Brazilian Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Mark Webber took an overdue first victory of 2011 at the season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix. After his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel was hampered by a gearbox problem, the way was clear for Webber to stand atop the podium for the first time since last August.

There were no such problems for Vettel during qualifying however – he stormed to a record-breaking fifteenth pole position of the season, Webber joining him on the front row. McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton occupied the second row between them, ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and home hero Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.

As per usual, Vettel made a perfect to start to lead the way initially, but the shorter-than-usual distance between the grid and the first corner meant Webber’s slightly slow start didn’t cost him any positions. Alonso however made his customary flyer, vaulting past Hamilton as the pack funnelled through the famous Senna ‘S’ for the first time.

Not satisfied with fourth place apparently, Alonso was able to stay close to Button’s tail whilst opening a small gap to Hamilton during the opening stages. The two-time champion was able to wrest third place away with a brave move around the outside of Button at the unorthodox location of turn 5, but by this stage the two Red Bulls were almost five seconds down the road.

One man who couldn’t make a move around the outside work was Michael Schumacher, who after overtaking Paul Di Resta for tenth place tried to dive around the outside of Bruno Senna at turn 1 in a bid to take ninth. Contact between Senna’s front wing and Schumacher’s rear-left tyre however led to a puncture for the German, forcing him to trail back to the pits with three wheels on his Mercedes  for almost an entire lap. He was able to continue, albeit in twenty-fourth and last place.

Back at the business end of the field, it became clear after the first round of pit-stops that all was not well with Vettel’s car. Race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin had informed his driver over the pit-to-car radio that a problem had developed with his gearbox, and that he should therefore try to short-shift whilst using second and third gears. This impacted upon his speed, and by lap 30 he had no choice but to surrender the lead to Webber, who had managed to remain within around three seconds of his championship-winning teammate.

Button, who was seemingly making no progress on Alonso in fourth place, decided to attempt an alternative strategy whereby he changed to medium compound tyres instead of softs as per the rest of the leading group of drivers. The original plan was for Button to run the remaining forty laps on that particular set of tyres, but tyre wear necessitated the McLaren driver to make a third stop with nineteen laps to go; despite this he was still able to catch and pass fellow three-stopper Alonso on lap 62 with the help of DRS to re-take third.

At the front though, there would be no stopping Webber from taking the seventh win of his career, a win which moved him ahead of Alonso into third place in the championship and will no doubt give him the confidence boost he needs heading into the off-season. Button was able to somewhat reduce the advantage of second-place man Vettel, whose gearbox managed to survive for the rest of the race, but he had to settle for third position behind after running out of laps.

Alonso finished in fourth place, ahead of teammate Massa who benefitted from the retirement of Hamilton, gearbox issues bringing an ignominious end to a trying year for the Brit. Sixth place went to Adrian Sutil after an outstanding drive that should put him in good stead to remain on the grid in 2012, beating Rosberg with whom he battled for the much of the race and his Force India teammate Paul Di Resta. Kamui Kobayashi finished in ninth to safeguard Sauber’s seventh place in the constructors’ championship, whilst Vitaly Petrov claimed the final point of the year with a solid drive to tenth place for Renault.

Jaime Alguersauri and Sebastien Buemi both had fairly anonymous races to eleventh and twelfth places, shedding little light on how the Toro Rosso line-up will look next year; Sergio Perez could manage no higher than thirteenth after spinning his Sauber at mid-distance. Rubens Barrichello finished what could turn out to be his final ever race in a subdued fourteenth place, ahead of the recovering Schumacher, Heikki Kovalainen for Lotus and Senna, who was hobbled by a drive-through penalty for the collision with Schumacher and his own gearbox problem. Jarno Trulli, Jerome D’Ambrosio and Daniel Ricciardo completed the list of finishers for Lotus, Virgin and Hispania respectively. Pastor Maldonado ended his race in the barriers, Vitantonio Liuzzi succumbed to an unidentified mechanical mishap and Timo Glock’s left-rear wheel simply didn’t feel like staying attached to the rest of his Virgin car after his first pit-stop.

As the curtain falls on the season of 2011, it’s time for us to take stock. Vettel may have locked away the title some time ago, but the fact remains that it has been a year of innovation, excitement, some breathtaking highs and some heart-rending lows. But that’s not all from me – make sure you’re back here in a week’s time as my reveal my top ten drivers of the year and rate the field’s prospects for 2012.

Three is a Magic Number

Since the Concorde Agreement was originally signed in 1981, Formula One teams have been restricted to running a maximum of two cars in each race. Thirty years on however, the wisdom of this ruling has been thrown into question – the possibility of third cars is back on the agenda. Whilst proponents of this idea, principally Ferrari, believe third cars would be a great way of bulking out the grid numbers as well as giving young drivers an invaluable opportunity to gain race experience, there are concerns that they would be to the detriment of the smaller teams.

For teams with the resources (i.e. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes), having third cars seems like a no-brainer. Not only would it give them the opportunity to try out up-and-coming youngsters in competitive machinery, a particularly useful thing for those with extensive young driver schemes such as Red Bull, but having a third car could act as a useful marketing tool if they were permitted to display different sponsors on it to those that appear on the two main cars. Spectators would also be able to enjoy more competitive races up front as there would be more cars theoretically in contention for the win, whilst more cars on track would naturally provide more variables besides.

Of course, the third car would not be eligible to score constructors points for the team, and there would have to be restrictions on who could drive the third car – perhaps only drivers with less than a season’s worth of experience under their belts, or drivers under a certain age. Another interesting rule could be that the teams would have to (or at least takes turn to) give a seat to a local driver, which would surely boost interest in the Eastern markets as well as the US venues of Austin and New Jersey that F1 is set to visit over the course of the next two seasons.

Third cars would also go some way to solving the increasing problem of having too many drivers for too few F1 seats. With Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg widely expected to be confirmed as Williams and Force India drivers for 2012 respectively in the near future, Adrian Sutil looks as if he may end up on the sidelines next season despite his solid performances this year, whilst Bruno Senna looks as if he will be usurped by GP2 champion Romain Grosjean next season as Renault continues to await the return of Robert Kubica. Furthermore, the seats of Sebastien Buemi and Jerome D’Ambrosio are looking decidedly under threat from Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Pic, not to mention drivers such as Jules Bianchi, Giedo Van Der Garde and Robert Wickens who have all arguably done enough to merit a drive that they’re unlikely to get. Perhaps Rubens Barrichello would also reach that incredible milestone of a twentieth consecutive season as a full-time F1 driver if there was more breathing space in the hotly contested driver market as a result of third cars.

Despite these obvious advantages however, not everyone is in favour of third cars. The obvious fear is that, in the age of near-perfect reliability, the top twelve cars would have a monopoly on points that would make it impossible for some of the midfield teams to survive, let alone those right at the tail of the field. Some advocate selling customer cars to these teams, creating a situation similar to that of MotoGP at present whereby four constructors supply bikes to the entire grid, but purists argue that to take that particular course of action would be to deny F1 its very essence as a championship that stipulates each and every entrant is responsible for the design and creation of its own chassis.   

There is indeed much debate as to the extent to which technical partnerships such as those between McLaren and Force India or Williams and Hispania are legal. Supplying engines is one thing, even if there are currently fewer engine manufacturers than at any point since 1980, but the fear in some quarters is that outfits such as Hispania will ultimately become little more than glorified customer teams that own almost none of the intellectual property contained within the cars they race. Bear in mind the less-than-ideal economic climate in which F1 is forced to operate however, and there is certainly an argument to say that the Hispanias and Virgins of this world would be best placed to operate third cars on the behalf of the larger teams.

Perhaps that would be the best compromise – imagine Timo Glock, a man, lest we forget, who was scoring podium finishes for Toyota just two years ago, in with a fighting chance of points with his Virgin-McLaren. With Lotus on the cusp of latching on to the back of the midfield pack pace-wise, the spread between the fastest and slowest cars on the grid would be significantly reduced, whilst the fact that the big teams’ third cars wouldn’t be ran from under the same roof would avoid a situation that would give Renault, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Williams next-to-no chance of a top-ten finish.  Another option could be to allow the four big teams to run third cars on rotation, giving the nominated third driver at each team the chance to contest five grand prix in order to prove their worthiness of a full-time seat.

So, what is the most likely outcome of this entire furore? Bernie Ecclestone is already on the record as saying third cars are ‘unlikely’ to become a reality, in spite of the insistence of Ferrari and its president Luca Di Montezemelo in favour of them. McLaren team Principal Martin Whitmarsh is also known to be against the idea, preferring instead to look at solutions to try and make the smaller constructors more competitive. Nonetheless, Ecclestone has mooted third cars as a possibility if grid numbers dwindle below the twenty mark, but there was no apparent shortage of interest in the thirteenth grid slot when the FIA invited applicants (only to reject all of them of course) last year, meaning that isn’t an especially probable scenario.

Next weekend brings the final round of the season at Interlagos, so ensure you check back here in a week’s time for a run-down of all the action.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Lewis Hamilton rediscovered his form as he surged to his third victory of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After Sebastian Vettel made an early exit from the race as he suffered a mysterious puncture at the second corner, Hamilton was able to keep closest challenger Fernando Alonso at bay to take home the silverware.

Vettel equalled Nigel Mansell’s nineteen-year old record of fourteen pole positions in one season by coming out on top of a closely fought qualifying session on Saturday. Hamilton lost out by just over a tenth of a second to share the front row with the Red Bull driver, with his McLaren teammate Jenson Button lining up third. Mark Webber qualified in fourth position, ahead of the Ferrari duo of Alonso and Felipe Massa.

As the race began in the evening sunlight at the glamorous Yas Marina circuit, Vettel made the perfect getaway to lead from the McLarens of Hamilton and Button. However, on the exit of the very first turn of the race, the new champion suddenly lost control of his car as his right-rear tyre instantly deflated, sending him into the tarmac run-off as the rest of the field swarmed past. He was able to eventually limp back to the pits with three wheels on his Adrian Newey-designed wagon, but the damage done to his rear suspension was sufficient to warrant Vettel’s first retirement of 2011.

This left Hamilton to lead the way from teammate Button and Alonso, who made his way around the outside of Webber to take what would soon become third place at the first corner. Alonso was also quick to deprive Button of second place as he out-dragged the Brit down the long back straight, but by this stage Hamilton had already pulled out a gap of around two seconds over his former arch-rival.

The ease with which this manoeuvre was carried out was explained by Button reporting a suspected KERS failure a couple of laps later; indeed Webber then looked as if he would imminently pass the ailing McLaren. However, despite the DRS zones providing Webber with a considerable straight-line speed advantage, the Australian was unable to make a move that stuck. This battle for third place continued all the way to the first round of pit-stops, but Webber dropped behind Massa into fifth place after an uncharacteristically poor stop from the Red Bull mechanics.

Meanwhile, Hamilton and Alonso both stopped on lap 16 for a fresh set of soft compound tyres, with the gap between the two fluctuating between around two and five seconds during the second stint of the race as a result of the McLaren’s propensity to both heat up and wear out its tyres faster. Button was by this stage around ten seconds in arrears of Alonso, with Massa and Webber forming a close train behind. Again, Webber was never able to make a pass on Massa that lasted, and his tyre wear led to his Red Bull team trying an alternate strategy to clear the Brazilian.

Webber made an early second pit-stop on lap 35, but instead of making the mandatory change to medium tyres, the Australian was equipped with another set of softs, necessitating a third stop on the penultimate lap of the race. The extra pace of the soft tyres in relation to the mediums allowed Webber to pass both Button and Massa to reach third place, but his final pit-stop dropped him back behind Button. He was however able to remain ahead of Massa, thanks in no small part to the Ferrari driver spinning his car and subsequently costing himself the chance of picking up a season-best fourth place.

Back at the front, Ferrari made a valiant attempt to wrest the lead of the race away from Hamilton by leaving Alonso to make his switch to hard tyres three laps later, but it was to no avail as the Spaniard couldn’t quite build the margin required to stay ahead after his final stop. This left the way clear for Hamilton to take his seventeenth career victory, with Alonso and Button, whose KERS allegedly came back to life midway through the race, completing the podium. Webber held on to fourth place from Massa, whilst Nico Rosberg did a solid job to finish in sixth place for Mercedes just a few seconds further back. Michael Schumacher came home seventh in the sister car after finally triumphing in a race-long battle with Force India’s Adrian Sutil, whilst the one-stopping Paul Di Resta in the second Force India took ninth and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi took his first point since the German Grand Prix with tenth place.

Sergio Perez just missed out on the final point after dropping back late in the race courtesy of a KERS failure, finishing in eleventh ahead of Rubens Barrichello for Williams, whose engine problems in qualifying obliged him to start the race from the very back of the grid, and Vitaly Petrov who suffered a rather anonymous race for the Renault team. Pastor Maldonado in the second Williams who lost the chance to score points after being hit not only with a drive-through penalty but also a thirty-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags; Jaime Alguersauri for Toro Rosso and Bruno Senna for Renault were next up after both being penalised for the same infraction. Heikki Kovalainen drove another fine race for Lotus in seventeenth, beating teammate Jarno Trulli as well as Virgin’s Timo Glock and Hispania’s Vitantonio Liuzzi, though the latter pair’s respective teammates Jerome D’Ambrosio and Daniel Ricciardo both retired due to mechanical problems. Sebastien Buemi may have also scored points if not for an unfortunate gearbox failure after battling with Di Resta at the start of the race.

Just one round remains on the F1 calendar before 2011 draws to a close – the famous Interlagos circuit in Brazil. With Hamilton seemingly back to his brilliant best, he will surely be eager to prove he has what it takes to beat Vettel in a head-to-head battle. That will certainly be something that isn’t to be missed.

Ones to Watch

With there being so many different supporting championships to Formula One, it will come as little surprise that there is a considerable number of young hopefuls who look to have the talent to go all the way. In this post, allow me to introduce to some names that you’re likely to be acquainting yourselves with during the next couple of years.

Jules Bianchi (22, France)

Bianchi kicked off his car racing career in style by dominating the 2007 French Formula Renault 2.0 championship, a performance that caught the eye of the crack Formula 3 and GP2 squad ART Grand Prix. After finishing third in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2008, Bianchi was unstoppable as he won nine of twenty races the following year, earning himself a seat with ART in the GP2 series for 2010. He again managed to finish in third position, behind title challengers Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez, and bagged himself a place on Ferrari’s Driver Academy at an end-of-season test at Jerez. Though Bianchi was justifiably tipped as a pre-season favourite for 2011 GP2 honours, the inconsistency of the first half of his season ultimately left him again in third position behind the vastly more experienced campaigners of Romain Grosjean and Luca Filippi. With little left to prove at GP2 level, it seems unlikely that Bianchi will contest another season of  next year; if he cannot secure an F1 race drive (which seems likely now that Kimi Raikkonen has reportedly signed for Williams), he will continue in his current test/reserve driver role for Ferrari – with a major shuffle in the driver market on the cards in 2013, expect Ferrari to slot him in at Sauber after perhaps promoting current Sauber driver Perez to a race seat in place of the beleaguered Felipe Massa.

Charles Pic (21, France)

Like his compatriot Bianchi, Pic first made a name for himself in the Formula Renault category, placing third in the French Formula Renault 1.6 and Eurocup Formula Renault series in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Pic then made the step up to Formula Renault 3.5, where he again managed to finish third place on the second time of asking for the Tech 1 team in 2009. His GP2 career couldn’t have gotten off to a better start with a win at the curtain-raiser at Barcelona, but inconsistent form throughout the remainder of the year meant he finished in tenth place in the standings. This year, two wins and three second places put him within one point of Bianchi in fourth place, and he has since been linked with the Virgin Racing team for next year as a potential replacement for Jerome D’Ambrosio. Failing that, opportunities at other teams such as Lotus (soon to be re-branded as Caterham) or Force India may make themselves apparent to the Frenchman in 2013.

Esteban Gutierrez (20, Mexico)

It was Formula BMW where Gutierrez first marked himself out as hot property with second place in the USA championship in 2007 and victory in the European series the following season. Though he disappointed with only ninth place in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2009 for ART as teammate to the title-winning Bianchi, he redeemed himself by becoming the inaugural GP3 Series champion in 2010 with the French outfit. His success prompted ART to place Gutierrez alongside Bianchi in the GP2 team this year, where after showing the occasional flash of brilliance (including victory in the sprint race at Valencia) he placed thirteenth, making him the second-highest placing rookie behind Stefano Coletti. He remains with ART for 2012, where he could well be in title contention. Beyond that, it seems probable that he will eventually graduate to F1, most likely in 2013, for Sauber, for whom he is already the reserve driver. He is of course helped in this department by his Telmex backing, which makes him the logical replacement for Perez if he secures a promotion to Ferrari. Thus, expect a Bianchi-Gutierrez line-up at the Swiss team in 2013, with Kobayashi either moving up or down the team pecking order depending on his performances next year.

Jean-Eric Vergne (21, France)

Yet another fast Frenchman who seems on course to reach F1, Vergne began his rise to prominence with a convincing title win in the 2007 French Formula Renault 1.6 series. He followed this up with a brace of second places in a two-prong attack on both the West European and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series in 2009, before graduating to the British Formula 3 championship with the ultra-successful Carlin team. With Red Bull backing behind him, Vergne swept all before him, winning thirteen races en route to becoming the championship’s first ever French title winner. He remained with Carlin for a move to this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 series, where he narrowly lost the title to more experienced teammate Robert Wickens. His Red Bull links have also seen him participate in the first free practice session for Toro Rosso at Korea this season, a role that he will reprise at Abu Dhabi and Brazil. Unfortunately for Vergne, Jaime Alguersauri’s impressive form during the latter half of the season will probably be enough to warrant his retention by Toro Rosso next year, with Daniel Ricciardo tipped to replace Sebastien Buemi in the other seat. This means that Vergne could find himself racing for Hispania as Ricciardo is doing now, at least for the first part of the season, or alternatively returning to the Formula Renault 3.5 championship alongside free practice duties for Toro Rosso. Either way, a promotion to the Faenza-based team is likely in 2013 as either Alguersauri or Ricciardo is promoted to replace Webber at the senior Red Bull team.

Alexander Rossi (20, United States)

Could Rossi be the man whose future performances raise the profile of F1 stateside at a stroke? Thus far, the signs seem good. After success in the Skip Barber National series, Rossi progressed to the Formula BMW Americas series, where he took honours in 2008. Rossi went on to take fourth place finishes in the International Formula Master and GP3 championships over the course of the next two years, before impressing onlookers this year with third place behind Wickens and Vergne in the Formula Renault 3.5 series with the Fortec team. Among those onlookers was Team Lotus, who have signed Rossi to represent them in the end-of-season Abu Dhabi young drivers test. While Rossi seems set to either re-contest Formula Renault 3.5 or move to GP2 next year, by 2013 he could well have put himself in pole position to replace Jarno Trulli at Lotus should the veteran Italian decide to hang up his helmet. Only then will we know whether Rossi truly has what it takes to open the eyes of the hitherto largely dormant US market to the world of F1.

Felipe Nasr (19, Brazil)

After claiming a podium finish in only his second ever car race at the Interlagos round of the 2008 Formula BMW Americas series, Nasr stamped his authority on the European championship in 2009, where he finished in the top two positions on every occasion bar two on the way to an emphatic title success. He was subsequently signed by the Raikkonen-Robertson team for British Formula 3 in 2010, where he embarrassed his more experienced teammates by winning a race and coming home a creditable fifth place in the championship. This performance laid the foundation for a peerless 2011 campaign, where the crown came his way on virtue of finishing on the podium on no fewer than seventeen of a possible thirty occasions. The Brazilian’s plans for next year are unclear as of the time of writing, but Formula Renault 3.5 or GP2 have to be the most likely options. If he can show the same speed and consistency in either of those championships as he has done this year, there’s no reason why an F1 seat shouldn’t beckon in 2014 or beyond.

Kevin Magnussen (19, Denmark)

Seventeen years ago, Kevin’s father Jan Magnussen was tipped for stardom after breaking the great Ayrton Senna’s record of wins in one season in British Formula 3. Whilst it is generally acknowledged that the Dane’s underwhelming performances at the wheel of a Stewart F1 car in 1997-8 were not indicative of his potential, Magnussen Jr. on the other hand looks to have the talent to succeed where his dad failed.  Admittedly, his British Formula 3 campaign this year hasn’t quite been as remarkable as that of his father back in 1994, but that fact belies Kevin’s undoubted natural ability. After something of a shaky start, Magnussen equalled Carlin teammate Nasr’s tally of seven wins this season with a year’s less experience under his belt, and has since been confirmed as a Carlin driver in the Formula Renault 3.5 series next year. If all goes well there, it could be that Magnussen Jr. goes on to become Denmark's first F1 race-winner in years to come.