Yeongam Style: The 2012 South Korean GP

          Ever since Formula One announced it was holding a race in South Korea, more specifically Yeongam, hopes were high that a world class circuit, designed by monopolized F1 track designer Hermann Tilke, would bolster the nation’s interest in the sport. After two races, not much has changed.

 

Friday Practice, not exactly well-attended. 

                In my opinion one of Tilke’s finest creations when stacked up against the likes of Shanghai and Istanbul, it’s still quite obvious that the growing pains of the nice Korea’s F1-savvy are still there. The intriguing pit entry, right off of the racing line following the final, breathtakingly walled-in complex before the circuit undulates into an incredibly fast first sector followed by the downforce-heavy second and third sectors are lined with one empty grandstand after another. The plan to turn the area surrounding the Korean International Circuit into an urban hotbed has not yet started to wholly take shape, and in return, leaves the perimeters of the track looking like a ghostly wasteland.

                Despite the challenging nature of the circuit, no one in Korea seems to be all that interested. From the world feed pictures, it only appeared that the stands along the mainstraight were completely packed, which is a damn shame.

                The racing, however, unlike the circuit and most like other Tilke-tracks, is exceedingly bland. Given Tilke’s mantra of, “Long straights, sharp turns,” in order to promote overtaking, not a whole lot of interesting seems to happen, outside of the inaugural grand prix, which was rain-soaked and saw a drastic change in the championship picture when Sebastian Vettel’s engine blew.

                Regardless of all of these things, Yeongam is still an interesting circuit to go racing on. Completely green from little use and with a lack of engineering knowledge, the demanding twists and turns are only half of the story when trying to figure out the correct setup. And that leads us into the first dry weekend in the short history of the Korean Grand Prix.

                The Red Bull’s of the aforementioned Vettel, looking to take the championship lead from Fernando Alonso with a victory, and Mark Webber, simply trying to keep his head in the championship quest, looked strong from the onset, stamping their authority on the Asian leg of the schedule coming off of Vettel’s win last week in Japan. Only being four points out from Alonso, Vettel knew that with a solid race, he would indeed reclaim the spot he’s been so accustomed to over the past few years.

A band of misfits, also known as
the top three qualifiers. 

                The RBR’s dominance in practice led to little doubt in qualifying, where, for the second straight week, the team locked out the front row, only this time with Webber snatching his first pole of the season. Lewis Hamilton and Alonso managed to set their cars on the second row, with the only real shocker from qualifying being Jenson Button failing to make Q3, his McLaren looking from the outside in, all the way back in 11^th.

                The start of the race was fairly exciting, with Vettel and Webber both getting good launches off the grid. Hamilton attempted to find a way around the Red Bull tandem into the first corner, but the two were perfectly matched side by side, leaving the McLaren to outmaneuver itself, giving Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari a clear-cut overtaking opportunity, while Vettel finally beat Webber off of the first corner.

                Further down the field, McLaren’s new man for 2013, Sergio Perez, drove in a bit too deep, ramming into the rear wing of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, though both were able to continue with only cosmetic harm done. That wasn’t the case for Perez’s Sauber teammate though, as Kamui Kobayashi, fresh off his maiden podium finish in front of his home crowd, locked up his brakes and careened into both Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg, providing immediate retirements for the two innocent parties.

                Kobayashi was given a drive through penalty before his stricken car was finally deemed undriveable 18 laps into the affair. The entire brouhaha gave Button his first opening-lap retirement since Spa, 2009, and led the always-gentlemanly Brit to call Kamui ‘special’ to the media circus after making it back to the paddock, of course, in the classiest way possible.

Kamikaze Kobayashi making a Japanese Sandwich

                From there, Vettel and Webber traded fast laps for a bit, only for Webber to see Vettel work his early-lap magic that he has just about trademarked. Yellow flags waved along the never-ending straight that leads into the third turn until lap 9, disabling the DRS’ from being deployed after the Kobayashi-Button-Rosberg rendezvous and the trackworkers’ inability to get Rosberg’s abandoned machine into a spot deemed safe enough for green flag racing.

                The first round of pit stops was christened on lap 13, with Hamilton coming in from P4, followed by Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Schumacher, without much fuss. Lap 14 saw Webber, Massa and Raikkonen come in, and lap 15 saw Vettel serviced in 2.6 seconds, cementing the lead over his teammate and Alonso.

                The action on-track resumed when a battle for fourth broke out, as Perez, who had not stopped yet, was quickly dismissed by Alonso and Hamilton, who waged a slice and dice of their own until Hamilton’s supersoft tires began wearing soon thereafter. Perez’s dilapidated tires began falling off of the cliff as well, dropping him all the way back to P10 before getting them changed on lap 18. Pastor Maldonado’s Williams also quickly fell from P3 while trying to stretch into a one-stop strategy.

                After the craziness subsided and the pit stops cycled through, there wasn’t much doubt in who’s hands the Grand Prix rested in. Vettel had stretched his gap to over eight seconds, and barring any mechanical mishap, he was well on his way to his third consecutive victory.

                Behind him, battles were still waged and won. Hamilton’s tires didn’t seem to last him nearly as long as anyone else’s and he consequently spent most of his time in the car complaining about his always-decreasing level of grip. The sole-remaining McLaren continued to drop like a stone through the pack, being overtaken by Raikkonen under DRS only to counterattack in turn 4, and subsequently lose out yet again under the second round of pit stops.

Oppan Yeongam Style

                Towards the dying stages of the race he was found in the lower scoring point positions, losing out to the likes of Grosjean, Vergne and Ricciardo. In the final few laps, he even picked up a piece of astroturf that had lined the curbs with an aerodynamic bit on the side of his car, reassuring that his swan song with McLaren is getting increasingly sadder on a weekly basis.

                By the time Psy, the South Korean rapper behind the ‘Gangnam Style’ international phenomena waved the checkered flag, the grandstand doldrums had seen the end result coming since the end of qualifying. Vettel crossed in first, his teammate Webber in second, securing RBR’s first 1-2 of the season, and Alonso in third.

                Lost in the podium shuffle is Felipe Massa, who, while driving for his job, has put in three impressive races in a row for possibly the first time in his career. A hard-earned 8^th place in Singapore, followed by his first podium in three years at Suzuka, and then a 4^th place at Yeongam may just be enough to save his ride for another season at the Scuderia.

 

                The South Korean GP victory puts Sebastian Vettel quite literally in the driver’s seat for the rest of the season, six points ahead of Alonso, and over 40 points ahead of Raikkonen, all the while seeing the Red Bull continuously improve into what looks like the strongest car on the grid by some margin.

                The circus packs up and returns to another tricky Tilke-circuit in two weeks’ time, for the second running of the Indian Grand Prix. Until then, hope and pray that the Ferrari’s and McLaren’s can make this championship a bit more than a foregone conclusion.