28.6.10

First of all I must thank the Webteam staff and Tony Cotton for standing in for me when I was unexpectedly away and unable to do the last three reports. At this stage of the season it seemed appropriate to do a bit of a round-up rather than race reports.

If you were to ask any fan "What d'you think of it so far?" I'm sure the answer would be far from "Rubbish". Red Bull clearly had the quickest car (well up to Canada), but they also had a few "issues". They took the first seven poles, but only managed to convert three of them into wins; reliability robbed them of one (or two) wins for Vettel (Bahrain - spark plug and Australia - wheel). They also did not cope well when the weather intervened (Australia and China) and then came Turkey....

When the Wunderkind Vettel joined the veteran Webber in the team, most thought the young German would dominate, for after all is he not the former 'the next Schumacher' and latter not just an honest journeyman? This certainly looked to be the case for the early part of the season with Vettel out-qualifying Webber three times out of the first four and even when he didn't (in Malaysia), he confidently took the lead from his team mate in the first corner. But then in Race 4 (Spain) Webber took pole and won the race. OK, Rubes used to do it to Schuey occasionally, but then at the next race, Monaco of all places, Webber did it again. After this race the two Red Bull drivers were tying for the lead of the Drivers' championship and that was not at all what Vettel would have expected. Not only had he suffered reliability issues, in a couple of races the old Digger had just plain beaten him.

It's quite amusing when teams play the "All is Peace & Harmony" and "Dedication to the Greater Good" cards. They all start like this, remember Alonso and Hamilton at McLaren? And they may even mean it, but it generally starts to unravel when there is some perceived injustice. This could be something as simple as "I'm better than him, he can't be beating me fairly". Harmony is only usually possible when there's a clear No.1 and No.2 - like Hamilton and Kovalainen at McLaren. Even then I'm sure that one of the reasons Rubens isn't still at Brawn (Mercedes) is that all the resentment festering away at having to give way to Schuey all those years erupted a couple of times last year when he was up against Button.

Given all of this, what happened on lap 39 of the Turkish GP was perhaps inevitable. Webber had led from pole and Vettel was second after passing Hamilton in the pits. In the laps up to 39 he closed rapidly on Webber, who had been told to save fuel, though the team say Vettel did not know this and in any case it wouldn't have accounted for the difference in lap times. It may have been that Webber's tyres had degraded more. He asked the team to ask Vettel to back off, but they felt they couldn't do that as he was being pressed by Hamilton.

In any case Vettel got an excellent exit out of turn 9. He drew alongside his team mate, who squeezed him left, but left him space, then it looked like Vettel jinked towards Webber. If he was trying to intimidate him, it wasn't going to work as the Aussie is noted for his aggression. The cars clashed and Vettel was out. When he climbed out of the car he made "loopy" gestures. Webber pitted and continued to third. Later that week the team claimed that all had kissed and made up, but we'll see....

The team that benefitted the most from the Red Bull catastrophe was McLaren, Hamilton taking the lead with Button following. Eight laps later there was the most thrilling sequence when Button swept past, they raced wheel-to-wheel until Hamilton re-passed. They brushed wheels, but at no time did they look like taking each other off. They had been told to "save fuel" before and now this was strongly reiterated and they held 1-2 to the flag.

Unlike Red Bull, the McLaren drivers had not committed the ultimate sin. Contrary to the theory above they seem to be getting on despite there not being a clear No.1. However both are world champions and will be more sanguine and wiser. Despite predictions that Jenson would be crushed by Hamilton, this has emphatically not happened. Button's famously smooth touch has helped him stroke to two wins, but Hamilton's aggression has meant for me he has been the driver of the year so far. Button has been noticeably laid back and happy and Lewis perhaps less so. However in Turkey Nicole was back on the scene and Jessica absent, she and Jenson having parted, citing distance as the reason - she lives in Tokyo. Could this development have significant in the last two races and for the rest of the season? Given the way things work it seems as good a theory on driver performance as any.

In Canada Nicole would watch Lewis win again, this time from pole with Jenson second again. The best the Red Bulls could manage was fourth and fifth. This meant that Hamilton now leads the Drivers' Championship with Button second and McLaren are first in the Constructors'. McLaren's progress since the start of the season has been remorseless and they look decidedly more solid than the Red Bull team. They are used to winning and now look the best bet for the titles, but we'll see if things remains harmonious if it ends up by being between their two drivers.

The F Duct has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to McLaren's success. Not only can can they draft past on the straightaways, they can run more downforce in the corners. Other teams have attempted to create similar devices, including Ferrari's "look no hands" version, with much less success, but it has just been announced that next season a driver operated movable rear flap will be allowed and will replace F Ducts. The driver will be able to open and close the gap in the rear wing, thus altering downforce, but not for the first two laps of the race. They will also be able to use it when attacking the car in front when within 1 second of it, but not when defending. Wonder what will happen if there's more than one car in line?

Whereas Turkey was interesting, Canada was exciting and it was all about tyres. The circuit was "green" so the cars slid about more, wearing out the soft tyre option much quicker than the harder prime. Since the cars have to use both types and the top ten have to start on the tyres on which they qualified, strategies varied considerably and they all had to make more than one stop. Bridgestone have announced that there will be a two compound gap between the tyres used for the German GP (Round 11) but the conservative company will revert to single steps for the following races.

Talking of tyres, in the winter Bridgestone of course announced that they would withdraw from F1 at the end of the season. There were mumblings about Koreans, then there was talk of Michelin taking over, but only if the teams agreed to switch to 18" tyres - single-seaters and cars destined soon for the scrapyard being the only things that still run on 13" wheels. It seems the teams jibbed at that as it would have meant radical re-designs. Then we heard that Cooper were interested in supplying through Avon. They are a sort of default option for much of motorsport, particularly in the UK. They also supply tyres for most historic F1s, including the Ferraris of Corse Clienti.

Next we heard that Pirelli were interested and then it sort of chuntered away in the background with nothing being decided. As I write the FIA has announced that it is to be Pirelli who will be the sole supplier to F1 for the next three seasons. The teams needed to know tyre specification to design next years cars, so you can bet that next year's tyres will not be too dissimilar to this, so no 18 inchers for now. Significantly, the teams will cover the cost of the tyres.

Pirelli have had three previous stints in F1 - 1950-1959, 1981-1986 and 1989-1991. They scored 45 wins, with all but three in the '50s, their last being the 1991 Canadian GP in a Benetton B191 driven by Nelson Piquet Sr. Older readers will remember this as the race where Nigel Mansell was leading for Williams, started waving to "M'fans", let the revs drop too much and stalled!

Other technical news is that KERS is said to be making a comeback next year. This is to be welcomed because one thing abundantly clear is that the more variables there are in F1, the better the racing.

If Red Bull and McLaren are the top two constructors then Ferrari and Mercedes are vying for three and four. Despite Turkey historically being Massa's special place he could only manage eighth in qualifying with Alonso a dismal 12th. They came home seventh and eight respectively. In Canada things were a bit better. Alonso qualified fourth which became third when Webber was penalized for a gearbox change. He was running second behind Hamilton, took the lead for a lap when Hamilton pitted before stopping himself. He lost any chance of retaining the lead after being caught behind Buemi and later lost second to Button coming upon Chandhok.

Shortly afterwards Luca had another pop at the little teams and will be pleased that the 107% rule (whereby any driver who does not qualify within 107% of pole may not be allowed to start the race) will be re-introduced next year. In Canada the only one this would have affected is - Chandhok. Massa tangled with Liuzzi in the first corner, then with Schuey at the end, having to stop for a new nose. He finished 15th, the place not affected by a 20 second penalty for pitlane speeding. This has not been a good year for Massa, but despite this his Ferrari contract was renewed.

Someone else not having a good year is our beloved Schuey. Always preferring a positive front end, he is said not to like the narrower front tyres. He was out-qualified and out performed by his team mate Nico Rosberg for the first four races, after which the Mercedes was altered with a longer wheelbase which helped him. I didn't understand this, but a friend said if you think of the car as a lever and the rear axle the fulcrum, the longer it is the easier it is to turn. In Spain, the first race for the modified car, Schuey out-qualified Rosberg for the first time and beat him, finishing fourth.

In Monaco we saw a flash of the old Schuey, good and bad. He got pipped by Rosberg in quali and blamed him (bad) but then jumped Alonso in the Safety Car incident (good even though it was Ferrari and it all came out OK when he was penalized). In Turkey he was slightly quicker than Rosberg and they came home fourth and fifth. Then came Canada... Here he ran a long last stint on the soft tyres which didn't work out. As his car lost pace it became wider and he, err, "defended robustly" against a number of quicker cars, to no avail. He was 11th. I am increasingly wishing he hadn't come back...

So from the man-made, but interesting Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve to the Grand Prix of Valencia on probably the worst manifestation of modern F1 - Valencia Ferry Port. Ferrari have a raft of upgrades which includes another blast (literally) from the past - the exhaust-blown diffuser, last used in the '80s and '90s and re-introduced to F1 by Red Bull. Despite the ban on in-season testing, Ferrari have managed to give the F10 a run on a promotional filming day. Other Ferrari news is that they have signed Pat Fry as Assistant Technical Director; he left McLaren recently after 18 years. We wish him well. Historically, a fair bit of Saxon (Anglo and otherwise) influence has generally not been a bad thing at Maranello!

Click here for FIA lap chart (Turkey)

Click here for FIA lap chart (Canada)