For so long, many have believed the championship would be so close at the end of the season it would be decided at the last round in Brazil, but based on the last few results, many could easily to come to the conclusion that one car could dominate and a champion could be crowned prematurely at the penultimate round in Austin, Texas.
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| Alonso looks on as Vettel takes the lead he had held for months |
For the vast majority, 2012 has been an uplifting campaign
for the Formula One world audience with enriched on-track competition, development
of rising stars and the controversial decisions of line ups for next year as
stand-out topics. However, Vettel has now won the last three races and as the
competition falters behind, going by his Red Bull’s outright performance he has
ominous pace to keep going making motorsport what it’s not designed to be -
predictable.
Is magician designer Adrian’s Newey’s ‘evolution of details’
on Red Bull’s car seeing the championship race become deflated in the hands of
Vettel? Or will a turn of fortune and car upgrades for those now trailing the
young German see the twentieth and last race decide the championship, keeping
us on the edge of our seats?
After the first seven races of the season being won by seven
different drivers in 5 different cars, with other results including Perez’
three wonderful podium drives, many have enjoyed the non-pole to win tedious dominance
that Vettel emulated throughout 2011 of the Schumacher-Ferrari 2000-2004 years
(excluding a close 2003). Yet based on Vettel’s domination of Japan and Korea,
and his history of success at the end-of-season higher downforce tracks, this
exciting season could seize to have an utterly disappointing conclusion if
Vettel carries on to repeat his end-of-season upturn in pace for a fourth year
running.
In 2011, he won five of the last eight races, not winning in
Japan only due to a superb Button performance and a cautious drive to clinch
the title; an Abu Dhabi first lap tyre blowout and subsequent suspension
failure from pole position, and a gearbox failure in Brazil handing the lead
over to his teammate. If it wasn’t for his 2010 engine failure, he’d have won a
hat-trick of Korean Grand Prix wins this weekend in only its third year.
The success that he seems to be repeating has become even
more noticeable due to the downturn in car performance and unfortunate incidents
for Alonso & Hamilton. Whilst Vettel & Alonso have had an inevitable
bit of bad luck, most notably Vettel’s alternator failure in Valencia from the lead,
and Alonso being taken out by ‘the Grosjean train’ in Belgium; Hamilton has had
a list-worthy amount of disturbances this season, which stack up in lost points.
This has effectively taken him out of the championship race as of this
weekend’s Korean Grand Prix result with four races to go.
- Start of season McLaren pitstops disasters = 10+
- Australian Grand Prix - safety car timing losing position to Vettel by luck = 3
- Spanish Grand Prix - Pole Position exclusion due to team’s fuel error losing a likely win/podium (finished 8th from starting 24th) = 21
- European Grand Prix - Maldonado collision in Valencia costing a podium/fourth = 15
- German Grand Prix - Lap 3 puncture losing an estimated fourth/podium = 12
- Belgium Grand Prix – Grosjean’s caused first corner pile-up = 10
- Singapore Grand Prix - Gearbox failure losing a certain win = 25
- Korean Grand Prix – Anti-roll bar failure = 10= 90-110 approximate points lost dependant on how cynical/realistic it is viewed
Alonso & Hamilton innocently get caught in Grosjean's 'attempt' to get to Turn 1 at the Belgium Grand Prix, whilst the more fortunate Vettel takes advantages to take P2 & 18 points behind Button
Neither Alonso nor Vettel have lost as much as that through
no fault of their own. Apart from the last lap of 2008 in which Hamilton sealed
his world title, Lewis is swiftly becoming this generation’s Nigel Mansell - a
world class driver with the complete package like Alonso: raw speed,
spectacular overtaking ability, but like Nigel has no luck at vital times of a
championship race.
Nevertheless, the points standings are what they are, and the
worldwide audience is craving a last gasp decider. Therefore I sincerely hope
Alonso & Hamilton’s bad luck with reliability and incidents through no
fault of their own end, so they along with Raikkonen and Webber (and even Massa
with his new turn of speed) at least have an opportunity to challenge Vettel’s
pace and the championship fight goes right down to the wire. No matter who
takes the title, let’s hope it stays as close and exciting as everyone has
imagined since the first few races, and not fade away into a one-way battle.
I regrettably believe the 2012 season’s legacy has the
potential to unfortunately crumble, despite such an early and mid-season hype
and so many exciting competitive races until now, if Vettel and Red Bull show
no mercy and ‘the bull’ charges towards the chequered flag at the Interlagos
circuit in Sao Paulo, Brazil first once again. Let’s hope otherwise.
Nick, F1 Hub
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