THE teams are gathering in Monte Carlo for the most spectacular and exciting weekend of the calendar. This gives me the time to reflect on the events of last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.
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| PUSHED: Vettel was made to work incredibly hard for his win |
Red Bull Racing seems to have all the covers based, against main rivals, McLaren and Ferrari, particularly on a Saturday afternoon. However, Barcelona showed signs that they can be beaten totally fair and square. On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton seemed to have the faster, more stable package than Sebastian Vettel. If only his McLaren could stay close through the last corner, it would be a similar result to China last month. True, Vettel was hobbled again by the lack of use of KERS during the Grand Prix, but his car did look far more unstable compared to Hamilton. He was far from comfortable and really had to work hard for his victory on Sunday, unlike previous successes in Australia, Malaysia and Turkey this season. Some will say that Vettel’s regular successes are now getting boring for the sport. Thankfully, there is plenty of entertainment further down the field to keep the purists interested.
Although Vettel won again on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton must be encouraged by the form and speed that McLaren had last weekend. Traditionally, Barcelona is seen as a circuit which rewards those teams who have the best technical package around. Consequently, it will suit Adrian Newey’s team, and it is no secret to look at the previous history of results at the Spanish Grand Prix and see the domination of Williams and McLaren in the 90s here, when Newey was the spearhead of those teams. So, for McLaren to be so close to race-winning pace was very encouraging. Hamilton is the best hope for many to challenge for the championship, as long as he stays consistent and continues the discipline he has shown so far in 2011, Malaysia aside. It is disappointing to see him accuse the likes of Sebastian Buemi, Jamie Alguesuari and Michael Schumacher of deliberately blocking him last weekend, in his pursuit of Vettel. From watching the race again, I saw no evidence of this, and if Hamilton has anyone to be aggrieved with for blocking, it has to be the Hispania of dopey Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan. Karthikeyan never seems to check his mirrors at any stage, and is more of a stationary roadblock on the M1 than a racing driver! Looks like Andrea de Cesaris influence on Grand Prix racing has continued into the 21st century then!
Mark Webber will be mystified by his lack of race performance on a circuit, where he has outshone Vettel significantly in the past. Webber produced a perfect lap in qualifying on Saturday afternoon to end Sebastian’s pole streak, which had stretched back to Brazil last season. However, 40 seconds behind at flag fall does tell its own story, and the Aussie is likely to be mentally shattered to have been outperformed so dramatically by his younger team-mate, on a Webber-style circuit. Like Vettel, Webber had limited use of his KERS power boost button during the race, but I was disappointed to see him just sit behind Fernando Alonso’s much slower Ferrari and not do anything about it. On harder tyres, Alonso was a sitting duck and I expected Mark to breeze past him. He didn’t, and with the force that Jenson Button showed in passing both Webber and Alonso aggressively in just one lap, it highlights the fact that Mark Webber has never won the world championship, whereas Button has. That’s the difference; you need to have that killer instinct as a racing driver at all times. As sad as it is, Mark just doesn’t have that. It is okay to produce stunning drives like the one he produced in Shanghai, but it has to be done on a consistent basis. Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Button are all capable of it, and are all world champions. Sadly, Mark Webber can’t. I can only see him being an occasional race winner now this season, and riding shotgun to Vettel for the rest of the campaign. It will have to take a staggering amount of bad luck on Vettel’s side of the garage to allow Mark a shot of the drivers’ championship in 2011.
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| REWARDED: Alonso got his desserts for a special start |
Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicalli has admitted that their hopes of winning either championship are looking increasingly slim, especially if Vettel continues on his victory charge. Well, if that’s the case; Stefano will need to pick up his P45 from Luca di Montzemolo with immediate effect. The highlight of the Grand Prix was Fernando Alonso’s incredible start. From fourth on the grid, Alonso repeated Jarno Trulli’s trick in 2004 at the same circuit and vaulted into the lead by turn one. There was a load of bravery, aggression and commitment from Alonso in those first few hundred metres and he deserved the rewards. The onboard camera from his car off the grid was just a joy to behold. For twenty laps, the home hero used all of his driving skill to keep the much faster cars from Red Bull and McLaren behind. Ultimately, as Ferrari had a useless set-up on the harder Pirelli tyres, he was powerless to resist them through the pitstops. By the end of the race, Fernando had been lapped. Not his fault, his car is severely limited and Barcelona just highlighted how far Ferrari really is behind. When a Ferrari is lapped, they will claim it to be a national embarrassment in Italy, and it is. My advice would be to write this season off and concentrate on next year’s car. Like Webber, they might win races, but have more chance of winning the EuroMillions jackpot than either world championship! Felipe Massa had a very poor weekend and was struggling to even rescue a point from it when he stopped with gearbox problems five laps from home. There is a lot of soul searching to be done at Maranello.
Youth continues to shine in Formula One and Sergio Perez showed signs that he could be a natural successor to Felipe Massa at Ferrari. After a breathtaking debut in Australia, which ended in an unfortunate technical disqualification, Perez has gone off the boil, but it has to be expected for the Mexican to have peaks and troughs in his rookie season. He looked strong all weekend in Catalunya, outqualifying and outracing Kamur Kobayashi. Plus, he passed Massa on-track, although the Brazilian was already struggling with a gearbox problem. This time, his points stood and they won’t be the last this season. Credit has to be given to Kobayashi too, as he had contact with Jaime Alguesuari on the first lap and had to pit to replace a punctured tyre. To come back to tenth and the final championship point is then some effort. Sauber have a very good motor car this season, and they could well be challenging Renault to be best of the rest behind the four main teams; Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull by the end of the season.
A driver who is under a great deal of pressure, both on and off the track is Force India’s Adrian Sutil. Sutil’s dalliance at not signing a contract extension last season with the Silverstone based team angered some members inside the team. His 2011 season did start with points in Australia, but he is struggling to recapture the form he showed in the closing stages of 2009 and early exchanges of 2010. After the Chinese race on April 17, Sutil is reported to have been involved in a nightclub incident with the chief executive of Genii Capital, Eric Lux. Genii Capital owns the Renault Formula One team. Lux has filed a criminal complaint against Sutil, who could go the same way as Bertrand Gachot did in 1991, when the Belgian was unfairly jailed for spraying CS gas at a London taxi driver. With Paul di Resta continuing to outperform him on the circuit, this is a tough time in Sutil’s career, both personally and at his occupation. It is clear that the German’s performances have suffered; due to the lack of technical development from his Force India team, plus the penalties that hang over his head should he be found guilty of this nightclub incident. I’m pleased to see Vijay Mallya has come out in support of Sutil and will honour his contract. The ‘innocent till proven guilty’ aspect is the right way to go, and I just hope that Adrian Sutil, who is one of my favourite F1 drivers can pick his form up, fight these charges off and turn his career around from this stalling point.
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| BLAZING: The charred remains of Nick Heidfeld's Renault |
Finally, Hamilton is my driver of the day, for his relentless pursuit of Vettel, but Nick Heidfeld deserves a special mention. On Saturday morning, a spectacular exhaust fire saw Heidfeld forced to abandon his burning Renault chassis. Despite the best attempts from his mechanics, Nick had no chance of qualifying, so he had to start last. Granted, he had six sets of fresh tyres available, but on a track where overtaking is normally impossible – it looked set to be a fruitless weekend. Come the end, Nick had been able to climb from 24th to finish eighth, which was a great performance and had the race ran two more laps, it would have been sixth. However, with team-mate Vitaly Petrov starting sixth, running fifth early on and ending up out of the points, it does reveal a qualifying flaw. Saturday is starting to become a non-event, and I’d like to see the FIA make some tweaks to flatten out the Saturday failings with Sunday’s action. Let’s see what will happen this weekend in Monaco. It could be interesting to watch, especially with DRS available. Don’t miss it!
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