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Archive: red light

Mid-season report: Top 11 drivers

15 July 2008 18:59

Categories: Opinion, Report

This is the second part of my mid-season report on the drivers’ performances so far. Read the first part here

11. Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel is now widely regarded as one of F1′s hottest young talents. While some still have their doubts, I am in the camp that fancies Vettel for at least some kind of moderate success. Time will tell whether he is the new Alonso. In the meantime he needs to get into a better car, fast.

The young German has endured some tough times at Toro Rosso. Although the chassis is effectively the same as Red Bull’s, and the lump is a Ferrari, obviously the team (formerly Minardi, remember) is not quite up to the job in terms of preparation. Also, the team raced with a year-old car for the first five races. So Vettel did well to qualify 9th in Australia. When he got his hands on the new car he did a great job to salvage what was a rotten weekend by finishing an excellent 5th at Monaco. Another highlight was qualifying 8th in Britain.

10. Rubens Barrichello

The most experienced F1 driver of all time still has some life in him yet. If anything, he seems to be on the up. His most recent result was a solid 3rd place in the treacherous conditions of Silverstone, which could well have been 2nd were it not for a pitlane blunder. That follows a pair of back-to-back points finishes in Monaco and Canada.

This season has not been without its faults. Notably, he threw away a decent race result in Australia by running through the red light in the pitlane and getting disqualified. However, he has amassed a haul of 11 points so far this season in what is generally considered to be a terrible car. Barrichello currently stands in a highly creditable 10th position in the championship.

9. Heikki Kovalainen

I have to admit that I have been disappointed in Kovalainen so far this season. It is true that he has had a horrendous, Webber-esque run of bad luck this season. You can mention the wheel problem in Spain which caused a horrific accident, the electrical glitch at Monaco, the puncture in Turkey and the Safety Car in Australia. All of these and more have thwarted Kovalainen this season.

And yet, when he has not had so much bad luck, he has not really looked on the pace. I still don’t understand why he was so far off the pace in Canada. And he simply could not cope with the wet conditions in Silverstone anything like Hamilton could. Yes, he took pole position in Silverstone. But I think the fact that people applaud him for grabbing pole position in the fastest car says it all.

Ron Dennis says Kovalainen needs to be re-built after his year at Renault. Let’s hope the process doesn’t take too long.

8. Fernando Alonso

For Alonso’s many fans in Spain, this season must be difficult to endure. It is painful to see such a great driver not have the equipment he needs to get results. The Renault is, by all accounts, a terrible car. Alonso should therefore be commended for grabbing the odd result here and there. 4th in Australia and 6th in Turkey and Britain are his highlights of the year. It looks like his chances of getting a podium this year, never mind a win, are very slim indeed.

I really like Alonso, so it’s sad to see him in this situation. I sense that Alonso is rather down in the dumps about this situation and is rather nonchalant about Renault ever improving. He has lapsed in concentration a couple of times this year. And when he’s been on the attack he has sometimes curiously lacked judgement, such as when he crashed into Heidfeld trying to overtake at the Grand Hotel hairpin — a move that was never going to stick in a month of Sundays.

7. Jarno Trulli

It is unusual for me to praise Jarno Trulli. I thought he was finished, really. But this season he has had some very strong results, outshining Timo Glock almost all of the time. He gained a podium in France completely on merit (McLaren penalties notwithstanding), and it could well have been 2nd if Kimi had been called in with that dangerous flapping exhaust like he should have.

Trulli’s season has not been error-free. In fact, he seems to be making a habit of spinning a lot. But that is during practice when it doesn’t matter. Come race day, he is prepared to pick up the points. He has only retired once all season, and that was in the first race and due to an electrical failure. Trulli is not the greatest of drivers, but he looks to be bang on form right at the moment despite his advancing age.

6. Nick Heidfeld

Nick Heidfeld has endured an unusually difficult season. His qualifying performances in particular have been off-colour, as he grapples with a sudden inability to get heat into his tyres properly. He has worked hard to sort out the problem though, and his latest qualifying session has seen an upswing when he qualified 5th (compared to an average grid position this season of 8.22). That was the first time all season he has out-qualified team-mate Robert Kubica.

Despite a generally disappointing season so far, Heidfeld has not been without his moments. A well-deserved 2nd place in Canada was ruined only by the fact that Kubica won the race. He finished second in the horrendous conditions at Silverstone, and another second place was amassed in Australia. He is a solid 5th place in the championship, just ten points behind Kubica — which is much less than you might think.

5. Felipe Massa

Massa had the worst possible start to the season when he spun in two races in a row. This prompted questions about his ability to drive without traction control. Commendably, under immense pressure, he turned up the wick at the Bahrain Grand Prix. This prompted a run of great results: two more wins, a 2nd and a 3rd. Only an errant 5th place in Canada ruined the run. That put him right back into contention, as he was able to capitalise on the mistakes and misfortunes of Räikkönen and Hamilton.

But his performance in Britain left a lot to be desired to say the least. Massa has never been the strongest of wet weather drivers, but he was positively embarrassing in Britain. When Webber spun, the Australian ploughed his way through the field. Massa just trundled round at the back. Massa went on to have four more spins.

Massa seems to be good enough when it’s all going his way. But if there is the slightest problem, he seems unable to cope with it.

4. Mark Webber

While his team-mate David Coulthard has been having a tough time of it in the midfield, Mark Webber has grabbed the (Red) Bull by the horns and collected serious handfuls of points. His bad luck has finally evaporated and the numbers say it all: five consecutive points finishes (a personal record), along with an extra one in France. A best result of 4th doesn’t top Coulthard’s podium, but Webber now has the consistency that Red Bull need to collect those precious championship points.

Webber is now the only driver of the midfield that you can reasonably expect to be battling for the points race-in, race-out. An awesome front row grid slot in Silverstone underlines the fact that Webber is in great form at the moment and can reasonably be described as the ‘best of the rest’ behind BMW.

3. Lewis Hamilton

It’s been a very topsy-turvy season for Hamilton. He has had some amazing high points — the unexpected win in Australia, and dominant wet-weather performances in the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix and his home race at Silverstone. But the low points have been very, very low. He suffered the world’s most embarrassing incidence of fat fingers in Bahrain and proceeded to crash into the back of Alonso, so impatient he was to make his way through the field. His crash in the pitlane in Canada was simply unforgivable. And a so-so performance in France led to the British media to heap the criticism on top of him.

This year Hamilton has a great chance of winning the championship. He just needs to cut out the silly errors and he will be unstoppable. He is finally showing the signs of maturity that demonstrate that he will be able to do this.

2. Kimi Räikkönen

Like Hamilton, Räikkönen has made his fair share of mistakes this season. He looked incredibly off-colour in the season opener in Australia and also in Monaco. This has led to yet more speculation about his future, as it is said his heart is no longer in Formula 1 and the motivation has gone.

Nonetheless, it is notable that even in Australia and Monaco he finished 8th and 9th. Some F1 drivers at the back would give their right arm for those positions to be their worst performances. His one and only retirement in Canada was not his fault, as it was caused by Hamilton crashing into the back of him in the pitlane. You also have to applaud him for bringing a very sick car home in 2nd in France. Räikkönen simply cannot be written off and he has a great shout of winning his second WDC in a row.

1. Robert Kubica

I think we should give this man a nickname: Robot Kubica. He is simply flawless! Well okay, not quite flawless. He spun off in the wet conditions in Silverstone. But many drivers did, and Kubica was effectively driving a car that he had never driven before.

Apart from that, his only DNF was in Australia where he was crashed into by Nakajima. His other worst performance is a 5th place in France where BMW struggled with set-up. He had an awesome win in Canada, the first time a non-Ferrari-or-McLaren car has won a race for almost two years. The record is topped with two 2nds and a third. He has outqualified his team-mate 7–1. In short, Robert Kubica is amazing. And he is the only driver who I can genuinely say would deserve to win the WDC on current form. What a shame he probably won’t manage it.

7 comments

When is a mistake not a mistake? When your name's Lewis Hamilton

10 June 2008 19:44

Categories: Opinion

Once again I have found myself becoming more annoyed with Lewis Hamilton because of his interviews following a controversial on-track incident. The first time this happened was during the Brazilian Grand Prix — ironically following another incident with Kimi Räikkönen.

This time round in Canada, Lewis Hamilton pulled off the distinctly un-Senna-esque feat of crashing himself out in the pitlane after failing to observe a red light. Even though I’m not a fan of Lewis Hamilton, and am a vocal critic of the mad unjustified hype that surrounds him, I didn’t feel too much schadenfreude.

The thing is, the British media’s plan of convincing us all the Hamilton is one of the best drivers there has ever been — an equal to Senna — is blatantly beginning to backfire now. And when it comes to the British press, that can mean only one thing: the backlash. And that’s not pretty to see, and it would be a real shame for Hamilton to suffer this.

The thing is that he is a genuinely talented driver, but the British media built him up so much that he couldn’t realistically achieve what the public would inevitably expect from him. So just because he is a very good driver rather than a great driver, he is going to face some horrific treatment from the media soon.

Indeed, the post-Canada backlash was pretty bad, as summarised by Axis of Oversteer. The Daily Star even went as far as to suggest that an ‘L’ plate should be affixed to Hamilton’s McLaren in future.

Others — still trying to push the ‘Hamilton is the new Senna’ myth — looked to blame the team, particularly on ITV. Nothing is ever Hamilton’s fault, it seems. If he presses the wrong button on the steering wheel, it’s McLaren’s fault for having the button there in the first place. If he crashes into someone it’s the cars fault for losing its bridge wing. And now that he failed to observe a red light, it’s the team’s fault for not telling him about the red light.

The thing about McLaren is that, partly because of the team’s culture and partly because it is also in their interest to present Hamilton as the greatest driver alive, McLaren will happily absorb all of the blame in these situations. So it’s a win-win — the media gets to blame McLaren and McLaren happily take the blame to support their driver.

But should McLaren be warning their drivers about things like red lights? I remember a few years back the F1 world dissolved into fits of laughter when it was revealed on the FOM world feed one race that Takuma Sato was being told over the radio when to move left or right. That, of course, is meant to be the driver’s judgement call.

So what is it to be? Should the driver’s hand be held throughout the race by a committee of “spotters”? Isn’t the driver paid to make these judgements for himself? This isn’t mickey mouse IndyCar or Nascar — this is Formula 1, which is supposed to contain the 20 best drivers in the world.

The fact is that Lewis Hamilton shouldn’t have needed any kind of notification or signal from his team that there was a red light at the end of the pitlane. There was already a very clear signal: the actual red light. He should have seen this. It is his job to see it. He failed. Game over.

The thing is, Hamilton made a silly mistake. Or at least, it sounds like a silly mistake. He failed to observe a red light. The right light is a classic obstacle; one that millions of road drivers every day manage to navigate with ease. As such, Hamilton’s incident is perfect for tabloid ridicule.

But the red light problem is relatively uncommon in Formula 1. Even though the presence of the red light during Safety Car periods has been around for yonks, for various reasons drivers in the past normally encountered this light as green and it was rarely an issue.

However, the red light is a particular problem at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because the pitlane is so short compared with the actual race circuit that runs along next to it. The pitlane is basically a continuation of the long straight whereas the start / finish straight has a chicane at one end of it and a tricky ‘S’ bend at the other. Juan Pablo Montoya was disqualified a few years ago in Canada for running the red light. Fisichella and Massa were disqualified last year. The problem has become more common at other circuits now partly due to the new Safety Car rules.

Anyway, Hamilton fell foul of a rule that he should have known about. But it is still a relatively uncommon incident, so perhaps it is not much of a surprise that checking for the red light slipped his mind. After all, Nico Rosberg slammed straight into the back of Hamilton having also failed to spot the red light. I saw Hamilton’s incident as a silly but understandable mistake.

However, Lewis Hamilton’s post-race interviews made sure that any sympathy I had for him drained away pretty quickly. Here he exhibited all of the characteristics that rub me up the wrong way about Lewis Hamilton.

First of all there is the refusal to accept he made a mistake. You can tell he knows he was in the wrong. Even as he got out of the car his body language said it all. He looked simultaneously embarrassed and angry. But he just can’t bring himself to actually say it. This week’s Chequered Flag podcast has an interview that demonstrates his evasion of responsibility (it’s 13 minutes in if you want to look for it):

Lewis Hamilton: You can’t even call it a racing incident really, can you? I mean, what is it?
Holly Samos: Just one of those mistakes?
LH: I don’t… I don’t call it one of those either. I don’t know what I’d call it.

I would definitely agree with him that it was not a racing incident. A racing incident is what happens when two people are racing for position and it’s a 50/50 situation and both end up colliding and it’s no-one’s fault in particular. This certainly wasn’t the case here. Kimi Räikkönen was just minding his own business and the whole incident can be put down to Hamilton’s brainfade.

So it must have been a mistake, right? Not according to Lewis Hamilton. He can’t even bring himself to use the word ‘mistake’ in his response, calling it instead “one of those”. But the fact that he doesn’t know what to call it other than a mistake says it all. Listening to him duck responsibility like this is as painful and embarrassing as listening to a politician evade a pressing question.

The interview also encapsulates Hamilton’s rather misplaced confidence. You might call it cocky or even out-and-out arrogance. In his interview with ITV he asserted that he was “breezing it” during the race. In the BBC interview he said, “We were the best this weekend. No-one could touch us this weekend.” But you certainly aren’t the best — you definitely aren’t untouchable — if you are prone to a silly brainfade moment like that.

Moreover, it’s not clear that Hamilton would automatically have won the Canadian Grand Prix without the pitlane incident. He looked good in qualifying, but we don’t really know how much fuel Kimi Räikkönen had. Filling up at that stage of the race, almost certainly both cars would have needed to stop again, in which case Räikkönen probably had the advantage because he had got out in front of Hamilton. And, having fuelled lighter, Kimi may have been able to pull out a decent lead.

McLaren really needed to win in Canada. The circuit is known to suit the McLaren in particular. Coming off the back of Monaco — another McLaren-friendly circuit — meant that these were two vital races for McLaren and they really needed to maximise their points haul to make much of this year’s championships.

As it was, Ferrari looked surprisingly good in Monaco and Hamilton needed a dash of luck to take victory there. Meanwhile, Kovalainen could only manage one point in Monaco. In Canada, McLaren came away with a big fat zilch. Make no mistake — this is a major blow to McLaren’s chances. The next few circuits suit Ferrari better and this could be the red team’s opportunity to pull out a serious lead.

Canada was probably McLaren’s best chance to grab 18 points in a weekend but instead BMW took the 1-2. And now McLaren lie 3rd in the Championship. They can’t have been planning for that. Furthermore, the fact that the McLaren underneath Kovalainen did not perform in Canada must be ringing alarm bells in Woking. Far from “breezing it”, I think McLaren will now be bricking it.

19 comments

BMW Sauber grab historic 1-2 while Hamilton slips up

8 June 2008 21:53

Categories: Report

Wow, what another incredible race! This year’s Canadian Grand Prix was always going to be exciting. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve usually provides excitement and unpredictability and pre-race reports of the possibility of rain threatened to add even more uncertainty into the mix. Then when the circuit started breaking up even more than normal during qualifying, another element of chance was added.

Well, the Canadian Grand Prix was highly exciting — but not, as it turned out, for the reasons expected. As the race drew nearer predictions for rain became vaguer and in the end it was not a threat. And overnight repairs to the circuit appear to have done the trick — the repaired tarmac held up better during the race than it did for the qualifying sessions.

But you can always rely on the tough pseudo-street circuit to throw the cards in the air. The barriers are almost as close as Monaco, but the Montreal circuit is much faster. This means carnage, safety cars and above all it means you need to skill to win the race.

Lewis Hamilton showed he does not have this skill — not this time round. He was mesmerising during qualifying, but a schoolboy error put paid to his hopes to repeat the feat this year. Pitting during the safety car period, Hamilton failed to notice that the red light was on at the end of the pitlane. While Kimi Räikkönen and Robert Kubica waited diligently for the light to turn green, Hamilton just ploughed straight into the back of the red car.

Nico Rosberg wasn’t much better, as in turn he hit Hamilton on the rear for good measure. The damage to Hamilton and Räikkönen’s cars was extensive enough to end their races immediately. As the pair climbed out of their cars, Hamilton looked sheepish and turned away from Räikkönen to avoid the inevitable ear-bashing. No so easy Lewis — Räikkönen tapped him on the shoulder so that Hamilton could not avoid paying attention. The Finn wagged his finger like a school teacher. Even with their helmets on, the emotions were clear to see from their body language.

Some will say that this is payback for Räikkönen taking out Sutil in Monaco. Indeed, what goes around comes around. Now all we need is for someone to ride up Hamilton’s jacksy for things to really even out…

Hamilton’s many supporters quickly began to complain about the rules surrounding the red light at the end of the pitlane, but this is no excuse. The red light is not a new rule. Pitlanes have always had red lights at the end — certainly for as long as I can remember, and probably for a much longer time than that. There is a very sensible reason for that.

The fact is that a safety car period means that there should be no overtaking on the race track. You can’t have cars re-joining the field in the middle of the queue because of the confusion it would cause. Where in the queue to re-join? It’s like barging your way to the front of the queue at the post office: it’s just not on. Plus, such an eventuality would lead inescapably to overtaking — therefore racing — taking place. You simply can’t have cars re-joining the middle of the train during a safety car period.

Hamilton should know the rules. He does know the rules. He was just too late to notice the red light. That means game over. It is now up to the stewards to decide if he will be penalised for ending Räikkönen’s race. The three protagonists in the pile-up — Hamilton, Räikkönen and Rosberg — are being investigated by the stewards as we speak and we await their decision. My gut instinct is that if that was a Piquet Jnr or a Nakajima that ploughed into the back of the World Champion in the pitlane, that young driver would be facing a ban.

(Update: It has been announced that both Hamilton and Rosberg will face a 10-place grid penalty at the next Grand Prix in France.)

It could all have been so very different. Sitting next to Räikkönen at the end of the pitlane waiting for the lights to change was Robert Kubica. In a parallel universe, Hamilton would have ploughed into the back of Kubica. In this instance, the luck went the Pole’s way. It’s a classic Montreal win — get a bit of luck, then use your skill to capitalise on it.

Robert Kubica certainly has the skill. He had plenty to deal with during the race. Being among the first to stop during the first Safety Car period, meaning that he had to trundle around in the midfield. He spent a portion of the race being held up by a Toro Rosso. He was the leading driver of those who had made a stop, but it was beginning to look like Nick Heidfeld had the upper hand up front. The German had pulled out enough of a lead to make a pit stop and still come out ahead of Kubica.

However, Heidfeld was on a one-stop strategy and was advised by his team to let through the lighter Kubica, who would need to make an extra pitstop. The race became a classic battle of pitstop strategies: the one-stopping but heavier Heidfeld and the two-stopping but nimbler Kubica.

It was tough for Heidfeld to keep his patience while his team mate steamed into the lead. At one point he got sucked into a battle with the (probably two-stopping) Alonso, when in reality the pair weren’t really racing at all. His engineer wisely advised Heidfeld to forget Alonso and let him past in an attempt to ultimately save him time.

In the end, Kubica had the speed to capitalise on the situation. When it was time for Kubica to make his second pitstop, he was over 25 seconds ahead of his team mate — enough to retain his on-track advantage. He would go on to take the win.

The victory is historic for a number of reasons. Firstly, Robert Kubica is the first Polish driver ever to stand on the top step of the podium. For this, he must be immensely proud.

This is also BMW’s first ever win as a constructor (although the won races in the past with Williams as an engine supplier). And of course, the BMW team has grown out of the Sauber F1 team. It is worth remembering that, despite the temptation to shorten the team’s name to ‘BMW’, officially this is still ‘BMW Sauber’. I did not find Sauber to be very likeable, but under the guidance of BMW and Mario Theissen, I now have an immense amount of respect for the team.

So a first-ever win for BMW and a first-ever win for Sauber. And for that win to be a 1-2 as well makes the victory sweeter. It’s the first time a team’s first win has been a 1-2 as well for ten years. Jordan did it way back in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix with Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher.

This is a signal that BMW mean business. McLaren may have laughed off the possibility that they could sustain the pace of development across the entire season, but commendably BMW have got on with the job and come up with the goods. You can’t ask for more than a 1-2, and BMW have provided it. It is a testament to the leadership of Mario Theissen and the great driving skills of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld.

I can’t help but be reminded of the steady progress that Renault made with Fernando Alonso. Renault’s performances improved throughout 2003 until that first win came. In 2004 some another win came along with more strong race showings. Then in 2005 and 2006 back-to-back World Championships came. Can BMW repeat the feat? I wouldn’t bet against it.

Just as Alonso led the charge for Renault, Kubica is the promising young star who is threatening the big guns. I wouldn’t say that this win was overdue. But we certainly knew it was coming. And for that first win to come at the scene of his horrendous accident last year — one of the most violent-looking accidents I can ever recall seeing — speaks volumes about the man’s positive character, mindset and approach. Is Robert Kubica a future World Champion? Put it this way: I’m excited for him in the same way as I was excited for Alonso about five years ago.

But does this mean that Nick Heidfeld is the tired, past-it, lost talent that Trulli represented in the Renault days? I am a big fan of Quick Nick. But this season he has just not been on it at all. Perhaps the car doesn’t suit him.

Whatever the problem with Heidfeld is, by anyone’s book 2nd place ought to be a reassertion of his authority. However, Nick Heidfeld looked thoroughly dejected in parc fermé. No doubt he feels that the win should have been his had he been able to hold up Kubica during the race as he perhaps feels he had the right to. All I can say is, Kubica had the speed to win the race and Heidfeld didn’t. The decision to let Kubica pass was the only sensible decision for the team to make. In the end the race was won on raw pace, and Kubica had it while Heidfeld didn’t.

Nonetheless, 2nd place represents a titanic effort from Heidfeld. Yes, he had a bit of luck. But he still had to wring the performance out of his car to take the advantage. He started from 8th on the grid, which is the kind of performance we have come to expect from Heidfeld this season. But today he came alive and played a vital part in BMW’s maiden 1-2. He should be proud, not dejected.

And, as he pointed out in the press conference, Heidfeld has played a major part in the development of the BMW Sauber team. He has been there with BMW since the start of the BMW-Sauber relationship. He raced with BMW engines when he was at Williams. And before that he spent a number of years at Sauber. Heidfeld can be happy with the doubtlessly valuable input he has provided the BMW Sauber team over the years, and today was payback day. Hopefully one day soon — as much as I am a huge fan of Kubica — it will be Heidfeld on the top step of the podium in navy blue and white overalls.

My race report will be continued tomorrow.

4 comments