Tag Archives: FIA

World of Cars

F1: Qualifying mess

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My wife question my sanity when I woke up before 7am on Saturday morning to watch the F1 qualifying. “It’s only qualifying,” she said. After recovering from the shock of such a statement, I tried to explain the importance of qualifying in motorsports. She wasn’t bothered.

So Saturday morning arrived and I duly woke up early for qualifying. I was excited. The four-month wait was finally over, yeah!

Lights turned green and Hamilton set the ball rolling on the 2016 season. It was a great start, with a great deal of traffic and excitant. It didn’t last. The staggered exclusion is, on paper, a great idea. In reality, it sucks.

Firstly, some teams seemed not to realise that when the time ran out, the time ran out and that was that (like Haas F1, whose driver Grojean had a superb lap which was useless as he was already out).

The problem was that since it was a staggered elimination, drivers who were not directly affected chose not to bother after setting a good lap. Boring doesn’t even start to explain it. I found the ad breaks far more entertaining (thanks Renault, Clio looks great).

However, the worst part came at the end where drivers simply gave up / were not interested / couldn’t be bothered to take to the lap. Once Hamilton set a pole-winning lap, everyone just got out of their cars and went wherever it is that drivers go after qualifying.

The Swiss TV presenter seemed a bit shocked at the fact that with more than 2 minutes remaining, it was all over. Even Hamilton looked somewhat confused.

Now, let’s be fair to the FIA. Their aim was to improve the sport. This measure obviously didn’t work. To avoid criticism, they should revert to the old system or introduce something else for Bahrain. But please, FIA, don’t keep this qualifying format – it’s terrible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

World of Cars

WTCC: What can we expect?

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Some may write it off as insignificant, but the Word Touring Car Championship season this year promises to be one of the best ever.

After Citroen made its debut in the sport, it effectively took over the reins from Chevrolet and won nearly every single race. No surprises there considering the marque and the budget behind their participation. Honda was also there as a works team, along with Lada, but they only dented the raging French machine. Now, there are new players in the field.

Here is why I think it’s going to be a great season:

  1. The double H: Rob Huff has swapped his wheel at Lada for the Japanese outfit and this combination can only be good for both of them and the WTCC in general. According to Monteiro, the Honda upgrades will make the car extremely competitive and help cose the gap with Citroen. Huffy will be rubbing his hands in glee at the thought of topping the table again
  2. Lada have signed veteran driver Tarquini, who previously was with Honda. See where I’m going with this? No? Well, even though Tarquini and Huff are friends, it’ll be gloves off on the track. I think the Italian (who is definitely not past his prime) wants to prove a point to his former employer.
  3. Polestar Volvo. Now this was probably the most exciting news that hit WTCC for a long time. The S60 TC1 looks the part and I hope it dents the Citroen domination (nothing against you chaps)
  4. Eat my cheese: Tom Coronel has just announced he will be racing this year. Phew, that was close. The WTCC would not be the same without Tom Coronel, both for his driving, superb character and because he’s driving a Chevy
  5. Nürburgring is still on the calendar. You can’t really go wrong there, can you?
  6. Michelisz, the Hungarian ace, also joined Honda after years with Zengo. Being with a works team might be the push he needed to step up his game
  7. Two races are held on race weekend, the second with a reverse grid, meaning the 10th placed in qualifying starts from pole. This always makes the second race very interesting.
  8. As always, you have real, recognizable cars. As the WTCC put it, it’s bumper to bumper, door handle to door handle action
  9. Winning cars will have extra weight added as last season, but this is increased to 80kg from 60kg

 

There are some downsides:

  1. Sebastian Loeb will not be there. I quite like him – not sure why.
  2. Sebastian Loeb will be there with his team, albeit not in person. That should be good, but he is fielding more Citroens. Aren’t there enough already?
  3. Citroen following Chevy: The French are officially leaving as of the end of this season. Pity, but the cars will probably still be on the grid in 2017, assumingly a little bit less fast (it would be unfair to use the word ‘slow’ and ‘Citroen’ in the same sentence), thus making it more competitive. Whatever my opinion on Citroen, it’s always bad when a manufacturer leaves
  4. Chevrolet, which stopped its works team participation back in 2012, will struggle with the remaining privateer cars fielded. Makes sense – there has been no development for, well, four years
  5. The FIA WTCC timetable clashes with the FIA F1 timetable at least five times. Five time! Seriously? Don’t they speak to each other at the FIA?

The WTCC season kicks off on 3 April 2016 at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France – this race will be very telling. Best way to keep in touch is following Touring Car Times and their Twitter account. Also, have a look at the official FIA WTCC website.