SERIOUS CORNER

2012 Chinese Grand Prix Race Report - by Ben SWEENEY

For the first time since 1955, Mercedes filled the front row. Nico Rosberg starts in 1st with a 1.35.121 lap in Qualifying with his team-mate Michael Schumacher in 2nd as Lewis Hamilton, who had qualified 2nd, was given a 5-place grid penalty for changing a gearbox.
Nico got clean off the line, much to everyone’s surprise who expected both Mercedes’ to be swamped into the 1st corner. However, both Nico and Michael Schumacher had kept their starting position. Behind them, Button started well from 5th, jumping to 3rd while Mark Webber dropped two places to 8th and team-mate Sebastian Vettel lost four places off the line in an uncharacteristic mistake.
Heikki Kovalainen had a good start and was nearly passed Vettel when Bruno Senna nudged the back of Felipe Massa into turn one before careering across the track into the path of Pastor Maldonado who had to go wide off the corner to avoid a collision. Jean-Eric Vergne for Toro Rosso started from his pit box after he changed the body work on the car after Qualifying yesterday. Meanwhile at the back of the grid, Pedro De La Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan in the Hispania’s had an awful start and were 10-12 seconds behind the cars ahead, by the first corner.
Nico Rosberg leads the race
On lap 13, Schumacher pitted for new tyre’s from second. He had a fast stop as usual but an error in the pit lights had seen the German driving out of the pits without his right front wheel being secured to the car. As a result he had to pull over in Turn 3 and make his way back to the pits to watch his team-mates progress.
The on-track action died down for a while with a few passes, mostly on the Force India’s who seemed to have resigned from the race, and Lewis Hamilton very nearly colliding with his old rival, Felipe Massa, as he went to pass him for P12. Several pit stops were also made but all the attention was on Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button, trying to decide if Button could pull up a big enough gap to make sure he comes out of the pits ahead of Rosberg.
The answer was no. Jenson was 12 seconds ahead of Rosberg going into the pits, a usual pit stop taking about 20 seconds. However, Jenson’s rear left tyre failed to come off the car and the Mechanic’s who had dropped the car off the ‘Jack’s’ to release him, had to hoist him back up so they could get the tyre on. All in all, Button’s pit stop was 11 seconds compared to the usual 3 seconds. As if this wasn’t bad enough, When Jenson Button rejoined, he had a very close group of Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber and Bruno Senna ahead of him and then a gap of 25 seconds to Nico Rosberg. Button’s chance of winning had gone.
Mark Webber launched into the air
Over the next 15 laps, some of the best wheel to wheel racing in a few years took place. Heikki Kovalainen pitted and had a problem with his left rear tyre leading him to cruise slowly around the track to get back to the pits, while Mark Webber went wide coming onto the back straight and launched himself into the air. No, it was nothing like his nerve-racking flip in Valencia but for a tall driver like Mark who’s spine would be just millimetres off the ground, it definitely hurt! Nevertheless, the tough Aussie kept going.
Mark caught and passed Bruno Senna for P6 while Felipe Massa pitted from 2nd promoting Raikkonen to 2nd. Hamilton sweeps past Pastor Maldonado for P8 and Fernando Alonso goes wheel to wheel with the Venezuelan. The Spaniard lost grip on the ‘Marbles’ and went off the track, nearly collecting Sergio Perez as he rejoined the track. Next up is Romain Grosjean who runs wide at the same place as Fernando Alonso, while under pressure from Webber, rejoining in P8.
Alonso passes Perez for P10 as Rosberg, some 25 seconds ahead of P2 man Raikkonen, is told to slow down and mind his tyre’s. A slow Raikkonen is holding up Vettel, Button, Hamilton, Webber, Senna, Maldonado, Grosjean, Kobayashi and Alonso. In this long train of cars, Webber and Hamilton are having a fierce battle for P5, Hamilton the eventual Victor as Webber runs wide.
Vettel, Hamilton and Webber fight for position
Raikkonen makes a mistake, allowing Vettel and Button through followed by Hamilton in turn 14 and Webber in turn 16. Raikkonen gets really under pressure as he looses all his grip and is swamped by the drivers behind. Grosjean, Senna, Maldonado, Alonso, Kobayshi, Perez, Di Resta and Massa all get passed the Finn in the next two laps. In two laps, Raikkonen has lost 12 places.
Kobayshi and Perez make contact on the back straight as Kobayashi attempts a successful overtaking manoeuvre. Button passes Vettel for P2 and is followed by Hamilton a lap later. Now team-mate Webber has his eyes on Vettel. He passes Vettel at the Hairpin at the end of the straight. Vettel tries to out drag him but its useless as Webber holds his ground and forces Vettel off the line.
And after 57 years Mercedes win the race! Nico Rosberg comes across the line with his hands in the air, 20.6 seconds ahead of Button in P2 to secure his first ever Grand Prix win, in his 111th Grand Prix.
There was only one retirement from the race, Michael Schumacher and he was on hand to celebrate with the Mercedes mechanics in the Garage as Rosberg crossed the line while a very emotional Norbert Haug was on the podium to collect Mercedes’ Constructors Trophy.
Final Standings:1. Nico Rosberg
2. Jenson Button
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Mark Webber
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Romain Grosjean
7. Bruno Senna
8. Pastor Maldonado
9. Fernando Alonso
10. Kamui Kobayashi
11. Sergio Perez
12. Paul Di Resta
13. Felipe Massa
14. Kimi Raikkonen
15. Nico Hulkenberg
16. Jean-Eric Vergne
17. Daniel Ricciardo
18. Vitaly Petrov
19. Timo Glock
20. Charles Pic
21. Pedro De La Rosa
22. Narain Karthikeyan
23. Heikki Kovalainen

Retired:
Michael Schumacher – Pit-Stop error

images: Sutton Images

Top 3 Grand Prix held on Easter Sunday - by Ben SWEENEY

On today, Easter Sunday, I take a quick look back at the top three Grand Prix held on Easter, In my opinion.
3. 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix

The Medical Car on track
The on-track drama began before the lights went out with Enrique Bernoldi sending his Arrows into a very harsh collision with a barrier on Turn 2 when he went too fast through the Senna S’s and lost control. The car then burst into flames before coming to a stop in the middle of the road. A red flag was deployed but not before the Nick Heidfeld had a scare. The German ran out of room on track and tried to go on the inside of the medical car when the door opened and the Sauber took the door of the car. Had the sauber arrived two seconds later, The medical car driver would have stepped out of the car and would almost certainly have been killed.
On the restart Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya came together. The two raced wheel to wheel from the line, through turn 1 and two with Schumacher pulling ahead. However, coming up to turn 3, Montoya moved up the inside of Schumacher but the German was having none of it. He moved across and Montoya drove straight into the back of him. The Columbian had to pit while Schumacher continued on. Schumacher, holding more fuel than team-mate Barrichello lost the lead to Rubens but focused not on catching his team-mate but instead nursing his tyres.
The laps rolled on and people began to realise that the Michael was making the impossible, possible. He was going for a one stop strategy. Ralf Schumacher chased his brother down but failed to pass him. Ralf stayed where he was, hoping his brother would make a mistake, which he didn’t. Rubens Barrichello retired with a hydraulics issue and Michael leapt into the lead. After his sole pit stop, he kept the lead and he would stay there for the rest of the race.
The Red Baron came over the crest in Interlagos to take the chequered flag after 71 laps and he would have, except soccer star Pele who was supposed to wave the chequered flag was caught snoozing and missed Michael. He also missed Ralf Schumacher in 2nd, Coulthard in 3rd, Jenson Button in 4th and Juan-Pablo Montoya in 5th, eventually picking up 6th place Mika Salo.
Final Standings:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Ralf Schumacher
3. David Coulthard
4. Jenson Button
5. Juan-Pablo Montoya
6. Mika Salo
7. Eddie Irvine
8. Pedro De La Rosa
9. Takuma Sato
10. Jacques Villeneuve
11. Mark Webber
12. Kimi Raikkonen
13. Alex Yoong
Retired:
Nick Heidfeld (Brakes)
Jarno Trulli (Engine)
Felipe Massa (Accident)
Allan McNish (Spin)
Olivier Panis (Gearbox)
Heinz-Harold Frentzen (Rear Track Rod)
Enrique Bernoldi (Rear Track Rod)
Rubens Barrichello (Hydraulics)
Giancarlo Fisichella (Engine)
2. 2003 San Marino Grand Prix
Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher arrived at the Imola circuit on Sunday morning with pain in their hearts. Their mother, Elisabeth, had passed away on Saturday evening in a hospital in Cologne. The brother’s had competed in qualifying, Michael on pole position and Ralf in 2nd, before flying to Cologne to be at their mother’s bedside. They then made their way back to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for the race. Both raced with a black armband.

Michael Schumacher on the podium. Note the black armband.
The race began with the brothers duelling down into the first corner and this battle continued for several laps until the first round of the pit-stops. The tifosi were delighted to see Ralf Schumacher duck into the pits while their hero, Michael Schumacher stayed out for two laps, allowing the ferrari duo to stay out for a 1-2 before the pits stops.
Ralf finished fourth, his hopes of joining Michael on the podium dashed when Barrichello muscled his way past at the end of lap 52, and left Imola immediately afterwards.
The Schumachers have dominated the San Marino Grand Prix for five years, with Michael leading a Ferrari one-two in 2002 and winning in 2000 and 1999.
David Coulthard was fifth, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya followed by Jenson Button who collected the final point for BAR.
Michael was embraced by team mate Rubens Barrichello and kept his helmet on in the paddock. He made his way to the podium but no champagne was sprayed as a mark of respect for Elisabeth Schumacher. Jean Todt, The Ferrari team principal took Michael’s place in the post race press conference after the race as the two brothers flew straight home to Cologne.
Final Standings:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Kimi Raikkonen
3. Rubens Barrichello
4. Ralf Schumacher
5. David Coulthard
6. Fernando Alonso
7. Juan Pablo Montoya
8. Jenson Button
9. Olivier Panis
10. Nick Heidfeld
11. Heinz Harold Frentzen
12. Cristiano da Matta
13. Jarno Trulli
14. Antonio Pizzonia
15.  Giancarlo Fisichella

Retired:
Mark Webber (Driveshaft)
Ralph Firman (Oil Line)
Jos Verstappen (Electrical)
Justin Wilson (Fuel Rig)
Jacques Villeneuve (Engine)
1. 1993 European Grand Prix (Donnington)

First corner of the Grand Prix
Everyone remembers this race! One of the most famous F1 races in history. Ayrton Senna starting from 4th dropped to 5th and then showed superior driving skills coming from 5th to first in just a few corners. The Williams were 1-2 in Qualifying with Alain Prost on pole ahead of Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Karl Wendlinger and Michael Andretti. At the start, it was damp and Schumacher blocked Senna. Both lost time and Wendlinger took third. Senna dropped to fifth but then passed Schumacher and Wendlinger quickly. Schumacher and Andretti tried to follow Senna past Wendlinger but Andretti hit Wendlinger sending both of them out of the race.
Senna went straight after Hill and took him into McLean’s Corner. Senna then raced after Prost and passed him at the Melbourne Hairpin. Going into the second lap, Senna led Prost, Hill, Barrichello (who had started 12th), Schumacher and Lehto.
The track began to dry and everyone pitted for dry tyres. Lehto was fifth, having started from the pit lane, but he retired with handling problems on lap 14. Berger took the place but he too retired with suspension problems six laps later. It rained again and the leaders now pitted for wets. Schumacher stayed out and was leading but spun off on lap 23 because he was on the wrong tyres. The track began to dry and everyone pitted once again with Senna having a problem and losing 20 seconds. Prost now led Senna, Hill, Barrichello, Warwick and Herbert.
It began to rain and the two Williams stopped for wets while Senna stayed out. It was the correct decision because it began to dry again. The Williams stopped yet again for dries. Prost stalled in the pits in his stop and when he rejoined, he was a lap behind and down in fourth. Barrichello was now second but it rained and then stopped again. He went to the pits twice and by now Hill was in second, a lap down. Barrichello in third, had trouble with his fuel pressure and retired, giving the place to Prost.
Final Standings:
1. Ayrton Senna
2. Damon Hill
3. Alain Prost
4. Johnny Herbert
5. Riccardo Patrese
6. Fabrizzio Barbazza
7. Christian Fittipaldi
8. Alessandro Zanardi
9. Erik Comas
10. Rubens Barrichello
11. Michele Alboreto
Retired:
Derek Warwick (Gearbox)
Thierry Bousten (Throttle)
Andrea de Cesaris  (Gearbox)
Jean Alesi (Gearbox)
Aguri Suzuki (Gearbox)
Philippe Alliot (Collision)
Michael Schumacher (Spun-Off)
Mark Blundell (Spun-Off)
Gerhard Berger (Suspension)
Jyrki Jarvilehto (Handling)
Ukyo Katayama (Clutch)
Martin Brundle (Spun Off)
Karl Wendlinger (Collision)
Michael Andretti (Collision)

Alonso wins in Malaysia - by Ben SWEENEY

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso won the 2012 F1 Malaysian Grand Prix. The Spaniard started the race in 9th place, but terrible weather conditions played havoc with the grid and Alonso drove spectacularly to secure his 7th Ferrari win.

Alonso celebrating after the race
Before the race began there was much doubt about how it would begin. Rain was creeping over the circuit and there was a strong belief that the race would begin behind a safety car. However, Race Director Charlie Whiting decided that the race would be started under normal conditions.
Hamilton had a good start from pole and Button followed him closely, Nearly colliding in the 1st corner. Behind them, Schumacher started uncharacteristically slowly and fought off Webber, Vettel and fast starting Grosjean. Webber pulled a spectacular pass on Schumacher coming out of turn 2 whilst Grosjean, Much to my frustration, Drove straight into the back of Schumacher. Both cars spun  around followed by Bruno Senna’s Williams in an un-related incident. Pedro De La Rosa who stalled his Hispania on the parade lap left the pits to follow the pack. Up ahead, Hamilton still lead from Button while Webber lead team-mate Vettel. Grosjean again spun the car and beached himself in the gravel.

The 1st corner of the race
On Lap 7, Yellow flags and a safety car were deployed as the rain thickened and thunder and lightening took out the power at the track. On Lap 9, The race was red flagged.
40 minutes later, The race re-started under the safety car. The big surprises were Sauber’s Sergio Perez in 3rd, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne in 7th and the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan in 10th. The Safety Car went in after 5 laps and Webber was immediately swamped by Vettel and Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen who both overtook him. The HRT of Karthikeyan lacked the pace needed to defend against the cars around him and slowly began to fall backwards.
The pit stop phase began and the big looser from this was Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso scored big, overtaking several cars, including Lewis Hamilton and he got to the lead, followed by Hamilton, Button, Perez, Rosberg, Vettel, Raikkonen and Webber.
Vettel, Raikkonen and Webber launched an attack on the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and one by one got passed him. Button tangled with the HRT of Karthikeyan and damaged his front wing, Resulting in a double front puncture. He crawled back to the pits and came out 23rd, Last. Button who usually thrives in these conditions, Remember Canada 2011, Failed to make the tyre’s work and failed to make much of a charge on the field, as people were expecting of him. Hamilton also got unlucky with a botched pit stop which saw Sergio Perez leap frog him and into 2nd. Incredibly, Alonso lead the race while Sergio Perez followed him in 2nd.
A very on-form Perez began to pull away from Hamilton AND catch Fernando Alonso at a whopping 1.5 second per lap! With 15 laps to go, Much of the world were egging him on and expecting him to catch and pass Alonso but with 7 laps to go, Perez lost it on Turn 13. Alonso pulled up a gap of 5.5 seconds before the end of the lap and Perez couldn’t catch him fast enough.

Webber leading Vettel in the rain
Vettel became the next driver to tangle with Narain Karthikeyan and suffered a right rear puncture while running in 4th. Team mate Webber took him as he went into the pits, and so did half the grid! Vettel came out in 13th, Finishing in a lowly 11th.
Pastor Maldonado had very bad luck again on the penultimate lap of the race for the second race in a row. The engine in his Williams blew, promoting Schumacher to 10th, giving Mercedes their first point of 2012.
Meanwhile, On the last lap, Guillaume Rocquelin came on the radio to tell Sebastian Vettel that he must drive into the pits to retire the car. Just seconds later, another radio message was sent out, telling him to stay OUT and not to come in the pits. Again, Just seconds later, “Rocky” came back on the radio and told Vettel that he MUST stop the car immediately and get out of it, due to a possible KERS issue. However, Vettel made it to the line and finished the race.
Fernando Alonso crossed the line first, followed immediately by Sergio Perez, Perez’s first ever podium and Sauber’s best ever race result. Hamilton crossed the line in third position to round of the podium. It is the 1st time in 18 races that someone either than Webber, Vettel, Button, Hamilton or Alonso were on the podium!
Final Standings:
1. Alonso
2. Perez
3. Hamilton
4. Webber
5. Raikkonen
6. Senna
7. Di Resta
8. Vergne
9. Hulkenberg
10. Schumacher
11. Vettel
12. Ricciardo
13. Rosberg
14. Button
15. Massa
16. Petrov
17. Glock
18. Kovalainen
19. Pic
20. Karthikeyan
21. De La Rosa
Retired:
22. Maldonado
23. Kobayashi
24. Maldonado
The next race is 13-15th April at the Shanghai International Circuit, China.


Button celebrates his win
McLaren’s Jenson Button has secured victory at the season opening race at Melbourne. The 2009 World Champion started 2nd but had a great start to leap frog team mate Lewis Hamilton into the first corner. Michael Schumacher jumped from 4th to 3rd as Lotus’ Romain Grosjean had a bad start and was swamped off the line. Mark Webber continued his bad run of starts which blighted him last year, dropping him to ninth while his team mate, defending world champion Sebastian Vettel made it up to 4th.
Rookie Jean-Eric Vergne highlighted his inexperience in F1 by smashing sideways into slow starting Mark Webber at the first corner. Webber was then pushed into Force India’s Nico Hulkenburg and this caused a chain reaction leading to Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo making contact with the Williams of Bruno Senna.
Jenson Button soon built a gap over team mate Lewis Hamilton in 2nd place as Nico Hulkenburg retired with a damaged car and Romain Grosjean made contact with Pastor Maldonado on lap 2, breaking Grosjean’s front right axle and sending him into the gravel.

The first corner of the 2012 Australian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel hunted down the third placed Mercedes of Michael Schumacher until Schumacher went wide on turn one with gearbox problems. The 7-time world champion cruised around the lap before pulling up in the pit lane to retire from the race.
Returning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen clawed his way up from 17th place, making it up to third place during the pit stop phase but finishing in seventh. Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber had a scrap for position which Webber finally came out on top of.
On Lap 37, The Caterham of Vitaly Petrov pulled off on the pit straight. A safety car was deployed to clear the car while the pack was held up by a recovery truck coming out to move the stricken car. Petrov’s team mate, Heikki Kovalainen was handed a five place grid penalty for Malaysia for overtaking two cars under the safety car, as he entered the pits and the pack continued on. Kovalainen then retired for suspension problems.

Maldonado's Lap 57 crash
On the restart, Button led from Vettel from Hamilton from Webber from Alonso from Kobayashi. Button wasn’t long building up a gap from Vettel while Vettel, Hamilton and Webber pulled away from Alonso.
Perez collided lightly with the back of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who suffered a puncture. Bruno Senna tried to overtake the fellow brazillian but Massa could not turn the corner due to the puncture and went into the side of Senna. The two became locked together and drove from turn four to turn six joined together before Senna went off at the Gravel. Felipe Massa pulled into his garage to retire from the race while Bruno Senna pitted for new tyres.
Pastor Maldonado proved that Williams have improved leaps and bounds from last year while attacking Fernando Alonso for 5th place. However on the penultimate lap, The Venezuelan got onto the grass at Turn 6 and flew into the wall in a very hard collision. He retired instantly.
The race finished with Perez eighth, Ricciardo ninth and Paul Di Resta having a fabulous lap to make it into the points in 10th position.
Nico Rosberg was unfortunate on the last lap as he makes contact with Perez and has to endure a lap at a much slower speed, dropping him to 12th place.
Final Standings:
1. Button
2. Vettel
3. Hamilton
4. Webber
5. Alonso
6. Kobayashi
7. Raikkonen
8. Perez
9. Ricciardo
10. Di Resta
11. Vergne
12. Rosberg
13. Glock
14. Senna
15. Pic
Retired:Hulkenburg (Collision)
Grosjean (Collision)
Schumacher (Gearbox Failure)
Petrov (Steering Wheel issue)
Kovalainen (Suspension Failure)
Massa (Collision)
Maldonado (Collision)
Photo’s © AP

Raikkonen unexcited by F1 return - by Ben SWEENEY


Raikkonen makes his return to F1
In the run up to the Australian Grand Prix, 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen has said that he is not really excited about his return and admitting that he rarely bothered to watch F1 during his absence.
The finn is making his comeback in F1 after a three year leave in which he tried his hand at Rallying, unsuccessfully. However, He is making his comeback into a team that is at the least a long shot, heading into this weekends Australian Grand Prix.
However, Last year, The Renault (Now Lotus) achieved a spectacular 3rd place, granting Vitaly Petrov a well deserved first ever podium. Will they start off well this year aswell?
“I am a little bit older, that’s all, but its the same really,” Raikkonen said. “It really hasn’t changed a lot, the car feels very similar. I was expecting to have more difficulties with it, but its pretty good.”

Raikkonen in Pre-Season testing
The 2007 world champion said he did not tune in to F1 much in his time away.
“I didn’t watch much the past few years, same people, similar stuff going on,” Raikkonen said ”I had other things to do than watch the races. It doesn’t mean I don’t like the sport – if I didn’t like the sport I would not be here.”
Lotus have impressed in testing, topping the timesheets more than any other team but will it lead to early success in the championship? Raikkonen hasn’t a clue!
“I have no idea where we’re going to be,” He said. “Are we going to be in the front? I don’t know. I hope so.”

2012: The year of the Oz? by Ben SWEENEY

You will struggle to find a more devoted Mark Webber fan than me. Sitting down for every Practice, Qualifying and Race of the F1 season, wearing his hat and shouting him on is a regular occurrence. His name and car are doodled all over the margins of my copy book at school and my twitter account is also used by me to show my support for the Aussie, something that, given his extremely likeable nature and glaringly obvious talent, there isn’t enough of. I am sure you will know by now who I will be rooting for in the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship but realistically, what are his chances?
The Aussie began his F1 racing in Australia 2002, and straight away stormed the grid and brought his Minardi home in 5th place, in spite of driving by far the slowest car on the grid. This trait of wringing the neck of his car and extracting every sinew of performance from it have come to be recognised as a Webber trait, much like close friend and fellow competitor Fernando Alonso.
Going for the championship in 2010, Mark led the majority of the year before loosing it as he retired in the 1st ever Koran Grand Prix. He finished 3rd in the championship, just 15 points off team-mate Sebastian Vettel, the World Champion.
In Australia 2011, Mark Qualified 3rd, beat Lewis Hamilton off the line but he finished 5th after a problem with the car. It was to be the start of a slow year.
However of late Mark has come under fire for his recent underperformance, he would be the first to admit that he has failed to discover the form he showed in 2010, something that he has clearly psychologically suffered from, however he also suffered massively with technical problems such as his KERS system which made a return to F1. Red Bull had never used it before and design guru Adrian Newey designed the car too tight to fit aerodynamic requirements and this affected the KERS system on both cars.
Mark suffered hugely with the KERS problem. At the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Webber started 2nd but without a proper KERS system, he was an open target. By the end of the lap, he was 10th.
In China during P3, Webber had an electrical fault in the car and had to leap from the car. During Qualifying, Red Bull decided not to run the system on the car and as a result, Webber failed to make it past Q1.
Another change for 2011 that blighted Mark Webber was the new Pirelli tyres. Webber could not get to grips – excuse the pun – with the new tyres which he found particularly hard to maintain; an area in which he was blitzed by team-mate Sebastian Vettel. This was clearly a huge factor in Webber’s poor performances, he still managed to showcase great pace (albeit on too few occasions) highlighted at the German GP where Webber achieved pole at the venue where he notched his 1st race two years beforehand. Mark made well his position at the front of the grid and had a good start but when he pitted halfway through the race Webber could not get the tyre’s up to the level of grip needed and he soon fell behind eventual winner Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
And then there were the starts! Mark lost 22 places on the first lap over the entire season. Renault often made miscalculations with Mark’s car and got the torque settings wrong, however it wasn’t all one way traffic as Mark was often guilty of ‘bogging down’, this is where the driver fails to keep the optimum number of revs for the biting point and can often result in the anti-stall procedure being inadvertently activated, this happened at Spa, where Webber lost 5 places off the line.
As I have highlighted it is clear that there were many factors prohibiting Mark from really unleashing his true talent on the imperious RB7 however it is also evident that adding new pieces of technology on the cars to Webber’s difficulty in overcoming the disappointment of the 2010 season were also of detriment to the Aussie. Furthermore although Red Bull maintain there is no number one driver in their garage everyone remembers the infamous “maintain the gap” radio call at Silverstone,  here Mark was clearly made play second fiddle to team mate, Sebastian Vettel. Mark could certainly do without this; however I see 2011 as being a soul finding experience Mark and I think he will come out of the other end even stronger, an even better driver. Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz insists that there will be no team orders in Red Bull for the 2012 Season, they are of course looking to promote their brand as an exciting product not a stingy and rigid set-up, so presuming Red Bull maintain this promise, I’m sure that the season will be Mark’s.
If you look to the Pre-Season testing and his strong performances at the end of last season, particularly at Interlagos, Mark does seem to be getting to grips with the new Pirelli tyres. However these times cannot be used to accurately predict how the cars will be performing in March when the season gets underway.
However as we know Mark is a great one lapper, which was shown when he won the DHL Fastest Lap Award in 2011. If his continued good management of the tyres can be transferred into races, because it would be silly of me to talk of tests and races in the same vein of performance then I am sure he will be on pole more than his German team-mate. Furthermore providing his starting issues can be resolved then one would hope he can maintain that lead to go on to win the races.
Mark has said that has professed to feeling confident ahead of the season and importantly is now aware of the magnitude of the task ahead of him given how brilliant Sebastian Vettel was last year. However Mark loves a challenge, he is constantly pushing himself away from the track and I am hoping that this passion to overcome adversity will see Mark Webber become the 2012 Champion.
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