The 2012-2013 silly season was filled with so many questions about the forthcoming season of the world's top bracket of motor racing. Could triple-world champion Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team be stopped? Was Lewis Hamilton's choice to join Mercedes the right one? How would Perez do at McLaren? And how on earth are we to cope without HRT??
The 2013 season was far from a classic, but it stirred up one or two points of interest. When I think of 2013 season one word will spring to mind: tyres.
The silly season was dominated by numerous drivers leaving the sport, a host of rookie's coming in and more moves between teams than the previous 2 seasons. Testing gave us vague clues about the season ahead, but what it didn't tell us was that it was to be a season of two, extremely contrasting halves!
Wet qualifying in Australia saw a delay which meant all the qualifying and racing action was to happen on one single day. The first race however did not give an indication on the things to come as Australia gave us a very unpredictable race. Kimi Raikkonen was the victor and took what was to be his, and Lotuses, only victory of the entire campaign! And how did he achieve such a win? It was clear that the Lotus was the best car at managing it's tyres in the early parts of the year!
Yet, the season saw the relationship between the Finn and the Enstone team deteriorate rapidly! They regarded him as one of the best on the grid and a title challenger at the start of the season, but by the end they saw him as dead weight. His decision to rejoin Ferrari clearly hurt the Enstone team and their ugly side was broadcasted to the entire world, when a radio message along the lines of "Kimi, get out of the f***ing way", was transmitted.
However what was welcome was the maturity and professionalism shown by erratic Frenchman Romain Grosjean. Famed for his countless first-lap collisions branded him a reputation amongst fans of the sport, yet his performances became stronger and stronger as the year progressed and by the final few races he was consistently on the rostrum.
The second race in Malaysia highlighted 2 things; the French Marussia driver Jules Bianchi is a star for the future (his 13th place here and domination over his British teammate Max Chilton ensured Marussia achieving 10th in the Constructor's standings at last!), and a clear feud in the Red Bull garage.
Whilst leading the race, Mark Webber was overtaken by teammate Sebastian Vettel, despite being told by the team quite onviously that he needed to stay behind him. Multi 21 Seb? This was to be Mark Webber's final season in Formula 1; the tough Ozzie deciding Endurance racing with Porsche was the way forward.
Seb took his first win of the year in controversial circumstances. Webber was to be replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, the Toro Rosso driver who was able to out-shine the talented Jean-Eric Vergne in the Red Bull junior team.
The brilliance of Fernando Alonso was highlighted the most in his 2 victories in China and Spain. The Ferrari was never able to improve on it's good early-season form. Felipe Massa gradually improved during the year and it was gratifying to see him racing for his own career when it was announced he had lost his seat at the Scuderia. Williams is to be his home next season.
Spain also highlighted the amount of work Mercedes needed to do. It was obvious that Hamilton had settled in well and Rosberg was proving his assets to the Brackley-based team by putting his car on the front row week-in week-out. But, in Spain Mercedes proved that it's car was not meshing well with the 2013 Pirelli tyres (that word again!). "I've been overtaken by a Williams" - Lewis Hamilton. Sums it all up really!
However, Nico Rosberg was to take victories in Monaco and at Silverstone, which proved how far that team had improved from last year.
Bahrain saw Alonso recover from 22nd place to 8th without the use of his DRS and also a battle between the McLaren's. McLaren had a woeful season by their standards and failed to muster a single podium finish, but their 2 driver Jenson Button and Sergio Perez entertained us with closely-fought on-track battles. Jenson scored way more points than Sergio, the Mexican was to cruelly lose his place within the team and his 2014 destination is unclear.
Vettel dominated Bahrain as well as Canada. Canada was also unfortunately marred with tragedy due to the tragic death of a marshal. I have immense respect for those people who make Grand Prix weekends as smooth and safe as possible. RIP.
Silverstone was the best race of the season and was probably the most controversial of all with tyres being at the centre of it. I remember being sat their watching on from the Hangar Straight when Jean-Eric Vergne's left-rear tyre blew up to the shock of everyone. Without exaggerating, it sounded like a bomb went off!
That was not the only incident though. My heart sank when Lewis Hamilton, who was leading the race convinclingly, suffered a tyre blow out. However he did recover to 4th place but we thought that Sebastian Vettel (who's luck never seems to run out) had been handed the victory. But no! He retired 10 laps from the end setting up a grandstand finish! Rosberg withstood immense pressure from Webber and Alonso to take the victory at such a fitting and such a historic venue.
Pirelli was forced into action and who could blame them? The tyres were of danger to everyone and a change had to happen. For the German GP at the Nurburgring, temporary tyres were brought in until Pirelli could find a permanent solution for Hungary. Vettel brilliantly won his home event, but Kimi should have had this one in the bag and would have had he not come in for a final pit stop.
Hungary saw Lewis take his only win of the year, and the Summer break seemed to flash past as the drama of the 2013 Belgian GP qualifying session unfolded. Oh how unlucky Paul Di Resta and Force India were! If the conditions had stayed as bad as they were, he would have been on pole.
The close racing behind first place never stopped from this point on, but for the remaining 9 races Vettel won dominantly. This may spark a load of conspiracy theories but he is still a world-class driver who has talent in abundance. His wins are all merited, but I would have loved to have seen a Ferrari, a Lotus or a Mercedes at least try to stop him!
Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, USA and Brazil were not that exciting at all to be honest. The new tyres suited Vettel's Red Bull the best. Along with having the best car, the German was able to exploit his advantage to the maximum and claim a glorious fourth world title on the trot, with Red Bull claiming honours in the Constructor's Championship.
Over the course of the season Williams disappointed me, with third in Canadian qualification being the highlight of the year. Toro Rosso declined slowly and Force India, who had a consistently quick car, faded as well. Sauber and Nico Hulkenberg in particular improved rapidly in the second half of the year. He is currently the hottest property on the transfer market and for good reason too!
2013 was not the best year and at times it bored me to hell. But there is plenty of positives to take into 2014. The V8's are gone, Webber has said his final goodbyes and Formula 1 enters a new era next season. The 2013-2014 silly season will be better than every with an ever-changing calendar and a driver market that good turn one way on one day, the do a U-turn the next.
I hope Red Bull's domination ends next season and we get more entertainment as we sit on our sofas watching the most glamorous, and most misunderstood sport in the world.
See you all next year and thanks for reading,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment