Category: Formula 1
Congratulations To Robert Kubica
Yesterday was an interesting and great day for Formula 1. Sadly, I missed the race, but it is worthy of writing about here anyway.
Yesterday was the Canadian Grand Prix. The Canadian Grand Prix is well known for being unpredictable and full of incident, and this year was no different. Last year, the race was won by Lewis Hamilton, with his first Grand Prix victory. This year would feature another first-time winner, but with a little more drama along the way. Usually, the drama is to be found in the picture above - the exit to the main straight, known as "Champions' Wall", because it is famous for taking out so many previous champions who have brushed the wall in the past. Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve have all crashed there, and Fernando Alonso has crashed at another corner before now, so it is a track that has pedigree.
However, yesterday was not a day for incident at Champions' Wall. Yesterday, all the main action was in the pit lane. The safety car was called out following an incident on the track - not unusual in Canada - and so most of the leaders came into the pits for a fresh set of rubber and for tyres. Lewis Hamilton did have a sizeable lead before the safety car came out, but it was wiped out as they pitted. Hamilton pitted from first, Kubica from second and Raikkonen from third. Kubica exited his pit box marginally ahead of Raikkonen, but the red light was on in the pit lane, so he had to stop and wait. So did Raikkonen. The two sat at the end of the pit lane, waiting. Hamilton, meanwhile, took on enough fuel to finish the race, and so exited his pit box last. He didn't see the red light. He didn't stop. As he approached the end of the pit lane, he suddenly faced two stationary cars. He darted left, trying to avoid them, but couldn't, and ploughed straight into the back of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. He looked like a bit of a prat, and he probably felt it too, since he'd just taken himself and Kimi Raikkonen out of the race. Crashing out on track is one thing, crashing in the pit lane - that's another.
So, with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen both out of the race, the Grand Prix was now wide open, and potentially, the championship too. Felipe Massa in the sister Ferrari and Heikki Kovalainen in the sister McLaren were both down the field, so the BMW-Sauber of Nivk Heidfeld led the race, having not come into the pits for fuel. Once the safety car came in, however, Kubica set a searing pace, was allowed to pass Heidfeld and then made the gap he needed in order to make the extra pit stop he needed to make in order to beat his team mate, meaning the BMW-Sauber team came home with their first, Kubica's first win, and the first win for a Polish driver in Formula 1.
With that win, Robert Kubica also became the leader of the Formula 1 world championship. This is quite a feat. There is no doubt that the BMW-Sauber car is not quite as fast as the Ferrari or the McLaren. It isn't far behind, but it is just that little bit slower. However, at the hands of Robert Kubica this year, the BMW-Sauber car has been scintillating to watch. He has consistently been at the front and was close to winning in Monaco. His pace has been absolutely stunning this year, but more than that, he has been consistent and error-free. I'm sure the errors will come, and there is very little pressure on him, but his form has been great to see nevertheless. Massa made mistakes in Australia, Malaysia and Monaco; Raikkonen made a serious error in Monaco; Hamilton in Canada; Kovalainen has just plain had wretched luck, and been slightly off-pace at a couple of tracks. Kubica, however, has been superb. He is a future champion in the making. I just hope he stays with BMW-Sauber and provides them with their first world champion - that is, if his consistency doosn't bring it to him this year. I don't believe it will, as I think the Ferrari will prove too strong over the course of the season, but if he does win it, it will be thoroughly deserved and hard-earned.
Congratulations Kimi!
Today's Brazilian Grand Prix was billed up to be a cracker, and a cracker it was. Lewis Hamilton went into the final race of the Formula 1 season four points ahead of Fernando Alonso and seven ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Superficial logic said that Kimi stood no chance, and that Hamilton, given the likelihood of a Ferrari victory, would wrap up the title.
It wasn't to be. But then, when you think about it, it wasn't really much of a surprise, even discounting the awful track record championship leaders have in three-way fights in the final race. Fernando Alonso had the smallest chance of everyone of coming away with the title. Let me explain.
Ferrari looked like dominating. It was quite clear that, reliability problems and mistakes aside, they were likely to record a 1-2 win. Assuming team orders, if Fernando Alonso were to finish third, then Kimi would take the win, taking four points off Alonso, putting him 1 point clear of Alonso. Thus, given Ferrari's dominance, Fernando Alonso stood little chance of winning the championship. Therefore, Lewis Hamilton "only" needed to finish fifth to win the title. It sounds easy, but the law of averages says that he was overdue a mechanical problem...
The law of averages won. Ferrari got their expected 1-2 finish. Kimi wins the title. A victory for rational science, though slightly unconventional. Of course, that fails to take into account the historical record of pernickety scrutineers. However, I am confident no action will be taken on this occasion to disqualify the BMW Sauber and Williams teams from the Grand Prix!
Michael Schumacher - The Greatest?
When Michael Schumacher announced he would retire at the end of the season after the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, I was disappointed. After all, he's a great talent and, despite all that is said about other drivers such as Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, he is by far the best driver in the field. He may not be the current FIA Formula 1 World Champion, but last year he hardly had the best package. Similarly, for much of this year, he has not had the best overall equipment in the paddock, mainly down to tyres. His only real mistake this season was not, in my opinion, the escapade in Monaco, though I shall come to that later; no, his only real mistake this season was in Hungary, where he was too aggressive in his pursuit of those in front of him. Granted, his accident in Melbourne was uncharacteristic and some blame should lie with him for running wide, but he was also the victim of a slightly precarious bump on the track which didn't just catch the great champion out. He is still the best around - and to be honest, Fernando Alonso is not even the second best in my eyes; Kimi Raikkonen has hardly had the best of times with McLaren and there is no doubting that if his McLaren car had been more reliable last year, it would have been he - and not Alonso - who benefited from the vastly superior Michelin tyres.
Still, the focus here is not to deal with arguments over who should have and could have won last year's Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship, but rather to deal with the debate central to Michael Schumacher's legacy - is he the greatest driver in the history of Formula 1?
The records say it all - with 25 more wins than Alain Prost, more than twice that of Senna and three times that of Mansell; more pole positions than the mastery of the Brazilian himself; well over a thousand championship points, even with his 1997 points discounted, more points than anyone else in a season, twice; more wins than anyone else in a season with 13 out of 18 in 2004 (including an unbelievable 12 out of the first 13), having already equalled Mansell's record twice. I could go on, but you get the picture. Statistically, there is no match.
Of course, statistics can be manipulated in any way you wish. It should be noted that Schumacher has had the benefit of 15 full seasons in Formula 1; Mansell 'only' had 11, Prost 13 and Senna 11 before his death in 1994. Now it must be said, these are also long careers by most people's standards in Formula 1 and few drivers have such long careers, but Schumacher's career has been longer and this must be taken in to account in comparing them.
We could look at how many championships they have all won and compare the drivers solely on this basis: Schumacher has 7, hopefully 8 before he retires; Prost managed 4 titles; Senna 3; Mansell 1 (as well as the IndyCar World Series, in his first season there - a mean feat for any driver). This, however, does not provide the full story: mechanical failure in the last race of 1983 meant that Alain Prost was cruelly denied what would have been his first title, handing it instead to Nelson Piquet; in 1984 it was Nikki Lauda's turn to pip him - by half a point this time - despite Prost winning 7 races to Lauda's 5 (so, had the two been equal, Prost would have taken the title). In 1985 he finally got his first crown with a comfortable 20-point margin; in 1986, he inherited a second crown when Mansell cruelly suffered a tyre blow-out in Adelaide. In 1987, Mansell won more races than anyone else, as he had in 1986, but still he had no title to show for it, beaten by Nelson Piquet. In 1988, Senna took a deserving championship, but in 1989 he was pipped by Prost, despite taking 13 pole positions from 16 races. In 1990, he reclaimed the crown after a dubious first corner incident in Japan and retained the title in 1991 courtesy of a more reliable car than Mansell's; Mansell could feel quite hard-done-by in 1991.
Mansell finally won a deserving world crown in 1992, thoroughly deserved and well overdue, crushing the opposition teams and his team-mate, setting a record 9 wins from 16, 108 points in a season, winning the first 5 races (all from pole). Prost returned from a sabattical to take his fourth title in 1993 - and then Schumacher won in 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. He nearly won in 1997 and would have won in 1999 had it not been for his broken leg in Silverstone, suffered after red flags had come out on the first lap.
You see, Mansell could easily have won 3 world titles. Prost could have won four on the trot on top of his other two. Prost's lost title in 1984 was in part down to a couple of turbo failures throughout the season, which were hardly his fault. Mansell didn't really have much to do with his tyre blow-out. Should we then look at who won more races during the season? By that standard, Mansell would probably be considered better than Senna and Prost. If it were based on pole positions, it really should be Senna.
It's hard to say who is the greatest out of the four. Mansell is oft-forgotten in the debate of the other three. Prost showed at Adelaide in 1989 that he was, perhaps, not as committed as Senna, withdrawing because of the wet conditions. Did he feel unable to master them? Senna, Schumacher and Mansell would never be caught withdrawing from races. Schumacher happily blitzes around tracks setting fastest lap after fastest lap even when there is nothing to play for, two laps down after an unfortunate puncture. Senna would do the same - this perhaps can't be said for Mansell, who would, of course, suffer the blow-out on the fastest section of the track and smack in to a wall, unable to recover - though he might get out of the car and start pushing it instead!
Schumacher has one big weakness, and no, it's not pushing people off the road, or bad parking - I'll come to that in due course. Schumacher's big weakness is overtaking, or, rather, his lack of it. Schumacher isn't the world's best overtaker. When he does overtake, there's often contact with the overtaken - Hungary this year, for (multiple) example(s). Mansell was a much more accomplished overtaker, darting around behind his opponent, sticking his car in dangerous places, daring his opponent to take him off the road, but knowing they wouldn't - Silverstone 1987, Spain 1990, or, for the IndyCar fans amongst us, what about Burke Lakefront, 1993, and that fantastic tussle with Emerson Fittipaldi in Cleveland? To those who cite Senna as the best wheel-to-wheel racer the Formula 1 has seen in recent times, I in return cite you those examples. Mansell is king of that category.
Senna was the king of one-lap speed, of that there is no doubt. Prost was the master of consistency. Mansell was the lion of the racetrack, ultra-clean, immensely focussed and never giving up, on the racetrack at least. So what of Schumacher? He can't match the aforementioned in their respective categories, but don't let that fool you. Mansell's aggression was his downfall - I daresay, to make a controversial (and rather academic) point - if Mansell had managed to control his aggressive racecraft better, he would have had less accidents. He would have won more titles and probably stayed in Formula 1 for longer. I daresay, we may well have considered him above Prost and Senna.
Schmacher is the master calculator. He knows what he needs to do - and he does it. He doesn't usually need to overtake on the racetrack, he others in pitstops. Pole positions aren't what they used to be any more, with race fuel on board. He's the king or ruthlessness. Was taking out Hill in 1994 a sign of weakness? Why, no, it was Schumacher realising in an instant that if he didn't take Hill out, there was no way he would take the title. Hill was sure to win if he got past. In 1997, he realised Villeneuve was faster and would run off in the distance if he didn't do something about it. In Monaco this year, he realised how important it was to stop Alonso from getting pole position. That's not weakness at all, that's a genius at work.
But alas, we all know that some admire geniuses, but they all have those who hate them. Selfish and a cheat he may be labelled, but it makes him a winner in Formula 1 - the most successful of all time. In sport, ruthlessness won't ever win you friends, but you will end up winning. To me, love him or hate him, that makes Michael Schumacher the best Formula 1 has, has had, and perhaps will have. It's just sad that he never really raced on equal terms with those of such equal ability with him.
Australian Grand Prix
Everybody who knows me well knows it - I've got a secret love. Well, it's not actually secret at all, but I'm absolutely addicted to any high-octane sport that wrecks the environment. Formula 1, Speedway, Moto GP, the World Rally Championship, anything. I love them all, though I must confess that I just don't get the opportunity to watch them all, there's just no enough time in the world. So, I have to choose carefully, and Formula 1 is the one sport I just cannot live without.
Today was the Australian Grand Prix. It usually opens the season, but because of the Commonwealth Games, it was third on the calendar this year. This meant that it started closer to a sensible time for me as Britain has noe switched to British Summer Time, making it worth going to bed and then getting up early rather than just staying up. However, it also meant that the conditions were much different, being cooler. This results in less grip.
What does less grip do? It creates more accidents as cars spin off :) However, a harsh winter last year in Australia also made the track surface bumpier. It made for a very interesting race. Juan Pablo Montoya spun on the parade lap, much to my amusement, there was an accident a the first corner (first picture), taking Massa's Ferrari out (though he caused the incident in the first place). The safety car came out, but when it went in again it was immediately required once more as more cars bumped into each other, and a Red Bull car speared in to the barriers on a bump. Michael Schumacher's Ferrari then ran wide in the last turn, hit a bupm and speared in to the wall, whilst Juan Pablo Montoya also ran wide, nearly smashed in to the wall, but instead escaped - only to seemingly sever an electrical circuit as his car ground to a halt on the pit straight.
There was also plenty of overtaking, a novelty this year given the lack of it in previous years of late. Alonso won, whilst Jenson Button's Honda blew up in the last corner of the last lap - a proper pyrotechnic blow-up, always a pleasure to watch. Thus, he came home with no points.
Still, it's looking like it'll be a good season - though Alonso is looking like he could win the title far too easily once more. He's not the best driver on the grid in my opinion, not even the second best. The trouble is, the two drivers that are better than him just don't have the car underneath them, or the luck. Still, that's motor racing - it's not just about you. Even if your name is Michael Schumacher.
Nigel Mansell, Superstar
This morning, my life was nearly made complete, as I received my "brand new" (the video is 12 years old) copy of "Nigel Mansell and Williams 1992", narrated by Murray Walker! This is to add to my mini collection of Nigel Mansell tapes, such as 'Nigel Mansell and Newman Haas 1993', and 'Nigel Mansell's Indianapolis 500 1993'. I really also should 'invest' in the 1991 and 1994 tapes too.
Nigel Mansell was probably the last in a long line of determined and extremely talented great British racing drivers, such as:
- Stirling Moss;
- Mike Hawthorn;
- John Surtees;
- Graham Hill;
- Jim Clark;
- Jackie Stewart.
Of course, Damon Hill after him also had some great talent, but was overshadowed by Michael Schumacher, who in all bar 1996 (and 1993), had easily the better car. Of course, he showed his worth in 1996, despite terrible luck in the second half of the season, and showed he could push a bad car fantastically in Hungary in 1997, somehow almost winning in the lucklustre Arrows, but it would be unfair to put him in the same league as the forementioned champions (of course, Stirling Moss didn't ever win the championship, but was 2nd in 4 successive years, three of which were to Fangio).
Now, I must say, I am rather too young to remember any on the above list apart from Mansell, though I have seen some archive footage, but they were all deserving champions. However, as Stirling Moss showed, you also need a certain degree of luck on your side to make it right to the very top.
Nigel Mansell unquestioningly had plenty of talent. He managed a podium for Lotus in 1981, his first full season, but he had to wait until his 72nd race to win for Williams, following it up with a 2nd at Kyalami 2 weeks later.
It was 1986, however, when he hit the mark (and the FIA actually do videos of the whole of that season!), winning 4 out of 5 races in the middle of the season, including Brands Hatch. He then won at Estoril, and needed only third at Adelaide, Australia...
Mansell's tyre blows, putting him out of the race. He still leads the world championship, as long as Piquet stays ahead of Prost, but Williams bring him in to the pits as a precaution, Prost takes the flag and the world title, ahead of the two Williams drivers who were ahead of him 2 hours earlier.
1987 brought 6 victories to Mansell, including a great win in front of the home fans at Silverstone, passing teammate Piquet at Stowe. However, despite winning double the number of races his teammate did, he was pipped to the title.
1988, 89 and 90 were pretty awful years, the last of which prompted Mansell to announce he was leaving F1 to join Greg Norman at the golf course. Thankfully, for F1 fans, his mind was turned around, as he was offered a drive at Williams.
In 1991, Williams had developed their secret weapon, active suspension. Unfortunately, they suffered from reliability problems in the first half of the season and Senna romped off into the distance. Mansell would have won in Montreal but for a last lap breakdown, but won three in a row in the second half of the season. However, despite 5 wins in the season, it was still not his time.
So, on to 1992, and Mansell must have wondered what he had to do to avoid a repeat of his bridesmaid honours. Well, not much, as he had a good car and good reliability, combined with Ayrton Senna who was in a McLaren which wasn't really up to the job any more. Mansell duly won the first 5 Grand Prix of the season, all from pole position, leading every single lap in South Africa, Mexico, Spain and San Marino, setting records in the process. Senna finally ended this run in Monaco, claiming his 5th victory at the circuit, but only after Mansell suffered a puncture late in the race whilst leading. He pitted for new tyres and closed in on Senna fast, but around the twists and turns of Monte Carlo, not even the great "Red 5" could pass.
All in all, Mansell won 9 Grand Prix in 1992, beaten only by Michael Schumacher in 2002 and 2004, (matched in 1995). He also scored 108 points, another record, again, only beaten in 2002 and 2004. However, Williams didn't seem to want him for 1993, so he went to IndyCars, "a drivers' formula, where in the past 5 years, the title had been won by 5 different drivers, all with at least 5 years experience in IndyCar" (Mansell and Newman-Haas, 1993, Watershed Productions). So what did he do?
Why, he wiped the floor, of course.
"Il Leone", the most exciting racing driver I have ever seen. You might not be excited by this video, but I most certainly am!
The Race That Wasn't
It's Sunday 19th June. I sit down in front of the TV in order to watch the United States Grand Prix whilst I eat my dinner. There's nothing wrong with that now, is there? Well, so long as it's a trace you're watching, that's true. Except this 'race' only had 6 cars in it, and four of those were never going to be in with a shout of the win.
The problem arose when Ralf Schumacher crashed on Friday. It happens in motor racing - quite frequently when you're Ralf Schumacher. For once, however, it wasn't his fault. No, this crash was caused by inadequate Michelin tyres that appear to automatically self-destruct half way round corners. Very clever. It would almost be genius if the survival of tyres wasn't quite so imperative to finishing races, but let's no worry about that, eh?
Anyway, even though Michelin's self-destructing tyres were entirely their own fault, the company decided to hound the FIA and threatened to to pull out of the Grand Prix unless a chicane was installed at the corner where the tyres were exploding. The FIA stood up to them, and rightly so. The resulting race was a farce, but it wasn't the FIA's fault. It was Michelin's. Fans didn't like this, for obvious reasons. The Michelin man must be rather deflated today.