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.

Australia and Malaysia Round-Up and Driver Ratings

What a fabulous start to the season it’s been. Australia set the tone with a typical Albert Park GP – crashes, overtaking and general mayhem, featuring some excellent performances from Button, Alonso and Maldonado (well, until the last lap anyway). But Malaysia was even better, with a fascinating battle for the lead, surprise podium finishers, and even an attractive arrangement of awnings which resembled the first ever Formula 1 farmer’s market.

Brilliantly, the 2012 form guide remains relatively unwritten given that we haven’t seen a ‘normal’ dry race on a conventional circuit yet. But with nine teams already having scored points, it’s clearly going to be a close season and the performance of individual drivers could be more important than ever. Which leads me nicely on to the driver ratings.

Regular readers of this blog (many of whom are known to me by name…) will know how this works. Basically, after each race each driver gets a rating out of 10 based on their performance across the whole weekend. Yes I know Autosport do something similar, but unlike them I don’t insist on giving all the British drivers at least 6 every race… and mine’s free, so there. Anyway, each rating is then added up at the end of the year to crown a Pits Take Driver of the Season. I’ve added a full chart of last year’s scores to the 2011 Season Review if you fancy revisiting that. So, off we go…

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – AUS 8, MAL 6

Mark Webber – AUS 7, MAL 7

It hasn’t really gone the reigning world champion driver or team’s way so far this year. Vettel has been outqualified twice by team mate Webber and appears under pressure to perform, as evidenced by his petty post-Malaysia outburst against a mostly-innocent Narain Karthikeyan. After qualifying only 6th Vettel actually drove very well in the race in Australia, assertively passing Nico Rosberg on his way to a (slightly safety car-assisted) 2nd place. But Malaysia was mildly disastrous – his gamble to qualify on hard tyres was rendered futile by the wet conditions, and after being tagged by Karthikeyan he could only finish 11th. His post-race comments betrayed his frustration at not hitherto being able to run at the very front. Webber has been consistent in finishing 4th in both races so far, and he drove particularly well in the tricky Malaysian rain. The Australian has generally shown better form than in 2011, in spite of running behind Vettel for most of both races and despite the Red Bull not longer being the car to beat.

McLaren

Jenson Button – AUS 9, MAL 5

Lewis Hamilton – AUS 7, MAL 8

Despite the confusing nature of both the Australian and Malaysian races, it’s clear that McLaren have an extremely competitive car. They’re the only team to have mounted the podium more than once and Hamilton and Button are 2nd and 3rd in the championship respectively. Button will probably be the happier of the two men after a great victory in Melbourne which owed much to his continued ability to look after the tyres. Hamilton took pole but then lost out at the start, and from then on never looked like beating his team mate. Another front row lock out in Malaysia boded well, but when the rain came Button’s alleged wet-weather abilities deserted him. A clumsy collision with the seemingly-magnetic HRT of Karthikeyan was one thing, but even after pitting for repairs Button never really looked like a contender, and had to make an extra pit stop after struggling on intermediate tyres. Hamilton’s 3rd place, while useful for the championship, was a little disappointing after another pole, but at least he’s showing much-needed (and apparently intentional) consistency.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – AUS 8, MAL 10

Felipe Massa – AUS 3, MAL 4

Pre-season fears that Ferrari would be off the pace have been largely proven correct, with only one Q3 appearance so far this season. And yet Alonso leads the driver’s championship after two quite brilliant performances where he extracted more than seemed possible out of the F2012. The Spaniard admittedly blotted his copybook with an off in qualifying in Melbourne, but his drive in the race was admirable as he fended off faster cars to take an excellent 5th. Felipe Massa meanwhile was a second off his team mate in qualifying (despite Alonso’s spin) and endured one of his worst ever Grand Prix which ended after an unnecessary collision with Bruno Senna. In Malaysia, after the heavens opened, Alonso proved once again that he is the most complete driver on the grid. Massa meanwhile was busy proving he’s not the driver he once was - despite driving reasonably well in the wet he lost nearly a lap to Alonso in around 30 laps of dry running. Sergio Perez’s podium heaps the pressure on the hapless Brazilian.

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher - AUS 9, MAL 7

Nico Rosberg – AUS 5, MAL 4

Mercedes have had a bizarre start to the season; they have arguably the second-best car in terms of one-lap pace but only have a single point to show for it. Michael Schumacher has led the charge, qualifying 4th in Australia and running 3rd before gearbox problems spoiled his day. This at least spared the veteran from the acute tyre wear which afflicted Rosberg, with the younger German holding up a train of cars in the closing stages and then sustaining a puncture after a collision with Perez. Malaysia started well, with Schumacher a second-career best 3rd on the grid, again ahead of Rosberg. An unfortunate collision with Grosjean restricted Schumi to 10th in the race, but Rosberg fared even worse and toiled to 14th. The younger German needs to raise his game, as do the team - the M03 only appears quick in qualifying due to its clever DRS system giving it an advantage against closely-matched rivals. In race conditions, with limited DRS use and tyre management problems, the Mercedes seem destined to always go backwards.

Lotus

Kimi Raikkonen – AUS 8, MAL 8

Romain Grosjean – AUS 8, MAL 5

Lotus have complained that the first two races of the season haven’t allowed them to show their true form. In fact, the 7th and 5th places secured so far probably represent the best results the team can realistically hope for in dry conditions at present. Raikkonen has achieved both finishes, despite the handicap in Melbourne of being knocked out in Q1 and lining up 18th on the grid. It was left to Grosjean to uphold qualifying honour with a fantastic 3rd place, but an aggressive Maldonado pass-cum-nudge put paid to his race hopes. Kimi took a useful 7th place finish though, and followed that up with 5th in qualifying (later relegated to 10th by a gearbox penalty) and in the race in Malaysia. Despite responding in his usual monotone in interviews, Raikkonen has also managed to show he’s enjoying himself though his self-mocking gesture of sending ice creams to journalists in the Sepang paddock. Grosjean made two major mistakes in the Malaysian rain, colliding with Schumacher and then spinning off all on his own. The speed is there if he can iron out the errors.

Force India

Paul Di Resta – AUS 6, MAL 8

Nico Hulkenberg – AUS 7, MAL 7

Despite three points finishes so far, it’s been a slightly underwhelming start to the season for the Silverstone-based squad, who ended last year so well. The team are certainly there or thereabouts relative to the midfield pack, but haven’t yet made the step forward needed to challenge the front runners. Qualifying in Australia provided the first evidence of this, with di Resta failing to progress beyond Q2. Hulkenberg was slightly the quicker driver all weekend and made Q3, but retired early as a result of first-corner contact. Meanwhile, di Resta never looked like scoring until the very last corner, when some smart driving allowed him to catch and pass Vergne’s Toro Rosso. The Malaysian rain served to mask the team’s slight lack of dry pace, with both drivers performing extremely well to finish in the points. In fact, the two drivers have generally been evenly matched so far – this is unsurprising, given that they have similar levels of experience, although it does make some of the hype from British media outlets around di Resta’s debut season look a bit silly.

Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi – AUS 9, MAL 5

Sergio Perez – AUS 9, MAL 10

In my season preview, I accused Sauber of being dull and anonymous, but also referenced their gifted drivers. Well, the sublime talents of Sergio Perez have well and truly catapulted the midfield team into prominence. Melbourne was a good start –despite a poor qualifying showing both drivers finished in the points, with Kobayashi showing his usual fighting spirit to take 6th and Perez hanging on with fading tyres to finish 8th. But of course, Perez’s drive in Malaysia is the one which the team’s whole season will probably be remembered for. The Mexican should really have won but for his late race error, but nevertheless drove brilliantly throughout and catapulted himself into contention for a Ferrari drive next season (or even this season, according to some observers). The team’s Swiss sensibleness was still evident, with a cautious late second pit stop and a radio message to Perez not to throw away the points for second place with an attempt to take the lead, but the car looks good enough for regular points finishes - at least until the inevitable late-season performance drop-off.

Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – AUS 8, MAL 6

Jean-Eric Vergne – AUS 7, MAL 9

Red Bull will be delighted at the form shown thus far by their latest batch of young guns, after the controversial and oft-discussed decision to remove Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari from their drives at the end of 2011. The new Toro Rosso continued its promising testing form in Melbourne as Ricciardo and Vergne qualified 10th and 11th. The last lap of the race turned into a lottery as a pack of cars jostled behind Rosberg’s hobbled Mercedes, and while Ricciardo profited to steal 9th, Vergne lost out to his team mate and di Resta on the run to the line to finish where he started. The team seemed to take a step back during qualifying in Sepang, but come the wet race Vergne performed magnificently to maintain position on intermediate tyres when the track was at its wettest – a sure sign of a potential star in the making. His eventual 7th place overshadowed a solid drive to 12th by Ricciardo, and the Frenchman has no doubt already caught the eye of the Red Bull hierarchy for all the right reasons.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – AUS 8, MAL 6

Bruno Senna – AUS 5, MAL 9

Williams have unexpectedly made a massive step forward so far in 2012, and the recent shock departure of CEO Adam Parr (who looked the part and talked the talk but rarely appeared to do anything positive) shouldn’t be too much of an issue in the long term. In Melbourne the FW34 showed great pace but ultimately disappointed, thanks on both counts to Maldonado. His drive up to 6th in the race was at times breathtaking, but so was the loss of concentration that led him to hit the wall on the last lap and spectacularly retire. Senna meanwhile had a difficult weekend, but redeemed himself entirely by performing exceptionally in the wet in Sepang, eventually finishing a magnificent and poetically-just 6th. For his part Maldonado lost another points finish with a late-race engine failure, but remains the faster driver in dry conditions at present. Senna’s result should increase his confidence though and the initiative may well swing between the two drivers for the rest of the year – hopefully the early race collision between them in Malaysia isn’t a portent of things to come...

Caterham

Heikki Kovalainen – AUS 6, MAL 4

Vitaly Petrov – AUS 7, MAL 7

Of all the teams on the grid, perhaps the most disappointed at the moment (Ferrari’s woes notwithstanding) will be the Caterham outfit. While the first two races have been unusual there’s been no real sign that the team have caught up with the midfield, something which they have themselves acknowledged. Indeed, given the relative strength of teams like Toro Rosso and Williams the task for Caterham appears even harder than in 2011. Things haven’t been helped so far by an indifferent couple of races from Kovalainen. In Australia the Finn struggled and later retired with suspension difficulties, while in Sepang he was beaten home by his team mate. Petrov’s solid performances have actually been the team’s highlight so far, and the Russian seems to have settled in well and is already performing at least as capably as Jarno Trulli managed (with some obvious benefits…). The first priority will be to get ahead of Marussia and back to their habitual 10th place in the constructors’ standings; sadly, doing so will likely rely on attrition among the midfielders rather than outright pace.

HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – AUS 7, MAL 6

Narain Karthikeyan – AUS 6, MAL 8

HRT have unsurprisingly had a difficult start to the season. After no testing Melbourne was always going to be a struggle, but while the similarly unprepared Marussias made the grid comfortably, the HRTs missed out by a significant margin. De la Rosa actually deserves some praise for getting within 1.3 seconds of qualification despite hardly any practice laps. Sepang was an improvement in that both cars made the grid, and Karthikeyan amazingly restarted 10th after starting the race on wets. It is to the team’s credit that both cars made it home, despite the team’s novel cooling system which apparently requires it to be raining for the car to continue running. This should be sorted for China, but HRT’s professionalism (or lack thereof) was summed up by the restart in Malaysia – while the other teams sheltered under purpose-built awnings (or a large plastic sheet in Marussia’s case), the Spaniards could only muster a single umbrella to protect each car. And despite the removal of said umbrellas presumably not being a particularly time-consuming job, they still managed to get a penalty for personnel being left on the grid too late…

Marussia

Timo Glock – AUS 9, MAL 7

Charles Pic – AUS 8, MAL 6

Given their lack of pre-season testing, it seemed fanciful to expect Marussia to even finish the opening races. But they have done so with both cars, and despite remaining off the pace of the midfield runners aren’t actually that far away from the Caterhams (and are ahead of them in the championship on countback). Early fears in Melbourne that the cars would struggle to qualify proved unfounded, and Glock drove an excellent race to finish 14th, just one lap down. In Malaysia the German found the wet conditions to his liking, as he often has in the past, and again did extremely well to beat Heikki Kovalainen home. In fact in this early stage of the season Glock is doing a good job of emulating Kovalainen’s 2011 form by regularly outperforming his car. Team mate Pic was also classified in both races and has made a very sensible start to his F1 career. Both men are currently ahead of Felipe Massa in the championship (which says more about Massa’s wretched performances than it does about Marussia) and will hope to continue their relatively good form.

F1 2012 Season Preview

As Steve McQueen asserts in the classic racing film Le Mans, “Life is racing, everything else is just waiting”. Well, the waiting is about to stop, as the 2012 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend in Albert Park. While I wouldn’t go quite as far as “The King of Cool”, it will be nice to be able to indulge my passion for Formula 1 away from my winter pastimes of playing F1 2011 on the Xbox and staring wistfully for hours on end at a signed postcard of Romain Grosjean (don’t ask…).

So, what has 2012 got in store? Well, it’s shaping up rather nicely indeed with many observers expecting a close championship, in part due to rule changes which have made most of the cars on the grid resemble a large-billed bird of some description. Blown diffusers have also been banned, meaning less downforce on the cars and potentially more exciting racing. And with the return of Kimi Raikkonen, there are six Formula 1 World Champions on the grid. Sadly, the twin gimmicks of KERS and DRS remain, but at least they guarantee some overtaking (although of the rather straightforward ‘blast-past-on-the-straight’ kind).

Of course for British viewers, one of the stories of the year is the split in coverage between the BBC and Sky. I have spent many words on this subject in the past, and do not intend to do so again here (well, not too much). Judging by Sky’s season preview (repeated on Pick TV for those of us, like me, who don’t have Sky) the BBC viewers won’t be missing much, bar Martin Brundle and ten live races of course. But suffice to say that the casual viewer and ultimately the sport is the loser.

Nevertheless, whether you are seeing the whole season live or not, it promises to be a cracker, and is certainly one of the most eagerly anticipated of recent years. Although it’s hard to see past Red Bull and McLaren when assessing potential champions, the quality and depth of the midfield runners should allow for a surprise or two. Mr McQueen would no doubt have been delighted at the prospect…

Red Bull Racing

When Red Bull bought Jaguar in late 2004, no-one imagined the team enjoying the kind of success of recent seasons, particular given the level of domination that Ferrari had at that time. Now it’s Red Bull’s turn to dominate, and despite the cyclical nature of the sport nobody would bet against another triumph this year. Frighteningly, Sebastian Vettel was only 17 when the Jaguar takeover happened – now he’s a double World Champion and on a potential hat trick, something only Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher have ever managed. Mark Webber has the dubious pleasure of lining up alongside the mercurial German again, with the Australian considered very much the number two driver in the team. He looked like it as well for most of 2011, and has to improve this year (while not treading on Vettel’s toes too much…) if he wants to hold off Toro Rosso’s young guns and retain his seat beyond the end of the season. Adrian Newey seems to have designed another effective car, and it features an intriguing slot in the front nose which the designer attributes to ‘driver cooling’ – its real purpose remains a mystery. The fact that the usual accusations of foul play are being banded about suggests that other teams still see Red Bull as the biggest threat, and the only chink in their armour could be reliability, as the car suffered numerous stoppages in recent testing at Barcelona. McLaren may look stronger than last year, but Red Bull remain the clear favourites to ‘three-peat’.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

In the battle for the aesthetic world championship McLaren are already winners, with their car exhibiting the same smooth curves as last year’s challenger and avoiding the wart-like lump in the front nose that most other teams have adopted. Initial worries that they had therefore missed a trick seem to have frittered away, and the car has shown good form in pre-season testing. With technical continuity, including the powerful Mercedes engine, McLaren look in good shape, and the team’s biggest problem could be on the driving front. That sounds like a bizarre assertion given that McLaren are the only team on the grid to have two former World Champions driving for them, but I have some lingering concerns about Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton despite their undoubted talents. Button was superb for most of 2011, but there are still question marks around his one-lap pace compared to his team mate. And while Hamilton undeniably has the speed, he was woefully inconsistent last year and was involved in numerous incidents. He claims to have sorted his head out in the off-season, but only time will tell. Nonetheless the two British drivers certainly form an amiable and effective pairing, and the team could well claim the constructor’s crown if the car is up to it. The question is, can Button beat Vettel on pace enough times over the course of a season to mount a serious championship challenge, and can Hamilton hold it together often enough on days where things aren’t going his way to pick up the 3rd, 4th and 5th places which can make the difference between becoming champion and not?

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari promised revolution rather than evolution for 2012, and their new car is certainly aggressively designed. Sadly it also looks like it’s made out of Lego, especially with the ridiculous stepped nose which somehow looks more severe on the red machine that on any of its competitors. But so far, the opposition aren’t exactly bricking it (sorry) as the F2012 has not shone in pre-season testing. One lap pace seems okay, but the car is reportedly difficult to drive over a longer distance. This is hardly likely to inspire confidence in the much-maligned Felipe Massa, who really needs a strong season in order to justify being retained by the Italian giants, especially with no shortage of decent drivers on the sidelines at present. A hopefully-recovering Robert Kubica has been linked with his seat, and the likes of Adrian Sutil, Sergio Perez or Jules Bianchi would likely be more than happy as Fernando Alonso’s number two. Alonso himself has no such concerns over redundancy after an exemplary performance in 2011, but will be worried at the prospect of another year unable to compete at the very front – not what he would have expected when he first joined Ferrari. The Spaniard remains arguably the most complete driver in the field, but is in danger of losing the best years of his career unless the team are able to get on terms with Red Bull and McLaren. Here’s hoping the red cars can make it a six-way (or at least five-way…) battle for the driver’s title.

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team

The former Brawn team haven’t managed a win since becoming Mercedes at the end of 2009, and they will be desperate to change that this year. Half the grid’s designers seem to work for Ross Brawn’s squad these days, so it’s hardly surprising that the new car seems an improvement over the 2011 machine despite worries of a ‘too many cooks’ scenario unfolding. The relatively late launch of their new car seems like an astute move, as drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were immediately on the pace in Barcelona. Seven-time champion Schumacher needs no introduction, but what he does need is an improvement in qualifying form which was often woeful last season. Whether he is still able to coax a really quick lap out of his 43 year old brain will be interesting to see. Still only 26, Rosberg has no such issues, but despite generally having the edge on his team mate last season he did struggle to match Schumacher for race pace on occasion. He will also be as keen as the team to end their victory drought, given that his tally currently stands at 108 Grand Prix not won. But can Mercedes make it a ‘big four’ teams at the front of F1? Well the signs are good, and they will certainly be confident of at least getting the better of the Ferraris in the early running given the Italian squad’s problems. Sneaking a win or two may be beyond them, but getting on the podium (which the team didn’t manage in the whole of 2011) looks more than achievable.

Lotus F1 Team

Lotus (nee Renault) enter 2012 full of confidence despite a poor end to 2011 and a significant setback in testing where the car was unable to run for four days in Barcelona due to a mysterious chassis fault. Having disposed of Nick Heidfeld, Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov in the last year, the team field two F1 returnees. Of these, Kimi Raikkonen is by far the most illustrious. The 2007 Formula 1 World Champion has agreed to come back after two years rallying (with limited success), and insists that he is fully motivated despite accusations of disinterest in the past. Kimi’s stone-faced demeanour when facing the media is as legendary as his pace, and pre-season testing indicates that both are still intact. Romain Grosjean drives the second Lotus after impressing in a couple of Friday outings at the end of last season. The reigning GP2 champion will want to put any lingering memories of his disastrous stint with the same team in 2009 to bed, and stands a good chance of doing so. He will also benefit from Raikkonen’s experience, assuming he can succeed where many others have failed by getting more than a couple of words out of the Finn. All the ingredients are in place for a successful year – an impressive-looking new car, former World Champion driver and the current World Championship-winning engine. It’s a reflection of the strength of the opposition, however, that repeating the podiums of early 2011 would constitute a major achievement.

Sahara Force India F1 Team

For the first time since Eddie Jordan sold up, the Silverstone-based squad were genuine contenders for points in almost every race in 2011, in part due to the efforts of long-time driver Adrian Sutil. With the German departed (even before his recent conviction for assault) it’s down to two near-rookies to carry the team forward in 2012. Paul di Resta had an outstanding first year at the top level of motorsport, but now has the pressure on his shoulders of leading car development as well as the weight of expectation from the British media (I noted with interest his description as the “Rookie of the Year” on the Sky Sports F1 Season Preview show in the same way they described Vettel as World Champion – I never realised this was an official title!). Nico Hulkenberg fills the second seat, having shown flashes of promise in his 2010 debut with Williams including a fabulous pole in Brazil. But the youngster was frustratingly inconsistent and will need to match di Resta from the get-go to inspire confidence in those around him. The new Force India machine looks competitive in a tightly-packed midfield, but with Lotus and Mercedes also having improved it will be very difficult for the team to better last year’s sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship (though they may well match it). In particular, having the least experienced driver line-up on the grid may hinder car development, and I can’t help feel that dropping Sutil may be a decision that Vijay Mallya lives to regret come season’s end.

Sauber F1 Team

Sauber’s history and form in Formula 1, and seemingly their whole outlook, is summed up by their black and while colour scheme. Never likely to set the world on fire, the team blends in to the paddock more than any other and consistently puts in solid performances with occasional flashes of brilliance. Very professional, very dependable, and very, er, Swiss. Things are unlikely to be any different this season, in part because nothing significant at the team has changed. While designer James Key recently departed, his work on the 2012 car was seemingly complete, and on the driver front there is no revolution either. This is at least an area which guarantees some thrills, with Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi and Mexico’s Sergio Perez both keen to enhance their reputations as exciting, fast drivers. Perez in particular needs to prove that last year’s promise was not a false dawn, especially with a 2013 Ferrari drive potentially in the offing. For his part, Kobayashi was one of the stars early in 2011 before tailing off in the second half of the season, and will be keen to remind the paddock of his overtaking ability and racecraft while also improving his qualifying form against Perez. The car has looked decent in testing, despite a particularly ungainly front end even by this year’s standards. However, team personnel will be hoping to cast another perennial Sauber trait to one side - their inability to develop a car during the season. With Key gone, this may well become even more of an issue than normal.

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso begin the year with two drivers who have just 11 Grand Prix starts between them, having harshly fired both Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari in the off-season. Given their role as an ‘early learning centre’ for the Red Bull team it makes sense for the squad to take on two youngsters, but it may harm their form coming into a year where they actually look to have produced a decent car. The Ferrari-engined STR7 is an attractive chassis and has showed well in testing. Daniel Ricciardo is the veteran of the team after driving part of 2011 with HRT, where he was generally reckoned to have done a good job. He needs to impress again this season though – as the more experienced driver he will be expected to lead the team, and interestingly team boss Giorgio Ascanelli felt the Australian drove within himself in Friday outings with Toro Rosso last year. Jean-Eric Vergne is one of three Frenchmen in F1 this year, after several seasons without any, and is highly rated within Red Bull circles. The carrot for both men is the prospect of a seat in the main Red Bull team should Mark Webber move on (or be forcibly moved on) in the next couple of years. Balanced against that is the very real possibility that, should they not perform outstandingly, the same fate as befell Buemi and Alguersuari awaits them. It will be a fascinating intra-team battle and in many ways which driver comes out on top is far more significant than where Toro Rosso eventually end up in the standings.

Williams F1 Team

2011 was a true annus horribilis for the once-great Williams team, and changes in the off-season were inevitable. In fact, wholesale alterations were made midway through last year with Sam Michael leaving and disgraced former McLaren designer Mike Coughlan joining the team, and the significance of these changes will be measured by the pace of the team’s 2012 design. A supply of Renault engines has also been secured, meaning the iconic Williams-Renault name returns to the sport for the first time since 1997. The all-South American driver line-up features another iconic name, with Bruno Senna joining Pastor Maldonado to form a well-heeled but somewhat uninspiring partnership. Senna showed some promise during his partial season at Renault last year, and needs to build on that by regularly outperforming Maldonado. For his part, the Venezuelan certainly improved during 2011 and proved himself worthy of a place in F1 by seasons end, although whether he (or indeed Senna) would be at the team without their significant financial backing is the elephant in the room. Nevertheless, internal competition between the two may drive Williams forward, as both are similarly inexperienced and will be keen to beat each other; one hopes this rivalry won’t manifest itself in the form of numerous accidents and offs. Given the inexperienced men behind the wheel it will be difficult to assess Williams’ performance as a team this year, but improving on last season’s ninth place finish in the constructor’s championship would constitute some progress at least.

Caterham F1 Team

The team formally known as Lotus approach 2012 with optimism after an excellent end to last season, having (just about) clawed their way up to the back of the midfield pack, at least on certain circuits. Caterham were the first outfit to reveal their 2012 design and testing has generally gone well, with the car seeming at least as fast relative to the opposition as at the end of last year and setting times comparable to the likes of Williams and Sauber (albeit with the usual “testing is impossible to judge” note of caution attached). The team will benefit from the continued presence of Heikki Kovalainen, who remains despite some late-2011 speculation linking him with (the ‘new’) Lotus. Jarno Trulli, despite completing a day of testing in the car in Jerez and having a contract for 2012, has been dropped at the eleventh hour in favour of Vitaly Petrov. Frankly, taking on Petrov was by far the more lucrative option due to the Russian’s native backers, even if the team are still paying Trulli’s wages for the season (which they may well be). Petrov has shown flashes of promise in his two years in the sport, and should keep Kovalainen on his toes. The aim will be to beat one of the established teams over the course of the season, and to do that the team will have to score a decent number of points. The fact that they have so far failed to pick up even one shows just how hard a nut F1 is to crack and how hard, therefore, their task remains.

HRT F1 Team

The Spanish squad enter the 2012 season with more pre-season testing under their belt than at any point in their history, after the F112 managed a whole ten (very leisurely) laps during a filming day in Barcelona. The fact they just missed the final day of the last pre-season test pretty much sums the team up – they are a disorganised but hard-trying bunch, and deserve credit for persevering in Formula 1 in the face of adversity. At least they seem to have a long-term plan to progress, branding themselves as a kind of Spanish national team. Unfortunately, this is a bit like the opposite situation that Italian drivers face – just as they will never be able to compete with Ferrari for support, so HRT will forever remain in the shadow of Fernando Alonso. And to illustrate the point, witness just how many Italian drivers are left in F1. The new HRT, while at least seeming to be a mostly-new design, is worryingly bereft of sponsorship logos and the re-signing of Narain Karthikeyan (despite the Indian being dropped last year in favour of Red Bull money and Daniel Ricciardo) smacks of desperation. Lead driver Pedro de la Rosa is highly rated as a test driver, but whether HRT have the required resources and funds to actually develop their car is another matter. Getting the new car up to speed after such limited testing and with mostly new personnel (after Colin Kolles left the team and took his German mechanics with him) will be the first of many challenges this year.

Marussia F1 Team

The former Virgin team are renamed Marussia for this season, after Richard Branson decided he’d much rather own a bank than sponsor and part-own a Formula 1 team. Ownership has therefore transferred to the eponymous (and embryonic) Russian sports car manufacturer. The history of small sports car companies in Formula 1 is not an illustrious one: Venturi scored one whole point in a tie up with Larousse in 1992, while more recently Spyker managed the same tally in 2007 after taking over the former Midland and Jordan (now Force India) team. The prospect of Marussia managing to match this achievement and score a point themselves seems just as distant as in the Virgin days, especially as they haven’t actually managed to test their car properly before the start of the season. This has been a source of much frustration to the talented Timo Glock, who remains the team’s greatest asset despite occasionally complaining about his lot. But the person who really suffers from the lack of running is rookie Charles Pic. Given the fate of Glock’s other team mates after only one season (Lucas di Grassi and Jerome d’Ambrosio were both shown the door), one hopes that the team give the young Frenchman time to find his feet. With an attractive but basic looking design and the Cosworth engine that no-one else wants, it’s unlikely that the team will make much progress this year, although a technical tie-up with McLaren does give some hope for the future of the team and could be enough to see them finish the year ahead of the similarly unprepared HRT outfit.