German Grand Prix 2010

Cast your minds back, if you will, to the Austrian Grand Prix at the A1 Ring in 2002. That day, Rubens Barrichello was denied a thoroughly deserved win due to team orders from Ferrari. Flash forward 8 years, and most would argue that Felipe Massa was similarly denied a thoroughly deserved win due to team orders from Ferrari. Whilst it's just about impossible to not subscribe to that viewpoint, I unashamedly defend Ferrari's decision. The reason it was inexcusable in 2002 was because Ferrari had a commanding lead in both championships anyway, meaning the position change was totally needless. In 2010 however, Fernando Alonso prior to today had fallen 49 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, Massa 78 points. The choice to treat drivers equally until one is mathematically eliminated can prove counter-productive, so I salute Ferrari for electing to throw their full weight behind Alonso. After all, what's Felipe's race compared to Fernando's possible championship?

Controversy aside though, It was clear from the outset that the Ferraris were on the pace, for real this time. Alonso emphatically confirmed that fact by coming just two-thousandths of a second shy of pole position, with Massa lining up in 3^rd. Sebastian Vettel continued the Red Bull near-monopoly on pole, whilst Mark Webber in the sister car didn't have an answer to the Ferraris on Saturday. The McLarens were even further off the pace, sharing row three between them, Button ahead of Hamilton.

When the lights went out at the start of the race, Vettel made his trademark 'pin 'em against the pitwall' manoeuvre which proved costly on this particular occasion – it opened an inviting gap for an especially fast-starting Massa, which he duly took before sweeping around the outside of Alonso to take an early lead. The Bahrain winner muscled his way through on Vettel anyway; whilst Jenson Button's fine start was for naught when he was baulked by the German. Hamilton wasted no time in passing Webber at the hairpin on Lap 1, but thereafter just couldn't keep up with the pace of Vettel and the Scarlet machines.

Meanwhile, Sebastien Buemi had his wing unceremoniously torn off by Adrian Sutil's rogue Force India at the same time, meaning the German had to make a pitstop. Incidentally, both teammates were also caught up warranting Jaime Alguersauri and Tonio Liuzzi unforeseen trips to the pits as well. Then, to make matters worse for Force India, the pit crew accidentally put the sets of tyres on the cars the wrong way round! Both Force India drivers were called in the next lap to avoid a penalty for that, but their races were well and truly ruined.

Back at the front, Massa was starting to make headway from Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Webber and Button. Home driver Vettel was the first of that group to pit on Lap 13, rejoining the action in 6^th place comfortably ahead of Robert Kubica who had well and truly been dropped by the leading sextet. Alonso and Webber were next to oblige, with Alonso returning 4^th behind Massa and the two McLarens, whilst Webber lost out somewhat, filtering back into the pack down in 9^th. Button opted to pit later than most, finally coming in on lap 23, but the decision paid dividends when he took 5^th place from Webber.

Now on the hard compound tyres, the top 6 split into 2 distinct groups: The two Ferraris and Vettel, and then the two McLarens and Webber. That became 3 when Webber dropped back because of oil consumption issues, but at the front things were getting interesting. Alonso was clearly the quicker on the harder compound tyre, with Massa seemingly feeling considerable pressure after locking his wheels three times under braking. With Vettel beginning to loom on the horizon, Alonso gesticulated his frustration visibly on the on-board camera.

Massa began to recover, but after hitting traffic, Alonso was able to close to within a second. It was at this point that on the exit of the hairpin, Massa deliberately and obviously backed off to let his more illustrious teammate by, having received an ominous call from race engineer Rob Smedley to say 'Fernando is faster than you.' There was no question of the result from there on, and Alonso went on to win the race by a comfortable margin from an incredibly downtrodden Massa. Vettel was able to close on, but ultimately not overtake Massa to claim the final spot on the podium for his adoring home fans.

The two McLarens finished 4^th and 5^th, Hamilton from Button, whilst Webber brought his ailing Red Bull home in 6^th. Kubica, the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher (off the pace once again at Mercedes' home race) and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the point scorers. Kamui Kobayashi couldn't continue his impressive form to trail home in 11^th, ahead of the two unimpressive Williams cars of newly-crowned Top Gear test track champ Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, and the other Sauber of Pedro De La Rosa whose alternative strategy failed to net him positions. Alguersauri was next ahead of the beleaguered Force Indias, Timo Glock's Virgin and Bruno Senna's Hispania.

Alonso's win brings him right back into contention for title honours, with the Spaniard just 24 points behind Hamilton in the points standings. Button remains 2^nd after an anonymous race, ahead of the two Red Bulls who are now interestingly tied for points. But the debate remains: was Ferrari's decision justified?

The most excruciating thing about the whole affair was the way the team handled the PR, i.e. horrendously. The Ferrari press office vehemently denied any wrong-doing, despite the clear signals given from Massa and Smedley in the post-race interviews. However, the FiA saw through this blatant charade and slapped the team with a $100,000 fine. Some would argue that's not sufficient, but to dock points or administer grid penalties would surely be punishing the wrong parties – it wasn't the drivers' decision to switch positions, despite what Ferrari press officer Luca Colajanni would have you believe. The sad fact remains though that this kind of thing, if done properly, is near-impossible to police. It's just a shame Ferrari didn't do it properly.

Half-Term Review

With 10 races down, here are my thoughts on how the class of 2010 have fared so far this season...

Jenson Button, McLaren, 2^nd Place, 133 pts
A-

It's fair to surmise that thus far Jenson has exceeded expectations – the paddock duly expected him to be eaten alive by his better-established and, in the eyes of most, more talented teammate. However, after racking up two expert wet-weather drives involving some bold strategy calls, and consolidating those with three consecutive podiums, Button has proved he's the real deal. Sitting just twelve points behind Lewis in the standings currently, he's now got a real shot at becoming Britain's first back-to-back champion.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Leads, 145pts
A
With four top-two finishes in the last four races, things are certainly looking rosy for Britain's other contender for glory. While his Turkish win may have been handed to him on a silver platter courtesy of Mr. Vettel, he was there to apply the pressure on the German to cause the infamous Red Bull clash in the first place. He's also the only man to break the Austrian team's stranglehold on Pole Position, an advantage he utilised to the maximum to take victory at Canada. McLaren clearly aren't as fast as Red Bull at the moment, so does the fact that Lewis leads the standings reflect ability or merely luck? Time will tell...

Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, 9^th, 36pts
C-

Many expected Schumacher to add to his lofty tally of 91 victories coming into the season, but it's become patently obvious that the machinery at his disposal won't cater for that. That said however, he has consistently punched under his weight in comparison to teammate Rosberg, who has taken all 3 of Mercedes' podiums this year so far. Whilst it's clear that there will have to be considerable improvements on the part of the Brackley-based team, equally Michael is going to have to up his game if his much-lauded comeback is to be branded as anything but failure.

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 6^th, 90pts
B+
With almost triple the amount of points to his name than his more illustrious teammate, Rosberg's season is going just about as well as could have been hoped for given the calibre of the Mercedes mount provided for him. His three podiums have all been richly deserved, but then again he did struggle somewhat inexplicably at Barcelona considering Schumacher had his best showing of the season. The title's out of reach, but given the circumstances the possibility is there for Rosberg to take his maiden victory at some stage this year.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 4^th, 121pts
A

Vettel has been devastatingly quick just about everywhere, but poor judgement and luck have conspired to keep Red Bull's supposed number one from leading the standings. At least 80 points have gone begging thanks to a combination of technical trouble at Bahrain, disintegrating brakes at Melbourne, a puncture at Silverstone and a somewhat farcical decision to try and wrest the lead from Webber at Turkey. He has the fastest car beneath him, and if the team is indeed behind him in the way many paddock figures suspect, he should be the man who comes away from Abu Dhabi World Champion.

Mark Webber, Red Bull, 3^rd, 128pts
A

2010 has been the year Mark Webber has come of age. With three victories to his name, one more than any of his rivals, Webber is looking like the man most likely to take the fight to his teammate for the title. His drives at Barcelona, Monaco and Silverstone were absolutely second-to-none, the only real blot in his copybook being his aerial antics with Kovalainen at Valencia, which were largely of his own making. The talent is there, he has the car, and all he needs is the full backing of his team to ensure a fair title fight in which Mark has a real chance of becoming Australia's first champion in 30 years.

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 5^th, 98pts
A-

At first glance, A- may seem a tad generous to the pre-season favourite who's wound up in 5th place at the halfway stage. However, his misfortunes have been very little of his own making. If it weren't for 1. being nerfed off track at the first corner in Melbourne, 2. his team's ill-judged decision to not place a 'banker' in qualifying in Malaysia, 3. being baulked by backmarkers at Canada, 4. being caught out by the safety car at Valencia and 5. being handed a draconian penalty by the stewards at Silverstone, he would be well in the title hunt despite his own blunders at China and Monaco. Write him off at your peril.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 8^th, 67pts
C+

After two consecutive podiums in the first two outings of the year, things have gone rapidly downhill for the Brazilian – he just doesn't seem like the same man who came within a whisker of denying Hamilton the title in 2008. He hasn't scored points since Turkey, and is in serious need of some reinvigoration. To notch up at least one victory this season would go some way towards helping the paddock to overlook what has largely been a season to forget for Felipe.

Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 11^th, 29pts
B+
Whilst it's hardly been the Williams team's breakthrough year, lying just seventh in the constructors' standings, Rubens is as ever performing a solid job with the equipment given to him. He's tallied a fairly impressive 29 points so far, compared to just two for his highly-rated rookie teammate Hulkenberg. After bagging a fourth and a fifth place in the last two races, things are looking on the up, and beating former teammate Schumacher seems well within the realms of possibility.

Robert Kubica, Renault, 7^th, 83pts
A

Kubica has been another driver to well and truly put his teammate in the shade – Kubica has amassed a hefty haul of 83 points so far compared to just six for Petrov, another highly fancied GP2 graduate. The Renault car, admittedly inconsistently, has been close to the leading pace, and when the car's been up to scratch Kubica has delivered the goods. Two podiums and counting this year for the talented Pole reflect this, and the onus is now on Renault to repay the faith Kubica has put in the Anglo-French squad who have now extended his contract to the end of 2012.

Adrian Sutil, Force India, 10^th, 35pts
B

Having just about shaken off his reputation as a crasher with just one mechanical retirement to his name this year so far, Sutil has been a constant presence in the points-scoring positions since Barcelona. He's another driver that has been performing favourably against his teammate, and it will be largely up to Adrian to defend Force India's current 6^th place in the constructors' standings from the onslaught of Williams and Sauber.

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, 12^th, 15pts
B+
When his car hasn't given up on him, Kobayashi has shown striking pace throughout the season. Now with 15 points to his name, this young Japanese charger who impressed so much in his outings for Toyota last year has been able to show what he's truly made of. He's failed to consistently outpace his vastly more experienced teammate De La Rosa, but given the gulf in mileage of an F1 car that's to be expected. Showing the occasional flash of genius was all that was required from Kamui in order to secure his immediate future, and that's precisely what he's done.

The Rest

Vitantonio Liuzzi in his first full season for Force India has been somewhat hit-and-miss, and crucially far less successful in the way of points than teammate Sutil. Vitaly Petrov and Nico Hulkenberg really have failed to deliver the goods considering the pace of their cars, and their lack of experience won't be an excuse for too much longer. The STR pairing of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersauri have both seemed genuine future prospects at various points this season, whilst looking frankly ordinary at others. It's difficult to judge De La Rosa given the appalling reliability of the Sauber, but it's beginning to come clear his pace isn't as strong as Sauber teammate Kobayashi's. The Lotus drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli have just about done everything that's been asked of them, as has Virgin's Timo Glock, although Lucas di Grassi in the other Virgin has endured something of a baptism of fire. Bruno Senna's pace in the HRT has looked reasonable despite only having finished on three occasions, while Karun Chandhok has proved surprisingly competent and the wheel of his HRT, nabbing a 14^th place at Melbourne to lie ahead of both the Virgins, Trulli and his own teammate Senna in the standings.

British Grand Prix 2010

Silverstone, as host of Formula One's inaugural race 60 years ago, has earned a special place in the hearts of motor racing aficionados. 12 months ago, the F1 fraternity thought the place had run its final British Grand Prix for the foreseeable future, but Donington Park's ambitious plans never came close to fruition. So here we were again, albeit with a revised section of the track that received a mixed response from the drivers. Red Bull was once more the class of the field, with 'number two' Mark Webber becoming the first driver this season to chalk up a third win. After his frustration over his newer-spec front wing being taken from him by the team in favour of teammate Sebastian Vettel, he responded in the best possible way with a flawless drive to victory.

The Milton-Keynes based team seized upon their speed advantage to lock out yet another front row in qualifying, with Vettel edging Webber for the pole slot. McLaren on the other hand were very much on the back foot after their blown diffuser upgrade caused the team's pace to regress, meaning Button could only manage a dismal 14^th. Hamilton however was able to bag a spot on the second row in 4^th just behind Alonso despite having the same issue. A revitalised Rosberg lined up next in 5^th, joined by Kubica on row 3.

Opposite to convention, it was actually the 2^nd-placed man who got the best getaway at the start of the race. This meant Webber catapulted into an early lead, despite Vettel's best efforts to keep the Australian at bay. Moments later though, the German's rear-right tyre was tagged by the front wing of the rapid starting Hamilton causing his Red Bull mount to career straight on at Maggotts with Vettel himself confirming over the radio that he had sustained a puncture. He dropped to 24^th and last place, touring at a very leisurely pace before pitting at the end of that lap, at least getting his soft-tyre phase done and dusted.

Things were hardly going better for Ferrari either. Alonso made a terrible start, being swallowed by Hamilton, Kubica and Rosberg almost immediately. His Ferrari stablemate Massa then drew alongside the Spaniard through Maggotts, before contact between the pair gave the Brazilian a puncture too. It wasn't long before Webber started to ease away from Hamilton as the pair in turn routed from the rest of the field, being visibly held up by Kubica's Renault. Behind him, Rosberg was applying serious pressure to the Pole, who also had to soak up pressure from a speedy Alonso in 5^th. Rubens Barrichello was running nicely in 6^th for Williams, from former teammate Michael Schumacher, a fast-starting Button and an ever-impressive Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber.

With most of the top runners on soft compound tyres, the drivers soon came in to make their one and only stop of the race. Rosberg was the big winner here, passing Kubica for 3^rd, whilst Button was able to leapfrog both Barrichello and Schumacher to emerge in 6^th behind Alonso's Ferrari. With the former champion right behind and clearly far quicker than Kubica, the Ferrari de facto number one tried a bold move around the outside of Vale. Kubica rightfully held his line, but this forced Alonso to cut the second part of the corner. Nonetheless Alonso took the position and duly pulled away rapidly, incidentally the Renault would splutter to a halt just two laps later with differential problems. Now unable to hand the place back to Kubica, Alonso was handed a drive-through penalty by the stewards.

His troubles were compounded by the appearance of the Safety Car, which was brought out to allow the marshals to clear a piece of De La Rosa's rear wing which had gone AWOL after contact with Sutil. This meant when Alonso served his penalty, he was spat out in 15^th place. When proceedings got underway once more, the order was Webber from Hamilton, Rosberg, Button who had benefitted massively by leaving his stop very late, Barrichello and Kobayashi. Having avoided falling a lap behind the leaders, Massa and Vettel set about grabbing hold of the opportunity to gain places, along with Alonso, fuming after his penalty, evident from his request for radio silence for the remainder of the race.

It was Vettel who was making the most decisive progress though, dispatching both Toro Rossos, Petrov's Renault after the Russian ran wide and fellow Germans Hulkenberg and Schumacher. Now in 8^th place, he found Sutil more of a challenge to pass, being repeatedly denied through the new complex. With a lap to go however, he threw caution to the wind and barged the Force India out of the way to finally snatch the place. Alonso had at last cleared the other Force India of Liuzzi for 11^th before having to pit courtesy of a puncture picked up from contact with the Italian driver. It was the final mishap in a thoroughly miserable and points-free day for Ferrari.

No such problems for Webber however, as the Australian brought the car home for his third win of the year, putting himself ahead of Red Bull's supposed favoured son Vettel in the standings. 2^nd place kept Hamilton at the top of the championship, likewise 4^th place for Button keeping his 2^nd place secure for now. Rosberg gained considerable ground on the non-scoring Alonso for 5^th in the table with a well-deserved podium, with Barrichello and Kobayashi giving welcome boosts to Williams and Sauber respectively for finishing in 5^th and 6^th places. The German quartet of Vettel, Sutil, Schumacher and Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

Considering the unusually good British weather and lasting tyres, Silverstone was able to provide the adoring crowd with an excellent race, due to the fact several big boys were forced to make their way through the pack. Perhaps there may be sense in introducing a random or reverse element to qualifying to make this happen more often in the future.

 

 

Motorsport World Cup

After watching England's frankly embarrassing defeat at the hands of Germany this time last week in the World Cup, it got me wondering: could we fare any better in a World Cup of motorsport? After all, England has given the world its last two F1 champions in the form of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, so surely we would stand a fighting chance of victory. So, I assigned each country its three finest race and rally drivers, and set about working out which nation would emerge triumphant.

Before you wail 'wasn't A1GP supposed to be the World Cup of Motorsport?' let me explain how my format is different and better (something's clearly amiss when Ireland is proclaimed motorsport champion of the world). Trying to stick as closely to the football format as possible, my world cup is essentially a long series of head-to-head battles that take place on a Race of Champions-style circuit. For those of you who have never seen the Race of Champions, it uses a track with two parallel lanes that cross over, so two drivers start in opposing lanes but end up driving both lanes. This way there is no room for racing incidents, with pure skill alone determining the outcome – both drivers using identical cars, naturally. Using the rankings from the Castrol Rankings website, I organised the nations into eight groups of four countries, as per the World Cup, with each group comprising 6 matches. I mean races.

So, the big question is how did England fare? I decided that Kris Meeke, as our country's best rally driver, should join Lewis and Jenson in salvaging glory for England. As second seeds according to Castrol, the hand of fate selected Sweden, Canada and Greece to join us in our group. Jenson Button made short work of Greece's Lambros Athanssoulas, though Kris Meeke had a slightly closer win against Canada's DTM (German Touring Cars) ace Bruno Spengler. However, it was Lewis Hamilton that let the side down, failing to best Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom. Before you scratch your head as to why one of the world's fastest drivers would've been beaten by someone you may never have even heard of, allow me to explain: Hamilton's aggressive, balls-out approach simply doesn't suit this style of racing. On the other hand, Ekstrom's does – he's a 3-time victor of the Race of Champions.

Thus, we finished second in our group, with two victories to Sweden's three. Whilst they would face a fairly gentle match-up with Austria, we had a far tougher challenge awaiting us: Australia. According to Castrol, they were the number one seeds, strolling through their group. Nonetheless, our boys were able to give the Aussies (Mark Webber, Ryan Briscoe of IndyCar fame, and former WRC star Chris Atkinson) a damn good thrashing to secure our place in the quarters, two wins to one.

Waiting for us there was none other than Germany. With a fearsome line-up of Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, and a certain Mr. Schumacher, they predictably topped their group with the greatest of ease before suitably demolishing Switzerland in the round of 16. That paved a way for a rematch of sorts. The first pair to take to the track were Vettel and Hamilton – keeping consistent with my theory of Hamilton not being at home, Germany were one-nil up. Next were Schumacher and Button, which given the former's lacklustre form in F1 this season, you'd have been forgiven for thinking we would've scored the equaliser. However I have an inclination to believe that Schumacher would still be too much for Jenson given equal machinery. Even if he wasn't, Kris Meeke would surely stand next to no chance against Nico Rosberg. Even the most patriotic optimist would have to concede that our hopes of surviving this encounter were very slim indeed.

Germany would go on to face fifth seeds France in the semi-final. Fresh from crushing Italy and then Brazil, six-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb would probably have had the measure of all three Germans, only to be let down by his teammates and namesakes Ogier (also of the WRC) and Bourdais (Champ Car supremo-turned F1 reject). The German steamroller therefore continues. In the other semi-final, our former adversaries Sweden would have fallen to the mighty Finnish rally driving-trio of Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala and Kimi Raikkonen. That would set up a classic encounter between the F1 giant of Germany and the Rallying giant of Finland for the final, which by my predictions Germany would have just about come out on top of, three wins to two. Well, at least we lost to the eventual winners!

First Round

Group A: Australia (1), Austria,
Colombia (13), Monaco

Group B: Sweden, England (2), Canada (16), Greece

Group C: Germany (3), Norway (13), Czech Republic, United Arab Emirates

Group D: United States (4), Switzerland, Poland (12), Japan

Group E: France (5), Scotland (9), South Africa, Malaysia

Group F: Finland (6), Italy (11), Estonia, India

Group G: Brazil (7), Portugal, New Zealand (10), Argentina

Group H: Spain (8), Denmark, Russia (15), Indonesia

Second Round

England (2) bt. Australia (1)

Germany (3) bt. Switzerland

France (5) bt. Italy (11)

Brazil (7) bt. Denmark

Sweden bt. Austria

Norway (13) bt. United States (4)

Finland (6) bt. Scotland (9)

Spain (8) bt. Portugal

Quarter Finals

Germany (3) bt. England (2)

France (5) bt. Brazil (7)

Sweden bt. Norway (13)

Finland (6) bt. Spain (8)

Semi Finals

Germany (3) bt. France (5)

Finland (6) bt. Sweden

Final

Germany (3) bt. Finland (6)

Failed to Qualify

Morocco, Mexico, Venezuela, Netherlands, Belgium, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Wales, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea