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

Hamilton supreme in Singapore to take title lead

Lewis Hamilton took a superbly dominant victory under the lights of the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore which looked closer than it ever really was. He got a perfect start from pole position and took a comfortable lead for the early part of the race.

The tyre degradation all the teams faced amid the humid temperatures meant most went for a three stop strategy which was thrown out of the window when the safety car came out on lap 31 for debris strewn across the track after Sergio Perez’s Force India lost its front wing underneath the car following contact with the Sauber of Adrian Sutil.

Hamilton had only stopped for the second time for his third set of super softs five laps previously and stayed out on track. All his immediate competitors had pitted either just before or during the safety car period for the more durable soft tyres and were now trying to make it to the end without a third stop.

Even if Hamilton could have made the super softs last he would have had to stop again to take on the soft tyres as he hadn’t used them yet. After a race in which the action had been relatively sedate compared to recent Grand Prix, the chase was now on. When the safety car came in at the start of lap 38 of 61 Lewis had to make a gap of 28 seconds to come out still in the lead.

Behind him Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso circled closely together on the slower soft tyre but could, just perhaps, be in front of the Mercedes driver once he pitted. As is so often said on the team radio, it was ‘Hammertime’ and the #44 Merc flawed it while at the same time trying to stretch his super-softs as far as they could go.

Despite several reassurances from his team Lewis kept on doubting he’d be able to make it as far as they wanted him to go, but keep on going he did and at such a pace he was often over three seconds a lap faster than his pursuers. By lap 52 with his tyres near to breaking point he was still going faster than his rivals but no longer by enough. He pitted for the final time and exited behind Vettel but crucially ahead of Ricciardo and Alonso.

In truth even if he had come out behind them he was on such fresher rubber that he’d have cruised ahead with not much trouble but it would have eked out the tension just that little bit more. As it was he was nearing two seconds behind Vettel when he came out of the pits but by turn 6 on the very next lap he shot through a tightening gap in the DRS zone and from there the race was his.

He maximised his opportunity today and was never really troubled at all. Significantly Lewis also for just the second time of the year headed the championship table with a three point gap to his team mate Nico Rosberg. The race could have been so much different if it hadn’t been for a technical problem that robbed Rosberg of the ability to even pull away from the line on the formation lap.

He did manage to get going from the pit lane but despite having had a steering wheel change, could not engage first gear at the start, the gear changes would go up two at a time, his DRS couldn’t be enabled and it hurt his energy recovery systems. He failed to make much progress, stuck behind Marcus Ericsson for some time before pitting. His problem meant he had no pit lane speed limiter so practically crept into his pit box, but could not re-engage first gear and that was that for the day.

After such a close qualifying when he’d failed to get pole by just 0.007 this was expected to be quite the showdown, but if anyone believes in karma then Nico is certainly getting his back on him since Spa. A 29 point lead after Belgium is now a three point deficit. There are still 150 points left to play for including the stupid double points race in Abu Dhabi, but the momentum is with Lewis now and after the race Nico certainly looked crestfallen as he faces the prospect of having to chase down the fastest man in the sport.

Has the tide now swung definitively in Lewis’ favour? That can’t be judged yet but despite the mental strength that Nico has shown this year, he now trails Lewis in points and by four wins to seven. Another defeat in Japan and could it all be game over? Not mathematically, the Mercedes performance advantage is still strong over the rest of the field, this will go to the last but mentally it could be the finishing move. The only thing both have to worry about is reliability and that could still be a crucial deciding factor.

As for Lewis he looked supremely confident after the race, he looked like a man who knew he’d made a statement of intent. Presuming no mechanical issues then it’s going to be very tough for him to get knocked off the points lead for a second time.

Vettel suffered a troubled weekend again but still came away with second. He lost a lot of time in practice, had issues in qualifying that left him over driving the car and throwing away a possible tilt at pole position. He lined up fourth behind Ricciardo but after Rosberg’s issue he had an open gap to attack down to the first corner.

He made sure he was the first Red Bull there and once Alonso gave up his second place after over shooting the first turn from fifth on the grid he managed to maintain a strong second place right through to the second stops.

Alonso undercut Vettel at the second time of asking resulting in Vettel being the first to put on the soft tyres on lap 25 with the aim of a long stint followed by the super softs to potentially attack Hamilton who appeared to still be in range. However, when the safety car came out the Ferrari came back in to put softs on as well, exiting behind Vettel and Ricciardo who was suffering some sort of intermittent problem.

They ran second, third and fourth to the flag with Vettel only moving into the lead for a single lap, amazingly the first time he's been out in front all year. They held their tyres together, but none more impressive than Vettel who made them last for 35 laps. One more lap and he may have been in trouble but luckily the last lap was dropped as the race timed out at two hours thanks to the safety car problem.

Everyone in qualifying looked closer to the Mercedes cars, especially the Ferrari’s and particularly Kimi Raikkonen who looked like he could have had an attack at a top three spot if it hadn’t been for an engine problem in Q3. Kimi has no luck other than bad in 2014 and while he sometimes looked fast during the race, lucked out in the pit stops to end up only eighth.

Alonso kept the good pace up during the race so there were things to be happy about at last but still no match for the Mercedes. Behind this trio, Felipe Massa ran the same strategy but didn’t have the pace in fifth while his Williams team mate Valtteri Bottas was running sixth but just ran out of grip on the last lap when everyone came by. He came home only 11^th. The Force India’s came charging through with Perez having had a nose change coming back to finish seventh, once again ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in ninth.

Kevin Magnussen produced a heroic drive while being cooked in the cockpit of his McLaren. While Jenson Button retired towards the end with a technical problem after a solid opening lap charge, Magnussen suffered burns which he had to have checked out after the race. So hot was it in the cockpit he even claimed his drinks bottle was burning his mouth. A point was the least he deserved.

Esteban Gutierrez retired for Sauber but felt he could have had a point and Marcus Ericsson had his best race of the year as he beat the Marussia’s for the first time. The Lotuses also looked potential point scorers but ran out of grip while Daniil Kvyat had probably his least convincing performance to date as he suffered dehydration due to his drinks bottle packing up on the formation lap. A skinny lad, it showed just how on the edge a lot of drivers are on weight due to the heavier energy recovery technology requiring drivers to have the minimum of fat on them. Thankfully the weight limit of the cars is to rise next year.

The last five laps were the boiling point of the race and Jean-Eric Vergne was the hero as he fought his way into the points. After suffering a five second penalty for exceeding track limits he received another to be added to his race time. He took full advantage of his fresher rubber, one of the few to remain on a three stopper.

With the Bottas train circulating slowly, he cruised up to the back of them before taking in quick succession Hulkenberg, Perez, and then an absolutely beautiful opportunistic move on Kimi into the first turn and then in a rush, he easily got ahead of Bottas. He pushed on so his five second penalty wouldn’t drop him back and pulled out the gap within two laps to secure his best finish of the year and remind people what a racer he can be. It was a result he needed and for once firmly put Kvyat in the shade at Toro Rosso.

So onwards to Japan and the wonderful Suzuka track in two weeks time. The title battle has swung in Lewis’ favour but he and Rosberg know it can swing back just as easily.

The Belgian Grand Prix Forecast

I doubt there’s a single Formula 1 fan who doesn’t look forward to the Belgian Grand Prix at the legendary Spa Francorchamps. Its magnificent blend of fast and medium speed corners linked by flat out straights through the Ardennes Forests combine to make it the longest circuit currently on the calendar at 4.6 miles. There’s no other circuit you’d want Formula 1 to return with after its extended four week summer break.

The weather in Belgium makes this race notoriously unpredictable but if we can hazard a guess, then Friday looks bright, Saturday looks like rain and Sunday looks bright again, all three days having the relatively chilly high of only 19C. It all looks like it has the potential to be a mixed up grid for Sunday.

Pirelli are bringing the medium and soft tyre, which is probably advantageous because of the relatively cool temperatures. It’ll be easier to get heat into the tyres with softer compounds but with the high speed cornering going on, I don’t imagine that would have been too much of a problem anyway. This track is quite hard on tyre wear too but with the likelihood of rain during qualifying there’ll be a lot of fresh rubber available so there might be a fair few attacking strategies.

There are two DRS zones, one down the Kemmel Straight just after the famous Eau Rouge followed by Raidillon. The other is down the start finish straight into the tightest corner on the track La Source. Never mind the weather, this corner can cause a whole heap of unpredictability as 22 Formula 1 machines hurtle down to it after one of the shorter distances from grid to first turn.

So let’s look at the main contenders for victory this weekend and make some outrageous predictions. Ok so obviously the leading contender is Williams, therefore the most likely driver to win is Valtteri Bottas as he’s had the edge on Felipe Massa in recent races. That’s the hype that some of the F1 press would have you believe at least.

To be fair, this has a lot going for it, they’ve been quick on tracks with straight line speed as the main player and proved at Silverstone they can handle quick corners so what’s not to believe? Well Mercedes for one thing.

I think Williams will be the closest challenger to the Silver Arrows this weekend, but if you’re looking for a genuine chance of a Williams victory then I think you’ve got to look at Monza two weeks later which is straights and mostly slow corners. This weekend they will be players, but there real chance comes the race after.

Of course they’ll be up there this weekend, maybe even contenders for a front row grid slot but the win? I think it’s asking too much for them and with tyre wear high, I think Williams won’t be as free on strategy as some others. I hope Massa gets a decent result, he’s been plenty quick this year, but luck and accidents have made podiums difficult to come by. Bottas on the other hand had a strong run of podiums up until Hungary when the first safety car possibly took a fourth consecutive one away from him. 

Red Bull usually come back from the summer break stronger than ever and I’m sure they’ll have found some things again this year despite the two week summer factory shutdown. However with their Renault engine still lacking grunt compared to the Mercedes the next two races probably won’t be the kindest to them. The street track in Singapore is their next target for a possible chance at victory.

It’ll be interesting to see if Daniel Ricciardo still holds his edge over Sebastian Vettel. It was this time last year when Vettel started his run of nine consecutive wins. That’s not going to happen this time but he’ll be desperate to start battling with Ricciardo a bit more equally in this second half of the year.

There have been signs he’s turning a corner with his performance but it’ll be tough. Ricciardo is a world champion in the making, but having said that, to my mind at least a little change in circumstance and those two wins the Australian took could well have been Vettel’s. It’ll be definitely worth keeping a watch on the battle between the Red Bull drivers. At the moment you’d have to say if there’s a driver who might take an opportunity should it present itself, then it would be Ricciardo.

Ferrari need to take more risks says Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci. Well it’s too late for this car, I’m not sure they’re even bothering with any real development anymore, perhaps just tweaks. I’ve a feeling we could see a better showing from Kimi Raikkonen this weekend. He’s a star around here with four wins, although admittedly the last one was in 2009. If there’s anywhere where he could get the car to his liking just once this year it would be here.

Fernando Alonso will of course get a result from nothing, but I think he’ll be fighting for top six rather than podiums, but never dismiss Alonso, as I’ve said this race can be very unpredictable and if there’s chaos then expect Fernando to make sense of it all before anyone else. Whatever though, the car is lacking, the power unit lacks more, in normal circumstances Ferrari are hovering on the fringes of where the real action is.

Force India and McLaren are locked in a battle for fifth in the constructors. Force India usually go well here, definitely watch out for Nico Hulkenberg if the race gets a bit damp on occasions, and Sergio Perez if making the tyres last proves decisive.

I feel quite sad talking about McLaren as also-rans but that’s what they are at the moment. Kevin Magnussen has been sporadically impressive but I think Jenson Button has more than held his own against his rookie team mate.

Both of their seats for next year have been brought into question with rumours that McLaren want to bring in Alonso for their 2015 partnership with Honda. I think that’s highly unlikely but you never know so this will add even more impetus for the current McLaren drivers to get more out of their poor car than perhaps is reasonable to ask.

Button was supreme here in 2012, he won’t get a result like that but a similar level of performance would go some way to extending his career for another year.

Toro Rosso have signed another youngster for 2015 with the arrival of Max Verstappen but it’s their current kid who’ll be interesting to watch this weekend. Daniil Kvyat has impressed all year and at one of the true classic tests of a drivers skill I’m looking forward to seeing how he does.

Jean-Eric Vergne is the driver being replaced, but he deserves another chance somewhere else. He may not have the out and out qualifying pace of some but he is a brilliant race driver and has suffered too much from unreliability this year. He’s on the market now and if he really wants his Formula 1 adventure to continue then I expect some highlight performances over the coming months.

Lotus, Sauber and Marussia I imagine will be fairly static while over at Caterham they’ve replaced Kamui Kobayashi with three times Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer. The 32 year old German hasn’t driven a Formula 1 car since 2002 when he was test driver for Jaguar but he has driven for Audi in the top class of Endurance racing and knows how to use a hybrid system. He also has recent single seater experience from Japan so he’s no amateur.

It’s a shame for Kobayashi though, once again left on the side lines when he really should have a secure seat in F1. He brought no money to the team though and on this end of the grid it’s something you can’t be found to lack.

At the top end of the grid expect nothing to change apart from the championship battle getting ever more intense. Mercedes will of course be the team to beat at this race and for the rest of the year, they’re chassis and power unit are just too strong. Only bad luck can really stop them.

Nico Rosberg leads Lewis Hamilton by 11 points after 11 battles on track, with eight to go the victor of the war is still very much up in the air. Over the four week break both drivers will have thought of almost nothing else as they prepare to once again go wheel to wheel for the world championship.

They will be more focussed than ever, each of them knows it’s not often you get a shot at a world championship, you have to take your chance when you get it. Hamilton will come to Belgium with the slight psychological edge. He beat Rosberg in Hungary after starting from the pit lane while his team mate was on pole position. Yes, safety cars played their part but it was a fantastic Hamilton charge.

To add to that there was the team orders dispute when Lewis failed to move over, which he was quite right to do as the team have later conceded. Rosberg knows that if Lewis had moved out the way he probably would have won the race, but he should not expect any favours.

Mercedes have been suffering from reliability troubles in recent races and they’ll hope that they’ve resolved them to keep the fight between their two drivers as fair as possible. However, at Spa the cars are on full throttle for 80% of the lap and with only five power units available for the season all of which will have been used, there could well be some troubles, not just for Mercedes but for the entire grid.

Lewis goes well at Spa and I expect him to have the upper hand this weekend, but Rosberg is always there and never lets up. This is going down to the wire, but there’s no better way of getting an edge in the second half than starting out with a win at a true drivers track. Let battle recommence.

all photo's taken from autosport.com