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This was the big news from the North American races. With Ralf Schumacher storming to eighth place in Canada, and Jarno Trulli coming home a magnificent sixth in the USA, this surely represents the change in fortunes that will see the team climb inexorably to the very top. Yet more evidence comes from the fact that Toyota were quickest on the first two days of the Silverstone F1 testing this week... Only kidding!!!! THE news from these two races was, of course, Lewis Hamilton's performance. He qualified on pole and completely dominated both races, taking consecutive wins. He thoroughly out-raced and out-psyched his illustrious team-mate, double World Champion Fernando Alonso, who went off in the first corner in Canada, damaged the all-important underside of the car and, driving with increasing desperation, made a number of errors. He also suffered the indignity of being passed by Takumo Sato in last year's Honda (a.k.a. Super Aguri), though Taku was driving the race of his life, coming home sixth. In between races Alonso spoke of the British team favouring the Englishman, which was strenuously denied by McLaren. In the USGP, Hamilton led from pole and resisted a number of attacks from the Spaniard. He was brought in first for the first pit-stop and thus maintained his lead over his team-mate. Alonso closed in rapidly and attempted to draft past on the main straightaway (Indy talk) but to no avail as Hamilton defended robustly but fairly. The following lap Alonso swerved violently towards the McLaren pit-wall pagoda (or pratt-perch as they're known by mechanics). It seems that his frustration boiled over because he was fueled shorter than Hamilton and should have been brought in first, thus he believed the team robbed him of the chance to win. The British Media went into complete melt-down. The Second Coming, if it happens, will be nothing compared to this. ITV's "talking head" Steve Ryder, a man who looks to have perfected the art of speaking to auto cue without his brain being involved in the process, could not utter a single sentence which did not contain the words "Lewis" & "Hamilton", until I became heartily sick of hearing them. This is a real shame, because there is no doubt that in a world obsessed by vacuous celebrity and the Grotesques generated by an endless steam of execrable (or should that be excremental) "talent" and "reality" shows, Hamilton is a phenomenal, genuine talent. The problem is, with so much Media attention being devoted to talentless nonentities, how can the truly talented be properly acknowledged? Also if one more Old F..., sorry, motorsport legend jumps on the Hamilton bandwagon...!!! Is he really that special? My fellow scribbler Tony Cotton suggested in his Monaco report that any number of the best drivers coming through the junior formulae could do as well. This was supported by the performance of the other rookies in North America. The previously beleaguered Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) was fourth in Canada and fifth in the USA, out-performing his vastly more experienced team-mate on both occasions. In the USA, 19 year old Sebastian Vettel (Sauber BMW) qualified seventh and came home eighth in his last-minute GP debut, despite going off the track on the first corner of the first lap. At Ferrari, Massa, a man in whom until recently only the Todt family could perceive any real talent, has consistently out-performed his highly-paid and highly-touted team mate. This was again generally true in North America. These events have led the Editor of this website to believe that the era of the superstar driver is over. Why pay some prima-donna a fortune when you can just hire the next quick kid at a fraction of the cost? There is an argument that the current F1 cars are so easy to drive a monkey could do it. I don't believe this. I believe first of all that if your car isn't as good as the next bloke's then he will beat you. I also believe that there is a right way to drive each car and the engineers know it; the quickest driver is the one who does what they say. This has come to a head this year with the introduction of the Bridgestone control tyres. Alonso and Raikkonen are said to have struggled to adapt their styles i.e. aggressive turn-in, to the smoother style demanded by the harder Bridgestones, whereas the kids have spent their whole careers getting the best out of control tyres in lower formulae. Also, they've all come through one-make formulae where there is always a right way and a wrong way to drive the car. To be fair to Hamilton, I do believe he is the best of the bunch. To get away with some of the moves he has made once could have been luck - for it to happen repeatedly is talent. If that had been Montoya or Jacques Villeneuve there would have been carnage with bits everywhere! This brings us onto Robert Kubica's accident in Canada. His Sauber BMW clipped the back of Jarno Trulli's Toyota when flat-out on the run approaching the hairpin. His car ran over the infield grass, was launched into the air by a sunken access road and slammed head-on into the inside wall, before its shattered remains rolled to a halt. Not so very long ago he would have been killed, more recently he would
have suffered serious injuries. Now he had a sprained ankle and minor
concussion and was released from hospital the next day! Later, it was
revealed that he had endured a 75G impact. The FIA reported that the crushable
nose-box, tub and Hans device had all done their jobs perfectly and congratulations
are due to that organisation for their implementation of such safety measures.
As the cars are now so safe, does that mean that the more demanding "proper"
circuits, like Canada will remain on the calendar? Can we maybe even hope
for a return to the Nordschleife one day? Footnote
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