This Week in Motorsport

Formula Fun!
Formula One World Championship
Round 13
Singapore Grand Prix
Sunday, 22 September 2013

Reigning triple World Champion Sebastian Vettel ('10, '11, & '12) of Red Bull (Renault) dominated the Singapore Grand Prix as I'd never before seen, not even during his virtually unchallenged romp to his second world title in 2011. Starting from the pole, Vetel was overtaken by second place qualifier Nico Rosberg of Mercedes A.M.G. into turn one, but only because Rosberg carried too much speed into the corner; the Mercedes man overshot the turn, allowing Vettel to slide back into the lead, one he would never again relinquish. Vettel's opening stint was long, meaning he kept running longer than than anyone else on the softer option tires before diving into the pit lane, retaining the lead because all the challengers had already ceded time by pitting earlier.

He had built up a ten-plus second lead halfway through the grand prix when his future teammate, Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso (Ferrari), crashed into the tire barrier, bringing out the inevitable yellow-flag safety car period. (The Marina Bay Street Circuit has concrete barriers lining the track & almost no runoff; there is no grass to sailing into harmlessly, meaning almost every crash brings out the safety car. There has been at least one safety car period in every running of the Singapore Grand Prix.) The Ferrari factory team & Lotus (Renault) both took advantage of the safety car period to dive into the pits for fresh rubber, intending to run to the end on the harder prime tires. The Mercedes A.M.G. & Red Bull duos stayed out. Vettel's gap was erased by the safety car, though he quickly pulled away again. The problem, though, was that those who had not pitted under the safety car would never be able to stay out 'til the end of the race; inevitably they'd have to pit again, allowing the cars behind to leapfrog them into the lead. Vettel's only hope was to build up a large enough gap to be able to enter the pit lane, stop to have his tires changed, & exit again without giving up the lead; so, that's what he did. Vettel pushed like mad, burning away his tires, while his pursuers had to conserve their rubber in order to make their strategy work. Even so, what Vettel did was extraordinary. For lap after lap after lap he drove two second faster than the rest of the field. He had won the pole over Rosberg by one tenth of a second, such is the relative parity of the F1 field; to lap two second a lap faster than any other car, & to do so over a sustained period of laps, was unique in my experience.

His Red Bull teammate Mark Webber & the Mercedes A.M.G. duo of Rosberg & '08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton had to pit for fresh tries, allowing double World Champion Fernando Alonso ('05 & '06) of Ferrari & '07 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen of Lotus to leap ahead. Vettel pushed & pushed & pushed, his lead growing & growing & growing. The pit lane delta at Marina Bay being around twenty-six second, Vettel built up a half minute lead over Alonso, pitted, & emerged three seconds ahead of the charging Spaniard—& while Alonso was on older primes that he still had to nurse to the end, Vettel emerged on a new set of softer, faster options, tires he hadn't had to use during qualifying. Vettel charged ahead, pulled away, & never looked back. By the drop of the checkered flag, Vettel was thirty-two seconds clear of the rest of the field; for reference, a lap around the Marina Bay Street Circuit takes, on average, one minutes forty-five seconds.

Vettel was really & truly in a league of his own; the rest of the field, which includes four past world champions (Alonso, Räikkönen, Hamilton, & '09 World Champion Jenson Button of McLaren [Mercedes]), were left to fight over second place, which every competitor knows is just the first loser. Vettel has won three consecutive Singapore Grands Prix, & three consecutive grands prix in '13; he has prevailed in seven of this season's thirteen grand prix, having won five grand prix a season during his '10 & '12 championship-winning campaigns. He leads his closest challenger, Alonso, by sixty points, with six grands prix remaining, meaning Alonso has to outscore Vettel by an average of more than ten points to prevent the German from his fourth consecutive world championship. (For reference, to this point Vettel has outscored Alonso by an average over over four & a half points per grand prix.)

Next: The Korean Grand Prix, which Vettel has won two of the last three years; the Japanese Grand Prix, which Vettel has won two of the last three years; and the Indian Grand Prix, which Vettel has won both times it has been run. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Formula Fun!

By Endurance We Conquer
American Le Mans Series
Round 8
International Sports Car Weekend
Saturday, 21 September 2013

Three weeks after the crummy street circuit of the Baltimore Grand Prix (that's not a generic knock against street circuits, Baltimore's is bar none the worst street circuit I've ever seen), the A.L.M.S. shared the new Circuit of the Americas (C.O.T.A.) with the World Endurance Championship, the F.I.A./A.C.O. partnership that includes the 24 Heures du Mans. C.O.T.A. is less than a year old, its first race being last November's F1 United States Grand Prix, but it has already become one of the world's favorite circuits; it is simply fantastic.

The most important racing news is that not only did the № 3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen & Antonio García win the race, but they extended their G.T. class drivers' championship lead over Dirk Müller of B.M.W. The № 4 Corvette duo of Oliver Gavin & Tommy Milner suffered a severe blow by dropping out of the race with gearbox troubles well short of 70% total race distance, thus scoring no points, though they hung on to third in the drivers' standings. In the G.T. class manufacturers' standings, Corvette Racing (Chevrolet Corvette) holds a comfortable lead over B.M.W. Team R.L.L. (B.M.W. Z4), who are under intense pressure from third place S.R.T. Motorsports (S.R.T. [formerly Dodge] Viper).

United SportsCar Championship
coming 2014

The merger of the American Le Mans Series & the Grand-Am (sponsor) Sports Car Series was initially named United SportsCar Racing, which was not only aggressively dull but also awkward, leading commentators to talk about next year's United SportsCar Racing series. The name has since been amended to the (sponsor) United SportsCar Championship (U.S.C.C.). So much for their mantra "Getting it right, the first time."

The calendar for the inaugural 2014 season of the U.S.C.C. has been announced. It is a mixed bag, not the disaster I'd feared but not the triumph it could have been. The truly awful Baltimore race won't be returning (it is scandalous to confine prototypes meant to fly down the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans to the concrete canyons of a street circuit) & the boring roval at N.A.S.C.A.R.'s Kansas Speedway has been deleted, but the boring roval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway remains from this year's Grand-Am calendar. The loudest complaints have been over the non-inclusion of Mid-Ohio & Lime Rock, two of this country's classic racing circuits. In response, the existing series' lame reply has been, to paraphrase, "This is only the first season's calendar. Those tracks might return in 2015 & beyond," once again putting the lie to "Getting it right, the first time." Still, there will be four genuine endurance races: the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 6 Hours of the Glen (Watkins Glen), & the season-concluding ten-hour Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta). That is welcome news indeed.

So, things could look better, but they could easily look worse (especially considering that the U.S.C.C. is owned—lock, stock, & barrel—by N.A.S.C.A.R.). Here's hoping they hew to the reputed last words of Harry "The Breaker" Morant: "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it."

Commentary: Acknowledging that some of this blog's most long-standing readers would scarcely shed a tear over the final demise of "This Week in Motorsport," we here in editorial have resolved to adhere firmly to the title & publish not more than once per week. Thus, the summary of the remainder of the A.L.M.S. season will have to wait 'til next week at the earliest. We published the C.O.T.A. analysis in the firm belief that the first step to catching up is not allowing oneself to fall any further behind.

The Rebel Black Dot Party Song of the Day
The Wombats, "Party In a Forest (Where's Laura?)" from The Wombats Proudly Present A Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Am I in a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream?
I thought raves like these died in the '90s…
This is not my scene,
I should not be here tonight…"