Vergne casualty of Red Bull program

Jean-Eric Vergne will not be driving for Toro Rosso next season. In a tweet posted yesterday he said 'Despite a good season & 22 pts, I'll not drive anymore for Toro Rosso in 2015. Thanks for those years. Let's go for another big challenge.'

It's a great shame for Vergne and for the sport. Another talented driver is potentially on the scrap heap at only 24 years old, his Formula 1 career just three seasons. Let's look at his stint in F1.

He partnered Red Bull star Daniel Ricciardo over two years at Toro Rosso in 2012 and 2013. The total points were only 30-29 in Ricciardo's favour. Ok, Vergne was blown away in qualifying 30-9 but he always moved forward in races and generally gave a good showing of himself.

I'd say he was only slightly shaded by a man who has battered four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel this season at the senior Red Bull team. This is not a driver who should be consigned to the ex-F1 driver brigade just as Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi were before him. These are drivers who deserve to be on the grid ahead of many others who are securing seats through money.

It is yet another example of Formula 1's inadequate payment structure that these drivers are not on the grid whereas some drivers, perhaps ones who, ok may have had a dud car but were comprehensively out performed by their team mate and yet are now at Sauber. Vergne at least deserved a midfield drive if not better.

What Toro Rosso are doing is bringing in a driver who has one years worth of car racing behind him in Max Verstappen. Yes he may be the next big thing, but who to judge him against? Carlos Sainz Jnr if he is to be confirmed? He'll be a rookie too. Vergne would have been an excellent comparison to judge Verstappen against, instead they'll have two rookies who could well take some time to sort out their new 2015 car. 

Daniil Kvyat was excellent as a rookie this year, we know this because he showed well against Vergne and actually out-qualified him over the year. So we know he has the raw pace. However, we also know he still has a bit to learn in the races as his 14 point deficit shows. Especially when the ban on helping the driver through the radio came in, we saw Kvyat start making mistakes while Vergne produced some epic drives in the latter portion of the season.

Kvyat deserves his shot at Red Bull alongside Ricciardo, he has amazing potential, but I think another year at Toro Rosso might have been even more beneficial perhaps promoting Vergne, as you know he's already a close match to Ricciardo. The Red Bull young driver program is a brutal one though and if you don't perform highly at all times then you're out, but Vergne deserved better. I hope he's back on the grid soon.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Kvyat the big winner as Vettel leaves Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel is to leave Red Bull at the end of the year with Daniil Kvyat to take his place in the current World Champion team. Red Bull all but confirmed Vettel is off to Ferrari, most likely in place of Fernando Alonso whose relationship with the Scuderia has fallen apart, while Alonso is likely to end up with McLaren.

A shocking announcement to wake up to as qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix got underway. Nico Rosberg took pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton to set up another enticeing battle in the championship fight but all talk was for the driver movements affecting 2015.

Vettel's decision to leave comes as a complete surprise. Not so much that he's leaving Red Bull but how soon it is to happen. Although not confirmed by Ferrari it is almost certain that's where he's off to, but why?

Well Red Bull haven't been as good this year, Technical director Adrian Newey is going to step back, he's been taking a beating from Daniel Ricciardo and perhaps he wants to prove to the doubters that he can win in another team as many still seem to think he only won because he was in the best car. It's sound reasoning therefore that he would want to take up a new challenge and get Ferrari back to the top.

Although if Alonso can't win with them and they're in a worse state than ever it seems a curious decision. It's no secret Vettel has struggled to adapt to these new cars this year, I'd have thought stick with what you know and see how Ferrari get on next year, meanwhile do your best to get one over on Ricciardo.

But what if Ricciardo continued to beat him next year? Vettel's market value would diminish and potentially he could be left with fewer options about where to go. There's so many permutations to this it could be assessed forever. In the end it's probably a wise decision as Ferrari will of course one day get it right again, but how soon? And as one F1 journalist tweeted today, if Vettel struggles with them will they be left reflecting on how Alonso would be doing, or worse how Ricciardo would have done?

One thing we know for sure is that Alonso can drive round a bad car, but Vettel seems to need things more suited to him, it's going to be fascinating to see how this pans out. There's so much more to this situation as well, what of Kimi Raikkonen? Will he stay after such a miserable season. Vettel and Kimi are two drivers who have openly admitted they've struggled to adapt to these new turbo cars, is this what Ferrari want to lead them? Meanwhile this looks like it certainly means Alonso is on his way.

With all the management changes going on at Ferrari and the relationship between driver and team on the critical list at least since last year when Alonso criticised the team, it was inevitable that he would leave but I think most people thought it would come next year.

After the catastropic 2007 campaign he had with McLaren no one would have thought he'd end up back there but negotiations are on-going and it'll no longer be a surprise to see him end up back there. Ron Dennis wants the best drivers, and like at Ferrari there's been a lot of restructuring in the management and in the technical departments, so perhaps both team and Alonso are putting the past behind them to look to a brighter future.

More importantly though Honda want a big name driver, McLaren's new engine partner for 2015. They have long since targeted Alonso and I think whether Ron liked it or not, they were going to get their way as they aim to re-start their latest stint in F1 in a positive fashion. Honda will spend what they need to secure wins and like Ferrari it is inevitable that they will get it right again one day. But how soon?

Alonso is desperate for a third title and after five years of trying at Ferrari, they've not been able to make it work. We know he has a reputation for sometimes putting teams on edge, but for so long they seemed very much in love, how can this relationship have fallen apart so dramatically? Maybe he was demanding too much, maybe the new management at Ferrari had had enough of him looking for other options or were tired of everyone believing Alonso was carrying the team (which to be fair, he has been). Whatever it is, it's not a harmonious departure.

On that note how long can Alonso suffer another team in flux? It'll take a while for Honda and McLaren to get it right, perhaps he might take a year out, perhaps we're about to get another bombshell regarding a drive at Mercedes. Who knows? Alonso seems quite relaxed and happy and says he knows, so thats who. 

If Alonso is to go to McLaren I would think it'll be at the expense of Jenson Button. I think after the investment they've put into Kevin Magnussen who is at the start of his career they'll decide to stick with the Dane. But Button would raise his game considerably up against Alonso, like he did with Hamilton so it could be argued they should stick with him and give Magnussen a year out?

Unfortunately for Jenson that scenario is unlikely and it looks like it could be his last year in Formula 1 because as a former world champion do you really want to race for say Force India? Probably not. It would be a sad way to end, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Arguably it could be said that Vettel and Alonso are swapping their current seats for potentially worse seats, at least in the current situation, so you have to say that Kvyat's move from Toro Rosso to Red Bull is the really big winner in the driver moves.

What an opportunity for the young Russian driver after only one year in the junior team to be promoted to the four time champions. He has to believe Renault are going to make a huge improvement on the power unit and Red Bull will still have a car which will have been predominantly overseen by Adrian Newey despite him stepping back, at least for 2015.

He has been mostly hugely impressive this year and you could say looked better against his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne than even Ricciardo did last year, especially when you consider it's his rookie campaign. It could be quite a close battle at Red Bull next year and I don't think you can say their driver line up looks less despite the loss of a four time champion because quite simply Ricciardo has been brilliant and is a star in his own right while Kvyat looks a worthy addition for the reasons I've just given. Potentially if you look at the comparisons between drivers at Red Bull and Toro Rosso, then he could be in line to be the first Russian world champion in Formula 1. You got to say that it is not an unlikely scenario.

Vergne is rightly annoyed too that he was looked over. But it was never going to be him moving to Red Bull when Max Verstappen was announced for Toro Rosso. He's matched the 2015 Red Bull line-up, he deserves a seat but like Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari before him, the Red Bull young driver program is ruthless.

It's also been rumoured Nico Hulkenberg might be off to sports cars which would be a great shame as he has deserved a seat in a top team for years but it seems he will be continued to be overlooked and admittedly he hasn't been quite as on it this year, perhaps for this reason. Force India say he is under contract for 2015.

A roller coaster of a Saturday morning and so many different scenarios, reasons and arguments that can be presented for all this situations. It's fascinating and there's probably a few more shocks to come in this crazy world of F1.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Three degrees of rookie success

There are three rookies in this season’s Formula 1 and each of them have so far had varying degrees of success. It’s a tough world at the top of motor sport. You can be a hero one race and a nobody the next race.

You can pull off a fantastic move which delights the fans, a few laps later you can outrage the fans as you push that little too far and take out a title contender. Ask Romain Grosjean about that.

Of the three that we’ve got this year I’m quite sad to say that Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson just doesn’t seem to have got a handle on the sport at all this year. He didn’t win the GP2 title but he was a race winner and it seems a shame that his first year in the sport could also be his last.

The Caterham is a no hoper, he was never going to set the world alight but he’s not shone against his team mate Kamui Kobayashi all year and couldn’t even beat Andre Lotterer who stepped into the car in Belgium and was almost immediately quicker. A man who hadn’t stepped into an F1 car since 2002.

He has the backing so maybe he’ll get another chance but although he hasn’t disgraced himself he hasn’t impressed anybody either. Of course with a hard luck story there is also someone else who has set the world alight.

Maybe it’s just me but I was expecting an awful lot from Kevin Magnussen. I wrote earlier in the year, admittedly a bit facetiously that he could well be the next Lewis Hamilton. Well there was a certain amount of truth in that, he was part of the McLaren young driver program, impressed in the junior formulae, was brought into the race team alongside a world champion and scored a podium on his debut in Australia.

It looked like he was about to set the world alight. But the McLaren is nowhere near as good as the one Lewis had. He also hasn’t had even half the testing miles Lewis prepared with. So the comparison was basically completely unfair, Kevin had a lot of learning to do.

It’s been a bit of an up and down season for Magnussen. Over the following races from his debut he was sometimes barely worthy of a mention. He was out-qualified and out raced a lot by Jenson Button, a driver who everyone knows on his day is unbeatable, but also that those days are few and far between at the moment.

The star which shone with such promise in March looked to be gradually fading, so much so that it has been rumoured that McLaren could replace him for 2015 along with Jenson Button. In truth it’s unlikely either of them will go as the driver market is fairly locked off this year, well so it seems.

But it would have been extremely unfair on Magnussen who has been more than competent and done well on a number of occasions through the year. He also had been used to winning in the junior formulae and was certainly not used to having to race mid pack. It was obviously a steep learning curve. But it’s in the most recent races he’s really reminded people of his presence out on the track, and in my opinion for all good reasons.

Ok, it was rude when he ran Fernando Alonso onto the grass in Belgium at 200mph but his defensive driving was hugely impressive during that Grand Prix. He out drove his team mate fairly comprehensively, only to suffer a penalty which dropped him out the points.

He suffered a similar fate when an incident which definitely shouldn’t have been penalised against Valtteri Bottas at the first chicane in Italy dropped him from seventh to tenth. It was a case of the stewards having an over reaction to a driver who might be being too aggressive, maybe it was to teach him a lesson. He does move the car a lot when defending which can be dangerous, but it’s also exciting.

Formula 1 needs drivers who excite and Magnussen is definitely one. After a fast start but then a slow middle he’s beginning to show the potential he looked like he had and that’s going to be great for the sport.

However the man who just seemed to be on it straight away and hasn’t been off it since is Russia's Daniil Kvyat driving for Toro Rosso. There were many who wondered why Red Bull had promoted him in front of some other juniors on their young driver program such as Antonio Felix da Costa or Carlos Sainz Jnr but lets remember he is the 2013 GP3 champion and has a lot of car racing experience behind him as well as having been a successful karter.

As soon as he came into Formula 1 he has been by far the most impressive. Just look at the Italian Grand prix as the perfect example. The team had to give him a 6th engine, breaking the maximum of five rule over a season at Monza thereby incurring a 10 place grid penalty. This season if you don't take all your penalty, for instance if you qualify 15th you're only dropping back seven places, then you are obliged to complete the penalty at the next race. God help the Caterham's and Marussia's!

Kvyat knew this and despite the circuit not exactly being a Toro Rosso friendly track as the Renault unit is significantly down on power compared to Mercedes he still managed to only just miss out on getting into the top 10. From 11th therefore he dropped to 21st. What followed is probably one of the drives of his season so far, he fought hard, unfortunately barely witnessed by the TV camera's to challenge Kimi Raikkonen for a point by the end.

In a Toro Rosso on a power track that is highly impressive. Unfortunately his brakes failed just as it looked he might sneak a point a few laps from home, but he still dragged it home in 11th and the save he made when his brakes did go was amazing. If only Formula 1 allowed you to stick a few videos up without hunting you down I'd show you.

Kvyat has also seen off Jean-Eric Vergne, the man who mostly matched the out standing driver of the year so far during their time at Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo. It's not just perception though, it's borne out by results too. Even though Vergne leads Kvyat in qualifying 7-6 and in points by 11 - 8, it's not quite a true reflection. 

One thing that should be noted is that Kvyat is a rookie so these current results would be pretty impressive anyway, Vergne is still well rated. But actually if you disregard his Monza engine penalty then Kvyat would be leading Vergne 7-6, couple that with often getting into the top 10 and his qualifying speed shouldn't be too much in doubt. Vergne also may have got the better results with two eighth place finishes, but he has scored in just four races compared to Kvyat's five including his first two races. When both cars have finished it is Kvyat who has more often than not been ahead.

If Vergne could match Ricciardo, and Ricciardo can beat Vettel, then Kvyat must be awesome. Of course it is far too early to make judgements like that and circumstances change but Red Bull have to be commended for finding some truly exceptional talent. Kvyat made his debut at just 19 years old. Now only 20 he looks like he's being set up as team leader for next year for the precocious talent of Max Verstappen. Red Bull's newest kid is being promoted to Toro Rosso at just 17 years old after only one years worth of car experience since he left karting.

Compared to Verstappen, Kvyat is positively a veteran with several years of car racing experience behind him as well as his current year in Formula 1, not to mention he's actually allowed to drive on public roads. Have no doubt Verstappen will be a formidable rookie if he's prepared enough, but Kvyat has impressed greatly this year with only one minor misdemeanour when he tried to go round the outside of Sergio Perez but then spun rather clumsily in Germany.

That doesn't take anything away though, he has been impressive and continues to cement a growing reputation of someone who's going to be around the grid for quite some time. With this years inaugural Russian Grand Prix it couldn't come at a better time. It'll be interesting to see how his progress has been received in Russia and how much of a crowd they get at the Sochi circuit, built around the winter Olympics venue. One thing is sure though, he's been by far the most consistently impressive rookie of 2014 so far.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Sebastian Vettel fighting back

“When he [Vettel] will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1… When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles in a worse manner than they are doing now.”

There’s a German leading the championship in the best car in 2014. It’s not Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull though. However, the Red Bull team have mostly been the second best out there and have taken two victories so far this year, but neither was scored by their four time champion. Two facts which make the above quote from Fernando Alonso at the tail end of last year stand out just a little bit more.

At the time of Vettel’s victorious years many in the F1 world wondered whether it was just the car catapulting him to win after win. Could it be that he was merely a good driver piloting an exceptional car? I wondered during winter testing when it became apparent that Red Bull would be facing an uphill battle if Vettel would struggle when confronted with a car which wasn’t an immediate front runner.

In brief I speculated that with the banning of blown diffusers, something Vettel had exceptional technique with and a major advantage of the Red Bull if he’d full back in the pack. Further to that the conservatism with which Pirelli approached this season because of the huge torque coming from the new for 2014 hybrid turbo power units, and the fact that I think they were fed up with their tyres being blamed for everything took another advantage of Vettel’s away. He was brilliant at getting the best out of those more brittle tyres, better than anyone else.

Two major elements had been taken away along with a whole chunk of downforce and one major addition of a power unit where the throttle pedal is extremely sensitive, unlike in the blown diffuser era where you practically stepped on it and let the aero sort you out, it would stick in the corner, now it won’t. It doesn't help that his Renault power unit is the worst in the field as much as 90bhp down on th Mercedes.

I thought back in February that if Vettel were to struggle it would be an ideal opportunity for his new team mate Daniel Ricciardo, promoted from Toro Rosso, to take advantage. But Vettel is a four time world champion, so I dismissed this as a possibility but highly unlikely. As has become quite clear during this season, never dismiss Ricciardo for the young Australian is a brilliant talent.

He leads Vettel in qualifying by 6-5 which should actually be 7-4 as Ricciardo suffered a 10 place grid penalty in Bahrain which put him behind his team mate. In the races he is even further ahead. When both cars have finished Ricciardo has beaten Vettel 6-1.

Ricciardo has scored five podiums of which two were wins and this is not including the second place he was disqualified from in his home race. Vettel has managed to get on the podium just twice this year and each time it was the bottom step. For all the world to see these statistics provide a compelling case, when he’s finished it’s been mostly fourths and fifths, kind of what Alonso said might be the case if Vettel were to sit in a car which wasn’t the best, you know that’s what the Spaniard was implying.

First of all that shouldn’t take anything away from Vettel’s achievements of the previous four years, it was a different era of Formula 1, one in which he exploited the potential of the machinery available to him to the full. In that era, with that technology he was unsurpassed. This is a very different Formula 1, one in which he hasn’t yet got used to. 

Alonso is a brilliant driver, probably the best all-rounder in the business, he can adapt to anything that comes his way, to me that makes a great driver. His current team mate Kimi Raikkonen was meant to challenge him but Alonso has wiped the floor with him, I don’t think that means Kimi is suddenly a bad driver. He has been brilliant these past few years, but something about this new era doesn’t sit well with him a bit like Vettel.

Vettel is sensitive to change, he needs a car where the back end will stick, something that the cars are not capable of doing to the extent they have been in the recent past. Vettel has not been able to change his style and feel comfortable in the car whereas Ricciardo has jumped in straight from Toro Rosso which didn’t have as advanced blown diffuser technology and straight away adapted to this new Formula. He is a team mate who is eager for success, something Vettel has not had to put up with for a while as probably since 2011 Mark Webber was demotivated a lot of the time after losing his one shot at the title.

This doesn’t mean he won’t learn how to deal with these cars or that success has somehow dulled his driving when he’s got to fight harder for it. If anything his frustrated radio messages this year show just how much more he wants, just how annoyed he is at being beaten. This car and this team mate is the toughest time he's ever had in Formula 1, even though he denies this. Ricciardo has been constantly shading him in qualifying. Just when you think Vettel might have the beating of the Aussie, Ricciardo pulls a lap out of the bag. In the races Ricciardo is feisty, attacking, amazingly consistent, including the Mercedes drivers, he has probably been the most impressive driver of the season so far.

Vettel is up against a star of the future, just like Alonso was when Lewis Hamilton got his chance at McLaren when the Spaniard was beaten. This is plainly not some journeyman driver who has turned up at Red Bull, he’s been through the same young driver program Vettel himself went through, there is little doubt that Vettel is up against a future world champion.

Having said that, there are signs that Vettel is turning a corner, especially since FRIC suspension was banned, he looked strong in Germany and out-qualified Ricciardo in Hungary. But even before then, he hasn’t been quite as trounced by Ricciardo as it might seem; it could be argued that both Ricciardo’s wins could have been Vettel’s. Delays in traffic meant he exited behind Ricciardo after pit stops in Canada when he was running in front for most of the race. It could well have been him who took advantage of the struggling Mercedes.

In Hungary he was in third when the safety car came out as he was passing the pit lane, just behind Ricciardo was one of the first into the pits which put him into the lead at the restart. Circumstance has not gone his way nor has reliability, it’s like they’ve given him Webber’s car.

So yes, Vettel has been out performed this year, he hasn’t made the best of the equipment at his disposal, so he’s certainly not out-performing the car like a great can. However, he has out-performed the car in previous years (Red Bull never had an advantage like Mercedes have this year), he is improving in this era and he is beginning to match an exceptional young driver.

Might you have expected more from a four time champion? Yes, quite probably, but this car doesn’t suit him, but it’s coming to him and I will not be surprised to see him match and beat Ricciardo more often after the summer break. He won’t dominate him like Webber, he may not even beat him overall this year, but he’ll match him. He is a very intelligent driver, very mechanical minded and he won’t leave a piece of telemetry unturned until he’s worked out how to succeed once again.

It’s not all lost for Vettel, he’s only just turned 27, he is still learning himself and sometimes it does you good to experience losing. But he won’t want it to last for long. He has achieved great success, but is he a great yet? Greatness is too often bandied around, greatness is earned, it’s about how you achieve success, how you exploit it when the opportunity arises and how you get it back when times are tough. Vettel is going through those hard times, but as the season continues and turns into 2015 I won’t be surprised to see him standing atop the podium once again. He’s turning a corner, adjusting, and it may take until next year, but it’s coming to him, and he’ll make sure it does.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Will Vettel struggle in 2014?

With the racing yet to even start, the leaders of Formula 1 for the past four years already find themselves on the back foot. Red Bull completed just 20 laps in the first test at Jerez and just 116 laps at the next test in Bahrain. In comparison the leaders of the winter, Mercedes, completed 309 and 315 laps respectively.

It doesn’t help that there hasn’t even been a hint of the pace we’ve come to expect from Red Bull in recent times while Mercedes have been toward the top of the charts in practically every day of testing so far.

These problems have mostly come down to the new turbo Renault power unit which has suffered from heating issues amongst other things while Adrian Newey has once again made the Red Bull as compact as possible to the exclusion of cooling which apparently the Renault needs a fair amount of.

Obviously these problems are being sorted as quickly as possible, but even if the team sort out their car, Renault say they are weeks behind the development of Ferrari let alone the pace setting Mercedes powered teams. Rumours go they may be even further behind than that.

It’s not often that Sebastian Vettel has had to struggle in his Grand Prix career, or worse be faced with a car that might not be competitive. This situation could about to become a reality as he tries to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of five titles in a row.

At times when the car has not been fully optimised Vettel’s former team mate Mark Webber was often able to equal or better the German. Certainly in 2010 they were matched for almost all the season until the exhaust blown diffuser came on stream to give Vettel a decisive advantage as only he could fully exploit the driving style required.

After dominating 2011, 2012 started out with Red Bull struggling slightly and again Webber was back on terms after being comprehensively outperformed the previous year. What I’m suggesting is that when the car is less able to perform at its maximum, Vettel is not as able to drag that car to results as well as others like Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton might. On the other hand when a car is performing well, I don’t think anyone can get the best out of it as well as Vettel.

But it’s all change in 2014, the blown diffusers are a thing of the past. What made Vettel so special in these years was that he was perhaps the finest in the art of counter intuitive driving, getting on the throttle to blow the exhaust gases on to the diffuser to create more downforce while usually you wouldn’t be touching the right pedal.

This technology is gone and with it one of the biggest advantages Red Bull and Vettel had. He was also the best at using the high degradation Pirelli tyres. With the new engines having so much more torque Pirelli have rightly gone conservative for this year, so another advantage of Vettel has been taken away.

It’ll be interesting to see how his new team mate Daniel Ricciardo gets on. He is there to make an impression, it’s the biggest opportunity of his career so far and he’ll want to make the most of it. If Vettel struggles, Ricciardo could well take advantage. However, I just can’t see this happening.

Let’s not get carried away with the Red Bull struggles just yet, this is a mere hypothesis about what could happen. Red Bull have Newey and a great team which will be working on how to solve their current problems 24/7, if they’re not competitive now, they certainly will be at some point.

And as I have written before, to me Vettel more than proved he had learned to get results from a less than perfect car, like in the first half of 2013 where let us not forget it was a lot closer than the end result would have you believe. Vettel was never out of the top four in that first half and scored wins he really shouldn’t have. That part of the season really showed that perhaps the issues that were once there had been eliminated.

The year is all up in the air still, but one thing is certain Red Bull are not going to be cruising away with this one and Vettel will be tested to the limit but there’s little doubt that he’s more than up to the task. If anything it’ll make him better and more determined to get back to the top such is his will to win and when Red Bull get it right, which they will, Vettel will be there to exploit it.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Drivers of the year 2013 - Q2

For numbers 23 to 17 please click here

And so we continue our countdown from 16 to 11...

16. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)

The latest flying Finn flew under the radar for the majority of it. He actually had a pretty decent showing despite lacking some of the sparkle that was expected as he was often out raced by Maldonado despite being ahead on the grid. Still an exceptional showing in wet qualifying in Canada when he started third and an even better dry top 10 start in the USA followed by four points for eighth marked him out as one to watch. He’ll be even better next season, hopefully Williams will provide the car for him to shine as much as people thing he is capable of.

15. Jules Bianchi (Marussia)

Marussia had the jump on Caterham for the early stages of the season and Jules Bianchi took full advantage of that. While dominating his team mate, he also took on and beat the Caterham’s even when they overtook them in development. It wasn’t as noticeable once Caterham were more fully in control so he began to be a bit overlooked but it was a great display for the Ferrari young driver. Perhaps the only surprise is that his performances this year didn’t yield a move up the grid, so slightly disappointingly he’s at Marussia for another year.

14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)

I thought it was a bit unfair of Red Bull to seemingly so easily dismiss Vergne as a replacement for Mark Webber. Vergne for much of the time is a perfectly competent driver with great potential, he may be out-qualified most of the time by his now ex-team mate Daniel Ricciardo, but often they’ll end up on track together with Vergne ahead. If Vergne can find an extra bit of speed in qualifying he can move up the grid. With GP3 champion Daniil Kvyat joining him he’ll have to up his game if he wants his career to move on up.

13. Paul di Resta (Force India)

It looks like di Resta is going to fall out of Formula 1 for next season, it’ll be a shame if he can find a way back because he deserves to be competing. Remember this is the guy who beat Sebastian Vettel when they were in Formula 3 together. But the thing is he does himself no favours with his I’m owed attitude that sometimes comes across in the press. His public perception isn’t great and it didn’t help that this season despite a positive start to the year there was a terrible middle of the year when Force India couldn’t get a handle on the tyres; for four consecutive races di Resta had incidents too.

Hopefully he’ll bounce back, there’s too many drivers competing that perhaps shouldn’t be there, but despite this when you’ve been in F1 for three years and you don’t look like you’re progressing, you’re lucky to have to been in F1 for three years.

12. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

Ricciardo got into Q3 nine times in the 2013 season. That’s five more times than his team mate Vergne did and that’s pretty much why he’s the one going to Red Bull. It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on against Vettel there, was he picked because they believe he’ll do a good enough back up job, or as some people suspect he can grow into a superstar himself. His qualifying indicates he’s fast enough, his race performances sometimes seem to show he can’t maintain that pace, but that could just be because he can manage to squeeze more out of the car over one lap than it’s capable of doing for 70. 

Whatever, there are still questions to be answer but it’s going to be fascinating to see if he can manage to put some pressure on Vettel in the German’s own team.

11.  Sergio Perez (McLaren)

To have a McLaren driver down in only 11th spot is an indication that the driver may have not performed to expectations but that also yet again McLaren have produced a dodgy car, except this one wasn’t just dodgy, it was a bit rubbish.

Perez started off quietly this year as he found his feet, but I thought he actually drove rather well. He had some problems but it was a learning year and he definitely displayed some fight and not an insignificant amount of pace too. 

Jenson Button may have out-scored him but Perez actually won qualifying 10-9. No points gained there but it showed that in many ways he was the equal and certainly in the latter few races of the campaign he was the go to man for McLaren’s points scoring. It’s a shame he won’t get another year in a better McLaren as exciting rookie and Renault 3.5 World Series Champion Kevin Magnussen takes over but at least he stays on with Force India.

For the top 10 please click here

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Time to call him champion? Vettel wins in Italy

Round 12 of the Formula 1 World championship was held at the fastest track of them all; Monza, Italy. It had to be the race where Sebastian Vettel’s title rivals finally pushed the Red Bull driver down the order and took a sizeable chunk out of his points lead. At the very least, it had to be a race he didn’t win. Perhaps the forecast of rain could help mix it up too.

In the end rain stayed away, Vettel took pole position and ran away into the distance for a relatively easy win, despite a few tyre issues early on and late race worries about his gearbox (which might be a concern for Singapore as it still has to last that race). Vettel now holds a 53 point advantage over his nearest challenger Fernando Alonso with only 175 points up for grabs. Unless a disastrous streak of form afflicts the German, this is surely the championship over.

Away from the line Vettel squeezed his team mate and fellow front row starter Mark Webber and as the Ferrari’s began to swarm around them into the first corner he locked up hurting his right front tyre. This hardly hurt him at all. Felipe Massa had out qualified Alonso and made a fantastic start from fourth to second but could not hold onto the Red Bull.

As is almost always the case when he’s leading, Vettel pushed to open up a gap and void the DRS zones, and from then on he wasn’t in any real trouble. He kept the pace up, set the odd fastest lap, and more than anything controlled the race to the finish. It is at a stage now where if Vettel gets in the lead on the opening lap you’re almost resigned to him being guaranteed the win.

And so it proved, he reeled off the laps with the television camera’s barely noticing him, and surprisingly took his first back to back wins of the season. Next race is in Singapore where he started a roll of four wins on the bounce last year that set him on his way to the 2012 title. It’ll have to be the complete opposite if this championship is going to stay alive any longer.

Title challengers

It’s wrong to call them title challengers anymore, especially in the cases of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Lewis did not have a good weekend. He failed to get out of Q2 after running wide at the final turn Parabolica, then at the same corner he was rudely blocked by his former friend Adrian Sutil which ensured his pole streak was ended and he lined up 12^th.

He certainly had great speed on the medium tyre, but first he started off on the hard compound on which he made limited early progress, but was looking to go longer than his medium shod rivals. Unfortunately for Lewis, a slow puncture forced him on to a two stop strategy, so despite tremendous pace and some lovely moves he still could only end up ninth with just two points for his efforts.

Admittedly he ran shorter stints than most on his tyres but yet again one of Vettel’s rivals didn’t have it all come together despite looking to have the pace to challenge and now finds himself over three race wins of points behind, which is still a better position than Kimi

The perennial story of Kimi’s season is one of qualifying off the pace but racing with the speed to challenge for victory if only he’d started further up. Another championship challenger to fall in Q2, he started in 11^th and made a charging start, right into the back of Sergio Perez’s McLaren forcing the Finn to pit for a new nose at the end of the first lap.

From there he set regular fastest laps, but couldn’t quite manage to force himself back into the points, finishing only 11^th. Another wasted weekend, his second with no gift of points, and now we can confirm definitively that he and Lewis are no longer championship rivals.

Vettel need fear no one but he still at least needs to offer a glance over at Alonso. Despite his calm outward appearance in media interviews, the lack of success or a car that consistently challenges really looks to be getting to the Spaniard.

In qualifying when Ferrari’s slip streaming team tactics failed to deliver the desired effect, Alonso was radioed to sarcastically say in Italian ‘geniuses’ although Italian journalists have interpreted it as a more scornful ‘idiots’. Something that is sure not to go down too well with the teams hierarchy.

But then what can they do? On race day Alonso demonstrated once more just how much Ferrari need him. A superbly executed move on Webber into the second chicane, as he held on round the outside to then claim the inside line was a joy and he soon made his way past Massa to line up second.

They tried to run longer than Vettel at the first stops although it just left him further back, but despite this it was still second place at the finish. Whatever he did today there wasn’t much hope, and it was enough for him to manage to hold off a fighting Webber to the line.

I’m sure we’ll hear more about the radio traffic Alonso directed towards his team but it increasingly looks like his mind is returning to destructive ways that occasionally affected his time at Renault and certainly did so at McLaren. I hope he can hold it all together as if Ferrari can continue in this form at the higher down force tracks that are coming he is the last hope in keeping this title race alive.

A stand out performance and other noteworthy drives

Nico Hulkenberg’s position in Formula 1 is remarkably under threat. He is highly rated but as top line seats look to be locked up and Sauber try to keep themselves in business he could well find himself without a drive next year.

Hopefully this is an unlikely scenario as this weekend he was superb. He qualified an amazing third and managed to not fall away in the race. He kept pace with the front runners and was actually only 10 seconds behind the race winner at the end as he secured a fine fifth.

Perhaps this is the start of a rise in performance from the Sauber team and this can only be a good thing as Hulkenberg looks to secure a drive higher up the grid. Ferrari is the most likely destination if they don’t retain Massa, although Kimi is still rumoured for the Italian job. Whatever happens, in a world where pay drivers are increasing again, there still needs to be room for driver talent to shine more than money and Hulkenberg certainly has that to offer.

Mark Webber and Felipe Massa had decent drives today. Webber got his first podium at Monza, perhaps he should have had second but he didn’t quite have the straight line speed to get himself back ahead of Alonso who had earlier damaged the Aussie’s front wing which won’t have helped his cause.

Massa ran strongly in the early stages, only losing out to Webber in the pit stops. A strong fourth not far behind his team mate is about as good a job application as he’ll be able to manage with the equipment at his disposal.

Mercedes didn’t have the best of weekends, what with Lewis’ struggles Nico Rosberg’s quiet run to sixth place is a little bit of consolation. He qualified in sixth, he raced there and he finished there. He didn’t much look like going forward, nor did he look like he’d go backwards. It was a fairly solitary drive.

Daniel Ricciardo looked to justify his promotion to Red Bull for next year with a strong drive from seventh to seventh. As his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne’s engine decided to die, Ricciardo held off attacks from both McLaren’s and Romain Grosjean’s Lotus which followed him home in eighth.

Jenson Button clung onto the final point and later admitted the gearing just wasn’t long enough in top gear for them to threaten to pass. He held off Kimi, but his team mate Perez dropped out of the points to finish up 12^th. Not quite the 50th anniversary they'd have liked for a team of their standard.

The other Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez set some quick laps and climbed up the field to 13^th from 16^th, if only he could put an entire weekends performance together then he could end up with a point.

Force India continue to struggle in the second half of the season, Adrian Sutil was nowhere while Paul di Resta left his braking too late on the opening lap to clatter into the back of Grosjean, but only take himself out of the race. Not happy days at the Silverstone based team.

Leaving Europe to the Far East

As I mentioned earlier Singapore was the trigger to fire Vettel towards his 

third world crown, could it be his downfall this time? Doubtful, Vettel is too good of a driver in too good of a car to let this go now. Alonso may play at keeping it alive but it’s going to take a miracle to come back from this now.

I have no problem with a driver consistently winning the title, it would just be nice if the other teams and drivers would perhaps raise their game enough to make it a closer contest. As it is, we can only sit and marvel at just what a great job Vettel and Red Bull are and have been doing.

Anyway the night race at Singapore is only two weeks away. Perhaps best not to look at is a part of the championship, but as a title in its own right now. Who can win the Singapore title? It’ll be down to who’s got it on the day.

Final Result

1. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull

2. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari

3. Mark Webber – Red Bull

4. Felipe Massa – Ferrari

5. Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber

6. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes

7. Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso

8. Romain Grosjean – Lotus

9. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes

10. Jenson Button – McLaren

11. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus

12. Sergio Perez – McLaren

13. Esteban Gutierrez – Sauber

14. Pastor Maldonado – Williams

15. Valtteri Bottas – Williams

16. Adrian Sutil – Force India

17. Charles Pic – Caterham

18. Giedo van der Garde – Caterham

19. Jules Bianchi – Marussia

20. Max Chilton – Marussia

R. Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso – Transmission

R. Paul di Resta – Force India - Accident

all photo's taken from autosport.com

The Italian Forecast

The last European race of the year has already arrived, and it’s always a fantastic time to return to the home of Ferrari and the fastest track in Formula 1. It's also the shortest race of the year with the race often taking 80 minutes or less over it's 53 laps.

As the season got underway again two weeks ago in Belgium there was hope that the championship battle was about to be reignited as the combined forces of Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus battled to push Red Bull down the order.

That hope was quickly put down by the sheer ease with which Sebastian Vettel won at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the two tracks Red Bull had spoken about as an Achilles’ heel. The other was Monza, so on that evidence are we to fear that Vettel is about to crush any remaining optimism?

There is hope of an interesting race this weekend that could upset the odds. There are two DRS zones again, with the Red Bull notorious for not quite having the top speeds, they’ll be even more vulnerable to attack. The tyre compounds being brought to the track are the medium and hard which should present minimal problems in terms of overt degradation, but that may well be irrelevant. The weather is for a sunny Friday, a cloudy Saturday and then a storm looks to be brewing for the main event. Could we have our first wet race of the year?

It would be nice to get the wet weather skills out, it always creates an exciting spectacle with so many drivers with great feel in the rain it would be the most open race of the year, and perhaps the most likely chance of a McLaren victory; both Jenson Button and Sergio Perez have shown their prowess in slippery conditions and what a result that would be on the teams 50^th anniversary.

That’s one possibility for defeating the Red Bulls. The other is that Monza is very different to Spa. Italy may be a low down force track like Belgium but Monza it is all about the long straights and mostly slow corners whereas Belgium is full of fast corners which bring out the best in the Red Bulls aerodynamics.

Ferrari looked stronger in a low down force set up and without the fast corners, any advantage the Red Bulls have shouldn’t show up as much. Mercedes too will be looking to put there pace in a straight line to good use. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to see two silver and two red cars make up the first two rows this weekend.

I don’t think Red Bull won’t be competitive but I do see their rivals’ managing to string out the belief this title is still up for grabs for just a few races longer. Vettel will no doubt be a podium contender by the end of the day though, it’s just how this seasons going. Having said rain could mix it up, let’s not forget Vettel’s first victory came at Monza in the pouring rain when he just drove away from the opposition in his Toro Rosso. If Red Bull do struggle for speed in the dry then rain could be just what they need.

So let’s make a few other quick predictions for the weekend ahead:

Lewis Hamilton to take pole position; that’s an easy one I think, five in a row isn’t unlikely at the moment, but Nico Rosberg is surely due to remind everyone that he can be just as fast too.

Fernando Alonso, come what may, will be fighting for victory this weekend. I expect him to qualify higher up and he makes things happen and will be determined to drag it out just a bit longer. However, once the season moves back to medium and higher down force tracks we’ll see if there improvement is sustained for real.

Kimi Raikkonen’s potential title tilt will come to an end this weekend. It already looks highly unlikely after his Belgian retirement but I don’t see Lotus managing to grind out a victory at a track where Mercedes and Ferrari should come to the fore. They are bringing a longer wheelbase car which they hope will help, but it’s doubtful that’ll be enough. They will be encouraged though that their lead driver looks set to stay.

Daniel Ricciardo will put the performance of his year in. He’s finally been confirmed as the next Australian to partner Vettel at Red Bull for 2014. The pressure is off for now, he can still fly a little under the radar for the rest of the season; it’s time now to show everyone just why they hired him. Hopefully he won’t do what Perez did last year when he was confirmed at McLaren and not score for the rest of the year.

Force India to sadly fall further back. Spa was meant to be their track, but after a great opportunistic qualifying they fell back in the race and didn’t look competitive. If the Toro Rosso’s hadn’t qualified out of position they wouldn’t have scored any points.

Look out for Esteban Gutierrez as well. The final result in Belgium didn’t show it, but he showed a great turn of speed and looks to be improving.

Final prediction is I believe this could be the most open race of the year. Red Bull is always competitive, Mercedes and Ferrari should be up there, Lotus could always throw up a surprise and if it rains, then it could just be magic for someone else. We need a good race, just to keep us fooled that this championship isn’t sewn up already.

all photo's taken from autosport.com