Home boy Felipe Massa on the Brazilian GP

I am definitely having the last laugh as far as my exclusion from Ferrari is concerned. I have been with the team for a long time and made a lot of life-long friends there, but well… Get this: Ferrari kicks me out, brings Kimi back again (who was unceremoniously chucked out in 2009), I go to Williams, the F14T is a dog of a car and Williams is ahead of Ferrari in Constructors’ Championship. So much for having two roosters in the same coop. Williams has produced a brilliant car for the first time in many years, and I consider myself lucky to be here when that has finally happened. For a long time now, I have had to don the role of a submissive second driver, and being at a team other than Ferrari is doing wonders for me. Williams too pulled a “_____ is faster than you” card on me at Sepang, but I refused to let Valtteri pass and the message was conveyed.  All I want is to be a racing driver who will fight to keep his position, and I will not regret doing something like that again. Admittedly though, Valtteri has been getting more out of the car than me, and he has the points to prove it. But I am relishing the year, and living to fight the next race after each one.

Second Finn I have had to deal with. This one's a lot easier! :-)

This weekend we arrived at Interlagos, Sao Paulo; the track where I won the race but lost the championship. Home races invoke positivity in the driver, and when the crowd cheers for you, the drive and determination gets doubled. You can feel the energy pulsating through the whole place, and it eggs you on. It is an enormous sensation. Interlagos is a track which is very dear to me because of that, and winning or being on the podium here is the most special emotion in the world.

In other news, four cars were off the grid for the race. Caterham and Marussia ran into organizational and financial problems, and did not compete. It is a huge concern, and having been in a teamwith both limited and unlimited resources, I have come to appreciate the delicate nature of cost-cutting in F1. Caterham also launched a crowd-funding project to raise funds and compete in the remaining races, which is basically an auctioning of used car parts to collectors and enthusiasts. At the time of writing this entry, Caterham has managed to scrape through, and will be racing in Abu Dhabi. I am also very happy for our test driver Felipe Nasr, who has bagged a seat at Sauber next year.

Brazilian Grand Prix

Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace or Interlagos in Sao Paulo always makes me think of gladiator arenas. The circuit is built into an indented piece of land surrounded by the city, and the depression makes it look like a pit or an arena with the grandstands serving as viewing galleries. It is one of the most loved tracks on the calendar, and my personal favourite. It is an anti-clockwise track, but after racing in Austin, we have already got used to it. Interlagos has hosted many season finales, and the races here have always been exciting, more so with the rains butting in sometimes. Pirelli brought their medium and soft tire compounds for the weekend, and the bumpy, abrasive track meant that there will be a lot of pitstops.

Friday and Saturday Practice Sessions

FP1 saw me coming out as soon as the pitlane light was green, and after an installation lap we got down to the business of fine-tuning. We ran both the compounds in the session, and observed that the there was a lot of wear on the Pirellis. I also had a moment in the closing stages when I went off at Mergulho and after a tussle got it back on track. I managed to post a ninth fastest time on the mediums and then dived for soft boots. The change of rubber shot me up to fifth , where I stayed. Nico topped FP1, 1.047 seconds ahead of me.

FP2 was uneventful, except for a fire on Fernando’s car, which brought out the red flags. My position kept fluctuating between fourth and sixth and Valtteri kept doing a slightly better lap than me on the softs every time. There was another red flag courtesy of Esteban, and I stayed sixth fastest behind Valtteri. Nico muscled himself into first place again, and I trailed him by 0.976 seconds this time. FP3 saw a resurgence from me and I beat Valtteri to bag third fastest time by nearly two-tenths of a second. Nico lead this session as well, but I closed the gap to him to 0.429 seconds.

Qualifying

Q1 gets a quick start as I drive car out to the track for the outlap, and to get to the optimum fuel load takes a few laps. On the third lap after the outlap, I set a time better than Valtteri in 3^rd, which is eventually beaten by Fernando and Nico. By the time Q1 ends, Valtteri and I are an easy 3-4 on the charts behind the customary Merc domination. Romain, JEV, Sergio and Pastor get eliminated in the shootout of the 18 cars.

We move on to the 15 minutes action of Q2. I go out after a few minutes into it, and promptly set the third fastest time behind Nico and Lewis. Valtteri is feisty though, when he swoops in to displace me down to fourth. In the final few minutes of Q2, I give it my all, and climb up to second behind Nico, Lewis apparently sand-bagging. Esteban, Hulk, Adrian and Daniel Kvyat get relegated.

The commencing of Q3 sees the air heavy with anticipation in the garage and the stands, because the Williams is clearly in good contention for a podium, and if something goes wrong with the Mercs, a potential win. Q3 is a quick-as-lightning 12-minute shootout, and as the pitlane lights turn green, there’s a scramble on the track. Valtteri locks up more than once, and the team warns me about it. Nico is keen on keeping his spotless record of being right at the top the whole weekend, and Lewis is constantly on the lookout to topple him. It is a crazy session. Nico loses no time in setting the top time, and Lewis is close behind. Valtteri goes third, and then I relegate him to fourth. I am just 0.052 seconds from Lewis after the first runs, and I hear the crowds erupt on every grandstand I pass. The final run sees the same scrap, and the positions remain the same. I have a chance at beating Lewis to second on my flying lap, but a ruined middle sector throws that away. So, qualifying session sees Nico, Lewis, me, Valtteri, Jenson and Sebastian in that order for the grid positions on Sunday.

Lewis looks not-so-happy

Race

There is something about Brazil which is unlike any other racing track; the urge to ace a home race of course, and also the enormous amount of positive aura around the track. This weekend my son also will be watching, and he is at an age where this will be imprinted in his mind forever. I almost am desperate to give a good show, and the pressure is huge as we all line up on the grid for the warmup lap. The fans are in their thousands, and I can spot Brazil colours all over the circuit. The cheers can be heard loud and clear above the meek sound of the V6 turbos as we go around for the usual warmup lap, and it feels me with verve and dread at the same time. After a particularly long weaving around the hot track, we wait on the grid for the five red lights to go out.

The rubber on the tires is hot and in optimum temperature, and Charlie Whiting does the honours of declaring the start. 18 V6 engines rev up and as the lights come on and go out, we launch ourselves out of the grid boxes. I get a quick and perfect start and emerge out of the Senna S in 3^rd position unscathed, and so do all the others. By the end of two laps into the race, we see no incidents but the guys warn me about an oilspill in Turn 2. 3 laps in and I see the two Mercs already 2 seconds ahead of me, and building up the gap further. The Pirelli soft rubber is already starting to show signs of wear, and the team takes the call of calling me in after lap 5. The stop is perfect and I switch onto medium tires. I head out and a lap later the team pits Valtteri. He is safely behind me after he heads out, and I gain some tenths having achieved the undercut.

Snaking through Senna's S after race start

The relieved feeling of having executed a perfect stop is short-lived as the stewards slap a 5-second stop-go penalty on me for speeding in the pits. Dang! This means that the next time I go into the pits, I have to wait for an extra 5 seconds before my tire-changing business. This means that Valtteri has a huge chance of jumping me. To add fuel to the fire, the team informs me that he has set the fastest lap. On lap 15, I am running 5^th, behind Nico and Lewis, who in turn are chasing down yet-to-pit Hulk and Daniel Kvyat. Nico and Lewis soon edge ahead and overtake Hulk and Daniel, leaving it to me to do the same honours. I chase down Daniel rapidly, and overtake him on the starting grid straight and hear the crowd cheer. It is a good energy and I put my foot down to chase Hulk and reclaim my third position only to realise that it already came relatively easy, as Hulk is in the pits the same time I am chasing Daniel. I take my spot at third position behind the Mercs, and I can see Lewis’s Merc ahead, just 4 seconds away. In a couple of laps, I can see Valtteri in my mirrors, around 3 seconds behind me, with Jenson hot on his heels.

Overtaking Daniel Kvyat

In the following laps, Lewis and Nico run their own private race as they edge away further and further from the rest of the grid. By lap 25, I am 16 seconds behind Lewis, who in turn is challenging Nico for first position at less than a second behind the latter. I come in for the scheduled stop on lap 26, when I also do a 5 second stop-go penalty. The team makes me wait longer than 5 seconds and I come back on track in 13^th position behind Daniel Kvyat. I am eager to see if Valtteri will beat me after he stops, courtesy of the ‘7-seconds penalty’, but he doesn’t. His stop also takes long, as the mechanics adjust his seatbelt and he comes back on track in 15^th position, behind Kevin too. By lap 29, the drivers yet to stop do the deed, and I see Hulk 4 seconds ahead of me in 4^th place behind Kimi, who has decided to do a two-stop race. Nico is still the leader, and at a comfortable margin ahead of Lewis, who has apparently gone for donut. I get down to business, which is chasing down Hulk and as we arrive at lap 37, I am o.924 seconds behind him. He chooses the same lap to pit, and I automatically get promoted to 3^rd, as Kimi has pitted already. The gap to Lewis now is 14.267 seconds, and it looks like I am going to have a quiet race from 3^rd position.  But no, I can see Jenson close enough in my mirrors, and it turns out he is trailing me by 4.6 seconds. That is not a problem, because the two cars drift further apart from me as the race progresses. At lap 50, I am 23 seconds behind Lewis in 3^rd, and Jenson is 8.5 seconds behind me. 

I pit on lap 51 for my final stop and visit the Mclaren pit for a quick hello before going to my own pit. It is a funny mistake, but in my defence they all look so similar in their white overalls. I change over to mediums to run to the end. It is a decent 3.6 seconds stop, and I emerge in 5^th behind Hulk and Fernando, who are yet to make their final stop. Fernando pits on lap 53, and I am promoted to 4^th position. Meanwhile, Lewis is still chasing Nico ahead of Hulk, and I am 0.625 seconds behind the Force India. I pass him easily again at the same spot into Senna S as I took Daniel Kvyat, and the crowds applaud as enthusiastically as before.

Hey Ron! I am better than Fernando!

I run a quiet race after that, as Lewis is 30 seconds ahead of me and Hulk’s Force India fades easily behind me, and on lap 62 Hulk pits to let Jenson take the 4^th position behind me. Jenson’s gap to me is a safe 12 seconds, so unless something horrible happens to my car, I have the podium in the bag. The situation ahead is not so laidback as me though, as Lewis chases Nico like a man possessed. He is within DRS distance of less than 1 second for the remaining 9 laps, but eventually fails to rail Nico in. On the last lap, I take the liberty of looking around at the crowd and the support overwhelms me as it always does. The race ends, Nico wins, Lewis comes a close second. I stand on the podium in my home race again, with my son watching and Brazil cheering, and it is the best feeling in the whole world. 

Proud Felipe

Proud Felipinho

Whatever happened to the trophies..

Note: All photographs belong to their respective owners and FOM. Let me know if you need me to take down any.

The Fastest Cowboy in Austin: Daniel Ricciardo

I try to be modest and nice all the time, but excuse me this time mate. I totally kicked Seb’s ass throughout my stint at Redbull and it feels great!*grins*  Seb is facing the same car troubles as Kimi is, and even though I love it, I know it is tough to drive a car you are not comfortable with. The RBR has been kind to me, and I daresay I am used to jittery cars screaming for more downforce since my days at Redbull’s sister team Toro Rosso. And to be fair to Seb, he has spent five years basking in the glory of the era of Downforce Supreme, and switching to this car from that is tough indeed.

The team has been very good to me, in spite of me donning the role of a second driver. The rumours about Mark being side-lined to favour Seb before I came to this team really seem shaky after this. Mark is my countryman, but Redbull is a very impartial team in my experience. Formula 1 is a rat-race. It is the closest thing that I can relate to about the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest. Today, it’s Seb who is facing problems, but that can turn around and tomorrow it might be me.

We Hear No Evil

There has been a lot of stuff happening in F1. First, it was Jules’ dreadful accident, which left all of us drivers shaken. It makes you stop and think about life, which can be so fleeting as to change in milliseconds. What are we really doing? That question inevitably arises in mind and forces you to introspect. But the answer is simple enough for us. We are following our passions, and doing something we are best at doing. Racing is all that keeps us sane, because that is what we have conditioned ourselves to do over all these years. Secondly, Caterham and Marussia are not racing this weekend at Austin due to intra-team problems, and it makes the grid look a lot smaller. On the brighter side for drivers, it means lesser blue flags.

Circuit of the Americas

Circuit of the Americas is a well-loved track in the Formula 1 community, and drivers love it because of the enthusiastic fans, the flow of the track, the Esses, and the fact that it has taken the best out of some tracks and rolled it into one package. It has sections from Germany’s Hockenheim, Turkey’s Istanbul Park and England’s Silverstone. But it has one section that is unique; the steep climb into Turn 1, which ushers you blindly further on. In addition to all of this, the track runs anti-clockwise and this requires a newer set of neck exercises to counter the g-forces on the left side.

Track map of CotA

Friday and Saturday Practice Sessions

FP1 on Friday is disappointing for me because I have to end my run early owing to a problem in the Energy Recovery System(ERS) on the car. We have new youngsters Max Verstappen and Felipe Nasr replacing Jean-Eric and Valtteri respectively. I get 45 minutes on track before that happens, but the jittery feeling with the front and lack of traction is unnerving. We have much to do, but have to wait till FP2 to do it. Lewis tops FP1 behind Nico.

The team gets my car ready in two hours for FP2. I post a seventh best time in the first attempt on prime tires. The option/soft tires improve things later and I manage to split the Mercs and post a second. Nico has gearbox issues and Fernando pips him to third place, and goes on to depose me too. Nico manages to come back and floors it to come second again. Thus, I stand fourth in FP2. FP3 is fun at first without the big guns showing as I post second place in some laps, and then first behind Felipe. After that it is just a fall into the back as I get deported to sixth place. As the chequered flag comes out and I still am on a flying lap, I push and I push but run horribly wide at the corner before last. I stay sixth.

The steep climb into Turn 1

Qualifying

The team takes its own sweet time to prepare me to be sent into the battlefield as Q1 begins. 12 minutes out of the 18 minutes have already zoomed by before I am on the outlap for my first qualifying lap. I give it all and post a fifth best time, purpling the final sector to wrap it up. Q1 relegates are JEV, Esteban, Seb(!) and Romain. The Q2 clock starts with its 15-minute countdown, and we waste no time in getting the car on track this time. I post a seventh position on my first try, with Nico and Lewis leading the pack. Towards the end, I scrape a fifth best lap on the charts, and Pastor, Sergio, Hulk and Daniel Kvyat are knocked out. Q3 sees me the first car out of the pitlane, eager to put on a good show. I am back in eighth after the first runs, and determined to do better. I do more runs after a pit visit and catapult from eighth to fourth. Felipe relegates me soon and at the end of Q3, I am in fifth position ahead of Fernando. Nico, Lewis, Vallteri and Massa are at the front in that order.

Had to take a selfie!

Race

The new protocol dictates that we drivers come to the start of the grid and stand in a file for the local national anthem. It seems like a long walk for backmarkers on the grid, and I have reservations about this. After the US national anthem, we return to our cars and start the nervous preparation for the race. I think that Williams has come through really well this season, and their car could be judged as the best of the rest from the grid at Austin. Seb will start from the pitlane it seems, with a penalty for using the sixth engine.

LOL

We go on the warm-up lap to get heat into the tires, and weave around the track before coming back to the grid to wait for the five red lights to go out. I focus on getting a clean start and as the lights go out I floor the throttle. I get a horrible start as Fernando and Kevin relegate me to seventh place. The first two laps are hardly over and a skirmish between Adrian and Sergio on the Esses brings out the Safety Car. It starts the flurry of pitstops from a lot of cars, most noticeably Kevin for me. The SC goes back in within a few laps and we are racing again. With Kevin out of the equation for now, and Fernando right in front of me in 4^th place, I lose no time in overtaking him and do it from the inside on Turn 1. Close shave! Ferrari crossed out! The team instructs me to reign in the Williamses next. After 10 laps, I am still behind the Williams cars in fifth place, and Nico-Lewis are fighting out their own duel at the front. On the brighter side, I have pulled a good 6 seconds ahead of Fernando in 6^th.

On lap 13, I see Valtteri lock up in Turn 15, and in a plan to undercut him I dive for the pits in the same lap. Felipe also does the same from third position. I put on the medium tires(prime) and head out. The next lap sees Valtteri pit too, and on lap 15, he comes out of the pitlane side by side with me. I have the momentum from a longer run and I dive around the outside of Turn 1 to take 4^th place. One Williams down. But not for long! Valtteri is on the faster soft option tires, by virtue of which he is already all over me. He tries to DRS me on the straight before Turn 12, but I hold off. He attacks me again into Turn 15, but I keep him off. The next two laps are all about defending my behind from the apparently agitated Finn and I think I do a good job. After lap 18, I am 1.6 seconds behind Felipe and 1.3 seconds ahead of Valtteri.

This positions continue to be so for the next several laps. Valtteri seems to have started caring about his tires more than me, and steadily drops off behind me. I still keep a respectable distance to my next target Felipe in front, but somehow I don’t seem to be able to catch him. Meanwhile, on lap 25, Lewis overtakes Nico to lead the US grand prix, and judging from the way the stands erupt, you would think Lewis is American. I pit again on lap 31, and put on another set of medium tires again. I rejoin the track ahead of Valtteri, who pitted a lap before me. Felipe is still a little more than a second ahead of me. He pits on lap 32, and rejoins behind me after a botched stop by Willliams(3.7s). Second Williams down. I am now running third, with 22 laps to go. Everything has gone as planned, and a podium seems a possibility. Amidst all the hullabaloo, I also set the fastest lap.

On lap 35, Nico is 3.6 seconds ahead of me and Felipe is 1.8 seconds behind me. I still have a chance to catch Nico, and I also am not too comfortable with my gap to Felipe. Almost like an answer, Nico raises his game on the next lap and clocks fastest lap. It seems I can’t catch him after all. My immediate problem is Felipe all over my gearbox, and I focus on fending him off. I manage to get 2 seconds ahead of him in the next few laps, and the team reminds me that the battle with the Mercs not over yet. They are involved in a war of their own, with Nico rapidly catching Lewis. They might fight and things might get messy, which spells good fortune for me. But that was too good to come true. I spend the remaining laps catching Nico, a gap which was not working in my favour. Meanwhile, Felipe also manages to stage a brief resurgence and comes as close as 1.5 seconds to me. That remains so until the end of 56 laps. I hold on to third and Lewis wins the race.

And with that, my mathematical chances of winning the Drivers’ Championship are over, with Lewis at 316 points, Nico 24 points behind him at 292. I have 214 points, which 102 down on the leader, and with 75 points now available at last two races, I am officially out of the race for WDC. Good luck to Lewis and Nico!