F1 2012 — A Retrospective Part 14: Italy
The speculation surrounding silly season reached its highest point, but how did it affect the on-track action?
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button traded pole positions in the last two Grands Prix, and they locked out the front row in Monza to keep McLaren’s streak going. Hamilton took the top spot by just one tenth over his teammate.
Felipe Massa had his best Saturday performance of the season, he was third ahead of Paul di Resta in the Force India. This was the Scot’s best Qualifying performance of his career to date. However, a five place grid penalty for a changed gearbox moved him down to ninth.
This promoted Michael Schumacher to the second row for the fifth time this season. He finished two and a half tenths ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who started in fifth.
Rosberg’s woes in Qualifying were put behind him. This was the first time since Valencia that the German made it into Q3. He started the race in sixth.
Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi were seventh and eighth. It was an incredibly close Q3 session. Only .053s separated Vettel and Raikkonen. Kobayashi was three tenths back.
Fernando Alonso looked set to earn pole position at Ferrari’s home Grand Prix. He was fastest in Q1 and Q2. But a mechanical issue prevented him from setting a representative lap time.
On the first run of Q3, he gave Massa a tow that propelled the Brazilian to provisional pole. But by the time Alonso went out for his hot lap, the car lost performance which left him stranded in 10th.
“It’s a shame because I think it would have been the easiest pole position of the year for us. We lost one big opportunity but nothing we can do now. We’ll try to be strong tomorrow, the car will be fixed and we will see what we can do from 10th,” said Alonso after the session.
Mark Webber was the biggest name to miss out on Q3, he qualified in 11th. He was .067s slower than Raikkonen, which was enough to keep him out of the final part of Qualifying.
Pre-Race
In the week leading up to the race Eddie Jordan dropped the bombshell that he believed Hamilton was set to leave McLaren, having raced with the team since his rookie season in 2007.
Jordan understood that he was moving to Mercedes to replace a retiring Schumacher. Only a few weeks prior it was reported that Hamilton was very close to signing a new deal with the British team, but Jordan’s belief was that his agent, Simon Fuller, was pushing for a move.
“I believe Hamilton and Mercedes have already agreed personal terms and a deal could be imminent,” said Jordan.
“Fuller is trying to position Hamilton as a major global star, like Beckham, and Mercedes is a much bigger global brand than McLaren,” he added.
Despite the swarm of rumour and speculation, Hamilton remained calm and focused in the lead up to the race. “I didn’t have any distractions this weekend,” he said.
The one-stop was once again seen as the optimal race strategy. However, it wasn’t going to be easy to nurse the tyres, with most teams looking likely to opt for the safer two-stop.
Just as in Belgium, the tyre choice for this race was between the Medium and Hard compounds. Every driver inside the top 11 decided to start on the Medium. Sergio Perez was 12th and started on the Hard tyres.
Pastor Maldonado and Nico Hulkenberg also chose the Hard tyres, they started 22nd and 24th respectively.
Jerome d’Ambrosio stepped in to replace the suspended Romain Grosjean for Lotus. He, too, started the race on the Hard tyres from 15th position.
Track temperatures were forecast to be as high as 39 degrees Celsius, it was another warm race day.
“Lewis Hamilton was told to keep his engine cool on this formation lap as well, I just wonder [about the] alternator problems that Red Bull-Renault suffered in Valencia in these temperatures… can we be in for a similar story this afternoon? That alternator is going to be a critical part of whether they finish the race or not,” said David Croft.
It was a concern for the Renault powered cars, which were already struggling for pace relative to their direct rivals, but it was still just informed speculation as to whether it was going to be a serious threat to their races or not.
Race
Massa drove off the line with great speed and used the slipstream from Hamilton in front to get ahead of Button on the long run up to Turn One. The Ferrari driver had a look down the outside of Hamilton for the lead, but he settled for second place.
Button was close behind on the run up to the second chicane at Turn Four, but Massa held on.
Behind that, Alonso made a great start. He moved from 10th to eighth, passing di Resta and Rosberg. He made his way up to seventh by the end of the lap, passing Kobayashi at the Parabolica (Turn 11).
Webber and Rosberg had horrible opening laps. Webber dropped down to 14th and Rosberg was down in 12th, behind Perez, by lap two.
Alonso’s great start continued, he overtook Raikkonen for sixth on the start/finish straight before Turn One. He felt he should’ve had pole, and the initial pace of the car showed off that potential.
On lap four, Vettel passed Schumacher into Turn One for fourth. Robserg was struggling in the other Mercedes. He was urged by his race engineer to overtake the one-stoppers ahead of him. That message indicated he was planning on a two-stop strategy.
The Mercedes cars struggled with tyre wear lately, so planning for a two-stop from the get go was their safest option.
Alonso was pressuring Schumacher. He attempted a move at the Ascari chicane (Turn Eight), but couldn’t get close enough to make a move. For Rosberg, his race went from bad to worse as he lost a lot of time colliding with Bruno Senna in the run into Turn One.
He dove down the inside of the Williams, but Senna defended the position sternly. They banged wheels, causing Senna to cut the corner and drive over the sausage curbs while the German slowed to a halt to avoid doing the same. Rosberg fell behind Webber and was now 13th.
By lap six, Alonso was piling on the pressure on Schumacher. He obviously had much quicker pace than the seven time World Champion, but he couldn’t quite get close enough to make a move. This was costing him crucial time as Hamilton stretched his lead out in front.
Alonso’s race engineer advised the Spaniard to “double dip” on his KERS, i.e. saving some for the final straight, thus gaining the benefit of the speed advantage over two laps. This worked like a charm and finally the championship leader was ahead and into fifth.
Hamilton’s lead over Massa was now 2.2s. Alonso needed his teammate to put pressure on the McLaren if he was to win this race.
On lap eight, Perez moved up to eighth, he passed his teammate to move up from his starting place of 12th. He was the only front-runner on the Hard tyre and it was working for him.
Behind the Saubers, there was a scrap for 10th between di Resta and Senna. The Brazilian was gaining and gaining on the run up to Turn Four, before diving down the outside of the Force India. The Scot squeezed him out of the corner, forcing Senna to take the slip road off the track. This saw him drop behind Webber as he re-joined the circuit.
Hamilton’s gap out front was up to 3.3s, the Briton was managing this stint very well. Meanwhile, Button was now under pressure from Vettel who was hovering around DRS range of third place.
On lap nine, the race had its first retirement from the session. Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso suffered from a rear left suspension failure that spun around the Frenchman going into Turn One.
He flew over the sausage curb before coming to a stop in the grass. He was fine, but complained of back pain over the radio. It looked painful. DRS was disabled while his car was fetched by the marshals.
DRS was enabled on lap 10. This was a new rule that was introduced after Valencia. Cars have to slow down for a double waved yellow flag, so why allow them the option to leave DRS open anyway? After all, this was the cause for a penalty for Vettel in Spain.
Now that the cars were all back up to full speed, Perez’s lap times were only two tenths slower than Hamilton and Massa’s. He was really making those Hard tyres work now.
On lap 11, Webber passed di Resta at the Ascari chicane. This moved the Red Bull driver up into the points positions.
Schumacher was being urged by his race engineer to push over the next three laps as much as he could, but the tyres were clearly worn down as his pace didn’t catch up any time with the cars in front. In fact, a queue was forming behind him, waiting for him to make his first stop.
He pitted on lap 15, with Rosberg having come in on lap 14. They both changed to the Hard compound. Schumacher was now in 15th.
By lap 17, the front four’s pace was all extremely close. They were lapping within one tenth of each other, they were so evenly matched at this stage of the season.
Perez moved up to sixth, passing Raikkonen around the outside of Turn Four. It was a bold move, one which impressed Brundle immensely. “Good stuff,” said the co-commentator, clearly approving of the bravery of the move.
Raikkonen came in at the end of that lap, he frustratingly came back out still behind Schumacher. D’Ambrosio in the other Lotus was struggling for a lack of KERS, this was not to be their day.
On lap 19, Ted Kravitz reported that Ferrari had an issue on their pit wall. The telemetry screens were all without power, leaving them totally in the dark as to what was happening on track with regards to their own cars’ performance. They were effectively driving the cars blind while this issue persisted.
During this time, Button gained enough on Massa to be able to make a move at Turn Four. This moved the former World Champion into second, giving McLaren a one-two position. Massa came in at the end of that lap for a set of Hard tyres.
Button was urged to push. McLaren needed to avoid the undercut from Massa so Button had to keep going at full pelt if they were to keep second.
Vettel and Alonso both stopped on lap 20. They came out just behind each other, with Alonso side by side the Red Bull in the pit lane. Massa kept his position ahead of both of them, but they were very close together in eighth, ninth and 10th.
Webber and di Resta were next to stop on lap 21.
Massa was now gaining on Daniel Ricciardo. He passed the Australian at Turn One on lap 22, but Ricciardo fought back and attempted to retake the place at Turn Four. Massa defended the position and forced Ricciardo wide. This opened the door for both Vettel and Alonso to get by into Turn Six.
Massa now led the three cars from fifth to seventh place.
Button came in at the end of lap 22, his stop was slow at 4.8s, but he arrived on track comfortably ahead of the Ferrari. The battle with Ricciardo cost him the chance to undercut, along with Button maintaining great pace in the clean air in second.
On lap 23, the Massa-led train all took turns overtaking Senna. Massa got past his countryman at Turn One. Vettel overtook the Williams at Turn Four. And Alonso completed the set, by getting past at the Ascari chicane.
Hamilton was the last of the front runners to come in to get rid of the Medium tyres. This meant Perez took the lead of the race, having started on the Hards and not pitted yet.
Schumacher moved back to within a decent points scoring position, he overtook Hulkenberg at Turn One for ninth place. Ricciardo and Senna both pitted ahead of him, promoting him to seventh. Raikkonen made the same move one lap later to go into eighth.
Ferrari were now the quickest cars on track, Alonso and Massa were setting the best times of anyone at this stage. Massa still led Vettel and Alonso.
The Spaniard was pressuring Vettel now. The 2010 and 2011 World Champion was forced to defend deep into Turn One. Alonso carried an immense speed out of Turn Turn and gained rapidly on the Red Bull.
It was a role reversal to the 2011 race, as Alonso went onto the grass at the Curve Grande (Turn Three), but he was unable to overtake the German. In fact, Alonso did well to not lose control of his Ferrari, he went much further wide than Vettel did the previous year.
Alonso was straight onto his race engineer with a not so subtle message to race director Charlie Whiting that Vettel defended the place too aggressively. He believed he was forced off the road and was owed the place.
There was no doubt he had the pace to overtake Vettel, but it was up to the stewards to decide whether Vettel deserved any punishment. The incident was under investigation.
By lap 28, Perez still led the Grand Prix. He was encouraged by his team that his pace was still really good. He was advised to stay out. “Target extended four laps or more,” he was told. If he were to come in he’d have come out in eighth.
Meanwhile, Raikkonen was back pressuring Schumacher once again. Hulkenberg started the second phase of pit stops, he came in at the end of that lap.
Hamilton retook the lead of the race from Perez. He comfortably passed the Sauber at Turn One.
Alonso finally got ahead of Vettel at the Curve Grande, Vettel tried to get back at him at Turn Four, but Alonso was clear ahead by Turn Seven. Kravitz reported even more good news for Ferrari, their telemetry systems were back up and running again.
Perez finally came in at the end of lap 29. As predicted, he came back out in eighth, ahead of Rosberg.
On lap 32, the stewards announced a drive-through penalty for Vettel for running Alonso off the road at the Curve Grande. Vettel was upset at the penalty, but got on with the task at hand. “Naughty,” was how Brundle described the move. The German failed to leave a car’s width for the Ferrari and was penalised justly.
On lap 34, McLaren’s dreams of an Italian one-two vanished! Button pulled over before the Parabolica! “No drive, engine’s off,” said the Briton. His race was over. It was described as a “fuel pick up problem,” by the team that caused the issue.
Vettel came in to serve his penalty on lap 35. He arrived on track in ninth, behind his teammate. Further ahead, Perez overtook Raikkonen around the outside of Turn Four again. But this time the Finn was ready and reclaimed the place at Turn Six! He cut back on him at Turn Five, which gave him the better traction to speed by the Sauber.
“Think about how you are going to manage the tyres,” said Rob Smedley, Massa’s race engineer. This was a pretty obvious message for the Brazilian to not hold up his teammate behind. Team orders were now allowed in Formula One after the infamous incident involving these two at the 2010 German Grand Prix.
On lap 38, Perez successfully passed Raikkonen around the outside of Turn One for fifth place. The Mexican was flying on his new set of Medium tyres.
Kravitz reported that Button’s problem was “instantaneous,” meaning he lost power just like that, with no forewarning at all. That was a rotten way to end a very promising day for McLaren, but at least Hamilton still led and the issue was not set to happen to his car.
The on-track action kept coming, Vettel overtook Webber at Turn One for seventh. Rosberg passed Raikkonen for fifth at Turn Four, but the German came in for his second stop at the end of that lap, with Schumacher having come in one lap previously.
Perez was now lapping far quicker than anyone as he set the fastest lap of the race so far. He closed the gap to Massa by 2s on the previous lap alone. Massa fell down the order to third, as Alonso easily passed him into Turn One. But Perez was on a charge and had a podium in his sights with about a dozen laps to go.
The gap was 10.5s on lap 37, it was down to 2.5s by lap 42. Hamilton’s safety net ahead of the Ferraris was 13.3s, but Perez was gaining on him, also. Perez wasted no time and moved into third, passing Massa at the Parabolica on lap 43.
Meanwhile, Webber was warned that Vettel, who was just ahead of the Australian, may stop suddenly with a mechanical issue. This was potentially the alternator problem mentioned Pre-Race resurfacing.
Perez’s charge up the field continued. By lap 44, he was right up the back of Alonso and it was only a matter of time before the Mexican moved ahead. He passed the championship leader at the Ascari chicane. With just six laps remaining, the gap to Hamilton was now 11.6s.
Hamilton was warned to up his pace, McLaren were starting to get worried by the speed of the Sauber.
On lap 47, Schumacher passed di Resta for eighth at the Curve Grande. Rosberg also passed Kobayashi in the other Sauber. He moved ahead of the Japanese driver at Turn Four and was now in 10th.
On lap 48, Red Bull’s warning came true as Vettel stopped suddenly. He pulled the car over in a safe spot, his race was over from sixth place. He was instructed by the team to stop the car in order to save the engine. This was his second DNF of the season and his third non-points scoring position.
It went from bad to worse for Red Bull. Firstly, Schumacher passed Webber for sixth at Turn Four on lap 49. Then, on the following lap, the Australian went off at the Ascari chicane, which dropped him down to 10th.
He picked up too much of the curb and ran onto the grass, he did well to ensure the car didn’t end up in the wall.
However, it didn’t finish there, as his race ended one lap prematurely. He crawled back to the pits and retired the car from 13th on the penultimate lap.
The action wasn’t over there though. Rosberg moved ahead of di Resta at Turn Four. This moved the German up to seventh, which was where he finished the race.
There was also some last lap mayhem for the final points position. Ricciardo fell from 10th down to 12th, with Senna taking the final spot in the top 10. That was his second points return from three races, having finished seventh in Hungary.
At the front, Hamilton held off a resurgent Perez. He won the Italian Grand Prix by only 4s. Alonso finished in third, 16s behind the Sauber having been in front of Perez on lap 46 of 53.
Massa earned his joint-best result of the season so far. He equalled the fourth place result he earned in Britain. He was still yet to finish ahead of Alonso in a race in 2012 where they both finished. Raikkonen rounded out the top five with a quiet performance from the driver known as “the Iceman.”
The final standings were as follows
Championship Standings Top Five (Round 13)
Despite his DNF in Belgium, Hamilton was back in the championship hunt. Alonso also failing to finish in Spa-Francorchamps was proving an important moment that meant the McLaren driver never lost too much ground to the Spaniard.
Alonso’s gap at the top increased from 24 to 37, but Ferrari were left feeling like their home race was a missed opportunity. Alonso suffered an “anti-roll bar” problem on Saturday and their race pace on Sunday indicated they had the potential to compete with McLaren for the victory.
However, starting from 10th was too much to ask for the two time World Champion, so he had to settle for a solid third place. Given that neither of the Red Bulls finished the race, there were plenty of positives for the championship leader from this weekend.
For Vettel, the gap was now 39 points. With seven races to go this was still an attainable gap to catch up to, but it was going to take either a massive drop in form from Alonso/Ferrari and Hamilton/McLaren or almost perfection from himself and Red Bull.
Because on current form, it was the British team who looked more likely to catch up to the Scuderia.
Raikkonen was still flirting with the idea of winning a race, but his consistency was proving enough to keep him in the conversation. Despite having not won, he was still ahead of the likes of Vettel, Button and Rosberg who all scored victories earlier in the season. The reliability of the Lotus was proving an effective equaliser.
Webber was starting to fall away from the chasing pack. He was the only one of the top five who had a teammate in the mix, and Red Bull were going to have to commit to one of their drivers if they were going to maximise catching up the gap at the top.
The Australian signed a new deal with Red Bull following his victory in Britain at race nine of the season. Since then, he picked up only 16 points from the next four Grands Prix. With Vettel’s improved standings position, the chances were high that Red Bull were going to back the defending champion.
Post-Race
Both Croft and Brundle agreed that Hamilton was strangely subdued once he got out of the car. They pointed to the wild celebrations between Perez and his team in Parc fermé as an example of what Hamilton was expected to do after a well earned victory.
He eventually jumped in with his teammates, but the body language was interesting enough for the Sky Sports commentators to mention something could be afoot.
Writing a race report for the Guardian, Paul Weaver also picked up on Hamilton’s sombre attitude to victory.
“And yet, in one of Formula One’s grandest theatres, and in the brilliant Lombardy sunshine, he remained in the shadows of his own introspection. Head down, he answered questions in the dejected tones of someone helping the police with their inquiries,” wrote Weaver.
Alonso was much more optimistic following the result. He was clearly in a great mood because, following the conclusion of the podium ceremony, he soaked in the raucous crowd cheering on the home team. He even grabbed the camera off the cameraman and pointed it towards the sea of cheering Italian fans.
“Absolutely perfect Sunday for us. Obviously the win was out of reach after starting 10th. If we cannot win, podium is next target and all the predictions was never on the podium finish, so much better than I expected,” said Alonso.
“Jenson [Button] and the two Red Bulls were out of the race, so [it’s the] perfect Sunday for me,” he added.
He was also magnanimous when asked about the incident between him and Vettel at the Curve Grande that saw the German receive a drive-through penalty.
“There’s nothing really to say. I lost 10 laps behind him after the incident. And for sure the car is damaged because at 330km/h you are jumping on the gravel so I don’t think the floor and everything will be fine after those jumps.”
Interestingly, all three men on the podium in Italy were all taken out in the first lap incident from the Belgian Grand Prix the race before.
Perhaps they had the pace to compete with Button, we will never know for sure, but this race indicated the 2009 World Champion might have been under some pressure instead of the serene circumstances that saw him take victory last time out.
This was the end of the European stint on the calendar. The remaining seven races took the sport to the likes of Singapore, Japan, India and Brazil for a thrilling finish to a wildly entertaining season.
Team in Focus
This race saw Sauber take their third podium of the season. In 2011, their best result was a fifth place finish from Kobayashi in Monaco. Their entire points total for that campaign was a meagre 44.
After 13 races in 2012, their points haul was already over double that. Perez’s second place, and Kobayashi’s ninth brought them to 100 with seven more Grands Prix still to go.
These results were enough to keep Sauber fifth in the Constructor’s Standings and only 26 points behind Mercedes, who had a much bigger budget available to them than the Swiss team. Force India were 37 points behind in seventh.
Following the result in Italy, the speculation surrounding the Mexican driver picked up even more pace. This was his third podium of his F1 career and he was proving himself to be one of the most capable midfield drivers on the grid.
Brundle urged Perez to push for a move to Ferrari. Massa was under intense scrutiny for his drop off in performance relative to Alonso. Despite a 37 lead in the Driver’s Standings, Ferrari were third place, 46 points behind Red Bull.
During the podium interviews at Monza, Niki Lauda came out once again to do the honours. Brundle joked, as he did when the Austrian conducted the ceremony in Germany, that Lauda never took off his cap.
However, as soon as the former World Champion turned to Perez to ask him about his performance, he took off his cap in a show of respect to the 22-year old. Lauda was effusive in his praise of the young driver.
Kobayashi was not to be forgotten though. The driver pairing was perhaps the most fun of the entire grid. It was certainly one of the most entertaining partnerships the midfield has ever seen. The Japanese driver was a popular figure and with a bit more luck could have gotten close to a podium or two himself.
Perez’s outstanding ability to preserve and manage the Pirelli tyres was the biggest difference between the two, but Kobayashi had an outstanding driving style that saw him complete some of the boldest overtaking moves of the season. The team was in good hands with those drivers, and the car certainly backed up their potential.
Race Verdict
This Italian Grand Prix encapsulated so much of what made the 2012 season so entertaining. It didn’t have the chaos of a Malaysia or a Valencia, but perhaps it being so good despite that even elevates it above those races.
Rarely do we see an F1 race that has on-track action on every lap, but this was as close as the sport gets to that. Almost every lap was filled with excitement. Overtaking moves were plentiful, with it rarely ever feeling like DRS made it too easy for drivers.
Alonso and Perez’s charge up the field were electric. The decline of Schumacher, Vettel and Webber were all unexpected and the battle for the points positions were all very close.
The only man who had it easy going was Hamilton. He cruised to victory. However, with a few more laps, or perhaps if Perez had come in a few laps earlier, then maybe it wouldn’t have been so easy for the 2008 World Champion.
The fastest teams all found ways to come to the front most consistently, but on any given race there was always potential for a team outside the top three or four to crash the high scoring points positions, or even a podium place or two.
The entire field was so close that it wasn’t that surprising to see Perez mix it up with Ferrari and McLaren. Force Indias battling it out with Mercedes drivers was the norm in 2012 and in Italy we saw that come to the fore in a big way.
Result: 5/5
Next up: SINGAPORE
Previous entries in the series can be found here:
Part 10: Britain
Part 11: Germany
Part 12: Hungary
Part 13: Belgium
(links to the rest can be found inside Part 10 or by clicking into my profile)
