Team orders aren't that bad for F1

There’s a lot of talk about the team orders controversy that occurred in the Malaysian Grand Prix after Sebastian Vettel ignored an instruction to hold position behind Mark Webber. Let's get one thing straight first, if anything this incident just enhanced the drama and story of what looks likely to be a thrilling F1 season.

In the F1 press and in the national press there seems to be a lot of talk that team orders are a bad thing, but yet are also slating Vettel for ignoring those team orders which seems slightly hypocritical.

What we saw yesterday was an exciting race and yes Vettel’s behaviour was distasteful, but it’s also got a lot of people talking about the incident, and in fact might make a fair few more people tune in at the next race on the off chance that Webber might shove Vettel off the road.

Of course we’ve had a lot of chatter in the world of twitter accusing Formula 1 of not being a sport because of the use of team orders. Well to them I say that’s a load of rubbish. Obviously I would prefer a fair race to the finish, but despite the public perception this sport isn’t just about the drivers, there’s up to 500 people or more back at the factory working all hours to prepare the cars and want to win just as much.

The constructors championship is very important to these people and to the team in general as they get a great deal of prize money and other assorted benefits depending on where they finish. If Vettel when trying to squeeze through that gap had taken out Webber yesterday and himself, then instead of a 26 point lead in the constructors, they’d have been third and perhaps it might have cost them the title by the end of the year, effecting many peoples bonuses etc.

And it’s not as if they hadn’t been racing, it was only the last 12 laps when they were asked to call it off to preserve the tyres as Red Bull had reason to be worried they wouldn’t make it to the finish. Yes it would have been much better if they hadn’t needed to do that, and generally they don’t but overall the teams interests come first.

Anyhow when people hark back to the bygone days of Formula 1 they seem to forget that in the 50s some drivers handed over their cars to their number 1 driver. It’s been going on since the beginning, it is part of the sport. Not the best part of the sport, but part of it nevertheless and used by countless teams including Ferrari and McLaren.

Perhaps worse though is that Sebastian Vettel ignored those orders. It’s unlikely Red Bull will sanction him, after all he’s probably their best shot at the drivers title, but he is facing further discussions with the team.

They’ll be those who support his disregard for team orders and applaud his will to win, then again it was against a driver who’d been reassured twice that Vettel would not attack him, so hardly a fair fight. In truth Vettel made a petulant selfish choice which has brought his team into disrepute and made him look like a bit of a spoilt brat.

However, if he wins the title by 7 points at the end of the season who will criticise him then? World Champions are often the most selfish of creatures driven by their desire to win at all costs. It’s not morally right sometimes, but in some ways what exactly do you expect?

Whatever though, team orders are part of Formula 1, we saw an exciting end and a controversial decision, this is also part of Formula 1, and it’s got a lot of people talking about it. Bernie will be pleased.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Vettel steals Malaysian win

"Good job, Seb. Looks like you wanted it bad enough. Still you've got some explaining to do."

Hasn’t he just. Sebastian Vettel took his 27th career victory in a gripping and controversial race as team orders  dominate the headlines. His Red Bull team mate Mark Webber exited the pits for the final time on lap 44 of 56 just holding off pole sitter Vettel to keep the lead of a race he’d been heading since the change from intermediates in the early stages after making a decent start for once from 5th to lie 2nd in the early stages.

Webber had been told to turn his engine down and look after the tyres. He was assured that Vettel had been issued with the same instruction. For reasons known only to Vettel (and there has been no talk of the radio being down) he failed to understand this instruction, at least he claims he was unaware of this as he set about launching an attack on the Australian.

Over the radio the team pleaded with Vettel not to be ‘stupid’ as he mercilessly closed in on Webber, he dived to the inside on the start finish straight coming perilously close to the pit wall. Webber held on around the outside into turn 1, keeping the inside into turn 2 and the lead. 

But Vettel kept on pushing and despite Webber being on the inside for turn 4 where he could legitimately have pushed Vettel wide on to the kerbs (and in hindsight you feel he should have done to make a point) he gave Vettel enough room to drive round the outside and into a lead he wouldn’t give up.

There they finished after an intense race in which until the final pit stops the top 4 cars had been circulating within five seconds of each other, the Mercedes cars showing good pace throughout until fuel issues and their own team order controversy scuppered anymore progress.

So what are we to make of this? Certainly over the years of these two being team mates Vettel has had his share of team instructions going in his favour so today Vettel disobeyed what was really a fair instruction. Red Bull had been worried about tyre degradation all weekend, and after Australia had proved they were a bit hard on the tyres they wanted to secure their one-two finish without risk, especially with the Mercedes stalking them quite closely for most of the race.

Vettel apologised after the race but this doesn’t make a difference to the result so is quite meaningless. He isn’t going to give up a win if there is no need to, he’s not that kind of driver, he’s there to win and he showed today exactly how much he wants to win by defying his own team despite explicit instructions.

On the podium Webber explained: "After the last stop the team told me the race was over and we turned the engines down and go to the end. The team made their decision. Seb made his own decision and he will have protection as usual."

The protection comment is the one to talk about, because undoubtedly he will not be sanctioned for his transgression. If anything it makes you wonder why the team did not order Vettel to hand the place back if the team had issued an instruction to maintain position. Perhaps they know Vettel will again be their main chance of the championship, then again Webber would have been on equal points with Vettel had he won.

Team orders are always a touchy subject and of course there are two sides to the story. Many fans hate team orders and believe the drivers should always be allowed to race whatever the circumstances but a team does have to protect their own interests too. 

It also should be pointed out this is very different from a driver being told to give up a position in the early stage of a season or if one driver is out of the equation in a championship battle and is asked to move over. 

Webber had stayed out longer on the intermediate tyres and passed Vettel fairly during the early stops. Then there was an agreement to hold position after the final stops to preserve their finish. So they are allowed to race to a certain point, at that point the teams interests take precedence. This is often used throughout the grid, especially if the team know of some problems which could affect their position. 

Vettel is a racer and has 3 world titles, he probably, whether rightly or wrongly believes he owns Red Bull and can do whatever he likes. To a certain degree he is right, but he’s still young and will look back on this as an immature decision which will have upset his team after all they’ve done for him. He might take a bit of pain for this from the management which is no less than he deserves, because whatever you think, Webber had turned his engine down, so what we witnessed wasn’t a fair fight for the win which in the end is the point, Webber didn’t lose, it was stolen. 

Whatever though, I can’t help but feel this is what a driver who wins world championships would do. It’s not always right but the very best often push the envelope of acceptability to breaking point.  However Red Bull is going to be feeling a lot of tension tonight because of Vettel; Webber looked angry and upset while Vettel still appeared defiant despite his apology. This will take team Principal Christian Horner some time to calm the waters.



Mercedes have their own team squabble

Nico Rosberg pleaded with team principal Ross Brawn to be allowed to pass Lewis Hamilton for the final podium spot. Unfortunately for him Brawn had already made the decision and wasn’t about to back down now. 

In the radio communication you could hear Rosberg sounding more and more desperate as Lewis got slower having been told to conserve fuel. This was a similar situation to Red Bull’s but in this case Rosberg did what he was told. But as Lewis admitted later, Rosberg was the faster driver in this race, just as he actually looked in Australia too.

Like Vettel, Lewis apologised after the race but he actually had nothing to be sorry for, he was following team instructions and like Rosberg he didn’t break them. But Rosberg I think should feel a bit hard done by. He didn’t seem to be in as much trouble as Lewis, and in those circumstances these are the breaks you get in motor racing, so it seems like they could have let him through.

Then again Mercedes are on form now, and this was a good result for them. They’ve really made a giant step forward compared to last year and this time I don’t see them falling away. The whole array of various technical directors has really made a difference and I can see them continuing to improve.

It was a generally impressive display as both Mercedes stalked the Red Bulls with Lewis Hamilton even getting ahead of Vettel at the third stops before the Red Bull zipped past with the aid of DRS. 

Lewis Hamilton appears to have settled in well too although he got a little confused at the second stops when he went to stop at the McLaren garage and had to be waved through. One other thing is that Rosberg looks really good against him. Even though he has been out qualified twice, his stock is certainly rising which will make the decision to hold station burn just that little bit more for Nico.

McLaren can see some light

Jenson Button retired today while Sergio Perez could only finish 9th to pick up another 2 points for the Woking squad. Seems like a bad day again and I guess it was, but mainly because they actually looked to have some good pace.

Button reckons he could have challenged Mercedes for a podium if it wasn’t for a dodgy pit stop (old problems returning) when his right front was coming off and he had to stop in the pit lane. It took an age for him then to be wheeled back to the garage.

Once he’d resumed a lap down, he kept pace with the leaders and was often quicker. As Button generally 
is, he was great in the early mixed conditions and had risen to 5th from 7th on the grid. He couldn’t quite hold onto the leaders but as the track dried he set competitive times. The podium might have been a bit optimistic but McLaren certainly look to be beginning to understand their new car at last. Hopefully by China they’ll be making it a 5 way hunt for glory.

Perez had a good drive but ran out of grip towards the end making a late pit stop but he did set fastest lap and had a number of exciting battles with Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber and the Lotus’.

Alonso crashes out

Fernando Alonso looked particularly up for it today, you can tell that much even if he did only last for a lap. He made a good start from third and was challenging Vettel into turn 2 when he locked up and knocked his front wing so it was half hanging down.

Still he maintained the pace, holding off Webber, but surely the team knew it was inevitable that the wing would fall off? They told the Spaniard to stay out, perhaps trying to hang on until the track was dry enough for slicks. 

It didn’t work at the start of lap 2 as Webber passed, the wing came off got trapped underneath the front wheels and he was powerless to avoid going straight on and into the gravel. Not his mistake, but I’m surprised Alonso took the risk and didn’t just pit on his own accord. He showed perfectly how to build championships last year even if he did miss out. He now lies 22 points behind Vettel already, but this year he’s got the car to take victories, he won’t be worried yet.

Rest of the top 10

Felipe Massa continued his good form this weekend, again out qualifying Fernando Alonso to take a front row grid slot. Although he looked a bit uncomfortable in the early damp stages he still finished 5th after making his final pit stop and charging back past the Lotus’.

The Lotus’ indeed were next up with Romain Grosjean looking the more impressive today as he moved up from 11th on the grid to finish 6th. It was a mature performance and included a great move on Nico Hulkenberg into turn 5 which was brave indeed.

Kimi Raikkonen couldn’t continue his great form from Australia. In the damp conditions his car looked difficult, but after concluding an epic battle with Hulkenberg he wound up 7th to score a valuable 6 points. Consistency is everything, and I do see him being in the title hunt to the end; you never know how many points you’ll win by. 

Hulkenberg got as high as 5th, but ended up in 8th, but it was still a strong result from 12th at the start. He was great in the wet, and continued to battle hard with various people all afternoon.

The final point went to Jean-Eric Vergne who quietly made his way up the order. In part down to retirements but still you got to finish to score and he did that well. Toro Rosso will be happy to score having had a troubled start to the year.

Jules Bianchi and other notables

Put him in a top car now. He is head and shoulders above the other three back of the grid drivers and is proving very impressive indeed. Marussia are very lucky to have him, although I would still like to see how he would have compared against Timo Glock.

Williams poor start to the year continues, Valtteri Bottas finished 11th which wasn’t a bad run admittedly, but Pastor Maldonado went off and then had a KERs failure. 

And after the heroics of Melbourne, Force India couldn’t even get their left front tyres on in Malaysia. A promising result, particularly for Paul di Resta was left ruined as a new nut and gun system for their pit stops proved to be catastrophic. Both cars had to retire as a result.

After all that, time for a break

So the last two weekends have produced some rather frenetic racing. Three weeks now until the Chinese Grand Prix where it’ll be extremely interesting to see how things have been settled at Red Bull, whether Lotus can bounce back to the top, if Massa can continue to outpace Alonso in qualifying, can Mercedes fight to the finish and will McLaren be back on the pace. There’s so much to look forward too.

LAT photo's from autosport.com, all others from planetf1.com

Too easy for Kimi in Australia

It was all looking rather ominous in Australia as Red Bull locked out the front row on Sunday morning after a rain delayed qualifying session. Even though the weather continued to be on the inclement side, the track began to dry and once again the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel came to the fore to score another pole position.

He rocketed away at the start too taking a huge lead by the end of the first lap, but this wasn’t to be another cruise to the flag for the German, in fact it wasn’t to be his win at all. In testing it was thought Red Bull had the one lap pace but in race conditions everything would be much tighter, Lotus particularly looked strong with its tyres, and so it proved as Kimi Raikkonen came through from 7^th on the grid to take his 20^th career victory in what he described as one of his easiest wins.

All last season they were described as the dark horses of the championship. Admittedly we are in the extreme early stages, but this horse is looking like it could be about to take centre stage.

Kimi got away well, keeping to the outside into turn one to move into 5^th place and immediately start to hassle Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. After a few attempts he got him around the outside into turn 13, a great move that then set him up nicely behind Vettel and the Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso who were hounding the Red Bull in the opening stint.

After the first round of pit stops to get rid of the quickly graining super softs and switch to the medium compound for the rest of the race, the order remained the same, but here was where Kimi used the Lotus’ advantage with tyres to exquisite effect. As the others made their second round of pit stops Kimi just kept on going.

Quickly the others realised the Finn was going to use the pit lane one time less, but with their cars unable to manage the tyres quite as well there was nothing they could do about the relentless march of the Lotus.

Even after the final stops, with Alonso having now slotted into second place and on fresher rubber, Kimi always kept him at arm’s length banging in the fastest lap a few laps from the finish as if to say, don’t even bother.

I’m not sure Alonso would understand the term don’t bother, but he couldn’t catch him and in the end Raikkonen was able to cruise to the flag and take an early championship lead.

Now these weren’t the kind of conditions we can expect at most races, it was a lot cooler than expected and in Malaysia where it should be a great deal hotter, things can change, however there’s no reason to expect Lotus won’t be kind on their tyres there too.

This is a brilliant starting point for the team from Enstone and as I’ve mentioned in these blogs before, their cycle of championship glory is almost due. Too early to speculate of course on the title story, but that performance will certainly make their rivals take a great deal of notice of the former dark horse.

Adrian Sutil flies after gap year

A starring role for the recently re-signed Force India driver, returning to his former team after a year away and not exactly encouraging for his team mate Paul di Resta. Sutil might have been out qualified by his team mate but in truth he looked the quicker driver for most of the weekend.

He started outside the top 10 so had the option of what tyres to start on. He chose the medium tyre and made it work for him. Sutil was in the lead of the Grand Prix twice as others pitted around him, but what was impressive was that he led so convincingly, even pulling away from the likes of Vettel at one point.

He looked like he might manage a podium at one point, but the pace of the top teams eventually told and when he switched to the super soft tyre 11 laps from home he dropped dramatically as the tyres just couldn’t last. Still he ended up 7^th, not bad indeed for someone who’d been forced out just a year earlier and had only 3 days of winter testing.

di Resta blamed being stuck behind the McLaren of Jenson Button for his failure to beat his team mate, but I think he was fairly outclassed today. He certainly won’t want that to last if he wants to step up to a top team, however 8^th was a decent result and an excellent first race of the year for Force India.

Ferrari looking strong, Massa looking quick again

I think there’s potential for some very interesting times at Ferrari. Obviously we all know that Alonso gets priority at this team, but still it seemed to me rather off for him to be given pit stop priority over Massa and on Felipe’s current form, how long before this becomes a problem for the Brazilian?

Felipe out-qualified his team mate for the third consecutive race and was ahead and challenging Vettel in front. Surely the leading driver should be given first option in this situation?

Of course that wasn’t to be, at the second round of pit stops Alonso boxed two laps earlier enabling him to jump both his team mate and Vettel and then later to charge round the outside of Sutil after he exited the pits to set himself up with a chance of victory. Of course we don’t know the ins and outs of it all and perhaps Massa might have been going for a 2 stop strategy, but let’s face it, it’s doubtful.

However, Massa should take great encouragement from a strong weekend where he ended up with 4^th and he’ll hope to continue this form in Malaysia and give Fernando something to think about.

Of course we all know how great Alonso is, I just think it’ll be fascinating to see how he’d react after three years of dominating Massa, if the Brazilian were suddenly to consistently find the form that nearly made him world champion in 2008.

Alonso of course grasps every opportunity and despite probably being a little disappointed not to give Kimi more of a challenge towards the end he’ll be delighted with 2^nd and even more so that Ferrari are well on the leading pace right from the start of the year. He didn’t need that last season to nearly beat Vettel to the title, so this is a fantastic start to the year in comparison.

Red Bull dominate, then don’t

For all the world it looked like they were going to thrash the rest of the field. After practice and then qualifying the race was already sewn up for them, all they had to do was finish. But despite jumping into the lead from the start, Vettel couldn’t maintain the pace of the Lotus or Ferrari and was actually quite happy to keep Massa off the podium with a decent 3^rd place finish.

Mark Webber meanwhile suffered his traditional start malfunction and dropped down the field, and he just wasn’t quick enough to fight back after suffering a KERs issue, eventually finishing 6^th. Of course as I’ve mentioned these aren’t comparable conditions to what will be experienced for most of the year and this track defies comparison but it gives the rest of the grid hope that Red Bull are not going to saunter away with the titles by the end of summer.

It had been predicted that on race pace the top teams looked extremely close but I don’t think anyone thought that after locking out the front row they’d fall backwards especially after the threat of rain rescinded.

Still it’s good for the sport that Red Bull aren’t looking like they can walk away with it, but they started slowly last year and came back strong. It was a decent showing and they’re still quick and they’re only going to get faster. A lot faster.

Oh McLaren, not again

It’s becoming a habit of this team to shoot themselves in the foot. Every few years or so they bring out a dud of a car and what with the basic team errors and unreliability that stopped them claiming the titles last year you’ve got to begin to question what exactly is going on?

For a top team of their quality it shouldn’t be forgotten that they’ve only won one title this century. That’s just not good enough for them. You do wonder what they thought they were doing by changing their design philosophy for a set of regulations which will be wholly changed for 2014, especially when they ended last season with the fastest car.

Unless they can solve their problems quickly they might have to consider updating their 2012 car and bringing it in for the European season. Of course this is an overreaction, McLaren are brilliant at developing a car and in a few races time all might be different as they unlock its secrets. However, what with the narrow operating window of Jenson Button, if they fall too far behind then I can’t see them getting back on terms in the title hunt.

Button did well to qualify in the top 10 and was great as always in the mixed conditions of qualifying, it’s saying something though that they were probably happy to grab 2 points with a 9^th place finish. Sergio Perez’s debut for McLaren ended with 11^th place. Probably not quite what he was expecting when he joined!

Rest of the top 10

Former McLaren man Lewis Hamilton probably thinks he dodged a bullet by leaving when he did as he impressed on his Mercedes debut. Despite being outperformed in the wet conditions of qualifying by his team mate Nico Rosberg, as the track dried he showed his class and qualified 3^rd. He attempted a two stop strategy like Kimi, but his tyres couldn’t live with it and eventually faded a little to 5^th. Rosberg dropped out with an as yet unidentified problem.

A very encouraging start for Mercedes though, they look quick in qualifying and don’t just fall away on race day, a significant step up from last season. This could be a good year for them, certainly wins should come their way. Rosberg will also be happy, he might actually be able to live with the speed of Hamilton, and that’s pretty notable.

Romain Grosjean couldn’t match Kimi in the second Lotus. He held onto the final point after a pretty unremarkable race. He’s a quick driver, I hope after the adventures of last year he’s not become too tentative with his racing.

Other mentions, Nico Hulkenberg might be looking enviously at his former Force India team as Sauber got off to a slow start, he didn’t even start the race due to hydraulic issues. Williams failed to shine in Australia as Pastor Maldonado described the car as un-driveable proving this by spinning off. His rookie team mate Valtteri Bottas made an under the radar start, but moved up two positions from his grid slot.

The Toro Rosso’s looked quick in wet conditions, in the dry not so much. Jules Bianchi looks awesome in the Marussia. This team look to have made decent progress, especially in Bianchi’s hands. Max Chilton is going to have to go some to get anywhere near his team mate. Caterham will want their updates to come sooner than Spain.

One week to round two

Malaysia is next up and it’s probably going to be all change ahead. Kimi has laid down a marker, but it wasn’t a dominant performance, Ferrari and Red Bull will be challenging for victory next week, and Mercedes will be lurking especially with Hamilton.

It’s going to be a good year.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

It's time to get serious for Fomula 1 2013

If you watched the end of the last pre-season test you can’t have failed to get excited. Practically all the cars were out on track, some doing late race simulations, some doing a qualifying run, some piling into the pits for pit stop practice.

This was their last chance at getting track time before the teams ship out to Australia for the first race of the 2013 season. Yes in a week and half, 16 weeks since Sebastian Vettel secured his third straight title the lights will have gone out and they’ll be racing on the edge for the 64^th Formula 1 world championship.

So which teams seem to have used their winter down time the best? Most teams appear to have gone for an evolution of their 2012 car, what with the dramatic rule changes that 2014 will bring, this seems to be the most sensible option rather than opting for a whole new design concept.

Testing is never going to give you a clear picture of who is doing what. Most teams will run variable fuel loads. Even when fitting the softest tyre compound for a short run, you don’t actually know just how much they’ve filled up the car, no one wants to reveal their hand too early; secrecy is everything in testing.

Tyres are going to be a big talking point again, Pirelli have brought a new construction of their compounds and in the colder temperatures of winter testing degradation has been high. In warmer conditions they should last a bit longer, but still expect a few extra pit stops. Anyway after keeping a beady eye on proceedings and scouring the F1 press, I think there are a few assumptions that can be made.

Red Bull lead the way

First of all, it’s looks like it’s going to be close, very close. Last year’s champions Red Bull look like they might have the edge and they’ll certainly start this year more competitive than last, despite Vettel’s assertion that they still have a lot of work to do and cannot be sure just how good the car is as the tyres are making definite conclusions difficult.

When running though, the car just looks bolted to the road like no other. Technical director Adrian Newey will always be the first to the find the last ounce of down force and I don’t think you can look past Red Bull as the team to beat at the moment. There were suggestions that after the effort spent on grabbing the title in 2012, they may have taken their eye off the ball this year. I don’t think so, they’ll be there, they already had a good package and I think they’ll fly. Expect Vettel and Mark Webber to be near the top of the time sheets in Melbourne.

Ferrari start stronger

Ferrari is way ahead compared to where they were this time last year. They were shocking at the start of last year but things look to be coming together for them better this year. It still doesn’t seem like they’ve solved all their problems. In their test coverage Sky pointed out that the Ferrari seemed to be suffering a few tractions problems which won’t help them with looking after their tyres.

But as last year proved Fernando Alonso just needs a car near the pace to get involved in the title battle and they’ve made a much better start for 2013. Alonso himself feels confident and has said he’ll be better than last year. That’s enough to send shivers down the spines of his rivals. Felipe Massa looks confident too, he’ll be hoping to put Alonso under a bit of pressure, and when it’s from a team mate the Spaniard doesn’t always take it too well.

The closest challengers

However, the closest teams to Red Bull at the moment appear to be Lotus and Mercedes. Again analysis from Sky seemed to suggest that they might be slightly off Red Bull’s qualifying pace, but in race pace simulations they’re more than a match.

That bodes well for both teams. Kimi Raikkonen was arguably the most consistent of all drivers last year despite two years off, so with one year of experience back I expect him to be even quicker and lead the team to a few more victories.

Championship challenger? It remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t not back him to be in the hunt. Romain Grosjean has one lifeline left, too many crashes at the start of the season and it’ll be game over, but he’s quick enough to win, and so is the car. At the moment the black and gold cars look to be the main challengers to Red Bull victory.

Lewis Hamilton has to be pleased with the work done so far on his Mercedes. 

Certainly the car looks quick over one lap, and fairly consistent over a race run. There still seem to be issues with tyre degradation though, which after last year is something you’d have thought they’d have corrected.

Still Lewis said he’d be happy with points but I’d be surprised if both he and Nico Rosberg aren’t fighting for wins on occasion and perhaps more consistently than that.

McLaren looking inconsistent

McLaren are the only team to have started with a new design concept. Strange really as they pretty much had the fastest car last year, and definitely ended the season quicker than anyone else. You would have thought continue along that theme, but apparently not.

It was quick out of the box, but Jenson Button has pointed out it is quick one lap, not so quick the next. They seem to be having trouble working out just how to get the best out of their new car. It is also taking them a while to alter set up due to having changed their suspension layout from a push-rod to a pull-rod, copying Ferrari along this line of thinking. But it does result in extra time needing to be taken to make changes.

McLaren will be near the top, they always are but I have a feeling it’ll be a bit hit and miss. They also need their drivers Button and newcomer Sergio Perez to lift their game in qualifying, both often underperformed in 2012. However, Australia is an odd track and often doesn’t lay out the definitive pecking order so don’t be surprised to see Button win as he has done for 3 out of the last 4 years.

Tight in the midfield

The midfield pack looks close again. With only minor changes to the regulations we could be in line for a few more surprise results from the lower order teams as they have far more to gain than the bigger teams who will already have pushed these rules to the limit.

I believe Williams head the pack here, Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas are exciting by the gains made by the Oxfordshire squad. Really they should have been probably sixth in the constructors last year instead of eighth given their pace most of the year, but some drivers will crash a lot!

I think if they’ve gone the right way, they could again pluck out a victory. Force India I think lead Sauber, who look a bit unsure of themselves. With Adrian Sutil back for Force India together again with Paul di Resta, I see this team developing far quicker than Sauber who have a rookie in Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg who is a star, but can he alone moved the team forward.

Don’t really see why he left Force India to be honest, if anything he might have dropped down the pecking order. Toro Rosso look like they’ll be more of a challenger this year, they’ve set some impressive times and look consistent.

At the back

No change at the back really apart from the loss of HRT and Marussia looking much quicker than Caterham who say their main new package will come for the 5^th round in Spain. So a little change then.

Marussia will also be running KERs for the first time this season, sourced from Williams. It’s already making a difference. Both teams though are running pretty much all rookie drivers with the exception of Charles Pic who has one years worth of experience. I know times are tough but the loss of Timo Glock for Marussia and Heikki Kovalainen for Caterham is surely going to be a big blow if they want to develop further, but when you need money I guess. Points? No, I don’t think so.

Rash title predictions

So there it is; the main point to make is that it will be close. Early title predictions would be stupid so here are mine. A Vettel and Alonso battle to the end would be great as their rivalry intensifies. I think we can safely say these two will be involved in some way. So that’s not rash that’s just predictable.

A more reckless forecast I think is Kimi. He hasn’t had the best of testing seasons, but he’s a no nonsense kind of guy and this won’t affect him. I think he is a realistic contender, no not even that, he will be a championship challenger. Lewis Hamilton is the quickest out there and despite the softly softly approach and how poor Mercedes got last year, they look to have made giant strides in performance; Hamilton as an outside optimistic bet.

No one from McLaren? Jenson Button hates an uncertain car, he needs confidence so if they are unsure of how to access its potential, that’s not a good sign. However, if they do and they had the foresight to build it more for Button, then he can be great.

Testing is over, next stop Melbourne, Australia where the lights go out and Formula 1 2013 is go and the answers revealed, it’s going to be awesome.

all photo's taken from autosport.com