2013 F1 Season Review

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

2013 Italian GP Review - Vettel's title draws ever closer

This is the circuit which has hosted the Italian GP every year, with the exception of 1980, since the dawn of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 1950. Monza is one of the oldest circuits on the calendar and always attracts the Tifosi, fanatical Ferrari supporters who come in their drones to watch those famous red cars race. In 2013, was a win for Ferrari on the cards? Or was the Red Bull of Vettel just too strong? Here is my race review...

Qualifying was a breeze for Sebastian Vettel. He looked dominant from the early practise sessions as well as during the qualifying hour. He put his Red Bull on pole with relative ease and his retiring teammate Mark Webber qualified on the front row with him. The Red Bull is usually a car that works best around the high down force tracks and Monza's long high-speed straights have not been kind to that car in the past. However, this year it looked like the charging Bull would be unstoppable: race simulations suggested that the car would lap a second a lap quicker than the opposition!

The star of qualifying was Nico Hulkenberg. Heavily linked with the second seat at Maranello, he put in his best quali performance of the season and qualified in third. Another surprise was that the Ferrari of Massa out-qualified teammate Alonso, even though he was supposedly helping Alonso by giving him a tow. The Spaniard was also caught in the middle of controversy when he broad casted to his team over the radio a message in Italian that translated to "You're all idiots!". You never publicly discredit the team, it also doesn't help his situation that he also discredited Ferrari (the most well known team) at their home race of all places. Does he face the sack?

Also, Hamilton didn't make the cut for Q3 for the first time in years while both Lotuses languished in 12th and 13th. Could they make their way up through the field like Sergio Perez did last year?

The race starts at Monza are always eventful and the drama began when a lock up for Sebastian Vettel caused him to flat spot his tyre, which slightly complicated his race more than first planned. However, it was a stroll in the park for the German as he led most of the laps and came home to take his 6th victory of the season. The tyre didn't really hinder his efforts in all honesty.. He was just uncatchable as he edged away from the field lap by lap and brought his car home! He and the majority of the field opted for a one-stop strategy which caused nobody any problems.

In second place was Fernando Alonso, of course. The man is relentless in his pursuit of Vettel and is also very mighty indeed during the first laps of a race. He jumped Hulkenberg at the start and made a brilliant move on Mark Webber at the second chicane despite making contact. He passed his teammate who could not close down on Vettel on the opening laps and held of Mark Webber at the end to keep up his 100% podium record for Ferrari at Monza.

Webber made a sound start and was running in third place. He may have passed Alonso had he not had to manage a gear-shifting problem which meant he had to short shift between 2nd and 3rd gear. In fourth place was the other Ferrari of Massa- a strong result considering he is fighting for a Ferrari drive next season.

Hulkenberg had a relatively quiet race but a poor start ruined his chances of a podium. However 5th place gave him 10 points, much needed for himself and the Sauber team. This pushes them closer to Toro Rosso in the overall standings. Nico Rosberg ended the race in sixth. He made the most of his one stop strategy to collect 8 championship points.

Ricciardo, who is going to Red Bull next year, ended in 7th place and secured yet another points scoring finish to his name. He also now moves ahead of his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne in the overall standings. Both Toro Rossos were strong all weekend but Vergne suffered his 5th retirement of the season and scored no points.

In 8th was Grosjean, who was rammed from behind by Paul Di Resta on the opening lap. That was a second successive retirement for the Scot, who is surely looking for a drive further up the grid (Ferrari or Lotus) for next season.

Hamilton wrote off his title chances after fighting his way up to 9th place on the last few laps. Raikkonen finished in 11th and is also now out of Championship contention. The McLaren of Button finished in 10th, he made a poor start from 6th it has to be said. Then came Raikkonen, the 2 Mexicans of Perez and Gutierrez, the 2 Williams of  Maldonado and Bottas, Sutil and then the 4 drivers of the younger teams. They came through in the following order: Pic, Van der Garde, Bianchi and Chilton.

Retirements were Di Resta and Vergne.

The race out front was fairly unexciting but from 5th downwards it was exciting indeed. There were close fights between many drivers on many different parts of the track. The parabolika, both chicanes, Ascari and both Lesmos saw overtakes. 

However Sebastian Vettel stormed to victory yet again this season and now moves 53 points clear in the championship. Its not over yet though! Alonso moves further clear from Hamilton in the standings, he is now 28 points ahead. Raikkonen is now only 4 points ahead of the other Red Bull of Webber. Hulkenberg and Ricciardo also move up the championship and edge closer to drivers outside the top 10 like Sutil and Perez.

The Red Bull is the best car and it looks like the car is in the perfect position to dominate the remaining races of this season. He won 4 races in a row last year at the same events (Singapore, Korea, Japan and India) and it doesn't look good for his competitors..

That's my report and take on the Italian GP. A very average race indeed it must be said. Now we have 7 flyaway races which will determine the world champion. Vettel is the out-and-out favourite it has to be said though..

What did you think of the race? Can Alonso catch up with Vettel? Let me know down below fellow petrol-heads!

Thanks for reading,
Matt

2013 Belgian GP Review - Vettel edges further from the pack!

Sebastian Vettel extended his lead at the top of the Driver's Championship to 46 points and has edged further from the pack in pursuit of his fourth World Championship. It was a Grand Prix with lots to talk about, and all Summer I've been talking about film news and reviews so there's no better time to talk about something else. Here is my race review..


Qualifying was absolutely fantastic. Changing conditions, wet at one moment, dry the next made an exhilarating qualifying hour! Both Marussia's and the Caterham of Van der Garde made it into Q2, leaving both Williams', Toro Rosso's and the Sauber of Gutierrez at the back of the grid. Ferrari started 9th and 10th, Lotus 7th and 8th. Ferrari looked quick all weekend, and could have done so much more had qualifying gone better.

It looked like Di Resta had pole in the bag when he set his time before the rain came down. However, the rain ceased and the track dried. It was last man over the line to grab pole, and Rosberg, Webber and Vettel beat Di Resta's time. However, Hamilton was last over the line and took his 4th consecutive pole!

The start was crucial. Lewis made it round La Source in the lead. However, the Red Bull is the car with the best package and phenomenal speed. At the exit of Eau Rouge onto the back straight, Sebastian Vettel blasted past the Mercedes and from then on was untouchable!

He controlled the race from start to finish and never looked like giving up the lead. He said the car was "unbelievable to drive".

In second place came the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. He qualified in 9th and who knows what he could have finished had qualified better? Starting in 9th, he made a good start and blasted up to 5th at the end of lap 1. He overtook very well as always and it is fair to say his first few laps are always electrifying.

Di Resta would have been looking for a good result but retired after a collision with Maldonado. He made a bad start and when Gutierrez attacked Maldonado into the bus-stop chicane the Mexican forced the Venezuelan wide. He went back onto the racing line, clipped Sutil (who survived to finish 9th) and smashed off Paul Di Resta's left rear tyre. His race had ended and his poor form continues. Maldonado received a 10 second stop-go penalty.

As for Gutierrez, that was the best I've seen of him all year. Determined and aggressive!

Jenson Button who started 6th finished in that position after reverting to a 2 stop strategy. The 8 points gained by him put McLaren above Force India in the Constructor's Championship.

The Mercedes of Rosberg and Hamilton also looked strong but not as good as the dominate Red Bull and the seemingly improved Ferrari. Hamilton clung on to 3rd place with Nico Rosberg finishing 4th who held of a late-assault from the retiring Mark Webber, who finished 5th.

The remaining point-scoring positions were filled by Felipe Massa in 7th, who passed a fair few people to get up there. Grosjean finished 8th after a penalty, 9th was Sutil and 10th was Daniel Ricciardo, who his Red Bull bound. He took the final point from Sergio Perez in the latter stages of the race.

Retirements were Charles Pic, Paul Di Resta and Kimi Raikkonen. 38 consecutive finishes ended at last, which was kind of an odd feeling to say the least!

As for the Championship, Vettel has extended his lead. It's going to take a mammoth effort from 1 of the 3 other front-running teams and a few slip ups from Red Bull though, which is unlikely at the moment! Alonso has moved up to second place with 151 points, Hamilton is now third with 139 points. Raikkonen is down to 4th in the Championship after his DNF.

Spa is the best circuit on the calendar. Today was no classic, but had lots to talk about!

What did you think of the race? Who can stop Sebastian Vettel? Also Monza, I don't wish to predict, but a Ferrari home win would be fantastic!

Thanks for reading a post which is about something else other than films!
Thanks again,
Matt

2013 F1 Season: Half term Report

So, this season of Formula 1 has been nowhere near as good as last year's. However, it has been very interesting in it's own right; fresh controversy, bursting tyres and some fascinating on track battles in terms of wheel-to-wheel racing and differing strategies.

The original plan was to review the Hungarian GP. But, because we are literally just over the halfway point of the season, I thought I would do a "Half term report", where I give my own personal grade to each team, plus some general comments.



Red Bull Racing Renault

It's been a great year so far for the champions. Despite the gearbox failure at Silverstone, Vettel has had a very successful season. His impressive driving skills (plus good fortune, it has to be said) have given him 4 victories plus 3 podium finishes. The car is the best overall on the grid; fast in both qualifying and the races. As for Webber, he has been unfortunate (not to mention being robbed of a victory in Malaysia) but has transformed that bad luck into decent results. It's for these reasons Red Bull and Vettel are top of both championships.

A - Quick and Consistent, top of both tables.



Mercedes

People laughed at the prospect of Lewis Hamilton leaving McLaren to join Nico Rosberg at Mercedes. Who's laughing now? 3 wins, a bagful of pole positions, and a car which can only get better. Yes it is fair to say that the race car is not as mighty as the qualifying car, but when Mercedes can manage their tyres, they can win anywhere.


A-   - Surprisingly high achieving, with potential to improve.


Ferrari

At the year's inception, Ferrari looked like they had the best race car. At times Massa has shown brilliance, but we've also seen the other side to Felipe, most notably the 2 identical crashes at Monaco. As for Alonso, 2 victories where he absolutely dominated showed off just how good that Ferrari can be. Alonso's consistency keeps them in contention. But, I really think that Ferrari should be top of both championships. The car needs development because at the moment it does not look like winning.

B - Good at times, but must try harder.


Lotus Renault

Lotus looked like the team to beat after Australia. The car being so nice on these 2013 Pirelli tyres helps them a lot and have 1 victory to there name. It should have been 2, but was not due to Raikkonen's unnecessary pit stop at the Nurburgring. Grosjean has improved since last year, but penalties continue to hinder his progress in F1. Lotus are always "there or there abouts", but still have work to do to challenge Red Bull.


B+ - Potential to be at the top, must try harder to get there.


Force India Mercedes

What a great year it has been for Force India. Both drivers are close to each other in the championship and they have a car that is consistent and one that is competitive everywhere. They're even giving McLaren a serious headache! You do sense though that keeping McLaren at bay is going to exceptionally difficult during the 9 races after the Summer break.

B+ - Achieving above expected standards, must not slacken up.


McLaren Mercedes

Oh dear oh dear! McLaren have been achieving massively beneath their potential. Fighting for points is not good enough for a championship winning team. They're already thinking towards next season, with their only goals being to beat Force India and try to get on the podium. But, Button and Perez have had some exciting on-track battles and being a team that has turned things around before, you sense there is more to come from McLaren due to recent race results and performances.


C   - Massively under potential, must improve urgently.


Toro Rosso Ferrari

Toro Rosso have had pretty much the season everybody was expecting. Some races in the points, others not. However, with a vacant Red Bull seat open for next season, the rivalry between Vergne and Ricciardo has spiced up. Vergne has more points but Ricciardo has regularly mixed it with the top 10 in qualifying. Either way, it's going to be interesting at Toro Rosso for the next couple of weeks.

C+ - Performing as expected, with flashes of brilliance.


Sauber Ferrari

Sauber, in comparison to last year, have been disappointing. Only really getting in the points due to the talent of Nico Hulkenberg. Gutierrez is a regular Q1 casualty and looks nowhere near scoring a point. Perhaps their fortunes will change after the Summer break? But for now, Sauber's season has been uneventful and disappointing.


C-   - Generally disappointing, showing hardly any progress.


Williams Renault

Williams have scored only 1 point this season. They also have a top 3 in qualifying under their belt (due to Bottas' wet weather skills in Canada) as well. Before Hungary, points looked an impossibility for Frank Williams' team. Last season they had Maldonado who could win races and Senna who could consistently score points. It's different this year and it's not good enough.

D - Very disappointing, improvement is essential.


Marussia Cosworth

It's hard to expect anything from the back 2 teams. After 3 and a half years a point is still an elusive target. Jules Bianchi starred early on in the season and it is for that reason they are ahead of Caterham at the moment. Chilton is a regular last place man and they are behind Caterham at the moment.

E - As expected with their budget, shocking.



Caterham Renault

Caterham are at the foot of the table, yet are still performing better than Marussia at the moment. They will only go ahead of them with a points finish, but that looks an unrealistic target as it has ever been for Caterham. They have 2 talented young drivers, a world championship winning engine and a bigger budget than Marussia, yet they still can not improve.

F - Even with a larger budget, even more shocking.










So, those are my thoughts. Do you agree with my grades or would you put something else? Whatever you think, please comment and let me know.

Thanks for reading,
Matt