Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was fastest in final practice ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, as just two drivers completed a timed lap as rain battered Suzuka.

Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock was the only other car to post a lap time, albeit 12 seconds slower, as the majority of drivers opted to make solitary exploration laps in the treacherous conditions.

Alguersuari completed nine laps, compared with Glock’s six, while his team-mate Sébastien Buemi braved four laps. The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button completed three exploration laps, the most of the front runners.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was sent out late in the session after having replacement parts, flown in from the team’s factory in Woking, tacked on to his car, but failed to complete a timed lap. The 2009 world champion said the conditions were “impossible to drive” with “massive rivers everywhere” as he struggled to drive at slow speed.

Both Toro Rosso drivers made a late return to the track for a final reconnaissance, and took the chequered flag after illegally practicing starts on an almost flooded home straight.

There are serious concerns that if the rain continues to worsen that qualifying could be postponed until Sunday morning, with a number of team bosses unhappy with the conditions.

The FIA’s race director Charlie Whiting could opt to delay qualifying until as late as 17:00 local time to give the track time to improve, with knowledge that Suzuka drains well, and usually offers extra grip when wet.

Should qualifying begin, the grid could be formed from the fastest timed laps when the session ends, or in order of drivers taking the track after the pit lane opened.

With less than an hour to go until qualifying, and rain still falling steadily, it looks even more likely that it will not begin as planned, with a decision expected from Whiting at 13:50 local time.

To be frank, Sebastian Buemi is not going to challenge for world titles. It's also unlikely that the driver will fight for individual race wins.

Yet, the boy has talent, which thus far has been let down by a faltering car. The Toro Rosso team has given him little to work with and this season languish somewhere between the top eight competitive teams, and the lacklustre rookies at the back.

The gap ahead and behind them looks like the largest between any pairings of teams and consequentially they are scrapping for points at best.

Rumors are afloat this week about Buemi's whereabouts for next season.

Early in the week, Renault showed interest by declaring him as one of their potential drivers for 2011. With Vitaly Petrov inconsistent and lacking the pace of his team mate Kubica the second seat is wide open.

Toro Rosso, however, emerged with the news that they will be retaining the services of both Buemi and his current team mate Jaime Alguersuari for a further year.

You would think at this point that the case is closed. Renault will just look elsewhere and the Toro Rosso team will continue to plodder along in the hope of improved performance.

Thankfully, this appears not to be the case as Buemi has spoke out. He has declared that nothing is finalised with Toro Rosso and has given the impression that he may look elsewhere.

The Swiss driver is open to suggestion and to using his initiative in a world where people who take chances can often be rewarded.

So I have to wonder in such a situation, what would be the right choice to make?

Would it be better to go to the land of opportunity at Renault. Yes they may not currently be a race winning team, but Robert Kubica is heading them in the right direction.

They certainly have shown in the past that they can turn their car into a victor, so what is to stop this from happening again.

Buemi could do well here to sustain and build upon a career that has begun with solid foundations.

The alternative option is to stay at a team that affords little room for making a lasting impression.

For sure, Buemi would take a firmer hold of the number one seat in the team. He would always be considered as the number one driver.

But, no fulfillment can come out of driving a car that years down the line will be remembered for nothing more than that famous Italian Grand Prix win for Sebastien Vettel. It is always the driver who suffers most in this position.

To be forgotten amongst all those who benefited from a better car is not the way you would like it to be.

Should Renault not take on the services of Buemi, another team surely will try. This may not be for the following season, but the opportunity for Buemi to release himself from the grasp of Toro Rosso will be given at some point.

When this does happen, I feel he just needs to bite the bullet, take the bull by the horns, and move on. He can force himself into the history books and into the minds of the faithful fanatic.

For now, it appears his head seems to be in the right place and this urgency to create a reputation is instilled optimistically within him.

The first day of practice isn’t meant to be like this. It’s meant to be a gentle introduction to the circuit, getting the cars set up properly for Saturday’s onslaught. It is the time to make sure that everything is working properly and to make a bit of fine tuning of the set-up.

For Sebastien Buemi, however, the day was far from normal. At 180 miles per hour on the main straight at Shanghai, the young Swiss driver had his front suspension fail explosively and went on a wild sleigh ride into the gravel trap.

Toro Rosso were trialing a new suspension component in Shanghai—turns out that it may not have been a resounding success. When Buemi hit the brakes, the stress on the suspension resulted in the spectacular front suspension failure.

In a scene unique to F1, the car shed both of its front wheels without contact with another car, wall, or even something as substantial as a particularly dark shadow.

To Buemi’s credit, the youngster didn’t stop trying to steer his car down the road, seemingly not understanding that the front wheels are a necessary component in the whole steering process. At the time, the front wheels were about 100 yards away.

Fortunately, the Toro Rosso wreck only kissed the barriers lightly before coming to rest in the gravel trap. Buemi was shaken, as they say, but not stirred—or hurt. Mechanics put the crash down to a front suspension failure—no sh*t, that explains everything.

In reality, it was a failure of the right front upright. Immediately after this first failure, the opposite side component went out in sympathy, not able to cope with the transferred load.

Elsewhere in practice, Lewis Hamilton heads the times after the first two practice sessions followed by Nico Rosberg, Jensen Button, and Michael Schumacher. These top-four drivers were separated by less than half a second. The Red Bull Racing combination of Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber were fifth and sixth fastest consecutively.

All is set for a very exciting weekend and with rain forecast for Sunday, all of today’s and tomorrow’s efforts will amount to nothing. What fun!

In recent years it was obvious that Formula 1 was in danger of falling into extinction. Small independent teams could not compete with the big budgets and expertise of the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren. This led to fall outs and in fighting within the sport, in turn leading to rumours of disbandment and a break away series.

Therefore measures were brought in to accommodate this and make it fairer for the small teams to compete. Brawn GP’s fairytale season is a true reflection of this ability for smaller teams to now edge closer to the front.

Their immediate and carefully considered response to the change in regulations was used by them to maximum capacity and they were greatly rewarded.

Yet one regulation that aimed to make the sport more adaptable for minnow teams appears to be having a detrimental effect, with many criticising its place in the Formula 1 and calling for the end of the regulation.

The regulation in question is the ban on in season testing. No team is allowed to test outside of a racing weekend, with chances to acclimatise to the car given only in pre-season testing and on official practice, qualifying and race sessions.

Felipe Massa’s accident needed to be a turning point. A team were left a driver down, through no fault of their own and were seemingly punished as a result.

If Michael Schumacher had returned there is no doubt he would have struggled vastly to immediately get to grips with a car that would have been far removed from his previous Ferrari machines.

Instead Luca Badoer was given the unfortunate task of replacing Massa and was demeaned and criticised consistently for a lack of pace from the outset.

But what do you expect when a driver is thrust into a team with hardly any room for patient and controlled improvement.

We all know that throughout a season cars are modified and changed sometimes beyond recognition, meaning that all that pre-season testing for a third driver becomes awkwardly irrelevant under the new regulations.

The FIA should have given Badoer and then Kobayashi a chance to get to grips with the car in a couple of off calendar sessions.

Safety is something that has become paramount in the sport of Formula 1 and the insistence on not allowing a driver to adapt to a car is only putting the sport in a risky situation.

If drivers come into an F1 car mid-season with no testing then they are more accident prone. Button and Hamilton were dealt massive blows to their season when both of the new drivers slammed into them in Spa and questions were raised about the validity of letting two inexperienced drivers compete with more experienced professionals.

On the other hand the in season testing ban is seemingly halting something that has long undermined the sport – that of team transfers. Teams are now finding themselves being punished for poor driver choices and clumsy driver sackings.

Should a team be made to stick with their chosen driver at the start of the season, or should they be allowed the opportunity to change mid-season in an attempt to rescue a drive that could be more profitable for the team with a different driver at the wheel?

In past seasons this has proven a successful strategy. Yet this season’s testing ban has proven to make it almost impossible for a rookie driver to succeed when brought in half way through the year.

It beggars belief as to why Bourdais was shafted out of his seat when Kazuki Nakajima has provided no reason for his existence at Williams in a season where Nico Rosberg absolutely bull dozed him. William’s only saving grace with the decision to keep Kazuki in the drive is the hindsight of what happened to other teams when the line up was altered.

Sebastian Bourdais was wrongly dismissed; there are no two ways of thinking about it. He was slightly slower than his team mate Buemi, but he scored points. And for a team such as Toro Rosso who slipped backwards this season this was an opportunity well missed.

His replacement Alguersuari was the best of the rookie replacements but left Toro Rosso with just one driver capable of edging towards an eighth placed finish. Jaime was neither ready nor capable of achieving great things.

Similarly Romain Grosjean at Renault also suffered. A clumsy mistake in Belgium garnered him no fans and a general lack of pace has resulted in what might be a premature end to his Formula 1 career.

Some sympathy has to be felt for both Jaime and Romain however as both seemed penalised for being a rookie driver with not enough immediate pace.

Romain also had to deal with having a former world champion to compete with as a team mate, and one that is arguably the strongest driver on the field at the moment. Such pressure proved to be Nelson Piquet Jr’s downfall.

The teams they were chosen for in retrospect maybe should not have allowed them to partake in Grand Prix where they had little or no chance of portraying their talents.  

It would possibly have been more intriguing to see the likes of Michael Schumacher or David Coulthard return for one last flourish but as they may have produced a stronger display, but again both would have been hindered with no opportunity to test. This for any driver thinking of returning was probably the reason why such a come back did not come into fruition.

Of course we had Fisichella’s ill fated move to Ferrari to contend with, but such a selfish decision to switch teams left us with no sympathy for a driver who ditched his team to join another team in order to fulfil a ‘boyhood dream’. His lacklustre pace and disappearance of points finishes seemed karma for his greedy choice.  

Teams will now be made to justify their reasons for replacing a driver mid-season. The fans will come to expect it if a driver is replaced again by others who don’t seem to add anything extra to the make up of a team. When a driver exits a team mid-season it does much to shatter our illusion of a team atmosphere within the garage. A lack of pace seen after a mid season change just adds to our drop in our opinion.

So the FIA must decide as to whether an in season testing ban is beneficial to the sport or whether allowances need to be made to allow driver injuries to be accommodated.

Ferrari effectively finished fourth in the constructors title as a result of another teams bodywork and this should not have been allowed under regulations where equality was the number one inspiration for the testing ban.  

Jaime Alguersuari has filled the vacant seat at Toro Rosso, much to the suspected rumours. 

It came to light at the German Grand Prix earlier this month that Sebastian Bourdais could be on his way out of the Italian team after failing to produce satisfying results and being constantly out performed by rookie team mate Sebastian Buemi.

Bourdais was sacked a few days ago and Toro Rosso announced today that Alguersuari will try his hand at the steering wheel. 

The young Spaniard will become the youngest ever Formula One driver when he makes his debut at the Hungarian Grand Prix this coming Sunday. He is truly grateful for the drive at Toro Rosso, who are the sister team to in-form Red Bull Racing, a team with a glowing record of bringing up drivers from the junior ranks, Sebastian Vettel being their crown jewel.

Alguersuari is grateful for this opportunity and said, "I would like to thank Red Bull forgiving me this great opportunity to race in Formula One."

"Coming into Formula One is never easy, coming into Formula One in the middle of a season is even harder. I am getting great support from the team, who have quite a reputation for looking after rookie drivers."

So lets take a look at Mr Alguersuari's track record, many of us, myself included, had never heard of him before the German Grand Prix. 

In 2004 Jaime became the youngest ever driver to win the Spanish Karting Championship and in the same year he took fourth place in the Italian Open Master and finished seventh in the overall European championship.

Trying his hand at single seater racing in 2005, Alguersuari finished third in Renault's Formula Junior 1.6, taking two victories along the way. This achievement earned his a place on the Red Bull young driver programme and in the next two years he competed in the Italian Formula Renault 2.0 series and the Formula Renault Eurocup and success in each allowed the talented young driver to make the jump to British Formula Three, his biggest challenge yet.

Alguersuari made this challenge look like a walk in the park. With five wins, twelve podiums and six pole positions he became the youngest ever champion of the series.

Into 2009 and after just six races in Formula Renault 3.5 he was called up as reserve driver for Red Bull and one race weekend later the Spaniard finds himself in a Formula One race seat, one of the most glamourous and exhilarating sports on the planet... second only to golf of course!

With a lot of "youngest ever" records, the future looks bright for this young superstar and this break could either make him or break him. My opinion? I think it'll make him. I tip him to bring his success into Formula One and make his track record even more illustrious.

Sebastien Bourdais' tenure in a race seat at Toro Rosso is not long for this earth.

Since he first turned an F1 wheel last season, after a wildly successful stint in the US-based Champ Car World Series, there have been question marks over his ability to drive at the highest level.

Now all signs seem to pointing Bourdais towards the door, perhaps as early as to make this weekend's German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring his final F1 drive for the foreseeable future.

Now, and let's get this straight, I probably rate Bourdais higher than most people. Take his exploits in Champ Car, where he won four consecutive titles from 2004, and sportscars, highlighted by his runner-up spot at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, and add that to his F1 career.

Through passages of last year he was close to Vettel, and often had promising positions taken from him by cruel luck, and knowing what we now know about Vettel's talent level that is no mean feat.

This year's performances have been less headline grabbing, holding his own against F1 rookie Sebastien Buemi, though he has only scored two points this season, in what I suspect is a badly substandard car.

But, is the increasingly inevitable Bourdais push the right thing for the team?

In my opinion no, simply because the names being lined up to take his seat are no better, if not worse.

Almost as soon as rumours surfaced two names leapt to the fore: Jaime Alguarsuari and Sebastien Loeb.

Jaime Alguarsauri is an early favourite for the seat given his current position as the reserve driver shared between the two Red Bull teams.

Indeed, throughout the broadcast of qualifying today, Alguarsuari was mentioned again and again, with seemingly only one selling point. That he is the current British Formula Three champion.

British. Formula. Three.

That's a long, long way from F1. Even given his rather unspectacular half a season of the current World Series by Renault campaign, he has nowhere near the experience of even a Bourdais at the top level.

The same is true when you look at other drivers somewhere in the Red Bull program in the feeder series.

Brendon Hartley was the Red Bull reserve earlier this season. However, he, like Alguersauri, is a WSR rookie.

The two drivers at the Red Bull supported Arden GP2 team, the same team that ran Buemi last year, Sergio Perez and Eduardo Mortara, are rookies in that series.

They might be ready for F1 in a season or two, but promote them now and they may be hopelessly slow on track, and that's without factoring in how they are going to be able to communicate with their team and set up the car, which is likely where Bourdais' experience elsewhere in the motorsports universe pays dividends.

Then there is Sebastien Loeb, who seems to have put himself forward for the seat. The mere idea of Loeb in F1 boggles the mind.

Yes, the man can handle himself himself in a C4 hurtling down a track somewhere beating the 12 other people who have decided to run in the WRC that week.

I'd even be prepared to say he can hold his own in sportscars given his previous exploits with Pescarolo at Le Mans.

But any parallels between what Loeb does currently as an F1 ride are very limited. I suppose you could say they both involve driving cars, but even that forces you to give the word "car" the broadest possible definition.

The chasm Loeb would have to jump is best illustrated by the others who have made it (or lack of them).

Yes, Kimi Raikkonen drives a rally car occasionally, Valentino Rossi juggles his MotoGP rides with occasional rallies and even once drove a Ferrari F1 car, although the results of that escapade are less than pretty.

The only man who has made the leap with any level of successful was Stephane Sarrazin (going from F1 to rallying), but even he was hardly an F1 sensation.

Loeb would be leaping into the deep end of a shark-infested swimming pool with half a dozen halibut heads tied around his waist.

Would, he or any of the open-wheel drivers represent a step up for the team in Bourdais?

Probably not.

However, if Toro Rosso must show Sebastien Bourdais the door, there can be only one man for the job.

David Coulthard! 

Welcome back fellow race fans to a special Fourth of July edition of the Slipstream. 

To those of you who inquired about my absence from the site I appreciate the concern and now that things have been squared away, the Slipstream is back and ready to carry all motor sports fans through the summer sizzle to the fall finales.

This week in the spirit of American independence I will profile the efforts and legitimacy of the USF1 project.

After two months of pure unfiltered Schadenfreude, the Forumla One world seems to have got it's groove back, or at least that is how things appear to be. The FOTA war has been averted just as the GPWC war was averted earlier this decade. The same players, plus Ferrari this time, fighting it out with mad Max and the FIA for some say in the future of F1. 

That is for another article however.

Soon to be World Champion, Jenson Button seems to have his hands full with a Red Bull team that seems determined not to give up just yet. Although they have the fight to press on, the numbers are not in their favor. I commend the team formerly known as Jaguar/Stewart GP for their zeal, but this year will belong to Brawn and I doubt anyone of us in this community saw that coming. Yes, there was early season hype, but this is Schumacher-esque domination, not the wide open crap shoot this column predicted.

Announced in the middle of the worst economic crisis to hit since the end of World War II, the US F1 team was met with heavy criticism, and a few laughs from this writer.  While admirable in approach, after the Honda with drawl and threatened pull out of several more teams, a new team under the red white and blue seemed like the last thing on anybody's mind. 

The last size able effort to give the United States any kind of representation on the grid was the botched Red Bull Driver Search. 

Heck, I remember those snazzy commercials claiming that Red Bull will find the next American world champion. That program gave Americans a driver in Scott Speed, and to be honest I was proud to see the Stars and Stripes back on the F1 grid. A season and a half later, along with physical altercations with team boss Gerhard Berger, Speed was out of Toro Rosso and into the hootin and hollering field of US oval track racing. 

Fast forward a few seasons, and one recession later, and we have the snazzy looking logo of USF1, or USGPE pasted over the SPEED channel, and a press conference justifying rumors made about the team only days before. 

This project is real, but is it legitimate? 

In regards to logistics this team is far behind the curve ball.  Based in Charlotte, North Carolina but with the main center of operations in the UK, this team has good intentions but will be hard pressed to gain any kind of synergy or momentum for quite some time. Will the team test in the United States?   Information around these sort of details was sparse to come by, which unto itself is a little troubling. If this team is to become the de facto national team, it must have the infrastructure capable enough to take the fight to the teams it is trying to fight against.

While there is no doubt in the power the team will have behind their drivers and chasis, which we have seen more critical than ever. Commercial backing is another challenge this new team must face. Rumors indicate that YouTube will be on board with the team in some kind of capacity. With the lack of a US Grand Prix, and other major series screaming for sponsorship, the Charlotte based squad will have to have deep pockets and reserves if they wish to gain face globally, as well as with the domestic US fan base. 

The largest and most difficult decisions will have to come in regards to the drivers. 

I hope that the powers that be do not screw this up. Screwing up would be putting either Danica Patrick, and or Kyle Busch on the team in any capacity. Now I am not saying put Marco and Grahm on the team either, but either of those two would be much better picks than the walking hissy fit known as Patrick, or the smug crass spoiled child who thinks he is fighting the world every time Darrell Waltrip scream "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity."

If they want to put a female on the team, be my guest. 

Sarah Fisher, Katherine Legge, Susie Stoddartt, or Vanina Icyxx would be far better choices than the woman who always finds herself whining to the cameras about what could have been rather than what actually happened. Heck, Anna Beatriz in the Indy Lights would be a perfect pick if they wanted a female racer. 

Colin Braun, Scott Sharp, Patrick Long, the aforementioned Marco Andretti, and Grahm Rahal are much more sound investments than the driver known as "Shrubbie" to some and a name to others that cannot be written. I just couldn't get over the look on that kid's face when Jeff "Too Tan" Hammond mentioned that USF1 was looking into him.  Call it personal bias, call it whatever you want, but leave that kind of garbage in NASCAR where they feed off of each other. 

As Jacques Villeneuve said recently, "there are no warriors in F1 anymore, save for Alonso or Kimi". With Shrubbie or Danica on board there wouldn't only be an absence of warriors, but there would be an absence of credibility and legitimacy the USF1 effort needs in these early stages.

So there you have it race fans, the Slipstream has returned and returned with an impact. I welcome back my long time readers and any new fans I may pick up. Watch for my other articles in the NASCAR section and on racing in general. Next week I will pick up where I left off with a synopsis of the last few months, but with a Slipstream twist.

Happy Fourth to the US readers and I hope everybody enjoys their week no matter where they may be.

See you in Germany.

After seven races, the only kink in the armour of Brawn F1 and Jenson Button was a loss to Red Bull/Sebastian Vettel. Hope was high for the team, Button and his British fans, that The British GP was going to be a Button affair. Commentators were calling the race and the title his.

Well history tells us that Vettel dominated the race and destroyed all before him, including his team mate Mark Webber. In qualifying, he grabbed the poll carrying the heaviest fuel load and proceeded to walk away from the field. While all this was happening, his teammate failed to take the second spot on the grid with a costly error. They proceeded to follow Rubens Barrichello all the way to the first stop, never applying any pressure, even though Webber was in a dominant car.

The result of Vettel's brilliant drive, and the awesome pace of the Red Bull has introduced the title chase with a glimmer of hope. Now, the questions that arise from this are twofold. Can Red Bull make the right decisions? Can Jenson be caught? The later question first, can Jenson Button be caught? Well if his drive this weekend is any indicator, then yes he can indeed be caught. Clearly the Brawn was not at it's usual best. Still Jenson's teammate drove the car to its limit and netted a third place. While Jenson never looked like a title contender, clearly cracks appeared in his armour.

So if Jenson can be caught and assuming that the pace Red Bull is real. We are left with one question, can Red Bull make the right decisions?  Decisions that need to be made if they are to have any shot at the title. It is obvious that the only way they can have a shot at the title, is to pick a clear number one. With his second win of the season and the way he dominated all at Silverstone, including his teammate, Sebatian Vettel is the clear and obvious choice. He is faster, knows how to win, is better at qualifying, and is better in the wet.

So, does Red Bull have the right style of management, to make the correct call? Or will they lose their chance with silly decisions?

That horrific crash at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix is the best thing to ever have happen to Formula One.

Robert Kubica injured his ankle and suffered a mild concussion, and the U.S Grand Prix was just one week away, what was BMW to do?

Well, they promoted their test driver to fill in Kubica's seat, that driver's was Sebastian Vettel. Vettel, qualified well at the Brickyard and became the first teenager in the history of the sport to score points.

Gerhard Berger was so impressed that he brought Vettel into the Scuderia Toro Rosso garage to replace the lackluster American Scott Speed. 

Vettel didn't maintain the same pace as in the much superior BMW chassis, but he proved something, Seb Vettel is here to stay.

In 2008, especially after the STR3 was introduced, Vettel proved his out and out pace, with the junior squad consistently out qualifying the senior Red Bull cars, driven by Webber and Coulthard.

Vettel was the best surprise of the 2008 season, this young 20-year-old kid was in a customer car keeping up with the biggest budgets in the sport, it was pretty impressive.

At Monza Vettel solidified his place as the best. It was a soggy weekend in northern Italy.

Vettel with his STR3 came out against the Ferraris and McLaren's and was able to out qualify them, showing his skill as a wet-weather driver. At the end of the day, Vettel was at the pole position the youngest driver to ever do so.

It was raining on Sunday afternoon too, a situation many drivers relish.

Lewis Hamilton had proven to be a great wet-weather driver, and both Finns and their legendary car control skill, the 20-year-old German had proven during the previous session that he outright pace unmatched by anyone in the wet.

Vettel proceeded to dominate the Grand Prix and only went faster after the rains came. At the end of the day, Scuderia Toro Rosso was the first non-Ferrari team flying an Italian flag to win a Grand Prix since Alfa Romeo in the 1950's, and Vettel had become the youngest race winner ever surpassing Fernando Alonso.

In 2009, Vettel and his promotion to the top Red Bull team has shown to be a good match, showing lots of outright pace on Fridays and Saturdays.

But the incident Vettel suffered, when trying to stop Robert Kubica from overtaking him at the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix, set him back, by cancelling out a possible podium finish at Albert Park and being penalized 10 grid spots at the next race for his actions resulted in two finishes, around the back of the pack.

The future is bright though, after qualifying in the pole position yesterday, I consider him to be the favorite to win the race on Sunday.

After the FIA's ruling Red Bull and Newey could design and add a new diffuser to add rear down-force to the car adding pace to an already very fast chassis, Vettel could win the championship at 21 years old.

Formula One has quite a future, Kubica, Vettel, Hamilton, and Piquet; and these young drivers will battle each other out for supremacy for the next decade.

The Hamilton-Vettel rivalry will be the equivalent of Prost-Senna or Hakkinen-Schumacher.

Two great drivers, trying to prove to each other and to themselves who is the best. I'm looking forward to multiple championships from the Brit and the German, racing each other to see who is the best of the best.

A very competitive Qualifying Round, everyone expected Brawns to make it to the front row, but having Vettel & Alonso on the front row makes it more interesting for me. People are already asking, can the Brawns win tomorrow? Can Button make three in a row?  We will only find out tomorrow...

I'd like someone like Vettel to win, if he does then all the talk from 'diffuser haters' will fall flat. Also we need someone to compete with Brawns and this will keep the Championship open & interesting.

My comments on each team’s performance today:

Red Bull: Fantastic performance by Red Bull!! Vettel (P1) & Webber (P3) are both good drivers, and for sure they have a very good car. Even without the magic-diffuser they are keeping up with the so called 'diffuser gang'. BTW I won't be surprised if they are on 3 pits stop, that way you can minimize the impact of the super-soft tyres. Great job!!

Renault: Few upgrades, and a great drive from Alonso (P2) and he put the car on the front row. May be removing the KERS system was the right thing to do. But I have a doubt on how much fuel he has in the car, he too may have opted for 3 stop. And about Piquet? Most likely he is having problems because either the team does not back him fully or he is simply not fast enough. I think Renault have a modified diffuser.

Brawn: Not a bad performance from the 3 B's. Button (P5) & Barrichello (P4) would have loved to make it third time in a row, but they won't be too unhappy about where they are on the grid. I have a feeling that they may be carrying a little more fuel, if that’s the case, then they should be strong in the race.

Toyota: Average day for Toyota, on one hand Trulli (P6) did a nice job and Glock (P19) had all sorts of problems with his car, including change in his gear box and hence a five grid penalty. They should do well in race tomorrow, since their race pace has so far proven to be good.

Williams: Not a bad day for them either. Rosberg (P7) did good job he should be looking for a strong finish in point tomorrow. Nakajima (P14) needs to up his game this year.

Ferrari: The Reds are still struggling, but it seems they have closed some gap with few updates...but still long way to go. Kimi (P8) did a good job, but his problem has been finishing the race. And with Massa (P13) struggling I think the team will be happy if they finish in points tomorrow. BTW they are not running KERs.

McLaren: With only Hamilton (P9) running the new upgrades it was no surprise to see Kovalainen (P12) struggle. They too would be happy to pick up any points come their way, and Kovalainen would be happy just to finish the race... hopefully not on this first lap again.

Scuderia Toro Rosso: Very good day for them, finally they get more upgrades which makes their cars look more like Red Bull. Buemi (P10) did a great job, Bourdais (P15) needs to up his game...or Toro Rosso might replace him with another 19 year old next year.

BMW-Sauber: They had a pretty disappointing day, I don't think KERS is helping Heidfeld (P11) as he could not make it to Q3 and Kubica (P17) struggling with his car all day. KERS so far is only proving to be a waste; I hope that would change or wise all that money spent on KERS would make them look silly all year.

Force India: This is the best that VJM02 can do for now, until they get their upgrades in Spain. Both drivers are complaining of lack of aero grip. Even with those upgrades I doubt if they will be doing any better as other teams are also working very hard to improve. Sutil (P18) and Fisichella (P20) both would be happy just to finish the race.

Thanks for stopping by!