Drivers of the year 2013 - Q1

Over the next few days I will be counting down the best drivers of the year in a three stage format pretty much exactly like qualifying. Accepting that it's not always the easiest to tell which drivers have shown better given the differences in car performance, but also allowing that in general the best drivers mostly end up in the best cars (with the exception of Nico Hulkenberg) then starting with 23 to 17 here are the first drivers to be knocked out of possibly (but probably not) the definitive Formula 1 driver list of the year.

23. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus)

A bit of a squandered opportunity for Heikki as he replaced Kimi Raikkonen for the final two races of the year. One Q3 appearance and two dreadful starts didn’t make the impression he wanted.

22. Max Chilton (Marussia)

It was a solid rookie year, in fact he finished all the races which is something a first year driver has never done before. It still doesn’t stop me wanting to put him last as mostly he finished there and was completely trounced by his team mate Jules Bianchi. The most infuriating thing was the likes of the BBC and Sky making excuses for him; even though he did improve as the year went on if he finds himself with a seat next year it’s another poor reflection on F1 that money talks just a bit too much.

21. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham)

There was a perception that van der Garde was being dominated by Pic as much as Chilton was by Bianchi but that was not the case at all. He was outstanding in the wet qualifying of Belgium and actually out-qualified Pic 10-9 over the season. Deserves another year as he seemed to be getting better.

20. Charles Pic (Caterham)

It is of course very difficult to judge the drivers from the newer teams as they were consistently about a second off even the slowest of the midfield runners. So despite his qualifying against van der Garde the fact that Pic was leading 8-4 when both Caterhams finished the races showed that Pic had it when it counted this year.

19. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)

Out in Q1 10 times isn’t exactly a great advertisement for future job prospects. But in truth his first year while patchy wasn’t that bad in my eyes at least. Admittedly he had trouble putting an entire weekend together but when looked at closely he often wasn’t that far off his highly thought of team mate Nico Hulkenberg. The second half was when he really came alive when Sauber made the car more driveable, while his seventh place in Japan was a fantastic drive. 

Again with the lack of testing in F1 at the moment, he deserved at least one more year which Sauber obliged by not employing a barely born but rich Russian Sergey Sirotkin.

18. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)

After 2012’s heroics Williams produced a dog of a car which left dear Pastor frustrated. It didn’t help that his rookie team mate was consistently out qualifying him. His race experience told on Sundays when he more often than not finished in front but his criticism of Williams when he knew he was leaving was poor and his single point for the year was equally so. His move to Lotus next year is defined by money even though on his day he can compete with the best.

17. Adrian Sutil (Force India)

Sutil made quite the comeback in Australia after being away for a year with a spectacular performance that rather overshadowed his team mate Paul di Resta. It’s strange that for the majority of the year Sutil lingered behind di Resta and didn’t have nearly as many highlight showings, but Sutil is still the one with the higher profile and by the looks of it the one to stay in Formula as he’s signed for Sauber. He’s a good solid driver, but despite the odd standout showing, he’s never going to give you that spark every race.

For 16 - 11 click here 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Vettel charges to Japanese victory

Now that was a race. Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese Grand Prix at the fantastic Suzuka track. No great surprise really given the results since the summer break, but this wasn’t a walk in the park for the German. Too many people subscribe to the view that Vettel wins because of the car or that he is just strolling to victory.

The last time he was so dominant and scored 11 wins on the way to the world title was in 2011, but if you look back at that season, so many victories were actually close run things. He did what he needed to do to win.

Admittedly some of the last few races have resulted in crushing dominance. However, in Japan he demonstrated he doesn’t need to lead from the very first lap to win. In fact he can drop down the order, have a quite scrappy first half of the race before reaching into his reserves and flying back into contention.

This is why he is about to become a four time champion. His strategy was perfect and he executed it brilliantly. Away from the line, both he and his pole sitting team mate Mark Webber were slow away from the line allowing Romain Grosjean into the lead from fourth on the grid.

Vettel lay in third and was told to play the waiting game. During the first round of stops it looked like all three were opting for a three stop strategy, but in the end only Webber went ahead with that call. It was the second and final stops for Vettel and Grosjean which were really crucial.

When Grosjean pitted for a second time, Vettel was able to go much further, another eight laps. His tyres were much fresher and although he exited behind the Lotus he was soon ahead on lap 41. Webber then pitted from the lead to go on to the medium compound, the faster option tyre in Japan. With 10 laps to go he was more than capable of making inroads into Vettel’s lead.

But first there was Grosjean to deal with, and although he closed quickly, Grosjean is quickly maturing into a fine driver now. He was able to hold back the Australian for several laps, denying the race a grandstand finish but resulting in Vettel’s ninth win of the year.

It was a great victory which owed much to his tyre conservation skills. Webber said afterwards he reckoned he could have worked the same strategy although Red Bull deny this saying he stopped too early for his first stop after running out of grip to make a two stop work.

Webber may still have won, but whereas Vettel charged up to Grosjean and passed him almost immediately, it took Webber too long and that was the end of the fight for victory.

Vettel has been so impressive this year. This late season dominance could make us forget just how close it all was in the first half of 2013 and how he had to grind out results. He was always there. Now he has the car and tyres to fully exploit his pace, he’s shown just how good he really is yet again. The title will surely be clinched in India in two weeks time.

Grosjean is Lotus’ future

Romain Grosjean produced another fine performance with third place as he steps up to his new status as Lotus’ leading man for 2014. Well nevermind next year, he’s been the lead driver for the last few races. Despite circumstances playing against him in a few races, he has been the Lotus pace setter, especially in qualifying, and really he was the only driver to be able to challenge the Red Bull’s this weekend. He was able to lead the race confidently and never looked troubled while out in front.

He has finally managed to harness his speed with a maturity to look at the overall picture and not just a single moment which leads him to get flustered and make mistakes. That aspect looks to be disappearing. He could well have won in Japan, but the pace wasn’t quite there, especially after he pitted to cover Webber at the first stops to maintain track position when he probably could have carried on longer and match Vettel’s longer runs.

I think the win is just a matter of time and Grosjean is beginning to prove that despite Kimi Raikkonen’s consistency and race winning performances, this team has a driver who is becoming firmly established amongst the front runners. Even Vettel lauded his recent performances. No longer is he the talked of about a driver to be wary of going wheel to wheel with for detrimental reasons. Now he is a driver they have to take seriously in the fight for victories.

Webber close to a last gasp victory

It was a close run thing. Webber could have made a two stopper work, but according to his team, running behind Grosjean meant he had to pit earlier than was wanted. Even then he still had the pace to challenge for victory after he made his extra stop, he was charging Grosjean and Vettel down.

He couldn’t make the pass quickly on the Lotus and the race was over. However, it was one of his better days this year and will give him confidence and momentum as we went the last four races of the year.

Webber will want to go out in style and take at least one victory away from Vettel in the Red Bull steam roller of success. He started off well with a fantastic pole position, the first time he’d out qualified Vettel all year. It would be great to see Webber take the fight to Vettel one more time, if only he could have got past Grosjean just that bit quicker then sparks would fly. 

Here’s hoping he maintains this form as he is the man with the best opportunity to stop the Vettel victory parade.

Gutierrez joins in the Sauber renaissance

Finally after weeks of writing that Esteban Gutierrez was about to do something good, he proves me right. He followed his highly rated team mate Nico Hulkenberg over the line to claim sixth and seventh places as Sauber continue their improved form.

Hulkenberg had another eventful race, once again mixing it with the top guys. He managed to jump the likes of Nico Rosberg and the Ferrari’s in the first stop to be the first one in line to pass a late stopping Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo was able to hold them back for several laps allowing a massive gap to open out to the top three, but Hulkenberg eventually passed him. However, he could do nothing to stop Fernando Alonso and then later Kimi coming by to drop him to sixth. It was still a great showing.

Gutierrez matched his team mate’s performance as he gained seven places from 14^th to score his first Formula 1 points. It’s been coming for a while with the last two races particularly featuring impressive qualifying. I expect this result to give him more confidence and I wouldn’t be surprised if he scores a few more points before the year is out. Meanwhile Sauber are now only 17 points behind the fading Force India’s; sixth in the constructors is there for the taking which is incredible given their dreadful first half of the year.

Battles down the field

Alonso came home in fourth to keep the title race alive for one more race. He knows the title isn’t worth thinking about now though. He made an impressive move around the outside of Hulkenberg into turn one and held Kimi at bay too. But this isn’t what it’s about for Alonso. He also admitted he needs to improve his qualifying performances as Felipe Massa was ahead on the grid for the third time in four races.

Massa failed to take advantage of that once again as he took a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and ended up tenth. This was after he apparently ignored a team order to let Alonso through. To be fair, why should he anymore, especially when the title is almost out of reach. Alonso was able to get by on his own anyway.

Kimi has begun to have a habit of qualifying behind Grosjean but ending up ahead of him by the end of the race. Not today, he was comprehensively out qualified and out raced today. Still he did climb up the field from ninth to fifth, but if he could match Grosjean’s one lap pace you still believe he might stand a better chance of claiming a victory for Lotus.

Mercedes had a very poor weekend. Lewis Hamilton started third and looked like he was going to jump both Red Bull’s at the start only to cut his tyre on Vettel’s front wing and suffer a puncture on the opening lap. It wrecked the cars floor and he retired soon later.

Rosberg managed to run fourth for a while but a drive through penalty for an unsafe pit release meant he dropped down the field and could only recover to eighth. This team are still quick but they are seriously underutilising their pace. It’s arguable if they could still take on Red Bull in a trouble free race.

Jenson Button looked impressive in qualifying but a wrong set up choice meant he wasn’t comfortable in the car during the race and could only manage ninth. McLaren have obviously written 2013 off a long time ago, but still ninth just seems wrong for a team like McLaren. Sergio Perez could only manage 17^th after suffering a penalty for an incident with Rosberg.

Toro Rosso and Force India must be looking enviously at Sauber. Both have dropped pace, although you can see a way back for the Toro Rosso pair but Force India’s season appears over, which I’m sure will please the hard to please Paul di Resta.

Williams drivers battled with each other, something Pastor Maldonado doesn’t want to do, while Jules Bianchi and Geido van der Garde tried to recreate the 1990 Senna/Prost crash at turn one, but somehow it just seemed a bit of a pointless accident in their Marussia and Caterham respectively.

On to India then where Vettel can claim his fourth consecutive world championship. It’s inevitable, but it won’t mean any less, he’s been superb all year. In a way if he is to win it next race, I hope he puts on a supreme display and clinches it with a victory. Not an unlikely scenario.

Final Result:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

2. Mark Webber - Red Bull

3. Romain Grosjean - Lotus

4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

5. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus

6. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

7. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

8. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

9. Jenson Button - McLaren

10. Felipe Massa - Ferrari

11. Paul di Resta - Force India

12. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso

13. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso

14. Adrian Sutil - Force India

15. Sergio Perez - McLaren

16. Pastor Maldonado - Williams

17. Valtteri Bottas - Williams

18. Charles Pic - Caterham

19. Max Chilton - Marussia

R.  Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - Puncture damage

R. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham - Accident

R. Jules Bianchi - Marussia - Accident 

all photo's taken from autosport.com 

Easy win for Vettel at Belgian Grand Prix

There was much optimism that the likes of Mercedes, Lotus and Ferrari were about to launch a challenge to Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel as Formula 1 returned from its summer break to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

That hope was crushed, at least today, as Sebastian Vettel flew past Lewis Hamilton down the Kemmel straight on the opening lap and from then on was never headed. Fernando Alonso rose up from ninth on the grid to take second and it looked like perhaps a scarlet attack was about to form, but alas for the race and perhaps for the season that didn’t happen.

Vettel was supreme winning by 16 seconds from Alonso, and in truth it could have been a lot more. The Red Bull driver was toying with the rest of the field and his team as once again he was told to back off after setting fastest laps whenever he felt like it.

It is entirely misplaced negativity to say the championship is over, there are after all still eight races to go, but for the title fight to be really ignited you needed one of Hamilton, Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen to at least finish ahead of Vettel. Kimi retired with brake problems but was never in the race, while Fernando and Lewis made up the rest of the podium, but they were just also-rans in a Vettel demonstration.

Red Bull had said that this track and the next race at Monza, Italy, would be their most difficult races. Well they’ve won one of them, and they showed today at least on Vettel’s car that their straight line speed was not lacking. Perhaps the long straights of Monza should hold no fear for them.

Having said all that, it would be unwise to write off everyone else. Ferrari have rekindled some of their early season speed, Mercedes via Hamilton took another pole position, albeit in the wet and didn’t fall through the field, while Lotus didn’t get a chance to really show their performance. It’s not all over, and Monza could be very different.

But today, Vettel was in a race of his own. Off the front row he slotted in behind Hamilton into La Source then deployed all his KERS on the way down to Eau Rouge, sucked along by the Mercedes’ slipstream. He simply shot through. Even when he exited behind Jenson Button after his first pit stop he was ahead by the end of the lap to make sure he led every single circuit.

Even when the others are ahead, Vettel is always there on the podium, and when they have the speed to win, he crushes them and now lies 46 points ahead of Alonso. No wonder he looked so overjoyed. If the challenges were about to come, Red Bull stopped them emphatically.

Ferrari still down, but not yet out

And now for a little hope. Ferrari looked like they were falling back in terms of pace and even team harmony over the last few weeks and races. At least today despite only qualifying both cars ninth and tenth they were able to get back on the podium rather convincingly.

Again though, they have a lot to thank Alonso for; while Felipe Massa struggled with contact and KERS issues to finish seventh, the Spaniard made a fantastic start. Down to Eau Rouge for the first time, Alonso was already fighting Mark Webber for fifth place and hung on the inside to pass. Lap 4 and he was up to fourth, a DRS pass on the Kemmel straight promoting him ahead of Button.

A couple of laps later he did the same to the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and after the first round of pit stops dived down the inside of Lewis Hamilton to take second into La Source. Demonstrating the amazing straight line speed of the Ferrari he then managed to hold off Hamilton as he attacked the Ferrari back into the DRS zone. That speed will hopefully stand the Italian team in good stead when we arrive in Italy.

Any hope of a Ferrari challenge faded away like the chances of rain spicing up the race. Practice and qualifying had precipitation interruptions but nothing was about to upset the progress of Vettel, so Alonso’s charge came to an end with second place.

It was still a good result, and Fernando was happy with the improvements the team had made, finally translating well from the design office onto the track. However, he won’t be happy about the gap Red Bull had, but it’s a start and now it’s crucial they use this new momentum to springboard not just above Mercedes and Lotus, but ahead of Red Bull too.

Mercedes Belgian attack fades

Mercedes came to Belgium as the form team, having taken the last three pole positions and victory at the last race in Hungary in convincing style. However, the team never looked like they had the speed this weekend, and if it wasn’t for the mixed conditions in qualifying, another pole position was unlikely.

Hamilton couldn’t hold back Vettel or Alonso but I think he can still be happy with another podium finish. He wasn’t comfortable in the car at Spa, but he still managed to finish ahead of his team mate Rosberg who ran close to him all through the race.

They would have hoped for more though, they expected this track to lend itself to them, just as they do with Monza in a couple of weeks, so they’ll be disappointed they weren’t able to give Red Bull more of a race. The team complained of not being able to get the front and rear tyres to heat up at the same time, so upsetting the balance. Still third and fourth isn’t a bad result, but perhaps when thoughts of a championship challenge were beginning to surface then this result isn’t going to induce the widest of smiles.

Mark Webber in poor start surprise

Why does it always happen to his car? Ok Webber has made a number of decent starts over the last few races but too many times problems seem to afflict his start procedure causing him to fall back and fight his way up again rather than racing at the front where he should be.

Webber should have been on the podium today, he had the speed. Maybe if unleashed he could have had a crack at Vettel, he was on the only other person able to have that speed at his disposal. However, a poor start dropped him down and he found himself stuck behind Rosberg for the majority of the race to end up in fifth position at the finish.

It does seem odd how many problems Webber is experiencing this year. Yes Vettel has out qualified the Aussie at every race but when Webber is matching Vettel, then something happens to affect his race, strange. Of course any thought process about this which leads to conspiracy theories of favouritism are not to be taken seriously.

Game over for Kimi?

After a double podium in Germany, another second place in Hungary, Lotus looked like they were on the attack. Then the midseason break happened and they come back to one of their worst weekends.

Kimi Raikkonen’s record points scoring streak ended at 27 consecutive races as he suffered brake failure caused by a helmet visor rip off being stuck in the brake duct which meant it overheated. 

Romain Grosjean’s attempt at a one stop only yielded an eighth place. Not the result the Enstone team wanted. It puts Kimi down from second to fourth in the title battle, now 63 points behind Vettel, that’s the equivalent of over two race wins and a fourth place.

So is it all over for Kimi’s title aspirations? Well they were built on consistency and maybe bagging the odd win. Now they’re utterly reliant on a few Red Bull failures. It’s happened once this year, I’m not sure anyone expects it to happen again, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

Esteban Gutierrez shines and other little notes

Gutierrez may have only finished 14^th and behind his team mate Nico Hulkenberg, but I thought it was his best drive of the year. I think he’s been a lot closer to the highly touted Hulk than many have given him credit for.

This weekend he showed great pace but unfortunately it was never allowed to show itself when it mattered with an end result. Fast in practice three, he ended up in 21^st after qualifying when wet conditions scuppered a lot of team’s grand plans.

In the race he made an amazing move around the outside of Pastor Maldonado at Blanchimont, although he was off the track, but it was gutsy and definitely a wow moment. He was given a drive through penalty, but without it he might have been on for a point and well ahead of his team mate.

This caused Maldonado to be off line in to the Bus Stop chicane, first the Force India of Sutil clipped his front wing off, so Pastor dived for the pits not realising Paul di Resta was coming round too. The Williams took the Force India’s left rear off causing di Resta’s retirement.

Di Resta could have had pole if the rain had kept coming, but Sunday turned into a nightmare. He had started 5^th but ended up falling through the pack, the Force India’s just don’t have pace since the tyre design change. Sutil still managed to grab two points for ninth.

That wasn’t enough to keep McLaren behind in the constructor’s championship. McLaren hoped for a podium and looked like they might make a one stop work with Button before pitting a second time to end up sixth and move up to fifth place in the teams battle. It was their most competitive showing and Button suggested afterwards that if McLaren had been bolder on strategy they might have ended higher up.

Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo charged through the field from 19^th to 10^th to give the media a chance to ask him questions which didn’t concern his unconfirmed promotion to Red Bull. It was a good eye catching drive.

Stewarding

I think there needs to be more consistency in the stewarding process, and perhaps actually a bit more leeway given to some of the moves which are marginal, we don’t want to actively discourage over taking do we?

Firstly, I don’t think Sergio Perez’s move on Romain Grosjean should have resulted in a penalty. The Mexican squeezed the Lotus at the end of the Kemmel straight into Les Combes but it wasn’t too much and I think he gave him just enough room. Grosjean could have backed off earlier as he’d already lost the place, but he was trying to keep it but ended up out braking himself.

If you look at a similar incident with Hulkenberg and Jean-Eric Vergne, then Hulkenberg squeezed Vergne at the same place but this time Vergne did was Grosjean wanted to do and hung on round the outside and actually ended up forcing Hulkenberg off the track. It was impressive racing and a great move by Vergne, but if Perez got a penalty for probably not forcing someone off the track, the surely Vergne should have had one too?

Gutierrez suffered his penalty for running beyond the track limits and gaining an advantage. Yes, he deserved it by the letter of the rules, but it looked amazing, and it was such a brief moment you wish it had been allowed like Grosjean’s move on Massa in Hungary. But if you’re sticking to the letter, then it had to be a penalty. It’s just it doesn’t seem to be applied every time, and sometimes for something completely innocuous.

The title fight

So, do we knock Kimi off from our title challenger list? Probably. How about everyone else? It’s tempting. After this performance from Vettel, it’s hard not to think about it, but there are still many races to go and performance can swing to one team or the other. It just so happens that Red Bull is the most consistent this year, oh and they’re also either the fastest or one of the fastest.

But there was that impression that if title challenges were to be mounted, it had to happen from here, and it kind of feels almost a sense of desperation in the media that that deadline is now extended to Italy. If Vettel wins there, he’d be over two race wins in front of his nearest rival. That’s a lead Vettel would never give up.

all photo's from autosport.com