F1 2012 so far - Part 3

With five different teams and seven different drivers winning races already, the 2012 season has seen an unprecedented level of competition at the very front. Compare that to ten years ago in 2002, when just three different teams won a race and only four even made it to the podium, and it’s clear that the new rules have evened things out and allowed a closer level of competition than ever before. And yet the five teams who have most recently won F1 world championships, namely Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes (previously Brawn) and Lotus (nee Renault), still lead the way.

The most surprising performer of the top teams, in a season full of shocks, has been Lotus. With a new team name and new driver line-up, and having only recently changed owners, they looked awfully like a team in transition. But future aims of a world title challenge are very nearly being achieved this season.

With Kimi Raikkonen on the driving strength, two things were likely – monosyllabic interviews and some feisty performances. Thankfully the latter has happened just as often as the former, despite Nelson Piquet Jr describing Raikkonen as “a little weak”. The championship the rest of us have been watching has seen Raikkonen close to victory (in Bahrain and Hungary especially) and he remains rightly confident of a title shot, although he could do with working on his qualifying performances relative to team mate Romain Grosjean.

The Frenchman has been a revelation, and proof of what can be achieved if a driver is given a second chance at F1 level – something many talented young drivers (Jan Magnussen, Giorgio Pantano, Marco Apicella et al) never had. Grosjean has outperformed Raikkonen at times, and looked particularly good in Valencia before mechanical problems intervened.

Three podiums is a fine return from the first 11 races, especially considering his lack of F1 experience which has contributed to a few offs (but by no means too many, despite Jackie Stewart’s insistence that he could teach Grosjean a thing or two). Lotus remain dark horses for the championship, as their car appears to work on every circuit and they have a new double DRS device in the pipeline which should serve them well in at Spa and Monza. They should certainly at least claim that hitherto elusive race win at some point before the end of the season.

Unlike Lotus, Mercedes have tasted victory this year, but unlike Lotus it’s hard to see them doing so again in the remainder of the season. Nico Rosberg’s long-overdue first triumph in China was a case of all the cards falling into place – a great drive from the German on a track he enjoys, a car with good straight line speed for the Shanghai circuit’s fast sections, and a chassis setup that worked the tyres just hard enough. Mercedes seem to have struggled with the round, black rubber things more than any other team this season, and this goes some way to explaining Rosberg’s erratic performances – he finished as low as 15th at Silverstone.

At least he’s actually finished most of the races – team mate Michael Schumacher has suffered a catalogue of failures, often when running in points positions. The elder German rolled back the years in Monaco with a superb pole, but was pushed back five places on the grid for clumsily running into Bruno Senna in the previous race in Spain. This sums up his season – flashes of speed mixed with some rookie-esque errors.

A slightly fortuitous podium in Valencia represented a long overdue change in luck for Schumacher, who always seemed to get the rub of the green in his ‘first career’. The jury is still out on whether he has done enough to stay on beyond the end of the season, although the decision appears to be in his 43 year old hands. Some signs of progress with the car in the second half of the season would help him make his mind up but, despite a myriad of designers, chassis development seems to have stalled. Mercedes have also suffered five mechanical retirements this season (one more than HRT) which is unforgivable for a top-five team in the modern era.

In contrast the Ferraris have been bullet-proof all year, with not a single mechanical DNF. The main problem to begin with was a lack of pace from the ugly F2012 car, with the team not confident they could even challenge for podiums. They reckoned without the continued genius of Fernando Alonso, who has scored in every race and won as early as Malaysia despite his recalcitrant machinery. The importance of that win in boosting team morale was incalculable, and the car has evolved into being genuinely capable of challenging for wins (at least in Alonso’s hands). His personal highlight was a slightly fortunate win in front of an adoring home crowd in Valencia.

Felipe Massa, by contrast, has had an abysmal year by any measure. Outqualified at every event by Alonso, the Brazilian has scored just 25 points compared to the Spaniard’s 164. Felipe hasn’t stood on the podium since the 2010 Korean GP – in that time, Alonso has been there 17 times. Massa simply hasn’t been good enough to compete, whatever the reason, and even a slight recent improvement has only resulted in a few top six finishes despite the advances made with the Ferrari car.

Everyone wants Massa to do well, but I can’t help feel he needs to leave Ferrari before we see anything like his best again (if ever). The Brazilian’s struggles mean the Constructors championship is out of the question, but Alonso holds a 40 point lead in the drivers’ standings. Don’t bet against him regaining the title after six years of trying, which would be the joint longest gap between title successes since Jack Brabham in the 1960s (and could well open the floodgates, Schumi early 2000s-style).

It’s almost as long since McLaren last tasted championship success – other than Lewis Hamilton’s triumph four years ago, the team hasn’t won a championship since the 1990s (having had the 2007 constructors crown taken off them in the wake of the ‘spygate’ scandal).  Hamilton responsible for so much of the team’s recent success, has re-found his form this season after a difficult 2011 just as the team have managed to produce a car which was competitive from the outset (not something they had achieved in the last few years).

The Briton has driven well at most races, despite bad luck in both Spanish races – in Barcelona he started last after running out of fuel in qualifying and in Valencia he was assaulted by Maldonado. Recent car improvements led to a dominant win in Hungary which sets him up nicely for the rest of the year. In contrast, after an excellent 2011 season Jenson Button has reverted to type. He claimed a good win in Australia but has since struggled with a car and tyres not exactly to his liking, and as a result has consistently been a few tenths slower per lap than Hamilton. Unfortunately, this season the field is so close that he’s often been mired in traffic because of this deficit.

Monaco was Button’s nadir – he was genuinely outpaced by Kovalainen’s Caterham all race. There have been some signs of improvement since, notably a fighting drive in Germany, but it’s far too late for his championship chances and maybe even McLaren’s in the constructors’ race. For the team to win either title they require both drivers to be competitive on a given weekend so that they can take points off their rivals (Alonso in particular). The elegant MP4/27 does seem to be back on the pace which may allow both drivers to do just that in the upcoming races.

So, what of the reigning champions? Well, despite leading the constructor’s race Red Bull haven’t had it all their own way this season and are no longer the dominant force despite another great Adrian Newey car. The fact that Sebastian Vettel is only 42 points off the driver’s championship lead is a minor miracle, given that he’s only been on the podium three times in total (and just once since his only win in Bahrain). That stat in itself is even more incredible, but shows just how hard the competition is in F1 this year.

Vettel was desperately unlucky in Valencia, where he would have won easily but for an engine fault, but has otherwise struggled to assert himself in quite the same way as the last two seasons. The qualifying stats versus Mark Webber (5-5 at present) support the general impression that Sebastian isn’t quite reaching the high standards he set in the last campaign.

Webber himself started the year with a string of four fourth places, and has added another since. His form in the races hasn’t been a lot better than last year in general, but with no one driver dominating his consistent results are enough to put him second in the standings. Unlike last year though, the Australian has been able to win races - his drives in Monaco and Silverstone were pretty dominant and he trounced Vettel on both occasions. To win the title, Webber needs to turn those days where he can’t win into podiums (his two victories are the only two rostrum visits he’s had).

Red Bull as a team look well placed to defend their Constructors’ crown, as they are the only top team (bar Lotus) who have both drivers operating at a similar level at most races. But the flipside of that is that the drivers will inevitably take points off each other, which will harm their pursuit of the driver’s championship and further strengthen Alonso’s grip on the drivers’ prize.

F1 2012 so far - Part 2

Ah, the Formula 1 midfield runners. Persevering without a hope of any significant glory, this plucky bunch of privateer teams keep plugging away against the manufacturers in the face of adversity, with only the odd sniff of a points finish as a reward for their endeavours.

At least during any ‘normal’ season they do – the sight of Pastor Maldonado happily spraying champagne from atop the podium in Barcelona should tell you that this season is far from a normal one. Still, the usual suspects do occupy positions six to nine in the Constructor’s standings – Sauber, Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso.

The best placed team of the bunch, Sauber, are actually knocking on the door of fifth place, which is some achievement for the relatively-underfunded Swiss team but not unprecedented. They produced competitive cars on a few occasions in the pre-BMW years (2001 springs to mind) and, like then, the team are currently reliant on a nascent driver line-up.

Sergio Perez has been one of the drivers of the season thus far, and quite why he’s not a shoe-in to take Felipe Massa’s seat is a question best directed to Ferrari’s management. The Mexican should have won in Malaysia, but instead had to settle for second after a quick off and some typically Swiss, typically Sauber radio messages urging caution as he hunted down Fernando Alonso for the lead. His dry weather podium in Canada was in many ways even more impressive.

His performances have left Kamui Kobayashi, normally one of the most prominent drivers on the grid, in the shade. The Japanese driver has still put in good drives on occasion, such as his fourth place in Germany, but has generally been outclassed. That said, he remains a combative racer and deserves to keep his drive despite rumours linking Heikki Kovalainen with his seat for 2013.

The fact that a race-winning driver (admittedly from a tail-end outfit) is being linked with the team shows just how strong the C31 car is, and if the Mercedes team’s slump in form continues it’s not inconceivable that Sauber could leapfrog the Anglo-German team. Whatever happens during the rest of the season, Sauber have already made a brave and impressive attempt to rid themselves of their ‘perennial midfielder’ tag.

Unlike Sauber, Williams haven’t always been a midfield team. Also unlike Sauber, they actually looked like more of a backmarker at times last season, and it’s hard to believe they only picked up five points. They are my choice for the most improved outfit of the year among a host of contenders, and the main reason is of course Maldonado’s staggering drive in Spain where he simply drove away from the opposition.

That he hasn’t scored a point since is sadly almost entirely down to his own recklessness. He was a tad unfortunate in Valencia, where third place was on (in isolation still an incredible feat) before he collided with Lewis Hamilton in an incident which was largely, but not entirely, his fault. Some of his other incidents have simply been a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (collisions with Perez in Britain and Paul di Resta in Germany for example) although one wonders how he manages to get it so wrong, so often.

As for Bruno Senna, he has continued to make regular excuses as he did last year – the most recent one appears to be that he'll go better in the second half of the year having not driven a competitive F1 car at the early-season races before. The fact that he has to excuse his performance suggests it hasn’t always been up to scratch, which is pretty much true – in terms of raw pace, he’s generally a little way off Maldonado. But he has been more consistent than the Venezuelan and put in his best performance so far in Hungary, scene of his 2011 Renault free practice debut. Perhaps he has a point about knowing the tracks after all… He certainly has a good car this season and cannot use his equipment as a defence against mediocrity.

Over at Force India they could do with a few excuses of their own, languishing as they do in 8th in the championship. It’s hard to pinpoint what, if anything has gone wrong for the team, but the general trend is for them to qualify well and then slip back in the races – the opposite of Sauber in many respects. The car is a more consistent performer than some others around it, but this also means that the team aren’t capable of achieving the occasional big points finishes of some of its rivals (at least thus far).

Paul di Resta continues to perform well, although he generally looks more good than great. If it wasn’t for his passport I do wonder whether the British media would be tipping him quite so heavily for a grander seat, particularly in the wake of excellent performances from the similarly inexperienced Perez and Grosjean. Nevertheless, he has performed consistently and was an excellent sixth in Bahrain.

Meanwhile Nico Hulkenberg, after a slow start, has started to outpace his Scottish team mate in recent races. His drive to fifth in Valencia was most impressive and he also looked particularly good in the wet at Silverstone in qualifying, harking back to his Brazilian GP pole of a couple of years ago. If Hulkenberg can continue to push di Resta, then the combined efforts of both drivers could allow the Silverstone squad to overtake Williams in the standings which is their current stated aim. Sauber look to be out of reach for the time being though, which given Force India’s excellent 2011 season and the strength of the Mercedes engine must rank as a disappointment.

One traditional midfield runner that has at least maintained the status quo is Toro Rosso. In fact, the Italian team has made a considerable and not unexpected step backwards so far this year. Their relative performance is actually quite reasonable – they are only around a second and a half off the fastest runners in qualifying, which is similar to most of last year. But the closeness of the 2012 field means that this is only good enough to scrape into Q2, rather than Q3, this year. The drop-off in performance is not unexpected because the team has stuck to its raison d’etre and employed two near-rookies (despite Jaime Alguersuari in particular showing good pace last year).

Of the two, Daniel Riccardo has generally looked the more complete package – not surprising given his half-season with HRT in 2011. His 6th place on the grid in Bahrain was outstanding, but his confounding plummet down to 15th in the race was not the best way to build on it. Like Senna, it will be interesting to see how he goes in the second half of the season on tracks which he knows.

If I were a Red Bull bigwig, I would probably consider Vergne the better prospect at this stage though. The Frenchman has struggled in qualifying but had a few standout drives, most notably in Malaysia when he kept his car on track on intermediate tyres in the monsoon to wind up a fine 8th. Notably the prominent performances mentioned above (and indeed all the team’s points) came from the first few races, which tells you all you need to know about car development and the merits of employing two inexperienced drivers. The current uncertainty surrounding the team suggests that things aren’t likely to get better any time soon.

Check back later this week for a rundown of the frontrunners...

F1 2012 so far - Part 1

Given all the excitement at the front of the field (which this season features six to eight different teams fighting for the podium) it’s not entirely surprising that the Formula 1 tail-enders are getting even less coverage than usual in 2012. But how are the most recent additions to Formula 1 (I refuse to call them ‘new’ teams, it’s been two and a half seasons now!) getting on?

Well, perhaps the happiest of the three will be HRT. That sounds odd, given that the Spanish minnows are last in the championship and failed to qualify for the first race, but since then their form and rate of improvement has been impressive. After dire predictions about repeated failures to qualify while getting their car sorted, both drivers have made the grid at each race and Pedro de la Rosa in particular has started to trouble the Marussias recently.

Ironically given their recent improvement, it was the team’s first start in Malaysia which provided the standout moment thus far, Narain Karthikeyan running 10th when the race was red-flagged in appalling conditions. Had the race not restarted (always unlikely but possible), he would have picked up half a precious point. As it was, the Indian driver couldn’t hold off faster cars at the restart, but did make the headlines after collisions with Jenson Button (while battling for position) and Sebastian Vettel (while being lapped).

Other than that Karthikeyan has been almost invisible, and although his qualifying form relative to de la Rosa is improving he hasn’t outqualified the Spaniard yet. De la Rosa himself has been superb at times, putting in great qualifying laps in Monaco and Valencia and many strong races. His motivation seems high despite being mired at the back of the grid, and he is doing exactly what the team hoped by leading them on and off the track. Some evidence of his influence can be seen operationally, as the team’s pit stop times have improved immeasurably and they are even making some good strategic calls (such as starting on wets in anticipation of the aforementioned Malaysian monsoon). Considering their lack of budget and personnel, even compared to the teams around them, HRT are doing a decent job.

Despite being a place higher in the constructor’s standings, Marussia will surely be less happy than their Spanish rivals. In Australia things were looking promising, and a 14th place finish for Timo Glock put the team tenth in the Constructor’s Championship until Monaco where Caterham bettered their result. The team are making positive noises about closing the gap to Caterham, but in truth they are being left behind by the green and yellow cars. Marussia are also coming under increasing pressure from HRT, and at certain tracks de la Rosa has been able to get on terms.

One positive is their rookie driver Charles Pic, who is starting to look like the real deal – he’s outqualified team mate Glock in the last two events, and finished a lap ahead of the more experienced German in Hungary and not far behind Petrov’s Caterham. Glock himself, on the other hand, looks increasingly disinterested and his motivation seems to be up and down, as has been the case for the last season or so. He’s still quick when he wants to be (for example in the opening races of the season), but seems less able or inclined to drive around car problems than his young team mate (and has recently shown his frustration at this state of affairs).

Marussia have made some progress this year, but with McLaren providing technical assistance, Pat Symonds in a consultancy role and a far more stable structure than HRT they really should be further ahead of the back row and closer to Caterham than they are.

As for Caterham, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag really. For the second season in a row the team hasn’t achieved its stated aim of challenging the midfield runners on a consistent basis, although they have developed the car enough to occasionally worry the Toro Rossos (as was the case at the end of 2011).

The team’s general performance has been good, as they are only a couple of seconds a lap off the leaders at most tracks – ten years ago that would have put you solidly in the points at race end. But like Marussia, they are perhaps underachieving given their improving infrastructure, Renault engines and former race-winning lead driver Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn, while not perhaps shining quite as brightly as in 2011, has made his mark again this year. His brilliant performance in Monaco, where he held off Button’s McLaren for most of the race, was one of the drives of the season thus far. Button’s post-race moans only served to underline that fact, and it’s no surprise that there’s talk he could be in line for a grander seat.

Vitaly Petrov, meanwhile, has been just as anonymous as Jarno Trulli was last year but has least maintained a good finishing record, keeping Kovalainen fairly honest and driving particularly well to finish 13th in Valencia. It has to be assumed that he’s also brought commercial benefits, although there has been no discernible increase in the number of sponsors logos (Russian or otherwise) on the car.

Quite where Caterham go from here is unclear – scoring points looks as distant a prospect as ever, at least for the rest of 2012, and if they wind up losing Kovalainen they are more likely to go backwards than forwards.

Next week… the midfield teams.