Behind The Scenes: Vitaly Petrov
Renault's Russian driver Vitaly Petrov has had a best-place finish of 7th at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Q: Are you the kind of guy to have a ‘Plan-B’?
Vitaly Petrov: Yes, of course! I’m always thinking of finding a good exit plan if ‘Plan-A’ does not work. For example at the start, you gain 20 positions and wow, you’re suddenly second! But at that very minute it dawns on you that you will probably not finish the race in P2, so you immediately have to roll out your ‘Plan-B’. You have to save your tyres, you must defend, and make it your goal to finish in the top ten!
Q: Apart from driving a Formula One car, what is your favourite buzz?
VP: To finish a weekend positively. To be able to walk out of the paddock in high spirits. It is not about winning but about feeling at ease with yourself.
Q: Who is your dream date?
VP: Before this season, it was obviously people in Formula One! But by now, I’ve met everybody so my interest has shifted a bit. Now I would say it would be Brad Pitt, or at least those kinds of people – film stars. It was fantastic in Melbourne to bump into John Travolta in the paddock! From other sports, maybe Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali.
Q: Which film makes you cry?
VP: A film called ‘Goal!’ by director Danny Cannon, which is about a youngster from Mexico and his overwhelming desire to be a football player.
Q: What are you afraid of?
VP: Losing my family.
Q: What was the last book you read?
VP: ’The Foreigner’ by Sergei Dovlatov. It’s about Russian immigration into the US.
Q: Name five things that you hate?
VP: When someone lies to me, waking up earlier than I have to, and when people ask you questions about racing and have no idea about motorsport. Nothing more really springs to my mind. That shows that I am a very balanced person!
Q: Have you ever dyed your hair?
VP: I did one time. A little lighter than my natural colour. It was not too impressive. It didn’t look all that great for all the time it took to do. But I guess, when you are young, you sometimes want to slip into another personality, which is of course an illusion, especially if you want to achieve it with a bit hair colour!
Q: What was the first CD that you bought?
VP: I don’t really remember! Usually I buy compilations, so it’s not about one artist or one song. I’m the compilation guy!
Q: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
VP: No. And if I ever do, only my lady will know.
Q: What did your teachers say about you in your school report?
VP: My mother is a teacher, so they always hoped that I wouldn’t mess about during lessons. And to be honest, I never did.
Q: Who were your childhood heroes?
VP: It was Bruce Lee, and Muhammad Ali because my father enjoyed boxing.
Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
VP: I prefer not to tell anybody. It is my life. On a small scale, it’s eating sweets.
Q: Do you collect anything?
VP: Playing cards. I try to buy them in every country I visit.
Q: What do you miss most about home when you’re travelling?
VP: Friends, Russian food, and of course my family.
Q: What was your worst buy?
VP: Nothing big – just the usual stuff. You go shopping, buy a pair of jeans – your 25th pair – you put them in the closet and take them out again after a few weeks and find out they are too small! It happens to me all the time! (laughs)
Q: How do you take your coffee?
VP: I don’t drink coffee.
Q: Your ideal non-race Sunday morning?
VP: To sleep as much possible, eat as much as possible and do nothing as much as possible. Oh and go to a good Russian sauna.
Q: What was your first car?
VP: A Volkswagen Golf 1.4. My dad gave it to me.
Q: What’s the most embarrassing mistake you’ve ever made?
VP: Mistakes happen to all of us, and that goes for me, too. I really cannot remember anything embarrassing, just those little things that go wrong every day.
Q: What is the best thing that you can cook?
VP: Pasta.
Q: When was the last time you were really angry?
VP: When Inter Milan defeated Barcelona! I’m a Barca fan and also a Real Madrid fan. How is that possible? I like the way they play. Aside from Russian football, I like Spanish football the best. I was with a friend in a sports bar watching the match and we both ended up being very upset.
Courtesy www.formula1.com
Special Treatment For Hamilton?
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso has refuted speculation that Lewis Hamilton has been given special treatment by this year’s race stewards.
While in the past, Hamilton has come in for some stick from the stewards, lining up the penalties, this year has seen a different story.
In Malaysia, caught weaving in front of Vitaly Petrov out on track, Hamilton was given just a warning while one race later in China, he was handed nothing more than a reprimand for his pit lane antics with Sebastian Vettel.
“No, I don’t think so,” Alonso said when asked if Hamilton was in ‘privileged position’ when judged by the stewards.
“The decisions are perhaps not very consistent, because there will be other times when the same happens and someone gets a penalty for it. So it varies a bit, but I don’t think that’s very important.
“He got two warnings and maybe he will be penalised in the next race if he does something wrong. It’s like referees in football: their intention is not bad, but sometimes they make a decision and other times a different one.”
As for Michael Schumacher, his fans and the media may be expressing concerns about his slow comeback but Alonso insists his rivals are not.
“No, there’s no such feeling (of disappointment),” he told Autosport.
“It’s not like we spend too much time thinking about what the others are doing, but we have a huge respect towards Schumacher and every driver on the grid knows it’s been a bad start for him, with very few points in the first races, but I believe there’s nobody ready to say the Championship is over for him.
“We knew what he’s capable of doing so we have to respect him and we know the best is yet to come from him.”
VIDEO: Buemi Crash Mars China GP Practice
The demolished front wing of Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso.
Friday morning’s first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix was brought to a spectacular halt with just over six minutes remaining when Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso suffered a remarkable double front-suspension failure as he braked over the bump for Turn 14 at the end of the main straight. As both front wheels were torn off with the car still travelling in a straight line, the Swiss driver became a passenger as his car tobogganed into light contact with the outer barrier. The left front wheel was tossed into a spectator area, but fortunately nobody was hit by it.
Subsequent investigation by Toro Rosso revealed that an undiagnosed problem with the suspension’s front right upright – a new design introduced in China – had triggered the incident. When the right upright failed, the resulting increase in load is thought to have caused the left upright to fail. The wheel tethers, which are attached to the uprights, were thus unable to do their job. The team will revert to previously tested uprights for the remainder of the weekend on both their cars.
For much of the session the McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set the pace until they were split by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes, and when the session resumed for a brief few final moments after the Buemi red flag the only leading runner to improve significantly was Michael Schumacher in the second Mercedes.
Thus Button was fastest with 1m 36.677s from Rosberg on 1m 36.748s and Hamilton on 1m 36.775s. Schumachers best, 1m 37.509s, was 0.832s off the top.
Behind them Sebastian Vettel took fifth on 1m 37.601s ahead of the well-matched Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov (1m 37.716s and 1m 37.745s), and Mark Webber’s sister Red Bull on 1m 37.980s.
Adrian Sutil turned a 1m 38.008s for ninth for Force India, the German also earning a reprimand from the stewards for setting a fastest sector time under yellow flags, with Felipe Massa completing the top 10 with 1m 38.098s. It was not an auspicious session for Ferrari, however, as Fernando Alonso’s F10 stopped after six laps with suspected engine failure, leaving him in 24th place without a time. The Spaniard was running the same V8 that the team had opted to change after qualifying in Bahrain, following some anomalies in its performance readings.
Jaime Alguersuari was 11th in the second Toro Rosso with 1m 38.161s, ahead of the BMW Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa (1m 38.375s and 1m 38.421s respectively), then Nico Hulkenberg in the leading Williams (1m 38.569s), Paul di Resta (1m 38.618s standing in again for Tonio Liuzzi in the second Force India), Rubens Barrichello (1m 38.678s) and Buemi (1m 38.939s), who was unhurt in his crash.
Then there was another big gap back to the Lotuses, as they led the Virgins. Jarno Trulli took his T127 round in 1m 41.531s ahead of team mate Heikki Kovalainen on 1m 41.779s, then Timo Glock managed 1m 41.830s in the lead Virgin before its front front wing collapsed. Lucas di Grassi was 21st in the sister car on 1m 42.181s. Behind the Brazilian came fellow countryman Bruno Senna in the lead HRT on 1m 43.875s, with team mate Karun Chandhok next on 1m 43.949s.
Courtesy www.f1.com
F1 Rookie Is Too Fat
Renault rookie Vitaly Petrov has admitted that his goal is to see the chequered flag, after enduring three DNFs in the first three grands prix of his top flight career – as it emerges that the Russian has been instructed by his team to lose some weight to bring him more in line with similarly tall but 10kg lighter team-mate Robert Kubica.
Against all expectations, Renault currently sit a commendable fifth in the constructors’ standings, but all 30 of the outfit’s points have been notched up by former Canadian GP-winner Kubica.
The Pole finished a superb second in Melbourne and a strong fourth in Sepang last weekend, but Petrov by contrast has yet to reach the finish line at all, having exited the fray due to suspension failure in Bahrain, a spin in Australia and gearbox woes in Malaysia – making him one of only three drivers in the field not to have made it to the end of any of the three races.
There are also still some issues with the 25-year-old’s qualifying pace, after he started from the ninth row of the grid in his first two outings while Kubica made the top 10. Eleventh place in Sepang did mark something of an step forwards, however – and Petrov’s blistering starts, overtaking prowess and fighting spirit have undoubtedly caught the eye, particularly his gutsy and dogged refusal to let former F1 World Champ Lewis Hamilton go in Malaysia.
“We’re improving the car all the time and some new aerodynamic parts are working,” said the man dubbed the ‘Vyborg Rocket’. “The car has improved a lot, but we need more time to understand where we are and to improve more for the next races. At the moment we’re still not as quick as we want to be, but we’re working on that.
“Everything is different [between GP2 - in which Petrov finished as runner-up in 2009 - and F1], not just things like the acceleration and braking. It’s another world, with people working all the time and pushing very hard. It’s possible to improve all parts of the car all the time. It’s going OK, but we’re yet to finish a race, so we have to do that to understand things properly. [To score points in] Barcelona would be difficult, but we can always try.”
With thanks to Top Gear.com
“This Is Real Life Not PlayStation, Hamilton!”
Lewis Hamilton passing Vitaly Petrov.
Renault team boss Eric Boullier believes Lewis Hamilton should have been penalised for weaving on the straight ahead of Vitaly Petrov during Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
Hamilton made four or five weaving manoeuvres on the pit straight in an attempt to break the slipstream being gained by Petrov behind him.
According to the rules, drivers may only make one defensive move, and then another before the braking zone. Hamilton successfully kept Petrov behind him, but the incident was reported to the stewards who issued the McLaren driver with a warning.
After the race Boullier told Spain’s AS newspaper: “We have expressed our opinion (to the FIA). The warning was not enough.”
The newspaper also quoted Ferrari test driver Marc Gene as describing Hamilton’s driving as “wrong”, while Virgin tester Andy Soucek said the Briton should have penalised “absolutely, without any doubt”.
Former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson told BBC radio: “I don’t know what Lewis was doing, weaving all over the track. I think he thought he was playing a Playstation rather than real life.”
Courtesy of ESPN
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