THE FORTNIGHT leading up to the Brazilian Grand Prix always gives me a mixed bag of feelings. First feeling is extreme excitement, since Formula1 goes racing in the challenging but short Interlagos circuit and second is extreme disappointment, which is because the Brazilian GP is the last race of the season. Yes, I live in the extremes! All these years, I have been unable to find my regular motorsport fix in the ‘winter’ Formula1 months, however, this year I am hoping that the newly announced ‘i1 Super Series’ manages to do so.
Moving back to Formula1, Mark Webber won his first and only race of the 2011 season in Brazil after his team-mate Sebastian Vettel suffered from gearbox problems lap 5 onwards. It took a mechanical glitch in Vettel’s car to allow Webber to clinch victory this season. His last victory was at the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix which was held in August last year. This victory also helped him seal 3rd place in the Driver’s World Championship, 1 point ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
Webber’s performance hasn’t received much applause in the Paddock after he was unable to match Vettel’s pace and dominance throughout the 2011 season. His points tally is 134 less than Vettel and has managed only 1 race victory as opposed to Vettel’s 11 in the current season. However, there was one aspect where Webber not only managed to beat Vettel, but also set a new Formula1 record and that was ‘fastest lap of the race’. Webber has managed 7 fastest laps of the race this season and was also awarded the ‘DHL Fastest Lap’ award in Brazil.
In this column the other driver I will talk about is Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Leading up to the race, Massa rated himself a five on ten in the 2011 season and a look at a few numbers and statistics would have you in agreement too. For starters, Massa is the only Ferrari driver to have not stepped on to the podium for an entire season, a stat that hasn’t gone down too well with the tifosi and the Ferrari management. While the Brazilian will drive for Ferrari in 2012, he has been asked to prove his worth by Ferrari, which means that there could possibly be a new driver alongside Alonso in 2013.
Massa finished 6th in the Driver’s World Championship this season with only 118 points, less than half of his double World Champion team-mate Fernando Alonso. Such terrible has been Massa’s form all season that he has had no top 4 finishes, with his best being a lowly 5th place. Even in qualifying, Massa has not had a single front row start this season with his average qualifying position being 6 (rounded off) indicating that he is indeed the slowest driver of the top 3 teams. Can Massa resurrect himself and come back to win in 2012? We will have to wait and watch!
And moving away from disappointing performances, the one team that has labeled their 2011 Formula1 season as ‘perfect’ has been Sahara Force India. The team equaled their best positions of 6th and 8th yet again in Brazil (earlier achieved in 2011 Singapore GP) to score 12 vital championship points. This point haul moved them only 4 points away from the Lotus Renault team who were lucky to survive in 5th place. Sahara Force India’s Adrian Sutil drove a brilliant race on his 3-stopper strategy to finish ahead of the 2-stopping Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP. The Indian-owned Formula1 team has proved to be the ‘best of the rest’ after the top 3 teams in the second half of this season and eventually ended their campaign in 6th place in the Constructor’s Championship.
For a few weeks this off-season, the focus will still remain on Sahara Force India as they are yet to finalise their driver line-up for the 2012 season. There are three very promising drivers and only two seats and it will be interesting to see their final choice. The other mid-field teams yet to finalise their driver line-ups are WilliamsF1, Lotus Renault and Toro Rosso, which means that the driver market news will keep F1 hot in the news this off season. With the 2012 Australian Grand Prix over 110 days away, I will keep SportzPower readers up-to-date on the various happenings in the world of Formula1.
