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Articles by Darren Galpin
| Da Matta critical on Button’s weekend of success - Sun 06th Aug 2006 |
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Before I start my usual facetious ramblings about the state of Formula 1, we should spare a thought for ex-Toyota F1 driver and former Champ Car Champion Cristiano da Matta. During Champ Car World Series testing for his RuSPORT team at Elkhart Lake, he collided head-on with a deer. According to eye witness reports, the deer hit the head of da Matta, who then careered on into a barrier. He was taken immediately to hospital, where he had an operation to stem a burst blood vessel in his head. Let’s hope that there are no additional complications.
The Formula 1 weekend made one thing clear – when there is a lack of grip, the racing is much better. The lack of grip came courtesy of rain on the Sunday, causing the drivers to have to drive to the limit of the conditions rather than to their cars ability. It made for an exciting race to watch, with the differing conditions favouring different cars at different times. Perhaps sprinkler systems should be a feature of all new tracks, and they can be randomly switched on during a race. Getting rid of front and rear wings would help with that too.
But I digress. The race was set up nicely by the goings on in Friday practice. Alonso got a 2s penalty which would be added to his qualifying time for brake-testing Doornbos, the Friday tester for Red Bull. Shortly after this the red flag was thrown, and as Alonso slowed heavily, causing the car behind to also slow dramatically, Michael Schumacher swept around the outside of both as he headed towards the pit. Now the red flag regulations say that there is to be no overtaking under the red flag, and all cars are to proceed back to the pits. The manoeuvre may well have been safe, but the rules are black and white on this, and 2s was to be added to the qualifying time of Michael as a penalty.
And during qualifying, having set the fourth fastest time, Button’s engine blew big-time, dropping metal on the track, and setting his car alight. He was therefore going to suffer a 10 place grid penalty. This raises an interesting point: Button didn’t commit any driving offence, but still suffers a harsher penalty than Schumacher and Alonso who were guilty of dangerous driving under the regulations. That doesn’t really seem fair. Alonso’s incident indicated that the recently increasing championship points pressure is getting to him. Alonso won last years championship fairly easily, without any pressure. This year he is being pressured far more, and he doesn’t seem to bear up quite so well under it.
But come race day, the God’s seemed to smile on the main championship protagonists, as on a circuit on which it is notoriously difficult to pass, they dumped a quantity of water on the track and ensured that the race would at least start under wet conditions. How they must have been smiling down at Ferrari and Renault, as the tricky conditions meant that passing was now distinctly possible, and prayers had been answered. Michael Schumacher opted for a full wet tyre, as did Rubens Barrichello, while the rest of the field opted for intermediates. It was going to be interesting at the first couple of corners.
And so it proved, with the full wet tyre initially being best suited to the conditions, and the Renault launch system proving its worth yet again. By the end of the first couple of laps, Schumacher and Alonso were already in the top six, and it looked as though we may well have the usual type of race. But Räikkönen was still leading, and was pulling away, and the ever so slightly dryer conditions favoured Michelin over Bridgestone. Thus the Ferrari started to go back down the order almost as fast as it had gone up it, and Alonso started to have a look at the front two cars.
It was an interesting part of the race, as one of the fastest drivers was Pedro de la Rosa, who seemed to be far more at home in the conditions than Räikkönen. Indeed, even though de la Rosa pitted before Räikkönen, he was still able to make up all of the time lost to him on the track. It was a masterful display of control (even though he had spun on the warm-up trap – it’s not only Montoya who can do this), and put down a marker to the team that he deserves the seat for next year. His performance put Kimi into the shade, and he really deserved his final second placed finish in the race. It was his highest ever finishing position. If he can recreate this kind of form in the next Grand Prix, then he will be a shoe-in for the second McLaren seat, and an outside bet for the championship.
Also making his way unobtrusively through the field was Jenson Button. He may not have been quite as rapid as Alonso and Schumacher, but he was still progressively moving forward, his smooth style suiting the conditions. Even so, you doubted that he would win. Surely the car would go bang again at some point? It was just a matter of when.
But no, he kept going, as did his teammate Barrichello. Barrichello had quickly realised that his initial tyre choice of full wets was too much of a gamble, and switched to intermediates fairly quickly, compromising his race. But the main protagonists then started to fall by the wayside, paving the way to his final placing of fourth.
First to go was Räikkönen. He was catching the Toro Rosso of Liuzzi very quickly, and the blue flags were being waved. Recognising this, Liuzzi didn’t accelerate quite as hard as he could coming out of a corner, and stayed to the outside so that Räikkönen could pass. In an interview with ITV Räikkönen admitted that at that time he was looking in his mirror to allow the faster de la Rosa to pass. Distracted, he creamed into the right rear of Liuzzi and rode over the tyre, taking both of them out. De la Rosa steered through the detritus and carried on. The safety car was dispatched to allow the marshals to clear up.
Button had been catching Alonso at this point, but he now had a group of cars between himself and the Renault, and these cars wanted to race each other. When the safety car went in they didn’t want to let Button past, and in the couple of laps it took him to get past Alonso had already pulled out six seconds. Was that afternoon over? No – he ground down the gap and got onto his tail. He then pitted for fuel, keeping his tyres on as they were fast enough, but he didn’t take on enough to last the race. This was a gamble – there might have been more rain, in which case Alonso, who was fuelled to the end, wouldn’t have to pit again. Button again set off after Alonso, setting fastest race laps as he went. The track dried out more and more, and it became obvious that they would have to change to dry tyres. The question was when.
Button was the first of the front two to do so, taking on the rest of the fuel as he pitted. He was now set to the end, and was still catching Alonso. Alonso pitted soon after, but as he accelerated out of the pits his car started to twitch. Going around turn 1 something was obviously amiss, and by turn two he was giving up – a driveshaft had snapped. The pressure was now off Button – all he had to do was protect his engine.
By this time Michael Schumacher’s tyres were performing better, and he had been moving forwards again. But De la Rosa was going faster, and wanted to overtake. The Ferrari had the power down the straights to stay ahead, but was obviously slower in the corners. Going into the chicane, De la Rosa went up the inside and turned in, ahead. Schumacher then shot straight across the asphalted inside, and rejoined the circuit ahead, having kept his foot on the accelerator. Now the rules say that you are not allowed to gain an advantage when leaving the proscribed circuit, and Schumacher obviously had gained an advantage, as there would have been no way he would have been ahead had he gone through the chicane. There was also no attempt to let De la Rosa past on the following straight. It was cheating pure and simple, and you wondered if the stewards would let him get away with it. It was a sad thing to see from one so gifted.
De la Rosa didn’t give up, and within two laps pulled the same move off properly, as he deserved to. Next up was Heidfeld, who wished to do the same to Schumacher. He tried next time around at the same place, but Schumacher simply turned in on him, and in the process terminally damaged his car, although he managed to make it back to the pits. It was a fitting result given his increasingly aggressive tactics through the race.
And so the race wound itself down to its conclusion, the Honda engine staying in one piece, and Button finally taking a deserving win on a day when he had been faster than the championship leaders. No longer will he be a driver who was never won a race, a driver who never quite produced and one who is termed a failure. It was somehow fitting that his teammate and Friday tester Anthony Davidson was in the commentary box replacing Martin Brundle, and you can imagine that Honda will be offering ITV a lot of money to keep him there on race days, as he may well be their lucky talisman. It lifts a lot of the recent pressure from the team, and is a just reward for the effort they have put in. It wasn’t just a win, it was a win from fourteenth on the grid, and a win which was deserved, not gained through attrition. It might be the win that starts the Honda ball rolling. They no longer have to dream the impossible dream – they have tasted it.
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