Hungarian Grand Prix Review

Pre-race headlines had included the replacement of Sebastien Bourdais with Jaime Alguersuari, destined to be the youngest man ever to start an F1 race, raising questions about his inexperience and the testing regulations. There was also the comical blackout of the timing system at the end of qualifying. But of course the stories that drew the most attention were the tragic death of Henry Surtees in the F2 race at Brands Hatch, and then the eerily similar incident that befell Felipe Massa in Q2.

Some were quick to say that, like Imola 1994, the confluence of events was not a coincidence but a sign and a wake-up call. There were calls for protection of drivers' heads from errant flying objects. Whilst understandable, this did seem slightly knee-jerk. It overlooked all the 'it just happened to be' factors that contributed to Felipe's accident. It just happened to be that he was following Rubens Barrichello's car at that particular distance. It just happened to be a spring that fell out of the Brawn. Springs bounce.

It just happened to be that the spring took the trajectory that it did. It just happened to be that Massa hit it when it was such a height that it ricocheted into his helmet. And without in any way diminishing the severity and horror of the incident, it also just happened to be yet another reminder that motorsport is dangerous, and will never be entirely safe. The focus ought to be on the work the FIA and helmet-makers have done to make it safer - for without that work Felipe may not be with us today.

The calls for some kind of cage, deflector, windscreen or even a roof over the cockpit are premature, and as some have already pointed out, add a safety hazard of their own in the event of an incident involving a flipped car or fire. It would also put into risk one of the fundamental essences of F1, that it is racing between the fastest open-wheeled, open-cockpit machines on the planet. If you want cages, watch sprint cars; if you want roofs, watch touring cars or sportscars.

As we said, these issues diverted attention away from Hamilton's marvellous victory. It is a testament to McLaren's resources and engineers that, after the turmoil of the handover from Ron Dennis to Martin Whitmarsh, after the lie-gate scandal, after trying in vain to overcome the fundamental inadequacies of the MP4/24's aero package by throwing new parts at the car, they delivered an update that appears to have largely resolved the inherent lack of aerodynamic grip. Germany demonstrated as much.

And the point here is that this was the first victory for a KERS car - plus another KERS car came 2nd in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen. It has taken a while, but you can fashion a competitive aero package and weight distribution despite slugging a KERS system around. Sure, not wasting time on KERS and focussing entirely on aero may have given Brawn and Red Bull the jump that means they will fight out the championship, but suddenly they may not be the sole masters of their own destinies.

One can foresee Hamilton having an increasingly prominent role to play in taking points off Red Bull and Brawn. The question is how well McLaren's package holds up on more aero-dependent tracks. And even Heikki Kovalainen as well; he did not get much of an advantage out of his KERS system at the start, and that largely explained his eventual 5th place. But, with developments in the driver market after the race, Heikki will now definitely need to pull his finger out either to save his drive or find another for 2009.

Webber and Red Bull should have finished 2nd. That they didn't meant a precious chance lost on a weekend when Brawn struggled even more than they did in Britain and Germany, and when Sebastian Vettel retired. Yes, Mark may now be up to 2nd in the championship, but there is still an 18.5-point gap to Jenson Button, and golden opportunities must be seized. Here, on the same fuel load as Vettel in Q3, Webber made an error at turn 2, but made up for it with a much better start than his team-mate.

Having fended off Hamilton at the first corner, it should all have been looking good. But clearly, Mark was struggling on heavy fuel loads. It seemed almost inevitable that Hamilton would find a way past, and frankly Lewis was better on the day. Fair enough. From here, the race was about keeping Raikkonen behind and finishing 2nd. Theoretically, that task should have been made even easier when they made their first stops at the same time.

In Spain, when it was also the Red Bull crew versus the Ferrari crew (except that it was Vettel v Massa, and Vettel was behind), Red Bull couldn't get their man ahead. It should have proven that in general, when two cars are on similar strategies, one pit crew can't get the jump on another. It depends too much on the standardised rate of fuel feed. So how did they concede the spot to Raikkonen here? Through a poor strategy call - apparently on Webber's part - and on a botched stop.

Is this Red Bull's inexperience at fighting relentlessly, even unscrupulously for the championship which is hurting them? Another poor start from Vettel, when Webber did not lose any places to a KERS car behind, must surely raise questions about Sebastian's ability to sustain a championship challenge, with points constantly being thrown away before the first corner. Without the poor start, the German would have avoided the collision damage with Raikkonen that eventually put him out.

There may only be 4.5 points between Webber and Vettel, and though Red Bull will allow both drivers to race until one is mathematically out of contention is admirable, Vettel has failed to reach the end of four races this year, each time self-induced. Webber has not DNFed once. Vettel has continued to make poor starts despite better qualifying results. Webber has taken 15 points off Button in three races, Vettel only 9. If Brawn's current form continues, they are at Red Bull's mercy. Is it time to back the Australian?

If any man had the insouciance to not be affected by Ferrari's inevitable turmoil after the Massa incident, that man was Raikkonen. This was easily his most solid drive for a while. It was still not particularly spectacular, and not the drive of a man desperate to continue with Ferrari in 2010, and not a drive that will make Ferrari desperate to keep him. But nevertheless 2nd place - the best Ferrari result of the year so far - was a welcome fillip for the team.

One wonders what Kimi would have thought about the decision to temporarily replace Massa with Michael Schumacher though. It would have been a no-win for the Finn. If he went faster than the legend that would have been par for the course. If he was beaten by the German, who has been out of racing in F1 for two and a half years, and who would not have been able to test the F60, then it would have seriously dented The Iceman's credibility and probably hastened his departure from Ferrari and F1 altogether. As it is, Schumi's injured neck has put paid to that scenario, and Raikkonen will bear the team leadership role with Luca Badoer in the other car in Valencia. Badoer who has not competed in a GP for almost 10 years (the second longest break between races in F1 history after Jan Lammers), the man who has competed in the most races without ever scoring a point, who was second-choice to Mika Salo ten years ago and who was second-choice again this time, and someone who also has not driven the F60 in anger.

Elsewhere it was another terrific drive from Nico Rosberg in the improving Williams. From 5th on the grid, he held onto that position until the second stops when he leapfrogged Kovalainen. It is a pity that in arguably Williams' most consistently competitive season since 2004 or 2005, their development is not reaping as much fruit because better-resourced teams like McLaren and Ferrari have managed even faster development curves.

However, Williams find themselves in a situation similar to 1999, when Ralf Schumacher scored 35 points, and Alex Zanardi none. Despite Rosberg's 4th place, Williams dropped to 6th in the constructors' points, having been overtaken by McLaren because Kazuki Nakajima is also yet to get off the mark. Nakajima does have speed - he was 3rd in Q2. He just doesn't have enough of it when it counts, nor does he have it consistently. 9th place from 9th on the grid was another close-but-no-cigar result.

Having started the season so brightly, Toyota are proof that you have to seize every chance when they arise. Since Bahrain, they haven't come close to that kind of opportunity for a victory again. On raw pace they are now in the bottom half of the field, and even Jarno Trulli is now having trouble getting out of Q2. Both he and Timo Glock made up for it however with very creditable race drives on heavier fuel loads. The Italian looked set for 7th but dropped a place to Button at the last stops despite pitting later.

At the site of his brilliant 2nd place finish a year ago, Glock once again starred. After his post-Bahrain malaise, in the last two races he has rediscovered what he was so strong at last season - maintaining a consistently competitive pace on a mammoth fuel load in the first stint, bolting into the points, and then holding onto track position for the rest of the race. Here he did not pit until lap 32, with only Barrichello running longer. That put him into a net 6th place which is where he stayed.

All of this is bad news for Brawn at the moment. On current form they are running a real risk of blowing their huge early advantage in both championships. It would be interesting to see what is the record for the largest points advantage from which a driver and team have subsequently lost the title. The excuse in Britain and German was the cool temperatures. In Hungary, although still slightly cooler than expected, conditions were not exactly Arctic.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Bits Falling Off Cars
Did unfortunate damage, to Massa, and F1

If their current maladies continue, their problem will be that their pace will only be good for minor points at best, in the face of the Red Bulls, McLarens, Ferraris, Williams and Alonso's Renault. But being in the bottom half of the top ten also puts them within striking distance of people running heavy fuel loads from outside the top ten, such as the Toyotas. With seven races to go, Webber needs to take less than three points per race off Button to steal the title, and on at the present rate that will be very doable.

Brawn's task at Valencia will be easier if the one-race ban slapped on Renault after the Hungarian GP is upheld. Alonso's first pole for almost two seasons grabbed attention, but he was not a realistic challenger for victory. Good points would have beckoned though had it not been for the bungled front right wheel change at his first stop that resulted in the wheel immediately working loose and coming off the car altogether. Although that was repaired, a fuel pump problem put Alonso out shortly thereafter.

The one-race ban does seem rather harsh for what started out as human error. Clearly what the stewards did not like was the fact that Renault did not tell Fernando to stop out on the track. Apparently there was minimal radio contact, and Alonso was encouraged to tour slowly back to the pits. In the wake of the Surtees and Massa incidents, the fact that the wheel did come off and bounce away probably influenced the stewards. It was understandable that they would be strict, but a ban does seem disproportionate.

Not only might it rob the Spanish fans of seeing Alonso, which would be a PR disaster, but it would also presumably delay Romain Grosjean of his F1 debut, after Nelson Piquet Jr not surprisingly parted ways with the team after another tepid performance. The Brazilian actually beat Alonso in Q1, but went slower in Q2 whereas everyone else improved, and when practically one second covered all 15 competitors. That's how close F1 is in 2009, which means you need to be on the ball, not just thereabouts.

And that's been Piquet's problem. He does have some speed, but he also has that level of unrealistic self-belief - some say arrogance - which means he is not determined enough, often enough, to scale great heights or to prove himself. His press release after the race, in which he virtually announced his own dismissal, was indicative of his attitude shortfall, even if some of his comments about Flavio Briatore and Renault's unequal treatment of him might actually be true. Chicken or the egg, one wonders...

The team that turned its attention to 2009 and gave up its 2008 title challenge, the team that focussed on KERS earlier than most and forced the other teams to agree to its use this season, languishes in 8th in the constructors' championship. No wonder BMW will withdraw from F1 at the end of the season, for much the same reasons as Honda. Awful results provide the perfect excuse in tough economic times. BMW's decision is no surprise; now the rigmarole begins all over again with a bid to find a buyer.

Force India did not maintain their sterling Silverstone or Nurburgring form, with Adrian Sutil out early and Giancarlo Fisichella unable to make headway, although Sutil is looking forward to yet another update package for Valencia. Meanwhile, at Toro Rosso there did not need to be any concerns about Alguersuari; the young Spaniard did a thoroughly commendable job, finding his feet, not making a mistake, and not getting in the way. He may not be an immediate world-beater, but he did not look out of place.

A new aero package that brought Toro Rosso in line with Red Bull has provided a genuine lift in qualifying, with Sebastien Buemi almost making Q3. He now has to take over the mantle of being the lead driver in the team at only 20, but in Hungary he did not exactly cover himself in glory by making a poor start and squandering his grid position, going off mid-race, and conceding a position to Alguersuari which the Spaniard kept. In race trim the STR4 did not look as though it had become instantly competitive.

In the end, there were many contenders for 'Reject of the Race'. Buemi and BMW were certainly amongst them, as were the stewards for their heavy-handedness, and even LG for the timing mishap at the end of qualifying. But ultimately, the major talking points before the after the race concerned the Surtees, Massa and Alonso incidents, and the dangers of bits falling off cars. For this reason we give the bits falling off cars, being Barrichello's spring and Alonso's wheel, a joint award on this occasion.