Formula One is so terribly predictable these days, isn’t it? In such a technologically advanced sport, one where what you’re driving matters as much as how you drive it, a quick car is a quick car. There’s no mystery any more. Unless it’s one of those races where the weather can’t make its mind up, there’s no scope for one of those freak, form book destroying results so beloved of sports fans the world over.
The team on pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, after a completely dry qualifying session, entered the weekend having never scored a point in Formula One. The man in 2nd place had qualified 18th the week before, the man in 3rd hadn’t been in the top 10 all season to that point, and the man in 4th was starting 10 places ahead of his championship-leading teammate. All so easy to forecast, it’s a wonder anyone bothers watching.
Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix was as absorbing as it was baffling, and it left the race an utter nightmare to predict. Some of us had a crack anyway, and found that while we generally did alright, we weren’t absolutely on the money:
Yes, the Force India isn’t exactly laden with fuel but nor is it ridiculously light. Can it win? No. It can’t win, although it can and should score a decent haul of points, because it doesn’t have the pace to do so.
There were faster cars on the track this Sunday than the Force India, but not many, and not by much. Giancarlo Fisichella, having one of those weekends that would have made him a superstar if it wasn’t for all the crushing mediocrity in between them, was absolutely mighty. Fisi loves Spa, and clearly revelled in a car that got on with the circuit just as well, leading confidently from the start. He didn’t win, but that wasn’t anything to do with his pace, which was more than good enough. No, it was to do with something else:
The heavier runners – everyone from Rosberg backwards – would love there to be a safety car before they make their first stop, something that would wipe out their deficit to the lighter, faster machines ahead and give the leaders nothing like enough time to build the gap up again. Some of them, chiefly Button, have an awful lot riding on it.
Jenson got his safety car on the first lap thanks to a multi-car shunt at the end of the back straight. Unfortunately for the Englishman, his car was one of them. At the head of the pack, Raikkonen made a mistake into the Les Combes chicane, creating a bottleneck that was clearing just as Button arrived. That danger cleared, Button was doubtless highly amused when he was tipped into a race-ending spin by the suicidally late-braking Renault of Romain Grosjean, driving so much like friend of petrolheadblog.com Nelson Piquet Jr that it was almost heartwarming. Lewis Hamilton, trying to pick his way through the aftermath, was speared by Jaime Alguersuari, who had ample space to drive his Toro Rosso past the McLaren but, for reasons best known to himself, elected not to bother. Strike four cars, strike one title contender, and cue manic laughter in the cockpit of the other Brawn, inching closer to a title tilt that looked impossible two months ago. Right?
Barrichello, 4th on the grid, is the lightest of the top 10, and on the face of it he doesn’t appear to be in contention. He’ll be first frontrunner into the pits, just about capable of going beyond a single-figure lap count in the first stint, and even with a lighter car he couldn’t beat the Q3 interlopers. Out of it, right? An early pit stop at Spa shouldn’t prove too costly…he can win, as none of the cars directly ahead on the grid are likely to run away from him.
They did. So did all of the cars behind him. Yet again, an excellent Barrichello qualifying effort was ruined by his triggering the anti-win system at the start – again, the clutch was to blame, the noises from the team suggesting this was a technical issue and not operator error. From 4th on the grid, Rubens ended up as good as last into La Source (the white car at the back of shot, if you’re struggling). As his teammate Button retired, Rubens was too busy scampering across the infield trying to avoid crashing himself to celebrate. In fighting form, the Brazilian had resolved that some points closer to the other Brawn was better than no points closer and, despite an oil leak in the final stages, would recover to 7th by the chequered flag, a result his car celebrated by ceremonially burning its own rear end.
Only Red Bull, then, could stop Jenson from getting away with his 5th nightmare weekend in succession:
Red Bull have the car to beat in race conditions. Brilliantly fast and consistent over a series of laps regardless of which driver is at the wheel, the car looks supremely fast this weekend. Their only problem is that their supremely fast car starts the race surrounded by slower ones. The car has raw pace and Spa isn’t a particularly difficult track to pass on, so both drivers can still win the Grand Prix provided they make up a couple of places each off the line.
Mark Webber spent a lot of time surrounded by slower cars, and would surely have been alarmed to note that as the race went on, those slower cars became faster ones. Particularly vexing was the presence of Nick Heidfeld’s BMW, forced by a risky Red Bull pit release into evasive action that would see Webbo hit with a perfectly just penalty for an unsafe pit exit. Quick Nick was just that all afternoon, but a poor first lap condemned him to 5th, just behind and rapidly gaining on the other BMW of Kubica.
As Webber’s pace disappeared, Sebastian Vettel’s came on strong. Blindingly fast on long runs, Seb’s qualifying error had left him with that bit too much to do. He crossed the line 3rd, only a couple of seconds adrift of the magnificent Fisichella, but 6 points could have been 10 had he started nearer the front. The more open goals Red Bull miss, the more secure the faltering Button becomes.
What of the suddenly competitive Toyota?
Like Fisi, Jarno’s been there or thereabouts all weekend, and his pace on long runs in practice compared favourably with everyone around him. For team and driver, this is a big weekend, and it’s Toyota’s best chance yet of claiming that elusive maiden win.
Everything looked good for the first couple of hundred yards, that being the distance covered before Heidfeld dived inside Trulli and Trulli dived into the back of Heidfeld. The resulting front wing damage necessitated a pit stop, in turn resulting in a loss of heart from Trulli so grave he found himself complaining on the radio that it was impossible to pass People’s Champion Luca Badoer.
Badoer, armed with KERS power boost, was lightning down the straights but treacle in the twisty bits, and must surely now have driven himself out of the second Ferrari. The hot tip to replace him is, judging by the Italian media, anybody with a valid competition licence, though Fisichella seems to have the edge on everyone at present. Fisi may wish to reflect that his Force India was quicker than the Ferrari this weekend – no, really, go back and read it again. We’ll still be here when you’re done – and that if he jumps ship, his replacement (probably Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India’s reserve driver) might have the best of the deal going into the next race at Monza.
He may, however, wish to reflect that even if the Force India was quicker, the result of everything we’ve covered so far was that the Ferrari won the race:
Kimi, remember, has KERS power boost on his car, which will be very useful on the run into La Source on lap 1 and a gift from Heaven on the run out of there. We know Ferrari are better on race day, that they’re capable of producing a result by simply plodding around the track for longer than their rivals before pitting – witness Massa’s ascent of the scoring charts at Silverstone and again at the Nurburgring – and that Kimi’s special button is likely to have him ahead of the lighter men around him before the pitstops even begin.
Kimi was perhaps fortunate to escape censure for a premeditated attempt to redefine the racetrack at La Source on the first lap – before the track was remodelled, everyone ran very wide there to get better exit speed, which Kimi did this year in spite of the track boundary clearly being 20 feet to the right of where he was – but from there his special button usage was exemplary. Up to 2nd by the top of the hill, he might not have got close enough to pass Fisichella had it not been for that safety car. One doubts that Kimi reflected on that as he KERSed his way past the helpless Force India on the restart, but he’ll have been well aware of it later in the race, as KERS became the only thing keeping Raikkonen out of range of the fundamentally faster man behind.
A feature designed to create overtaking, then, spent 10 seconds doing so and the rest of the Grand Prix thwarting Fisichella’s best efforts to respond in kind. It had robbed us of a remarkable win, but what was left was still an extraordinary fairy story, one of the low-budget minnows rising to the top and taking on the big spending heavy hitters using nothing but genuine pace. For one week only? Nobody would dare to say.
“In fighting form, the Brazilian had resolved that some points closer to the other Brawn was better than no points closer and, despite an oil leak in the final stages, would recover to 7th by the chequered flag, a result his car celebrated by ceremonially burning its own rear end.”
ROFLMAO!
One of my favorite posts yet. ^_^