With Vettel almost uncatchable, here’s five other battles to watch

2011 F1 season

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Webber and Alonso lead the chase for runner-up

Sebastian Vettel can win the world championship without even finishing on the podium in the remaining seven races.

In the constructors’ championship, McLaren could finish first and second in all the remaining races and still lose the title to Red Bull.

But while the tension may have gone at the sharp end of the championships, there are five key contests elsewhere to watch closely.

Runner-up

Sometimes euphemistically called ‘vice-champion’, perhaps more accurately referred to as ‘first loser’, no F1 driver starts the season hoping to finish second.

But with any realistic hope of beating Vettel to the championship gone, the four-way battle for second place reveals much about his closest rivals.

Team mate Mark Webber leads the way followed by Fernando Alonso, who’s been impressive all year in a car that’s only occasionally been in the hunt for victory.

Compare that to team mate Felipe Massa, who has less than half of Alonso’s total.

Hamilton and Button make it a four-way contest for second

Behind them are the two McLaren drivers and it’s something of a surprise that neither of them feature in the top three.

Lewis Hamilton in particular has thrown points, podiums and even potential wins away with misjudged moves and crashes – as was all too obvious on Sunday.

Jenson Button has had to retire twice due to a car problem – that might not sound like much but it’s one more than all the other drivers in the championship top six combined.

With seven rounds to go and 21 points covering this quartet there’s still everything to play for. Who do you think will take the not-at-all coveted P2?

Team battle one: Mercedes

Has the balance of power at Mercedes finally swung in favour of the old master?

Michael Schumacher’s impressive run from last to fifth at Spa, capturing the final place from his own team mate, certainly suggests so.

Although Schumacher is 10-1 down against his team mate in qualifying, he has fared rather better on Sundays, where Rosberg is 5-4 up on race finishes.

Going into the final seven Grands Prix, Rosberg leads Schumacher by 14 points. Who’s going to come out on top in this one?

Team battle two: Toro Rosso

The pressure on the Toro Rosso drivers to performs remains strong. Daniel Ricciardo is learning the F1 ropes at HRT and another Red Bull Development Driver, Jean-Eric Vergne, is well on the way.

Jaime Alguersuari has transformed his season after a difficult start to the year. He has got to grips with the new tyres and got on terms with his team mate. At Spa he produced his best qualifying performance to date, only to be taken out through no fault of his own at the start.

He’s just two points behind team mate Sebastien Buemi. Whoever loses out in this one could find their F1 future in jeopardy. Who will it be?

The midfield

James Key jumped ship from Force India to become Sauber’s technical director last year.

But his C30 is at risk of being overhauled by the VJM04 in the constructors’ standings.

This battle has parallels in the drivers’ championship. Adrian Sutil, who made a faltering start to the season, is closing in on Kamui Kobayashi thanks to two big points hauls in the last three races.

Behind them it’s the battle of the rookies: Paul di Resta versus Sergio Perez, the pair currently tied on eight points each.

Nor should we discount Toro Rosso, who are within range of the two teams in the constructors’ championship.

Force India have finished seventh in the last two seasons. Can they go one better this year?

The battle at the back

Team13th14th15th
Lotus222
HRT100
Virgin022

On pure performance, the battle between Lotus, HRT and Virgin is not close at all: Lotus’s deficit to the fastest car each weekend is at least 1% less than that of the other two.

What makes this battle worth keeping an eye on is the high potential for an upset and the particular importance of it to the three teams involved.

Tenth place in the championship brings significant prize money which would be a boost to any of these three outfits, while 11th and 12th places are unrewarded.

With none of the three likely to score points, their ranking is decided by who has the highest finishing position in a race. And it could be decided by something as random as a first-corner crash.

Liuzzi gave Lotus cause for concern in Canada

Sound unlikely? It nearly happened in Canada, where Vitantonio Liuzzi’s 13th place moved HRT in front of Virgin. Had one more car in front of Liuzzi dropped out, HRT would be tenth at the moment.

Lotus have two 13th places so they’re ahead for now. But reliability is their vulnerability – seven technical retirements is the most of any team this year – and on a day when several of the front runners drop out that could be their undoing.

Who do you think will come out on top in these battles? And who else are you keeping an eye on in the championships?

Have your say in the comments.

2011 F1 season


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Images © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, McLaren, Motioncompany

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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100 comments on “With Vettel almost uncatchable, here’s five other battles to watch”

  1. Considering Team Lotus now have the Renault engines which are ranked as being much better than Cosworth, is there not an argument that Virgin and HRT have done a great job to keep so close to them? We always seem to talk about the three backmarkers as though Team Lotus are light years ahead of HRT and Virgin, but its just not the case.

    1. Considering Team Lotus now have the Renault engines which are ranked as being much better than Cosworth, is there not an argument that Virgin and HRT have done a great job to keep so close to them?

      I would say not – Lotus have moved forward but as they were all so far behind last year they’ve got little to show for it in terms of results.

      Lotus are much closer on performance to the midfield than they were last year. Compare this year’s performance data:

      https://www.racefans.net/2011/08/21/car-performance/

      With last year’s:

      https://www.racefans.net/2010/12/13/2010-in-stats-part-three-car-performance/

      It’s true that Lotus are no closer to Red Bull than they were last year, but as the midfield in general has fallen further behind Lotus have reduced the gap to the likes of Toro Rosso and Williams. And we’re starting to see the consequences of that in qualifiyng and races.

      1. Looking at those stats, relative to Red Bull, they actually haven’t improved that much if at all.

        It seems more of a case of the midfield becoming slower, relative to Red Bull, in 2011 compared to 2010 allowing Lotus to reign in by abit.

        I think it’s more of a case of the midfield becoming slower than Lotus really improving so much.

        1. Everyone is constantly improving and moving forward, albeit at different rates, so we need to look at the relative picture rather than absolute pace.

          Compare the two graphs with only the new teams and, say, Force India selected. The 2010 graph shows a clear gap between Force India and the three new teams bunched together, with Virgin fairly close to and sometimes faster than Lotus. The 2011 picture shows a more even spread – the gap between Lotus and Force India looks smaller.

          HRT are essentially using the same car as they had in 2010, so are closest to being a control – they were 5.06-9.67 seconds off the pace in 2010, so far this year it’s 6.46-11.31 seconds. Looking at the performances of Williams and Sauber, it’s clear that two historically strong midfield contenders have slipped back from the ultimate pace. Lotus have done a decent job to keep moving forward.

          The picture is fairly clear that Lotus is improving faster than some of the midfield teams – but they’ve still got a long way to go.

          1. Nice job there TimG with looking at those statistics and filtering the information for us.

        2. I think made a step forward. Now they are halfway between Virgin and the midfield teams, while in 2010 they were much closer to Virgin and HRT.

        3. Looking at those stats, almost all teams, apart from HRT and Virgin, are on average further away from Red Bull Racing in qualifying this year compared to last year.

          So yes, that includes the midfield. But it also includes Ferrari and Mercedes, and very much Renault; McLaren seems to have held on a bit better, and FI have clawed back a bit. Most teams are a in the order of a second worse relatively in most races, although it is interesting that Red Bull’s Hungary extra pace over FI, Merc, McLaren & Ferrari is much reduced.

          In Hungary, Lotus and HRT were a second closer this year too; Virgin lost two seconds, they are losing out. But all things considered, Lotus is doing well to hang on, and is doing a better job than most midfield teams in keeping their relative pace up, that’s why they are nearing them.

      2. Doesn’t Lotus get the Renault engines next year?

        1. Lotus already have Renault engines, Williams get them next year.

          1. Ah, right. not prime time for intelligent comments in my defense.

  2. Whats the fastest a season has been over?

    Also all these battles make for what could have been one of the greatest F1 seasons ever, but with Seb’s dominance it downgrades it ALOT. Because 1st is still most important.

    1. Schumacher won his 2002 title in July. There’s a good chance this one won’t be settled until October so there’s quite a difference.

      1. I don’t think theres alot of difference. Vettel may not have won it yet officially, but needing 4 DNF’s just for 1 other competitor to draw level, to all intents ‘n purposes it has been over since mid-summer.

        1. But using the same standards, you could argue that by all intents and purposes the 2002 season was over even earlier still.

          The furore over the Austrian GP (the 6th race of the season) was partly because everyone knew Schumacher effectively had the championship sewn up already, and didn’t need the 4 extra points

    2. 2002, Schumacher won it with 6 races left, in a season with 17 races. Vettel’s not going to beat that but arguably this WDC will be even more impressive.

      1. under that points system, Vettel would go to monza with a small chance of wrapping it up there.

        1. under that points system, Vettel would go to monza with a small chance of wrapping it up there.

          Fair point. Surely under that system, Schuey would have wrapped up the 2004 season after 11/12 races or so…

          1. Although, thinking about it, under this points system, Schumacher would have wrapped up the ’02 season after 12 races… 140 points ahead of closest challenger Montoya.

            After 12:

            MSC 276 (9 wins, 2 2nds, 1 3rd)
            MOY 136
            RSC 132
            COU 115
            BAR 112

            After 17:

            MSC 380 (11 wins, 5 2nds, 1 3rd)
            BAR 223
            MOY 175
            COU 158
            RSC 157

            Similarly in ’04. Schumacher wrapped up the season under this season in Belgium, as he did irl.

            After 14:

            MSC 318
            BAR 206
            BUT 158
            TRU 116
            ALO 112

            After 18:

            MSC 369
            BAR 271
            BUT 206
            MOY 146
            ALO 146

            Vettel can, still, wrap this up at Singapore…

            If Vettel wins at Monza, and Singapore:
            Webber needs to score 18 points to stay in contention,

            Alonso needs to score 28 points to stay in contention,

            Button needs to score 26 points (2 2nd places) to stay in contention,

            Hamilton will be no longer mathematically able to win.

          2. Sorry, Button needs 36, not 26

      2. True, given that he already broke last year’s points tally with still 7 races to go…

        1. so if Seb wins the next 5 races, he’ll be better than schumis 2002 season (17 races in)

  3. Great article Keith, esp. on the back of the grid teams. We tend to forget just how tense it is for them too.

    1. Performance based however, it shouldn’t be tense. Lotus are in a league of their own at the back – but a mix of bad reliability at the wrong races have left HRT and Virgin in with a shout. I think Lotus will still edge the two.

      1. The battle between Virgin and HRT is quite cool to watch. However er next year I expect Virgin to pull away.

  4. I think the race for second in the championship will ultimately be won by Webber, but it’s such a close battle it could realistically be any of them. Alonso is driving so beautifully at the moment but the Ferrari’s hard tyre deficiency is a bit of a problem. Button hasn’t always got it right in qualifying but with it being easier to progress in races this season, it hasn’t mattered as much. He’s also been driving beautifully this season and you’d be a fool to bet against him should there be any more precipitation this year.

    Hamilton has had the speed all year but his mistakes have held him back. If he calms down then he has every chance to take second, but if he carries on like he has been most of this year I don’t think that the odd impressive victory will be enough to overhaul the consistency of Button, Webber or Alonso.

    The Mercedes battle is an interesting one and I can see that going either way. Both are having great seasons and although MSC has made the odd faux pas in races, he’s countered them with some brilliant drives to score big chunks of points. I’m going to stick my neck out and say Schu will just take it, but only by a point or two.

    I’m very impressed with both Toro Rosso drivers this year. Jaime has overcome his struggles and appears to be developing into a pretty neat all-round driver. Buemi is a bit feistier but has a decent level of pace. As they’re so evenly matched, they’re either both brilliant or both average and it’s hard to decide which. You don’t really hear rumours of either of them going to another team or anything – is that a sign that other teams don’t really rate them? Who knows. Based purely on the fact that I like Seb more than Jaime I’m going to say Jaime will come out on top, because nothing ever seems to go right for me in F1 these days!

    Force India have got the momentum at the moment, and Di Resta is making far less silly rookie errors than Perez. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Paul ending up with more points finishes by the end of the year, but Perez to score bigger when he does. Sutil has really turned it around of late whereas Kamui seems to have slipped into anonymity. Now that the teams are getting on top of the tyres, Sauber’s ‘don’t pit’ strategy isn’t paying off as much, and I think it could cost them 6th in the championship.

    I don’t think anything will change at the back. Heikki is driving too well, Trulli has his confidence back with the new steering and the car is coming on decently. Reliability may be an issue with them, but for most of the other teams it is not, and it would take a pretty crazy race (certainly crazier than Canada, which was pretty crazy) for a HRT or a Virgin to finish 12th. Virgin could pip HRT to 11th, but I think HRT have a stronger driver pairing and the cars are fairly closely matched on most circuits.

    1. I agree with your very long and detailed comment :P Webber should win 2nd place if he shows his Spa form and doesn’t have any disasters butt he real question mark over Webber for me is whether he’ll win a GP this season.

      I’m mightily impressed with Fernando because I really don’t think he should be 3rd and with Ferrari they way they’ve been this season I can’t help but feel that he will end up behind the Mclarens in the table at season’s end. One of the big questions for me is Button vs Hamilton. I think with the amount of trouble Hamilton’s found himself in this year it’ll probably be his best chance to finish ahead of Lewis but if Seb wraps the title up soon maybe that’ll Lewis calm down a bit.

      Agree with everything you said about STR and that’ll be interesting to watch. I’m rooting for Buemi too.

      I think Paul will beat Perez and that he’ll do something a bit more spectacular late in the season. You’re right about Kobayashi I’d forgotten about him recently until his Hamilton clash.

      1. I think Webber will find it easier to win races once Vettel has sewn up the Championship.

        No evidence or anything to back that up, but a general gut feeling….

        1. You may be right but Vettel is very greedy when it comes to stats, I think Webbers only chance of a win is a serious mistake or crash by Vettel, not because Mark is not fast enough but because the team role for Mark is to finish 2nd. to maximise points for Red Bull and minimise points for the others. I am not suggesting Mark is being sabotaged merely that he is given the conservative strategy ( for instance, at Spa he drove all but 4 laps on the primes ) and his pit strategy is often dependant on what it will mean for his team-mate, or what information it will give the team so they may choose an informed strategy for SV.

          1. i actually thought of the same thing with mark webber’s role in redbull. they wouldn’t let webber near seb!

          2. they wouldn’t let webber near seb!

            He can beat Seb occasionally, wrecks his own chances on lap 1.

          3. Webber’s best chance of a win is if he gets off the line cleanly!

  5. I think Hamilton is over-driving the car. He is probably frustrated by the speed of the RB7 and is pushing much too hard to compensate.

    I think Vettel over-drove his car last year too, trying to make up from the two DNF’s from the start of the year.

    Look how much better he has driven after winning the first two races this time. Makes you wonder if Vettel hadn’t retired from them last year, if 2010 would have ended up much like 2011 is now.

    1. True. Vettel cannot always handle the pressure of trailing his teammate, and others, when he has a monster of a car underneath him. He managed to get his act together at the end of last season to win. But I would have to agree, if he didn’t have those 2 mechanical issues at the start of the 2010 season, he would have wrapped it up earlier with a whole load of more confidence.

  6. Bet365 are taking odds on a mini championship from Spa onwards, but Vettel has got off to a flyer in that too.

    1. Hmmm… I wouldn’t bet against a close battle between Sebastian and Button in that mini Championship. My estimations of Jenson have gone up a long way this year.

      1. If Button can beat Hamilton this year, that will be a massive thing for Jenson especially, people will have to sit up and take notice.

        1. If he does he will be the first person to ever beat hamilton as a team m8 in formula one and could well be the only one to ever acomplish that feat.

  7. Here are my guesses on who will win each battle:

    Runner-up
    Mark Webber.

    Team battle one: Mercedes
    Nico Rosberg

    Team battle two: Toro Rosso
    Sebastien Buemi

    The midfield
    Force India

    The battle at the back
    Lotus

    1. Pretty close to my predictions as well

      Runner up – Webber (Only because Ferrari are focusing on next year’s car already)

      Inter-Team Battle one – Rosberg

      Inter-Team battle two – Buemi

      Team Battle two – Sauber, but only just from Force India due to Kobayashi’s heroics

      Battle at the back – Lotus (Heikki seals it with a 11th place finish or possibly a point)

      1. So… as it is now then? I wouldn’t be surprised. The only two I think will change are Alguersuari beating Buemi and Force India beating Sauber.

        In fact the battle for 6th is interesting. I think Toro Rosso could be a dark horse for at least 7th. Sauber seem to be dropping back now that their “don’t pit” strategy isn’t working as well. Toro Rosso are improving every race and I predict points for them in Monza and wouldn’t bet against that in every race to come. Force India and Sauber are a bit more hit and miss, although Sutil is more consistent recently.

    2. good guess, the most likely possible event

  8. perhaps a battle between ros mas and msc if massa continues his amazing ability to squander available points in the ferrari

  9. Every team on the grid still has a mathematical (though far-fetched) chance of beating Red Bull, but even a perfect string of victories for Felipe Massa would not catch him up with Sebastian Vettel. I guess it goes to show how lopsided the point distribution between both the Ferraris and the Red Bulls have been.

  10. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the inter-team battle at McLaren separately Keith. I think Lewis is at risk of starting with the even number next year. As a friend of mine LOVES to point out to me, Lewis has never been beaten by a teammate over the course of a season.

    1. It’s in the first one…

    2. I wouldnt get too excited just yet – There was a point even last year when Lewis fell behind button (down to mistakes by Lewis and not by being beaten fair and square by jenson on track).
      Lewis will beat Jenson by the end that is ‘for sure’!

      You see button is only close to Lewis in points thanks to the mistakes & badluck of Lewis. Its not as if jenson is beating Lewis whilst both have good GPs. In fact you can even say that in races like canada, monaco & spa..had Lewis stayed in the race the chances are that Lewis wouldve finished infront of jenson.

      As even jenson himself has said: “If you have a bad day…Lewis will destroy you….But if you have a very good day and he has a very bad day then he can be beaten”.
      -Note that jenson didnt say anything about beating Lewis if both are having a good day.

      Jenson must be hugely thankful and continues to hope and rely on Lewis making mistakes…thats the only way jenson can keep close and make himself look better than he is.

      1. I see the key word there is ‘mistakes’. I take it that’s the sign of a great driver?

        If so, well done Lewis, score. I guess Jenson better start driving into people and maybe then he will be in the same league as the truly magnificent Hamilton…

        (May contain sarcasm.)

        1. Lewis does make mistakes,and IMHO, 2011 has been Lewis’ poorest season do date.However, I still have enough confidence to put every cent of my savings on Lewis beating Jenson.

          There is a vast gulf in class and abilities between the two drivers, and to actually think Jenson will finish ahead of a top notch driver, is laughable.

          And I am not a Hamilton fanboy btw

          (Contains no sarcasm whatsoever)

          1. I don’t agree. simply because we are well past the half way mark and Button has put himself ahead.

            No doubt Lewis is faster. But Button is usually not too far behind and if Lewis made another mistake or two he might not be able to outscore Button enough to catch him.

      2. I don’t know. Jenson had two car failures that dropped him in the points. Had that not happened he’d be well ahead. Lewis is the one making mistakes.

      3. You see button is only close to Lewis in points thanks to the mistakes & badluck of Lewis. Its not as if jenson is beating Lewis whilst both have good GPs. In fact you can even say that in races like canada, monaco & spa..had Lewis stayed in the race the chances are that Lewis wouldve finished infront of jenson.

        Well, had not jenson retired at Silverstone and in Germany, he would have been much ahead of Lewis by now. He was aleast 12 points ahead of Lewis before the British Grand Prix. Just because Lewis had “mistakes & badluck” in races that Jenson won, doesnt not mean that he is a poor racer. I mean, if Hamilton is that good, he shouldnt have done those mistakes after all. And crashing into other cars are not “mistakes & badluck”. Its stupidity.

        Cut that guy some slack, he is a world champion after all and a better personality that Lewis.

      4. The problem is that Hamilton is always making mistakes… So it doesnt matter too much how quick he is. If he is in front, ok, all goes fine. Otherwise…

  11. Compare that to team mate Felipe Massa, who has less than half of Alonso’s total.

    can’t believe Ferrari still employ him.

    1. Yup, I would love to see someone else at Ferrari next year who could really push Alonso and make things uncomfortable for the guys in charge of the team.

      But maybe we’re being unfair to Massa, maybe he will push Alonso further in 2012. Or maybe he’ll be even worse, as DiMontozemolo seems to like the idea of Massa staying and the team having a firm 1 – 2 set up.

      1. yea, they’ve been a “1-2” team for quite a while now. There was the year where Massa beat Kimi, but that was down to Kimi not caring anymore.

        I think that if they want to be a “1-2” team, they should have a #1 like Alonso and a young potential star (Kob, Per, or one of those guys).

    2. Well, another Brazilian who drove for Ferrari scored less than half the points of his teammate in 2001, and stayed on for 4 more years.

    3. Why? I can’t see them not having the second driver be “support”, and Massa is about as loyal as you will get. Not only that but he works well within the team.

    4. he ruined Ferraris chances of getting back the infamous no 3 and 4 and alot of money and respect.

  12. Runner-up:
    Mark Webber – Once Vettel wins the title, I expect Red Bull to help Webber clinch 2nd in the championship for a clean sweep (which they should’ve won last year too). Very similar to what they would do… at Ferrari.

    Team battle one: Mercedes
    Michael Schumacher – Michael came on strong at the end of last year, and I expect that to happen again this year. But this will be very close, maybe just a handful of points apart either way.

    Team battle two: Toro Rosso
    Jaime Alguersuari – He has shown better pace recently (notably, qualifying 6th at Spa), but has usually been unlucky to convert that to points. I think that while Buemi will generally perform better, Alguersuari may get one big points haul to leap him over Buemi.

    The midfield
    Force India – Sauber has traditionally been an early bloomer, fading away midseason as the current season’s budget whittles down. In addition, I expect that James Key got a bigger slice of financial pie for the first car he had input in for 2012. As such, they may be giving away the battle to Force India to eventually win the war.

    The battle at the back
    Lotus – HRT are short of cash. Virgin are short of a windtunnel, and won’t get that set up for some time yet. Short of the field being wiped out to allow these teams to score points, this is Lotus’ battle to lose.

    1. Oh, and for what it’s worth, I think it’ll be Button 3rd, Alonso 4th, Hamilton 5th.

      1. I think you might well be right on most of that Journeyer.

  13. This highlights what a ridiculously poor job Massa is doing this year. Almost worth an article in its own right. Alonso is a class act, but there’s no excuse for how far behing Massa is in the standings, especially as last year was his come back year and this should now be on the pace.

    1. His points gap is better than Webber’s and Seb’s, his pace this year has been better than last year’s despite his poor qualifying record and he was very close to getting pole at Canada and was in the mix early season particularly at China. He’s also been really hurt on occasions by Ferrari’s pit policy they seem to have implemented where the leader pits first. At Silverstone for instance, he was doing quite well but then he had to stay out on old tyres while he waited for Fernando to stop and Alonso’s generally better at saving his tyres. He’s not in Alonso’s league but I think compared to last year he’s upped his game.

      1. I’m with Steph. Massa has been much closer this season than the points gap suggests – and he’s not been immune from a bit of bad fortune either. Also Don’t forget that he not only out qualified Alonso at Spa, but he did so by a second.

        1. Outqualifying Alonso by a second at Spa was meaningful to Massa, his race pace improved the next day to an extent.

          But it was a changing-conditions session.

        2. watch the qualifying again. alonso didn’t have a clear lap because of perez.
          also to me there are better drivers for the ferraris eat than perez,he hasn’t shown anything,speed or talent. the only time he has score is when he makes 1-2 pit stops less than the others.
          Di resta looks to have lots of talent. kobayashi,etc.

      2. I agree on Massa Steph. He has outqualified Alonso 2 times already by his own speed and skill.

        And if you recount all things going wrong strategy (being 2nd) with pitstops, punctures etc. he really should have been higher up to reflect that.

        1. The problem is:

          2010 after 12 races:

          97 points, 3 podiums

          2011 after 12 races:

          76 points, 0 podiums.

          Alonso:

          2010 after 12 races:

          141 points, 2 wins, 5 podiums

          2011 after 12 races:

          157 points, 1 win, 6 podiums.

          I’m afraid, as much as Massa is a likeable person, his race pace has been absolutely dreadful this season… Finishing only 5th and 6th in races where Alonso has picked up podiums and a race victory… :(

      3. Jack Flash (Aust)
        2nd September 2011, 4:03

        Sorry. As of end Spa GP – Webber has scored 64.5% (167) of his team mate Vettel’s 259 point haul; whilst Massa has scored a measly 47% (74) of his team mate Alonso’s 157 points haul.

        What has ‘point gap’ got to do with relative performance assessment?

        Ferrari have the biggest disparity (by far) between driver points schievments. Massa is tanking badly.

        As for Webber, with Vettel getting 1st (25)so often, and getting the best points margin advantage of +7 over closest rival points for second (18), it is even harder for Webber to have stayed as close to Seb percentage wise. Yet somehow he’s managed to be lightyears better at that, then Massa.

        I like lil’ Massa; but even his most ardent supporter can’t argue with math. The SF will not tolerate this much longer. WCC is still important to a marque team like Ferrari (not for survival, but prestige and pride Yes!) JF

    2. Massa has beaten Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull driver only on four occasions this year, if you discount retirements.

      He was ahead of Hamilton and Alonso in Malaysia, beat Alonso in China and Button in Europe. Everywhere else he has been worst of top three teams’ drivers.

      1. But you could argue that the Ferrari is the worst of the top three cars anyway, and I don’t think you’d find many people arguing that Massa is better than Alonso, Button, Hamilton or Vettel anyway – at least not with his present form.

        I don’t know what else they could do – anyone else (with the possible exception of Rosberg) would be a sideways step at best

        1. Invest in some promising young blood? At least, having half the points will not be so dreadful to a newbie.

    3. Sid watkins the foremost doctor on formula one accidents said it will take 3 years for massa to fully recover. If he’s correct felipe should not be 100% untill hungary 2012. When sid watkins is saying that i think you have to give massa a break. So long as a team are willing to give him that time don’t criticise untill hungary 2012.

  14. Its only now I’ve realised how much of a shocker Williams is having this year.

    A sole point to Maldonado over the weekend increased their points tally by 25%.

  15. Battle to watch? Mark and the green lights. Once he wins that one, he’ll surely win a race…

    god dammit, do it, mate!!!!!!

    1. :)good one!

    2. There are no green lights!

      1. Better tell Webber that!

    3. Jack Flash (Aust)
      2nd September 2011, 4:17

      If Mark is waiting for the appearance of Green Lights at the race starts, that explains the poor take-offs then!

      1-2-3-4 then 5 Red Lights —> Lights Out (Go!).

      I have no idea why the first clutch setting seems to throw the Renault Engine into low revs and anti-stall in Webbo’s car all the time. It isn’t a release timeing problem – its a 1st cluth bite versus rev problem. Who is setting up the clutch grab point/revs for him?…. The Redbull work experience kid.????? Its like 1 long season full of start-hiccups one after the other. He could have contested for the win at Spa with the 7 place drop at the start. Same could be said of a lot of Webbos races, wrt lost start places.

      Vettel isn’t totally immune, but he has not had anywhere near the grief and effect, compared to Webber. *** Redbull?

  16. The part about Hamilton couldn’t be more wrong. Yes, he crashed twice but those 2 instances were racing incidents, not driving errors on Hamilton’s parts.

    Moreover, what do you make of McLaren’s blunders in Hungary (which cost Lewis the win), Malaysia (tyre management), Silverstone (fuelled him light)? Those 3 team mistakes cost him potentially 2 wins and 3 podiums.

    Yes, he has made contacts with a few cars and made some moves that he probably would not have made in hindsight but the fact remains that he’s trying to compensate for what is a slower car. If a flawless Button is 100 points back, then it shows how slow the MP4-26 is to the RB7. That is, much much slower. Same for Ferrari.

    1. If Hamilton’s point tally would apparently be a lot higher without team errors, then Button being 100 points behind is due to his lack of pace compared to Hamilton and Vettel, not the car. The Mclaren is definitely not far slower than the Red Bull.

  17. If we had the battle for 2nd as the battle for 1st we would be on to an even better climax than we had in 2010. Sadly that is not to be, but I won’t grumble. I’m happy enough for Vettel to take his second championship.

    Lewis should be a little worried. Jenson is 3 points ahead of him with 1 extra DNF, as a result I can see him coming out a little strong at the end of the year than he did last year.

    1. Oops. Just remembered, Lewis also went out in Canada. But I guess my point still stands in a way. JB’s DNF’s are down to mechanical/pit-crew failure whereas LH’s are down to driver error.

      Of course the scoring system makes no differentiation between the two but it shows that Lewis needs to keep his head down just a little bit.

  18. But his ‘C31’?
    should be C30.

    1. Changed it, thanks.

  19. In a way I think NR has already won the battle with MS…in this sense…last year having MS as a teammate seemed daunting at the start, with Brawn even predicting MS to be 2010 WDC…how must that have felt for NR? Yet he was unphazed and went on to best MS.

    This year in spite of MS coming on stronger recently, NR still remains unphazed in year two, after they had a chance to adapt the car more to MS’s liking for 2011. He has overwhelmingly beat MS in quali, and the fact that MS is catching up on Sundays says it all…catching up…ie. NR leads…and at 14 points advantage, it’s going to take MS several more races if he is to match NR’s points. So maybe with a few races left to go this season, MS might match his teammate who has never won a race in F1.

    I think huge kudos need to go to NR not only for still outpointing MS after more than a season and a half, but that start NR got at Spa was thrilling and showed such potential if he can find himself with a better package. And if MS ends up ahead of NR, it will only be by a few points, and NR will having nothing to hang his head about given he is a 7 time WDC and it will have taken him practically two seasons to do it.

    1. Soooo any thoughts on the other battles Robbie? Nope just the one where you can bash Schumi! Well, you’re nothing if not consistent… ;)

      (Yes I know I’m not commenting on them either and tbh I agree with alot of what you’re saying about Nico and Michael – but I’ve got to get back to work sometime!)

      1. Lol…actually if you read closely enough you can find some compliments for MS in what I have said…eg. having MS as a teammate must have been daunting at first…

        In general I wouldn’t think as highly as I have been about NR if it wasn’t MS he was beating, so take something positive about MS from that.

        As to the other battles, I have felt all along it would be SV even with talk starting 2 or 3 races ago about him having some competition from the likes of MW, LH, FA and JB…I said jokingly at the time those 4 drivers would have to collude amongst each other and decide that they would all vote for one of them to go after SV because them splitting points amongst each other will ensure an SV WDC.

        FA is obviously the man at Ferrari and has been for a while…I like JB over LH because LH seems to lose concentration and make mistakes while JB has been calm cool and collected and has shown us some great stuff this year…I have yet to believe LH can truly handle the pressure when it is at it’s greatest, in spite of him being a WDC. And I have also always felt Mac if for LH so to see JB thrive in that environment is great. I guess I would prefer to see JB achieve second place in the WDC amongst the others who aren’t SV, but FA getting there would be cool too.

        1. That should read “Mac is for LH…”

  20. Well personally in my opinion, I believe the race for the Title is over and I would love to say it’s Fernando’s but sadly it goes to Sebastian Vettel.
    Runner up I think Fernando can get it, has work to do, Ferrari needs to understand the tyres better and improve strategy.
    Schuey will win the Mercedes battle.
    Torro Rosso’s team battle has to Jamie.
    I hope Force India are king of the midfield as I hope Hormone Replacment Therapy get to be best of the rest.
    Lewis
    Whamilton gets a special award for being worst driver of the year…

  21. I think Force India, with their current form,, have a chance of catching not only Sauber but also Renault. They need to start getting both cars in the point though.

  22. here’s something nobody has mentioned. Alonso has 1 DNF (was taking out by button in canada),button and hamilton have 2 DNF(most of them due to the driver’s fault) and webber 0 DNF .
    Yet alonso is only 10 points behind webber with a car that is the third best ,while button and hamilton have has the 2nd and the 1st fastest car in the grid as the same can be said about Webber.
    It just shows the kind of driver Alonso is.

  23. SEBASTIAN VETTEL – World’s youngest double WDC, confirmed.

    Mark, Alonso, Button and Hamilton will keep the races alive for us I’m sure.

    Mark lost out on nearly all his starts this year, am really gutted when watching him slide back from the starts. But great when he begins the Webber charge, he’s a bull. Best overtaking move (Eau Rouge) of the year on Nando at Spa on Sunday.

    Nando’s been himself as always but the mediums has been Ferrari’s weakest point.
    He’s been rated the best overall driver, well earned with all my respect.

    Button, the coolest cat amongst all drivers, I don’t know how not to like him. Jense lost out big time with 2 DNFs. And Jessica is a classy lady by his side.

    Hamilton still as fiery as ever but too many mistakes, remove him from F1, it will never be the same.

    Monza!!!

    1. totally agree with everything you said!

  24. I want to enjoy to see who ends up to be the first loser. & also where do Schumacher finish in terms o his team-mate.

  25. Well, I want to see how Senna does this weekend. It was a disappointment, indeed, last weekend with the rookiesque crash, but I want to see how he fares against Petrov. How’s the weather? If it is wet, maybe we have something special…Remember Vettel?

    I don’t think Monza is aschallenging as a circuit as Spa, (as a couch F1 driver) but sonehow it ends up producing some of the most exciting races.

    Probably will be a win for Alonso this weekend, it normally goes well for Ferrari there, but the interesting and unpredictable result will be from 6 backwards. Kamui Kobayashi seems a bit out of form lately, specially in qualifying. I think we’ll see Jaime Alguersuari in the limelight again. He’s still the youngest on the field, right?

  26. The most worrying thing about Vettel and Red Bull all but having won the title already is that they can probably afford to throw more development into next years car, giving them an even larger margin over their competitors.

  27. Off topic Keith i found this in Formula 1 backstage by DHL facebook page:
    “Williams cancelled a press conference at Spa because “recent reporting has been too negative and the drivers need to concentrate on doing their job”. Unofficially, the reason was that they didn’t want Rubens Barrichello to have a moan in public about the team not clarifying his situation for 2012. What do you think the future holds for him?”

    D heard about this?

  28. Given that you noted Button had 2 mechanical retirements, perhaps it would have been fair to note the same is true of Schumacher, especially given Rosberg has none, and that is the battle you were discussing.

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