At the half way point of the 2013 season all signs point to yet another Red Bull/Sebastian Vettel benefit, despite some close racing at the front of the field and some unpredictable results on account of the tyre issues that have dogged all the teams to a degree. The German is 38 points ahead in the standings despite some bad luck (retirement from the lead in Silverstone) and a mysterious lack of pace in certain races (Spain for example). However, while his championship lead has grown his popularity with the fans has dwindled, thanks mainly to the ‘multi 21’ saga in Malaysia where he passed team mate Mark Webber against team orders. As well as displaying the ruthless streak that defines almost all the great F1 champions, this episode demonstrated that Vettel’s motivation remains intact and that he’s as keen as ever to add to his three titles. On Webber’s part, the incident undoubtedly contributed to his decision to retire from F1 at the end of the season in favour of a move to Porsche’s Le Mans effort. His year has been the usual story of occasional inconsistency, bad luck and gritty drives in the face of adversity.
Speaking of adversity, Ferrari have gone off the boil
alarmingly after a great start (by the standards of recent seasons at least),
and Fernando Alonso has struggled
to hide his frustration. His dominant home win in Barcelona in early May was his
most recent triumph, but he’s struggled to even get on the podium in the last
few races. He could still win the title, but needs his car to be improved fast,
and without any of the niggly
problems creeping in that cost him points earlier in the season. Felipe
Massa started the year well, but like the team has not been able to shine as
regularly since. Monaco was chastening with two crashes, and he also binned it
in Canada and (less spectacularly) Germany. In general the Brazilian only
appears as good as his car at best at present, and it’s hard to see him
retaining his drive for yet another year.
The extent to which his stock has fallen is shown by the fact that
Ferrari are looking towards Kimi Raikkonen as a replacement, a man who they
paid 20 million euros not to drive for them as recently as 2010!
Kimi remains at Lotus for now of course (despite being
linked to both Red Bull and Ferrari), and the Enstone outfit are having a fine
season. Car development appears solid, despite a brief dip around
Canada-Britain and stories that Raikkonen
hasn’t been paid in time raising doubts about the team’s finances. Like
last year the Finn is a championship outsider, but it’s hard to see the team
making the performance jump they need to start taking big points off Vettel
every week. In the second car, Romain Grosjean remains as frustrating as ever;
for a while it appeared his season was one of mistakes punctuated with flashes
of brilliance, but the good moments have outweighed the bad in recent rounds.
The Frenchman remains a magnet for trouble (witness his harsh penalty for brilliantly passing Massa
around the outside at the Hungaroring) and a liability around Monaco (three
crashes in as many days!) but could easily win a GP this season having come
close in Germany and Hungary already.
Short of a potential Grosjean win, Mercedes look set to be
the most positive surprise of the season, closely followed by their driver Nico
Rosberg who won after a faultless drive in Monaco and a fortuitous one in
Britain. He’s also borne
the brunt of Mercedes’ reliability problems though, which remain too
prevalent for a front running team. Despite some early season issues with tyre
wear the Silver Arrows now look like the closest challengers on pace to
Vettel’s dominance, and Lewis Hamilton drove beautifully in Hungary to record
his first win for his new squad. The
infamous and controversial Pirelli tyre test at Catalunya appears to have
paid dividends, and further changes to the tyre’s construction since the
Silverstone blowouts also appear to be in the team’s favour. Spa will be
crucial in assessing whether the team can fight for the championship or will be
restricted to odd race-winning cameos for the rest of the year.
In contrast, the Mercedes-powered team that Hamilton left
behind are struggling. McLaren haven’t had a winless season since 2006, but are
currently podium-less – you have to go back to 1980 for the
last time that happened. It’s hard to understand how things have gone quite so
badly wrong, especially since Sergio Perez has slotted into the team relatively
easily and given Jenson Button a few things to worry about (including
collisions…). One wonders if Hamilton is perhaps a better development driver
than he’s previously been given credit for, as the MP4/28 hasn’t really
improved a great deal during the season thus far. The loss of Paddy Lowe was a
blow, and if the team continues to haemorrhage talented drivers and staff
suspicions will increase that they are in terminal decline, Williams-style. Honda’s return as engine
supplier for 2015 will be a boost, but will the rest of 2013 and even 2014
have to be written off as a result?
McLaren’s lack of form has given some of the usual midfield
runners the chance of points on a more regular basis, and the chief beneficiary
of this has been Force India. The former Jordan/Midland/Spyker outfit are ahead
of McLaren in the team standings after picking up points in all bar three races
so far. Paul di Resta has generally impressed slightly more than the returning
Adrian Sutil, although some bad luck and poor judgement in qualifying have
hampered recent races and also called the dour Scot’s temperament into question
as he’s repeatedly
panned the team, sometimes excessively. Sutil has been quieter on track and
off (thankfully, in the context of his infamous 2011
nightclub incident) but drove particularly well on his F1 return in
Australia. While development seems to have stalled somewhat, the Silverstone
based outfit still have a genuine chance of holding off McLaren to finish the
year 5th overall which would be a magnificent feat.
Toro Rosso have also impressed. While all the attention has
been on which of their drivers (if either) will make the step up to Red Bull to
replace Webber the team has produced a tidy car, allowing Daniel Ricciardo and
Jean-Eric Vergne a realistic shot at regular points finishes for the first time
in their careers. Both have put in some fine drives, but Ricciardo’s better
qualifying form (particularly in recent races) has seen him more heavily linked
with the senior team – indeed, there are rumours he will be confirmed
at Spa as a 2014 Red Bull driver. The junior squad, meanwhile, look secure
in 7th place in the constructors’ championship which would be a major
achievement for the relatively small Italian outfit.
The major disappointments of 2013 so far, McLaren aside, are
undoubtedly Sauber and Williams. The Swiss team, who so often start seasons
well, have struggled both on and off the track. Funding issues were rumoured
from early in the year, and came to a head around the German GP. The announcement
of Russian investment swiftly followed, but fresh reports that the monies
haven’t actually been forthcoming are worrying, as is their lack of form on
the circuit. Nico Hulkenberg must be kicking himself for leaving the improving
Force India in favour of driving his heart out for the odd 10th place, but to
his credit he’s still performing well when his machinery allows. Esteban
Gutierrez has really struggled in the second car (a spirited drive at Barcelona
notwithstanding) and with Sauber looking set to have a Russian rather than
Mexican flavour going forwards expect him to make a swift exit, perhaps even
before the end of the year.
Money worries haven’t been quite so acute at Williams,
though finishing 9th in the constructors’ (where the team currently languishes)
come season’s end won’t boost the coffers much. Rookie Valtteri Bottas has
impressed despite the team’s issues, and was a brilliant
3rd on the grid in the wet in Canada before dropping back as far as 14th in
the dry race despite making no obvious mistakes, which gives you an idea of how
bad the car is. Pastor Maldonado has been more consistent than in 2012, but
regular mediocrity is hardly welcome (though not entirely his fault). He did at
least pick up the first Williams point of the year in Hungary last time out
which is hopefully a sign of improvements to come.
At the back of the grid, the battle of the “young teams” (as
they are now seemingly known) has been close, although neither Marussia nor
Caterham have got anywhere near the established runners on a consistent basis.
Marussia have definitely made a step forward though, an impressive feat given
that they lost Timo Glock over the winter and are the only team still using the
Cosworth engine which isn’t really a match for the world championship-winning
Renault that Caterham use. Jules Bianchi was
a revelation in early races – with virtually no testing he was easily the
best of the tail-enders, and scored the best finish among them with 13th in
Malaysia. He’s consistently shown Max Chilton the way; in truth the Briton has
looked out of his depth at times, and if he were not for his nationality he
would surely have suffered a media mauling by now.
Over at Caterham Charles Pic has generally been the best
performer, and impressively outqualified Romain Grosjean in Canada in the wet.
However, it’s actually been rookie team mate Giedo van der Garde who has made
most of the headlines, for reasons both right (15th on the grid in Monaco) and
wrong (driving
into Webber while being lapped in Canada). Unsurprisingly Caterham are
already concentrating their development efforts on 2014, but it would be highly
embarrassing for the team if they were to finish 11th and last in the standings
(albeit no more than they deserve after dropping their established driver Heikki
Kovalainen pre-season).
So the pecking order has been more or less set, but could
well change again before the end of the year. All the teams will be balancing
their priorities between working on their radically different 2014 machines as
well as trying to improve the pace of their 2013 challengers, and Pirelli’s recent
alterations to their tyres are sure to have an impact over the remainder of
the season. With nine races coming up over the next thirteen weeks things could
change fast, and a good run of form at the end of year flyaway races will be
more crucial than at any point of the season so far. It makes for a tantalising
prospect…
