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

The final installment of the official preview is here and with only a few days to go before the first race of the season, it´s about time too!

I do apologize for the lack of a preview, but work has been mental the last few weeks. I will try to find the time to get you some good updates here and there, throughout the season, so we´ll see what will happen.

In the second preview article, I predicted that Mercedes, Lotus, Sauber and Force India to stay pretty much where they ended 2012, with only minor changes. The reason behind this logic, is that the teams is not bringing anything revolutionary to the table this year, because next year will be a completely new set of rules, with the new V6 turbo engines and what not. Therefor, as we saw in 2012, a discreet evolution of the cars with the usual updates along the season, is what can be expected.

Still, that said, it´s time to see if the last four teams on the grid will move up or down. Remember that places 1-7 have already been occupied, so for now it´s a matter of finding out who will be the best of the rest.

Toro Rosso

I am still struggling to find a solid argument for having the team on the grid. Sure they are a developing team, grooming young drivers, but the drivers isn´t promoted to Red Bull, which was the entire reason to establish Toro Rosso in the first place. Only man to get the nod, was Sebastian Vettel, and though he has done ok, irony might occur, the talent is either lacking or Red Bull is not interested in the team after all. There is this “let´s just see what happens with it” attitude about Toro Rosso from time to time, and then suddenly one of their drivers does something extraordinary and we fall right back in love again.

So how will they do?

Toro Rosso is not really moving anywhere. The results are clear: From the formation in 2006 when Minardi was bought, up until today, their best season was 2008, when Vettel won the Italian GP in soaking wet conditions, a staggering result for the team who was used to fill up the slots from the mid-field and down. Since then, not much have happened in terms of development, or should I say grooming. Not a single driver has been marked for greatness, except Vettel of course, and no driver has been performing so well, that other teams have had good use of his experience. No, Liuzzi doesn´t count, since he couldn´t do much at Force India. And ending his career at HRT, was….well, nuff said.

Toro Rosso might improve a bit. The team has secured the continued services of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo and these drivers should be able to move the team forward a bit, being second seasoners and all. But other than the pure talent of the drivers, I don´t think Toro Rosso will be anything else but mediocre this season.

Prediction:

I think a move from 9th last year to 8th might be realistic. I will expect fewer non-scoring finishes and fewer retirements, and paired with two drivers who began their duties last season, they could throw up a few, minor surprises.

Williams

The Williams team is the last true private team left on the grid and I have always had a soft spot for them. They have had some pretty serious ups and downs in the last 10 years or so, from finishing 3rd in 2001, then 2nd in 2002 and 2003, to suddenly see their performance curve slide down and down, to 4th, then 5th, 8th, then back to 4th. Then a series of seasons with disappointing results, where they resorted to their old ways, by way of never having a team of drivers, and dropped drivers by a whim. I know, I know, it´s not really that nice to Heidfeld, or Rosberg, or even Barrichello for that matter. Sure, Wurz´s3rd place in Canada was a great boost for the team, but it took a year almost to replicate that, when Rosberg scored 3rd in Melbourne. And then, not a single podium for 76 straight races. Then Maldonado won in Spain last year, and many believed that Williams are back. So are they?

So how will they do?

Yes, how will they do indeed. And are they back? Yes and no. Williams have ditched Bruno Senna in favour of test driver Valtteri Bottas. And yes, he is Finnish. There is an old saying in F1: If you want to win, get the Finn. So the season starts with Maldonado as a team captain, and hopefully with a more relaxed approach to climbing through the ranks, instead of his sometimes accidental/lucky ways he can escape by the hair on his teeth. He is close to becoming a good driver, but still to many mistakes. Bottas is a good driver, in tests that is, but I think we could be in for some good performances.

Prediction:

A new driver, again, for Williams and I honestly don´t think Maldonado can cut the mustard. I just don´t think he has the talent or even the stature to be able to help the team forward. I think he is driving for himself and then the team be damned. Bottas is the new guy, so he will try his hardest. Despite some good performances, I fear Williams will drop to 10th in the standings.

Caterham

The Team Formerly Known As…Oh give me a fecking break here. No one understands why Tony Fernandes went all the way to cling on to the Lotus name, only to then be perfectly happy to drop it, having Renault now driving under the name. His team is now known as Caterham and the results? Not impressive. Ok, so yes a new team will need time to form their identity, their way of dealing with difficult situations. I get that. But They got rid of Heikki Kovalainen, a true talented driver, who actually made a very good impression last year. Especially when he 1) made it into Q2 in Bahrain, 2) achieved 13th in Monaco, best in the season, 3) again making it into Q2 in Valencia and weas absolutely instrumental in helping the team to secure 10th in the standings. For this season, they have hired Charles Pic from Marussia for “multiple seasons” and Giedo van der Garde, who has been promoted from test driver. He has never raced a F1 car. Never. Besides 2012, his last appearance in F1, was when he was test driver for Force India in 2008.

So how will they do?

This is a team we have a hard time figuring out. Every time it seems they are on track, they do something unexplainable. And when it looks like an uphill battle, they pull through. I am hard pressed to find anything positive about them in 2013, but I do think that getting fresh blood in, especially after Vitaly Petrov turned out to be so-so, might be a good idea.

Prediction:

I am going out on a limb here. I think that Caterham could be the surprise of the year, taking some good points from Toro Rosso and Williams. 9th for Caterham.

Marussia

Now that HRT is no longer with us – serious have you ever seen anyone being sorry about that fact, besides the people directly involved in the team? – Marussia now bears the heavy burden of being the last and slowest team on the grid. There is no way they can evolve so much in just one season, this one, to jump several places forward, since development is almost non-existent.

The team has had a large switch in drivers for the 2013 season. Timo Glock was originally under a three-year contract, making 2013 his second season, but he left the team “for financial reasons”. It is unclear what this means, but some say he left because his salary was high, in order to let the team develop. Aww…so sweet. Others of course, believe that the team wasn´t impressed and kicked him.

Luiz Razia was actually meant to race for the team this year, but a conflict with the sponsor package meant he was not able to secure the necessary funds and the contract was terminated. Instead the team will use Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton as their drivers.

So how will they do?

Pretty good, actually. I know, since all the other positions are taken, they will inevitable end 2013 in last place, but they will end the year on a high. Why? Because Jules Bianchi is the 2007 French Formula Renault 2.0 champion, the 2008 Formula 3 Euro Series champion, the 3rd place finisher in the 2010 GP2 series, as well as the runner-up in the GP 2 Asia series. He is the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 series runner-up and oh…in 2011 he was test driver for Ferrari, on loan to Force India for 2012 and was considered as Felipe Massa´s replacement during the Brazilian´s absense.

Max Chilton is the son of Grahame Chilton, the proprietor of Carlin Motorsport, and comes from a family of racing enthusiasts. Brother Tom Chilton is a seasoned BTCC driver, with 10 seasons under his belt and something has to rub off, right?

Prediction:

As mentioned I think Marussia will finish dead last, but not without giving us some good moments. I do believe that if things work out, Bianchi might be able to prove that he is the next big thing, well Ferrari like to think so, and though Chilton is a rather blank page, he could throw in some surprises.

That´s it. The preview is done and I hope you have enjoyed reading it. And remember that nothing is chiseled in stone until the last race, but what a season we have waiting for us!

Have fun!

Maldonado should be safe, despite Chavez death

The death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Tuesday, has caused a ripple effect into F1.

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado is heavily funded by main sponsor PDVSA, the state-owned Venezuelan oil company, and their subsidiaries, and several observers believe that this will end Maldonado´s F1 career.

It should be noted that while Chavez was an avid race fan and supported several other drivers from Venezuela, and that there had been great concerns about the legality of Maldonado´s contract, the driver himself should not feel any pressure regarding his future. The contract is there and it works and even if Chavez´ party doesn´t retain power after the coming election, the new government will most likely keep the sponsorship deal, since it is supoorting new drivers on the international racing scene.

In other words, don´t expect anything to change at Williams this season.

Bit of this, bit of that

Williams became the last team to launch their 2013 car, the FW35. Adrian Sutil had had a seat fitting made at Force India, and are testing the new car in Barcelona, while the Kingfisher Airline owned by team owner Vijay Mallya is in deep financial trouble. Mercedes rejects the claims that they are about to pull out of F1 all together, and Lewis Hamilton has beaten Sebastian Vettel´s time on TopGear.

According to two shareholders of Mercedes, Michael Muders form the fund manager Union and henning Gebhardty, of DWS, the foray into F1 has been to expensive for the Daimler group and the yield is not big enough to continue, they say.

“Mercedes has been behind for years, without consequence,” said Muders. “But Formula One is expensive and brings nothing to the (Daimler) group.”

Gebhardt added: “Formula One no longer enhances the image (of Mercedes), especially if we are in countries criticized of human rights violations.”

Truly some good and valid points and they need to be discussed. But is it a carmakers job to deal with human rights issues? Who draws the line between hat is right and what is wrong? Personally, I think the Bahrain story of 2011 and 2012 was a very good example of how a completely different event drew attention to F1, even though the demand for reforms and basic human right has nothing to do with 24 cars screaming around the desert. Of course the carmakers could and should be concerned about what is going on in the world, and yes I do tink that the event in bahrain was controversial. But a carmakers finest task is to build cars and if they wish, to race them. Don´t race cars and then say it costs too much. You´re in or you´re out.

Mercedes´ new chairman Niki Lauda, rejected the claims from the two shareholders, saying that there are more TV viewers today and there is a lot of growth to be seen, as more and more countries are added to the calendar.

Over at Force India, Adrian Sutil is back. Or is he? The German, who has spent his entire F1 career at the team, when it was known as Midland and Spyker, and knows his way around the team. Sutil was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, when he was incolved in a nihgt club incident with Genii´s Eric Lux. Sutil was charged with assault, received a suspended 18 month prison sentence and a fine of €200.000. His career looked to be over. But then, as the teams managed to fill their seats, Force India was the only one left with a vacant seat. The call came and Sutil had a seat fitting last week, and he is today testing the brand new car. But there is still no contract for him to race this year.

So, a team in financial distress, a team owner who has not shown up and taken the bull by the horns, not even trying to explain what is going on in his own team, and a experienced driver who is testing their car. For free, it seems. If Force India does not sign Sutil, they are shooting themselves in the foot. Rumour has it that Sutil has secured a sponsorship package worth €8 million, so the money is clearly there. Just sign it, Vijay…

Lewis Hamilton appeared on TopGear recently, and was eager to beat his own previous time in the reasonably priced car. And not only did he do that, he also smashed Sebastian Vettel´s time, who at the time was the fastest time of F1 drivers past and present, with more than a second. Kudos to you, sir.

Finally, Williams launched their FW35 car. it is blue and white. Four wheels. A steering wheel. Ok, so it looks enormously dull, but Mike Coughlan, you remember, the guy with the spy shit some years back, said that the team had made a great deal of dyno testing to ensure reliability. The work also includes a new gearbox new rear suspension, new radiators, a new floor, new exhausts, new bodywork, a new nose and a significant amount of weight-saving.

It will be interesting to see how well Williams will fair this season, considering their improved form last year.

A bit of everything

Catching up a little is always a good thing, and now that I have re-booted the blog, slowly but surely, I have decided to make the format a little different than before. Formula One Update originalle started as a gateway to all the relevenat news stories related to F1, I made huge attempts to cover as much as possible and tried to be the first with the story. But I ran out of energy, I didn´t feel I got enough out of the work I did, so for some months the blog has been disabled. Until now.

The idea is that now I try to find some relevant stories whenever I feel like it, and they might not be brand spanking new, but at least you get my weird sense of humour to go along with it, so hey. I will not be covering every angle or every story out there, I just don´t have the time for it. So for now, this is a cozy little project and I hope you feel that you still get something out of it. Enjoy.

Red Bull has become the next team in line to reveal their launch date of their 2013 car, the RB9. The team has admitted that their development on the new car has been somewhat delayed, since they concentrated on getting everything out of the 2012 season, eventually finishing with Sebastian Vettel taking his third consecutive championship. The new car will be revealed on february 3, at the Red Bull factory in Milton Keyes, just two days before the first pre-season test at Jerez, Spain.

Over at Williams, Valtteri Bottas, who has been promoted from test and reserve driver for this season, after Bruno Senna was dropped, says that the un-popular stepped-nose design of the FW34 from last year, will not be on the new car. The frton nose of the FW35, which is the brilliant new name for the 2013 car, will instead be covered by a laminate panel, so the design will look more like a 2011 model, Bottas says.

“In terms of looks, the car is pretty much the same as last year,” Bottas said. “With the new rules, the stepped nose has been straightened. It is the biggest difference in its appearance.

“The new car is a development of last year’s car. There are certain improvements in aerodynamics, we have tried to gain more traction in the corners.”

Williams enjoyed a boost in their confidence in 2012, as the team managed to score points on 15 occasions, 5 for Maldonado and 10 for Senna, leading to 8th in the championship with 76 points. For 2013 Bruno Senna is no longer part of the driver line-up.

New McLaren-Mercedes driver Sergio Perez, who will partner Jenson Button, has said that a mentality change is necessary in order to be competitive at this new level in his career.

“It definitely changes,” Pérez said of his overall approach to racing. “At McLaren, you are not here to just fight for the points. You are here to fight for victories at every single race.

“Your race preparation has to be 100 percent. It has to be 100 percent for all 20 races because at every race you have the opportunity to win. Then you can fight for the championship.”

Perez had a strong season at Sauber, scoring three podium places and finishing his season in 10th place. Throughout 2012 he was rumoured to be replacing Felipe Massa at Ferrari, but the Maranello-based team said that though they really would like to sign the Mexican, he needed a little more time in order to mature as a driver. McLaren snapped up the talented driver, as Lewis Hamilton found a vacant race seat at Mercedes, after Michael Schumacher finally retired his career.

Perez is adamant that he will learn a lot from Button, even though he eventually would like to beat the 2009 champion at some point.

“I have got a lot to learn from him,” Pérez said of Button. “His experience, his knowledge, it will all be useful for me. I am really looking forward to working with a World Champion, a great guy. The whole team has so much respect for him.

“I am looking forward to building my relationship with him, to help the team become the best and to have the best car possible. I think we’ll have a good relationship.”

Perez´ former team mate, Kamui Kobayashi, is without a race seat for 2013, as Sauber opted for a all-new line-up with Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg, but thinks that the japanese driver can find a seat for 2014.

“He’s a great driver and a great guy and someone who can do a very good job for a team,” Perez said. “I feel a bit sorry for him but I’m sure he’ll be back next year because with his speed he should be able to find a good seat and hopefully we’ll have him back.”

Maldonado vows never to change his style

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado has said he would not change his ways, even though the Venezuelan had several crashes and a very aggressive approach to driving in 2012.

Continuing his driving style is important, says Maldonado when asked by Marca if he felt like changing his overly aggressive crash-prone style.

“When I walk down the hallway in my home and see all I’ve achieved with that style I believe I must go on this way,” Maldonado said. “Yes, I’ve had incidents with other drivers, not only now but also in the past. But that has led me to win every series I’ve raced in.”

It would seem like a rather good idea not to crash into other drivers from time to time in order for Maldonado to build on the results he actually did manage to secure. In 2011 he picked up a single point in his first season with Williams, and this increased to 45 last season, including a win at the Spanish Grand Prix. But since that illustrious first win, it took him ten races to score points again, eventually finishing 15th in the drivers championship. The formula for 2013 is clear: More speed.

“We need more speed and innovation in the car, we are improving every year,” he added. “It will be a better car.”

This bloggers opinion is that speed helps, but so does not crashing…

Car releases so far

A new season looms, and though the 2012 edition lasted until late November, it´s not to soon to start getting excited.

A few teams have released launch dates so far, but a few others are expected to present theirs at the first day of winter testing, at Jerez on February 5th.

The teams who have confirmed launch dates are:

McLaren-Mercedes January 31

Force India February 1

Ferrari February 1

Sauber February 2

Red Bull February 3 at Jerez

Mercedes February 4

Toro Rosso February 4 at Jerez

Caterham February 5

Williams February 5 at Jerez.

Red Bull, the triple world champions, have said that the development of their 2013 car has been compromised, due to the result of Vettel´s title run-in. The last gasps were made to the very last turn, in order for the team to makke sure, that the German won his third consecutive title.

Six points for Williams

Williams scored another 6 points to the total, as Bruno Senna fended off Mark Webber for most of the race, while also fighting with Jenson Button.

“Today was a nice race,” said Senna after the race.

“We pushed very hard on the strategy to make it work especially as the track conditions and the weather were very different from what we were expecting, so I’m happy with the team and I hope we can carry this momentum on. There were a lot of battles for me and it was hard it keep the tyres alive because the temperatures were so high, but it’s good to start in ninth place and finish in seventh. I think this is a turning point for us. The race was good, it was a fun weekend, the team are happy and the break is now welcome as it will be a chance to rest before we continue to push in the second part of the season.”

The Hungarian grand Prix marks the sixth occasion where Senna picks up points, and he now 24 points, just one behind Felipe Massa, three behind Paul Di Resta and five behind Michael Schumacher., and also five points behind team mate Pastor Maldonado, who finished outside the points.

“It was a difficult race today,” Maldonado said. “I had a bad start and lost a lot of positions which compromised our race from the beginning. It was hard to keep good pace in the traffic and then we also had to serve a drive-through penalty. I was on the limit racing Di Resta when I locked the brakes and lost some grip, but I was on the inside of the corner and so there was some light contact. We had to concentrate on tyre management today and we gathered a lot of information for the future. We weren’t as competitive as we have been, but we now need to work hard to focus on the second part of the season after the summer break.”

The field from tenth to fifteenth is relatively tight, just nine points separating six drivers.

Wolff becomes Executive Director of Williams

Toto Wolff has ben appointed Executive Director of the Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC, with immediate effect, the Williams team announced on Tuesday.

40-year old Wolff, started racing in 1992 in the Australian Formula Ford Championship, and moved on to winning the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 1994, and has since raced in the FIA GT Championship,to name a few.

Toto, or Torger as his real name is, is a co-owner of a manegement company with former double world champion Mika Hakkinen, and has been involved in the management of Alexandre Premat and Valtteri Bottas. Aside from his management roles, he started a few companies, focusing on technology for the internet, and since 2003 he has been focusing mainly on strategic investments in medium-sized  industrial enterprises.

A statement from the the reads:

“Today it has been announced that Toto Wolff will become an Executive Director of Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC with immediate effect, stepping up his role within the company from that of Non-Executive Director. In his new role Toto will assist and support Sir Frank Williams in his continuing position as Team Principal.

As a shareholder in and Executive Director of Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC, Toto will work closely with Sir Frank Williams, each being a long term and committed shareholder of the business.

Sir Frank Williams, said: “Toto’s new role, working closely alongside myself, is about Williams looking forward and managing the successful running of the company. I am looking forward to our new working relationship and I have every belief that this partnership will help take Williams F1 from strength to strength.”

Toto Wolff, said: “It’s a great honour for me to be assisting and supporting Sir Frank in his role as Team Principal at Williams. I have been a shareholder in the business since 2009 and I am really looking forward to being able to take my responsibilities to a new level. I know that together we will work tirelessly to make the Group and team as successful as it can be.”