There’s a reason why Fernando Alonso is consistently rated one of the best drivers of his generation by fans and peers alike. This weekend proved it to be true. Consider where Ferrari were in pre-season, over a second slower than the MacLarens in Melbourne and looking even more woeful than 2011. Now, halfway through the season, Fernando Alonso has an increasingly comfortable lead in the drivers’ championship and his nearest competitors struggle with inconsistency.
Inconsistency that is never present in Alonso’s racing. He said himself this weekend that the Ferrari car isn’t the quickest on the grid, and the predictably pedestrian 12th place finish of Felipe Massa illustrates it. Alonso isn’t just leading the championship for Ferrari, he’s leading the championship despite Ferrari. The same can’t be said of Button and Hamilton, who continue to go backwards through a combination of their own inconsistency and sheer bad luck. It was nevertheless Button’s best weekend for a little while, qualifying above his team mate (a rare occasion) and fighting his way up to the podium.
Red Bull Racing are just starting to get switched on now. There’s a renewed pace to them and a steely, measured confidence about Mark Webber. The playing field has levelled out between him and Vettel this season, and he seems a much happier man in the car. Sebastien is predictably going the other way, becoming easily frustrated and expressing it more explicitly than he ever did when he led the championship by 60 points.
They’re now Alonso’s closest rivals, but life isn’t going to get any easier for Red Bull. The Ferrari is growing quicker each week and the FIA introduced new rules today that are deliberately designed to hamper certain systems in the Red Bull engine that it deemed unfair. It’s seems incredible that a two-time world champion leading the championship is considered a victory for the underdog, but that is just the sort of season 2012 is.
The other noteworthy performance of the week came from Sauber. They haven’t quite got their qualifying strategy watertight yet (literally and metaphorically) but when it comes to the race they’ve got a fast car with drivers to match. If they can get their strategy to a level that ensures their cars qualify within the points every week, there will be countless podiums there for the taking. That assumes, of course, that the bigger teams won’t swoop to sign up the promising young Perez or the wildcard Kobayashi first.
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