Fight for Formula One world championship being hotly contested
This season promised to be one of the closest-fought Formula One world championships for some time, and it hasn’t disappointed.
Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso are separated by just 20 points and, with seven races to go, any one of them could become world champion.
Webber driver won the Hungarian Grand Prix last week to open up a four-point lead over Hamilton to lead the chasing pack as Formula One enters a three-week summer break, where working factories will be closed.
Red Bull have been the quickest cars all season, and as Webber went to the top of the drivers’ standings, the team also regained control of the constructors’ championship as well, overtaking McLaren.
Webber has four race victories to his name, and this is the Australian’s first opportunity to become world champion, but he admits there is still a long way to go. “It's good to be leading the points standings, but there are still a lot of chapters to come in this world championship battle,” he said. “There's everything to play for, but not until I've turned my phone off and had a couple of weeks’ holiday. I'll be in touch again before Spa [the next race]. It feels great to go into the summer break on the back of a win.”
Hamilton had been leading the way before Hungary, but suffered a gearbox problem and retired from the race, and he was disappointed to lose a handful of points. “It’s a bit of a shame because, as always, the guys had worked very, very hard all weekend, and I think we’d done more than enough in the race to get up to the front and score some decent points,” he said.
“It doesn't help for sure, but there's nothing you can do. We always do a phenomenal job normally. It's a shame to have the fault here at this point of the year, but that's life. This is motorsport, when you're pushing the cars to the limit these things can happen. We just have to go away and try and learn from this,” said Hamilton.
Vettel has been on pole position seven times this season, but has only won one race. Hungary should have been another race win for the young German, but his hopes were dashed when he was given a drive-through penalty. Eventually, he finished third, despite being quicker than his teammate Webber all weekend.
Vettel was penalised for not being the required amount of distance behind the leader once the safety car pitted. The list of misfortunes just gets longer for Vettel, and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has told his driver to stay positive. “He's obviously frustrated after this race [Budapest], but he wears his heart on his sleeve. You could see on the podium he was desperately disappointed, but it's part of a learning curve,” said Horner.
“Unfortunately here [Hungary] it didn't go his way, but he's had a black cloud following him for most of the season. Part of the emotion is what makes him so strong, and he obviously has to channel that into the car,” said Horner.
Reigning world champion Button has justified his decision to move to McLaren, as his former team, Mercedes-Benz GP (formally Brawn GP), have failed to live up to last year’s achievements. Button insists McLaren have some work to do if they want to trump Red Bull for the title. “It’s all to play for. Clearly, though, we have some work to do to close the gap to the front,” he said.
Button will spend his summer break competing in the London triathlon next Sunday, and believes consistency is the key for the rest of the season. “As we’ve seen before in the fight for the world title, consistency is essential.
“We’ll be looking at raising our game, but it’s still valuable that we’re able to maintain that consistency, to be able to score good points even when luck’s not on our side, so we can continue to fight for the title until the very end of the season,” said Button.
There has been worldwide attention on Ferrari after they were fined $100,000 for resorting to team orders, which are banned, after they told Felipe Massa to let Alonso to pass at the German Grand Prix. Ferrari will know whether they receive further punishment days before their home race in Monza in September.
Alonso was drifting out of the fight for the world championship a few races ago, but now he is firmly a contender after a second-place finish in Budapest and the controversial win in Germany.
The double world champion always maintained he still had a chance to win a third crown despite being a long way off the pace, and he is satisfied with how his campaign has panned out so far.
“I think we have to be happy with our championship so far,” he said. “We had some good races and some disappointing races as well, but overall I think we are in a really close position in the championship to the leader.”
The only man who has more world titles currently in the field is Michael Schumacher with seven, and Alonso will use his experience as well and the team’s to push all the way. “We need to use our experience as a team. Ferrari have won so many championships, and my personal experience as well, fighting for three championships [winning in 2005, 2006 and runner-up by a point in 2007].”
Red Bull’s pace is a worry for Ferrari and everyone else, and Alonso was able to take advantage by snatching second ahead of Vettel in Hungary. Alonso, though, is focusing on the championship in the long run.
“The championship is 19 races, and for the overall picture of the 19 races, I think Ferrari has a very competitive package. We know that there will be some circuits that will suit our car, and we need to take the opportunity to win as we did in Germany. Overall I think as a team we work very well in the last part of championships, and we always maximise our performance,” said Alonso.
Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Button or Alonso.
May the best driver win.
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