European Grand Prix

We like Mark. He’s a take no prisoners kind a guy, gutsy, good looking, refreshingly frank and emotional, a contrast to the calculating Teutonic ubermenschen and grim Finns, who for all their sisu are still pretty cold fish. Webber lights up the F1 scene with his remarks, driving skills and take it or leave it attitude; he is the AJ Foyt of the 21st century. There is no doubt the guy can Drive. But since 2003, Webber has been in the wrong place at the wrong time eighteen times, not including his Merceded Benz flight in 1999 at Le Mans. We wondered if we were being too critical, but here are the stats:

2003 saw one incident in Brazil: While attempting to cool his tires, Webber crashed heavily into the pit straight walls, leaving debris on the track which caused a second major crash.

2004 brought 4 incidents beginning with Malaysia: During a battle with Ralf Schumacher, Webber and Schumacher collided. In Canada, he was hit by Klien. In Belgium there was a first-lap accident. And, in Brazil Klien and Webber collided again (through no fault of Webber’s).

In 2005 his 3 tussles began in Malaysia when Fisichella locked his brakes and slid into the side of Webber’s car, eliminating both drivers from the race. In the European Grand Prix he locked his brakes in the very first corner of the race and collided with Juan Pablo Montoya. And, in Turkey, Webber collided with Michael Schumacher after the German changed lines in the braking area, causing extensive damage to both cars. Schumacher’s fault?

2006 was Webber’s “banner” year. In Britain, Webber was taken out on the first lap after an incident with Ralf Schumacher and Scott Speed. In Hungary he slid into a barrier and crushed his front wing under the chassis of the Williams. In Turkey he was involved in a first-lap accident. In Brazil he collided with his own team-mate NIco Rosberg. And in Japan, Sebastian Vettel, driver for sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso, ran into the back of Webber.

2008 only saw one incident at Melbourne involving Webber, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson.

2009 had an incident in Australia with Rubens Barrichello, Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld. And, in Germanym Webber’s first win was complete with a penalty early in the race for causing an avoidable collision at the start when he hit the Brawn GP of Rubens Barrichello.

2010 has, so far, only seen two mash-ups. The first was in Turkey when he collided with teammate Vettel. And, Valencia’s collision with Kovalainen

That’s a fourteen percent crash rate, compared to hard driver Jenson Button, who completed 145 races from 2003 to 2010 with a three percent crash rate (all stats taken from compilations on Wiki pedia).

Lotus Racing’s chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne said after the accident in Valencia, “Mark’s charged up behind Heikki, he’s got the quicker car and Heikki has to brake where he brakes because of the grip he has. At the end of the day it’s up to the guy overtaking to do so safely, and he didn’t. If you hit someone from behind it’s not the fault of the guy in front.” Whatever, it happened to Webber, again. As we watched him take flight (his second horrific airline accident) we were not surprised it was.

Race winner Sabastion Vettel is sure to inherit the throne previously occupied by his own hero Michael Schumacher. Vettel learns well and learns from the best. Calculating lot, but winners.

Schumacher himself did not fair so well. He did set a few fastest laps of the race but was totally discumbooberated with the tire changing strategy. This is strange, for it was on that very often thin fulcrum that he and Ross Braun (ok, with some help from the Corsican) once both controlled and dominated the competition back in the heydays of both Ferrari and MS. Much in the rumor bin. Was it wise for Schumacher to have returned to F1? Niki Lauda did it successfully, but few others have. Your comments (and opinions) welcome below.

Now, how about that Japanese guy, Kamui Kobayashi? He made his mark at Valencia, pushing the almost obsolete Sauber BMW (how does an F1 car look so old?) into seventh place, passing the likes of both Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi in the last laps of the race, having waited and waited until the last minute to stop for fresh tires, resulting in another “Who woulda thought?” line from Hobbs. So much for Ferrari’s efforts with a Spanish driver in a hometown F1. Kobayashi, with eleven F1 events under his belt, joins the ranks of some 18 other Japanese drivers who have participated in F1 since the mid 1960s when Honda first got into racing. Together, the Japanese have participated in over 511 races, but so far only one podium finish, which was for Takuma Sato at the 2004 USGP. Here’s hoping that Kamui will help bring that score up; he certainly looked good in Spain.

The safety car issue, though the rules were defended by Matchett, sounds too much like making F1 racing a courtroom rather than a racetrack. Hamilton’s penalty was fine, but to threaten to penalize so many others just does not seem to make sense. Aside, of course, from the points and the dollars.

While we were all admiring the beauty of Spain, we were reminded that again, the United States is not represented in the world’s premier motorsports event. The U.S., which prides itself as a leader in technology, can’t seem to get past NASCAR carburetors or even provide a race venue for F1. (Psst! Pete! Austin, Tx? 2012? -Assoc. Ed.) Renault, providing Red Bull’s race winning high tech engines, no doubt does not miss our presence at all, since they themselves have none in the U.S. anyway.

Finally, Hobbs, Matchett, Windsor and Varsha.

1. We missed you Bob, my ears in particular.
2. Windsor. Where are you now, please come back.
3. Hobbs, what a grand old man. Keep it up.
4. Steve Matchett is matchless. Absolutely TOPS. Where is RPM now? Make it all techie and put it on prime time.

Race Results

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	1h40m29.571s
2	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 5.0s
3	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 12.6s
4	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 25.6s
5	KUBICA	Renault	+ 27.1s
6	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 30.1s
7	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 30.9s
8	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 32.8s
9	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 36.2s
10	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	+ 44.3s
11	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 46.6s
12	DE LA ROSA	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 47.4s
13	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 48.2s
14	PETROV	Renault	+ 48.2s
15	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	+ 48.8s
16	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	+ 50.8s
17	DI GRASSI	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
18	CHANDHOK	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
19	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
20	SENNA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
21	TRULLI	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 4 laps
22	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	+ 8 laps, exhaust
23	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 49 laps, accident damage
24	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 49 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1m38.766s

Note: Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi, De la Rosa, Petrov, Liuzzi and Hulkenberg all had five seconds added to their race times for speeding under safety-car conditions. Glock had 20 seconds added for ignoring blue flags.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	127 Points
2	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	121 Points
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	115 Points
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	103 Points
5	ALSONSO	Ferrari	98 Points
6	KUBICA	Renault	83 Points
7	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	75 Points
8	MASSA	Ferrari	67 Points
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	34 Points
10	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	31 Points
11	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	19 Points
12	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	12 Points
13	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	7 Points
14	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	7 Points
15	PETROV	Renault	6 Points
16	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	3 Points
17	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	McLAREN-MERCEDES	248 Points
2	RBR-RENAULT	218 Points
3	FERRARI	165 Points
4	MERCEDES GP	109 Points
5	RENAULT	89 Points
6	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	43 Points
7	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	20 Points
8	STR-FERRARI	10 Points
9	BMW SAUBER-FERRARI	7 Points