'Absurd' double points rule overshadows some good intentions

A few days ago the F1 Strategy Group and the Formula One Commission agreed a number of changes to the regulations to be implemented for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

From next season drivers will be able to choose their own numbers from #2 to #99 which will remain with them for the rest or the entirety of their careers. The champion driver will have the option of carrying #1. Nothing wrong with that, I think it’s a good idea. Much as Valentino Rossi has made the #46 his own in Moto GP or Wayne Gretzky made #99 his own in the world of Ice Hockey, it’ll be nice to have drivers associated with a permanent number.

Nigel Mansell was often associated with Red #5

Not least for those ardent fans who like to be up to date with merchandise of their favourite driver, they won’t have to worry too much about a driver changing teams or being higher in the Constructors championship as they’ll always now be associated with that number. So yes, good idea, well done Strategy Group.

To be implemented in 2015 is a budget cap, that budget has yet to be decided, but it is thought that it’ll be relatively high to start off with and reduce over a number of years. Whether the teams will agree with it or if it is able to be policed properly is very much open for debate but it is essential that Formula 1 brings the costs down.

You can see by the fact a top team like Lotus needs to take a driver with a budget (Pastor Maldonado) while missing out on Nico Hulkenberg who is once again stuck in the midfield because he doesn’t have any money behind him. This situation is unacceptable so a budget cap is the way forward.

However, with over a year before it is due to be introduced I’ll be interested to see if it goes any further beyond a nice idea. Teams with the spending power of Ferrari and Red Bull probably aren’t so keen to give up their advantage but for once I’d like to see the teams work together for the good of Formula 1 rather than their own self-interest to make it a more competitive and profitable environment for all the competitors and have a guarantee that each driver has been picked because of talent not how much sponsorship they can bring with them.

Finally, and I’ll try not to get carried away with how stupid an idea this is but to start from next season, the final race will be worth double points. Yes, that’s right in a reaction to Sebastian Vettel wrapping up the title with three races to go, it has been decided to jerk that knee to try and make sure the title fight goes down to the wire.

A budget cap with teams all competing on a level playing field is likely to create more competitive results over a season rather than saying ‘I know, let’s keep the title alive by wasting a driver’s entire seasons work so he can be beaten in the finale by a freak result by a driver who may well have been 49 points behind. That’s nearly two wins worth of points, but in the super finale all the 18 races beforehand doesn’t matter.

As Vettel has said, it’s ‘absurd’, and deserves to be written out of the rules before the season starts. As idea’s go it’ll just make a mockery of the results from the rest of the year, why should one race be worth more points? It’s artificial and quite frankly a bit condescending towards the fans of the sport.

Formula 1 and sports fans in general of course want a competitive year, but most don’t want it to be fake. I think they can just about cope with the DRS gimmick, it’s a bit Playstation, but passing was a problem, so they solved it, it doesn’t take away from overall tradition of the sport which this ruling does.

Formula 1 is about scoring the most points over the year with each event worth the same amount of points. If it goes down to the last race and someone wins it because of the double points, then they quite literally have won it because of the last race being worth more points, not because they fought to be within a wins worth of points that every other event gives out.

A driver with a 49 point lead going into the finale will quite rightly feel robbed if he then loses because of an incident or mechanical failure, and what with the new technical regulations a mechanical problem will be far more likely than in recent years.

This isn’t Formula 1, this is ridiculous and I truly hope they have a complete rethink before 2014 gets underway. Other than that, I am quite looking forward to seeing what numbers the top drivers choose.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

It had to be Vettel in Brazil

It couldn’t end any other way could it? The threat of rain that so many wanted to create a thrilling finale to the Formula 1 season didn’t materialise, but in any case if it had done would it have changed the result? I don’t think so, Sebastian Vettel has simply been immense and in a way it would have been wrong for 2013 to finish in any other way other than with Vettel taking his ninth consecutive win and 13^th of the year.

He didn’t have it all his own way this time, Nico Rosberg qualified alongside him on the front row and took the lead into the first corner. He held the lead for all of one lap as Vettel tucked into his slipstream on the start finish straight and was easily through. He pulled a gap and was gone.

Only a fumbled pit stop stopped him from executing an almost perfect race. When Valtteri Bottas attempted to un-lap himself from Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver moved over on the Finn just slightly that it broke the left rear wheel sending the Williams driver careering off the circuit. Red Bull immediately thought that a safety car could be called so brought Vettel in a lap early.

Unfortunately and as happened far too often, this compromised the race of Mark Webber who was due to pit that lap. As they rushed to get Vettel’s tyres out, the German was sat there losing time. He had only been 12 seconds ahead of Webber, so now he was stacked behind. It made no difference in the end, Vettel was released back into the lead while Webber maintained his second place.

Vettel reeled off the laps, a few drops of water did nothing to slow him down and he took a comfortable win followed by his now customary doughtnuts. It typifies just how brilliant he has been this year. He has got better every year he’s won, and being only 26 years old he can get better still.

Next year there are plenty of regulation changes including with the power trains or engines as most people like to call them, aero rules are also significantly altered and it’ll be a hard task for Red Bull to continue to repeat their success, especially after they kept on developing this year’s car longer than most other teams.

However, they have Adrian Newey still heading up the design team, and they still have Vettel, who I’ve no doubt could mix it with the more lauded talents of Fernando Alonso and Hamilton. It’s not going to be an easy task for anyone to beat them next year. As Vettel says on the radio, they’ve got to enjoy these victorious moments because you don’t know when it could stop. But right now, you’d be a fool to think that Red Bull won’t be right up there competing at the front again in 2014.

Webber finishes F1 career in style

Before Mark pops off to the World Endurance Championship with Porsche he had one more race to take part in, and he gave his all as he signed off with a superb showing of race craft and passing that puts many far younger drivers to shame.

He made his traditional poor getaway, and dropped to fifth, but he was soon pulling the moves to get up the order. His pass of Lewis Hamilton into turn six around the outside was brilliant, but just another one to add to a collection of great moves.

He was soon ahead of Rosberg too and set about getting on the tail of Alonso. These two have had numerous bouts before and this one was just as good as they Webber stalked the Ferrari. It was so good that after the first pit stops when Webber had a slow stop and came out behind the Ferrari, they did it all over again. Webber was just on it all race and even had a go at closing his team mate down, but just couldn’t manage it.

He’d obviously have liked to go out with a win but unfortunately Vettel has just become too good with this current generation of car. It’s all change next year, and Webber deemed it appropriate that this was a time to get out of the F1 circus. Probably the correct thing to do but after a race like this it seems like he’s still got much more to give.

However we shouldn’t forget that he has been soundly beaten this year by his team mate. It’s true that most of the time if a Red Bull had a problem then it would be on Webber’s car. It’s also true that a few contentious decisions went in the favour of Vettel. But I think from an outsiders point of view he got given a good crack at Red Bull.

He nearly and probably should have won the 2010 championship. Things went against him, perhaps Red Bull made a few dodgy calls, but I feel that he tied up towards the end and let it get away from him. He still put in a fantastic season but unfortunately he’s only ever equalled that kind of performance on a few weekends since, and not consistently like that year.

It’s the one that got away, but Webber has had a great career, some of the qualifying laps in his early years, especially in the Jaguar were of the highest quality while some of his race drives in the glory years of Red Bull could not have been bettered by anyone.

McLaren end year on a high

Jenson Button had a smile on his face for the first time in what seems like months. He may have qualified a rather poor 14^th, but he worked his way up quickly and efficiently and made the strategy work for him. He actually ended up in a rather comfortable fourth place, albeit with Hamilton and Felipe Massa having suffered drive through penalties.

But the fact Button got ahead of Nico Rosberg on pace and then kept him back will have pleased him and the team no end as they head into 2014. McLaren will want to forget this year completely, they haven’t even recorded a podium for the first time since 1980. At least it sets them up for the winter, especially as the departing Sergio Perez also managed to secure sixth place after suffering a gearbox penalty that meant he started from 19^th on the grid.

He had a tremendous drive and was only a handful of seconds behind Rosberg after he’d hounded him for several laps. Perez moves on though and the exciting talent of Kevin Magnussen moves in but it would have been nice for Checo to have had another year, I only hope he manages to find a drive for 2014. But with the money that backs him I’m sure he’ll be fine.

Battles in the pack

Despite another Vettel win and the lack of rain, the race was generally quite exciting. It was an interesting spectacle as teams had to gamble on the best set up in a wet qualifying while knowing that race day was probably going to be dry, or at least dryer. In the early laps there were numerous changes of position as everyone found their wheels on a dry track for the first time this weekend.

Alonso was an early mover as he made up ground after losing his third place grid slot at the start. He soon passed Hamilton and Rosberg to move up to second before he succumbed to Webber’s attacks. The Ferrari though looked particularly fast in race conditions and Alonso was able to keep in the number 2 Red Bull’s wheel tracks for several laps before eventually fading, but he was never too far away.

Alonso finished in third and cemented his second place in the drivers championship. It’s been a good year for him again as he’s driven as well as ever although I do feel he suffered a dip in form in the middle as he realised that yet again Ferrari were not going to deliver the goods.

You’ve got to think that the Alonso/Ferrari relationship has to deliver at least one championship, but if it’s not next year, a separation could come sooner than what’s written on the contract especially as the rumours go that the new Ferrari turbo engine is the weakest of the three manufacturers behind Mercedes and Renault.

Alonso was apparently meant to give up his podium to Massa who had another barnstorming start, and got up from ninth to sixth, before passing a few more to lie fourth. He was holding off Hamilton when he got a drive through penalty for cutting the pit entrance to much. Apparently he had been warned before but it seems a particularly churlish penalty, but then rules are rules. He still fought back to end his last race for Ferrari with a seventh.

Mercedes had set their cars up for a wetter climate, so it was not too much of a surprise to see them suffering with a lack of straight line speed. Rosberg initially took the lead but was easy prey as Vettel hunted him down over the first lap. He dropped through the field and even had to yield to his team mate as his tyres went off. He still just about managed to maintain a decent fifth place.

Hamilton would have finished higher than his eventual ninth if it hadn’t have been for his clash with Bottas which left him with a puncture and then his subsequent drive through. He didn’t know what happened but it didn’t look like he realised Bottas was alongside him, and he moved just slightly enough that it was probably his fault the clash happened. He managed to scramble back up to ninth but that was a fairly poor payback from what looked like a promising race.

Hulkenberg continued to put himself in the shop window with a decent eighth, but it looks likely that if he is to have a seat next year it’ll be a midfield one. Lotus don’t seem to be getting the deal with Quantum sorted to bring more money into the team which means they might have to go for a driver who brings money to the team which is a sad state of affairs. Paul di Resta could only manage 11^th, but he is a driver who should be in F1 but at the moment it looks like he could end up with no seat at all.

The final point went to Daniel Ricciardo in his last race for Toro Rosso before he moves to the big team next year. A competent driver, but when he and Jean-Eric Vergne had locked out the fourth row, you might have expected Toro Rosso to bring home a few more points than they did. Another team to suffer from a set up directed too much towards wet weather perhaps?

Lotus had an appalling last race of the year. Romain Grosjean had qualified sixth but at one point looked like he could snatch pole position. His engine went after just two laps, but the end of the season has been a real fillip for Grosjean’s career as he seeks to lead Lotus into a new era next year.

Marussia maintained their 10^th place in the constructors ahead of Caterham.

It is the end of the shrill V8, but the dawn of the turbo

So next year it’s all change. Gone will be the V8’s and in come 1.6 litre Turbo’s with various energy recovery systems which make the cars far more road relevant. The racing will certainly be different next year and the sound not quite as loud, but they’ll still be the best and fastest racing cars in the world.

The main question is can anyone stop Red Bull? As 2014 gets closer we’ll begin to learn more about how everyone’s doing, but you have to believe that with such fundamental rule changes, the order is bound to be mixed up, already we’re getting glimpses of who might be leading the back, with Mercedes rumoured to be on the right track while Ferrari could face further struggles next year.

I think we can safely assume that Red Bull will continue to mix it at the front but you have to believe they won’t have own F1 quite as much as they have done this year, the future is an exciting one.

There's still things to be sorted with drivers too with a number of seats still up for grabs as the off season starts. There's going to be a lot of negotiations and worrying winter thoughts for a lot of drivers.

But this past season has been good. It might not have been a battle to the end, but it was one of just a perfect combination of man and machine, and when that happens, they become unbeatable. Vettel and Red Bull were that perfect combination and this year they made history.

Final Result after 71 laps:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

2. Mark Webber - Red Bull

3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

4. Jenson Button - McLaren

5. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

6. Sergio Perez - McLaren

7. Felipe Massa - Ferrari

8. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

9. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

10. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso

11. Paul di Resta - Force India

12. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

13. Adrian Sutil - Force India

14. Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus

15. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso

16. Pastor Maldonado - Williams

17. Jules Bianchi - Marussia

18. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham

19. Max Chilton - Marussia

R. Charles Pic - Caterham - Suspension

R. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - Accident

R. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - Engine

all photo's taken from autosport.com

The Brazilian Forecast

In Brazil we trust. Rarely do we get a dull race around the Interlagos track in Sao Paulo and with the weather forecast predicting rain on every day of the event, the 2013 season could be in for a thrilling finale which might just see the dampening of the Red Bull party.

Not that it would take much of the gloss off what has been a brilliantly dominant campaign from the Milton Keynes based team. If it is a dry race then they have every hope of Sebastian Vettel continuing to exploit their car to the fullest as Pirelli are bringing the hard and medium tyre meaning the tyres should last nicely. There are also two DRS zones, the first on the start finish straight with the second coming after the Senna S.

If it is a wet race let’s not get carried away with thinking that Vettel will be out of it. He’s brilliant in wet conditions too and would have every chance of showing them off, but a bit of H2O goes a long way to mixing the pack up, especially if it’s a wet dry race. The weather at the moment seems to suggest that Sunday will be full of short showers not constant falling rain. So let's look to the positives for F1's final 2013 fling.

I can’t think of a wet race that Romain Grosjean has excelled in during his time of Formula 1, although over the last few years they’ve been hard to come by. If it is raining on Sunday then that will be the first wet race all year. However, my point was that Grosjean in the latter half of this year has been brilliant and put in some incredibly mature drives, not least his great run to second place last time out in America.

Lotus look to have the only car capable of at least getting into the mix with the Red Bull’s in dry conditions so if it is wet, perhaps this will be the chance for them to nab a second victory of the year, in fact it would mean they bookend the season. Definitely watch out for Grosjean. Even his replacement team mate Heikki Kovalainen might be worth watching out for. He looked quick in his first race back for nearly a year, especially in qualifying.

Nico Hulkenberg for Sauber will also be worth watching out for. He took a fantastic pole position for Williams here in 2010 and last year was leading the race comfortably for a while before a dice with Lewis Hamilton saw him sliding helplessly into the British driver. He still recovered to fifth while Lewis retired in his final race for McLaren.

Lewis looked to have rediscovered a bit of form for Mercedes in the USA ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg, and he’s always looked quick here despite lacking a win. If it’s raining it might be a chance for him to shine one final time in 2013, his wet weather driving is usually something to behold and Rosberg isn't bad either.

That could also mean renowned wet weather specialist Jenson Button could finally grab McLaren a podium this year, or maybe something even better; he was the winner here last year in a mixed condition race. Sergio Perez too, in his final race for McLaren is pretty handy in the wet so it is potentially a race for them to go for the win with nothing to lose.

Valtteri Bottas made Williams look like a team to be taken seriously again in the USA with a strong qualifying and an equally strong race to claim their best result of the year. He was fantastic in wet qualifying in Canada, and with Williams having made real progress since they sorted out the rear end of their car, it would be worth keeping an eye on Bottas and Pastor Maldonado to spring a surprise.

We can’t forget about Ferrari either. In the dry, maybe we can, but again this hinges on the race being wet, but Fernando Alonso can be magnificent in these conditions and will exploit his car to its fullest to pull of one final miracle win. Felipe Massa shouldn’t be ruled out either, he’s a twice winner of his home Grand Prix, and in his final race for Ferrari will be desperate to go out in style.  

There are interesting dynamics in the constructors championship too, with a fight for second still going on between Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus while down at the back, it takes just one mixed up race for Caterham to steal 10^th place and a lot of prize money from Marussia who’ve been in the vital spot since the start of the year. Caterham pulled off that feat last year, there’s no reason they can’t do it again.

There's plenty to fight for with regards to next year too. There are only a few seats left up for grabs and enough drivers currently competing to fill them up twice over. It's going to one final chance to prove themselves for the likes of Paul di Resta, Adrian Sutil, Esteban Gutierrez, Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado, Giedo van der Garde, Charles Pic, Max Chilton and for some inexplicable reason Nico Hulkenberg. Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have their seats safe for next year, but they'll likely be jostling with many of these drivers, so it could be quite the wild time.

We shouldn’t forget two time Brazilian Grand Prix winner Mark Webber either, in his final race in Formula 1. He’ll be desperate to finish his career with one more win to take him into double figures, and if it ends up being a dry race he should be the only one able to take the fight to Vettel and give us a rousing send off to the 2013 season. It doesn’t really matter if Vettel wins or not, I think some of his wins this year have been mesmerising. But it would just be nice to send this season off with an exhilarating fight for the win.

If it’s dry, it’s almost certain to be a Red Bull demonstration run, if it’s wet however, then let the sport come alive once more. Come on Formula 1, one last hurrah. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com