German Grand Prix

Vettel and his Red Bull did manage to extract the pole position in front of the two red racers, but by a mere 2/1,000 of a second! Webber was fourth on the grid, behind Alonso and Massa. It was clear the Ferraris had regained the advantage. Next came the McLaren, finally racing their own version of the blown diffuser (*), but still not fast enough to catch the reinvigorated Ferraris and the speedy Red Bullets. The mid field was composed of the usual suspects: Kubica’s Renault, the Williams and the Mercedes “Silver Arrows,” quite dented these days.

On Sunday 1 p.m. local time, all threats of rain had vanished and the sky was clear, with some patchy high cloud cover; the ambient temperature was in the seventies, which, with the grid as it stood, promised some great racing. The German public filled the stands, what with five Germans on the grid, one of them on pole. There was great hope that Rosberg and Schumacher could maybe score a spot on the podium. Hulkenberg (Williams) and Sutil (Force India) both had chances to score points. And then the five red lights holding the vrooming herd still, turned dark…

Immediately, Vettel, whose start was not as quick, veered to the right to block Alonso, squeezing the Spaniard against the pit wall. This left Massa with a broad avenue ahead of him before turn 1 and Felipe lunged for it. As the three-car sandwich got into the right turn, Vettel realized his mistake and tried to defend his left, thus freeing Alonso. A second later, the two Ferraris were ahead, with Vettel a chastised third. Worse for the Red Bull team, whose drivers keep losing the clear speed advantage of their cars with all kinds of shenanigans, Hamilton managed to wedge his McLaren ahead of Webber in the first pass around the hairpin, taking fourth before the first lap was even completed. And with that, all the hot action the 2010 German Grand Prix was to witness was over, except for the incidental fact that the two Torro Rosso drivers took each other out shortly thereafter.

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There would be no more drama until lap 49, other than the sad sight of Michael Schumacher once again being outraced by his teammate and, in the end, barely finishing in the points. What happened on lap 49, eighteen laps from the finish line? During the second third of the race, Massa and Alonso had traded fastest laps, and the distance between the two Ferraris had varied from one second to three seconds. It seemed Massa was firmly holding the lead, while Alonso could at least match the Brazilian’s speed. In fact Alonso had attempted a pass a few laps earlier, but Massa easily blocked him, which had the hot Spaniard exclaim “That’s ridiculous!” on the team radio. Alonso is said to be this year’s most richly paid driver, and he was 23 points ahead of Massa arriving at Hockenheim, but still far behind the McLaren and Red Bull drivers. As the laps ticked away, it became clear that the Ferrari management was deliberating whether to intervene or not (“team orders”), even though such orders are clearly prohibited by the regulations. Spectators and viewers were holding their breath.

Then, Rod Smedley, Massa’s engineer, came on the team radio to tell his driver: “Fernando is quicker. Please confirm.” Massa remained silent. But as the two red racers completed turn 6, Massa suddenly and visibly slowed down, and Alonso zoomed past him. To which Smedley told his driver “Good lad. Sorry.” Both communications from the engineer were transmitted on all world TV channels carrying the race. Massa seemed to lose his pace after the pass, surely a humiliating moment. But professional as always, he quickly regrouped and Vettel only had a fleeting hope of perhaps scoring the second spot on the podium. In the end, Alonso finished just 4.2 seconds ahead of his teammate, while Vettel was third 1.0 second behind the second Ferrari. The two McLarens finished in 4th and 5th, with Webber finishing 6th. Then came Kubica, Rosberg, Schumacher and Petrov.

And now the storm exploded. Not in the heavens, but along pit lane, in the paddock and in the press rooms. Even on the podium, Alonso looked subdued and Massa simply crushed. For it was also one year ago almost to the day that he had his near fatal encounter at high speed with a two pound spring that had gotten loose from the preceding Brawn GP car and hit his helmet at eye level. It took him six months to recover, and a win on that anniversary would have been a triumph for the man and for his team. Instead, Ferrari’s arrogance and ”above the rule” mentality, ruined a one-two “come-back” victory and quickly turned it into a P.R. disaster. Soon after the interviews were completed, indeed, the team principals were called into the steward’s office. Despite their denials, they were quickly charged with having contravened Article 39.1 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, which states that ”team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited,” as well as with a breach of article 151c of the FIA International Sporting Code, which covers “any fraudulent conduct, or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.” They were also fined $100,000 and referred to the FIA’s World Council for “further consideration.” In the interim, the results and points won will stand.

We can be sure that the controversy and the arguments have only begun to unfold. What would have been a joyous and triumphal day for Ferrari was incredibly turned into a double black eye: not only did the Maranello team blatantly contravene the sporting regulations, but they thought they would get away with it. In fact, during the post-podium interviews, Alonso pretended he knew nothing about team orders and just thought Massa had “missed a gear” going into turn 6. Team manager Domenicali spun the same tale, apparently unaware that the whole world had heard his engineer’s barely concealed “team orders.” For the viewing public, which is funding the whole Formula 1 circus, this is treason. They pay to watch racing, not arbitrary manipulation. One key question is: “If Alonso was so much faster than Massa, how come he could not pass him?” For ‘passing’ is what racing is all about. And in fact, after the first lap, the whole German Grand Prix became processional. It would have been nice to see Alonso earn his extra 7 points. Yes, 7 points (out of 200 still to be won in the rest of the season) is what motivated the red team to put themselves in this sorry situation. Pride comes before the fall, as they say.

(*) After the race to fit “F-ducts” into their new cars, the next technological advance, introduced by Red Bull earlier this season, is the “blown diffuser.” It requires repositioning the exhaust pipes from blowing their hot gases upward above the gearbox at the rear of the car, to below the car, around the gearbox and into the double diffuser. This, whenever the throttle is active, increases the airflow going through the diffuser significantly enough to gain up to 9 mph in fast corners. There are two great challenges facing those wishing to adapt this new concept to cars that were not designed in advance around it: first, every car has a different chassis and rear suspension design, and rerouting the whole exhaust system from top to bottom, literally, is not easily done and more difficult for some than others; second, the exhaust temperature reaches up to 600º F, meaning totally new materials are needed for the diffuser. Red Bull had the lead advantage; Ferrari has clearly caught up now; McLaren and Mercedes-Benz are still struggling. The rest of the field is way behind. What will be the next breakthrough? That’s two big ones in just one half season. The arms race in F1 is fast accelerating. This one is not processional.

Race Results

1	ALONSO	Ferrari	1h27m38.864s
2	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 4.1s
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 5.1s
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 26.8s
5	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 29.4s
6	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 43.6s
7	KUBICA	Renault	+ 1 lap
8	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	+ 1 lap
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	+ 1 lap
10	PETROV	Renault	+ 1 lap
11	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
12	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
13	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
14	DE LA ROSA	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
15	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
16	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	+ 2 laps
17	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 2 laps
18	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
19	SENNA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 4 laps
20	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 11 laps, accident damage
21	DI GRASSI	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 17 laps, suspension
22	YAMAMOTO	HRT-Cosworth	+ 48 laps, mechanical
23	TRULLI	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 64 laps, gearbox
24	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 66 laps, accident damage
Fastest Lap	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	1m15.824s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	157 Points
2	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	143 Points
3	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	136 Points
4	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	136 Points
5	ALONSO	Ferrari	123 Points
6	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	94 Points
7	KUBICA	Renault	89 Points
8	MASSA	Ferrari	85 Points
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	38 Points
10	STUIL	Force India-Mercedes	35 Points
11	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	29 Points
12	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	15 Points
13	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	12 Points
14	PETROV	Renault	7 Points
15	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	7 Points
16	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	3 Points
17	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	McLAREN-MERCEDES	300 Points
2	RBR-RENAULT	272 Points
3	FERRARI	208 Points
4	MERCEDES GP	132 Points
5	RENAULT	96 Points
6	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	47 Points
7	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	31 Points
8	BMW SAUBER-FERRARI	15 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	10 Points