Dave Kean

2011 was a good year for F1, the stats are excelent, more over taking thanks to a combination of aero changes, the Drag-Reduction-System (DRS), the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the tires that gave tremendous grip, for a while.

But it could have been more competitive. Perhaps we were just spoiled by maybe the best championship in the history of the sport in 2010. With Kimi Raikkonon returning for 2012 (admittedly with Lotus) there are 6 world champions on the grid, and that’s got to be good.

Lets be clear, Vettel won his second world championship in style. It became little predicable and was wrapped up with four races to go. But such was the speed of Vettel and the Red Bull that there was little real doubt after Valencia. The constructor’s championship (which is what the teams get paid by) was tied up one race later.

Vettels ability in the first couple of laps to pull out a significant lead over everyone was astounding. That first lap was critical and made it clear that baring a mistake, everyone else was running for second. Read more…

So we made it through to race day and the weather was per forecast – wet. Personally, I like watching wet races, it adds a lot of unknowns to the equation. One of the big unknowns was how the cars will work on the Pirelli wets and intermediate tires as the teams have done little or no testing on them.

A beautiful Austin Healey 3000

And today delivered, I’ve no idea when there was a race as full as this one. Today was why racing can be so special. It was a absolute top drawer drive from Jenson Button, 21^st and dead last to top step of the podium. Being in the wonderful position of having no real skin in the game I was able to sit back and enjoy the spectacle that unfolded in front of me.

This has been a great Grand Prix weekend, Montreal is a city that totally embraces this race, and downtown hums every evening over the weekend. I was lucky I had invites to a couple of events, but even without that there is so much going on. Boredom is never an option in this city. ”’i just wish I’d had the energy to keep up with the parties, receptions and events that I got invites too.

Overtaking in the Ferrari Challenge support race

The race was stopped after 30ish laps due to rain, it was coming down so hard and from my seat at the second hairpin there was no cover. I had a couple of options on where to watch from and for me this is the pace to watch a F1 car in action. Braking from 305KPH to 50 and then accelerating through the gears as it pulls away. Add a wet track to the mix and the braking zone became a very exciting place to watch.

Tifosi, but with a French accent

It took a little over two hours before the race restarted, I think they were a little too conservative, most of the standing water had been removed and the rain had stopped.

Prior to the restart I moved a grandstand after the final chicane. Mostly because it was under cover, a little late as I was soaked through, but it provided a wonderful spot to watch the race unfold with so much happening right in front of me.

Vettel in another really pretty Austin Healey

Where I ended up had the England-Spain game from the UEFA U21 championship on TV, at half time the TV got switched back to the race channel and we were off again. Unfortunately it was behind the Safety car, but after two hours all I cared about is we were going again..

The race went green and almost immediately it drying out and once someone showed the switch to intermediates was a good idea everyone would go. Four laps later everything started to happen.

Petrov

Alonso was high centred after a coming together with Button (who was having a busy afternoon). This brought out the safety car once again, and Button came in for his fifth stop of the afternoon. He left with a new wing and fresh rubber. Alonso was out and Button was dead last of the 21 cars left running.

Nearly everyone took the opportunity to come in after the Safety car left to change from wets to intermediate tires.

Rosberg after spinning out, a long way from the track

A fantastic battle was emerging for seconds between Kobiayashi (really good in the wet, lost time as it dried. Japan may be yet to produce a world champion, but Japanese drivers all know how to drive in the wet), Massa and Schumacher. Schumacher looked excellent and went from fourth to second just before everyone decided pretty much en-mass that it was time for slicks.

There was enough of a dry line that emerging that slicks were the right decision and were worth an immediate 3-4 seconds a lap advantage. Schumacher looked like this may be the comeback race that will show he is still to be reckoned with. He went for it on slicks, showed flashes of what we expected when he came back last year, and looked especially good under braking.

Rosberg, Button, Schumacher

Another safety car closed everyone up again, this was turning into a very fun race with so much going on up and down the field. Out front Vettel looked comfortable, he was a happy 5 or 6 seconds in front and seemed to be able to keep that distance what ever happened behind him.

Most notable, Button went from 21^st to fourth in about 20 laps and was not done yet. Webber made a mistake and Button took third and shortly afterwards took care of Schumacher as they crossed the start line. Schumacher on the dry line and Button deep into the damp part of the track with the DRS deployed. It was brilliant, brilliant stuff from Button, taking huge risks going onto the damp track looking for the opportunity.

Vettel and Alonso behind the safety car

There were 4 laps left, Button was second, taking significant time out of Vettel every lap and the German was unable to respond. On the penultimate lap Vettel made a huge mistake and had a big tail out moment (not sure where, second chicane maybe) that gave Button the chance he needed to take the lead.  I think Turkey last year was the last big mistake I can think of from Vettel, considering how dominant he’s been since then that’s remarkable.

This was a great individual drive, not in a “Senna at Donnington – genius at work” way, but because anything could have happened today. That Sunday at Donnington we watched a master in control, today was an inspired drive by Jenson Button, but one full risks. He got a little luck to go his way (and a mistake by clearly the best driver in the sport) and made the best of it. I don’t mean to diminish what Button achieved, as he drove a great race and must be very satisfied with his drive, it was a privilege to watch.

Barrichello, Kobiayashi

This is one of the most memorable races I’ve ever seen in 25 years of following the sport, and not just because I was there. This contained everything a great sporting moment needs, drama, unpredictability, someone riding their luck a little and producing something spectacular from it.

I was soaked to the skin, and I mean soaked. Even my wallet was saturated, I just hope the camera starts working again when it dries out.

Heidfeld, De Resta, De La Rosa

Time to head back to the hotel, dry out and think about dinner tonight. Wet races are unpredictable, and today was no different. That was an outstanding race, and England came back to draw 1-1 with Spain. Thank you to Brian, Joel and Sue for the tickets. This was a great weekend of racing. I love this sport.

Oh yeah, one last thing, it started sheeting down with rain again a few minutes after the race finished.

Barcelona in the book and Vettel has made it four wins out of five this season, a dominance reminiscent of Schumacher at is best. Today he did not have it all his own way and worked hard to fight off a great effort by Lewis Hamilton.

Clearly the Red Bull is the class of the field, but McLaren can be encouraged by their showing and for a time Hamilton did something I don’t think anyone else has done this season and took the battle to Vettel. The Red Bull driver did what the greats do and responded with faster and faster laps in what turned out to be a great duel in an entertaining race.

The Red Bull car was at it’s best on the fast, sweeping parts of the track and able to pull out enough of a lead in the final corners of that Hamilton had no chance under braking into the first turn. It would seem that once we get past the lottery of Monaco the following two races in Montreal and Valencia could suit the Red Bulls very well.

Barcelona is not a track renown for it’s overtaking, and after the record number of on-track position changes in Turkey it was going to be interesting to see what the Drag-Reduction-System (DRS) did here.

DRS is complex, but essentially if the second driver is a second behind the leading driver at a certain point on the track (Activation Line) they are allowed to open up a rear flap, reduce their drag along a designated straight and gain a little speed to challenge for the corner.

In the second half of the race Hamilton was almost always within a second as they crossed the DRS activation line, by the time they went through the big sweeper onto the start-finish straight the gap was always too large for Hamilton to have a run on Vettel into the first corner.

While DRS was not as big a deal as it had been, the new Pirelli tyres were the dominant story and this led to a number of 3/4/5 pit stop strategies. As always this made for a very interesting race.

This is home turf for Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. He was fourth on the grid and made a lightning start. Overtaking Hamilton with ease and taking a run down the inside at the two Red Bulls into the first turn. He gave absolutely everything on the start and it was fun to watch Alonso have a go at the Red Bull’s over the first 8 or 10 laps.

Alonso could not keep that sort of pace up for long and did not have a spare set of the faster soft Pirellis after being forced to use an extra set in qualifying. His tires were done by lap 10, the first of his four stops.

Button on the other hand did a great job with preserving his tires and stopped only three times. After a bad start Button was 10^th at the end of the first lap. His fight to get back to 3^rd was a great drive and his run at Alonso down the outside of turn ten to take third was just superb. Today a three-stop strategy looked like the right call, but such was the speed of the Red Bulls and McLarens that they were the only four cars not to be lapped.

In the standings Vettel has a 41-point lead over Hamilton, that’s a big lead, but there is a lot of racing still to go this year.

And as good as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Buttons drives were (and they really were) I think the best performance came from Nick Heidfeld in the Renault. He had a big fire early on Saturday and never completed a flying lap in qualifying so was last on the grid. He finished a superb eighth, behind the two Mercedes’s drivers.

It was a fascinating race, next weekend is the race everyone should visit once, Monaco. It’s a special place and a total lottery. It seems the McLarens are good on the slow, more technical sections, could it be their turn? It’s a place that occasionally throws form out the window and as ever it will be fascinating and qualifying could be an exceptional battle around the streets of the principality as everyone looks for a clear track.

There was a lot of change over the F1 off-season. New tires, rear wings, aero regulations, more power for the stewards and of course politics by the truckload. However last night all that mattered for nothing and the cars ran in anger for the first time.

Discovery-one, not much changed. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull is the class of the field. If his maturity can match the speed of the car then he looks like he will be hard to beat. Not only did he win, he won in style. Vettel took pole by a huge margin, led from green light to checker flag.

Discovery-two, the new regs made a difference. The Drag Reduction System (RDS, or the “flappy rear wing”) is interesting and seemed to allow cars to have a decent run at each other under braking. The purist in me has issues with this, I think you need to earn the place and this aids the overtaking driver. However, in reality, it was awfully fun to watch cars overtake each other.

Hamilton had a great race; he had some undertray problems at the end, but was quick enough to hold a relatively untroubled second place. After the really poor showing in testing over the last 6 weeks McLaren have put in a huge amount of work, simplified a few things and found a lot of time.

Clearly this weekend Vettel was the class of the field.

Third place and maybe the best performance of the weekend was Vitaly Petrov in the very, very sexy looking Lotus-Renault.  Kept away from the drama and stayed in front of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Ferrari looked to be close to Red Bull in testing and have to come away from the weekend disappointed with their performance with Massa unable to do better than eighth. However it was nothing compared to Mercedes race, Schumacher could not even make the final qualifying session and was out qualified by Rosberg. Neither car finished, Schumacher got a puncture early on and eventually retired, while Barrichello’s Williams took out Nico Rosberg.

Another team that looked good on the track was Sauber. New driver Sergio Perez made it a one-stop race, the only driver to do so. The tactic paid off when he finished seventh, one place in front of Japanese driver Kobayashi. Unfortunately the Saubers were later disqualified for technical infringements over the wings.

Lots of overtaking, clearly Vettel was the class of the field, and by some margin too. The circus arrives in Malaysia in a couple of weeks, a very different style of track. Some teams obviously have catching up to do; it’s going to be a busy two weeks for the teams.

I’ve stated a couple of times that I thought the 2010 F1 world championship was a classic; even with a little distance between the racing and us I still think it deserves the overused “classic” label.

In the end I’m still not sure if Vettel won it, or Ferrari and Alonso conspired to loose it at the death with a bizarre strategy. There is a difference.

It was a great championship with five drivers winning races and the championship lead changing as teams fortunes strengthened and wavered over the long season.

However, Vettel dominated qualifying and was unquestionably the fastest driver over a single lap. It’s hard to argue that he was not a worthy champion. He made a significant number of errors, was occasionally a little impetuous and this cost him points that could have wrapped it up before Abu Dhabi.

I’ve been thinking about my personal highlight, and there were a number of great drives during the year, but for me it was Lewis Hamilton’s drive at Spa. In part because I was lucky enough to be there and because changing weather adds a whole new dimension to the sport. Hamilton is clearly a smart driver able to read the conditions backed by a team that will aid him in taking advantage of that.

For the true rain-master see Senna at Donnington in ’93. The best drive certainly I’ve ever seen and I don’t think it’s hyperbole to call it one of the best drives in the history of the sport. At one point Senna had lapped then entire field.

Back to Spa, through a very dodgy decision by the stewards a couple of years ago he had a win taken away from him. The race gods owed him and this year they made it even. It was a stunning drive, wonderfully controlled aggression mixed with adapting to the “dry/wet/damp/wet maybe” conditions.

That afternoon Hamilton showed a maturity that’s perhaps been missing in the past.

The conditions were challenging and it was a race when mistakes were easy to come by (Alonso finding the wall and Vettel finding Button), and luck (Button being taken out) was given out a little more sparingly.

Lewis Hamilton led from the start, impressively too. Then everything changed when it began to rain, it poured for a couple of laps and he nearly threw it all away in the gravel at Rivage.

The front of the car just grazed the wall and he got away with a huge moment. He kept on going over the compacted gravel and just about made it back onto the track.

Despite this he kept his lead over the impressive Robert Kubica in the Renault and Mark Webbers fast Red Bull, but the lead was much reduced and he had to be perfect from then on, and to his credit he was.

It was an awesome afternoon of racing, the conditions changed and the teams calls on tires and settings played a huge part for all the drivers. It was one of those weekends that make the sport so interesting, the unpredictability and rain made it a fun race to watch.

The question now becomes, which races will to attend in 2011? Unfortunately it won’t be my first choice of Monza, but maybe Montreal. Valencia would be nice and Suzuka would certainly convenient for Nagoya… We’ll see, but I will be going somewhere I’m sure.

As the 2010 F1 season has gone on I’ve come to like the current Q3-Q2-Q1 knock out qualifying system more and more. The tension ramps up nicely to the 10-minute shootout in Q3 for the top10 on the grid.

Abu Dhabi was a fascinating final qualifying session. There was none of the waiting until the last moment for Vettel, he went out early, set a very fast time and made it clear to everyone who was the guy to beat today.

Hamilton did something simular, he set an early time that he was unable to better. Both McLarens were consistently quick through out qualifying and Button lines up fourth.

Alonso was struggling down in 6^th early in the session, his last chance lap was started with just a couple of seconds left in the session was enough for third. His comment at the presss conference was “just one more day of perfection needed.”

The biggest looser today was Mark Webber. He could do no better than fifth, he needs a good start tomorrow.

Abu Dhabi Grid

The 2010 Championship will be decided this weekend and on recent performances and assuming the cars are reliable, it seem likely that at the end of the day the top three will comprise Vettel, Webber and Alonso in some order. While I don’t think you can count out Hamilton, his McLaren has been a little off the pace of the three drivers ahead of him in the championship.

There are many, many permutations, but to keep it simple we’ll just have a look at a few. If Alonso is first or second he walks away champion, no matter who finishes around him. If Webber wins Alonso has to be third or worse for the Australian to be crowned. Vettel needs even more luck to go his way; if Vettel wins Alonso needs to be fifth or worse.

For Lewis Hamilton to regain the drivers’ title he needs a lot to go his way. First he needs to win, and then he needs the other three contenders to finish either out of, or well down the points. Nothing else will do. This seems unlikely at best, but he has the chance to play spoiler should he be able to mix it with the Red Bulls and Alonso it up front. Let’s not for get both Hamilton and Also have quick team mates who are capable of winning races. Neither Button or Massa have been on great form recently, but both could make life difficult for others on their day.

As much fun as the speculation is, the question I have is what if Vettel is leading going into the last lap and Webber is behind him and Alonso third or fourth? Would Vettel pull over for the Australian and give his teammate the championship. Of would he try to hold onto his position for another win this year?

Clearly the relationship between the two Red bull drivers is not great, and that’s to be expected at this point in the year after they have gone after each other so hard for 17 races now. I’m not sure any professional partnership between two competitive sportsmen would do well under this pressure.

So what’s the team been saying? Team principal Christian Horner “if we find ourselves in a position where one of the drivers can win the world championship, then the drivers will do whatever is necessary to ensure as a team we achieve the best result.” That seems clear, if they should find themselves in that position then Horner expects Vettel will allow Webber though and do what he can to hold off Alonso. I’m sure it would not be easy for Vettel, but the team employs him.

Later in the week Red bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz, the man who founded the energy drink company threw a turd into Christian Horners’ “everyone is doing their job” punchbowl. He was clear he wants the drivers in win, but no team orders. He’d rather they fight it out on the track.

Talking of team orders, at Hockenheim Alonso gained an extra seven points when Massa pulled over to let him through into the lead. Take those points away and Alonso leads Webber by only one point and Vettel by eight. That would have meant that Abu Dhabi this weekend would have been a winner takes all race for the three of them.

F1 doesn’t have a “play to the rules’ mentality, it’s about winning and nothing else. If Red Bull were not to enforce some kind of team orders for Vettel to help Webber, should the situation arise, it would reinforce the idea that Webber is done with the team after this race. Would the team rather wait until next year in the hope that for Vettel will be their first champion? That seems rather far-fetched, even in the cynical world of F1.

There have hints from Webber that there have been team orders to hold position rather than race each other in the recent races, rather than risk another accident like turkey where Webber was taken out by Vettel. I can’t imagine either driver holding back in Abu Dhabi with the title on the line.

Of course, part of what makes F1 so fascinating is the politics and intrigue that run through the paddock and despite all this speculation into tactics and what if’s, we have a race to run. Once again Red Bull probably arrive as favourites for the race. But Alonso has beaten the red bulls in three of the previous five races and is not far behind them in race speed. He’s not been as good in qualifying, he’s also the only one of the three that’s been in the position of winning the championship before.

With the pressure on all the title contenders so intense, will that be a deciding factor? Or, with all the contenders worried about engine mileage under F1′s eight-engines-a-year rule, will it be reliability that wins the day? It’s difficult to believe that after such a great year of racing that it will all go down without one final twist in the season. It could be reliability, it could be teammates, it could be a desperate lunge for position or even a mistake under the incredible pressure, but it will be fun to watch.

The race is on Speed TV in the US at 4:30am Sunday morning.

Drivers standings after Brazil

1. Alonso                246
2. Webber               238
3. Vettel                   231
4. Hamilton           222

After 18 of the 19 rounds in this years championship there are still four drivers in with a shout of winning everything. I don’t this has ever happened before, Abu Dhabi will be the shoot out I hoped it would be.

Vettel won comfortably with Webber and Alonso taking the lower steps of the podium. Hamilton was fourth and Button fifth. The Red Bull 1-2 was enough to ensure the constructors championship was on it’s way to Milton Keynes this year.

Hulkenbergs rather suprising pole lasted until the entry to the first corner when Vettel took the lead. A lead he held untill the finish except for one lap while changing tires.

Webber took second from Hulkenberg four corners later, the Williams driver ended the opening lap in 3^rd.

For others the opening lap was a little more exciting, Alonso was battling Hamilton for 4^th and 5^th. At the end of lap-1 Alonso was in front, but a spectacular out braking maneuver into the Senna-S moments later gave 4^th to Hamilton. Unfortunatly for Hamilton he made a mistake shortly afterwards that gave Alonso 4^th back.

It took another couple of laps before Alonso passed Hulkenberg and not untill lap 7 did Hamilton get past the Williams.

Except for pit stops the order stayed the same until the end. Not a thrilling race, conditions were just about perfect today and the top four were separated by a little over 15 seconds at the end.

As it stands, Hamilton is not eliminated but would need to win in Abu Dhabi and have the other three contenders fall off. Lets call that what it is, unlikely. The constructors championship is over and McLaren can let Hamilton go for it and see what happens. No worries about engine mileage or condition, Abu Dhabi is it.

If Webber wins, Alonso has to be third or worse for Webber to clinch. If Vettel wins and Weber is second, then Alonso needs only needs be 4^th or better to win the title.

Today Red Bull did what they had to do, win. Unfortunately for the drivers title it was Vettel, not Webber. Had the two Red Bull drivers positions be revered, Alonso would have led Webber by 1 point going into the final weekend.

Assuming Ferrari do what they have done for the last few rounds and just let Alonso drive the race he wants, then Red Bull has to make a decision about team orders. Webber has by far the better chance of the title, but Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner has been clear that the team is going to let the driver race.

I think it’s fitting that the most exciting championship race I’ve ever seen comes down to the final race. It will be fascinating to see how the strategies employed by the teams work out. Hopefully we will see a good race to round out a great year.

Let’s do a little speculating; how good a chance did Lewis Hamilton really have of winning in Korea?

While the drivers were circulating behind the pace car (lap 4-17) we got to listen to the radio conversation between Hamilton and his race engineer Andy Lathum on the broadcast. Of the drivers at the front Hamilton seemed to be the one most keen to get the racing going.

Unfortunately, when the safety car did pull off on lap-17 he was slow to react and got overtaken by Niko Rosberg at the restart.

As it happens, that may have been a little luck. Rosberg got taken out on the next lap by the spinning Webber, it would have been Hamilton that had been collected by the out of control Red Bull driver.

During the race Alonso lost second place to Hamilton because of a slow Ferrari pit stop. The team had problems when he changed from wet to intermediate tyres. This meant that he came out in third behind leader Vettel and Hamilton (who had pitted the previous lap).

The following lap Hamilton braked way too late into turn-1 and ran wide into the corner. This opened the door wide open and Alonso comfortably took second place back. It was a mistake by Hamilton rather than a daring, brilliantly executed pass.

This meant the Ferrari driver, not Hamilton, took the lead when the Renault engine in Sebastian Vettels Red Bull comprehensively let go on lap 44.

A quick summary of this years engine rules (as I understand them), a driver is allowed eight engines, no rebuilds. It’s up to the teams and engine builders as to how they swap the eight engines in and out of the cars to manage all qualifying, practice and racing. Renault said the engine in Vettels car was about 1600KM into its 2000KM design life when it let go.

Back to the question I asked. If he had not made the error into turn-1 could Hamilton have kept the lead, or was Alonso that much faster?

So it’s speculation time… Alonso was clearly faster than Hamilton at the end of the race. McLaren’s tyres were heavily worn, which caused the car to understeer (contributed to the mistake? Maybe), but Hamilton had pretty much matched Vettel and Alonso for time. The gaps had stayed fairly consistent between the cars before and after the round of tire changes.

I think he could have held Alonso off for the win, stay on line and it’s very, very difficult to get past.

If Hamilton had hung on and won, that would have given the McLaren driver a 14-point turnaround against Alonso and put him right into the center of the drivers’ championship battle. Today he is 21 points behind Alonso, had he kept his lead he’d be only 7 points behind.

Lets be clear Vettel looked very, very fast, but Alonso seems to be capable of a very similar pace and was probably the best driver on the day. Alonso stayed out of trouble, looked comfortable and never let a botched pit-stop get to him. He was given a couple of opportunities on the track and took then decisively.

Three wins in four races, and his sixth podium in the last seven races. He is clearly the on form driver, Ferrari has given him a competitive and reliable car and it’s up to him and the team to make it happen.

Clearly Hamilton’s mistake made life more difficult for himself, but there are lots of points left and after Vettels DNF a lot of teams will be even more worried about engines over the next couple of races. This is fun.

The drivers championship was once more turned upside down, yet another fascinating race, this time in Korea. The big race day story was the rain; the conditions at the start were atrocious. Lots of standing water and almost zero visibility for everyone except the leader.

The race was held up for more than an hour for the torrential rain to dissipate and actually give the drivers a chance to see what was going on.

Ferrari and Ferdinand Alonso are clearly the on form team and won for the third time in four races. The Spaniard now leads the championship by 11-points.

Once again Red Bull were dominant in qualifying and had troubles during the race, if the team could translate qualifying position to race results the championship would have been all over weeks ago. Webber made a mistake and crashed out while Vettels engine let go in a fairly comprehensive way towards the end of the race.

McLaren had what we could call a rather mixed weekend. Lewis Hamilton kept alive his somewhat slim hopes of the title by finishing second. He looks to be back after his luck left him struggling over the last few races. He lies in third-placed and 21 points behind Alonso with two races (and 50 points) available.

Button on the other hand is all but eliminated from the championship. He’s 42 points out of first place and now needs way too much to go his way over the next two races to have a shot at retaining his title.

The first three laps of the GP were led by the safety car, the conditions were that bad. Then the race was suspended for over an hour while the worst of the weather cleared.

After the restart the safety car led the cars around again for another 14 laps. The worst of the water was cleared off the track by the circulating cars and on lap-17 racing got underway.

Webber crashed out on the 19^th lap, he was running second and spun out, damaged the car on the wall, and was then collected by Niko Rosbergs Merc. Both cars were out on the spot with lots of damage.

Vettel did well to open up a decent lead over Alonso, with Hamilton behind him. Hamilton did pass the Ferrari, but braked too late into turn-1 and gave the place back to Alonso.

Vettel looked like he was in cruse and collect mode, and did not appear to be troubled by either driver behind him. When they pushed a little, Vettel would respond and keep the gap comfortable. On the 46^th (out of 55) laps Vettels engine let go in a rather spectacular way. Renault was very apologetic this morning, and the Red Bull garage looked shocked when it happened.

Drivers are only allowed 8 engines over the course of the year. The teams are struggling to keep the running time on each of them down as the swap them in and out over the course of the year. Vettels blow up is maybe a sign that all eight of the engines for some drivers have a lot of miles on them and reliability may be an issue in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

This was Alonso’s fourth win in the last seven races. Ferrari are coming good at the right time, the championship is so close, even with the all-but mathematical elimination of Button there are still four drivers in this thing. Red Bull may be the quickest, but points are awarded for finishes, and Ferrari look awfully good.