This season has seen Heikki Kovalainen have a sizable accident at the Spanish Grand Prix, the wheel clamp being blamed for the Finn’s impact with the tyre barrier at Circuit de Catalunya. Again, the driver was air-lifted to hospital for checks, although thankfully suffered no injury. And today during the Turkish Grand Prix, both drivers suffered tyre problems that led Bridgestone to insist on the team adopting a three-stop strategy. Although it wasn’t the best way to run the race, Lewis Hamilton was able to safely negotiate his way into second place, and had Heikki Kovalainen not suffered a contact-induced puncture, he too may have finished in a better position, possibly even on the podium with Hamilton.

And with Lewis we had a bit of a structural concern on the tyres which we discovered in practice and we discussed it with Bridgestone and took a decision on safety to run three stops.

There was some internal delamination which Bridgestone were very good at picking up. We didn’t want to have any tyre failure. It was possibly okay to run two stops, but it was a bit more severe on Lewis’ and we put drivers’ safety first. Ron Dennis.

The team have said that the tyre problem they suffered in Istanbul today affected Hamilton’s car more, implying the Finn handles his tyres better. And looking at the two drivers history’s, you’d have to agree. Kovalainen rarely gets mentioned for over-cooking his boots, while Hamilton is more often [than Heikki] in the press for struggling on worn rubber.

This doesn’t mean Hamilton is a poorer driver than his team mate, as the problem could simply be the car. And I seem to remember Fernando Alonso having a couple of grumbles in 2007 about the McLaren and it’s abilities to use the tyres well. However, Kovalainen seems, so far, to be handling the problem better. But shouldn’t McLaren be sorting this out?

Had the silver cars been able to stop only twice in Turkey, their race could have been much stronger. Lewis showed he just about had the pace of the Ferrari’s, both he and Felipe Massa shared fastest laps during one stint. The pace is clearly available for the McLaren’s, but whether or not it is accessible is another question…

Update: Bridgestone have now stated that the problem really lies with Hamilton more than themselves. According to their statement, they had worked on strengthening the tyre over the winter due to problems faced by many drivers at last year’s Turkish Grand Prix. But this weekend has really only seen the problem reoccur on Hamilton’s McLaren. The team have said that Heikki Kovalainen also suffered slightly, implying that it is partly Hamilton and his driving style, and partly the car.

He had a specific problem last year, most noticeably, but several other drivers we noticed had internal tyre problems. Based on that, we changed the construction and strengthened it over the winter period and then brought those tyres to all the races this year.

In actual fact, nobody else has had a repetition of any of those problems this year, with the exception of Lewis. He is the one driver who perhaps with his style of driving has put higher forces onto his front right tyre. Bridgestone Spokesperson.

Lewis Hamilton endured a tougher weekend, qualifying going less well due to his choice of tyres, and in the post-race press conference the Briton admitted to being forced to use certain compounds for certain lengths of time due to Bridgestone fearing a tyre failure could be the result of only stopping twice. Comparing the F2008 to the MP4-23, you have to say Maranello are doing a lot better than Woking at the moment! Certainly on the tyres at any rate.

BMW improved their qualifying form to finish in fourth and fifth, Robert Kubica once again getting the better of Nick Heidfeld. However, considering the Swiss-German squad started the season with podiums and pole, fourth and fifth suddenly doesn’t look so good. Robert Kubica drove reasonably well from fifth on the grid, but if the team really want to be fighting for victories, they need to find a little more pace in their F1.08. Heidfeld drove a very quiet race, and about halfway through (after pitstops) he managed to find himself in fifth. Considering the German started his afternoon in ninth, a points-paying position at the chequered flag is a good result for himself and BMW.

Heikki Kovalainen didn’t do quite so well, despite lighting the track up in qualifying. From the front row, Kovalainen had a poor start in comparison to those around him and lost out to Kubica and Hamilton. He also picked up a puncture from Kimi Raikkonen as the pair made light contact going through T1, for which the Finn needed to pit for a new tyre. This effectively ruined Kovalainen’s race, and by the end of lap 58 he had climbed up to twelfth place, one lap down.

During the race however, Kovalainen had some fun with Nico Rosberg and Timo Glock. The German Toyota driver showed his credentials when attacked by Kovalainen, the pair having a great battle in the final complex of corners. Raw power won in the end, but the moves each driver pulled were both respectful and fun. Later on in the race, Kovalainen was to repeat his efforts in the final set of turns, this time with Nico Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton also made a few fans stand up and take notice as the young McLaren driver charged his way past Felipe Massa on lap 24. Going into T9, Lewis dived up the inside and took control of the racing line. Massa did begin to move in but relinquished the line and the position when he realised just how far into the apex Hamilton was. While the move was textbook stuff, it gained applause perhaps because we we haven’t seen any real passing moves in a while.

Unfortunately for Lewis, is race was effectively ruined by the tyres and therefore the strategy he had to go with. The team changed him to a three-stopper, and stint of fastest lap-sharing with Felipe Massa allowed him to maintain second place as the race drew to a close. However, Ferrari clearly had the pace at today’s grand prix, and McLaren will have to work hard during the next few events to reclaim the margin Ferrari have over them.

Further down the finishing order, Fernando Alonso drove well to sixth, and Mark Webber gained yet more points for Red Bull by finishing in seventh. Whatever the Australian is doing for luck right now, he’d do well to continue it! Jarno Trulli also did an okay job to collect the remaining point of the day, also having a relatively quiet afternoon and keeping himself to himself.

Sebastian Vettel should be celebrating this evening, the German finally finishing a race, albeit in last position. The young STR driver has gained a bit of a reputation in recent races for not being able to get past lap one, but today he completed all 58. Unfortunately for the team, Sebastien Bourdais had a silly moment and retired his car on lap 26. We are still awaiting official reason for the retirement, but suffice to say it looks like a mechanical failure led to Bourdais’s STR being beached in the gravel and unable to continue. If it was a driver error, then it was a very embarrassing one for Bourdais.

Adrian Sutil also completed the full race distance, finishing ahead of Vettel as well. Although Force India once again lost their star driver early on, Giancarlo Fisichella being involved in the only lap-one-turn-one incident. From the footage shown, it looks as though Fisichella simply forgot to brake and drive straight into the back of Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams. However, from what I saw, I would suggest it isn’t entirely Fisichella’s fault, as I could clearly see another car to Nakajima’s left being forced to swerve around the Williams, implying Nakajima braked early (possibly for good reason) and Giancarlo had nowhere to go. I’ll go out on a limb and say it was a racing incident, but it did mean both Fisichella and Nakajima retired on the spot.

Only three retirees at Istanbul Park means 2008 is becoming another reliable season. Spain only saw one driver not finish, although there were two less cars running in Turkey; Super Aguri no longer competing in the sport. Rubens Barrichello completed the race and now holds the record of the driver with the most Grand Prix starts: 257. And Nelson Piquet Jr. continues to disappoint, finishing in fourteenth in the same Renault that Alonso took sixth place with.

Turkey 2008: Race Results

It was reported in The Daily Mirror that Lewis had parted with $30,000, approximately £15,000 and more than seven times the fee asked for by the GPDA to join. The Briton had stated that he hasn’t joined the organisation because, at the time in his rookie year in Formula One, wanted to concentrate on racing. A fair reason, many thought, but more experienced drivers like Jarno Trulli have been openly critical of those not joining recently, which may have prompted the goodwill gesture.

Skip forward 24 hours to the end of qualifying, in which Hamilton looked annoyed with himself, and the McLaren driver has now allegedly denied donating the money to the GPDA. And you know what, even if he hasn’t donated the money, he really didn’t want to openly say so! It’s called bad-PR, and whether or not you think any PR good PR, well, sometimes there’s not quite so good PR.

If the original reporting that Lewis has made a donation was a simple ruse to get the driver to donate, then maybe Lewis should have actually done that. I’m sure he can afford £15k, and it would have helped ease the criticism from other drivers and Formula One employees and reporters.

Oh, and to those that think any PR is good PR:

BBC video of Lewis Hamilton flying.

Lewis Hamilton really needs to hire a separate company to deal with his non-McLaren activities, like this embarrassing scenario which was concocted up by Vodafone. Even Hamilton himself has admitted to being slightly embarrassed by his on-stage stint.

BMW & Red Bull

It seems that BMW are dropping slightly from their fine season-starting form. Podiums and a pole raised spirits in the Swiss-German pit box, but recently they have under-whelmed in qualifying. Robert Kubica will start tomorrow’s race from fifth, while Nick Heidfeld could only manage ninth. However, quickly climbing the grid-ladder are Red Bull, who managed to get both drivers into Q3 this time around. Mark Webber and David Coulthard each competed for the grid positions for the entire session, and despite almost destroying one chassis yesterday, Mark Webber got the better of his team mate. Sixth for the Australian, tenth for the Scot.

Renault & Toyota

Renault have clearly improved the pace of the R28, which we all witnessed in Barcelona two weeks ago. However, the proof of the pudding is how the car wold behave around a different track, and seventh and seventeenth is a far cry from second and tenth. Toyota are another team who are experiencing mixed-fortunes at the moment. Like Renault, the Japanese team have one very experienced driver and one (in essence) rookie. Jarno Trulli managed to get his TF108 into eighth, even staying ahead of Heidfeld in the BMW. However, Timo Glock couldn’t get past Q2 and finished in fifteenth.

I just couldn’t get the set-up right so I had some trouble with understeer and oversteer. That meant the car was difficult to drive and I could not repeat the same lap times that I did at the beginning of the session. Maybe there was something strange happening with the wind on the track but that’s the same for everyone. Jarno Trulli.

Williams & Honda

Eleventh and sixteenth is not where Williams really want to be at the moment, the team having had a great first race of the season have managed to slide backwards ever since. The drivers look much more comfortable in the race, but qualifying is proving to be a real hindrance at the moment. Honda also appear to be holding station, and the experience of both drivers meaning they have again qualified quite close to one another. Jenson Button will start the race in thirteenth, just behind his record-breaking team mate Rubens Barrichello.

Scuderia Toro Rosso & Force India

Still awaiting their new STR3 car, Scuderia Toro Rosso continue to charge around in their modified 2007 motor. However both drivers have, in the past, shown what can be done with the old car and occasionally surprise in testing and practice. Come race day though, and the team need to find some reliability. And not just from the car either, but also the drivers. Qualifying in fourteenth and eighteenth (Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais respectively) will not help matters, especially as Vettel appears to be getting tangled up with other mid-fielders with some regularity at the moment. And according to Bourdais, this has spilled over to qualifying as well.

Bad traffic, basically the Force India guys, ruined my afternoon: on my first run I was held up by Sutil as early as Turn 3 and on the second, I came up behind Fisichella in Turn 8.

Everyone seems to behave quite well in qualifying, but I don’t know what those guys were doing on their out laps. It was a bit surprising. Sebastien Bourdais.

Force India came to Turkey with the continuation of the their goal: to get out of Q1. And again, both drivers struggled, made to look even worse with the demise of Super Aguri; Force India now occupy the last row of the grid. Despite being at the back, both drivers are relatively upbeat about their prospects for the race tomorrow.

I did a clean lap and the team did a good job with the car. The balance is not bad, but we just need more grip and more downforce to move forward with the grid position. I am looking forward to a better race tomorrow. Giancarlo Fisichella.

On the last set of tyres I couldn’t improve my time and didn’t get the grip I expected and locked up into turn 12, but it was not so bad overall. From a performance perspective, to better the practice pace and to get close to the rest of the field is positive. Adrian Sutil.

Turkey 2008: Qualifying Results

*Giancaro Fisichella was penalised during the morning Free Practice session for running a red light in the pitlane. His penalty was a three grid slot demotion. Therefore, for tomorrow’s race the Italian will start behind his German team mate, Adrian Sutil.

And Barrichello has a nice glitzy splash-screen up on his website: Rubens Barrichello’s Official Site. Although, when I say ‘nice’ I’m just being polite. It’s a bit bling…

Images courtesy of HondaF1 and Rubens Barrichello.

We can’t afford to lose teams and I think they [Super Aguri] showed a lot of character, a lot of effort in the last couple of years but circumstances prevailed and they were not able to carry on. It was a shame they could not find the funding to continue.

What I saw was Nick [Fry] making big efforts at time to keep the project alive, beyond any reason for us, it was because of the connection of Aguri with Honda. Nick did a lot of work to try and find a viable solution for Aguri. Ross Brawn.

Currently, Ross runs the Honda Formula One operation. He has done so since late last year and arrived at Brackley after a decade of limelight-basking in Maranello. So when his current employer gets caught up in the possible failure of its satellite team, you’d think, being experienced and all, he might get involved. For sure, he wouldn’t be able to devote much time to the cause, but you would think he would have concerns. But really, we don’t know if Brawn does or does not. And this is because he has hardly uttered a word about Super Aguri since this all kicked off.

When Brawn arrived at Honda, he stated he would be making small, minor changes to help the team initially. Ross’s approach is very methodical and concise. I suspect the man has a very large checklist somewhere (perhaps in his head) that he goes through, even for the simplest of tasks. And I’m starting to wonder if the removal of Super Aguri from Honda’s bank balance was one of those things on his list. Admittedly, this isn’t a small, minor change. But it would help Brawn in his job if he was given more of a budget to play with (remember, he’s used to blank cheques from Fiat) and was able to solely focus on the efforts of his own team, both on track and politically in the background.

If, and that is quite possibly the second-largest ‘if’ I’ve made on this site, Ross was the reason behind Super Aguri receiving substantially less support this year, then I have a lot of respect for the man. Not because he’s removed a bottom-of-the-grid team from championship (that loses respect), but because he would have managed to do it and get all targets pointing at Nick Fry while he can freely walk around the media saying how sad it all is.

Whether Brawn was a key Honda-side player in the demise of Super Aguri or not, we will never likely know, and Aguri Suzuki appears to be very annoyed with Nick Fry at the moment, so maybe I am reading between the lines too much. But you have to admit, if Brawn was involved, he did well to save face and dodge bullets.

Image courtesy of HondaF1.

David Coulthard in the sister Red Bull did well to improve to fourth, while Heikki Kovalainen and Kazuki Nakajima managed to keep similar pace from the morning and go fifth and eighth respectively. Robert Kubica improved to sixth in the BMW, while Nick Heidfeld slipped from seventh to tenth after lunch.

The times are all quite tight, with Raikkonen and Hamilton leading with similar pace and only two seconds separating the top drivers from the those at the bottom, Adrian Sutil aside, that is. Other drivers to take detours were Timo Glock, who slid on the slightly damp track at T4 and damaged his front wing while trying to rejoin the track, and Sebastien Bourdais who also had a lucky escape when he slid on a kerb at T9. The Toro Rosso was undamaged in the incident.

Turkey Friday Practice Two

Last week Jarno Trulli took a swipe at those drivers who didn’t take part in the GPDA, saying that they were not interested in safety concerns, and Mark Webber has criticised Hamilton in the past. Speaking to Reuters, the Toyota driver had this to say:

Every driver should be a member because we are talking about our safety. You want to contribute. Everyone should have his own opinion, we are listening to everybody and trying to follow the best for all of us, not for one of us. [...]

If you don’t want to be part of the GPDA, it just means that you don’t want to be part of the safety improvement. [...]

I don’t want to oblige anybody but everyone who is driving an F1 car should be responsible enough to understand what is happening and why GPDA was born and what it is doing.

And apparently, there are some who don’t really care and this is what is upsetting me because they are ignoring the situation. They get in the car and benefit from the work of everybody else and from the money that everybody else has put in. Jarno Trulli.

Felipe Massa’s decision to leave the group was put down to the way it was run. Massa told Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, that he did agree with the work they do, just not the way everything was organised.

I agree with the good things the GPDA does and I was part of it, but I left because I didn’t always like the way it was run. Felipe Massa.

Ultimately, I feel it is up to the drivers if they want to be involved or not. Some drivers, like perhaps Raikkonen, simply couldn’t care about what the GPDA are doing. I’m not suggesting that is actually what he thinks, but given that he often says he won’t be around in the sport for too long, I get the distinct impression Kimi just wants to get on with his driving. Opposing this though are drivers like David Coulthard and Mark Webber, who fervently believe the safety aspect of the sport should be continuously improved. Both sides are right. Therefore, I think it should be up to the drivers. And it is. So perhaps Trulli should focus on his driving and the actual aspect of raising matters of safety rather than whining about other drivers?