F1: Bestowing awards for early season blunders

The 2012 Formula One season has gotten off to an exciting start, with a remarkable six different winners from six races, with five different constructors reaching the top step of the podium. The top of the field is as competitive as never before, with both Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships destined to go to the final laps of the season. However, with the good comes the bad, and several early season missteps – blunders – have left a few teams and drivers looking to rebound. The winners of the early season blunder awards go to …

McLaren

McLaren showed up at the opening round in Melbourne, Australia as the class of the field, running at the top of the timing sheets in all sessions and being rewarded a victory with Jenson Button and a third-place finish for teammate Lewis Hamilton. However, so much of that early promise has been erased by uncharacteristic – for McLaren – gaffs. Problems with tire changes during pit stops have relegated both the McLarens several critical race positions at most every track. More troubling is a questionable qualifying strategy in Spain, where Hamilton lost any shot at victory in the race when his pole winning time was disallowed, pushing him to the very back of the field. There have also been set-up, strategic, and reliability concerns with Button’s car, with his lone victory and one second place finish tarnished by the collection of just two points over the other four races. Compounding the situation is the feeling around the paddock that other manufacturers have closed the initial performance gap found in Melbourne. Simply, the McLaren team has squandered and given away a bushel of potential points for both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles. The good news is the season is young enough to allow a comeback, and the team still ranks second amongst constructors, trailing only Red Bull.

Michael Schumacher/Mercedes

This is an award shared between driver and team. Through six races, Schumacher has two points compared to the 59 of teammate Nico Rosberg. To be fair, Schumacher’s Mercedes team has let him down, with reliability gremlins striking, including a botched tire change in China that eliminated him while running second. However, it’s also worth noting Schumacher’s developing trend of running into the back of cars he’s looking to overtake, a fairly common occurrence during the 7-time world champion’s two plus seasons coming back from retirement, and most recently evidenced in Barcelona when Schumi climbed over the back of Bruno Senna’s Williams. Schumacher’s brilliant pole win at the next race in Monaco went for naught as his 5-spot grid penalty pushed him back into harm’s way, into the barrier entering the first corner, and eventually into the garage with another DNF. Again, with fully 2/3rds the season to go, Schumacher and Mercedes have an opportunity torealize the potential that seems tantalizingly close. The fast qualifier spot at Monaco shows the driver/car capability, but for now, with just two points, a blunder award is the only trophy on the mantle. 

Felipe Massa

Massa has had a difficult time matching the performance of teammate Fernando Alonso, which probably doesn’t make him special, as Alonso is singularly regarded as one of the best drivers in the world. However, Massa has never been just an ordinary driver, and was even an extraordinary driver, narrowly missing out on being the 2008 world champion by just a couple of rain-slickened corners. This year, while under intense pressure from media, fans, and his Ferrari team alike, Massi has simply underperformed. In the same equipment as Alonso, Massa trails his more decorated teammate in points, 76-10. While Massa grabbed eight points in Monaco with a well-deserved 5^th place finish, skeptics look for his struggles to continue, as the slow, twisting Monte Carlo circuit likely hid a great many of the Ferrari’s performance deficiencies. Massa definitely knows the pressure is on for him to perform – his team has said as much. If he wants to keep his seat at a top-tier F1 team, his results have to spike up immediately.

Force India

Coming off 2011’s impressive 6^th place finish in the constructors’ standings and falling just four points shy of Renault for 5^th, Force India was thought by many pundits over the winter as being the best of the mid-tier teams and a strong candidate to evolve into one of the sports heavy hitters. Now, it’s apparent that Force India missed on its design for 2012; they lost the scent of Lotus (nee Renault), who looks like an eventual race winner this year, and have slipped behind both Williams and Sauber. Drivers Paul Di Resta and Nico Hülkenberg wrested a combined 10 points at Monaco with their 7^th and 8^th place finishes, giving the team hope for improved results as developments are made on the car. Until then, though, a blunder award is bestowed for positively missing the mark during the early season.

Selected Media

Some media members are speculating that six winners from six races borders on being bad for the sport, with race outcomes being wholly unpredictable on the nature of NASCAR, and dependent on the follies of tire management and circuit/car compatibility. For sure, there are three other drivers with very real aspirations of winning in 2012 – Hamilton and Lotus’ pair of Kimi Räikkönen and Roman Grosjean. Those bemoaning the current state of affairs will have a better argument if those three win the next three races. But look for repeat winners soon, and for the cream of F1 pit lane to rise to the top in this incredibly competitive, compelling engaging season.

Growing up in Indianapolis, Ray spent the better part of each spring at the “Brickyard,” losing a lot of his hearing, but gaining a life-long appreciation of all things sleek, fast, and loud. Run laps with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.

Reflections of Indy 500 usually hint at hindsight

INDIANAPOLIS – Dario Franchitti won yesterday’s Indianapolis 500, and deservedly so, as Franchitti and his Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon worked their way up to the front of the field, an idea that seemed far-fetched at best as the team struggled to find pace early in practice and qualifications, and made even more difficult with a pit road incident that sent Franchitti to the back of the pack early in the race. It was a fitting win, and sentimental and emotionally-satisfying, what with Frnachitti’s long friendship with the late Dan Wheldon, winner of last year’s race.

Yet, after the emotionally charged victory celebration wore off, talk in racing circles turned to Takuma Sato and his ill-fated attempt to pass Franchitti in turn one of the final lap, an effort that saw Sato’s race end against the turn one wall and Franchitti leisurely roll under the caution flag to his third 500 victory.

Race fans and commentators looked at Sato’s dive into turn one as further prove of the widely held perception that Sato lacks patience and poise on the race course. Even Dixon chimed in, saying, “I don’t know why he didn’t wait a little longer. I really don’t.”

Sato didn’t wait because it was the Indy 500, a race whose storied history and fierce competition demands victory be earned – rewarding those who seize the opportunity to take and leaving those waiting for gifts thinking of what might have been. As 1986 Indy champion Bobby Rahal has said, “the history books don’t talk much about those who finish second or third.”

Sato certainly would have preferred using draft to slingshot past Franchitti on the final dash to the checkered flag coming off turn four. Those best laid plans were pushed out of his mind though when he grabbed a great “tow” from Franchitti at the end of lap 199, one that put him right behind Franchitti entering turn one.

It was an opportunity too good to pass up; an opportunity that if pulled off successfully puts Sato in the annals of racing history, forever an Indy 500 champion. In the end, it was an opportunity that just didn’t work out.

A race as big as the Indy 500 usually teases racers, crews and fans with the allure of hindsight. What if Al Unser, Jr. hadn’t lifted for traffic in turn two in 1989, allowing Emerson Fittipaldi to get a run down into turn three, where the two collided, with Little Al’s day ending along the wall, Emmo’s in Victory Circle? What if J.R. Hildebrand had lifted just slightly in turn four of last year’s race, taking the chance that his margin over Wheldon was big enough to hang on to the finish? 

Hindsight can be a cruel mistress; so tempting, so teasing, yet in the end a futile pursuit. Yet, we can’t help ourselves. 

As for Sato, after the race he said, “He (Franchitti) didn’t seem to be giving me enough space. I was well below the white line. I just couldn’t make it.” Sato thinks Franchitti didn’t give him room to complete the pass, but don’t misconstrue his statement. He’s not blaming Franchitti, just stating fact. He undoubtedly would have done the same thing, given the roles reversed.

It’s the Indy 500. Victory is never a gift. Even hindsight tells us you have to take it.

Growing up in Indianapolis, Ray spent the better part of each spring at the “brickyard,” losing a lot of his hearing, but gaining a life-long appreciation of all things fast. Run laps with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.

2012 Indy 500 – What to Watch For

INDIANAPOLIS - Billed as “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 shapes up to be one of the more intriguing races in recent memory. New engines will be tested for the first time over 500 race-tortured miles. Newly designed cars will create new aerodynamic drafting opportunities for drivers to exploit, and for crews to adjust through numerous pit stops. Placed in the pressure cooker atmosphere surrounding the world’s most prestigious race, you have a great many storylines to follow. Below is what to watch for, whether you’re settling into a seat at the track or a sofa in your house.

Will Power won’t win.

Okay, to be safe, let’s say he probably won’t win. If the IndyCars were running on the Brickyard’s old Formula One road course, Power would be a prohibitive favorite, as his early season form has delivered multiple appearances in victory circle. As he makes his road course success seem so routine, it’s easy to forget exactly how hard he works at his craft. He works hard on ovals too, but he’s still learning more so than doing, and that learning hasn’t shown he can manage a race over 250 miles much less 500. Same goes with his Penske teammate and pole sitter Ryan Briscoe. They will continue their learning curve this year, and good results can be expected, just not the top result.

Helio Castroneves might.

Three time winner Castroneves is the one Team Penske driver that has shown he knows what it takes to lead the last lap. The key is to manage the car’s performance as the track changes over the 3-hour plus race. This year, managing to track conditions is a critical consideration, as the weather in Indy has been hot, humid and free from rain. What that means is a track that will only get more greasy and slippery as the race progresses, placing a premium on keeping the car set-up one step ahead of a changing track.

Andretti Autosport - What a difference a year makes.

The Andretti name is synonymous with Indy drama, and three generations of mostly futile efforts, save patriarch Mario’s ’69 victory as a driver and Michael’s 2005 victory as an owner, have only presented the story as some sort of package of cruel tricks. This was a team that suffered through all sorts of problems last May, unable to even qualify the entire team.  This year, drivers Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Ana Beatriz have hovered at the top of the time charts most every session. While Hinchcliffe starts just inside Hunter-Reay on the front row, look for RHR to outshine his teammates on race day. 

Saving fuel begins with the first drop, not the last.

The Indy 500 is the biggest race in the world, and a race worth taking a gamble if the opportunity arises.  Therefore, the last pit sequence almost always features cars trying to stretch fuel mileage and “steal” a victory. When it comes to mileage, no one does it better than Panther Racing, a team who has parlayed the combination of fuel strategy and strong cars into four straight 2^nd place finishes in the 500. Panther’s strategy starts with conserving fuel from the first lap of the last stint, and gives its driver J.R. Hildebrand a chance to claim the victory that so cruelly eluded him last year. Panther’s lessons learned from fuel conservation runs can’t be overestimated, as it still seems to be an elusive concept to even series stalwarts like Target Chip Ganassi.

Ganassi not quite on target, but not to be overlooked.

The Target Chip Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti has struggled early this season, and the month of May at Indianapolis has been no exception. While certainly not favorites for Sunday, they are not to be discounted entirely. Both are previous race winners and both practice race craft at the highest of levels. But, both are handicapped with a Honda engine down on power relative to the Chevrolet. Look for them in the top ten, but not for the win.

Because good guys do finish first.  Sometimes. One time.

No winner would tug the sentimental heartstrings as much as Tony Kanaan, who deserves an Indy 500 victory if only as a lifetime achievement award for being one of the engaging faces of IndyCar during its difficult post-CART transformation. Kanaan has won almost everything else, including a season championship, but has been jinxed at the Brickyard despite regularly leading laps and running strong. He’s had stronger cars and teams at Indy before, only to fall so tantalizingly short. What makes this year different for Kanaan and his KV Racing team? It’s this year, and with a new cars, new engines, and new drivers, it’s got to be someone’s year, so why not his?

Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.