Usually I do not believe in destiny. But after watching yesterday’s race in Hungary, I felt that Fernando Alonso is destined to become world champion this year. On Friday Alonso committed some silly mistakes and got rightfully penalised for his actions. At that time the 2 second penalty imposed on his qualifying time seemed to have effectively destroyed his chances in this race. But just as the qualifying session was about to start, news came through that Michael Schumacher was also penalised 2 seconds for having committed a similar mistake. And then in yesterday’s race, when Alonso retired he must’ve been thinking about what could’ve been… But then, just as Michael Schumacher looked set to finish in a strong position and dent Alonso’s championship lead severely, he too retired from the race with just 3 laps remaining. Destiny, it seems, favours Alonso to win.
Undoubtedly Jenson Button drove a marvellous race and deserved a long awaited first race victory. But it was a champion’s drive from Fernando Alonso. Starting from as far back as 15th on the grid and with loads of fuel in the car, and in slippery conditions, Alonso did not make a single mistake. Even drivers like Schumacher were caught out in a couple of occasions in such tricky conditions. Agreed that Michelin had a good package for the wet conditions, but you still need an extraordinary driver to push the car to the limits in such conditions without making a mistake. There were a lot of terrific overtaking moves in the race. The best was perhaps Alonso’s overtaking of Michael Schumacher.
Leaving the ‘destiny’ angle and looking at things more pragmatically, Ferrari’s and Michael’s chances look better in the coming races. Renault have still not been able to use their mass dampeners. They have looked severely uncompetitive without those. Hungary was perhaps their best chance to overcome that. The wet conditions meant that the Michelin advantage more than compensated for the absence of the mass dampeners. This kind of advantage is unlikely to be there in most of the remaining races. For this reason Renault and Alonso are probably the bigger losers in Hungary.
Alonso’s mistake on Friday seems to suggest that he is beginning to feel the pressure. He will have to handle himself better. Of course Flavio Briatore is there to guide him. I am sure Alonso will behave in a more mature way in future and will not crack under pressure so easily.
Pragmatism may suggest that the unusual conditions in Hungary notwithstanding, things haven’t changed much. Ferrari are currently the stronger package and Michael seems to have momentum on his side. But I come from the land of rope tricks and horoscopes. I would like to believe in destiny and something tells me that Alonso is destined to be the champion.
