Is Button adding to Hamilton's woes?

Another clash by Lewis Hamilton and another resounding backlash in the Formula 1 media; as much as the theme of the year has been Sebastian Vettel’s domination, the other has been the collapse of Hamilton’s season.

It seems unfair, but it’s difficult not to look for answers as to why it’s not working out for Lewis. This time it took an extra turn for the worse; after the clash with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa during the race, Massa was seen to grab Hamilton by the shoulder rather aggressively, sarcastically saying ‘good job, well done’. He also said Lewis wouldn’t win many more championships driving like that. It showed how much pressure Massa is under but Lewis didn’t react, pretty much walking away from any more interviews not willing to comment on such a harsh reaction to his driving.

All drivers make mistakes and have bad runs of form, but with every incident Hamilton seems to attract the stewards. It was arguable whether he deserved his penalty in Singapore, like on other occasions this year, but the fact is he put himself in a position where he might get one and with his aggressive profile it’s understandable that the stewards will focus on him.

It’s a downward spiral which can result in a persecution complex; the sport it seems is out to get him with penalties, criticism from the media and other drivers…

Hamilton’s current pain is partly from his own making; amongst other reasons he is frustrated due to the team making errors (another one in Singapore qualifying), failing to provide him with a championship winning car for the third year in a row causing him to over drive, but perhaps one of the most significant things is he is now getting regularly beaten by Button.

McLaren was his team, Lewis has grown up with them but now Button looks to be becoming the dominant personality in the team. Lewis may out qualify him more often than not, but Jenson is getting the better race results later in the season.

I believe that Button’s presence and his well-liked relaxed demeanour within the team and his current consistency on the track is one of the causes for Lewis Hamilton’s wobbles this year.

Now I would never say that Jenson is quicker than Hamilton, because generally he’s not. Where Jenson comes into his own is the race, when the car is working to his liking, his calm decision making and his clean over takes make him unbeatable on his day, and these days are becoming more regular as he tunes the car towards him.

If Button maintains his current 17 point lead over Hamilton, it’ll be the first time that Lewis has been bested by a team mate since he entered Formula 1. Not even Fernando Alonso could beat Lewis, but Button has shaken him, because Button is far better than Lewis or perhaps anyone else really believed.

He’s firmly established himself within McLaren now, and in their current contract talks, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team give him exactly what he wants. Team boss Martin Whitmarsh has nothing but praise for Button right now.

However, when interviewed about Lewis’ incidents he seems to be becoming increasingly defensive. There’s only so many times you can excuse a driver an incident by saying they’re a racer and entertaining before you’ll begin to question your own words.

Whitmarsh even requested for the ‘real Lewis Hamilton’ to turn up at Singapore after his less than usual aggression at Monza. I begin to think this is just a general request across the board as the real Lewis Hamilton has failed to turn up almost all year. Whitmarsh later conceded that ‘Undeniably, this year has not been a good one for Lewis Hamilton…We’ll have conversations with Lewis. But those we will have in private’. Although he let it be known that Lewis still has ‘plenty of love from the team’. 

Lewis’ support for McLaren though is sometimes lacking. Button’s attitude comes across better, criticising the team in a constructive way, whereas Lewis has sometimes come across as dismissive and abrupt when talking about some of the team’s failings in BBC interviews. Although it should be said he praises them just as much when things go right, but it’s surely when things are bad that people need to be supported the most?

However, to play devil’s advocate slightly, McLaren haven’t provided him with a winning car, seem to make basic errors which have hampered Hamilton, and Button too. It’s little wonder that Lewis is frustrated by this, and he has warned them that he can’t wait forever, although with Vettel and Alonso the team leaders at Red Bull and Ferrari does he even have anywhere else to go?

Support has also been raised as an issue in some of the media, Jenson has a firm core of people in his corner. Lewis meanwhile sacked his father as manager last year, and only at the beginning of 2011 announced a deal with XIX Entertainment management run by Simon Fuller of Spice Girls fame who have David Beckham on the books, and look to exploit brand opportunities for the client.

On the BBC website, Lewis’ father Anthony Hamilton has said ‘his management need to do more’. Saying that most other drivers will have their management team with them at the races, whereas Lewis chooses if he needs any management to be present, something he is meant to be happy with.

Lewis Hamilton is more than capable of sweeping away the distractions and producing an outstanding drive like we saw in China and Germany this year. He could win in Japan and it’ll be like nothing has happened, but can he keep it going or will he lose focus again at the next race if things don’t work out?

If current positions in the championship remain between the McLaren drivers, let’s see how Lewis responds next year, especially if the car is a title challenger. Then I’m sure we’ll see him back on form, today’s current battles could be nothing more than frustration at not having the opportunity to regularly battle Vettel.

Hamilton knows he’s made to win it’s what he’s done all his life.  Only he really knows what’s going on in his head now but he can dominate Formula 1, although Button won’t let any edge he’s got now slip easily, it's not just Lewis' team anymore.

All photo's from autosport.com

Dominant Vettel lights up Singapore

The Singapore Grand Prix has quickly become one of the classics of the Formula 1 circus. It is the only full night race of the season, the flood lights shine through the dark producing a glorious circuit of light, with the backdrop of the city beautifully lit up too.

The drivers see little of this, all they know is the track is encased in concrete, with a relentless 61 laps taking nearly two hours to complete, during which time the drivers will lose up to two litres of fluid such is the humidity, and any lack of concentration will be punished immediately with a trip to the wall.

Sebastian Vettel had total concentration as he makes his way to a second consecutive world championship. Coming into the pits he had the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen in front of him and had the awareness to know that it would likely exit near him too. In fact he watched out for it as Heikki nearly side swiped him coming out of his pit box just avoiding a collision, but for which Lotus would be reprimanded for an unsafe release.

That was about as close as anyone was able to get to him all day. It’s getting more difficult to come up with superlatives to describe just how utterly brilliant Sebastian Vettel continues to be this year. This win was his 9^th of the year to go with his 11^th pole position.

He made a solid start, slotting into the lead. He was up to 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone else in the early laps, pulling clear by 7 seconds in just 5 laps. His lead was wiped out by a safety car, but helped by traffic, at the restart he opened up a gap of 9 seconds in one lap. And even after his rivals had cleared the back markers he was still at some points 2 seconds a lap quicker.

After the final pit stops with 11 laps to go, Jenson Button, the only driver who could even remotely live with him today was catching at a significant rate, but he remained calm, controlled and worked his way methodically through the traffic; he didn’t look worried at all.

Quite frankly, he destroyed the opposition this evening, he may have the best car, but he has utilised it to its full capability. Under the night sky, the fireworks were sparked to celebrate his victory. He now needs only one more point to ignite a further celebration of being the youngest double world champion in history.

di Resta continues to shine

Paul di Resta was one of the stars of the race, maybe even the brightest. He was the only driver in the top 10 to start on the harder compound tyre. It was meant to be around a second a lap slower but when viewing the live timing at the beginning, you could see him consistently lapping within a few tenths of his Force India team mate Adrian Sutil, and never dropping more than a few seconds behind.

It was impressive stuff, rising up to third place he was one of the last to  make their first pit stop emerging behind Sutil but on fresh super soft tyres which enabled him to quickly pass his team mate. During the safety car most drivers on a two stop strategy came in for a free pit stop, he emerged in 5^th and would hold this until a charging Lewis Hamilton overtook him, twice.

Paul lapped faster than Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes and Sutil, pulling away to achieve his best career result so far in 6^th position., it was a great result from 10^th on the grid. Rosberg had a fair race, but Mercedes were destroying their tyres quickly, and was lucky to hold off Sutil to finish 7^th.  Sutil was 8^th behind his rookie team mate and having also been asked to move over for him, his job will begin to be called into question.

Force India will only announce their driver line up in December, and with  their reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg expected to graduate to a race seat, you wouldn’t think they’ll want to get rid of Paul di Resta in a hurry.

The Lewis Hamilton incident, again

Lewis Hamilton finished 5^th today after an intensely frustrating run to the chequered flag. After having a disagreement with Felipe Massa in qualifying over track position, they clashed during the race.

Hamilton has again involved himself in an incident that needn’t have happened. He made a good start but was crowded out at the first corner by Mark Webber, dropping to 8^th. He quickly passed the two Mercedes in the DRS zone and began hounding the Ferrari of Massa.

On lap 12 Lewis had an attack of clumsiness when having just pitted he was on the outside of Massa in the DRS zone going into turn 7. He turned in but just didn’t seem to realise his front wing was there and broke it against Massa’s right rear tyre, puncturing it.

Both pitted and despite a drive through penalty given to Lewis he admittedly produced a great charge back to the top 5 providing some great over taking while Massa could only manage 9^th.

Massa was particularly angry about it afterwards in the press conference. He sarcastically told Hamilton he did a “good job” while slapping him on the shoulder. He’s also said Lewis needs to start using his mind more. Massa needs a good result, and incidents which he can’t be blamed for won’t be helping him.

Again Hamilton has made things difficult for himself. He seems to have lost his coolness while in battle, he didn’t used to come into contact quite so regularly in his first few years of Formula 1, always being assured. Something appears to be wrong in his head right now, and he needs to sort it quickly. He can’t have any real complaints about the penalty either despite it looking like a racing incident.

Schumacher flies… into a wall

Another former world champion to revert to amateur overtaking was Michael Schumacher. So impressive since Formula 1 returned from its summer break he spoiled what could have been another 5^th place finish such was his pace. He’d pitted for fresh tyres and was closing dramatically on Rosberg and the Sauber of Sergio Perez.

When they got into a tussle, Schumacher was suddenly in with a chance to pass, he attacked in the DRS zone, but failed. Perez on old tyres was struggling, but defended going into turn 10, Schumacher was about to go to the inside, but didn’t expect Perez to brake so early and crashed into the back of him almost flipping before landing in the barrier bringing out the safety car. Michael was later reprimanded for the incident.

Perez survived the incident and raced back to finish 10^th, challenging the likes of Rosberg and Sutil before a recovering Massa got him towards the end.

Another promising race for Michael ruined by a careless accident, for his come back to work, these mistakes must be eliminated. Something brought up on the BBC F1 forum worth noting is how curious it seems that two world champions such as Hamilton and Schumacher are getting caught up in these incidents comparatively regularly by their standards.

Both are renowned over takers, but they are also used to leading from the front and battling for the win. Is the frustration of fighting for lower places and the eagerness to get on with it and get towards the bigger battles clouding their judgement?

Button the only challenger ahead of Webber and Alonso

Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso filled the rest of the top 10 in second, third and fourth respectively. Despite a heroic last dash to the finish where he was lapping nearly 2 seconds quicker than Vettel, Button had a fairly quiet run to second place.

It was annoying that the Williams pair got in the way in the closing laps, but even Jenson admitted they didn’t really have the pace to win. Despite this he notched up his fourth consecutive finish ahead of his team mate Hamilton, something that will not have gone unnoticed by Lewis and a cause for yet more frustration?

Mark Webber put another couple of great moves on Fernando Alonso. Lap 10 approaching turn 14 he was down the outside but Alonso resisted on rapidly decaying tyres, however a little dance and Webber was again down the outside into turn 16 and through.

Alonso got back ahead through the pit stops but after the safety car restart Webber dived down the inside at turn 10 taking the Spaniard completely by surprise. Webber charged after Button but wasn’t able to get on terms.

However, he shouldn’t have even been in that position, another poor start for Webber put him down the order. Alonso rapidly dropped back as the race drew to a close, but managed a respectable 4^th.

One other notable result was Heikki Kovalain in the Lotus finishing ahead of Vitaly Petrov in the Renault on pace. Renault didn’t look comfortable all weekend, but this will be encouraging for Lotus despite only recording a 16^th place position, but it’s hopeful for the future.

Singapore demonstrated just how dominant Vettel has been this year. While everyone else seems to lack consistency with their cars or themselves, Vettel has been serene. So that was Formula 1's race under the stars, fireworks exploded across the sky to Vettel's victory. He now needs only one more point in Japan to ignite a further celebration to become the youngest double world champion in history.



All photo's from autosport.com

Unstoppable Vettel wins in Italy

Like Belgium, Italy wasn’t supposed to suit Red Bull, but Sebastian Vettel not only won, he dominated in a performance that should rank as one of his best of the year. Supreme in qualifying, an aggressive pass, and a wonderful controlling performance that made it all look so easy.

Starting from pole position he lost the lead to a quite superb start from Fernando Alonso using all of the road and a bit of grass. Three abreast as they approached turn one he slotted in behind the Ferrari and kept the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton behind him.

The safety car was deployed soon after as Vitantonio Liuzzi in the HRT careered down the grass smashing into Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov, ruining both their races before they’d even begun. Liuzzi has since been given a five grid penalty for the next race, although that’s not exactly a punishment for a driver who qualifies at the back anyway!

In Liuzzi’s defence he blamed Heikki Kovalainen for squeezing him on to the grass. Anyway Vettel was was right behind Alonso when the race restarted on lap 4 and as they started lap 5 he was closer still.

In to the Curve Grande Vettel was on the back of the Ferrari, he moved to the left taking the outside line. Alonso held firm giving him just enough room but pushing nearer the grass than was comfortable. Vettel didn’t lift, he used the grass, dirt kicking up in the air and now he had the inside line for the next chicane and he was through, a truly sensational move.

 

From then on, it was a case of controlling the race, even if the McLaren’s hadn’t got stuck behind Michael Schumacher, it’s very doubtful they’d have been able to live with Vettel.

Fight of the race: Schumacher vs Hamilton

Finally a proper battle between Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton was served up for us at Monza, two of the most aggressive drivers in Formula 1. And let’s face it, this will probably split opinion. I’ve already read a fair amount of comments in the Formula 1 press saying Schumacher was bordering on the edge of acceptable behaviour and on a couple of occasions stamping all over what was acceptable and then kicking dirt on it too.

In fairness they’re probably quite right, particularly in regards to moving more than once to defend his position. Mercedes boss Ross Brawn even came on the radio to remind Schumacher to give Lewis Hamilton more room.

It’s up for debate how bad some of these incidents were. The first one was when Lewis dived up the inside at Curve Grande and suddenly found himself with no room and had to take to the grass at what was approaching 190mph. My opinion is he was being overly optimistic, Schumacher was taking his line, although he appears to turn in a little earlier, but Lewis jumped the gun and could possibly have taken him at the end of the straight such was his momentum at that point.

Schumacher basically ran him out of road in an attempt to make him back off, it's aggressive but no worse than other drivers do. No penalty was given, so the stewards didn’t see anything wrong with it although it did lose Lewis a place to Jenson Button who also soon passed Schumacher.

The second main incident was coming out of the second chicane approaching the first Lesmo, Schumacher clearly moves twice to defend the place which is not allowed, although it's arguable he could have just been regaining a better line for the corner. Would a penalty have been justified? I don’t think so, he was warned not to do it again and he didn’t.

The main aspect that should be discussed was what a fantastic battle it was. Michael passed Lewis at the restart, then they scrapped, Lewis passed Michael into the first chicane only for Schumacher to replicate Vettel’s move and go round the outside into Curve Grande to reclaim the place.

Hamilton was struggling to effectively use his DRS as he hit the rev limiter while Schumacher’s car was set up with less wing and could just about out drag the McLaren. Eventually after a sometimes wince inducing battle Lewis was through at Ascari in a rather undramatic move on lap 27. He came close to catching Alonso, but eventually wound up 4^th with Schumacher  despite the incidents a still impressive 5^th.

Jenson Button takes second off Alonso

If Lewis Hamilton’s stock appears to be falling after various incidents this year, Jenson Button’s is just getting higher. No one expected him to prove such competition to Lewis Hamilton; I suspect that maybe not even Lewis himself did which is perhaps another cause of his frustrations this year.

Button again had a fine race; he didn’t even do a bad job in qualifying getting 3^rd on the grid. Such a shame then that he had a poor start and dropped to 7^th, but he was soon climbing up the order. He passed Lewis after Schumacher had put his team mate on the grass, he disposed of Schumacher far more succinctly as well saying ‘I closed my eyes when I turned in’.

He tore after Alonso and was soon onto the back of him after they changed to the harder compound tyre. The Ferrari just can’t heat them up quick enough, a problem they don’t seem able to rectify. It was at the Curve Grande that Button made his move, slotting up the inside, Alonso had no chance and had

to settle for 3^rd which all in all wasn’t a bad result for them.

It would have been interesting to see how the race panned out if Button had got a decent start. As in Belgium it was a race he could have potentially won, although I think Vettel would still just have edged it today.

Jaime Alguersuari again

I’ve mentioned the second Spaniard of Formula 1 a number of times already this season, and after finishing a fantastic 7^th from 18^th on the grid I feel no shame in mentioning him again. I feel pretty certain he’s done enough to justify his position in the team for 2012.

He had the advantage of fresher sets of tyres but he was again able to use them to full affect to take his 5^th points finish from the last seven races. He’s in fantastic form, as is his Toro Rosso team mate Sebastian Buemi, but it just doesn’t seem to be going as well as he’d like. Buemi claimed another point for 10^th but it increasingly looks like he’s getting left behind by Alguersuari even if it very close between them.

With Daniel Ricciardo outqualifying Liuzzi and releasing some of his potential as he gets to grip with Formula 1, there’s still a lot of pressure in the Toro Rosso situation, which Alguersuari has looked to flourish under.

Rest of the top ten and other notables

Felipe Massa endured another tough race, finishing 6^th. He was punted into a spin by Mark Webber on lap 5, Webber ultimately left the track with his front wing neatly tucked under his front wheels.

Massa was lucky to be able to mount a fight back, but just didn’t have the speed to catch up with the McLaren’s or the lone Mercedes.

Paul di Resta had another strong drive, he surely will be crowned rookie of the year. Starting 11^th he drove a strong race to 8^th and was quicker than his team mate all weekend after Adrian Sutil had looked to be mounting a comeback.

Bruno Senna lost his front wing again, but bounced back to 9^th overtaking Buemi in the closing stages and just ran out of laps to pass di Resta too. A strong drive which will make Renault take notice of him for next year, especially if he continues this form and retains all his body work.

Sergio Perez had a strong drive and looked like he’d have easily made the top 10, having not even pitted when he retired with gearbox failure on lap 32. He’d been running on the hard tyre and due to pit for softs which would have given him great pace for the remaining laps.

Let’s give a mention to Team Lotus while we can before they’re renamed. Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli finished 13^th and 14^th, avoiding the chaos at the start and taking advantage of the high rate of retirements, a good result which should secure their place ahead of Virgin and HRT.

Looking ahead

Hamilton has not had a good year and is obviously aware he’s been involved in a few too many incidents. He certainly talked of just wanting to finish so perhaps this is why he wasn’t as aggressive as perhaps many expected from him in his fight with Schumacher. He also refused to make any significant comment on his battle with Schuey, a sign he just wants to keep his head down.

Hamilton needs to regain focus yet again this year, he can still win some races and hopefully he’ll focus on that and be his usual attacking self in Singapore. I expect Button to continue his great form too, and that is something Hamilton will be increasingly aware of and want to put a stop to as his team mate’s influence at McLaren increases.

Alonso is mighty in Singapore, having won twice around the night time streets but will anyone be able to live with Vettel. He hasn’t won there before but in his current vein you wouldn’t bet against him. If Alonso finishes 4^th or lower, and Button and Webber finish 3^rd or lower, Vettel will be the youngest double world champion ever. Is it time to crown the king in 2011?

All photo's from autosport.com