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!

2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – pre-qualifying

We’ve been through three practice sessions and qualifying begins in 30 minutes. But this correspondent will be leaving with the family precisely at that time … it is a June Saturday after all.

I will throw out my thoughts about this race till now…

It has been a yawn fest. This circuit is more about surviving than actually providing good racing opportunities. The carnage at the Castle wall of turn 8 is unacceptable to me. This will probably be the race that Joylon Palmer looks back on as the one which did him in.

Regarding my expectations for Haas, their best shot is to play it conservative and let others crash out… sad to say but yep. I don’t see them making it out of Q2…

Safe qualifying to all!!!

2017 Monaco Grand Prix qualifying – Romain Grosjean Shines!

Romain Grosjean qualified 8th for the Monaco Grand Prix. The Haas  car performed well despite a very near miss by Grosjean when he spun at Mirabeau during the second stage of qualifying.

Both Grosjean and the Haas car performed well. the car also performed well for Kevin Magnussen. KMags was on an absolute flier during Q2 when he was blocked on track by none other than the….. Languishing Lewis Hamilton. As a result, Magnussen will start the race in P13.

If ever there was an opportunity for the Haas F1 Team to campaign two cars in a third stage of qualifying, it was today.  The cars of  Force India driven by Sergio Perez and the Toro Roso car of Carlos Sainz both out paced the Haas machine of Grosjean. This keeps Haas third in that pecking order behind the leaders. But the car has out performed most fans expectations. Maybe I’ll read about brake problems, but I’ve not heard a peep of the “B” word…

Regarding Lewis……

I don’t think the problem was the car. He seemed to be over inputting everything. The oversteer had him sideways. And all of that vertical slip is time…. and if piled up in heaps. He knows this track as well as anyone. His teammate was first after the Ferrari’s. Lewis can tend to be a bit of emotional about things at times while in the cockpit. That emotion generally serves him well. We’ve seen Lewis tear up the field from the back of the grid. But no one does that at Monaco…

Regarding Pole…. Kimi Raikkonen was brilliant. 4/100’s of a second separate the first 3 cars of Raikkonen, Vettel, and Bottas. The Ferrari’s were delivering top performance for their drivers. Sebastian Vettel was grabbing all of the attention before qualifying. He, Like Hamilton, have a storied record at Monaco, but only has one win in 2011. Hamilton has won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, in 2008 and last years 2016 race.

As you may recall, Hamilton;s 2016 victory was tainted with the controversy of Justin Bieber.  Upon taking his magnum of victory Campaign, he gave the first sip to Bieber. The 2017 Monaco Grand Prix promises to be a Bieber Free Event… as Lewis has no shot at a victory. His best hope is for attrition at the front of the field.

But for the Haas F1 team? They are in a good position to score double points.There will be some failures in front of Magnussen.  He has had better than averages race starts and has been faster than his team mate at times. With some luck and effective strategy, the Haas team can see some success at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix.

 

2017 Spanish Grand Prix


It was the first lap which would be the last for Raikkonen and Verstappen when they had a runing with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas on lap one. Bottas, Raikkonen and Verstappen started 3,4 and 5 respectively.

Hamilton would go on to win, with Vettel and Ferrari finishing second, while shoey boy himself Daniel Ricciardo took the third podium step.

Notice how I’m avoiding the Haas team? Well they would walk away with one point after Grosjean finished 10. Kevin Magnussen finished out of the points and in 14th position. One point is better than zero… which is how many Kevin Magnussen has to date for Haas. I hope we are not going to see the second coming of Esteban Gutierrez… I hope not.

For the Haas squad it was a solid race weekend. It was not especially exciting, and they only scored one point. But it was another mistake free race, and both cars finished the race distance. Let’s not forget the importance of getting the small things correct on a consistent basis. Being stuck in the mid field is like the purgatory of F1 hell. But we’re not at the back, and reliability has been fairly good for the Haas F1 Team. Magnussen qualified P11 and finished P14. Grosjean started P14 and finished 10.

So that is it for the Spanish Grand Prix. Haas is in 8th place of the constructors championship with 9 points.

Fuel up the yacht, it’s time for Monaco.  

2017 Russian Grand Prix – P20 start for Grosjean

It is difficult to understand what is going on with Romain Grosjean.

In 2015 I wrote a piece about Grosjean where I suggest that racing for the factory Renault F1 Team is his life long dream. I think that underlying gestalt, sub-conscience motivation, is beginning to manifest in his brake issues.

Kevin Magnussen had a good qualifying session for the Haas F1 Team. He advanced to the second qualifying round where he finished P14. Grosjean blames his last place P20 start on his brakes. Last Place start….

The Haas Team tried changing their brake vendors from Brembo to Carbon Industries. They reverted back to Brembo for qualifying. It seems that the team may be going through the paces in order to demonstrate to Romain Grosjean that there may be more to the problem than the braking vendor.

Where is Grosjean’s head? We cannot know… but surely the team knows if they have a problem.

Is the eve of the Russian Grand Prix the wrong time to suggest putting Alexander Rossi in that seat for 2018? We love Romain, but he loves Renault. Can you blame Grosjean for perhaps wanting a Renault seat? In the mean time, Rossi is advancing up the Indy grid, upping his value as the most underrated F1 driver, not in F1.

more on this……

2017 Bahrain Grand Prix – Post Race

Sebastian Vettel has won the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix in fantastic fashion. His 6.5 second gap to the second place car of Lewis Hamilton enjoyed the benefit of a 5 second penalty against Hamilton. But none the less, Vettel far out performed his team mate Kimi Raikkonen. The bells of Maranello may be ringing for Vettel, but I think Kimi’s head is ringing, along with that of Valtteri Bottas.

Valtteri Bottas took his first ever Formula 1 pole yesterday. The Finn was flying high and redeemed his unforgivable error of spinning under caution in China. But by the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix he was clearly delegated to the second driver position in the AMG Mercedes stable. Bottas out qualified the 3 time world champion and Hamilton was hearty in his recognition of the fact.  But fighting under anger, Hamilton demonstrates a pace that can match.

Towards the end of the race, a trailing Hamilton,  chased Bottas down, was given the pass under team orders, and beat Bottas in the race by nearly 14 seconds.

As Hamilton and Vettel battle at the front for the top step of the podium, their seconds languished nearly 20 seconds behind, (with penalty applied), battling for the scraps of the podium.

Romain Grosjean gets the Mailman award from the Haas F1 Fan journal. His 9th place finish delivered 4 points to the team! This gives the team a total of 8 points and places them 7th in the F1 constructors championship.

The day did not go so well for the junior Haas driver, Kevin Magnussen. The young Dane started in the 20th position and retired on lap 9 and was the first of the race. The commentary on NBC broadcast during the race was that the failure was due to the MGU-K. The MGU-K is essentially an electric motor that mechanically connects to the engines main crank shaft. That motor can be used as a drag component, which also generates electricity, or as an electric motor, which assists the main engine crank and helps spin the the turbo charged combustion engine.

Magnussens MGU-K failed… KMags was done.

From there on the show was all about Vettel and Hamilton. Romain Grosjean’s race was never really threatened. We can just hope that MGU-K unit failure in the #20 car was a one off. At no time during the race did we hear concern from the Haas team over Grosjean’s MGU-K.

 

The Scuderia Ferrari is leading the Formula 1 Championship by 13 points, who’da thunk it?

But this is the Haas F1 Journal…

The Haas cars are running those same Ferrari engines.  KMag’s MGU-K aside, we’re optimistic.

 

so WELL DONE Romain Grosjean and the Haas F1 Team.

We’ll see you all on April 27th in Sochi.

Happy Easter All!

 

 

2017 Bahrain Grand Prix – Prerace – Easter Morning

It is Sunday, April 16th, 2017. Happy Easter everyone…..

Easter holds a particular significance to me, and to many.  On this and every day I pray that the spirit of Easter permeates the meaning and our world.

Today the Haas F1 Team is racing in the 1 Bahrain Grand Prix. With every race, the team has indicated some degree of improvement. At every step of the teams development we have seen a continuum of growth.  So with this growth, the expectations for our hopes also grow.

To date, the Haas team has not scored “double points”. Last week at the Chinese Grand Prix we saw Kevin Magnussen score 4 points with his 8th place finish. Had Romain Grosjean not been penalized five grid spots….   eeerrrrr

This week KMags is starting at the back of the pack, P20. Can he move up 10 spots? I do think it is possible… If turns one gets ugly on the start, the back may be the best place to be…

Speaking of turn 1… Romain Grosjean will be right in the thick of the pack at turn 1, he is starting 9th. He has a very good qualifying session and maintained our expectations by making Q3. If he can make it to lap 2, I think he can finish in the points.

The Haas cars have the legs to fight in that mid pack. But the Renault Team is making humongous strides…

A word on Renault F1. I predict that, by the end of the 2017 season we will see Renault at par with Red Bull and possibly making podium challenges. They are starting with anew this year… and they are already light years ahead of Honda/McLaren.  And their car looks fantastic!!!

I don’t expect the Haas development to keep pace with Renault. How can they.

So… Will Buxton is on the grid with his pre race chat. Great stuff.

I expect Romain Grosjean to finish in the points. I’m hoping that Kevin Magnussen can also, but I’m only hoping. An 11th place finish does seem to be in the realm of possibilities. And if history has any…  never mind.

Enjoy the race everyone!

RW

2017 Chinese Grand Prix – Post Race

Kevin Magnussen is the first driver for Haas F1 Team, not named Romain Grosjean, to score formula One Championship points. He did it with an 8th place finish in the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix.

Magnussen’s 8th place finish was a move up by 6 places from his 14th starting position. Grosjean was hit was a terrible five place penalty, putting him back to the 17th position to start the race. the lap Grosjean completed would have moved him from Q2 to Q3. So between the combination of the missed third Qualifying session and a five place starting penalty, it is safe to say that the Haas F1 Team would have had their first double points day.

But onward and upward. The team is currently 7th in the 2017 F1 Constructors Championship.  Magnussen’s 4 points is enough for him to secure 10th in the drivers Championship.

Onward and upward…. the next race is in one week at Bahrain. We have every reason to believe that the Haas F1 Team can fight to the top of that mid pack.

2017 Australian Grand Prix – post race

With the greatest of optimism… the Haas F1 Team laid a big egg……

With Romain Grosjean retire after lap 11, out hopes were on the shoulders of Kevin Magnussen. Those hopes were dashed around lap 40 when he was out of the race due to a suspension failure. Two DNF’s in the first race and after Grosjean had his best qualifying performance since joining Haas.

I first thought Grosjean’s Haas VF17 blew and engine… ka-blamo. But it was in fact a leak in the cooling system… Romain was blowing steam, not oil. But he was out. Magnussen on the other hand is a bit more complicated. He had a first lap contact which was later blamed for his retirement and the suspension failure. word has it that he only had a flat tire and that his suspension was good and he could have rejoined the race. But he didn’t. We’re past that now…..

I was not overly blown away by Magnussen’s performance in Australia. His times consistently lagged Grosjean all weekend. But his orders are to bring the car home.

On to China… The Haas team did well among their mid-pack rivals. Let’s see if that advantage can continue. My hope is that they have a whole myriad of improvements to roll out for the next race.

See you in China