Monday 28th July 2014

Motorsport on Monday: 28/07/14

Safety cars were very much the flavour of the weekend...

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A packed weekend of motorsport it was, with F1 delivering the goods yet again. And with the Spa 24 hours also spanning Saturday and Sunday, we were unfortunately met by a few serious safety car periods.

Following Marcus Ericsson and Sergio Perez's respective smashes into firm, immovable objects, a certain Mr Maylander had to fire up the M159 motor in his SLS AMG and calm the chaos down - although his job was prolonged by a spinning Romain Grosjean under yellows.

If a crash in motorsport can ever be routine, Ericsson's mistake in his Caterham and even Perez's lapse of concentration in the Sauber were exactly that: spin, crunch, the fluttering of carbonfibre punctuated by expletives, walk away. It proves just how safe the carbon cocoons in F1 are today.

Crashes made for a disjointed Spa race

But it's easy to assume the same is true for all forms of motorsport. However, as was shown in Spa, that's not the case.

Get well soon, Mahy
Not long before quarter distance, the race was red flagged after a massive shunt involving the #111 Kessel Racing run Ferrari 458 Italia of British driver Marcus Mahy and the #333 Rinaldi 458 of Vadim Kogay. The cars collided at Stavelot - not where you want to be banging doors - totalling the Kessel car and setting Kogay's Ferrari ablaze.

The incident was that serious the red flag was waved to allow the medevac helicopter to land on the track to transport Mahy straight to hospital where he was put in an induced coma. Thankfully the 53 year-old is now conscious and can move all his limbs, but will still have to undergo surgery.

Just in case Merc F1 needed more controversy

Mahy's accident - along with another massive shunt for yet another Ferrari 458, this time at Eau Rouge, and a gaggle of other incidents that triggered four safety car periods with other drivers taken to hospital - proves that not all forms of motorsport are equal when it comes to safety.

It's too easy to get blasé with safety when you watch Lewis Hamilton's brakes failing or Kevin Magnussen shunting the tyres so hard he needed a new chassis, with both walking away from their respective accidents.

We know motorsport can be dangerous, but it still doesn't make it any easier when things go awry. Sometimes these reminders are good when nobody gets hurt and serve to highlight the point of driving standards. That's the "pssst" of another can of worms I can hear being opened. For now, Marcus, we hope you get well soon.

Congratulations to Rast, Vanthoor and Winkelhock in their Audi R8 LMS Ultra, who took the win in a difficult, disjointed race.

Caption competition?

Hamilton - luck - team orders
I focused the spotlight on Lewis Hamilton this time last week after what must be one of the best drives of his life cemented, in my opinion, his status as the most determined driver on the grid. It didn't take long for him to supersede that performance. Hamilton has now made up 50 places in the last four races.

But again, it was summoned because of bad luck on Friday. In Germany his brakes failed, in Hungary it was a high-pressure fuel line that caught fire, torching the back end of the W05 Hybrid requiring a new chassis and a new motor.

With no time on the board, this meant Lewis started from pit lane with Rosberg on pole. In dodgy conditions. Obviously that wasn't enough of a challenge for him, as he spun at turn two on lap one, ever so slightly damaging his front wing. Charging through the field with a broken wing end fence and cascade winglets - sounds familiar, right?

To cut a long story short, he made his way through to the front by just half distance, dropping back to third and one place ahead of his teammate after the pit stops had shaken the field out. Which is where the next drama came from.

Ricciardo making it look easy...

At the start of the season Mercedes was quite open and honest about letting its two title hopefuls race. However, in Hungary team "suggestion" turned into blatant team orders as it issued a directive for Hamilton to let Rosberg past.

The two were on different strategies, but Hamilton disobeyed and kept the German behind him. Lewis sounded incredulous over the radio that he was being asked to move aside for a car that didn't look like he was able to overtake and issued a fair ultimatum: if he gets close enough to me I'll let him through, otherwise I'll fight for my position. "Why isn't he letting me through?" Rosberg whinged.

In my opinion, looking at how the pair finished, Hamilton was totally justified in his decision. If he'd let Rosberg through the championship gap would have opened to 17 points rather than closed to 11. Ask any racer, any real racer... - OK, we won't go there.

"Seb who you say?"

Coming back to last week's discussion, it must be difficult for Lewis to seen a tiny glimpse as to where the team's loyalties lie - or where it must feel like they lie to him.

While Mercedes' chief press officer - sorry "non-executive chairman" - Niki Lauda says Lewis was right to ignore the panicked call from the Mercedes pit wall, the fact remains he was asked to let his title rival by.

Toto Wolff can review the decision all he wants, but I fear the damage has been done already inside Lewis's head.

Still, a great race from Hamilton and another cracking victory for the perma-smiling Daniel Ricciardo - Spa should be good...

[Output Flange]

On the topic of safety in motorsport, sad news from the Silverstone Classic:

::Linky::

At least he went out doing what he loved.