The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix provided all the excitement on and off track. My post ‘Emotions, Tensions And Vettel Score A Win’ saw debates and opinions fly all over on my Formula1 blog and on social media. While the initial comments were all in favour of Webber, the scales tilted Vettel and his ruthlessness as fans slept over the incident! Hopefully Webber did too…!
Given the incidents and topics in Sepang over the Malaysian GP weekend, Rishi and I had to make an effort to keep this Formula1 podcast short and simple. When I saw the final length, I knew we had succeeded in our efforts. Here’s what’s in store for you: (YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/AzSWTirNixl)
- Multi 21, we try and dissect the term! Rishi gets innovative in his ways, again.
- Webber vs Vettel, we give our view on the situation. We try and establish how both drivers saw the incident. And did this incident showcase an imbalance of power in Red Bull Racing?
- Also, could Red Bull Racing have managed this better? And we mean like Brawn did at Mercedes? And is this Ross Brawn’s last season in Formula1?
- On the Hamilton vs Rosberg incident, we offer our view too. Will Brawn take Rosberg’s side when it is time to?
- Rishi’s question – ‘Why on earth did Perez pit on the penultimate lap’? And I try answer!
- What if Mclaren serviced Hamilton’s Mercedes? Who would FIA penalize and why?
- Finally, Ferrari and Alonso’s first lap mistake. Argh! Who is to blame?
- And Rishi believes that there was one driver who used Harry Potter’s ‘invisibility cloak’ in Sepang. Any guesses who it was?
- We try and establish why Jules Bianchi and Marussia were probably the only happy team-driver pair to leave Sepang on Sunday night!
Much like Narain and Karun, we too move away from Formula1 as we go talking about Narain’s switch to AutoGP and Karun’s decision to race in the FIA GT Series. Some interesting content for Indian Motorsport fans!
And as Rishi asks, is controversy good for sport? Go hear what our view is…!
Our earlier podcast ‘If Schumacher Turns TV Commentator’ received some rave reviews. If you’ve not heard it already, go ahead and do so.
For those keen to read, here’s the latest on Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok:
- Narain Karthikeyan Switches From Formula1 To AutoGP In 2013
- Karun Chandhok To Race In the FIA GT World Series In 2013
And my favourite post on Newey and Brawn: ‘Will We See Adrian Newey vs Ross Brawn Finally?’
Inside Line Formula1 Podcast is produced by Rishi Kapoor and Kunal Shah. Follow us on Twitter and on our Soundcloud and YouTube channels.
10 comments On Multi 21, Team Orders And PR Talk
Hi Kunal. Nice podcast. Just got to ask you, do feel that team orders is killing the racing? Second thing, Jules Bianchi was competing with the Williams. Is Marussia having a good package or is the Williams struggling?
Hi Akshay, thanks for listening and for your comment.
Teams orders is a grey area like I wrote before. As much as they are needed in Formula1, they don’t always leave everyone happy. No way out here I guess!
Marussia is good in the hands of BIA, and Williams seems to be struggling, so a mix of both in my view. Keep reading, Keep racing!
Good one!!
After reading tons & tons of online articles which bashes Vettel’s win head on, it was a relief listening to your podcast, where you maintained a symmetry on the aforementioned incident. The latest one, I heard is that, Webber considering not to participate in Chinese GP & then his father Alan assuring the media that he would be part of the race. I hope, Webber doesn’t retaliate in Chinese GP by doing something crazy on Vettel and lose everything.
Loved Rishi’s invisibility cloak comment. That kinda befitted Kimi’s state last weekend for sure. Hope he wears his regular cloak and does something on the track in the Chinese GP.
But there was nothing about Force India in the podcast??
Where did you read that about Webber? The latest I read was RBR banning VET from a GP weekend, which will NEVER EVER happen! After all, he’s delivered them three titles! Some theories doing the rounds, rely only on what you hear on the Inside Line F1 Podcast 😉
Rishi’s comments are most hilarious and I always wonder how he keeps coming up with those! He’s already thought of next Monday’s podcast contents! Ha!
As for Sahara Force India, you know we just entirely missed talking about them in the pit-stop issues segment. We were surprised too!
Good one!
After reading tons & tons of online articles which bashes Vettel’s win head on, it was a relief listening to your podcast, where you maintained a symmetry on the aforementioned incident. The latest one, I heard is that, Webber considering not to participate in Chinese GP & then his father Alan assuring the media that he would be part of the race. I hope, Webber doesn’t retaliate in Chinese GP by doing something crazy on Vettel and lose everything.
Loved Rishi’s invisibility cloak comment. That kinda befitted Kimi’s state last weekend for sure. Hope he wears his regular cloak and does something on the track in the Chinese GP.
But there was nothing about Force India in the podcast??
Fun podcast guys.
We all hate team orders, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. This is a team sport and teams will want the best possible outcome. The drivers work for the team. One (not so possible) solution would be to do away with the WCC altogether, but that would have other far-reaching repercussions beyond the race track. Team orders, blatant or veiled, are inevitable and necessary.
Now, my take on the Red Bull(shit) episode:
Both drivers were asked to turn their engines down and cruise to the flag. Mark did, Seb didn’t. Mark was assured that’s how its going to be, but Seb pretty obviously defied and attacked Mark when he wasn’t expecting it. This was a monumental failure of judgement on Seb’s part. It amounted to backstabbing his team mate’s trust in him and at the same time, made the entire RBR pitwall look like a dummy, including his own engineer who repeatedly warned him about tyre concerns and Horner, who specifically asked him to stay put. This wasn’t the same as Silverstone 2011 – Mark was asked to “maintain the gap”. There were no other instructions about tyre concerns etc. and Seb wasn’t assured that Mark will hold station (not in my knowledge at least). Mark attacked and I fully support that. He had no reason to not race Seb and yes, he went against orders, but both were going flat out at the time and were still in full race mode.
People aren’t so peeved about Seb defying team orders as they are about him backstabbing his team mate’s trust and making the entire team look like a bunch of goofs. Its the same team that has given him the car and the support to achieve everything he has, but he made it pretty clear how “grateful” he is for that.
The whole team being visibly disgruntled and cancelling all celebrations is a clear sign of how they felt about it. And Dr. Marko, of all people, being unhappy about it says a lot.
On to Mercedes:
Pure PR stunt. End of. They wanted their expensive new hire to appear worth the investment at the home race for their biggest sponsor. There was no racing or strategy or risk involved in that particular order. Nico was clearly handed the sharp end of the stick but at least, both him and Lewis acted gracefully and seemed to fully understand why it ended like it did. Lewis was not happy on the podium and made it heard by saying Nico should’ve been in his place. I would put the mud on the management for making it a PR theatrical which I think backfired, for the most part. Neither of the drivers were at fault.
Ross Brawn is pretty well-versed with similar orders from the Schumacher/Barichello era (one of the worst periods of F1 imo), so he didn’t seem affected in any way.
Down the grid, Caterham asked Giedo to let Pic pass citing he was faster. Now, I’m not sure if Pic was actually faster or it was the horrendous #1 vs #2 economics at play.
Off the team-orders train, I was shocked to see Force India have such a catastrophic part failure that they had to retire both cars. Reliability has been one of their strengths over the last couple years and its baffling how they didn’t anticipate the axle to expand under the Sepang temperatures and cause issues with the captive wheelnuts.
The moment of the race for me though, was Lewis popping in to say “Hi..” to the old Macca boys and his girlfriend’s amusement at it! I literally LOL’ed. 😀
Thanks Ritesh for your comment too! That’s a long one and I am happy about that.
Both team order incidents were handled in the best possible ways from a PR point of view.
My only worry about RBR, other than WEB feeling what he did, was the shift in power from the team to the driver.
We will know in the next few races how the pit-wall would’ve dealt with VET and his decision in MLY.
As for Mercedes, it did seem as though they wished to let HAM finish ahead and prove more to themselves than others.
I’d say the best part of the race was the visit to the Mclaren box! How I wish they would’ve serviced HAM out of habit!
And about Caterham, they are too low down the order for anyone to really take notice 😉 Though of course, it was their ‘home’ race too!
As for Sahara Force India, yes, reliability has been their strength. I am sure the team will re-group and get back to racing their best come Shanghai.
F1 is a team sport, no denying that, but these team orders are being the sport to disrepute. There’s got to be a way to fix this. ‘Fixing’ race results may not necessarily be appreciated by new fans as Formula1 enters new territories.
Well, team orders become necessary towards the latter half of the season when one of the drivers is leading the c’ship by a considerable margin. Otherwise, just to cut risks by making your drivers impotent during a race is such bullshit!
Interviews with RBR personnel in Shanghai could be interesting, but I wouldn’t be surprised if all we get is sterile “those are internal discussions among the team..” comments.
If they’d have serviced Hamilton out of habit (notwithstanding the livery of the car is totally different!), the wheels wouldn’t fit.. :p
And it was John Watson who suggested Vettel should be given a one race suspension by the team (the world will end before that..). Mark will be in China and will continue normally according to his dad.
We will get the ‘we have dealt with it internally talk’, that’s PR talk.
And of course, Mclaren’s wheel guns wouldn’t work on HAM’s Merc.
And haven’t read Watson or Webber’s dad’s comments, but WEB will race in China (I am certain) and VET will never ever get a race suspension!
Here you go, this is where I read about Mark Webber/Alan Webber’s Chinese GP stuff:
http:/www.indianexpress.com/news/mark-webber-will-compete-in-chinese-gp-father/1093572/