Horse 1466 - The Wheels Come Off (Rd.3)

- Stolen from The Sydney Morning Herald

Sometimes the saga off the track is more entertaining than the one on it.

Part of the fallout from Round 2 in Malaysia was that Vettel was unrepentant and unashamed of overtaking Webber and that he'd openly defy orders and do it again. Webber on the other hand was visibly annoyed; plagued with fuel troubles before the start of the Chinese GP which meant that he started from the pit lane. When he was on track, he jammed his Red Bull into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso and suffered the perfect completion to the weekend when a wheel fell off; almost taking out either eventual winner Alonso and or Vettel.
Rumour now has it that Webber may have signed a five year deal with Porsche in their Endurance Racing tilt which ultimately means the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

Sergio Perez again put forward evidence that maybe McLaren picked up the wrong replacement for Hamilton, when he cut across the front of Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus, finding Raikkonen's front wing jammed sharply into his rear wheel.
Up front though, former McLaren drivers Alonso and Hamilton had a relatively trouble free afternoon and finished first and third. Only a late charging Raikkonen ever looked like splitting them, which he did.
Alonso's drive was neither particularly spectacular nor all that exciting, which doesn't really matter when you've done enough to win a GP. It was though incredibly dominant and he finished 11 seconds ahead which in Formula One is as good as an eternity.
This is the point though.

In order to win a GP, you need to do "enough" to win it. In order to win a World Championship, you need to have the ruthlessness of a tyrant.
Alonso, Hamilton, Button, Raikkonen and Vettel have all been World Champions. Webber has had the same car as Vettel and so he can not exactly blame the equipment. As Vettel pointed out before the GP, he'd have broken team orders again, given the chance. That probably explains why he's been a World Champion thrice and why Webber hasn't... at all... ever.

It's interesting that the top four slots in the standings are filled with cars from four stables. Tracks are suiting different cars to varying degrees and so it will be quite sometime before a pattern starts to emerge. Still, all four of them have been World Champions. The McLarens still look not quite sorted which even this early in the season, means that they have to start finding answers and quickly.