Luminous Vettel! Luckless Honda!

Whatever your opinion of the penalty given in Spa last weekend, the world championship has certainly been blown wide open because of it. This added to the fantastic Monza GP this afternoon has created a very exciting prospect for a Championship with only four races left.

Who says F1 is dull!? For the third straight year it’s looking like Brazil may be the deciding race, and the future of the sport is not looking too shabby either with arguably one of the best (and youngest) grids for a long time. However, for we Honda fans the future is all we have to smile about!

Whilst Sebastian Vettel in his Toro Rosso stormed past the chequered flag in P1, Honda’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello could only manage 15th and 17th.

For the first time in ages, the whole weekend was a treat. Unfortunately, Honda was not able to capitalise on a topsy turvy grid that saw the world champion and championship leader only manage 14th and 15th respectively. No doubt Saturday belonged to Toro Rosso, and deservedly so, but what happened to Honda’s two ‘wet specialists’!?.

Much like Mclaren’s mistake with Hamilton, Barrichello made a mistake with tyre selection. According to Rubens, due to miscommunication when he came in for a stop he was given new tyres and wing reduction. When in actual fact he had wanted the exact opposite! Button’s troubles were simply due to the fact that he couldn’t warm the tyres up, he couldn’t handle the RA108 which probably drove like a kart on ice!

Both drivers were shocked and disappointed at their positions (JB 19, RB 16). Despite knowing that rain was going to be a factor, neither RA108 was able to cope with new tyres; yet again Honda failed to break into Q2.

Sunday’s race was simply great, Vettel shone, cars other than McLaren and Ferrari overtook one another and the weather reports remained as useful as an umbrella in Hurricane Ike!

Jenson started from the pits, although he didn’t lose much time due to the safety car start, he later said that his tyres and brakes had been far too cold. He then struggled in the spray with poor visibility before ending up in a fight with his friend, (but 2008 nemesis) David Coulthard. This compromised his middle stint and ultimately his race. Towards the end though, with worn wet tyres he began to pick up the pace. For a while he was even ahead of World Champ and Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen! Which is somewhere Jenson had not been for a long time. Unfortunately, at the end of the day after his stop for intermediates, he only managed 15th. Jenson admitted that the team had not had a good weekend (again!).

Poor old Rubens only hope for a decent result was a risk that didn’t pay off. The use of slicks with 10 laps left was a gamble, alas, the track was too wet. Rubens reckoned that perhaps sticking to wets would have moved him up in the end, but that there was nothing really to lose in trying something different, P17 was all that he managed.

Though Honda struggled again, this is surely further evidence that they have scrapped this year in favour of 2009. By this time last year the RA107 had improved, it was able to break into Q2 more regularly, and at Monza 2007, Jenson managed Q3 with a 10th place time, with Rubens managing a hard fought 12th; on race day Jenson raced his way to 8th place and Rubens came 10th. The fact that the RA108 is going nowhere illustrates that development of it has surely stopped (fingers crossed). This, I believe is a great decision. Whilst it is depressing watching the Honda’s come away again with nothing, this weekend did produce a great GP.

Monza 2008 ended with the victory of a truly deserving and thoroughly nice guy. The future for Honda is hopefully positive, no doubt the future of F1 is looking great!