Tyres. If one word crops up more than any other in this 2012 Grand Prix season, that is indisputably it.
Twice in the last three races Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari has led in the late stages, and twice the car’s tyres have kept it from taking the win. This is no criticism of Pirelli, for all drivers receive exactly the same tyre allocation, and may do with them as they wish: this season, more than in any past, success in F1 has been all about juggling the compounds, of being on the right tyres – and ‘unlocking’ their full potential, of course – at the right time.
Folk have described F1 this year as ‘a lottery’, and certainly there has been an element of that in some races, but it might be more accurate to suggest that gambling, with regards to tyres, has been more prevalent than usual. Identical tyres do not work identically on different cars – nor, come to that, in the hands of different drivers. That may have been true since Nuvolari was a lad, but never to the extent we are seeing in 2012.
Alonso was picked off (by Lewis Hamilton and others) in the closing laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, his team having gambled on a one-stop strategy, which didn’t quite work. At Silverstone Ferrari’s gamble was that it would rain at some point in the race, so that Fernando would not then be obliged to use both the dry compounds on offer.
It didn’t, though. After days of appalling weather, Sunday remarkable stayed dry at Silverstone until long after the race was done. Alonso’s hope had been that he could confine his dry weather running to the hard compound Pirellis: unlike most of the front runners, he started the race on them, and stayed with them at his first tyre stop. Most of the way he seemed to have the race under control, but when it didn’t rain, he had no choice but to take the soft Pirellis for the last 15 laps – and that was when Mark Webber began to catch him.
Because qualifying had been run in the rain, the normal rule – which requires a driver to start on the tyres on which he set his time – did not apply. Everyone was free to choose on which compound they would start, and all the front runners – save Alonso and Hamilton – chose the soft. In the early laps there was evidence that the hard Pirelli was going to be the tyre of choice this day, for while it might have been expected that Webber would initially be quicker than Alonso, the opposite was true. By the time Mark made his first stop (changing to hard tyres) on lap 14, Fernando was five seconds up the road.
Almost from lights out, the British Grand Prix was really only ever between these two. Alonso, putting all his guile and delicacy to work, had taken pole position – Ferrari’s first in a very long time – but Webber as good as equalled it. At the start Fernando ‘protected’ his position in the style of today, and the two cars almost touched, but contact was somehow avoided, and after one lap Schumacher, third on the grid, was already being dropped.
Michael actually did Alonso and Webber a great service, for quite soon a queue – comprising such as Massa, Vettel, Räikkönen, Maldonado and Perez – formed up behind the Mercedes, which – surprise! – defended its position in robust fashion. Massa finally found a way by Schumacher with a brave move into Stowe.
Another who would assuredly have figured in this group was Grosjean, but on the opening lap there was contact between his Renault and di Resta’s Force India, which brought Romain in for a new nose, and sent Paul into swift retirement. Grosjean’s subsequent comeback drive – to an eventual sixth place – was one of the highlights of the race, peppered by many fastest laps on the way.
On lap 11 both Maldonado and Perez made their first stops, rejoining together – and, both on ‘cold’ tyres, crashing together almost immediately. The Sauber tried to go round the Williams on the outside, but Maldonado’s car kicked out in mid-corner, and the cars spun off in unison. It was unfortunate, certainly, but there was no malice intended – it looked like a pure ‘racing incident’. In that light, Perez’s subsequent outburst came across as a touch extravagant, an attempt perhaps to cash in on Maldonado’s reputation for living for the moment. Apparently, though, the stewards agreed, for the Venezuelan was later fined 10,000 Euros.
Alonso apart, Hamilton was the only front runner to start on the hard tyres, and when Fernando made his first stop Lewis briefly inherited the lead. In no time, though, the Ferrari was past again, and thereafter McLaren’s day turned really sour, to the immense disappointment of the partisan crowd. On his slowing-down lap, after finishing eighth (where he had qualified), Hamilton offered a few doughnuts in acknowledgment of his fans, but his frustration couldn’t be disguised: “I pushed as hard as I could all the way, but we just didn’t have pace today – we were slow in the slow corners, and also in the quick ones…” Team-mate Button, who had failed even to make it out of Q1, finished a couple of places further down.
In the middle stint of the race, when both were on hard tyres, there was stalemate between Alonso and Webber, Fernando maintaining a lead of five or six seconds, and looking very comfortable. At around half-distance news of rain nearby came in, which will have made Ferrari spirits soar, but it never materialised, and when Fernando made his last stop, the soft slicks it had to be.
Five laps earlier Mark had made his final stop, but of course he – having got his soft tyres out of the way in the first stint of the race – was able to put on more hard Pirellis, and these enabled him to begin closing on the Ferrari as the race went into its last period.
Was Alonso paying out line, treating his soft tyres gently so as to have something in reserve for the last few laps? It may have looked that way, but it wasn’t the case. On the soft Pirellis, the Ferrari was nothing like as potent as it had been, and Webber relentlessly brought down the gap. Four seconds back on lap 40, he was right on Alonso’s tail by lap 46, and next time round DRS sent him sailing by into the lead.
It was a great victory for Webber, this, and it came at the end of a weekend in which he had outpaced team-mate Vettel in both qualifying and the race. Having led for so long, Alonso was of course disappointed to have lost a victory, but there was some consolation in the fact that, if he had dropped World Championship points to his pal Mark, he had gained on all the other title contenders, not least Vettel and Hamilton. More to the point, perhaps, the Ferrari had shown itself to be a front runner on merit, and when you consider where it was back in March, when the season started in Melbourne, that is pretty remarkable.
Vettel paid the price of making an indifferent start, so that he was one of the bunch trapped behind Schumacher’s Mercedes in the early laps, but in truth he was never quite on his team-mate’s pace, so third place – and 15 points – was a decent result. Perhaps, though, after the way he had run away from everyone in Valencia, he will have been a touch surprised by the events at Silverstone. Webber is firmly back to his 2010 frame of mind, when he led the championship for a long time.
For Massa, the British Grand Prix was another step in his quest for redemption, his wish to be thought of again as a front-rank Grand Prix driver. No, he couldn’t match Alonso, but he drove hard and fast all weekend, qualifying fifth, finishing fourth, and if he continues in this vein Ferrari may yet reconsider its plan to replace him in 2013.
The Lotuses were fifth and sixth, after again promising more than they delivered. Raikkonen, though, drove a strong race to fifth, and Grosjean – for me the revelation of the season thus far – was superb after that early stop for a new nose.
Schumacher? Well, he was a touch wistful – as you would be if you’d qualified third, and finished seventh. Even before the start of practice Michael said he was hoping for a wet race, and perhaps, if the forecasts had been accurate, he would have been higher up the results.
McLaren, though, came away from Silverstone perhaps more dispirited than any other team, for hopes had been so high. Hamilton had qualified eighth and finished in the same position, and although Button drove well from 16th on the grid to a championship point, there was no hiding their disappointment. “It’s not just the Red Bulls that are faster,” said Jenson, whose slump continues. “It’s the Ferraris and Lotuses – and maybe the Saubers and Williams, as well…”
Now Hockenheim awaits, and last time we were there, the Ferraris finished first and second. Mind you, everyone thought they understood tyres then…
Excellent race report from Nigel Roebuck.
Totally agree on Grosjean being a revelation. If Mclaren ever wants a replacement for Lewis Hamilton in the case they cant agree on a deal to continue with eachother…look no further.
Well done Mark Webber too, who now most certainly will stay at Red Bull for 2013.
Hoping for a Schumacher win next week.
I have always said that F1 is a DRIVERS championship and not really about racing at all.The tyres Pirelli have supplied this year has put the skill of finding the sweet spot into the hands of the best drivers.Alonso this year in a poor Ferrari has proved this point.
Good report on the race. Kudos to Webber – it’s always good when one of the good guys wins.
Ferrari have had a good car for five or six races now – Massa’s been underperforming, but now seems to have bucked up, just a clutch of seconds behind the team leader. And Team Enstone is the dark horse.
Strangely muted, sober atmosphere though, among the sea of orange caps. Are we beginning to suspect Mclaren might be going the same way, into the long, slow descent of Williams, the original Lotus, Tyrrell? Certainly, the car is now fourth best, maybe fifth, after starting the year so well. And a team so proud of its ‘season-long development’ track-record. I see no improvement on the cards while the current TP stays in charge (too soft, too similar to Nick Fry at Honda – when clearly, what’s needed is a ruthless Flav-like winner). I hope they prove me wrong, but P8 and P10 at Silverstone is pretty galling after all the updates they’d promised.
Maldo, for once, was hard done by, clumsy, not blinded by the red mist this time, but after the Monaco incident it’s unsurprising that Perez wanted blood.
I find myself hoping Webber makes this his season…
Tires tires tires what more can be said?!
PS. Also wanted to mention the chop at the start (getting so common nowadays, forgot to say anything..) Very dangerous, should be banned – perhaps a rule to say the pole-sitter cannot cut across in front of P2 for 100m, say, from the off? Anyway, aiming straight across P2′s bows from the very first wheelspin is a big accident waiting to happen. Looks cruddy, too. Children are watching. (And on the subject of children watching, isn’t it about time we ditched the grid girls? Twenty-first century and all that?..)
How about a straight drag start to the first corner – drivers only allowed to swerve to avoid slower cars in front?..
Maldonado does sometimes stupid things, but I think he is not to blame for this coming together. Perez was at best along side and on the outside, like DC mentioned, you are at the mercy of the other guy. Sissy decision by the stewards! Great performance by Grosjean and an excellent winner.
Jaap
I’d prefer drivers/teams choosing whatever tires to use in the races, whichever suits their car better. I’m a bit over all the “tire strategy.” That said, a darn good race, too bad for Alonso, but kudos to Webber. At least Vettel wasn’t soaring into the lead again. As to McLaren … not sure what’s wrong, but it appears that the Mercedes powered teams are in a poor position – though it doesn’t seem power is what’s wrong with McLaren & Mercedes.
I’d have liked Alonso to win but of all the others I am happy it was Webber. Just silly afficianado stuff I suppose but I do think Alonso is the best driver and that Webber deserves, and has earned, a good chance at the championship. I have to welcome the higher standard of journalism exhibited in this magazine.
what exactly is going on with Vettel this year? I bet he’d like to know! Good race, too bad for Alonso but great for Webs!
Dave Cubbage… are you forgetting Vettel had the last race won if the car did not die on him… had he won Alonso would have 7 less points, Webber 2 less and Seb 25 more…
Michael, yes of course I do and if my aunt had the tackle, she’d be my uncle. Simply put, Seb’s performances this year have been what we expect, he’s got speed, but the results have not been there. At this time last year he had several wins and the title about sewn up. If you’d ask me today, I don’t think the three-peat is on.
Kudos to Ferrari as they claw back performance from RBR, who are separating themselves from all the rest of the field. Seems it could be a finely measured match by the end of the season. The race was more interesting for the freedom of tire choice by the front runners at the start. Wouldn’t it be nice to see this option in all races going forward, mix up the strategies a bit more. A joy to see the clean racing between Alonso and Webber, a real joy.
To say about it being a lottery, I had an epiphany. Okay so it’s a touch artificial these days, but 30 years ago reliability was the lottery. A driver in the lead stood a moderate to good chance of suffering mechanical failure.
In these days of damn near bullet proof reliability we’ve got an element of that in the tyres.
While it does irk me a bit, the fact is I quite like not knowing who’s going to win. Ironically the one recent race where it looked predictable, Vettel suffered mechanical failure.
One more thing: During the race I was lamenting the old days when I first became a hardcore fan.
Remember the old A, B, C and D tyres? And drivers could mix and match? I miss those days.
F1 just seemed far more exotic and interesting in those days.
And while I’m at it am I alone in not liking the current qualifying format? I just find it boring to be quite honest. I’d rather see a 45 or 60 minute session, split into 3 or 4, and you have to set a time in each segment. Or an aggregate. If you don’t go out in a segment, you’re given the 107% time, or the slowest posted time, whichever is slower. I don’t know. Just find the current one irritating.
Grosjean is driving a Lotus this year (or Lotus Renault) not a Renault! . If you insist on calling his car a Renault then for consistency you should do the same for the Red Bulls and the Williams -Yes? This would however be rather confusing!
Must have been an enduring, yet rewarding event to attend.
Turned out to have quality in result, Webber really earned it, and Alonso’s fine drive amplified both their results.
My joy in Webber’s win tempered, by the obvious “oh dear, it’s alive” aspect of Red Bull looking very pointy end assured.
Vettel making much of being “pro-actively” adrift.
McLaren look all at sea, and their duo really striving to modest reward.
Mercedes again, fully prove they don’t have “a racing car” despite point and shoot pace.Schumacher fell into “pylon mode”, albeit with grit. Rosberg just vanished all weekend, poor start, knackered pit stop and no pace.
I don’t think the Maldonado-Perez incident was pure rubbish from Pastor. Sergio had his car in deep abruptly, only glory or tears awaited, deserving and getting are not mutually assured.
From Barcelona, much chat had both Williams and Sauber as THE aero superiority, tire friendly packages, if so this was a squandered effort. Senna did OK really, but richer harvests were for the plucking.
Force India, had pace, but ill luck with Hulkenberg past grip right at the end. DiResta’s fate, just a shame.
“Lotus” have a “very nearly” deal going on, just a bit off. Good drivers, great pace, need to crack the sky, shortly.
Grosjean is really something, “tres vitte” albeit more Rene Arnoux than Prost so far.
Good race, I hope, a happy anomaly to be honest. Form is emerging, I’ll take the mist a bit longer, tho’.
Nice to see some new contributors, and the re-connection of some valued long term voices.
McLaren’s predicament has been made worse by self inflicted problems in earlier races. Without the pitstop debacle in China I’m sure Button would have hunted Rosberg down and taken a second victory, and but for the qualifying error in Spain, Lewis would have beaten the Williams. Which means now they have much less margin to play with.
However, they’re not that far off that things can’t be put right. Ferrari started the season with an apparently awful car and have worked their socks off to improve it, they now need to do the same at Woking.
Maldonado I can’t work out. Some of these collisions are not all of his making, as on Sunday I think he lost the car and then didn’t have enough room beside the Sauber to recover it. In Valencia the red mist seemed to descend when Lewis edged him out, but instead of cooling thinking Ok, I’ll have him shortly anyway, he cinically took the aggressive stance and battered the McLaren off the road. To finish first, first you have to finish… Can’t Frank get that into his head?
I bet Sergio regrets not winning in Malaysia now.
One last thought. There are similarities between Sliverstone 1987 and this race, with one car hunting down another. Somehow though, one was way more exciting, the other an almost inevitable result which could have been foreseen. I know which one I’d pay to see again.
I don’t know about an “almost inevitable result” Andrew. Let us not forget that Webber was good enough to catch and pass Alonso who quite rightly is regarded as probably the best steerer in F1. The pass on Alonso took a fair bit of skill as well. I admit to a slight geographical bias but I wonder whether any of the other so-called superstars would have been able to do what Webber did over those last dozen or so laps?
>>>regards from Down Under.
Boned..does anyone watch qualifying anymore beyond the last 3 minutes? Q1 and Q2 are boring, but at the same time irrelevant. I’ve said it before..F1 fans will pretty much watch anything. This explains why they televise practice.
The tyre lottery of 2012 is just another symptom of fake racing in F1. I find my eyes wandering to other series.
I think the current quali system is OK. Much better than the past when you are at the track half an hour into a ‘session’ and no cars are running, then a mad scramble at the end.
John,
I don’t think Mark is the only one who could have done that. In very similar circumstances, Button Canada 2011, Hamilton China 2011 + Canada 2012, and without the botched pit stop probably Button China 2012, wins that came about by being on the faster tyre towards the end.Vettel, the Renault drivers (sorry Lotus), Alonso would all be capable in similar circumstances. Mark himself said early on last year that we would see races where someone would come through the field in the late stages and those ahead would be unable to do anything about it. He was right.
I can’t get excited about a car in front being incapable of defending its position because the tyres don’t have the grip, no matter what sequence they have been used in or how they’ve been looked after. I don’t know why this should be different from Mansell’s chase of Piquet in 87, or Piquet’s chase of Senna at Monza in 87 when the man who finished second in both cases ran non-stop and the eventual winners stopped for new rubber, but it is.
Simply, I don’t like what’s going on at the moment, that’s all.
Ray: I watch practice. In the US and Canada we get FP2 on TV (FP1 and 3 are streamed online by Speed, but they block us in Canada, charming!). I watch not to watch the cars but just to catch up on the stories since the last race. I used to obsessively trawl the net for news but now I just use Twitter and catch up on the rest on that. I usually do other things while “watching”.
As for qualifying I do watch all of it, but don’t really pay attention until the final few minutes of Q1. Again with Q2. Usually watch all of Q3 and pay attention, unless the grid is predictable and then I just pay attention for that final 2-3 minutes.
The problem with qualifying is it was designed for the good of TV, not the sport. It was designed to have commercials shoved in it.
I miss the old days. Super sticky tyres. Unlimited laps. Qualifying engines.
There was a Youtube account that was posting full versions of old F1 from the mid 70′s to early 90′s. As expected it’s been pulled now, but not before I manage to snag every single race off the site so I can see some proper F1.
Forgot to add… AS Gilbert… “Oh dear, it’s alive”. HAHAHA! That’s brilliant:)
Maybe it’s the reporting of the race which has troubled me. You have to scroll down a fair way to find the name of the winner after Nigel’s tyring intro.
Had (say) Button or Hamilton chased and passed Alonso as Webber did, this comment page would have a hundred and fifty entries lauding the brave, brilliant etc etc drive of the British hero.
Not that he would seek it but I reckon Webber should have received more plaudits for that effort instead of the muted response I see here.
John, I would have given high praise to Webs’ efforts, but every time I do the Vettel-nation comes down hard on me and I’d rather not go there. Mark knows he done good and has the 2013 Red Bull contract to prove it. Sebbie needs to up his game.
Tyres always were important to win races in F1.
Nowadays they are decisive to lose them.
So a Ferrari didn’t win because it doesn’t have the same access to testing as a certain German driver did ten years ago and therefore cannot test for all tyre wear eventualities. Do we really want to go back to those days and have the race result known after 5 laps or would we prefer a race (wish I could use italics here) to the finish? Well done Mark for a great drive and please keep off the mountain bikes until after the end of the season.
Nigel, I’d be interested on your take on a couple of points arising from Silverstone (and anyone else too, of course).
- Why did FA make his first stop so early ? He was still fast. Do teams concentrate too much on “covering off” rivals to the detriment of their whole-race strategy ?
- Kimi’s doing a solid job, but most of us expected him to do more than that, and certainly not to be visibly slower most of the time than his team-mate. Is he just taking his time ? Is he getting faster ? What do you think ?