Grid Penalties for Fernando & Ricciardo

Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull have been slapped with massive grid penalties for the Austrian F1 Grand Prix on 21st June, 2015.

Fernando Alonso has gone beyond the permitted 4 engines and is now using the 5th engine. That automatically gets 10 place starting grid penalty. However, Alonso apart from using his 5th Honda engine is now on the 5th turbocharger and 5th MGU-H. The later two attracts 5 place grid penalty each totaling upto 20 grid point penalties for Fernando Alonso. Since his McLaren is too slow and is most likely to qualify barely before the two Manor Marussia racing cars and if luck permits then before his teammate Jenson Button and any other unfortunate racer to have a qualifying problem, he cannot consume all his grid penalties. So he is likely to be slapped with time penalties in the race by giving 10 second stop go penalty. Given that McLaren with its Honda engine is in such bad shape, does it actually matter where Alonso starts?

However, Daniel Ricciardo will obviously be in a worse position with that 10 place grid penalty as he is mostly a top ten qualifier with his Red Bull car and Renault engine and is currently in the 7th position in the drivers championship with 35 points. This hits Red Bull hard as they now can look at Daniil Kvyat to challenge the front runners. Daniil Kvyat is 8th in the drivers championship with 19 points.

Finally Rosberg beats Hamilton to Pole in Spain

Nico Rosberg finally managed to beat Lewis Hamilton and score the first pole in this season in the Spanish Grand Prix 2015. Nico Rosberg scored a time of 1m 24.681 to Hamilton’s 1m 24.948 seconds. It was a convincing gap between the two. They ran on medium tyres.

In the top ten shootout in Q3 of the qualifying, the drivers generally go for two runs. Hamilton as well as Nico Rosberg set their top times in the first run. In the second run Hamilton couldn’t try and beat the provisional pole set by Rosberg and had to settle for second. Sebastian Vettel of Ferarri came in third behind the two Mercedes cars after he set a time of 1m 25.458. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen could only score a P7.


Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in P4 with a time of 1m 25.694. He was followed by Carlos Sainz Jr of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 26.136. As a rookie and that too a Spanish, it must be a great feeling for Sainz beating the favourite Spaniard Fernando Alonso in Spain.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso came in P6 with a time of 1m 26. 249 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen whose contract with Ferrari expires end of this season is expected to do well and beat his teammate. However, he could only set a time of 1m 26.414 for P7.

Danil Kvyat of Red Bull was P8 as he came in at 1m 26.629. He was followed by Felipe Massa of Williams at 1m 26.757 and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull with a time of 1m 26. 770.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado of Lotus will start tomorrow at 11th and 12th positions respectively in the race tomorrow. The Lotus duo were followed by the McLaren drivers who were lead by Fernando Alonso in 13th and Jenson Button in 14th.

Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson of Sauber will start in 15th and 16th positions. The Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will start in 17th and 18th positions. Their times are about 3.5 seconds behind the pole timing and it shows how low they have fallen primarily due to the lack of funds. It would be pertinent to mention that one of the promoters of Force India, Subroto Roy is in jail for nearly a year as his company has not been able to furnish a bail bond of 1 billion dollars. The other promoter of Force India and its principal Dr. Vijay Mallya is also in deep financial trouble. Mallya’s Kingfisher airlines went bankrupt and Mallya is also been hounded by banks to recover the money. So it shows that even a midfield team in F1 can’t sustain just based on their performance.

The last placed drivers are as expectedly from Manor racing. Will Stevens again out qualified his teammate Roberto Merhi. Will Stevens scored 1m 31.200 vs 1m 32.038 of his teammate. Both of them will start in 19th and 20th position.

Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results:

Learing Negotiation from McLaren

Learning Negotiation from McLaren

It was very interesting to watch the moves of McLaren team this year. They had two drivers in the form of former world champion Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen who was having his first year.

McLaren had already announced that from next year ie. 2015 they are going to use Honda engines. Honda engine is supposed to be on par with the Mercedes engine or even better, if grapevine is to be believed. Honda also wanted to have two good drivers.

So McLaren went on targeting good drivers and finally netted Fernando Alonso who broke off his Ferrari contract two years earlier than expected and signed on the dotted line for McLaren.

When Alonso informed Ferrari that he would like to move away, they immediately approached Sebastian Vettel and he took advantage of his mid year points clause to get out of Red Bull.

Red Bull immediately signed on Daniil Kvyat of their sister team Toro Rosso and announced to the world that Sebastian Vettel is going to Ferrari. This put Alonso under pressure as Ferrari hadn't announced the signing of Vettel or departure of Alonso.

McLaren too remained tight lipped on their driver lineup. When questions were asked to Eric Boullier, team principal of McLaren that by it may be difficult for Jenson Button to find a competitive drive so late in the season if they don't re-sign him, he said that he is not concerned with it as that is the problem of Jenson Button's management team. All in all it appeared that Eric Boullier as well as Ron Dennis didn't want Jenson Button.

Without having any competitive drives around, Button even contemplated leaving F1 altogether for a drive in a sports car category.

McLaren knew that with a new engine, they will find a lot of challenges integrating it with their car and hence experienced drivers were necessary. Also, Jenson Button was known to give excellent feedback to the engineers. His knack of reading tricky situations like partially drying wet surfaces and making tyre calls are legendary. So McLaren obviously knew that it would be better to have Jenson Button along with Alonso. However, Jenson Button was hired at a huge salary because he was the 2009 World Champion. Clearly McLaren didn't want to pay him that much.

At a time when two teams had folded up from F1, everybody was aware of the financial challenge the companies were facing. The McLaren team also sent out information that they were delaying the news of their driver lineup because they are waiting for some sponsors. If they find enough sponsors then they may hire Button along with Alonso, else they will hire Kevin Magnussen. This also put pressure on Jenson Button and he also made statements that he is not much worried about salary but wants a competitive drive.

After pushing him to the wall, the McLaren team then sat with Button and told them clearly that if only Button would take a massive pay cut, then they will hire him. Else they won't be able to. In the negotiation when you keep the other party hanging and when their options diminish, they are likely to succumb. So same thing happened here and Jenson Button agreed to McLaren to sign on the contract at 8 million salary.

If Jenson would not have signed, then McLaren would have said that they offered Button a contract but he declined. So they would have put the blame on him. McLaren though are paying about three times more to Fernando Alonso. Though one knows that McLaren is greedy. However, in tough financial environment they don't care about ethics and just want to get the contract at their own terms.

Normally if you hire an employee in such situations, he/she is going to be demotivated. However, McLaren know that Jenson Button would love to beat Fernando Alonso to prove himself. So motivation will not be a problem even though Button would be angry. Also at the age of 35, Button doesn't have many more years left. It is a cruel world indeed. However, for all practical purposes one can learn negotiation from McLaren team.

Rosberg beat Hamilton to Pole in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton, the World Championship leader complained of vibration in his tyres in the Q3 of the Qualifying of the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Whereas his competitor and team-mate Nico Rosberg had no such problems and got the pole position by close to half a second quicker than Hamilton’s time. Nico Rosberg scored a 1m 40.480 seconds time vis-à-vis 1m40. 866 by Lewis Hamilton. It was a tense situation, as Rosberg has to win tomorrow’s race to have any chance of winning the championship, which till now is being led by Lewis Hamilton.

Behind the Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton came the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. During practice Bottas was appearing strong. Nico Rosberg hopes that Bottas can beat Lewis Hamilton tomorrow, so that Rosberg can then win the Championship. For the Record, if Rosberg wins tomorrow’s race and Hamilton finishes in Second place, then Lewis Hamilton still finishes second. Lewis Hamilton is known to be a pure racer whereas Nico Rosberg can play dirty as was seen in Spa where he hit Hamilton from behind to ruin Hamilton’s race.

Tomorrow’s race appears to be the last race of Jenson Button. McLaren is believed to have signed up Fernando Alonso and is weighing up their options of whether to take Jenson Button or Kevin Magnussen in the other seat. At the fag end of the season, when there are no good race seats available, Jenson Button may have to quit F1. It is sad that Jenson Button cannot have a farewell race because McLaren decides to keep on the decision hanging till December 1st.

Ferrari would be happy as Kimi Raikkonen qualified ahead of Fernando Alonso who is leaving Ferrari after this race.

Final Qualifying positions in Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

01. Nico Rosberg                        Mercedes

02. Lewis Hamilton                    Mercedes

03. Valtteri Bottas                      Williams

04. Felipe Massa                        Williams

05. Daniel Ricciardo                  Red Bull

06. Sebastian Vettel                   Red Bull

07. Daniil Kvyat                        Toro Rosso

08. Jenson Button                      McLaren                    

09. Kimi Raikkonen                  Ferrari

10. Fernando Alonso                 Ferrari

11. Kevin Magnussen                McLaren

12. Jean-Eric Vergne                 Toro Rosso

13. Sergio Perez                         Force India

14. Nico Hulkenberg                 Force India

15. Adrian Sutil                         Sauber

16. Romain Grosjean                Lotus

17. Esteban Gutierrez               Sauber

18. Pastor Maldonado               Lotus

19. Kamui Kobayashi               Caterham

20. Will Stevens                       Caterham

Lewis Hamilton scores Pole for Mercedes in Germany

Lewis Hamilton snatches the pole position in Germany for the German team.

It was an interesting formula one qualifying in Germany. In the Q1, only Redbull and Mercedes used medium tyres, and all the other teams had to resort to soft tyres to qualify. The soft tyre is about 1.5 seconds faster than the medium tyres. This shows that Mercedes and Redbull have an edge over others in this circuit.

Eliminations in Q1 in German Grand Prix

The usual suspects were eliminated in the Q1, namely:
Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado, Charles Pic, Jules Bianchi, Geido Van der Garde, Max Chilton. There was slightly nearly four and half seconds difference between the fastest and the slowest car in Q1.

Sergio Perez was in danger of not qualifying for Q2 as he was down at 18th position before he put together a lap in the dying seconds of Q1 to move into Q2.

Intense drama in Q2 in German Grand Prix 2013

There was lot of drama in the Q2
In the Q2, the Red Bull team kept their drivers in their garage and released them with about five and half minutes remaining what appeared to be for a single run. They appeared to be saving their soft tyres. Vettel and Webber posted identical sector times in S1 and S2 but webber scored a slower S3 and as a result Vettel took P1 position in Q2 ahead of Hamilton and Webber.

Mercedes decided not to run their drivers again as they were initially 1-2. However, in the dying seconds of Q2, Grosjean came ahead of Hamilton and then Alonso scored a provisional P1 to be just inched by his team mate Felipe Massa. Then Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Jenson Button all pushed through to push out Nico Rosberg out of Q3. Kimi Raikkonen did a flyer to score P2 in Q2 in the last few seconds. The difference between Hamilton was 1:30.152 and Rosberg 1:30.326

Drivers eliminated in Q2 in F1 German Grand Prix 2013

11. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta Force India
13. Sergio Perez McLaren
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
15. Adrian Sutil Force India
16. Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso

In Q3, both the Ferrari drivers and Jenson Button of McLaren came out on medium tyres. Perhaps they expect the soft tyre not to last only for a short time so that they will get advantage if they use a medium tyre.

There was a fight for the pole as Vettel went fractionally ahead of Hamilton with a great third sector. However, Hamilton hit back by knocking off 0.2 seconds in the first sector, matching Vettel in the second sector and again besting him in the third sector. So Lewis Hamilton scored 1:29.398 seconds to Sebastian Vettel’s time of 1:29.501 seconds. It was a happy moment for Mercedes as they got the Pole in Germany, their home country. The German fans roared when Lewis Hamilton scored the pole. The blow of Nico Rosberg, a german driver of Mercedes not qualifying for the Q3 was forgotten.

Mark Webber or Red Bull scored P3 with a time of 1:29.608 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who scored 1:29.892. Both of them will start in the second row.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus scored P5 with time of 1:29.959 and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso scored P6 with 1:30.528.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso for the 7th and 8th positions with times of 1:31.126 and 1:31.209 respectively.

Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber didn’t register a time. This allows them to choose a tyre ie. both of them can either start with soft tyre or medium tyres.

It is a proud moment for Nico Hulkenberg, another German, to be on P10 as his previous races this year are forgettable.

It would be a very interesting race tomorrow in the F1 German Grand Prix 2013

Singapore Pole for Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton scores pole in Singapore Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton blitzed to the pole position in F1 Singapore Grand Prix with a time of 1m:46.362s. He was nearly half a second faster than the second placed Pastor Maldonado. Maldonado has been erratic and has picked up a spate of penalties this season, however, he has shown speed as well and have won a race this year. No one had imagined that the williams team, after their pathetic showing last year, will be in the front row.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who had dominated the friday practice sessions was third followed by Jenson Button of McLaren.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who has completely outplayed his team mate Felipe Massa, came in at 5th with a time of 1m 47.216s. Force India's Paul di Resta scored a 1m 47.241s to join Alonso in the 3rd row.

Mark Webber came in at 7th position with a time of 1m 47.475s followed by Romain Grosjean who came back to racing after serving a one race ban. Grosjean scored a 1m 47.788s.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes didn't drive a single lap in the Q3 will start at 9th and 10th position for the Sunday race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India will start at 11th followed by Kimi Raikkonen at 12th.

India's Narain Karthikeyan again beat his team mate Pedro de La Rosa in qualifying and they scored the 23rd and 24th place.

Will Lewis Hamilton score another victory in the night race at Singapore? Will the Mercedes drivers Schumacher and Rosberg get any advantage due to not running in Q3? Apart from having an extra set of tyres to use in the race, not driving in the qualifying also means that they can decide to choose either of the tyre compounds ie. either the soft or the super soft tyres during the opening. According to the rule, anyone driving in the Q3 would be forced to use the same type of tyres which they used for qualifying. Will this give a bigger advantage to Mercedes?

Tomorrow's Singapore Grand Prix F1 race will certainly be interesting.

Alonso wins from pole in German Grand Prix 2012

Alonso wins from Pole in German Grand Prix 2102

In a close race, Alonso kept his composure and won despite being challenged at one point by Jenson Button.

In the opening lap, Sebastian Vettel was challenged by Michael Schumacher. However, Alonso and Vettel quickly pulled away and Schumacher appeared to be driving a lone race at No. 3 till Jenson Button appeared in the scene and overtook him. Michael Schumacher used a three stop strategy and finished at 7th position. He posted the fastest lap times at the end after changing into soft tires, however he despite being on the tail of Sergio Perez finished at No. 3.

Sebastian Vettel controversially overtook Jenson Button "off the race track". McLaren team was heard on the radio saying "FIA is away". However, Vettel's overtaking is being investigated by FIA and the result of the investigation will be known later.

India's Narain Karthikeyan finished 23rd. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren etired. With Alonso winning the German Grand Prix, he retains the lead in the drivers championship.

Position	Name	Team
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull
3	Jenson Button	McLaren
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus
5	Kamui Kobayashi	sauber
6	Sergio Perez	Sauber
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes
8	Mark Webber	Red Bull
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India
10	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
11	Paul di Resta	Force India
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
14	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso
15	Pastor Maldonado	Williams
16	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham
17	Bruno Senna	Williams
18	Romain Grosjean	Lotus
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham
20	Charles Pic	Marussia
21	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT
22	Timo Glock	Marussia
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT
RET	Lewis Hamilton

F1 Drivers Championship Results after Monaco

F1 Drivers Championship Standings after Monaco Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari has snatched the lead in the drivers championship from Sebastian Vettel after the Monaco Grand Prix. Fernando is leading the table with 76 points. Vettel is now second at 73 along with his team mate Mark Webber. Mark Webber by virtue of the 25 points gained from winning the Monaco Grand Prix is for the first time in more than a year and half is tied on points with his team mate Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton who is plagued by some amazingly sloppy work by his team McLaren, is on fourth at 63 points. Nico Rosberg is on 59. Michael Schumacher despite his terrific drive to the pole has been languishing in the 18th position at 2 points. We hope that the stewards start penalising errant drivers like Romain Grosjean who hit Michael when he was up to No. 3 position in the Monaco Race.

Ranking	Driver	Team	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	76
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	73
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull	73
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	63
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	59
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	51
7	Jenson Button	McLaren	45
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	35
9	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	29
10	Sergio Perez	Sauber	22
11	Paul de Resta	Force India	21
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	19
13	Bruno Senna	Williams	15
14	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	10
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	7
16	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	4
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	2
18	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
20	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
21	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0
23	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
24	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	0

Webber 6th winner in Six races

Mark Webber wins Monaco Grand Prix 2012. Mark Webber who had inherited the Pole after Michael Schumacher dropped down five places due to the penalty for colliding with Bruno Senna in Spanish Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg came in second and Alonso was third.

Michael Schumacher was again distinctly unlucky. He chose to take the outside route and had climbed to 3rd position when he was hit by Romain Grosjean and he dropped back to 8th. After that he was stuck behind the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen for half of the race till Kimi went for a change of tyres. Later Michael complained of some issue and retired leaving millions of his fans disappointed.

Sebastian Vettel lead the race when the race leaders went for tyre change. Vettel was on a different strategy. However, he finished 4th with 1.3 seconds behind Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton finished 5th. Felipe Massa of Ferrari who is rumoured to be on the verge of being dropped by his team was the race leader for a few laps when others went for tire change. He finished at 6th position. Narain Karthikeyan finished the race at 15th position.

Grid Position	Driver	Team	Points	Gap
1	Mark Webber	Redbull	25
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	18	0.6
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	15	0.9
4	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	12	1.3
5	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	10	4.1
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	8	6.1
7	Paul de Resta	Force India	6	41.5
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	4	42.5
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	2	44.0
10	Bruno Senna	Williams	1	44.5
11	Sergio Perez	Sauber	0	1Lap
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	0	1Lap
13	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0	1Lap
14	Timo Glock	Marussia	0	1Lap
15	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0	2Lap
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	Retired	8Lap
	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	Retired	13Lap
	Charles Pic	Marussia	Retired	14Lap
	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	Retired	15Lap
	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	Retired	63Lap
	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	Retired	73Lap
	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	Retired
	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	Retired
	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Retired

Heartbreak for Hamilton, Respite for Narain Karthikeyan

Our article on Spanish Grand Prix qualifying was titled Hamilton on Pole, heartbreak for Narain
http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/hamilton-on-pole-heartbreak-for-narain.html

However, in the continuing drama that is Formula 1, the new title should read Heartbreak for Hamilton, Respite for Narain

Lewis Hamilton had done a great lap in the dying seconds to score the pole position. However, he stopped the car as he didn't have enough fuel to complete the lap. This was in breach of the regulations. Incidentally, the regulations (Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations) came into place because of a previous incident in Canadian Grand Prix by the same McLaren team with Hamilton driving the car. At that time Hamilton didn't have enough fuel for the mandatory inspection, so he stopped the car, got down and pushed it all the way waving to spectators. It was indeed a spectacle, but the rules were changed after that. So it is surprising that the McLaren team didn't knew about it.

McLaren officials pleaded before the Stewards that there was a fuel rig fault and hence there was shortage of fuel. However, the Stewards didn't accept the explanation and ruled "As the amount of fuel put into the car is under complete control of the Competitor the Stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure"

So Hamilton has been excluded from the qualifying results and will start from the back of the grid. Pastor Maldonado has been promoted to the pole position - his first pole.

"The Stewards received a report from the Race Director which stated that during post-qualifying scrutineering a sample of fuel was required from car 4, however, the car failed to return to the pits under its own power as required under Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

The Stewards heard from the team representative Mr. Sam Michael who stated that the car stopped on the circuit for reasons of force majeure. A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes. As the amount of fuel put into the car is under complete control of the Competitor the Stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure."

The disqualification of Lewis Hamilton has also resulted in Fernando Alonso moving into second position and to the front row of the grid. That will definitely excite many Spaniards and the race is going to see a full house.

So the revised provisional Grid for the Spanish Grand Prix is as follows:

Grid Position	Driver	Team
1	Pastor Maldonado	Williams
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
3	Romain Grosjean	Lotus
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus
5	Sergio Perez	Sauber
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
7	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull
8	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes
9	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber
10	Jenson Button	McLaren
11	Mark Webber	Red Bull
12	Paul de Resta	Force India
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India
14	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
16	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
17	Bruno Senna	Williams
18	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham
20	Charles Pic	Marussia
21	Timo Glock	Marussia
22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT
24	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren

Formula 1 Needs Mercedes

In our previous article "Formula 1 Politics Mercedes to Quit?" we had detailed the machinations of the Grand Old man of Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone. http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/formula-1-politics-mercedes-to-quit.html

Mercedes a much bigger name than Red Bull and McLaren. Keeping it out of the board is something which will definitely not be agreeable to Mercedes. Neither will it be seen in good light by the millions of its followers. The dispute continues to remain unresolved. Earlier Mercedes was quick to state that it is not pulling out. However, the battle is going to be murkier.

Formula 1 Politics: Mercedes to Quit?

Formula 1 and Politics are two sides of a coin and are inseparable. This feeling is being reinforced every other day.

The latest political battlefield in F1 is around the new concorde agreement. 

In March Bernie Ecclestone had announced that he had concluded an agreement with a majority of the Formula One teams over a new Concorde Agreement. The existing concorde agreement is bound to get over by the end of this year. He had announced via a statement "I am pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula One teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull racing about the terms one which they will continue competing in Formula One after the current concorde agreement expires at the end of this year."

Tyre Wars: McLaren supports Schumacher

The Politics around the Pirelli tyres is not going to die down soon.
Michael Schumacher, the seven time Formula One champion had kicked up a storm when he had expressed his displeasure about the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres after the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. Pirelli Motorsport director hit back at him casting aspersions on his ability to drive. Further details of that can be found in our previous article:
http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/politics-around-pirelli-tyres.html

Now, Martin Whitemarsh, Principal of McLaren team has lent his voice to the debate and has agreed to Michael Schumacher's expressed views that the tyres have become a decisive factor in the races. He said "These tyres are very, very challenging. If you are in the sweet spot, you are in great shape. If not, your are in for a pretty tough time, and it gave both of our drivers a tough time. We were clearly too hard on the tyres. They were going away very quickly, and both drivers really struggled."

With the Spanish Grand Prix round the corner and Pirelli allocating the hard and the soft compounds where the degradation between the two compounds is higher, it is going to be pretty interesting to watch how each team copes up with it.

Clearly the last word on the subject has not been spoken.

F1 Drivers Championship 2012 after Bahrain

Sebastian Vettel is now leading the F1 2012 Championship after Bahrain Grand Prix.

There is not much difference between the top 5 drivers, so that championship is wide open.
Michael Schumacher who has been in the first two rows in qualifying in Australia, Malaysia and China has only 2 points to his name after Bahrain. It again reinforces the fact that the proof of the pudding is in eating ie. finishing the race in points scoring positions in F1.

The interesting thing is at the bottom of the table. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia are 19th and 20th at the moment due to their higher finish. Marussia finished in 14th and 15th position in Australia where as the best place finish of Caterham was 16th and 18th in Malaysia. So Marussia is now in the 10th position. If non of them last three teams ie. Marussia, Caterham or HRT finish in the points and if Caterham and HRT doesn't finish above 14th position, then Marussia will get the 10th position. That is vital because only the top 10 teams get money for the championship. That is many millions of dollars for the 10th placed team and it makes a huge difference to them.

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	Redbull	53
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	49
3	Mark Webber	Redbull	43
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	43
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	43
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	35
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	34
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	23
9	Sergio Perez	Sauber	22
10	Paul di Resta	Force India	15
11	Bruno Senna	Williams	14
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	9
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR	4
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	4
15	Daniel Ricciardo	STR	2
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	2
17	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2
18	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2
19	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
20	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0