F1 Japanese GP 2008: The Big Talking Points

There were a lot of talking points in this weekend’s Japanese GP. Again the Stewards got themselves right in the thick of the action, as Alonso surprised everyone by winning his second consecutive race.

Let's look at the main talking points one by one.

Stunning performance from Alonso and Renault

A lot happened in this race but the main praise has to go to Alonso and Renault. Alonso drove really well in Singapore, but admittedly there was a lot of luck involved.

The timing of the Safety Car, and Massa’s incident in the pit lane contributed to the victory massively. Here, though, Alonso was simply supreme, and he won this race purely on merit.

He did very well to qualify fourth on the grid and made the most of the first-turn incident between Raikkonen and Hamilton. The only negative point was losing a place to Kubica.

Alonso was heavier than Kubica but was able to keep in touch with him quite easily. Alonso thought he had the pace to win the race, if only he could get clear of Kubica.

At his first stop, Renault fueled Alonso lighter than Kubica in order to gain track position. Alonso then needed to pull a gap in order to keep ahead of Kubica. He was estimated to be stopping five laps later.

Alonso’s second stint was stunning, and he pulled away from Kubica at a few tenths per lap. Before Alonso pitted again, he was over 10 seconds down the road. Those extra five laps for Kubica were nowhere near enough to close that gap.

In this stint, Alonso was even outpacing Raikkonen. After this second stint, Alonso could cruise to the finish, as Kubica had his mirrors full of Kimi Raikkonen.

This was among Alonso’s greatest drives of his career. Renault have worked very hard to improve the car and have made up a lot of time. At the start of the season, Renault were around 1.0 second per lap off the pace.

At the moment, that has gone down to 0.3 to 0.5 seconds per lap. Considering that Renault’s engine is slower than Ferrari and McLaren by about 3 or 4 tenths of a second, this achievement is made all the more impressive.

If all the engines were equal (as the teams are now seeking) Renault would be at the front on merit. Renault have had to make the car faster in order to persuade Alonso to stay with them in 2009.

After these two wins, the mood at Renault has now completely changed and Alonso is now a much happier driver. All of a sudden, life is looking better for both parties.

The only little nagging issue is how much has 2009 development been sacrificed in order to allow this recent surge? Renault aren’t a giant team like Ferrari and McLaren, so it can’t run the 2008 and 2009 programmes at the same time on full blast.

It will be interesting to where Renault are in next season’s pecking order. Meanwhile, they will look to consolidate fourth in the Constructors Championship in the final two races, which they should do with ease. In fact, it isn’t out of the question that they could challenge for victory again.

Hamilton’s ignorance of caution proves costly.

This race was a great opportunity for Hamilton to extend his lead in the championship. He was on pole and Massa was down in fifth. Second behind Raikkonen would have been a decent result. Hamilton made a poor start and Raikkonen eased past him.

The run down to Turn 1 at Fuji is very long, so Hamilton suddenly sensed an opportunity to get back into the lead. Hamilton tucked right back behind Raikkonen to get the slipstream and then went into Turn 1 too eagerly.

This allowed cars to go past and ruined Raikkonen’s race as he was forced out wide. From then on, Hamilton was in seventh and in danger. He now needed to pass Massa, which he did at the hairpin, but Massa tried to get him back and messed up the move completely and knocked Hamilton into a spin.

Hamilton could have been in a comfortable second position. Instead, he was now at the back of the field with a damaged suspension and floor. This hampered the rest of his race along with the drive-through penalty for the action at Turn 1.

Hamilton simply lost his head at the start. It’s very easy for us all to criticize him, but it feels very different when you are inside the cockpit with the adrenaline flowing through your body. It’s a fact that, as fans watching on TV, we can never get to appreciate what it must feel like.

F1 drivers are like predators catching their prey. Hamilton sensed there was an opportunity to kill and went for it. Once you make the split-second decision, you can’t go into it half-heartedly. Lewis Hamilton is the first to admit he made a big error and should have stayed back. It’s another harsh lesson that Hamilton has learnt this season.

Kimi Raikkonen’s race pace wasn’t that impressive anyway, so Hamilton may have had a chance to get back into the lead later on in the race. Overall, on a cool track the Mclaren was better suited than the Ferrari was. This race was maybe the biggest opportunity out of the final three races for Hamilton to capitalize, but he didn’t.

There is no doubt that Hamilton is cracking under the pressure to earn his first title. He knows he threw it away last season. He is so desperate not to throw it away again, and silly errors have been creeping in.

This isn’t the first time this season when Hamilton has suffered from a bit of brain fade (think back to Bahrain and Canada). Hamilton appears to be making life as hard for himself as possible. However, this isn’t a complete disaster. He has to put this race behind him.

He could also benefit from McLaren having a stern word with him, rather than continuously defending him. Sometimes sports stars need their boss to wrap their arms around them and be comforting.

In this case, someone needs to give Hamilton a talking to and stop him from being his own enemy and throwing away another title.

Can Robert Kubica be world champion? Would he deserve it? Have BMW approached this season wrong tactically?

With Massa and Hamilton having poor races, Kubica closed within 12 points of the championship lead. Hamilton and Massa have had flashes of brilliance along with a lot of scruffy moments this season.

Kubica may not have the fastest car, but he has been very consistent and has hardly put a foot wrong all season long. This has kept him in the hunt.

In Japan, he avoided the chaos and defended Kimi Raikkonen brilliantly to take second place. All he needs is a wet race in China or Brazil, or more errors from Hamilton and Massa and he could win his first WDC.

If he won, he would definitely deserve the title for being consistent all the way through. In a way it would deserve Hamilton and Massa right for some of the silly mistakes they have made this season.

The even more astonishing fact is that since that win in Canada, BMW stopped most of the development on this 2008 car. However, Kubica has still been able to extract a lot from the car.

Imagine if BMW Sauber had continued fully developing the 2008 car and still tried their hardest to keep up with McLaren and Ferrari. It could well be that Kubica could now be even closer to the championship lead, or perhaps even leading the WDC going into the final two races.

BMW are only 14 points behind in the Constructors Championship. You can understand BMW for wanting to concentrate on 2009 development (due to the regulation changes) but could they be regretting that they didn’t leave it until later to concentrate on 2009?

When there is a chance of winning the championship, you have to take it, however small or big it is.

Instead, BMW Sauber gambled on presuming they would be able to keep up the fight and focused their main efforts on 2009 instead. However, they are now in the championship fight despite not really trying. What if they had tried?

They now have to put 2009 on hold and concentrate fully on 2008 for the next few weeks and be in a position to take the opportunity if it comes.

When they look back at this championship and they see how close it ended up being, they may well end up shooting themselves.

Renault were further behind McLaren and Ferrari than BMW were around the time of the Canadian GP. The Renault is now a car that can challenge for race victories despite a weaker engine than its main rivals.

2008 should be remembered as great season for BMW on the face of it. Now it could now be looked at a season with a golden opportunity that wasn’t taken. How many seasons do we see the front-runners making so many high-profile errors?

The three penalty decisions and the current problems with the F1 stewards

Again, the stewards were a major talking point after the race. Let's look at the race’s three incidents first.

Hamilton on Kimi into Turn 1: Hamilton definitely breaks far too late and gives Kimi no option but to run wide with him. It definitely did cost Kimi dearly, but on the other hand this kind of thing always happens at starts throughout the whole pack.

Hamilton is the first driver I have actually ever seen punished for this kind of incident. Apparently, the stewards are told to be less strict over Turn 1 due to sheer amount of cars close together fighting for that same piece of tarmac.

We have seen countless little incidents over the years and even big ones, which haven’t even been investigated. So why suddenly start now?

Hamilton’s move on Raikkonen is nowhere as bad as other incidents we have seen at Turn 1 throughout F1’s history. In fact, it was tiny in comparison to others we have seen.

Therefore, the FIA have set yet another very dangerous precedent for all future GPs. They now have to look closely at every single start to see which drivers have forced someone wide off the track throughout the field and then give them a drive-through.

On this basis, penalties should be given at most GPs at the start. There is almost always an incident at the start of the race in the midfield, which very often results in a car being pushed out wide.

After this penalty will drivers now be more cautious against each other going into turn 1, the same as they are in overtaking into a chicane?

Drivers are now starting to get too nervous to race each other and there is a big risk that all these penalties, which have been given, could soon ruin Grand Prix racing if the FIA are not careful.

Massa on Hamilton at the hairpin: This one is more clear-cut. Hamilton made the move on Massa and the corner was his. He had won the battle! Massa tried to get back to at him and made a very poorly judged move.

He also had four wheels off the track, two off which were in the grass. Massa did some other good moves in this race, but this particular one was reckless in my opinion. He is lucky he didn't lose his front wing, or suffer serious damage as Hamilton apparently did from the incident.

So a drive-through is the fair punishment, but having said that, Lewis got a drive-through for an incident not as bad as this one.

A little food for thought there. The 10 second stop/go penalty was scrapped because it was too harsh and cost drivers too much time. It should still exist for more severe incidents.

Massa’s move on Hamilton was reckless and cost Hamilton any chance of getting a good result from the race. It’s seems silly to just give Massa a drive-through when a Hamilton got the same punishment for a penalty which was very dubious indeed.

Massa on Bourdais as he was coming out of the pit lane: Bourdais and Massa were fighting for position as Bourdais was coming out of the pit lane. Bourdais wasn’t being lapped by Massa, so therefore Bourdais had a right to race Massa.

Bourdais stayed as far out of the way as possible and was even touching the kerb. Massa came round the corner acting as if Bourdais was a backmarker and should move over even more.

Massa hadn’t yet won the corner and virtually ignored Bourdais’s presence. It was Massa’s fault that the pair collided. No fault rested on Bourdais whatsoever.

The 25-second penalty that Bourdais received for this incident has probably been the biggest talking point of the race, even more so than the incidents involving Hamilton and Alonso’s masterful race victory.

The significance of this very strange decision is that Massa earnt an extra point. Many were expecting him to get the 25-second penalty, which would have meant no points, and a seven-point gap to Hamilton instead of five. This could be the difference that gives Massa the championship.

At the moment, there are far too many poor penalty decisions being given in F1, and even bigger a problem is the lack of consistency. A Steward should treat each incident the same whether it involving drivers that are fighting for 19th and 20th places or first and second places.

Very often, this doesn’t happen. Stewards should also ignore where the drivers are in the championship.

The stewards shouldn’t take into account how high profile the drivers or teams involved are. The incidents have to be treated as if they could be between any two drivers in the world driving any car.

There is too much talk and controversy surrounding stewards' decisions, and it’s affecting this championship battle. There has suddenly become a real penalty culture in Formula 1 and, it’s leaving some teams and drivers becoming a bit paranoid.

This dangerous culture is also very confusing for the less hardcore F1 fans (and even for some of the most hardcore fans). The recent views that Ferrari are being favoured by the FIA are only being compounded in some pundit’s eyes.

When you see a BBC interview with Max Mosley in his office with a diecast model of a Ferrari in the background you can’t help but wonder. I like to think there is no bias but its becoming a lot harder to prove.

Something needs to change with the stewarding system. Do permanent stewards need to be hired? Should more stewards needed so that there more than three stewards have to agree on the outcome?

Should ex-drivers who know what it feels like to drive a F1 car be used to act as stewards? I can’t really answer that question, but something has to change.

The championship battle in the last two races

Hamilton now leads the championship by just five points. If Massa wins the next two races and Hamilton doesn’t come second in one of them, then Massa will be world champion.

Overall, Ferrari have the faster car at the moment, so if the next two races are dry and warm, then Massa has to be favourite to take the title unless he makes a mistake.

For McLaren to finish ahead of Ferrari in a race, they need cool track temperatures (as we had in Japan) or rain. Ferrari despite improving their car, still can’t cope with Mclaren on a damp/wet track.

Hamilton has now run out of cat’s lives so to speak and can afford no more errors. Hamilton has to stop making life hard for himself.

Massa has the best chance he will probably ever have in his career to win the title. He will know that if he can get a great result in China, then going into his home race in Brazil, he has a great chance of finishing the job off.

All the pressure also tends to be on Hamilton, and after what happened in this weekend’s race all eyes will be on him in China. Naturally, the pressure is always on the driver who is leading the championship.

There will be serious questions if Hamilton throws away a second golden championship opportunity in a row. The psychological advantage at the moment is definitely Massa’s.

Let's not forget Robert Kubica. He is 12 points behind and well in the fight as mentioned earlier. If there is a wet race, or Hamilton and Massa have another disaster Kubica will be right in the mix. Kimi Raikkonen came back from 17 points behind last season with 2 races to go.

In the last two championship deciding races anything can happen, and in Formula 1 it normally does.

It certainly promises to be an exciting and unpredictable end to the season, even if it has been partly manufactured in the Race Stewards deliberation room in the eyes of some.

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