In this piece, I will be assessing ten key features from each Grand Prix weekend from the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Just seven short days from the return to Europe, F1 moved to its more glamorous venue, the style and class of the principality that is Monte Carlo. This race provided the typical Monaco, drama full of thrills and spills, despite a frontline procession and many talking points afterwards. So, this is race six of 2010, which drivers need to improve with 33% of the season complete, and who is on top of their game so far.
Mark Webber – What a Difference a Fortnight Makes
Two weeks ago, Mark Webber was languishing in 8th place in the drivers’ championship, having produced some very erratic performances, and his position at Red Bull Racing was looking under severe scrutiny. Two races later, he has an equal share for the lead in the world championship, with two absolute masterful performances in Spain and then again, in Monaco. Red Bull would now be making a severe error of judgement if they allowed this experienced Aussie out of their grasp. Not only has Webber been impressive, he has dismantled the highly-rated Sebastian Vettel in the past fortnight, not bad going against the young German, who many people’s tip to become world champion this season. Mark has looked so in control with his car throughout these races, he never put a foot and didn’t look it either. You can’t ask more for two dominant back-to-back successes can you? Mark Webber is now a serious championship player and momentum in Formula One is a big imperative to have, something which he currently has in abundance.
Damon & Michael Clash Again – Fair Or Foul!
When BRDC president Damon Hill was confirmed as the expert steward for the Monaco Grand Prix, I was concerned of his appointment, largely because of his possible bias towards the British drivers, and the hatred with the great Michael Schumacher. Sure enough, with the latter, I was sadly proven right. Schumacher was punished after the race with a ridiculous 20-second penalty for overtaking Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari on the last corner of the race, under a Safety Car. Now, in 2009 regulations, that is totally illegal, but the rules have changed for 2010, which allow drivers to start overtaking after the final white line before the start-finish straight. However, article 40.3 in the complex rules state that doesn’t happen on the last lap of the race. With two differing viewpoints from Mercedes and Ferrari, plus two such fiery characters in Alonso and Schumacher, this one was always bound to cause controversy. Ferrari believed the rulebook, Ross Brawn was convinced we were racing, as backed up by green flags, no Safety Car boards and messages from race control ‘Safety Car in this Lap.’ Mercedes have chosen not to appeal, probably best for the interests of the sport, but urgent clarification is required to stop this from happening again. As for Damon, swapping back the positions would have been seen as a fairer viewing, but a penalty that drops Schumacher out of the points is incredibly harsh. The bitter enemies from 1994 and 1995 have clashed again, and Hill has done no favours for his integrity on this one. Mercedes and Michael Schumacher have a firm right to be aggrieved about this questionable steward and his decision-making.
Robert Kubica – Is A Drive With The Scuderia Beckoning?
Robert Kubica is one of the star drivers of 2010 so far, and his performance around the streets of Monte Carlo was absolutely sensational. Renault is steadily improving, but are still no better than scraping their cars into Q3. So, Kubica, normally starting around 7th-9th, produced an incredible qualifying performance to bang his car on the front row. An aggressive thought on trying to pass Webber off the line failed, as he was gazumped by Vettel and almost by Felipe Massa, but Robert dug in and kept Vettel firmly honest all afternoon. A 3rd place finish was a brilliant result, and points to the fact how much the Pole has been getting the maximum out of this chassis. Actually, he looked a bit disappointed on the rostrum, which suggests he felt he could have done even better. Team-mate Vitaly Petrov had another accident this weekend, and is struggling to keep up with Kubica, despite his flashes of speed and talent. With Massa still not in the groove at Maranello and performances like this from Robert, these constant rumours about him moving to Ferrari are only going to get stronger with each race.
Fernando Alonso – A Costly Error
He admitted it on Saturday morning; Fernando Alonso made a costly error that could have severe implications for his world championship bid. Having dominated Thursday practice, the Spaniard was early favourite to take the top step of the podium, until he locked up, ran wide and found the magnetic attraction of the Monaco barriers at Massenet. It looked a slow crash, but the damage was very bad, so much so that he had to sit out qualifying with a cracked chassis. Once again on Sunday, as in Australia and China, Fernando showed his class to fight through from a pitlane start to an eventual 6th place finish, despite the final lap controversy with Michael Schumacher. He was aided by the Safety Car and clever tactics more than demon overtaking for this result, but it is more essential points. However, if Alonso loses the title by less than ten points, he will look back on this grave error on Saturday morning as the death knell in his championship charge.
Mercedes GP - Too Many Mistakes Are Hurting Them
Once again, it was a hard luck story for Mercedes GP in Monaco, with traffic errors in qualifying ruining their race prospects. Nico Rosberg was quickest by some margin in Q2, but inadvertently blocked his team-mate Michael Schumacher on his best lap, and then lost the tyre temperature on his final run to launch a significant challenge. Instead of giving Red Bull headaches for the front row, the German challenge wound up back in 6th and 7th. Schumacher was highly critical of Rosberg, and Rosberg looked incredibly frustrated by another missed opportunity. On raceday, Rubens Barrichello jumped them both off the line, finishing off any outside hopes of a podium challenge. A meagre 7th placed finish for Rosberg must be seen to the team as really disappointing. Too many mistakes are hurting Mercedes and I now can’t see them launching any significant championship bid in either title battle. Monaco could have been a turning point in their season, but instead it was just another backwards step from last year’s champions, in their Brawn GP guise.
Rubens Barrichello - How Not To Lose Your Cool!
In an F1 career, spanning nearly 300 races, Rubens Barrichello has been a lucky boy down the years, as apart from his horror shunt on the nightmare Imola weekend of 1994, he hasn’t had many brutal smashes down the years. Sunday’s shunt in Monaco therefore must be seen as one of his biggest. Barrichello was in top-form this weekend, doing well to make Q3 in the underperforming Williams, then rising up to 6th with a great start. Though he dropped behind the Mercedes pair after the pitstops, solid points were up for grabs until Lap 29, when a sudden failure of his right-rear tyre, saw the disintegrating wheel buckle underneath his car, and send him into two hard smashes with the guardrail on the run up to Massenet. It was lucky that no cameramen, photographers or the closing cars, Vitantonio Liuzzi or Sebastian Buemi were struck by any debris from the Brazilian’s out-of-control Williams. However, his next action was petulant and unnecessary. Rubens tossed out his steering wheel, which was later run over by both Hispania F1 entries, which could have had worse consequences. The stewards didn’t penalise Barrichello for this, which shows what a rubbish day they had, as he had no regard for anyone else’s safety. A fine and slap on the wrist should have been fully merited. This was the perfect way not to lose your cool.
Jarno Trulli - Retirement Beckons?
The two Lotus drivers are a total different breed at the moment, and for Jarno Trulli, he looks like he doesn’t want to be driving such a slow machine anymore. Heikki Kovalainen is driving out of his skin at the moment, always with a smile on his face and very optimistic with the future, totally understanding that the Lotus plan is a long-term venture. Quite clearly, Trulli wants instant progress and that doesn’t happen overnight. An absolutely daft attempt to pass Karun Chandok’s Hispania into Rascasse with four laps to go showed he might have been thinking about growing more wine in his vineyard over in Italy. It could have had terrible outcomes for Chandok, with Trulli’s errant chassis nearly striking the poor Indian on the head. This incident sums up Jarno’s season, and if he doesn’t want to be in the circus anymore, he should walk before he takes Lotus’s promising morale with him. I can’t see him lining up on the grid much sooner if he continues to put in these clumsy overtaking attempts and sleepy performances.
Sticky Airguns and a Near Fatal Outcome - A Weekend to Forget For The New Boys
For the new boys, Monaco just showed how far they are off the pace in what is turning out to be a trying season. Having shown some improvements in the early flyaway races, Hispania have gone miles off the pace. In fact, some GP2 cars were lapping faster around the streets than Karun Chandok and Bruno Senna, which must question the wisdom why, are they in the sport? Virgin’s ridiculous season continued, with both Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi drowning at sea, in a car that is handling ugly and quite frankly, a tortoise has more chance of finishing a race at the moment. Lotus has shown gradual improvement, especially with Heikki Kovalainen at the wheel, but they haven’t made the steps they were hoping for, both in reliability and speed. None of the six drivers in the new teams finished, due to a catalogue of problems, including wonky suspensions, sticky airguns and outrageous overtaking passes. Although I feel sorry for some of these drivers, namely Chandok and di Grassi for the equipment they have, these teams must buck up their ideas now; otherwise the 107% regulation needs to make an urgent return. Only Kovalainen is giving them any valuable credit so far this season, which is disappointing to say.
Force India - Quiet, But Staying Out Of Trouble
Force India haven’t made a dramatic impact on the 2010 Formula One season so far, but they are staying out of trouble and consequently, are regular points scorers. Only in China they haven’t registered a point so far this season and their first double points finish of the campaign will give the Silverstone-based team some more confidence of greater improvements. Adrian Sutil is a changed man from last season. Sutil has always been fast, but had a massive tendency to get involved in stupid accidents/collisions. This year, he has calmed down, matured more and the results are starting to deliver. Had it not been for a poor qualifying session, Adrian might have well been fighting for the top six in the race. By contrast, Vitantonio Liuzzi has been coming under stern pressure from the Scot test driver Paul di Resta for his drive. Following two excellent points showings early on, Liuzzi’s form has taken a major nosedive, with forgettable weekends in Shanghai and Barcelona. However, the Italian reminded us what he could do in Monte Carlo, by outqualifying Sutil, making the top ten and finishing 9th, having matched Sutil all weekend. This was a very quiet, but encouraging weekend for Force India. Watch them fly on the lower-downforce circuits such as Montreal, Spa and Monza later in the season; they could be serious podium contenders very soon.
Six Races In - What Have We Learned So Far & What's To Come!
So, with one-third of the season complete, what have we learned so far? Well, Red Bull are miles infront of the rest of the competition and have set some worryingly alarm bells off at many of their rival factories. After a brilliant start in Bahrain, Ferrari has gone steadily backwards, and only luck is keeping them right in the thick of the title battle. McLaren had a weekend to forget in Monte Carlo, and still need better qualifying pace. However, their race pace is still a strong note, and they could well turn into McLaren’s closest challengers. Renault, Force India and Toro Rosso have been surprises, whilst Williams and particularly Sauber need serious improvements fast, otherwise they will be cut off completely from the midfield group. Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Rosberg and Kovalainen are the star drivers so far in 2010, whilst the likes of Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Massa, Kobayashi and Buemi need to up their game. Istanbul is next, one of Tilke’s best tracks, and then comes a welcome return to Montreal, which always provides classic events. There is a load more to come in F1 2010, it has been a encouraging start to the new formula.
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