Monday, May 10, 2010

F1 Spain 2010

Redbull completely dominated both in qualifying and in the race. Webber edged Vettel for the poll. Webber critically stayed in front of Vettel through the first corner and avoided the same situation from Malaysia. After that, Webber cruised to his first win of the season. The Redbull remains fragile with Vettel having a brake problem which prevented a one-two finish, but he still managed to nurse the car to the finish for a well deserved third.

Even though there were a few fights for position all through the field, overall the race was quite boring. I was hoping the fight between Button and Schumacher would be epic, but Button gave Schumacher way too much respect. Button had the faster car but Schumacher's experience made up the difference easily. And of course, passing is the number one problem in F1, which didn't help Button's efforts.

The teams brought a lot of upgrades as expected for the first race back in Europe, but not all of it worked. Unfortunately, Redbull's improvements did work, which made them look even stronger. Not being allowed to test anything except on race weekend is going to play a role this season as there still four contenders vying for the constructors' title.

Ferrari had their own version of the F-duct. It gives a massive 9 km/h advantage in straight line speed over the Redbull, so there's no doubt that the F-duct is effective. However, watching Alonso drive with one hand while activating the system was a little worrying. Alonso is more than capable of handling it of course, but it just increases the chance of a mistake. There's talk of banning F-ducts next year.

The best moment in the whole race was Alonso being told on the radio that Schumacher was holding up the field. Now there's something you don't hear everyday! Surprisingly, Schumacher was quicker than Rosberg which led to speculation that he is being sidelined at Mercedes in favour of Schumacher. I hope that is not the case, as it is a waste of a talented young driver, which would be a real shame.

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