Alonso takes the reins

Fernando Alonso proved, once again, in Germany, just how good he is. The answer to that is extremely good and, arguably, the best. Some have never doubted that the spaniard was the best, but many are just realising that Alonso is achieving feats well above and beyond the capabilities of his Ferrari. Last year, and now this year as well, Fernando outclassed his team mate, Filipe Massa, proving that he is squeezing so much more out of his prancing horse than the brazilian.

Alonso was faultless all weekend. He took pole position in changeable conditions on Saturday, held the lead after the start, protected his tyres and kept Vettel at a comfortable distance for the whole race. Alonso takes his tally to three race wins and its crystal clear that he is taking the bull by the horns, so to speak.

The real drama came on the penultimate lap of the race when, after storming up behind Jenson Button, Vettel attempted a pass on one of the hairpins. Sebastian took the outside line around the corner and then clearly took to the runoff area, on the exit of the corner, to get traction to pull away past Jenson. I don't think anybody is in any doubt as to whether Vettel was in the wrong by using the runoff area to take Button. However, the punishment was arguably too harsh.

The move certainly wasn't malicious and if there had been more laps and more time then it may have been the case that Sebastian would have been told to yield the position. I think a fair punishment would have been for the positions to have been swapped, Vettel for Button. Therefore, I think that to penalise Vettel with an added 20 secs, which resulted in him being bumped down to 5th, was wrong and put an unfortunate downer on the whole result. Lets hope that in future the FIA make more responsible decisions, regarding trivial incidents like this. 

A dry day at Silverstone?!

Despite the torrential rain in the build up to this weekend's race, surprisingly Sunday at Silverstone was dry. On a positive note, it allowed for a race based more on skill and tactics than luck. Neutrals would argue that the absence of rain took away a lot of the potential excitement but, considering the Qualifying was red flagged halfway through, there was a threat of similar during the Grand Prix.

Mark Webber ran a quiet and composed race and, as a result, crept up on a struggling Alonso. To be fair to Alonso he made a fantastic bid for the victory, from pole position on the grid, and he would have brought his tally up to three, had it not been for a another misjudgement of the tyre wear, partnered with a determined and focussed Webber. Mark has now made it two-all with Fernando and if somebody else doesn't assert themselves, then the season could become a two horse race, or more fittingly, a horse and bull race.

The controversy this weekend lay in the way the FIA and the circuit management dealt with the rain. I find it quite ridiculous that the sport still has wet weather tyres, since the drivers and teams now refuse to drive in the wet. As soon as it gets to a stage when the wet weather tyres are needed, the teams veto the session, or race, and the red flags come out. The drivers complain that when the rain gets heavy its dangerous and cars spin off the track. I think some of today's drivers should watch some old footage of Formula One and they will see that their predecessors had spins all the time, even in the dry.

As spectators and fans of the sport, we see little enough incident as it is. That's not to say that fans want to see massive, lethal crashes, that put the drivers' lives in danger, but it is exciting to see spins and shunts. So let's see these drivers suck it up and get out on the circuit, come rain or shine. I mean their doting fans brave the weather just to watch them and they aren't being paid millions of pounds to do it, but are paying hundreds for the priviledge.

Alonso makes it two!

The European Grand Prix broke all it's own rules regarding excitement. A race that had become notorious for it's tedious and processional nature, delivered a lightning storm of a race. We finally broke the chaos of different winners every race, with Alonso taking an emotional victory to take his tally of wins up to two and launch him twenty points into the lead of the Driver's Championship.

Vettel failed to capitalise on his pole position, for a second time this season. However, its important to point out that it wasn't the German's fault, as his Red Bull car, which showed such promise in the opening stages of the race, gave up the ghost and slowed to a halt, on lap 34 after a safety car period. He probably would have gone on to win the race, but after seeing Alonso's reaction to the win in his home country, it's difficult to grudge him the glory.

Hamilton had a familiar moment of madness on the penultimate lap of the race, reliving some of the memories of last season. His tyres were failing as he went in to the last few laps, evidence of another misjudgement regarding the life of the Pirellis. Cars were catching and passing with ease and as Maldonado attempted to pass Lewis, in his much faster Williams, Lewis countered the move by eradicating any remaining space and ending his own grand prix immediately.

Alonso and Vettel appear to hold the slightly more dominant position, Vettel with the race pace and Alonso with the Championship position and tenacity to win. The season is beginning to take a little shape and maybe the next race will be a little more predictable.

Lewis' turn in Canada...

Incredibly, in Canada, we saw a seventh different winner, in the shape of Lewis Hamilton. Everybody will begin to believe that they could witness twenty different winners by the close of the season. Hamilton’s win was easily the classiest win so far. McLaren must be credited with having fantastic vision, in a season where the unpredictability of the Pirelli tyres has caught everybody out.   

In the closing stages of the Grand Prix, McLaren were monitoring Hamilton's pace, watching closely for the signs that his tyres were reaching the cliff, before falling in to relative uselessness, and for the moment when Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, in second and third positions respectively, would start reeling him in. With twenty laps remaining, McLaren called Lewis in to the pits, for a stop that many saw as too late; people had assumed that all of the front runners would simply press on to the end and hope for the best. It turned out to be an inspired decision, as Lewis' pace, with the fresh tyres, was almost four seconds a lap faster than both Alonso and Sebastian.

Hamilton caught up very quickly and retook, Vettel in second place and then Alonso who had moved in to first. Red Bull showed similarly good vision, recognising what Ferrari failed to see. They pitted Vettel, dropping him back down the order. However, with the fresher tyres, Sebastian was able to make some of those places back and he eventually finished fourth; signifcantly, ahead of Alonso. Ferrari had to helplessly watch Alonso fall in to the clutches of Grosjean, Perez and finally Vettel, and then come under pressure from Nico Rosberg. Mercifully for Ferrari, Alonso did manage to finish fifth and still grab some precious points.

Once again, controversy surrounds DRS and Pirelli tyres. A seventh different winner, in seven races, whilst making for an unbelievably exciting season for the neutral fan, supports the argument that the unpredictable nature of the Pirelli tyre and the relative ease of passing provided by DRS, is rendering any difference between teams, regarding quality and pace, redundant. It could be argued that, it doesn't matter if you have produced a slow racecar, as long as you get luck with the tyres and get close enough at the DRS activation zone.

I disagree with all of the above paragraph. Despite the fact that the results this season have been slightly erratic, I think that the Canadian Grand Prix has shown strong evidence to support the argument that the performance of the Pirelli tyre can be predicted. It takes work and it takes risks and gambles, but it can be done. As for DRS, I hold to what I have said before. When passing, DRS is never a sure thing. A driver has to be close enough when they enter the DRS zone, which, as Canada showed, isn't always the case. Drivers were finding it difficult to get in to the right position on the exit of the final hairpin and defending drivers were discovering ways of making this difficult.

I think that, in Valencia, we are going to witness some unconventional pit stop decisions, with more teams taking risks and trying to catch out their opponents. It should make for some very exciting racing, because it will result in cars with very different levels of tyre degredation at different periods of the race to each other.

Lastly, I have to apologise for the delay in this blog post. For the last couple of weeks, my time as been solely taken up by preparations for my wedding. Now that I am a married man, it’s back to the blogging. I can’t wait for the European Grand Prix in Valencia... and to discuss an eighth different winner?

Webber throws Snake Eyes again, in Monaco!

After the Spanish Grand Prix, pundits, fans and the like, speculated about the possibility of a sixth different winner in Monaco and it happened. Mark Webber took the win from pole position, with a performance that was deserving of the victory. In the closing stages of a gruelling race, Pirelli tyres losing grip and allowing the cars to slide nearer and nearer to the imposing barriers with every lap, Mark Webber’s nerves must have been on the ragged edge. To add to this, he had a train of world champions and seasoned race winners breathing down his neck. He kept his cool and he took his win, claiming his seat amongst the other race winners this season.

It’s still extremely difficult to pinpoint any specific battle this season, which is exciting for the neutral fan but frustrating for the teams and drivers. The only thing that is clear is that there are at least five top teams that are fighting for dominance. Surprisingly, considering their relatively weak start to the season, Red Bull Racing have had the most success, with both their drivers winning races and the team leading the Constructor’s Championship. Following close pursuit are Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Lotus. With Maldonado taking a victory, even Williams have joined the fight.

Controversy surrounded the tyres again this weekend. The decision of when to make pit stops and the tyre choice in those stops, played a very large part, with threats of rain throwing the decision making process in to further disarray. Although many of the drivers are voicing their frustrations and aversion to the Pirelli tyres this season, it is clear that the tyres are making for some very exciting racing and despite criticism of DRS are KERS, neither make for sure fire overtaking opportunities and both add a huge amount of excitement to the grands prix.

In such an extraordinarily exciting season, who can even attempt to predict the outcome of the next race? Not I.

5 races!! 5 different winners!! from 5 different teams!!

The world of Formula One has gone loopy it seems. The Spanish Grand Prix played witness to yet another grand prix winner and this time it was Pastor Maldonado. He ran a spectacular race, promoting himself from second place on the grid to first and then holding it for the remainder of the race. Like the Niko Rosberg victory, everybody but Fernando Alonso fans were behind the Venezuelan as he charged his Williams race car home. At one point it seemed that Fernando Alonso might breeze past Maldonado, but Pastor put up a valiant fight and, with about ten laps to go, he started pulling out the gap again and sealed the victory.

Again, much of the racing was extraordinary. DRS was at no point a sure thing when it came to overtaking and in many cases the combination of slip streaming, DRS and KERS resulted in wheel to wheel racing and a lot more passing and re-passing. There were more mistakes in the pit stops, again from McLaren, which, if any presumptions can be made at this very early stage in such an unusual season, may well be hindering their season and preventing them from asserting themselves as the dominant team.

Its strange not being able to discuss the way the season is unfolding, because it just isn't. It's wide open and completely unpredictable, so its really not possible to draw any conclusions. However, it would be fun to see Kimi Raikonnen, in a Lotus, win the next grand prix making it six different winners, in six different races, from six different constructors.

The only thing that overshadowed the weekend, but fortunately didn't result in any fatalities, was the fire in the Williams garage. In hindsight it is important to point out that the situation was handled magnificently, by professionals from a number of different teams, and this has meant that Maldonado's win can still be the main focus of the weekend.

Roll on race six... and a sixth different winner?! 

4 races, 4 winners...

It's about time the reigning World Champions actually entered the title fight this season and Sebastien Vettel made the controversial Bahrain Grand Prix the race to do it in. Not only that but, unbelievably, it launched him in to the top spot in the Driver's Championship. Despite Red Bull's apparent lack of performance this season (so far), they really slipped under the radar in terms of the title fight. The one great result in Bahrain, has catapulted them to the top and, if anyone was unaware of the drama we have seen so far, they may have been forgiven for thinking that Red Bull had taken up where they left off last season.

The big question on everybody's lips was 'should the Bahrain Grand Prix have actually taken place?' and, to be honest, I don't think it should. I love to watch the racing, but sometimes life and safety has to take precedence. However, the race went ahead and it was another massive spectacle. So far, the driver's who have taken the lead at the beginning of the race have tended to dominate until the chequered flag, however Vettel didn't find it so easy. There was an edge-of-the-seat moment when Kimi Raikonnen came within a hair's breadth of taking the lead. It turned out to be his only chance, but it's fair to say that Vettel had to deal with people breathing down his neck for the whole race.

The pit lane appeared to be the action hot spot in Bahrain. There were unsafe releases and faulty equipment aplenty. Lewis Hamilton's race was all but ruined when his pit crew had a problem changing his left rear wheel. Ferrari had further problems, showing that Alonso's win was a quite unusual and slightly fluky occurrence. We now know that there have been some quite major improvements for Ferrari and it will exciting to see what those do for them next weekend.

Only four races gone and four different winners and, even more amazing, from four different teams. It's almost impossible to judge which teams and drivers will break away in the fight for the Championship. Maybe we'll see a different driver winning next weekend, perhaps from another different team!