Formula 1 - Round 12: Italy

The dictionary definition of Passion is “A state or outburst of strong emotion” or “An intense enthusiasm for something”. If you’re still not 100% sure of the world, then the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on a grand prix weekend will make you fully understand the word.

In the almost holy trinity of Formula 1 circuits, Monza stands apart from Monaco and Silverstone as not only is it a high-speed wonder, it’s also home of the sport’s longest running, ever present team: Scuderia Ferrari. Long running legends of racing at one of the greatest circuits in the world. Sadly, in this era of Red Bull and Vettel dominated ‘racing’, even the Cathedral of Speed itself can’t provide.

Circuit: Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
2012 Winner: Lewis Hamilton

2012 Pole: Lewis Hamilton

2013 Tyre Compounds: Medium and Hard

I might just cut this thing short, you’ve already guessed/know who won and that the race wasn’t particually entertaining to watch. Thankfully, Vettel isn’t the only thing in F1 and watching everyone else tends to be considerably more interesting.

Speaking of Vettel, I wouldn’t be surprised if he got another one of his wishes with Riccardo being confirmed as the second driver for Red Bull in 2014. Red Bull’s had their rookie squad and Toro Rosso for the express purpose of developing young drivers and they’ve finally made use of it a second time. Riccardo’s certainly a good choice, even in the face of drivers like Raikkonen and Hulkenburg, but I can’t help but feel half the reason he has the seat is because they can constantly remind him how lucky he is and how many bright eyed youngsters are waiting in the wings to keep him in line.

Ferrari remains coy on their driver line up for 2014, though Luca Demontazemalo did mention in an interview with the BBC Raikkonen, Hulkenburg and Di Resta by name. Massa’s bound to be in consideration, but I think his time as a Ferrari race driver may have come to a sad end. I still maintain Germany 2010 did far more damage to him then a spring to the head ever could.

Moving back to the race weekend itself, which also marks the 50^th anniversary of McLaren, their former wiz Hamilton was fastest in first practice. The Ferraris, like the previous years, were practicing slip streaming ahead of qualifying. As soon as things moved into practice 2, Vettel came out and started putting in ominous times, setting fast and race laps far faster than anyone else. There’s always been talk of Red Bull being weak on ‘power circuits’ like Monza, but the top speed difference is so small it’s not really worth bringing up as often as it is. The Red Bull’s key advantage has always been traction anyway, seemingly able to get drive faster without damaging it’s tyres unlike everyone else.

During practice three, there was plenty of talk of rain during the race while Vettel went about depressing everyone again. By the end of the session, the top thirteen are all within a second of each other, but Vettel has nearly a quarter of a second advantage on everyone else, which is pretty big on this track. The Force Indias had a tricky session with Di Resta suffering a brake failure that caused him to crash at the parabolica while Sutil spun over the ascari corners. Mercedes too had issues with Rosberg out for most of the session with overheating issues while Hamilton kept overshooting the chicanes while he was pushing. Ferrari continued practicing their slip streaming while Red Bull just went about their own thing as usual.

While talk of rain for race day persisted, qualifying itself took place in relatively good weather. After missing much of practice, Rosberg was out early along with the usual suspects while the other big names waited in the pits. Due to Monza’s nature, the second or third flying laps tend to be quickest so Rosberg pumped in the laps for a while. The Ferraris continued to slip stream while Toro Rosso continued to impress. Vettel finally reared his head half way through the session and put himself on top, but Raikkonen and Hamilton showed they had been holding back slightly and were right on the pace with the top 18 all covered by a single seconds.

Force India weren’t looking that strong, but they avoided being eliminated as Gutierrez, Bottas and the ususal suspects the Caterhams and the Marussias were.

In second qualifying, many of the cars were out on the medium tyres, but oddly not going any quicker. While that was a surprise, what turned out to be a bigger surprise was Hamilton making a foolish mistake coming out of the Parabolica, catching the gravel and getting pulled across it. While he returned to the pits to check for damage, the Red Bulls came out with 6 minutes to go, as they confidently could, and creamed the field again. What actually turned out to be a shock though was that Hamilton didn’t get a clear final run, getting impeded by Sutil twice before giving up. Raikkonen too didn’t make qualifying three and they went out with Grosjean, Sutil, Maldonado and Di Resta.

This wasn’t the first time Hulkenburg had gotten into third qualifying, but he certainly sneaked in without getting any notice at all. Meanwhile, Hamilton found his long run of third qualifying appearances end, which had run since Malaysia 2010 if you exclude any penalties.

While Hamilton blamed himself while interviewed, Rosberg and Webber went out immediately in third qualifying with the Ferraris again line a stern. Alonso seemed unhappy with whatever their plan was as they spoke in Italian while the Red Bulls again creamed the field, obliterating all comers. As the session ended, Vergne ran through the gravel at the parabolica much the same way Hamilton did, putting off a few fast laps but not really changing the picture as Vettel claimed his first pole in what is actually quite a while. Webber made it a Red Bull lock out while third, outqualifying both Ferraris, was none other than Hulkenburg out of absolutely nowhere. Rosberg was next while the Toro Rossos sandwiched the McLarens.

Talk of rain persisted, even striking during the GP2 race and BBC build up for a moment and frightening everyone to do reconnaissance laps on both wet and dry tyres to see how bad it was. It seemed the sprinkling caused no issues as the field lined up on dry tyres, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Gutierrez having a punt on the hard tyres while everyone else started on mediums.

Off the grid, Webber made his usual slow start while Massa and Alonso shot forwards. Vettel didn’t make a rocket start and going into the first chicane, locked his front wheel. Still made the corner, while Raikkonen was less lucky as he locked up and ran into the back of Perez, damaging his front wing forcing the Mexican to cut the chicane.

The next lock up, almost as if there was a build-up, came from Di Resta as he missed his braking point into the second chicane and hit Grosjean’s rear right wheel, causing the Scot’s suspension to brake and putting him out of the race at only the fourth corner. Raikkonen was forced to pit at the end of the first lap, ruining his strategy of running long in the first stint.

Vettel started to slowly pull away from Massa in second as Alonso hounded Webber, managing to make his way past the Australian but accidently clipped the Red Bull’s front wing, knocking the end plate off but getting away without tyre damage.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was sat behind Vergne, his hard tyres not really allowing him to attack while his radio also seemed to fail. Just to compound the usual luck that seems to strike anyone but Vettel, it soon became apparently Hamilton had a slow puncture and he was forced to pit, ruining his long strategy as well.

Vergne retired soon after, his engine failing as the race seemed to neutralize itself. In a desperate hope to catch Vettel, Ferrari had Massa allow Alonso through as Raikkonen and Hamilton, now a long way behind, started pushing hard to catch back up, the latter pumping in fastest lap after fastest lap.

During all this madness, Hulkenburg continued to circulate well, staying away from Rosberg but not quite bothering Webber ahead as he went about attacking Massa. Further up front, Red Bull brought Vettel in to pit, followed immediately by Webber only seconds later in an impressive display of choreographed pitting. Massa pitted soon after along with Hulkenburg but was passed by Webber as he exited the pits, while Alonso stayed out for several laps long.

After they pitted, Raikkonen and Hamilton had caught them and they managed to mix it with them, pointless as it was. Mercedes attempted to use Hamilton to draw Rosberg closer to Hulkenburg, but the German wasn’t able to keep up.

When Alonso eventually pitted, he was a full 10 seconds down on Vettel in another example of handing the advantage to him. Webber at this point was right behind Alonso, but unable to press an attack as he was starting to suffer a gearbox glitch.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen pitted and after Hamilton did so as well, they were back in the same positions just outside the points. Not much was happening ahead, so all eyes were on the pair as they started pushing again, catching up with Perez, Button, Grosjean and Riccardo. Raikkonen, however, was suffering a KERS and wasn’t able to make up much ground, while Hamilton was able to cut past the McLarens and Lotus but didn’t have time to get by Grosjean and Riccardo.

So, Vettel won, again. There was some worry about a possible gearbox glitch but nothing came of it. Unsurprisingly, the Tifosi (Italian Ferrari fans) booed Vettel and he actually looked surprised. Even the presence of previous Ferrari drivers Jean Alesi and John Surtees on the podium didn’t help, though the crowd naturally cheered Alonso and, surprisingly, Webber.

As you’ve probably guessed from my rants, Vettel’s not popular. He’s become somewhat of a villain with plenty of his better character traits starting to come off as arrogant more than anything else. When you step back a bit, he has a bit of a Rossi quality to him in that he likes to joke around, but he also comes off as a spoilt brat who cries when he doesn’t get exactly his way and his team mollycoddles him at all costs should anything happen (Webber wasn’t to blame for the Turkey 2010 incident for one and lets not even start on Multi 21).

At the end of it though, Vettel is merely a very good driver in the best team and car, their focus fully behind him. He’s not done anything the other top drivers hasn’t, he puts in every bit as much effort as them and pushes just as hard, it just so happens luck falls against his opponents and in his favour (they say you make your own luck, but you’d be hard pressed to make a situation like Brazil last year). The prolonged, almost easy success has made him unpopular, just as it made Schumacher unpopular before him. Hopefully, in 2014 with the new car rules, things will even out and he’ll have to fight properly for his championships, but for now it seems we’re in for a dull last few races, especially with the likes of Korea and India in the near future.

Race Results:

	Driver	Constructor	Race Time	Grid
1st	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:18:33.352	1
2nd	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+5.467	5
3rd	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+6.350	2
4th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+9.361	4
5th	Nico Hulkenburg	Sauber	+10.355	3
6th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+10.999	6
7th	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	+32.329	7
8th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+33.130	13
9th	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+33.527	12
10th	Jenson Button	McLaren	+38.327	9
11th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	+38.695	11
12th	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+39.765	8
13th	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	+40.880	16
14th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+49.085	14
15th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+56.827	18
16th	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+1 lap	17
17th	Charles Pic	Caterham	+1 lap	20
18th	Giedo Van der Garde	Caterham	+1 lap	19
19th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+1 lap	21
20th	Max Chilton	Marussia	+1 lap	22
21st	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	DNF (Engine)	10
22nd	Paul Di Resta	Force India	DNF (Crash)	15

Driver’s Championship:

	Driver	Score
1st	Sebastian Vettel	222
2nd	Fernando Alonso	169 (-53)
3rd	Lewis Hamilton	141 (-81)
4th	Kimi Raikkonen	134 (-88)
5th	Mark Webber	130 (-92)
6th	Nico Rosberg	104 (-118)
7th	Felipe Massa	79 (-143)
8th	Romain Grosjean	57 (-165)
9th	Jenson Button	48 (-174)
10th	Paul Di Resta	36 (-186)
11th	Adrian Sutil	25 (-197)
12th	Sergio Perez	18 (-204)
13th	Daniel Riccardo	18 (-204)
14th	Nico Hulkenburg	17 (-205)
15th	Jean-Eric Vergne	13 (-209)
16th	Pastor Maldonado	1 (-221)

Constructor’s Championship:

	Constructor	Score
1st	Red Bull	352
2nd	Ferrari	248 (-104)
3rd	Mercedes	245 (-107)
4th	Lotus	191 (-161)
5th	McLaren	66 (-286)
6th	Force India	61 (-291)
7th	Toro Rosso	31 (-321)
8th	Sauber	17 (-335)
9th	Williams	1 (-351)