Bleacher Report - Articles by James Dunford

Mclaren Picks Up The Pace

James Dunford — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:46:53 -0400

The 2009 testing season is coming to a conclusion, and there are just two teams remaining at Jerez, Williams being one of them, and Mclaren Mercedes being the other.

Through the first half of winter testing, the Woking based team was showing significant pace. They were the fastest on several occasions, and were the second team to launch the new car. After this however, things did not look quite as rosy after the glitzy ceremony had faded into the memories.

The week commencing the 9th of March gave the fans and media the first chance to see all the 2009 cars on track. Even the newly named Brawn GP had made it to the Spanish track, ready for a full week of testing.

As testing got under way, Brawn GP were fast, which was not too surprising considering the time that they spent on the car, but much faster than everyone else.

The other surprise was the pace of the MP4-24. Mclaren was languishing at the bottom of the time sheets and spent most of the week in the same place.

This week testing has resumed, but with much fewer cars, and there appears to be a bit of a surprise. After most of the other teams had left, Mclaren suddenly picked up the pace, and set the third fastest overall time this year.

Had they been sangbagging? Even the team admitted they were slow, so what changed?

No one can really pinpoint quite what happened, but all of a sudden the car is quick. Mclaren had been seen using the 2008 spec rear wing, even as late as February, to compare data of the two. A green "paint" look-alike substance also appeared on the car to help them understand the airflow.

The new aero package seems to have helped them greatly, but whatever it is, Mclaren is no longer at the back of the pack, and are right up there.

One thing that is for sure, is that no one can predict who will come out on top at Melbourne, but what is certain is that Lewis Hamilton has a fighting chance.

Felipe Massa: A Bit Of An Unknown, Is He Really World Champion Material?

James Dunford — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:05:37 -0400

Felipe Massa is currently just two points behind Lewis Hamilton in the standing this year, but does he really have what it takes to become a world champion?

Peter Sauber noticed Massa and then when he saw his performance in the Formula 3000 euro series he was convinced to sign up the young Brazilian as a test driver (interestingly Massa's family originated from Italy, but his grandfather moved to Brazil).

That year he won six out of the eight races in F3000. In 2002 his first full season he was teamed with current BMW Sauber drive Nick Heidlfeld, who was the 1999 F3000 champion. He showed that he had fantastic pace, but was extremely prone to errors.

He scored four points in that season, but this was apparently not good enough, as he was then sent off to Ferrari as a test driver.

He then spent the nexst year at the Maranello based sqaud doing hundreds of laps testing in the World Championship winning F2003GA. After a year's testing at Ferrari he then went back to Sauber after his consistency improved.

A key in Massa's racing career was in my opinion this year at Ferrari. It enabled him to drive hundreds of laps without any of the pressure in which he would of had in a full race drive. He was able to learn a lot that year, and able to learn how to drive consistently, pumping in fast lap after fast lap time and again, and if we look at Hungary earlier this year we can see this.

In 2005 Massa once again showed he had what a quick driver needed. He managed to outpace 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve and beat him in the championship standings that led to a race drive at Maranello.

An awful lot of the critics believed that it was a mistake on behalf of Ferrari for doing this. The thing was, Jean Todt had seen that exact same sparkle in Massa that Peter Sauber had seen, and so had an ageing Michael Schumacher.

In the second race of his Ferrari career he once again proved his potential, by coming from 21st position to fifth and beating teammate Michael Schumacher, who had started from 14th.

At the next race Massa seemed to go back to his old form. Following Fernando Alonso into turn one he spun and narrowly missed the reigning champion, who won the race. The season then improved, with numerous podium finishes, and his maiden pole came at the world's most renowned "Massa" track, the Istanbul track in Turkey.

In 2007 he was partnered with Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, and in this season got "overshadowed" by the Finn. He had a lot of bad luck, and with Kimi being the team's No. 1 driver struggled to get out of the limelight too much. By now Massa was a renowned "second driver" for Ferrari, something which he intended to change.

The 2008 season has seen Massa have some truly awful performances, at Melbourne, Sepang, Hockenheim, and Silverstone (where he spun five times incidentally). Since Silverstone he has picked up his game, however. He has started to really outshadow team mate Raikkonen who struggles with an understeery car, unlike Massa who prefers a "Schumacher-like" style of understeer.

Something he has become renowned for in his career is the "Massa" tracks, the tracks that he simply can not be touched if the car is half decent. At these tracks such as Istanbul, and Brazil to name, something just clicks and he is in another league.

He has won at Istanbul in the past three years, and although not as much of a driver's track as Spa, the renowned turn eight proves he has got what it takes. In Brazil, maybe the home crowd or the track he also "clicks" and seems to be untouchable.

Another interesting story in Massa's career is Michael Schumacher. He has helped Massa in a lot of ways im becoming the driver that he is today, quite often Massa will say he has had a chat with Michael, and they talk every race weekend.

One moment that springs to mind is Hungary 2008 when he overtook Hamilton going into T1. The front wheels locked, and personally I thought that was it, but somehow he managed to control this, maybe michael had shared the technique that helped him out on so many occasions, if that had been 2006 he would of most probably spun, especially with a lock up quite like that.

Something Felipe wasn't renowned for beign great at was his wet weather driving. He was always good in lower formulas but in F1 it never seemed to work out. Monaco this year seemed to go along way to improving his reputation, where he would have won if it had not been for the safety car, and this is maybe another aspect the "Reignmesiter" helped him.

Massa has always been very willing to learn new techniques and try new things, and has improved so so much compared to when he first stepped in an F1 car. This coupled with his outright speed in my opinion makes him worthy of the world championship, not an obvious champion at first (if he wins!) but they always say the quiet ones are the ones to look out for, and maybe when the chequered flag falls in Brazil it wont be Lewis Hamilton (fairly) winning the championship...

Heikki Kovalainen May Still Be in a McLaren Next Year

James Dunford — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:18:01 -0400

Norbert Haug, boss of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, has defended McLaren's No. 2 driver (Yes, he is No. 2. Everyone knows it, McLaren just will not admit it!) Heikki Kovalainen, and hinted that the driver lineup may not change next year, contrary to popular belief.

So far Heikki has had a pretty average season. Memorable moments include him hitting the pit lane limiter in Australia after passing Alonso, his huge shunt at Barcelona, and the pole position at Silverstone.

He currently has 24 points, which is exactly half the amount of his equally experienced teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who is leading the championship with the Ferrari drivers. Both drivers have had their share of bad luck, however.

Haug said to Auto motor und sport, "In the end only speed plays a role and he has that. "Not always consistently but he has had some highlights Heikki is a star in the making."

If you cast your minds back to 2007, you'll remember that back then Heikki had a very troublesome start to the season. But then he sorted it out and was back on track. McLaren must be looking for more results from the young Finn.

Sebastien Bourdais' Toro Rosso Future Uncertain

James Dunford — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:09:02 -0400

Sebastien Bourdais has revealed that he does not have a clue what his plans are for the 2009 motorsport season. The Toro Rosso driver has gotten two points so far this season, but has been under the shadow of his German teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Bourdais has won the Champ car series four times in America, and apart form a few moments of inspiration—such as in Australia, when he scored two points even though his engine failed—he has not had the best of seasons.

Speaking to ITV, Bourdais commented "Obviously if you start looking at this then you can get worried, so there are two attitudes to this. You can completely disregard it, which is pretty much the approach I choose to adopt—after all, we've only had eight races so we're not even mid-season yet.

"I can't really say I feel that I've shown what I wanted to show this year so far. What happen will happen. I'm kind of a free man. If I get fired because of this or because of that, then so be it. What's really important for me is that I give my best. And I am giving my best, even if it's not paying off right now.

"But you can only influence so many parameters, so I will have no regrets, that's for sure. I'm doing the very best I can, and if it's not enough in some people's opinion then fine. Right now I'm focused on 2008. I can only hope I'll be able to show what I can do with a car that has slick tires."

Bourdais' future is very uncertain at the moment, especially with the Torro Rosso team up for sale, and young drivers such as Brendon Hartley (who won both races in the Formula 3 last weekend) snapping at his heals waiting for the opportunity.