The Challenge

Rambles and Riff Raff about all this and that

Canadian Grand Prix

Published by Esteban Glas on June 12th, 2007 | This post lacks all category except for: BMW, Cars, Formula 1

Jim blogged about AT&T Williams performance on yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix, held at the Isle du Notre Damme at Montreaux.

Luckily for the post I had in mind, Robert Kubica is miraculously safe so I can freely state it was the most entertaining Race this season.

From green light (well, the five red lights turning off, actually) to finish it was full of action and position changes. Yet, places 1 and 2 were defined on corner number two. After an excellent start, Nick Heidfeld almost grabbed the lead; yet both McLarens forced the BMW to take a not-quite-ideal ratio for corner 1. With Nick Glued to Hamilton’s tale Alonso pushed too hard to keep second position and ended out of the track, while cutting short corner 2 and trimming the track side .grass with his front spoiler.  Both Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld ended the grand prix in the same positions they held when they accelerated they way out of Corner 2 (aided, to some extent, with a good strategy choice).

Needless to say, as a BMW fan, I’m thrilled with Nicks performance; he made no mistakes at all on a track that forces breaks and tires to their very limit.

The most fun happened on positions 3 and above. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) seemed to go back to his first race ever, Australian GP 2002  on a  Minardi, fighting positions with teeth and nails (on that instance Mark secured Minardi’s first points in over three years). Although he ended up with no points, his combative style was refreshing.

Another not-so-revelation was Takuma Sato. I’ve always felt Takuma has great potential although the local Argentine press (as well as many form international specialized press) regard him as a “Dangerous Driver”. I might get my head out for chopping after stating this, but he sort of reminds me of Gilles Villeneuve. Now I can dock for cover.

Takuma ended up sixth, Kudos for Aguri Suzuki and his Super Auguri F1 team, since they outperformed Honda’s official team (Barrichelo ended 12th) with just a small portion of their budget and -probably- an older evolution of the engine.

Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso both made far more mistakes than are expected from top-notch drivers. Corners one and two were hell for Alonso, who ended up driving on the grass at least half a dozen times. Kimi continues to somewhat disappoint the Ferrari Tifosi (Jean Todt, take my advice: make Kimi race for Vodka instead of money…!).

With 4 Pace Car interventions (CART or Indy fans might be used to this, in Formula One it’s rather exceptional), all times were cut off, providing chances for drivers to show off. Canada’s long straights which end on first or second gear turns provide un-equaled chances for overtaking. Those pilots that were inspired got the best out of this (Wurz, Sato and Kubica until he crashed).

Kubica’s accident was the most spectacular I’ve seen in a long time (I remember Germany 2002, I think, where Ralf Schumacher forced a 6 or 7 car crash just on the first corner). It must be said that the security measures and the safety cell on the cars (as well as the HANS device) proved they work perfectly. I’m pretty sure that without the HANS, the Pole driver would of ended up as another Formula 1 casualty. When I watched the crash I thought he should be safe, since Robert’s right hand was moving. Then the car came to a halt, and his head dropped to the side. That got me worried. When the TV showed the repetitions I worried even more. The crash was so stunning I couldn’t conceive he could “walk out of it”, yet, only 24 hours after the incident, he did.

Lewis Hamilton is a driving god, BMW is improving it’s performance (it is the third Team already), Ferrari and McLaren are  head to head (depending on the track one outperforms the other), I’ll be glued to my TV for the rest of the season. And this is a statement I wanted to make since… hm… 1999

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