Tag Archives: michael schumacher

McClaren take flight as Red Bull lose wings

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Canadian Grand PrixIs this turning out to be the best Formula One season in years? I think it might be. The two top teams are swapping poles and one-two finishes with regularity, there are simmering rivalries within each and yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was a cracker.

It was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton starting on pole, breaking Red Bull’s hold on qualifying for the first time in quite a while. Mark Webber started second with team mate Sebastian Vettel in third and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in fourth. Hamilton’s team mate and reigning world champion Jenson Button started fifth on the grid.

What followed was an incident packed race with all the top five in qualifying having the possibility of winning. As it turned out pit stop strategy and traffic allowed Hamilton and Button to clinch a much needed one-two finish for McLaren with Alonso separating the English team from the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber respectively.

The win, his second in as many races, puts Hamilton on top of the Drivers Championship, just three points ahead of Button and displacing Mark Webber, while McLaren go top of the Constructors Championship.

After a couple of months of Red Bull dominance, McLaren have dragged themselves – and their drivers – back into serious contention and it looks like it will be nip and tuck for the rest of the season. Red Bull still have the best car, but it seems McLaren have the better brains at the moment.

There was no repeat of the in-team racing that saw Webber and Vettel ruin each others chances in the last Grand Prix and while Button chased down Hamilton’s lead in the last few laps in Canada there wasn’t really any danger of the two going head to head for the lead. Those rivalries remain, however, and it won’t take much for flare up.

Further back in the field frustrated seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was having a nightmare, Not used to being overtaken by upstarts such as Buemi and Liuzzi, he boiled over in an incident with Massa towards the end of the race, seeming to turn into the Brazilian slightly, damaging his front wing. It was referred to the stewards but no further action will be taken.

You have to question Schumacher’s decision to return to the sport. He has nothing to prove and will only tarnish his reputation – especially if he allows his frustrations to get the better of him on the track. His legendary status may have spared him punishment this time round, I don’t know, but any other driver would surely have received some kind of penalty.

Where this year’s title will go is anyone’s guess now. It’s a four way battle between between the drivers of McLaren and Red Bull and it’s fantastic. Hamilton is the form driver right now, Button won’t give up and will grab any opportunity presented to him, Webber is having his best ever season and Vettel has talent oozing out of his pores.

Could go any way.

Why Monaco is Formula One’s jewel in the crown

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This weekend is the 2010 Formula One season’s Monaco Grand Prix and to many it is the highlight of all the races, including us. There’s something special about Monaco. Here we try to put our finger on just what makes it THE race of the season.

Monaco Grand Prix

The highlight of the F1 calendar

Forumla One is the pinnacle of motor racing and carries a sense of pageantry, a sense of occasion, an almost regal air. A lot of that comes from the amount of money involved in the sport and that’s one reason Monaco is the first race many fans look for when the calendar is announced.

Nowhere else in the world has a setting to match the opulence that Forumla One exudes. There are, arguably, much better tracks out there – we prefer the Nürburgring in Germany for example – but Monaco’s tight street circuit, especially the ridiculously tight Grand Hotel hairpin at turn 6 and the tunnel that soon follows it, offers a style of racing that you don’t get anywhere else in Formula One.

Then, Google Earth-like, zoom out and take a look around at where this track lies. Right in the heart of one of the richest places in the world. From the aforementioned Grand Hotel through the casinos to the harbour from which millionaires sit aboard their over priced yachts to watch the race, catching only fleeting glances of the drivers and their stupendously expensive cars, it’s a playboy’s paradise.

A paradise in which many drivers have felt right at home in over the years, not least the Northern Irishman Eddie Irvine who achieved a third place for Ferrari in 1998 and the Englishman and 1976 F1 World Champion James Hunt. Both were considered somewhat notorious on and off the track and Monaco was without doubt their spiritual home during their careers – Irvine based himself there for a few years.

The whole Monaco Grand Prix weekend is a spectacle of decadence and wealth and really highlights the fact that the sport is awash with money.

Of course, the teams themselves work as hard as they would at any other circuit in preparation for a race that is as hard on the cars as it is on the wallet. And at the end of the day, it is all about the race.

There have been some real classics over the years. Overtaking is almost impossible on the street circuit of Monaco so team tactics play a massive part, as does reliability. That’s not to say, however, that overtaking doesn’t happen – or isn’t attempted at least. But it really is down to tactics and reliability, a true test for the teams, drivers and cars.

Grand Hotel Hairpin

Punishing

Hard breaking for tight corners, fast acceleration – especially through the tunnel and uphill through the start / finish line – and multiple gear changes put the car through a harder test than many other circuits and the number of retirements here reflects that.

The 1996 race is a prime example. Seven time World Champion started on pole but crashed out on the first lap giving the lead to title rival Damon Hill. Hill led for 40 laps before his engine gave up in the tunnel, the race lead passing to Jean Alesi – who retired himself 20 laps later with suspension failure. That left Olivier Panis, who began the race in 14th on the grid, up front and he went on to claim his only Grand Prix win – ahead of just THREE other drivers to finish the race!

Actually winning the Monaco Grand Prix is considered extra special. There can be no doubt that the true king of Monaco is the late, great Ayrton Senna. He won the race a record six times, his last in 1993. That win took him ahead of five time winner Graham Hill, Damon Hill’s father, and Schumacher also has five wins under his belt. These are all greats of Formula One.

After Senna got his sixth win, breaking Hill’s record, son Damon (who, incidentally, finished runner up in that race) said:

“If my father was around now, he would be the first to congratulate Ayrton.”

That’s the sort of feeling Monaco arouses – we doubt something like that would have been said about any other race.

Schumacher has returned to Formula One and has the chance to emulate Senna this weekend and get a sixth win. His form and his car so far this season suggest that won’t happen – but this is Monaco and in Monaco anything can happen. We refer you back to the 1996 race as proof.

Whatever happens, it’s sure to be a great race and an extravagant weekend for all involved. For us sat at home watching on TV, well, we get a sense of it too. Far and away the best weekend in the F1 calendar. Enjoy!

Got any specific memories of Monaco you want to share? Better yet, have you been and can you tell us what it’s like? Let us know in the comments!