That fourth spot will be crucial in many ways because it has a huge amount of value attached to it. There are big financial rewards for teams that finish in front of one another.
Red Bull has definitely stepped forward and there seems to be a lot more confidence there. Things really seem to have gelled and
David Coulthard and
Mark Webber have both been doing well.
Williams have been very strong too course – although of late that has mainly been with
Nico Rosberg.
They have a change there now, with Alex Wurz retiring and
Kazuki Nakajima coming in. That might take a bit of focus away from the team. It will be interesting to see how that influences things.
It was quite strange that Alex has decided to go, especially with only one race left. But I don't know what his contract said and maybe they all just felt it was in the best interests of all concerned for him step aside. If he did do that, that is very noble of him. He obviously felt that he wasn't able to perform to the best of his abilities and it was time to retire. It takes a lot to do that - hats off to him.
As for the rest, we have to mention Toro Rosso because in the hands of
Sebastian Vettel they have been very exciting to watch in the last two events. The 4-6 finish in China was remarkable and it has moved them from bottom in the constructors' to seventh ahead of not only Spyker and
Super Aguri, but
Honda too.
That will have had a big effect on the team and will be a big boost. I wouldn't be surprised if they are poking there noses in again and scraping for another point or two.
Honda slowly are making some moves to get some improvement out of there package - but we are at the last race now and it definitely hasn't gone according to plan this year.
There have been some big shake-ups in terms of personnel this season there and we will have to wait until next year to see if that has the desired effect. Whatever I don't think they will be that good in terms of performance this weekend.
