Month: July 2017

2017 British Grand Prix

The British Grand Prix was another solid link in the Haas F1 competency core. Both cars finished the race, and Grosjean finished 10th and scored yet one more point for the Tribe from Kannapolis. It was really Kevin Magnussen’s day to repeat his Monaco performance and score, but it was not to be.  KMags passed the Mclaren of Stoffel Vandoorne while under a virtual safety car situation, and was penalized 5 seconds on his next pit stop. Those 5 seconds would put him back towards the end of the field and out of points. The thing which does not make sense is that Magnussen was penalized for passing while under the virtual safety car.

Grosjean was running 12 most of the second half of the race until the Toro Rosso of Kvyat failed, then the Mclaren of Fernando Alonso failed on the second to the last lap. So Grosjean was gifted another point for his 10th place finish Magnussen got nothing for finishing 12th. But Magnussen started 18th and again, the entire Haas F1 Team linked yet another complete race for two cars, and one point for the effort.

Send lawyers, guns and money… we’re off to Azerbaijan!

2017 Austrian Grand Prix – Race Review

With a waft of summer edelweiss in the air, Romain Grosjean finished 6th place in the Austrian Grand Prix with his Haas F1 Team car. With the finish Grosjean claims 8 more points and stands with a total of 18 points for the year in the 2017 F1 Drivers championship. He’s tied with the Williams of Lance Stroll and the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg  who also have 18 points for positions 11 thru 13. The other Haas car of Kevin Magnussen sits in that 14th spot with 11 points.

The Haas F1 Team has solidified their hold on the 7th spot in the constructors championship. Renault entered this race with 18 points to the 21 of Haas. Those yellow Renault cars could not keep up and finished out of the top 10 and therefore score no points. The deficit of  by the French team will allow the Americans to make a leap in pursuit of the next constructor in the standings, Toro Rosso. With 33 points, the Toro Roso’s of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat are loosing ground to the Haas Team… the game is afoot.

As for the race… Romain Grosjean was fast all week. Both of the Haas Cars were in the top 10 for all three practice sessions leading up to qualifying. Grosjean Qualified 7th, and started 6th, when Lewis Hamilton was bumped back 5 grid spots for a transmission swap penalty. Kevin Magnussen experienced a rear suspension failure during the first session of qualifying.  Despite not completing the the first qualifying session he still completed a lap fast enough to place him 15th on the grid…

In the world of woulda, coulda, shoulda.  KMags shoulda  scored points. His pre-race bout with the gremlin stick continued into the race as smoke began to pour from the rear of the Dane’s Ferrari in the 29th lap.  With a race distance of 71 laps, Magnesium woulda had plenty of time to advance one more position into the top 10 and the points. With both Toro Rosso’s and Renault’s finishing way back, this mechanical failure can directly attribute to the loss of at least one point. Despite the lack of points, both the driver and car demonstrated that they have the pace to lead the mid pack.

Romain Grosjean gets the Mailman award… he carried the mail and delivered 8 points for Gene Haas. Grosjean maintained his relative position the entire race.  He nor the team made any mistakes and the car was fast. The Ferrari powered Haas VF-17 is proving to be a fast car. And did anyone notice… no mention of brakes from Grosjean. Has Haas worked out the brake problems on the number 08 car? We shall see.

The next stop for the F1 circus is Silverstone and the British Grand Prix. Let’s see if the the Haas F1 Team can maintain the pace of fast, mistake free racing and race craft and conquer that 6th position ion the constructors championship from Toro Rosso…

Until then……. tally ho!