BMW seems to have made real improvements of late. It is improving in qualifying and race pace is getting some what stronger too. Furthermore, while success won’t happen over night, I am sure the team is working to get to the front of the grid as quickly as possible. It is doing a great job and performing very well.
Sebastien Vettel, of course, stood in for
Robert Kubica in the USA after the Pole’s big crash in Canada, and the German had a very good debut. He put in a very solid performance and, for a 19-year old to jump in and bring the car home and get some mileage under his belt, it was impressive.
He had a slight hiccup at the start but, of course, it was his first grand prix start and he had no reference to understand where to go in and brake. So, overall, I think he did very well.
That is the kind of thing you expect these days though, and the only downer for him now is that we expect so much from a rookie following everything that Hamilton has managed this year.
Kubica should be back racing this weekend, and I don’t think he will be affected by that accident in Montreal. Most drivers have big accidents at some point in their career and most of them come back and get on with the job. It is like falling off a bike. You get up, dust yourself off and get back on it again. That is the way you have to be. If you focus or dwell too much on it, then that is the time to think about not racing any more. I don’t anticipate Kubica will do anything other than drive flat out.
As for
Renault, it is starting to understand the R27 more, while the team is also getting a bit more strength and building a steady platform, especially with
Heikki Kovalainen performing well in the number two machine.
I think it was just a case of time for Heikki to get a strong result under his belt and we have seen that two times running now.
