The Finishing Straight - Abu Dhabi (by HappyDude88)

THIS will be the final edition of ‘The Finishing Straight,’ as I will be doing a comprehensive review of the 2011 Formula One season after next week’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

        The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a race that provided the fans with some much-needed overtaking, but questions have been raised about the DRS (Drag Reduction System) and its worth following Sunday’s race.  All of the passing on Sunday was done artificially and for the sport, it isn’t a good thing.  On that sense, I would agree with Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine when they have already admitted how bored they’ve been with artificial passing this season.  However, what choice do you have on a circuit which is one of the dreariest on the current calendar?  I’d rather watch a procession around Imola than another event in Abu Dhabi.  The facilities are top class and probably the best in the business but the track is very second-rate.  Once again, Hermann Tilke’s race circuits let the audience down and configuration changes will be required to ever make a classic Grand Prix here.  We have to put up with Valencia every season being a snooze fest and no-one wants to see another example again.  It is shame to give the circuit the thumbs down, especially when you think of the spectacular twilight setting in Abu Dhabi.

SPECIAL: Setting is brilliant, but the racetrack is not great

        I’ve been a fan of DRS this season and it has at least made overtaking more possible on a number of circuits.  It has been a case of trial and error this season, which was always expected in its debut campaign.  We saw the device being used far too easily in Istanbul and Spa, yet it was still difficult to overtake in Melbourne, Barcelona and Monza.  DRS is part of F1’s bright future and I wouldn’t scrap it, but we need to make it the right spectacle for the fans and give the drivers a chance to defend their position without feeling the need to give it up without a fight.  Abu Dhabi was okay last weekend, because at least the artificial element meant it wasn’t a follow-the-leader event, but for the sport, we can’t have many races like this otherwise the predictability effect creeps in again.

        It has been well documented that Lewis Hamilton has had a tough 2011 season, both on and off the track.  However, Abu Dhabi showed signs that he was coming back to his best.  In India, he looked distracted all weekend as the speculation over his doomed romance with Nicole Scherzinger took centre stage.  The performance he gave on Sunday reminded us of why Lewis is world class and still on his day, one of the best drivers in the business.  Despite his rough times, he still has at least matched Jenson Button’s win tally of three for the season and Mark Webber’s fourth place in the drivers’ championship now looks vulnerable, with Hamilton just six points behind.  It is often said that bouncing back quickly from disappointment is one of the strongest points in an individual.  Hamilton has done that and in commanding fashion and I truly hope that he can use his success on Sunday as a real stepping stone to a better 2012 campaign.

LIMPING: Vettel tours home after his sudden tyre failure

       For once, Sebastian Vettel got a dose of bad luck at the weekend.  A sudden puncture on the second corner of the race ended his hopes of matching Michael Schumacher’s record for wins in a season.  By his incredibly high standards, Sebastian had a very scrappy weekend.  He crashed on Friday and looked unhappy with the car throughout practice.  As expected, he produced the perfect lap to earn another pole position in qualifying, but I never believed he would win on Sunday, especially when you consider how invincible he has been at Silverstone and Suzuka in the past and been beaten fair and square this season.  The cause of the puncture doesn’t look like it will be revealed, although my theory is low tyre pressure.  I’m only saying this, as Red Bull had significant problems with tyres in the early stages of the Belgian Grand Prix, with tyres close to structural failure too.  At least he saved his bad luck for when both championships had been sewn up.

        Race stewards have returned to their bad 2008 ways this season.  Why did Bruno Senna get a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags?  I never saw any evidence of this on the worldwide feed.  Perhaps he did, but if the evidence doesn’t come through our TV screens, no wonders why the normal fan would have a quizzical look on their faces.  Senna’s penalty seems harsh but the stewards didn’t come down hard enough on Pastor Maldonado.  Maldonado picked up a similar penalty and it was deserved, only for the clueless Venezuelan to then battle Jaime Alguesuari when the leaders were lapping the pair.  Not only that, he blocked Mark Webber and when Webber rightfully showed his displeasure, Maldonado was stupid enough to run side-by-side with the Red Bull in an episode almost as distasteful as his attempt to drive Hamilton into the wall during Belgian GP qualifying.  Generally, he has done well in a rubbish motorcar and has put Rubens Barrichello in the shade more often than not, but Maldonado has more lapses than anyone on the grid.  He needs to sort himself out; otherwise it could lead to a more dangerous occurrence in the future.  I’m sorry but his behaviour at the weekend deserved a black flag, get out of the car you naughty boy and head for the airport with your head held in shame.  A 25-second penalty added to his race time is a peanuts penalty.  Jean Todt has done so well in his FIA role, but giving the stewards more option to penalise those regular offenders with black flags and race bans has to be a priority for future.  It is the only way to teach lessons into some of these drivers.

         Vitaly Petrov was the hero of the Red Bull pits last year, when his valiant defence of Fernando Alonso denied the Spaniard the world championship.  This season started so well for the Russian, with a wonderful podium finish in Australia but his campaign has gone downhill rapidly since.  In Abu Dhabi, he toured home in a distant 13^th and then launched a sensational outburst at his Renault team on Russian television, criticising them for a severe lack of development and dismal race strategies which have left him and his team-mate Bruno Senna, fighting too many losing battles.  Petrov has since apologised to the staff and Eric Bouillier has drawn a line under the matter, but he needs to control his drivers.  I understand Vitaly’s frustrations, but having a quiet word with Bouillier would have been better.  Speaking to the media like that doesn’t do any favours and it could throw his future with the team into doubt.  GP2 champion Romain Grosjean looked very competitive in Friday practice, Senna has kept him honest and of course, there’s the Robert Kubica factor.  Renault has more drivers than a job agency and errors in judgement like this from Petrov will not help his future prospects.  Wonder what Bouillier would have done if Nick Heidfeld had said this?  Sacked him would be the answer, oh wait, he did that earlier in the season. 

MOVING: Daniel Ricciardo continues to outperform Liuzzi

       The form of Daniel Ricciardo at the underfunded Hispania racing team has not gone unnoticed.  He is now outperforming Vitantonio Liuzzi on a regular basis and now it looks like he will be rewarded with a Toro Rosso drive next season.  This was a smart move by Dietrich Materschitz to place one of his promising youngsters in a new team to help develop his maturity and experience.  This news though means that Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguesuari might now be fighting for one seat in that team, which would be a tough break for both.  Buemi retired at the weekend with hydraulic problems.  It is his third retirement in the last four events, but all have been mechanical reasons and have cost the Swiss driver points in all of them.  Both Buemi and Alguesuari deserve another go at Toro Rosso next season, but it looks like one will be the unlucky loser and I fear for Buemi’s career, as he has been at the team longer and is older than his Spanish team-mate.  Formula One is a tough business and that is about to be proven again.  If Rubens Barrichello remarkably ends up staying on at Williams, both Adrian Sutil and Buemi, two very talented and solid Grand Prix drivers could be left in the wilderness.  It will be a tougher break for Sutil, considering he is staring at a top ten finish in the drivers’ championship, has outqualified Paul di Resta five times in seven races and picked up 60 per cent of Force India’s points.  Throw in Nico Hulkenberg into the mix, plus Grosjean, Senna and the possibility of Kimi Raikkonen returning to the F1 paddock and there will be some very disappointed and frustrated racers who won’t be on the grid come Melbourne next March.

         Driver of the day in Abu Dhabi was Fernando Alonso.  Hamilton may have won and is Driver of the Weekend, but Alonso’s performance on Sunday was sensational.  On Friday, the Ferrari was struggling to stay in a straight-line, let alone get around corners!  So, once again, Alonso surprised no-one, expect maybe himself with a gritty, fighting challenge to Hamilton and McLaren’s package superiority.  In that sense, it is a shame Vettel did retire, because it did deprive us of a classic three way scrap for the victory.  Perhaps Brazil will give us that chance next weekend.

The Finishing Straight - India (by HappyDude88)

IT WAS a brand new adventure for Formula One last weekend, as we entered a new country.  India hosted an event for the first time, but sadly produced a lacklustre debut race as far as on-track action goes.  The winner was Sebastian Vettel, but I’ve already done a special blog on the talents of this incredible German.  So, this week’s edition of ‘The Finishing Straight,’ will focus on the efforts of the midfield teams in India and how their performances have shaped up in comparison to the past and the future.

     Before I do that though, I need to digest and give my viewpoint on the latest clash between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.  The incident between the pair on Sunday was the sixth clash they have had over a race weekend this season.  On this occasion, the race stewards decided to blame Massa and give him a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.  Most of the contact this season has been triggered by mistakes or rash attempts at passing from a rather crestfallen Hamilton.  However, this time, I had to agree with the stewards and that Felipe was in the wrong here.  Lewis was down the inside line and had no more space to avoid the accident.  He was even backing out of a legitimate manoeuvre before the corner, realising that he wasn’t going to get the space that he rightfully should have been allowed.  From one of the televised replays, Massa was seen to be looking across to see where his enemy was on at least three occasions, possibly more, before deciding to turn in.  That for me is not on.  Although he was to blame, I do think a drive-through penalty was harsh, because it wasn’t like he got away scot-free.  He picked up superficial damage and ultimately, the Brazilian’s race ended when he decided to stupidly have another go at cutting the Indian plastering kerbs which had wrecked his suspension in qualifying.  The stewards have been far too insistent this year on dishing out penalties.  Whatever happened to the traditional ‘racing incident?’  In fact, out of the Hamilton/Massa altercations this year, only one out of the six deserved its sanction (Hamilton’s terrible attempt at passing into the Loews hairpin in Monaco.)  I feel sympathy for Massa on getting the penalty, but little else on another poor weekend for the Ferrari no.2.

      Okay, time to analyse some of the midfield performers and let’s start with the positives.  The form of Jaime Alguesuari in the second half of the season has been a revelation and a joy to see.  He had another superb weekend in India and has taken the Toro Rosso team forward.  He is outqualifying and outperforming Sebastian Buemi now on a regular basis.  The Toro Rosso looks like a missile in a straight-line at the moment and the radical improvements they brought to Japan have prompted a massive step forward.  I think they have been a real find this season and both drivers have impressed me this campaign. 

       The main Formula One rookies continue to shine as the season reaches its conclusion.  For the second time this season, Sergio Perez failed to pay attention to yellow flags in practice; picking up a three place grid penalty for not slowing down whilst marshals recovered Pastor Maldonado’s blown-up Williams on Friday.  Perez might need to check up the rules and regulations again over the winter, but the Mexican’s consistency continues to shine through.  The Sauber team have slipped down the pecking order in the second half of the season, as they have been simply out developed by the likes of Toro Rosso and Force India.  Yet Perez has kept the Swiss team right in the scrap for sixth place in the constructor’s championship.  I would even go as far to say that he is now Sauber No.1.

      Paul di Resta had a tough time in India, as for the first time since Nurburgring; he lagged behind Adrian Sutil all weekend.  However, the Scot’s weekend was made up with the news that he will be staying at Force India for 2012 and rightly so.  He has finished in the points on six occasions this campaign, outqualified his team-mate more often than not and firmly deserves to stay on.  The second seat remains a close battle between two Germans.  Sutil will hope to stay on if possible, but he has had five seasons with the team and might have to look elsewhere for options.  A seat at Williams is likely to be open, so he has some tough decisions to make.  It might be taken out of his hands if the Grove based team opt for Kimi Raikkonen to make a sensational return and if his current employers will put Nico Hulkenberg in the second car.  Hulkenberg has been a frustrated figure all season on the pitwall and told the BBC over the weekend that he won’t stay at the team if he isn’t racing for them next season.  Vijay Mallya has got a tough decision to make in the coming weeks.

     However, one driver who won’t have a decision to make on his future is Rubens Barrichello.  Sadly, the Brazilian’s career is whimpering towards a dreary conclusion, a real shame for a popular guy who has finished second in the driver’s championship on three separate occasions.  His 2011 campaign reached a new low, when he hit the back of team-mate Maldonado on the first lap in India and limped back with damage.  He finished behind Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus.  With Williams looking serious at Raikkonen and considering Sutil as an option, Rubens’s days in the sport look numbered.  At least he will be able to finish on home soil in Brazil in a month’s time.  Another driver who isn’t delivering at the moment is Kamur Kobayashi.  The Japanese driver has been outpaced by rookie team-mate Perez throughout the second half of the season and has only scored two points since the crazy Canadian Grand Prix back in June.  His Indian experience only lasted a lap, collecting damage in the incident with Barrichello and Virgin’s Timo Glock.  In fact, Kobayashi looks like he walked under an avalanche and out the other side came a twin who is half the driver he was in the opening stages of the season.  It was the same in 2010, when Sauber had a dismal car at the start of the campaign; Kamur struggled but radically improved when the car made strides forward.  I hope he can and will turn the corner in future.

       Final word goes to India, who did provide a wonderful spectacle.  The racing may have been disappointing, but the welcome F1 got was absolutely brilliant and the track is one of the best ever designed by Hermann Tilke.  After the disasters of Abu Dhabi and Valencia in the past, it is about time he got one which all the drivers seemed to like.  Hopefully the racing will be a bit more spectacular in India in 2012.

The Finishing Straight - Japan (by HappyDude88)

SO, IT is now all officially over.  Sebastian Vettel is world champion and becomes only the ninth driver in history to become a back-to-back title winner.  It’s a prestigious list he joins, with the likes of Fangio, Schumacher, Senna, Prost and Alonso among those to have achieved an incredible feat.  The emotion on his face when the BBC played back the wonderful montage of back-to-back champions was genuine and he is such a nice bloke too.  Sometimes in Formula One, you have to appreciate greatness rather than moan about domination.  Vettel totally deserves the title this season; he has been in a class of his own.  I will be doing a special blog about the back-to-back champion at a later date.

      However, Sebastian had to share the honours on Sunday with Jenson Button, who drove flawlessly again to record his first dry win in a McLaren.  His win was another example of stunning driving and he has totally proved those critics, including myself, who said he made a severe error of judgement in leaving Brawn GP for McLaren in 2009.  Button is now the defunct no.1 at McLaren and I hope he hangs onto second place in the championship.  Again, this win means a lot for Button – with his Japanese girlfriend, Jessica at his side, plus the seven seasons he spent driving for BAR/Honda.  He has a close affinity with Japan and is effectively a second home race.  Jenson is driving out of his skin at the moment and has the ability now to go on and potentially win a second championship.

     The talking point of the race was Vettel’s move on Button at the start of the race.  Having been pipped by 0.009secs in qualifying, Button was keen to get the lead from the start.  He made a slightly better start, but Sebastian gradually squeezed him out of space.  He left Button with a rather brutal choice; back off or risk a crash and sensibly, Jenson chose the former.  However, I’ve seen far worse moves at the start of the race and gone unpunished.  It deserved a closer look with the race stewards, but no more action was taken thankfully.  At last, a decision I agree with this season from the stewards, who sadly have gone back to the inconsistency of 2008.

     As Button continues to blossom, Lewis Hamilton continues to look like a lonely, depressed soul and he has a lot of soul-searching to do over the winter.  Whilst his team-mate has finished on the rostrum in the last five races, Hamilton has managed just four rostrums in 15 races; a sobering statistic for a driver of the highest calibre.  He finished an uneventful fifth at Suzuka and his race also included another run-in with Felipe Massa, AGAIN!  This time, it was a minor clash, which saw Massa come off worse on this occasion.  This time, Felipe attempted to make the most of it and Hamilton is completely blameless.  However, I do find it hard to believe him complaining about vision in his mirrors being impaired.  Come on Lewis, this isn’t the third race of the season, it’s the 15^th.  It is an issue that should have been dealt with by Shanghai at the latest, not at this late stage of the campaign.  These are the sort of issues that Sam Michael will need to address with his arrival next season.

     Having only scored four points in the last six races, Renault arrived in Japan under some sustained pressure from an ever-improving Force India outfit.  Vitaly Petrov stemmed their charge, with a fighting performance to ninth in Japan.  Bruno Senna wasn’t helped when he clipped Petrov in a scramble on the exit of turn two during the first lap.  With plenty of front downforce missing, his race was severely compromised.  It was interesting to see GP2 champion Romain Grosjean sitting on the pitwall, looking like a spare part.  Senna has done a good job in the four races he has competed so far for Renault, but Grosjean deserves a shot before the season’s conclusion, especially as there are continuing doubts about Robert Kubica’s pending return.  Renault’s strategy on tyres was dreadful; so it made Petrov’s drive even more impressive.  Fifth place now looks as good as secure for the team, who will want significant improvements next season.

     Force India now has some fresh investment in the team, from a major Indian company.  The future looks very rosy now for the Silverstone based outfit, but they will have to be disappointed with their Suzuka showing.  Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta both missed out on points, finishing 11^th and 12^th respectively.  Sutil produced the move of the race; on Sauber’s Kamur Kobayashi, which showed a lot of courage and bravery in 130R.  However, they struggled with tyre troubles like Renault and the timing of an unnecessary Safety Car severely hurt their hopes of a double points finishes.  Paul di Resta’s performance was quite admirable, considering as he looked awful all weekend, suffering from a flu bug.

     Also suffering from being under weather was Sergio Perez.  The Mexican looked incredibly pale when speaking to BBC’s David Coulthard on Saturday morning, he might have keeled over.  His non-show in Q2 gave me the thought that he might not participate in the race.  However, the Mexican surprised me, his team and probably himself with a fighting drive to eighth place, his first points since the seventh place result he achieved at Silverstone back in July.  His four points move Sauber, who’ve had a rocky mid-season, back onto Force India’s coattails.  Although Perez’s form has fluctuated over the course of the season, especially since that Monaco crash in May, he has produced enough to hint that he is Ferrari material in the long-term.  Kamur Kobayashi had a poor race and finished down in 13^th place, but qualified well and was supported stoutly by his home crowd.  Kobayashi has done so much to promote his country in the wake of the dreadful tsunami to have hit the country earlier this year and it was a shame he couldn’t bring his car home for points on Sunday.

     Having predicted that Toro Rosso might finish sixth in the constructors championship two races ago, it looks like I put a dark curse on the team.  They have failed to perform in the last two events and now look unlikely to improve on eighth in the championship.  Their cause will not be helped by their mechanics failing to tighten up their wheels in pitstops.  Jaime Alguesuari suffered in China from this and the same fates befall Sebastian Buemi at the weekend.  Had he not had this issue, Buemi might have been right in the mix for points when the chequered flag came out after 53 gruelling laps.    

      There is no doubt who was Driver of the Weekend and that was Jenson Button.  Fastest in every single session over the weekend, except the crucial Q3 session, he looked like he had a mission to accomplish over the three days in Suzuka and he achieved in with consummate ease.  However, Sergio Perez is my surprise nomination for Driver of the Day.  Considering that he looked barely 50 per cent fit, his performance on such a physical driver’s circuit such as Suzuka was very impressive.

      Although the constructor’s championship isn’t quite wrapped up, we can now go racing for fun in the final four races of the season.  Hopefully, F1 2011 can finish on a high and there are still plenty of questions to be asked.  Can Lewis Hamilton recapture his form?  Will Mercedes GP score a podium by the season’s end?  Has Mark Webber got the luck to win a Grand Prix this season?  However, we must salute Sebastian Vettel, a true modern racing legend.

The Finishing Straight - Singapore (by HappyDude88)

ONE point is all that is needed now for Sebastian Vettel and if he doesn’t win the championship, I will flush my head down the toilet seat and film the embarrassing moment on YouTube!  The only man who can now deny the inevitable is Jenson Button and on their driving standards this season, these two have been a class apart from anyone else.

     I have given Vettel so many accolades this season, so it’s only fair for me to praise Button in this blog.  Since his sensational last-gasp victory in Montreal back in June, Jenson has been driving out of skin.  For me, he is in the best form of his career, driving that even outdoes what he was achieving in his championship winning campaign of 2009.  He has put in more consistent and stronger performances than Lewis Hamilton throughout the campaign and has now made himself the default no.1 at McLaren.  Button had a couple of shaky moments at the start of the championship; no-one should forget him driving into the wrong pit when leading in China and he had a dismal weekend at the Nurburgring, but more often than not, he has delivered when the task is set to him.  Once again, he elevated himself to high status in Singapore last weekend, outperforming what the car was capable of.  Late on, he put in a spurt to almost give the viewers a tasty finish and although it never looked like he could usurp Vettel at the front, he kept fighting until the end.  The Red Bull/Vettel combination looks like it could dominate Formula One for a number of years, but carry on with this momentum into next season and Jenson Button does have a chance to win the world championship again. 

      Whilst we continue to see the brilliant from Jenson Button, the bad continue to overweigh the good from Lewis Hamilton.  He got into some unnecessary scraps throughout the Singapore weekend with his nemesis from Monaco earlier in the year, Felipe Massa.  In the dying moments of Q3, Ferrari and McLaren stupidly sent all their cars out together at the same time, which left them squabbling for track space.  Massa and Hamilton took their grudge a bit too far, dicing in a position where an accident was a silly possibility.  On this occasion, Massa looked to be deliberately holding up Hamilton, who wanted to clearly get on with his one qualifying attempt.  There was no need for games for the Brazilian, as he re-stirred a pot that has been brewing all season.  24 hours later, I predicted a potential clash in the race between the two and ultimately, they delivered.  The contact at turn seven damaged a tyre on the Ferrari and left Lewis needing emergency front-wing repairs.  Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.  Although he has his platinum card from the race stewards, which at this rate, might be upgraded to gold class, I felt the penalty was a bit harsh.  The turn-in point was clumsy from Hamilton and Massa didn’t deserve to have his wheel punctured.  However, it wasn’t an incident that was deliberate, malicious or idiotic, just daft.  Hamilton was penalised just as much as Massa at the end of the day, so the stewards could have let it be as a racing incident.  Says a lot for Massa doesn’t it; he finishes ninth and Hamilton fifth, despite the McLaren driver making five trips into the pits during the race. 

     Felipe took it badly and showed his emotion in an unsavoury moment in the driver’s interview pen afterwards.  Hamilton was talking about his race to the German television station, RTL when Massa applauded him saying ‘well done,’ and shoved him.  Hamilton said ‘don’t touch me; pal’ twice, before concluding his interview and going off to cool down in the hospitality lounge.  There was no need for Massa to do this and his conduct was frankly, appalling.  If he’d been a bit more aggressive, he might be up for an FIA charge against assault and have his racing license taken away.  For me, Lewis did the right thing by not responding aggressively and walking off without murmuring a frustrating word, like his Monaco rant.  If Massa wanted to talk, leave it until behind closed doors and I think Martin Whitmarsh and Stefano Domenicalli need to speak to their drivers and thrash out their differences.  There is no need for this rift; and it’s damaging the reputations of both drivers.

UNDERPERFORMING: Massa is not doing enough

     To conclude this issue, Massa needs to take a hard look at his own performances.  Once again, he hasn’t delivered the results this season.  True, he had an excellent start to the campaign and produced some solid races, especially in Malaysia, China and the Nurburgring.  However, he hasn’t collected a podium finish now since Korea last October.  That is an appalling stat for a Ferrari driver, even Eddie Irvine was a more trustworthy no.2 driver.  No wins in three years, I have had my symphonies for the position that Massa is in on many occasions, but you can’t qualify and finish sixth every weekend and think its okay.  It is probably best he moved onto another team, because his championship challenging days are only a distant memory.  Every time I hear Rob Smedley on the radio, I sometimes think he is wasted as a race engineer and could be a decent driver.  There is more chance of Ed Miliband ever becoming Prime Minister of this country than Felipe Massa has of winning another Grand Prix for Ferrari.

     Other topics of interest over the Singapore weekend and the decline of Lotus Renault alarmingly continued last weekend.  Vitaly Petrov, who has had a very impressive second season in the sport, finished 17^th in the race, having been outraced fair and square by the Team Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen.  Eliminated in Q1, Petrov must be wondering whether this is a nightmare.  He was on the podium at the season opener in Australia and that must feel like last century, not six months ago!  Eric Bouillier can’t use Nick Heidfeld now as his scapegoat anymore either.  This car should be put in the scrapheap, it’s quite possibly the worst ever Renault that has ever been designed.  How can you go from being the third strongest team in the opening two races, to fighting with the class B team’s five races before the season’s end?  Robert Kubica’s impact on the team has been severely felt by his enforced absence this season and whilst I hope he regains full fitness, I sincerely hope Renault pull their finger out next season and actually give the drivers a car that they are capable of delivering the required results.

     The three Formula One rookies in midfield teams this season all put in stirring efforts in Singapore.  Once again, Pastor Maldonado narrowly missed out on points for Williams, but pulled off a classy overtake on his team-mate Rubens Barrichello in the dying laps.  He has had his moments on insane behaviour this season and other events where he has been attempting to make alterations to the circuit design.  However, he has performed credibly in a dismal car and in difficult circumstances.  I actually do hope he gets another season at Williams to see just how good he really is.  Whilst on the point of Williams’s drivers; Barrichello was laughing and so was I when I heard about the story of Kimi Raikkonen coming back to F1 next season as Rubens’s replacement.  Get a fax message through to Sir Frank Williams; you are better off with Rubens, Kimi’s only going to turn up, drive the car and go home.  He couldn’t give a flying monkey’s about all the technical development and although he might bring more points than what Rubens car, I can’t see where the team would go with Raikkonen onboard other than stagnated progress.

HOT: The humid conditions didn't affect di Resta, who scored his best finish

    Back to the rookies and Sergio Perez finished a solid tenth and earnt a deserved point for a weekend where he proved his street fighting capabilities.  Perez’s season will be sadly remembered for that horrific qualifying crash in Monaco, but I think he has performed solidly throughout the season, despite the tendency to get into some unnecessary accidents.  Sebastian Buemi can vouch for that.  However, it is Paul di Resta who continues to take all the headlines in the rookie department.  He drove like a man on a mission in Singapore and finished sixth; his best ever career result.  Backed up by an eighth place result for Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil and the team now look odds-on to finish sixth in the constructors championship.  As the year has gone on, Force India have made drastic improvements to their package, so credit to Vijay Mallya and the technical team back at Silverstone for finding the change in performance.

      However, we must finish this edition of the Finishing Straight talking about Sebastian Vettel.  Nine wins, eleven pole positions, countless fastest laps, immense ability on the first lap, dynamic overtaking, flawless pitstops, his driving at the moment is like poetry in motion.  Once again, Vettel was my Driver of the Day and Driver of the Weekend in Singapore and don’t count on him not winning all the remaining races.  He has destroyed the opposition in Japan, Korea and Abu Dhabi in previous years and will want to finish his dominant season in style.  Michael Schumacher’s almost insurmountable tally of 13 wins from 18 in 2004 is looking incredibly vulnerable now, especially with this new German great in the pound seat now. 

F1 classic races - Belgium

IN A new series, I will be looking back at six classic races every weekend from the country about to stage an event in the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.  This is my selection, of races from the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit between 1991 and 2010.  Enjoy the archive!

1992

WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Benetton Ford), 2^nd: Nigel Mansell (Williams Renault), 3^rd: Riccardo Patrese (Williams Renault)

22-YEAR old Michael Schumacher achieved the first of his 91 career victories, just one year after he made his incredible Grand Prix debut at the same track.  The young German achieved the feat with a brilliant piece of thinking after an off-track excursion.  Schumacher slipped behind Martin Brundle when he took a trip across the grass and had a look at his team-mate’s degrading rear tyres.  He decided to pit earlier than his rivals and on a drying track, his gamble paid off.  Ayrton Senna’s did not.  Having taken a surprising lead, Senna elected to stay on his worn wet tyres, but it backfired and left him finishing down in fifth place.  Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese finished second and third, with these results good enough to seal the constructor’s championship for the utterly dominant Williams FW14B.

1995

WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Benetton Renault), 2^nd: Damon Hill (Williams Renault), 3^rd: Martin Brundle (Ligier Mugen Honda)

A SENSATIONAL drive from 16^th on the grid after a problematical qualifying session saw Michael Schumacher triumph in the 1995 Belgian Grand Prix.  He had an epic scrap with arch rival, Damon Hill, which included a spot of controversial wheel-banging at Les Combes on lap 22.  Schumacher, on slicks claimed he legitimately defended his line, whilst Hill, on wet tyres on a wet track thought he had been deliberately pushed off the racing line.  In the end, a stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane wrecked Hill’s hopes and he needed to pass Martin Brundle on the final lap to secure second spot.  Pole sitter Gerhard Berger retired with an electrical problem, with his team-mate Jean Alesi also out of luck, courtesy of suspension failure.  There was a nasty moment, when Eddie Irvine’s Jordan caught fire after a refuelling pitstop.  Luckily, with quick pit work from Jordan and Ligier fire mechanics, no-one was injured. 

1998

WINNER: Damon Hill (Jordan Mugen Honda), 2^nd: Ralf Schumacher (Jordan Mugen Honda), 3^rd: Jean Alesi (Sauber Petronas)

ONE of the most dramatic races ever seen in Formula One produced almost everything in absolutely horrific driving conditions.  First, David Coulthard crashed his McLaren exiting La Source and started a chain reaction of cars crashing into one another.  The end result of the carnage saw 13 cars terminally damaged, with four failing to restart and an hour’s start delay.  Amazingly, no-one was hurt.  At the second start, Damon Hill stormed into the lead, squeezing Mika Hakkinen into La Source.  Under pressure from title rival Michael Schumacher, Hakkinen lost control of his car and spun infront of the pack; to be collected by the luckless Johnny Herbert.  Schumacher produced a textbook overtaking manoeuvre to pass Hill on lap nine and was coasting to a dominant victory, when he came across a struggling Coulthard to lap him.  DC lifted off, Schumacher couldn’t see in the appalling visibility and careered into the back of the McLaren.  Both cars were out and what followed, was an angry exchange in the pits between the two drivers afterwards.  Later, Giancarlo Fisichella and Shinji Nakano were involved in a similar, scary incident, which left the Benetton of Fisichella looking like a torpedo.  After the Safety Car made an appearance, Ralf Schumacher was told not to overtake Hill, so Jordan could secure a 1-2 finish for the first time.  Ralf’s body language on the podium spoke volumes afterwards.  So, the way was clear for Hill to claim a fantastic victory for the Irish team, with Jean Alesi getting a well-deserved podium for Sauber.

F1 1998 - GP Belgique_G.FISICHELLA(Benetton... by parisiano60

2000

WINNER: Mika Hakkinen (McLaren Mercedes), 2^nd: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 3^rd: Ralf Schumacher (Williams BMW)

HAVING dominated qualifying, everyone expected Mika Hakkinen to run into the distance and hide in 2000.  However, on a wet track early on, it was Michael Schumacher who made the early running.  Schumacher’s cause was helped by Jenson Button’s ambitious move on Jarno Trulli into La Source on lap four, which took the Jordan out and hindered Button’s progress.  Seven laps later, Hakkinen had a half-spin at Stavelot, gifting Schumacher the lead.  However, on a drying track, the Ferrari was much slower than the McLaren, especially in a straight line.  With four laps remaining, Hakkinen got into the slipstream out of Eau Rouge and used Ricardo Zonta’s backmarker BAR to dummy Schumacher and pass him on the inside, with the German stuck on the outside and Zonta probably not knowing what he had just witnessed.  It was a masterful move from Hakkinen, undoubtedly his greatest ever Grand Prix victory.

2004

UNTOUCHABLE: Raikkonen was in a class of one in 2004

WINNER: Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes), 2^nd: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 3^rd: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari)

MICHAEL Schumacher made history in 2004, when he finished second to become a seven-time world Formula One champion.  However, he was beaten fair and square on the day by Kimi Raikkonen, who drove brilliantly to record McLaren’s first victory of a difficult and trying season.  The race started with chaos at La Source, with numbers of cars getting damaged.  Mark Webber and Takuma Sato tangled at Eau Rouge, whilst Raikkonen’s diffuser was broken in contact with Felipe Massa.  Having been hit by Webber at the first corner, Rubens Barrichello needed a new rear wing, but didn’t lose a lap in the pits, thanks to a Safety Car period.  The Renault’s led the early stages, but Jarno Trulli fell away dramatically with a mysterious lack of pace and Fernando Alonso was left beached in the gravel with an oil leak.  Michelin received heavy criticism, after witnessing three tyre blow-outs, which ruined David Coulthard’s race and caused the DNF’s of Jenson Button and Juan Pablo Montoya.  Button’s came after a 200mph blow-out sent him careering into the side of the helpless Minardi of Zsvolt Baumgartner.  Through all of the chaos around him, Raikkonen drove meticulously from tenth on the grid to record a magnificent victory.  However, he would have to share the limelight with Schumacher on this historic day.

2009

WINNER: Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 2^nd: Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India Mercedes), 3^rd: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing Renault)

IF HE hadn’t been passed on the KERS by Kimi Raikkonen after a Safety Car restart, Giancarlo Fisichella and Force India will have probably won.  A shock pole and a wonderful second spot was the dream ticket for the team and for the ageing Italian, who moved to Ferrari as stand-in for the injured Felipe Massa on the back of this amazing result.  It was a bad day for championship leader, Jenson Button, as he was taken out on the first lap by Romain Grosjean’s Renault.  However, with his main championship rivals, Rubens Barrichello in 7^th and Mark Webber out of the points in 9^th, little damage had been done to Button’s lead.  Third place kept Sebastian Vettel just about in touch with the leader. 

The Finishing Straight - Canada (by HappyDude88)

FORMULA One 2011 should definitely come with some sort of health warning, after another unforgettable Grand Prix in Canada last weekend.  The entertaining action this season has certainly dome damage to my health, and I bet it’s the same for many others.

SENSATIONAL: Button drive was a champions fightback

     Jenson Button’s fighting drive to victory on Sunday will go down as ‘The Greatest Comeback Victory.’  Button was 21^st and last with two-thirds of the race gone, so for him to win from there is something really special.  The pace of his McLaren in the dying stages, even though it was on a drying track must have everyone sit up and take notice.  Red Bull certainly will.  Button made up for his team’s strategy errors that cost him a shot at the Monaco Grand Prix and to pressure Sebastian Vettel into a rare error takes a lot of skill and determination, considering how unflappable and invincible the world champion has been this season.  For the past three races now, McLaren have had the fastest car on a Sunday afternoon.  They were beaten in Barcelona due to its lack of overtaking opportunities, Monaco by poor strategy and an unlucky Safety Car, and even in Canada, they threatened to completely throw the advantage away.  Gambling on a wet setup for qualifying on Saturday was such a big risk and although it did end up working, could you imagine if Button hadn’t past Vettel.  This was probably going to be Red Bull’s weakest circuit on the calendar, so if they won here, the rest could write off the season and forget it because Sebastian Vettel would simply be uncatchable.  He still will look difficult to beat, but McLaren do have a chance, as long as one driver calms down and they stop making poor strategy calls.

SPIN: Webber faces the wrong way, after contact with Hamilton

      Whilst Button was driving to victory, Lewis Hamilton was cheering him on in the McLaren hospitality lounge.  However, Hamilton’s impatience cost him again, like in Monaco and has finished any hope of a second world championship this season.  He was frustrated by qualifying fifth and once again, his race effort is what you would expect from a mad motorist on the M25 during rush hour!  I will give Hamilton the benefit of the doubt in regards to his collision with Mark Webber, once the Safety Car had released the pack.  Webber gave him space and Lewis understeered into the Red Bull.  The contact spun Webber around and left him with a mountain to climb.  It was a risky attempt to pass, but there was more opportunity than there was in Monaco with his rash overtaking attempts.  After a near-miss with Michael Schumacher, Hamilton then went onto colliding unbelievably with Button, with the damage ending his race.  Button was slow out of the final chicane on the eighth lap and Hamilton got a run on his team-mate onto the start-finish straight.  Once Jenson started moving across to take his normal racing line, you would have thought that Hamilton, with his experience now, would shuffle to the outside and attempt a pass from there.  Instead, he went for a gap that was narrowing more and more and was always going to close.  It was lucky that Jenson wasn’t taken out either.  His radio call shortly afterwards; “What’s he doing!” said it all.  A collision between the McLaren drivers was always on the cards this season, especially when you think back to their private duels in China and Turkey earlier this year.  The drivers have agreed to put it aside and move on, but we saw what happened between Webber and Vettel last season after their contact at Istanbul Park.  The next few races will be interesting to see how the dynamics flow within McLaren and whether team harmony has been damaged by this touch between its drivers.

TRICKY: Conditions were undriveable at one point

     The Canadian Grand Prix was the first race this season to be rain-affected and the first in the country since 2000.  Despite limited experience of the wet Pirelli tyres to a soaking day of testing in Barcelona and one practice session in Istanbul, I was disappointed to see the drivers prefer a Safety Car start.  The track was not dangerous at this point, and although it was a tough call, I’ve seen standing starts in far worse conditions.  When the race was suspended, it was a late call by race director Charlie Whiting.  As soon as the rain came down and waterlogged the Casino Hairpin on lap 18, the race should have been stopped immediately.  Conditions were undriveable, so why go behind the Safety car unnecessarily for another five laps!  Commonsense needed prevailing.  Despite a two-hour delay afterwards for conditions to improve, it was the right decision to go racing again, despite my initial reluctance.  However, the track was ready to race after one Safety Car lap, not five!  These are the best paid drivers in the world, and of course, danger is an element of this game, but I do think at times that the caution around a race of changeable conditions is absolutely ridiculous.  This is why I prefer the bone dry, standard race, so this caution can be avoided in future.

     Force India had an opportunity to pick up big points in Montreal and their drivers show impatience, which cost the Silverstone based-team dearly.  Paul di Resta was very strong all weekend; only narrowly missing out on Q3 and running as high as fifth.  When he tried an optimistic move on Nick Heidfeld into the final chicane, I could not believe how stupid Paul had just been.  It was a lacklustre and lame overtaking attempt and surely di Resta must have thought that Heidfeld would probably turn in as he had the racing line.  I do agree with the rookie that a drive-through penalty was extremely harsh, considering the contact was minimal and it didn’t destroy Heidfeld’s race, it only wrecked di Resta’s.  He had another run-in with Rubens Barrichello towards the end of the race (which wasn’t picked up by the TV cameras) that ended his race.  The maturity di Resta has shown in his rookie season has impressed me, but these rash moves are costing the team big points.  To make it worse, Adrian Sutil ran into the back of Nico Rosberg behind the Safety Car; such an elementary mistake for an experienced driver and then rather than benefiting from being the first driver to gamble on dry tyres, he dropped it into the unforgiving barriers.  Force India’s main championship rivals are Toro Rosso and Williams.  When you consider Toro Rosso picked up a double points finish; (Jaime Alguesuari was 8^th, Sebastian Buemi 10^th) and Barrichello bought his Williams home in 9^th, Force India could lookback on this as the day they got rooted into ninth place in this year’s constructor’s championship.

     Another team struggling for form is Renault.  They made a very strong start to the season, with two podiums in the first two races, but are struggling to keep up with the developments from a rapidly improving Mercedes and Ferrari.  Nick Heidfeld had a messy Grand Prix and his demise was spectacular to say the least.  Big points were his for the taking, when he drove into the back of Kamur Kobayashi out of turn two.  His front wing was broken, and collapsed underneath his chassis yards later, which led to an acrobatic flying lesson that failed to match Vitaly Petrov’s Malaysian effort.  Petrov did stay out of trouble to record a morale boosting fifth place and there is no doubt that the Russian has improved greatly in his second season of Formula One.  However, Renault will do well to score any more rostrums, and badly need Robert Kubica back.  The Pole’s presence in the team is valuable, as is being proven by this year’s results, compared to last year’s.  

      Canada was a race too soon for Sergio Perez.  Perez was passed fit after three medical examinations, following his qualifying shunt which ended his participation in the Monaco event early.  However, he complained of dizziness after driving Friday’s first free practice session and opted to pull out for his own health.  It was a surprising move, but one that won a lot of praise in the paddock.  There is no point for Sergio to risk his long-term health to take part in one Grand Prix, but it does raise the question of the FIA medical test of how he could pass it in the first place.  For some reason, Sauber’s reserve driver Esteban Gutierrez didn’t travel to Canada, so the team were forced to swallow the bullet and ask McLaren if they could borrow Pedro de la Rosa.  This is the driver they fired from the team with five races left to go in 2010 and it was a fractious relationship to say the least.  Of course, de la Rosa was never going to say ‘no’ to another chance at a racing environment, no matter the team or the consequences.  He got into Q2 and finished a solid, if unspectacular 12^th, which was a good effort at short notice.  Team-mate Kamur Kobayashi continues to rack up the points for the team, with seventh, but for a poor decision on changing to the dry tyre too late, a podium was there for the taking.  Kobayashi did a great job and deserved more for the result he ended up collecting.

FORM: Schumacher was eventually denied a podium position

      So too did Michael Schumacher.  On a track where he has won seven times in the past, he found form and produced the best drive of his failed comeback so far.  Schumacher qualified only 0.1secs behind Nico Rosberg and raced very strongly.  He made up for a rash decision by Ross Brawn to put him on intermediates just before the Montreal downpour and ran as high as second, even briefly challenging his compatriot Vettel for the lead.  Unfortunately, the Mercedes still isn’t on the same path as Red Bull and McLaren and he was overpowered by Webber and Button.  It was a shame, because Michael deserved a podium for his efforts.  Nevertheless, fourth place is the team’s best finish of the season and gives hope that Schuey can still deliver and perform at the highest level.  Let’s hope the revival of his form can continue and prove me wrong (having urged him to walkaway after his mere in Istanbul last month.)

      Hispania Racing deserves a mention too for their improvements.  After the Melbourne shambles, the team has shown little danger of not making the 107 per cent in qualifying and performed admirably in Canada.  Vitantonio Liuzzi finished in 13^th at the chequered flag, which might not sound great, but it could be priceless to the team.  It moves Hispania above Virgin Racing in the constructor’s championship, which would mean extra travel and prize money for the Spanish team that is always strapped for cash.  To make it better, Narain Karthikeyan was right behind him at the finish, as the team beat both Virgin’s of Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio and Jarno Trulli’s Lotus fair and square.  Even Heikki Kovalainen, who retired with a transmission problem, was running behind them at the time of his departure from the race.  It is nice to see progress in Formula One, no matter how small it is and Hispania are doing a creditable job, considering the laughing stock they were at the start of the season.

      The Bahrain Grand Prix has finally been cancelled and the Indian Grand Prix restored to its initial date of October 30.  There has been a great deal of uncertainty about the race and I’m pleased to see the Bahrain authorities have produced the commonsense that the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone couldn’t see.  Bahrain has got big problems and they need dealing with, so I was flabbergasted to hear the race was rescheduled in the first place.  You can’t play with people lives and the event was bound to be overshadowed by events elsewhere within the country.  No sooner had the race been rescheduled, more video footage of demonstrations was being planted on YouTube.  I hope the country can sort out its pressing issues in a calm and dignified manner and maybe, Formula One can return there in 2012.  However, the running battle over the race organisation has been one which F1 didn’t need.  It definitely has covered itself in any glory.

      Finally, time to crown my Driver of the Day and Driver of the Weekend.  Driver of the Day has to go to Button.  Despite the Hamilton incident and another racing clash, which saw Fernando Alonso eliminated, his searing fightback and the pressure he put on Vettel was immense.  This was his greatest Grand Prix win, for sure.  Driver of the Weekend in Canada is Michael Schumacher.  Maybe a surprising nomination, but whereas Vettel, Button, Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Alonso all made errors at some point during the weekend, Michael didn’t.  He showed his experience in such tricky conditions and his result was well merited.  What a race, what a season!  If Valencia can provide half the drama Montreal managed then I will be satisfied, considering a car park would be more interesting to race on than that particular circuit!  More of the same next week please!

F1 2011 preview (Part 2)

THE new Formula One season begins this weekend, two weeks later than initially planned.  The Australian Grand Prix takes over the mantelpiece of the F1 opener, after Bahrain’s cancellation, following the current unrest in the Middle East.  With another big shake-up in the rules, another new race in India to look forward to and a rather stable driver market this time around, 2011 can beat the drama of 2010.  Can Sebastian Vettel defend his title?  Will Fernando Alonso bounce back from last year’s Abu Dhabi heartbreak?  How will Renault fare without Robert Kubica?  Is Michael Schumacher going to prove his critics wrong?  Have McLaren been sandbagging in testing?  All the talking stops this weekend in Albert Park, so here’s the inside guide.  

Force India Mercedes

14           Adrian Sutil (GER)

15           Paul di Resta (BRI)

As 2010 continued, Force India dropped down the pecking order and 2011 could turn into a very tough one for the Silverstone-based team.  The loss of key technical staff is James Key and Mark Smith has hit the team hard and testing form suggests that they could be looking backwards rather than forwards in the incoming campaign.  Adrian Sutil is a proven point’s scorer and ditched his accident-prone image last year to score some solid points results.  He will do well to match his best results of 5^th in Malaysia and Spa last season.  After four seasons in DTM, culminating in the 2010 championship, Scot Paul di Resta joins the grid.  He deserves his chance, and is bound to be more of a match for Sutil than Vitantonio Liuzzi ever was.  However, the car’s ultimate lack of pace could be the downfall for these two talented racers.

Sauber-Ferrari

16           Kamur Kobayashi (JPN)

17           Sergio Perez (MEX)

The distinctive feature of the Sauber last year was no sponsorship whatsoever.  However, with rich Mexican businessman Carlos Slim onboard, that changes in 2011.  Young Mexican Sergio Perez’s arrival is a interesting move, as it means there will be a lack of experience on the driver front.  Perez looks either fast or wreckless and he is bound to add a lot of flair and charisma to the team.  They have plenty of that in Kamur Kobayashi already.  The Japanese is expected to thrill everyone again with his no holds barred attitude of driving and has all the talent in the world, if he tones down on the wackiness that can lead the Japanese into serious trouble.  The car looks very promising but it may need early development if they wish to be regular point’s scorers.

Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari

18           Sebastian Buemi (SUI)

19           Jaime Alguesuari (SPA)

The departures of Gerhard Berger and Sebastian Vettel hit Toro Rosso very hard at the end of 2008, and they haven’t recovered since.  The car looks very strong and far more consistent than its previous challengers.  Even Lewis Hamilton has told the media to keep a watch on them.  Sebastian Buemi enters his third season and was a massive disappointment last season.  The Swiss driver is under pressure to deliver, especially with the highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings as third driver.  Buemi will need to perform from the off, if he doesn’t want to go the same way as Scott Speed and Sebastian Bourdais; in earning the sack mid-season.  Plus, we know Franz Tost doesn’t accept any excuses.  Jamie Alguesuari is in a slightly more secure position and has the knack to pull off some daring overtaking moves.  He needs to improve his qualifying performances, and eliminate some of the careless driving which you’d expect to see from a rush hour driver on the M25’s hard shoulder!  With Ricciardo waiting and watching, the loser of this team-mate battle is likely to be out of F1, so this could be an intriguing watch.

Team Lotus Renault

20           Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)

21           Jarno Trulli (ITA)

Team Lotus, as they are now known were the class of the new teams in 2010, and have closed the gap to the midfield in winter testing.  With two experience racers and a strong reserve in Karun Chandok, excuses will be less vain this season.  The move to Renault engines and gearboxes has caused some severe reliability bugs, which has consequently hurt their testing mileages.  However, don’t be surprised if they begin to give Toro Rosso and Force India some severe headaches this season.  Points are a necessity this time around and Heikki Kovalainen looks a class driver, after his mere at McLaren.  Kovalainen is expected to lead the team from the front again and will cause some giant-killing upsets, similar to Takuma Sato at Super Aguri in 2007.  Jarno Trulli’s speed over one lap is still as strong as ever, but his racecraft last year was frankly dismal.  2011 is surely Jarno’s last chance to fulfil anything decent onto his CV, otherwise he will end up like Olivier Panis; winning the Monaco Grand Prix once and did very little else with so much supposed talent.

HRT-Cosworth

22           Narain Karthikeyan (IND)

23           Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA)

Is this becoming the ‘Andrea Moda’ of 2011?  Remember that joke of the 1992 team that evaded taxes, cars broke down meters from rolling out of the garage.  Well, having your entire car failing to get through customs certainly qualifies for this title.  Narain Karthikeyan is only on board for Indian sponsorship whilst Vitantonio Liuzzi will bring experience of driving for backmarker teams.  With no pre-season testing AGAIN, it is once again going to be a battle for survival till the end of the season for HRT.

Marussia Virgin-Cosworth

24           Timo Glock (GER)

25           Jerome D’Ambrosio (BEL)

They were F1’s joke team of 2010, especially by not building a fuel tank big enough to finish the early season races.  However, the future looks bright, especially with backing from Russian sportscar brand Marussia and a confident new rookie in Jerome D’Ambrosio.  Timo Glock drove brilliantly in the second half of last season and will be there to pick up the pieces and grab the odd point, but they will struggle to be regular midfield runners.

Rules

As with nearly every F1 season, there have been some changes to the rules this season.  The 107% rule returns for qualifying for the first time since 2002 to prove that cars are quick enough to race, this will only apply to Q1 and if the qualifying session is wet, the rule will not be used.  Pirelli replaces Bridgestone as the tyre supplier and has been challenged by the FIA to produce a tyre that grains more and causes drivers to pit more often.  So far, this seems to have worked and it certainly spice up the racing.

     KERS returns after a season away and is once again optional for the teams to use it or not.  The most innovative concept for 2011 is an adjustable rear wing, which will aid more overtaking particularly on very long straights.  Gearboxes must now last five races instead of four in another case of cost cutting measures and the safety car rules have been tweaked once again with the overtake line abolished after the controversy surrounding it last year, meaning drivers again can only overtake when they’ve crossed the start/finish line at the restart.

For the 2011 season, I will be posting the following on the Formula One season

- A race report from all 19 events in the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship

- NEW! F1 classic races (A brief lookback at six/seven classic events from the country that is about to stage a race that weekend)

- NEW! Replacing 'The Conclusions' will be a new personal blog.  'The Finishing Straight' by HappyDude88 will be online every Tuesday after the Grand Prix weekend, where I will be giving my own personal take on the weekend's events.

2010 Hungarian Grand Prix - The Conclusions

In this piece, I will be assessing ten key features from each Grand Prix weekend from the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.  It has taken two weeks for me to digest the events of what happened in Budapest, due to my summer holiday.  However, it was another dramatic race which ended up with a new championship leader and a former champion receiving more criticism for his driving standards.  So, this is a round-up of Round twelve, the final event before the Grand Prix circus headed for its extended summer break.

Red Bull Racing – A Stunning Pace

When Red Bull Racing turned up and set their first competitive tracks on the Hungaroring, the rest might as well have gone home, because they had no hope of winning.  This circuit suited all of the Red Bull’s features on the car, especially downforce levels.  This should have been a nailed on one-two for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.  However, Vettel being caught asleep on the Safety Car restart once again showed the Milton Keynes team lack of ability to turn dominant performances into maximum points hauls.  Vettel’s record of one win from his seven pole positions is a dismal statistic.  It is giving Webber his best shot at the world championship, and a stunning mid-race stint on tyres that were starting to fade won him the race.  Webber is on a crest of a wave again, Vettel has to once again stamp his authority on the team if he is going to become champion this year.

Michael Schumacher – Another Dangerous Move

Michael Schumacher’s performances in 2010 have been a constant theme in these conclusion blogs, simply because he can’t stay out of the headlines.  This time, it was for a crazy and mad lunge on his former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello that the Brazilian called ‘the worst manoeuvre on him in his F1 career.’  Once more, Schumacher missed Q3 and was struggling in 10^th place in the race.  Barrichello had run as high as 5^th, but a late pitstop dropped him out of the points.  However, on more favourable tyres, he homed in on Schuey at some three seconds a lap.  With four laps remaining, he got a run on the German out of the final corner, and went to the inside.  Michael’s response was brutal, shoving his former friend almost into the pitwall.  The Williams was millimetres away from a nasty connection, but Rubens just about squeezed through.  Afterwards, condemnation followed for Schumacher’s driving standards and the stewards agreed, slapping a 10-place grid penalty on him for the next race at Spa in a fortnight’s time.  Maybe it is time for this ageing world champion to call it a day before he tarnishes his reputation even more.

Dangers in the Pitlane Are Well-Documented

Maybe it has been coming for a while, especially when you think of the side-by side racing between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in China and Hamilton vs. Fernando Alonso in Montreal.  The scramble for the pits in Budapest led to a near-miss for everyone involved in the pits, highlighting the well-documented dangers involved.  Mercedes failed to tighten up the right-rear wheel on Nico Rosberg’s car, leaving it to detach as he left the pit box.  It narrowly missed Pedro de la Rosa and the Sauber mechanics, bounced up and hit a crew member from the Williams team, who luckily escaped with bruising.  Rosberg parked his car on the exit of the pits, probably unsure to the carnage he had just caused.  During the chaos, the Renault lollipop man lost his focus, due to the errant wheel and released Robert Kubica into the path of Adrian Sutil.  The result was a collision between Kubica and Sutil, which would eventually end both of their afternoons.  Renault and Mercedes were fined $50,000 for their lack of safety and dangerous pitlane manoeuvres.   

McLaren’s Worrying Lack of Pace

This was by far the least competitive weekend for the McLaren team in the 2010 season, and with the summer break underway, it can’t have come at the worst possible time.  To be over two seconds slower than Red Bull in qualifying must ring the alarm bells at Woking headquarters.  Lewis Hamilton dragged his uncompetitive machinery around to 5^th on the grid, and then used the Safety Car to jump Felipe Massa in the pits.  The damage limitation was working well, until a transmission failure on Lap 24 left him stranded on the exit of Turn 3.  Jenson Button failed to get into Q3, and was squeezed out by Pedro de la Rosa and Michael Schumacher at the start, relegating the world champion to a very frustrating 15^th.  He pitted just before the Safety Car came out, which allowed him to jump a few places, and wind up 8^th.  However, he was lapped by Webber six laps from the finish, which highlighted the drop off in pace for McLaren.  They need an upturn in pace and fortune very soon, otherwise their championship dreams will become a distant memory.

Vitaly Petrov Underlines His Potential

The Hungary weekend could well turn into the making of Vitaly Petrov as a Grand Prix driver.  Petrov has been overshadowed by Robert Kubica all season, but he destroyed him in Budapest, qualifying an outstanding 7^th, easily his best in 2010.  Petrov then made a lighting start and catapulted upto 5^th.  Though he gave up quite feebly to Lewis Hamilton on the second tour, Petrov was a comfortable 6^th for the rest of the afternoon, and regained 5^th when Hamilton retired.  This was a brilliant weekend from the Russian and he has probably given Eric Bouillier some headaches now over who will be Kubica’s team-mate for 2011 and beyond.

Robert Kubica – A Poor Weekend

Whilst Petrov had his best performance of the season, Robert Kubica turned in his weakest drive of the season.  On a track similar to Monaco, Kubica was expected to be a major threat to the McLaren’s and Ferrari’s, but it simply never came together.  To be outqualified by Petrov was a major surprise, as this was the first time the Pole has experience that feeling since Japan 2009.  Stuck behind Rosberg in the early exchanges, Kubica would have struggled to beat the likes of Button and de la Rosa in the race, but for the unfortunate collision with Adrian Sutil in the pits, which was through no fault of his own.  Robert has never had a prolific record at the Hungaroring, and that continued in 2010.  I bet he wished it never existed. 

Continued Improvement for Sauber

On Switzerland’s national day, Sauber continued their rapid rate of improvement, with their first double points finish of 2010.  Pedro de la Rosa is a Budapest specialist, and starred in qualifying on his way to 9^th on the grid.  Despite a poor start, de la Rosa lapped strongly all afternoon and will be satisfied with his 7^th place result, ironically the first points he has scored since his comeback this season.  Team-mate Kamur Kobayashi blamed traffic for his shock elimination in Q1, and this was followed by a five-place grid penalty for missing a weight check during practice.  From 23^rd on the grid, Kobayashi’s Sunday afternoon looked like it could be a very frustrating outcome.  However, he had a stunning first lap, gaining eight places and kept Jenson Button honest all afternoon.  Ninth at the end was almost unnoticed by many, but it is Kobayashi’s 4^th points finish in the last six races.  He is Japan’s best F1 driver they have ever produced and if the improvement continues from the team, Sauber could threaten to be best of the rest by the season’s end.  The horrors of the early flyaway races now seem to be a century ago. 

Nico Hulkenberg Fulfils His Potential

Nico Hulkenberg has had a tough baptism of fire this season, largely down to a uncompetitive car that Williams have given him this season.  However, he has matched Rubens Barrichello as the season has worn on and now, he is getting the equipment to produce the business.  Hulkenberg outqualified Barrichello in Hungary and despite trailing him early on, made his strategy work against the veteran and wound up an impressive sixth, easily his best performance of the season.  Finally, his potential looks like it is being fulfilled.

Positives for the New Teams

Jarno Trulli led them home, three laps down, but the Hungarian Grand Prix turned into a very positive weekend for all the new teams.  This was the first time in 2010 that all six cars from Lotus, Virgin and Hispania all finished, so all should be satisfied.  Sakon Yamamoto beat Lucas di Grassi, whilst Timo Glock outqualified both Lotus cars for the first time since Shanghai, and finished less than ten seconds behind Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen in the race.  For once, there were encouraging stories to tell for all the new teams, rather than face sorrow tales of misfortune.

Force India – Feeling the Pressure

As Renault stay ahead of the midfield group, and rapid improvements come from both of the Sauber and Williams teams, it is Force India who are falling backwards.  Regular top ten qualifiers earlier in the season, the team are facing the pressure of being out developed by teams who have better resources and bigger budgets.  Vitantonio Liuzzi touched Michael Schumacher on the first corner, broke part of his front wing and then dispensed those contents in the middle of the track on Lap 13, which bought the Safety Car out and turned the race on its head.  He finished a miserable 13^th, and the pressure will increase on Liuzzi to hang onto his drive.  Adrian Sutil was very unlucky to be caught up in the Kubica pitlane incident, but there is no doubt that the team have dropped back.  Spa and Monza will be interesting to see, as these sorts of circuits should suit their car with downforce levels.