Formula One racing cars aren’t meant to fly. They are designed to stay on the track and to grip it with as much effort as their tyres and aerodynamically-generated downforce can manage. It is therefore unusual and frightening to see one flying through the air.
F1 cars do not carry a ‘this way up’ sticker either; they shouldn’t need to. So you can be pretty sure that something is very, very wrong when one performs a somersault.
Mark Webber’s high-speed accident on lap nine of the European Grand Prix at Valencia was one of those heart-in-your-mouth occasions. Usually the television cameras miss the moment that an incident actually occurs, showing the aftermath and then a replay of how it occurred. On this occasion the television producer obviously had a sixth sense, because he switched to the feed of Webber’s Red Bull closing on the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen about half a second before impact.
Television viewers realised that this wasn’t a replay – this was real and Webber was upside down in a car that was hurtling through the air and that when it landed it was probably going to hurt. Incredibly, the Red Bull performed a complete barrel roll, ended up the right way up and slid headlong into the tyre barriers. You still feared for Webber nevertheless. How can the human body endure such a shaking and an impact without sustaining some damage?
Incredibly, the cool Aussie emerged from the wreckage and walked away unaided.
It was ironic that it was a Lotus which Webber ran into the back off, since the team, in its new incarnation, was celebrating its 500th Grand Prix. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was celebrating the 500th Grand Prix that a car bearing the Lotus name had started but perhaps that’s being picky. Nevertheless, when Lotus was in its heyday, winning world championships with the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti, there would have been no way that a driver would have walked away uninjured or probably even alive from an accident of this magnitude.
In fact, although F1 cars are not designed to fly, when they do it’s probably safer to be in one of them than an aeroplane. Racing car safety has come a long way since Lotus started its first Grand Prix.
Webber had started on the front row of the grid alongside his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, but had been muscled down to ninth place after a poor start. He stopped for new tyres and was working his way through the field when he came upon Kovalainen. The speed differential between the two was considerable and when the Finn braked earlier than Webber expected, he ran into the back of the Lotus and was launched into the air.
The resultant Safety Car caused chaos of its own since it came out of the pits just after Vettel, who was leading the race, had gone past. Lewis Hamilton was alongside it as it emerged from the pit-lane and hesitated, not knowing whether he was meant to drop into line behind it or not. He decided instead to carry on after Vettel. It was a close call which he only just got wrong, since the Safety Car just passed the line at the exit of the pit lane a fraction of a second before he did.
Just behind Hamilton were the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who now found themselves stuck behind the Safety Car while Hamilton disappeared up the road, gaining nearly a lap on them. He was subsequently given a drive-through penalty but by this time he was so far ahead that he still emerged in second place, something which incensed Alonso who eventually finished eighth. This wasn’t the only confusion caused by the Safety Car. Nine drivers were given a retrospective ten-second penalty for going too fast as they headed for the pits.
The whole incident highlighted the fact that the rules regarding what can and can’t be done during a caution period needs to be reviewed and clarified. Remember Michael Schumacher fell foul of a misunderstanding of the Safety Car rules on the final lap at Monaco.
The end result was a fine victory for Vettel, ahead of Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button. Rubens Barrichello in the Williams was fourth, ahead of Robert Kubica’s Renault, the Force India of Adrian Sutil, Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, Alonso’s Ferrari, and the Torro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi, with Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes taking the final point.
The world championship is finely poised as we head to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on 11 July. Hamilton leads on 127 points from Button on 121. Just behind are the Red Bull pair of Vettel (115) and Webber (103) with Alonso on 98 and Kubica on 83.
It’s turning into one of the most intriguing and closest-fought seasons for a long time, but as former driver David Coulthard reminded us at the end of the race, motor racing had just seen one of its luckiest days.
