Team-Mate Wars: Interlagos

Saturday 8th November 2008

In the final race of the season it was more of the same team-mate pain, though Heidfeld and Nakajima managed to peg back the differences and Rubens ended theyear level with his more-employed team-mate.

Ferrari
Season: Raikkonen 7 Massa 11
Race: Massa
Felipe easily made it three poles in a row at his home race. If anything was fated to happen, that was. We never got to see exactly how good his pole lap was because the sudden shower before the start made it a short first stint for everyone - so it was difficult to analyse qualifying fuel loads.

What was heartening to see in the race, though, was that Felipe kept control of his car in the marginal conditions at the beginning and at the end of the race, despite all the pressure and the huge weight of expectation. He probably didn't bank on having Vettel and Alonso stuffed up his exhaust pipe for so long and he dealt with it calmly (or what seemed calm from the outside). After the race we saw that he has the ability to behave like a World Champion even if he didn't get the ultimate prize. In the past Raikkonen has dealt with failure by slinging his helmet around the garage and Alonso has all the in-built petulance of a toddler whose ice cream has been suddenly removed. The way things are going, Felipe could be at Ferrari for as long as Michael.

BMW
Season: Heidfeld 7 Kubica 11
Race: Heidfeld
Robert Kubica had a disastrous Brazilian GP. He was poor in qualifying and whereas it has been Heidfeld's burden to get heat into his tyres, when the track is already at 35C+ it's Kubica who puts too much heat into his. Graining put him down the grid, then came the wrong choice of tyre to start the race. Given the angry radio exchanges we've heard between him and his pitcrew this season it's unlikely that the team forced him to start the race on the standard tyre and after an enforced return to the pitlane any slim hope of retaining his third place in the drivers' championship disappeared. So it was bizarre at the end of the race to see him putting moves on Sebastian Vettel that almost took him off the road. When backmarkers ignore three blue flags they get penalties - not only did Kubica risk a collision with Vettel, he put Lewis Hamilton off sufficiently to make the McLaren run wide. It was an act of stupidity far beyond that perpetrated by some hapless rookie, because Kubica would have known that Vettel and Hamilton were duelling for position. There were only two laps to go and Kubica was not even on the lead lap, so he was not going to make it into the points with a last gasp challenge. As it was he finished 11th. There have been some moments this season when many of the front-runners had brain fade - Hamilton at Mount Fuji, Massa at Mount Fuji, Raikkonen at Silverstone, but these were miscalculated moves, not a sustained effort like this. Letting it go without sanction doesn't do F1 or the FIA any favours.

Renault
Season: Alonso 16 Piquet 2
Race: Alonso
Alonso was free to gamble with an early change to dry tyres and it paid off. Yet another great late-season race from the Spaniard. Now how interesting would it have been if Renault had tweaked their engine earlier in the season? Alonso's hold over the team is back to its old 2005/2006 levels having convinced the management to retain Nelson Piquet Junior for 2009. Any sensible team manager would at least have run a straight comparison test between Roman Grosjean, Lucas di Grassi and Nelson Piquet to see what they might be missing - Alonso having outqualified Piquet 18-0 over the season. Except that probably wasn't an option open to them if they wanted to keep Alonso. So just as Hamilton likes having Kovalainen in the team, and Button wants Honda to keep Barrichello, so the main contracted driver likes to know he has a team-mate that he can beat. I don't think Renaut are aiming for the Constructor's Championship in 2009. No matter what you think of him when he gets out of the car, Fernando is still the most complete driver in F1 and if keeping Nelsinho on the team means retaining Alonso, then Renault have made the right decision.

Williams
Season: Rosberg 11 Nakajima 7
Race: Nakajima
Nico Rosberg lost out to Nakajima in qualifying and then a nudge from Rosberg on David Coulthard's Red Bull spun him into his team-mate and that was Nakajima's chances of beating Rosberg done for. And none of it his fault.

Toyota
Season: Trulli 14 Glock 4
Race: Glock
Jarno Trulli pulled his best poker face after qualifying and said he had a sensible level of fuel to qualify in P2. Like Massa, we never got to find out what end of the sensible scale it was. In the race he made an error spinning after being overtaken by Hamilton and Glock was past him. Interestingly, both Toyotas stayed out on dry tyres at the end of the race, and on that final fateful lap, 8th place Trulli drove an even slower lap than Glock, reinforcing the German's much-repeated position that he was driving as quick as he could while keeping the car on the road at the same time. And you're not just going to throw away a 4th place are you.

Red Bull
Season: Webber 15 Coulthard 3
Race: Webber
Webbo did him in qualifying and Rosberg did him at Turn 1 and that was DC's career ended. Unlike many F1 hotshots Coulthard had the chance to drive two different championship winning cars, at Williams and McLaren, so he's had it better than his team-mate and also fellow countryman Jenson Button, so let's not get too misty eyed. Webbo's always been on the brink of having a good season and never had it. He needs it in 2009.

Honda
Season: Barrichello 9 Button 9
Race: Barrichello
Rubens was ernergised by his home crowd whereas Button looked to be going through the motions.

Toro Rosso
Season: Vettel 14 Bourdais 4
Race: Vettel
Another great performance by Vettel, but his first lap attempt to put Heikki Kovalainen onto the grass going down to the Lake Descent turn was probably the most dangerous move of the season - worse than Kubica on Raikkonen at Fuji and far worse than Hamilton on Glock at Monza. Thankfully everyone involved (plus those following at 180mph) lived to tell the tale.

Vettel was feisty but fair towards the end of the race in his battle with Hamilton but it would have been interesting to see how far he was prepared to go if the Mclaren hadn't slipped wide at Juncao.

Force-India
Season: Sutil 7 Fisichella 11
Race: Fisichella
Fisi outqualified the only man he had to and was in inspired form when he changed onto the dry tyres early. He may have faded through the race to finish behind Sutil, but he did well to keep Raikkonen and then Hamilton at bayearly in the race.

McLaren
Season: Hamilton 13 Kovalainen 5
Race: Hamilton
It just goes to show that playing it safe isn't always going to get you results. McLaren helped make it more difficult for Lewis by leaving his switch to dry tyres later than most, but in the end he got there. Kovalainen did his usual trick of making a bold overtaking move (usually on Alonso) then giving the place back straight away. He was mugged by Vettel on Lap 1 and really shouldn't have allowed two cars past him on the opening lap.

Star of the Race Hamilton 5
Massa 4
Raikkonen 2
Alonso 2
Sutil 1
Kubica 1
Glock 1
Vettel 1
Rosberg 1

Overtaking Move of the Race
Hamilton 5
Heidfeld 3
Kovalainen 2
Massa 2
Raikkonen 1
Barrichello 1

Andrew Davies

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