Vettel dominates Belgian GP to claim 5th win of 2013

By Aug 25, 2013, 9:33 AM EDT
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Sebastian Vettel has won the Belgian Grand Prix in emphatic style after jumping pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race and rarely being challenged from there on in.

The German driver’s pace was on another level to that of the Mercedes, and it was actually Fernando Alonso who – despite starting P9 – posed the greatest challenge to the defending world champion. However, the pace of the Ferrari F138 meant that the Spanish driver was never really in contention for the victory, although it was a sparkling performance from the two-time world champion to finish second.

Off the grid, Hamilton made a clean getaway whilst Mark Webber endured another disastrous start to fall down to sixth from third. His teammate, Vettel, managed to hold onto second place through La Source before passing Hamilton at the end of the Kemmel straight and proceeded to open up the gap. In the other Mercedes, Nico Rosberg, was a steady third ahead of Jenson Button for McLaren and a fast-starting Fernando Alonso who had started down in ninth. Alonso soon made use of his DRS and KERS to pass Button into Les Combes, moving up to P4, before making the same move on Rosberg just two laps later. The hero of qualifying, Giedo van der Garde, managed to stay in position to begin with but, along with the Marussias, soon dropped towards the back of the pack. Five-time winner in Belgium Kimi Raikkonen was made to work by Nico Hulkenberg for P8, but the Finn eventually passed the Sauber despite suffering from high brake wear. The team subsequently elected to pit the German driver early, aiming for a two-stop strategy.

Hulkenberg’s example was soon followed as Lewis Hamilton became the first of the front runners to bail and take on fresh tires. At McLaren, Sergio Perez was forced into pitting after making an aggressive move on Grosjean and receiving a drive-through penalty. Alonso had been cutting the gap to Hamilton, and he quickly set about catching the Briton after his first stop by quickly disposing of Grosjean. The Ferrari soon made it past at La Source, and Alonso pulled off a brilliant defensive move to hold onto the position despite Hamilton using DRS. After his stop, the Vettel’s lead had been cut but he still looked comfortable out in front, and he soon re-opened the gap to over seven seconds.

As Vettel streamed away at the front, there was some great racing in the midfield as Adrian Sutil made a brave pass on Esteban Gutierrez on the run up to Eau Rouge, while Grosjean managed to go far enough into the race that he could consider stopping just once. Suffering from brake problems, Raikkonen attempted a pass on Massa into the Bus Stop chicane and went straight on, giving Lotus no option but to retire the car thus ending his remarkable run of twenty-seven consecutive point scoring finishes.

Among the leaders, Hamilton was once again the first to stop and he was followed by Alonso two laps later. Vettel managed to go deeper into the race and emerged from his final stop still leading from the Ferrari. In the midfield, Pastor Maldonado and Paul di Resta made contact at the chicane, sending the Force India into the wall and out of the race.  However, with no safety car required, Alonso’s only hope was outpacing Vettel on track. However, The German driver was given the hurry-up by his engineer in case rain hit in the closing stages of the race, whilst Button was enjoying a good race in P6 as he went deep into the race on the prime tire. Just ahead of him, Webber and Rosberg were duelling for fourth place, but the Australian driver was forced to bide his time during his final appearance as an F1 driver at Spa-Francorchamps.

Gutierrez and Maldonado both received drive-through penalties late on for their misdemeanours, whilst last year’s Spa bad boy Romain Grosjean made his one-stop strategy work well, but he could not hold off a late-charging Felipe Massa in the battle for seventh. Just to underline his supremacy at Spa, Vettel posted the fastest lap of the race late on only to be told to ease off by his engineer, Rocky. Eventually though, nothing could stop the German driver as he romped home ahead of Alonso by 16.8 seconds.

Mercedes will be pleased to have finished high in the order with Hamilton third and Rosberg fourth, with the German driver holding off a stiff challenge from Webber late on. Jenson Button also put in an impressive performance to finish sixth ahead of Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean, whilst Adrian Sutil was the sole surviving Force India in ninth. Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a disastrous qualifying to finish 10th for Toro Rosso.

The result sees Vettel claim his fifth win of the season and extend his championship lead to 46 points. With eight races to go, the championship is far from over, but Red Bull appear to be going from strength-to-strength.

Will Power says IndyCar field toughest in world: ‘F1’s a joke as far as competition’

By Jun 4, 2023, 1:46 PM EDT
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DETROIT – With the 2023 Formula One season turning into a Red Bull runaway, Will Power believes the NTT IndyCar Series deserves respect as the world’s most difficult single-seater racing series.

“It’s so tough, an amazing field, the toughest field in the world, and people need to know it, especially compared to Formula One,” the defending IndyCar champion told NBC Sports during a media luncheon a few days ahead of Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. “Formula One’s a joke as far as competition, but not as far as drivers. They have amazing drivers. And I feel sorry for them that they don’t get to experience the satisfaction we do with our racing because that is the top level of open-wheel motorsport.

“I think Formula One would be so much better if they had a formula like IndyCar. I love the technology and the manufacturer side of it. I think that’s awesome. But from a spectator watching, man, how cool would it be if everyone had a Red Bull (car)?”

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

It probably would look a lot different than this season, which has been dominated by two-time defending F1 champion Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman won Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix from the pole position by 24 seconds over seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. It’s the fifth victory in seven races for Verstappen, whose 40 career wins are one shy of tying late three-time champion Aryton Senna.

Along with being a virtual lock to tie Senna’s mark for titles, Verstappen is poised to break his own record for single-season victories (15) that he set last year.

“You simply know Max is going to win every race if something doesn’t go wrong,” Power said. “Imagine being a guy coming out as a rookie, and you probably could win a race. It would be really cool to see. But you know that would never happen with the politics over there.”

Verstappen’s F1 dominance has been a stark contrast to IndyCar, where Josef Newgarden just became the first repeat winner through six races this season with his Indy 500 victory.

Team Penske (with Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin), Chip Ganassi Racing (with Palou and Marcus Ericsson) and Andretti Autosport (with Kyle Kirkwood) each have visited victory lane in 2023. Arrow McLaren (which has past winners Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist) is certain to join them at some point.

Meanwhile, Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez (two wins) have won every F1 race this season with the two Red Bull cars combining to lead more than 95% of the laps.

The primary differences are in the rulesets for each series.

While F1 teams virtually have complete autonomy to build their high-tech cars from scratch, IndyCar has what is known as a spec series in which the cars have a large degree of standardization.

IndyCar teams all use the Dallara DW12 chassis, which is in its 12th season. The development of the car largely has been maximized, helping put a greater emphasis on driver skill as a differentiator (as well as other human resources such as whip-smart strategists and engineers).

Alex Palou, who will start from the pole position at Detroit, harbors F1 aspirations as a McLaren test driver, but the Spaniard prefers IndyCar for competitiveness because talent can be such a determinant in results.

“Racing-wise, that’s the best you can get,” Palou said a few days before winning the pole for the 107th Indy 500 last month. “That’s pure racing, having chances to win each weekend.”

Of course, F1 is the world’s most popular series, and the 2021 IndyCar champion believes its appeal doesn’t necessarily stem from being competitive.

Though the ’21 championship battle between Hamilton and Verstappen was epic, F1 has grown its audience in recent years with the help of the “Drive To Survive” docuseries on Netflix that has showcased their stars’ personalities along with the cutthroat decisions of its team principals (IndyCar started its own docuseries this year).

“I don’t think the beauty of F1 is the race itself,” Palou said. “I’d say the beauty is more the development that they have and everything around the races, and that they go different places. But when we talk about pure spectacle, you cannot get better than (IndyCar).

“You can feel it as a driver here when you first come and jump in a car. When I was in Dale Coyne (Racing), we got a podium my rookie year. It wasn’t the best team, but we were able to achieve one of the best cars at Road America (where he finished third in 2020). It’s not that I was driving a slow car. I was driving a really fast car. I think we can see that across all the teams and the drivers.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who will start second at Detroit, is in his third season of IndyCar after winning three championships in Supercars.

The New Zealander said recently that IndyCar has been “the most enjoyment I’ve ever had in my career. I had a lot of fun in Supercars, but there were still things like different uprights, engines, all that stuff. (IndyCar) is spec. Really the only things you can change are dampers and the engine differences between Honda and Chevy.

“I have a blast,” McLaughlin said. “Trying to extract pace and winning in this series is better than I’ve ever felt ever. I’m surprised by how satisfied it feels to win an IndyCar race. It’s better than how it ever has felt in my career. I’ve always liked winning, but it’s so satisfying to win here. That’s why it’s so cool. There are no bad drivers. You have to have a perfect day.”

Qualifying might be the best example of the series’ competitiveness tightness. The spread for the Fast Six final round of qualifying on Detroit’s new nine-turn, 1.645-mile downtown layout was nearly eight 10ths of a second – which qualifies as an eternity these days.

Last month, the GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course produced a spread of 0.2971 seconds from first to sixth – the fourth-closest Fast Six in IndyCar history since the format was adopted in 2008. Three of the seven closest Fast Six fields have happened this season (with the Grand Prix of Long Beach ranking sixth and the Alabama Grand Prix in seventh).

While the technical ingenuity and innovation might be limited when compared to F1, there’s no arguing that more IndyCar drivers and teams have a chance to win.

“The parity’s great, and no one has an advantage, basically,” Power said. “The two engine manufacturers (Honda and Chevrolet) are always flipping back and forth as they develop, but we’re talking like tenths of a second over a lap. There’s not a bad driver in the field, and there are 20 people all capable of being in the Fast Six every week. Maybe more. It’s incredibly competitive. There isn’t a more competitive series in the world. I’m sure of that.

“If you want the ultimate driver’s series, this is it I’m from a big team that would benefit massively from opening the rules up, but I don’t think (IndyCar officials) should. I think this should always be about the team and driver getting the most out of a piece of equipment that everyone has a chance to do so. That’s the ultimate driver series. Who wants to win a championship when you’re just given the best car? It’s just ridiculous.”

Power believes the talented Verstappen still would be the F1 champion if the equipment were spec, but he also thinks there would be more challengers.

“There’s got to be a bunch of those guys that must just be frustrated,” Power said. “Think about Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris, (Fernando) Alonso. Those are some great drivers that don’t get a chance to even win. They’re just extracting the most out of the piece of equipment they have.

“All I can say is if everyone had a Red Bull car, there’s no way that Max would win every race. There are so many guys who would be winning races. It’d just be similar to (IndyCar) and different every week, which it should be that way for the top level of the sport.”