Formula One: Wacky races

Rugby reporter

Sunday 24 June 2012

With seven races run, the Formula One season has reached that point where, in years past, the drivers' championship has generally started to shape up as a private battle between two, at most three, competitors.

Sebastian Vettel will be seeking to claim his second win after starting on pole Photograph: Getty

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Alasdair Reid

Yet, on the morning of the eighth race of the 2012 campaign, it is clear that this is a season like no other – and that the sport's cosy old assumptions have been dynamited out of existence.

That much is made obvious by a list of results that shows seven different winners from the seven races to date. At this stage last year, Sebastian Vettel, the eventual champion, had already taken five chequered flags, and he would win another six times before the season was over. Vettel, who will start on pole today, said he did not expect the championship's 20 races to throw up 20 different winners, but each round of the 2012 F1 series has only reinforced the impression that this is the most competitive championship in years.All of which has sent the sport's aficionados – and, more obviously, those who hold its broadcasting rights – into a frothing lather of excitement, amidst claims that F1 has never been in better health. But does more competitive actually mean better, or do results suggest an element of lottery has been introduced into the equation? In a season where you half expect to find Dick Dastardly, Penelope Pitstop or Professor Pat Pending standing atop the podium at the end of a race, can it really be said this is a vintage year?The answer might depend on where you stand on the issue of whether F1 is a serious sport or simply a branch of the light entertainment industry. Yet, while purists might shudder at the fact that winning appears to be a matter of Buggin's Turn at the moment, it would be hard to argue that F1's predictable and processional patterns of recent years represented some sort of golden era in motor racing.So why is it so close this year? Well, for a start there are six former world champions out there, a number unmatched in any previous season. Four of that half dozen have won races already, while the other two – Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen – have produced drives that suggest they are still capable of doing so. Clearly, the quality of the field in terms of pure driving talent has had an effect.In technical terms the biggest factor in bunching the field has been the effective ban on exhaust-blown diffusers. The technology was complex, but it had become clear that the greatest advantages had accrued to those teams which had the financial resources to develop the systems most fully. In effect, the rich got faster, and the removal of that factor has drawn a number of teams outside the old triumvirate of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren into the competitive reckoning. Indeed, with five different manufacturers having claimed victories already this season – McLaren and Red Bull have two apiece – paddock talk has been focused on the possibility that the number is likely to increase. And much of that speculation has been directed towards Lotus, where Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean have produced some wonderful racing performances. If Lotus can start performing as well in qualifying as they do in races then victories will surely follow.Sauber have also been showing an impressive turn of pace at times, while Mercedes will surely move into the mix when they can sort out persistent tyre degradation problems. Ferrari got themselves into the winner's circle with Fernando Alonso's unexpected victory in Malaysia three months ago, but the Prancing Horse would surely have been more conspicuous without the aerodynamic glitches they are only now beginning to sort out.So, yes, a vintage season is shaping up. Many thought the 2010 campaign, when four drivers went into the final race with a chance of the title, would never be surpassed, but this one could turn out to be its equal.But it is also, potentially, a swansong season. For all the expense that goes on other parts of a car, the engine is still the bit that swallows most of a team's money. And with new turbo engines scheduled to be part of the sport from 2014, constructors have been reluctant to spend more than they have to on their current power plants – another influence on levelling the 2012 playing field.

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Formula One: Wacky races

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