F1-ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
- 27 May 2013
Here’s a headline you’d never thought you’d see. MINARDI WINS ITALIAN GRAND PRIX. Well almost, Sebastien Vettel in the Toro Rosso totally dominated the race winning from pole position and never looking like being threatened. He not only became the first winner for Red Bull/Toro Rosso/Minardi but was also the youngest Grand Prix winner and the first winner in a customer Ferrari engined car. It was also the first Italian team to win a Grand Prix since Juan Manuel Fangio’s last great win for Maserati at the Nurburgring in 1957.
The Toro Rosso team which was created from the purchase of the old Minardi squad by Red Bull, staffed mainly by ex-Minardi crew, based at the old Minardi factory at Faenza, had never finished higher than fourth and hadn’t had a car on the front row of the grid since Pheonix in 1990. In a stunning wet weather drive he took the lead from the start and pulled away from Kovalainen’s McLaren at close to 2 seconds per lap. He only lost the lead during the first series of pit stops, but once they were completed he was never seriously challenged. A stunning win for a nice young kid. Still possibly the best yarn about Vettel is when he was given his first F1 test with Williams four years ago at the tender age of 17, he had to give his school head-master a note excusing him from class so he could take part in the test. “Dear sir, want a day off school to test drive a Grand Prix Williams” Just too bizarre. Not just a great result for Seb but also a brilliant reward for all those long suffering Toro Rosso/Minardi team members who have spent more time on the last row of the grid than the front.
Trying his damned-est to take the attention away from Vettel was Lewis Hamilton. Unfortunately this was not in a good way. His antics were reminiscent of Schumacher and Senna at their very cheating worst. If he didn’t deserve to be penalised at Spa he should have bloody well been disqualified and given a lengthy suspension for his disgraceful behaviour at Monza. His first stunt, which could almost be forgiven due to the heavy spray, was to run Timo Glock off onto the grass in the run up to the Curva Grande. This is dangerous enough in the dry but in the wet is almost murderous. Glock was extremely lucky not to have a BIG accident. He then put a severe swerve on Alonso when he had already passed him leading into the first chicane and finally swerved into Mark Webber when the Australian had the temerity to try to pass. Webber had been closing the gap by over a second per lap, got a great run onto the McLaren’s tail coming out of the Parabolica and surged down the outside into the first chicane. Hamilton took the inside line to defend his position and then swerved to the outside and straight into the side of Webber’s Red Bull. Webber tried to back out but his front wheel still rode up over the rear wheel of the McLaren pitching the front of the Red Bull into the air. Twenty odd years ago this was the sort of incident that killed Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder at shattered Didier Pironi’s legs at Hockenhiem. At least they were just accidents with no malice intended by either Jochen Mass nor Alain Prost (the guys they ran into).
Last week I bitched about the FIA coming down too hard on a good dice, but this week I am blasting them for not giving a penalty when it is warranted. Lewis did nothing wrong at Spa but this was just plain old thuggery and Hamilton (not to mention the other three) is very lucky that no-one ended up in a hospital or a morgue. This sort of behaviour might be accepted from a school-yard bully, but in a sport where a mistake can kill you should be ruthlessly stamped out. Hamilton should have been disqualified and given at least a one race ban. If I were Max, we wouldn’t see Lewis again until next year. Utterly disgraceful behaviour of this type should never be tolerated on a race track.
Sam Snape
15-9-2008