Niki Lauda expects more competitiveness in the remainder of the season – Formula 1 news
Niki Lauda believes that the second half of the current season will be fought even harder than the first half.
The 2012 season has been unprecedented in terms of competitiveness and unpredictability. If the regulation changes and the apprehensive tyre strategies were not enough for the season to be competitive than the season featuring six world champions was more
than enough to do that.
The season saw seven different winners from the first seven Grand Prix races. Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton are the only drivers to win more than one Grand Prix in the season so far.
Alonso has won three the highest so far in the season and is leading the drivers’ standings. The defending champion Sebastian Vettel has only one and is looking to repeat that performance to remain in contention for the title bid.
The top four drivers of the season are very close in terms of points Alonso is sitting pretty with 164 points while Webber, Vettel, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen are within 124 to 116 points.
Lauda said that he is hoping for a very competitive and exciting race at Belgium. He said that he was relieved to know he had the Olympics to look forward to during the break otherwise it would have been very boring for him.
He said, “Thank god we at least had the Olympics since the last race.”
Talking about the drivers Lauda said, “For Vettel, Hamilton and the others, it is now something of a preliminary decision time. Now is the need to score points. If they are not the front runners at Spa and a week later in Monza, Alonso will be gone. I wish
him all the best for his anniversary race, but Spa is a very difficult track aerodynamically.”
“I see Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull at the front instead. But if it rains, as the forecast seems to show, it could be better for him to show his skills,” he added.
It will be interesting to see how teams fare when the season resumes over the weekend with the Belgian GP scheduled on September 2, 2012.
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