F.1 – GP Korea: THE POINT…by Gian Carlo Minardi
The Korean GP was marked by the Red Bull’ flag. At this point some powerful harpoons are needed to follow them. Two powers are emerging, with Red Bull and Ferrari leading the group. Massa has confirmed he got out from the deep crisis, but the Ferrari team will have to make something up.
From free practices to race, the Red Bull imposed its supremacy. They didn’t have any problem and handled tyres very well, imposing a pace that was so hard to beat by anyone. Alonso and Massa took a great advantage of their potential, however rivals proved to be an edge over.
Ferrari got the second place inside the World Championship, but that is not the main goal for the team, as they want Fernando to win the Driver World Championship. At the moment, I find it hard for the Italian team to find a right solution to balance the technical gap with Red Bull Team in terms of speed performances. The two zeros, which were due to external faults, now weigh heavily on the Italian Team. What is more in India ( where a GP will be run in 2 weeks ) there will be some customs problems, so it will be so hard to get an important car structural updating. Hard GP to Hamilton who was in trouble since the beginning of the race because of tyres consumption. The McLaren is losing its strength and it’s not a threat to the Austrian Team. They could hold the balance of power , but at the moment, they’re out of fight. Unfortunately Button was put out of action after few metres, whereas Hamilton will have to get at least the third place occupied by a high-performing Raikkonen, who continues to grab points. It is hard for the team to have a good performance on soft and super-soft tyres. If they use hard tyres, they’ll probably regain their competitiveness.
A very important fifth place for Lotus and Raikkonen. We don’t have to forget that they’re not the most competitive ones among top teams in terms of budget. The Finnish driver took advantage of his car’ new structural updating and confirmed himself as the third power of the Championship.
After getting onto the podium seven days ago, Sauber had a hard weekend in Korea. The Swiss Team tried to set an extreme strategy but bad luck was at its side. Koba was immediately involved in an accident and lost several positions , whereas Perez tried to fight until the last lap to score a point over Hamilton. The two Toro Rosso had a good performance as they were able to get into the score zone , after taking a hard start. I’m glad to see three drivers on the podium who started their career in Faenza, some of them were part of the Minardi Team (Alonso and Webber ) and Vettel was a driver of the Toro Rosso Team. The Force India, along with the Swiss team are 2012 racing season real discovery. In the last few GP they were in the top 10 and, although the teams have problems, they can take advantage of their technical potential.
Mercedes will have to roll up its sleeves. Rosberg got immediately out and Schumacher’ 13th place is a proof that the German Team still have so much to do. No doubt market operations are a sign of growth. Unfortunately the spirit is so bad and even Hamilton’ declarations ( he says it will be so hard to win a GP) leave us hopeless. It seems to me that the Englishman doesn’t have much confidence on the programme.
Gian Carlo Minardi
The week-end in Monza was so “stressful” both for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso. After jinxing, saying that the Italian team had run 23 flawless Gps, we just have to admit that the last seven days have been so hard for Ferrari, starting from the Gp in Spa, going through free practices, qualifying and race in Monza.
Unfortunately the Gp of Spa has been distorted by the accident caused by Grosjean who, just few metres after the start, has taken away the key players. This is not the first time things like that happen in Spa and it’s not even the first time the Frenchman do that. I think that the penalty imposed on him is so fair, as it’s not possible for a driver to make seven mistakes on twelve starts. I think that judges should have taken measures even before this happened.
For the first time from the beginning of the season the Gp we saw yesterday in Budapest wasn’t as exciting as the other ones. Everything was so predictable, only two or three overtakings were really dominant, just like the one handled by Alonso on Raikkonen at the beginning of the race, which probably denied the Finn to score a win and the one handled by Maldonado, which cost him a penalty. I think we’re going too far! We want drivers to overtake but even after a slight clash, they are penalised. I think FIA is exaggerating.
The Gp in Hockenheim was really amazing, so was Fernando Alonso, who made a masterpiece, especially on the last 20 laps.
Another amazing week-end for Ferrari, even if Red Bull’s car was the best on track. The Spaniard of Ferrari team scored important points and I think he did his best in qualifying. In fact he was the leader throughout the race and his standing is getting more and more interesting.
Unlike past seasons the Gp in Valencia has been really amazing and we’ve seen an extraordinary Fernando Alonso showing all his self-confidence, especially in overtaking.
Welcome to the “Pirelli World Championship”. This Championship is deeply conditioned by tyres and, only the driver who has the best understanding of them will succeed. Once more we have the seventh different winner inside seven different Grand Prix and running races is getting more and more difficult. What catches our eyes are the big differences inside the same team.
MONTECARLO- Yesterday’s Gp in Monaco was really amazing. After 78 laps six cars crossed the line within just 6 seconds. This is one of the most intense and competitive Championships of the F1 history. The competition will be played till the end and placing will be decisive. After six races ( won by six different drivers ) we haven’t a leader yet.
BARCELONA- The fact that we have 5 different winners in many Gps is really interesting. It’s really appreciable that an understimated driver like Maldonado, has managed to get such an important goal both for himself and his team. The Williams is getting more and more powerful. I think it can fight for the fifth or the sixth position, even if it can only rely on one driver.
With the Bahrein GP last Sunday we’ve seen again how competitive Formula 1 is this year. Four GPs, different winners and eight different pilots on the podium. The influence of tires is so strong. Only one week ago Raikkonen lost the chance of a second position just two laps before the line, whereas in Bahrein everything has gone better.