Mercedes at war

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

The 2014 Formula One World Championship took another dramatic twist as the two title contenders from the same team collided at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

Championship leader Nico Rosberg tried to overtake Britain’s Lewis Hamilton on the second circuit of the 44-lap race, but touched the back of his teammate (pictured below), puncturing a tyre on Hamilton’s car and forcing him to retire. Rosberg went on to finish second and extend his championship lead to a healthy 29 points, with seven races remaining.

The damage is done and Lewis Hamilton thinks this was done on purpose by Nico Rosberg

What followed was even more gobsmacking. Hamilton has since told the media that Rosberg admitted to deliberately crashing into him on purpose. So, with this story set to rumble on for the next fortnight, here is my take on the dire situation that has pushed the Mercedes team to war.

The build-up to the incident

Tension has been bubbling underneath the surface between Hamilton and Rosberg this season, with some barbed comments in the media and a few tense, but thrilling battles on-track. Hamilton often prevailed in these, leaving Rosberg behind in the wheel-to-wheel racing. His lead has been built on strong consistency, whilst Hamilton hasn’t had huge amounts of luck with car failures at the Australian and Canadian Grand Prix, along with two qualifying nightmares recently that have seen him at the back of the field on raceday.

In Hungary last time out, Hamilton ignored a team order to allow Rosberg through. It was an unnecessary instruction given out by the team, as they were on different strategies at the time. Rosberg was unimpressed by the handling of it and Hamilton’s refusal to work with the team. You sensed something was brewing before the summer break. As they arrived back in Spa, it became clear that body language was becoming strained and the previous friendship had all but been shattered.

Rosberg grabbed pole position in qualifying, but bogged down at the start on Sunday, handing the lead to his championship rival. What happened next was inevitable. On the second lap, Rosberg got into Hamilton’s slipstream and tried to pass around the outside of the Les Combes chicane. Hamilton gave him space, but was clearly ahead on turn-in. Rosberg had a chance to back out of the move, but didn’t. He left his front wing in the danger zone and clipped Hamilton, puncturing a tyre immediately on his rival. Despite needing a new nosecone at his first stop, Rosberg benefited hugely from it by still finishing second, but it has opened up the biggest story of the 2014 season.

Did he do it on purpose?

Looking at the onboard footage and the live action at the time and I don’t think you can say that Rosberg did what he did on purpose. If he did, then he did it extremely cleverly, so no-one would know. It wasn’t as clear-cut as when Nelson Piquet binned his car deliberately into the wall at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. You would expect Rosberg to be precise and not make things obvious.

If it is true that he did admit to crashing into Hamilton to prove a point, then it is unprofessional and totally unsporting. Effectively, he is cheating his way to the championship and if he wants it so badly, he can have it. However, we can only go from Hamilton’s version of what was said. It came in a post-race debrief when obviously tensions were high and emotions still pretty raw on the surface.

It is the kind of behaviour that we don’t want to see. Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher have both deliberately tried to take opposition out of an event to try and win championships. In Schumacher’s case (1997), he failed and his creditability took a battering for it.

I would say looking at the various angles and agree with many observers that it was a clumsy and unnecessary overtaking attempt, especially so early on by the championship leader but would put it down as a racing incident. If he did it on purpose, the book should be thrown at him, meaning severe penalties or even removal of his FIA super license because you can’t do that. Unfortunately, only Rosberg knows what he did and I don’t think he will be telling us in a hurry.

Hamilton is no saint

Hamilton is no saint either though. He hasn’t forgiven Rosberg for screwing him up in qualifying in Monaco, when Rosberg went down the escape road and caused yellow flags in the dying stages of Q3, preventing Hamilton from taking pole position. It is time he got over that and he admitted to the BBC yesterday that “Monaco was worse than this.”

He drove back to the pits like an absolute lunatic. I don’t know what speed he was trying to do through the flat-out Blanchimont corner on three wheels but it wrecked the bodywork and cause more damage to his aerodynamics. That made the car even more difficult to drive and led to inevitable retirement in the closing stages. If he had taken greater care in getting back to the pits, less damage would have been caused and he might have recovered to rescue some points.

From lap 20 onwards though, he was constantly moaning on the team radio about the need to save engine mileage and they should stop the car. Mercedes showed no leadership in this situation and should have told him to be quiet and just drive. For Hamilton to mentally show no heart in racing before half-distance and basically give up though lacks class. We want British sportsman to go down fighting, even if they come up short. He failed that test and you don’t see Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel say or do that, when you consider the limited machinery they have been given this season for all their talent.

Hamilton should take stock of the situation. Of course, he was unlucky in this scenario but react better to it all. By provoking reactions with what he said afterwards, he should have kept things in-house. Still, at least he hasn’t attacked his teammate on social media yet…free telemetry anyone!

He has a supporting family, a gorgeous girlfriend, a championship-winning racing car and earns millions of pounds through driving and various sponsorship endorsements, yet he still at times acts like a spoilt kid. Lewis turns 30 next year, and these tantrums should be long out of his system.

What happens now?

With seven races left, it will take a miracle for a Mercedes driver not to win the championship, although if they keep fighting amongst themselves, Daniel Ricciardo has the ability to sneak in and shock them, just like Kimi Raikkonen did to Hamilton and Alonso when they fell out as McLaren teammates in 2007.

It is important for racing to be the focus, and therefore, Mercedes need to try and regain some form of control. Getting their drivers to say absolutely nothing in the next nine days before the paddock reconvenes in Monza for the Italian Grand Prix would help for starters.

Then, they need to get their warring drivers to call an uneasy truce in the short-term, because if they carry on like they are and throw away this championship, you can be sure that someone will pay the price from the racing team. The board in Stuttgart should be concerned with what they witnessed.

After that, one of the drivers has to move on and with Rosberg tied down to a multi-year contract; Hamilton will probably have to leave. It is clear that he can’t work together with Rosberg. The relationship has broken down past repair on a long-term basis. With a new partnership about to start with Honda and Ron Dennis back at the helm, could a return back home to McLaren be looming? Do not rule that thought out...

Formula One in 2014 has been a quiet season in all forms. As only a casual viewer nowadays, what happened in Belgium yesterday though makes it box office material between now and the unpopular Abu Dhabi double points finale in November. 

Categories: 2014, Accidents, Belgium, Consistency, Formula One, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Nico Rosberg, Puncture, Tyres

Imola at 20: How lucky was Rubens Barrichello?

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

This week marks the 20^th anniversary of the nightmare at Imola in 1994 for Formula One. It was a weekend of catastrophic events that changed motorsport irreversibly. On Viewing Perspectives this week, I am looking back at some of the events that made the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix such a hellish weekend for all concerned in the sport.

Imola at 20 continues tonight with a look into the accident that started the weekend’s chain of terrifying accidents. Grand Prix’s luck ran out in the days afterwards with the fatal accidents of Roland Ratzenberger and of course Ayrton Senna but it remained intact just about on Friday, 29 April 1994. Rubens Barrichello had a huge shunt at the Variante Bassa but escaped with only minor injuries. However, how lucky was Barrichello to survive his crash at Imola?

The prodigal Brazilian

A young Rubens Barrichello was considered by many to be the country’s next bright spark in Formula One. At just 21, he had made his debut in the sport in the previous year and despite not having decent equipment at his disposal, Barrichello put in some starring performances in the Jordan Hart car of 1993. Only a fuel pressure problem robbed him of a famous podium in just his third race at Donington Park and he finished a fine fifth on his first visit to the testing Suzuka track, home of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Barrichello was loved within the Jordan team and was retained for 1994. Together with fellow youngster and countryman Christian Fittipaldi, who had moved to the solid Footwork squad, both were considered as potential heirs to Ayrton Senna who took great time in mentoring the young prodigals of Brazilian motorsport.

Rubens started 1994 on a crest of a wave. A fine fourth place finish at his home event was followed by a maiden visit to the podium with third spot at the Pacific Grand Prix at the tight and dusty TI Aida circuit. He arrived at Imola in second place in the championship with seven points. Only the dominant Michael Schumacher had also scored in both world championship events.

Desperate action

Barrichello was 10^th fastest in the Friday morning practice session before afternoon qualifying and looked like he would be in the mix with the Sauber cars, the Tyrrell’s and Martin Brundle’s McLaren for qualifying positions inside the first five rows. That all changed on his first flying lap.

Approaching the end of his first quick run, Rubens lost sudden control of his car in the second part of the fast Variante Bassa chicane just before the pits at Imola. He then caught an outside kerb at some 140 mph, which immediately launched him into the air. By sheer luck and nothing more, Barrichello hit the final row of tyres at the top of the barrier, the momentum and speed enough to roll his Jordan car twice, before remaining upside down when it came to a halt.

He was knocked unconscious and the session was immediately stopped with Senna having just gone fastest. Less than 20 seconds after impact, an over-exuberant marshal turned Barrichello’s car over and gave the unconscious driver a sudden jolt. While this individual was only trying to do his job, this could easily have given Barrichello serious spinal injuries from the landing. Luckily it didn’t and only around 60 seconds later, Professor Sid Watkins and his medical team arrived at the crash site to treat the driver (pictured below).

The medical team arrive only moments after Rubens Barrichello's huge accident

Precautions were taken to stabilise the 22-year-old. Watkins managed to prevent Barrichello from swallowing his tongue which was blocking his airway. If the Doc hadn’t managed to do this, it is almost certain he would have died. It would have been a similar outcome if it was catch fencing and not tyre barrier that Rubens had hit. Sheer luck plays a part in this story.

He was taken to the circuit’s medical centre. Senna was one of the first to go and visit him, before telling reporters; “He’s alright, he’s shocked of course but he’s alright.” After being transferred for further observation to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna, Barrichello was released the next day and returned to the circuit briefly to say his farewells to his pitcrew. Only a broken nose prevented him from taking part in the remainder of the weekend’s activities. Along with an evident cut to his lip and bruising, he was so lucky to not be the first victim of this weekend.

Confidence

Qualifying resumed as normal once the track was cleared. The majority believing the worst of the weekend’s moments was behind them. Damon Hill described the feeling back in 2004, saying: “We all brushed ourselves off and carried on qualifying, reassured that our cars were tough as tanks and we could be shaken but not hurt.” Everyone would have agreed with this sentiment until Ratzenberger’s fatal crash a day later.

The late F1 medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins, who died in September 2012 after a short illness wrote in his 1996 book ‘Life at the Limit’: “By the time the helicopter took off to take Rubens to hospital, we were all fairly confident that he was going to be alright. Spirits were high; congratulations to the medical team were welcomed. The system had worked and the result was joyful.”

Barrichello put aside his own personal grief after Senna’s death and claimed Jordan’s first pole position in a wet qualifying session at Spa later that year. He finished sixth in the drivers’ championship in 1994 and went on to drive in over 300 races for Stewart, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn GP and Williams, winning nine races and coming in as runner-up in the championship standings to teammate Schumacher in 2002 and 2004. After a year in IndyCars in 2012, Rubens is now racing stock cars in his homeland and also entering into a media career with TV Globo in Brazil.

Sometimes, you are lucky in life and there is no doubt that Rubens Barrichello falls into that category. Fate and fortune were on his side that day at Imola and we are all thankful that he went on to have such a strong and likeable career that spanned another 17 seasons after Imola in 1994.

Categories: 1994, Ayrton Senna, Imola, Jordan, Motorsport, Professor Sid Watkins, Rubens Barrichello, Tyres, Variante Bassa