Champions go back to front
The topsy-turvy 2009 Formula 1 season means the biblical prophecy "the last will be first and the first will be last" has come to pass for some drivers.
The pacesetting Brawn has catapulted Jenson Button from last season's humdrum 18th place in the standings for Honda into a 21-point lead at the top of the drivers' tree.
But fate has not been so kind to former champions Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.
Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, is ninth in the table, followed in 10th by 2008 champion Hamilton and his predecessor Raikkonen.
While Raikkonen's Ferrari team say they have switched focus to 2010, there were signs in Germany that McLaren and Renault have made significant steps forward.
Hamilton started in fifth for McLaren, before a prang on the first lap effectively ended his race, while Alonso eked enough out of his Renault to set the fastest lap of the weekend.
For once the former McLaren team-mates are agreed; both expect further progress in Hungary.
McLaren arrive at the Hungaroring with further upgrades to the MP4-24 predicted to yield "a sustained attack towards the front of the field", while Alonso says Renault's updates are "much more competitive".
The pair may well be gearing themselves up to lock horns at the front but The Mole tracked them down to find out how world champions really cope in reduced circumstances.
"I still enjoy fighting," says Alonso, who had the TV cameras glued to his battle for 13th place with Hamilton and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica at the British GP.
"It may be a more fun race to drive because I need to make up some places but if you are fighting at the back it's not a normal fight.
"You don't care too much if you lose or gain the battle."
Since accepting over the Turkish GP weekend that his title defence was over, Hamilton agrees his main motivation is the thrill of the competition rather than its rewards.
"You are still racing, regardless," says the 24-year-old. "As drivers we love to race.
"Whatever battle I get, whether it is for last or at the front, it is exciting."
Exciting maybe, but the annals of Formula 1 show there are 16 one-time world champions in the sport - and Hamilton will want to make sure he doesn't stay as one of them.
In the fickle world of F1, champions often find their push for multiple titles blunted by their equipment or by their desire.
Jody Scheckter retired at the age of 30 just one year after winning the title for Ferrari in 1979.
The South African felt his desire had been quenched and won just two points as he strolled through 1980 to fulfil his contract with the Italian marque.
The mercurial James Hunt also admitted to losing his appetite for the dangerous sport after dramatically capturing the 1976 title - although a troublesome McLaren the following season hardly helped his defence.
"It's difficult, when you're used to a good car and you go to a bad one, to maintain the interest and the competitive edge," Hunt said.
Remarkably, Damon Hill had already been told he had no future at Williams before he had even won the 1996 crown and was forced to spend 1997 scrabbling around at the back of the pack for Arrows.
There should be no such worries for Hamilton and Alonso.
Their desire remains undimmed and, with Hamilton signed up to McLaren until 2012 and Alonso strongly linked with a move to Ferrari next season, the equipment to match their talent seems secure in the long-term.
"I'm happy the fans enjoy my battles now but they should wait for more exciting battles for more important things in the future," says Alonso.
"When you are fighting for the podium or for the victory, the fight is more intense and the adrenaline is very high."
Last season, Hamilton replaced Alonso as the youngest ever F1 champion, at the age of 23 years and 301 days.
When it comes to winning another title, time is on their side - but for the former world champions there is no time like the present.
© MMX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~34~RS~)
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i think marclaren will come back and do even better next year
also lewis Hamilton will of learned so much more then the previous two years
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How is it that a car or a team can go from being so competitive in one season to being so uncompetitive in another? And vice versa? Does this add significance to the outstanding job Ferrari did with Schumacher ensuring he had a competitive car year in year out? And maybe even diminish his feat as a diver? Who's to say that if Ferrari had better competition during his reign as world champion, we would have seen Schumacher win far less championships?
The point I'm making with all this.... does it really matter anymore how good a driver is when a dozen of drivers could win the championship given the right car?
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I reckon both Alonso and Hamilton will win a race each before the end of the season, it wouldn't surprise me if McLaren and Renault had the strongest cars come Abu Dhabi...
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@2 If you want to look at the team, and say they make the winners, then Brawn is your man. How many world championships did Schumacher win without Brawn? Having said that, I still think that Schumacher was a great driver, was as much part of winning those championships as his team and deserves his titles.
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@2 The difference with Schumacher was that he was able to surpass the cars capabilities or wring out the maximum the car could produce in any given situation time after time. The competition he had at the time of his dominance obviously could not match his ability and only shined in certain circumstances allowing them to win certain races and beat him. Currently Vettel when he is in the front wins most of his races but when he has a car in front of him he is average e.g. Germany is a prime example of several of this years races. We have yet to see him competitively overtake another car, Massa let him past in Barcelona, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of his season goes now Renault and Mclaren seem to be more competitive. I still think Jenson is the most balanced and smooth driver with his competitive car he is almost certainly going to win the championship especially if the upgrades at Hungary improve the car.
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It's good to see both Renault and McLaren advancing, but will that compromise 2010 development? I hope they follow Ferarri's example and concentrate on 2010 after this raft of updates, which could lead to a much more competetive 2010 than 2009.
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@2 Yes Brawn/Schumacher/Ferrari did an outstanding job in that era but from memory there wasn't a huge shift/change in the rules during that time so it was advancement on the previous years cars. what's happened to Ferrari & McLaren this year is the rule book(tech regs for the cars) was ripped up & changed from last year. You had teams last year give up on there cars and start on this years cars halfway through the season but Ferrari & McLaren were fighting for the championship till the end of the season so continued developing the cars forfeiting this years development whilst the rest of the pack were looking towards this year & the team which started earliest & spent the most Brawn(formally Honda)
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@2, the reason for Maclaren's poor performance this year is the 100 million dollar fine they got landed with the year before last. It had to come from somewhere and so it came out of the future development budget. The reason for Ferrari's decline is simple: they got rid of the Englishmen who knew what they were doing, and replaced them with Italians who, quite frankly, weren't up to the job. Oh and Ross Brawn left.
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How is it that a car or a team can go from being so competitive in one season to being so uncompetitive in another? And vice versa? Does this add significance to the outstanding job Ferrari did with Schumacher ensuring he had a competitive car year in year out?
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Not really no. The situation this year is unique because of the sheer amount of technical differences. Whereas in previous years even though every part of a car was new, it was always an evolution, the best were always startign from a better point than the worst.
This season they all started from scratch, except that some teams started developing back in June last year whereas Ferrari andMcLaren did not start until November.
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@7 Thanks for that.... makes sense.
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I have been quite impressed with Alonso this year, he remains really competitive wherever he is in the field- you can tell he is a battler.
http://jumpersforgoalposts1212.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/fans-unite-to-save-our-clubs/
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I'm not a huge fan of F1 but looking on from the outside it strikes me that it is not really a sport but more of an engineering competition. Jenson Button leading by so many points proves this - from journeyman to world beater in the space of 12 months. I believe the drivers are fairly incidental to the whole process of winning a race - maybe a better measure would be some computer output that measures the effectiveness of the cars instead of having to watch them go around a track?
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Schumacher was a brilliant driver, no one else would go wide intentionally lap after lap to remove rubber bits on the edge of the track corner to clear the way for an overtaking move later in the race... and he made it stick... every driver has their faults but nobody else would have won as many races in the same car.. yes hamilton is off the pace but his lust for it has gone as it was in his first two seasons... doesnt seem to care as much... anyway... great year to see other teams and drivers doing well for a change....
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I love F1 but I do agree with some comments on here that it has too much about the car and not the driver but how do people think we can change this but still keep the cars as high tech and advanced as they are? End of the day I think we F1 fans just want more racing and overtaking from the drivers?
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Thank you for cheering up a humdrum Thursday with a delicious picture of one of the all time great. Who cares how many world championships he won!
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As a big maclaren fan ,i hope they ge it right this weekend a top four place in qualifying will put us with a good chance of being in the points and accelerate our improvement.
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As a Brit all I want is a Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button 1-2 finish in any order.
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A good driver won't win in a bad car, but it doesn't follow that a bad driver will win in a good car. Schumacher didn't always have the best car in the field- certainly in 1995 the Williams was much better than the Benetton.
It's strange how it's only in F1 that people whinge about it being more about the car. You never hear people slagging off McCoy or Dettori for having no talent, even though it's the horse that does all the work.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
If the F1 was purely about the cars, then team-mates would always finsih (aproximately) equal in the champtionship. You only have to look at the differences between Button and Barichello, or Schucmaher and any of his team-mates to see that.
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Good points there, kermitbantam (although jockeys also have to contend with the fact their steeds have minds of their own, unlike race cars).
Unless people just want an A1GP clone, they will just have to accept that some cars are better than others and that as a result, the drivers are not competing on a level playing field.
As someone already said, it takes an exceptional driver to make an average car compete at the front of the grid (as Schumacher did at Benetton), while an average driver can be successful in a great car.
However, what the drivers contribute towards the development of the car is just as crucial as the input of the designers and engineers who build it. Testing parts and models in wind tunnels and running simulations on computers can only do so much. Driver feedback from testing or in races can be just as important. This was another area Schumacher excelled in.
So don't knock the drivers too much.
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Nice blog, Mole - however, I don't agree with Noahsark4040 that Lewis has lost his desire - he's a racer, unlike a few of them, he drives the socks off the thing all the time, whether it's for first or last place - witness his scrap at Silverstone with Fernando and Robert K. Compare that to the third of the three ex-champs on the grid, Kimi 'the Ice Cream Man' Raikkonen, who looks like he's doing a Jody Scheckter and going through the contract-fulfilling motions - it seems beneath what shreds of dignity he might have left to exert himself and give it a go. Looking forward to an interesting race at the H-ring (not often we can say that!), and if the Brawn updates work, we might even see a dice for the lead ...
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If Mclaren do manage to turn around this season then there is a potential benefit to Brawn and Jenson in particular. With Mclaren currently being so far behind on the points if they do start competing then they could take valuable points away from Red Bull and ease the pressure on Brawn.
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Interesting debate going on meanwhile about the Brawns and Red Bulls as to who is better in which temperatures. Brawn apparently were very happy with their setup this morning and were full of confidence but this is going to be the warmest day of the weekend and it's already been shown that they're a little way down on the timesheets. Red Bull were still up towards the top despite both drivers lacking grip in the heat. It's due to get colder in Hungary which will surely play away from the Brawns? You've got to think that if Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Kovalainen or Rosberg upset the balance and make either of the front 2 rows, or as Hamilton almost showed in Germany, the 3rd row, they can seriously upset the balance, the KERS cars in particular. Also nice this morning to see Jaime Alguersauri going nicely despite being 20th. No shame in that. Also good to see Kovalainen take the bull by the horns and top the sheets.
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