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
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
posted by Gitau at 11:34 am
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