Vettel Accuses FIA of Ruining His Race. Gets Probation.

A very bitter Sebastian Vettel has blamed Charlie Whiting of messing with his race by bringing out the safety car, and making his gigantic gap disappear.  Everyone knows how mad the young German gets after retiring from a race, so when he was asked what happened he this to say about FIA Race Director.

"The Safety Car saved him, there were earlier time in the race when there was more danger, and he didn't bring it out.  The safety car has broken our necks.  I think it's clear why he sent it out.  The FIA had to put a stop to it (Vettel's lead) to make the race more exciting."

Red Bull Adviser and Motorsport director Dr. Helmut Marko defended Vettel and continued with more accusations, "Vettel was too far forward, and he (Whiting) wanted to bring the field back.  That's how they do it in American racing all the time."

These comments set off many people in the racing community and caught the eye of German motor sport association President Hans-Joachim Stuck who said Vettel needs to be cited for "unsportsmanlike conduct".

"We know that Vettel always has something rude to say after racing disappointments.  He is not a good role model." Said an FIA Official.

As of late FIA President has not given a grid penalty to Vettel for Silverstone, but he has place the Two-Time World Champion on probation.  So Vettel must be on his best behavior retirement or not.  Safety Car or not.  If he doesn't he will be suspended for at least 1 race.

Pastor Maldonado...Dirty Driver?

Maldonado, is he a dirty driver?  I would say after his actions in Valencia, and his despicable move on Perez in Monaco this season, the answer is YES. Anytime he has been challenged by a driver defending their position he cuts in on them or side swipes them.  Ruining the driver's race, qualifying, or practice session.  Most of the time it comes down to his temper.  The fiery Venezuelan has no control of his emotions right now, and it is getting the best of him.  I was hoping he had taken care of them after his run-ins with Lewis Hamilton last season, especially after the Belgian Grand Prix when they clashed once at the Bus Stop chicane as Hamilton hurried to complete a flying lap, and Maldonado then appeared to jink towards the McLaren on their following laps as they came out of La Source, with light contact made between them.  Maldonado then received a much deserved 5-grid penalty.

Sergio Perez obviously isn't a fan after Pastor showed his temper by cutting in on Perez, pushing Perez into the guardrail and ending his the young Mexican's final practice before Qualifying.  After the incident Sergio got on the radio saying, "Maldonado is crazy!"  I don't think Perez is the only driver thinking that either.

This has also brought up one of the dirtiest words in Formula One that a young driver never wants to hear associated with their name, "Pay Driver".  After his spectacular win at the Spanish Grand Prix I was going to dismiss that he was entirely, but now after Monaco and Valencia should we be asking, is he as good as we thought?  Or does he only drive with his emotion?  Did he buy his way into F1 without having the proper pedigree a F1 driver should have to be at this level?  He was in GP2 for 4 years and most thought he was never going to come to F1, until Venezuela's largest oil company PDVSA put up an estimated £45 Million for him to drive for Williams.  I don't think he has the maturity that most F1 driver's display today, and after his actions on Sunday he has left a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of Formula One critics.  The bad taste of a dirty pay driver.

Pirelli is Now Predicting Winners

I was kind of surprised when I did my daily task of checking all of the F1 news websites, and saw the headline "Paul Hembery tips Schumacher Victory in Valencia" on ESPNF1.com.  I think that the tire supplier should probably stay out of predicting victories and just focus on which compound to bring to the race.  When  Schumacher pulled off an amazing lap and got pole in Monaco, which was then ruined by his penalty he received from his accident with Bruno Senna, Schumi was then moved to sixth on the grid, moving Webber up to pole position, and then winning the race.  As we all know Michael wouldn't have won the race  from pole anyways because that ended up being his 4th retirement.


"I think you have to look at someone like, maybe Michael getting the pole position," Hembery told Autosport. "He probably would have won Monaco if he hadn't been penalised, so why not there? Michael for Valencia, that's where the money needs to go."


 So Hembery is telling us to bet money on Michael.  I think we all should!  I hope they make a special compound just for the 7 time World Champion just so Hembery's prediction comes true.  The tire will probably keep it's temperature easily, and then never wear out, never blister.

"We know Valencia is a tough track to create an exciting race. It's hard to overtake and it's got elements of Monaco from that point of view. There will be some high temperatures, of course, and we're going there with the soft and medium tyre, so we should have less degradation."


Will we have an 8th winner in as many races?  Paul Hembery  the guy who provides the tires say's go all in on Schumacher.  I find it hard to put everything on Schumacher just because of all of the bad luck he's had this season, but I'm going to listen to Pirelli and put my money down.  I'll let you know how I did.

Lotus Looking for Better Qualifying Pace

Lotus has looked very good with their race pace, but their qualifying is definitely something that needs a lot of improvement.  Just go back to Bahrain where Lotus had their best result with Kimi finishing 2nd, and Grosjean finishing 3rd.  Their Grid positions were 11th for Kimi and 7th for Grosjean.  So that would have almost definitely been a 1st & 2nd for Lotus and that would have been a gigantic momentum for the team.

Grosjean came very close last weekend in Canada to securing a victory,just needing a few more laps and he would have passed Lewis.  Once again you can look at qualifying and realize that it was a major factor.  Grosjean was 7th on the grid.

"The gap to the win is not that big," said Grosjean. "We need to qualify better, that is not our strength this season but we are working on it. I think Friday and Saturday were quite difficult for us in Canada but we have been learning a lot about the car so it's good that we now have that in our pocket for the next races.


"We have to go into every weekend aiming for a win; approaching a race in any other way is like putting yourself on the back foot from the start. I'm mainly hoping for an improvement in qualifying, a good start and then we'll see what happens from there. It's great to be fighting at the front and that's always what we want to do, but we're in a tight battle this season so of course the most important thing is to score some good points again for the team. If we have a strong weekend from the start then I think we are capable of fighting for a podium or even a win. We'll see after qualifying where we are; hopefully we can get another good result!"

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen who has 2 podiums to his name this season in Bahrain (2nd) and Spain (3rd), is hoping for better qualifying pace as well.

"Qualifying is going to be very, very important again here. Obviously, there will be an advantage to starting on the clean side of the track as the streets are only used as a circuit once each year,"  said Raikkonen . "It's not an easy place to overtake and we'll have to see how much help the DRS will be.


"Valencia is all about being very consistent. It's so easy to lose time with small mistakes. Valencia is all about being very consistent. It's so easy to lose time with small mistakes."


So  it's looking like Lotus will be trying for a quicker car setup for qualifying, and think that it could help them get a win in Valencia coming up.  Can we have an 8th different winner in 8 different races, and keep the dream season going?  I can easily see Kimi or Grosjean at the top step of the podium.  We will have to wait a few days and see at the European Grand Prix.