Singapore GP: Alonso Ups His Value
Written by George Katinger · September 28, 2008
Fernando Alonso and his ING Renault F1 team took an unexpected victory at the first night F1 race in history, followed by equally unexpected Nico Rosberg in second and Lewis Hamilton in third.
The two time Spanish champion started in 15th and could not have predicted a podium finish much less the win. With Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton starting 1-2 and pulling away from the pack during the opening laps, I’m sure Fernando was not expecting the luck about to come his way.
That luck began with his teammate Nelson Piquet stuffing his car at the exit of turn 17 at lap 14. Having pitted on lap 12, Alonso was in perfect position to take advantage of the safety car deployment due to his teammate’s crash. Alonso’s good fortune was compounded by the Ferrari team’s incomprehensible muck up of Massa’s first stop. Felipe attempted to leave the pit stall with the fuel rig still engaged. He tore out the entire fuel line, knocking down a crewman and pulling off just before pit exit. By the time his crew came to his aid, removing the jammed fuel rig, he rejoined the field dead last. And to add insult to injury he had to serve a 10 second stop and go penalty for unsafe entering of pit lane.
The Brazilian Ferrari championship contender was so disjointed he had a lackluster race and managed to lose the car on lap 50 at turn 18, but suffered no damage. He caused Adrian Sutil to lock up his brakes and crash terminally in an attempt to avoid hitting the Ferrari as he rejoined the race. That incident brought out the second and final safety car.
As the race unfolded, Alonso was able to keep up a consistently quick pace, and kept it error free. The team’s strategy of using the option tire on his first stint also proved to his advantage, as the prime’s seemed to work better for all the cars. Rosberg had primes as well and Hamilton finished the race on the options and Alonso was able to dust them both off after the second safety car came in on lap 54.
As happy as I was to see Rosberg claim second place, I have to wonder about his 10 second stop and go penalty. He and Kubica both came in while the pits were closed during Piquet’s induced safety car episode, earning both the penalty. The safety car came in on lap 20, but Nico didn’t come in to serve the penalty until lap 28, which enabled him to extend his P1 lead time to 12 seconds over Jarno Trulli. After serving the penalty he came out in fourth place. Seems to me if given a penalty it should be served immediately. The driver should not be allowed to further his advantage by eight laps before coming in. Regardless of that Nico and the Williams – Toyota team did a marvelous job all weekend, including Kaz Nakajima coming home in the final points paying position.
And how about Lewis Hamilton? He did not have the car to win today, but by exhibiting patience and an appreciation of the title results, managed to come home third and open up a seven point lead over Felipe Massa. Due to both Ferrari’s finishing out of the points McLaren now hold a slim one point lead over Ferrari in the Constructor’s chase.
Back to Alonso. After showing great pace during the practice sessions, he was relegated to his fifteenth starting slot due to a mechanical failure during the Q2 session. So his bout of poor luck was to some measure offset during the race. No doubt his off season value to other teams has been greatly enhanced by this win. Fernando demonstrated that he has not lost any of the skills he needed to bag his two titles. I think he’d look equally good in either BMW white or Ferrari red next year. If he can extract himself from that minor Renault commitment he made. Rumor has it that he would be contractually obligated to stay if Renault finish the season in fourth place or higher. Today’s result put Renault in fourth place.
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Actually, Massa only had a drive through penalty. Seems Ferrari gets off pretty easy for a severe safety violation. in addition to the fuel hose fiasco (again), had Massa left his pit a half second later he would have collected a car in the pit lane. Can’t remember which one it was though.
George you are absolutely right about Nico improving his time, prior to serving his penalty, by being left out on track. ITV covered this in their commentary mentioned the ridiculous situation of having to ask race control when will the penalty be issued. Williams’ knew they that it was an automatic penalty for the infringement, as did BMW for Kubica, only problem was………..the stewards were investigating the Massa video of the fuel rig destruction!
Incredible, their priority is for the automatic infringements to wait, how freaking dumb is that. Nico & Kubica could have been informed straight away – they & their teams were in no doubt as to what they had chosen to do - & yet race control is watching the Massa replays.
The whole safety car/closed pit lane process needs to be changed, it’s far too random in whom it can hinder or help, drivers can see their position lost through no fault of their own.
Wbrowser; Massa copped a drive through (not a stop & go) penalty, because that is what is issued for the pit lane infringement of being released into the path of another car. Nico & Kubica both got 10sec stop & goes for entering a closed pit lane. Confused? Massa did not get a penalty for ripping out the fuel hose, he was judged to be not at fault, but rather the non-lollipop man who gave him the green light on the semi-automated pit light system Ferrari use was to blame. Go & explain all of that to a person with a casual interest in the sport.
How ironic, Piquet – who must surely be out of a job next year – stuffs his Renault in the wall, only to cause a situation that benefits his Renault team mate. To be fair to Alonso, he had been quick all weekend & would have qualified in the top six had it not been for the technical glitch.
Although the circuit was tight & offered a little more passing than Monaco or the Hungaroring, the fact is, were it not for the safety car, the race would have been a total procession, not dissimilar to Valencia. I figure if they can afford to put in the lighting infrastructure they can install sprinklers as well.
Thanks for the correction wbrower. I’m surprised the Ferrari Intervention Association didn’t let the incident go with another fine, ala Valencia. But they must have figured that Massa’s day was already screwed, so they could do the right thing without hurting Ferrari. Talk about shooting their collective foot off. Ferrari have only scored 19 points in the last four races.
Does anyone have a clue as to why Renault’s performance suddenly escalated? Besides Alonso’s brilliant drive? Did they finally spend some money on their engine “reliability” issues and crank out a few more ponies instead of crying about McLaren and Ferrari?
Peter, as for rain at Singapore, can you imagine hard braking over the wet washboard of a road coming into turn 7? Total chaos. If they had continuous rain I would predict at least 3 safety cars and lots of laps under yellow.
And they absolutely have to correct the pit in and out lanes. For Heidfeld to get a 3 place grid penalty for decelerating in the pit lane entry zone is ridiculous, not to mention dangerous.
George, of course your right about a wet Singapore, I only suggest the sprinklers out of a sense of frustration with F1 tracks. Without the safety cars that race would have been a follow-the-leader parade, any passing would have come with the pit stops.
IMHO, F1 needs another street race like it needs a hole in the head.
Peter, what time did the Singapore race air in your location? Did the night race help or hinder your viewing time?
The concept of night racing is a novelty that should not be repeated, IMHO. Can’t wait for the tree huggers to start squeeling about the energy waste, not to mention the cost. Common engines to save money in contrast with the cost of night races makes no sense.
Of course Bernie and Max care little for common sense, only profits power and spankings.
George, how about Kimi? He is the reason McLaren is 1 point ahead in the constructors championship. he has been abismal, even though if the race had been a normal one he would have been on LH rear wing and might have manage to knock him out helping Massa.
Also, I am all for getting rid of these type of circuits, except Monaco and that is only because you can see topless woman on the boats :)
I agree joeD, Kimi has to have all Ferrari fans mumbling to themselves. From a potential 5th place finish to nothing, by a careless error at the turn 10 chicane. I don ‘t think Kimi could have knocked him out, he was too far behind Lewis and stuffed his car with only 3 laps to go.
If Ferrari lose the constructor’s title this year I can’t see them keeping him on for 2009. It may not be Alonso, but it definitely won’t be Kimi.
[...] under the lights. George Katinger at FastMachines.com has the details from the [...]
George, I meant, before the safety car. he was catching up to Lewis at about 1/2 sec a lap. Anyway, if Ferrari fail to win the constructors, I think Kimi bares responsibility.
Good question George, as all F1 races are “night races” down under.
It made almost no difference as East coast Australian time is pretty close to Singapore. The race was televised at 9.30pm on hi def & 11.30pm on free to air.
I see today that Luca M of Ferrari has put the boot into the growth of street races, Valencia & Singapore. He is also screaming about the crazy safety car system, if anybody can get the idiots at the FIA to change the pit lane rules it’s Luca.