Wednesday June 23, 2010 Pirelli is appointed sole tyre supplier for Formula 1 cars for three years starting with the 2011 season. This was announced by the Fia. The Italian company, which takes over from Bridgestone, beats off competition from Michelin. For Pirelli, it is a return to Formula 1 after twenty years. The decision was in the air since the Monaco Grand Prix and initially scheduled for the end of May, but was made official only during the FIA Council meeting in Geneva. Pirelli overcame competition from England's Cooper-Avon, Korea's Hankook and, above all, France's Michelin, who had tried to overtake them until the very end. And, at the same time, it also won the exclusive supply of the GP2 World Series Championship. Underlines Tronchetti Provera:
"It is a recognition not only of our company and those who work there, but also of Italian competitiveness".
The Milan stock exchange, however, greeted the news coldly: the share closed at 0.47 euro, down 3.57%. The details of the agreement will be explained at the weekend in Valencia, the ninth race of the 2010 season. For the moment, all that is known is that Pirelli - 44 victories, 139 podiums, 47 poles and 51 fastest laps to their credit in Formula 1 - will make six types of tyre available to the teams: four slicks for dry asphalt, a rain tyre for heavy rain and an intermediate tyre for wet asphalt and light rain. Which, translated into figures, means bringing around 1,700 tyres to each race. The FIA is also issuing other important regulatory changes. The first is that from 2011 F1 drivers who are too slow in qualifying will not be allowed to participate in Grand Prix races. This reinstates an old rule in force from 1997 until 2002. As of next year, the FIA announces in a note:
"Any driver whose best qualifying lap time exceeds 107% of the fastest time in Q1 will not be allowed to take part in the race. In exceptional circumstances, such as in the case of a driver who sets an adequate lap time in a free practice session, the stewards may allow him to take part in the race. If there is more than one driver authorised to race, the stewards themselves will determine the starting order on the grid".
The FIA World Council also introduces a number of rules with immediate effect to ensure safety on the track and in the pits. Thus, single-seaters deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers, unnecessarily slow or driven erratically will be reported to the stewards. The rule applies to single-seaters on the track, when entering the pits or the pit lane. The rule on the Safety car at the centre of the Schumacher-Alonso case during the Monaco Grand Prix is also changed. Drivers will not be allowed to overtake if the Safety car enters the pit lane at the end of the last lap. In addition, no single-seater will be allowed to overtake until it has first passed the point where the safety car left the track to return to the pits. Changes to the use of adjustable wings will be introduced in 2011 in order to improve overtaking. These mechanisms can be activated by the drivers during the race for the sole purpose of increasing overtaking opportunities, only after the single-seater has completed at least two laps and after having received the go-ahead from the electronic devices: only if the driver is less than one second away from the single -seater preceding him on the track will it be possible to activate it. The system will then be disabled again when the driver uses the brake. The FIA also specifies that mechanisms such as the F-Duct, which can be activated by a movement of the driver and to alter the aerodynamic characteristics of the car, will no longer be allowed from 2011 onwards except in the case of adjustable wings. From next season, the minimum weight of the car must not be less than 640 kg at any time during the event. Finally, the FIA grants an experimental licence for four races to Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung. Pirelli President Marco Tronchetti Provera comments on the main news:
"The choice of FIA is a great success for us, rewarding the work of Pirelli and bringing another Italian brand among the protagonists of the world's biggest motor racing circuit. There will be no impact on the group's objectives. It is a recognition not only of our company and those who work in it, but also of Italian competitiveness. And of this I am particularly proud".
And adds:
"Pirelli is already at work to ensure, in keeping with its industrial and sporting tradition, maximum performance and spectacle, in accordance with the requirements of the teams and the organisers and the rules of the FIA, as well as respecting our economic-financial targets. Our return to Formula 1 is in fact also thanks to a collaborative approach on the part of the teams in terms of sharing industrial and logistical costs, while for investments in communication we will focus on this new initiative resources already allocated and budgeted. All this without impacting on our objective".
Speaking of the next Grand Prix, in 2008, at Valencia, Massa with his Ferrari grabbed everything, pole, race triumph, fastest lap. After a year's break due to the accident in Budapest, the Brazilian clenched his fists and affirmed:
"I don't say I'm at the last chance, but almost. This time I can't make a mistake, we need a win to get back in the title race, otherwise the battle really starts to get complicated. I have a car with a lot of new things, especially on the aerodynamic level, I expect a decisive step forward".
The new Ferrari empowers happy thoughts: new underbody, low exhausts that blow over the diffuser and improve grip on the ground, with the same diffuser conceived differently, with a significantly higher aerodynamic load that should give the car more flexibility and more speed in corners, even if at the expense of less speed on the straights and higher petrol consumption. A car made especially for circuits like Valencia. Massa hopes:
"I dream of repeating 2008".
And Alonso believes it too:
"I have tried the novelties at Fiorano, they seem to be winning. If we triumph here, there can be a turning point".
Or surrender, in case of further failure.
Friday June 25, 2010 several drivers went off the track due to the track being dusty. Nico Rosberg recorded the first session's fastest lap with a time of 1'41"175, ahead of McLaren teammates Hamilton and Button. Robert Kubica, Massa, Vettel, Webber, Michael Schumacher, Alonso and Rubens Barrichello rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. Bruno Senna's left-side view mirror became detached from his Hispania F110, which grazed his helmet, and was run over by Sébastien Buemi heading into turn 12, which caused the session to be stopped to allow marshals to clear the track of debris. In the second practice session, Alonso set the fastest lap of the day with a time of 1'39"283; Red Bull drivers Vettel and Webber finished with the second and third-fastest times. Rosberg was fourth, ahead of Hamilton and Kubica. Massa, Adrian Sutil, Button and Barrichello followed in the top-ten. Massa caused the session to be disrupted after spinning in the fourth corner and narrowly avoided making contact with a barrier. The session was stopped to allow Massa's car to be removed from the centre of the track for transport to the pit lane. Timo Glock's lost the use of his car's fifth gear and pulled over to the side of the track at turn 12 to prematurely end his running. Vitaly Petrov spun at the exit of turn 14 and reversed his car to rejoin the circuit, avoiding the need for a red-flag. Faster than Hamilton's pole with McLaren a year ago. King of Friday, which may not count for anything, but since he has been at Ferrari it had only happened to him once, on his debut in Bahrain, and that race represents his only triumph in the red suit.
Alonso thrilled Valencia and charged the battle for pole and the Grand Prix with anticipation. Driven by the many changes in his Ferrari, which here brought a real B version of the car conceived in winter, he rose at the right time and above all in the right place, where his fans dream and where he has long promised a victory after the second place he took in May in Barcelona. True, he was also in front on Friday of last season, when he was still clutching a Renault steering wheel in his hands, but he is the first to explain that this is a different story.
"In 2009 I had bluffed with the petrol, in the last laps I had run flat out, to look for the time and get people excited, it wasn't real glory, in fact I finished the race in sixth place. Now instead the sensations are good, the changes on the car have allowed us to take a big step forward, we can fight for pole, win the grand prix, we have everything to be competitive and hold our own against our rivals".
A Ferrari that finally, according to the Spaniard, can indulge the driver's philosophy:
"I am an optimist by nature and I don't like to lose".
And the history of the team:
"A team like this always starts with the aim of triumphing, they are never satisfied, they cannot afford it. On a track like this it's hard to overtake, Red Bull proves to be very strong, McLaren has no intention of giving up, Kubica's Renault has a new aerodynamic package and even Mercedes seems to be serious, but we know we have the right weapons in our hands. Valencia is a crucial stage for the championship. Our car looks very good in all conditions, unloaded and with a full tank of petrol, on Hard and Soft tyres, and I don't see why I shouldn't dream".
The impression is that the new red plate is paying off, that the evolution, tested extensively in the wind tunnel and only on Friday on the track, gives confidence, if Massa is also smiling, despite a spin that kept him in the pits for almost an hour. The Brazilian ended practice in seventh place.
"But I don't care about the time, on my best lap I was full of petrol, when I was empty I was always blocked by traffic".
But he speaks of victory, success that he tasted here already in 2008.
"The car is more driveable, it goes fast, I finally feel at the level of the Red Bulls".
The power of these lowered exhausts, modelled on the car of Vettel (second, 0.056s behind Alonso) and Webber (third, 0.144s behind), of a diffuser designed differently, of a more efficient aerodynamic load, aces up the sleeve that make the Maranello team dream. In short, so much is clear from today. Namely that Mercedes' many modifications - from the lowered exhausts modelled on the Red Bull to the famous F-Duct, the air blowing system activated by the driver (it is not clear whether by hand or knee) that causes the rear wing to stall in a straight line, allowing the car to improve top speed - really do work. A contraption that Ross Brawn evidently manages to make work better than anyone, even those devils at McLaren who invented it. So Nico Rosberg in the first free practice session had no difficulty in putting everyone behind him, while Michael Schumacher did not even look at the stopwatch for the whole day to concentrate on getting to know the Valencian track (which became part of the World Championship after his retirement and therefore sees him making his debut). Saturday, June 26, 2010, Vettel was the fastest driver in the final practice session with a lap of 1'38"052; Webber was third-fastest.
Kubica separated the two Red Bull drivers in second, with Sutil fourth. Alonso, Barrichello, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Massa, Button and Hamilton rounded out the top ten. Sebastian Vettel will start on pole position in the European Grand Prix, the ninth round of the Formula 1 World Championship scheduled at the Valencia circuit. The German Red Bull driver, on his fourth pole of the season (ninth of his career) will lap in 1'37"587, ahead of team mate Mark Webber. On the second row will start the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. On the third row is the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa, fifth ahead of Kubica's Renault. Seventh time and fourth row for the other McLaren of Jenson Button, who precedes the Williams of Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello and the Renault of Russian Vitalij Petrov. Outside the top ten was Michael Schumacher. In the second phase of official practice, Q2, the German of the Mercedes did not go beyond the fifteenth time. The other Mercedes of Nico Rosberg also did badly, starting from twelfth position. The pole position can only make Vettel happy, who will go in the hunt for his second win of the season.
"I was not so happy in the last few races and it was nice to be able to set the best time on a track that was not optimal for us. I'm very happy for a pole also because we have the F-duct. I have to thank my mechanics who worked all night".
Also admitting the importance of the F-duct was the other Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who took second place:
"Also thanks to the F-duct we are well set up and off to a good start. We had a very good day on a circuit that is not the most congenial for us".
McLaren’s English driver Lewis Hamilton was surprised by his second row finish in Valencia:
"I feel lucky to be here, we knew the others would bring updates and we didn't think we would be among the first. I was surprised to finish third so I am very happy".
While Fernando Alonso says:
"From Ferrari you always expect pole and victory, but this is not a dream but reality. Today we confirmed that the car is better. We are fourth and fifth, we are aiming for the podium. Both Massa and I did a good qualifying, maybe with the soft tyres we suffered a little more than with the hard ones, but all in all we are well placed".
On Saturday July 3, 2010 he will be 23 years old, he wants to celebrate early, a birthday present that will put him back in the running for the World Championship. But above all, the unbridled Sebastian Vettel, fantastic in taking pole, with one of the most exciting laps of his career, is aiming to break the Valencia curse, the curse that has so far prevented his team, the Red Bull rocket, from scoring points on this harbour-side track, with long straights, tricky corners and practically no chance of overtaking. He dreams, Vettel, and he puts it into practice, because with his performance yesterday he annihilated everyone, even his team-mate Webber, second, and therefore part of the monopolised front row, at 0.075s. He gave the young German a terrifying slap in the face to the competition, inflicting heavy detachments, and he silenced the Spanish public, who had flocked to the docks to glorify Alonso and found themselves with a downsized Ferrari, faster thanks to the new features in the car (if nothing else a McLaren, Mercedes and Renault are behind), but not enough to stem the Red Bull overpower. Alonso has to deal with a fourth place that is no preamble to triumph, a start from the dirty side.
"Where it will be difficult to attack Hamilton, where it will be difficult to be ambitious, where I will have to defend the position rather than think about overtaking. Let's not say that the step forward wasn't there, that the evolution was useless, that would be absurd reasoning. If we had presented the old car, we wouldn't even have got into the top ten. Unfortunately the others are also improving, they're not watching and right now Red Bull is still too strong. However, I remain optimistic, our pace in the race will be good, if we manage to stick to Vettel and Webber you could always hope for a retirement, a mechanical failure of a car that is fast, but also very fragile".
Put like that, a real blowhard. However, there is no point in blaming, nor is Alonso ashamed; at this time, any means is permissible to hang on to the world championship race. The Spaniard knows Ferrari's problems:
"With the hard tyres we are the strongest, but with the soft tyres we cannot get the tyre to the right temperature on the first lap, it takes longer and this penalises us in qualifying. We couldn't do any more, but the opponents also have their weak points".
A message that does not upset Red Bull (fined 10,000 euros for Webber's dangerous manoeuvre in the pits). Christian Horner, the team principal, is angry with the Maranello team for another reason.
"They were clever, they tested at the Fiorano track the novelties taking advantage of a promotional spot, they acted within the rules, but outside its spirit. I don't believe in chance, no testing during the year, there is an agreement between gentlemen and it should be respected".
Polite tones, but precise accusations. With vengeance on the track. It is the turn of Alonso and Massa, fifth and disappointed, to reply to the Red Bull team principal. Difficult instead the reply of the increasingly disappointing Schumacher. He defies the world, but finished fifteenth, the worst qualifying of the year and sixth of his very long career. Mercedes not going? Maybe. But Rosberg, his teammate, beat him by 0.6 seconds. On Sunday, June 27, 2010, the race commenced at 2:00 p.m.. At the start of the European Grand Prix, weather conditions were sunny and hot with an air temperature of 27 °C to 28 °C and a track temperature between 43 °C and 47 °C. The top ten qualifiers started on the super soft compound tyre. When the five red lights extinguished to signal the start of the race, Vettel maintained his pole position advantage heading into the second corner. Hamilton accelerated faster than Webber off the line, overtaking him heading into the second turn. Vettel fended off a challenge from Hamilton who made contact with Vettel's right wheel in the second corner and Hamilton reported a vibration in his left-front tyre. The contact damaged Hamilton's front wing. Webber made contact with Button and dropped to ninth by the end of the first lap. Petrov lost the most places, falling from tenth to 16th by the conclusion of the lap. This was due to a large amount of wheelspin delaying Petrov when he drove away from his starting position. At the end of the first lap, Vettel led from Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Kubica, Button, Barrichello, HŸlkenberg, Webber, Buemi, Schumacher, Sutil, Liuzzi, Rosberg, Petrov, Alguersuari, de la Rosa, Kobayashi, Kovalainen, di Grassi, Glock, Chandhok, Senna and Trulli. Vettel began to pull away from the rest of the field. Trulli made a pit stop for a replacement nose cone at the start of the second lap after another car made contact with the rear end of his car and his front wing was removed. Webber battled HŸlkenberg for eighth position but was unable to overtake the latter. Trulli made a second pit stop on the fifth lap to allow his mechanics to rectify a problem with his car's gearbox and turned off his engine to allow for repairs to occur. Vettel set a fastest lap of the race on lap five, a 1'43"055, and was three seconds ahead of Hamilton, who in turn was being caught by Alonso. It was reported by Red Bull on the following lap that eighth -placed Webber had no mechanical issues. Webber made an early pit stop on lap seven for the medium compound tyres but his crew had a minor problem fitting his left-front wheel which meant he was stationary for 7.9 seconds, and rejoined in 18th position. Rosberg made a similar stop on the next lap but he overshot his pit stall and rejoined in 19th place.
On lap nine, Webber attempted to pass Kovalainen for 17th, by running in his slipstream at 190 miles per hour (310 km/h) on the main straight but the latter appeared to brake earlier than Webber expected, and the Red Bull made contact with Kovalainen's right-rear wheel, sending him airborne. He struck an advertising hoarding and somersaulted. Webber's car landed on its nose, careered into the turn 12 run-off area at high speed and collided with a tyre barrier. Webber was unhurt. The large force of the accident broke his brake pedal. The incident prompted the deployment of the safety car, to allow marshals to clear debris from the area and extricate Webber's car from the run-off area. Kubica, Button, Barrichello, HŸlkenberg, Buemi, Sutil, Liuzzi, de la Rosa and Chandhok elected to make pit stops during the safety car period. The safety car was sent onto the circuit as the leaders completed the The safety car was sent onto the circuit as the leaders completed the ninth lap but did not emerge in front of Vettel. Hamilton had the opportunity to overtake the safety car but initially hesitated prior to committing to going by and the delay meant that the safety car had just crossed the official pit-exit line. The two Ferrari cars and the Renault of Kubica were the first to queue up behind the safety car, while the rest of the field had enough notice to divert to the pitlane for their first stop. The significance of these events was that both Vettel and Hamilton were able to make their first stops before their advantage over the rest of the field was nullified by catching the safety car, while Alonso, Massa and Kubica fell down the order. Hamilton's stop was for a replacement front wing. The safety car drove into the pit lane at the end of lap 14 and the cars were allowed to overtake. Vettel locked his tyres and ran deep driving into the final turn, and resisted Hamilton's attempt to overtake him. Alonso immediately pushed hard and passed Hülkenberg for ninth place at turn 17 on the 15th lap. A line of cars formed behind Kobayashi while Vettel and Hamilton pulled away from the rest of the field, as the front two began trading the fastest lap time of the event. Button gained a large amount of top speed but remained behind both Sauber cars.
Schumacher passed both Virgin cars to move into the 17th position by lap 17. Alonso made a complaint about Hamilton and asked his team to work with the FIA race director Charlie Whiting to discuss the issue with the safety car. Massa attempted to pass Liuzzi around the outside heading into turn 17 but Liuzzi turned right to defend the position. Shortly afterwards, Massa made a slight mistake which allowed Alguersuari to close the gap. Hamilton started to conserve fuel and prepare for a late attack on lap 20. On the following lap, it was announced Hamilton would be investigated by the stewards for his safety car overtake for which he was given a drive-through penalty which he served on the 27th lap. He remained in second position due to Kobayashi holding up the rest of the field. Massa placed further pressure upon Liuzzi but was unable to pass him. A glass bottle appeared on the outside of the track on lap 28 which was retrieved by a marshal three laps later to allow racing to continue unaffected. Massa made an error at the final turn on lap 35 which meant he fell behind Liuzzi in the battle for 14th place. Vettel extended his lead to 13 seconds when Hamilton lost time due to struggling to pass the lapped cars of Senna and Glock. Glock attempted to pass Senna around the outside heading into the first corner but was unable to move ahead. On lap 37, Glock again attempted to overtake Senna but the two cars collided. The incident caused a puncture on Glock's car that very nearly threw him into a wall and forced him to make a pit stop, though his crew were not ready for him and he lost several seconds as the tyres were brought out. Senna remained on the circuit with a damaged front wing, and made a pit stop on the next lap. Sutil overtook Buemi for seventh place on lap 40. Hamilton was eight tenths of a second quicker than Vettel on the same lap and reduced the gap to 11.9 seconds. Hülkenberg's car emitted blue smoke from the rear on the next lap but disappeared on the 42nd lap. It was announced two laps later that Button, Barrichello, Hülkenberg, Kubica, Petrov, Liuzzi, Sutil, Buemi and de la Rosa were under investigation for exceeding the speed limit during the safety car period. Hamilton set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 47 to reduce the time deficit to Vettel to 7.9 seconds. Petrov began to challenge de la Rosa for 12th place on the same lap.
Hülkenberg's right rear tyre delaminated on lap 50, causing damage to his car's exhaust system and became the race's final retirement. Kobayashi made his only pit stop of the event on lap 53 and rejoined in ninth position behind Alonso. Button was worried about a possible post-race time penalty and pushed hard to record the overall fastest lap of the race, a 1’38”766, on the 54th lap. Alonso challenged Buemi for seventh place on lap 55 but was unable to pass. Kobayashi ran close behind Alonso and passed him around the inside for eighth after Alonso ran wide at turn 17 on the following lap. Buemi was overtaken by Kobayashi at the final corner on the last lap for seventh. Vettel maintained his lead and crossed the start/finish line on lap 57 to win the race. Hamilton finished second, with his teammate Button third. Barrichello clinched fourth (his best result of the season), ahead of Kubica, Sutil and Kobayashi. Buemi took eighth on the road, and Alonso and de la Rosa rounded out the top ten. Petrov was the first non-points scoring finisher in eleventh, followed by Rosberg, Liuzzi and Massa. Alguersuari clinched 15th, half a second ahead of Schumacher. Di Grassi, Glock, Chandhok, Senna and Trulli were the final classified finishers. It is Vettel's second victory of the season, and the seventh of his career. Applause or raspberries? A two-sided day. Formula 1 flaunts to the world that it has touched safety heaven: On the ninth lap of the European Grand Prix, the Australian Mark Webber, nicknamed the aviator for having already taken off eleven years ago in his Mercedes car at Le Mans, violently crashes into the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, goes airborne in the Red Bull, performs a backflip, hits the asphalt head-on, crumbles his car, but leaves it without a scratch. Because the survival cell held, it saved his life.
But in the same hours, the hyper-technological Formula 1 shows the world the amateurism of its justice, the inadequacy of three race commissioners (coordinated by Whiting, the race director, and with the reinforcement of the ex-driver Frentzen) who, with scandalous judgments, completely distort the Grand Prix, destroy the performance of one team, Ferrari, and exalt that of another, McLaren, pushed onto the podium with both Hamilton (second) and Button (third). In this Formula Chaos, the only one who has nothing to do with it is Vettel, the winner, fortunate in avoiding the queue behind the Safety car, in being able to change tyres at the right moment, but also skilful in not doing anything wrong with his Red Bull and in imposing the law of the strongest. The rest is scandal, because Ferrari, this time truly blameless, comes out of Valencia with broken bones. It is penalised by the entry of the Safety car, and here chance may have played a decisive role, the fact is that a safe podium for Alonso turns into an ordeal at the back and Massa fares even worse. But Ferrari is also punished by its loyalty, with its drivers not overtaking the Safety car to run at the tyre change, while others do, and Hamilton knows it well, the duty to pay will be minimal, it has already happened so many times in his career, so why should history change in Valencia? Hamilton overtakes the Safety car and this gives him second place overall. It is not allowed by the rules, but the judges take 15 laps and 25 minutes before imposing the penalty on him, a forced walk to the pits, which he, after tracing a deep furrow with the third placed driver (the surprising but slow Kobayashi), renders ineffective. Had he abided by the law, his race would have ended up like Alonso's. Had he been punished immediately, he would have lost positions. So nothing happens to him, as nothing happened this year for the reckless manoeuvre in the pits in Australia or the cunning in qualifying in Canada. And to think that as of this season, the FIA had announced that it would add up yellow cards (he has already picked up two, before Valencia) to declare a red. Hamilton always gets away with it and the Ferrari drivers are not happy about it. Fernando Alonso says:
"I've never seen the Safety car overtake: it had entered the track to save Webber's life, in those moments you shouldn't think about overtaking but he is not fair. I wouldn't like to finish second like that".
In addition, to the Spanish protesting crowd (he even threw a bottle on the track):
"It was a manipulated race, what they witnessed is disgusting".
And Felipe Massa adds:
"In 2007 in Canada I made a mistake, I came out of the pits in red and was taken out of the race. The black flag was needed for him as well".
Alonso and Massa are furious. But also thundering is Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari's team principal:
"Unacceptable. These judges, with their behaviour, make the whole sport lose credibility".
Also because there is the final pearl. Nine drivers (Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi, de la Rosa, Petrov, Liuzzi, Hulkenberg) end up under investigation for having gone to the pits to change tyres at the sight of the Safety car. They can do it, but not at that speed. Almost everyone is ahead of Alonso, one hopes for a climb in the standings and instead for Ferrari it is another cold shower. Five second penalty, nothing, Alonso from ninth becomes eighth, Massa eleventh, out of the points. Too bad for them. That's how they learn about justice in Formula 1 first.
"I don't remember much to be honest. I was on Turn 1 and I saw that the Safety car was parallel to me and I thought I had already passed it. Then I tried to catch Vettel".
At the end of the European Grand Prix on the Valencia street circuit that gave him second position, Lewis Hamilton assures that he does not remember well what happened in the episode of his overtaking the Safety car. A manoeuvre that allowed the English driver to change tyres earlier, gaining time on the rest of the group, including the two Ferraris. Shame and scandal. The Ferrari fans had from the start been very harsh against the FIA and its strange justice, capable of conditioning the Valencia race. The team was also angry, but now, with the declarations of a furious Montezemolo, the wrath of the Maranello team has literally exploded.
"The result of the European Grand Prix was completely falsified. Ferrari, who proved to be competitive on the track, paid too high a price for respecting the rules, while those who did not do so were penalised by the stewards in a very slight way, certainly less than the damage suffered by those who followed the rules. This is a very serious and unacceptable fact that creates dangerous precedents, casting heavy shadows on the credibility of Formula 1".
The Maranello team does not accept. Not only that, it launches its counter-offensive. Again Montezemolo, with a clear message, says:
"We are certain that the FIA will thoroughly analyse what happened and take the consequent and necessary decisions. Ferrari will be vigilant about this".
A polite but firm way of saying that this time tolerance will be zero. An apology is not enough, the Maranello team demands real justice, so that the dangerous principle that cheating is convenient does not pass. Ferrari does not say so clearly: among the hypotheses there is also the possibility that the replacement of Charlie Whiting, friend of Bernie Ecclestone, historic race director, protagonist, in recent years, of decisions that have caused much discussion. In the meantime, the Spanish newspapers give wide coverage to Alonso's accusations, who, hurt by a performance destroyed by the judges' decisions, does not hesitate to speak of a manipulated Grand Prix and a disgusting spectacle.
The Spaniard accuses Hamilton of disloyalty, someone who, chance or not, always gets away with it, but he also does not accept the penalty of just five seconds imposed on all the drivers who had finished the race ahead of him.
"Five seconds? That must be a new penalty, I've never heard of that".
It would have been a different story if Hamilton had been given an immediate stop-and-go instead of a belated drive-through: he would have come in eighth or ninth and at least his race would have ended the same way as that of the two Ferrari drivers. Just as different would have been the outcome if at least in the evening the judges had given Alonso a considerable leap forward in the standings. Instead the mockery was complete and the Maranello team also blames the behaviour of the Safety car, in any case always managed by Whiting, who, having realised he was behind leader Vettel, should have let all the drivers pass, instead of keeping them in line for fourteen corners. Of all this Montezemolo and Ferrari are now demanding an account.
"Alonso is complaining? I don't know why…".
Lewis Hamilton continues to play dumb when he is reported on Alonso's complaints that he is openly accusing him of being favoured by the FIA commissioners who were very late in giving him the penalty for overtaking the Safety car, allowing him to retain second place in the European Grand Prix.
"Maybe he is angry about being overtaken by a Sauber. I saw it happen in the final laps by glancing at the giant screen. I understand that for someone like him it's something out of this world…".
Certainly the McLaren driver has all the air of not feeling guilty about an irregular manoeuvre that still allowed him to gain important points:
"I really don't think I influenced his race that much. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, I understand that Ferrari is sorry for the disappointing final result, but I didn't do anything to Alonso".
From the next Grand Prix those driving the Safety car will have to look properly in the mirrors: the strategists of several teams no longer have any doubts and are certain that in some cases from the next Grand Prix onwards many drivers will deliberately commit this offence. The team managers who have indulged in these indiscretions are obviously not saying any more and claim anonymity, but the Hamilton affair has shaken them all. And countermeasures have already been taken, at least from the point of view of strategy. The calculation is this: given the minimal penalty - a simple passage to the pits at limited speed - and the enormous benefits - suddenly finding oneself at the head of the race with the advantage of a possible pit stop before the others - it will undoubtedly be advisable to make this forbidden overtaking move. The teams' strategists, among others, are joined by the teams' law firms who argue that the possible penalty cannot be any different from the one given to Hamilton, on pain of appeals and further lawsuits. The clumsy decision of the stewards present at Valencia therefore risks costing F1 and its credibility dearly because there is no turning back now and the ruthless penalty-benefit calculation will lead, as we said, to inevitable overtaking. With safety in mind because - it should be remembered - the Safety car was not invented to increase the spectacle (at least officially...) but only to allow emergency vehicles to enter the track and the marshals to clear the track.