This Week in Motorsport: Formula Fun!

Formula One World Championship
Round 4
Bahrain Grand Prix
Sunday, 21 April 2013

All Renault, all the time; Renault-powered cars owned the podium, with reigning triple World Champion Sebastian Vettel ('10, '11, & '12) of Red Bull the victor & the Lotuses of '07 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen & Romain Grosjean in second & third. This was the exact same podium line-up as at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Round 5
Gran Premio de España
Sunday, 12 May 2013

A very good day for Ferrari as double World Champion Fernando Alonso ('05 & '06) won & Felipe Massa finished third. The two Red Bulls were consigned to a relatively modest fourth & fifth; it is a tribute to the dominance Red Bull has displayed in winning the last three Constructor's Championships that finished fourth & fifth, scoring a boatload of points but putting neither driver on the podium, must be considered a relatively modest result. I can only ask you to take me at my word when I tell you that though I am a Red Bull fan & Red Bull has been one of the best teams since I started watching F1 in '09, I am not a fair weather fan of Red Bull Racing.

Round 6
Grand Prix de Monaco
Sunday, 26 May 1013

The "Silver Arrows" of the Mercedes A.M.G. factory squad, piloted by Nico Rosberg & '08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, locked out the front row in the Principality. This was an ominous sign for the rest of the grid, since it is notoriously difficult to pass on the narrow, twisty streets of Monte Carlo. Vettel & Mark Webber of Red Bull (Renault) started third & fourth. The race was red flagged twice due to crashes & the necessity of repairing derangement of the protective trackside barriers. Both Red Bulls managed to pass Hamilton on the restart after the first red flag, but they could not find their way around Rosberg. Much was made of Rosberg's victory, as it cam thirty years after this father, 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, won the Monaco Grand Prix.

Vettel set the fasted lap of the race in the dying laps, even though it was clear he has no realistic chance to pass Rosberg. He was scolded by his race engineer for pushing harder than necessary, for taking an unnecessary risk. This is a common occurrence & a common dialogue, even when Vettel is leading grands prix by a mile. After the team told him there was nothing to gain by setting the fastest lap, Vettel replied, "But satisfaction."

Round 7
Grand Prix du Canada
Sunday, 9 June 2013

Vettel dominated around the Circuit Gilles Villenueve, finished over fourteen seconds ahead of the pursuing Alonso & Hamilton. The story of the weekend was Finnish rookie Valtteri Bottas of Williams (Renault), who qualified his generally uncompetitive car third, ahead of Rosberg, Webber, & Alonso, et al., & behind only polesitter Vettel & Hamilton. Of course, in the grand prix Bottas was eaten alive, finishing a lowly fourteenth. (Though, really, that isn't that lowly a result of the nine times Constructors' Champions Williams. O how the mighty hath fallen!)

Round 8
British Grand Prix
Sunday, 30 June 2013

In the five years I've watched racing, this year's British Grand Prix was uniquely disastrous. In four separate incidents, on four separate chassis made by four separate constructors, a tire failed catastrophically all on its own. A racing tire, a highly stressed instrument always pushed to the limit of its performance, will often fail catastrophically if punctured by a piece of debris encountered on track (modern race cars are made of super lightweight carbon fiber, which shatters into razor-sharp shards), but here the tires were failing without any external cause. Pirelli, the exclusive "control" tire supplier, are simply incompetent. There's no way around it. They produced a substandard tire & then they gave the teams permission to use that tire in a manner that was almost guaranteed to cause a loss of, in '90s Star Trek parlance, structural integrity. I am aghast that the F.I.A. has not cancelled Pirelli's contract for 2014; it is too late to make a change for this year, but such ineptitude cannot be tolerated going forward.

Rosberg won the race after Hamilton suffered one of the four catastrophic tire failures & Vettel retired with gearbox troubles.

Round 9
Großer Preis von Deutschland
Sunday, 7 July 2013

Such has been the dominance of Vettel since his first full F1 season in '08 (he drove half of the '07 season, for the then B.M.W. Sauber & the Red Bull "B" squad, Toro Rosso [Ferrari]), that there are only three grands prix he had never won, the United States Grand Prix (run last year for the first time since, I think, '06; Vettel finished second), the Hungarian Grand Prix, & his home German Grand Prix. Germany & Hungary being scheduled when they are, Vettel had curiously never won a race in July. That changed this year as Vettel prevailed at the Nürburgring, barely holding off Räikkönen's Lotus. Grosjean's Lotus finished third, exactly recreating the Renault-dominated podium from Bahrain. (Vettel has yet to win at the Hockenheimring, the location of the German round in even-numbered years.)

Round 10
Magyar Nagydíj (Hungarian Grand Prix)
Sunday, 28 July 2013

There is a saying in auto racing, "Horses for courses," meaning different cars are best suited to different kind of circuits & a car that dominates at one track might be hopeless at another. The same is true of drivers. Hamilton is imperious at the tortuous, dusty Hungaroring, winning four of the seven Hungarian Grands Prix he's contested, '07, '09, & '12 for McLaren (Mercedes) & '13 with the Mercedes works team.

McLaren had been dominant in Hungary, winning five of the last seven races (Hamilton's triple; '09 World Champion Jenson Button prevailing in '11; & Heikki Kovalainen in '08, his only win in two years with the team), but they have fallen off the pace this season. Button & "Checo" Pérez finished seventh & ninth in the Magyar Nagydíj, & McLaren remain mired in sixth place in the Constructors' Championship standing, behind Force India (Mercedes). I am enjoying McLaren's tribulations as long as they last, for those crafty bastards will surely find their way back to the front of the field soon enough (next year or in '15, when they will be the first team to use the returning Honda's engines).

Round 11
Belgian Grand Prix
Sunday, 25 August 2013

In Formula One, most passes happen not on the straightaways but in the corners, not on the throttle but on the brakes. The exception to this is when one car passes another on the straightaway using the Drag Reduction System (D.R.S.), a gimmick that increases a car's straight line speed. Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix was held in mixed conditions, with rain waxing & waning. This, combined with the four-plus-mile length of the magnificent Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, made tire selection & timing very difficult decisions. Vettel qualified second, being pipped at the line by Hamilton. At the start of the race, Hamilton held the lead through the first corner, La Source, & lead the field toward the daunting Eau Rouge corner & the Kemmel Straight. Then Vettel drove right past him. D.R.S. isn't activated 'til after the second lap of the race, but there Vettel was on the first lap passing Hamilton's Mercedes as if it was standing still. It was a rare & incredible display. After that, Vettel utterly dominated the race, finishing ahead of the second place Alonso by almost seventeen seconds. (That is a lifetime in F1.) Hamilton finished third, another ten second back from Alonso.

In the Drivers' Championship stakes, Räikkönen's chances of a second world championship took a hit when he retired halfway through the race with brake troubles, dropping him from second place to fourth in the standings. Alonso climbed one spot to second & Hamilton was up one spot to third. Webber maintained fifth place in the standings.

In the Constructor's Championship, Vettel's win & Webber's fifth place finish (yes, mirroring their overall Drivers' positions) netted Red Bull thirty-five points. Mercedes scored twenty-seven with Hamilton in third & Rosberg in fourth. Ferrari raked in twenty-four off of Alonso's superlatively drive to second & Massa's seventh. Red Bull thus increased their lead while at the same time giving their competitors one less grand prix in which to make up that difference. A fourth consecutive Constructors' crown is looking more & more likely. McLaren outscored Force India by enough points to overtake the Indian team for fifth, with Lotus in little to no danger of losing fourth place.

Round 12
Gran Premio d'Italia
Sunday, 8 September 2013

Vettel dominated at Monza, the site of his first F1 victory, with Toro Rosso in '08. He easily lead from Alonso, who was flying the flag for hometown favorite Ferrari, even as the reigning triple champion's Red Bull was plagued by tire problems in the first half of the race & gearbox woes in the second half. Webber finished a strong third for Red Bull & Massa a solid fourth for Ferrari, further increasing the Austrian constructor's lead over the Italians. (Austrian because the team owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, is Austrian; Red Bull Racing's factory/home base is in England, one of eight of the eleven F1 teams to be so situated. Only Ferrari & Toro Rosso, in Italy, & Sauber [Ferrari], in Switzerland, are based outside of the U.K. Coincidence or no, they are all three of the Ferrari-powered teams.)

Despite Vettel's dominance, the drive of the day had to have been Nico Hülkenberg's, who qualified his uncompetitive Sauber third & held off the Mercedes A.M.G. "Silver Arrow" of twice-in-'13-race-winner Rosberg for fifth in the grand prix. Hülkenberg is rated by many as one of the most promising younger drivers on the grid, & a potential world champion, but he has yet to be given a competitive car. More on this in "The Silly Season." His work at Monza was highly impressive, reminiscent of his great drive at last year's season finale in Brazil.

On the podium, the highly partisan Italian crowd booed Vettel, displaying all the class & sportsmanship for which Italians are so well known. Vettel smiled throughout, surely stung, but also knowing that they booed only because he so thoroughly defeated the crowd's beloved Ferraris. For shame, Italy.

Next: The Singapore Grand Prix in the concrete canyons of the Marina Bay Street Circuit, this coming weekend, 20-22 September. A greater contrast to Spa & Monza is hard to envision, which is not to say that Singapore doesn't put on quite the spectacle. The race is run at night, under an artificial sun of thousands of lights that make the sponsorship liveries on the cars sparkle as they do nowhere else. Formula One? Formula fun!

The Silly Season
It was announced in the summer that this would be Mark Webber's last season in F1, that he was retiring from grand prix racing in favor of Porsche's new-for-2014 L.M.P.1 car, to challenge for victory at the 24 Heures du Mans & the World Endurance Championship. Said "Mr. Le Mans," nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen, "Mark's always been a sports car guy, we just loaned him out to Formula One for a number of years." Partnering Vettel in the the reigning triple Constructors' Championship-winning Red Bull instantly became the best opportunity available to any F1 pilot in search of glory. Vettel had been promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso, so both current Toro Rosso drivers, Daniel Ricicardo & Jean-Eric Vergne, were contenders, as was Kimi Räikkönen. The point of Toro Rosso, beyond acting as rolling billboards for Red Bull Energy Drink, is to be the Red Bull junior team, to train up the next generation of Red Bull champions. While no one questioned the Kimster's superiority as a driver, some wondered what the alue was of even operating Toro Rosso if neither Ricciardo nor Vergne was given the seat vacated by Webber. Vergne was the first one announced to be out of the running, which I thought odd; yes, he doesn't qualify as well as Ricciardo, but in the races he generally finishes in a higher position than he qualified, & in the drivers' standing the Frenchman has only one fewer point than the more experienced (though only by half a season) Australian. In the end, young Ricciardo earned the golden ticket, but also the weight of expectations; everyone knows next year's Red Bull, the RB10, will be a superlatively racing machine, & the broadly smiling Ricciardo will have no excuses if he doesn't produce the required results. I wish the lad well, & look forward to cheering him on in place of the grizzled, forthright Webber.

So, both Red Bull drivers, Sebastian Vettel & Daniel Ricciardo, will be graduates of Scuderia Toro Rosso, which next season will switch from Ferrari to Renault engines. It is widely expected that Red Bull junior driver António Félix da Costa, currently competing in Formula Renault 3.5 (centerpiece of the World Series by Renault & roughly equivalent to G.P.2, F1's official feeder series), will partner the disappointed Vergne at Toro Rosso. The Toro Rosso seat is not that highly coveted on its own—though they do lie seventh in the Constructors', ahead of Sauber, Williams, Caterham (Renault), & Marussia (Cosworth)—but is now more than ever seen as the stepping stone to Red Bull. Will Buxton describes young Félix da Costa as "blindingly fast."

Though Felipe Massa came within one heart-breaking point of being world champion in '08 & the hearts of the entire F1 world went out to him after his devastating crash in '09, the cold, hard fact remains that he has run more consecutive races for Ferrari without a grand prix victory than any other driver in the history of the Scuderia. Thus, with the well-wishes of his teammate Fernando Alonso & the engineers, mechanics, & strategists of Ferrari at his back, Massa is now looking to join another F1 for next season. Räikkönen, who drove for Ferrari from '07-'09, winning the Drivers' Championship in '07, will move over from Lotus. "The Iceman" is a supremely talented driver & will surely score more points than the fragile & inconsistent Massa, but I am uncertain how Alonso will react. After he won two world titles with Renault in '05 & '06, Alonso made the jump to McLaren, where he immediately clashed with rookie sensation Hamilton. They fought & bickered all season, & wound up tied in points at the end of the season, one point behind Räikkönen. Since arriving at Ferrari in '10, it has been vitally important to Alonso that he is № 1 & Massa is a very clear № 2. There's not a lot of ego to the taciturn Finn, but he is also not one to be pushed around. Has Alonso learned to share his toys with an equal, or will he fume & sulk when Kimi refuses to kowtow to his raging egotism? Ferrari have upgraded their driver lineup, but have they sacrificed team cohesion? My hope is that Alonso has grow up; if that is the case, one would have to judge Ferrari as having the best pair of drivers on next year's grid.

After winning the ticket-to-F1 G.P.2 title in '09, Nico Hülkenberg drove the piggish Williams in '10 before being kicked to the curb in favor of Pastor Maldonado & the late, unlamented Hugo Chávez's petrodollars in '11; "the Hulk" spent that season as Force India's third driver before being given a race seat in '12. The Sauber was much superior to the Force India in '12, so for '13 Hülkenberg switched seats, only to have the teams' roles reversed, the Force India being competitive in the early races & the Sauber being rated as alternately the worst of the midfield cars or the best of the back markers, either way being solidly ensconced in eighth place even as Force India played Icarus by soaring up to fifth (being demoted to sixth in favor of the improving McLaren after Belgium). Some commentators, most notably the great David Hobbs, opined the McLaren would have been better served, between '12 & '13, in signing Hülkenberg to fill the departing Hamilton's seat, instead of Pérez. With the Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, & Mercedes A.M.G. lineups now set, the ride at Lotus vacated by Räikkönen is viewed as the most desirable drive left for 2014. Many are arguing that Lotus would be wise to sign Hülkenberg. It would be fascinating to see what the young German could do in a genuinely competitive car.