It's often what you don't see...

With the completion of the Formula 1 race at Hockenheim now firmly in the record books, we're learning about the engineering details that had a significant effect on the outcome. First, we've learned that Kimi's outstanding qualifying effort was due in large part to broken engineering! It appears that a fuel sensor malfunctioned during qualification laps and mistakenly kept the McLaren refuelers from putting a full qualifying load of fuel into the car before the 3rd knock-out session. Result? Kimi qualified in first, however he had to make a fuel stop just nine laps in. That, combined with a crossed wheel nut on the pitstop, caused him to lose 2 places to the Italian red of Ferrari... and he thought he was just the fastest guy in the race...

In addition to the fuel sensor news, the hysteria over Renault's use of a mass damper to aid in the overall transfer of energy during directional changes caused a potentially unfair advantage to the blue and yellow team from Enstone. The team smartly removed (or so they say) the technology from the nose of the R26 to avoid a potential disqualification later in the schedule. Could this have been Renault's secret weapon over the past eleven races? We'll likely never know mostly due to the fact that the performance of the Michelins is now degrading faster than ever. Blistering tires caused the Renault team to suffer poor performance and a less than optimal finishing order.

Where it gets interesting is that Flavio Briatore, Renault's team manager, while directing the team and overall strategy in order to win the world championship still retains the management contract on Felipe Massa, Ferrari's number two. So either way, Flavio will get a piece of the pie, should Renault win or Ferrari overtake the World Championship.

It's nice to have your cake and eat it too.