhat longer than that of a swimmer. Although the team has to send a bunch of people over to the grid anyway, they’re mechanics. Not only have they got lots of responsibility preparing a car that has, if anything, even more requirements in order to be race-ready, but they’re not trained to do some of the things the driver’s physio needs to do to prepare their driver.

If a swimming gala ever said escorts could not accompany their swimmers to the race preparation area, there wouldn’t be a swimmer boycott of the preparation area – the teams would simply refuse to send swimmers in the first place or not register/withdraw the team if already entered. The gala would collapse and the organisers, if they outlasted the financial hit, would take careful note to reverse the ruling before attempting to organise another gala. This despite the fact that a gala organiser is entitled to make such a rule change without notice unless it’s affiliated with a governing body which says otherwise.

Contractually, the teams can’t do that (not only would they lose a portion of their TV money, but the FIA could find them guilty of refusing to race as a protest and possibly throw them out of the championship). So the nearest thing possible for the teams and drivers without causing a huge ruckus is what they’re doing now – putting their drivers in a place where they can prepare properly until such time as they are obliged to go to the area where their physios can’t follow. That’s why I’m completely in favour of what the drivers and teams have decided to do in this instance.

Make each car run three sets of tires.

Start out on softs, change to hards when needed and end the race on a second set of softs.

Consider the possibilities with this type of mandatory rule for every one. Start out on softs and run them until lack of performance requires a change. Run the middle and longest stint on hards posistioning yourself to make the right decision at the right time with regards to going back onto softs for the last bit of the race.
When to do this and how to do this and getting the most out of this becomes a strategy that could really spice up the end of a race. Light on fuel with tires that may offer the maximum in performance and raise the level of challenger versus challenger at the end of an event.

The well oiled pit crew gets a reward for their practice, the team and its drivers get a shot at stretching the machinery and the viewers get to see F1 as it should be, the best drivers and the best teams challenging each other for victory.

My example is simple at best and would work at all tracks and in most weather conditions. This slight variation to the rules has potential to raise the interest level substantially and everything is already in place.

Tell Bernie I want to see “SOFT HARD SOFT”.

Sounds like you’ve been busy In my case I say 4 weeks because it felt as long as the gap between Hungary and Valencia last year. That said, last year the real 4-week gap was almost entirely without incident whereas so much happened to me over the winter that I had little time to notice the passage of time.

I managed to miss that somehow, but I’m pleased he’s content. I can’t imagine he’s that content, being without a drive and all. But, he’s in the Ferrari garage, wearing a red uniform and helping a team he so clearly loves. {Ollie – 5 comments ago}

Well, the bit where I could see Fisi’s contentment was a 15-second garage cutaway from the action about 20 minutes before the end of Free Practise 1; it would have been easy to miss, especially if you had a job or similar (which despite considerable effort, I still haven’t managed to acquire). The expression when the camera first went to him definitely implied contentment (and concentration on an overhead monitor) rather than full-blown happiness… …but then he noticed what the camera was looking at and waved at the camera

I don’t suppose you have any contact details for Fisichella’s management, do you? The email address supplied on his website doesn’t work, and I’ve been trying to contact someone from his team since he switched to Ferrari last year. And for the record, Ferrari are hopeless at getting back to me with the correct information. If you do have some more current details that you are okay with sharing, feel free to pop them in an email to me or submit via the contact form. {Ollie – 5 comments ago}

Apparently you have managed to get the website to load (assuming it’s the new one; anything on the previous version of the website will have been made obsolete by the February refurbishment), which is more than I’ve managed to do so far (the only part that does anything on my computer yet is the forum, though I imagine that will change – it was about 3.5 years between me discovering the previous site and getting it to load). However, I do have a possible lead, which I’ll share through the contact form.

I have to say that the lack of contact from Ferrari does not exactly surprise me. They never were a team which put that sort of communication high on the agenda (they seem to prefer other, less interactive varieties like autograph sessions for club members).

I do believe these folks are quite smart and they are going to use specific engines for the FP1/2/3. I have not done a serious check but in Bahrain FP1+FP2+FP3 = (more or less) Q+Race. What attracted my attention was their Press Release being quite specific about the fact the engines could be used again in FP’s… From the top of my head I can’t remember having read anything like that before (from any team) {Ago – 2 comments ago}

That’s because Ferrari are wrong. They can re-use those engines, but because they changed them after qualifying, they can only do so for the final race. Had they remembered to do so before qualifying, they could have re-used the engines for any session they liked in future (provided, of course, that the “abnormal readings” did not break the engines when next run).

A couple of other things..

(1) I do not believe for a second that Ferrari had any sort of issue with their engines. I do believe these folks are quite smart and they are going to use specific engines for the FP1/2/3. I have not done a serious check but in Bahrain FP1+FP2+FP3 = (more or less) Q+Race. What attracted my attention was their Press Release being quite specific about the fact the engines could be used again in FP’s… From the top of my head I can’t remember having read anything like that before (from any team). If that is going to be the case then their race engines will have twice less milage than the others… Looks to me like not only McL can read the regulations in details…

(2) I know it’s only the first race and jumping to conclusions might prove wrong… however I find interesting to notice that the RBR and the Ferrari’s were increasing their lead at every lap (20s at lap15)… Even Lewis when he was able to “overtake” Nico will only reduce the gap from 17.5s (l20) to 15.3 (l.32)… Well 2,2s in 12 laps that is not much as it will have taken him 89 laps to come back… and Lewis is not what I call a slow guy!

Claire I’m 50+ and not prepared to have anybody telling me what I can say or not… That only happened to me when I was a kid, or when I was married

Running heavy cars on tires that are almost worn out after a few laps says something about the impending danger.

But as we saw in Bahrain, the Bridgestone compounds offered to the teams lasted a lot longer than we expected. Some say, myself included, too long.

Has anyone information if Vettles race was resultant of a fuel-weight- performance problem. Did he have to run it that hard?

The last I heard, it was a problem with Renault, and given Vettel spent most of his race in clean air, it wouldn’t suggest a driver pushing the engine overly hard. I’m not an expert, but I would conclude it was a mechanical issue over a driver-influenced problem.

As for Bahrain the new section was completely an utter mess. Pave over that entire section and paint the words in gigantic letters…” DUMB IDEA AREA “

That, good sir, is a great idea.

Shame on Bahrain

It felt like four weeks between Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

Seriously? Wow. It felt like 4 years for me! Having said that though, I think time is a little warped in my universe. I’ve been seeing a girl since January and the past 2.5 months have flown by in terms of that. But F1 definitely dragged until last Friday morning.

Being unable to get any form of live timing working until Sunday was a downer

I was following your difficulties on Sidepodcast. I’m pleased it all got sorted in the end though.

I have a huge amount of respect for him [Chandhok].

Likewise. He did the least running over the weekend, but I think he gained the most support.

The best I can say for the race is that I got a third of the way through the Jenson Button book I’ve been meaning to read since Christmas.

At least you managed to stay in a Formula One frame of mind.

He looked content there, which satisfied me that all the strange turns of fate and decisions he’d made in his career had been worth it; he’d ended up where he wanted to be and the happiness he thought he’d experience there was real and not just imagined.

I managed to miss that somehow, but I’m pleased he’s content. I can’t imagine he’s that content, being without a drive and all. But, he’s in the Ferrari garage, wearing a red uniform and helping a team he so clearly loves.

I should explain that Fisi was my favourite driver of the 2000s

I don’t suppose you have any contact details for Fisichella’s management, do you? The email address supplied on his website doesn’t work, and I’ve been trying to contact someone from his team since he switched to Ferrari last year. And for the record, Ferrari are hopeless at getting back to me with the correct information. If you do have some more current details that you are okay with sharing, feel free to pop them in an email to me or submit via the contact form.

I was surprised about how little “new term” feel I felt. It felt like four weeks between Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. I’m not sure how much of this is because I came into it doing two-and-a-half months of blogging about motorsport every single day (something I’ve never managed before), how much because, for the first time, my first seriously-followed professional motorsport event of the year wasn’t F1 and how much is not being particularly enthusiastic about any of the driver/team changes being hyped. (I would speculate on the role Fisi not being in a F1 car had to do with it, but when Damon Hill retired* the 2000 season felt more rather than less “new term” for it…)

It was good to get live commenting again, but because I’ve been talking a lot to most of my fellow commenters over the winter, there was little sense of a new season; rather, it was more like the companionable exchange of banter between long-term friends at an event that proved to be less than thrilling.

Being unable to get any form of live timing working until Sunday was a downer, especially considering I only watched practise sessions online (qualifying and racing are usually watched with my parents at the TV, which is the opposite end of the house from my desktop computer). There were some interesting narratives from the practise sessions, with the saga of Karun Chandhok being the most exciting. I’m not one of his supporters yet, but at this rate I can see it happening in a few races time and meanwhile I have a huge amount of respect for him.

Qualifying was interesting and somewhat exciting, especially when I noticed Sutil was on a different strategy to everyone else. Unfortunately by then it was also becoming clear that the new section of track’s only virtue was the Turn 6 bump. When the Crown Prince of Bahrain said he wanted to remove it for the 2011 race, I felt rather annoyed. Also squelching the excitement was the lack of meaningful gridwalk, caused by Bernie getting his priorities wrong when issuing passes.

The best I can say for the race is that I got a third of the way through the Jenson Button book I’ve been meaning to read since Christmas. After the first couple of laps were over, not much happened unless you were a Vettel or Massa supporter. Since I am not really either, I just felt a sense of detachment.

So this weekend didn’t feel that special because it didn’t feel like returning to work. More like continuing work during a special project that proved to be rather less special than hyped. That said, I did see one moment that made me glad I stuck through it all. There was a point late in Friday morning free practise when the camera did one of its many “random pit garage shot” bits. This time, it was the Ferrari garage shown – and I spotted Fisi there (he was pretty difficult to miss, since he noticed the camera was on him and waved at it ) He looked content there, which satisfied me that all the strange turns of fate and decisions he’d made in his career had been worth it; he’d ended up where he wanted to be and the happiness he thought he’d experience there was real and not just imagined. As a supporter of him, having visual confirmation of that made the whole weekend worthwhile.

* – I should explain that Fisi was my favourite driver of the 2000s and Damon my favourite driver of the 1990s. I know their careers overlapped, but that’s a story for another time…

Hi Ollie!

Bonjour Ago! Long time no speak.

Well “from the beginning to the end” in fact! makes more sense doesn’t it

Of course. I didn’t bother cleaning it up as it gave a good example of how these online translators, although absolutely ghastly, can still get the point across.

It is always interesting for a fan to see what happens with new regulations, so we know a little bit more now, but I think it will take 2 or 3 other races before we can see what these guys can do…

I agree. I think rushing into these things with quick fixes is not the way forward. Too many times in the past (under Mosley’s reign) this happened with questionable results. So far though, Jean Todt has been quite good in his role. We haven’t heard too much from him on the Formula One front, but then we don’t have to and in fact, probably shouldn’t. This will be a good test for him though. I await to hear what the FIA have to say.

One/two Ferrari, Fernando winner, looks like a good start of the season to me

It was a very good result for Alonso, and a storming drive once he moved ahead of Vettel. It was like watching the Alonso of old, when he was younger and in his first stint at Renault. I think I’m going to enjoy watching the Spaniard this year, but I hope the other drivers and teams don’t make it too easy for him.

Because if you are over a certain age, you can’t say lol.

Well this 28-year old is lolling. lol.

The race: It is always interesting for a fan to see what happens with new regulations, so we know a little bit more now, but I think it will take 2 or 3 other races before we can see what these guys can do…

Amazing to see it takes a race for all these geniuses to realise the tyres are not what they thought it was. Have they not learnt a thing between the 15 days of test, plus the FPs and the quali???
It seems that once again it’s only after they changed the rules that they realise the changes are not really going well… lol
One/two Ferrari, Fernando winner, looks like a good start of the season to me

it emerged that some team members within McLaren, among them Alonso, were aware of confidential information belonging to the Ferrari team. This information was commented on to Alonso by McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa who had also received information from McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan. The email contained text suggesting that Alonso was surprised by the data and doubted its authenticity. According to the “spygate” related email exchanges between Alonso and de la Rosa, it was clear that Alonso knew about Ferrari’s pit strategies in the Australian Grand Prix and Bahrain Grand Prix. Alonso finished 2nd and 5th respectively in those races – Wikipedia

I know that Wikipedia isn’t the most reliable source but my dad’s at work and I don’t trust the internet.
Oh and the reason I almost cried was because I (Think) I’m in love with Sebastian Vettel (If it keeps me from killing Mr Jones and Mr Penhale in anger of them always criticizing me not matter how much I try, peeps (People, for the older generation) should be alright.)

Just please, for the love of all that is decent and proper, stay away from Brundle so I don’t have to put up with it on the otherside of the television.

Thank you for making me laugh after a looooooooooooooooooong day at school (Don’t people get the picture? I’m not a gangsta anymore, I’m a ninja) (Don’t ask)

Having read the articles from the team bosses I think it’s good they are looking to improve the show and also agree it’s probably best to wait a couple more races before deciding to make any changes as they could make it worse or the next couple might be better.

Something has to change though, 19 rounds like Bahrain and audience numbers will drop considerably I reckon.

It seems that having to preserve tyres, engines and gearboxes leaves the drivers with very little opportunity to actually race.

It was quite a let down, wasn’t it!

We need to give it a bit of time though, see how it goes over the next few races but having Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Massa, Schumacher, Vettel etc would seem pointless if they can’t get anywhere near the car in front to attempt a pass!

Mark Webber summed it up best when he said he was fed of following Mercedes power the whole race with no chance of passing.

Thanks for kind words and for copying comment over from Facebook.