No loneliness at the top

As the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix ends, the top of the Formula One world championship gets a bit less crowded. Mark Webber has now made a comfortable 14 point lead at the top of the table. But considering the new points system in place, Fernando Alonso and team-mate Sebastian Vettel are close on his heels at 206 points apiece.

The way the Red Bull cars are charging, I think it would be safe to say that Mark Webber could easily pull away with the championship this season. He’s a perfect blend of aggressive and technical driving, doesn’t take too many un-necessary risks like his young team-mate and has been consistent throughout the season in terms of positive results. Not to mention the Red-Bulls have made it quite a habit this season of securing pole positions for most of the races. If the trend continues, and if Mark Webber does manage to secure a pole, who knows he might just walk away with the trophy!

I’m a bit disappointed with the way things have panned out for team McLaren. They have been quite ordinary in the past 4-5 races and the recent problems with the pace of their car has only intensified matters a bit. Barring the Japanese Grand Prix they have had at least one car retired in each of the past four races! One of those can be attributed to Lewis Hamilton’s extremely charged overtaking manoeuvre which resulted in a crash in the Singapore Grand Prix. Hamilton was unlucky again with a gearbox failure in Japan which possibly cost him a podium position. If McLaren are to catch up to a raging Red Bull team and a rejuvenated Ferrari they have to turn out some magic!

Speaking of Ferrari, it’s amazing how they’ve come out with a good car mid-way through the season. With back-to-back wins in Italy and Singapore, No.1 driver Fernando Alonso is back in the fight for the world championship. One surely feels for Felipe Massa who still hasn’t been able to take advantage of those car upgrades. I’m sure that if Ferrari continues this golden streak, the championship could go down to the wire. And there’s no better track to witness such a fight than the Yas Marina Bay circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Talking of our very own Force India, times haven’t been very good. With only 2 points in the last three races, Force India has been struggling. Other mid-placed teams like Renault and Williams are easily out performing Vijay Mallya’s team. The fault though lies in the car which has been struggling with grip and down force. The brains at Force India have really got to pull up their socks if they have to realize their dream of placing a driver on the podium at the now scheduled 2011 Indian Grand Prix.

Till then....we’ve got a championship battle on our hands!

Return of the Prancing Horse!

The Rebels

Formula One is increasingly turning out to be a my-way-or-the-highway sport. The past two races have given us a) The infamous team order b) The very famous bully – Michael Schumacher. It seems every team, every racer is in a mood to act like a little kid stealing a candy and then proclaiming innocence.

Ferrari snatched a thoroughly deserved victory in the German grand prix. While the fans and the motor sporting world should have stood up and clapped at the revival of the master team, many expressed anger and disappointment. Here’s why. Felipe Massa was gleefully blocking Fernando Alonso from over taking him when Massa was told by his race engineer that “Fernando is faster than you”. Massa being the proven pushover that he is, grumpily slowed down for the No.1 Ferrari driver to go past him.

Ever since this incident race pundits, fans and ex-racers have called for Ferrari to be punished severely. Existing Formula One teams like Red-Bull and Mercedes GP have acknowledged that team orders, although not obviously blatant, do exist. This makes it even easier for hierarchy driven teams like Ferrari to bend rules. Personally I feel that a sulky Alonso must have groaned to his engineer that he didn’t like the sight of Massa in front of him and threw a tantrum to get him out of his way. I have seen Massa getting pushed over enough times to finally say that that man has to learn to be a bit more aggressive.

Moving over next to the Hungarian Grand Prix, we again watched in disbelief as Michael Schumacher intentionally drove Rubens Barrichello to almost crash into the wall. A petrified Barrichello shouted “That was horrible!” into the team radio while Schumacher must have probably been grinning. Later, in the post race interviews Schumacher went as far as saying there was nothing wrong in the challenge (Although he later apologized after intense pressure) .

The point to be taken out of these two incidents is that the pressure of winning or leading is increasingly driving teams and drivers to the limits where it could also be considered in the purview of cheating or foul play. Michael Schumacher for all his greatness has been involved in incidents of questionable legality (Schumi-Hill and Schumi-Villeneuve collisions and 2002 Australian Grand prix team orders).The amount of times he’s gotten away with misdemeanours in a high incident sport where people have died, baffles me. He has been demoted ten grid places for the next race, but will it be enough to dissuade a man bent on not letting anyone by him? Somebody tell him that’s what a race is about.

As for Ferrari’s obsession with blatant team orders, the governing council is yet to give their verdict on the German grand prix. Let’s hope for a change, points are deducted and drivers are stripped of their positions. If not, then F1 is just going to be a sport where you can get away with any kind of fun killing nonsense. Why have race stewards or a body of rules when nobody is going to follow them and get away scot free on a technicality? It’s just going to instil a new rule breaking confidence in teams and drivers which might be too much for the race authorities to deal with.

Look at me! I like driving people up a wall!