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After 6 rounds out of 16, the first Formula 2 season in 25 years has become as tight as championship co-ordinator Jonathan Palmer hoped it would be, but if this weekend was anything to go by, you'd have thought it was a precession as the young German starlet Tobias Hegewald scored the perfect weekend by taking pole position for both races, winning both races, leading every single lap in both races and taking fastest lap in both races, he was even quickest in both practice sessions, it was a massacre.
Which was bad news for the incoming championship leader, Italy's Mirko Bortolotti who endured a torrid weekend despite qualifying well for race 2, a pair of 9th places equalling no points, a bad weekend enough for his championship lead to be wiped out. It would be an even worse weekend though for the Indian driver Armann Ebrahim after a nasty qualifying crash with Henry Surtees knocked him out for the entire weekend meaning only 24 of the 25 cars would take the start of both races
RACE 1
STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Tobias Hegewald (Germany), 2. Andy Souchek (Spain)
ROW 2: 3. Robert Wickens (Canada), 4. Julien Jousse (France)
ROW 3: 5. Kazim Vasiliauskas (Lithuania), 6. Henry Surtees (Great Britain)
ROW 4: 7. Milos Pavlovic (Serbia), 8. Alex Brundle (Great Britain)
ROW 5: 9. Jolyon Palmer (Great Britain), 10. Philipp Eng (Austria)
ROW 6: 11. Carlos Iaconelli (Brazil), 12. Jack Clarke (Great Britain)
ROW 7: 13. Henri Karjalainen (Finland), 14. German Sanchez (Spain)
ROW 8: 15. Tom Gladdis (Great Britain), 16. Jason Moore (Great Britain)
ROW 9: 17. Jens Hoing (Germany), 18. Edoardo Piscopo (Italy)
ROW 10: 19. Natacha Gachnang (Switzerland), 20. Sebastian Hohenthal (Sweden)
ROW 11: 21. Mirko Bortolotti (Italy), 22. Pietro Gandolfi (Italy)
ROW 12: 23. Nicola Di Marco (Italy), 24. Mikhail Aleshin (Russia)
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DID NOT START: Armann Ebrahim (India)
There was action right off the line as the 11 lap race began, Robert Wickens got a poor start from 3rd spot and was then rammed in the back by the unsighted Jason Moore, eliminating both cars, as the cars littered the start line, the safety car was called for which only lasted 1 lap thanks to the length of the Spa course.
As the race restarted, there was another clash behind the runaway leader Hegewald. Souchek failed in his challenge to take Hegewald into the les combes corner, he ran across the grass causing madness behind as he retook to the track, the unfortunate man in all of this was Alex Brundle who in the confusion was clattered into by Phillip Eng eliminating both drivers, a shame for both as they had made the best starts from 8th and 10th respectively to be running 5th and 6th at the time, Jolyon Palmer was also involved but he was able to continue albeit way down the field eventually coming through to finish in 16th
From then on Souchek recovered well to pass both Jousse and Pavlovic into 2nd place where he would remain until the end, but nobody could touch Hegewald who drove out of his skin, no-body was lapping within 3 tenths of a second of the German whose win leapfrogged him up from 15th to a share of 6th in the championship with Pavlovic and Eng. Souchek however would be disappointed later on as his misdemeanours in elimiating Eng and Brundle earned him a 10 second time penalty dropping him from 2nd to 4th, this promoted Pavlovic to 2nd and Jousse to 3rd, giving the latter the championship lead by 1 point ahead of Bortolotti ahead with Souchek and Wickens a further point behind
ROUND 6
STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Tobias Hegewald (Germany), 2. Robert Wickens (Canada)
ROW 2: 3. Andy Souchek (Spain), 4. Alex Brundle (Great Britain)
ROW 3: 5. Julien Jousse (France), 6. Milos Pavlovic (Serbia)
ROW 4: 7. Mikhail Aleshin (Russia), 8. Mirko Bortolotti (Italy)
ROW 5: 9. Kazim Vasiliauskas (Lithuania), 10. Philipp Eng (Austria)
ROW 6: 11. Carlos Iaconelli (Brazil), 12. Jolyon Palmer (Great Britain)
ROW 7: 13. Jack Clarke (Great Britain), 14. Henri Karjalainen (Finland)
ROW 8: 15. Tom Gladdis (Great Britain), 16. Jens Hoing (Germany)
ROW 9: 17. German Sanchez (Spain), 18. Sebastian Hohenthal (Sweden)
ROW 10: 19. Jason Moore (Great Britain), 20. Natacha Gachnang (Switzerland)
ROW 11: 21. Nicola Di Marco (Italy), 22. Pietro Gandolfi (Italy)
ROW 12: 23. Henry Surtees (Great Britain), 24. Edoardo Piscopo (Italy)
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DID NOT START: Armann Ebrahim (India)
The start was much cleaner but produced the same outcome with Hegewald leading away, if anything this one was even more dominant than the first race, Hegewald would go on to win by a massive 7 seconds with a fastest lap nearly a full second quicker than anybody else, this completed the perfect weekend for him.
There was plenty of action behind him though, Palmer and Clarke clashed in the midfield eliminating both drivers, Wickens had started poorly being passed off the line by both Souchek and Brundle, although he recovered well to pass the latter at Eau Rouge. From then on the top 3 raced away while Brundle held up the chasing pack with some good defensive driving, a tactic that failed to pay off in some part as Pavlovic finally found a way past on lap 11 of the 15 lap race. Brundle did manage to hold them off long enough to earn his best finish of the season.
Souchek and Wickens though had no answer to the ever dominant Hegewald who sormed to an easy win, Souchek's 2nd place allowed the spaniard to snatch the championship lead from Jousse going into the next round at Brands Hatch, behind the top 3, Pavlovic held off Brundle to take 4th while behind them, Jousse, Vasiliauskas and Aleshin completed the point scorers. Hegewald's 2nd win of the weekend pushed him up to 4th place, just 6 points behind Souchek and 1 point ahead of the former leader Bortolotti
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6
DRIVERS TOP 12
1st Andy Souchek 28pts, 2nd Robert Wickens 26pts, 3rd Julien Jousse 25pts, 4th Tobias Hegewald 22pts, 5th Mirko Bortolotti 21pts, =6th Mikhail Aleshin 17pts, =6th Milos Pavlovic 17pts, 8th Phillip Eng 12pts, =9th Edoardo Piscopo 10pts, =9th Nicola Di Marco 10pts, =11th Carlos Iaconelli 9pts, =11th Kazim Vasiliauskas 9pts
NATIONS TOP 12
1st Italy 41pts, 2nd Spain 28pts, 3rd Canada 26pts, 4th France 25pts, 5th Germany 22pts, =6th Russia 17pts, =6th Serbia 17pts, 8th Great Britain 15pts, 9th Austria 12pts, =10th Brazil 9pts, =10th Lithuania 9pts, 12th Finland 7pts
How in the name of all that is sacred could it come to this, what was a row about the budget cap for the 2010 season has now escalated into all out war between the governing body (the FIA) and the Teams (FOTA) with no less than EIGHT teams threatening a boycott to form their own championship. I am simply pulling my hair out at the thought of Formula 1 descending into something resembling the great IndyCar split of the mid 1990's, the sport splitting itself into two is simply unhealthy and it never works (at least in my view.)
Heres how this dogs**t mess unfolded in the first place, just before the start of the european season of races, the FIA and Max Mosley in particular were becoming fed up with FOTA's speed when it was coming to a viable solution regarding cost cutting, it sounded like FOTA and in particular the big manufacturer teams were very reluctant to join in the cost cutting program, and with good reason when you look at their seasonal budgets, for example Ferrari are rumoured to be spending £300million a season while Toyota dwarf everybody with their half a billion pound annual budget.
It was at this point when Max Mosley, the FIA President of the last 18 years stepped in and decided to come in with a "if you wont sort it, i will" attitude and came in with the FIA's idea of a cost cutting measure, by slapping a budget cap of £40million (a similar budget it would have been to run the little Minardi team in their final days) but with incentives for adhering to the cap, for example, higher engine rev limits, four wheel drive systems, ABS etc, also the FIA used this as an opportunity to open up new entries to bring the grid back up to its more traditionsl 26 cars of which 3 new teams were picked last week (Campos, USF1 and Manor). Now this was an initial proposal and FOTA rightly challenged Mosley's proposals which eventually he came out weeks later and said that the 2 tier championship idea was a bit over optimistic. But if we thought the row would halt after that, we would be so so so wrong.
The disagreements then escalated as it moved onto the budget cap limit, and this is where I am in total disagreement with some of the manufacturers teams beliefs on this (never fear, there are some points Mosley has put across i dont agree with either, both sides of the story have their flaws). FOTA said that the budget cap is a "compromise on the fundameltal values of the sport." So spending hundreds of millions of pounds a season jsut to find the slightest advantage on the track is what F1 is all about is it? If it is, why is it that the most prestigious part of Formula 1 has always been the world DRIVERS championship, it is a championship to find out the best combination between MAN and MACHINE, not an arms race to see who can spend the most just so they can push through a few extra sales of their in the showrooms.
There is one part of FOTA's argument i am in agreement with though, and that is the gradual climbdown of the costs, not as quickly as i would like to see it happen yes and not to the level i think is sensible, but certainly not all in one go like Mosley is seeming to stick by, what Mosley is proposing in one fell swoop is totally unworkable, there have been suggestions that the FIA could put in a system that the budget cap could be reached over a 2 year period with a higher budget cap for 2010 (around the £90million mark) being lowered to a figure nearer to what Mosley wanted for 2011. Plenty of room for compromise there. But that is where the 2 sides have argued on, both are refusing to accept any sort of compromise.
It looks like the only way this situation will ever come to a conclusion from FOTA's point of view is to see Mosley ousted from his position as FIA president, but we will wait and see.
Well who are they? well they are one of the 3 new teams allowed into the F1 world championship by the FIA for 2010. The other 2 are already well known, Campos Meta and USF1 (The latter being in the works for quite some time.) Also Manor's entry answers the riddle of a well known race car design company that announced they had alligned themselves to an unknown team. Here i'll be looking at who's who, where they are based and what their current activities are which may give out a clue as to who they may hire to drive their cars. Lets look at all 3 of the new entrants starting with the big suprise of the bunch.
MANOR MOTORSPORT - MANOR COSWORTH
TEAM OWNER: John Booth
HEADQUARTERS: Bicester, Oxfordshire, Great Britain
CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND DRIVERS:
Formula Renault UK: Thomas Hylkema (NED), Dean Smith (GBR), David McDonald (GBR), Alice Powell (GBR)
F3 Euroseries: Cesar Ramos (BRA), Pedro Nunes (BRA), Roberto Merhi (SPA)
This really was the suprise on the entry list, when many expected the British spot on the grid would go to either Aston Martin, Lola or the Litespeed/Lotus concerns, instead a little known junior formulae squad from Oxfordshire won one of the coveted 13 pit garage spaces available.
Little known that is if you live outside the British Isles because on these shores, Manor are one of the most successful and prolific junior squads out there with a long list of success in one championship in particular, Formula Renault, one of a number of championships on the 4th rung of the motorsport ladder. FRenault is where they gave a first opportunity in single seaters to a certain Lewis Hamilton who won them the championship in 2003, and it was then that they decided to make the big gamble to expand into the F3 Euroseries bringing Hamilton along with them. They have been well established in that ever since.
But back to their bid to be in Formula 1, their bid basically centered around the efforts of one company, Wirth Research (that explains the little mystery about who they would be backing). In the tie-up, company boss and technical guru Nick Wirth in effect becomes the team's technical director for the first time since his efforts with the Benetton team in 1999, Wirth also has had a dabble at team management too after presiding over the ill-fated Simtek team in the mid 1990's, his design experience will be vital to Manor's potential competitiveness.
And as where to find them this season, well they are very prominent in the F3 Euroseries still with a couple of Brazilian young guns and a potential new Fernando Alonso in the shape of Roberto Merhi. Also they are still a force in Formula Renault UK with championship contender Dean Smith, the experienced Dutchman Thomas Hylkema, young gun David McDonald and interestingly 16 year old Alice Powell, potentially Britain's answer to Danica Patrick (only without the ego.)
CAMPOS META GRAND PRIX - CAMPOS COSWORTH
TEAM OWNER: Adrian Campos
HEADQUARTERS: Valencia, Spain
CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND DRIVERS:
GP2 Series (under the Barwa Addax banner): Romain Grosjean (FRA), Vitaly Petrov (RUS)
Spanish Formula 3: Bruno Mendez (SPA), Adrian Campos Jr (SPA), Bruno Palli (VEN)
In conjunction with the Meta Image sports agency coupling that with his own considerable wealth, various contacts throughout spain and a crucial technical partnership with Dallara, Campos becomes the first ex-driver team to enter the sport from scratch since the Merzario team tried their luck in the late 1970's.
Adrian Campos himself was not that distinguished as a Grand Prix driver, he only took part in 21 races, all of them with Minardi, scored a best qualifying of 16th, a best finish of only 14th in his home race in 1987 and suffered 3 DNQ's, he has though had huge success in team management with huge success in Spanish F3 and more recently in GP2 when in 2008, his squad won the teams championship after years spent as the perennial backmarkers.
Key to their bid was their technical partnership with race car manufacturing giants Dallara, who supply cars for a multitude of lower formulae championships, but they have not built an F1 chassis since supplying Scuderia Italia with cars in 1992, whether this may hinder Dallara's ability to produce a competitive car though is unlikely as their experience in producing near F1 like machinery in GP2 should stand them in good stead.
With where to find them in the meantime before 2010, they are prominent in Spanish F3 (known as the European F3 Open) with a trio of young hard chargers (including his son Adrian jr), and also in GP2 where his old team now owned by the spanish businessman Alejandro Agag are still frontrunners.
US GRAND PRIX ENGINEERING - USF1 COSWORTH
TEAM OWNERS: Ken Anderson & Peter Windsor
HEADQUARTERS: Charlotte, North Carolina
CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND DRIVERS: none
You wont find this lot anywhere on the motorsport scene at the moment, thats because the men behind the USF1 project have been working hard over the last 4 years with the sole aim of producing an American Grand Prix entry, the first such attempt since Shadow came to a close in 1980. Infact only 2 American cars have ever won Grands Prix, these being the Eagle Weslake driven by Dan Gurney in Belgium in 1967 and British driver John Watson drove to victory in Austria 1976 in a Cosworth engined Penske.
Its a very ambitious project taken on by Peter Windsor who has experience in F1 as a PR manager at Williams and is also a TV commentator for American F1 coverage while Ken Anderson has got team boss credentials in NASCAR with the Stewart-Haas team which scored their first win in Pocono last week. Ambitious because they have built this team from the ground up and have had to find the money to finance it themselves, which they have done.
Most of all, they want to promote Grand Prix racing in the USA through their team, difficult considering the huge fanbases they already have for their home championships NASCAR and IndyCar and to help, they ave said they would like to employ 2 American drivers with good circuit/road course records, names which could pop up are American drivers that have featured in the A1GP series like Jonathan Summerton, Charlie Kimball and Marco Andretti.
What a difference a year makes, back then Robert Kubica was leading the world championship and Jenson Button was struggling at the back of the field with just 3 points on the board. Now with a new set of regulations, Jenson Button is basking in the glory of yet another win, his 6th win from the opening 7 races while Kubica had something to cheer, his first points of the year for 7th place. Yep its a new order indeed.
Now Button goes into his home race in a run of form mirroring that of Michael Schumacher in his ever dominant 2004 season where he ended up winning a staggering 13 out of 18 races, will Button do a similar feat, maybe so based on this showing in Turkey which was yet another dominant drive while his rivals faultered. Most notably on the first lap when his teammate Rubens Barrichello burned his clutch on the start line and got away poorly, wrecking his afternoon then polesitter and main championship rival Sebastian Vettel made an error coming out of the turn 10 chicane gifting Button a lead he would never relinquish.
Vettel (despite the setback) decided to persist with a 3 stop strategy which would turn out to be a bad move as this would drop him behind his teammate Mark Webber into 3rd ahead of Trulli and Rosberg. They were followed by Felipe Massa (who had won this race 3 years running before today) Robert Kubica and Timo Glock to complete the points scorers, this marked a big improvement for Toyota, Williams and BMW who had shown good pace all weekend.
The driver of the day laurels in my eyes went to Kazuki Nakajima who after a very aggressive fuel strategy was running in a net 4th place, this would have been his best ever finish and would have brought big points to the Williams team, but on his final pitstop, his pitcrew suffered a wheel-hub problem which heartbreakingly pushed him down to 12th, a real shame for the Young Japanese driver who had given his best performance of the season so far.
RACE RATING - 6/10: For once, it was a precession worth watching
RACE RESULTS - TOP 10
1. Jenson Button - Brawn ................ 1h 26m 24.848
2. Mark Webber - Red Bull ................. + 6.714
3. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull ................ + 7.461
4. Jarno Trulli - Toyota ................ + 27.843
5. Nico Rosberg - Williams ................. + 31.539
6. Felipe Massa - Ferrari ............... + 39.996
7. Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber ................ + 46.247
8. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 46.959
9. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari ................ + 50.246
10. Fernando Alonso - Renault ................ + 1m 02.420
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 7
1st Jenson Button 61pts, 2nd Rubens Barrichello 35pts, 3rd Sebastian Vettel 29pts, 4th Mark Webber 27.5pts, 5th Jarno Trulli 19.5pts, 6th Timo Glock 13pts, 7th Nico Rosberg 11.5pts, =8th Felipe Massa 11pts, =8th Fernando Alonso 8pts, =10th Kimi Raikkonen 9pts, =10th Lewis Hamilton 9pts
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st Brawn 96pts, 2nd Red Bull 56.5pts, 3rd Toyota 32.5pts, 4th Ferrari 20pts, 5th McLaren 13pts, 6th Williams 11.5pts, 7th Renault 11pts, 8th BMW Sauber 8pts, 9th Toro Rosso 5pts, 10th Force India 0pts
