SILVERSTONE was a tense weekend for Formula1 and I could feel the tension as I walked around the Paddock Area. The top teams were involved in a fight with the FIA on the permissions and usage of the exhaust blown diffuser during the GP weekend. Apparently, the FIA had changed the regulation governing its use mid-way through Friday practice and hence the Red Bull and Mclaren chiefs were involved in much of a public spat post the Friday practice sessions.
While the top teams were embroiled in this issue, the bottom-most team on the grid, Hispania Racing Team had decided to drop India’s first Formula1 driver, Narain Karthikeyan as their race driver. The decision was announced in the week leading up to the British Grand Prix that young Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo would be the replacement. Narain hasn’t commented on this issue officially yet, but I met him twice in the Paddock over the weekend and he was visibly upset. There is a strong rumour that Narain and his sponsors could be exploring legal options over his sacking.
The other Indian driver, Karun Chandhok made his occasional appearance in the Friday Free Practice 1 for Team Lotus Racing. He drove 17 laps in practice that was affected by rain and was 1.1 seconds slower than his team-mate Jarno Trulli. For Team Lotus, Silverstone was a weekend to forget after Heikki Kovalainen’s surprise entry into Q2 on Saturday. Both cars retired from the race with mechanical problems on Sunday within the first 10 laps.
India’s racing team, Force India, had a mixed bag of a weekend in Silverstone, a race they call as their ‘home away from home’. The Force India factory is less than a hundred metres from the Silverstone gate and there were quite a few Force India and Paul di Resta fans in the grand stands. In qualifying, Paul di Resta made his second appearance in Q3 for the 2011 season and managed to qualify his car in 6th. His run in Q3 was perfectly timed and saw him qualify ahead of a Mercedes, a Mclaren and both the Renaults. Adrian Sutil on the other hand missed a Q3 qualification by a few hundredths of a second and ultimately started the race in 11th.
The weather conditions on Sunday ensured a nail-biting race which started wet and ended dry. Both Force India cars made a steady start and held pace through the first part of the race. Local rookie Paul di Resta encountered a major pit stop gaffe where the mechanics were lined up in the pit box with Sutil’s tyres when he came for his pit stop. The team lost precious seconds as the mechanics had to scatter back into the garage to bring out Paul’s tyres and fix them on his car. This ultimately meant that Paul faced a time penalty in the form of a delayed pitstop and lost his top 10 track position only to re-join the track in 17th. He finally ended the race in 15th. Adrian Sutil finished the race 11th and half a second behind the Toro Rosso car of Jaime Alguersuari devoiding the team of any points after a promising qualifying session.
Each driver is allocated a fixed number of tyres for a GP weekend. Tyre usage for every driver is monitored in every garage by specially appointed FIA Scrutineers. Hence, had Paul used Adrian’s tyres in the race, the team would have faced further penalty. The team post-race clarified that the pit box was ready to service Adrian’s car who had reported a puncture on the same lap and hence the confusion.
Force India now lies 8th in the Constructor’s Championship with 12 points, 5 points behind Toro Rosso. Going by the pace the car has shown in the last few races, a stronger second half of the season can be predicted for the team.
Fernando Alonso and Ferrari beat Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing in the 2011 British GP. I would expect a closer battle between the top 3 teams as we race in Germany in a fortnight.
