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Keeping the Faith

FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
04/04/2015

Well what a lesson for Alonso! I'm not sure how many of Winston Churchill's sound-bites, sorry I mean quotes, have been translated into Japanese to preface Samurai training manuals, but Alonso may well want to reflect on this one before season's end; "If you find yourself in the middle of Hell, keep going."

Poor Alonso has managed to keep himself on parity with the mid-field (just) while Ferrari seem to have found the jar of eleven secret herbs and spices that Michael used to sprinkle on his car and engineers prior to every race. If only Alonso had looked in the right places, or simply kept the faith.

Well now, to follow my own newly minted tradition, here we go in finishing order...

Sebastian could not have executed a better weekend if he tried. From landing it on the front row of the grid, then driving a strong tactical race, to getting in the jibe at Ricciardo post-race… first person to beat Mercedes properly... lovely gentlemanly put-down that one. If he maintains this form he is genuinely going to challenge across the season, and let's be honest, a good fight for the podium is what we all want to see each race.

The Mercedes flew in formation as usual, and maintained the usual pilot order too. Nothing unusual in that, except for the fact that Sebastian was in front of them. Was Nico off colour for the weekend because Seb snubbed his pit visit offer? Did Lewis forget to remove 25Kg of jewels prior to suiting up, and so ran over weight, thus burning too much fuel? Or in the name of the sport did Toto elect to "take one for every team" and let someone else have a go at the top step, because it is hurting his feelings to have everyone in the paddock being united in their irritation at his endless winning ways?

More likely Seb had the wick turned up a fraction on his Ferrari, due to growing confidence in the engine, and the car is handling to his liking. Then Mercedes made a rare strategy error.

So Lewis is unquestionably in a strong place, and Nico is currently inward looking and reflective. Both are strong drivers, and know how to play a season. This team mate battle has many excellent rounds left in it yet. Only Nico "doing an Irvine" could spoil the fight (Irvine after knocking himself out trying to beat Michael, simply admitted Michael was way better than any other driver on the grid, and he'd like to see how the others would do as his team mate. He then settled into a comfortable second position in the team, collecting very nice cheques from Ferrari for his solace).

Then Kimi in fourth. What a clean comeback drive. This really underlines the strength of the Ferrari this season. It also underlines that Kimi is not falling asleep as soon as he is outside the top three these days. Both the car and driver had what it takes today. Expect Kimi to beat Seb some races this season. It's all in place for the iceman to be on the podium, and possibly back on the top step sometime soon.

Bottas and Massa were the best of the rest. No lack of form here, just simply that Ferrari has managed to out-develop Williams, and super motivate Seb. Continued points, and irregular podiums should be on the cards all season.

Then the joy of the battle at Toro Rosso! Verstappen qualified strongly, way ahead of Sainz. The race then unfolded and young Max bagged the "youngest point scorer ever" award, while maintaining his position ahead of his team mate. Again two mature drives. This really underlines the quality of the Red Bull selection process, as they are consistently picking top flight drivers. Oh, and look who is behind them...

Well less of a horror than Melbourne, but not by much. This must rate as one of Daniel's worst race weekends in F1. Nothing massive went wrong, but nothing went terribly well either. It was just average. Something that will not have pleased Daniel or Red Bull. If this continues, coupled with Seb blasting away at Ferrari, it lends some weight to the idea that Seb was sandbagging last year to trigger get-out performance clauses in his contract. But none of us go for conspiracy theories in F1, so there is no mileage in that line of reasoning...

Then Grosjean in the Lotus. Not unlike Daniel, he had a race where nothing in particular went wrong, but then nothing really went right. So again, keep this level of reliable mediocrity going and it's going to be a season that leads to winning the Luca Badoer award for consistent indifference in F1.

Then Nasr the first (and only moving) finisher for Sauber this weekend. Not as good as Melbourne, and it would appear that like the Mercedes they prefer the heat to be significantly lower. Let's hope so anyway, if Melbourne is their high water mark for the year it's going to be another also-ran year for the Swiss team.

Next some polite formation flying by the Force India duo. Good to see Perez can take it to Hulkenberg. This should be one of the great mid-field battles this year. Possible point scorers for the first half of the season...but come August it could go very quiet on the score board here...

Merhi! Bless me! Last of the still moving finishers a Marussia/Manor/Look-mummy-I'm-famous vehicle! I for one am politely surprised this happened. Ok so the sour-puss paddock grumbles say it's cheating to run just one car... Well that's a 100% improvement on last race, and to a more fruitful end than McLaren. And I'd hate to do a cost per race kilometre covered comparison between Merhi and Alonso... That would be a figure to put Ford's heart attack at Eddie Irvine's salary down to the level of a (very mild) paper cut. Good job Honda take a five hundred year view of these things... So well done to Merhi and Manor for bringing it home. Last of the finishers in an affordable car.

Maldonado then has the joy of being first of the non-finishers. A heavy foot on the old brake pedal apparently too much in the ambient roasting of Malaysia. Thankfully the mainstream press appear to have resisted "Pasta well cooked" headlines. Good on them.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by FormulaFun, 11/04/2015 5:32

"Hehe great article, Max! if you can't understand this brilliant humor that is a common ground for all smart folk who read pitpass.com
This totally un-repulsive article has some good points and offers good insight into the future Alonso has with F1.
And nice reference to the hobbit at the end... As well as that singer who feels compelled to 'sing' about every breakup she's ever experienced
-FormulaFun"

Rating: Positive (2)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by nealio, 09/04/2015 16:59

"Looked in the right places? Pretty impossible when at the time they were fills by incompetent slackers. The attempts at humour(?) are repulsive and show an unfamiliarity with what is going on in F1. I'm surprised to read this like of low baiting on Pitpass.com."

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