Japanese Grand Prix Review

This despite the track itself. Fuji may have the longest straight on the calendar at almost a mile, but the rest of the track felt too short and, especially in the third sector, far too Mickey Mouse. Plus the weather at Fuji tends to be more inclement than elsewhere. Over the years, several sports car and GT races have been postponed or abandoned. Rain may spice things up, but here there is the added hazard of fog, mist and low cloud cover. Is that a risk F1 wants to return to on a regular basis.

It was diabolical conditions like that, that affected the 1976 World Championship decider when the Japanese GP was first held. And, eerily, there was more than a touch of deja vu in proceedings 31 years later. The weather aside, this year has seen bitterness and controversy between McLaren and Ferrari, as there was in 1976. In Lewis Hamilton, here is a fresh-faced Englishman going for the title in a McLaren, just as James Hunt clinched the title at Fuji in 1976.

Due to the weather, this year's race began behind the Safety Car, which is always such an anti-climax because an F1 standing start is a moment of hair-raising excitement - and sometimes the only one in a Grand Prix! It is a function of this safety-conscious era, and whilst no-one wants to see drivers, marshals or spectators get hurt, perhaps an argument can be made that if the race can start at all, it should start properly; if it is so dangerous that it has to start behind the Safety Car, it should not start at all.

The quandary in this instance was that whilst visibility was undoubtedly shocking, with a combination of spray and mist, there was actually not that much standing water on the circuit and therefore not that much aquaplaning. Now, aquaplaning is entirely a safety issue; no amount of skill or bravery can help if you surf off on standing water. Visibility is also, to a degree, a safety issue, but there is definitely also an element of courage and technique involved in dealing with reduced visibility.

Now, there were too many incidents and talking points in this race to cover each one in detail, but the drama began during the Safety Car period with two notable bungles. The first was Ferrari's insane decision to start both cars on intermediates (or the Bridgestone wets, as opposed to the 'extreme wets'). The FIA had decreed that all cars were to start on extreme wets. Ferrari, the team many suspect are in cahoots with officialdom, claimed that they never got the relevant email. It hardly seems a plausible excuse.

If Ferrari were really trying to sneak under the radar, what advantage was there in starting on inters? They may have been hoping that conditions would clear up, but at what stage did that even look remotely possible? Besides, the time they would have lost struggling in the heavily wet conditions (as evidenced by Felipe Massa's spin behind the Safety Car - and the drive-through he rightly received for trying to re-assume his original position) would have negated any gain later on.

The other bungle was the fact that Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso lost a lap by starting from pit lane. The race commenced behind the Safety Car with no warm-up lap. Liuzzi was not released until after the field had gone around once, putting him a lap down. It seems so confusing that the warm-up lap is scrapped if there is a Safety Car start. Ironically, however, by giving Tonio his lap back, his lap as a guinea-pig at racing speeds proved to officials that the Safety Car could be withdrawn and the race could proceed.

Before the field was released though, for a time it seemed like the entire 'race' would be run behind the Safety Car. As ludicrous as that sounded, that was exactly what had happened in the Gold Coast CART race in 2002, won by then-backmarker Mario Dominguez. It would have been a farce, but a certain strategic intrigue, because it would have come down to who had pitted for fuel, when they had done so, and who would have had track position ('queue position'?) when the race was finally flagged.

But the Safety Car was withdrawn, and in that situation the man in the front, in this case Hamilton, was always going to be favoured. Not only did he have a clear track in front of him without plumes of spray to obscure his vision, but he could also afford to play cat-and-mouse with the field, making false starts and backing off, which Lewis did in extremis with Fernando Alonso, before finally flooring it coming onto the front straight. Alonso was never in a position to challenge Hamilton at the restart.

The number of incidents at the restart were surprisingly few, the main ones being Alexander Wurz continuing his recent dismal form (which included another failure to make the Q1 cut) and tagging Massa as he slid backwards into the first corner, and Jenson Button knocking off his front wing in an ill-fated move inside Nick Heidfeld. Button then soldiered on foolhardily without his front wing for several laps, which backed up the field behind him and allowed the front four cars some massive breathing space.

Once he eventually pitted, his day was destroyed before it ended on the last lap with suspension failure. Jenson ought to have been particularly livid with himself because this was a weekend when he could have really starred. Qualifying the recalcitrant Honda in 7th (which became 6th after Nico Rosberg's engine change penalty) reiterated what a rain specialist he is. But he was not patient enough at the restart, and did not get far enough inside Heidfeld. Otherwise, a podium finish was very much possible.

The long Safety Car intervention at the start meant that the race was effectively a one-stopper for everyone from this point, and the battle for the win was effectively decided in Hamilton's favour when Alonso pitted first and came out behind a gaggle of Renaults and BMWs, whereas Lewis pitted later and managed to stay in front of that group. Both then struggled on full tanks and fresh extreme wets, and both got hit - Alonso by Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton by Robert Kubica.

McLaren's comparatively early stops put firstly Vettel, then Mark Webber into the lead. Both of them were simply superb in the treacherous conditions. Whilst he was in the race, arguably this Grand Prix may be the making of Vettel's career. After he pitted, and after he got in front of Alonso by fair means or foul, he was en route to a 3rd place finish. Rain is a great equaliser and allows a driver in inferior machinery to show his worth, but it has been a long time since a young driver in a lesser car had left his mark in such a big way.

Other examples don't easily spring to mind. There were some of Jos Verstappen's wet weather drives for Arrows, there's Olivier Panis' 1996 Monaco GP victory, and there's JJ Lehto's drive in the 1989 Australian GP (even though what most remember from that race is Satoru Nakajima's surprise 4th place). But, after a slowish start to his Toro Rosso career, by getting his car into the top ten in qualifying and potentially scoring a podium, Vettel showed he's clearly a better bet for the future than team-mate Liuzzi.

As for Webber in the wet, he already had form on the board, for example in Brazil in 2003. But the Australian's performance was all the more remarkable given his bout of food poisoning that had kept him up overnight, and which meant that he threw up before the race and behind the Safety Car. To keep concentrating despite that, and to still set the 3rd fastest lap of the race, was awesome. He does not need to keep proving himself to the doubters that he's one of the best half-dozen drivers in F1 at present.

More than that, Webber jumped Vettel in the pit stops, and when the Safety Car came out again he was closing in on Hamilton. With Alonso firstly behind him, and then out of the race altogether, Lewis would have had a championship lead to think about if Webber made a challenge for the lead. For the foreseeable future, Mark may never get another shot at a Grand Prix victory as good as this. He must be wondering if luck is ever going to shine on him in an F1 car.

Martin Brundle opined in his television commentary that, on the strength of this drive, Lewis deserves to be World Champion. We would agree that Hamilton drove faultlessly and speedily in the difficult conditions, and he has done so all season, and that in recent races he has had more adversity to deal with and he has proven himself somewhat, for example with his move on Raikkonen at Monza. But on the whole, there is still no doubt that the cards have fallen his way this year like they have for very few others.

His McLaren-sponsored career progression is one thing, but this year situations in races have favoured him (e.g. the timing of the Safety Cars in Canada, and of his puncture in Turkey), and officialdom has worked in his favour (e.g. Hungary, immunity from Spygate punishment). In this race, the Safety Car start meant he was not challenged into the first corner, Ferrari stuffed up, strategy played to his advantage, he was hit by Kubica without damage, and all his main rivals fell away. His fortune has been incredible.

After Alonso's departure, a moment of careless stupidity from Vettel undid all his good work, as he punted himself and Webber out behind the Safety Car, destroying potential best-ever results for both of them. Sebastian does seem to have difficulties judging braking distances; take for example his start at Indy, and his first lap collision at Monza. Worse still, he blamed a simple lack of concentration for hitting Webber, saying he was focussing on Hamilton, and before he knew it he was in the back of the Red Bull.

The one mitigating factor is this start-stop tyre and brake warming routine behind the Safety Car, which is inherently dangerous when F1 cars have no brake lights. In the past, it has caught out e.g. Button at Monza in 2000, and Juan-Pablo Montoya and Michael Schumacher at Monaco in 2004. Action must be taken to mandate a more constant speed behind the Safety Car. But at the end of the day, everyone else managed to avoid incidents except Vettel, who easily takes out our 'Reject of the Race' award.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Sebastian Vettel
Brain-fart cruelled Webber's victory dream

It was a brilliant charge that saw him overtake Heidfeld, Giancarlo Fisichella and David Coulthard, whilst Massa was conveniently moved out of his way by having to make a final pit stop himself, such that no team orders needed to be deployed. Although he couldn't find a way past Heikki Kovalainen, 3rd place was a good reward on a day when he was fighting a rearguard action all the way, and when with less rear downforce the Ferrari did not look stable in the wet conditions.

The main unsung hero of the day turned out to be Kovalainen, whose terrific points-scoring run continued with a deserved 2nd place after an excellent drive, his first podium ever and Renault's first for the season. The R27s were not set up well for the wet, and in fact Fisichella was ahead of Heikki in qualifying and for the first half of the race, something that we haven't seen for a while. But a brief moment for Fisi on lap 30 put Kovalainen through, and there was no looking back after that for the faultless Finn.

Fisichella himself finished in the points in 5th, his first points since Silverstone as experience paid dividends, although the news that Flavio Briatore has offered a Renault drive to Alonso for 2008 confirms that Giancarlo is now a persona non grata. The other man whose experience told was Coulthard, whose 4th place finish was his best result of the year, although in doing so he overtook Webber on the championship table which, over the course of the season, is a grave injustice.

After Heidfeld retired late in the race with a recurring misfire, the last point for 8th seemingly went to Liuzzi courtesy of a late move on Adrian Sutil's Spyker, but he was subsequently penalised for having made a passing move in a yellow flag zone earlier on when Anthony Davidson retired. It meant that Toro Rosso received no succour after Vettel's disappointment, and given the limited visibility it may have been a rough call on Tonio, but the rules are the rules - although Toro Rosso are appealing.

That one point could make all the difference in STR's constructors title battle with Spyker, as it could decide who comes 9th and who comes 10th, with the resultant travel money bonuses. For the time being, that point goes to Sutil and Spyker, and it may prove to be Spyker's only ever championship point after the buy-out by the Vijay Mallya-Michiel Mol consortium was approved just before the race. It was a welcome result for the team, and one that was always a possibility on a day like this.

Having said that, Sutil disappointed somewhat over the weekend. After his heroics in wet free practice at Monaco when he topped the times, and with his knowledge of the Fuji track and the local weather conditions after his Japanese F3 title in 2006, one expected him to shine more than he did, much in the same way as Vettel. Likewise, with home ground advantage one might have expected Yamamoto to make an impression, but the Spykers only qualified 20th and 22nd and did not catch the eye during the race.

On the track they owned, Toyota did exactly nothing, neither Jarno Trulli or Ralf Schumacher getting past Q2, Ralf not even giving himself a chance after his reckless collision with Yamamoto at the end of Q1. Super Aguri also struggled despite the extra sponsorship they found for this race, in conditions where, again, either Davidson or Takuma Sato could have shone. After some of his other Japanese GP heroics in the past, for example in 2002 and 2003, Taku's race was a damp squib in more ways than one.

And Toyota's honour wasn't even defended by Rosberg, who qualified 6th but had to change his Toyota motor before qualifying, such that he was mired in midfield anyway before electrical gremlins struck. All in all, it was a chaotic day on the slopes of Mount Fuji, and a telling one too. Michael Schumacher's engine failure in Japan last year virtually decided the fate of the drivers championship, and Alonso's crash this year may well have done the same.