I supported him in similar circumstances after Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi
clipped the back of him at Spa. And after everything that has gone on over
the past weeks and months he deserves a break. But in this instance I feel
he was definitely the guiltier party.
If Lewis had got that far up alongside Felipe into a tight hairpin, where the
braking zone is maybe 100 metres and lasts for a few seconds, then I think
Massa would have been right to give way. But heading into a fourth gear
left-hander at maybe 150-160km/h? Where the braking zone lasts for one
second? I don’t think Massa can be held responsible.
But this isn’t really about Lewis and Felipe. It could have been any two
drivers. What concerns me more is the inconsistency of stewarding decisions.
Making these types of calls is one of the real difficulties with a complex
sport like Formula One, but it was almost as if they felt that – with Lewis
receiving so many decisions against him this year – they were trying to
redress the balance. A bit like in football when a referee sends someone off
in controversial circumstances and the crowd is on his back, he is more
disposed to send a player from the opposition off.
Sebastian Vettel’s win was another dominant and hugely impressive display. A
few people noted that he has now overtaken Nigel Mansell’s record of most
laps led in a single season.
Of course, Nigel set his mark when there were only 16 races and Seb broke it
in the 17th race of this season, but perhaps what is more instructive is the
fact that Seb has led more laps this year than Jenson Button has in his
entire career. And that is not to put Jenson down, it is simply to
illustrate the sort of dominance which Seb is currently enjoying.
But what I liked most about it was how much he appeared to savour it.
He treated it as if it was his last win. With what has happened recently in
motorsport, with the deaths of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli, it is easy
to empathise with that, although of course we would all expect him to go on
and win many more races. But Seb knows this run he’s on is not going to last
forever.
He is able to step back and put things in perspective. He is a 24 year-old,
newly-crowned double world champion devoid of arrogance.
It was an interesting first experience in India, although I ended it under a
bit of a cloud, succumbing to Delhi Belly at the 11th hour.
I actually had to miss the post-race show on the BBC because I was feeling so
unwell, but generally speaking I think the race can be judged a success.
India is a country of extremes.
Filming our feature in Delhi on Friday was pretty upsetting at times,
witnessing the poverty on the streets where kids are lying in the dust
beside open sewers.
And we’re complaining about the lack of windows in our commentary booths. I
hope that we will be able to justify our presence in India; by stimulating
the economy, by creating jobs and by contributing to greater road safety,
which is possibly the scariest .
I think it will take time but I really believe that Formula One can have that
effect.
A quick note on the rumours of Silverstone’s potential lease to a Qatari
consortium. I can understand that some fans consider the circuit as part of
the British fabric but nobody can accuse the British Racing Drivers’ Club of
not having Silverstone’s best interests at heart.
For the past 60 years the club has run the circuit, with no government help
and under continual pressure from new foreign government-backed circuits,
and done a brilliant job of doing so.
Now the circuit needs extra investment and if the board decides that this is
the right course of action then I, as a BRDC member, will be right behind
it.