Controversy From the German Grand Prix 2010
The 2010 season of Formula One has been relatively controversy free; no major scandals or upheavals to even report about. That all ended yesterday with Ferrari blatantly giving team orders to Felipe Massa to let his teammate, Fernando Alonso, through to win the race.
Formula One is comprised of twelve teams with two cars and two drivers in each team. Team orders, which have been banned since 2002, are part of the strategy for teams to gain as many championship points as possible. After all, it is the team that comes first; drivers are second. However, in order for the team to successfully grab the championship one of their drivers must also win. As the season progresses and the number of championship points dwindles, teams may choose one of their drivers who may have the best chance at clinching the championship. This driver will then receive the full backing of the team and assistance from his teammate. Even though the regulations ban this type of behavior all of the teams do this. Ask any of them, however, and they will vehemently deny it.
So, if they all do it and everyone knows that they all do it, what’s the big deal? It was the manner in which the team orders were given that has most people pissed off. The orders were so obvious to anyone watching the race and the lying that ensued afterwards was downright embarrassing.
Here is how the race played out –
Fernando Alonso qualified in second position with his teammate, Felipe Massa in third. Massa was able to get a better start and got by Alonso and Vettel for first position. Alonso also got by Vettel and claimed second. The rest of the race was rather uneventful with Alonso posting fastest lap times and Massa responding with his own fastest lap times. Ferrari should have been happy with a 1 – 2 finish the problem was that the wrong driver was in the lead; Alonso was leading Massa by 21 points in the championship.
Alonso did eventually manage to catch up to his teammate and tried to get around him during lap 23. Massa, however, held onto his position. A frustrated Alonso was then heard over the radio saying, “This is ridiculous”. Massa was able to pull away from his teammate and looked fairly secure in his lead. Alonso, once again, caught up to Massa and by lap 40 had closed the gap down to 1 second.
This is when Rob Smedley, Massa’s race engineer, is heard telling Massa that “Fernando is faster than you.” Not shortly after this transmission, Massa is seen dramatically slowing down, Fernando went by and Rob Smedley is heard apologizing to his driver.
The FIA have fined Ferrari $100,00 for this indiscretionary use of team orders. This is mere pocket change and amounts to nothing more than a wimpy slap on the wrist. The case has been handed over to the World Motor Sport Council who have the ability to impose whatever sanctions they want; if they decide to do anything at all.
Meanwhile, Alonso gets the win, Ferrari garner more points towards the championship and fans, like myself, feel cheated at not getting a clean race. This is, after all, what Formula One is – a race.
Why is Rubens Barrichello Such a Baby?
It’s the hot story coming out of last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix; the fantastic crash by Rubens Barrichello.
It is a pretty amazing crash when you consider that cars are going somewhere in the neighborhood of 120mph into this turn. An investigation into the crash by Williams has determined that a loose manhole cover was the culprit. As Barrichello came around turn 2 he hit the cover which flipped up and hit his left rear tire causing him to lose control of the car. In the video you see Rubens throw his $50,000 steering wheel onto the track. This is actually a breach in FIA regulations as the steering wheel must be reconnected after abandoning a stricken car. However, Rubens Barrichello, the man who has an excuse for absolutely everything as nothing is ever his fault stated:
“I threw the steering wheel because I wanted to get out of the car as soon as possible. After the shunt I was facing the wrong side of the track and the car was on fire.”
First of all, I didn’t see any flames shooting from the vehicle. Secondly, why couldn’t he have simply placed the steering wheel on top of the car, gotten out and tossed it back into the cockpit if he didn’t have time to reconnect it? Instead, he had a typical Rubens baby fit and tossed the steering wheel onto the track and into traffic without a second thought regarding the safety of the other drivers. Rubens Barrichello of all people should know the danger of debris on the track. It was a spring that came off his car last year during the Hungarian Grand Prix that hit Felipe Massa in the head sending the Brazilian hurtling off the track unconscious. Massa required brain surgery and subsequently missed the rest of the 2009 F1 season.
In this video you see the Hispania Racing Team car of Karun Chandhok run over Barrichello’s discarded steering wheel and drive off with it:
The steering wheel finally came dislodged before Chandhouk entered the tunnel only to be run over again by his teammate, Bruno Senna. Luckily, neither driver expeirenced any mishaps.
You may also remember the famous “blah blah” incident where Barrichello lashed out at his team during the 2009 German Grand Prix after he went from first to sixth place:
There was a great show from the team today of how to lose a race. I did all I could today, I got first at the first corner, and they made me lose the race.
If we keep going like this we’re going to lose both championships. To be very honest with you I wish I could get on a plane and just go home, because when I go to the team afterwards there will be a lot of ‘blah, blah, blah’ and I don’t want to hear that right now.
Formula 1 is generally depicted as the crème de la crème of motorsport; a gentlemen’s sport if you will. So, why does Rubens stomp around, throw fits and continually make a horse’s ass out of himself? Sometimes errors are made in team orders, sometimes incidents occur that are the fault of the driver. Never once have I heard Rubens take responsibility for what has happened on the track. And to publicly lash out at the team, whoever was at fault, is quite unheard of.
I’m not a Lewis Hamilton fan mainly because he does his fair share of whining. However, Rubens has just knocked Hamilton out of the “least favorite driver” list for me. Perhaps Rubens should take a lesson from Fernando Alonso. Alonso crashed his car during Saturday practice at Monaco, causing such damage that he missed qualifying and had to start the race from the pit lane. Pretty upsetting and frustrating especially considering that he is considered to be one of the top drivers to win the championship. He admitted to his crash being due to driver error. No whining. He simply pointed out that Michael Schumacher had started from the pit lane in 2005 and ended up in fifth place at the end of the race. Alonso managed sixth.
The Spanish Grand Prix 2010
It was a Red Bull 1 – 2 for qualifying and all bets were on a Red Bull 1 – 2 for the finish of the race at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. It shoulda, woulda, coulda, but was not meant to be and Red Bull had to settle for a 1 – 3 finish. Mark Webber had no problems taking his lead from start to checkered flag without incident. But once again, his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, suffered from unreliability issues with his RB6. Vettel had to wait for traffic to clear during his pit stop which put him behind the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. To make matters even worse, he then suffered a brake failure. Vettel was then forced to limp his car around the track for the remaining 12 laps. Luckily the gap between Vettel and fifth place Schumacher was a substantial one and he was able to maintain his position. A delaminated brake disc turned out to be the culprit.
Lewis Hamilton experienced the largest set-back of the race. Lewis suffered a deflation in his left front tire during his penultimate lap which sent him sailing into the tire wall, ending his race. Had Hamilton finished the race he would have been just one point shy of his teammate, Jenson Button, in the championship points standing. With Hamilton out, Alonso was able to capture second place to a cheering Spanish crowd. Sebastian Vettel managed a podium finish in third.
It was a frustrating race for Jenson Button. His pit stop was slowed due to a dragging clutch which sent him back onto the track behind Michael Schumacher. Even though Button was in a faster car, Schumi didn’t give the Brit any opportunity to get by. Michael Schumacher finished the race in fourth, his best result thus far for the season and Jenson Button claimed fifth.
With five races now completed, the top three contenders for the championship title are Jenson Button with 70 points, followed by Fernando Alonso with 67 and Sebastian Vettel with 60 points. However, with 14 races still to be had, a clear cut winner has yet to be determined. It’s still anyone’s race.
Formula 1 Heads to Europe
It will have been three weeks by the time the next Formula 1 race gets underway in Barcelona, Spain. This will be the home country race for Fernando Alonso, Jaime Alguersuari, and newcomer, Pedro de la Rosa. For Fernando Alonso it will be his first Spanish Grand Prix driving for Ferrari. This alone should make the Spanish F1 fans happy. And the fact that Alonso and Hamilton are currently tied with 49 championship points apiece should make for an exciting duel from the former Mclaren rivals. It is also the first race at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya for Jaime Alguersuari who started mid season last year. Alguersuari scored his first Formula 1 points in Malaysia by coming in ninth place ahead of countryman Fernado Alonso who finished 13th. The race in Barcelona will also be the first for Pedro de la Rosa driving for Sauber. De la Rosa has yet to score any championship points. His best finish thus far has been 12th position in Melbourne. The Melbourne race was also the first race he successfully completed, beating out his teammate, Kamui Kobayashi, who has yet to finish a race with an intact race car.
The news has been rather quiet during this lull in racing. Most of the news centered around the F1 personnel battling the ash of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Ross Brawn was among one of the few lucky souls who managed to get out of Shanghai immediately and relatively painlessly. Mark Webber, on the other hand, spent 44 hours traveling by various modes of transportation and managed to lose his passport along the way. The Virgin Racing team was so delayed in getting their equipment back to home base that they were only able to fit one of their cars, that of Timo Glock, with a new chassis.
Teams usually use this lengthy period in between races to add new bits onto the cars and make major adjustments. One driver who will be the beneficiary of a major overhaul is Michael Schumacher. Mercedes have increased the car’s wheelbase in an attempt to improve weight distribution. Ferrari will be trying out their new F-duct system in Spain and Fisichella has been out on the track testing the new aerodynamics. Red Bull’s Mark Webber has stated in an interview that Red Bull will not have the F-duct or J-switch available to them for the Spanish Grand Prix, while the Sauber team has also been testing out theirs. Most of the other teams have also made upgrades to their aero packages that they will be unveiling in Spain.
Bahrain Saturday Qualifying
Vettel managed to post a time of 1:54.101, more than a tenth of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso, also from Ferrari, came in third position nearly 3 tenths of a second off the pace of Vettel. Mark Webber will be starting tomorrow’s race in sixth position.
One of the new rules for this season is that all of the cars in the top ten positions must start the race on the tires they set their qualifying runs in. Rubens Barrichello, having finished in 11th position will be able to start the race with a fresh set of tires. And tires may be the deciding factor in tomorrow’s race.
2010 F1 Schedule
Date Location Mar. 14 
Sakhir - Bahrain Mar. 28 
Melbourne - Australia Apr. 04 
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Apr. 18 
Shanghai - China May 09 
Barcelona - Spain May 16 
Monaco May 30 
Istanbul - Turkey Jun. 13 
Montreal - Canada Jun. 27 Valencia - Spain Jul. 11 
Silverstone - Great Britain Jul. 25 
Hockenheim - Germany Aug. 01 
Budapest - Hungary Aug. 29 
Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium Sep. 12 
Monza - Italy Sep. 26 
Singapore Oct. 10 
Suzuka - Japan Oct. 24 
South Korea Nov. 07 
Sao Paulo - Brazil Nov. 14 
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates -
