The internet is not pleased once more, it as an entity hates the result, it hates the seemingly random decision making process that might be going on in race control, it hates the monumental use of tarmac next to the track. I think the internet needs to sit in a darkened room for a couple of weeks and calm down. There are some things the internet should be displeased about - none of which really took place this weekend - it's all based on very strict precedents set out races ago precedents which are almost impossible to enforce. For example in India this problem of observing track limits was completely ignored - yet here in Abu-Dhabi at the beginning of the weekend there was a warning put out that indiscretions would be punished. But as the race weekend elapsed - absolutely nothing was done about it at all, two investigations in the race, both came to naught. So I can understand why people are completely disillusioned with the powers in charge, because nobody knows where the limits are and we are beset with tracks which allow these things to take place. To be honest I think the two decisions were the right call, but they directly contradicted with the messages put out before the race and a whole host of other decisions that have been made in Hungary and in Singapore. To make matters worse the support packages were much stricter at the same track, does make F1 a look a little silly now doesn't it
Underneath that veil of displeasure that has grown thicker in the second half of 2013, there was a race taking place on the Yas Marina circuit - featuring several interesting battles for those places outside the top three. It has been the scene of yet another scene of crushing domination - which the internet is also unhappy about - and in a straight fight without the help of the safety car and spending a lot of the race in a conservative mode - winning by half a minute is beyond excessive. But it is now what we have come to expect, no-one has any defence, nothing in their arsenal to get anywhere near that German Bloke... will Austin be any different... I highly doubt it.
The Race
What we had today was a race that was set up so well with fast cars at the back of the grid, Vettel off the pole and with the only driver that has beat him into turn one sitting alongside on the grid. So much potential... where did it all go...
At the start Webber wasn't able to hang onto the lead... Vettel virtually automatically went to the front and like so many other races this year - was never seen of again. Rosberg also took a spot away from Webber. Further back where we expected the entertainment to come from, it all went a little pants - Raikkonen ended up crashing ever so gently into Charles Pic and thus our hope of a back of the grid charge only lasted 300 metres. By the time Vettel completed the opening lap Kimi was headed for the airport... would the Finn return this year. Well, with that interest removed from proceedings we turned to Jenson Button also off the pace in qualifying looking for a better day... well he'd driven into the back of Paul Di Resta and had to pit for a new wing demoting Jenson to the back of the field... So that didn't go to plan at all frankly. Both were up for a potentially large bonus points haul, never mind.
Hamilton was well on his way to not having a particularly happy day, having lost places to Grosjean and Hulkenberg in the first half of the opening lap, finding himself staring at the back of a Sauber - like so many have done this year. Alonso was also having difficulties behind Massa - and given the fact that Ferrari have already fired Felipe, he was not particularly inclined let his team-mate past. We were then treated to a very unusual radio transmission to Webber as he was losing ground to Rosberg, surprise of all surprises there was a technical problem with the KERs unit. Mark was instructed not to use KERs to allow it to recover from whatever fault it had developed this week. While all this was going on, Vettel was in a completely different universe out front...again...
The soft tyres came to the end of their life by lap eight and a series of stops began - which lead to a very intriguing development. The group of cars including Webber, Grosjean and Hamilton dropped outside of the top ten - importantly rejoining behind Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber - where the current form and expectations broke down completely. Firstly Webber had no problem driving past one of the fastest cars in a straight line, Gutierrez seemed to allow Mark to ease past and off the Australian went to chase down Adrian Sutil. Grosjean was also able to engage the DRS to blast past the Sauber, even considering that the Lotus is supposed to be one of the slowest car in a straight line. So with all this evidence of Renault powered cars powering past the Sauber, why was Hamilton's Mercedes completely incapable of out-dragging Gutierrez. Also Esteban seemed much more inclined to resist the Mercedes placing the car firmly along the inside line in the only two places where passing seemed allowed today.
Grosjean was having a bit of bother trying to pass Adrian Sutil - because the Force India was once more running long on the tyres - Pirelli were not upset about this this week. After Grosjean made the pass in the first DRS zone Sutil simply re-took the place in the second zone. Just up the road Webber carved past another of the cars long stinting the first set of tyres, applying DRS to go past Vergne in the junior team car. All the while Hamilton was losing more time behind Gutierrez and his best course of action was to complain to the team and to Charlie Whiting. Di Resta was in the process being the next blockade as his tyres were coming towards the end of their lifetime - backing Rosberg into Webber, to which Mark took full advantage and took a net second place away from Nico... and with that the top four were settled before half distance....
With Gutierrez out of the way you'd think that Hamilton's day was going to get better, well...no... because there was Sutil in a car with just enough top speed to frustrate Lewis and not feeling the need to defend. As Hamilton was focussed on the back of the Force India he didn't really notice that Massa had rejoined from his stop behind the Mercedes, and Felipe threw the Ferrari down the inside to which Rob Smedley was well pleased, to take the place. Another car that was taken rather by surprise was Nico Hulkenberg, at the hands of Fernando Alonso - I assume Nico thought that the Ferrari would have the same problems passing the Sauber as it did in Korea - but Fernando was able to take the place at the end of the second straight. Overall Lewis was displeased complaining that he had no idea what was wrong with the car and it had no grip.
After Adrian finally decided get rid of his tyres, and rejoined in the middle of a battle between Maldonado and Perez just outside the points positions. Both Adrian and Pastor tried to go through turn 10 side by side, and both ran off the track - Sutil more so than Maldonado in the melee Perez had temporarily passed Sutil, but as he cut the chicane re-emerged ahead of the McLaren. Because this was a violation of track limits - again - there was an inevitable investigation which delivered no verdict. Likely because Maldonado pushed Sutil off, and went wide himself in doing so - and both were ahead of Perez at the start of the incident so no net ground was gained. Back with Hamilton - his second stop put him of all places behind Gutierrez... and so his day just continued to improve. Hulkenberg in the other Sauber was handed a penalty for an unsafe pit release against Perez - ruining any chance of points for the second race in a row.
The conspiracy theorists came out of their corner as the Ferraris had closed in on one another on the track with Massa running ahead of Alonso, and like the first time round wasn't going to let his team-mate past. Bearing in mind everyone assumed that both of the red machines were planning to complete the race on a single stop - like the Force Indias. So suspicions were well and truly aroused when Massa was called in for another stop, releasing Fernando, Massa fall back to behind Hamilton. Who in turn had found another car to get stuck behind - this time being Jean Eric Vergne in a one stopping Toro Rosso. This time Lewis wasn't trapped for as long, allowing him to build a gap and escape from Felipe who wasn't able to make the same pass.
Some of those conspiracy theorists might have been silenced when Fernando also had to pit because the strategy wasn't going to pan out as planned, but things got very interesting when he rejoined the track. Coming out alongside the Vergne/Massa battle - literally alongside Vergne. Alonso was eased off the track on the outside of turn three as Vergne maintained the racing line - rather than give up, Fernando kept it floored across the run-off bouncing across the kerbs for the myriad of alternate layouts and rejoining the track ahead of the Toro Rosso. Despite how risky the pass was, and how ballsy staying flat across the bumpy surface, the whole event became another discussion of track limits. For gods sake just put grass out there it is getting beyond ridiculous - fortunately no action was taken following a post race investigation. But it again highlights a horrendous lack of consistency in the regulations.
Because no-one was paying particular attention further forward it came as a surprise to see that Di Resta was running safely in 5th place making a one-stop strategy work once more - but that position was starting to come under threat. Both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were rapidly closing in on the Force India - only a pair of world champions on fresher tyres... how hard can it be. Given Hamilton's record of not being able to pass people today Paul had more to be concerned about from the Ferrari a car back. That concern became even more of a problem when Fernando pressured Hamilton into compromising his exit following the first DRS zone, allowing him to sweep past the usually slow in a straight line Mercedes. Being a significantly more powerful opponent, Di Resta was unable to resist Alonso's attack as he moved up into 5th position.
Just as a reminder, Vettel was still in the race, 30 seconds ahead of Webber and that was while sitting back and watching battles unfold amongst cars he was about to put a lap down. Where we had Hulkenberg after the penalty driving between both Toro Rossos as they went three wide down the first straight. But Vettel was unstoppable completely obliterating the competition today, in an identical car Webber was over half a minute behind in a very distant second - Rosberg rounded out the podium for Mercedes followed closely home by Grosjean. In the part of the race which was worth watching Alonso weathered the threat of a penalty to claim 5th - Paul Di Resta added to the list of cars that frustrated Hamilton and brought the Force India home in a very impressive 6th place. A rather miserable Lewis finished 7th a safe margin ahead of Felipe Massa in 8th. And on the final lap Perez took 9th place away from Sutil who finished off the points in 10th.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Although at the front of todays race there was absolutely no competition in yet another dominant victory - at least Vettel made up for it with some doughnuts again - there was some entertainment further down the field to award points to.
- 25pts - Paul Di Resta - A very stealthy race on a well executed one stop strategy, looks like the title of being champion of the single stop has to be passed over from Perez
- 18pts - Nico Rosberg - The only one to remain in sight of at least one Red Bull today
- 15pts - Sebastian Vettel - Outrageously dominant, crushing Webber in the same car, and for some more doughnuts for which no-one has been fined for... yet...
- 12pts - Fernando Alonso - That was very brave as the car jumped and bounced at full speed
- 10pts - Adrian Sutil - Scoring points from being knocked out in Q1, in a race with very low attrition
- 8pts - Felipe Massa - Has to have some points for that brilliant overtaking manoeuvre on Hamilton to make his day even better...
- 6pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Through the middle of a three wide battle to take both places, brilliant
- 4pts - Pastor Maldonado - So close to doubling Williams' points score with another 11 place finish deserves some consolation points.
- 2pts - Fabio Leimer - Gets a couple of points for winning the GP2 championship
- 1pt - Tom Dillman - Has to have a point for unleashing super strength to lift a car off his head in the GP2 feature race, but was not cleared healthy enough for race two.
The Penalties Championship
Only a single penalty was issued today despite the investigations into track limits and the strict assurances that those were going to be enforced - and that was handed to Hulkenberg for the unsafe pit lane release into the path of Sergio Perez.
The Penalty Points Championship
At risk of starting to whine and moan on about things - but the Stewards are all over the place at the moment threatening and then not bothering to take any actions whatsoever. But this weekend don't see the point in issuing another penalty today, because if they'd punished Alonso there would have been something worth complaining about. But there is a penalty for Stefano Coletti for being well out of control in the first GP2 race, and a definite penalty point for tarmac run-off areas because despite the issue with the stewarding it is the way in which the tracks are designed which is at the source of this curse.
Looking Forward to the USA
In contradiction to many of the modern race circuits, the Circuit of the Americas is very good, yes there are some faults in the final third of the lap but overall it is a vast improvement over many of the general Tilke tracks we've been cursed with. Also it was one of the race where we saw much more action outside of the DRS straight so I think we are on for a very strong weekend...But and it is a big But... it is another track bordered by acres of tarmac run-off space which means this constant debate about track limits and the usage and abuse of them is set to rumble on.
I can see that enthusiasm for this season has plummeted considerably of late in the light of these constant issues, and a field rendered defenceless at the hands of a single driver. Will our second visit to the states be any different, probably not - but the rest of the field should more than make up for it. So until then this is farewell from Blog HQ.
No comments:
Post a Comment