Five red lights on, the roar of the engines reaches deafening
proportions, lights out and twenty-two Formula 1 cars streak away in a flash
towards the first corner at the Circuit de Catalunya. The blood red Ferrari of
Fernando Alonso makes another exceptional start from 5th on the grid,
but space around him closes down, Sebastian Vettel then Kimi Raikkonen force
him to the outside into turn 1.
Alonso is a fighter and he fought brilliantly from the
beginning. Kimi got tucked up behind Lewis Hamilton into turn 2, enabling the
Ferrari to edge onto the outside of the Lotus then with the momentum with him
he stayed on the outside of Hamilton’s Mercedes and was into third place,
immediately hooking himself on to the back of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.
It was a great move and put him right into the mix of the
lead battle. Nico Rosberg was heading the pack from pole position but the Mercedes’
perennial problem of tyre degradation struck again almost immediately. Rosberg
was like a cork in a bottle, with a queue of cars headed by Vettel and Alonso
behind him only broken up by Hamilton’s similarly suffering car.
Ferrari needed to act and brought him in on lap 10 before
Rosberg and Vettel, when they stopped a lap later Alonso was able to split
them. Lap 13 he uses all his KERS, opens the DRS and dives around the outside
of Rosberg to take the lead.
It wasn’t all done and dusted though, Kimi Raikkonen was
getting stronger as the race went on and move himself into a position where he
looked like he might just be able to knick it. He was on a three stop strategy
with Alonso making four, but as the race went on Alonso took all the grip he
could to maintain a lead and close gaps as the strategies played out.
Eventually as he made his final stop (while suffering a slow puncture) he was
over 10 seconds clear of the Lotus and on fresher tyres; the race was over.
Fernando was jubilant as took his 2nd Spanish
Grand Prix victory, stopping to pick up a Spanish flag which contravened
regulations but the stewards chose common sense over stupidity and didn’t
penalise him.
It launches him right back into the title fight after a poor
Bahrain race, and with Red Bull not showing wonderful pace today, Alonso will
be getting increasingly confident. In truth Alonso could have won at least
another race so far this year and been on the podium in the other, he’s looking
formidable in this kind of exceptional form; but we expect no less.
Tyre degradation
again, Mercedes plummet, Red Bull complain
There were more complaints over the tyres this weekend. It’s
an argument that doesn’t seem to stop; my main thought on the matter is that it’s
the same rules for everyone so you build your car accordingly.
It’s simply not good enough to have a car which can be fast
in qualifying then not be able to manage them in the race. Surely the race is
the main point. I certainly do take on board the various points about Formula 1
being about speed not tyre conservation, and I think perhaps it’s gone a bit
too far.
Today for instance we had four stop strategies and I don’t
think that’s a good thing, it just makes the races slightly too convoluted and
a bit gimmicky rather than a test of true strategy. It was still a fairly
exciting race, but I think seeing the cars pass each other so easily as their
strategies played out actually took away from cars racing side by side. It’s
all over in an instant with no chance to fight back.
However, it’s not like it hasn’t happened before, in the
Turbo era of the 80s cars ran to strict fuel conservation rules, in various
other eras you’ve always had to look after the tyres, although not to quite
this extent. In fact the only era which has been full on maximum attack is when
you could refuel and had Bridgestone tyres which were made to last forever. But
you worked to those rules like everyone else did.
In fact as I was writing, Pirelli boss Paul Hembery has said
they are considering changes to the tyres to ensure that four stop strategies
will be a thing of the past by the British Grand Prix. However, not all teams
are in favour fearing this will favour Red Bull who most suspect are restrained
by the tyres not letting them exploit their ultimate pace. We’ll see what
happens.
If Pirelli do change anything further (they already have
with their hard tyre) then it should only be a slight adjustment, just so the
drivers can push that bit harder. Whether that would stop the likes of Mercedes
destroying their tyres is another matter.
Over one lap the silver cars are fantastic, as Rosberg and
Hamilton locked out the front row. But consistently over the years they just
chew them up almost from the start. Hamilton could do nothing today as he fell
back to 12th while Rosberg controlled his first stint well to head
the field before falling back to what was quite a decent 6th and on
a three stopper to boot.
Vettel blamed his cars lack of kisses and cuddles for his
tyres as he couldn’t maintain Ferrari’s or Lotus’ race pace and dropped back to
fourth from third. He looked to be a contender at first but as the race
developed he couldn’t maintain the pace. This is through no lack of speed from
the Red Bull, just the way they nurture the rubber. He still leads the title
chase though, and Red Bull haven’t won three years consecutively for nothing,
they’ll sort it out.
His team mate Mark Webber on the other hand made his
trademark poor start to drop out of the top 10 but then made decent gains from
there. He stopped early for clear air and brought himself back into play to end
the day only 10 seconds behind his team mate.
McLaren supply the
upgrades which fail to deliver
McLaren have been nowhere in the first four races, and at
least on the evidence of Spain, they’re still nowhere. Now they’ve only just
fitted these latest updates and will be continuing to upgrade the car over the
coming races.
I thought that perhaps they might get a little nearer the
front, but they were still outpaced by Force India and also looked dangerously
close to being eclipsed by Toro Rosso too. Jenson Button was having a torrid
time, failing to make Q3 and then complaining about the balance from the start.
It was quite some effort and a worthy performance that he dragged his car up to
8th by the finish.
Sergio Perez finished a close 9th, and was
generally the more impressive McLaren driver of the weekend. He managed to drag
the car into the top 10 in qualifying and was hanging out near 6th/7th
for a long time before dropping back a bit. Still I found it amusing that
McLaren radioed Perez to tell him to not to hurt the tyres by fighting with
Button as he caught him hand over fist.
Of course I’m sure it was just for tyre preservation
purposes from the team that let their drivers fight and not at all a coded team
order with memories of Bahrain still fresh.
Anyway, they’ll be glad to get a double points finish but 8th
and 9th are not the positions they should be fighting for. McLaren
usually develop well over the season but let’s not forget so do other teams.
They need a really major step if they aren’t just going to stagnate in the
midfield.
They really shouldn’t be in this situation in the first
place, it does point to some rather odd choices being made with their design
for 2013, especially with a major rules overhaul in 2014. But then again,
McLaren do have a history of designing duds after producing pace setting cars,
but a team with their strict philosophies shouldn’t be making the same mistakes
as often as they do.
No gains for Williams
while Gutierrez shines for Sauber
It seems strange that two of the main surprise packages of
last year have slumped so badly. Sauber have only grabbed a few points while
Williams are yet to even get on the board.
Could it be that with fast cars last year they neglected to
focus much on 2013 as
they battled for constructor’s positions. They both had
cars that at times were capable of wins, perhaps this sudden shot at glory
fuelled to develop more for that current season and take their eye off this
year, or even that confidence has pushed them down avenues they might not have
ventured down before.
For Williams this race couldn’t have provided a starker
contrast. Last year pole and victory, this year they didn’t even make it out of
Q1 and made little progress in the race.
Sauber fared little better, suffering a stop-go penalty for
unsafe release of Nico Hulkenberg who tagged the rear of Jean-Eric Vergne’s
Toro Rosso eventually causing it’s retirement.
I thought Esteban Gutierrez had a good race; starting 19th
after suffering a grid penalty he set fastest lap and even took the lead for a
few laps as he stayed out the longest in the opening stint. He nearly managed
to grab the final point, but I think he can be satisfied with his 11th
place, first time he looked like a proper Grand Prix driver.
Kimi ecstatic and rest of the top 10
Kimi Raikkonen was a disappointed man as he finished second
for the third consecutive race, notching up his fourth podium from five races.
To be fair it just shows he wants to win, I reckon he could have if he’d not
dropped a place at the start.
Ideally he’d have been ahead of Vettel into the first corner
and then his three stopper might have worked as he’d have been in control of
the four stoppers through track position. Still he closed the gap to Vettel in
the title fight, just four points separate them.
Felipe Massa didn’t quite have the pace of Alonso, but he
still made some great moves to lift his Ferrari from 9th on the grid
(he qualified 6th but had a 3 place penalty for impeding Webber in
Q2) to finish on the podium for the first time this year, a result he’s deserved
for his performances so far this season. With this double podium Ferrari are
looking in great form for the rest of the season.
Paul di Resta wasn't noticed much by the camera's but he had a good drive to 7th in his Force India. It probably should have been 6th as he hounded Rosberg in the closing laps but he couldn't quite make the move. Still, he's in impressive form as his team mate suffered pit stop problems and failed to get higher than 13th.
Daniel Ricciardo took the final point with a quietly
efficient performance holding off Gutierrez in the final laps. The Toro Rosso’s
had good pace all weekend and qualified only just outside the top 10. Spain is
when all the teams bring their first major upgrades and apart from Caterham,
Toro Rosso were the only team to move themselves up the order.
Well I say Caterham but even with their upgrades they were
still over a second away from the lower midfield. But they beat the Marussia’s,
although disgraced themselves by allowing Geido van der Garde to continue despite
not securing a wheel on properly.
On to Monaco
The championship battle already looks like it might be
boiling down to three contenders with Vettel, Kimi and Alonso locking out all
the wins so far this year. It’s another title battle that looks like it could
go all the way to the wire, but this time I expect Kimi to be still well up
there by the time we reach Brazil.
However, Monaco I expect to see a slight break. Now I’m made
a rash over simplification here, but if the Mercedes had a strength in Spain
apart from it’s one lap pace it was in the final twisty traction orientated
sector. If they can locked out the front row again, Ross Brawn thinks Monaco
isn’t as tough on tyres, Mercedes might just be about to crash the victory
party.
It’s not unknown for a bad car to be sublime around the
barrier lined streets of the principality, anyone for Jenson Button to bring
McLaren some cheer? Or even Sergio Perez who looks to be getting better by the
race.
If we’re going for our top three, I’m going for Kimi to even
the victory score and put himself top of the championship table. It’s only two
weeks away before we find out.
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