BMW Sauber: Stunning Valencia GP performance and hopeful for Silverstone GP success
Although located in one of the most picturesque surroundings in the world, the Valencia Circuit has been regarded by most as a circuit that is quite impossible to overtake on. As is expected of street circuits, the tight and twisty nature of the track doesn’t allow drivers to have a long enough straight to allow any clean competitive overtaking. In 2009, the race was notorious for not having even a single overtaking move; something that wasn’t seen since the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix, where a total of only 6 cars took to the track.
But the race at Valencia in 2010 was probably one of the most entertaining races that have taken place this season. In a season dominated by Red Bull and McLaren, an unfortunate safety car incident brought a team that no one had expected to be running with the big guns, let alone overtaking them on track for position. This was the black and white livery of the Sauber team, which for most part of the race was in third place; sandwiched between the McLaren’s of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
With a dismal season so far, the team took a gamble in the race after the safety car incident which came out after Mark Webber went air-borne off the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s car in the ninth lap. While the rest of the field coming into the pits to take advantage of the situation and get their mandatory tyre changes out of the way, the Sauber team decided to keep Kamui Kobayashi out on the harder compound tires. As the rest of the field came out from the pits, Kobayashi found himself in the third place behind Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
From here on in, it was a game of tyre conservation for Kobayashi, as it seemed that he had the race pace to keep up with the McLaren of Jenson Button behind him. He had to make his mandatory pit stop before the end of the race and the rest of the field behind him were eagerly waiting to see when Kobayashi will go for the pits where will the driver feed out onto the track. The popular theory running around the paddock was that he would be patient and hope for another safety car incident so that he could change to the soft compound tires or wait till the second last lap to pit and do a lap on the new tyres and cross the line.
With the safety car nowhere in sight and the end of the race approaching, Kobayashi dived into the pits with four laps to go; another move that mystified the pundits. He came out at the ninth position just behind the battling Sebastien Buemi and Fernando Alonso. Taking full advantage of the fresh rubber, Kobayashi challenged Alonso and Buemi in the very final corner before the chequered flag. This extra-ordinary performance gave Sauber their best race finish of the season so far after he finished in the seventh position from a qualifying place of eighteen.
The result seemed like a one off incident where Peter Sauber and his team played the right card at the right time but gambles such as these are not uncommon from the one of the oldest private team owners in Formula One’s paddock. Peter Sauber has been known for bringing in rookies with a certain flare and raw talent to drive for his team. Kobayashi is no different as he follows in the footsteps of Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Hiedfeld and Filipe Massa in the recent past, which got their racing pedigree developed at the Sauber camp.
But it is never the driver alone that wins the race. There is a reason why Formula 1 is called a team sport. The car had a vital role to play in the result as can be seen from their results in the season so far. The only two other races that Kobayashi finished prior to this one in this season were at Turkey and Catalunya. Both tracks are heavy on high and mid-speed corners. It’s in the tracks that have low speed corners and require mechanical grip instead of an aerodynamic grip where the Sauber’s have struggled. So as we approach the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, keep an eye out for the determined Japanese and his experienced teammate in Pedro De la Rosa to take full advantage of the high that they are carrying from Valencia to jump start their season and make a dash for a more concrete position in the mid-field.
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