Report cards of the Brazilian Grand Prix

In the end he did it. At the last available opportunity Mark Webber finally manages to clock in and take home his first victory of the season, also thanks to a -suspicious- breakdown in Vettel's sister car, who still finishes second. In third place was Button's McLaren, which pushed the never-tamed Ferrari of Alonso off the podium. Hamilton retired. Enjoy the reading!

Sebastian Vettel: 9st – Let's pretend he really had a gearbox problem. A SERIOUS gearbox problem, that serious gearbox problem that his engineer was talking about. To carry out an evaluation you need an interpretation, and we choose this one. And in this case he deserves a big vote for having brought the car home, moreover in second place, lapping at the same times as those who won the race. Well, well done, encore. How do you say, is it not very convincing to you? We can't do anything about it, after careful reflection we should focus on transparency. Also because engineer Bruno fascinates us too much when he says «With telemetry they understood that there were problems and with telepathy they solved them». He deserves a ten. To the wise... Esoteric.

Mark Webber: 7,5 – The line of thought always remains the same, that is, the fault was there. And the kangaroo's vote is affected. Because net of serious gearbox problem -aridaje!!!- Vettel's pace is superior, especially in the early stages of the race. And this is probably one of the Australian's heaviest handicaps of 2011: cold speed, at the start of the race, when you have to balance with a full tank of petrol and the tires not yet up to temperature. From mid-race onwards, even at Interlagos, Mark goes with pleasure, but the time lost at the start is often irrecoverable. So beware of talking about a crisis-busting victory: the most positive news coming from Sao Paulo is not so much the success, but the end of the championship. Then, clearly, finishing with a win is always good. We'll see. In the meantime - for what little it's worth - he snatches third place in the world championship from Alonso. And he will go - he said it - to go windsurfing. In winter. Bah. Holidaymaker.

Lewis Hamilton: 6 – Shrimp format weekend. He arrives in Brazil convinced that he will rock the world, he puts on a show in free practice, gets fooled by Button in qualifying - perhaps banking on the rain - and by Alonso at the start. He suffers the match rather than attacking it, as he usually does. A fact also demonstrated by the much time lost behind Massa, who also had more worn tyres. Then, to make sure he doesn't miss anything, he too gets his good gearbox problem. Which forces him to retire. So-so, him in short. The good news for him too is that 2011 is over. And he too, like Webber, ends with an uplifting message: the victory for Mark, the embrace of Massa for Lewis. From the book Heart. Sweet.

Jenson Button: 8,5nd – It really is like a counterfeit coin. When you least expect it, when you think you've gotten rid of it, at the most inopportune moments, he always pops up. You see him struggling in free practice with the soft tyres, complaining about the balance and a car that doesn't give him confidence. Yet in qualifying he found the spark and jumped ahead of Hamilton. In the race he had the same problem again, he even suffered a majestic overtaking on the outside by Alonso in the early stages of the race, he seemed to be on his knees. But with disarming clarity he anticipates the moment of the medium tires and, with them, he relentlessly gets back under the Spaniard's Ferrari and overtakes it mercilessly, achieving yet another podium of the season, the best that could be achieved in Interlagos. And confirming the - highly deserved - second place in the rankings. He is the driver who - in the writer's opinion - comes out of 2011 best, in some ways even better than the World Champion. Now comes the difficult part: confirming yourself. But applause for a season like this is truly in order. Strategist.

Fernando Alonso: 9th - What to say. Once again over the top, in the good sense of the term. The usual devil-may-care start, which allows him to jump in front of Hamilton and to catch - with a whooping maneuver - even Button. Priceless for commitment and tenacity. Because he also knows very well that with harder tires there will be no cat's food. And in fact he mounts them, can't find the rhythm, suffers the return of that bad guy Button who recovers seconds from him by the ton and strips him of his paint on the opposite network, without mercy (but with DRS, alas). Overtaking which, among other things, knocked him off the podium of both the race and the world championship. Not that this satisfaction was, mind you, but still, as they say, “rather than nothing, better rather”. Nothing to reproach him for, however, on the contrary. We'll see if in Maranello they'll be able to tailor a car to suit him. Irreducible.

Felipe Massa: 6 – Becca 31 seconds behind Alonso. Despite a different strategy. This would be enough to label his performance as colorless. Once again he loses during the race, after an overall not bad start. He gets burned by Rosberg at the start but responds instantly, then finds himself in front of the McLarens who have already stopped. He immediately gives in to Button but resists Hamilton very well, for once without any contact. But then, after the Englishman's withdrawal, he begins to lose ground - also thanks to the hardest covers coverDure if we wanted to use a new expression - and it even undergoes Barrichello's doubling. Paulista stuff. Actually, crazy stuff. He finishes fifth, sadly alone. Without infamy perhaps, without praise for sure. Colorless.

Michael Schumacher: 6,5 – It's worth much more than the fifteenth place the statistics say. Because once again he must be taken as an example for his determination, tenacity and irreducibility. Di Resta passes and duels with Senna in the early stages of the race, attacks him - and passes him - in a rough but correct manner (cit. Ivan Capelli), then the Brazilian rams him, piercing his right rear and forcing him to do an entire lap on three wheels . Some youngsters would probably have preferred to retire immediately, but not him. He does an entire lap in the tricycle model, changes tires and throws himself back on the track with his head down, trying to recover without striking a blow. His placement doesn't do him justice. Just as the final championship ranking tells a very unrealistic story of his positive season. We can't wait to see it next year. Load.

Nico Rosberg: 6,5th – Ross Brawn tries to get him ahead of Sutil, but there's nothing to be done. And in the end, finishing seventh is always better than nothing. Let's start from the end because the race is a bit of a reflection of his season: not bad, but nothing worth peeling your hands from the applause for. He duels with Massa at the start, passes Alguersuari, gains time thanks to the wall and finds himself in front of Sutil's Force India at three quarters of the race. But the difference in speed between the two cars is too great and, we add, the difference in motivation between a German who has yet to find a seat and the other who has already secured one is too obvious. The overtaking was therefore useful, to put it in Corrado's words. With all due respect to both of you. He gives the impression of having pulled the oars in the boat. Understandable, of course, given the null prospects for this season. But in terms of commitment, taking an example from his 42-year-old teammate wouldn't hurt him. Listless.

Bruno Senna: 4,5 – A disaster, we wrote in Abu Dhabi. A disaster, we repeat. He runs with a name, or rather a surname, which in these parts makes veins and wrists tremble. Despite everything, it qualifies well and starts without problems. Then from behind comes a certain Michael Schumacher, a lively 42-year-old who overtakes him with an old-fashioned maneuver (in terms of decision and aggressiveness). And what does he do? In the S which bears his name - or rather, let's reiterate, his surname - he hits him, puncturing his tyre, ruining the wing and also getting a drive through. In short, for laughs. And - I don't pay - he also lets Maldonado pass him by. If he was looking for reasons to be confirmed, well let's say that maybe he didn't find them. The basics are there, but he makes mistakes with embarrassing frequency. Which in Formula 1 you can't afford. There's still a lot of work to do, he knows. We'll let you know.

Vitaly Petrov: 6,5 – How much effort!! How much effort it was to straighten out a bad weekend, starting from 15th place in qualifying. With the added burden of having to make sense of the season with a view to -possible- renewal of the contract. The good Vitaly decides to focus on consistency, on regularity. Waiting, as they once said, for the race to go his way. And in the end the facts prove him right: without making any mess he manages to get a small point thanks to tenth place, the last available stall in the points zone. We wonder how it was possible, given that we will have seen it in frame only a couple of times. And maybe he's wondering that too. But all's well that ends well. And in troubled waters like Renault's, finishing the season on points will certainly do him some good. Will it be enough to snatch another year in F1? He who knows. However, he made the first move. Now it's up to the team to decide. Interventionist.

Rubens Barrichello: 6 – Well, why fail him? She persists at the start with a start like a housewife from Voghera, with all due respect to the lady. But then he comes back up, by hook and by crook, passing both Kovalainen and Maldonado in the same lap. Feisty, no doubt about it. He remains on the track for the first stint beyond all limits dictated by common sense, waiting for rain that never arrives. And in the final stages of the race he gives the cameras another double, the second in a row after the one in Abu Dhabi, this time to the detriment of Massa. Paulists compared. He has a lot of desire to run, and he can be seen a mile away. If we really have the chance, we will only discover this by living. We - to be honest - wish him so from the bottom of our hearts. Because he, from his heart, is showing a lot of it on the track. Indomitable (once again).

Pastor Maldonado: sv – A genius if ever there was one. He qualifies poorly, betting everything on the rain. Which doesn't arrive in the race. He lets Barrichello pass him and uses his driving force to move up position on the slower cars. Senna passes, then suddenly he turns and retreats. At first he sits on the side of the track to watch the race, then he returns to the pits. They ask him what happened and he replies, literally, in Italian: «I don't know, I think something happened (sic!) because everything was fine before». How do you fail it? A genius, we repeat.

Adrian Sutil: 8 – Unlike many of his colleagues, Adrian has no reason to rejoice at the end of the 2011 season. In several respects. First because at the end of the year his Force India goes like a torpedo and never breaks. Secondly because he doesn't yet know if he will drive for Vijay Mallya's team next year. And it would be a shame, in our opinion, to have to give up the pilot-pianist. It would be a discord in the staff's thus far perfect management of the team. Never over the top - except in clothing, but oh well -, never flashy, but concrete and effective. At Interlagos Sutil finished ahead of Rosberg's Mercedes - passing it on the track among other things - only by virtue of greater speed and consistency, without any external events intervening to distort the progress of the race. Impeccable, Adrian. And to think that at the beginning of the year he was well beyond the brink of a nervous breakdown. Look how it ended. Reborn.

Paul di Resta: 7 – And among all the good guys mentioned above, there's also a pat on the back for the Scottish pilot, who in his first appearance at Interlagos - always a treacherous and complicated track, albeit short - achieved yet another points finish in an excellent debut season instead. He starts well, duels with Michael Schumacher in the early stages - despite problems with top speed - but begins to suffer from gearbox problems - him too!!!! - which reduces him to much more lenient advice. In the end - by his own admission - he was only concerned with getting the car to the finish line and he did so in eighth position, thus consolidating the team's sixth place in the constructors' classification. Well done, no doubt about it. A season that began and ended in the best possible way, with only a couple of misses which could still be included in the year of the debut in Formula 1. The best is yet to come, say the English: the best, probably, is yet to come arrive. Serene.

Kamui Kobayashi: 7 – Second points finish in the last two races, a ninth place which adds little to his season but which definitely boosts morale in view of the hard winter of work that lies ahead near Hinwil. Ninth place which comes at the end of a consistent race, perhaps inconspicuous but undoubtedly profitable. Especially considering the terrible performance in qualifying. The declared objective was to close the world championship ahead of Toro Rosso, and the mission was accomplished. With minimal effort? It's not for us to say. Minimalist.

Sergio Perez: 5,5 – He chooses a complete wet set-up, a choice which however doesn't pay off given that all things considered, not even a drop of water reaches Interlagos. He starts well, very well, but the setup chosen ferociously overheats his rear tires, creating obvious wear and traction problems. He lets Sutil pass him at the start of the race, he also ends up spinning and in the final laps he gets the better of grandfather Barrichello in the fight for thirteenth place. He does not participate in the victorious fight with Toro Rosso in this last race. His season is undoubtedly positive, this is beyond doubt, but our task is to evaluate the race, not the year. And from this point of view, sufficiency, also considering the behavior of his teammate, cannot be there. Tired

Sebastien Buemi: 5,5 – The titanic undertaking - read overtaking at Sauber - fails. Whose fault would the good Adelmo Fornaciari say? Of questionable choices regarding set-up, first of all. In Toro Rosso they continue to be morbidly attracted by top speed. Nothing wrong with all this, mind you. But it's useless to hope not to pay for this philosophy in terms of driveability and tire wear. The Swiss makes the best of a bad situation, starts off well, even passing his teammate, but has a terrible effort pulling the cart and in the end has to settle for twelfth place in the finish, also behind Alguersuari. Strangely, his car only breaks when it's going fast, while whenever the performance is unseemly it seems indestructible. Is there a connection between the two things? Maybe. Jetted.

Jaime Alguersuari: 5,5 – He starts very badly, finishing the first lap in sixteenth position. Then somehow he catches up, but the same arguments made for Buemi regarding setup apply. There is speed, but it lacks traction, handling and aerodynamic grip. It is difficult in these conditions to attempt any kind of coup. And in fact the miracle - because a miracle was needed, yes sir - does not arrive. He crosses the finish line on the edge of the points, eleventh, just ahead of Buemi. Little else to tell, except that there is no certainty about the future. In an absolute sense, of course, but specifically we were talking about him, about the future. His and Buemi's. The shadows of Vergne and Ricciardo are becoming more and more threatening. The most difficult fight comes now, let alone the championship over! Battler.

Jarno Trulli: 5,5 – Boring race even from the cockpit, apparently. Let alone from the outside. He remains well behind Kovalainen and well ahead of Virgin and HRT throughout the race. He has no problems whatsoever, by his own admission, and this is already good news. He becomes almost visionary when at the end of the race he declares: «We continue to improve and it's great to be part of something that shows real signs of what it can become». If he explains it to us, we'll offer him a drink. And maybe we'll even give him enough. Because in Brazil, honestly, Jarno limits himself to doing his homework, while his teammate at least tries, to be seen. As we have said several times, it is understandable that at the end of the season the motivations may be more faded, in certain conditions. But along with those, then, he also fades the vote. Lazy.

Heikki Kovalainen: 6,5 – Another exciting start, but it's nothing new. Just as it is nothing new that, with a tenacity that borders on sadism, the good Gianfranco Mazzoni reminds us every time that Heikki is the driver who has suffered the most overtaking precisely because of his lightning starts. Sometimes it would be better, perhaps, to focus only on the more romantic, more dreamy aspects, and less on the more grimly earthly ones. But that's it. However, not to prove anyone wrong, within 5-6 laps Heikki is back in his rightful position, i.e. first among the drivers of the new team. And there he will close, do you think? No, because he will also be able to keep up with a Renault, Senna's, which had the same problems as him but which is still a real Lotus, not a simple Caterham (let's look to the future). Doing more is impossible. Give him less, probably, too. Always in a good mood, always kind, always hungry. Impeccable.

Daniel Ricciardo: 5,5rd – Tenth Grand Prix in Formula 1. This time he is the one who suffers from his teammate, both in qualifying and in the race. Liuzzi passes at the start, but has to give way immediately afterwards and then follows him like a shadow for the rest of the Grand Prix. He struggles to manage the tyres, suffers from excessive wear and is unable to keep up with the pace of his rivals in this fight between desperate people that is the HRT-Virgin clash. He's still a rookie, but he had accustomed us to a different type of determination and decision. So, albeit reluctantly, this time we deny him the sufficiency. He has numbers, brains and humility to emerge. It certainly won't be this five and a half that ends his career. Who knows where we will find him again next year. Nomadic.

Vitantonio Liuzzi: 6 – On a real track he has his small, partial revenge on the team and his teammate. In the sense that he beats him both in qualifying and in the race, at least as long as the car supports him. And to say that things didn't start very well: at the start the anti-stall made him start slowly, and he exited the first corner in very last position. However, he immediately manages to overtake Ricciardo and keeps him behind without problems for the entire race. Then, as already mentioned, the car leaves him in the lurch and he is forced to watch the end of the race from the wall. Sufficiency is all there is to it this time, along with a pat on the back and good luck for the future. In his situation, with no saints in heaven, he really needs them a lot. Brave.

Timo Glock: sv – We have rarely heard a driver so enraged in the usually calm and soporific interviews during the race. «What happened is ridiculous - Timo thundered -, simply ridiculous and unacceptable. It's hard to understand how they could have sent me back on track. It's ridiculous". Obviously the German is referring to his stopping, when he is given the go-ahead before all four wheels have been properly secured. As soon as he restarts, his left rear comes off, grazes his helmet and almost ends up on the track. He's crazy stuff. As amateurs at risk, to put it again in Corrado's words. And a driver with his experience - and with a contract already in his pocket - can't mince his words in complaining about it. Up to that point his race was rather colorless, but that's a negligible detail. Fierce. PS The post-race statement reads «I thank the team for all the effort they have put in throughout the year. It was nice to work together." Who knows who actually said it...

Jérôme d'Ambrosio: 6 – He says he had the best race of the season. We want to believe him. Because in qualifying he beats Glock, demonstrating that he has an excellent feeling with the circuit, and in the race he easily controls the HRTs until the checkered flag without encountering any particular problems. In the end we will have problems staying in F1, given that the team - with Glock already confirmed - has preferred Pic over him for 2012. Just as we wrote for Ricciardo, but with a completely different meaning, who knows where we will find him next year. Courage!

Manuel Codignoni
www.f1grandprix.it

The 2011 season ends with the Brazilian event and with it the report cards also go on holiday. The report card writer thanks all of you for the consistency with which you have followed this column, underlining the inaccuracies and sometimes adventurous assessments of the undersigned. He thanks you for the criticisms - especially the constructive and well-argued ones - and for the compliments - often undeserved - that have arrived every now and then. It's not always easy to be objective, and it doesn't mean you can do it every time. What the writer can do is try and have the intellectual honesty to say "I do my best, but I cannot assure you of total impartiality". And not for a question of cheering, but because as in all things, even in sport, events always have different possible readings. He thanks you for your loyalty, apologizes if on some occasions he published the material a little late, and gives you an appointment, if you want, on his blog, The X-F1les, where you can read his rants and reflections. Happy winter everyone. And thank you again. From the heart.