Tuesday 24 December 2013

Drivers of the year 2013 - The Top Ten

For the first two parts please click here for 23-17 and here for 16-11.

We've reached the top, I'm not sure all will agree, but surely no one can deny who is number one...

10. Jenson Button (McLaren)


In his McLaren years and many before that too, Jenson has never been a great qualifier so perhaps it is unsurprising that he was out-qualified by his team mate Sergio Perez. Having said that Perez wasn’t thought of as a great qualifier either…

However, Jenson proved many times over that he can still bring the car home where it should be, and his race to fourth in Brazil deserved to be a podium. I wonder sometimes if Button needs extra impetus, I feel sure we’d have had more of those races if he’d still had Lewis Hamilton alongside him pushing him. With Kevin Magnussen joining McLaren and being touted as a rookie that will make as much of an impression as Hamilton, Button is sure to have his hands full. But I’d expect far more inspirational performances from him next year as a result as I’m sure he felt he didn’t have to overly extend himself to get one over Perez. This season he sparkled on occasion but too much did just seem slightly disillusioned.

9. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

He’s been regularly beaten at Ferrari since Fernando Alonso joined the team so his performance at beating Fernando nine times in qualifying is pretty impressive. Once he learned he wasn’t being kept on he seemed to leap into life a bit more. He managed a podium early on in the year, but his best racing came in the latter half with fourth place in India a particular highlight where he out-qualified and out-raced Alonso pretty comprehensively.

It is time Massa moved away from Ferrari and I think he’ll have a new lease of life with a safe two year contract at Williams. As long as the team progress I think he’ll flourish and certainly show a bit more of the fight that characterised his early years at Ferrari that allowed him to nearly become world champion before his terrible accident in 2009. He was overwhelmed by Alonso, but away from that atmosphere he can show much more of the great racing that we saw only occasionally this year.

8. Mark Webber (Red Bull)

Webber may have finished third in the championship and taken eight podiums and took an astounding pole position in Abu Dhabi that showed total commitment but at other points he seemed decidedly lacklustre. And perhaps the harshest stat available is that his team mate Sebastian Vettel took 13 wins while he failed to take one in his final year of Formula 1.

Admittedly he probably should have had one in Malaysia after Vettel ignored team orders while mechanical failures and poor starts hampered other opportunities, but when you only direct comparison is your team mate he had one of the worst records in 2013. That’s no shame to a driver who seems to be getting better and better as he was still very close quite often and could often pull off some fantastic overtakes.

But when the Red Bull is as strong as it was this year, he’ll be disappointed he couldn’t push it the way Vettel could. I think Malaysia affected his state of mind and perhaps even a bit of his motivation. Maybe his mind wondered to his new life with Porsche in the World Endurance Championship, whatever though there were moments when you thought why is he retiring, but too often this year he failed to get the better results that he might once have gritted his teeth and dug in for.

7. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)

Well at least he’s still in Formula 1. Yes, despite more heroics behind the wheel this year Hulkenberg faced the very real threat that he could end up without a seat for 2014. The fact he’s ended up back at Force India and not moved up the grid is quite the travesty. He should have replaced Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus but unfortunately money talked and they took Pastor Maldonao, someone I’ve ranked 11 places lower.  If he’s not in a top team by 2015 he could well end up missing out.

But let’s hope that doesn’t happen because if he can produce another season with some giant killing performances then surely next year someone will give him a call. The Sauber wasn’t great in the first half of the season, but he still managed to knock out some points with some hard fought drives. The second half the car improved and his results rose as they should.
But nothing beats his drive to fourth in Korea, holding off Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso for lap after lap under constant pressure. It was a drive along with many others this year that merited more.

6. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)

If there was a prize for the most improved driver of the year there is no doubt it would go to this man. Although to start off with he looked tame. Last year ended in a bit of a disaster so this year to combat his wild ways he almost went in the opposite direction. It was as if he feared that to unlock his speed he had to push beyond his control.

Thankfully this turned out to not be the case, he clocked six podiums in total, four in the final six races and was regularly out pacing Kimi by the end of the season. There were some circumstances involved in this, the tyre change mid-season didn’t help Kimi, nor did the introduction of a longer wheelbase car. But Grosjean dealt with it effectively and outshone his Ferrari bound team mate to the point that in the latter third of the season Grosjean looked to be the most likely man to take the fight to Vettel.

Perhaps his sports psychologist helped, perhaps the birth of his first child made him grow up and mature. He’s said that he realised he focused too much on Formula 1 and by releasing himself from that pressure he’s thrived. Whatever it is, he’s matured into a fast, incisive over taker who looks in total control and will lead Lotus into the unknown of 2014 with deserved confidence. I look forward to seeing what he can do next year.

5. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Everyone expected Nico to fall to Lewis Hamilton. That he remained strong against him throughout most of the year is a great credit to Nico. In fact there were times when Rosberg had quite a significant edge over his World Champion team mate.

Of course Lewis is one of the fastest out there and that did tell in qualifying, but not by all that much in the end. And in the races Nico won two races to Lewis’ one. Ok the second win was because Lewis and Vettel retired, but the first in Monaco was a masterpiece of control from a great pole position in which he kept the field behind him at a pace he wanted. It was sublime.

I think Nico has an edge with the conservation role in Formula 1 over Lewis. It’s only Hamilton’s brute force that has helped push him ahead, but with more tyres to manage and fuel conservation next year, Formula 1 is no longer about going as fast as you can which I think can help Nico.
He has continued his good form, although he still can have a tendency to fall back in races or just disappear, although that is happening less often.

4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

Sometimes Lewis is great, sometimes he seems lost. It seems like he can’t maintain focus for a whole season anymore. It seemed like he was the ultimate professional in his first two years in Formula 1 which resulted in his 2008 Championship. Since then there have been lapses and even with a move to Mercedes these lapses continue to happen.

Admittedly in 2013 the Mercedes has not been to his liking. He hasn’t felt completely comfortable in all year, particularly with the brakes, one tool you certainly need for confidence. Despite this he has led the way for the team in the most part, taking five pole positions, a fantastic victory in Hungary and another four podiums too. He has certainly added impetus to a team that stagnated last year.

However, I feel like he is not using his full potential a lot of the time. Such is the talent of Lewis Hamilton he doesn’t have to drive to his maximum to be up there, but if he could just feel comfortable and get his head fully focused on his driving again, then we could see something special. Sometimes all it takes is a winning car, and if Mercedes produce the standard bearer many are predicting for 2014, then Hamilton can be something to behold.

3. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)

He may have not been paid all year, he may have been grumpy, had back problems and left the team two races early to sort said back problems in preparation for his return to Ferrari. He also may have not liked the change of tyres mid-season or the alterations to his car, or the fact his team mate Grosjean started getting the better of him.

But the thing with Kimi is, he just shakes it off, gets in the car and drives it to its maximum potential and that’s pretty much all you can ask. Ok, his qualifying since he’s been back has not been as good as it should be, but overall he was still beating Grosjean and despite his two race absence was still 51 points better off.

Kimi won a great race in Australia and was always up there fighting, no matter where he started from. His move to Ferrari could produce fireworks alongside Fernando Alonso, although I think they’ll get on fine. Kimi is there to do a job. Fernando thinks Kimi won’t be a problem as Massa was often quicker when they were Ferrari team mates. But that was Massa before his accident and Kimi when he was on his way out of Formula 1.

Now the Finn is in the ascendency again, I think Fernando is going to have a lot tougher time than he thinks. Kimi is relentless in his consistency and certainly will not be Fernando’s back up. Maybe not fireworks, but definitely some sparklers.

2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)

I wasn’t sure who was going to be runner up. It was a tough choice between Kimi and Fernando. They both have qualifying as a weakness at the moment, but they also both have never say die attitude in the races and will always be up there fighting it out whatever. In the end I went for Fernando because he had more of an edge of his team mate and overall just a slightly more consistent year than Kimi did.

Yet again Fernando produced some fantastic drives, his wins in China and Spain were fantastic, his podium in Brazil was another highlight. But unlike in 2012, there seemed to be a few lacklustre displays too such as Monaco or India where he just didn’t seem as on it. And the mistake in Malaysia then Bahrain didn’t seem entirely Fernando. Perhaps even in those early stages that despite having a decent car to start off with he already knew that some developments weren’t working as they should.

Once again Ferrari couldn’t give him the car to take the title and that frustration boiled over in the middle of the year so it’ll be interesting to see how he handles Kimi next season. However, he still managed to find a pace his team mate couldn’t and obtain results which seemed out of reach as he always does. I hope he can challenge properly for the title again next year, he deserves to otherwise I can see his time at Ferrari not ending pleasantly.
1       
           1.  Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)


Well what can you say about this four time champion that I and many others haven’t already said. He was simply brilliant this year. He topped anything he’d done before. He showed his ruthless streak in Malaysia and so many times he demonstrated his just awesome speed and consistency. He took nine pole positions, his lap in America when he looked out of it was fantastic. His race winning margins in Abu Dhabi and Korea just made it look easy while his defensive victory in Germany was a joy.

This year we watched history be made as he won a record nine times in a row and took 13 wins in total to equal the most in a season. Some will point to the tyre change helping Red Bull unleash more of the potential of their car, but it was updates to the rear of the car too in Belgium that helped optimize the cars potential.

It should also be pointed out that Vettel was a decent points haul ahead at the mid-way point, I’m not sure anyone was about to get on terms with him. Vettel only went two consecutive races without a win in the first 10 Grand Prix. It was under the radar domination but domination none the less. He showed he could produce the results when the car couldn’t in the first half and then exploited everything to the full when the Red Bull stretched its legs in the second half.

Vettel has undoubtedly been the best in the current regulations with his ability to drive counter-intuitively with the blown diffusers being a particular asset and one which his team mate was never able to master. His mastery of the Pirelli tyres has also been second to none, but next year comes a change. I think in previous years this may have been a worry, but I do believe he continues to get better and he learns so quickly I don’t think he has anything to fear. No, the rest of the field need to fear him as I think he proved this year he’s the best in the world. 



all photo's taken from autosport.com

Monday 23 December 2013

Drivers of the year 2013 - Q2

For numbers 23 to 17 please click here

And so we continue our countdown from 16 to 11...

16. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)



The latest flying Finn flew under the radar for the majority of it. He actually had a pretty decent showing despite lacking some of the sparkle that was expected as he was often out raced by Maldonado despite being ahead on the grid. Still an exceptional showing in wet qualifying in Canada when he started third and an even better dry top 10 start in the USA followed by four points for eighth marked him out as one to watch. He’ll be even better next season, hopefully Williams will provide the car for him to shine as much as people thing he is capable of.

15. Jules Bianchi (Marussia)


Marussia had the jump on Caterham for the early stages of the season and Jules Bianchi took full advantage of that. While dominating his team mate, he also took on and beat the Caterham’s even when they overtook them in development. It wasn’t as noticeable once Caterham were more fully in control so he began to be a bit overlooked but it was a great display for the Ferrari young driver. Perhaps the only surprise is that his performances this year didn’t yield a move up the grid, so slightly disappointingly he’s at Marussia for another year.

14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)


I thought it was a bit unfair of Red Bull to seemingly so easily dismiss Vergne as a replacement for Mark Webber. Vergne for much of the time is a perfectly competent driver with great potential, he may be out-qualified most of the time by his now ex-team mate Daniel Ricciardo, but often they’ll end up on track together with Vergne ahead. If Vergne can find an extra bit of speed in qualifying he can move up the grid. With GP3 champion Daniil Kvyat joining him he’ll have to up his game if he wants his career to move on up.

13. Paul di Resta (Force India)

It looks like di Resta is going to fall out of Formula 1 for next season, it’ll be a shame if he can find a way back because he deserves to be competing. Remember this is the guy who beat Sebastian Vettel when they were in Formula 3 together. But the thing is he does himself no favours with his I’m owed attitude that sometimes comes across in the press. His public perception isn’t great and it didn’t help that this season despite a positive start to the year there was a terrible middle of the year when Force India couldn’t get a handle on the tyres; for four consecutive races di Resta had incidents too.



Hopefully he’ll bounce back, there’s too many drivers competing that perhaps shouldn’t be there, but despite this when you’ve been in F1 for three years and you don’t look like you’re progressing, you’re lucky to have to been in F1 for three years.

12. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)


Ricciardo got into Q3 nine times in the 2013 season. That’s five more times than his team mate Vergne did and that’s pretty much why he’s the one going to Red Bull. It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on against Vettel there, was he picked because they believe he’ll do a good enough back up job, or as some people suspect he can grow into a superstar himself. His qualifying indicates he’s fast enough, his race performances sometimes seem to show he can’t maintain that pace, but that could just be because he can manage to squeeze more out of the car over one lap than it’s capable of doing for 70. 

Whatever, there are still questions to be answer but it’s going to be fascinating to see if he can manage to put some pressure on Vettel in the German’s own team.

11.  Sergio Perez (McLaren)


To have a McLaren driver down in only 11th spot is an indication that the driver may have not performed to expectations but that also yet again McLaren have produced a dodgy car, except this one wasn’t just dodgy, it was a bit rubbish.

Perez started off quietly this year as he found his feet, but I thought he actually drove rather well. He had some problems but it was a learning year and he definitely displayed some fight and not an insignificant amount of pace too. 

Jenson Button may have out-scored him but Perez actually won qualifying 10-9. No points gained there but it showed that in many ways he was the equal and certainly in the latter few races of the campaign he was the go to man for McLaren’s points scoring. It’s a shame he won’t get another year in a better McLaren as exciting rookie and Renault 3.5 World Series Champion Kevin Magnussen takes over but at least he stays on with Force India.

For the top 10 please click here

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Sunday 22 December 2013

Drivers of the year 2013 - Q1

Over the next few days I will be counting down the best drivers of the year in a three stage format pretty much exactly like qualifying. Accepting that it's not always the easiest to tell which drivers have shown better given the differences in car performance, but also allowing that in general the best drivers mostly end up in the best cars (with the exception of Nico Hulkenberg) then starting with 23 to 17 here are the first drivers to be knocked out of possibly (but probably not) the definitive Formula 1 driver list of the year.


23. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus)


A bit of a squandered opportunity for Heikki as he replaced Kimi Raikkonen for the final two races of the year. One Q3 appearance and two dreadful starts didn’t make the impression he wanted.

22. Max Chilton (Marussia)

It was a solid rookie year, in fact he finished all the races which is something a first year driver has never done before. It still doesn’t stop me wanting to put him last as mostly he finished there and was completely trounced by his team mate Jules Bianchi. The most infuriating thing was the likes of the BBC and Sky making excuses for him; even though he did improve as the year went on if he finds himself with a seat next year it’s another poor reflection on F1 that money talks just a bit too much.

21. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham)

There was a perception that van der Garde was being dominated by Pic as much as Chilton was by Bianchi but that was not the case at all. He was outstanding in the wet qualifying of Belgium and actually out-qualified Pic 10-9 over the season. Deserves another year as he seemed to be getting better.



20. Charles Pic (Caterham)

It is of course very difficult to judge the drivers from the newer teams as they were consistently about a second off even the slowest of the midfield runners. So despite his qualifying against van der Garde the fact that Pic was leading 8-4 when both Caterhams finished the races showed that Pic had it when it counted this year.



19. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)

Out in Q1 10 times isn’t exactly a great advertisement for future job prospects. But in truth his first year while patchy wasn’t that bad in my eyes at least. Admittedly he had trouble putting an entire weekend together but when looked at closely he often wasn’t that far off his highly thought of team mate Nico Hulkenberg. The second half was when he really came alive when Sauber made the car more driveable, while his seventh place in Japan was a fantastic drive. 

Again with the lack of testing in F1 at the moment, he deserved at least one more year which Sauber obliged by not employing a barely born but rich Russian Sergey Sirotkin.

18. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)

After 2012’s heroics Williams produced a dog of a car which left dear Pastor frustrated. It didn’t help that his rookie team mate was consistently out qualifying him. His race experience told on Sundays when he more often than not finished in front but his criticism of Williams when he knew he was leaving was poor and his single point for the year was equally so. His move to Lotus next year is defined by money even though on his day he can compete with the best.

17. Adrian Sutil (Force India)

Sutil made quite the comeback in Australia after being away for a year with a spectacular performance that rather overshadowed his team mate Paul di Resta. It’s strange that for the majority of the year Sutil lingered behind di Resta and didn’t have nearly as many highlight showings, but Sutil is still the one with the higher profile and by the looks of it the one to stay in Formula as he’s signed for Sauber. He’s a good solid driver, but despite the odd standout showing, he’s never going to give you that spark every race.



For 16 - 11 click here 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Wednesday 11 December 2013

'Absurd' double points rule overshadows some good intentions


A few days ago the F1 Strategy Group and the Formula One Commission agreed a number of changes to the regulations to be implemented for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

From next season drivers will be able to choose their own numbers from #2 to #99 which will remain with them for the rest or the entirety of their careers. The champion driver will have the option of carrying #1. Nothing wrong with that, I think it’s a good idea. Much as Valentino Rossi has made the #46 his own in Moto GP or Wayne Gretzky made #99 his own in the world of Ice Hockey, it’ll be nice to have drivers associated with a permanent number.

Nigel Mansell was often associated with Red #5
Not least for those ardent fans who like to be up to date with merchandise of their favourite driver, they won’t have to worry too much about a driver changing teams or being higher in the Constructors championship as they’ll always now be associated with that number. So yes, good idea, well done Strategy Group.

To be implemented in 2015 is a budget cap, that budget has yet to be decided, but it is thought that it’ll be relatively high to start off with and reduce over a number of years. Whether the teams will agree with it or if it is able to be policed properly is very much open for debate but it is essential that Formula 1 brings the costs down.

You can see by the fact a top team like Lotus needs to take a driver with a budget (Pastor Maldonado) while missing out on Nico Hulkenberg who is once again stuck in the midfield because he doesn’t have any money behind him. This situation is unacceptable so a budget cap is the way forward.

However, with over a year before it is due to be introduced I’ll be interested to see if it goes any further beyond a nice idea. Teams with the spending power of Ferrari and Red Bull probably aren’t so keen to give up their advantage but for once I’d like to see the teams work together for the good of Formula 1 rather than their own self-interest to make it a more competitive and profitable environment for all the competitors and have a guarantee that each driver has been picked because of talent not how much sponsorship they can bring with them.

Finally, and I’ll try not to get carried away with how stupid an idea this is but to start from next season, the final race will be worth double points. Yes, that’s right in a reaction to Sebastian Vettel wrapping up the title with three races to go, it has been decided to jerk that knee to try and make sure the title fight goes down to the wire.

A budget cap with teams all competing on a level playing field is likely to create more competitive results over a season rather than saying ‘I know, let’s keep the title alive by wasting a driver’s entire seasons work so he can be beaten in the finale by a freak result by a driver who may well have been 49 points behind. That’s nearly two wins worth of points, but in the super finale all the 18 races beforehand doesn’t matter.

As Vettel has said, it’s ‘absurd’, and deserves to be written out of the rules before the season starts. As idea’s go it’ll just make a mockery of the results from the rest of the year, why should one race be worth more points? It’s artificial and quite frankly a bit condescending towards the fans of the sport.

Formula 1 and sports fans in general of course want a competitive year, but most don’t want it to be fake. I think they can just about cope with the DRS gimmick, it’s a bit Playstation, but passing was a problem, so they solved it, it doesn’t take away from overall tradition of the sport which this ruling does.

Formula 1 is about scoring the most points over the year with each event worth the same amount of points. If it goes down to the last race and someone wins it because of the double points, then they quite literally have won it because of the last race being worth more points, not because they fought to be within a wins worth of points that every other event gives out.

A driver with a 49 point lead going into the finale will quite rightly feel robbed if he then loses because of an incident or mechanical failure, and what with the new technical regulations a mechanical problem will be far more likely than in recent years.

This isn’t Formula 1, this is ridiculous and I truly hope they have a complete rethink before 2014 gets underway. Other than that, I am quite looking forward to seeing what numbers the top drivers choose.

all photo's taken from autosport.com