You lose some, you win some. Even McLaren with its Honda-powered MP4/4 driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who completely dominated the 1988 season, failed to win all 16 races.
After 11 straight wins, it lost to Ferrari. It then continued its streak, claiming a startling 15 wins out of 16 starts but by a strange twist of fate, the one it lost was on Scuderia’s home ground and, at the same time, the first Italian GP after Enzo Ferrari’s death…
That was then and this is now. The latest Formula 1 race was the Indian Grand Prix and Sebastian Vettel took an easy win, his fourth in a row. It was an almost perfect race for the reigning world champion, who extended his lead in the drivers’ championship by seven points.
Fernando Alonso, who until the previous race at Korea was leading the standings, managed the best he could with a car that’s clearly inferior to that of his rival.
As always, he drove brilliantly to pass McLaren’s Jenson Button and, when his KERS failed, Red Bull’s Mark Webber. He then started closing in to Vettel, but eventually had to settle for second place.
After the race, Ferrari’s top driver admitted that “it’s not easy at the moment to fight Red Bull… we knew we were not fast enough but we lost the minimum points”. Alonso added that he and the team “will not give up” and that he hopes they will perform even better in the three remaining races of the season.
Vettel was asked what it is that has made him the favorite for the title: “There’s not one thing that stands out and makes a difference. I think it’s all of us working hand in hand together and I’m glad to be part of that and just enjoying the moment.”
The winner, who currently has an advantage to snag his third title in as many years at the tender age of 25, said that he was also very proud to be the first driver since the late Ayrton Senna to lead every single lap for three consecutive races.
As for the rest, McLaren had another not too impressive weekend, by its own high standards, claiming fourth and fifth positions with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button respectively. The only silver lining was that it did much better than in Korea and Button recorded the fastest lap of the race. Small comfort for a team that’s used to being a title challenger…
By Andrew Tsaousis
