Part 3 finds us at the wrong end of the grid with the new teams and Force India.

The image that defined a season? credit: Sutton Images/Autosport

Force India

• Qualifying: Sutil (19^th – including a five place grid penalty) Liuzzi (21^st)
• Race: Liuzzi (16^th) Sutil (17^th)

This weekend was not what you’d call ideal. In fact, it was probably one of the worst race weekends Force India have ever had to endue. Just to give you a picture of their strife, here’s a brief breakdown of their problems.

Sutil was forced to sit out practice 3 on Saturday morning due to problems with his drivetrain, which then led to a gearbox change. This meant that even before qualifying he knew he was going to be docked five places. Then, during qualifying, Liuzzi managed to smash up his car fairly comprehensively, so qualified 21^st. Sadly, it was only going to get worse (and considerably more embarrassing).

Come the race, the two team mates touched into the first corner, meaning Sutil didn’t make up any places and Liuzzi thought he’d damaged his front wing. They both then headed to the pits – Sutil for a change of tyres to get his stop out of the way and Liuzzi, unsurprisingly, for a new front wing.

Cue a mix up in the pits and one of Liuzzi’s super soft tyres was fitted to Sutils car. Cue another round of pitstops to correct the error and a referral to the stewards.

Carnage.

Badger’s best: Liuzzi

Virgin

• Qualifying: Glock (23^rd) di Grassi (24^th)
• Race: Glock (18^th) di Grassi (ret)

Another tale of woe for the Virgin team.

Glock managed to accrue a ten-place grid penalty in qualifying for changing the gear ratios. Really guys, how did you manage that? In the search for last place, he was only saved by his team mate not entering a lap in qualifying at all due to more gearbox problems.

The race was slightly more positive for young Lucas, making up four places at the start and generally being quite quick (relatively, anyway), until his suspension went. Cue yet another retirement.

Glock managed to get himself stuck behind Senna’s HRT until the pit stops and from then on maintained a steady if unspectacular pace. He made a very reasonable point after the race, saying he hopes the team “can find a way to get a smoother build-up over the weekend because it will make life a lot easier.” Never a truer word was spoken.

Badger’s best: Glock

HRT

• Qualifying: Senna (20^th) Yamamoto (22^nd)
• Race: Senna (19^th) Yamamoto (ret)

It was decided this weekend that everyone’s favourite Indian driver (sorry Narain Karthikeyan…) should take a break, to allow Yamamoto to stay and Senna to return. They’re just going crazy at HRT, aren’t they?

Not a terribly exciting weekend. Bruno thought he did well in qualifying, but presumably would have still only beaten his team mate in normal conditions. He got a slow puncture during the race, but managed to finish. Yamamoto had problems with his gearbox and retired reasonably early on.

While they keep changing their drivers, it’s going to be hard to compare their respective pace. When we’ll start to take a proper interest is if/when Klien gets put in the car.

Badger’s best: Senna

Lotus

• Qualifying: Trulli (17^th) Kovalainen (18^th)
• Race: Kovalainen (ret) Trulli (ret)

A mixed weekend for the Lotus team -  a good performance by Trulli in qualifying (nearly a second faster than Kovalainen) was followed by another gearbox failure early in the race and another retirement.

Kovalainen didn’t really have much pace throughout the weekend, with his main contribution being thwacking de la Rosa as he was being lapped.

All that said, Lotus are still the quickest of the new teams by quite a margin.

Badger’s best: Trulli

Badger’s series of team and driver analysis: The Top Dogs, the Chasing Dogs and the Sleeping Dogs…

The second part of this week’s Hot Rod or Hot Dog sees us taking a look at the midfield runners from Germany.

Still the best of friends? credit: LAT/Autosport

Mercedes

• Qualifying: Rosberg (9^th) Schumacher (11^th)
• Race: Rosberg (8^th) Schumacher (9^th)

A team now going backwards at quite a lick, it seems clear Mercedes have begun to focus on next year’s car to the detriment of this year’s model. From talking of the “big four” teams at the beginning of the year, we’re now down to the “big three”, with Mercedes not even certain of having the fourth quickest car on the grid any more.

At the home race for both Schumacher and Rosberg, both drivers were fairly evenly matched again, but it’s the younger of the two who continues to get more out of the car. What was Schumacher’s rustiness has now developed into his lack of testing time, rather than perhaps the more obvious answer that Rosberg is quicker.

On a completely different note, Rosberg will be hoping that they get it right next year. If he was going to trundling around in the midfield, he may as well have stayed at Williams.

Badger’s best: Rosberg

Sauber

• Qualifying: Kobayashi (12^th) de la Rosa (14^th)
• Race: Kobayashi (11^th) de la Rosa (14^th)

A frustrating race for Kamui Kobayashi by his own account. However, we at Badger see this as a positive sign for both him and the team. Frustration implies a hope of better things; something in very short supply earlier in the season.

Both drivers complained about the tyres after the race, remarking on the lack of grip offered when the car was fully fueled. However, both then had quite separate moans. Kamui was left to bemoan the car’s lack of top speed while fighting with Schumacher and Petrov, while Pedro was looking good for a very racy end to the Grand Prix after coming in for soft tyres close to the end. However, it all fell apart a bit when he was lapping Heikki Kovalainen, who closed the door on him while being lapped, leaving Pedro to come into the pits for a change of front wing with the knowledge his afternoon was thoroughly wrecked.

Overall, Kobayashi was quicker again, as expected. He’s cementing his place for next season (if sponsorship money hadn’t already done that) and putting Pedro under pressure. Just how cheap can he be?

Badger’s best: Kobayashi

Williams

• Qualifying: Barrichello (8^th) Hulkenberg (10^th)
• Race: Barrichello (12^th) Hulkenberg (13^th)

Another team who’ve made a large leap forward in recent races, but who slipped into bad old habits in Germany. It’s all very well starting in the top 10, but if you can’t stay there it rather defeats the point of being there in the first place.

Let’s start with the good. Two cars in the top ten is a result, if not a massive result in fact. Even Hulkenberg got himself in there.

Now, the not so good. Both drivers’ races were spoiled by their starts and, having lost track position, the car was quick enough to keep up but not to pass. That said, you’d have to have been driving a rocket ship to pass at Hockenheim, so we at Badger wouldn’t feel too sorry for yourselves, chaps. On another note, Hulkenberg described the race as “uneventful”. You’re telling us, Nico.

Badger’s best: Barrichello

Toro Rosso

• Qualifying: Alguersuari (15^th) Buemi (16^th)
• Race: Alguersuari (15^th) Buemi (ret.)

Quite an interesting race for the Toro Rosso team, all things considered.

Having seen some of the bigger teams get involved with scraps between the drivers, Alguersuari and Buemi obviously wanted some of the action. It’s probably best we let the drivers tell it in their own words:

JA: “I was on the inside going into Turn 6 and I braked well leaving enough space, but there seemed to be some problems in front of me, as the cars ahead all slowed much more than is normal. I braked again, but it was not enough and I drove into him [Buemi]. Naturally, I am sorry for that.”

SB: “I made a really good start and was able to pass three or four cars and then when we came to the hairpin, I was braking in the middle of the corner and my team-mate came from a long way back and ended up driving onto the top of my car.”

As you can see, a slight difference of interpretation. What they really needed to do was both go out and have some fisticuffs – that would have made it a lot more interesting. They’re both in helmets after all, so we at Badger think it would have been fine. A tip for next time, lads.

After all of that nonsense, Jaime trailed round to finish fifteenth. Needless to say he’s now “looking forward” to Hungary and doubtless having someone taste his food.

Badger’s best: Alguersuari

(c) Darren Heath

Many of you have been quite rightly angry about the incident.  Some disagree with the order being given at all, given that it was exactly a year since Massa’s life-threatening accident and was quite frankly a lot better than Alonso for the majority of the grand prix.

Some of you object to the crass way in which it was handled, with engineer Rob Smedley left to do the dirty work and making it very clear he wasn’t happy about doing it.  And possibly even more of you got properly narked when the Ferrari team proceeded to attempt the worst cover-up in the history of F1.  We certainly learnt one thing about Ferrari last weekend: they can’t lie for toffee.

Of course, there are some big Ferrari fans out there, and it has been interesting to gauge their reactions to the incident.  “The team comes first” has been the party line from Ferrari, but they would have had the full 43 points whether Massa or Alonso stood on the top step.  The switch only bolsters Alonso’s quest for the drivers’ championship.

For Massa fans it was a dark weekend.  What could, and should, have been a triumphant return to form a year to the day from the crash ended with Felipe’s reputation in some confusion.  Was it really “magnanimous” of him to give Alonso the lead, as Rob Smedley told him over the radio, or does it expose him to ridicule for not having the guts to go for a world championship himself?  We’re barely past the half-way mark of the season, and already Massa has ruled himself out.  Perhaps Massa should take a leaf out of Mark Webber’s book and go for the win anyway and suffer the wrath of the team later?  If he wants to call himself World Champion one day he will have to be that ruthless.

(c) Sutton

The Team Orders debate: were Ferrari out of order?

As many of you have pointed out, team orders have always happened in Formula 1, despite being ‘banned’ fully in 2002.  Here’s a selection of reader comments on the debate:

“If Fernando is as good a driver as he claims to be then he should be able to pass his teammate properly” – Spud

“There is still so much more to play for in this season’s championship, and there is no need for this to happen with 200 points still available in the season” – Richard Sobey

“Despite what has happened “in the past” the rules are quite clear that ‘team orders’ should play no part in the final position of the participants whilst the race is conducted” – Badvok

“The worst ‘crime’ here though is the inept way Ferrari executed the team orders” – Carlostastic Racing

Let’s get things back in order?

So should regulation 39.1 be repealed if it is effectively worthless?  The WMSC are yet to rule on this occasion, but with former Ferrari-boss Jean Todt at the helm of the FIA it seems extremely unlikely that Ferrari will get anything more than a slap on the wrist.  If indeed no action is taken is it even worth having the rule there at all if it does not serve purpose?

Perhaps not, but this incident has got everyone talking, and sometimes shouting, about the future of the ‘Team Orders’ rule.  If team orders are so prevalent, then should it be repealed?  Or should Ferrari just have some lessons in PR and the art of concealment?  In the words of Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne, “the bottom line is if you are going to do it then do so far more cleverly than they did.”

And here’s one more thought: had the race been, well, a bit racier would we have even cared so much about this incident?  Perhaps it all got blown way out of proportion simply because the 2010 German grand prix was such a yawn-fest?

Image credits: Sutton images and Darrren Heath

credit: Sutton Images/Autosport

Sauber

• Qualifying: de la Rosa (9^th) Kobayashi (12^th)
• Race: Kobayashi (6^th) de la Rosa (ret)

After being really quite nasty about Sauber earlier in the season, we have to confess their recent showings have much better, no, scrap that, very impressive. Both cars in and around the top 10 in qualifying and a strong race showing – whatever James Key’s done since taking over, it’s really worked. Hopefully the sponsors will now get on board for next season.

Kobayashi, after his great performance in Valencia and, most importantly, his Hot Rod prize, really performed well again to take a richly deserved sixth place, helped by the safety car and Alonso’s penalty. He’s really come into his own in recent weeks, displaying both speed and calmness in equal measure. It turns out he likes playing it cool as well, saying after the race that he “didn’t find it especially hard, [and] didn’t even sweat.” Alright for some, eh?

Unfortunately for de la Rosa, especially after his ninth place in qualifying, his race rather fell apart (quite literally in fact) when he was hit by Adrian Sutil and proceeded to drop bits of his car all over the circuit. Not ideal and led to the end of his Silverstone adventure.

Badger’s best: Kobayashi

Force India

• Qualifying: Sutil (11^th) Liuzzi (20^th – including a five place grid drop)
• Race: Sutil (8^th) Liuzzi (11^th)

This is another interesting team mate battle that, half way through the season, has swung back and forth. Sutil’s got the upper hand at the moment but Liuzzi’s shown enough promise to make him think twice. We at Badger just aren’t sure whether it’ll be enough to keep him in his race seat next season, especially if Paul di Resta is able to bring some sponsorship money into the team.

A good weekend for Sutil, even though his strategy had to be changed. After starting on the hard tyres with the intention of doing a long stint, he found that they didn’t hold up very well, so he came in for softs and really struggled for the last ten laps of the race or so. He managed to demonstrate yet again that he’s difficult to get past – even Vettel in the far quicker Red Bull wasn’t able to find a way through till the last lap.

Liuzzi’s race was spoilt on Saturday after his penalty for blocking Hulkenberg, although he seemed manically happy after the race, saying how much the enjoyed it and felt like he could have got into the points.

Badger’s best: Sutil

Toro Rosso

• Qualifying: Buemi (16^th) Alguersuari (17^th)
• Race: Buemi (12^th) Alguersuari (ret)

Another race in which Alguersuari qualified between 15^th and 18^th (that’s eight now, in case you were wondering). Going out with the new cars in Q1 isn’t cool. Just say no, Jaime, just say no. He’s very much a race day driver, whose 100% finishing record was brought to an abrupt halt at Silverstone after his brakes went. Not an ideal circuit for that to happen at either.

Buemi enjoyed a miserable time of it, coming out behind Liuzzi after the pit stops, getting stuck and graining his tyres. He was remarkably honest after the race, saying he thought a point would have been possible, but they just didn’t do a very good job. More of this honestly please. We like it.

Another interesting team mate battle here, and one which will be especially interesting as the season progresses. Look out for Alguersuari’s performances after Hungary – it’s where started last season.

Badger’s best: Buemi

Renault

• Qualifying: Kubica (6^th) Petrov (15^th)
• Race: Petrov (13^th) Kubica (ret)

The first time Robert Kubica hasn’t finished a race this season and, therefore, the first time he’s been beaten by Petrov. It’s a bit of a hollow victory, but you know what, Vitaly will take what he’s given. Result.

He’s still treading, much to our chagrin, the well worn comment boards with things like “it’s good to have finished the race because it gives us lots of data and gives me more experience of the track”. Data Vitaly, yes, that’s why you’re there. Data. You’re really like one of those Google streetview cars, just trundling round collecting lots of nice data. Honestly. Unless he a) picks up in the second half of the season or b) finds another massive wedge of cash, he might find himself out of a seat next season.

Kubica, fresh from signing a new contract, retired after 19 laps with a driveshaft problem. Before he departed though, he was involved with Alonso in the main stewards’ controversy of the day, being passed by the Spaniard off the track, resulting in a penalty for the Ferrari man. Apart from that, there wasn’t much else of note. One small thing though Robert. Cheer up, you miserable bastard.

Badger’s best: Kubica

Part One

Part three and Driver of the Day to follow…

For 2010 it’s undergone some changes, with the new Arena Complex- actually designed for motorbikes rather than cars- hopefully adding some fresh excitement to the track. And after Valencia, which surprised us with a decent race, we’re definietly hoping for excitement here. The action is already underway, with free practice one and two having taken place- here’s how the sessions went.

Free Practice 1

© LAT/Autosport

The big news pre-session was Bruno Senna’s absence from the Hispania car this weekend, with the team’s test driver Sakon Yamamoto taking the Brazilian’s place at the struggling squad. The latest on the story is that Bruno will be back in the car for the German GP in a fortnight, providing some financial problems are solved. Hispania say they’re just giving Yamamoto an opportunity to race this weekend. A strange one this, and we’ve probably not heard the end of it just yet.

In other driver-swap-news test drivers Paul di Resta and Fairuz Fauzy got behind the wheel of a Force India and a Lotus respectively, though just for the morning session. Fauzy suffered an engine problem in the pits, but did eventually hit the track. His running was restricted though, hampering Lotus’ evaluation of their latest- and final- 2010 upgrade. The Malaysian was on the phone with Badger yesterday, so keep an eye out for the full interview over the weekend.

Like Lotus, and a fair few other, Red Bull have plenty of new bits on their car this weekend, as they try to keep the opposition in their rear-view mirrors. It’s not like them to show pace in FP1, so this might be seen as a bit ominous for the rest of the grid: Valencia winner Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the first session, producing a best lap of 1:32.280, three-tenths quicker than the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.

Next up was Renault’s Robert Kubica- who this penned a new contract that will keep him at the team through the 2012 season- followed by the second Red Bull of Mark Webber. An impressive run from Adrian Sutil saw him take 5th spot, with Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Button, Schumacher and Barichello rounding out the top 10. It wasn’t a good session for Ferrari though, whose best placed car was 13th quickest Fernando Alonso, with teammate Massa even further adrift in 17th. Their new blown rear-end clearly isn’t living up to the standard of the Red Bull’s. See below for the times, which are courtesy of the F1 timing app, available on iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Blackberry, from the Official F1 Website.

Free Practice 2

We thought it was looking good for Red Bull in the morning session, and after second practice they look positively peachy. Well, they’re looking pretty peachy.

After Vettel’s p1 in the morning session it was his teammate who shone in FP2. Mark Webber went to the top of the timesheets after just 20 minutes, and improved his time after an hour with a mighty impressive 1:31.234. He’s clearly getting on famously with ‘Luscious Liz’, Vettel’s ex-chassis that the Aussie is now using. Vettel was 3rd fastest, over half a second shy of his teammate.

The RB6- armed with the most developed blown rear-end- was always going to be stellar through Silverstone’s fast corners, and today’s sessions suggest they’ll be tough to beat this weekend.

However Webber’s day was made a little less joyous by a technical problem on his car that kept him out of the final minutes of the session. Is Liz trying to sabotage her new man’s chances? This is getting weird now…

© LAT/Autosport

Back to the on-track action. After a poor morning session Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa had a much better time of it in FP2, ending up 2nd and 4th respectively. Next up were the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, followed by the impressive Vitaly Petrov. The Russian is the only driver to be outqualified by his teammate at every race this season, but his confidence will be up after this session. Hamilton, Sutil and Barichello completed the top ten.

Jenson Button ended the FP2 down in 13th spot, and with Hamilton 8th it wasn’t a great session for the British drivers. But with McLaren focusing on car development fast times were never really on the agenda. There’s more to come from these boys.

The bump at Abbey caused several drivers to have off-track excursions today. An added challenge for these mega talented drivers or a safety hazard- you tell us. Village also proved tricky, with Schumacher, Hamilton and Massa just three of the drivers to make mistakes there. The new section of track is catching drivers out too, as the switch to the newly laid surface and find themselves with less grip.

But will a bump in the track, or even a mysterious car problem, be enough to stop the Red Bulls this weekend? They’re certainly the team to beat in tomorrow’s qualifying session. Badger will of course have full coverage from the British Grand Prix, with our editor reporting from the circuit this weekend- stay tuned.

© LAT/Autosport

© www.SuttonImages.com

Thus far 2010 has seen the momentum swing between the Red Bull and McLaren drivers: Vettel was brilliant in the first few races, though technical woes prevented him from capitalizing; then Button stole a march with superb wins in Australia and China; Webber picked up the baton and dominated Spain and Monaco; now Hamilton is the man to beat, claiming back-to-back wins in Turkey and Canada.

Neither Alonso nor Massa has had any such momentum. Both started well, Massa following his teammate home in Bahrain, but since then it’s been stop start: Massa on the podium in Australia, Alonso runner-up in Spain, Felipe strong in Monaco. Both then had a nightmare in Turkey, where it appeared Ferrari had slipped in to a three-way battle with Mercedes and Renault.

But Canada was much brighter. Alonso qualified and finished third, and was left feeling he could have won had lapped cars been a bit more accommodating. Felipe’s day went wrong at the start where he collided with Liuzzi, and got worse when Schumacher ran him off the road late on. But he did set some impressive lap times and provided us with some entertaining overtakes. The Prancing Horse looked to be finding its feet again.

All this leaves the team in a position far better than their pace would suggest. Alonso sits fourth in the title battle, just 15 points shy of leader Hamilton, and ahead of Vettel’s mega-but-fragile Red Bull. Massa is further adrift, down in 8th in the standings, but the new points system means he’s not impossibly far off the summit.

© www.SuttonImages.com

Ferrari undoubtedly made strides in Canada, finding themselves far closer to the pace of the McLarens and Red Bulls than they have been since the beginning of the year.

But having started the campaign well they shouldn’t really be in this position- they shouldn’t be playing catch-up. The car was clearly quicker than the McLaren at the season opener, but whilst the Woking-based team have got the most out of their F-Duct and closed right up on the aerodynamically sublime Red Bull Ferrari have dropped back- and they’re blaming the aforementioned duct.

“We concentrated too much effort on the blown rear wing,” said team principal Stefano Domenicali post-Canada. “We spent a lot of effort there, not focusing on the other areas of the car. From Valencia onwards the focus will be to develop other areas of the car apart from the blown rear wing, because it is a complicated system that took a lot of resources out of our team.”

Is it really that simple? Has the team’s drop-off in pace been down to their chasing performance from the F-Duct whilst ignoring other areas of the F10? If so it’s a shocking piece of shadow chasing for a team of this size and reputation. You get the feeling this sort of thing wouldn’t have happened in the days when Jean Todt and Ross Brawn had offices in Maranello.

So, having made changes for Canada, the team has another upgrade package coming for Valencia, including a new exhaust similar to that which has aided Red Bull so much of late. Their chances of winning the title will depend heavily on this- and their two drivers. If the car does deliver the pace can these two steer a Ferrari to the title?

© www.SuttonImages.com

That’s a silly question really, isn’t it? In Alonso and Massa Ferrari have a mighty impressive line-up, and one that could, with the right car, certainly deliver them the championship.

At this stage, you get the feeling it’s Alonso, with two titles under his belt and a points advantage over Felipe, who’s best placed to succeed. He’s the one who’s delivered the stronger results this year, and if history tells us anything it’s that Fernando can drag extra speed from a less than stellar car. That’s not to rule Felipe out- when the car is on song he’s capable of truly imperious driving- but unless Ferrari draw level with the top two on pace Fernando is the man in red most likely to succeed.

So with the season nearly at half distance Ferrari are still in the mix. All the talk may be of McLaren and Red Bull, but so long as Ferrari are picking up points and keeping up with the leaders they’ll be satisfied. If they can keep pace with development you just can’t rule them out, and we could be set for a six-way struggle for this year’s world title- and that would make for fantastic viewing.

Here at Badger we love to get your thoughts- so, can Ferrari haul themselves in to the title battle, or is it already too late for the Scuderia to challenge the McLarens and Red Bulls for glory in 2010?

© www.SuttonImages.com

We are of course talking about Kubica and Renault, who, after both suffering some miserable times of late, have exploded on to F1 2010, leaving a yellow and black trail of success in their wake. Forget Red Bull and Webber- these guys have been the real standouts of the season.

Because whilst Red Bull entered this season with a development of what was a mega 2009 car, and Webber returned to the team for a fourth straight season, Renault have gone from the dog that was the R29 to an impressively quick R30, whilst Kubica has rocked up at the team and driven the wheels off his new motor. The turnaround by the team has been stunning; ditto Kubica’s driving.

© Sutton/Autosport

The Pole joined after a lackluster 2009 with BMW, his third full campaign for the German manufacturer. Kubica was never happy to the super-cautious BMW team. More than that, it drove him crazy. He thought he had a shot at the 2008 title- and perhaps he did- but the team had already achieved their aims for season three: to win a race. The world championship was to come in 2009, and they refused to throw their weight behind an unlikely title push at the risk of compromising next season’s car. When the car in question turned out to be uncompetitive the team quickly pulled the plug on the whole operation, leaving Robert without a drive. Enter Renault.

The French team were coming off a pretty dodgy 12 months too. First there was that crash at Singapore in ‘08, followed by the fallout from it the next year. 2009 itself saw the team struggle massively with a very poor car. Were it not for Fernando Alonso’s ability to get the most out of an underperforming racer they’d have come out of the year with even fewer than the 26 points they scored. Second drivers Nelson Piquet Jr and Romain Grosjean did nothing to improve the team’s points haul.

So Kubica and Renault, two big names with somewhat damaged reputations, joined forces for 2010. What were their prospects for the new season? Scrapping for smaller points? That’s certainly what testing suggested, with the team looking less impressive than Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams and Force India in pre-season.

But when they turned up at Bahrain for the season opener things were different. Robert qualified 9th- the quickest driver outside the big four teams- but a first-corner collision saw him finish 11th. No matter- Australia held greater things. Qualifying ninth again Robert drove a superb race, bettered only by winner Jenson Button, to take 2nd. People took note. More points were to follow in Malaysia (4th) China (5th) and Spain (8th), before the F1 circus travelled to Monaco. A circuit where a skilled driver can really make an impression, this race promised much, and Robert- or Bobby K. as he’s know at the Sett- didn’t fail to deliver.

© Sutton/Autosport

Despite the result not matching that of Australia Monaco was their most impressive race to date. Kubica was on it all weekend, hustling the Renault around the Monte Carlo streets in a blur of yellow and black. He was quick right through practice and looked set for pole until Mark Webber delivered a top-draw lap to snatch it late on. He dropped to second off the line, getting too much wheelspin as he sniffed the lead, but thereafter drove a stellar race to take third, his second podium of the season. All that leaves him level with Lewis Hamilton in 6th place in the championship. He’s ahead of both Mercedes drivers, and a whopping 53 points clear of teammate Vitaly Petrov.

We reckon F1 2010 has had two big success stories: Webber/Red Bull and Kubica/Renault, and it seems high time Bobby K. got the praise he deserves. New team boss Eric Boullier seems to feel the same, and is confident of a fruitful future for the team and Kubica.

“I am just speechless- Robert is doing a perfect job,” Boullier said after Monaco. “He is working very well with the team and likes the team spirit as well. This team has won championships so they know how to race and how to be successful and make a good car. Then the chemistry with the drivers, plus the results, have been a boost and brought out the best.”

Kubica and boss Eric Boullier are enjoying the fruit of their efforsts. © LAT/Autosport

Kubica too has been quick to speak positively about the union: “The team is building up again with a bit of a different mentality, a bit of a different approach and I think it’s working. Nobody, before the start of the season, would have put one Euro on us, but we’ve managed to finish on the podium twice. We have showed good pace. We have to keep working and pushing and I believe and I hope that one day we will be able to really fight for victories.”

Whispers have been flying about lately that Kubica’s stay at Renault will be a short one, that’ll be a Ferrari driver, alongside fellow ex-Renault driver Alonso, in 2011.

But from what we’re hearing post-Monaco this isn’t likely. The chances are Robert will stick with Renault for 2011, hoping to build the team around him (he’s already well on the way to this) and take the Reige to the world championship- just like Alonso did. Sure, the totally non-political Kubica would cope just fine alongside Alonso, and wouldn’t let the Spaniard’s mind games phase him. But wouldn’t it be more fun to beat him in the team he left to join the Scuderia?

Well, maybe it would, but that won’t be on Kubica’s mind. With Kimi Raikonnen out of the picture Robert is probably the least complicated, most pure racer in Formula One. He doesn’t care what happens out of the car, doesn’t much care what car he’s in, all he cares about is winning races, and ultimately the championship. Can the newfound Kubica-Renault dream team make this a reality? It’s going to be interesting finding out.

© LAT/Autosport

We’re talking of course about the battle of the new teams. It’s been pretty interesting stuff so far, and Malaysia was no exception. Here’s how it went.

Hispania, Virgin and Lotus contest the battle at the back today. © Sutton/Autosport

Lotus have been on top to date, having seen Heikki Kovalainen finish both races and sneaking ahead of Virgin Racing pace-wise in the past two grand prix. Virgin themselves have had a bit of a shocker, yet to finish before today and with a fuel tank too small to complete a race distance at top speed. The Hispania team have impressed by: a) getting to the gird at all and: b) getting Karun Chandhok to the finish in Australia. They’re slow though- very slow.

Qualifying yesterday was a watershed moment for both Lotus and Virgin, as they got their cars in to Q2. It wasn’t on raw pace, rather on the back of McLaren and Ferrari misjudging the weather, but it was still a major result for both, with Kovalainen 15th and Timo Glock 16th in the Virgin.

Unsurprisingly the quicker cars passed them both immediately and the traditional battle at the back resumed. Glock lasted just 2 laps, locking up whilst trying to pass Trulli’s Lotus and hitting the Italian before stalling the car. Jarno continued, with Lucas di Grassi’s Virgin now heading the ‘back-pack’ ahead of Kovalainen and the HRT cars.

Then Lotus ran in to problems. First Kovalainen made a hash of trying to pass di Grassi, damaging the Brazilian’s front wing in the process. Soon after Heikki entered the pits, spending several laps there with hydraulic problems. He returned to the action but was unclassified at the end. Teammate Trulli made it to the flag, but his car was a wreck by the chequered flag, crawling across the line in last and well of the pace.

Tech chief Mike Gascoyne called today ‘a bit of a low’, and overall it was. This was Lotus’ home race, but reliability proved a major issue for the first time this season and the race was a struggle. But that just goes to show how solid they were in Bahrain and Australia, and they’ll hope to bounce back even stronger in China.

Heikki enters the pits for what would be a very long stop © LAT/Autosport

Ahead of Trulli were the two Hispania cars of Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna, who crossed the line 15^th and 16^th respectively to complete what team principal Colin Kolles called “a fantastic day for the team”. To get both cars to the finish is a big step in the right direction for Hispania, and it was a top drive from Chandhok, who came home ahead of his more fancied teammate. These cars are so off the pace that the only way the drivers can impress is by beating their opposite number and at this point Karun is edging ahead of Bruno.

And now on to our victors. The new team battle in Malaysia was won by Virgin, with Lucas di Grassi crossing the line 14th. He’d slowed considerably by the end, preserving the precious little fuel the car had left in the tank to make the finish. It’s a huge boost to both the team and the Brazilian rookie, who’s gone largely unnoticed in F1 this year.

“I’m so happy to bring the Virgin Racing car home to the finish. We had very good early pace and continued to be strong, despite losing my front wing end-plate when Heikki tried to overtake me. We were well ahead of the other new teams, which meant that we could afford to ease off a little to make sure nothing got in the way of our result today”.

Virgin Racing's Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi © Sutton/Autosport

So Virgin finally have their first finish. It’s good for the team, who will feel progress is being made, and it’s good for us- no more Virgin losing their virginity jokes. A good result all round then.

The result doesn’t change the constructors’ standings, with Lotus still top of the new teams in 10th by dint of Kovalainen’s 13th place finish in Australia. Hispania are 11th whilst Virgin remain last, but having got a car home today they’ll be feeling confident about moving forward.

Despite the fact none of them have scored points the competition between the new teams has been a great addition to F1 2010’s many talking points, so expect Badger to keep a close eye on the ‘pointless championship’ as the season develops. Who knows, perhaps one of the new teams will even sneak a top-10 result before the season’s over.

There haven’t been too many major changes, so this is just an update. In fact, the talking points are probably the lack of changes. A larger, more extended and generally better version will come after the first race of the European season at the beginning of May.

This is the Raw Race Pace League Table – where we rank all the teams on their raw pace, regardless of times, wins or what have you.

Going backwards? credit: Alex Comerford

12 (-) HRT – Still the slowest, but a darn sight better than in Bahrain. Closer to the Virgins in qualifying than the team would have expected and with improvements to come as the drivers actually have some time in the car.

11 (↓1) Virgin – A significant move downwards for the Virgin team. It seems that not only is their car very unreliable (not that we take such things into account in the RPLT – yes, it has its own acronym) but it’s also getting slower than the Lotus cars. Not good.

10 (↑1) Lotus – They’ll be delighted I’m sure. Both cars comfortably ahead of the two Virgins and looking upward. Not that it’ll happen for a while, but by the end of the season it’d be nice to see them scrapping with the Toro Rossos and the Saubers.

9 (-) Sauber – Ninth place again for Sauber, who would doubtless have been hoping to leapfrog Toro Rosso. Neither de la Roso or Kobayashi covered themselves in glory – both drivers qualified within half a tenth of each other, indicating that’s probably all the car has to give.

8 (-) Toro Rosso – Buemi’s qualifying performance, comfortably beating both Saubers indicates the car isn’t too bad and probably has a bit more speed than those from the Swiss team. We’re sticking to our guns on this one.

7 (-) Williams – Nothing to see here. We have a feeling Hulkenberg should be getting more out of the car and Barrichello’s out driving it, but apart from that there’s not too much going on. Steady as she goes for Williams.

6 (-) Renault – Tricky. Tricky. Tricky. Two drivers – one whom we think is massively out driving his machinery and the other one underperforming. Where’s the middle ground? Nearly beat Force India to fifth in the table but, by virtue of a quick rewrite, they’re back in sixth. If Petrov gets close to the Force Indias the team’ll move up.

5 (-) Force India – Quite clearly the best of the rest in Bahrain, this one’s very tight. They don’t really deserve to be demoted a place as they haven’t done anything wrong, so they stay where they are…for the moment. The main question is whether the Renault is quicker – we think it’s too close to call, so we’re holding station for the time being.

4 (-) Mercedes - Quick, without ever really being fast. They hold station – the lowest of the top four, but ahead of the rest of the pack. When the season returns to Europe they’ll be hoping to ascend the league table rapidly.

3 (-) McLaren – Much better than last time, although the track probably helped a lot. It’s tempting to stick them in ahead of Ferrari, but that’s simply not justified – this table is (mostly) constructed with the head rather than the heart. Couple more decent races and they’ll be pushing Ferrari for second.

2 (-) Ferrari – Not much closer to the Red Bulls and out raced by the McLarens. Alonso showed he had pace through his very quick recovery after a first lap spin, but then was held up by Massa . They hold onto second place for the moment, although should be looking behind them with some trepidation.

It never rains, but it pours credit: Alex Comerford

1 (-) Red Bull – When do unfortunate events become a trend? Still the quickest car on the grid by a fair margin, both Vettel and Webber won’t be happy with their points haul after the first two races. As we can see, being quick doesn’t necessarily mean prizes.

Discuss, disagree and dissect; just get involved and let us know what you think.

The argument for there being two races within the grand prix is pretty clear: all of the teams racing in F1 last year finished on the same lap, with Pedro de la Rosa last of them in 12th place. Next up were the only two finishers driving for new teams: Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen, 2 laps down, followed by Karun Chandhok in the Hispania, who’d been lapped 4 times. You may or may not agree with the idea, but it’s clear at least that the three new teams are in a league, if not a race, of the own at the minute. So, let’s take a look at who’s currently topping the rookie-team table.

Here at Badger we’ve been mightily impressed by the Lotus team, who in six months have gone from an idea to a pretty impressive reality.

Another race distance completed equals a good day for Heikki. © Alex Comerford.

Okay, they’re way off the pace of the front-runners, but they look by far the best of the new teams. Yesterday they got both of their cars higher up the grid than fellow newbies Virgin Racing and Hispania, and today Heikki Kovalainen completed his second race distance in as many races. The team has been very sensible in employing a ‘to finish first, first you must finish’ mentality, and will be gaining a huge amount from the running they got in today. The Finn was happy chappy: “now we go to Malaysia with a good feeling and we’re all looking forward to that,” he said post-race.

Okay, Jarno Trulli didn’t make the start in the other car, hydraulic problems forcing him out, but Heikki’s 13th place finish is enough to make Lotus king of the rookies for the second race in a row. If any of the new teams are to trouble the established outfits this season the smart money is on it being these guys.

Second in the rookie race was the universally adored Karun Chandhok. The Indian rookie finished 4 laps down in the Hispania car, but with the team having missed all of pre-season testing this is a pretty big triumph.

Karun kept his cool to give Hispania their first finish. © HRT F1

And they weren’t even that slow in qualifying. Chandhok’s teammate Bruno Senna was just 4 tenths shy of Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi yesterday, a big improvement on Bahrain. Senna lasted just 5 laps: “no gears, no finish” was the explanation he offered on his Twitter feed.

But Chandhok kept motoring on, ending up 14th at the finish. “This is a fantastic day for the team and a great step forward. I am proud to have ended our first race” he said afterwards,

So a great result for Hispania, but one that means the sympathy factor might soon fade from them. They’re now a proper Formula One team- albeit one racing in the ‘Brundle B race’.

And then there’s Virgin Racing. All in all it’s been a bad weekend for the Branson-backed team, what with the almost unbelievable news on Friday that their fuel tank wasn’t big enough to complete a race distance- read more about that one here.

In qualifying they were behind Lotus, so that was a bit of a disaster too. The race wasn’t much better. Lucas di Grassi spent a lot of time in the garage as the team tried to solve an issue with his car, and eventually retired before half-distance.  The Brazilian did enjoy a brief dice with Michael Schumacher, but that’ll be little consolation to a team in need of mileage.

A rough weekend for the Virgin team. © Alex Comerford.

Timo Glock ran for longer, racing Kovalainen’s Lotus before dropping out 17 laps from the end. Perhaps that was for the best though- running out of fuel would have been an embarrassing confirmation of their design mistakes.

None of the new teams have any points on the board yet, but it’s currently Lotus who sit 10th- and highest- in the constructors’ championship by dint of Kovalainen’s 13th place finish. Next up are Hispania, whilst Virgin sit bottom of the pile, yet to see a car go the distance in 2010.

So now it’s on to Malaysia, Lotus’s home race, where the battle of the newbies will continue with their back of the grid B race resuming at the Sepang circuit.