Formula One: Singapore Grand Prix – 1 race, 24 different reactions! (Part 8)
This feature heads to its conclusion with word from the Sauber and Hispania camps. Both teams, unfortunately, failed to go the entire race distance. While it could’ve been something that the Hispania team has gotten used to, seeing
BMW Sauber at the tail end of the Singapore Grand Prix classification was easily the shock of the weekend.
BMW Sauber
Nick Heidfeld hoped for a better end product and would have ideally wanted to finish the race. The German, probably not in the best of moods, was quick to hit back at Michael Schumacher for their ‘little’ incident in the early
part of the race. Heidfeld believed that the Mercedes driver braked rather late which in turn saw his BMW Sauber fall victim. The former Pirelli tyre tester then went on to criticize Vitantonio Liuzzi who wanted to overtake him on corner four. Liuzzi too,
was accused of braking a little too late which gave Heidfeld little time to react and he ended up at the back of the Force India. From there on in, the car felt like a supermarket trolley owing to the missing rear wing endplate. The car setup was nowhere near
his liking and could not be tempered with after qualifying, confessed the German. Heidfeld was able to look at the flip side though as he mentioned that the Sauber was able to give a couple of decent lap times and concluded by recognizing Suzuka as one of
his favorite circuits.
Kamui Kobayashi was a touch humble compared to his team mate as he was quick to admit that his inability to add to the team’s point tally was his fault. After overtaking Michael Schumacher, he knew it was a back against the wall
job as he pushed his car to the limit to get into the point scoring positions – something that his tyres could not cope with. With limited grip and lack of braking, the Sauber went crashing into the barrier. Bruno Senna made the damage even worse as his HRT
crashed in. Kobayashi felt that he was rather competitive at the start, only losing a position to Petrov’s Renault,
Hispania
Christian Klien was extremely pleased to be back behind the wheel. However, starting in Singapore was a touch more than what the Austrian could handle. While the track itself was nothing short of a challenge, the Hispania driver
felt that the humidity had a part to play as well. Looking back at his start, Klien felt that 18th place was a good position to build on after an efficient off the line sprint. While he failed to fulfill his true potential on the day, the HRT driver
felt the entire unit had done a commendable job and he felt extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to race again.
Bruno Senna felt that he was a touch hard done as he received no indication from the race marshals before his accident. Coming out of the corner and into the braking area was when he was first able to register the flags. However,
the warning came out a little too late and there wasn’t much that he could do to avoid the collision. The Brazilian, in the end, dismissed his misfortune as part of an off day. However, having said that, Senna was quick to add that he and the team had to continue
working hard for Japan.
It turned out to be an eventful race as reflected by the views of all 24 drivers involved with each driver highlighting the race in his own subjective way. It was interesting to see rather unique and sometimes contradicting thoughts,
proving that a race is about more than a pre-set amount of laps featuring cars going around in circles.
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