VIDEO: Inside Track – Hungary GP
Jenson Button of Great Britain and McLaren Mercedes drives during practice for the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix.
McLaren’s Jenson Button gives a behind the scenes preview of the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
The reigning World Championship takes time out from his hectic training schedule to give his thoughts ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. The British driver speaks about his disappointment at his performance in Germany, the recent modifications with the car, and also gives his thoughts on the tricky track in Budapest – and how he is aiming for a podium finish this weekend.
Get behind the wheel with Jenson as he gives the ’Inside Track’ ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Courtesy of DNA
Coulthard: Ban On Team Orders Should Be Scrapped
Ferrari
Formula One is a team sport. There, I said it. It is not a popular view but it is the truth. And because it is a team sport, the frankly ludicrous ban on team orders that everyone is getting so worked up about should be scrapped.
Now just hear me out. I know that what we saw at Hockenheim, when Felipe Massa was ordered aside for Fernando Alonso, was unpalatable to many fans but for goodness sake, wake up and smell the coffee.
Team orders happen in F1. They always have and they always will. Just because Ferrari were ham-fisted in breaking the rules, does it make their transgression any worse? I cannot believe some of the hypocrisy we’ve heard in the past couple of days.
The only way to stop team orders would be to race with one car. As long as there are two (and some teams want three — how difficult would it be then to control team orders?) the rule is unenforceable.
Team principals should be allowed to do the best they can for their team, for their employees, for their owners. That is what they always used to do. At some point during the past 60 years we seem to have lost sight of that fact.
The public furore is based on a fundamental misunderstanding, which is that Formula One is about the individual.
When I raced I lost sight of that as much as anyone else. Like every driver, I was racing for myself as well as the team. Unfortunately I was asked to make way for Mika Hakkinen at Jerez in 1997 and Melbourne a year later. Both times I acquiesced; both times reluctantly.
As I have written in previous columns, I have often wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t been so compliant. Perhaps I would have won more respect? Perhaps I would have been world champion? Perhaps I would have been fired? These are the kind of decisions a driver must weigh up.
No doubt Massa is grappling with such questions. The most damaging aspect of Sunday’s race is what it could do to his reputation. People will see him now as a ‘yes man’ who bends to the will of the company. And maybe they are right. Team player or stooge? The line is thin.
But it doesn’t change the underlying truth. My old team boss, Frank Williams, used to make decisions that would anger us drivers but when we complained about them he would say it was not about us, it was about the 700 employees in the team. We were just two paid drivers. He was right.
Ah, people will say, if it is a team sport then why is the drivers’ title the holy grail? You didn’t see Ferrari celebrate the constructors’ crown in 2008 after Lewis Hamilton pipped Massa to the drivers’ title.
That’s true. Sponsors need stars so teams will try to win that crown above all. That is the ultimate goal. It is tough luck for one of the two drivers but only one of them can win the thing.
Like the Tour de France, which is all about getting the team leader across the line first. Like a football team, who can sometimes sacrifice a player to man-mark a member of the opposition in order to give his striker room to score.
Like any team sport, in fact, the manager must be free to decide how best to manage his team. The players involved are free to obey or disobey — often the best sportsmen are not team players — but they do so at their own risk.
That is all part of the delicate and unique team-driver relationship.
The only possible drawback I can see to repealing the team orders rule is the encouragement it might give to the illegal gambling industry.
But it remains the only way of stopping charades such as the one we saw.
Courtesy of David Coulthard and The Telegraph
Schumacher Backs Ferrari And Alonso
Michael Schumacher
It was reminiscent of the days of old when Schumacher drove for the Italian marque, winning title after title, at times at the expense of his team-mate.
And although the German admits there are “nicer” to go about implementing team orderst, “in principle I fully accept” them.
Here’s an easy way to decide debates about sporting morality. 1. See which side Michael Schumacher’s on. 2. Take the other side. Rarely will you be in the wrong.
And so it proved again at the German Grand Prix, when Schumacher immediately defended Ferrari’s blatant and cack-handed team orders. Well, at least he’s not a hypocrite.
Clearly, though, this was a bad day all round: farcical ’sport’, some woeful lying, and some pretty shoddy journalism too.
And it would take a heart of stone not to feel for Felipe Massa. It is exactly a year since that nauseating full speed smash at Hungary, which could have ended Massa’s career, or even worse.
A victory at Hockenheim would have been the most uplifting of stories. Instead, he was shafted.
Worse followed, when the poor sod had to stand on the podium as Alonso sprayed champagne all over him.
Courtesy of The Telegraph and PlanetF1
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Alonso Wins Controversial F1 Race
Lorenzo Wins US MotoGP As Pedrosa Crashes
Jorge Lorenzo, driver of the #99 Fiat Yamaha Team, celebrates winning during the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix.
Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo benefited from a spectacular crash by compatriot Dani Pedrosa to win the US Grand Prix, a fourth victory in the last five races extending his world championship lead.
The 23-year-old Yamaha rider, who started on pole in bright sunshine at Laguna Seca, finished 3.517 seconds ahead of Ducati’s Australian Casey Stoner, champion here in 2007.
Lorenzo twice punched his right fist forward in celebration after crossing the finish line, having extended his run of successive podiums to 10. He has finished no worse than second all season.
Lorenzo celebrated later by mimicking the man on the moon by placing a flag with his name into the top of the infamous Laguna Seca corkscrew.
MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi outduelled fellow Italian Andrea Dovizioso to secure third place in only his second race back after breaking his right leg in practice for last month’s Italian Grand Prix.
Pedrosa, who won last week’s German Grand Prix, had powered ahead early in the 32-lap race before hitting a bump to crash out on the fifth turn of lap 12 to hand Lorenzo the overall lead.
“Dani was pushing so much but I knew if I kept pushing like him, maybe he make a mistake,” a smiling Lorenzo told reporters after recording his sixth win of the season but his first at the US venue.
“I’m sorry he crashed but from then on it was very easy for me because I had a big gap over Casey. I’m so happy to win here at Laguna Seca. This is very special. I rode so well today, right on the limit.”
With nine rounds of the championship to go, Lorenzo leads by a commanding 72 points with an overall tally of 210. Pedrosa has 138 and Dovizioso is third with 115 points.
Pedrosa, who began today’s race in fourth place on the grid, surged into the lead after the first turn before opening a 0.6-second advantage over the fast-starting Stoner after four laps.
Lorenzo snatched second place from Stoner on the sixth lap over the twisting, technically challenging circuit but he trailed Pedrosa by 1.104 seconds with 24 laps remaining.
Pedrosa, winner of last year’s US Grand Prix and bidding for his third victory this season, then slid off his bike as he entered the left-hand fifth turn on lap 12 to gift Lorenzo the race lead which he never relinquished.
“It’s very, very disappointing obviously but this can happen when you’re trying everything to win,” said Pedrosa, who triumphed at Laguna Seca 12 months ago after Lorenzo had been on pole.
“You have to push as much as you can and take risks – and I really wanted to win this race. When I crashed, I was pushing hard to maintain my lead over Lorenzo and my rhythm was good.”
Nine-times world champion Rossi, who needed the help of crutches to walk to his bike before the start of the race, was delighted with his first podium on his return to competition.
“It’s great for me and it is very important to be back on the podium in such a short time,” the 31-year-old said. “It was more difficult than we expected because this track is one of the toughest for the body.”
Courtesy of stuff.co.nz
Alonso Wins Controversial F1 Race
Fernando Alonso celebrates his win with a disappointed Felipe Massa and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.
Formula One was engulfed in a fresh ‘team orders’ row on Sunday night after Ferrari were found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute by ordering Felipe Massa to stand aside and let Fernando Alonso win Sunday’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
The Italian team were fined $100,000 (R740000) on the spot, with the matter also referred to the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council “for further consideration” under Article 151c of its Sporting Code, which basically gives the governing body carte blanche to sanction Ferrari as it sees fit.
Punishments could range from a slap on the wrist to exclusion from the championship, with a hearing not expected to take place until after this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, during the sport’s August break.
The verdict capped a controversial day in Germany in which the stewards also mulled over the legality of the front wings on the Ferrari and Red Bull cars, although these were later cleared.
It was an uncomfortable victory for Ferrari, who should have been celebrating their first one-two since the season-opening race in Bahrain. But they ended up defending their Machiavellian tactics. In an ideal world it would have been Massa celebrating his first win since Brazil in 2008. The Brazilian’s dejection at the end — he looked utterly miserable in the post-race press conference — was all the more poignant for the fact that yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of his near-fatal accident in Budapest when he was hit on the helmet by a metal spring and spent almost three days in an induced coma.
Capitalising on Sebastian Vettel’s poor start from pole and the German’s subsequent preoccupation with Alonso, Massa, starting third, passed the pair on the outside and led the race going into the first corner. Although Alonso generally had the better pace, and indeed briefly passed Massa on lap 21, the Spaniard could not make the move stick and voiced his frustrations to the pit wall, and the wider world, saying: “This is ridiculous.”
Ferrari were faced with a difficult decision and eventually decided to back Alonso, who led Massa by 31 points going into the race. On lap 47 Massa’s race engineer, Rob Smedley, came on the radio to deliver the crushing news: “OK, so, Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?”
The whole world understood it. Two laps later Massa allowed the Spaniard through on the exit to turn six, whereupon a sympathetic Smedley came on again: “Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry.”
It may not have been as blatant a case of team orders as the incident at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix when Rubens Barrichello pulled over on the finish straight to allow Michael Schumacher past, but it was fooling no one. Eddie Jordan, commenting on the BBC, described the incident as “theft”. “They stole from us the chance of having a wheel-to-wheel contest between the drivers,” he said. “Ferrari should be ashamed. For me, it is cheating and these two cars should be excluded.”
Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, was also scathing. “The regulations are pretty clear,” he said. “Team orders are not allowed.”
Indeed. Article 39.1 of the FIA’s Sporting Regulations, introduced in the wake of the incident in Austria in 2002, states: “Team orders which interfere with the race result will be prohibited.”
Ferrari and Massa later tried to claim, half-heartedly in the case of the Brazilian, that the idea had been the driver’s. “I’m very professional and I’ve showed today how professional I am,” Massa said during a heated press conference. “You have your job to do and I have mine.”
Alonso, by contrast, was unapologetic. Asked if he ranked this result up there with Singapore 2008, the infamous race in which Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed his car to help his then team-mate win. “I think you have a very strong result from Ferrari today, one and two, a very strong performance all weekend and if the final thought of the weekend is your question it’s because maybe you didn’t see the whole practice, qualifying and the race,” he said.
Not good enough. Pressed on whether he could understand why some fans might feel cheated, Alonso made reference to Red Bull’s episode in Turkey when their drivers crashed into one another while fighting for the race lead. “Today Ferrari has 42 points [sic; 43] in their pocket, so I think it’s what we are here for,” he noted.
The end justifies the means, in other words. It did not wash with his audience, many of whom booed and hissed, and clearly it did not wash with the stewards either.
It was not supposed to happen like this. Vettel, the darling of the thousands of fans who packed Hockenheim, was meant to emerge from Michael Schumacher’s shadow to press his claims for the world title. He again choked on the start line and finished third, thereby going level on points with Webber in the standings.
It was another spot of plundering in Spain’s bountiful sporting summer. Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, the footballers in South Africa, Alberto Contador in the Tour de France and now Alonso, back in the F1 hunt.
The sport needed him back. Even tarnished by controversy.
Courtesy of The Telegraph
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