Spirit over money – a continuation
Karel Jílek ,sr./foto J.Křenek | 11.5.09 | Komentáře - K.Jílek Sr. 2009
F1 comments Karel Jílek, jr.
In the comment after three races, I put a lot of stress on the contrast between the rich "factory" men and the "men from a garage" in their attitude to new technical rules. The advantage of the latter, thanks to their imagination, seemed to be just temporal, at least in the eyes of informed commentators. It was believed that Europe would change the trend. The reality for the wealthy teams is, though, even worse than you might have expected. .
Even after Bahrain and Barcelona the drivers of Brawn and Red Bull are unthreatened in the lead, while Renault, McLaren, BMW and Ferrari merely scavenge. .The technical advantage of Brawns, exploiting their supreme aerodynamics with a perfect balanced chasis, allows both drivers to avoid risk and mistakes from unnecessary balancing on the edge. Moreover, when it is supported by an excellent team management, the Button's four victories, two doubles and the lead in the Constructors Table are no wonder. In Red Bull the main engine of success is the front axle with unusual grip allowing for the fastest corner entry speed, mainly in the wet. Thanks to the overall better grip the cars are very fast in the minimum of laps, which is suitable for qualifications, in the race itself it is smaller handicap against Brawn, both for top speed or tire wear. The third of the best teams, Toyota, uses its ability to reach fast qualification times, losing speed in the races, which has been their old problem. .It is not without interest that the drivers of these three teams take the first six positions in the Drivers Table after almost a third of the Championship. .In the category of "the rich" the biggest loser is McLaren, which, in the course of innovation, brought uncompetitive cars to Barcelona (Hamilton finished a lap behind no matter how hard he tried, Kovalainen had to retire from a desperate position with a technical trouble). Ferrari got faster with new aerodynamics but a catastrophic strategy deemed Räikkönena to start from the back and Massa, in spite of deliberate giving up three positions, almost ran out of fuel. Renault's only asset is the more than excellent determination of Alonso and BMW profits from a minimum weight of Heidfeld, scoring a point now and then, but a better results still remain a dream for them. .Considering this reality it appears that there is no hope for a change in favour of the big teams. This argument is also supported by the ban on testing during the season and the fact that computer simulations on their own are basically useless. An independent viewer then could easily come to the conclusion that FIA's effort to limit the costs and the influence of major car producers is justified and their possible absence from the Championship might not be significant at all.
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