iSport F1 Pitstop: Our Motorsport Editor Kunal Shah analyses the Formula1 season that has been yet! Do share your feedback too.
F1 2010 has witnessed an interesting start! While Bahrain was dubbed as Bore-rain and we had experts writing off this season (purely due to the regulations!), Melbourne’s rain did breathe a sigh of relief for everyone. And while the rain brought merry to the spectators in Melbourne, it was most dreaded for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Would the rains abort the GP mid-way in 2010 too?
The rains did arrive in Malaysia, but they restricted their GP action to the Friday practice sessions and Saturday’s qualifying session. Thankfully, they failed to turn up for the race!! But of course, while they were over the track, driving was difficult – leave alone racing. As always we had the usual drivers topping the time sheets in the wet weather practice sessions. We also had the unusual sight of the Ferraris and Lewis Hamilton’s Mclaren fail to make the cut in Q1. Reason was the usual – Ferrari and Mclaren read the weather radar incorrect (or they goofed up yet
again on their rain strategy!!).
Over the years Ferrari’s strategic expertise has gone from great to worst! The extremes could be linked with the exit of their Dream Team - Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher and of course Ross Brawn. While the world is out to believe that Ferrari misses Schumacher, I would disagree! I think they are clearly missing the services of Ross Brawn!
The rain-hit track did offer some exciting qualifying action. All drivers were out doing multiple runs and nearly everyone had a tricky moment or two to counter. Whoever said that the drivers were turning clinical in their racing should take a second look at the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying!!
With the Red Bulls on the front row and the Ferraris and Mclarens on the rear, fans were in for a good entertaining race on Sunday. While the race did start off as dry, there were expectations of rain mid-race. A perfect masala of on-track action and wet weather was what most expected. But they were treated only to the former as the rain Gods refused to visit Sepang on Sunday. A scary thought – since rain adds to the excitement, they are most sought after to make the on-track action interesting!! Has F1 really reached this level of dependence on weather? (No wonder one F1 expert suggested artificial rains at some GPs to make up for the boring action!)
Of the backmarkers, Lewis Hamilton in his Mclaren was the only driver who charged his way up the field. The Ferraris while were quick, couldn’t make enough headway up the order to let their pit stop strategies yield better track position. So while Red Bulls paved the way in Sepang, I am wondering if there are any patterns of domination that one can expect going into the season. Here are my thoughts!
Red Bulls are quick and they will be! Active suspension or not – the Newey designed cars are quick and at the helm are two really quick drivers. Yes, their machines are fragile and I am hoping that the team management is working to better them. So if the Red Bulls do finish their race, expect them to finish at the top! As for Webber, if he steers clear of the mess in the first few laps of the race he does have the pace to beat Vettel.
Ferraris are quick too and they are reliable. But they are thankfully not dominating the GPs as predicted pre-season. Their race pace is consistent and will allow them to challenge the Bulls all season long. However, they still lack the bite when it comes to qualifying and of course their wet-weather strategy. They seem to read it wrong most of the times. Alonso and Massa have shown comparable pace early season, but Massa looks little edgier of the two. Let’s hope the Championships do return to the Scuderia stables this season.
Mclaren have the strongest team on paper with two World Champion drivers. Their battle has been the most interesting to follow. While Lewis Hamilton has been the faster of the two, Jenson Button surely has been the smarter of the two. His early tyre switch in the Australian GP was a master move that won him and Mclaren their first win in 2010. Lewis Hamilton has been menacingly quick, but he’s somewhere going down the Schumacher road. His weaving attempt in Malaysia to fend off Petrov indicates that he’s built up arrogance alongwith his speed.
Mercedes GP have had a sublime start to their season and more so with Michael Schumacher. Fans and experts expected Schumi to come blazing in his ranks and beat the grid but I am only glad that this is not to be. Nico Rosberg has been consistent in his qualifying and race pace and has out-driven Schumi in the first 3 GPs of the year. While many do agree Schumacher is still shedding off his rusty side, fans are hoping that he doesn’t take one GP too many!
Force India deserves a mention not just for their consistent points scoring finishes, but also their grit and guts. Vijay Mallya has transformed the team and along with a good chassis and engine they have two really quick drivers too. Most pundits expected Sutil to walk over Luizzi this season, but that clearly hasn’t been the case. While Sutil has had the speed over Luizzi, he’s surely had a dearth of luck. Let’s hope that their performance going into the season only improves and they take the fight to the top teams.
Williams and Scuderia Toro Rosso while have been in the points, still need to improve their package and get competitive. They have been up there to pick up the points that the top teams drop, however, luck won’t side them all season long. Nico Hulkenberg has showed that pace that was expected of him and while he’s committed a few rookie errors, his laptimes and competence with Rubens Barrichello does speak volumes for his talent.
BMW Sauber Ferrari and their struggles indicate how important pre-season tests are. Yes, they were quick in the preseason testing, but one must also remember that while they were racing on tracks, the team management was also in talks with various investors and buyers to ensure their spot on the grid. I hope that Peter Sauber and De la Rosa’s experience alongwith Kobayashi’s raw speed does bring back the days of glory to this talented team.
There’s little to choose off the three new comer teams – Lotus, Virgin and HRT. While they struggled to complete the first 2 races of the season, they did show improvement by completing the attrition ridden Malaysian GP. That these new comers are fighting amongst each other is a good sign! Lotus seems to have the pace over the other two – but with Virgin’s comprehensive development program one will have to wait and watch on who rules the roost here!
As for the Indian flavour, Karun Chandhok has done extremely well to finish 2 races out of 3. He not only managed to finish the Australian and Malaysian GP, but also managed to take the fight to his team-mate Bruno Senna and did finish ahead of him. If Karun does manage to compete races consistently this season, a seat with a mid-grid team is not far away. Scoring points might be tough, but finishing races should be the prime agenda!
Pre-season had some one told me that Felipe Massa would be leading the F1 Driver’s Championship I would take it with a pinch of salt. But the reality of the rankings is that Massa is out ahead on the top. Funnily, he’s not won a single race this season, but has driven consistently in all three! And we thought that the new points scoring system would aid drivers who would win races! All this more coming up in the remaining races of the season!!
(The author is a former racer and currently works with Sport18 - a div. of Network18. Kunal can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
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