The American Forecast

It’s the final week of Formula 1 for the 2013 season. What seemed to start out as a pretty competitive year has turned into a demonstration of just what an incredible force Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull have turned into since they first started their onslaught of the silverware in 2010.

The final double header of the year starts in Texas at the circuit of the Americas, the second visit to what is a fantastic venue. Last year produced in my opinion, the best race of the year, the purest in terms of out and out racing.

Lewis Hamilton tracked Vettel for the majority of it, and only an intervention by an errant backmarker allowed him to close up enough to execute an admittedly trick DRS pass. It didn’t end there though, Vettel didn’t let Lewis go until the chequered flag, it was intense stuff and we can only hope this weekend produces similar inspiring racing.

At the moment Texas is looking sunny and cloudy on all three days of the event, with not much chance of rain. There are two DRS zones this year, the first is on the start finish straight while the second is after turn 11, where Lewis made his pass for victory last year. The tyre compounds for the race are medium and hard, so I’d say it’s likely to be a one stopper, much like last season.

So will 2013 champion Vettel make it eight wins in a row? Well surely we all know the answer? Well no, you can never be certain with many things in life. However, it sure is likely. He took pole last year, and was close to a win, the form book this season has hints that he could certainly claim victory.

However, I’m not sure he’s going to have it all his own way. Mark Webber’s form over the last few races has certainly been better, and he knows that with just two races of his career left it’s now or never, or next week if he wants to make it ten Formula 1 victories. Just beat Vettel one more time Mark, you’ve done it before, why not do it again?

It’s possibly because Vettel is driving so above everyone else right now he’s making it look just too easy. But it’s never easy to trounce someone quite as highly regarded as Webber. I think the other hope for victory has to come from Mercedes. Either Hamilton or Nico Rosberg can take the fight to Red Bull.

It’s been Rosberg recently, but I’ve a feeling if Lewis feels comfortable then on this track he can produce something special especially now the team have brought him a new chassis after finding two big cracks in his previous one which would have affected performance. Mercedes do still have the pace, at least in qualifying to try and cause an upset. In Abu Dhabi if it wasn’t for a spin, Lewis could have taken pole position, he was up on Vettel before that incident. He is definitely one to look out for.

Lotus too could spring a surprise. Probably only from one car though, that being the car of Romain Grosjean. It was getting to a point where that might have been the case anyway even with Kimi Raikkonen in the other car, but now he has been side-lined with his back injury it seems unlikely that Heikki Kovalainen, the chosen replacement will manage to do better than Kimi.

I do hope Heikki shows what he can do though. He’s a talented driver who has been wasted at Caterham these past few years, he at least deserves another crack at it, so good on him.

I’m also tipping Sergio Perez to give a decent performance for McLaren. He’s been unceremoniously dropped after just a year, and he’ll be out to prove and advertise himself to those teams with seats available and who are willing to except some Mexican money to pay the bills.

I think along with McLaren the battles between Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso will be interesting as they scrap to be the best of the rest. I expect after Abu Dhabi that Force India have finally found out how to work these current tyres, so I’m looking to Paul di Resta to show himself off and secure his seat for next year.

Let’s not forget Ferrari either. Felipe Massa out-qualified Fernando Alonso here in 2012, and given recent showings there’s no reason to expect that not to happen again. With Massa now safely ensconced in a Williams seat for 2014, I hope he’ll race without fear and finally show not just glimpses but really perform like he did in 2008/9.

Despite the championship being sewn up this race has plenty of potential to be a thriller. I’m looking forward to it.

all photo's taken from autosport.com