German Grand Prix stats and facts

Lewis Hamilton took a masterful victory yesterday, despite having never taken a single point from the Nurburgring before. Here are this weekend’s stats and facts:

• Sebastian Vettel’s poor performance doesn’t mean he can’t still break records. The German’s 4th place now gives Vettel the record of best ever start to an F1 season. The previous record holder, Fernando Alonso, had taken a 5th place at the 10th race of the 2006 season, after 9 1sts and 2nds.
• Despite some complaints of artificial racing, it has emerged that only 29% of overtakes this season have been due to DRS.
• Lewis Hamilton took his 10th fastest lap, matching Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Mark Webber and John Surtees.
• Mark Webber took the 9th pole position of his career, the 29th for Red Bull. Despite this, he has yet to retain his lead off the start at all this year.
• However, Webber has finally managed to lead a lap this year. He is the seventh driver to do so in 2011.
• 4th marks the first time in 15 races that Vettel has finished off the podium.
• In terms of total driver’s points, Ferrari have now amassed 5,555 points in their 61-year history.
• Alonso took his 68th podium finish, as many as Rubens Barrichello.
• Apart from Lotus, Virgin and HRT, Pastor Maldonado is the only driver of the main field to have not completed full race distance so far this year.
• Fernando Alonso is now the only driver of the pack who has out-qualified his teammate at every event so far. Felipe Massa has not beaten Alonso in qualifying since Spa 2010.
• Lewis Hamilton has finished on the podium at least once at every F1 circuit he has raced in.
• Nico Rosberg now has the most points without a win of any F1 driver.

Buemi takes 5-place grid drop for Hungary

Buemi will take a grid drop after colliding with Heidfeld in Germany

Sebastien Buemi has been ordered to take a 5-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The stewards decided that he was at fault for causing a collision between the Toro Rosso and Nick Heidfeld early on in the German GP.

Approaching the Veedol chicane, Heidfeld was squeezed onto the grass by Buemi, then the Renault was launched into the gravel trap and out of the race. Buemi continued, but pitted for repairs to his rear right tyre.

Although the television images suggested Buemi squeezed Nick off the track, Sebastien claims “Heidfeld drove into me”.

This follows Buemi being disqualified from qualfying, after a fuel irregularity with his car.

In related news, the FIA has stated it will not take any action against Nick Heidfeld, who was issued a drive-through penalty (for colliding with Paul di Resta) before he crashed out.

Hamilton takes superb victory in Germany

Lewis Hamilton took one of his greatest wins in the German Grand Prix today. Lewis drove his heart out all race long to beat Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber to the top step of the podium. Sebastian Vettel had a dire race, struggling to 4th on the final lap. Adrian Sutil silently took an excellent 6th, while Kamui Kobayashi made a brilliant comeback from 18th. Here is what happened:

Webber continued his streak of bad starts, allowing Hamilton to leap into the lead at the first corner. Fernando Alonso pushed Vettel aside to move into 3rd.

Hamilton takes the lead while the Red Bulls fall back

Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta came together, sending both cars to the back of the grid. They remained ahead of Karun Chandhok, who pitted for a new nosecone after a few laps.

Slipping wide at Turn 3 cost Alonso 3rd place to Vettel. The other Ferrari, back in 6th, was stuck behind Nico Rosberg, and was being urged to pass the Mercedes to avoid “ruining” his race. Even with DRS, Massa failed to pass.

His teammate, without DRS, barged his way past Vettel at Turn 1, giving Alonso back 3rd position.

On Lap 10, the world champion shocked viewers around the world, by succumbing to pressure and spinning at Turn 10. He kept 4th, but was now under pressure by Rosberg and Massa.

This 3-way battle allowed Massa to get closer to Rosberg, and the Ferrari driver pushed his way into 5th. Further back, Sebastien Buemi accidentaly pushed Nick Heidfeld off the track, launching the Renault into the air and into the gravel trap.

Heidfeld is launched into the air after colliding with Buemi

The focus soon switched to the frontrunners, as the top 3 drivers began to close up to each other. Lewis made a mistake exiting the Veedol chicane, allowing Webber to slide past into the lead. Hamilton wasn’t having any of it though, using a wider line onto the pit straight, and shoving his McLaren along the pit wall to retake the lead.

Webber pitted from 2nd on Lap 16, followed by Hamilton and Alonso a lap later. However, as the three drivers came together at Turn 1, Felipe Massa – who was yet to stop – was in the middle of the battle. Pushing Webber wide, he took the lead, but Mark was still past Hamilton.

After Felipe pitted, Webber took control of the race. Michael Schumacher emulated Vettel by spinning off at Turn 10. Jenson Button finally stopped on Lap 25, indicating a 2-stop strategy.

Webber surprised many by stopping earlier than expected on Lap 31. With traffic and a poor out lap, Hamilton retook the lead after stopping a lap later. Mark tried a move around the outside of Turn 2, but Lewis pushed him onto the grass to retain the lead.

In a complete contrast to the regular undercut, Alonso pitted on Lap 33, and managed to move into the lead. However, his lead didn;t last long – Hamilton did what Webber couldn’t, and sailed around the outside of the Ferrari to retake the lead again.

Vettel jumps Massa on the final lap - albeit in the pits

In the battle for 6th, Nico Rosberg did very well to hold off a faster Button on both the back and main straights. However, running wide at Turn 1 handed Jenson the position. It was short-lived though, as a hydraulic failure caused the McLaren to retire.

Sebastian Vettel began to pick up the pace, and tried a move on Massa at the Veedol chicane. It failed to materialise, as Sebastian locked up and went straight on at the chicane.

Hamilton celebrates a fantastic win

Into the final 10 laps, the battle for the top 5 positions were decided by the final set of pit stops. The medium tyres were delayed for as long as possible, but with the rain holding off, using the slower tyre was inevitable.

Hamilton was the first to react, diving into the pits on Lap 52. Alonso followed him in a lap later, but failed to pass the McLaren. Oddly enough, even though Lewis was faster on the primes, Mark decided to stay out for several laps, to try a different strategy.

If failed to work, as the Red Bull emerged in 3rd again, well behind Alonso in 2nd. Meanwhile, the battle for 4th was decided on the final lap. Both Massa and Vettel pitted on Lap 59, but a slow stop by Ferrari allowed Sebastian to take 4th position.

Alonso hitches a lift from Webber back to parc ferme

A last-gasp battle for the lead was short-lived, allowing Hamilton to cross the line to take one of the finest wins of his career. After a stunning lap on Saturday, he was on the pace every single lap, and pushed the Red Bulls past their limit. Fernando Alonso was also impressive, but the drama didn’t end after the chequered flag for him. After running low on fuel, the Spaniard stopped as a precautionary measure – and Webber gave him a lift back to the pits on the Red Bull sidepod!

Adrian Sutil was the unsung hero of the race, quietly moving up the field to take a well-deserved 6th place. Rosberg and Schumacher were behind the Force India, while Kamui Kobayashi recovered well to take points after qualifying 18th.

Update: Sebastien Buemi has received a 5-place grid penalty for Hungary, after the stewards concluded he was at fault for the collision with Nick Heidfeld. More to follow.

Webber snatches pole in Germany

Mark Webber will start on pole position ahead of the German Grand Prix. He will start ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who pulled out a stunning lap at the end of Q3 to move ahead of Sebastian Vettel in 3rd. Fernando Alonso failed to beat the Red Bulls after a promising start to the weekend. Here is the full report:

Q1

Ricciardo went within 0.02 seconds of Liuzzi

As expected in Q1, most of the frontrunners did their best to conserve their soft tyres. Felipe Massa was the only driver in the top 6 who felt the need to put on the options in Q1.

Daniel Ricciardo got much closer to Vitantonio Liuzzi compared to last race – only 0.025 seconds away. Karun Chandhok split the two Virgin cars to go 21st.

Timo Glock was 20th, but complained to his team, claiming they were “making his life difficult”. Heikki Kovalainen was comdfortably the fastest of the bottom 3 teams.

Sauber’s strategy of holding their drivers in the garage for the first half of Q1 failed to pay off. A 1:33.786 wasn’t enough for Kamui Kobayashi to make it through the session, and he will start the race 18th.

Drivers knocked out in Q1:

18) Kamui Kobayashi – 1:33.786

19) Heikki Kovalainen – 1:35.599

20) Timo Glock – 1:36.400

21) Karun Chandhok – 1:36.422

22) Jerome D’Ambrosio – 1:36.641

23) Vitantonio Liuzzi – 1:37.011

24) Daniel Ricciardo – 1:37.036

Q2

Perez struggled for pace in Q2

Lewis Hamilton was the first man of the weekend to enter the 1:30′s, leading the two Red Bulls.

Vitaly Petrov pushed Michael Schumacher out of 10th, before he was de-seated by Paul di Resta.

Schumacher moved back into the top 10, while Adrian Sutil went 7th to knock his teammate out of Q2. Nick Heidfeld improved on his time to stay 10th, before Petrov came back to go 9th.

Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello were 13th and 14th, with Sergio Perez 15th. The Toro Rossos of Buemi and Alguersuari were 16th and 17th.

Update: Buemi has been excluded from qualifying because of fuel irregularities. He will start tomorrow’s race either last, or from the pit lane.

Drivers knocked out of Q2:

11) Nick Heidfeld – 1:32.215

12) Paul di Resta – 1:32.560

13) Pastor Maldonado – 1:32.635

14) Rubens Barrichello – 1:33.043

15) Sergio Perez – 1:33.176

16) Sebastien Buemi – Excluded

17) Jaime Alguersuari – 1:33.698

Q3

Webber resisted a charge from Lewis to take pole

Fernando Alonso led the way out of the pits for Q3. He briefly went fastest, before Hamilton beat the Spaniard by one tenth.

However, the searing Red Bull pace quickly propelled Mark Webber in front by 0.4 seconds. Vettel was a single tenth behind his teammate.

Massa’s and Button’s times were well off the pace, while Petrov went 7th. Neither Mercedes or Adrian Sutil set a time n the first 5 minutes, instead electing to go out while the frontrunners were in the pits.

Fernando Alonso pushed his Ferrari to the limit, but only moved into 3rd. Mark Webber improved by a tenth to stay on top, while Lewis Hamilton pulled out an incredible lap to split the Red Bulls, after Vettel moved into 3rd place.

Nico Rosberg pipped a dissappointing Button to 6th, while Adrian Sutil was 8th. Vitaly Petrov and Michael Schumacher finished off the top 10.

Lewis was delighted with his 2nd position, describing it as a “wicked lap”, going over a second faster than teammate Button.

While a Red Bull on pole was not too surprising, it was a joy to see Alonso and particularly Hamilton push their cars to the absolute limit. The gap to the previously invincible Red Bulls has disappeared, and it has set up for a fantastic race tomorrow, with rain on the forecasts…

Single DRS zone remains for Nurburgring

The Nurburgring features DRS approaching the Veedol chicane

One DRS zone will be used at the German Grand Prix this weekend.

The activation zone will be on the back straight, approaching the Veedol chicane. In previous years, drivers have attempted passes, but nearly always fell short.

The detection point will be at the approach to Turn 10 – the Kumho-Kurve. Drivers will be then able to open the rear wing exiting Turn 11 – the Bit-Kurve.

As in previous races, DRS will remain open until the braking point of the Veedol chicane.

The Nurburgring has proven difficult in terms of passing in recent years. Hopefully, with Pirelli tyres and a decent DRS zone, that will change this weekend.

Chandhok to replace Trulli for German GP

Chandhok will make his first racing appearance since Silverstone last year

Karun Chandhok will take over Jarno Truli’s car for the German Grand Prix, the team confirmed today.

The Indian driver has taken part in 4 practice sessions with the team so far this year. It will be his first race in F1 since the 2010 British Grand Prix.

Trulli has struggled with power steering problems all year in the Lotus. He is due a steering upgrade in Hungary, so many believe that this temporary replacement is simply to allow Trulli to cool off.

Despite losing his seat for one race, team principal Tony Fernandes has confirmed that the team is still in negotiations with Jarno regarding a contract for next year.

Despite this, it is still suspected that Trulli will make way for Chandhok at the inaugral Indian Grand Prix as well.

Thoughts on the German Grand Prix

Isn’t it very strange how Ferrari change tack on the rules so quickly? After Valencia, they blasted the stewards, called the race a “sham”, after the safety car penalty mix-up. In Great Britain, Fernando Alonso ignored the rules, stole a place off Kubica, ignored common sense, and rightfully earned a drive-through penalty. You would have thought that they would have learned their lesson. But no, screw the rules, we’re Ferrari.

I’ll explain. In both Valencia and Britain, the team were using the rulebook to argue their case. For Valencia, they wanted an immidiate drive-through penalty for Hamilton after he overtook the safety car, and rightfully so. In Britain, they skated around the rules, claiming that Alonso did not gain an advantage by cutting the corner, even though he clearly did. However, not a single Ferrari team member could explain their way around breaking rule 39.1 : “Team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited.”

It shocks us all to believe that Ferrari could try to bring Formula 1 back to the sham of Austria 2001 and 2002, when Michael Schumacher and the team stole 1st and 2nd positions off Rubens Barrichello two years in a row. As these 3 videos show, very little has changed in 9 years:

The media’s reaction has varied by country obviously. The British media are screaming “Fraud-ula 1″, and the Star were so angry they couldn’t even spell:

Meanwhile, the Brazilian media have grilled Felipe Massa, claiming he was spineless and weak in allowing Alonso through. And over here in Ireland… you could barely find it. The newspapers here don’t care about F1 (something I have vowed to fix in my lifetime), but no matter which way you look at it, Formula 1′s reputation has been ruined yet again by Ferrari.

Many people talk of “improving the show” to attract more casual viewers. How do they expect to do this when people open their newspapers and read “Fraud-ula 1″?

But enough on this sham, back to the race. Unfortunately, the German Grand Prix fell below our expectations, as there simply wasn’t much to note, apart from the obvious. I would however like to note Pedro de la Rosa’s excellent overtake on Nico Hulkenberg as a highlight of the race for me.

Also, I’m sure we were disappointed by the lack of action generated by the large gap in the tyre compounds, as the super-soft tyres held up much better than expected. This meant that, while a few drivers started on the harder tyre, the usual 1-stop, soft to hard tyre strategy worked well. However, Nico Hulkenberg’s strategy is well worth a mention. He started on the soft tyres, and managed to drag them up to Lap 35, by which time they were completely shot. While he went a few laps too far, this is an example of the changes that are needed in tyre compounds, as they need to be even softer to mix things up a bit.

Vitaly Petrov has made a good step towards retaining his seat for 2010, by getting his first points-scoring position since China. He finished 10th, although he mistakenly believed he was outside the points, and only found out after the race! Like Eric Boullier was saying, this is exactly what Petrov needs to do to keep his seat, by upping the pace to get closer to team-mate Kubica. Remember Nelson Piquet Jr nearly won here in 2008, thanks to a perfectly timed safety car? The difference here is that the new Renault driver doesn’t need sheer luck to keep his seat. A few more good performances and Petrov will be my favourite rookie driver of the year.

Driver of the race – Felipe Massa: Exactly one year after his horrible accident, an excellent performance should have got him the win. A clever move at the start got him into the lead, and although he fell away in terms of raw pace, still deserved to take 1st place.

Driver of the new teams – Timo Glock: He was easily the fastest driver of the new teams, and overcame a difficult 23rd position on the grid.

Best rookie – Vitaly Petrov: Got his first points scoring position since China, and has also improved in terms of qualifying. While he is still well behind Robert Kubica, he does seem to be catching up. His race seat for 2011 will become more and more secure with each of these good performances.

Best team – McLaren: It was hardly going to be Ferrari. While Sebastian Vettel finished ahead of Button and Hamilton, it must be noted that the two McLarens were extremely close in terms of pace to each other, although they would have wanted to be closer to the podium finishers.

Least impressive – Sakon Yamamoto: To start off, when the race began, he didn’t realise that the pit limiter was still on, which dropped him to the back of the grid after a terrible getaway. Then, when he was trying to adjust his brake bias, he his the engine fire switch, and cut out the engine, forcing him into retirement. An absolute waste of a driver, and is costing HRT and Karun Chandhok dearly.

German Grand Prix stats and facts

Once you look behind the headlines, you can find the fact that this is Williams 100th race since their last win. Here are more stats and facts from the German Grand Prix:

• Fernando Alonso’s win means that he is now in the top 10 of Grand Prix winning drivers, with 23 to his name, as many as Nelson Piquet Sr. On the other hand, if Massa had won, then he would have had 12 wins, 1 less than Lewis Hamilton.
• Sebastian Vettel’s 5th fastest lap of his career means he has as many as Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.
• Also, Vettel’s  11th pole position means he is in 30th place overall.
• This is only the second time this year that Red Bull have not led a lap in a Grand Prix. The other time was in China, when Sebastian Vettel again lost his lead at the start, although Fernando Alonso jump started into the lead.
• This was the 3rd pole position in a row for Vettel, although he has bottled the last 2 in a row at the first corner.
• The qualifying gap to Alonso (0.002 seconds) was the smallest pole position margin since the Italian GP in 2006, when Kimi Raikkonen took pole.
• This is Williams’ 100th race entry since their last win. However, taking Indianapolis 2005 into account, they have actually only competed in 99 races since their last win.
• This is Red Bull’s 100th race entry, but again, only 99th race start, thanks to Indy 2005.
• Robert Kubica has now out-qualified his team-mate 11 times in a row this year (every race), the only driver to do so.
• Felipe Massa has completed the most laps, with 666. 3 drivers are one lap behind on 665 (Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso) as they retired with one lap to go.
• I could be wrong, but I think it is the first ever time in Formula 1 history that 3 different teams have scored 2 1-2 victories in a single season.
• Many people are claiming that Nico Hulkenberg’s pit stop was 2.9 seconds, and therefore the fastest pit stop in F1 history. Unfortunately, I had a look at the replays, and there was a huge timing error, as the stop was actually around 4.5 seconds.
• Not exactly a historical stat, but I’m guessing it’s the first time that a driver tried to adjust his brake bias, and hit the engine fire switch instead, cutting out the engine and forcing him into retirement. Three cheers for Sakon Yamamoto!

If you know of any more, let us know in the comments.

Massa and Alonso grilled in press conference

Both Ferrari drivers, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, have been hounded by the press following the team orders controversy surrounding the German Grand Prix. After Felipe was ordered to allow Fernando through, who went on to win the race, they were promptly summoned to the press conference, where they just about survived a grilling.

Normally, the first part of the press conference is an extremely boring affair, with lots of “for sures” and “the team did a great job” statements. However, the second part is much more interesting, when the newspaper journalists get to ask any question they want, and the drivers must respond. So without further ado, here are the stinging questions that Felipe and Fernando endured:

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Fernando and Felipe, via a coded message it appears that we’ve just witnessed a clear case of team orders being handed out. To Fernando, do you feel embarrassed about taking such a win, and to Felipe do you feel angry about having to give up such a win?
FM: For sure, you always want to win. That’s always what we’re working for. For sure we don’t have team orders, so we just need to do the race that we can and if you see that you cannot do the race that you can, you need to think about the team. I think that’s the most important thing.
FA: Yeah, same. What’s important is the team result, so I’m happy.

Q: (Fredrik Af Petersens) Felipe, you said earlier that you lost out to Fernando on the hard tyres. How come that after you were passed, that you were doing more or less exactly the same lap times, a couple of times even faster?
FM: I was pushing hard as well but maybe I think he slowed down, I don’t know. He was controlling the pace.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Felipe, after this afternoon, do you now think you’re the number two driver at Ferrari?
FM: Well, I cannot say that I’m there fighting for first position in the championship. I’ve lost many points, important points, and the only thing I can say is that I know what I can do, I can win races, that’s what counts and everybody saw today that I can win races and I can be competitive. For sure, what happened today is something that has happened in many races this year: when I put on the hard tyres I struggle. This is exactly what happened in the race. On the soft tyres, I was very strong and then when we went onto the hard, I was struggling again, so there’s no news about that. So I know why sometimes I’m a little bit penalised, it’s just because of the very hard tyres that we have this year. I don’t think it’s a good thing, to be honest, because you don’t have strategies any more. Then also the grip level on hard tyres for me was always a little bit of an issue this year, and most of the races that we used these tyres I was struggling. And this is another one where I was very good on the soft tyres in the first part of the race, and then we put on the hard tyres and I was struggling again. It’s a similar issue that we have had in some races.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Alonso, in a normal race, do you think you could have overtaken Massa, and Massa, in a normal race do you think Alonso could overtake you?
FM: Well, I think I was holding in a good way anyway, but the race is long and you always have many laps, so you never know what can happen in 20 laps. So maybe yes.
FA: Yeah, I think there was one moment also on (I don’t know) which lap it was but we were side-by-side into turn six, especially with the people we were lapping – always there is a better chance to overtake and even though we didn’t see too many overtakings here today we’ve seen a lot in the past on this circuit but this year maybe with the new cars etc we didn’t see too many.

Q: (Ian Gordon – News of the World) Fernando, you said after Valencia that the race had been manipulated in favour of Lewis. Those words seem a bit hollow now. Where will this victory rank in your career, is it up there with Singapore 2008?
FA: I think you have a very strong result from Ferrari today, one and two, a very strong performance all weekend and if the final thought of the weekend is your question it’s because maybe you didn’t see the whole practice, qualifying and the race, so maybe it’s too early for you that Ferrari came back so strong.

Q: (Ian Gordon – News of the World) Team orders are banned in Formula One. They were banned in 2002, that was blatant team orders.
FA: Sure.

Q: (Ian Gordon – News of the World) Eddie Jordan just said that you two should be kicked out of the race.
FA: Again, if this is the final thought of the weekend for you, I think it is because you didn’t see the performance of the team and the performance from our car this weekend.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Fernando, I think we all know what happened on lap 48 and we don’t need any fairy tales about tyres or anything to be clear of that. I just want to ask you, because in 2006 in Monza you said that Formula One is not a sport any more for you but was that which we saw today a sport?
FA: I think we tried to do our race, we tried to do as good as we can. We are professional drivers, we try to work in a team and we try to do the best we can every day, not only here on the track but also between the races, at the factory etc, preparing the races. Again, I think we’ve been doing a good job over the last couple of races and finally we got a strong Sunday with a strong result. I think we are happy with this, although there are things which are more for you if you want to write all these things.

Q: (Carlos Miquel – Diario AS) Fernando, do you feel that some people are worrying because you are back in the championship?
FA: Maybe it seems like this, yes.

Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Fernando, what have you got to say to the people who would call this a dirty win and if you win the championship, a dirty champion?
FA: I have 19 races to… look at the overall races, there are a lot of points that we win sometimes and a lot of points that we lose sometimes. As I said, today was a good day, some other races were bad days for us, disappointing but as I said before, we need to remain focused, keep working, keep developing the car, not to be too excited when we win, not to be too down when we lose. In November, (we need to) try to be in the fight for the championship, not forgetting that Red Bull has so far been very dominant, not scoring many points on Sunday, or the points that they should have scored on Sunday, but remain very strong and McLaren as well, leading both championships, so there is still a long way to go for us.

Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) The reality is, though, that you couldn’t beat him on the track, so you had to get the team to do it for you.
FA: If that’s your opinion.

Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) I’m asking you, is that not your opinion?
FA: No.

Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) He had to give you this win, didn’t he, Fernando?
FA: No.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Fernando, you’ve said that you’re happy with this win but to be honest, I’ve never seen a driver look less happy in the middle of a podium there today, and in the middle of this press conference here. Why can’t you just be honest with us for once, and just admit that this win was handed to you on a plate today?
SV: Can I go?

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Go Sebastian! Sebastian, give us your thoughts?
FA: Hopefully the next question is for Sebastian. No, stay, stay. As I said, I think we were competitive on Friday, I was very competitive on Friday, first position. Finishing second in qualifying by 12 centimeters, I heard yesterday and today I think we scored the fastest lap of the race, so overall I don’t think I was very slow this weekend.

Q: (Miran Alisic – Korpmedia) I have a question for Sebastian. I think you had some not similar but close situations with Mark as well. Do you feel proud that what has happened at Ferrari today hasn’t happened in your team?
SV: Don’t you have another question maybe? Yeah, maybe they should have crashed. I don’t know, I haven’t seen the incident. I was too far back. I always saw them going into the hairpin when I was coming out of turn five, so I don’t know what you’re all talking about. I can guess but I don’t know. For sure my advice would not be it’s better to crash because also then you get a lot of questions that you have to answer so… Yeah, for me I was focusing on my own race and trying to do my thing, trying to stay close enough, trying to get closer, trying to put them under pressure. It didn’t work, so I’m not pleased with that. No matter who you race, it’s always difficult in Formula One to pass people and sometimes you have to take a lot of risk. When you don’t have to race your team-mate, you’re racing for the team, both of you, both drivers and on the other hand everyone looks for his own advantage. We had a couple of situations this year in our team, so it’s quite a comedy that we are not in focus at this stage but life changes quickly, so… It’s never wise to say anything that you might regret. Maybe in a week’s time. I’m happy where we are now, as a team. Again, I can only repeat that from the outside there was more of a fuss made than there was inside. I can assure you that Mark and myself are always looking to do our best but on top of that, I think we understood many times this year that the team is the main priority and we are racing for the team, in the end. We don’t get our cheque from you guys, we get it from the team. I think that’s something we always have to respect.

Q: (Ralf Bach – R & B) Felipe, you said it was your decision to let Fernando past, so my first question is why did you take this decision, as a racing driver in Formula One, and my second question is do you have any idea why Rob Smedley said sorry to you? FM: No. (Regarding your first question) As I said, because I was not so strong on the hard, so we need to think about the team.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Felipe, Rubens damaged his image a lot in Brazil when he did what you did today. Until now you had the support of the country; aren’t you worried that now after you did what Rubens did you have deeply damaged your image in Brazil?
FM: For sure not, for sure not. I’m very professional and I’ve showed in my career how professional I am. You are professional as well, you work for a company. I believe you are doing what you have to do, so I’m professional and today I showed how professional I am. That’s it.

Q: (Tony Dodgins – Tony Dodgins Associates) Fernando you’re getting quite a bit of flak but as you say, you’ve been the quicker Ferrari driver for most of the weekend. We see it so often that the guy who is second on the grid gets beaten away by the guy who is third. Is there ever a case for actually asking to reverse the positions on the grid?
FA: I think there are some circuits where the clean side is an advantage. There are some circuits where it is not an advantage, for example in Hungary next weekend, it will be crucial to be on the clean side. There are other circuits like that. There’s nothing we can do. We have a fifty percent chance of being on the clean or dirty side of the grid, unless you are the quickest which secures the clean side. The only thing we can do is to fight for pole position which allows you to be on the clean side. If not, I don’t see any other possibility. Maybe there should be more distance. Instead of eight meters, maybe 12 or whatever.

Q: (Tony Dodgins – Tony Dodgins Associates) Take today, if you’d been able to opt to start third instead of second and actually swap places, would you have done it?
FA: Maybe I would have done a bad start, you never know. I think it was a good start today, overtaking Sebastian and that was our target today. You never know.

Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) To both Fernando and Felipe, we always talk about the show, the necessity of the show in Formula One. Can you conceive that race lovers and show lovers might be a bit frustrated today?
FA: Well, I think we try to put on a good show always for people, for spectators but as Felipe or Sebastian said, we work for companies, we work for teams. Sometimes, as we saw this year, there are crashes between team-mates and the loss of 42 points for the team. Today Ferrari has 42 in their pocket, so I think it’s what we are here for.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – BBC Sport) Fernando, after the pit stop, when you were behind Felipe, we heard a radio message, it wasn’t very clear, but it sounded like you were telling the team guys ‘think of the victory.’ Did you say that?
FA: No.

Team orders taint F1 yet again by Ferrari

It couldn’t come worse for Felipe Massa. Exactly one year after his crash in Hungary that ruled him out for the rest of the year, his team have turned his back on him, and blatantly taken a rightful win off him. Of course, championship points are what Fernando needs at the moment, but this cannot cover what happened today.

This incident kicked off when Alonso was unable to make a move on Massa for the lead. He complained on the radio: “This is ridiculous”. Clearly, the heads of the team wanted Fernando to get through, and the engineers, specifically Rob Smedley, were fighting for the drivers to battle over the lead themselves. After many laps of arguing over the matter, Smedley dejectedly ordered Massa to lift and allow Alonso through.

After this, nobody on the pit wall spoke to each other, Smedley sitting there, with his arms folded, not saying a word. Stefano Domenicail was in between Smedley and Chris Dyer, who was similarly refusing to talk, although it is not known what side of the argument he was on.

The problem lies within the FIA’s inability to punish Ferrari for this blatant act of team orders. Firstly, the stewards will need to find hard evidence to hand out a penalty, and unfortunately “Fernando is faster than you” just doesn’t cut it as evidence. While there is 100% certainty that the race was manipulated by Ferrari, they have conveniently maneuvered themselves in such a way that they cannot realistically be punished. And secondly…. Jean Todt is FIA president. Do you trust him in this situation? I don’t. But it would be nice to be surprised.

If Ferrari were to be punished, excellent. Team orders would be fully banned (at least in situations in relation to the lead of the race), and it would not happen again. If that were the case, then I would be happy enough, and move on. But, Ferrari, even if they were summoned to the stewards, could use many other blatant team orders to defend themselves. Look at Kovalainen letting Hamilton through in Germany 2008, or Raikkonen and Massa in China ’08. The radio transmission “Driver X is faster than you” has previously been shown to work, and I don’t think that it will change this time.

So, we must point the finger of blame, but I don’t think it should be aimed at Fernando Alonso. While he certainly gained from this, it was the team who made the call, and they are the ones who need to be taught a lesson. On the other hand, Fernando’s complaining about “this is ridiculous” earlier on shows that he was expecting Massa to let him through, as opposed to what happened in Australia, when he was held up by Felipe all race long.

However, should we not criticise Massa, who was obviously slower than Alonso? When Fernando got through, he was up to half a second faster at points, and pulled out a 4 second lead by the end of the race. This situation would never have happened if Felipe had the pace to stay away from Fernando in the first place.

But that’s not justifying the team order. What happened today has happened many times before, and it needs to stop now. The McLaren and Red Bull bosses are saying that they treat their drivers equally (cough *Webber* cough), and that Alonso is gaining an unfair advantage by using Massa to help himself to some extra points, and this is perfectly true. Look at what happened in Turkey, when Vettel and Webber collided. While what happened was completely unnecessary, at least the team allowed them to race each other, rather than ruin the excitement (before the crash, that is) by issuing team orders.

In fact, the shining example of how to treat your drivers comes from McLaren, who have been excellent so far in giving equal treatment to both Button and Hamilton. While the “save fuel” incident initially caused concern, the team later said that it was a mistake by Hamilton’s engineer, and I would believe them. If the world championship ended today, then McLaren would totally deserve to win it. Button or Hamilton? Doesn’t really matter.

You know what the worst part of this is for me? While in London, I bought a Ferrari shirt, and I’m wearing it as I write this.  Looking back, not a perfectly timed purchase.