European Grand Prix 2011 Round-up

Firstly, I'd just like to apologise for not posting anything for the past two days – I'm currently on holiday in Tuscany, and I've been unable to access the internet at the villa in which I'm staying until today. There was also the minor issue of having no means of watching the usual BBC broadcast, so instead I was forced to make do with the advert-infested German satellite channel RTL.

As it happens though, it would appear that I chose a good race for which to be on holiday! After some scintillating races at Catalunya, Monaco and Montreal, yesterday's race from Valencia was unfortunately rather processional. Sebastian Vettel put a tentative first finger on the championship crown after taking a lights-to-flag victory around the streets of the Spanish city; his authority over the race was never seriously disputed after the first few corners, and after a faultless drive extended his championship advantage ahead of Jenson Button and Mark Webber to a mighty 77 points.

Vettel's Red Bull teammate Webber debated second with Fernando Alonso for much of the race, with the result eventually being decided in the favour of the latter thanks to a sparkling performance on home turf. The Ferrari number one did look like challenging Vettel for the lead at one stage, but as things transpired it seemed the young German had it all in hand. After losing out to both Ferraris on the opening lap, Lewis Hamilton could only manage fourth – he was able to undercut Felipe Massa at the first stops to claw back one of the lost positions, but the three leaders were simply too fast for the Brit on this occasion.

Massa came home fifth ahead of Canadian GP victor Button, whose race was compromised by being passed by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes in the opening stages. He eventually found a way back past the silver car courtesy of the double-DRS zone, but by then was languishing behind his rivals and had to settle for a subdued sixth place. Rosberg held on to seventh, but the other Mercedes of Michael Schumacher ended up a lowly seventeenth after some early contact with Vitaly Petrov, who turned across the bows of the seven-time champion as he exited the pits.

Jaime Alguersauri made use of only making two stops (compared to three for the majority of the field) to finish a creditable eighth, whilst Sergio Perez got away with just one stop on his return to pick up eleventh. In between the pair of youngsters were Germans Adrian Sutil and Nick Heidfeld, with 2009 Valencia winner Rubens Barrichello in twelfth ahead of a tight bunch consisting of Sebastien Buemi, Paul Di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi and Petrov.

Interestingly, not a single car retired from the race, giving Narain Karthikeyan the dubious distinction of making history as the lowest-ever classified finisher after bringing his Hispania home in 24^th and last place. The lack of retirements reflected a dull race in general, with DRS and tyre degradation having made little impact on the result. If F1 has gained a new legion of fans this season, then a race such as this may regrettably make some of them think twice before tuning into the British Grand Prix.

In fact, Valencia deserves to be axed from the calendar altogether in my view. Not only has it never produced even a vaguely entertaining race in its relatively short history, but with the United States returning to the calendar next year and several other nations such as France, Russia and South Africa clamouring for a space on the calendar in the future, having two Grand Prix in Spain is totally unjustifiable.

Apologies again for the belated post but make sure you check back here in two weeks for comprehensive reports on both qualifying and the race for the British Grand Prix, as well as the second part of my 'Under New Management' series a week prior to that.

Under New Management – Part I: Renault & Mercedes

Of the nine 'established' teams currently in Formula One, just three – Ferrari, McLaren and Williams – have retained their original guises from when they first entered the championship. The rest have all undergone one or more identity changes over the years, so allow me to give you a brief history of how some of them began, and how they have evolved since in another two-part series.

Renault (aka Toleman, Benetton)

Laying aside the completely separate Renault works effort that operated from 1977 to 1985, the modern Renault team began life as Toleman back in 1981. To begin with, the team was rather uncompetitive, qualifying just twice out of 24 attempts in their debut season with an all-British line-up of Derek Warwick and Brian Henton. The team wouldn't score its first points until 1983, courtesy of Warwick, and the following year signed up the rookie Ayrton Senna who came painstakingly close to taking a shock win at that year's Monaco Grand Prix. The Brazilian finished second behind future rival Alain Prost in torrential conditions after the race was halted prematurely, and racked up two more podiums later in the season to finish a rather respectable ninth in the championship. Although Senna departed for Lotus for 1985, his performances attracted sponsorship from the Benetton clothing company, which purchased the team one year later and renamed it 'Benetton Formula'.

With a far healthier budget in place, Gerhard Berger took the team's first win at the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix, and regular podium finishes thereafter allowed Benetton to become part of the 'top four' along with the three teams mentioned at the start of this blog. The Enstone-based outfit took its next step up the grid when it poached Michael Schumacher from the Jordan team in 1991 after one highly impressive race for the Irish squad. Schumacher won one race in each of the next two seasons, and clinched his and Benetton's first title in 1994 after a close and controversial battle with Williams driver Damon Hill. Schumacher defended his title with consummate ease in 1995, but when the German decided to jump ship to Ferrari, Benetton began to slowly sink down the grid. Berger returned to the team after stints with Ferrari and McLaren to take the team's final win at the 1997 German Grand Prix, but matters got worse when engine suppliers Renault withdrew from the sport at the end of the year, leaving Benetton to run re-badged 'Playlife' units for the next three seasons. Despite some excellent performances from Giancarlo Fisichella, the team found itself unable to keep pace with several of its rivals, and in March 2000 the team was sold to Renault who subsequently took over the ailing team in time for the start of the 2002 season.

Mercedes (aka Tyrrell, BAR, Honda, Brawn GP)

Motorsport aficionados will no doubt know that Mercedes competed in F1 in 1954-5, but the roots of the modern-day team can only be traced back to 1968. That year, Tyrrell Racing emerged on the F1 scene for the first time, and it may have won the drivers' title in its debut season had its star driver Jackie Stewart not injured himself in an F2 race which prevented him from contesting two races that year. As it was, the Scot would go on to take three titles for Tyrrell in 1969, 1971 and 1973, the first with a Matra chassis and the others with the team's own design. Stewart retired after sealing his third championship after the unfortunate death of his teammate Francois Cevert, but the team remained a force throughout most of the 1970s, with further race wins being racked up by Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler. However, as the turbo era dawned, Tyrrell's competitiveness began to wane: 1980 was the team's first year in which it failed to score a podium. Michele Alboreto took two unlikely wins in 1982-3, but these couldn't disguise the long-term decline of the once-great team. In 1984, Tyrrell was the final team running a non-turbo engine, and had some strong results from debutants Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof erased after the outfit was retrospectively disqualified from all that season's races for having illegally used lead compounds in its fuel. The team struggled on during the remainder of the 1980s with relatively little funding, but enjoyed a brief resurgence when turbo engines were banned for the 1989 season, as Alboreto, Jean Alesi and Stefano Modena took four podiums between them during the 1989-91 period. This revival would prove temporary however; rapidly escalating costs of competition, which in turn led to many small teams falling by the wayside, meant that by the late 90s Tyrrell had become regulars at the very rear of the grid. With founder Ken Tyrrell's health deteriorating, the team was sold to tobacco giant British American Tobacco in 1998, renaming the team British American Racing for 1999.

A bespoke new factory was constructed in Brackley, respected designer Adrian Reynard was recruited to design the new team's first car, and 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve was lured away from Williams to lead the driving strength. With one of the largest budgets on the grid, the team set itself the target of winning its first race, but instead 1999 would prove a baptism of fire: the car, whilst not hopelessly off the pace, was horrendously unreliable, with Villeneuve retiring from the first eleven successive races and the team being the only one to fail to score any points. 2000 saw a modest improvement as the team beat more fancied runners to come fifth in the constructors table, but their performance stagnated during the next few seasons. Villeneuve was sacked at the end of 2003 after being upstaged by teammate Jenson Button, and the following season the team enjoyed by far their best season in 2004 – Button scored ten podiums en route to third in the drivers' championship behind the all-conquering Ferraris, and new partner Takuma Sato also put in some eye-catching performances to give BAR second in the constructors' championship too. Alas, this new-found success was short-lived, as a torrid 2005 saw the team plummet to sixth in the standings. Having already purchased 45% of the team at the end of 2004, engine-suppliers Honda purchased the remaining 55% owned by BAT upon the completion of the 2005 season.

Now known as Honda Racing, the team's performances improved in 2006 as Jenson Button took an overdue first win of his career at the Hungaroring en route to sixth in the drivers' standings, with new teammate Rubens Barrichello's seventh place consolidating Honda's position as 'best of the rest' behind Renault, Ferrari and McLaren. Nevertheless, things took a drastic turn for the worse in 2007: at the first race of the season, Button and Barrichello's Hondas lined up in 14^th and 16^th place respectively, whilst the Honda 'B-Team' Super Aguri, who were using a modified 2006 Honda chassis, qualified their cars 10^th and 11^th. That set the tone for an utterly disastrous year, as their cars, now adorned in the dreadful 'earth' livery, were embarrassingly slow all year. Button managed just six points, while Barrichello was unable to score any at all for the first time in his 14-year F1 career. 2008 wasn't much better, with Barrichello's superb third place in treacherous conditions at Silverstone failing to mask another appalling season in which the beleaguered Japanese manufacturer came second-to-last in the standings, beating only Force India. In the wake of the global financial crisis, Honda decided to put its team up for sale, which after much speculation was eventually purchased by team principal Ross Brawn in early 2009.

Ironically, just as Honda decided to pull the plug, they were in the process of creating what would transpire to be the dominant car of the first half of the 2009 season. Brawn retained Honda drivers Button and Barrichello, and both were immediately on the pace in pre-season testing at the wheel of the renamed 'Brawn GP' cars. At the first race in Melbourne, Button and Barrichello locked out the front row and went on to finish one-two in the race, Brawn GP becoming the first team since Wolf in 1977 to win at its first attempt. Button stamped his authority on the championship by winning six of the seven opening races, and held on to take the title in spite of a late challenge from Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. For all the team's success though, it was clear that it would need a buyer who could guarantee its financial future. That buyer arrived at the end of the year in the form of Daimler, parent company of Mercedes-Benz, who along with Aabar Investments purchased a controlling 75% stake in the team and rebranded it 'Mercedes GP' for the upcoming 2010 season.

Next week will be the European Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit, which hopefully will also be transformed from procession to thriller as per Monaco thanks to the new rules. After that, make sure you come back here for the second 'Under New Management' post, where you'll be able to discover the origins of Force India and Red Bull.

Canadian Grand Prix 2011 – Race Report

Jenson Button took his first victory of the season with a sensational drive at a frenetic Canadian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver caught race leader Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the race, which had been delayed by over two hours because of a sudden downpour, and pressurised the German into making a small error with half a lap to go, handing victory to Button who had recovered excellently from a troubled start to the race.

It was business as usual for Vettel during qualifying, as he added another pole position to his and Red Bull's burgeoning tally. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were next on the grid, just tenths behind the reigning champion, ahead of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton in a somewhat disappointing showing for McLaren. Button lined up seventh with the Mercedes drivers of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualifying sixth and eighth respectively.

Though Saturday had been dry, the race began under Safety Car conditions as the track had become waterlogged after heavy showers. This meant the race didn't get underway in earnest until lap 5, with Vettel holding position from Alonso and Massa. Just behind, Hamilton drew alongside Webber in the braking zone as he attempted a pass up the inside of the first corner, but Webber held his line and made contact with the McLaren. This spun the Australian, dropping him to fourteenth place, whilst Hamilton was fortunate to continue in seventh.

Button then dropped two places to Schumacher and Hamilton as he ran wide, the former then forcing the latter wide at the hairpin on lap 6 as he attempted a pass around the outside. This dropped Hamilton back behind Button, but it was clear that he was still the faster of the two McLarens. At the end of lap 8, Hamilton got a superior exit on the final chicane, drawing alongside Button by moving towards the pit-wall, but then found himself squeezed into it by his teammate who failed to spot him and thus took the usual racing line.

The damage done to Hamilton's rear-left wheel was sufficient to end his race, and after parking the stricken McLaren on the circuit, the Safety Car was deployed once again. Button on the other hand sustained no damage, but decided to pit for intermediate tyres at the end of the following lap. Vettel led the field behind the Safety Car, ahead of Alonso, Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber who had come from thirteenth on the grid, the Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov, and Webber, who had made his way back up to ninth after his earlier Hamilton-induced spin.

The race was resumed on lap 13, with Webber quickly dispensing with both Renaults to reach seventh. Button was also lapping quickly on the intermediate tyres, but he would drop down the order even further after being handed a drive-through penalty for being quicker than the minimum permitted lap time during the Safety Car period. On the strength of Button's lap times though, several others decided to try their luck on intermediates, including Alonso, Rosberg and Schumacher. This dropped Alonso from second to seventh, putting Massa in second and remarkably Kobayashi third.

Their roll of the dice was to fail when a sudden deluge hit the already-damp track on lap 20. The Safety Car made its third appearance in order to pre-empt a potential accident, with Alonso the first to revert to full wets on the same lap along with Button. Vettel decided to change his wet tyres for a fresh set the following lap, temporarily surrendering the lead to Massa before the Brazilian made a similar move a lap later and dropped back to third behind the yet-to-stop Kobayashi. Then, as the rain intensified, the decision was taken on lap 25 to suspend the race, with conditions having become too severe for the cars to even sit in formation behind the Safety Car.

With the rain refusing to relent, the cars lined up on the grid in the order in which they were running at the time of the red flags. Vettel thus lined up in first, from Kobayashi, Massa, Heidfeld, Petrov, an impressive Paul Di Resta, Webber and Alonso. Those who were yet to stop were able to change their tyres, but the regulations demanded that they be full wets while the race was still under Safety Car conditions. This would be the case when race control finally judged it safe enough to recommence the race in excess of two hours after the red flags were originally shown.

The Safety Car returned to the pits at the end of lap 32, and after just a few laps of racing a clear line was beginning to emerge. Once again a handful of drivers, chief among them Schumacher, decided to switch back to intermediates on lap 35, followed by several more the following lap including Heidfeld, Di Resta and Button. By the end of lap 37, everybody in the top ten bar race leader Vettel was on the intermediates, but he duly followed on lap 38, retaining the lead. Alonso was delayed during the pitstops after Ferrari pitted both its men on the same lap, forcing him to queue up behind teammate Massa.

This allowed Button to close right in on the Spaniard, and it wasn't long before he would look at passing the Ferrari number one for tenth place. He looked like doing so at turn 4 on lap 38, but ended up colliding with Alonso in the process who resolutely stuck to his line. The Ferrari driver was beached on a kerb and out on the spot, whilst Button picked up a puncture from the contact which saw him drop to 21^st as he was forced to cruise slowly back to the pits and change tyres again.

With Alonso's car stranded in a dangerous position, the Safety Car made yet another showing, this time for just three laps as the race got underway once more on lap 41. Vettel still led from Kobayashi, Massa, Heidfeld, Di Resta, Schumacher, Webber and Petrov, but shortly after the restart Di Resta sadly squandered his chance of a points finish by damaging his front wing in a half-hearted attempt to overtake Heidfeld at the final chicane. The Scot had to pit for a new nose, and later lost more time with drive-through penalty, administered for causing an avoidable incident.

This promoted Schumacher to fifth, which became fourth after passing his fellow German Heidfeld on lap 45 before setting about catching up to the duelling Kobayashi and Massa. The seven-time Canadian GP winner cruised up to the back of the two Ferrari-powered cars, and snuck past the pair of them after a minor error on lap 51 at turn 8 from Kobayashi cost both himself and Massa momentum. After clearing Kobayashi on the run down to the hairpin, Massa was forced to pit for a new nose two laps later after clouting the barriers whilst trying to lap a Hispania.

A dry line was most definitely emerging at this stage; Button having already made the switch to slick tyres on lap 52, and Webber one before that. Everyone was then to follow suit, with the order now Vettel, Schumacher, Webber, who had made time by being the first to try slicks, Kobayashi, Heidfeld and Button, who had charged his way through the field since his puncture. He soon cleared Heidfeld and Kobayashi to take fourth, and would be aided by a minor collision between the two drivers he'd just passed which precipitated the fifth and final Safety Car of the race.

Heidfeld gently tapped the rear of Kobayashi's Sauber at turn 1 as the duo continued to debate fifth position on lap 56, but it was sufficient to loosen the front wing of the Renault which then proceeded to break off and get trapped beneath the car, rendering the veteran German helpless as the black-and-gold machine slid down the escape road at turn 4. Though his car wasn't in a dangerous position, the debris had to be collected from the track, necessitating the Safety Car which pulled into the pits at the end of lap 60. Vettel now led a tight bunch consisting of Schumacher, Webber and Button.

With DRS having been enabled some laps earlier by race control, Webber almost made the system work into the final chicane on lap 63 by passing Schumacher, but cut the chicane in doing so and had to hand the place back. Button then profited from a mistake by the Aussie the next lap to move into third, and with five laps to go took second place away from Schumacher. The seven-time winner of the Canadian GP was demoted a further position by Webber on lap 67, the Mercedes proving simply not as quick as the Red Bull as the track dried.

Vettel had built up a five-second advantage over his pursuers, but upon taking second place Button began to hunt down the race leader rapidly – the gap between them was down to just three seconds with three laps to go, and as the two champions began the seventieth and final lap, the gap stood at just 0.9 seconds. Under immense pressure, Vettel made a tiny error at turn 7 and slid wide, allowing Button through to take the tenth and by far the best victory of his career. Webber denied Schumacher his first podium finish since his comeback by taking third, ahead of Petrov and Massa who used the DRS to out-drag Kobayashi to the line by a matter of hundredths of a second to steal sixth place.

Eighth was Jaime Alguersauri, who after starting from the pit-lane put in by far his best drive of the season to score his sorely needed first points for Toro Rosso. Ninth was Rubens Barrichello in a solid run for Williams and the second Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi collected the final point of an eventful afternoon with tenth. Rosberg was left pointless in eleventh after an extremely disappointing outing, ahead of Pedro De La Rosa, who drove steadily to twelfth as the unwell Sergio Perez's replacement, and Vitantonio Liuzzi who scored Hispania's best result of the season with thirteenth.

Next were the two Virgins of Jerome D'Ambrosio, who was penalised for pitting for intermediates before the restart, and Timo Glock. Jarno Trulli was next for Lotus, ahead of Narain Karthikeyan who was docked twenty seconds for cutting a corner and gaining an advantage, dropping him from fourteenth to seventeenth. Neither Force India saw the chequered flag as Di Resta had an altercation with the barrier with three laps to go, and Adrian Sutil called it a day after clipping Rosberg at one of the restarts gave him a puncture and a drive-through penalty. Pastor Maldonado span his Williams with nine laps to go, ending his race, whilst Heikki Kovalainen also retired due to transmission problems with his Lotus shortly after the two-hour delay.

In spite of his tremendously costly mistake, Vettel extended his points lead to 60 ahead of Button, whose victory jumped him ahead of both Webber and Hamilton in the championship. Although Vettel's record thus far this season does have an ominously Schumacher-esque air about it, Button proved today that he is not infallible. That said, the Heppenheim native will have to make numerous other gaffes in the remaining twelve races of the season if he is to forfeit the title, and one man will have to emerge from the chasing pack to truly take advantage. With more storming performances such as today's, Button may just be that man.

Canadian Grand Prix 2011 – Qualifying Report

Sebastian Vettel took yet another pole position after one more of his trademark scintillating laps during the qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix. The championship leader was able to do enough to repel an impressive assault by Ferrari, with both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa setting times within just a few tenths of a second behind to line up in second and third positions on the grid.

Q1

As per with Monaco, Pirelli opted to bring their soft and super-soft compounds to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with the lack of high-speed corners at the Canadian track having led to relatively low tyre degradation during the free practice sessions. None of the front-runners felt the need to use the super-softs in the first session of the afternoon as Mark Webber became the first championship contender to post a time with a 1'15.7 set on soft rubber. Fernando Alonso confirmed the pace showed by Ferrari in practice however by setting a first time seven tenths quicker, but Red Bull hit back as Vettel set a time three tenths than the Spaniard. Massa surprisingly was able to match his teammate's time with his first run, but perhaps even more so beat two-time Canadian GP winner Lewis Hamilton by a tenth. Vettel took another four tenths out of his previous best to secure his position at the top of the timesheets with a 1'14.3, which he then improved by a further three tenths after Alonso briefly deprived him of the top spot with a 1'14.2. The double champion however had the last laugh as he set a 1'13.8, which would remain the fastest time for the remainder of the session. At the other end of the field, Jaime Alguersauri did himself no favours as he battles for his future at the Toro Rosso team by failing to progress beyond Q1, joining the established 'rear six'. Only 23 cars will take to the grid tomorrow though after Virgin's Jerome D'Ambrosio was unable to set a time within 107% of the fastest in the session, the team looking to have effectively written off their 2011 season after parting with technical partners Wirth Research.

Eliminated – Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania), Timo Glock (Virgin), Narain Karthikeyan (Hispania)

Did Not Qualify – Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin)

Q2

Once more, Webber set the ball rolling among the 'big boys' for Q2, along with just about everyone else equipping his Red Bull car with super-soft tyres from the off. His first effort was a 1'14.3, putting the Australian two tenths ahead of Hamilton but a tenth behind the other McLaren of Jenson Button. Vettel took a worryingly hefty half a second out of the Englishman in setting a 1'13.7, but both Alonso and Webber were able to match the German's time. That was, before he took a further two tenths out of it late in the session, but it wouldn't be Vettel who sat atop the standings come the end of the session. That honour befell a seemingly rejuvenated Massa who just pipped the reigning champion by a tenth with a superb 1'13.4. With the top ten slots occupied by the drivers of the current top five teams in the constructors' championship, there would be no room in Q3 for anybody else. Both Paul Di Resta and Pastor Maldonado were able to outqualify their more experienced teammates however, and Pedro De La Rosa did a solid enough job deputising for Sergio Perez at Sauber, who on his comeback from that horrific shunt at Monaco two weeks ago unfortunately had to withdraw from the event due to illness.

Eliminated – Paul Di Resta (Force India), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Pedro De La Rosa (Sauber)

Q3

With tyre preservation unnecessary thanks to the reasonable durability of the tyres, qualifying was set to be an accurate reflection of who had the pace. The answer to that question was, in spite of the circuit supposedly being ill-suited to the strengths of the Red Bull, one Mr. Vettel. His best time was a 1'13.0, which at the time it was set was a sobering eight tenths quicker than the nearest challengers of Massa and Hamilton. Webber could only get within six tenths of the blistering pace of his teammate, but Alonso was somewhat closer with a 1'13.4. Massa briefly stole the other front row grid slot away from his Ferrari stablemate, but with a final effort just a tenth faster than the Brazilian, Alonso was just about able to wrest the position back. Webber was forced to settle for fourth ahead of Hamilton, Nico Rosberg who put in a solid performance for Mercedes, Button, the second Brackley-built car of Michael Schumacher, and the Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov.

Top Ten – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Jenson Button (McLaren), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Vitaly Petrov (Renault)

My Prediction

A chance of rain for tomorrow's race is worth bearing in mind, but my prediction of a maiden win for Alonso and Ferrari will probably have to rely on that not being the case:

1. Alonso, 2. Webber, 3. Massa, 4. Hamilton, 5. Button, 6. Rosberg, 7. Schumacher, 8. Heidfeld, 9. Kobayashi, 10. Maldonado

If Alonso can pull off a third consecutive good start, there's no reason why it couldn't be he who leads the pack into the first corners of the race. With the pace of the Ferrari appearing strong, Massa is in with his best chance yet of his first podium of the season, but may fall short of besting Webber. Hamilton will put the disaster of Monaco behind him to register a sensible fourth place ahead of Button, the two Mercedes not quite having the pace to achieve anything higher than sixth and seventh. Kobayashi will continue his unbroken points finish run thanks to a two-stop strategy, whilst Maldonado will round out the top ten, just edging out his fellow rookie Di Resta. Vettel meanwhile will become the only high-profile retirement of the race after adding his name to the list of drivers to have clattered into the infamous 'wall of champions', keeping the championship race alive.

Perhaps my prediction is rooted more in optimism than in genuine expectancy, but nonetheless the Canadian Grand Prix is often one of the toughest to predict on the calendar. Hopefully the race will demonstrate exactly why that is and provide us with another of the venue's normally thrilling races. Don't forget to find out exactly what happens right here.

Kicking the Habit

Yesterday, common sense prevailed in the world of Formula One as it was announced that the Quebecois authorities decided that Renault could use their usual black-and-gold colours at the Canadian Grand Prix. There had been uncertainty on the issue as the livery is inspired by the original Team Lotus cars of the 1970s and 1980s which were sponsored by cigarette brand John Player Special at the time, leading some to claim that the Renault cars could be seen to carry implicit tobacco advertising.


Until very recently, F1 had been something of a haven for the tobacco industry faced with the ever-tightening noose of advertising restrictions. Even as late as 2007, at three grand prix in the form of Bahrain, Monaco and China, the two Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa proudly boasted Marlboro decals on their rear wings and engine covers. What's more, the almighty EU was apparently powerless to prevent this blatant pedalling of cigarettes being beamed from areas outside of their jurisdiction into the homes of millions of Europeans.


At the other fifteen races however, the famous red cars adorned the notorious 'barcode', which was almost as effective. Any true F1 fan could've told you exactly what the barcode meant, and once more it seemed beyond the powers of anybody to break this last remaining link with an otherwise vilified industry which has enjoyed a unique love affair with the sport. However, at last year's Spanish Grand Prix, the barcodes disappeared as accusations finally arrived of them being used to continue to advertise tobacco subliminally. The Ferrari logo was therefore also amended at the start of this season, but if you look closely, there is still some subtle Marlboro DNA there.


That is, of course, because Marlboro is still the title sponsor of Ferrari as of the time of writing – the company continues to pump millions of dollars into the Italian team, and in return its name appears on the official FIA entry list (the cars are named 'Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro') and they keep the right to entertain their clients and stakeholders in association with the most famous team on the grid. They also organise the annual off-season 'Wrooom' event in the Italian Alps which brings Ferrari together with the Ducati motorcycle racing team, the tobacco firm's other remaining motorsport client.


Marlboro became Ferrari's title sponsor in 1997, but previously held an iconic association with the McLaren team that stretches all the way back to 1974. James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna all won championships at the wheel of the white-and-red cars, images etched firmly in the minds of F1 aficionados. Marlboro have also acted as minor sponsors for countless other teams, including Ferrari prior to 1997, Jordan, Tyrrell, Minardi and many more, with a significant proportion of the drivers in the late 1980s and early 1990s having had their careers supported by them, thus bearing the ubiquitous red chevron on their overalls.


When the EU did finally put their foot down over tobacco advertising in F1 in 2006, the only other brands still involved in the sport were Mild Seven and Lucky Strike. The former was a long-time partner of Benetton/Renault, with the first two titles of Michael Schumacher as well as the pair won by Fernando Alonso having been clinched in the light blue colours of the Japanese cigarette brand. Lucky Strike was less successful, but unique in the sense that its parent, British American Tobacco, owned the team in question – British American Racing (BAR), later purchased by Honda, which sadly opted to replace the cigarette brand with the horrendous 'earth car' livery in 2007.


The early 2000s saw many other famous partnerships between cigarette companies and teams terminated: McLaren ended their eight year-association with West in 2005, in which time Mika Hakkinen took back-to-back titles in the gorgeous silver and black cars; Jordan dumped Benson & Hedges in the same year, which had provided the team with its trademark bright yellow livery; and French brand Gauloises parted ways with Prost at the end of 2000, putting an end to an affiliation that stretched back to the 1970s with their respective fore-runners Gitanes and Ligier.


The original Team Lotus was the pioneer of tobacco sponsorship, and indeed sponsorship itself. Shockwaves were sent through the sport when its cars appeared at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix not in traditional British Racing Green, but in the red, white and gold colours of cigarette brand Gold Leaf. After Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt both won the title in these colours, a switch was made in 1972 to the awesome black-and-gold livery of John Player Special. With Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti and Ayrton Senna all having driven in those illustrious colours, it was small wonder that Renault, in their new alliance with Lotus Cars, chose them for their challenger this year.


Williams have also attempted to evoke memories of past glories by incorporating the Rothmans red and gold stripes into their livery this year, which featured on the title-winning cars of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. The Grove-based team, after other stints with cigarette brands Barclay, Camel and Winfield, became one of the first to shun tobacco advertising in 2000 when it signed IT company Compaq as its title sponsor. Indeed, the giant hole in funding left by the exiting tobacco firms was filled by a variety of other industries, including telecoms, financial services, and the motor industry, with the rise of the car manufacturers roughly coinciding with the decline of tobacco.


Despite the fact that alcohol brands such as Johnnie Walker and Kingfisher have cropped up in F1 recently, increasing restrictions on their promotional activities make it unlikely they will become the next major cash-cow for the sport. Instead, expect energy drink manufacturers to become increasingly prominent, particularly off the back of the success of Red Bull. Rival beverages such as Monster, Rockstar, Relentless and Mad Croc have all become involved in various forms of motorsport in the last couple of years, car and bike racing seeming to fit their brand images perfectly as a fast-paced, high-energy world of excitement.


Sadly though, I doubt any of those brands will be able to give us such beautiful machinery as Marlboro, John Player Special, Camel and the rest provided back in those halcyon days. Furthermore, I wistfully remember the different ways in which the teams used to alter their liveries at tobacco-restricted events (principally the British, French and German rounds). Among my favourites were McLaren's tactic of replacing 'West' with 'Mika', 'David' or whoever else happened to be driving the car, Jordan's removal of several letters from 'Benson & Hedges' to spell 'Be On Edge', and the various imagery that appeared on the side-pods of the BAR cars in place of the famous Lucky Strike logo.


Alas, those days are now long gone. All I can hope for is that other teams in the future take a leaf (get it?) out of Renault's book and implement some of the other tobacco-inspired colour schemes from yesteryear with non-tobacco sponsors. Wouldn't it be fantastic if Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were to drive McLarens with the legendary Marlboro livery, but with 'Vodafone' written in the cigarette brand's place? Unfortunately, if Ferrari couldn't get away with the barcode, I sincerely doubt the boys from Woking wouldn't receive an even more vicious attack from the health and safety nuts of this world should they ever try such a thing. Oh well, I can always dream.