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Articles by Darren Galpin
| Hockenheim - Aero again - Sun 24th Jul 2005 |
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I felt sorry for the German TV director for this race, as it was obvious that he (I assume that it was a he) didn’t know quite what to do. For the first time in years, his job wasn’t automatic, as Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari wasn’t leading, and wasn’t looking likely to either. Plan B was obviously to follow anything that was German, and as long as the McLaren of Räikkönen was leading and setting fastest laps, then the decision to make was obvious. However, when Räikkönen’s engine went up in a cloud of hydraulic smoke, there was a dilemma to face – what to show now? The director seemed to panic, and as a result missed most of the passing action first time around, much to the annoyance of the viewer who had to rely on replays.
The race itself was anticlimactic – it promised lots of action and exciting racing, but it somehow managed to never quite deliver. There was a case of dodgems at the first and second corners of the first lap, but after that the race split up into groups. Montoya was doing his best to bridge them, having started from the back of the grid due to throwing his car at the scenery in qualifying, but once he hit the faster groups he was stuck again, a legacy of the aerodynamic rules again. Here we were at a track where overtaking was possible, yet they couldn’t manage it due to the inability of the cars to follow each other anywhere remotely near to closely through the corners. It was frustrating for the viewers, and frustrating for the drivers, as evidenced through some increasingly ragged driving by following drivers.
The only thing which seemed to enable overtaking was tyre degradation, which afflicted both of the Ferrari’s. To try and make a race of things, Michael Schumacher had gone for a softer Bridgestone tyre, but this was being heavily worn out as the race progressed, and was obviously losing grip. This meant that even the aero deficiency wasn’t enough to stop cars from having a go. Jenson Button was the first to take advantage of this, and put a good move up the inside into the hairpin, much to the delight of his mechanics. The next to actually attempt to overtake was Fisichella, but he was far more tentative. He had a much greater car superiority, but when watching him think it over you were never quite sure that he would eventually get there. He did, but it wasn’t a convincing display. He may have had poor reliability this season, but he is in a car which is leading the drivers championship quite convincingly, and he’s not. He is reinforcing his image of being a good number 2 driver who can occasionally deliver a number 1 performance, and should the next bright young thing show up, his days might be numbered.
So Alonso won yet again, and seems to have the championship sewn up bar a sequence of catastrophic car failures. The car is fast, yet not quite fast enough – the McLaren outpaces it when it holds together. Montoya was second, with Button third. Button himself was predicting a fourth placed finish before the race, and had Räikkönen not blown up, he would have been right. The BAR is missing that little bit which would take it to the Renault’s and the McLaren’s during the race, although over a single lap it isn’t that far off, as evidenced by Button being second on the grid for two races in succession. The problem is that they don’t look able to close the gap either, as they are only developing the car as fast as the others, not faster. Podiums for BAR in the next few races will depend on others falling out.
For excitement, viewers in the UK could switch over from ITV at the end of the Grand Prix to BBC2 to watch the motorcycles at the British Grand Prix at Donington Park. The race was somewhat wet, but what a race – there was overtaking, there were crashes, and there was a lack of aerodynamic problems. The series may be being dominated by Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha, but the races are still interesting – there was none of the sleep inducement which was prevalent when Ferrari were winning. There are none of the team orders either, as Rossi doesn’t need them – he is good enough to do it himself, and knows it too. Formula 1, please take note. Moto GP isn’t politically self destructing either.
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