THE UNPREDICTABILITY of the 2012 Formula1 Season now seems to have settled as we see top teams like Red Bull, Ferrari and Mclaren pull away from the rest of the pack. From a team’s perspective, it is not necessarily about having the fastest car on-track but more about having a car that treats its highly degradable Pirelli tyres better. While Mclaren seemed to have lost their way in the last few races, the result in Germany proved that the team from Woking are back in contention.
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, the double World Champion, drove a flawless race from pole to clinch his third victory of the season. For those interested in statistics, Alonso became the 5th driver in the history of the sport to have 30 or more Grand Prix victories to his name and was Alonso’s 22nd successive points finish and third win in Hockenheim! The Spaniard now leads the Drivers’ Championship from Mark Webber by 34 points.
Crossing the line second was Sebastian Vettel closely followed by Jenson Button in third. Vettel overtook Button with a few laps to go and his move was deemed illegal by the FIA Stewards and was handed a 20 second post-race penalty classifying him as 5th. This meant that Button was elevated to 2nd spot and Raikkonen took 3rd.
However, this wasn’t the only reason Red Bull Racing visited the FIA Stewards in Hockenheim. Pre-race, the FIA initiated an inquiry against the team to investigate a potential engine mapping rule breach. After their investigations, the FIA concluded that while they didn’t agree with Red Bull’s arguments, as the regulation is written, Red Bull and Renault’s engine map didn’t breach the text of the Article 5.5.3 and hence weren’t penalized.
In my view, the FIA could have been slightly embarrassed because their wording could be interpreted as ‘had the rules been written with far more clarity, Red Bull would have been penalized!’ Also, from a fan’s perspective, engine mapping is one of the most technical aspects of the sport and an overdose of these discussions in public could be a potential turn-off from the sport! Having said that, I don’t think we have seen the end of the Red Bull – engine mapping saga just yet!
Moving on to Karthikeyan’s performance in Germany, he was once again replaced by Dani Clos in FP1 on Friday. In qualifying, Karthikeyan qualified 24th and last yet again and three tenths behind his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa. The HRT has shown better pace in the last few races in qualifying trim and in Germany were about seven tenths off Marussia’s time. I have stated in my earlier columns that HRT needs to replicate their qualifying pace in the races to compete closer to Marussia. The team is expecting to bring upgrades post the mid-season break in August and like Karthikeyan, Indian Formula1 fans too will be pinning their hopes on the upgrades!
Sahara Force India drivers secured one of their stronger qualifying positions in recent times as Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di Resta both managed to enter top 10 by clocking 5th and 9th fastest laptimes respectively. On Race Day, the team split the tyre strategies between their drivers who fought excessive tyre wear to eventually finish 9th (Hulkenberg) and 11th (Di Resta).
The team scored two championship points and is now one point away from Williams in 7th place. Further ahead in the table is Sauber, who secured a 4th and 6th position in Germany and added 20 points to take their tally to 78 points.
On the Mahindra Racing front, there was news last week that their rider Sarath Kumar quit the team and participation in the Italian Championship mid-way due to ‘personal reasons’. News also indicated that the ace rider had to resort to driving a cab in Chennai to support his family.
I had mixed reactions to this news report. One, wondering the commercials of his contract with Mahindra Racing and the earning of a race fee which could help support his family and the other, (slightly more logical) of Mahindra Racing going all out to support his talent and progress in the world of two-wheeler racing, should they be doing so in the real world as well?
Do share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.
B-R-I-C is a commonly used term in marketing discussions and it is the ‘R’ which has not yet hosted a Formula1 Grand Prix after several attempts in the last two decades. However, in the week leading to the German Grand Prix, Formula1 teams Marussia, Mclaren, Caterham, Red Bull Racing and even Ferrari were involved in various activities to promote the sport in the Russia. As things stand, Russia is scheduled to host an F1 race in 2014 at the Olympic Park Circuit in Sochi.
And last but not the least, Forbes issued a story listing the 50 most valuable sports brands in the world. The list which is dominated by English Premiership League and National Football League teams sees no inclusion of an Indian Premier League team. However, from the current set of Formula1 teams, Ferrari and Mclaren do seem to have made the cut. The Italian racing team is listed in 15th spot valued at $1.1 billion, whereas Mclaren filled up the 40th spot with a valuation of $800 million.
Manchester United topped the list as the most valuable sports brand with a valuation of $2.23 billion. Now, I hope that Ecclestone doesn’t use Forbes’ list while negotiating terms with the other teams for the yet-to-be-signed Concorde Agreement!
