F1 – Turkey : The Road from Turkey to Canada
In the past, histories have shown that most battle of teammates will never end with a smile and harmony. Prost and Senna, Hamilton and Alonso, Schumacher and Barichello, Juan Pablo and Ralf and the list goes on. These are among the famous examples proving that two competitive drivers in one team are not necessarily the best of formulas.
Vettel and Webber until Turkey are at peace with each other. Despite that harmony in the team, the competition grows even stronger as the season unfolds. Webber’s form in Spain, Monaco and Turkey put Vettel under enormous pressure. For a moment, I would thought this run of form from Webber contributed to Vettel’s unsuccessful overtaking maneuver in Turkey. The pressure is a slow process. The perfect analogy would be the accumulation of water behind a dam. The water rises quietly and calmly, and hardly the change is noticeable. However upon reaching a critical level, the dam will burst and disaster is imminent.
The Vettel and Webber incident will go down in the history as one of the great moments in F1 without a doubt.
There are rumors that Mark was called into fuel saving mode while Vettel was instructed on full power. But Mark wouldn’t respond to that when asked, he asked the media to dig even deeper. Without doubt that comment has spiced up even more controversies into the inner politicking inside the Red Bull Formula One Team.
Now some members of the media even suggested a rift between the English speaking section and German speaking section. Red Bull, being a relatively new team on the grid in addition failed to respond to many questions fired in a convincing manner with regards to these allegations. It took them until few days ago to announce that Mark and Vettel are equal in the team and Red Bull have never involved in any favoritism of some sorts.
His looks on the podium says it all.
Now looking at the different perspective particularly on the character of Webber, he is straightforward and direct. Keeping such situation silent is contrary to what he is. But you can’t totally discount the fact that he is out of contract this season. And having the championship potentially at his door this season amounts to so many things in the end and probably this will keep his mouth shut. He can’t afford to have his team against him when he is the leading contender for the title.
Whatever it is, the rumours had been squashed by Red Bull following the decision of extending Webber’s contract next season. It’s a good move by Red Bull, now most of the media are getting cornered into believing that all is well inside the team.
My opinion into the matter is simple. These are racing drivers, they will fight and will crash into each other. In doing so, it’s normal one or the other will be upset and be open about his anger. But the circumstances of this will result in the drivers not sharing information with each other anymore, the team will split and rather than doing what is necessary for the team, the drivers will only have one objective, to decrease the chances of his teammate’s success in many of ways.
McLaren have demonstrated just that in Hungary in year 2007. Hamilton was denied his pit-box by Alonso in Qualifying, and to be fair to Alonso, it was Lewis first who had decided against the team’s instruction. Red Bull must learn from this, and we will see what unfolds as the season progresses. Two competitive title contenders in one team is a nightmare to manage. It’s not easy and experienced team have been proven to crumble because of this.
McLaren were saved from the same fate in Turkey. Hamilton was told Button was not going to pass him. Few corners after that, the opposite happen. There are not many insights about that incident, thanks to Red Bull. Anyway, this suggest few things, number one, Button ignored the team’s order to save fuel. Number two, team order was at play and Button feel vindicated. Number three, Hamilton will definitely not content with Button and next time will he try the same move on Button if the situation is reversed?
The other big news is Force India’s rumoured exit next season. Having been reported in dire financial situation and rift inside the top management it decided to take Lotus to the court for allegedly stealing their intellectual property. Aerolab and Lotus had worked together producing the T127 Lotus F1 challenger this season. Previously Aerolab was a client of Force India. If Force India wins the case, the balance amount due to Aerolab will be forfeited and they might win some money too. On why the sudden legal proceedings, Force India stated that it has found evidence that Lotus via Aerolab benefited from the use of their intellectual property.
F-Ducts on the Mercedes was not working as expected, Michael was overtaken by Button with ease after only few attempts. With Canada pretty low on downforce, Mercedes might suffer in terms of top speed in comparison to McLaren. The only hope is to sacrifice cornering speed in the race. But these would make the car very tricky to drive. Michael and Nico need to step up another level to counter the deficiencies.
Editorial : Mu’az Zakaria
Image Source : Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, Lotus, Force India
