Heidfeld under the pump

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1     Eric Boullier, Nick Heidfeld, Renault

“Good, but not good enough,” is Renault F1 team boss Eric Boullier’s assessment, when asked about Nick Heidfeld’s performance to-date with the Enstone-based outfit.

Despite picking up a podium in his second outing for the team at Malaysia, the German veteran has not enjoyed the strongest of starts to his full-time return to the sport. Although he lies 8 points ahead of team-mate Vitaly Petrov in the current championship standings, his cause has not been helped by some difficulties in qualifying that have left him with much more work to do on race day.

Heidfeld has typically struggled to match Petrov’s pace from the start of most Grand Prix weekends, and this is an area Boullier believes needs addressing.

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Pérez getting back on track

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1     Sauber, Sergio Perez

Sergio Pérez has been discharged from the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, two nights after his monster crash during qualifying in the Principality.

After being taken to hospital suffering from concussion and contusions to his right thigh, Pérez spent two nights under observation and he will now remain in the country for the next few days before kick-starting his preparations for the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix.

“I have to stay here for two or three days to recover fully,” the 21-year-old Sauber driver told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

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Brawn slams ‘unacceptable’ December races

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1     Bernie Ecclestone, Circuit News, FIA, Ross Brawn

Mercedes GP boss has described the suggestion of staging Grands Prix in December – should the FIA World Motor Sport Council agree to extend the F1 calendar into December to accommodate a rescheduling of the Bahrain Grand Prix – as “totally unacceptable”.

With there being continued pressure from Bahraini authorities to reschedule its cancelled race with it being due to lift its state of emergency in a few days’ time, F1 figures are unhappy that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is even entertaining the idea of staging a race there.

And there are pressures elsewhere against a move to return to Bahrain, with the New York-based Human Rights Watch group writing to the FIA and the F1 teams and urging them to “seriously consider the appropriateness of holding [the Grand Prix this year] in Bahrain in light of the scale of human rights violations there”.

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Happy birthday, Andrea de Cesaris!

RichardsF1    Birthdays, Former F1 Figures, Formula 1     Andrea de Cesaris

Former F1 driver Andrea de Cesaris – the man with a big reputation for bad manners being lapped and a tendency to have huge accidents – is celebrating his 52nd birthday today.

De Cesaris’ 208-race career was the longest of any driver not to have won a single race. He is also the record-holder for the most race retirements of any driver: 137 in total!

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Hamilton engages reverse gear…

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1     Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Pastor Maldonado

Only a few minutes ago, Lewis Hamilton has taken to Twitter to offer an olive branch to his fans and drivers in the wake of his outburst after the Monaco Grand Prix.

“Hey guys. I wanted to apologise 4 last weekends performance & also my comments after, I never meant to offend no1 (sic),” he wrote to his almost 234,000 followers.

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Hamilton could still face FIA sanctions

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1     FIA, Lewis Hamilton, McLaren

Despite an apology to the Monaco Grand Prix stewards after he was issued with his second penalty of the race, Lewis Hamilton may face further sanctions from the sport’s governing body for his post-race outburst in which he hinted – jokingly, he claims – that he was being discriminated against.

The McLaren driver threw a major hissy fit in an interview with BBC F1 pit reporter Louise Goodman after finishing a disappointing sixth at the end of the 78-lap race yesterday, railing against the capabilities of his fellow drivers and what he claimed was the bias of the FIA stewards.

He even stopped to suggest that his five appearances in front of officialdom may have something to do with his skin colour.

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And our Adrian Sutil giveaway winner is…

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Adrian Sutil, Giveaways

We had a huge response to our latest giveaway offering our Richard’s F1 readers the chance to win a Force India team card signed by Adrian Sutil, along with an exclusive Richard’s F1 prize pack!

All our entrants needed to do was correctly answer what Adrian’s best race result had been at the Monaco Grand Prix.

And the winner is…

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2011 IndyCars Championship Standings

RichardsF1    Championship Standings, IndyCar    

Current championship standings of the IZOD IndyCar Series Championship season after the completion of the Indianapolis 500 (Round 5).

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Indy 500: Wheldon takes shock win

RichardsF1    IndyCar, Race Reviews, Results    

Many have said that you always remember your first big race, but Panther Racing’s JR Hildebrand will surely want to forget his.

In a thrilling conclusion, Dan Wheldon won his second Indianapolis 500-mile race on the final lap, taking Bryan Herta’s first win as a team-owner. The 2005 winner was set to finish second for the third year in a row before clinching the victory following a disastrous turn of events for JR Hildebrand.

Our IndyCar correspondent Matt Lennon casts his eye over an extraordinary centenary race…

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RichardsF1.com Tipping Competition Leaderboard

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1, Tipping Competition    

It was a fascinating Monaco Grand Prix yesterday and fans were treated to a race that offered plenty of intrigue, controversy and tantrums. You can read our race review here.

To the matter at hand, and our entrants in the RichardsF1.com Tipping Competition delivered some decent predictions relying on the ongoing performance of the Red Bulls.

But Kamui Kobayashi’s sensational fifth place all but ensured that – yet again – no one would clean up with a perfect sweep of predictions. The closes were cuaza and handstand, who each managed eight correct predictions out of a possible nine.

A five-point bonus is given to anyone who gets a perfect round, and prizes are still on offer for the first tipster to collect a clean sweep of results!

A seven-point result sees joseph.sheu still retain a marginal lead at the top of the standings, while handstand moves into second place ahead of Julian::MUFC. The top-five-ranked tipsters are covered by just four points.

Read on to view the full leaderboard (which also shows the predictions each tipster submitted), which will be updated after each Grand Prix…

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