European Grand Prix Wrapup

For me the European Grand Prix was a fairly boring affair from all sides including BMW Sauber. Neither cars were great and the only saving grace was Kubica holding on to his 3rd grid spot to finish 3rd. Nick couldn’t get a thing going and after starting 8th he finished one place down in 9th. Not what I had hoped for, but at least another podium.

Although a good looking circuit with what on paper has a lot of potential passing areas, reality was a lot different. Once the racing line was put down it was the only line to drive. Dust, dirt and marbles littered anything but the racing line and with Nick Heidfeld starting on the dirty side of the track his start was slow and Nico Rosberg pushed him to 9th straight away. As a result of only one line to drive, passing was all but an impossibility.

Apart from a plastic bag that caught the car making steering difficult for a couple of laps, Kubica had a good race with decent pace to keep 3rd but not enough to keep up with Ferrari or McLaren.

Nick Heidfeld had a horrible day, a surprise for me considering that he did pull out a pretty good lap in Q2 of qualifying and started 8th. Not the best start position, but he usually drives well and grabs a few spots in the end. So what happened today? first of all he started on quite a heavy fuel load getting him to lap 23 before his first stop. That strategy was not good and as a result Nick went from 9th to 10th. The harder compound tires he used in the first and second stint weren’t good either and that along with the heavy load sealed his fate.

Despite the podium finish for Kubica, I don’t see 2 positive drivers going into the last races of the season and I see the team trying to give us up beat reports on how things are even when Ferrari and McLaren up their pace almost race by race.

Nevertheless, things are better than Hungary for sure.