Winter testing begins

The garage doors will be opened in Jerez, Spain tomorrow (1st February) as winter testing starts in what will be the opening skirmishes of the 2015 title fight. Despite my previous rant about the state of Formula 1, which if you so desire can be read here, there is a lot to get excited about.

All the teams apart from Force India are present at the opening test. Force India are saying it's so they can have extra development time, although with their owners under investigation for money related activities in India, I really hope it's not because the team have money troubles of their own.

As anticipation builds towards the first race of the season in Australia on March 15th, here's a few things I, and I'm sure you will be excited about in the run up to the lights going out and the action starts.

I think the first thing I have to mention is Fernando Alonso's return to McLaren after their acrimonious split in 2007. Alonso is accepting he will need patience as McLaren and the returning Honda get used to each other again. But how long will that patience last? I can't wait to see how these great power houses of Formula 1 gel together. McLaren have taken a new design direction while it'll be interesting to see how Honda perform after watching the other three manufacturers for a year. Will they have learnt from others mistakes?

I'm equally looking forward to seeing how Jenson Button stacks up against his Spanish team mate this year. Button stepped up when paired with Lewis Hamilton and I've a feeling he's going to give Alonso a much tougher time than anticipated.

Will Mercedes still be the dominant force? Over the winter Renault and Ferrari successfully argued they should be allowed to develop their power units throughout the season rather than stop at the end of February. They will still only be allowed to change a certain amount but they can extend their development times as they try to catch up to the Silver Arrows squad. Of course this also means Mercedes can continue developing, and Honda have now been given the go ahead to continue working on their engine too. 

It all means it should be closer, but with such a head start for Mercedes it's going to be tough to catch the works squad which could mean it's another head to head between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton could return serene in his accomplishment of last year and go on to higher heights and dominate, or Rosberg will have learnt what he needs to do to get into Hamilton's head and take it to him in a wheel to wheel battle. That's a situation I'm looking forward to seeing.

Daniel Ricciardo returns with Red Bull, if Renault have done a halfway decent job in improving their power unit, I think he could be a dark horse for the title. I look forward to seeing how Daniil Kvyat copes with being pushed into the big time. Ricciardo handled it well, but does Kvyat have that mental strength?

Sticking with the Red Bull world, how will two rookies in Toro Rosso cope without anyone to learn off? Well Ricciardo managed, and Max Verstappen comes into the sport at only 17 years old with just one years car racing experience and a few F1 practice sessions but he is also being touted as the next big thing. Will he handle that pressure? I think he will, from interviews and how he manages himself, he's going to go at his own pace, but expect good things. Carlos Sainz Jnr has had success in junior formulae, and a lot more experience than Verstappen whilst also being three years older. If he doesn't beat him, could this be a one year adventure for the young Spaniard?

Ferrari's new car looks spectacular, although Sebastian Vettel in red takes some getting used to. Technical director James Allison says the car should suit Kimi Raikkonen a lot more than the monster that was last years Ferrari, so hopefully we'll see Kimi able to drive to a higher level than he was able to show in 2014. Whatever the situation with Kimi, whether fair or not, if Vettel doesn't thrash him like Alonso then people are going to judge his titles even less favourably especially after the beating he took from Ricciardo at Red Bull last season.

Ferrari have been in turmoil and this is a building year for the Scuderia, nevertheless, I'd like to see both drivers find their feet again in this still new Formula 1 that both struggled with last year. A change of scenery for Vettel after being with Red Bull so long will re-motivate him as he looks to build Ferrari back into a winning force.

I hope Williams build upon their brilliant 2014 and are able to challenge for wins. They've got the driver line up to really push on, and an ever improving and cohesive technical team, I believe they could be challengers this year if they are consistent.

Lotus now have the same Mercedes power unit, so it would be nice to see Romain Grosjean back up there and they're already talking of targeting Williams. Force India will want to aim for the top five especially with a driver line up of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez while Sauber will be wanting to score points after their pointless campaign in 2014.

At the time of writing both Marussia and Caterham are still looking to find ways back to the grid, but it's highly unlikely.

At this time of year there's always a lot of questions with very little answers. Testing never gives a full picture but hints will start from tomorrow.

all photos taken from autosport.com

The top 10 drivers of the year

This season has seen some fantastic racing. All the way down the grid there have been so many epic wheel to wheel battles, but not all can get to be in the top 10. Click on the links for part 1 and part 2 of my driver countdown. These are my ten best drivers of the year from a brilliant year of Formula 1.

10. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)

A very impressive rookie season from the young Russian. He had pace in abundance, two fifth places in qualifying remind me of Daniel Ricciardo's excellence on a Saturday for Toro Rosso. He may have scored 14 points fewer than his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne but he did out-qualify him overall and lost a fair few points scoring finishes through unreliability. 

However, there were a few clumsy errors and when some of the radio advice from the team was banned during races he did seem to lose his way a little, but he found his way back by the end. His drive from the back of the grid in the Italian Grand Prix to challenge for points before a brake failure was brilliant, and again in Abu Dhabi he was mixing it within the points after starting fifth, an engine problem forcing him out on that occasion. 

It looked like he would be leading Toro Rosso next year alongside Max Verstappen, but his Red Bull opportunity comes early after Sebastian Vettel's departure. It'll be tough for Kvyat, but I think he's more than up to the job and with a season of experience behind him and a top line car to drive I'm sure he'll be on the podium soon. As I wrote earlier in the year 'If Vergne could match Ricciardo, and Ricciardo can beat Vettel, then Kvyat must be awesome'.

9. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)

This guy should have been in a top team by now. It has been said for years, people are still saying it but perception is everything in Formula 1 and unless it happens at the end of next season then sadly, I think Hulkenberg may have missed his shot. Perhaps that's why he's branching out to Le Mans with Porsche next year. 

This season Nico was as consistently good as he ever has been, bringing the car home for decent points, but he lacked that special result that he's so easily capable of. He suffered a blip in form when he was outshone by his team mate Sergio Perez in the middle of the year, but he brought it back on track. I think Perez was a lot closer than people thought he might be, which begs the question I asked of Perez, is Perez better than people think, or Hulkenberg worse?

8. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

In a way I wanted to put Vettel lower on this list, but found I couldn't. The reasons why I thought that perhaps he should be lower is that like Kimi Raikkonen, he never got to grips with these new breed of cars (lucky Ferrari) and despite moments which showed his talent was still there he still wasn't performing at his maximum come the end of the year. 

I wrote at the beginning of the year wondering if Vettel would struggle. I said he would but he'd get on top of it and be beating Ricciardo, but that didn't happen. Every time there looked to be a resurgence it was then halted. Something would go wrong with the car, or he just couldn't extract the pace that Ricciardo proved was there. It was a shame to see the sports most recent four time champion be exposed like this which is not to take anything away from Ricciardo at all. I have no doubts that if you put Vettel in the best car that is suited to him he is as fast as anyone. No one was better than him at exploiting the last generation of cars.

But unless the car is suited to him, it seems Vettel is not capable of driving round the problems like Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton, or even Daniel Ricciardo and hustling a car to a result it doesn't deserve. But on the plus side we saw more than ever how good he is at wheel to wheel battle, his fight with Alonso at Silverstone was fantastic, and his drive in Singapore superb as well. What impressed me most was that he didn't throw his toys out of the pram when Ricciardo beat him, he just kept plugging away, at times he got somewhere, at others he didn't. 

Perhaps after four years of success coming into a season where he made no secret he didn't like the new Formula demotivated him. A new challenge at Ferrari is perhaps just the thing to create renewed motivation, to conquer with the scarlet cars just like his hero Michael Schumacher did before him.

7. Felipe Massa (Williams)

Massa gets caught up in too many accidents, it's a problem he's had through his career and it's followed him to Williams, admittedly most of them weren't his fault but it does ask questions. He was out qualified and scored 52 less points than his team mate Valtteri Bottas. Yet I kind of think he deserves to be higher up in this list than he is. Ultimately he was soundly beaten by Bottas which is why he's down at number seven, but this year saw a rejuvenated Massa at Williams, freed from the shackles of being Alonso's support he was able to race for himself once more. 

I'm afraid I'm one who thinks he hasn't been as good since his accident in 2009, but this year showed signs he could become a winner once more. There's plenty of evidence for this too. When both Williams' finished he actually was ahead of Bottas 8-6, he scored the teams only pole position of the year with a brilliant lap in Austria and came closest of all to scoring the team a victory when he charged down Lewis Hamilton at the finale in Abu Dhabi. 

If he can stay out of trouble next year and Williams continue their improvement, I don't see why he can't take a few wins, when he's got that scent of victory and he's running at the front, it reminds me of 2008 when he nearly, and perhaps should have won the title. Lot's more to come from Massa next year.

6.Jenson Button (McLaren)
Jenson has finally been retained for 2015 by McLaren Honda. That McLaren made him hang on for so long after what has actually been a pretty decent showing from the Briton was a bit of a slap in the face. Qualifying isn't his strong point and yet he's out qualified the highly rated Magnussen and scored far more points than him. 

Yes, there are still times when he can be a bit anonymous, or just can't get the car to work for him, but this season, perhaps more than any other, he's dragged a number of impressive results. He's made it work for him. In the last quarter of the year he scored 4 top five finishes from five races. His races at Silverstone, Japan and Brazil were outstanding results. Give him a car and he'll get you wins even now. 

I do think Magnussen deserves a drive for next season and ultimately he is the future. But I think Button as he approaches 35 has another couple of years at the top level left in him. Like when he was team mate to Lewis Hamilton, I think now he's to partner Fernando Alonso next season he will be able to match him.

5. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)

It is often the case that when a driver is given a better car, their performance gets better too. Bottas had shown sporadic moments of brilliance in his rookie campaign in 2013 with a difficult car, this year Williams gave him a car that allowed him to star consistently. Despite Massa's impressive year with Williams, it was Bottas, along with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo who became the go to drivers if you were looking for potential challengers to the Mercedes juggernaut.

It took a while to get going, both he and the team were guilty of missing opportunities. I feel sure a win could have gone the way of Bottas or Massa in Austria after they locked out the front row. But after all that the podiums started to arrive, six in all for Bottas. He was consistent, fast, and looked like he had always been running near the front of the grid, which I thought was particularly impressive. 

He was in the top three in qualifying more than any other non works Mercedes driver. It was an impressive campaign and if the team can build on these foundations, perhaps there's a sliver of a chance at a title tilt next season? There's a lot to come from Finland's top driver.

4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)

Alonso will drag a car to the very edge and still find more performance. Once again this year he has been superb. He has crushed the challenge of Kimi Raikkonen and driven the wheels off of a Ferrari, which to be polite was a bit rubbish. Just two podiums in the year, his lowest since 2009, was a poor return on what has been another brilliant year from the Spaniard. 

Let's put it this way, the best cars were Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams. Mercedes had a second in hand, so we'll exclude then, but he was often the only driver who could mix it with the best of the rest. His season is littered with fourths, fifths and sixths, which is more than the car often deserved and if you think about it, it means he was often ahead of at least one or two cars which were better than his. 

Alonso is able to drive round problems and exploit the car as much as is humanly possible, but not even he could haul it much further than the top five yet still he nearly won in Hungary, one of the drives of the season. Ultimately this has led Ferrari and Alonso to part ways. What started as an exciting partnership with glory surely awaiting them has culminated in a winless campaign filled with behind closed doors acrimony. But whatever people say about Alonso with regards the way he acts in a team, he still was fully committed to the cause. 

There were a few off days as the strain began to tell of yet another fruitless campaign with Ferrari, but nothing that would suggest his powers are on the wane. McLaren Honda have him for next year, with an already difficult relationship, a less than successful first year could bring storm clouds. After all the effort, he deserves one last chance at a title challenge. 

3. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Rosberg had a fantastic campaign, he just keeps on defying expectations. Let's get the bad stuff out the way first. Monaco qualifying and Spa misdemeanours were heat of the moment stuff, not pre-planned at all. Besides that, it was a brilliant season built on speed and consistency. This was his first title challenge, the pressure must have been intense right from the start of winter testing, both he and Lewis Hamilton knew they had a car that was clearly the best in the field. 

Even then subtle battle lines would have been being drawn. Rosberg has never really been thought of as one of the best out there, well I think this year has proved beyond doubt he's a tough competitor. In qualifying despite some Lewis quali woes, Rosberg outshone his team mate. Lewis was meant to be the strong one over one lap and Rosberg would get him in the races as the new fuel efficient rules would suit him more. 

It wasn't to be though, but he was so nearly there. With Lewis operating at such a high level, you have to have Rosberg high up in the list too, because he was often just missing fractions. However at the end of the season when both cars had finished Hamilton beat him 10-4. He never passed his team mate, but was passed several times during the season, his wheel to wheel racing is something he has already acknowledged he'll need to work on. He is capable of dominating a weekend like in Monaco, or Brazil, even when like in the latter race, he is not the quickest out there. This years title challenging experience will be logged away, Rosberg will come back stronger in 2015.

2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

The best always operate at the highest level whether they have a bad car or good. But when the title chance comes, they can still get better. I think Hamilton was brilliant this year, but he made mistakes under pressure, particularly on a Saturday and was beaten by his team mate in qualifying. I think this season could have been easier for him, which is why I can't give him the top spot.

The pressure would have been mounting since winter testing. In Monaco after Rosberg's quali incident, it broke out into war between the pair of them and suddenly it looked like it was effecting Lewis' head. So prone to letting things get to him in the past, it began to look like a title which should have been easy for the fastest man in the sport was going to be lost. 

Between Monaco and Belgium he won just once. Several mistakes in qualifying and reliability problems meant Rosberg got an edge, and then the coming together at Spa changed everything. The team had chosen to remain quiet about Monaco, this time they backed Hamilton, finally he felt he had the team behind him, suddenly he reeled off five victories in a row. Even when there were issues, he'd reset his head and come back stronger. It was brilliant mind management which enabled him to focus on the driving. I found that very impressive, something he'd rarely display before. 

But most of all, I thought it was brilliant that he defied the expectations of the media that thought this wasn't a Formula for Lewis. He just wants to go flat out, he won't be able to save the tyres or the fuel they said. In fact he was brilliant with the Pirelli rubber and was the best at conserving fuel, almost always using less than Rosberg during the races. His passing was better than ever. As one of the best passers on the grid this was to be expected and he exploited that on Rosberg. 

Perhaps what perfectly exemplifies the difference between the two Mercedes drivers was in Hungary. Rosberg sat stuck behind Vergne for lap after lap playing the percentages. Hamilton, on the charge, gets ahead of his team mate then immediately gets in front of Vergne too. Incisiveness. Lewis knows Rosberg will learn from this season and come back stronger, however I think this title will launch Lewis to an even higher level, I'll not be surprised to be writing about him as a three time world champion this time next year.

1. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)

Revelation. What a season Ricciardo has had. He's walked into four time champion Sebastian Vettel's team and blown him away. He had the measure of him from winter testing, and when Vettel looked to be getting back on terms, he upped it another notch. I thought if the car was dodgy he'd have a chance of upsetting Vettel but ultimately the German would prevail. Not a bit of it, Ricciardo took charge of that team and it wasn't long before Vettel sometimes looked like the forgotten man. Ricciardo was even beating him at tracks that Vettel had made his own. 

His intentions were clear right from the start of the season. Even though the podium was taken away from him in Australia due to fuel flow problems, his second on the grid and second in the race was a bold statement. By Monaco he was ahead of Vettel on points and just pulled away. It became obvious that beating Vettel was secondary as an unlikely title challenge suddenly came on the cards. Although ultimately fruitless it was a measure of how consistently good he was that this was even still a possibility as the season came down to the closing stages. 

His cool smiley demeanour hides an utterly focused driver who will take any opportunity he can get and maximise it. He rarely makes a mistake, and is always on the edge but so in control, looking for a chance. It's no coincidence that the three races Mercedes didn't win this year were picked up by Ricciardo.

His victories in Canada and Belgium may have been down to Mercedes problems but he was in a position to capitalise. The one in Hungary was brilliant though, exploiting the circumstances through a safety car it was early on when he got on the radio to say they could win this. Fighting back after pitting from the lead, with just three laps to go he made a bold around the outside move on Hamilton, then a slick one down the inside on Alonso. 

Passing two of the toughest out there to take the win, it was utterly thrilling and indicative of how comfortable he was mixing it at the top of the sport. He wasn't scared of going toe to toe with anyone out there. His move on Alonso in the USA was close to the edge but brilliant opportunism. It was truly an exceptional season. This guy is the real deal, and if Red Bull can close the gap to Mercedes next year, he'll be on the championship trail.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Drivers of the year Q2

We continue our drivers of the year with 17 down to 11. To read part one click here. And like the previous post we start with a Caterham driver...

17. Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham)

It's always difficult to tell drivers relative performances because of the car, in the end you have to make assumptions and compare them to their team mates. Kobayashi destroyed Ericsson after a year away from the sport. Despite driving for free to get back on the grid, he was flat out everywhere, even after Caterham started messing him around. It could have been him to get points in Monaco until he was barged out of the way by Jules Bianchi, which damaged his car. He couldn't have done too much more.

16. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

The Ferrari was terrible this year, of that there is no doubt but surely the intra-team battle would liven it up for Ferrari? Not a bit of it, the facts are Fernando Alonso scored 161 points, Kimi just 55. He was out of sorts all year, could never get the car to his liking and suffered terrible luck when he failed to get a clean weekend for most of the year. Reliability certainly wasn't his friend. But when you see the other car half a minute up the road, then you know that the car is capable of more, Kimi was unable to extract that potential. 

He had some starring moments, he should have had a podium in Monaco, beat Fernando in Belgium and raced hard with his team mate in Brazil. But that was it. I think he was fully motivated to do well, but he's not a driver able to drive round a problem in the mould of Alonso or Hamilton. Disappointing year, but at least Fernando left otherwise he'd be sitting without a drive albeit with a whole heap of money if Ferrari had paid him off. Again.

15. Jules Bianchi (Marussia)

Bianchi looked a bit sketchy at the start of the season, Chilton looked closer on pace but he soon sorted it out and began to impress once again. Dragged the Marussia as high as it could go, often being the lead of the Marussia/Caterham battle. 

One of the best moments of the season was when he crossed the line 9th to score the teams first world championship points in Monaco, which came from one of the best passes of the season when he threw his car up the inside of Kobayashi at La Rascasse. A bit of wheel banging and he was through. A 12th place in a wet British Grand Prix qualifying was equally impressive. Then in Japan came his accident causing severe head injuries which means he currently resides unconscious in a French hospital. A Ferrari academy driver, it was rumoured he could've been in the team next season. #ForzaJules

14. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)

A driver I rated well in the top ten last season doesn't just become my 14th rated pilot because he forgets how to drive. However a car which was often one of the top two vehicles on the track in 2013 but becomes one of the worst this year helps contribute to a fall in driver performance. 

For me Grosjean will be a Grand Prix winner given the equipment, he has learnt to be fast and consistent, long gone are the days of predicting the lap Grosjean might have a crash. But the car was not there for him this year despite two fantastic eighth places in Spain and Monaco.  

His fifth place qualifying at the Catalunya track has to be one of the laps of the season. But as the season went on and he suffered yet another failure of his Renault power unit, things got to him and he started making public his frustrations. With Mercedes power next year in his Lotus, we may see him able to exploit his talent properly.

13. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)

Podium in your first race for McLaren, certainly not a bad way to start your Formula 1 career. Magnussen qualified brilliantly in Australia and took third place which became second after Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification. It was as impressive a debut as any, it looked like Button had a fight on his hands at McLaren. 

The season ended with Button out-qualifying Magnussen 10-9 and out scoring him 126-55. Magnussen was far better than those statistics make out, some of his Saturday afternoons were fantastic. However, you can't escape the fact he lost his way after the podium for several races and barely deserved a mention. But he came back fighting, his driving in Belgium and Italy, particularly his defence was extremely impressive, he suffered penalties but I think both were arguably unfair, it at least made people aware of him once again and brought a spark back to his driving. 

But still there were other times like in Japan, where he looked a little lost. Magnussen is young, quick and is only going to get better. He deserves another year but for now will have to settle for a reserve driver role at McLaren for 2015.

12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)

Vergne isn't the best qualifier but he sure is a racer. 22 points, 14 more than his Red Bull bound team mate Daniil Kvyat managed to score. But Kvyat was in his rookie campaign and still managed to out qualify him over the year and the Russian could have scored a few more points if it weren't for problems. He pretty much matched Vergne in his debut year, he's only going to get better. 

That's Vergne's problem unfortunately, he almost matched Ricciardo, he was matched by a 20 year old rookie while Vergne was in his third year. Very good, but not quite good enough? Toro Rosso is meant to bring on talent so although Vergne would have been a good bench mark for either incoming Toro Rosso drivers, Max Verstappen or Carlos Sainz Jnr, he's had three years in the team, their aim is to breed drivers for Red Bull. They've not promoted him twice now, why would they do it a third time? 

It was a shame, after he thought he was being ousted by Verstappen he came alive in the last third of the season with a number of charging drives, particularly in Singapore. Vergne has got himself a seat in Formula E in that series next race in Uruguay this weekend but he's too good to not be in Formula 1 and deserves a chance with another team, however as other Toro Rosso rejects have found out, it isn't easy getting back in when you've been thrown out.

11. Sergio Perez (Force India)

I'm not sure Nico Hulkenberg thought Perez would be quite as up for the battle within Force India as he turned out to be. Perez took the teams only podium of the year in Bahrain and nearly scored another in Canada. He was still prone to the odd moment of over exuberance, but I was impressed by Perez this year. He scored in eleven races, further shaking off the tag he is just a driver for a few stand out drives while not bringing home the points in the rest. His comparison to Hulkenberg is favourable as Nico is highly rated, Perez was close and many times better over the season. The question is though, do people now think Perez is better or Hulkenberg worse?

Click on the link for the top 10 drivers of the year.
 
all photos taken from autosport.com

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

Hamilton coasts to victory in Russia

The first Russian Grand Prix weekend had some edgy moments, some strange moments, a large portion of dull moments in the main event, but it did result in a sublimely perfect performance from Lewis Hamilton whom took his ninth win of the year, his 31^st in total to draw level with Nigel Mansell with the most wins by a British driver.

Lewis was perfect all weekend apart from a minor spin in practice three. He took pole position and despite briefly losing the lead at turn 2 to Nico Rosberg who overshot the corner and had to give the place back he was in control and coasted to victory.

Rosberg brought some entertainment to the race after locking up his front tyres on the opening lap. He had to pit at the end of the first lap, the flat spots from the rubber causing severe vibrations. It dropped him to the back of the pack. It looked like he’d just offered Lewis one hand on the championship, but he remained calm, picked himself up and when told he’d have to make those set of tyres last the rest of the race drove superbly back through the field. It was a mark of how unintentionally conservative Pirelli were. The predicted two stopper was an easy one stop race, perhaps the super-soft instead of the medium might have added the spice of variety.

It almost seemed too easy such was the advantage of the Mercedes in Russia. Both drivers reported no issues with tyre degradation, and Rosberg conserved and pushed at the right times making a number of excellent moves into turn two to come home in second securing the constructors championship for Mercedes.

That championship hasn’t looked in doubt all year, but it’s well deserved, the silver team came into 2014 the best prepared with a superb chassis and the best power unit by far. Former team principal Ross Brawn deserves a lot of the credit for setting them underway to this domination but the team have gone with the direction they were given and maximised it.

The driver’s title is still tough to call despite Hamilton now outscoring Rosberg by nine wins to four and holding a 17 point lead in the championship. In a way I’m glad it was so easy for Rosberg to come back to second as it keeps the title fight more interesting and a slender points gap makes it more likely that double points won’t affect the title before that novelty idea is hopefully dropped for 2015.

But Hamilton is really on a roll now, his second run of four wins this year with just three races to go makes it seem like the momentum he’s created on his side of the garage is unstoppable. It appears Rosberg was too eager to make his point again at the start for which he apologised to the team for, but his comeback drive is to be admired.

The non-Mercedes race

Valtteri Bottas brought Williams back to the closest challenger position with another podium, but could he have had second? He didn’t manage to put up too much of a fight against Rosberg despite being on fresher rubber after making his one and only stop. Rosberg dived through and made an instant gap to Bottas who just couldn’t respond.

I think ideally Williams would have liked to have run Bottas longer but they couldn’t manage the tyres quite as well because despite holding the gap to Hamilton for the first quarter of the race he then fell back dramatically. Still, it was a better race than his team mate Felipe Massa had who suffered a fuel pick up problem in qualifying leaving him starting only 18^th. He was one of the few to employ a two stopper and it left him only 11^th.

Jenson Button was my star of the race. He finished fourth after starting there and despite running third in the opening phase of the race wouldn’t have been able to hold off Rosberg for long. Button was pretty lonely throughout once he’d managed to pull a gap on Fernando Alonso and ran strongly throughout to remind McLaren just what they’d be giving up.

He out-qualified and out-drove team mate Kevin Magnussen who still did a tremendous job to come up from 11^th on the grid to finish fifth. Alonso was well off the pace for Ferrari in sixth, suffering a botched pit stop that cost him several seconds and dropped him behind Magnussen. He still finished ahead of the struggling Red Bull’s, both Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel off the pace all weekend.

Ricciardo started sixth and Vettel tenth, but the current world champion got the jump on the Australian during the first lap and headed the pair. Ricciardo asked the team to get Vettel out of the way before actually dropping away from him. He stopped earlier and got the undercut after Vettel stayed out a lot later. But seventh and eighth is not what the team expect.

Ninth was Kimi Raikkonen who’ll be glad when this season is over and tenth was Sergio Perez, one point for Force India against McLaren’s 22 means they’ve dramatically fallen back in the chase to be a top five constructor.

Esteban Gutierrez had a long first stint and seems the most likely Sauber driver to challenge for points while the most note worthy moment for Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was when he was given a five second stop/go penalty for tapping Adrian Sutil into a spin. He still finished ahead of the other Lotus of Pastor Maldonado.

Toro Rosso were the big disappointments of Russia. Daniil Kvyat was an outstanding fifth in qualifying for his home race. Jean-Eric Vergne was ninth but both dropped dramatically out of the top ten. They had no pace to answer any questions the rest of the field through at them to finish 13^th and 14^th, Vergne ahead of Kvyat.

Caterham retired Kamui Kobayashi for no reason so the Japanese claims which seems a bit odd. The team does have money worries so maybe they’re trying to save parts while Marcus Ericsson continued his revival with another good qualifying before the team let him finish last.

Marussia elected not to run Jules Bianchi’s car but it seems Alexander Rossi will be in the car for his home race in the USA in three weeks. It’s obviously been a tough week for the team and the sport as a whole, Bianchi remains in a critical but stable condition.

So we now head to the USA in three weeks, it’s the home stretch for the title race. Can Lewis be stopped in his march towards glory? It’s looking increasingly unlikely for Rosberg, I think he’s now holding onto the hope that the double points round in Abu Dhabi is going to be a wacky race but he can start closing the gap with a perfect weekend in the USA. Above all I hope in three weeks the Formula 1 grid reforms to good news about Bianchi. #ForzaJules.

all photos 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