Lauda predicted “warfare” between the pair once they have shrugged off the
rest of the pack (it will not take long). At this rate we won’t have much of
a battle on our hands.
Vettel’s chassis change worked wonders
Sebastian
Vettel, the four-time reigning champion, admitted coming into the
weekend he had changed chassis more out of hope than expectation. Whatever Red
Bull did, it worked.
This was, without doubt, the finest drive by the German all season. He barely
had the chance to drive in Friday practice and he started 15th through no
fault of his own. On a circuit where, as Sunday’s race showed, overtaking is
something of a rarity, to finish fourth is hugely impressive. He was driver
of the day, for sure.
World championship number five, however, already looks to be off the cards.
Formula
One is too slow at the moment
F1 is not a snoozefest this year. Yes, for about 50 laps, not a lot happened
in Spain (the main grandstand was also pretty sparsely populated), but the
last 15 laps were exciting enough for it to be regarded as an acceptable
race.
What is somewhat less acceptable is the speed at which they were lapping
Barcelona’s 4.6km circuit. Call it an unfair comparison, but the back of the
F1 grid should not be slower than GP2 (it’s called the feeder series for a
reason).
Max Chilton would have only qualified fourth in the GP2 grid with his effort
on Saturday, while the Caterhams would not have even been inside the top 10.
Last year Rosberg qualified on pole with a 1min 20sec lap. This year only his
team-mate Hamilton managed a 1min 25sec lap. The result? Only the top three
from qualifying would have even been allowed on the 2013 starting grid on
account of the 107 per cent rule.
For reasons unknown to me, and many of F1’s designers, the rule makers are
always trying to make the cars slower by taking downforce off the car. In
normal circumstances, the teams do a pretty good job of catching up, in
quick time too.
This year, for now at least, the FIA have succeeded.
It will be almost impossible for anyone to catch Mercedes
Formula One seems to have a fundamental problem. Despite the most sweeping
regulation changes in a generation, the dominance of one team (Red
Bull) has been replaced with the dominance of another (Mercedes).
Mercedes have done an exceptional job so far, but it is disheartening to have
only two cars with much hope of winning a race. Jenson Button and Fernando
Alonso, arguably the two wisest heads in the paddock, have suggested it is
eminently possible that Mercedes will win every race this year. That would
even top the legendary McLaren MP4-4 of 1988, when Ayrton Senna and Alain
Prost won every race but one.
Already the team are a frankly ridiculous 113 points ahead in the
constructors’ championship. In other words, they could effectively sit out
three races, and even if Red Bull were one-two in all three, they would only
be 13 points behind.
The three-week gap before the start of the European season was the chance for
everyone to catch up, but they didn’t manage it. In all likelihood they
won’t all year.
McLaren and Ferrari are down in the doldrums
In a way, it is a shame to see arguably the two greatest teams in the history
of Formula One struggling so badly.
In normal circumstances you could have bet money on Fernando Alonso feverishly
complaining to the team about being stuck behind Kimi Raikkonen for most of
Sunday’s race. But, as he well knows, it didn’t make a difference. With
clean air it’s unlikely he could have finished much further forward.
Whatever Ferrari
seem to have tried over the past five years has not worked. It is remarkable
that they can be so far behind another works team when they were able to
develop the car and engine in tandem, on the same site. They are barely in
the same race.
It is a similar story for McLaren. As the team privately admit, they are
flattered by their Mercedes engine. Even that doesn’t seem to be doing much
good at the moment.
On his return to the helm Ron Dennis will have expected a tough time, but
three races in a row without any points is probably worse than even he
imagined. There is much to ponder for these two heritage teams.