Aussie Grit (34 page)

We had left base camp far below us; the summit was in sight. There were only seven races to go and my name was at the top of the Drivers’ World Championship standings.

*

Going into the August break as championship leader it was hard to imagine that Hungary would be my final visit to the top step of the podium for 2010. But this is a game of fine lines. There would be other highs in those final seven races, and the first of them was next time out when we visited Spa-Francorchamps, always one of my favourite circuits, for the first race after the break. We felt this and the race after, at Monza in Italy, would be two of the tracks that suited our
car least well but once again I put the RB6 on pole, thanks mainly to some sensational advice from Ciaron in Q3 when he told me not to build up to a fast time but to fire in a quick one on my first lap.

Problems, though, had begun on Saturday morning with a hydraulic glitch. When it reared its head again on Sunday the boys were pretty nervous and I was asked to break with habit and do two full laps on my way round to the grid to check the systems. Their fears were well founded: getting away from the ‘dummy’ grid on the formation lap the car bogged down and though I played with the settings again on the way round to the ‘real’ grid the same thing happened at the race start. Upshot: from pole to P7 as I exited La Source, the famous right-hander which is Turn 1 on the Spa layout.

But all wasn’t lost. On a rainy day, as this was, there were going to be safety cars, there were the pit stops to work on, there would be parts of the race when it was wet, so I felt I just had to hang in there and see what came of it all. Sure enough, events began playing into my hands, not least when Sebastian earned himself another drive-through for hitting Jenson at the chicane before the main straight. Fernando then fell off all on his own. That left me in P3 behind Robert Kubica, who then obliged by over-shooting at his pit stop as he fiddled with his settings on the way down pit lane. While Lewis’s win was very impressive, second place was an excellent result for me and though it cost me the championship lead I was still just three points behind the McLaren man. Red Bull Racing were now a point ahead of McLaren in the Constructors’ stakes as well so there was everything to play for.

One more log on the fire: at Monza we arrived with my name second in the Drivers’ Championship with 179 points alongside it; Vettel’s, meanwhile, was 28 behind mine in third place. But Monza brought further evidence that Marko was calling the shots; he informed us that if I was 28 points clear of Sebastian in the title chase after Monza, then the team’s weight would be thrown directly behind me.

That was another weekend when it felt as though the pendulum had swung the wrong way. I had a water leak and an air-box fire in free practice, and by the time qualifying began I still hadn’t tried the option tyre. Long story short: no Red Bull on the front row for the first time in a year, and a Ferrari there in the shape of Fernando Alonso for the first time in 22 months!

My start was average but I got done by Nico Rosberg, was out of shape at the first chicane and was murdered by a whole group of guys and down to P9 before I knew it. I got stuck behind a mobile chicane called Hülkenberg (who cut the first real chicane deliberately on two separate occasions as that was the only way he was able to stay ahead of me) and apparently the team’s approaches to Race Director Charlie Whiting about the German’s erratic behaviour didn’t carry any weight. When we left Monza the gap between us had narrowed to 24 points, but I was back on top of the table while Sebastian had slipped to fifth.

Another good result in unlikely circumstances came about in Singapore, which had never been a happy hunting-ground for me. I figured I had to improve the way I was getting through that twisty final sector but in qualifying, ironically, it proved to be my best and I ended up on the third row. At the start I was boxed in behind Jenson’s McLaren,
but there was a very early safety car for Liuzzi’s damaged Force India. I confess to being a bit nonplussed when the team called me in to change tyres. That meant I would have a long stint on Bridgestone’s medium compound – but it turned out to be an inspired decision. I cleared Kamui Kobayashi, who was doing some kamikaze stuff on the Singapore streets, but got to Rubens and couldn’t get past him. Then the safety car intervened again because sure enough, Kamui had overdone it, gone into the wall at Turn 18 and been collected by Bruno Senna’s HRT.

Once we got going again I had Lewis chasing me and we had both Virgin race cars in our way. When Lucas di Grassi, in one of them, held me up through Turn 5 Lewis was all over me but I held my line through Turn 7. As the McLaren came across on me I was doing my best to get away from it but we touched and Lewis was out on the spot. The stewards had a look and declared it a racing incident, so I was free to carry on. My concern now was that my right front wheel was in a spot of bother: I had a huge vibration through it and only the bead was keeping the tyre on the wheel rim, but we made it to the end. Fernando won in Singapore again, keeping Seb at bay, and for me third place was a good salvage job. I now had 11 points in hand over Fernando; Lewis was 20 behind me and Seb 21.

Next stop: another favourite, Suzuka in Japan. This time I made the going tough for myself. Before the race I went back to Australia, hopped on a mountain bike for the first time Down Under since my accident in Tasmania – and broke my right shoulder when I went straight over the handlebars in one of the slowest accidents imaginable! It was a skier’s fracture, as they call it, and it meant I needed
pain-killing injections over the course of the next weekend. Christian Horner later complained that he hadn’t been told about my injury, but I honestly hadn’t felt it was worth mentioning. I was certain it would have no effect on me in the cockpit, even though Suzuka is one of the most physically testing tracks we have to contend with. The other reason I didn’t say anything was because I knew it would be seized upon as a means to undermine my championship campaign and I wasn’t prepared to give them that opportunity. In the end I was grateful that the Japanese weather intervened and gave me a little extra time to recover. After a pretty seamless Friday, track activity was washed out on Saturday and the mechanics occupied themselves building model boats instead of racing cars.

Sunday was unusual with qualifying and race on the same day, but it was back to situation normal for Red Bull Racing, a front row lock-out as we had become used to earlier in the season. The car really did work very well in Japan. Sebastian took pole by just 0.068 as the bee’s dick syndrome continued, and the alarm bells started ringing again when Marko came out with another of his classic comments. ‘That was a bit close,’ he told me, meaning he felt I had pushed ‘his’ boy a little too hard for comfort.

Robert Kubica’s start from third on the grid was phenomenal. It was a relief when he lost a wheel early on and was out, otherwise he would have been very difficult to catch. Seb headed up another Red Bull 1–2 finish, but while my first Suzuka podium was very welcome I felt I really needed to win another race to put me out of reach. Still, I had pushed Seb over the line at Suzuka with just 0.7 seconds between us at the flag, and I now had a 14-point cushion.
But there was another name in the equation as the final races loomed. Fernando Alonso had 206 points – and so did Sebastian Vettel.

*

History shows that my last three races of the 2010 season yielded just 22 points out of a possible 75. Sebastian scored 50. The figures become even starker when you remember that neither of us scored any points at all in Korea the first time F1 visited those far-off shores. We locked out the front row once again, for the eighth and final time in 2010, but Sebastian was out when his Renault engine expired and as for me … Well, this was the one unmitigated disaster of my 2010 season and it came at precisely the most damaging time. The race began in pouring rain – Fernando radioed that they were the worst conditions he had ever driven in – and the red flag was out to stop us racing after just three laps.

We restarted just over three-quarters of an hour later, though I couldn’t see much difference in the conditions, but this time we were behind the safety car. It was in again after lap 17, but two laps later it was back in action once more – and this time it was because of me. The previous time around I had gone wider through Turn 12 to see if there was any more grip out there. This time I went too far, got the wheel tucked in behind the kerb and spun out of the race, collecting the luckless Nico Rosberg as I went. With Fernando coming home ahead of Lewis the tables had been turned; Alonso now led on 231 points from Webber on 220, Hamilton on 210 and Vettel still on 206.

So two races would decide the outcome of the 2010 World Championship. The first was in Brazil, a circuit I usually
enjoyed. This time was a little different. As the title chase reached its closing stages, some people were starting to question Red Bull Racing’s wisdom in allowing the drivers to keep racing each other rather than throwing their full weight behind one of us. What was being said in public didn’t chime with what was being done in private: in Suzuka team management had shut down the race ahead of our 1–2 finish, while Sebastian was ahead. When we asked why, we were told it was because Adrian didn’t want to risk seeing the two of us wipe each other out again. When it was suggested they should know me better, we were left with the very clear impression that it was the other driver they couldn’t trust.

Since around the time of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Flavio and Bruno had been doing their utmost to get Christian more actively involved in the debate about the drivers, and to back my championship campaign wholeheartedly. Christian later admitted that he had approached Dietrich Mateschitz during that period in 2010 and told him that in his view RBR should throw all their support behind me. According to Christian Dietrich agreed, but then Marko got in his ear and advised him otherwise. The story changed: it became, ‘We’re going to support both drivers’ campaigns until it’s mathematically impossible for one of them to win the title.’

*

The furore in Brazil could hardly have come at a worse time in the fight for the 2010 world title. It was sparked by me saying that I didn’t seem to enjoy the emotional support from Red Bull Racing that my teammate did. In fact I had asked for a clear-the-air meeting with team management
ahead of the race. My concern was that I seemed to be going to Brazil on the back foot even though I was ahead of my teammate in the title chase. My boys sensed that something was going on, and I didn’t want them to lose motivation if they felt I didn’t have the team’s full backing. I was keen for that clear-the-air meeting to happen as soon as possible after we arrived in São Paulo, and away from the circuit. I heard nothing back on Friday, nothing on Saturday: in fact nothing until Sunday morning, not long before the race.

The timing seemed bizarre to me. On Sunday, I walked into our meeting followed by Christian and Adrian, then Sebastian and Marko arrived. Marko wasn’t normally in those meetings, but this time not only was he there, he and Sebastian ran the whole bloody show!

What if we were running 1–2 again at the end of this penultimate race, was the key question. My teammate’s response was that ‘we’ – he and Marko, I assumed – wanted to keep the title race alive for as long as ‘we’ possibly could. My concern was that rather than backing one of us, they were actually loading the dice heavily in favour of losing the title altogether. I felt Christian was trying, suggesting that decisions needed to be made in the best interests of the team, but Sebastian and Marko were very firm on their position. Ultimately they wanted to keep Sebastian in the hunt.

In that meeting it hit me straight between the eyes where the real power in that team lay. It was also clear how much we were still prepared to gamble, with Fernando poised to beat both of us to the title. Adrian said to me afterwards it was one of the most awkward meetings he had ever been in, but for me it simply confirmed what I had been thinking.

On the positive side of the ledger, that Sunday in Brazil in 2010 was a sensational day for Red Bull Racing as we clinched our first world title – the Constructors’ Championship. It came about with another 1–2 finish, our fourth of the season, with Seb again leading me home. The 43 points put us 48 clear of McLaren with just Abu Dhabi to come, an unbridgeable gap for Ron Dennis’s team.

On the way to our 1–2 finish I got the call mid-race to shut my engine down because of a water pressure issue and conserve it for Abu Dhabi. I short-shifted my way to second place, moving through the gears more quickly than normal to reduce engine stress. I enjoyed a very strong rapport with the Renault engineers and in a case like that I simply had to trust them: I had been out to push Sebastian all the way, as I did in Suzuka, but what if I did that and the engine failed? We’d had everything thrown at us in 2010: protests over ride-heights, protests over flexing wings, and at the end of it all we had won the title. It was a very big achievement, not least for all the unrecognised people back at Milton Keynes who had slaved so hard to put us in a winning position in the first place.

First place was what I needed in that final race of the season in Abu Dhabi if I wanted the second title – the drivers’ – to be mine. I went to the final race eight points behind Fernando and with seven in hand over Sebastian. Had the Red Bull Racing positions in Brazil been reversed I would have had a yawning 21-point advantage over my teammate. Lewis was an outside chance, 24 points behind Fernando and 16 adrift of me, while 2010’s ‘Big 5’ was now a ‘Big 4’ as Jenson’s hopes had gone. If I won the race and Fernando didn’t come second, the crown would be mine.

In less than two seasons I had gone from being a 130-race winless veteran to a multiple Grand Prix winner; this season I had led the World Championship for longer than any other driver on the grid. My career had not been ended by the young fellow on the other side of the garage, instead it had blossomed; and now I was one of four blokes looking up at the summit of that mountain.