MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo to the fore in crazy Oz F1 GP

COMMENT

Fernando Alonso walked away from what could have been a fatal crash, two Mercedes drivers and one from Ferrari stood on the podium and Daniel Ricciardo surpassed expectations.

In three years with Red Bull Racing (RBR), Ricciardo has crossed the finish line in Melbourne second, sixth and fourth. He was disqualified on a technicality the first time. Not his fault.

His record in the Australian Grand Prix is way better than that of his Australian predecessor at RBR, Mark Webber, who was with the team through its four consecutive world championship seasons.

Ricciardo qualified eighth on Saturday, yet finished fourth on Sunday and set the fastest lap of the race. He talked of feeling joy.

There also was a sense of joy, after the relief, at seeing Alonso alight his wrecked McLaren, shaken but otherwise seemingly not seriously hurt.

The Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen jumped the Mercedes’ of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg that occupied the front row of the grid and the red cars led a lot of the race, before the Mercs took charge.

Rosberg won for the second time in Melbourne and it was his fourth GP victory in a row, ahead of Hamilton, who had to recover a lot of lost ground, with Vettel third, while Raikkonen retired in flames.

There was a general sense that this had been a good day, but was it a good day of Formula 1 racing?

Consider this. The fastest lap of the race, set by Ricciardo on lap 49 (eight from the finish), was more than five seconds slower than Hamilton’s pole position time.

It also was 3.4 seconds slower than Ricciardo’s qualifying lap, which had been 1.752 seconds slower than Hamilton’s.

The time of that fastest race lap, 1 minute 28.997 seconds, had it been done in qualifying, would have put Ricciardo only 20th on the grid in a field of 22.

Vettel set the second fastest lap in the race, Hamilton the third and Rosberg the fourth.

It was obvious throughout pre-season testing, practice and qualifying in Melbourne and Sunday’s race that Mercedes and Ferrari remain the pacesetters in the sport, with RBR not having the speed of Williams or even Red Bull’s secondary team, Toro Rosso.

So why is it that Ricciardo sets the fastest lap of the race?

He’s a damn good driver, but so are Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel and a host of others in the field – many of them with Mercedes and Ferrari power units too. Even if not exactly the same Mercedes and Ferrari units as those of the factory teams, but better than the Renault unit behind Ricciardo now badged TAG-Heuer but exactly the same as those of the factory Renault cars much further back in the field.

The question has to be asked whether what we saw yesterday, at the start of the third season of 1.6-litre V6 hybrids with 100 litres of fuel and no refuelling stops, is racing?

Is it F1 racing as it should be? Or is it an economy run?

F1 should be sprint racing, with the best drivers in the world in the most awesome machinery in circuit racing going at it from start to finish.

GPs usually last 90 minutes to two hours. Yesterday’s went a bit longer because of the red flag that halted proceedings for a while after the Alonso-Esteban Gutierrez accident.

F1 is not meant to be like the Le Mans 24-Hour sports car race, in which it is common and perfectly acceptable for cars to lap several seconds slower than they qualify because they have to last twice around the clock.

Nor is it the Bathurst 1000, in which V8 Supercars race for 6-6½ hours. There, and particularly in shorter races at other rounds, those V8 Supercars circulate at lap times close to those at which they qualify.

MotoGP riders often lap faster in races at Phillip Island than they qualify. Now’s that’s racing.

The F1 spectacle was much better yesterday than it was in the Melbourne race last year. The cars are a bit louder, which is a little music – but far from perfect – to the ears of purists, and Saturday’s qualifying, despite the faults of the new format that made it a fizzer, emphasised how fast the hybrids can be.

Sitting in the grandstands, standing behind the safety fences or viewing from corporate hospitality suites, it may not have been obvious yesterday that the cars were lapping several seconds slower than in qualifying.

Yet if this were horse racing, the jockeys, trainers and connections surely would be summonsed to the stewards room and quizzed on whether their mounts were being allowed to run on their merits.

It cannot be real F1 racing when a triple world champion’s fastest lap in the GP is more than five seconds slower than the time with which he took pole position in worse track and weather conditions the day before.

Nor can it be right that a driver, even Australia’s ‘favourite son’, be almost 1.65 seconds faster on a lap than that triple world champion in an all-conquering Mercedes in the race.

The qualifying format tried on Saturday, in which many drivers waved the surrender flag on what should have been their best lap when they could see they would not beat the next fastest driver and the whole session ended without climax, will be scrapped for the second race in Bahrain in a fortnight, although the vote of the team principals yesterday won’t do that alone.

But F1 has much more to fix yet. Fans deserve to see the cars and drivers racing, not on economy runs to the chequered flag.

Ferrari must love what it sees from Ricciardo
One of the talking points of this F1 season inevitably will be who is going to fill the second Ferrari seat when Kimi Raikkonen inevitably is put out to pasture at the end of the year.

And, on that score, Daniel Ricciardo and Frenchman Romain Grosjean made the strongest statements yesterday that they are up to the job at the sport’s most successful and revered team.

Ricciardo is tied to RBR beyond this year, but Ferrari has ways and means of getting the man it wants.

Grosjean, after several seasons with Lotus which has now become Renault’s factory team again, has just joined the new American team, Haas, and the sixth place he delivered the first US-owned team for 30 years on its debut was a superb effort.

Haas uses Ferrari power and is closely connected to the Italian stable in a broader sense. It will want to hang on to Grosjean for more than one season.

But if the Scuderia signals it wants the Frenchman, and he’s a much more complete driver now than in his early, wild days (although he was always mighty quick), he could find himself alongside Vettel in 2017.

Finn Valterri Bottas has been thought to be another in the running for the next vacancy at Ferrari, but again he was outperformed in Melbourne by his veteran Brazilian teammate at Williams-Mercedes, Felipe Massa, who finished more than half a minute behind Ricciardo.

German Nico Hulkenberg, seventh yesterday for Force India, does not do enough consistently to warrant Raikkonen’s seat, and will be too tall for Ferrari’s liking.

And Max Verstappen, the wonderboy at 18 but who didn’t cover himself in glory with mistakes and verbal abuse when not given free rein yesterday to overtake his Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz, won’t wriggle out of the Red Bull camp for a while yet.

And, in any case, Ferrari would want to see a lot more maturity in him.

Alonso crash timely amid head protection moves
Alonso’s escape from that horrendous crash was a miracle, but it raises one very serious question.

Would the Spanish two-time world champion have been able to exit the wreck as easily with the type of extra head protection likely to be mandated for next season?

Ferrari displayed its ‘halo’ concept briefly during pre-season testing in Barcelona. That was a variation on the original idea that came from within Mercedes.

Red Bull has since revealed its concept with a higher windscreen. While it does not impede the driver’s vision as Ferrari’s halo might, the RBR version has not been as well received.

The ease of drivers getting out of cockpits after crashes has been one of the issues with the greater head protection envisaged – intended to avoid injuries and even death from flying debris, particularly tyres – and Alonso’s accident may have been timely in focusing even more on it.

Formula 1 world drivers’ championship standings after first of 21 rounds:
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 25 points; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 18; 3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 15; 4. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 12;
5. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 10; 6. Romain Grosjean (France, Haas-Ferrari) 8; 7. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 6; 8. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 4; 9. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 2; 10. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1.

F1 constructors’ world championship standings:
1. Mercedes 43 points; 2. Ferrari 15; 3. Williams-Mercedes 14; 4. Red Bull-Renault (badged TAG-Heuer) 12; 5. Haas-Ferrari 8; 6. Force India-Mercedes 6; 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 3.

Grave oversight in hall of fame
Australia now has a motorsport hall of fame, with 30 greats named in it on Saturday night – with one glaring omission.

The designer of the only Australian car to have won the F1 world championship, Ron Tauranac, didn’t make the cut.

Tauranac penned the Repco-Brabhams in which Sir Jack Brabham and New Zealander Denny Hulme won world titles in 1966 and ’67, many other cars which Brabham raced and won in, and later a huge number of successful open-wheelers under the Ralt brand.

After the late Brabham and five-time motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, Tauranac, 91 and living in Sydney, ought to have been the next selected.

The late Phil Irving, who designed the Repco engine in those world title-winning cars of Brabham and Hulme, was made a member of the hall of fame. Congratulations to him and what must be a proud family.

But Tauranac’s contribution to motorsport was greater and more prolonged.

Although he has been awarded an Order of Australia, Tauranac is accustomed to being overlooked and won’t complain – which doesn’t make his omission any more correct.

It is a disgrace, but such lists always generate controversy and debate.

Others worthy of inclusion in the first round of inductees would have been early touring car superstars Norm Beechey and Ian Geoghegan and Elfin founder, constructor and driver Garrie Cooper.

Perhaps at the expense of a couple of the motorcycle inclusions.
Apart from the list, there’s the matter of how it was announced – or how well it was announced.

Not to the 350 said to have attended Saturday night’s dinner in Melbourne, which by all reports was a hugely enjoyable function. Good wine, good food and good company helps in that.

But how come this hall of fame didn’t make what is still referred to as the ‘mainstream media’ – TV news, especially on Fox Sports, and the major newspapers?

We offered to publicise it on our site and 10:00am daily bulletin on Sunday if provided the list, under embargo, within our publishing timeframe. We didn’t receive the list, still haven’t, nor even any reply.

Before anyone pipes up about motorsport not getting a fair go in the media, the organisers and promoters of this hall of fame ought to have a good, hard look in the mirror – or dare to get an independent audit done of how they have performed.

Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame inductees:

Formula 1
Sir Jack Brabham, three-time world champion
Alan Jones, 1980 world champion
Phil Irving, designer, Repco F1 world champion engine

Other circuit racing
Harry Firth, Bathurst champion, patriarch Holden Dealer Team
Bob Jane, Bathurst and Australian touring car champion, Australian NASCAR founder, circuit owner
Peter Brock, nine-time Bathurst 1000 champion, three-time Australian touring car champion
Dick Johnson, five-time Australian touring car champion and three-time Bathurst 1000 victor
Allan Moffat, four-time Australian touring car and four-time Bathurst 1000 winner
Frank Matich, Australian open-wheel and motorsport engineering icon

Motorcycle racing
Lionel van Praag, 1936 world speedway champion, the first motorsport world champion
Jack Young, two-time world speedway champion
Jason Crump, three-time world speedway champion
Kel Carruthers, 1969 250cc world champion, Isle of Man 250TT champion
Wayne Gardner, 1987 500cc world champion
Mick Doohan, five-time 500cc world champion
Casey Stoner, two-time MotoGP world champion
Gregg Hansford, 10-time Grand Prix winner, Bathurst 1000 (touring car) winner
Troy Bayliss, three-time world superbike champion
Stephen Gall, five-time Australian motocross champion, four-time Mr Motocross, Australian speedcar champion
Jeff Leisk, world junior motocross champion, two-time Australian motocross champion

Speedway
Ray Revell, five-time Australian speedcar champion
Garry Rush, 10-time Australian sprintcar champion

Rally
‘Gelignite’ Jack Murray, REDeX Trial winner, London-to-Sydney marathon pioneer
Colin Bond, three-time Australian rally champion, Bathurst 500 champion, Australian touring car champion
Ross Dunkerton, five-time Australian rally champion, Asia-Pacific rally champion

Karting
James Courtney, two-time world karting champion, V8 Supercar champion

Drag Racing
Ash Marshall, Australian drag racing pioneer

Off-Road
Mark Burrows, seven-time Australian off-road champion, five-time Finke Desert Race winner

Land Speed
Norman ‘Wizard’ Smith, Australian land speed record pioneer

Administrative Services
Donald Kingsley Thompson, co-founder and inaugural president of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS)