james Allen

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Ya sabemos que al final de esta temporada la Fórmula 1 tendrá un nuevo tricampeón, ya que Sebastián Vettel o Fernando Alonso ganará este campeonato y, con él, adquirirá la condición mítica de pilotos como Ayrton Senna y Sir Jackie Stewart de ser un triple campeón del mundo. Convertirse en un tricampeón significa ser considerado uno de los “grandes” de este deporte.

Actualmente, los aficionados se debaten sobre quién es más digno de ganar el título. Alonso ha tenido un año extraordinario sacando resultados de un coche menos competitivo, mientras Vettel se mantenía desde el principio cosechando puntos y mostrando su paciencia cuando el Red Bull tenía problemas, para después conseguir junto a su equipo llevar el choche al nivel de dominación que está disfrutando ahora. Su parte en esto no debe subestimarse, aunque Alonso y muchos fans lo desestimen con el argumento de que se trata solamente del trabajo de Adrian Newey.

Pero vale la pena por un momento de hacer una pausa para reflexionar sobre el verdadero valor de obtener tres títulos mundiales, ya que es una logro muy especial en nuestro deporte, un umbral notable que muy pocos han cruzado y, como resultado, hay mucho más en juego para ambos pilotos en la próximas semanas que simplemente ganar el Campeonato del Mundo de 2012.

En Singapur, hablé con Alonso sobre este tema y él me confirmó que el principal objetivo de su carrera es convertirse en un triple campeón, como Senna. Lewis Hamilton ha dicho lo mismo en el pasado y ahora está tratando de hacer algo diferente para tratar de lograrlo, aunque parece que tendrá que esperar el momento oportuno. Creo que el hecho de que un tricampeonato coincide con el logro de Senna es lo que lo hace tan atractivo para la generación actual.


Existe por lo tanto un valor enorme para ambos contendientes en el resultado final de esta temporada. Para Alonso parece ser un poco más desesperante que para Vettel, ya que la oportunidad estaba allí y ahora se está escapando… Red Bull ha tenido una ventaja significativa de rendimiento desde Singapur y los 100 puntos conseguidos por Vettel en Asia en estas últimas cuatro rondas ha noqueado y tirado a la lona a Alonso, cambiando la cara del campeonato.

Aunque los dichos de Alonso sobre estar 100% seguro de que va a ganar y el margen de 13 puntos habiendo 75 en juego sugieren que todavía está todo por decidirse, en realidad la tarea de Vettel es más fácil. Éste tiene 13 puntos de ventaja sobre Alonso, por lo que sólo tiene que aumentarla con otros 12 ó 13 puntos en las próximas dos carreras para así coronarse campeón en Austin.

Por su parte, la mejor oportunidad para Alonso será en Interlagos, pero para entonces podría ser demasiado tarde. El piloto de Ferrari necesita una victoria, sea en Abu Dabi o en Austin, y con un coche que no es capaz de igualar el rendimiento en las clasificatorias del Red Bull, y mucho menos de superarlo, va a ser realmente muy difícil de lograrla.

La Ferrari fue medio segundo detrás de los Red Bull en las clasificatorias en India, aunque parece que Alonso pudo haber dejado escapar un par de décimas que le hubieran permitido tomar el tercer puesto de largada. Esto dio origen a rumores de una supuesta pelea con Pat Fry, quien dijo después de las clasificatorias que “necesitábamos ser perfectos hoy y no lo fuimos”, mientras que tanto él como Stefano Domenicali, dijeron que el objetivo había sido de conseguir la segunda fila de la parrilla.

Solamente el último fin de semana el nuevo difusor en el coche de Alonso constituyó un buen paso adelante y, claramente, hubo en el equipo una cierta frustración por no haber conseguido extraer de él todo lo que era posible. Pero en realidad el equipo no puede culpar a Alonso, quien esta temporada, en innumerables ocasiones ha hecho que el coche se vea mejor de lo que en realidad era.

El fin de semana, Alonso hizo referencia a que luchaba por el campeonato no sólo contra Vettel, sino contra Adrian Newey. “Ahora estamos luchando contra Newey y por el momento no podemos igualarlo”, dijo.

Ese siempre ha sido el caso de los pilotos que no se sientan en un coche de Newey durante uno de sus momentos mágicos. Michael Schumacher compitió contra Newey en la década de 1990, antes de que el genio del diseño tuviera una etapa tranquila de encanto en los años 2000 en McLaren, permitiéndole a Ferrari dominar.


Ahora Newey está de nuevo totalmente afinado y el formidable equipo de ingenieros que lo rodea está funcionando perfectamente en consonancia para dar a Vettel el coche para salir y hacer lo que él mejor sabe: tomar la pole, hacer una salida clara, escapar de la zona de DRS, construir una brecha, manejar las distancias y ganar la carrera.

El ritmo de Alonso en carrera, tanto en los neumáticos duros como en los blandos, fue fuerte el domingo. Si hubiera podido arrancar la carrera desde la segunda fila, con el ánimo con el que se encontraba, hubiera sido capaz de desafiar a Vettel en las primeras vueltas, aunque los Red Bull igual tenían algo en reserva.

Ferrari ha buscado un mejor ritmo para las clasificatorias durante toda la temporada, de modo que encontrarlo ahora repentinamente va a ser más bien difícil.

“No somos lo suficientemente rápidos, especialmente el sábado, pero podemos mejorar la situación en Abu Dabi o en los EE.UU. Creo que tenemos que traer algunas piezas nuevas para Abu Dabi, esperando mejorar un poco la competitividad del coche y acercarse a los Red Bulls el sábado y en lo posible el domingo también”, dijo Alonso.

“Quedan tres carreras y el campeonato es el objetivo principal. Tenemos que recuperar algunos puntos. Estaría bien acabar por delante de Seb allí y si ganamos mucho mejor. Para eso necesitamos dar un paso adelante ya que por el momento no podemos ganar”.

Después de la carrera del domingo, las palabras del jefe de Ferrari, Stefano Domenicali, sonaron como los de un competidor que sabe que tiene pocas posibilidades, pero todavía no va a admitir la derrota. “Es claro en este momento que Red Bull tiene un coche mejor”, dijo, “pero, ¿qué podemos decir? No podemos llorar. Necesitamos trabajar duro y punto. Mientras decimos que ellos son más fuertes igual no tenemos que cambiar el enfoque que tenemos”, agregó.

“Le dije a mi equipo, ‘Miren, en 1982, en la Copa del Mundo de fútbol, nuestro equipo (Italia) no era el más fuerte, pero ganamos el título.” Tenemos el lujo de tener a Fernando con nosotros, que es el piloto número uno, así que es algo que vamos a hacer y vamos a luchar hasta el final”.

Y al final, uno de ellos se convertirá en un triple campeón del mundo y en una leyenda del deporte.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/la...del-mundo/

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Sebastian Vettel the world championship leader, has been excluded from the results of the Abu Dhabi qualifying session for having insufficient fuel in his car at the end of qualifying for the FIA to perform the usual checks.

He will start tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from the back of the grid, on a track where overtaking is not straight forward. It is a similar offence to the one Lewis Hamilton and McLaren committed in Spain this year where he was given the same penalty.

Vettel stopped on the circuit at the end of qualifying, under instruction from his Red Bull team. A delegation from the team, led by team manager Jonathan Wheatley together will representatives of engine partner Renault went to see the stewards after the session and the decision took four hours to arrive at.

Title rival Fernando Alonso, who trails Vettel by 13 points, starts 6th on the grid now. Both men will be aiming to progress up the field, but for Alonso to make major inroads into Vettel’s points lead he needs a strong podium finish, with Lewis Hamilton looking likely to win the race and take the maximum 25 points, Alonso will be targeting the 18 points for second place or 15 points for third.

Although overtaking is hard at Yas Marina, there are two DRS zones and Vettel is likely to finish in the top ten, given how fast his car is, so he will be aiming to be at least 7th or 8th from where he starts.

However, the field spread is quite large at Yas Marina, meaning that he will already be many seconds behind the leading half dozen cars by the end of the first 10 laps.

It looks like one stop will be possible tomorrow for many runners, so Vettel and Red Bull have to see if they can put him on a super aggressive strategy to get him through the field. But the Red Bull does not have great straight line speed, it’s not set up for that. It’s set up for leading from the front.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/ch...ualifying/

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Posted on November 9, 2012
F1 fans will be familiar with the way that aerodynamicists explore air flow lines over a car, working with wind tunnels but also at circuits with flo-viz paint, to see how the air passes over a car.

But here is something which takes the exploration of aerodynamic lines to a new – almost artistic – level. It’s a ‘light painting’, done on the McLaren P1 and I have to say I’d love to see this treatment done on an F1 car.

Here is what the artists who did the light painting, MarshmallowLaserFeast, and James Medcraft, had to say about it.

“Light painting has been around for decades but has never been put into full motion. Until now.

“Working with McLaren we were able to process their wind tunnel airflow data and score out paths for individual trails of light. Each frame was then sliced into 650 frames that represent depths of 3D space and a plasma screen, mounted on a motion control rig, was used as a 3D light printer to play back the 650 slices as it moved through the space. We then repeated the move a thousand times for each frame of the animation and with each frame the camera, mounted on another motion control rig, moved a few millimeters so that over the course of the shoot we were able to create the effect of a moving camera.

The finished film merges photography, animation and sculpture and is a truly unique way of representing aerodynamics.”


http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/mc...-painting/

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Vettel vs Alonso: Who has done the better job this season?

And so it comes to this: Two races in eight days to decide the outcome of the 2012 world championship. It’s been a long road to this point, but which of the two drivers has done a better job? Here we present an analysis of what has led us to this point.

The margin between them is small at 10 points. But it will be all over this weekend if Vettel wins with Alonso 5th or lower. It can also be settled if Vettel is 2nd with Alonso 9th or lower or if Vettel is 3rd and Alonso is out of the points.

Experience this season with Red Bull’s alternator problems and the two start line accidents in Spa and Suzuka which cost Alonso so dearly, tell us that there are no foregone conclusions. This is motor racing and anything can happen.

A few weeks ago we looked at the battle between Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel for the right to be the only three times world champion in the field next season.

There’s a good, comprehensive piece this week by Andrew Benson on the BBC F1 Website looking at which of the two drivers in contention for the world championship this weekend is the more deserving of the crown and that is worth some consideration at this stage.

Today 1978 world champion Mario Andretti, who serves as an ambassador of the new US Grand Prix at Austin, has commented on both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel

“I have a very high opinion of Fernando and I often send him messages. He is a driver to appreciate for his determination and intelligence. For Ferrari he’s been doing the impossible. It will not be easy for him to take points off Vettel, but I’m not giving up.”

Meanwhile of Vettel he says, I’ve met him, he’s a great kid and a top class driver. He will be one of the greats.”

Ferrari has not won a race or been on pole since Germany in July. It may be too little too late, but Ferrari has been straight line aero testing this week with Jules Bianchi in Spain, trying out revised versions of solutions which were seen in Abu Dhabi as well as other new ideas, no doubt.

Ferrari’s development has been its Achilles Heel this season; the car has been through some positive development stages, but the team was unable to sustain the rapid growth which Red Bull managed to bring through, largely due to inefficiencies in the wind tunnel at Maranello, following its upgrade from 50% to 60%. This painful infrastructure upgrade is one which has also cost Mercedes this season, although they hope that the pain is now behind them as they seek to build Lewis Hamilton a winning car for next year.

No doubt if Red Bull wins both titles there will be dark murmurings in the aftermath about them spending far more money than the others to achieve it. And it is a great shame for the sport that the teams have failed to police a cost controls.

Both men have driven superbly – as have Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen – but we should consider two areas in particular: car pace relative to the fastest qualifier and results relative to qualifying position.

Who had the faster car this year?
In terms of pure car pace, if we look at the fastest lap from both drivers in qualifying at the 18 rounds so far, Vettel has had the faster car on 12 occasions.

Taking an average of the gap to pole for the 18 races, Vettel has been 0.43s off pole while Alonso has been 0.6s off. So the big picture is that the Red Bull hasn’t been that much faster a car this year.

However, in the five races since Monza, Vettel has had an average qualifying advantage over Alonso of 0.5 secs.

Looking at the season as a whole, Vettel has had an advantage of 0.26 secs, factoring in the days when Alonso was faster.

Breaking that down further; of the races that Vettel has had the faster car he has been on average 0.57secs faster in qualifying.

Of the six races where Alonso had the faster car he has qualified 0.358 secs faster than Vettel.

Who has done a better job in races?
Looking next at how they converted their qualifying positions into results, Vettel converted pole into a win on three out of five occasions. He made up places from his grid slot on eight occasions, gaining a total of 22 places from his grid slot in races where he started behind pole. (Plus in Abu Dhabi he made up another 22 places after being forced to start from the pit lane).

He lost places from his grid slot on two occasions (3 places in Canada and Germany), then had two technical retirements and a collision in Malaysia.

Alonso, in contrast, made up places on 12 occasions, gaining a total of 48 places in races where he started behind pole. He also had two DNFs and two races (Canada and GB) where he lost places from his starting slot. He had two poles and converted one to a win.

Alonso’s average gain of four places compared to Vettel’s 2.75 places gained is one of the main reasons why Alonso is even in the championship hunt today.

For all the latest news from Austin ahead of this weekend’s US Grand Prix click here

http://connect.jamesallenonf1.com/f1-website-news

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Posted on November 25, 2012
One man who will be keeping everything crossed this afternoon is Remi Taffin, from Renault Sport, hoping that the new specification alternators do not fail and affect the outcome of the world championship.

Vettel lost a victory in Valencia to an alternator failure and suffered another in Monza, along with Romain Grosjean.

The failure on Mark Webber’s car in Austin sent alarm bells ringing for Sebastian Vettel’s title deciding season finale, but that was the last of the oldest specification V1 units; this weekend all Renault powered teams are using Version 3 of the unit, which features a new design to protect the bearings, which have been the cause of the failures. There was a view that the units had been overheating, but this is not the case.

In essence the story is this: Renault started the season with a 2012 batch of an old design unit, used in 2011. The new batch was the same size and specification as last year. The only difference was that the 2012 units contained new parts, for living purposes.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/re...lag-falls/

Renault analysed the Valencia failures of Vettel and Romain Grosjean on Version 1, looking at environment, heat and current consumption and realised it was a mechanical issue. They saw that they were on the edge on current consumption too and addressed the issues in Version 2. This was a lengthened version of the unit to give more margin. This was introduced in Spa. Mechanically its specification was the same.

In Monza this V2 unit failed and the position of the bearings was identified as the issue. Renault put a new design in place which addressed the bearing issue and this was launched in Singapore.

They supplied old batches of Version 1 to the teams while the Version 3 unit was being prepared. But these ran out and all the Renault powered cars all used Version 3 of the unit in Austin except the two Red Bulls and Raikkonen’s Lotus, which continued with Version 1. This V1 unit failed on Webber’s car.


So in the final race of the season everyone will use Version 3, which has not suffered a failure yet. Red Bull has used V3 in practice since Singapore, so it’s familiar with it, but they didn’t have the confidence to race it until now. The Renault teams have done 2,000 kilometres in total with V3 since Singapore.

But given the stress of the alternator issue this year, it will be a nervous 71 laps.

The alternator is a vital part on a car as it supplies the electricity for the ignition and recharges the battery.

But whereas there are all sorts of back-ups for electronics, gearbox and other areas of an F1 car, there is nothing you can do as a back-up for an alternator. The only thing you could do would be to have a huge battery.

The battery on an F1 car is about the size of a cook’s match box, or a small paperback book. It is 12 volts. The power supply on an F1 car is actually 14 Volts, but the battery is 12V. But to back up the alternator you would need a huge battery which would be too heavy.


“I feel confident,” said Taffin. “I’m back to 99%. We have looked at the problem as engineers and worked out a solution and proved it everywhere we could. It’s not a gamble, we had them on the Caterhams and Grosjean’s car in Austin. But I will be counting down the laps, for sure!

[maripi]

Posted on November 25, 2012
One man who will be keeping everything crossed this afternoon is Remi Taffin, from Renault Sport, hoping that the new specification alternators do not fail and affect the outcome of the world championship.

Vettel lost a victory in Valencia to an alternator failure and suffered another in Monza, along with Romain Grosjean.

The failure on Mark Webber’s car in Austin sent alarm bells ringing for Sebastian Vettel’s title deciding season finale, but that was the last of the oldest specification V1 units; this weekend all Renault powered teams are using Version 3 of the unit, which features a new design to protect the bearings, which have been the cause of the failures. There was a view that the units had been overheating, but this is not the case.

In essence the story is this: Renault started the season with a 2012 batch of an old design unit, used in 2011. The new batch was the same size and specification as last year. The only difference was that the 2012 units contained new parts, for living purposes.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/re...lag-falls/

Renault analysed the Valencia failures of Vettel and Romain Grosjean on Version 1, looking at environment, heat and current consumption and realised it was a mechanical issue. They saw that they were on the edge on current consumption too and addressed the issues in Version 2. This was a lengthened version of the unit to give more margin. This was introduced in Spa. Mechanically its specification was the same.

In Monza this V2 unit failed and the position of the bearings was identified as the issue. Renault put a new design in place which addressed the bearing issue and this was launched in Singapore.

They supplied old batches of Version 1 to the teams while the Version 3 unit was being prepared. But these ran out and all the Renault powered cars all used Version 3 of the unit in Austin except the two Red Bulls and Raikkonen’s Lotus, which continued with Version 1. This V1 unit failed on Webber’s car.


So in the final race of the season everyone will use Version 3, which has not suffered a failure yet. Red Bull has used V3 in practice since Singapore, so it’s familiar with it, but they didn’t have the confidence to race it until now. The Renault teams have done 2,000 kilometres in total with V3 since Singapore.

But given the stress of the alternator issue this year, it will be a nervous 71 laps.

The alternator is a vital part on a car as it supplies the electricity for the ignition and recharges the battery.

But whereas there are all sorts of back-ups for electronics, gearbox and other areas of an F1 car, there is nothing you can do as a back-up for an alternator. The only thing you could do would be to have a huge battery.

The battery on an F1 car is about the size of a cook’s match box, or a small paperback book. It is 12 volts. The power supply on an F1 car is actually 14 Volts, but the battery is 12V. But to back up the alternator you would need a huge battery which would be too heavy.


“I feel confident,” said Taffin. “I’m back to 99%. We have looked at the problem as engineers and worked out a solution and proved it everywhere we could. It’s not a gamble, we had them on the Caterhams and Grosjean’s car in Austin. But I will be counting down the laps, for sure!