Another Sunday dawning with leaden skies and a shiny wet track surface is always good news for race fans who enjoy overtaking, uncertainty, and wild swings of fortune as a staple of their Formula One diet.
Dietrich Mateschitz, Sebastian Vettel, Franz Tost, and Dr. Helmut Marko celebrate their victory © LAT |
Until Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, wet races had been an occupational hazard for the championship contenders - but not an insolvable riddle. Since the end of the Michael Schumacher era, there have been seven wet grands prix. On the previous six occasions, one of the Ferrari or McLaren championship contenders was able to conquer the adverse conditions to secure victory.
Five of those races also featured at least one McLaren and one Ferrari driver on the podium. If Kimi Raikkonen's gamble to stay on worn intermediates at Silverstone hadn't backfired, that streak would have been extended to six out of six.
In short, the wet races of 2007 and 2008 produced thrills aplenty, but no fundamental change to the form book: McLaren and Ferrari in a league of their own and able to dominate the also-rans, whatever the conditions.