Button dominates in Melbourne
Jensen Button showed why he's the defending world champion on Sunday with an inspired win at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Taking tyre strategy responsibility and saving time spent on wets on a drying track, the Englishman called in for new slick rubber earlier than his team wanted him to do (six laps in!). It turned out to be a wise decision and Button was able to control the race after Vettel's retirement.
Once again the Red Bull's proved fragile, as Sebastian Vettel suffered a broken wheel rim whilst leading the race, and his team mate Marc Webber found himself in the sand-trap after a collision with Lewis Hamilton, eventually coming home ninth. The Australian misjudged his braking and accidentally took out Hamilton's McLaren with two laps to go. Fortunately Hamilton was also able to finish after cracking race, pulling himself up through the field from eleventh in the grid, with only a wrong pit stop call and the Webber collision hindering him.
Michael Schumacher and the Mercedes team are still finding their way, with the German finishing tenth after being caught in the opening Kayobashi/Hulkenburg fracas at the first corner and having to work his way up the field. I wouldn't be quick to write him off just yet as he did post the fourth fastest race lap...
Massa beats off the opposition
Phillipe Massa put in a dominant display during yesterdays Turkish Grand Prix, coming first in front of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen. It is the third time Massa has triumphed at Istanbul Park in the last three years. However, it was not all plain sailing as he had to content with a sustained challenge from Lewis Hamilton, who was on a three stop strategy to cope with the tyre demands of the anti-clockwise circuit.
The lighter McLaren allowed him to overtake Massa in the middle part of the race, however Massa was still able to reclaim the lead and take the chequered flag. As the race progressed, Hamilton came under pressure from Raikkonen and only narrowly beat him to second place. Further down the field, the BMW team carried on their quiet march into the big league with a solid fourth and fifth for Kubica and Heidfeld respectively.
By clinching victory, Massa underlined just how good he is on his day. The problem for him is to sustain that performance over the course of a season, something that he has previously not been able to do. It is not unlikely that after yesterdays performance, he'll be wedged in the barriers on the Monaco harbour side at the next race....
In appreciation of… Nigel Mansell
This is the first of an occasional series of articles about people who have made their mark on motor racing, whether they be heroes (Clark, Peterson, Fangio, Moss), villains (Pironi, Balestre,) or sources of pure entertainment (Taki Inoue). Funnily enough, my first subject could be placed in all three of the categories, depending on who you talk to.
Nigel Mansell can claim, quite rightly, to be one of the all time greats of Formula One. He won thirty one Grand Prix, the 1992 Formula One World Championship and the 1993 CART Indycar Championship at his first attempt.
Like Marmite, you either love him or you hate him. He is a man of whose sometimes odd behaviour out of the car had left him labelled with the tag of the 'whining Brummie' (melodramatically falling to the floor after pushing his car over the line in Dallas; declaring his intention to retire in 1990, then signing for Williams the next season; flouncing off to race in America after a pay dispute with Frank Williams, the list goes on ). However his nail-hard determination and jaw dropping speed gained him much admiration and even the nickname of 'Ill Leone' (the lion) by the partisan Ferrari fans. His relentless, aggressive driving style won him a legion of British fans off the track and a fair few enemies on it.
One of Mansell's main calling cards was his mastery of the overtaking manoeuvre, if there is any doubt, check youtube for his dummy on Senna at the Hungaroring in 1989, or the 180mph move he made on Gerhard Berger around the outside of the banked Peralta corner at the 1990 Mexican Grand Prix. In an era where most drivers seem to be trained to wait for the pit stops, instead of going for broke and getting past the guy in front (admittedly, the aerodynamics do tend to discourage this), watching footage of Mansell going wheel to wheel with Senna, Prost and Piquet seems a real breath of fresh air.
Despite his undoubted talent and determination, success was slow to come to 'Our Nige'. Before starting F1 with lotus in 1981, Mansell had quit his job as an Aerospace Engineer and remortgaged his house to continue racing. In Formula Ford, he won the 1977 British Formula Ford Championship, despite braking his neck during a race at Brands Hatch. After graduating to Formula 3, he suffered a broken back and had to stuff himself full of painkillers to make his first test with Lotus.
Where others would probably thought that things weren't meant to be and pursued some other avenue in life, Mansell carried on. Even after making it to Formula One, things were still tough. The death of Colin Chapman left him without many allies in a team which was by then past it's best. He would have to wait until he was 33 before he won his first F1 race, the 1985 Grand Prix of Europe, driving a Williams-Honda.
Once he'd took his first scalp, there seemed no stopping him. 1986 saw him hammer team mate Piquet and almost claim the championship, until he suffered a massive tyre blow-out during the final race of the year. Piquet took the title the next year due to his more consistent point scoring and yet another big accident for Mansell. Over the following years he would drive for Ferrari, then Williams again; chalking up the wins, falling out with other drivers, playing golf, comparing injuries with Barry Sheene and always coming close to the title yet leaving without the cigar.
In 1992, he did it. After a dominant season in the Williams Renault and almost reducing Murray Walker to tears, he took the title at the Hungaroring beating Ayrton Senna. Never had a moustache been worn with such pride since Graham Hill in the 1960's.
Since then, Mansell has left F1, returned and left again. He has driven a Ford in the BTCC, an Audi in the DTM, set up his own golf club, won races in the F1 Masters series and is now masterminding his two son's racing careers. At 54, he probably thinks he could wipe the floor with Alonso, Hamilton and Raikkonen even now.
Another one bites the dust…
Unfortunately, it seems that my first post is going to be a sad one, following the announcement that Super Aguri are shutting up shop as of today. The team cites the failure of their sponsor, the SS United Oil and Gas Company, to pay up as a large factor in deciding to call it quits. This means that the F1 field is now down to only ten teams out of a potential twelve, as David Richard's Prodrive outfit didn't even get around to turning up for the first race.
It also means that Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato are out of jobs. Davidson is highly rated and Sato, whilst a bit crazy, is also pretty handy. However, the music has stopped for this season and all the seats have been taken.
In your writer's own humble opinion, this is undoubtedly a shame for F1, whose grid is now largely populated by manufacturer teams such as Toyota, Honda and Renault. Formula One has always been an expensive business, but with budgets now sky high despite attempts at capping, the privateer doesn't stand a chance.
"What about McLaren and Williams?", I hear you ask. Well, Williams would probably have gone against the wall if it wasn't for signing with Toyota, and McLaren have to keep Norbert Haug sweet if they want money and engines. Plus, these chaps have been around for quite a while and have a fair few trophies in their cabinet, meaning that a proven track record will stand you in good stead when looking for sponsorship/engines. However, Super Aguri had substantial backing from Honda (in order to provide a home for the wayward talent of Sato) and they still couldn't survive.
So, if you are a new team with a couple of sponsorship deals, no major backing, no previous success in F1, a customer Ford engine...Good luck!