Go Force India

Yesterday’s GP was without doubt the best race in the 2008 season so far for Vijay Mallya’s Force India; Fisichella finished 12th ahead of Lewis Hamilton on 13th but it wasn’t so good for Adrian Sutil who finished 19th on the Grid last of the cars to finish the race. For me the highlight of the race was Giancarlo Fisichella’s duel with Lewis Hamilton and Rubens Barrichelo. The one with Rubens was decided in the pits after the Brazilian driver had failed to pass Fisichella on the track completely. It must have hurt Fisi to loose the position to Rubens with a strategic error like this after keeping Rubens behind him for many many laps.

The one with Hamilton lasted for 3-4 laps somewhere during mid-race. Fisi’s Force India car looked as good as Lewis’s Mclaren corner-to-corner and even on the straights. The Ferrari engines under FI’s hoods could easily match Mclaren’s Mercedes engine out of the corners and on the long straights. I think Fisi was late on the power out of turn 14 which allowed Hamilton to close in on him and then get past finally. I was very very disappointed that Fisichella did not defend more aggressively; he simply let Lewis take the inside racing line and get past!! If he had blocked Lewis, I don’t think Hamilton could have made it around the outside. And to add to the story, Hamilton pitted in a lap or so after he got past Fisi which means that he was on a much lighter fuel tank and he still couldn’t match Fisi’s pace.

Anyway, the normally chilled out Lewis Hamilton was certainly pissed and he let Fisi know this with a hand signal while getting past which I don’t think was nice of him! He was not lapping Fisichella here, he was fighting for position, how could he expect Fisichella to simply move out of the way and let him go?!?! It was great the Hamilton finished Fisichella anyway!  

There’s of course reason for Ross Brawn (Team Principal for Honda now) to be upset with Rubens Barrichello. The driver from Brazil has been plagued with issues in both of the F1 races so far. First off, Barrichello sped away from a routine pit stop in Melbourne while the refueling pipe was still attached to Ruben’s refuelling ring. To be fair to Ruben’s, the mechanic holding the signal to stop and/or go got impatient and gave Ruben’s the signal to move out even while the refueling was going on. But then, you’d think that a guy with Rubens Barrichello’s experience should be using his mirrors as well. It was sheer luck which saved Barrichello, the pit mechanic refuelling Barrichello’s car and the Honda team itself from some sort of disaster.

After that, Rubens Barrichello made another mistake in the same race when he drove out of the Pit-Lane even while the red lights were being displayed at the Pit-Lane exit. He was subsequently thrown out of the race with a drive through penalty. If that hadn’t happened, Barrichello would have finished 6th in the Melbourne GP. Anyway, he made another mistake in the same weekend by openly criticizing the positioning of the Pit-Lane traffic lights and even hinted that Race Marshals routinely based their decisions on bias.

It must be agonizing for the team because they know that their cars have the pace. Ruben’s team mate in Honda - Jenson button actually clocked the 4th fastest lap of the Malaysian GP ahead of many sharp-end cars & drivers. As if this wasn’t enough, Ruben’s Barrichello got penalized for speeding in the Pit-Lane this weekend in Malaysia as well. The penalty remained the same: and again Honda suffered because of Rubens Barrichello - the most experienced driver in F1 currently. Well, all of this got him a thunderous whiplash from Ross Brawn if the F1 rumor mills are to believed. Ross Brawn is an iron man in F1 and a scolding from him should get Barrichelo focused, watch out for some great performances from the Brazilian driver in the rounds ahead…