Martin Brundle reviews an absorbing Korean GP which saw Adrian Newey in unusually confident mood and has left Ferrari - and McLaren - in urgent need of upgrades for India...
Some fans and indeed several people in the F1 paddock thought the Korean GP was boring.
It was rather static up front even if we were watching with baited breath to see if Sebastian Vettel's right front tyre would go bang. I asked the team afterwards if they were simply trying to stop Vettel from pumping in fastest laps to collect yet another 'token' or whether they were really concerned. It was the latter, although Pirelli seemed rather more confident to say the least and Vettel set his fastest lap and the fastest time through the very technical third sector of any driver in the race as he 'protected' the right front in sight of the finish line. Mark Webber achieved fastest lap in the sister car.
Red Bull are very much back in dominant form. For me the most significant fact was Adrian Newey's goggles on the grid, strange as that may seem. A jet of champagne directly in your eyes hurts for some hours and when you have two drivers on the podium who adore your design skills the problem doubles. As Vettel and Webber rushed forward to waste Mumm's finest, Newey pulled on some ski goggles he had hidden away, a typically elegant Newey solution. Unusually for him, he had clearly considered victory a distinct possibility. He knows the aero numbers, he knows they have finally cracked the 2012 F1 cars and tyres.
After Lewis Hamilton's gearbox failure in Singapore, Vettel has led every one of the 145 laps since. A crushing display by a man sailing towards the 2012 title, although we've thought that about others earlier in the season. Red Bull have more upgrades again in India in ten days time, it's simply relentless. Vettel could yet still match Sir Jackie Stewart's 27 victories within 99 races, and indeed three world titles.
And still Alonso believes he can win. He is a textbook case study in positive mental attitude. When I hear him in the press conference or on Sky Sport F1 pre and post race rationalising why he will win I don't think 'well you have to say that' or 'dream on', I simply think 'well reasoned, you're absolutely right'. It's surely part of his mind management when in the car too as he continually brings it home to a decent haul of points unless he gets wiped out in combat.
Mark Webber had a very strong weekend with a sensational effort for pole having missed most of Practice Three. He gave Vettel no quarter on the first lap and kept him mostly honest in the race, but the matchstick kid from Germany was sublime.
If you don't mind looking further down the field for your F1 pleasure then it was a great race. There was wheel-to-wheel action all the way - such as the race long battle between Hulkenberg and Grosjean which went the former's way for sixth place. Hulkenberg's double pass on Grosjean and Hamilton in turn four was one of the moves of the season.
Grosjean was, though, jumping out of the way at every opportunity as he desperately tried to finish the race without contact. He looked in a trance all weekend and admitted race morning was very uncomfortable for him but he cleverly saw the first lap turn three carnage developing and dived out of harm's way.
Meanwhile, we are expecting the impressive
Hulkenberg to move to Sauber for 2013.
Poor old Felipe Massa finally gets his mojo back these past few races and seemed genuinely faster than team-mate Alonso in the race but had to hold station which is no big surprise. It wouldn't be easy to choreograph on the hoof but it seemed sensible for him to pass Alonso and have a go at catching and passing Webber before yielding to the boss near the end, but actually Alonso was saving his tyres for a late charge. Massa will surely be confirmed at Ferrari for 2013.
The Toro Rosso boys Vergne and Ricciardo did a great job again making their way through the field with some juicy racing action. It looked as if they would succumb to Hamilton's ailing but freshly super-soft Pirelli booted McLaren near the end, but a broken rear roll bar from lap 18 onwards meant that Hamilton was burning up his tyres despite the team's best efforts to help with different rear tyre pressures and front wing level. A single solitary point was all McLaren could achieve despite that valiant effort from Hamilton who just held off Sergio Perez of all people, and that was despite scooping up and trailing round a sizeable chunk if artificial grass.
McLaren have dropped to third in the
Constructors' Championship and Hamilton and Button are realistically out of the
Drivers' Championship battle.
Kobayashi's first lap assault on Button and Rosberg was clumsy and unnecessary to say the least and robbed us of a chance to see a recovery drive from JB after missing out in qualifying under yellow flags. It undid a lot of the good work KK achieved in Suzuka for his first F1 podium seven days earlier.
We wait with great anticipation now to see which goodies Ferrari and McLaren can introduce in the closing stages. Otherwise I can't see them stopping Vettel from scoring the treble unless something bizarre happens.
MB
