Turkish Grand Prix 2010

First off, I apologise for the lack of a post last weekend. Revision for AS exams was taking over somewhat, but never fear: I'm back.

As I write this, I'm listening to a spot of Fleetwood Mac. The lyric of this particular song is rather relevant to today's on-track action at Istanbul Park – 'I know I can't lose, as long as you follow'. If Sebastian Vettel had taken that particular piece of advice, it's more than likely that his Red Bull stable-mate Mark Webber would have taken his 3^rd successive victory. However, the German decided to take the risk of trying to pass his teammate for the lead, which in this particular instance went horribly wrong. The resulting collision left the door wide open for Lewis Hamilton to take a very much overdue first win of the season from his own McLaren teammate Jenson Button, but even before that point a big question mark had been placed over the alleged superiority of the Red Bull package.

The Anglo-Austrian cars, whilst maintaining their season-long monopoly on pole position, failed to secure the front row as they had done so emphatically at China and Spain – Hamilton was able to sneak his McLaren into 2^nd position on the grid, with Button not far behind Vettel after qualifying a place behind the German in 4^th. The Mercedes cars of Schumacher and Rosberg had the 3^rd row sown up between them, whilst Ferrari were disappointing to say the least with 8^th and 12^th places – Alonso made another critical error in qualifying which ruined his chance of making Q3.

Still, having failed to qualify 1-2, the Red Bulls were able to get into that position before Turn 1, with Hamilton and Button both having lost a place each from the start thanks to grid slots on the dirtier side of the grid. Despite that, before the end of the lap both Britons were able to regain their lost positions from German superstars Vettel and Schumacher respectively. So, by the end of the first lap, and indeed right until the pitstops, the order was Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Schumacher and Rosberg, albeit with Hamilton having taken several abortive attempts to take the lead at turn 12.

The first of the leaders to lap was Vettel on lap 15, followed by Webber and Hamilton simultaneously one lap later. The McLaren pilot was delayed momentarily by Webber passing his pit box as he left the pit, costing him sufficient time to fall back to 3^rd place. Button meanwhile left his stop until lap 18, and despite closing up to the lead trio, was unable to gain any places. Behind the lead quartet, Schumacher had by now driven clear of his teammate Rosberg, who headed up a train consisting of himself, Kubica, Massa, an impressive Petrov and Alonso who had clawed his way back to 10^th after a shaky start, battling with the somewhat revitalised Sauber cars of Kobayashi and De La Rosa.

At the front, as the laps wore on it became clear that race leader Webber was in fact the slowest of the 4 lead cars. By Lap 40, Vettel was hounding his teammate hard for the lead of the race with the threat of rain showers looming large. On Lap 41, the German hotshoe lined himself up for a pass on the easy-going Aussie. Down the back straight leading up towards turn 12, Vettel darted left of Webber who was already clearly on the defensive. As he tried to move back onto the racing line, thinking by this point he'd cleared the No.6 Red Bull, there was contact. Both cars were spat out into the tarmac runoff at turn 12, with Vettel out on the spot with rear suspension damage, but with Webber able to continue with a damaged front wing that required an extra pitstop.

That cleared the way for battle royale to commence between messers Hamilton and Button, and commence it did. On Lap 48, Button went for a bold move around the outside of 2008 champion at passing place of choice Turn 12, but Hamilton cleverly fought back with a finer run onto the pit straight to take the lead back at Turn 1, the pairing getting oh-so-close to repeating the unfortunate fate of the Red Bull pairing. Alas, the racing was clean, and after that brief but heart-stopping tussle, Button fell back concerned with saving fuel. That wasn't the only skirmish going on in the field however – a small touch between Alonso and Petrov gave the former 8^th place and the latter a puncture and thus the need for an extra spot, and further behind, the two Saubers continued to dice for the final point for 10^th place.

With Button gradually falling back, Hamilton cruised home for his first win of the season, and McLaren's second 1-2 of the year was affirmed by the reigning champion finishing in second place. Webber, having amassed a 32-second advantage over Schumacher prior to his tangle with Vettel, was able to hold onto 3^rd place despite the need for an extra trip to the pits. Schumacher was able to cement his supremacy over Rosberg for the weekend by finishing ahead of him in 4^th place, whilst Kubica held off the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso to take another solid result for Renault. Sutil trundled to the flag to take another 2 points for 9^th, whilst Sauber scored their first point of the season at last courtesy of Kamui Kobayashi.

Despite being understandably sombre in the driver's press conference, Webber still in fact leads the way for points narrowly from Button and Hamilton who leaps up to 3^rd from 7^th in the standings. The real question though is would the Red Bull duo have been able to hold on had it not been for their clash? Nobody will know for sure, but it's clear now that Christian Horner's squad can certainly no longer afford to rest on its laurels – McLaren now loom large.

Monaco Grand Prix 2010

The Monaco Grand Prix is the race that every driver wants to win. Today, a new driver joined the illustrious list of winners at the principality that boasts such greats as Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and six-time victor Ayrton Senna. The driver in question – a certain Mr. Webber. Off the back of a dominant Spanish win, the pressure was on the amicable Aussie as to whether or not he could maintain such blistering form: the answer he provided was very much in the affirmative.

Webber was able to lay the foundations for his convincing win with an equally convincing pole position. Unlike last time out though, Vettel could only manage third, with an incredible performance from Renault’s Robert Kubica splitting the navy-blue cars. Massa did well to join the German on row 2, but his teammate Alonso was less fortunate. The double Monaco winner binned it at Massenet corner in Saturday practice, causing damage impossible to repair in time for Q1. Thus, he was demoted right to the back of the grid, forced to start the race from the pitlane.

As the pack got away, both Red Bull cars made fine getaways, with Webber leading as expected and Vettel getting the better of the slower-starting Kubica for 2^nd. Hamilton had a look up the inside of the Pole after a quick start, but thought better of it, remaining in 5^th place behind Massa’s Ferrari. A lap later, the first of a grand total of 4 safety cars made its first appearance, as a result of a tangle with the wall in the tunnel for Nico Hulkenberg on lap 1. The Mercedes SLS led the pack as the cars began lap 2, with the order being Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, a creditworthy 6^th for Barrichello, ahead of the 2 Mercedes cars of Schumacher and Rosberg. Jenson Button had made a rotten start to find himself 11^th come the end of the first lap, but that mattered little as he retired soon after anyway. An almighty gaffe by his team meant his side-pod protector wasn’t removed before the start of the installation lap, causing lasting damage to the engine that meant it gave up the ghost behind the safety car.

Alonso, still right near the back of the pack at this point, took the opportunity to pit, getting the obligatory but less durable super-soft compound tyres out of the way. He then proceeded to carve his way back through the pack, making short work of Chandhok’s Hispania to begin with. However, Lucas di Grassi proved somewhat less compliant. Alonso spent 4 frustrated laps behind the rookie before sending one up the inside at the Nouvelle Chicane, gifted an opportunity thanks to the Virgin driver getting a poor exit out of the tunnel. With the Brazilian disposed of, Alonso repeated the precise same move on the other new-car drivers of Trulli, Glock and Kovalainen.

Back to the pointy end of the field, the positions remained unchanged as Hamilton became the first of the leading group to change his tyres, resuming just ahead of Alonso. Massa followed suit 2 laps later, rejoining the track just ahead of the Brit. Despite having a clear track for a while, Rosberg too continued after his stop in the same position, albeit now behind Alonso, who having pitted early had leapt ahead of a copious volume of cars to reach 6^th. The leading trio then pitted a few laps later, their positions remaining unchanged.

With Webber still firmly in charge, the safety car made its second visit, this time courtesy of the other Williams of Barrichello, who had fallen to 11^th at the stops. The veteran suffered suspension failure that pitched him firmly into the crash barriers at Massenet. At the restart, the order remained Webber from Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher and Rosberg, with both Force India cars of Sutil and Liuzzi running inside the top 10 as well. A suspected loose drain cover was the cause for safety car no.3, whilst a hair-raising collision between the Lotus of former Monaco winner Trulli and Monaco debutant Chandhok at the Rascasse caused the fourth and final one, with no real action to speak of during the 30 laps between the two.

With just 3 laps to go, and a lot of debris to clear, we all thought the positions were set. How wrong we were. The safety car pulled in to the pits at the end of the final lap, and with this year’s new rules stipulating that overtaking is permitted after the safety car line (just after the exit of the Rascasse and before the final corner of Anthony Nogues), there was scope for overtaking yet. One man seized that opportunity: Michael Schumacher. Alonso, who he was running just behind, got an arm full of oversteer as he left the Rascasse, leaving the door wide open for the 7-time champion to cheekily, but legally, pinch 6^th place at the very last minute.

Those technicalities however did nothing to detract from another stellar performance from Webber. With a second commanding win in as many times of asking, he rockets to the top of the championship standings, joined by teammate Vettel on an identical amount of points, but ahead on virtue of 2 wins to the German’s 1. If you’d had told Alonso at the start of the race he would have been just 5 points adrift of the championship lead by the end of it, he’d have bitten your arm off. Yet that’s precisely what happened, and Jenson Button can’t have been disappointed at remaining only 8 off the lead after a disastrous race.

As with most Monaco Grand Prix, this one won’t be remembered for sheer action. But like Spain, it will go down as another utterly flawless performance from Mark Webber – The opposition, not least of all Vettel, must be beginning to feel rather nervous for their own chances if he is able to maintain that kind of form.

Edit: Michael Schumacher's move on Alonso for 6th was deemed illegal by the stewards, and thus earned him a 20-second timed penalty which dropped him to 12th place. Buemi moves up to claim the final point for 10th. This decision is subject to appeal by Mercedes GP.

Spanish Grand Prix 2010

After a string of fairly eventful races thousands of miles from home, it's fair to say that the return to F1's European heartland was something of a disappointment. The Circuit de Catalunya has never exactly been renowned for thrillers, but its case certainly wasn't helped by the utterly dominant form of the Red Bull team.

The Anglo-Austrian cars secured the front row in qualifying, but not in the order most were expected. Webber just managed to find that extra tenth of a second to steal the coveted pole spot away from teammate Vettel, with the other teams left behind by 7 tenths of a second. Hamilton and Alonso shared the second row ahead of championship leader Button and a somewhat revitalised Michael Schumacher, seemingly content with the radical updates made by his Mercedes team.

Clear skies and a radiant sun prevailed as expected, which along with a fairly standard grid order just about guaranteed a lacklustre race. Webber made a clean getaway from the front and lead the pack into the first corner, with all top 7 in grid order by the end of lap 1. The big loser was Robserg, who wound up 11th after a brief excursion on the grass, which began a thoroughly miserable day for the German. Deep in the midfield, contact between Buemi and De La Rosa warranted both of them pitting early for repairs, with the latter eventually retiring.

The top 6 positions remained static until the stops, with Webber's lead remaining intact. Schumacher pitted first along with Massa and was able to just nip ahead of Button as he returned to the race track from a fumbled pitstop. Jenson was thus consigned behind the 7-time champion thereafter, with the Brit endeavouring to re-pass multiple times at turn 1. Schumacher soon became wholly familiar with Button's tactics and thus effortlessly thwarted the Brit's attempts every time for the next dozen or so laps. Vettel tried a similar move as Hamilton returned to the track, but the backmarking Virgin car of Di Grassi proved somewhat obstructive and the move failed to come off, with the McLaren pilot seizing second place from the Red Bull.

This made the order Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, then a sizeable gap back to Schumacher, Button and Massa, all tightly grouped. Further down the order, there was a ballsy pass on Hulkenberg by the young charger Alguersauri for 11th place. The Spaniard at his home track well and truly put teammate Buemi in the shade, even if he did earn a drive-through for accounting for the front wing of the luckless Chandhok. Hulkenberg then fell into the clutches of Renault's Petrov and Sauber's Kobayashi, who despite looking quick were never quite able to convert that pace into an overtaking manoeuvre on the German before he pitted.

In the closing laps however, high drama struck the leaders. After third-placed Vettel indulged in a spot of rallycross, it became apparent there was trouble. After a pitstop for fresh tyres, it transpired the team were nervous for the Red Bull's brakes, with Vettel's engineer urging the German to ease right off with a mammoth gap in hand back to Schumacher. Although he relinquished 3rd place to home-crowd favourite Alonso, he did manage to nurse his car to the finish. That's more than can be said for Lewis Hamilton, who in a cruel twist of fate was denied second place after a tyre failure pitched his McLaren into the barriers on the penultimate lap. The crowds erupted as that then allowed their hero Alonso to inherit second, with the car of his former arch-rival buried in a tyre wall.

That late surge of excitement didn't bother Mark Webber however, who by that time had pulled in excess of 15 seconds clear. He duly took his first win of the season 2 laps later, catapulting himself right back into the title hunt. Alonso took a solid second position to move to within 2 points of Button's championship lead, with Vettel's third place narrowing the gap between himself and the reigning champion as well. Schumacher took a worthy 4th place from Button and Massa, with the points positions being completed by a fine drive from Sutil to 7th, an uneventful run for Kubica to 8th, a spirited charge to 9th from 18th on the grid from Barrichello, and a aggressive but impressive race from Alguersauri to take 10th.

It certainly won't go down as a classic race by any means, but it will go down as arguably the finest ever drive from Mark Webber, expunging any doubt that he was able to win a straight, dry-weather fight against his teammate Vettel. We only have to wait for a week until F1 hits the tiny, glamorous principality of Monaco, where we shall see whether the Australian is capable of keeping up that kind of form.

What if Senna had lived?

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the blackest day in motorsport history: May 1 1994. For those unaware of what it did to deserve that label, it was the day the F1 fraternity, and indeed the world sporting fraternity was robbed of one its greatest ever stars – Ayrton Senna. Moreover, it occured just 24 hours after Roland Ratzenberger was also cruelly taken from us after a horrific accident in qualifying. But, rather than writing an appreciation of Senna or bemoaning the loss of the man, I’ve rewritten F1 history to reflect a scenario where the Brazilian survived his 135mph encounter with an unprotected concrete barrier at Imola.

So, I begin with the 1994 season that in reality was a showdown between a then-uncrowned Michael Schumacher and our very own Damon Hill. Given the fact the latter lost by a mere point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Ayrton would’ve had no problems preventing the former taking his first of seven crowns. However, I disagree, and let me tell you why: Schumacher was disqualified or excluded for three events in 1994 as a result of playing petty mind games on Hill, something he would’ve never tried on Senna whom he had great respect for. Combine that with the fact Senna would’ve already been thirty points down on Schumacher after three races; I personally think that Schumacher would’ve been able to hang on. 

In 1995, the superiority of the Williams that year combined with Senna’s imperious pace and ability to read a race would see him take his fourth title, despite Schumacher’s mighty 43 point margin in reality. With four titles in the bag, it would be him and not the German who Ferrari would be hankering over for their ’96 line-up, leaving the business end of the grid looking something like this:

Ferrari: Senna, Berger (who’d have stayed to be with his long-time pal)

Williams: Hill, Villeneuve (who would’ve still made the leap from IndyCar)

Benetton: Schumacher (who’d be inclined to continue with Benetton), Alesi

McLaren: Hakkinen, Irvine (placed by sponsor Marlboro with Coulthard out of the picture)

Of course, it was Ayrton’s death that allowed Coulthard to debut with Williams and subsequently progress to McLaren: it's more than possible that, with no Formula 3000 budget in place for the remainder of 1994, that the amicable Scotsman would have never had the chance to be a regular F1 driver if not for Senna's passing.

For the ’96 season, with the Ferrari still uncompetitive, the way would be clear for the Schumacher-Hill battle to finally commence, albeit with a wildcard in the form of Villeneuve to complicate the matter. The Williams was again vastly superior to anything, and given the doddering form of the Benetton that year, my verdict goes to Hill. As per what actually happened though, he’d still be swept aside by Sir Frank to make way for Heinz Harald Frentzen, forced to take his number-one plate to the tiny Arrows squad.

Another three-way fight would’ve presented itself for 1997, this time between Schumacher, Villeneuve and a resurgent Senna for Ferrari. The Williams was still the best car, but given how close Schumacher came in the Ferrari, Ayrton just gets the nod for title number five. Having been beaten into third (or maybe even fourth?) thanks to his substandard Benetton, and more than aware of the pending pull out of works Renault support, the time would’ve been right for Schumacher to jump ship to McLaren for ‘98, who would have been courting him for some years thanks in no small part to engine partner Mercedes-Benz:-

Ferrari: Senna, Fisichella (A fast, young Italian to replace the retiring Berger)

Williams: Villeneuve, Frentzen

Benetton: Irvine (swapping with Schumacher), Hill (a better offer than Jordan)

McLaren: Hakkinen, Schumacher

This would’ve been in all likelihood the final year for Ayrton, now aged 38 and on par with Fangio (who he greatly admired) and ahead of Prost (who he detested) for titles, he would be focused on helping to prepare Ferrari and Fisichella for the future. The considerably younger Hakkinen and Schumacher would’ve probably by now surpassed the Brazilian for raw speed, thus slinging it out for the crown in the dominant McLarens. It’s an incredibly tight call, but I feel the honours would’ve fallen to the Finn.

1999 then would’ve been the first post-Senna year, and a repeat of the previous year’s showdown would’ve certainly been on the cards. With the McLaren still the finest thing on the grid, and Ferrari drivers (Fisichella and Alexander Wurz by my estimates) being no match for Hakkinen and Schumacher in the McLarens, there would be little reason for the pair to do anything but stay put in the West-backed, Mercedes-powered, Newey-designed rockets and trade more titles. Meanwhile, Senna may have found the allure of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race too much to resist, and may have joined Toyota to pilot their devastating GT-One. Or, perhaps ‘Senna F1’ would’ve been founded as a direct rival to the Prost team, which of course bore the name of his arch-nemesis. Either way there’s little doubt he would go on to oversee the progress of his nephew Bruno, who finally graduated to F1 this season with Hispania Racing.

Alas, we can only speculate. It’s possible that he would have stayed put at Williams rather than jump to Ferrari, or maybe have ‘done a Mansell’ and crossed the pond in order to compete against his childhood hero Emerson Fittipaldi in IndyCar. Nobody will ever know for definite, but it certainly can be fascinating to explore the consequences of a significant event not happening. For example, how may F1 have looked if it hadn’t lost Wolfgang von Trips, François Cevert, Ronnie Peterson or Gilles Villeneuve? Tales for another post, I think...