Strange things can happen in Formula One. Just ask Ferrari.
Buchignani: Cars, karma and a typhoon at the Japanese Grand Prix
Ferrari crew members tend to Charles Leclerc's car during Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Lots can go wrong during a Grand Prix — crashes, driver errors, mechanical failures, strategic miscalculations, and more.
Whatever the problem, though, the cause seldom goes unexplained, Formula One being a precision sport that loves post-mortems.
But every now and then something happens for which there is no logical explanation, whose cause seems to be out of everyone’s hands, and yet arrives with a sense of inevitability.
That’s right — karma.
Or as this online definition puts it: “The sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.”
Charles Leclerc steers his Ferrari during Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. Qualifying has been postponed until Sunday — race day — because of inclement weather.
“Karma” is the word that sprang to mind two weekends ago as I watched Ferrari implode at the Russian Grand Prix, where the team’s efforts to stage-manage a one-two finish went cosmically wrong.
After all, Ferrari’s ill-conceived attempt came just one week after it had pulled a similar stunt in Singapore and got away with it — sort of.
That time, the red cars did cross the finish line first and second, but the way they went about it left a bitterness that should have served as a lesson not to try it again.
And yet they did, with “the sum of their actions deciding their fate,” if you believe in that stuff.
Let’s recap:
In Singapore, Ferrari hatched a plan that required Charles Leclerc, who was leading the race, to manage his pace rather than pull away. The idea was to give third-place man Sebastian Vettel in the other Ferrari a better chance of catching the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in second.
The trick worked, only too well. Once the pit stops were done, Vettel found he had leapfrogged not only Hamilton, but his teammate, too. Ferrari got its one-two, but Leclerc was less than pleased about having been denied the victory.
Can you blame him? It would have been his third straight win at Ferrari, in his first year with the team.
So on to Russia, where Leclerc shook off his disappointment and once again earned the pole position, out-qualifying veteran teammate Vettel for the ninth (!) time in a row.
You’d think, this time, the Ferrari brain trust would allow the young prodigy do his thing with no strings attached.
But no. They had another trick up their sleeve.
The Sochi Autodrom is one of those tracks where the drivers face a long straight off the starting line, and where the car in front can provide a “tow” to the car directly behind if they co-ordinate their positioning to optimize the air effects.
Leclerc was instructed to do just that. With Vettel sitting third on the grid — directly behind — the hope was he would slingshot past Hamilton in second, just ahead to his right.
Again, the plan worked too well. When the start lights blinked, Vettel shot past Hamilton and quickly bore down on Leclerc, who, following team orders, stuck to his line and allowed Vettel to draft past him.
This time, though, Ferrari sought to make things right and ordered Vettel to give back the place to his teammate, as prearranged. After some initial balking, the switch happened — as it had the previous week — during the pit stops.
Trouble is, F1 fans generally don’t like team orders and attempts to engineer the results of the race.
And neither, it seems, does karma.
Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes garage at Suzuka Circuit, where he aims to score his 10th win of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix.
So perhaps no one should have been surprised by the sequence of events that followed, however unlikely.
Shortly after Vettel emerged from his pit stop, his car slowed to a crawl as a result of an engine failure, forcing him to retire from the race.
Not only that, the incident triggered a safety-car period at the worst possible time for Ferrari, as Leclerc had already pitted whereas Hamilton had not.
Hamilton did so now — and reemerged on the track ahead of Leclerc, who was stuck circulating at reduced speed behind the safety car.
Just like that, Ferrari managed to shoot itself in both feet.
The race ended with a one-two finish, all right, but with the two silver cars ahead of the lone red, as Valtteri Bottas took second place for Mercedes ahead of Leclerc in third.
Lesson learned? We’ll see.
For now, it’s on to Suzuka for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, where forecasts of extreme weather caused by Typhoon Hagibis has forced a change of schedule.
Saturday qualifying has been moved to Sunday, on the morning of the race, though further announcements are possible depending on the typhoon’s trajectory.
What did we say about things going wrong at a Grand Prix?
AT A GLANCE
Japanese Grand Prix race coverage is scheduled to air Saturday at 11:30 p.m. on TSN3, TSN5; 12:30 a.m. on RDS. Check listings for rebroadcasts. (Update: Qualifying and race times can be checked here.)
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