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| The moment Civil War erupted |
And so its all-out war.
The ‘clear the air’ talks at Mercedes between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg
were about as successful in preventing hostilities as the ‘peace in our time’
Munich Treaty. And as angry as Niki Lauda was after the race, I’m not sure I
have ever seen anyone quite as incandescent as the normally very mild-mannered Toto
Wolff who was the very definition of seething fury.
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| Angry man |
As well Toto might be
after the fragile ceasefire at Mercedes imploded spectacularly when his two drivers
crashed in each other on lap two. As a result, Rosberg damaged his front wing
and Hamilton sustained a puncture and further damage to the car floor as he
nursed his car into the pits. It was pretty much race over for Hamilton after
that. In a delicious piece of dramatic irony (and a nomination nod to the
Guardian journo who referenced ‘Banquo’s ghost’ when writing about this moment
in the race – surely a contender for this week’s Pseuds Corner in Private Eye!),
Rosberg ended up with flailing streamers from Hamilton’s delaminated tyre
becoming attached to his aerial and fluttering in front of him for a couple of
laps. That must have made Eau Rouge interesting.
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| Rosberg battling to remove Hamilton's tyre streamers. I think they call that karma. |
All of which played into
the hands of the one driver who is always there to pick up the pieces when
Mercedes self-destructs, the lovely Daniel Ricciardo. But it was by no means a
gifted walkover of a win. Ricciardo had to overtake the supremely combative duo
of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel (6 world titles cannot be wrong) and
then withstand some significant pressure from Nico Rosberg in the closing
stages to seal the deal.
Ricciardo has now won 3
of the last 6 races and lies just 35 points in 3rd place behind
Lewis Hamilton in the title standings. And while it would be inconceivable to
imagine a non-Mercedes title winner, Ricciardo’s superb form (harnessed to
perfection by a brilliantly run team) could add a lot of spice to the title
battle. What an absolute joy it must be for Christian Horner to have a driver
like Ricciardo in the team – massively talented, hungry for success but composed
and level-headed in the cockpit. Just a class act on and off the track. As and
when he wins the title (as surely he will one day), he will be an enormously popular
champion.
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| Daniel Ricciardo. Class Act. |
Bottas took another
richly deserved podium by coming home having raced his heart out with stunning
moves to pass Alonso and Vettel (his balls of steel overtake of Vettel on the
outside of Les Combes rightly brought a standing ovation from his mechanics!)
and in the closing laps he overtook Kimi Raikkonen to secure 3rd
place. But for the first time this season Kimi finished ahead of his team-mate
and had his best result of the year so far. Whatever happened in the summer
break, Kimi was like a driver reborn in Spa and just seemed like the Kimi of
old – aggressive, focused and really enjoying himself. Maybe that is the Spa
Effect. But more of the same in Monza please!
The next 4 drivers across
the finish line were 5) Vettel, 6) Magnussen, 7) Button and 8) Alonso who
treated us to a wild and thrilling four way scrap that in all honesty could
have ended any one of 24 different ways (unless my extremely rusty A-Level in statistics
has failed me which is entirely possible). If there is such a thing as a pure
shot of ‘racing’ then this exhilerating sequence would be your poison.
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| The calm before the storm |
And so lets pick over the
wreckage of Mercedes’ weekend. The front
row lock-out (their fifth of the season) had set the stage for double Mercedes
glory and a fabulous battle round the greatest track in motorsport. Lewis had a
stunning start to pole-vault himself into the lead and Rosberg initially
dropped back to 3rd behind Vettel before quickly regaining his
place. Perhaps Rosberg was slightly shaken by nearly throwing away his precious
pole position advantage and his subsequent actions were borne more out of
desperation to regain the lead than anything more sinister. But as Nico closed
up on Lewis going into Les Combes, looking to make the pass, Lewis held firm to
his racing line and Nico clipped Lewis’s rear left tyre which immediately
suffered a puncture. Only the most stone-hearted fan would not have felt some
small ounce of sympathy for Lewis as he staggered into the pits with a
delaminated tyre and irreparable damage to the floor having been only moments
earlier leading the race. But (and it’s a big ‘but’) this is motor-racing.
Sometimes it is cruel and it is unfair. While undoubtedly Lewis has had more
than his share of bad luck this season (although a far greater spotlight shines
on his misfortune than retirements by drivers scrapping away for the odd point
lower down the field), he is in exalted company with others who had the gods
conspire against them (see Nigel Mansell, Johnny ‘bad luck’ Herbert and even the
great Michael Schumacher at…oh yes… Mercedes).
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| This tyre blow-out in Adelaide cost Mansell the title. I could still sob at the very memory. |
Of course deliberate
accidents can and do happen between team-mates but I would definitely interpret
this as more of a clumsy manoeuvre than any deliberate attempt by Rosberg to
destroy Hamilton’s race. Firstly, Rosberg is leading the championship and there
are still 7 races to go; secondly, nine times out of ten both cars would have
escaped unscathed from that small sliver of contact; and thirdly, Rosberg has
to answer to Toto Wolff who is Very Scary. While he might have misjudged and
miscalculated the situation on lap 2 in Spa, and possibly acted a bit
petulantly (but its one driver’s word against the other’s on that score), it
was IMHO nothing more than a racing incident that even the FIA did not see the
need to investigate. That it unfortunately cost Hamilton far more than it cost
Rosberg is harsh and unfair but doesn’t mean Nico acted with malice
aforethought.
There was another
sub-plot in Hamilton’s race story that I found almost equally intriguing. From
even before the half-way stage on lap 20, Hamilton implored the team to let him
come in, retire from the race and save the engine. Mercedes rightly resisted
his overtures at first by pointing out there could be the game-changer of a
safety car. Always a distinct possiblity in Spa. But Lewis kept on and kept on
pleading and the team clearly felt with 5 laps to go there was no point in him continuing
and called him in to retire from the race.
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| Lewis retires on lap 39 |
Now this is a tough one.
Lewis was obviously struggling without downforce to overtake far inferior cars
and clearly his car’s performance deteriorated as the race went on. Probably by
the time he did retire, there was little point keeping him out as his car was
getting slower. But when he first begged the team to come in, he was still over
a whole second faster than Grosjean. So to me it smacks of being a little bit
precious and more importantly it shows that Lewis doesn’t have the same degree
of fighting spirit out on track when things go wrong. He talks a good talk off
the track but his head often goes down far too easily. He is so used to having
a blindingly fast car but a Formula 1 grid is made up of 22 cars, most of which
don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell in winning a race but all the drivers
see the race through (if they possibly can). How much would Andre Lotterer,
making his F1 debut at the grand old age of 32, have given to race around Spa
for 44 laps as opposed to the one lap before his car conked out with mechanical
failure? And what of the fans, Lewis? Its one thing to throw in the towel on
lap 39 but did you not really owe it them more than to try and quit the race on
lap 20?
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| Awkward |
The fall-out from the
race was seismic. Rosberg was given the Full Vettel Treatment on the podium – a
deafening chorus of boos. Mercedes then convened an emergency team meeting,
details of which Hamilton ‘helpfully’ passed on to the media.
"We just had a meeting about it and he
basically said he did it on purpose. He said he could have avoided it, but he
didn't want to. He basically said, 'I did it to prove a point'.”
Rosberg’s
initial response was to say:
"As drivers we are here to entertain and to
show the fans a good time, our duels are always on the limit. I regret that
Lewis and myself touched but I see it as a racing incident – just as the
stewards did. I was quicker at the time and there
was an opportunity, so I gave it a go around the outside as the inside was
blocked. The opportunity was there and, for me, it wasn't a risky situation.”
And Puncture-Gate shows
no signs of going away anytime soon. Mercedes has
issued this statement today saying they have taken disciplinary action against
Nico Rosberg following his collision with Lewis Hamilton in the Belgian Grand
Prix.
‘Toto Wolff, Paddy Lowe, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton met
today in the boardroom of Mercedes AMG headquarters in Brackley to discuss the
events of the Belgian Grand Prix.
During this meeting, Nico acknowledged his responsibility
for the contact that occurred on lap two of the Belgian Grand Prix and
apologised for this error of judgement. Suitable disciplinary measures have
been taken for the incident.
Lewis and Nico understand and accept the team's number one
rule: there must be no contact between the team's cars on track. It has been
made clear that another such incident will not be tolerated. But Nico and Lewis
are our drivers and we believe in them.
They remain free to race for the
2014 FIA Formula One World Championship.’
Fair play to Mercedes for
allowing their two drivers to continue to race although it will be fascinating to
see how that plays out in practice. All I can say is BRING ON MONZA!
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| Stirling Moss driving for Maserati leads the field at Monza in 1956 |
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| Michael Schumacher wins at Monza for the 5th time in 2006 |
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| The fabulous Tifosi at Monza |
