Petrolhead Blog » Giancarlo Fisichella

Beware the unexpected Spaniard

Adam — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:07:10 +0000

If it seems like only yesterday that Giancarlo Fisichella was being reported as favourite for the vacant Sauber drive, that’s because it really, genuinely was.

Sometimes these things make too much sense. Fisi spent much of 2009 showing well for Force India, before forging late-season links with Ferrari that saw him given a testing and development role with the Scuderia. He still has a desire to race, Sauber have Ferrari engines for 2010, Giancarlo used to drive for Sauber…the pieces came together like a pre-school jigsaw.

Somewhere between yesterday’s news reports and this morning’s driver announcement, Peter Sauber’s dog must have opened the box and ate the piece with Giancarlo’s face on it, for I’m sure that the Roman’s name isn’t spelt ‘Pedro de la Rosa’. The Swiss team have opted to sign the 38-year-old from Barcelona, whose last full season of Formula One came with Jaguar in 2002.

Pedro’s appointment might seem a strange one on the face of it. 8 seasons on from his last full-time drive, de la Rosa has been a fixture at McLaren since being cast aside by Jaguar. Contracted as test driver throughout, the Spaniard nevertheless had a couple of opportunities to race for the Woking outfit. His cameo in Bahrain 5 years ago, after Juan Pablo Montoya hurt himself falling off a tennis racket, was brilliantly entertaining and ended with Pedro claiming fastest lap. His half-season in 2006 when the Colombian quit for NASCAR in mid-season was less startling, Hungarian podium finish notwithstanding. His reputation is that of a solid, reliable pair of hands, lacking in ultimate pace but a very capable development driver. That, of course – well, that and a few Euros in sponsorship money – is why Sauber have signed him.

A month or so ago, Sauber confirmed Kamui Kobayashi as the first of their 2010 race drivers. Kobayashi’s pair of races for Toyota suggest that the Japanese driver has plenty of raw pace but the kind of rough edges that would occupy a sandpaper factory for a week. His racecraft is questionable, his defensive driving on the dangerous side of robust, and he has very little prior experience of setting up a Grand Prix car, though he can hardly be blamed for that. He will show well given a decent car, but can’t be relied on to bring the car home every time, or to lead a development programme through the course of a season.

For that, the team need an experienced old hand, and they don’t come much more experienced than de la Rosa. His technical knowledge, allied to his knowledge of McLaren’s successful working practices (in-depth knowledge, as you’d expect from a trusted member of the team – until today, PdlR was scheduled to give McLaren’s 2010 car its first run next month), will be invaluable. His temperament inside the car tends to be even, as does his performance, an excellent baseline for judging the performance of new parts. A well-respected and approachable man, Pedro is also the ideal mentor for a young, wild hotshoe like his 2010 teammate.

With the right tutelage, Kamui Kobayashi will be the long-term solution, the man charged with making Sauber’s future bright. Surprise choice or not, Pedro de la Rosa is the right man to provide it.

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The filling of Sauber’s vacant seat must have brought great joy to the folks at Renault. Nick Heidfeld is out of a drive. Christian Klien wants one. So does Anthony Davidson, along with his F3 and Super Aguri sparring partner Takuma Sato. If an up-and-coming driver is what they want, and last year’s experience of Romain Grosjean ought be enough to show that it isn’t, Ho-Pin Tung and the delightfully-named Bertrand Baguette are available. If an old hand desperate for one last go fits the Renault profile, Jacques Villeneuve is their man.

The seats at Campos and USF1 will go to drivers bringing sponsorship, and it’s difficult to imagine any of the above-named fancying a drive with either team anyway. With every other competitive seat filled, Renault is their last sensible choice, and that’s a cracking bargaining position for the French squad.

Weighing up, briefly: Monza qualifying

Adam — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:27:43 +0000

This week, “Brevity will get you everywhere.”

After the Chinese meal, the drinks that followed, the tour of Hartlepool’s clubs and the eventual horrible singing, it was the second chorus of Delilah that decisively saw off my already-fragile voice. I should really go and rest that, so we’ll not be long this week.

You know how these things work. Top 10 qualified with race fuel, everyone else fuelled up later, we find out the weights and analyse the relative performances. Car, driver, weight in kilos:

1. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes         653.5
2. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes     655.0
3. Raikkonen    Ferrari                  662.0
4. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes         683.0
5. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes           688.5
6. Button       Brawn-Mercedes           687.0
7. Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes     679.5
8. Alonso       Renault                  677.5
9. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault         682.0
10. Webber       Red Bull-Renault         683.0
11. Trulli       Toyota                   703.0
12. Grosjean     Renault                  699.8
13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber               697.5
14. Fisichella   Ferrari                  690.0
15. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber               697.5
16. Glock        Toyota                   709.8
17. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota          706.2
18. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota          708.6
19. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari       706.0
20. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari       706.0

Lewis Hamilton has pole position thanks partly to pace and partly to McLaren leaving the fuel hose attached for less time than anyone else. He can also be thankful that Adrian Sutil, wringing the neck of the Force India to great effect, got sideways in the first of the Lesmo curves on his best lap; without that, pole could have fallen to the German.

The first 3 cars are running a two-stop strategy. Everybody else will stop just the once. The one-stoppers should hold the whiphand tomorrow, with today suggesting that the lighter two-stoppers don’t have enough of a speed advantage to make the strategy work. Raikkonen, the heaviest two-stopper, could find himself parked behind the heavy Kovalainen if Heikki gets brave on the brakes into the first corner, and doesn’t seem to have quite the long-run speed he had at Spa. Sutil, for all his qualifying brilliance, is the sitting duck, surrounded by KERS cars and certain to get caught behind the two Finns occupying the second row. Even if his pace is good enough, the Force India would need to be incredibly good in a straight line to give him a shot at passing the KERS brigade, and we saw at Spa that even with the longest full-throttle stretch in F1, the Force India couldn’t overcome the special button effect.

Hamilton has the best chance of the two-stoppers. He’s on pole, with KERS, and his weight-corrected pace is on a par with that of Kovalainen and Barrichello behind him. The pace has to be sustained throughout for him to have a chance of winning – one mistake would be enough to scupper his hopes. Hamilton’s McLaren partner Kovalainen has the best chance of anyone, running what should be the optimum strategy, being the furthest forward of the men doing so and having the power boost at his disposal. Whether or not you make him favourite to win depends entirely on whether you trust him to be quick and consistent across a race distance.

If you don’t, then you mustn’t discount the Brawns, both full of fuel and both occupying row 3. Barrichello outperformed Button again, but the smile is back on Jenson’s face and his driving is that of a more relaxed man than the one who contested the last few events. Their pace is good, their long runs consistent, and the only pity is that Barrichello might need a gearbox change, which carries a grid penalty, which would ruin the whole thing.

Elsewhere, Tonio Liuzzi marked his F1 return with his first ever Q3 appearance, a praiseworthy effort indeed, and looks a good bet for solid points tomorrow. Red Bull are fuelled shorter than Brawn and running slower, their worst nightmare come true. Fisico crashed in morning practice and felt the lost running time was a contributary factor to his early exit from qualifying – with one-stop the way to go at Monza, Ferrari have little scope to bring him into contention with a long first stint and have to rely on Giancarlo getting racy instead. Points are possible but not at all likely.

Tomorrow’s winner? Any one from four. Past performance says Heikki Kovalainen won’t win, qualifying performance suggests he probably should, and he’s driving for his career at the moment. He’s my pick.

Replacing Massa’s replacement’s replacement

Adam — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:10:20 +0000

Third time lucky?

First there was Michael Schumacher, whose fractured neck put paid to his comeback before it ever really started. Then there was People’s Champion Luca Badoer, whose comedy stylings reminded fans worldwide that they were only a couple of lucky breaks away from driving the second Ferrari themselves. Now?

As the only one of Massa’s three substitutes to have experience of current-spec F1 before getting into the Ferrari F60, and on the back of that magical drive at Spa Francorchamps, Giancarlo Fisichella is the logical choice to partner Kimi Raikkonen for the rest of 2009. Assuming he doesn’t shrink under the weight of being an Italian racing a Ferrari at Monza – it has been rumoured that Ferrari now avoid giving Italian drivers race seats because of the expectation that would be heaped upon them – and on a track filled with KERS opportunities and without that many testing corners, Fisi should be at the sharp end next week. His replacement at Force India has yet to be announced.

Fisichella is also confirmed as Ferrari’s reserve driver for next year, a guaranteed role for 2010 giving him time to acclimatise to the car and team without the same pressure to perform faced by Badoer. For that he can be thankful – who, after all, remembers the last home-grown driver to race a Ferrari at Monza?

Happening before your very eyes: Belgian GP

Adam — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:57:03 +0000

Formula One is so terribly predictable these days, isn’t it? In such a technologically advanced sport, one where what you’re driving matters as much as how you drive it, a quick car is a quick car. There’s no mystery any more. Unless it’s one of those races where the weather can’t make its mind up, there’s no scope for one of those freak, form book destroying results so beloved of sports fans the world over.

The team on pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, after a completely dry qualifying session, entered the weekend having never scored a point in Formula One. The man in 2nd place had qualified 18th the week before, the man in 3rd hadn’t been in the top 10 all season to that point, and the man in 4th was starting 10 places ahead of his championship-leading teammate. All so easy to forecast, it’s a wonder anyone bothers watching.

Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix was as absorbing as it was baffling, and it left the race an utter nightmare to predict. Some of us had a crack anyway, and found that while we generally did alright, we weren’t absolutely on the money:

Yes, the Force India isn’t exactly laden with fuel but nor is it ridiculously light. Can it win? No. It can’t win, although it can and should score a decent haul of points, because it doesn’t have the pace to do so.

There were faster cars on the track this Sunday than the Force India, but not many, and not by much. Giancarlo Fisichella, having one of those weekends that would have made him a superstar if it wasn’t for all the crushing mediocrity in between them, was absolutely mighty. Fisi loves Spa, and clearly revelled in a car that got on with the circuit just as well, leading confidently from the start. He didn’t win, but that wasn’t anything to do with his pace, which was more than good enough. No, it was to do with something else:

The heavier runners – everyone from Rosberg backwards – would love there to be a safety car before they make their first stop, something that would wipe out their deficit to the lighter, faster machines ahead and give the leaders nothing like enough time to build the gap up again. Some of them, chiefly Button, have an awful lot riding on it.

Jenson got his safety car on the first lap thanks to a multi-car shunt at the end of the back straight. Unfortunately for the Englishman, his car was one of them. At the head of the pack, Raikkonen made a mistake into the Les Combes chicane, creating a bottleneck that was clearing just as Button arrived. That danger cleared, Button was doubtless highly amused when he was tipped into a race-ending spin by the suicidally late-braking Renault of Romain Grosjean, driving so much like friend of petrolheadblog.com Nelson Piquet Jr that it was almost heartwarming. Lewis Hamilton, trying to pick his way through the aftermath, was speared by Jaime Alguersuari, who had ample space to drive his Toro Rosso past the McLaren but, for reasons best known to himself, elected not to bother. Strike four cars, strike one title contender, and cue manic laughter in the cockpit of the other Brawn, inching closer to a title tilt that looked impossible two months ago. Right?

Barrichello, 4th on the grid, is the lightest of the top 10, and on the face of it he doesn’t appear to be in contention. He’ll be first frontrunner into the pits, just about capable of going beyond a single-figure lap count in the first stint, and even with a lighter car he couldn’t beat the Q3 interlopers. Out of it, right? An early pit stop at Spa shouldn’t prove too costly…he can win, as none of the cars directly ahead on the grid are likely to run away from him.

They did. So did all of the cars behind him. Yet again, an excellent Barrichello qualifying effort was ruined by his triggering the anti-win system at the start – again, the clutch was to blame, the noises from the team suggesting this was a technical issue and not operator error. From 4th on the grid, Rubens ended up as good as last into La Source (the white car at the back of shot, if you’re struggling). As his teammate Button retired, Rubens was too busy scampering across the infield trying to avoid crashing himself to celebrate. In fighting form, the Brazilian had resolved that some points closer to the other Brawn was better than no points closer and, despite an oil leak in the final stages, would recover to 7th by the chequered flag, a result his car celebrated by ceremonially burning its own rear end.

Only Red Bull, then, could stop Jenson from getting away with his 5th nightmare weekend in succession:

Mark Webber spent a lot of time surrounded by slower cars, and would surely have been alarmed to note that as the race went on, those slower cars became faster ones. Particularly vexing was the presence of Nick Heidfeld’s BMW, forced by a risky Red Bull pit release into evasive action that would see Webbo hit with a perfectly just penalty for an unsafe pit exit. Quick Nick was just that all afternoon, but a poor first lap condemned him to 5th, just behind and rapidly gaining on the other BMW of Kubica.

As Webber’s pace disappeared, Sebastian Vettel’s came on strong. Blindingly fast on long runs, Seb’s qualifying error had left him with that bit too much to do. He crossed the line 3rd, only a couple of seconds adrift of the magnificent Fisichella, but 6 points could have been 10 had he started nearer the front. The more open goals Red Bull miss, the more secure the faltering Button becomes.

What of the suddenly competitive Toyota?

Like Fisi, Jarno’s been there or thereabouts all weekend, and his pace on long runs in practice compared favourably with everyone around him. For team and driver, this is a big weekend, and it’s Toyota’s best chance yet of claiming that elusive maiden win.

Everything looked good for the first couple of hundred yards, that being the distance covered before Heidfeld dived inside Trulli and Trulli dived into the back of Heidfeld. The resulting front wing damage necessitated a pit stop, in turn resulting in a loss of heart from Trulli so grave he found himself complaining on the radio that it was impossible to pass People’s Champion Luca Badoer.

Badoer, armed with KERS power boost, was lightning down the straights but treacle in the twisty bits, and must surely now have driven himself out of the second Ferrari. The hot tip to replace him is, judging by the Italian media, anybody with a valid competition licence, though Fisichella seems to have the edge on everyone at present. Fisi may wish to reflect that his Force India was quicker than the Ferrari this weekend – no, really, go back and read it again. We’ll still be here when you’re done – and that if he jumps ship, his replacement (probably Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India’s reserve driver) might have the best of the deal going into the next race at Monza.

He may, however, wish to reflect that even if the Force India was quicker, the result of everything we’ve covered so far was that the Ferrari won the race:

Kimi, remember, has KERS power boost on his car, which will be very useful on the run into La Source on lap 1 and a gift from Heaven on the run out of there. We know Ferrari are better on race day, that they’re capable of producing a result by simply plodding around the track for longer than their rivals before pitting – witness Massa’s ascent of the scoring charts at Silverstone and again at the Nurburgring – and that Kimi’s special button is likely to have him ahead of the lighter men around him before the pitstops even begin.

Kimi was perhaps fortunate to escape censure for a premeditated attempt to redefine the racetrack at La Source on the first lap – before the track was remodelled, everyone ran very wide there to get better exit speed, which Kimi did this year in spite of the track boundary clearly being 20 feet to the right of where he was – but from there his special button usage was exemplary. Up to 2nd by the top of the hill, he might not have got close enough to pass Fisichella had it not been for that safety car. One doubts that Kimi reflected on that as he KERSed his way past the helpless Force India on the restart, but he’ll have been well aware of it later in the race, as KERS became the only thing keeping Raikkonen out of range of the fundamentally faster man behind.

A feature designed to create overtaking, then, spent 10 seconds doing so and the rest of the Grand Prix thwarting Fisichella’s best efforts to respond in kind. It had robbed us of a remarkable win, but what was left was still an extraordinary fairy story, one of the low-budget minnows rising to the top and taking on the big spending heavy hitters using nothing but genuine pace. For one week only? Nobody would dare to say.

Weighing up: Spa qualifying

Adam — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:05:59 +0000

This week, “Yes, I’m sure it’s not upside down.”

There are twenty cars, each weighing 605kg without fuel, and there are three qualifying sessions. At the end of the first session, the slowest five men are knocked out. At the end of the second session, the same. The remaining ten drivers fill up with enough fuel to run the first part of the race and then run a third session to set the grid order. When they’re done, the drivers outside the top 10 fill up with race fuel, the car weights are released, and we have a look to see who did the best job, who had the lightest car and how tomorrow’s race will play out. Driver, car, weight in kilos from the FIA:

1. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes 648.0
2. Trulli       Toyota                656.5
3. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            655.0
4. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes        644.5
5. Kubica       BMW-Sauber            649.0
6. Raikkonen    Ferrari               655.0
7. Glock        Toyota                648.5
8. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      662.5
9. Webber       Red Bull-Renault      658.0
10. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       670.0
11. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes 678.5
12. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      693.5
13. Alonso       Renault               684.4
14. Button       Brawn-Mercedes        694.2
15. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      697.0
16. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    685.0
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari    704.5
18. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       706.1
19. Grosjean     Renault               704.7
20. Badoer       Ferrari               691.5

Yes, really. Giancarlo Fisichella is on pole, from Jarno Trulli and I’ve Just Remembered My Nickname Is Quick Nick Heidfeld. Jenson Button, losing confidence in himself exactly as quickly as he’s losing confidence in his racing car, is 14th, some 10 places behind his teammate. The McLaren is only a midfield runner whenever the corners are fast and flowing but is still clearly better now than it was a month ago, People’s Champion Luca Badoer was only 8 tenths down on Kimi Raikkonen in Q1 but is still stone last and crashed late in the session, and there will be No Stops Til Christmas for Kazuki Nakajima. The heavier runners – everyone from Rosberg backwards – would love there to be a safety car before they make their first stop, something that would wipe out their deficit to the lighter, faster machines ahead and give the leaders nothing like enough time to build the gap up again. Some of them, chiefly Button, have an awful lot riding on it. Since the last 11 cars are all doing broadly the same thing, let’s have a look at the 9 that want a clean race.

The temptation post-qualifying was to dismiss Fisi’s lap, secure in the knowledge that while he’d driven well, he’d barely have enough petrol to get out of his own way. After all, he started 16th a week ago, so he must have had a lightweight car today. Temptation, though, can be a dangerous thing.

Yes, the Force India isn’t exactly laden with fuel but nor is it ridiculously light. It’s not even the lightest car in the top 10 thanks to Brawn and Rubinho, of whom more shortly. Giancarlo was genuinely quick throughout qualifying – fastest of all in Q1, 4th in Q2 – and the Fisi/Force India package is one that appears to have an amount of raw pace this weekend. Can it win? No.

It can’t win, although it can and should score a decent haul of points, because it doesn’t have the pace to do so. A lap of Spa is long, fast and creates a high engine workload so fuel consumption per lap is higher here than at previous circuits – Trulli’s extra 8.5kg of fuel leaves him only 2, possibly 3 laps heavier than Fisichella – but Jarno qualified less than a tenth of a second down on Giancarlo. 10kg of fuel equates to around 3 tenths, so the Toyota is faster fuel-corrected.

This, of course, is the same Toyota that qualified 18th last week in Valencia and so mystified its driver that weekend. This weekend, he’s not absolutely certain why he’s fast, but fast he is. Like Fisi, Jarno’s been there or thereabouts all weekend, and his pace on long runs in practice compared favourably with everyone around him. Toyota’s budget is not finalised for next year, and there is talk that even if the board grant the racing team licence to carry on into 2010, their likeable Italian driver might not be retained. For team and driver, this is a big weekend, and it’s Toyota’s best chance yet of claiming that elusive maiden win.

Also seeking a maiden win is Nick Heidfeld, who apparently still drives in Formula One. Today marked his first Q3 appearance of the season, and the BMW tends to go better in races than in qualifying so Nick and Robert Kubica will be mightily encouraged by P3 and P5 on the grid. Their pace on longer runs this weekend hasn’t been stellar, though, so Nick will likely have to keep waiting for a victory, but the podium appears to be within reach for BMW. They, like the cars ahead, are fuelled sensibly – Nick’s first stop will be around lap 13-ish – and up there on merit.

What of Brawn? Barrichello, 4th on the grid, is the lightest of the top 10, and on the face of it he doesn’t appear to be in contention. He’ll be first frontrunner into the pits, just about capable of going beyond a single-figure lap count in the first stint, and even with a lighter car he couldn’t beat the Q3 interlopers. Out of it, right?

Scratch at that face for a while. Brawn lack Red Bull’s ultimate pace this weekend (and not just Red Bull’s ultimate pace, but Toyota’s and perhaps Ferrari’s too) but their pace over a series of laps is consistent and the car appears to be using its tyres well, finally rid of the issues that plagued it through mid-summer. An early pit stop at Spa shouldn’t prove too costly because it’s a long lap and, assuming Rubens holds position at the start, he’ll have heavier cars behind him, particularly those on the fringes of the top 10. There’s a fair chance that Rubens can get his head down early on and build a sufficient cushion to the heavy-fuelled runners that he can pit and emerge still ahead of them, in clear air. If he can do that, and if he can maintain pace through the afternoon as he did in Valencia, he can win, as none of the cars directly ahead on the grid are likely to run away from him.

A couple of those behind him, though, might. We’ve written off Ferrari too many times to keep on at it, so let’s concede that Kimi Raikkonen is very handily placed and has looked very good in race trim. Kimi, remember, has KERS power boost on his car, which will be very useful on the run into La Source on lap 1 and a gift from Heaven on the run out of there. We know Ferrari are better on race day, that they’re capable of producing a result by simply plodding around the track for longer than their rivals before pitting – witness Massa’s ascent of the scoring charts at Silverstone and again at the Nurburgring – and that Kimi’s special button is likely to have him ahead of the lighter men around him before the pitstops even begin. We cannot, therefore, discount him tomorrow, but he too will be casting a glance over his shoulder.

Red Bull have the car to beat in race conditions. Brilliantly fast and consistent over a series of laps regardless of which driver is at the wheel, the car looks supremely fast this weekend. Their only problem is that their supremely fast car starts the race surrounded by slower ones. Webber seems to be genuinely surprised that 9th was the best he could do, while Vettel made a mistake that spoiled his final Q3 run. Both men have plenty of fuel on board; had the team expected Toyota, Force India and BMW to contend for pole position, perhaps they would have sacrificed some of that fuel and taken the laptime benefit of a lighter car instead. The car has raw pace and Spa isn’t a particularly difficult track to pass on, so both drivers can still win the Grand Prix provided they make up a couple of places each off the line. With Webber apparently struggling a little and Vettel in the habit of going backwards off the start, that’s a big old ‘provided’.

There are several men in contention, then, for as wide-open and unpredictable a race as we’ve seen this year. 1300 words down the line it’s hardly any easier to identify the man most likely. Having qualified on the front row in a sensibly-fuelled car that, for whatever reason, has decided to work this weekend, Jarno Trulli has made himself the man I feel most comfortable tipping for victory, but it’s the least confident prediction of the season so far. Tomorrow should be absolutely fascinating.