Spa now safely off Hamilton's list

You know you have witnessed a historic moment when you begin searching the recesses of your brain for lessons you learned from tales you read or were told as a boy. As I watched a barely credible, entirely avoidable accident at lap 17 of an already dramatic Belgian Grand yesterday, I was reminded of the tale of Daedalus and Icarus from Greek mythology. In order to escape the island of Crete with his son Icarus before being captured by King Minos, Daedalus builds wings for himself and his son out of feathers and wax. He teaches Icarus not to fly too close to the sun so as not to melt the wax in his wings or too close to the sea so as not to soak his feathers and make it impossible to fly. Icarus at first obeys his father's warnings but in his youthful way, he gets excited by the thrill of flying, flies way too high and loses the wax in his wings to the blazing sun. Icarus then falls to his death in the sea.

In a typical Sunday afternoon at Spa, the only consistent thing was the unpredictability of the weather. In wet then dry then wet conditions, the drivers who seemed most able to condition their driving to the micro-climate of the Ardennes stood most to gain from an event-filled Belgian Grand Prix. At lap 17 - after spending several frustrating laps trying to get past second-placed man, reigning world champion Jenson Button, and being thwarted by the Englishman's mastery of his craft - Sebastian Vettel attempted an overtaking manoeuvre at a point and in conditions which would have given a wiser, more experienced head pause. Suddenly Vettel lost control of his car and found himself powerless to prevent his Red Bull from T-boning a clearly surprised Jenson Button.

This is not the first time we have seen Vettel's inexperience and impetuosity end in disaster for himself and another driver. The move on Button was almost identical to one he performed on his team-mate, Mark Webber, in Turkey this year. It is indicative of what is now certain to me: Vettel will not be world champion this year because he is too hot-headed in tense situations. Worse, if he carries on failing to listen to older and wiser heads, he may find himself consigned forever to the club of drivers who showed phenomenal potential but, like Icarus, failed to tame their baser instincts and crashed out of the upper reaches of Formula One all together.

For Button, the end to his Belgian Grand Prix may well also mean a premature cessation of his campaign for the 2010 drivers' championship. Vettel was remorseful and gave a sincere apology for the incident after the race but it is difficult to envision much charity and good will emanating from the Englishman to the German for a little while yet.

I doubt that his team-mate minds Vettel's discomfort terribly much. Second place at Spa keeps Webber within three points of the championship leader and almost at the stage where he can justifiably demand that the team's resources are devoted primarily towards his own championship campaign.

If Belgium 2010 was a race which one McLaren driver would rather forget, it must surely rank very high in the estimation of the other McLaren driver, Lewis Hamilton. There was a cheeky grin playing about his lips as he faced the press after qualifying second in a tricky, rain-affected qualifying session on Saturday. I felt certain then that he had the better of pole-setter, Mark Webber. Sure enough, once the lights went out for the start of the race, he powered past Webber up the hill to the first corner and, despite rain, collisions and safety car episodes, never once looked in danger of failing to achieve his first ever F1 win at Spa.

The imperious manner in which he conquered Spa made me think back to when Lewis Hamilton entered Formula One. It was as though a whirlwind was blowing through its world of history-drenched circuits and flattening them one by one. In his first year, Hamilton achieved wins in Canada, USA, Hungary and Japan. Like a man going through a list of items of unfinished business, he followed this impressive record in the following year with wins in Australia, Monaco, England and Germany. As he lay himself to sleep on Saturday night, only two items were missing from the list before he could sit back and declare himself a Formula One supremo: Belgium and Italy. Well, after his calm, assured performance at Spa yesterday, who would bet on him not consigning the list to the dustbin at Monza in a fortnight?

None of this is pleasing to the highest paid driver in Formula One. For if there is one person who does not like Lewis Hamilton it is Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard's record is at least as impressive as Hamilton's save for one respect: he has not got a winner's trophy from Spa in his cabinet in Switzerland, where both he and Hamilton reside as tax exiles. The fact that he retired from the Grand Prix yesterday after spinning out and damaging his car's chassis and then had to stew in his motor home as God Save the Queen rang out for Hamilton across the Belgian mountains must rankle. If Hamilton wins the world championship - which, with three points ahead of anyone else, he might just - Alonso will be an unsettled man for some time to come.

With six races to go it is beginning to look like it is going to be a straight race between Hamilton and Webber. This is by no means certain, though. Stranger things have happened in Formula One.

Gitau
30 August 2010

Baffling Belgium

Since its creation in the nineteenth century, Belgium has sought to distinguish itself in curious ways from its grander European neighbours with footprints stretching across the world. It all began with King Leopold II. Uncomfortable about his standing among the ranks of imperial European rulers, Belgium's second monarch, a greedy, scheming man, found a very handy outlet for his ambitions in the vast area of central Africa that is the Congo. Through guile and chicanery, King Leopold II succeeded in having the Congo declared as his personal possession and he used his status as its owner and ruler to maximum effect. The many headed monster that Leopold conceived in the process continues to ravage the Congo to this day and ensures that the very name of Leopold's own country sticks in the craw of many an African.

I have often thought that King Leopold's success in sneaking in under the radar of the British, the French and the Germans to steal Africa's biggest prize, is perhaps symptomatic of the manner in which Belgium has succeeded in capturing the hearts of the world's motor racing fans in spite of itself. One does not think "Belgium" when one contemplates the provenance of super cars like Aston Martin, Ferrari or Porsche. Nor does one plan a trip to, say, Liege to visit a museum dedicated to the motor vehicle. The fast motor car has its roots in familiar places like Germany, England, France and Italy, so it is hardly surprising that these are the countries which have historically produced motor racing talent. Just as I do not know of any Belgian motor car, I also have never seen any Belgian driver make a name for himself in Formula One.

And yet Belgium has one of the most impressive, most celebrated and most historic racing circuits in the world: Spa-Francorchamps. It is a remarkable achievement when one thinks about it; and Spa is a pretty remarkable place. High speed corners like the nerve-jangling Eau Rouge and very changeable weather conditions in the Ardenne mountains have always made the Belgian Grand Prix an irresistible draw for drivers and fans alike. I have always loved it.

If you look closely at the list of drivers who have managed to conquer Spa in recent years, you will observe two things, each of which is interesting in its own right. The first is that Spa is loved by the sort of hard-boiled, uncompromising driver who receives no pleasure from life unless he is driving very fast and treating everybody else like they have leprosy. No surprise, then, that the two most successful drivers at Spa have been Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. The second and more surprising thing about the list is the absence from it of any of the current crop of title challengers. I ougt to qualify that last sentence: Lewis Hamilton won at Spa in 2008 but the FIA (Ferrari International Assistance) took his win away from him and gifted it to Ferrari's Felipe Massa. But the name that stands out in Spa's recent history is that of the Finnish rake, Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen managed to win every single Belgian Grand Prix from 2004 to 2009, his last year in Formula One. This, for me, is all the evidence I need to confirm my view that Hamilton and Raikkonen are the most complete F1 drivers of the 21st century.

But, excepting his love of Spa, Raikkonen was never about doing more than just enough to get by. Once he had attained all of F1's big prizes - a Monaco win, a World Championship and a Ferrari drive - he did not feel motivated to do much else than enjoy himself. Nevertheless, in his inimitable laconic way, Raikkonen secured his place in the memory of F1 addicts like myself forever and a day and is sorely missed. This is not a universally shared sentiment. The mood in Maranello is definitely not pro-Raikkonen. Ferrari cut a bad deal with him when they signed him up and are still paying Raikkonen a great deal of money even though he doesn't drive for them. He was contracted to drive for Ferrari until the end of 2010 and is therefore still entitled to draw a salary of €16 million this year. This puts him at joint second place - with Hamilton - in the F1 drivers' pay league after Fernando Alonso at €30 million. Not bad for a chap who spends his days mooching about Helsinki chasing skirts and getting pissed, is it?

Spa's fearsome reputation raises obvious questions about all of F1's glitterati but mostly about double world champion and major league arsehole, Fernando Alonso. When accused of having a contemptuous attitude towards people, all Alonso has to do is point to his meritorious achievements since joining Formula One, not least winning back-to-back world championships. But the Belgian Grand Prix is the chink in his armour of arrogance. When I think about Alonso and Spa, I am reminded of a lecture I attended a little while ago by an arrogant American who ran a Hedge Fund in London. When I asked him a searching question about his business, he took umbrage and angrily said "If you think you're so damned smart, why aren't you rich yourself?" Well, the question for Mr Alonso is this: "If you are as good as you say you are, why haven't you won at Spa?"

I have no doubt that this is something that niggles the prickly Spaniard and, doubtless, he will be looking to change the position this weekend. A win will be useful for him if he is to arrest the momentum of the Red Bull cars but I think it may be a tall order if the weather stays dry.

Did I say dry? There is the rub. It will not be.

Put a few bob on Lewis Hamilton for the win and do,

Enjoy Spa!

Gitau
27 August 2010

A spent force

Michael Schumacher cantered along the beach of Lake Geneva on his horse as he allowed his mind to wander. Above him were the peaks of the Swiss Alps reflected in the azure waters of Lake Geneva. To his right was his sprawling estate with a mansion so large that a walk from one end to the other was a work-out in itself. An adjoining set of rooms had been converted into a vast gallery in which were housed all the trophies he earned during his years as a racing driver as well as a replica of each one of his Formula One world championship winning cars. But Schumacher was not happy. He had it all but gained no satisfaction from any of it. He felt as burdened as if he and the horse had swapped roles and he, rather than the animal, was doing the carrying.

He stopped for a moment and fished out his telephone. He needed to speak to somebody who would understand exactly what he felt like. He had tried unburdening himself to Corinna but had been stung by her dismissal of his concerns as nothing more than megalomania. “I feel emasculated, Corinna,” he had said, “it’s almost as though someone’s snipped my bollocks off with a pair of scissors!” “You need to get over yourself, Michael,” his wife had remarked, “it’s not as though you are Alexander the Great weeping because you have no more worlds left to conquer.” He dialled a number in Helsinki. “Haloo,” came the voice of his old rival, Mika Hakkinen.

Schumacher: “Mika, I am bored out of my skull, old man. This retirement lark at 40 is driving me round the twist. How are you finding it?”
Hakkinen: “Life couldn’t be better. I just wish there were more hours in the day for me to enjoy it. I am eating what I like, drinking what I like and spending my nights with whomever I like, wherever I like. What’s not to like?”
Schumacher: “You Finns know a bit about partying that’s for sure, but that was never my scene, Mika. I need a new challenge.”
Hakkinen: “I see. You’ve come to the right guy, my old friend. Here’s what I’ll do for you. I’ll put a few well trained birds in my Gulf Stream and fly them down to you with detailed instructions. Trust me, man, once you’ve got through the blonde, the brunette, the Turk and the Eurasian, it’ll be a challenge to haul yourself out of bed!”

Schumacher sighed and ended the call. It was hopeless. Nobody understood that the only way he could feel alive was when roaring up to lesser men in a super F1 car and scaring the wits out of them. He was Schumacher the great. The man nobody messed with. The man they all feared. There was nothing else for it, he would have to arrange a trip to London to meet Ross Brawn. If there was a man who could make things happen for him, that man was Brawn.

All the events described above took place during the course of the autumn of 2009. They must seem like a bad dream to Michael Schumacher in mid-summer 2010 because his comeback has been nothing short of a disaster. Not only is he nowhere near as fast the young whippersnappers he derided in earlier conversations, he is treated with nothing like the deference on the circuit that he had grown to expect as his right. After the events of the Hungarian Grand Prix, it is clear that the myth of a super-skilled fearless racing animal has been shown to have been just that: a myth. Schumacher was very fast and very skilled in his heyday but he was also a bully. Yesterday, his crass attempt at proving his superiority over his former team-mate, Rubens Barrichello nearly resulted in Barrichello losing his life. A clearly faster Barrichello attempted an overtaking manoeuvre on Schumacher’s Mercedes and Schumacher felt slighted. To show who was boss, he came close to squeezing Barrichello into a brick wall. For this he earned a ten place grid penalty at the next Grand Prix but I think it is the clearest sign yet that Schumacher is a spent force rapidly in danger of becoming a laughing stock.

To see how potentially ghastly such a move can be take a look at this link to a Superleague Formula 2010 race yesterday at Brands Hatch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je71qzTdzx0&feature=related

Other than the Barrichello incident, it was an eventful race which demonstrated to the watching world that Red Bull is the team to beat this season. For the sixth time, Sebastian Vettel failed to convert a brilliant pole position into a win and was furious with everyone, himself included. Canny race strategy and masterful race control gave Mark Webber his fourth win of the season. The fact that he now leads the championship table could explain why he looked like a cat that has got away with the cream in the drivers’ post-race press conference. A few more races like this and he could be the first Australian world champion since Alan Jones in 1980.

McLaren, meanwhile, had a dismal day. Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox gave up the ghost and he was forced to retire quarter of the way into the race. Jenson Button could do no better than eighth place. Their team boss was heard muttering darkly about the possibility that Red Bull are using an illegal front wing but this could be no more than sour grapes that a team with as much experience as McLaren is being outperformed by a relative newcomer.

Fernando Alonso did a lot better for Ferrari by coming second but we have to wait until the decision of the World Motor Sports Council in the team-orders fiasco before we can tell how things will eventually pan out.

What is still fascinating this late into the season is that the championship could still go any one of five ways. The table is as follows:

Mark Webber 161 points
Lewis Hamilton 157
Sebastian Vettel 151
Jenson Button 147
Fernando Alonso 141
Felipe Massa 97
Nico Rosberg 94
Robert Kubica 89
Michael Schumacher 38
Adrian Sutil 35

The teams will now have their three week summer break to think what to do about the phenomenal pace of the Red Bull cars.

Gitau
2 August 2010