It wasn’t a classic Belgian Grand Prix by any means, but Spa – by its very nature – always provides talking points aplenty, and this year’s race was no exception.
The one aspect never really in doubt – after the first 10 seconds, anyway – was that Jenson Button, starting from pole position, was going to win. At the flag he had 13 seconds on Sebastian Vettel and 25 on Kimi Räikkönen, having made 44 laps of Spa look easy. “To win at this very special circuit, leading from lights to flag, is very special,” he said, and so it was.
After the sort of up-and-down season he has had, Button really needed an afternoon like this. Perhaps it might have been less straightforward had World Championship leader Fernando Alonso and Jenson’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton not been eliminated in a massive accident – caused by Romain Grosjean – at La Source, the first corner after the start. As it was, his main opposition came ultimately from Vettel, but Sebastian was never able to get on terms, having qualified poorly, and then lost further places in the aftermath of the shunt.
Alonso may have cursed his luck at Spa, being utterly blameless in the accident which put him out, but in a couple of respects he was very fortunate. First – overwhelmingly – Grosjean’s Lotus missed the cockpit when it flew over the top of the Ferrari; two, Vettel was the only one of Alonso’s major championship rivals to make serious inroads into his points lead. As the teams now immediately head for Monza, Fernando still heads the table by 24 points.
The weather may have been splendid over the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, but on Friday it was appalling – as bad as anyone could remember in this capricious part of the world. It was pouring down when we arrived at the circuit, and it was pouring down when we left. In between times there had been very little action on the track, a source of some frustration to the sodden spectators, who had paid not a little to come in.
Saturday, though, was September 1, so August was blessedly behind us, and in celebration perhaps Spa bathed in a perfect early autumn day. As soon as the morning session began, a lot of cars were out on the circuit, for Friday had been effectively lost, and there was far less time than usual for set-up work.
Alonso was fastest on Saturday morning, but doubted that his Ferrari could compete for pole position. He was right about that, but in the end was not dissatisfied with sixth on the grid: “In fact, it’s our average qualifying place this season, so no surprise. Usually we go better on Sunday than Saturday, so we can be reasonably confident about the race – although I think a win is impossible this weekend. Because of the rain on Friday, no one has any data, so it was impossible to optimise the car. A lot of my closest rivals are starting behind me, and Kimi’s not that far in front – if this result could be repeated in the race, honestly I’d sign for it now!” Little did he know…
Ferrari brought a lot of new aerodynamic bits to Spa, which they were unable properly to test on Friday, and McLaren, too, had updates, which included a new rear wing. On Saturday morning both drivers tried it, but whereas Hamilton had his doubts, and decided to stick with the old wing (as used in Hungary, where Lewis won), Button thought it potentially an improvement, and opted to use it for qualifying.
It was – clearly – the right decision, for while Lewis qualified eighth, Jenson took a superb pole position, his first since Monaco in 2009. “It seems so long ago that this feels like a win,” he said. “I’m surprised the new wing is working so well – consistency was good throughout qualifying, but the race is a bit of an unknown quantity, because no one has done any long runs…”
Hamilton was dismayed after qualifying. “The new wing didn’t seem to be working well on Saturday morning, and we decided the old one would be a safer option. In fact, Jenson’s shown the new one to be very good indeed – our side of the garage was a bit unlucky…”
Not for the first time one was struck by Jenson’s use of ‘I’ and Lewis’s use of ‘we’, suggesting again that one seems more confident than the other in making decisions on his own.
If emotions at McLaren were mixed after qualifying, at Red Bull they were uniformly downbeat. Having needed a post-Budapest gearbox change, Webber knew before he started that he had a five-place grid penalty, and he was therefore doubly disappointed to set only seventh best time. “I’d like to have been higher to take the sting out of the penalty,” Mark said, “I was pretty happy with my lap, but realistically I think P5 would have been our maximum today…”
In qualifying at least, the car apparently lacked pace at Spa, and Vettel – who, remarkably, failed to get into Q3 – seemed to confirm that. Like Webber, he’d felt happy with his lap: “The car felt good, and nothing was obviously wrong – but we just weren’t quick enough…”
Very definitely quick enough, though, were the Saubers, with Perez qualifying fifth – “I wasn’t happy with my last lap, which should have been quicker” – and Kobayashi joining Button, no less, on the front row! “I really didn’t expect second on the grid,” Kamui said. “Our car is normally quick in the races, but not so good in qualifying, so now… starting so near the front, I am feeling confident about the race, but I’m not going to take any risks…”
Right behind Kobayashi, and underlining his raw speed once again, was Maldonado, very happy with his Williams – but much less happy when informed he would be docked three places on the grid for ‘impeding’ the Force India of Hulkenberg. Pastor was one of three drivers to start lower than they qualified. Webber, as we said, was five places down – from seventh to 12th, thanks to his gearbox change, and Rosberg suffered the same penalty for the same reason. Even worse for Nico, he had the problem at the very start of the Saturday morning session, and so missed all of it – which put him into qualifying without a single dry lap to his name. Perhaps not surprisingly, he set only 18th best time, which meant he would start 23rd.
Not a good weekend for Mercedes, this, for Michael Schumacher, starting his 300th Grand Prix at the circuit he loves best in the world, qualified only 13th. Hardly the celebration he would have wanted.
By the time Charlie Whiting flicked the red lights off to start the Belgian Grand Prix, Maldonado was already well on his way, but the Williams’s over-eager start – Pastor claimed that the clutch ‘slipped out of his hand’ – played no part, save perhaps unsettling other drivers, in the carnage that was to come at La Source. However, Maldonado was punished by the stewards, to the tune of five grid positions at the next race, Monza.
What happened was that Grosjean chopped across from left to right, leaving Hamilton a gap between the Lotus and the wall that was narrower than a McLaren. At once the two cars tangled, after which Grosjean’s flew over the top of Alonso’s Ferrari, which had been minding its own business, trying to keep clear of trouble.
Nor was the accident yet over for Fernando; immediately following the assault from Grosjean’s Renault, the Ferrari immediately was struck hard – and pitched into the air – by Hamilton’s damaged McLaren. Alonso wasn’t impressed by Grosjean’s behaviour: “Twelve starts, seven accidents…”
Clearly Romain needs to sit down and take stock. His fundamental talent is huge, but when the red lights go out his commonsense seems to desert him, and his driving on Sunday was simply idiotic: had experience not taught him that La Source on the first lap is a matter of survival, nothing more or less?
Anyway, yet another of Grosjean’s 2012 Grands Prix was over almost before it had begun, and he took with him Alonso, Hamilton and also Perez, whose Sauber was also damaged beyond immediate repair. After the race the stewards announced a one-race ban (plus a fine of 50,000 Euros) for Grosjean (such as was awarded, in less culpable circumstances, to Mika Hakkinen back in 1994), and if missing Monza gives Romain the opportunity to reflect, it will have served a good purpose.
The track surface was predictably showered with debris, and there are always concerns when cars have to go through it, for carbon shards can be like razor blades. The safety car came out immediately, and for three laps they trailed around behind it, in the order: Button, Räikkönen, Hulkenberg, di Resta, Schumacher and Ricciardo.
At the start of lap five they got the signal to go again, and at once Button put a marker down, pulling out 2.8 seconds in a single lap over Hulkenberg, who had got by Räikkönen. Nico looked in excellent shape at this point, for he, together with Rosberg, had started on the hard Pirellis, with everyone else on the mediums.
Maldonado’s already dramatic afternoon came to a swift end on lap five. Having picked up a puncture, he pitted for fresh tyres, but then lost no time in colliding with Glock’s Marussia. Pastor’s inherent pace is beyond dispute, but that display at Barcelona now seems like a long time ago.
While Button calmly disappeared into a race of his own, the man on the move behind him was Vettel, fighting his way through from 11th on the restart. Seb was in the mood to go racing, and picked off car after car on the approach to the Bus Stop chicane at the end of the lap. On lap nine indeed he very nearly had a coming-together with team-mate Webber, but both survived.
Hulkenberg’s pace on the hard Pirellis prompted Force India to bring di Resta in early, on lap 10, to put him on the same, and it was clear that all the front-runners would be following suit.
“We really weren’t sure about strategy before the race,” Button said afterwards. “We were playing it by ear – one stop? Two? Three maybe? In a way, I was lucky, though – it’s always easier to control tyre degradation when you’re leading, rather than chasing…”
Once the first stops had been made, all the significant runners were on the hard tyres, and the situation now was that Button led Räikkönen by a comfortable nine seconds, with Hulkenberg a further four seconds behind, then Webber, Massa and Vettel.
In the end, though, Button distanced himself from Vettel, and Seb distanced himself from the rest, and the pair of them achieved this by virtue stopping only once for tyres, and making the hard Pirellis last longer than their rivals, all of whom pitted twice.
Not a Spa classic, then, but for all that a race of memorable moments, not the least of which was Räikkönen’s fantastic pass of Schumacher, no less, at the entry to Eau Rouge on lap 34. “The car wasn’t very nice to drive today,” Kimi said afterwards. “It was OK on new tyres, but otherwise I was struggling for grip, and I didn’t seem to have full power – even with DRS, I couldn’t pass Schumacher on the straight, so I had to try something else, take a risk, and it worked…”
There was also an extraordinary moment at the Bus Stop chicane when Vettel came up to pass Schumacher for second place. Michael was to the left, and as they went through the chicane side by side, he simply drove across the bows of the Red Bull – and straight into the pits. Sebastian rather charitably described this as, “A moment of confusion for Michael…”
Vettel still has only one victory to his name in 2012, but – having started out of the top 10 – he was well pleased with his second place, not least because it brought him back to second place in the World Championship again. “I really didn’t expect the tyres to last so well,” he said. “One stop seemed out of the question, but in the end it was not a big problem. I’m happy with the result today.”
Not as happy as Jenson, though. “In the past Spa hasn’t been my luckiest circuit, but I just love it – I always have. Yeah, I know Eau Rouge is easy flat in these cars, but still it’s an amazing corner, in the sense of the g-forces you feel through there… It’s an amazing place – there’s so much history here, and it feels so good to be part of that now…”
Great race for Button…
Pass of the year with Kimi taking Michael at Eau Rougue… plus the perfect timing of tripping the DRS detection so MS could not unlap himself again…
Glad Alonso is ok, and glad there is a title race again
Hmm, one race ban… maybe if the authorities had taken similar action in the various previous incidents of startline swerving, it wouldn’t be necessary. Airborne and spinning cars off the start is never a risk worth taking, and hopefully a clampdown on startline etiquette will now ensue. This has been an accident waiting to happen (if you’ll excuse the use of the phrase) for some considerable time, and it’s only pure luck that nobody was hurt. Or worse…
I wonder if McLaren are inwardly worried that a return to full competetiveness by JB might take points off Lewis in the title race.. and leave it between Fernando and Seb? Especially as Jenson doesn’t seem to have given up on his own hopes. If he cotinues this form, it might get interesting at Woking…
Fabulous move by Kimi! I’m by no means his greatest fan, but he’s never been anything other than brave…
Great report Nigel, really pleased that it wasn’t anything more than a first corner crash. Its such a shame that the Saubers were mugged of a good points haul or even a possible victory……I agree with you about this becoming JB’s race after the first corner and we were robbed of a battle between the McLaren and Sauber, the two most aerodynamically efficient cars on the grid currently, on a track that generously rewards a good aero balance…….Also its a case of so near yet so far for Fernando, retiring after 23 races in points, although that would be the last thing on his mind when the Lotus came flying past him……I would like to have your opinion about the mutual respect amongst drivers in general and particularly young drivers in GP2, WSR and other feeder series as I have often heard commentators comparing a clumsy incident in F1 to what they see in GP2……and the driving by some graduates from GP2 hasnt done much to change the opinion (Hulkenberg being an exception)…….Also is the overconfidence with drivers resulting from much safer cars led to reduced respect for one another? Would love to have your opinion on that Nigel…..
Thank You
LL, if I were the Woking clan, I’d be more concerned about one of my drivers tweeting an image of telemetry traces that also had other information on that image that could be sensitive to the team.
“On his day…” is a phrase often associated with JB. This was one of those days and it was superb to see him back. Grosjean? Bewildering. In 2009 he did not impress but 2012 has seen him do little else. Too many incidents but obviously gifted. Perhaps this penalty will help to sharpen his concentration. Kimi? Maybe still lacking that last sliver of killer instinct but the grid is greatly improved by his presence.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think I quite liked the podium interviews. A bit more spontaneous and “For the fans”.
Last of the four main races next week. Let us hope that the title chase keeps us interested for the remainder of the season. Some of the coming circuits certainly cannot do it on their own merit.
Another great race report, thanks Nigel. Love the line about Pastor being well on his way when the lights went out. The replay of Charlie Whiting shaking his head as the Williams zoomed off said it all.
In all, hard to feel we weren’t robbed of a better race; Kamui and Kimi head to head down Eau Rouge…
Well, that was a potentially great race thrown away by bad driving. Grosjean is better than that, and Maldonado… How did he ever win that race this year?
Any idea why Hamilton carried his broken winglet back to the pits? A trophy for Grosjean?
RayT, maybe he was taking it back to tell his team he’d have qualified in front of the accident if he’d have been given a different wing for qualifying. Ahem…
Agree with Lewis Lane there, I think they should have clamped down on Schumacher and Vettel years ago for the swerving off the line. It was a bad misjudgement by Grosjean, there wasn’t another car anywhere near him on his left so it was completely unnecessary. It just a wonder that this hasn’t happened before. Hopefully the ban will make everyone wake up, not just Grosjean.
I doubt anyone would have threatened Jenson yesterday even without the shunt. In any other year he’d have won by a minute, so top marks for an outstanding weekend.
Overall, I thought a pretty entertaining afternoon with battles all down the line. Kimi, that would make you take a step back from the barrier! And Michael’s move on Vettel shows nationality doesn’t come into it when he wants a particular bit of track.
Have McLaren finally separated themselves from the pack? I wouldn’t bet against a 1-2 at Monza on this form.
Could have been a McLaren 1-2. Lewis didn’t sense the new wing was faster, so it’s down to him. Bad luck being back there in that C*F*, though.
Grosjean doesn’t seem to have situational awareness; he simply didn’t know where Lewis was. Lewis had 6 inches of track left but sensibly held his line. Well, it would have been sensible…
McLaren has found some serious magic, especially Jenson. Button was just cruising, keeping Vettel just far enough back. They are the team to beat next week in Monza. (Obviously)
As for the championship, its a total long shot, but so what?
If McLaren wins all the races 1-2, they can win both championships comfortably, no matter what anybody else does. Thrown in some chaos behind them, and its even easier. After Spa, that actually looks possible. They have their destiny in their own hands.
I assume Lewis will be using the new wing anyway at Monza, since the old one was demolished in the crash…
I can’t help but think back to a month or so ago when Jackie Stewart suggested that Romain should consider using a driver coach. Further to that Jackie also invited him to lunch in order to discuss some of the incidents he’d been involved in so far this season.
At the time I seem to recall Romain saying that he didn’t need a driver coach… I suspect a rethink maybe required.
Yesterday we were lucky… but it’s only a matter of time if things don’t improve. Unfortunately the current generation of drivers coming from GP2 & WSR etc grew up watching Michael Schumacher get away with these kind of start line antics week in week out without censor.
Hopefully yesterday will serve as a watershed moment in the sport we all love and a harsh line will be taken across all categories when it comes to mindless driving.
Loved Whitmarsh’s expression when EJ put it to him straight – ‘the wrong driver won for you’ – mouthful of lemons.
Anyway, to the race. Glad Pirelli appear to be making longer life tyres now. Also that the DRS wasn’t too conspicuous (still want it ended though). Kudos to Jenson – the wing gamble paid off. If (and it’s a big capital letter IF) this really means Macca have taken a step forward, Lewis could well join FA an SV as a genuine contender. Monza could be interesting, though wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Macca back midfield.
SV was the real winner for me, looking at his starting pos. Koba and Perez robbed. Hope Sauber can kep it up, too. Kimi’s overtake – brilliant (frankly, an F1 race without FA and LH is an anticlimax from the off, but Kimi just about made it worthwhile). Grosjean clumsy, yes, and it had to be LH he clattered, yes, but we’ve seen cutting across at the start become normalised by SV and FA and even Webber so it seems a tad unfair to single him out.
I will stick my neck out and say it’ll be Vettel’s year no. No confidence in Whitmarsh’s Mclaren, and Ferrari, well, they were the ones I was worried about taking a big step forwards over the break, but..
I know that this is entirely off-topic but there seems nowhere else to raise it. Am I the only reader that thinks that reposting tweets that contain profanities and have nothing to do with MS’s subject matter on the MS homepage is unbecoming of a magazine of MS’s standing and quite frankly crass and unnecessary.
Congratulations to Jenson, but this race may be a turning point in the history of Grand Prix racing, as I hear loud cries for enclosed cockpits.
I’ve put up with a lot of the debasement of F1 in the last decade or so – not least the advent of Tesco-sized car parks adjacent to every corner of the lesser version of the once great circuit – but putting the driver under a bubble may be the last straw for me.
I would also suggest that the Stewards should have looked at Hamilton’s telemetry. Practice makes perfect, and Grosjean has certainly got the first corner mayhem tactic off to a fine art, but there seemed rather more to it to me.
After RG bent Lewis’ front left wheel, you would expect the car to slow down a tad. Perhaps another driver may even have applied the brakes. What did seem strange was that the McLaren continued unabated into the rear of the Lotus, catapultng it into the air.
It may be true that it takes two to tangle…
GP,
Our Twitter feed on the right hand side of the page lists the tweets of our staff and contributors, as well as those from the magazine. We don’t ‘repost’ anything, it’s done automatically. If one of our contributors chooses to talk about something non-racing related, so be it. Apologies if you were offended by the language, but we don’t censor our writers’ personal Twitter accounts, and nor should we.
Alex
Alex, thanks for the response, the position is noted. Not sure I agree re censoring. Its not about offence as such. Whilst I am generally anti-censorship, If you feel that some of the tweets featuring profanities so prominently displayed is appropriate for the image the magazine tries to project – authority, history etc then fine but I’m not sure I agree.
GP thanks. MS writer’s tweets are not the issue. Am with your view, if any adolescent ‘look at me and my language’ can post profanities on the same page as one held in international respect as a Nigel Roebuck, something’s amiss.
Regarding the open/closed cockpit debate; I personally am attached to the notion of open cockpits.
However, I could as a fan consider trading that away if the closed cockpits were incorporated along with all of Gordon Murray’s concepts as described in the September issue of MotorSport, and actually go a way back. The Mosley/BCE/CVC spec-car era of F1 must go.
Th thing you come back to http://www.motorsportmagazine.com, is Nigel Roebuck, who seems freed from a lot of frustration wich made his Fifth Column such a drag to read sometimes.
Back to his best shall we say?
DDT – wishful thinking on your part methinks. You seem to be overlooking Messrs ALonso, Vettel, Webber & Raikkonnen and whilst McLaren would appear to have a good package for Monza, you are doing yourself a disservice if you think that the above WC’s will allow McLaren to mop up the remaining races 1-2……even though I am a big admirer of JB, I simply cannot see one team doing this…statistically possible maybe, in terms of probability – highly unlikely.
Should be aninteresting scrap now betwwen Alonso & Vettel and please please please let us see Kimi take the Lotus to a win that is richly deserved in my opinion…the guy still has it in spades.
Not entertaining any nonsense conspiracy theories at all, but please, someone tell Red Bull to sort Mark’s car issues!!!!
Poor guy has been nowhere performance-wise since his fabulous win in Britain. Two gearboxes in three races is ridiculous. Mind you, Dr Marko will now be able to sleep soundly that Seb is second in the championship. Can’t have that damnable Aussie heading the number One car, can we? ;-)
DH,
If it were possible, I’d be with you, however that simply doesn’t happen.
Alex
Regarding the Tweets on the right, it’s not what I come here for. If I wanted to know about the preferences and prejudices of contributors on non motor sport related matters I’d subscribe to their Twitter feeds.
Do the Tweets match the quality of the podcasts? Are they relevant? Are the Tweets likely to attract or repel magazine subscribers?
Comparisons are to be made with Hamilton’s disappointing and lamentable Twitter meltdown at Spa? It’s a reminder of the lesson from Jo Moore’s infamous memo that Sept. 11th was a good day to bury bad news, in that you don’t put anything in an Email (or Tweet?) you wouldn’t like to see on the front of a newspaper?
Do we need to know? Is it of interest? What benefit would we get from knowing? What does the Twitterer gain from the Tweet?
Politicians and those Comedians that have us guffawing in front of the TV and getting bums on seats in stadia often have teams of clever people writing their material. How many of us really have anything to say that’s genuinely of interest or original? It’s like some long term tests in once great motoring titles are now about the families and lives of the key holder of the free, new car and offer no useful insight into driving or owning the car. Making it about them saves having to comment on the car itself?
I may be out of sync with Web 2.0, but I want to watch a car race. I don’t follow any driver on Twitter. I’m not sure I am that interested or their daily lives are that interesting.
Hamilton’s Tweeting disgrace is well timed given Roebuck’s article on contracts with Whitmarsh.
Alastair,
Well put, that was the point I was trying to make, do we actually need the twitter feed at all? My employer for one doesn’t devote a section of its homepage to the views and comments of its staff on any matter that takes their fancy and I doubt many others feel it adds value either. Perhaps there should be a poll on it.
Alastair and GP,
Trying my best not to come off as dismissive, if you think the Twitter feed is unnecessary then feel free to ignore it. It’s there for people who would like to follow our staff and contributors on Twitter. I understand your point of view and I don’t think anyone visits a website for that reason, but a lot of users like to connect with the magazine and its writers and the sidebar makes it easier.
I think comparing one utterance of a profanity to Hamilton’s weekend tweets is a little far fetched.
Alex
Sad to see The One With Seven Titles blot his copybook one last time – and I certainly hope it will be the last time – with the pit-entry chop on Vettel. If it wasn’t deliberate, why didn’t The One With Seven Titles simply let the Red Bull through under braking?
Of course there’s the potential benefit of doubt but a long history suggests otherwise.
The key comment in this thread is that action should have been taken in the past, with MS & SV (in particular, but not only, as Ayrton seems to have started the bad habits) for their start line “chops.” That kind of driving, the attitude that it is “allowed” is what leads to Grosjean’s problems. It is the responsibility of the stewards and the FIA to not allow such egregious behavior.
As far as the race goes, great to see JB in front again, but terrible for FA’s title race. And SV did a good job to make it to 2nd.
John, yes, I do believe it goes all the way back to Portugal 1988. Not right at the start, but at the end of lap one/start of lap two, Senna’s pushing Prost right to the wall should have gotten Senna sat down for a race. That might have helped prevent a lot of the nonsense we’ve had to deal with since then.
John, Hamilton was punted into the grass by Grosjean, making braking impossible. A one-race ban was justified, but the stewards have to be more consistent.
As the drivers continue to praise these old tracks, maybe one or two should come out and state the obvious with the Tilkedromes we have to suffer the rest of the season?
I thought Vettel’s move on Webber & others at the bus stop showed what a clever & brave driver he is. And when Hulkenberg tried the same tactic, it didn’t work. A good display of different abilities.
All the same, c’mon Mark! Get back up to the front! Schumacher’s decision to enter the pits the way he did across Vettel’s bows illustrated that it is better to retire and let others think you have lost your touch, than to return to the fray and prove it!
John Saviano picks up on what Lewis Lane says and to which I followed up on. I’d like to add that I don’t think RG’s move was one of malice as such, whereas I’d have to say Senna on Prost and a myriad of other moves by SV, MS etc are very much ‘get out of my way, you’re not coming through’ are malicious.
Remember JB on the radio at Suzuka saying Vettel’s got to get a penalty for that after putting him on the grass at the start. Perhaps the stewards should have been listening then. I was quite surprised to hear Alan Jones saying he didn’t think Vettel had done anything wrong.
On the subject of closed cockpits, God forbid. What happens if a structure deforms so it can’t be removed in a hurry, leaving someone trapped inside? Let’s face it, I bet more drivers have died in closed cockpit cars than open cockpit cars. The driving standards today indicate that some drivers think they are completely safe and can barge around as they see fit, and I can see this development only making this worse.
Grosjean’s move as not malicious, he simply didn’t see Hamilton. This goes to the point of a nice MS article last month with Gordon Murray on how he would design the formula.
The current F1 formula is horrible for visibility with this feet up angle of the driver, the front wings are too wide and too fragile, the suspension arms are far too fragile in carbon fiber. They cannot see a car halfway up beside them.
Murray suggests pointing the nose back down, a narrower single element front wing and ground effects, along with ferrous suspension arms. This has been suggested over and over, but every year it is ignored and we’re left with tyre management and DRS “racing”. I must be really old, I remember F1 cars close together at apex, following out of a corner and drafting to pass, then a show of bravery on braking. Occasionally, there was a Villeneuvian side-bumping with no harm. That’s racing.
It seems to me that Spa was – while superficially a reasonably interesting race – yet another aspect of the pretend racing we seem to be seeing this season. I’ve read a lot of comments along the lines of “nice to see McLaren / Button back on form” – and it’d be nice to be able to believe that – but they’re not, necessarily, are they? They just happen to have drawn the winning ticket for the weekend, and at Monza it’ll be someone else’s turn to win, probably someone like Pic or Verne. I might be wrong, and I hope I am, but for me this whole season has been nothing more than a lottery, and all the duller for it. I’m going to start getting my motorsport fix at places like Snetterton and Donnington Park in future, watching the lower formulae in which actual proper racing still happens. Pinnacle of the sport … not for me, not any more.
John, re: “pinnacle”.
I quite agree overall. The BCE/CVC show is an open-wheel, single seater, EuroNASCAR, at this point. Not that there is anything wrong with that, on one level, but it sure isn’t Grand Prix/Grande Epreuve level racing anymore…
John, we watch GP racing for historical reasons, but I have no idea why anyone new to the sport would bother watching.
I’ve re-discovered sports car racing just to see drafting and out-braking again.
You’re right about Button, it’s easy to be “back on form” when you teamate is hobbled due to team politics and every serious competitor was taken out in a first corner shunt.
..and speaking of McLaren, this is great fun:
McLaren F1 Tooned on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2BvzosZ8Sc&feature=player_embedded
Ray
“I have no idea why anyone new to the sport would bother watching”
Youngsters are still getting into F1, warts and all, I see many around me, just as they get into modern football with all its playacting and idiocy. The reason is, I believe, they, more than adults, are capable of seeing through to the essence – fast, exciting racing is still beautiful in the same way footy is, at its most basic level, still a beautiful game too. Youngsters don’t have the weight of memories of other eras on their shoulders, whispering in their ears, doubting. They are the purest of fans and F1 is in good hands for the future.
I have a pet theory that the more you know about a sport’s history and the longer you’ve been attached to it, the more you’ll have misgivings about the ‘modern’ era. As in life in general, in sport. The only way around this is to ‘reinvent’ the sport (or yourself) at regular periods – in effect pressing a reset button and accepting what’s now as now and as NOT being at all the ‘same’ sport as it was (or wasn’t!) in times past…
“…teamate is hobbled due to team politics”
Hmm. There certainly appears to be a lot going on behind the scenes at Macca, doesn’t there, but as the only thing I believe can rescue the team’s fortunes (MW’s rapid exit, to be replaced by a ruthless winner) probably isn’t going to happen I can only see more of the same – i.e. no titles this year – again…
Alex, I’m not feeling dismissed. I commented as GP’s comment echoed doubts I had about a previous Tweet that appeared here. It wasn’t the swear word or the content, as much as the irrelevance of the comment, and it being the second Tweet I’d seen here that had nothing to do with motor sport.
The previous Tweet repeated something I’d seen in the gossip/AOB section of a car Internet forum. I’m wondering what repeating such an irrelevant, pointed in joke being made by others elsewhere does for the reputation of the writer or the publication that repeats it. Looking into the content of that Tweet took me off to other websites and other Twitterers. Rather than keeping me here it led me to other websites.
Do British in jokes work for overseas readers? That Tweeter has many followers abroad?
I ignore items on this website that don’t appeal but it’s not so easy when a Tweet displays its content, rather than a link.
The comparison I was making about Hamilton’s Tweets from Spa was the balance of potential benefits versus the potential for damage and offence. As I don’t use Twitter I thought I should take a look at Hamilton’s. Despite liking Hamilton’s driving his thoughts on the weather from Spa, that a friend and his partner was there and that he designed his racing boots weren’t of interest to me.
As someone that has no gripes about Hamilton moving for tax reasons, Tweeting about anything and everything would seem to counter the lack of privacy cited when he left the UK.
He Tweeted about Karate and discipline before he took to Olympic standard toy throwing?
Alistair, let it go for goodness sake. I come here to read about Motor Sport. I ignore everything else – why can’t you?
Ray – unfair on JB in this instance as he hit the sweet spot all weekend whilst the others struggled with set up. He had no other advantage aprt from his experience and sound judgement with regard to opting for the new rear wing.
Button’s greater experience came to the fore. Many are saying F1 has become a lottery so conspiracy theories that McLaren hampered Hamilton would seem wide of the mark.
Why would McLaren do anything to reduce Hamilton’s chances of reining in Alonso for the Drivers’ Championship, or help Renault beat them in the Constructors’?
Button gets his first pole for McLaren. Perhaps Jenson works more on what he’ll need for the race than qualifying? How many times has Button moaned when Hamilton has beaten him in qualifying?
Professor M in McLaren Tooned will be asking Lewis if he is tweeting Telemetry again in the fifth episode? The McLaren trophy cabinet will feature Hamilton’s Twitter account?
Has he let the telemetry genie from the lamp? We’ve seen telemetry now, just as Mosley saw it at Monza in 2006 when Alonso impeded Massa in qualifying. How many of us want to see the Spa start telemetry now?
It’s a shame Hamilton has wobbled after the praise Roebuck has given him this season. It’s like the Murray Walker kiss of death?
Was it reported that Hamilton had noticed Button’s ‘happy bubble’ of support last season? What was Hamilton’s group of supporters doing last weekend? It’s a reminder that we don’t know all the ins and outs of what really happened at McLaren in 2007?
I think the Tweeting just compounded his weekend of bad qualifying and bad race, the icing on the cake.