There is no time to sit down and rest as the confusing muddle of emotion that has been Formula One in 2009 continues hurtling towards it's conclusion, as the teams fly out to Japan to reacquaint themselves with the classic Suzuka track.
Talking Points
- Time is running out
For Rubens Barrichello, this weekend realistically is a make-or-break moment for not only his season, but perhaps his career as a whole. Should he struggle this weekend, and leave with his title aspirations looking even slimmer than they do right now, then he may well have to kiss goodbye to his best, and possibly only, real championship challenge. With Nico Rosberg rumoured to be on the way for 2010, and Jenson Button assured of staying at the team unless he starts deciding to play games over his wages, poor Boobens may find that this is his last top-level drive of his career.
He might be feeling more than a little cheated of late though, with Singapore's combination of grid penalty and refuelling issues continuing a familiar trend of niggles and quirks that have blighted his races this season. If Button seems to be getting the odd slice of good luck when he needs it, then it seems as if Barrichello is picking up the flip-side of this karmic alignment.
Realistically, for this week at least, he should be ok. Button doesn't look anywhere near capable of outperforming Barrichello in a race to the extent of increasing his lead by a further five points, so as long as he avoids a DNF, he should go to his home track at Interlagos with still some sort of mathematical chance of the title. The question is whether he can make up enough points in the next two races to take us through to a last-round decider.
- Classic tracks
The racing at Singapore may have been appallingly dull, but that misery was offset (to a point) by the sight of the night time track, with the F1 cars glistening beautifully under the high-intensity lightbulbs. But despite the best efforts of designers, dubious start times and halogen bulbs, there really is no way that a race like Singapore can compare to a race like Suzuka. Returning to the calendar after two years away, Suzuka is probably second only to Spa in terms of overall favourite GP circuits.
Whether or not that actually means the track action will be any better than it has been in recent weeks is hard to say, given that the lack of overtaking currently blighting the sport is an issue far more complicated than just "the circuits are designed by Tilke", but it will nevertheless be hugely fun to see F1 cars roaring around Suzuka's infamously difficult figure-of-eight layout. While Singapore may well win a beauty contest between the two race tracks, there is no doubt that, as so often is the way, the plainer features of Suzuka belie a deeper and more meaningful charm.
- The other man
The task facing Sebastian Vettel at Suzuka is an altogether more simple one than the two main title protagonists. As the only remaining non-Brawn driver that could mathematically win the title this season, his Japanese task will be to turn up, try his best, and then ultimately be eliminated from the contest anyway. Flippant though that description may be, the fact of the matter is that, barring some sort of breakdown that would redefine the phrase "to choke", one of the two Brawn drivers will win the title this season.
But for Vettel, that doesn't mean that he doesn't have a job to do in the remaining three races. In particular, he needs to focus on instilling some consistency into his undoubted speed behind the wheel. Singapore was a race where he could have certainly finished second, and possibly sneaked the win, but a costly off-track moment mangled his diffuser, and then a pit lane speeding fine left him mired down in fourth, effectively ending his title hopes. True, there's no conclusive evidence that the speeding fine was his fault, but the diffuser damage was certainly his fault, and continues a theme of this season. He threw away a potential win in Turkey by running wide on the first lap, and seemed to spend more time driving through run-off areas than he did on the track in the closing stages at Monza.
That he has emerged as Red Bull's top-placed man in the points is as much down to some typically dismal luck for Mark Webber (who has now gone four races without scoring a point through no real fault of his own) than it is any overt signs of pre-eminence from the young German. He surely has a brighter future ahead of him than the Aussie, largely because he is at the start of his career while Webber is entering his epilogue, but if he is to become a genuine title contender in the future, he needs to ensure that his canny qualifying performances and blistering speed is coupled with a greater maturity and consistency in his racecraft. He now has three races to practice that ahead of any potential title assault next season.
- Best of the rest
The Brawn GP team may have all-but tied up the constructors championship, to add to their likely drivers title, but there is a "frenetic" fight for third place still going on. And amusingly, given they way that they've dominated the last couple of years at the top of the standings, Ferrari and McLaren are the main protagonists in that particular fight over the scraps.
The Italian team have a three point lead right now, but with McLaren in the ascendancy race-pace wise, and Ferrari effectively having given up on this year, especially with regards to their second car, it looks like McLaren will be able to reel that tiny lead in fairly easily. It doesn't sound that interesting, but let's face it, going into the last couple of race weekends, it might be the only thing we've got left to talk about.
Track Facts
Suzuka Circuit
Number of Laps: 53
Circuit Length: 5.807 km
Race Distance: 307.573 km
Lap Record: 1:31.540 (Kimi Raikkonen - 2005)
2008 pole: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren - Mercedes)
2008 winner: Fernando Alonso (Renault)
Timetable
Friday 2nd October
Free Practice 1 - 10:00 (Local Time) / 02.00 (BST)
Free Practice 2 - 14.00 (Local Time) / 06.00 (BST)
Saturday 3rd October
Free Practice 3 - 11.00 (Local Time) / 03.00 (BST)
Qualifying - 14.00 (Local Time) / 06.00 (BST)
Sunday 4th October
Race - 14.00 (Local Time) / 06.00 (BST)
Race Revisited - 1998
As F1 careers go, that of Minardi driver Esteban Tuero was not a classic one. He lasted a single season before rather comically announcing his retirement from motor racing (if rumours are to be believed, it was a final act of rebellion against a father who had all-but forced young Esteban into a career in the sport - Anthony Hamilton, take note), and struggled in a hapless Minardi to deal with the weight of expectation of an Argentinian nation desperate for a new star to follow in the footsteps of Juan Manuel Fangio, Carlos Reutemann and, erm, Norberto Fontana.
But, Tuero had an unlikely role to play in the outcome of the 1998 battle, which had been an epic scrap between Michael Schumacher and Ferrari sizing up against Mika Hakkinen and McLaren, a contest so far removed from this season's girlish knockabout of a contest. On lap 28, Tuero collided with the Tyrrell of Tora Takagi, and two laps later (while ITV were on a commercial break), Schumacher suffered a puncture caused by riding through the debris of the altercation between the backmarking pair, ending his title challenge and leaving Hakkinen free to waltz to victory in the race and the championship.
Truth be told, that is a slight re-shaping of history, as Schumacher had rather crippled his own ambitions long before the puncture, after stalling on the grid and being forced to start, not from pole position, but from the back. While his recovery drive was typically impressive, it never looked likely that he would finish ahead of Hakkinen, which is what he would have needed to do to have any hope of victory. Still, if we tell the story like that, then nobody would ever remember poor old Tuero.
Watch brief highlights of the Japanese GP of 1998 here.
One Year Ago
Twelve months ago, the Japanese Grand Prix was hosted by the slightly naff Tilke-ified Fuji Speedway, and saw Fernando Alonso take his second win in a row, this time seemingly without the assistance of his team mate crashing. The assistance that he did get, though, came from his former team mate Lewis Hamilton, who made a spectacular cock of the first corner having made a complete mess of his start from pole position, and forced most of the field off the road, leaving Alonso to sneak through into the lead, from where he comfortably took a win that probably made Flavio Briatore wonder if there had been any point to fixing the race before that.
Meanwhile, the day went from bad to worse for Hamilton, who recovered from his first turn off only to be tapped into a spin by his title rival Felipe Massa on the second lap. Both drivers earned drive-through penalties for their respective moments of idiocy, and ended up coming home in lowly places, as the rest of us wondered quite how these two hapless oafs had ended up being the two to battle it out for the championship. So there we go, this season isn't as unique as all that.
Remind yourself of the action from Fuji by having a read of Patty's race report here.
Best Race Odds
Lewis Hamilton - 7/2 (Bet365)
Sebastian Vettel - 4/1 (Stan James)
Mark Webber - 15/2 (Paddy Power)
Rubens Barrichello - 9/1 (888 Sport)
Jenson Button - 9/1 (Blue Sq)
Patty's Tip -For some reason, Blue Sq and 888 Sport are both offering odds on first practice times. Meaning that you can get 4/1 on the likes of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso and 9/2 for the BMWs and Timo Glock. So one of those have got to be orth a fiver or something, surely? I'll be honest, this feature is getting a bit boring these days. We're so far behind on the mortgage. Help us!!!!
On Patronise
The on-track action may have been rather less than inspiring in recent weekends, and the Japanese race may well be scheduled for ungodly o'clock in the morning for us UK Pattyers, but that doesn't mean we're about to start shirking our responsibilities to our two or three readers. Join us for all the usual MBM fun from Friday practice, Saturday's action and the race itself, along with reviews, opinion and all the latest news published a mere several hours after it appears on other, reputable F1 websites.
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