SofaF1

After seeing Nick’s post about hating the ITV F1 intro sequence I had an idea. I thought I would make a new one. One that I would like to see. I didn’t use the music he suggested but instead used the music I wanted to see. I hope you enjoy it:

If you’re thinking that Nick’s post in April is a long time ago to be responding now then I can only say to you, it took a minute or two to make this.

In the light of the articles that have already reached sofaF1 this might seem out of date now seeing as how I was unable to post this when I wrote it! But here we go anyway!

I didn’t see the Hungarian Grand Prix live due to a social engagement, but I did know it was wet. When I saw the race result on Sunday evening proclaiming Jenson Button the winner I must confess I did think it must have been the ultimate race of attrition with Button the only driver left.

Even watching the race on Monday morning, knowing Button had won, I was trying to work out what events would take place to get him to the chequered flag first.

Button did well at the start moving from 14th to 11th by then end of the first lap and then up to 8th in the third lap.
Schumacher however, on the wet Bridgestones rocketed from 11th to 4th on the first lap, pretty much removing his starting position disadvantage immediately. Alonso too made up a huge chunk, not as quickly as Schumacher but progressing from 15th to 1st as the race unfolded.

I am pleased Alonso did well here in this stage of the race. It is easy to start doubting whether a great driver has still got it, especially when outside factors like tyres and mass damper systems etc seem to have had such a dramatic effect on performance recently.

Alonso though, showed that in the rain (the great leveller in my book) he still could make the difference.

Commentator A was obviously excited by Button more than usual this weekend as Button was closing Alonso down, but I think I would still have favoured Alonso for the win. Renault strategy was looking good and Alonso probably had plenty of motivation to take maximum points this weekend.

Sadly for Alonso it wasn’t to be, good for the championship though!

It would have been good to see a straight fight between Alonso and Button, especially as Honda had done such a good job with the pit stops and strategy too.

Sadly for us that wasn’t to be either with Alonso gifting the lead (This was just my perception in the race as Button still had to stop again!) to Button as his Renault suffered a rare mechanical failure.

But as the legend himself used to say “To finish first, first you have to finish” and Button had put in a very good drive (both in qualifying and the race) to get him into 2nd close behind Alonso, and consequently reap the rewards when Alonso ground to a halt.

It might have been better to see Button fight it out with Alonso and take the victory but a win is a win and to finish 40 seconds ahead is a good job well done.

I wonder if the rumour of Ross leaving Ferrari is a sign of something else a sign that Michael has privately committed to formula one next year but only if Ross stays. This would give Ross a very strong bargaining position one he might not be able to resist. So perhaps he’s just floating these rumours himself?

So after Kubica was disqualified Michael, despite retiring three laps from the end, gains a world championship point on Alonso. This, of course, could be the point that wins the championship, or it could not – we’ll know in two months time. Does he really deserve it? Yes and no.

He drove amazingly with an underperforming car – just look at how far Massa went back for a comparison. However, he drove far too aggressively towards the end. I was watching the times at the time, and if he had pitted when De la Rosa was behind him he could have rejoined either in front of, or just behind, Heidfeld, with plenty of laps left to try and overtake him, and maybe get to De la Rosa. Either way, it was a guaranteed 5 points. The other thing he could have done, of course, was let De la Rosa by: Heidfeld was at least 11 seconds behind and even if he caught Michael at 2 seconds a lap, he would have only just got to him by the last lap, and probably not been able to make a pass. Either way, again, you leave with at least 5 points. Better than nothing, and better than one.

…Sadly I was unable to watch the race live this weekend.

And at the end of this race for reasons best known to the machine I was watching on, I was unable to see anything after the bit that the anthems finished. The main thing I wanted to know was who was on the podium from Honda with Jenson. I didn’t know who it was, and was interested. Also I was intrested to know how the podium celebrations actually went. If any of you were happy to describe it then I would be very happy to find out.

James, known for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time has – in the middle of an article that basically says that the main reason that Jenson won was because Alonso retired which is odd because Alonso was behind him he – says this:

“And if so, just as Damon Hill was able to rack up 20 wins for Williams, Jenson, who is far more talented than Damon, can do the same.”

Interesting isn’t it, that Damon Hill who won 20 races is less talented all of a suddent than Jenson. That I don’t think will go down very well. If you want to read the quote in context then it’s here

A match made in heaven?

Webber has always seemed like an old head on young shoulders. So the combo should be very interesting. I think they will probably get on really well and bring the team forward a long way, which will certainly help the junior team.

Mark might think that he’s joining the next Ferrari or Toyota and joining at the right moment to get a team built around him. And with the team that they have there he might be right. But can it work untested like that? I suppose for Mark it has to be the situation that he had been in “new and interesting” with Ford and Jaguar and it didn’t work out but it was moving, and then he went to “tried and tested” with Williams and it didn’t work. But now he’s back where he started. Red Bull is the successor of Jaguar, and a large section of the team is the same. And armed with that info it is – perhaps – less surprising than it seems. To me he never fell out of love with that team and always wanted to finish what he had started. And now with the real backing and resources that they have. And Adrian Newey designing the car. Next year should be really interesting for the team.

Do we think he’ll have a drive next year?

People seem to seem to be suggesting that it will be Mark Webber and David Couthard at Red Bull. In fact Red Bull seems to be the place to be next year. I, myself, would like to see David and Jaques at Red Bull in a kind of older driver collective.

I think they’d be pretty good at making sure that the junior team would be moving forward.

I’m interested to know. I’d really like to see everyone post on this, I’ll do it too. But I’d like all posts to end with a sentence which starts with either, “I think Anthony Davidson is a better commentator than racer because” or “I think Anthony Davidson is a better racer than comentator because”. I’d be very interested to hear your views.

*The White Stripes – The hardest button to button

This race had everything, it even had James Allen refer to a certain Ex-Formula 1 driver as “Juan Pablo Montoya” (eight laps from the end, or lap 62 for all those sensible people who prefer things the right way round).

I seem to remember that the most rain affected season in recent years was the fantastic 2003 season where it went down to the last race of the season and Martin Brundle said several times during that season that all that Bernie Ecclestone needed to do was hire a set of sprinklers to spice things up a bit. Of course it is the unexpectedness of the rain that is important and the fact it had a) never rained before in Hungary, b) had been expected to be a very warm race not a cold race and that c) we hadn’t seen a wet race between Michelin and Bridgestone since Michelin had been really embarrassed a few years ago that were the decisive figures in making this a race to remember.

Breaking the law

A rule that needs to be changed in Formula 1 was shown a bit of lime light during this race. It’s been clear to see that the 10 place engine penalty was unfair to the drivers, but never more than in this race when Jenson had a worse penalty than either Michael or Alonso despite the fact that he only had a mechanical failure but Michael and Alonso effectively got yellow cards for dangerous driving. It is monstrously unfair that if you get a time based penalty for dangerous driving you are allowed to act as though you got that slow time fair and square and fuel to whatever level you want. Whereas Jenson had to stay with his qualifying fuel. Somebody needs to address this for future races. I can’t help but feel that if this situation had resulted in Jenson not winning at the end of this race then pressure would have been put on the FIA to make a change to the rules, but it having gone this way it’s hard to see it happening.

Just lucky? Or breaking Ducky?

The most important thing about the race is that although Alonso, Kimi and Michael fell off the race track thus practically gifting the race to somebody new. Alonso and Michael were actually behind Jenson when their car died (and Kimi fell off early enough for things to be really unclear about his real pace) and not just because they had been slowing for a while he was legitimately ahead when they fell off of the track.

Do we suddenly forget our previous complaints about Jenson? Of course not. But two things are vitally important about the future which if mis-construed could sound in another sport like glory supporting.

The psychological importance of having one win is massive in Formula 1 – it is different than in other sports where you would be really surprised to find a team who had never won in a season. Jenson hasn’t won a race for six years. In the week just gone Jenson had been on Top Gear and had done less well as the Pro driver in the reasonable car than either the retired Damon Hill or Nigel Mansell (he beat Mark Webber but Mark had been in the wet) – see separate post in next few days. And one could have easily felt that this was yet another sign that he was never going to achieve greatness. And he may never of course. But the important thing is that all of the failure, all of the pain, all of the upset and all of the crap that goes with being an almost-ran in Formula 1 can truly be washed away with one win. It can change the way that you go into every race for the rest of your career.

And the second factor is that you could really see that Honda won this race due to one factor than any other. They won it because they kept their heads. They worked like a team properly for the first time I’ve ever noticed. They really seemed together on the way. And I think they’d have taken positive lessons from this race even if Jenson’s car had fallen off the track with two laps to go. The fact that Jenson won will shape the way that they go racing for a while.

I am not, by any means, suggesting that this automatically means that Jenson will win any more races in his career or that our fundamental criticisms of him are done away with, but a win in surprising circumstances – especially when there is a justified way of saying that the win was his and not through others loss can change a driver and a team forever. I’m not saying it will – but it might.

What next now no hex?

Perhaps the most interesting thing for Jenson’s career is that they had been expecting great things from themselves at the next race in Turkey (which is three weeks away) but had never mentioned Hungary. So they have just won the race before the one that they had been targeting all season and a race that Jenson really enjoyed last year. So perhaps we will see them doing well again next race too. Two in a row would go a very long way to suggesting a step change in the team rather than one off. But haven’t Honda been good at the ends of seasons before when it was almost too late to matter? I seem to remember it, but I’m not sure.

Disappointments, I’ve had a few

In fact I’d go as far as to say the only disappointing thing of the whole race was the Japanese national anthem. It seemed particularly dreary and with a likelihood that both Honda and Toyota will be winning races in the next few years maybe we should start a petition now to see it changed. Presumably those of us here who watch Moto GP are used to it by now, but for me I was startled.

Actually no, there was one more thing. Was there ever a debut win in Formula 1 where the winning driver got less tv coverage? There seemed to be a huge bias towards Pedro de la Rosa (which actually carried on into the press conference) and we missed much of the live action and for once it wasn’t just because we’d cut away to the adverts.

Actually I’ll add the lack of Martin Brundle. I’d have been very interested to hear what he said, but I will make a separate post about this. But fair to say it was very exciting to hear Anthony Davidson so excited for his friend. And the fact that it was clearly such a natural affection and not just marketing was very refreshing.

Knocking off the German’s hat

In the end what will Jenson buttons first win be remembered for? Will it be the watershed moment when a great formula one driver’s career really started or will it be a stat flashed up on the bottom of the screen when Jenson becomes a pundit? Or both? We can’t really know now. All we do know for certain is that that bit of nationalist pride in seeing a British Formula One driver win, which some people have, can not have helped but be enhanced by seeing the winning British driver knocking off the hat of the German runner up during the British national anthem. This was definitely a race people will remember, by the context in which it is remembered is, as yet, to be decided.