The Indy Awards - Round 5

Here are the results for the Independent Team awards after the Monaco Grand Prix. For more information regarding the scoring system please consult this post.

Comments

There a number of real surprises this weekend. First of all, the pace of the Williams and Red Bulls in qualifying was a revelation. Nico Rosberg managed to qualify his car in fifth on the grid and first of the independents. Mark Webber followed him closely, qualifying sixth on the grid and second independent.

More surprising to me was the lack of pace from the two Super Aguris. On average this season, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson would manage qualy times that are within two to three tenths of a second of Nico Rosberg's Williams. At Monaco this weekend, the pair were two seconds down. There were a number of reasons for this. The first qualy session was quite a mess with rain falling just before the start of the session. This led to traffic problems for the Super Aguris and then a bad call from the team saw them miss their third qualy run during the first session. Purely a timing mistake. Else I would have thought that if they did go on their normal pace relative to Williams, the pair of them would have made it into the top ten. But as the team themselves humbly admit, they are a young team thats still learning.

The final surprise were the two Toro Rosso. Vitantonio Liuzzi managed to qualify fourth in the first session although as mentioned earlier, conditions this had more to do with conditions than raw pace. In the end though, the Italian managed to 13th on the grid, a marked improvement for the Red Bull sister team. In the race, the Italian crashed but teammate Scott Speed was there to pick up the pieces. Scott ended up finishing in 9th just outside the FIA points. But he did beat Nico Rosberg's Williams, so all credit to the American in this, his best result of the season.

In my previous post today, I praised Nico Rosberg's efforts in the Williams. Its true that he is the leading independent in these awards. But we should spare a thought for Alex Wurz who took the Indy win today. Alex has suffered reliability issues with his Williams, failing to finish in 2 out of the 5 races so far. But when the Austrian has finished a race (on 3 occassions this season) he has beaten Nico 2 out of 3 times. The Austrian is now second in the drivers standings.

Unless Red Bull get their act together soon, it looks like the Indy Awards for both drivers and teams seem destined for Williams. However, I believe Monaco is a very unique and atypical circuit. Normal service should resume as soon as we hit Montreal, where I suspect the Red Bulls once again will be challenging for Indy honours (and who knows, overall FIA honours as well) and I suspect, will be beating Williams. It all depends whether they have the reliability

In the Wag The Dog awards, Williams has become the first team to score maximum points in an event. 6 each goes to both drivers. This means that the both of them have outqualified and outraced both the works Toyotas and also the both of them have had fastest laps quicker than both the works cars. At what that means is that the works Toyotas have been comprehensively and summarily dismissed by the customer. Keep up the good work Frank!

I never thought it would happen but even Toro Rosso has now scored a Wag The Dog point when Liuzzi ended up with a higher grid position than Kimi Raikkonen in the works Ferraris.

Colin Chapman Award - For Best independent drivers / teams

Drivers
1. Alexander Wurz (Williams)- 10 (9 for race, 1 for fastest lap)
2. Scott Speed (Toro Rosso) - 6
3. Nico Rosberg (Williams) - 5 (4 for race, 1 for pole)
4. David Coulthard (Red Bull) - 3
5. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) - 2
6. Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) - 1

Teams
1. Williams - 15
2. Toro Rosso - 6
3. Red Bull - 3
=. Super Aguri - 3

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 33
2. Alex Wurz - 25
3. Takuma Sato - 15
=. David Coulthard - 15
5. Mark Webber - 13
6. Anthony Davidson - 12
7. Andre Sutil - 6
=. Scott Speed - 6
9. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 5
=. Christian Albers - 5

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 58
2. RBR - 28
3. Super Aguri - 27
4. Spyker - 11
5. Toro Rosso - 11

Wag The Dog Award - for independent drivers / teams who beat their respective factory teams

Drivers
1. Alex Wurz - 6 (2 for qualy, 2 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
=. Nico Rosberg - 6 (2 for qualy, 2 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
3. David Coulthard - 2 (1 for qualy, 1 for fastest lap)
4. Mark Webber - 1 (for qualy)
=. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 1 (for qualy)


Teams
1. Williams - 12
2. Red Bull - 3
3. Spyker - 1

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 23
2. Takuma Sato - 13
3. Alex Wurz - 11
4. Anthony Davidson - 7
=. Mark Webber - 7
=. David Coulthard - 7
7. Andre Sutil - 1
=. Christian Albers - 1
=. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 1

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 36
2. Super Aguri - 19
3. RBR - 14
4. Spyker - 2
5. Toro Rosso - 1

Nico Rosberg

Amidst all the hype surrounding Lewis Hamilton, spare a thought for the 2005 GP2 champion Nico Rosberg. Nico had a great debut race last year, finishing in the points and taking the fastest lap of the race. From then on, his results had largely gone downhill. Sometimes the fault lay with him but in large part it coincided with the worst ever season for Grove in grand prix racing.

This year, Nico looks like he's having a far better time. The Williams of course is no match for the Ferraris or McLarens up front but against cars of similar (or even slightly better) performance, Nico has been doing a splendid job. Both in my Indy awards and in the official FIA standings, Nico is currently the top independent team driver.

In the Indy Awards, Nico has had a couple of wins, a second and a fourth position. The last comes despite having failed to finish in Malaysia, through no fault of his own. Whilst the Red Bulls are looking increasingly quick they haven't had the reliability. In the Indy points standing, Nico has a massive lead and if you follow the Wag The Dog points, you can see that he eats the works Toyotas for breakfast, consistently faster and finishing ahead of them.

All things being equal, its easier being in a quicker car than an average or bad one. Narain Karthikeyan for instance was absolutely amazed at the ease with which the Williams can be driven as compared to the Jordan he was used to. Likewise, I am certain the latest McLaren is better balanced and has limpet like grip compared to the Williams. Thus, Hamilton up front has a far easier time and its easy to praise his successes, considerable though it may be.

However, Nico has a year's experience under his belt and that experience has been hard won on the back of a terrible season for Williams. With those hard times, comes maturity in addition to the raw speed and natural talent. Something that Hamilton has yet to exhibit, for he hasn't had the need to, lucky sod that he is.

God knows if Williams will ever make the necessary quantum leap required to once again challenge for honours at the front but should McLaren or Ferrari require a new driver (not that they really need it right now) then they could do worse than Nico. In fact, if BMW were smart and the time came to replace Nick Heidfeld then their former driver would be a most excellent choice. Its one thing having an exciting hotshoe like Sebastien Vettel in the car. But for the overall package, I think Nico represents an excellent choice.

I do hope however that Williams, now with Toyota power behind them are able to rally in the next few years to give Nico Rosberg the car that he deserves. Inevitably one does compare drivers to that standard benchmark called Michael Schumacher and it would be interesting to see if Nico can develop some of the leadership skills that Michael possesses to lead the Williams team to glory once again. Tall order but not impossible.

Whatever it is, Nico deserves a chance at the big time as much as Hamilton does.

The Indy Awards - Round 4

Here are the results for the Independent Team awards after the Spanish Grand Prix. For more information regarding the scoring system please consult this post.

Colin Chapman Award - For Best independent drivers / teams

Drivers
1. David Coulthard (RBR)- 11 (9 + 1 for pole + 1 for fastest lap)
2. Nico Rosberg (Williams) - 6
3. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) - 4
4. Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) - 3
5. Andre Sutil (Spyker) - 2
6. Christian Albers (Spyker) - 1

Teams
1. RBR - 11
2. Super Aguri - 7
3. Williams - 6
4. Spyker - 3

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 28
2. Alex Wurz - 15
3. Takuma Sato - 14
4. Mark Webber - 13
5. David Coulthard - 12
6. Anthony Davidson - 10
7. Andre Sutil - 6
8. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 5
=. Christian Albers - 5

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 43
2. RBR - 25
3. Super Aguri - 24
4. Spyker - 11
5. Toro Rosso - 5

Wag The Dog Award - for independent drivers / teams who beat their respective factory teams

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 5 (1 for qualy, 2 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
=. Takuma Sato - 5 (1 for qualy, 2 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
3. David Coulthard - 4 (1 for qualy, 2 for race, 1 for fastest lap)
4. Anthony Davidson - 1 (for race)
=. Christian Albers - 1 (for race)
=. Andre Sutil - 1 (for race)

Teams
1. Super Aguri - 6
2. Williams - 5
3. RBR - 4
4. Spyker - 2

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 17
2. Takuma Sato - 12
3. Alex Wurz - 7
=. Anthony Davidson - 7
5. Mark Webber - 6
=. David Coulthard - 5
7. Andre Sutil - 1
=. Christian Albers - 1

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 24
2. Super Aguri - 19
3. RBR - 11
4. Spyker - 2

The Indy Awards - Round 3

Here are the results for the Independent Team awards after the Bahrain Grand Prix. For more information regarding the scoring system please consult this post.

Post race comments
Williams scored maximum points in the independents award at the Bahrain Grand Prix. They were however, very fortunate to do so for in the race it seemed that the Red Bull were absolutely in flying form. David Coulthard drove a storming race starting from 21st on the grid to catch his teammate Mark Webber during the race. At the point when the two Red Bulls retired, they were in fact not only ahead of both the Williams drivers but were also ahead of both the Renaults. Adrian Newey's design excellence whilst not yet up there with the front runners, is starting to show its worth relative to the works Renaults. The cars were fast and their drivers were clearly up for it. Mark Webber was also going quickly but his pace was perhaps hampered by a fuel filler that refused to close once the car got underway after the first round of pitstops.

Both the Red Bulls retired as a result of drive train failure, whilst both were leading the works Renaults. Or so the explanation goes. But you can never tell these days of corporate PR cover ups. Coulthard retired with a broken driveshaft and Webber with a broken greabox. All in all, it has to be encouraging for Red Bull at this stage. Pre-season of course, the expectation was that an Adrian Newey chassis coupled with Mateschitz money should have seen them challenging in the top 5. But they are progressing, no doubt about it. And with Mark Webber, they have a driver thats clearly quick and not short of motivation. Do not forget David Coulthard as well who was quicker than Webber this weekend. And in fact, his race fastest lap was quicker than that of Heikki Kovalainen's. Had Mark Webber not had his fuel filler out of shape, chances are he'd have been faster than both Coulthard and Fisichella. Their independents score below does not do justice to their race performance last weekend.

The Super Aguris continue to do well. Anthony Davidson was only beaten out of the top 10 in qualifying after some last minute performances by Williams and Toyota and for quite some time, he looked like he was going to start in the top 10. This weekend Anthony Davidson was much quicker than teammate Sato who up until this point had outperformed the Briton. During the race however, Takuma managed to battle it out with Ralf Schumacher's Toyota and looked well on his way to beating the German. But alas, his engine gave way as well. Davidson though a classified finisher, would suffer the same fate. If I were being cheeky I'd say that the Japanese pushed the self destruct button to ensure that the sole surviving Honda of Barrichello would finish ahead of both the customer cars. As it is, Davidson's fastest lap of the race was quicker than that of Barrichello.

So, with the demise of the Red Bulls, Williams are once again the leading independent. But despite pushing hard they only finished 9th and 10th overall in the race. (Both Williams had fastest laps quicker than both the works Toyotas) But as I said, luck had everything to do with this. I have a feeling though, that as the season progresses, Adrian Newey's Red Bull might just be consistently beating Woking. And do not be surprised if they win more Wag The Dog points for beating the works cars on a regular basis. Now thats a prospect to relish.

Comments On The Customer Car Row
As it is, as you can see from the points scored in Bahrain and the overall standings, the Williams teams are beating all comers including the Toro Ross and Super Aguri, both teams who have been threatened by Williams with litigation of the customer car row. But as you can see, Williams have been consistently outperforming these customer cars. Therefore, I shouldn't think that Frank Williams will be bothered about taking this matter to the courts. The Spyker team are a different story altogether. Whilst the points do show that they are ahead of Toro Rosso in race finishes but they are in actual fact slower than both Toro Rosso and Super Aguri. They have every reason to want to seek legal recourse.

Colin Chapman Award - For Best independent drivers / teams

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg (Williams)- 9
2. Alex Wurz (Williams) - 6
3. Christian Albers (Spyker) - 4
4. Andre Sutil (Spyker) - 3
5 Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) - 2
= Mark Webber (RBR) - 2 (1 for qualy + 1 for race finish)
7. David Coulthard - 1 (For fastest lap)

Teams
1. Williams - 15
2. Spyker - 7
3. RBR - 3
4. Super Aguri - 2

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 22
2. Alex Wurz - 15
3. Mark Webber - 13
4. Takuma Sato - 10
5. Anthony Davidson - 7
6. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 5
7. Christian Albers - 4
= Andre Sutil - 4
8. David Coulthard - 1

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 37
2. Super Aguri - 17
3. RBR - 14
4. Spyker - 8
5. Toro Rosso - 5

Wag The Dog Award - for independent drivers / teams who beat their respective factory teams

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 4 (1 for qualy, 1 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
=. Alex Wurz - 4 (1 for qualy, 1 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
3. Anthony Davidson - 3 (2 for qualy, 1 for fastest lap)
4. Mark Webber - 1 (for qualy)
=. David Coulthard - 1 (for fastest lap)
=. Takuma Sato - 1 (for fastest lap)

Teams
1. Williams - 8
2. Super Aguri - 4
3. RBR - 2

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 12
2. Takuma Sato - 7
=. Alex Wurz - 7
4. Mark Webber - 6
=. Anthony Davidson - 6
6. David Coulthard - 1

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 19
2. Super Aguri - 13
3. RBR - 7

Post Script

The Wag The Dog points for Bahrain has been a fair reflection of the season so far. The independents are strong during qualifying and have good race pace but are no match for the factory teams over a race distance.

The Indy Awards - Round 2

Here are the results for the Independent Team awards after the Malaysian Grand Prix. For more information regarding the scoring system please consult this post.

Colin Chapman Award - For Best independent drivers / teams

Drivers
1. Alex Wurz (Williams)- 9
2. Mark Webber (RBR) - 6
3. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) - 4
4. Anthony Davidson - 3
= Nico Rosberg - 3 (1 for fastest qualifier + 1 for fastest lap + 1 for race finish)
5. Vitantonio Liuzzi - 2

Teams
1. Williams - 12
2. Super Aguri - 7
3. RBR - 6
4. Toro Rosso - 2

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 13
2. Mark Webber - 11
3. Takuma Sato - 10
4. Alex Wurz - 9
5. Anthony Davidson - 5
= Vitantonio Liuzzi - 5

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 22
2. Super Aguri - 15
3. RBR - 11
4. Toro Rosso - 5
5. Spyker - 1

Wag The Dog Award - for independent drivers / teams who beat their respective factory teams

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 4 (2 for qualy, 2 for fastest lap)
2. Mark Webber - 3 (2 for qualy, 1 for fastest lap)
= Alex Wurz - 3 (1 for race, 2 for fastest lap)
= Takuma Sato - 3 (2 for qualy, 1 for fastest lap)
5. Anthony Davidson 1 (for qualy)

Teams
1. Williams - 7
2. Super Aguri - 4
3. RBR - 3

Overall Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 8
2. Takuma Sato - 6
3. Mark Webber - 5
4. Alex Wurz - 3
= Anthony Davidson - 3

Overall Teams
1. Williams - 11
2. Super Aguri - 9
3. RBR - 5

The Indy Awards - Round 1

Here are the results for the Independent Team awards after the Australian Grand Prix. For more information regarding the scoring system please consult this post.

Colin Chapman Award

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg (Williams) - 9 + 1 (Fastest Lap)
2. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) - 6
3. Mark Webber (RBR) - 4 + 1 (fastest qualifier)
4. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) - 3
5. Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) - 2
6. Andre Sutil (Spyker) - 1

Teams
1. Williams - 10
2. Super Aguri - 8
3. RBR - 5
4. Toro Rosso - 3
5. Spyker - 1

Wag The Dog Award

Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg - 4 (2 for race + 2 for fastest lap)
2. Takuma Sato - 3 (2 for qualifying + 1 for race)
3= Mark Webber - 2 (1 for qualifying + 1 for fastest lap)
Anthony Davidson - 2 (for qualifying)

Teams
1. Super Aguri - 5
2. Williams - 4
3. RBR - 2

The Indy Awards - Introduction

Looking at how some of the independent teams like Williams and Super Aguri have performed relative to their respective factory teams Toyota and Honda, I have decided to create a couple of purely hypothetical and hopefully fun awards for independent teams. Its sort of a fantasy grand prix challenge. Some of the reasons for doing this include:

1. I pay too much attention to the front runners and therefore creating this award focuses some of my attention to the midfield battle and the relative performances of the teams.
2. Its fun watching the independents beat their respective factory teams.
3. Its for my own amusement.
4. All the other blogs have all sorts of charts and statistics so I want a gimmick too ;)

So with that I shall go on to define an independent team. First, no we will not be following the FIA definitions of independent teams as stated in the Sporting Regulations. If this were the criteria, Ferrari would be an independent team rather than a manufacturer. So that's rubbish.

Second, an independent is a team that I deem to be independent. Yes, yes, shades of Max Mosley there but I have my reasons. The following teams are eligible for the awards:

1. Red Bull - Yes, they are well financed by Herr Mateschitz. But in spirit they are an independent team. And certainly they act like a free spirited racing team than corporate stiffs like Honda and Toyota. I fully expect Renault to give them engines equal to the works cars and its then an interesting battle of ingenuity between their respective chassis design teams.

2. Williams - A sad choice this one. Once upon a time, I would have classified this as the BMW factory team. With all the championships it has won in the past, it really ought to be compared to the frontrunners but Formula 1 like natural evolution favours the strong and Williams are anything but that these days. Still, they must be considered the favourites to take the awards.

3. Super Aguri - As far as I'm concerned these guys are heroes this season, in the mould of Minardi in seasons long gone. They are taken care by Honda but of course you wouldn't expect Honda to be too pleased about the customers beating the works machines. No reason to wonder why Aguri Suzuki is racing in Formula 1, he is simply a racer. As far as I'm concerned they are the closest thing these days to "Minardi Cool"-ness.

4. Toro Rosso - Their cars are designed by Adrian Newey just like the Red Bulls. However, one wonders if the budget is anywhere close to that of the Bulls. On top of that, they are using a Ferrari engine. And of all the engine suppliers, I'd imagine Ferrari are the worse. Nevertheless, this is the former Minardi team and I wish them all the best.

5. Spyker - Now by right the Squadron is a car manufacturer albeit a maker of very small volume, expensive cars. The fact of the matter is, these guys are not going to do a Super Aguri anytime soon, despite Mubadala money. And with their performances to date I'd say that in spirit they are an independent team. So they're eligible.

Some may argue that McLaren, whose shares are majority owned by private organisations should really be classified as an independent. But in actual fact, in spirit they are the Mercedes factory team. Also, Mercedes doesn't have any customers. Even if they did, McLaren would still be the works team and therefore doesn't qualify.

So what awards are on offer? These are:

1. The Colin Chapman Award for best independent team.
2. The Wag the Dog Award for the independent team that most often beats its respective factory team over the course of the season.

And now on to the rules.

Colin Chapman Award

Points will be given to eligible teams based on their finishing order. I've always preferred the old 9-6-4-3-2-1 points system. Therefore, the top independent finisher for each grand prix will be awarded 9 points. The second independent finisher will be awarded 6 points and so on. Points are awarded to drivers and the score of each driver is added to the team total.

A bonus point will be awarded for qualifying performance. Now, I'm no fan of the current Formula 1 qualifying formats, so I'll adopt the old one. The independent driver who gets the fastest time in all of qualifying (first, second or third session) will be awarded an additional bonus point. His/her point will be added to the team total as well.

A bonus point will be awarded for fastest lap during a race. The independent driver who drives the fastest lap of all independent teams will be awarded a bonus point. And his/her point will be added to the team total.

Simple right?

Wag The Dog Award

Here's where its a little more complicated. One point will be awarded to the independent driver for each respective factory team car that he or she beats during the course of the grand prix. Points will be awarded for performances during qualifying, the race finishing order and for race fastest laps.

Qualifying

In this case, the official FIA F1 qualifying result will be used. A point is awarded to a driver and his/her team for each respective factory team car that he/she beats in qualifying.

E.g.

Qualifying order Mark Webber (RBR), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), David Coulthard (RBR), Heikki Kovalainen (Renault).

Mark Webber - 2 points for beating 2 works Renaults.
David Coulthard - 1 point for beating 1 works Renault.
RBR Team Total - 3 points

Qualifying order Mark Webber (RBR), David Coulthard (RBR), Fisichella, Kovalainen.

Mark Webber - 2 points for beating 2 works Renaults.
David Coulthard - 2 points for beating 2 works Renaults.
RBR Team total - 4 points

Qualifying order Mark Webber (RBR), Fisichella, Kovalainen, Coulthard(RBR)

Mark Webber - 2 points for beating 2 works Renaults.
David Coulthard - 0 points for qualifying behind both works Renaults.
RBR Team toal - 2 points.


Race

The FIA F1 official results will be used for classification purposes. Similar to qualifying, except that it now applies to the race. A point is awarded to the independent driver and his team for each respective factory car that he/she beats during the race. See the qualifying points above for examples. However, for race points the driver must have finished the race and be classified according to the official FIA results.

Fastest Lap

As in qualifying and race results above, a point is awarded to the independent driver and his / her team for achieving a fastest lap during the race that is quicker than each respective factory car's fastest race lap.

The Wag The Dog points for each grand prix will be the sum of qualifying, race and fastest lap points.

I'm not sure if this is all clear but if you follow the points after each race, it should all become clearer.

I'm not a lawyer obviously and I can't define this is perfect legal terms so hopefully it'll be clearer to you (if you're still following this) after you see the points after each race. Points are awarded for all races in the FIA F1 calendar.

First results coming up in the next post.