What a strange race weekend. Force India, Toyota and BMW at the front of the grid after qualifying in normal, dry track conditions – That’s not right is it?
Well actually yes it was and, in Force India’s case, they came within a half second of a race win on pure performance alone! Tyre use has apparently played a big part in the massive performance leap that Force India have taken but also new car updates, which didn’t really shine through at the stop and start Valencia track, have also played their part in fine tuning the aero package. You have to remember that Force India have a technical arrangement with McLaren to assist with chassis design and also a Mercedes engine deal that supplies them with, what is rumoured to be, the best engine on the grid this year. With these resources maybe it isn’t too much of a suprise that Force India have managed to get their car into point scoring mode – but can they continue this pace for the remaining races of the season or was this a flash in the pan? Time will tell.
Elsewhere the true cost of introducing rookies into F1, when they clearly haven’t had any real race experience in these cars, clearly showed when Brits Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were both shunted out of the race by Grosjean and Alguersuari respectively – who’re they you might ask? and this proves our point exactly! This trend of throwing young inexperienced drivers into F1 cars is something that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency before someone REALLY gets hurt.
Well done to Kimi Raikonnen on his race win – heck that should increase your payoff from Ferrari by a couple of million for next year. Damn it’s starting to get very expensive for the Italians to place Alonso into one of their cars for 2010 