Monday 13th July 2015

Motorsport on Monday: 13/07/2015

DTM dominance, Formula Renault farce, 21 in F1 and Motorbase returns

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BMW didn't do things by halves in the Zandvoort round of DTM this weekend. It won both races. It was second in both races. Indeed, it filled the podium in both races. And there's more - in the second race, the finishing order was BMWs 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. Beat that? The first race did: BMWs were 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th.

Yep, that's a lot of BMWs out front...

Now admittedly, the DTM is restricted to the big German brands, who spend millions creating repmobile-shaped F1 cars that are fiendishly difficult and precise to drive quickly and consistently; just like on the M1, it's Audi v BMW v Mercedes-Benz. But even by those standards, such BMW domination is extraordinary.

Simply put, Zandvoort suited Munich, making for a particularly happy reigning champion Marco Whittmann, who triumphed in the first race. Particularly as it was a little unexpected: so far, he's down in seventh in the championship, with British Audi driver Jamie Green still leading on 81 points. That despite finishing the second race way back in 13th place...

Merhi, Merhi, quite contrary
Don't unduly slow down right after the finish line, the Formula Renault 3.5 racers were warned before this weekend's Red Bull Ring race. So what did FR3.5 and F1 driver Roberto Merhi go and do after race one? You've got it: and in doing so, he caused a massive accident as Nicholas Latifi, racing Tom Dillmann to the line, rear-ended him and rolled.

It was an extraordinary crash that makes for eye-opening viewing on YouTube. For which Merhi was quite rightly excluded from both races - and that's after already picking up a 10-second penalty in the first race for exceeding the track limits. Not that he accepted it, mind, dubbing the penalty "excessive".

See the vid for why he's in trouble

I don't know why he slowed, but I do know it's an alarming illustration of something that's riled me for years - drivers slowing down as the cross the finish line to start waving/weeping/doing funny quacking duck hand gestures (wonder if Alonso still remembers them?).

Not so long ago, racers raced across the finish line, in an explosion of flag-waving glory, and it was great. The team on the pit wall cheered, the fist-pumping gestures from the cockpit were thrilling, and the culmination of the race was absolute. Now, though, it's more commonplace for winning drivers with a decent margin to creep over the line in a fizzle - and the more boring the race and more absolute the domination, the more exaggerated this meander to the flag becomes. See any number of Schumacher's crushing victories with Ferrari.

Merhi's incident highlights the dangers of this, if you've got drivers racing behind you. I'm sure any decent F1 driver would have the sense and spatial awareness not to do this, but it still gives the FIA reason to implore drivers not to do it on safety grounds.

If you're racing, dammit, race to the flag!

Next Oz GP not until April 3 2016

F1 goes for 21
Next year Formula 1 is going to Azerbaijan, with the inaugural Grand Prix at Baku. It's part of a largest-ever 21-race 2016 calendar, although the race will not be called Azerbaijan, but known as the European Grand Prix. No, I'm not quite sure either.

The series will also have its latest start since 1988, with the first race in Oz held on April 3. The Silverstone race is also one week earlier, on 26 June, thus avoiding a clash with Wimbledon and sadly thus meaning it might not rain during the weekend. Oh, and let's hope Nico Rosberg doesn't win this year's championship: as it stands (and as keen PHers have pointed out), the German GP is listed - but the location is TBC and we all know what happened this year....

See them again at Snetterton!

Motorbase is back
Good breaking news from the BTCC: the popular Motorbase team returns for Snetterton, after taking a half-year sabbatical to develop the new Ecoboost engine for its Ford Focus ST racers. This was partly forced upon the team by the late withdrawal of its title sponsor Airwaves, but instead of giving up, team boss David Bartrum has regrouped and will be hoping for good things when Mat Jackson and James Cole get back on the grid in Norfolk next month.

We'll get a first taste of how comparatively fast they are this week, in fact: look out for times from the official Dunlop tyre test at Snet on Thursday 16 July.

[Sources: LAT, DTM.com]

[nickboazracing]

Here's a boring fact for everyone:
Antonio Felix da Costa who won the second DTM race (and sadly not name checked in the article..!), used to drive the car that Latifi shunted into the back of Merhi in the first world series race.

[richhamer]

British GP is actually 1 week earlier not 2 weeks later.
An there's a German GP on 31/07/16...

[nicholasm]

richhamer said:

British GP is actually 1 week earlier not 2 weeks later.
An there's a German GP on 31/07/16...

Yes, I did wonder in what way that was later!

Will the German GP be at Hockenheim (i.e. returning to even-numbered years, with Nurburgring missing out in 2015)? It only says "Germany" on F1.com's provisional calendar:

April 3 - Australia
April 10 - China
April 24 - Bahrain
May 1 - Sochi
May 15 - Spain
May 29 - Monaco
June 12 - Canada
June 26 - UK
July 3 - Austria
July 17 - Baku
July 31 - Germany
August 7 - Hungary
August 28 - Belgium
September 4 - Italy
September 18 - Singapore
September 25 - Malaysia
October 9 - Japan
October 23 - USA (Austin)
October 30 - Mexico
November 13 - Brazil
November 27 - Abu Dhabi

[havoc]

richhamer said:

British GP is actually 1 week earlier not 2 weeks later.

...and 2 years ago the British GP was also the last weekend in June!

[richardaucock]

You're quite right on the German GP - apols! The list I referred to said TBC; clearly it wasn't a complete list... I'll get Matt to update!

[Matt Bird]

Story updated!

[richardaucock]

nickboazracing said:

Here's a boring fact for everyone:
Antonio Felix da Costa who won the second DTM race (and sadly not name checked in the article..!), used to drive the car that Latifi shunted into the back of Merhi in the first world series race.

This is a brilliant fact - thanks! I'll tweet it...

[richardaucock]

Matt Bird said:

Story updated!

Cheers Matt!

My vote is for F1 on the Norschleife. Hey, it worked for WTCC...

[Galileo]

What the hell was that driver looking at for the 300 yards before he crashed into the back of Mehri? cos he sure as hell wasnt looking in front of him.

[nickfrog]

Galileo said:

What the hell was that driver looking at for the 300 yards before he crashed into the back of Mehri? cos he sure as hell wasnt looking in front of him.

He had been fighting very hard with the guy behind him for the past 8 laps or so and was probably looking in his mirror to fend off the slipstream, fatigue didn't help either in the circumstances. No excuse of course but Mehri should know better.

[coppice]

So ... we have no French Grand Prix(again ) despite France having hosted the first GP and having had a long love affair with the sport. And Azerbaijan, which is world famous for its motorsport heritage and burning passion for the sport, as well as being distinguished by the fact that only three people know exactly where it is , gets its very own Grand Prix. Another shining example of the cynical pimping of the sport around by those models of business ethics, CVC and BCE.

[havoc]

coppice said:

So ... we have no French Grand Prix(again ) despite France having hosted the first GP and having had a long love affair with the sport. And Azerbaijan, which is world famous for its motorsport heritage and burning passion for the sport, as well as being distinguished by the fact that only three people know exactly where it is , gets its very own Grand Prix. Another shining example of the cynical pimping of the sport around by those models of business ethics, CVC and BCE.

You assume anyone involved in the running of F1 (inc. team principals/owners/sponsors) cares one jot about the history of the sport.

It's purely money...every single one of them is primarily interested in the bottom line. If Azerbaijan is on balance a greater contributor to the collective pocket than France, then that's it.

Football is no different - look at Blatter & Co!

[coppice]

No, I'm really not that naive of course - I long since lost that belief for very obvious reasons. But like many I won't stop objecting to what this little coterie of megalomaniacs has done - and are doing - to my sport. I just worry that an increasingly passive TV audience neither knows nor cares about where races are held and is apparently completely unaware of the sport's history- that same history which made TV so attracted to Grand Prix racing in the first place.