F1 and hypocrisy goes hand in hand as while just a week back Ferrari was criticized by every single British writer and non-Ferrari fan for issuing team orders but Christian Horner the Red Bull team principle who said there is no place for team orders used team strategy instead to gift Webber the race while teammate Vettel who acted for the team ended up getting a penalty and was robbed of a race win. Red Bull does not have number one & two but then by favouring Webber, Vettel not only lost the race but also lost out on the chance of leading the championship race but now due to Red Bull’s strategy for Webber, Vettel is only 3rd in the championship behind Webber and Hamilton. Though there have always been talks of how Vettel has been the chosen one for the Red Bull team not many know about Webber and Horner’s co-ownership of MW Arden. Red Bull’s management decision has not been the best and incidents like these are going to cause the championships for the team.
Ferrari proved that they are the best among the rest as Alonso took home a very strong 2nd place finish and in the end managed to hold off a red hot Vettel. This very result sort of vindicated their decision to let Alonso finish ahead of Massa. With both Webber and Vettel taking of points off each other for every other race and if Ferrari and Alonso continue to maintain their strong form, Alonso may end by winning his 3rd world championship by the end of the season. Massa may not have been as fast as Alonso but he is back in form and he did a good job for the team by finishing 4th at the same place where one year back nearly ended his F1 career. Massa by consistently finishing ahead of McLaren’s would help Ferrari claw its way back in the constructor’s title race and may even have an outside chance of winning it.
Vitaly Petrov was the man who is under immense pressure as Renault is actually looking at other drivers who can be quick and score consistently for the team did no harm to his credentials for the next season as he managed his best ever performance by coming in 5th. We should all remember that Petrov is a rookie and so far has done pretty well. Despite Kubica outclassing him all season, Petrov has been the better driver this weekend and showed that he deserves his Renault seat. Kubica would be disappointed as once again he had a car which was faster than even McLaren but then pit-lane mayhem caused him pull out onto Sutil which caused them their races. Renault is looking good and has a realistic chance of catching up with Mercedes before the season ends.
Nico Hulkenberg may not have won the battle of rookies with Petrov today but then he had a very solid race and finished well ahead of his experienced teammate Barrichello who was racing his 299th grand prix today. Not bad for a rookie and Hulkenberg did show that he has all credentials of being a very good racing driver. It is still early to see him as a future world champion but he can always improve and provided he does get a solid racing car he can go on and win the title a few times. Barrichello also proved a point against his former teammate Michael Schumacher by snatching the last points available but then Schumacher’s driving style and the way he tried to push Barrichello towards the pit wall was questionable and for a 7 time world champion doing this to just defend one point is just not needed. FIA should reprimand Schumacher for this incident.
Sauber once again had a good weekend with both its drivers scoring point while Pedro de la Rosa came in 7th and scored his first points of the season but Kamui Kobayashi despite a very bad start where he did not make it out of Q1 and also had a 5 place penalty managed a very good drive once again and aided by the pit-lane mayhem ended up finishing 9th. Sauber if they continue to perform the same way can realistically look at catching up with both Force India and Williams who are not too far away.
McLaren had a horrible race with Hamilton the championship leader going into the race retired after having a transmission problem while Button managed a 8th place thanks largely to the pit-lane mayhem. McLaren are well behind both Red Bull and Ferrari during the last 2 races and the team has to once again focus hard to catch up with these teams. Red Bull once again leads the championships while McLaren still have an edge over Ferrari but if Ferrari manages to surge ahead as they have done during the last 2 weeks, McLaren could end up 3rd in the constructor’s championship by the end of the season. Button is looking like the #2 driver for the team as despite his early season form, Hamilton is scoring more points than him and Button needs a solid performance and finish well ahead of Hamilton to prove that he has it in him to beat Hamilton in the same car.
Force India after a stunning start to the season have gone backwards and at one stage being the best of the rest now the team is battling Toro Rosso while both Williams and Sauber have made significant improvement over the last few races. Force India needs to find something real quick as if they do fail so both Williams and Sauber may overtake them at the end of the season. Sutil may have been unlucky this weekend but Tonio continues to blow hot & cold. If he fails to score consistently, there are lot of good drivers on the paddock who will be more than willing to take his seat.
Toro Rosso after being ahead of both Williams and Sauber during the start of the season is now well behind them and now are stuck in a place where they are well ahead of the new teams while they are also well behind the other established teams. Toro Rosso may not score another win in their history but then they need to improve to score points further this season and they may end up with 10 if they continue to go the same way.
Looking at the performances of Lotus, Virgin and HRT one may actually wonder if we do need them on the grid. Despite early promise and potential Lotus have not really achieved anything great and have just about managed to stay ahead of Virgin and HRT. If Virgin continues to use CFD and have a shoestring budget, they would not make any improvement at all and it is sad to see a team like that on the grid just doing nothing. HRT on the other hand is a team which offers F1 drive for the guy who can afford it but then if not for money Christian Klien would be racing for them.
The F1 world takes a 3 week break where practically everything is shut and we have to go to Spa for the Belgium Grand Prix. Last season Ferrari’s Kimi and Force India’s Fisi battled the entire race for the 1st place while this season Kimi is driving for the Red Bull rallying team while Fisi is Ferrari’s 3rd driver sitting in the paddock doing nothing. Come Spa the mood will be different in the Red Bull garage and all hell may break lose.
