The Official 2013 Formula One Update F1 Season Preview 2/3

The second piece of the 2013 preview is here and once again I dive headfirst into all kinds of speculation about the season ahead. But for now it´s all about the nest three teams and how they will shape the upcoming season.

Today I´ll be talking about Mercedes, Sauber, Lotus and Force India, four mid-field teams with great potential, some truly awesome drivers and they could give us some nice surprises.

Mercedes

Mercedes is one of those teams where you never really know what you get. From the formation, and I am not thinking about the classic Silver Arrowsteam from the 1930´s, but the modern version, the team has had a rather low-key status about them. First it was called Tyrrell and they have three titles to their name. Then British American Tobacco got involved in the late 1990´s, then it was a pure Honda team until they pulled out, leaving Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in doubt. Ross Brawn bought the team for a penny, turned it around and won the 2009 title, then sold the team to Mercedes. Phew.

The team hired Nico Rosberg and seven time world champion Michael Schumacher, but the return of the most winning driver did nothing for the image of Mercedes. 2010 was so-so, Nico Rosberg secured most of the points, and 2011 was a repeat of the previous year, 4th place in the constructor´s championship. 2012 kicked off with AMG as title sponsor, the high performance division of Mercedes, but the performance of the car and driver left much to be improved. Rosberg finished 9th, with Schumacher in 13th and he retired after the season ended.

So how will they do?

Lewis Hamilton, who was looking for some greener grass and after he had spend his teens with McLaren, he decided to sign with Mercedes, to replace Schumacher. Some say it´s a wise decision, because Hamilton is a driver who needs to push himself further and always prove to himself and others that he can adjust to a new team and that his 2008 title isn´t a fluke. Others think that he has made career suicide, but building a team is no easy feat. Lewis will be partnered by Rosberg, who is staying put, and the two of them know each other very well from junior series. I think that Mercedes might be able to push the front runners from time to time, but still need some work.

Prediction

Mercedes only had one win in 2012, in a year where 8 different drivers won a race. Not good enough. But a great driver in a new team takes some adjustment, but Lewis is a quick learner, and bloody fast too, so 4th for Mercedes.

Lotus

The team formerly known as Renault caused the biggest upset of 2012. They managed to sign Kimi Raikkonen, the one-syllable guy who likes to nap a few minutes before a race. In the second race he had the fastest lap time, and he won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The entire season was a truly awesome thing to watch, from the way he can keep the car so tantalisingly close to his rivals, insisting he has the right of way and then gently persuading them to give up. Raikkonen´s style might be one of a tight-lipped, kinda arrogant guy who dorsn´t care about anything, but he is a true racer who cares only about winning.

Lotus also had some issues that wwasn´t all rosy. Romain Grosjean also returned in 2012 for Lotus, after he drove for the previous installment of the team, Renault some years back. Comparing the two drivers may not be entirely fair, since Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver never to retire during a race, while Grosjean did so seven times, most notably during the Belgian GP, where he tried to squeeze Hamilton up against the pitwall, but both lost control. Grosjean was fined €50.000 and received a one-race ban. Oops.

So how will they do?

Grosjean will have spend some time during the winterbreak, to find himself. A driver is only as good as his last race and he almost jumped back onto the F1 scene, making a lot of noise and speculations. 2013 will probbaly be a bit more stress-free for Grosjean and I expect we will see a more mature and easy-going Frenchman. Raikkonen, on the other hand, will do what he is best at. Win. Surprise us. And sleep a little.

Prediction

Lotus finished 4th last year, and I think that the drivers will score more consistently, but on fewer occasions. I predict a few more retirements for Kimi, less for Grosjean, but more scoring in the lower parts of the board, simply due to the increased competition at this level. 5th for Lotus.

Sauber

The Swiss Sauber team has always been a black sheep in a way, but one that was always welcome. The team reminds me of my uncle, who is always able to see the lighter side of things and make a humorous comment about it. Sauber is a very good team, but they have had to say goodbye to their best driver, Sergio Perez, who will be driving for McLaren this year, replacing Hamilton. Monisha Kaltenborn has taken over the day-to-day running after Peter Sauber stepped down last year, and with Force India ousted Nico Hulkenberg and newcomer Esteban Gutierrez, who previously was the team´s test driver.

So how will they do?

Kamui Kobayashi was not signed for 2013, a tough decision for many fans. Gutierrez is a talented driver and will need to get his hands on some real race time before we can asess his performance. Hulkenberg has several seasons behind him and will add valuable knowledge to the team, but I don´t expect the leap forward many others do. I expect the team to finish roughly in the same place they did in 2012, mainly because they will not have the same amount of retirements they did last year. Remember, it´s a prediction…2013 will be a transitional year for the team, and it will be very interesting to see if the team´s own predictions about their driver choices will be on the mark.

Prediction

Perez was definitely the best driver the team has had for many years, and it looked as though Kobayashi might be able to finally develop into a brilliant racer. But with new guys on board and a new team manager, I think we should be happy with 6th for Sauber.

Force India

Rumours about Kingfisher´s imminent death, the absence of Vijay Mallya, the future collapse of title sponsor Sahara and a goodbye to Hulkenberg means, that Force India is a joker. They are yet to announce their second driver next to Paul di Resta, but in these very hours, Adrian Sutil´s agent has confirmed that Force India has stated that they want Sutil to race and not, as expected, Jules Bianchi.

So how will they do?

Because of the previous experience of Sutil, the team could collect a lot of points, but everything is up in the air. I honestly have no idea what to believe regarding the rumours we hear, and will not take address them in this article. I will, on the other hand, be carefully optimistic and sprinkle some light points in their general direction, with the odd retirement here and there.

Prediction

No idea. But to be a little more specific, I think they will stay in exactly the same place as last year, like Sauber. 7th place.

Lotus E21 gallery

Bitch, please

A rumour has circulated in the Hungarian paddock last weekend, that Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, who won the world championship for Ferrari in 2007, is on the verge of returning to Maranello. This, of course, is utter rubbish.

I´m really not quite sure where the rumour originated from, but as always, a comment here or there can suddenly erupt to ‘breaking news’ stories. One idea is that Kimi has been asked if he is to stay with Lotus for another season, and knowing Kimi´s usual stance towards the media, his response is in the region of ‘let´s see, shall we?’ This is apparently enough these days to spark the rumour that of course he is returning to Ferrari.

Another explanation is that some guy called another guy, who has a friend who kows someone at Ferrari. And this guy overheard a conversation in the break room, where some of the staff perhapsmade a wishlist of drivers they would like to have racing for them.

When you read the articles, and there are a lot of them, they tell the same story. “As crazy as it seems” tends to be a good start on some articles, and the reporter doing it, should really stop right there and think it through. Yes it is crazy. Very much so. Remember that Kimi was paid a hefty sum of money not to race in the 2010 season, and Kim later admitted that the relationship between him and Ferrari could have been better. However, Kiimi also said that he has no bad feelings about anything.

Naturally the teams are looking at which driver is doing good, and who is progressing and there can be no doubt that Kimi Raikkonen´s return to the sport, has been a real boost to F1. He is fifth in the championship, has scored points in all races bar one, China, has visited the podium five times already and with 116 points he is only one single point away from Lewis Hamilton´s fourth place, six points from Sebastian Vettel´s third place and eighth from Mark Webber in second.

Teams have a list of drivers they would like, and this season that list is growing bigger for every race. And why? Unpredictability. The first seven races featured seven different race winners, including Pastor Maldonado. For some people that is enough to put his name on the list, despite the fact that he has only scored points in two races out of eleven, where as Bruno Senna has scored points in six events, and is only a handful of points away from Maldonado. Just to compare.

The list includes Nico Hulkenberg, Paul Di Resta, Sergio Perez, and just for good measure I´ll throw in Felipe Massa as well, along with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, both have been linked with a move to Ferrari. Heikki Kovalainen is another name whi pops up, the talented Finn is dragging a car which weighs the same as Belgium around the circuits, and Mark Webber admitted to be taling to Ferrrai, before signing for another year with Red Bull. SO that´s almost half the entire field.

So what does Kimi himself say to all this commotion?

After his stunning performance on Sunday in Hungary, The Telegraph insisted that this was enough of a boost for Kimi to ‘hint’ that Ferrari is not off the table. Here is what Kimi said:

“I always said that I had no bad feelings against Ferrari,” Raikkonen said. “When I had my time with the team I won my championship there. Things could maybe have happened in a nicer way at the end but life goes on.

“I am happy where I am now but you never know what happens in the future.”

So can we stop this now?

German Grand Prix – The Day After

At the halfway mark of the season, all the jokers were up in the air, once again without any clear indication of who would be the winner in this very unpredictable season.

I am sure I don´t need to repeat what I and many others have already been telling you, that this season is unpredictable, exciting as ever and full of surprises. After a while, it gets boring. NOT!

The German Grand Prix is a lot of things, but rarely this thrilling. The new modern layout has never been favoured by myself, but I appreciate the need to revise it, from the older, much longer Hockenheimring. But it doesn´t change the fact that it´s not that amazing. Luckily there was a lot of drivers and performances that were, and they put on a show for us, once again.

Driver of the Day: Fernando Alonso

A little recap from the first 5 races tells us that Ferrari didn´t built the car they needed for the job. This is old news now, but the base line was too far away from what they needed. Or was it? Alonso took 5th in the opening race, then took a surprise victory in Malaysia, only finish 9th and 7th in the next 2 races before taking 2nd place in home race in Spain. At this point in time, Alonso and Webber had the same points tally, but then things started to change. The car looks much more driveable now, much more calm and not so twitchy as before, and Alonso is also a lot more finely tuned, it seems. But his performance in the race on Sunday, was controlled, it was calculated, Ferrari had the best strategy for him and it would be a bigger surprise if he didn´t win. Still Alonso thoroughly deserves this award.

Best Charge of the Day: Jenson Button

After a series of rather sad performances from Button, picking up points in just 6 races so far and 2 retirements, the Frome Flyer showed that he is fast and he is not a driver to count out. One can on,y imagine the extra hard work the team and he have been doing in preparations for the race, because whatever they did, it worked. Button was exceptionally fast, he knew when to charge, he knew when to hold back. He conserved the tyres at the right time, and when he got the green light, he could push them a little further. A flawless pit stop, according to McLaren a record of 2.31 seconds, also helped him along.

Best Climber of the Day: Sergio Perez

Perez started 17th and ended in 6th place, a very satisfying result for the Sauber team and Peter Sauber was of course as delighted as if they just won a championship. Sure there are lots of hard work and lots of time spent reading telemetry and adjusting things, but make no mistake. Sauber is not a mid-field team anymore, they are definitely among the top teams, along with Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus. I could include Mercedes, but I think their performance curve is too unstable.

Not only did Perez once again prove that he is a massive talent, he is also the lead candidate for at least a couple of seats here and there. I hope that he will do the right thing and stay with Sauber for next year, they need each other.

Overtaking Master of the Day: Kimi Raikkonen

If you tought that the return of Kimi Raikkonen would see a dusty and rather anonymous Finn fiddling around in the back of the grid after a two-year hiatus, you´d be very wrong. From the start, he and Lotus has impressed the hell out all of us, not that we were surprised he would, but the performance and reliability of the cars, are better than I expected. That said, the overtaking manoeuvre he made on Paul di Resta was champion stuff. Side by side, through three turns and eventually he just persevered to take the position back he lost in the start. Kimi has given us many great moments already this season, and the hard ass has more up his sleeve.

Worst Driver of the Day: Romain Grosjean

Oh dear, it really is hard to have a good day these days, isn´t it? Ups and downs for Grosjean, who started 19th after a penalty carried over from Silverstone, post-race gearbox change, only to leave the track a number of times, lose the plot entirely, drive a completely anonymous and uninteresting race, only to improve one place to 18th and one lap down. To compare another fast driver, Lewis Hamilton had a puncture at the beginning of the race, pitted and then asked to retire. Was denied and fought hard, without any chance of points, but unlapped himself, much t the dismay of Sebastian Vettel, and unfortunately ended his day with retirement, but could have been finishing 13th.

Grosjean may be a really fast and good driver, but he has only taken points in half of the races and are trailing his team mate by 37 points.

Cry Baby of the Day: Sebastian Vettel, Christian Horner, Red Bull as a whole.

Red Bull has a remarkable tendency to not know when to shut up at the right time. Four hours before the race, FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer examined the RB8 and found irregularities in the torque mapping, reported it but the stewards decided to let the cars race without sanction. During the dying moments of the race on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel made an overtaking move on Button, which was outside the track, then first argued that he didn´t know Button was there, right…, then Red Bull argued that Vettel was ahead of Button when the overtaking move happened, which he clearly was not. All Vettel had to do was to look to his right and he would have easily seen Button right there, acknowledge that he made a mistake, give the position back to Button and fight him for the remaining two laps. This would be a walk in the park for Vettel, as Button´s tyres were cooked, and he could have ended up in 3rd. Instead Vettel was whining, again, that he did nothing wrong, and was rightfully penalised by 20 seconds.

More Unremarkable Performances: FIA, Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado.

I´m gonna keep this short. Fact: Lewis Hamilton punctured because of the debris left on track after Felipe Massa smashed into the rear tyre of Daniel Ricciardo´s Toro Rosso. Both were lucky not to cause more damage, but the FIA, notably Charlie Whiting should have deployed a safety car at this time, since the debris was lying around for several laps to come. A dangerous and unnecessary decision from the FIA. Massa had a damaged car, yes, but he still needs to find his A-game. He did it at Silverstone two weeks ago. And Pastor Maldonado? I am getting less and less impressed with him. The season has shown that there are many more drivers who can race for victories, and his win in Spain was remarkable, astonishing even. But because of that, his performances ever since has been even more disappointing. ten races and only points from two of them. Michael Schumacher, Paul di Resta and even Felipe Massa should have no problem overtaking Maldonado in the standings.

Standings after the 10th round

Fernando Alonso extends his lead n the 2012 F1 championship, with a hefty 34 points lead over Mark Webber. Sebastian Vettel is in 3rd place, with Kimi Raikkonen 4th. The official results are:

Pos.	Driver	Points
1.	Fernando Alonso	154
2.	Mark Webber	120
3.	Sebastian Vettel	118
4.	Kimi Räikkönen	95
5.	Lewis Hamilton	92
6.	Nico Rosberg	76
7.	Jenson Button	65
8.	Romain Grosjean	61
9.	Sergio Perez	47
10.	Kamui Kobayashi	31
11.	Pastor Maldonado	29
12.	Michael Schumacher	29
13.	Paul di Resta	27
14.	Felipe Massa	23
15.	Nico Hülkenberg	19
16.	Bruno Senna	18
17.	Jean-Eric Vergne	4
18.	Daniel Ricciardo	2
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	0
20.	Vitaly Petrov	0
21.	Timo Glock	0
22.	Charles Pic	0
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	0
24.	Pedro de la Rosa	0

Valencia – The Day After

The day after one of the most exciting races in years, and yes I could easily copy and paste the first few lines of text of that from the previous race. Or the one before that. It is getting increasingly difficult to find positive words to use to describe this season, when words like ‘astonishing’, ‘staggering’, ‘sublime’ or ‘brilliant’ just isn´t enough anymore.

So was it astonishing, staggering, sublime and brilliant? Well, let me say this. My father tries to watch all races, bu usually falls asleep after ten laps. He knows that the street of Valencia hasn´t exactly produced the most mind-boggling amazing races in the history of F1, in fact, the four previous versions can easily be labelled ‘most boring race of the season’. But I spoke to him on the phone after the race, and he not only managed to stay awake, it was almost as if he sounded younger and more vital. Well, I don´t know, but if he was entertained, then it´s a pretty fair shot to say that so was I.

Driver of the Day: Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso won the race, starting from 11th on the grid, in what I think is the best race performance from Alonso on the last five years. He ducked and he dived and he took the chances, calculating the risks so fast, you´d need a computer to beat him. This is one of his strengths. The mind of a racing driver is usually right on the edge, but Alonso showed that little bit extra that makes his effort seem just that more important. Alonso was in tears after his victory, and it was clear that a huge weight had dropped from his shoulders. No one can put a finger on his performance on Sunday. Well deserved win.

Best of the rest: Michael Schumacher

It´s what his fans have been waiting for since his return. A podium. And they got it. Schumacher drove a very smooth race, he too calculated the strategy so fine, knowing when to push, when to ease off. Tyres are hugely important this season, but in Valencia, it all came together for Schumacher and Mercedes, and produced some memorable racing. And his first podium in six years.

Best of the rest II: Mark Webber

Mark Webber is a strange cat, isn´t he? We know he´s fast, we know he drives that Red Bull so close to the edge, but he makes it looks so effortless that we tend to forget him a bit. In Valencia it was almost like no one noticed he drove home 4th, because all eyes were on Vettel´s exit from the lead and the race. Webber started 19th on the grid, that´s a long way up. In an astonishing drive, he managed to conserve the tyres at just the right time, finding that small gap where the tyres work perfectly, and in case you didn´t know, is actually second in the championship. Bravo, Mr Webber. Bravo!

Biggest Head Scratcher of the Day: Safety car

I am sorry, I didn´t get why the safety car had to be deployed. When it finally came out, the cars had been going round the track for a few laps and there wasn´t any dangerous debris lying around, and no car had been plowing into a barrier, blocking a piece of the track. First Senna and Kobayashi touched each other, that was the incident where Senna simply didn´t see the rather optimistic move from Kobayashi on his right side. No one´s fault, but Senna got penalized for it. Soon after Vergne and Kovalainen touched wheels and that was the reason the safety car came out. Both cars were able to either drive around to the pits, or if they couldn´t manage that, there was a huge run-off area right there. The deployment of the safety car did make the race interesting again, not that it was boring at all, but it was un-necessary in my opinion.

Great Driver: Romain Grosjean

Romain Grosjean is having a whale of a time these days, as he returns to F1. Good results are one thing, but coming back after two full seasons, into a car that had a big question mark on it in February and then are battling for wins against a handful of world champions, his place in F1 is rightfully deserved. To retire such a short way from the chequered flag is enormously frustrating, but I have every confidence in him to take at least one win this year.

Worst performance: McLaren

It´s safe to say that I didn´t expect the McLaren team to struggle the way they have been this season, but it seems that nothing they do seems to work. For Button, there were talks that he would copy the set-up from Hamilton, seeing that this is working out rather well for the 2008 champion. He has 88 points, Button 49. But the team continues to botch their pit-stops to such a degree that it looks they have given up. Again in Valencia, we saw how Hamilton´s second pit stop failed miserably, the one under safety car. we don´t know if the car is hard to handle for Button and this is the reason why he is not scoring the points needed. And we don´t know what the pit stops fail. What we do know is, that this needs to stop. Fix it.I am not commenting on who was at fault, when Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton had a get-together at Turn 12, that is just not up to me. I will say that the accident was avoidable.

 

Lotus duo happy with results

Both Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean seems to be getting the best out of the car these days, coming from Canada´s great result for Grosjean as he finished on the podium for the second time this season, while Raikkonen did have to settle for 8th.

Still it´s valuable points and the performance of the cars and the drivers is just one example why the team is 3rd in the standings with 108 points. Both drivers agreed the qualifying pace was high and that meant not much had to go wrong in order to drop out of the top ten, but Raikkonen starts 5th on Sunday, with Grosjean sitting behind Lewis Hamilton in 4th place.

“It was very close in qualifying, especially in Q2, so it’s good to be fifth on the grid,” said Raikkonen.

“The car felt good. If we could have improved just a little bit on my last lap then we could have gained a couple of places, but it is an improvement on last time out so I’m very happy with that. We found a few good things with the setup this morning to make the car easier to drive. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. The car usually goes well in the race when it’s hot, so let’s see what we can do.”

“Today we got pretty much the most out of the car that we could have,” Grosjean added.

“P4 is a good position for the start of the race but of course you want always more and to do better. Sebastian did an unbelievable lap and today we could not have matched it. We have improved our qualifying performance but there is still room to do better. Tyre degradation will be more important than what we saw at the last race. There will be 57 laps in hot conditions on Sunday; we will see what we can do for a good race tomorrow.”

Villeneuve: Lotus might drop Kimi

Not one to shy away from the media, quite contrary in fact, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has spoken out during the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend, which he attended in usual flamboyant style, by donning a complete bald head.

Agreeing that the black and gold Lotus looks ‘amazing’, he also said that Kimi Raikkonen could be dropped very soon, because of his lack of performance compared to teammate Romain Grosjean.

“That he is usually behind Grosjean in pure performance makes me think he (Raikkonen) could be dropped,” said Villeneuve, when speaking to France´s Auto Hebdo.

One of Kimi´s countrymen, Mika Salo, agrees that the season is proving a lot harder than expected, especially after two podiums for the 2007 world champion, but it is much too early to talk about replacements, says Salo.

“Kimi has retained his natural ability to drive a car, but he and the team definitely haven’t come to terms about what he needs. But as for Jacques Villeneuve, I doubt he has even spoken a single word to Kimi about what the problem really is. He is a complete outsider,” Salo insisted.

“We can all have opinions, but the truth is very different to what Villeneuve said. I still think Kimi will win a race this season when the weekend is spot on. You can see that the relationship between Kimi and the team is really good. Although there are problems, there is still a good atmosphere.

“Some in the media allege that they are breaking up, but the real situation is quite the opposite. The team has full respect for Kimi, and Kimi respects the team,” Salo said.

One of the key issues for Kimi, has been the steering of the Lotus, and one un-named team member has commented that there have been six different types of steering for Kimi, basically laid for him to choose from, but “there won’t be a seventh version of the steering for him,” said the team member.

Frankly I am a bit surprised about Villeneuve´s comments. They clearly shows that ever since he was dropped by the BMW midway during the 2006 season, at least three season´s too much in my book, he has become out of touch with the F1 community and really hasn´t a clear idea about what the issue is, nor does he acknowledge that you don´t simply drop someone like Kimi Raikkonen.