European / Belgian
Grand Prix Review

As Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen made it six different victors in the last six races, events in both Grands Prix confirmed the 2009 championship as one which seemingly no-one wants to win, and one where non-contenders may ultimately play a pivotal role in deciding its outcome.

Usually, the modus operandi of these reviews is to run through the teams roughly in order of competitiveness, but it is near-impossible in this instance to derive a pecking order from Valencia and Spa. Indeed, over the past five races, the hierarchy of the gird has been in flux. McLaren's Pat Fry believes the topsy-turviness may extend into 2010, as teams continue to get their heads around the current technical regulations. Not that unpredictability is a bad thing.

Valencia saw what was undoubtedly a very strong and praiseworthy drive by Barrichello. Having been in Jenson Button's shadow during the Englishman's early-season victory streak, apart from Hungary he has been Brawn's lead driver in terms of pace since Silverstone. One queries whether that has been magnified by Button's downturn in performance, but there was no doubting Rubens' on-the-limit, strategically perfect effort in Spain in what was another awfully dull race on the artificial street circuit.

Even without Lewis Hamilton's second stop hiccup, Barrichello was looking a good bet to leapfrog the lead McLaren as he had passed Heikki Kovalainen at the first round of stops. And at Spa, presuming the anti-stall intervention at the start was not his fault, the Brazilian qualified 4th and mounted a strong recovery drive to finish 7th and score two precious points. The point is, the Brawn may not be the dominant car it once was, but it's also far from uncompetitive.

Which makes you wonder where Button's mojo has gone. Two more poor qualifying efforts, a limp 7th at Valencia, and a first lap collision at Spa which is on the cards when you start 14th, and you have to wonder - are those tenths he's lost due to confusion, fear that the car isn't what it once was, loss of confidence, a nagging doubt that he needs to drive more aggressively than his usual ultra-smooth style, and ... laziness because he's getting away with it?

It is mindboggling how none of Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber can launch a consistent challenge. Button is still likely to fall over the line because his rivals have squandered too many opportunities, and repeated too many mistakes. Twice Barrichello has fallen foul of the anti-stall. Vettel blew not one but two engines in Valencia. And repeatedly the Red Bull pit crew have done Webber a disservice. In the space of two races, the Australian's championship chances have all but disappeared.

REJECT OF THE RACE - EUROPE
Luca Badoer
His return was an unmitigated disaster - but we still love him

Red Bull still suffers from the chronic problem that neither driver has been a complete package. Webber is slower but more consistent but the team has let him down. Vettel is more dynamic - even though he has not exactly been inspired in these two races, although his 3rd at Spa was quite good - but his two blown engines in Valencia aside a lot of his misfortune has been self-induced, whether his litany of poor starts, or his incidents in Australia and Monaco.

Red Bull's surge has also come a little too late, as they were only a small step in front of the Ferrari and McLaren resurgence which has them fighting for 3rd in the constructors points. The silver cars were, all in all, the best at Valencia, showing their aerodynamic improvement, but their qualifying disaster at Spa also demonstrated that the package is far from optimal. As McLaren's competitiveness increases, so Hamilton's interest is piqued. His Valencia efforts deserved better than his pit crew's un-McLaren-like mishap.

Kovalainen has been suitably solid in the last four rounds. He has scored points in all of them - something Lewis hasn't done - and his one-stop drive at Spa was excellent. Slightly behind Hamilton may well be his lot in life. But as the driver market hots up, and it is almost a certainty that he won't retain the McLaren drive in 2010, he's not doing quite enough to get himself into the shop window of other teams. He was very good towards the end of 2007, but the last two seasons is showing he's not quite a flying Finn.

Ferrari are now focussing on 2010 but the F60 is no slouch. Raikkonen continues to confuse, however. His long second stint at Valencia to leapfrog Kovalainen was terrific, and of course he won again at Spa, but how great a drive was it in Belgium? He only qualified 6th, after all, and he vaulted to 2nd on lap one thanks to KERS and by using the run-off area at La Source, seemingly deliberately. It is amazing that not more questions are being asked about that tactic.

Sadly for us, for Ferrari, and for the man himself, the Luca Badoer experiment in the second Ferrari proved a miserable mistake. We have post-mortemised this in detail in our latest podcast, but in the end his inability to perform when it mattered told of a man who had hardly raced at all for ten years, and, more to the point, had not driven a racing car of any description for ten months. That still did not explain some of his more bizarre moments from his Valencia comeback, for which we awarded him 'Reject of the Race' for the European GP.

Sometimes Force India, and Spyker before them, have bluffed about the potential of upcoming upgrades, and whilst Valencia was a disappointment, Fisichella's weekend at Spa has to be one of the best qualifying laps and race drives of the year. Yes, he was slightly lighter-fuelled than the rest, but his remarkable race pace told an extraordinary story of its own. Fisi has done great things in less-than-great cars at Spa in the past, like for Jordan in 1997 and for Benetton in 2001, but this was something else altogether.

We have been routinely critical of Fisichella over the last 18 months for not showing Force India sufficient leadership, and while that holds true, his efforts in Belgium were of the highest quality, coming on top of other very fine drives in Britain and Germany. It was enough to secure his transfer to Ferrari as what may be a dream-come-true swansong to his F1 racing career in Badoer's place. Although not universally liked or regarded, no one would begrudge him a victory in a red car.

It was a little bit of a shame for Adrian Sutil though that Fisichella was the man to record Force India's first points and podium, for the German, who has been with the team since its Midland and Spyker days, was of course robbed of his own glory in Monaco last year and Germany this season. Plus he had put in a very strong drive of his own at Valencia, and just missed out on Q3 at Spa. Had he made it, who knows what he could have done? Instead, he got tangled up at the first corner with Fernando Alonso.

REJECT OF THE RACE - BELGIUM
Raikkonen's KERS
Damned device foiled Force India's victory!

BMW want to go out of F1 with a little more of a bang and less of a whimper, and are therefore still throwing upgrades at the F1.09. It worked too, with Robert Kubica getting into the points in Valencia, and both he and Nick Heidfeld qualifying and finishing in the top five at Spa. One wonders if it indicates genuinely improved aerodynamics, or if the high-speed nature of Spa simply suited a low-on-downforce car. Either way, it might help the team find a buyer for 2010.

Toyota were also suddenly competitive at Spa, but they had no idea why. And that tells you all you need to know. They also have no idea why they haven't been fast in the races leading up to Belgium. Most people have no idea why Toyota's in F1, and why Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock bother. After his front row start on a decent fuel load came to naught after clashing with Heidfeld at La Source, Trulli has now given up on guessing when Toyota's first win might come. Amazing that it's taken him that long...

Renault rightly got to race at Valencia, and Alonso made the most of it by claiming 6th which was about the most he could have hoped for. After missing the Q2 cut at Spa, his long first stint had him in contention for a nice haul of points, although whether he could have beaten Vettel and the BMWs home for a podium finish as he claims is questionable. Instead, gun-shy after what happened in Hungary, the team retired him after another wheel fairing and wheel nut drama caused by his tangle with Sutil.

The team would also have reason to be a little gun-shy given that they will be appearing before the World Motorsports Council on 21 September in relation to Singapore-gate, and given the explosive revelations which are emerging. Further discussion about this in the Italian GP review. It all makes for a baptism of fire for debutant Romain Grosjean, whose raw pace in Valencia was decent, less so at Spa, and he has already caused two collisions in two races by hitting Badoer in Spain and Button in Belgium.

Sebastien Buemi showed some of his early-season form in qualifying at Valencia, but his race was undone by a tangle with Glock on the first lap and an eventual brake failure. Both he and Jaime Alguersuari, who continues to demonstrate that he is not out of place in F1, seemed certain to surprise in qualifying at Spa, but both ended up being knocked out in Q1, before Alguersuari hit Hamilton in avoiding Button's incident. This is Spa after all, and 16th and 17th on the grid first time out was impressive nonetheless.