United States Grand Prix Report Cards

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, TX. In the last Tilkometro the winner is Lewis Hamilton, who by overtaking Vettel with 13 laps to go does a big favor to Fernando Alonso who finishes third, very far behind, but still in contention for the title. Splendid fourth Massa, who is sacrificed by the team before the race due to the horse's reason of state. We'll see at Interlagos if it will be served. Enjoy the reading!

Sebastian Vettel: 8,5st – Well, we don't dare imagine how dizzy he really was immediately after the race. He gains further on Alonso, it's true, and plays wise by saying that it was still a positive race. But few stories, when you dominate the weekend from the first practice session up to three quarters of the race... well, it really burns you to let yourself pass and give up on success. Deserved, yes, but not as much as for LH. Red Bull, evidently, did not have the supremacy in race pace that was thought, let's say that in terms of performance the two pairs SV/RB and LH/McL were equivalent. It's tough, so having to bite the bullet which actually makes them lose seven very heavy points before Interlagos. Maybe a little more concentration would have been enough, who knows. And picking on Karthikeyan….. well, let's leave it alone or become evil. In any case, his race was positive. But not enough. What discounts a little nervousness? Tense.

Mark Webber: 6 – This is not the time of the season to be tender, beyond the esteem and sympathy that the undersigned may feel for anyone. He takes them soundly, for all intents and purposes. In practice and as long as he remains in the race. Hamilton passes at the start but the Englishman jumps ahead of him in the space of a few laps. Then he starts to experience problems of all kinds, from Kers to the gearbox to the alternator which leaves him stranded. It is clear that without the retirement he would have kept Alonso behind him without any problems. But the only good thing for the team, which earns them a passing grade, is that his, Red Bull's, broke and not Vettel's. As - this is also true - has happened too many times this year. Lightning rod.

Jenson Button: 7nd – A week ago an interesting article entitled “What Button can teach young drivers” was published in Autosport - the bible for anyone who knows a little about motorsport. In essence, the author argued that JB's ability to fight and overtake in a clean manner is something that young people of the PlayStation generation should study. Here, the United States Grand Prix is ​​perhaps the most clear demonstration of the correctness of this thesis. JB's comeback was as precise as it was inexorable. Let's go from memory: Maldonado, Grosjean, Michael Schumacher, Senna -twice- Perez, Alonso, Grosjean again, Räikkönen. This last one is wonderful. Almost all without DRS and returning the car to the garage without even a scratch. Gorgeous, seriously. Why only seven, you ask? Hell, he still took almost a minute from Lewis… Precise.

Lewis Hamilton: 10 – Shall we say it? I say. Technically, her Sunday was on another planet compared to everyone else. As written above, it is true that the SV / RB and LH / McL pairs were equivalent, but it is also indisputable that in his case it was the handle that made the difference. He has always been fast, in Austin he was precise and clean as we have rarely seen him do in his career. Never a block, never a slip, he only allows himself a small excursion while he is fighting with Webber. Then he is surgical, weaves his web and at the right moment launches the attack on the top, stripping Vettel on lap 42 and taking a deserved victory. Who knows in what spirit he will greet the team after Interlagos, especially given what is happening around Stuttgart. But for now ten, with honors if possible, and an academic kiss. But don't think badly. Phenomenal.

Fernando Alonso: 6th – We're bad here too. Few stories, Felipe went more. And a lot. Point. We don't believe we deserve anyone's excommunication for revealing this. And if so, peace of mind, we have broad enough shoulders to be able to afford it. Objection, Your Honor. Fernando is beautiful, he is good and he couldn't have achieved a better result anyway. This is also true. But without Vettel's retirement and without the antics of Massa's gearbox or other team games he would have finished fifth. So objection overruled, Counsel. Nando deserves a passing grade only for the good start - from the clean side of the track, again thanks to the gearbox - and little else. And let's agree on who is under pressure from whom. Because the better Alonso would have roared much more. And it's up to us to detect it, dammit. Tired.

Felipe Massa: 9 – Do you know why we don't give him a ten? Just because he didn't send everyone to hell. What they propose to him, in the eyes of this writer, is SHAMEFUL. But why, someone risks their neck in testing to gain even a single thousandth of a second and you even think about doing something like that? And among other things, gentlemen, these are the same ones who at the time of Piquet Jr.'s simulated accident in Singapore - which among other things, in retrospect, cost Felipe his title - were outraged, tearing their clothes. Team games are fine, "Let Michael pass for the Championship" is fine, "Fernando is faster than you" is fine but this is objectively too much, at least for this writer. I don't pretend to convince you, let's be clear. The opinion is mine, mine alone, neither of the site nor of who knows who else. But - remember - running is another thing. And I'll tell you again. RUNNING is something else. Motorsport is something different. As for Massa, little else to say except that he brings home the best race of the year, just on the edge of the podium. Too bad for his future. Seriously. And there are no adjectives this time.

Michael Schumacher: 6,5 – The only adjective that comes to mind when thinking about the epilogue of his career is grotesque. And not his fault, let's be clear. You can see that as usual he gives his heart on the track. In qualifying he climbed to much more noble positions than the vehicle would allow. But then during the race it's endearing to see him stripped by anyone who passes by him. Probably if your report card writer [at the wheel of his Golf] had also raced in Austin, he would have finished in front too. His Mercedes seems to ride on ice, the grip is more or less similar. And without mechanical grip, without traction and without speed - it doesn't take a Nobel Prize to understand this - he doesn't go anywhere. He comes out of the first corner fifth, finishing sixteenth after even having to make an additional pit stop due to an objective lack of tread. Oh god, really. He finds it hard to understand what the point of all this is. He's sorry he has to leave like this. And he also has the courage to be ironic, instead of insulting everyone. Gentleman.

Nico Rosberg: 6,5th – Frankly there is very little to say about his race. Always behind, always slow, he takes the platonic satisfaction of beating Michael Schumacher at the finish line knowing full well that there is nothing substantial. He is only seen in the frame during the fight with his teammate and Vergne, a fight that costs the French Toro Rosso driver the retirement. For the rest, you don't even have to push the car, the only thing is to take it to the finish line, hoping not to cause any damage and hoping that 2012 ends immediately. Among other things, he says that useful experiments have been carried out with a view to 2013. What if the Maya were right, against all odds? We'll throw it out there... Fatalist.

Kimi Räikkönen: 8,5th – At the end of the fair he didn't get this overwhelming result, he finished sixth just ahead of Grosjean, who also managed a couple of his own. But he deserves the big vote because he enters the two best maneuvers seen in Austin. In the first he is the protagonist, when he invents an overtaking - the real ones, without DRS - on the outside against Hülkenberg. In the second he is the supporting character, on the occasion of the overtaking suffered by JB a few laps from the end. He defends himself with malice but with fairness, the cars touch each other, the spectators appreciate it. A great show, given by two phenomena as different as they are fascinating. He starts badly, comes into contact with the Force India German, ends up behind, comes back with malice and gains position after position. Then, after the pit stop, the temperatures dropped and his Lotus began to experience grip problems which slowed him down and favored, as already mentioned, Button's recovery. But, in any case, he finishes sixth and remains in third place in the world championship. More than good, gentlemen, more than good. Spectacular.

Romain Grosjean: 8th – He also makes a couple of his blunders in Texas, when he decides to test the asphalt of the escape routes of the new car park made in Tilke. But all in all they are venial errors, because at the finish line he still finishes close to his team leader. To be honest, he could have finished ahead of him without those two mistakes - especially the first one was serious - but we forgive him for the excesses by virtue of the beautiful maneuver with which, in the early stages of the race, he got rid of Räikkönen and Michael in one fell swoop. Schumacher fighting each other. A masterpiece of cunning and opportunism that warms our hearts and makes us raise the voting bar just enough to go from sufficient to good. Also because he started backwards through no fault of his own, read gearbox replacement. If one day he could go back to having one of those straight Sundays, without errors of any kind, it would be nice. Let alone giving continuity. But one step at a time… Smart.

Paul di Resta: 5 – Another opaque, nervous and full of mistakes test. He suffers Hülkenberg in the first part of the race, little by little he gets closer to him - a nice overtaking on Michael Schumacher among other things - starting to lap at more than decent times. But then, between the 25th and 30th laps - not shown - he makes a bad mistake, flattening the tires and making the car undriveable. The problem is decisive if we consider that he had recently made his first and - as planned - only stop. After finding it impossible to move forward, he has to stop in the pits again to fit a fresh set of tyres. Losing any chance of picking up a placing in the points. He crosses the finish line in fifteenth position, lapped. And obviously far behind his teammate, who instead further fattens his haul in the standings. Whoever is the cause of his pain should cry for himself. Flattened.

Nico Hulkenberg: 8 – He's in amazing shape, and everything he touches turns to gold. He has reached a level of symbiosis with his car that allows him to get the most out of it without at the same time risking plowing up escape routes. Good boy. Even in Texas, among cows, cowboys and wide-brimmed Stetsons, Nico transforms into the Incredible Hülkenberg, taking his car high in qualifying and giving himself a first part of the race in the very top quarters of the rankings. The duel - even if lost - with Räikkönen was splendid. Then with the hard tires he begins to lose ground and in the end he is forced to defend himself from the two Williams to maintain a place in the points. You said nothing: the Grove couple has DRS, he just has a lot of work. Yet this - albeit with some trouble - was enough to give him the eighth place finish which further enriches his ranking and his haul of smiles. It's a shame the season is coming to an end, really. We are sure he would sign to start over with the same cars. Another lap, another race. Happy.

Kamui Kobayashi: 5 – Shall we say it? We say it. He didn't understand anything all weekend. Not that the Sauber was traveling at breakneck speed, mind you, far from it. But the Toyota school Jap objectively doesn't get anything out of the hole. For a long time he remained the last of the drivers of the so-called old teams, before the Mercedes harakiri and di Resta's double stop gave him a couple of positions. With the same car Pérez doesn't perform miracles but at least he makes himself seen. He looks dazed at the end of the race when he says that the car only started to go fast with the hard tires almost finished. Bordering on the esoteric, a field into which we do not intend to venture at all. There is a risk of ending badly. And in the absence of more concrete justifications, we cannot give it a passing grade. Medium.

Sergio Perez: 6 – Finally, good God, he doesn't make any messes. It hadn't happened since before signing the contract with McLaren, therefore after some good Grand Prix. As they say in the jargon, this IS the news, as far as he's concerned. Having said this, and giving Sergio where Sergio is due, it should be noted that his performance will certainly not end up in the annals of the history of the sport. At the start of the race he seems toned and vigorous, he gets rid of - like everyone else - Michael Schumacher and also passes Bruno Senna with a certain skill. But then he gets lost between pit stops and traffic and in the end he only manages eleventh place, the first of those not awarded from the points zone. Not much, but still better than what happened in the garage next to him. Sufficiency is therefore stretched but dignified. Now that he seems to have stopped causing damage, will he also return quickly to greet the team that invented him - Pippo Baudo docet - with one last, good result? See you in Sao Paulo. Appeased.

Daniel Ricciardo: 7rd – Thinking back to his race, what immediately comes to mind is the beautiful battle with Pastor Maldonado halfway through the race, with the two nicely beating each other for two or three laps. In a correct and sporting manner, let's clarify for the avoidance of doubt. The Australian tries in every way to pass the Venezuelan, who however gets the upper hand every time. But it is not the only highlight of Daniel's race, who at the start recovers almost all the positions that he was unable to conquer on Saturday and in the first laps he also takes over the remaining ones. His comeback crashes into the Williams wall and - in fact - it will be precisely that failed overtaking that stops him at the finish line in twelfth position, also behind Pérez. Question of strategies, timing, complicated stuff that even we struggle to understand. But what we have seen is enough for us - also taking into account the potential of the car - to evaluate its performance as more than good. Honestly, you couldn't ask for more. Massive.

Jean-Éric Vergne: sv – Believe it or not, Mercedes still managed to claim a victim in an unfortunate Grand Prix like the one in Austin. And it's Jean-Éric himself. The Frenchman, after a careful first part of the race, finds himself at war with the two very dull Silver Arrows of Rosberg and Schumacher and - it's not clear how, whether due to a contact or a too violent spin - the front suspension loses out right. The images - at least the ones we have available - don't completely clarify the dynamics, and we don't feel like rejecting it. So abstention and so on. However unfortunate.

Pastor Maldonado: 7,5 – For the entire race he follows Senna, due to a less than exceptional start which causes him to lose position after position. Being in the center of the group means fighting. He has never held back in doing so, let alone on a new track with kilometer-long run-off areas like the newborn Circuit of the Americas. Let's say right away that it entertains us. First with Button, when he creates an overtaking-counter-counter-passing carousel that delights the Texans in the stands and all of us at home. Then with Ricciardo, and here he is the one who wins the race of irreducibility. Finally with Senna, a few laps from the end, when he squeezes into the hole left open by the Brazilian and snatches ninth place from him. For once, and here too, gentlemen, it's surprising that we don't touch anyone and don't do anything stupid. He always did this... and if he had started better he might have been able to worry Hülkenberg more too. But that's fine. Shall we bet that the Williams couple will be on fire in Brazil – in a good way? Tireless.

Bruno Senna: 7,5 – He deserves the same vote as his teammate even if he was the protagonist of a very different performance. In fact, it is he who acts as the protagonist at the start of the race, who performs better in high-ranking duels, demonstrating that he knows what he is doing and, when necessary, that he also has enough determination to entertain the audience. Curiously, he also duels with JB on the same plot [overtaking-counterpassing-countercounterpassing] as his teammate. And he is determined when, in the last quarter of the race, he squeezes the maximum out of the car - and the tires - to reach Hülkenberg. Too much generosity comes at a price: he drags Maldonado behind him who, once he catches the Force India German, passes him mercilessly, putting himself in Nico's exhaust. After it was Bruno's turn to do the dirty work. Some people don't even remotely know what gratitude is... Jokes aside, that's fine. One of the best performances of the year, according to this writer. Let it be worth it boost for the home match? Who knows, who knows. He deserves it, a great result. Betrayed.

Heikki Kovalainen: 5,5 – For the whole weekend he was unable to get to grips with a problem that had been plaguing him since the first km done on Friday: getting the front tires up to temperature. If at the beginning the issue might have been the lack of grip on the track, as we progressed we realized that that wasn't the point. And in the race things don't improve. Pic passes at the start and Glock passes in the first laps, but he is unable to keep up with Petrov and will have to settle for acting as his valet until the checkered flag. Not the best, this time, for someone who is trying in every way to recycle himself for 2013 with a more competitive steering wheel. But it is also true that the Texan performance does not affect much of the good things shown this season - and last season - at the wheel of Caterham. The motivations at least seem intact. And this is important. Minus one at dawn. Assuming that it really is dawn, and that it isn't a sad - and all in all undeserved - sunset for the blond from Rovaniemi. Page boy.

Vitaly Petrov: 7 – Unusually at ease from the very first km, in the race he manages to capitalize on what he showed in practice - compared to the performance of his neighbor in the garage - stealing from Heikki the role he played in most of the races, i.e. that of leader of the pack of the pursuers [compared to normal cars, of course]. And to say that the Caterhams, in qualifying, had taken them from the Marussias, again in a rather surprising way. But then immediately after the start things return to the most natural order, and the game for Vitalij is simply to run constantly, not cause problems in lapping and bring the car to the finish line. Despite an annoying vibration in the brakes which however does not affect the result. Objectively the best, in our opinion. Will better times come? Who can say. In the meantime, let's go to Interlagos, then… Clean.

Pedro de la Rosa: 7 – With five laps to go his seat actually broke. The nightmare is that of scraping your buttocks on the asphalt, a nightmare that fortunately doesn't last long since the rest of the body resists. Jokes aside, he was still forced to adapt to a new riding position in the final laps due to the failure of a carbon element in the seat. He has a lot of Grand Prix experience, a few good years under his belt, but we believe this has never happened to him. There is little to say about the rest of his race. The HRT is tender in his instability. The gap made up by Marussia is embarrassing, he gets five seconds behind Vettel in the calculation of the fastest laps. What do you invent to give him a rating? Or to fail him? Frankly we don't know. Professionalism and commitment remain intact. He beats his teammate. And he remains invisible in the dubbing, which is the highest compliment you can pay a pilot from the rear. This is enough for us. Honest.

Narain Karthikeyan: 6 – A few Grand Prix ago the youngest double world champion in the history of Formula 1 called him a Cucumber due to a misunderstanding during a dubbing. Last year in Canada Massa in a radio team had to address him "It's stupid, it's stupid". In the last race Rosberg flew over him with the car and everything, touching his helmet. And in Austin, TX, the same double world champion etc. etc. took it out on him for the decisive overtaking suffered by Hamilton. If a clue is a clue, how many do you need to prove? You do. Although, honestly, Seb could have chosen to be a gentleman for once and talk about something else, avoiding throwing the cross on poor Narain. Who already has a giant cross to bear; he has four wheels, an engine and is called HRT. But yes, perhaps he will have some fault too. But does it really make sense, during report cards, to abuse a driver who drives in these conditions? We can't do it. We don't have enough hair on our stomachs. Peace. And then in the race he even laps faster than de la Rosa... Lightning rod.

Timo Glock: 7 – At least he's not running alone this time. At the start - by his own admission - he lost control of the car twice, letting Petrov pass him. Then Kovalainen also passes. He follows him, tries to pass him in the pits but in vain. So later on he approaches him, he even manages to overtake him but a few laps later he has to give up again and give up the position to him. He closes behind the two Caterhams. It's a shame, because the result in qualifying - in which the Marussias were ahead of the yellow-green cars - gave rise to hope. However, nothing new on the Western Front. But at least he beats his teammate again - and this time soundly too - on a new track for both of them. A sign that, if he wants, he still knows how to be fast and effective. It is clear that it is not always easy to be decisive when he is racing with a car like his. But the quality of the Professional, not of the pilot but of the Professional, is also and above all evaluated by this. Awakened.

Charles Pic: 5 – He flushes his opportunity down the toilet. That is, being able to battle on equal terms with Glock on a new track for both of them. In which, for once, he would start on an equal footing. But no. Good in qualifying, disastrous in the race. He says that a contact at the first corner damaged his front wing, causing him to understeer. It's not clear why they didn't change it during the break. Now it's done almost by default, whenever there's something wrong with the car. Bah. He gets more than thirty seconds from Timo. An enormity. In the past we have been generous with Charles because he has had the opportunity to make a positive impression on us. He doesn't mind if we're excessively harsh this time. Everything is for learning. To encourage. And who knows, maybe even this failure will be useful to him - in his immensely small way. Confused.

Manuel Codignoni
www.f1grandprix.it