2011 Team-by-Team Review

In my final blog post of the year, it’s time to look at each of Formula One’s twelve teams in turn, assess their 2011 form and rate their prospects for 2012.

Red Bull Racing                                 Constructors Champion, 12 wins, 650 points

2011 was just about as perfect a year for any F1 team as one could hope for when it comes to what appears for the time being to be the new hegemonic force of the sport. With Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber standing atop the rostrum a dozen times between them, Red Bull Racing acquired the most wins in one season since 2004, when Ferrari swept all-comers with an eye-watering fifteen of a possible eighteen wins. Numerous Adrian Newey-inspired innovations contributed to this enormous success, such as the exhaust-blown diffuser, the flexible front wing, and ‘wheel warmers’ which were supposedly the main factor behind Vettel’s mystery tyre blowout at the very start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The otherwise apparently unstoppable German is contracted at Red Bull for a further three years, whilst Webber is confirmed for next year only as the spectre of retirement begins to loom for the 35-year-old. Winning the title as early as the Japanese Grand Prix of course has given Red Bull breathing space to focus on its car for the upcoming 2012 season, so their title chances next year will largely boil down to how well their rivals from Woking and Maranello can respond to the gauntlet thrown down by the boys from Milton Keynes.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes                   2^nd Place, 6 wins, 497 points

For most teams, six wins would have constituted a fine season, but such are McLaren’s exacting standards that 2011 can only be labelled as a bitter disappointment. Although the silver-and-red machines were never really expected to be in contention after the debacle that was their ‘octopus-style’ exhaust system used in pre-season testing, it became apparent almost immediately that McLaren were to be the only team with any hope of halting the Red Bull freight train. Lewis Hamilton’s win at China proved to be a false dawn, whilst Jenson Button’s surge in form equally proved insufficient. 1998, the year when McLaren last won the constructors championship, must by now seem a distant memory, and in spite of Hamilton’s litany of errors this season, it’s not been the driving strength that has been wanting – Button’s signed up for another three seasons, and Hamilton looks increasingly likely to extend his McLaren contract when it expires at the end of next season. The vow of team principal Martin Whitmarsh to go on the offensive from the very outset of 2012 seems to signify that the team have every confidence that it’s only a matter of time before they return to the top of the pile. Only time will tell whether this assertion will be proved right or wrong.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro                           3^rd Place, 1 win, 375 points

The oldest and most illustrious name in the sport endured a difficult 2011 season, Red Bull’s utter domination of the field leaving just room for one victory which, while undoubtedly deserved, came largely courtesy of the temporary ban on exhaust-blown diffusers – a concept which Ferrari appeared unable to master the way their opponents were able to. This was a great shame for Fernando Alonso, who after 2010’s near miss was ruled out title contention arguably after his heroic fourth-to-first start at the Spanish Grand Prix somehow turned into finishing one lap down 65 laps down the line. As for Felipe Massa at the wheel of the other car, the year could only be described as a total flop as the Brazilian; with the possible exception of China, he was simply unable to get even remotely on terms with his teammate’s blistering pace at any stage during the season. Surprisingly, he’s been given one last chance to prove his worth in 2012, but only a drastic improvement in his performances is going to prevent a relegation to the midfield, with Robert Kubica being touted as a likely replacement pending his full recovery. Alonso meanwhile finds himself hamstrung until 2016, meaning it’s down to Ferrari to construct him a car worthy of his talents.

Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team               4^th Place, 165 points

It’s easy to forget that, just two short years ago, this was essentially the team that took Jenson Button to six of the first seven victories and subsequently a shock title success. Back to the present day, and whilst Mercedes may have consolidated their grip on the official ‘best of the rest’ mantra, the reality is that they have been further off the front-running pace than last year. Unlike last year, neither Nico Rosberg nor Michael Schumacher made a single trip to the podium during 2011, even if it was close but no cigar for the latter in the appalling conditions at Canada. For all their travails this year however, the Brackley-based team seems to possess all the necessary ingredients to take a step into the top flight with the recruitment of ex-Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa as well as Geoff Willis, who worked with the team in its BAR and Honda incarnations. Rosberg will be hoping this gives him the equipment to finally take his first win (having now racked up 108 starts without one), particularly since he’s committed himself to the team for two more seasons. Schumacher will be equally eager to take his first post-comeback victory, and there is now allegedly a distinct possibility of the seven-time champion hanging around for 2013 if this happens.    

Lotus Renault GP                                        5^th Place, 73 points

Ten months ago, many were predicting (myself included) a return to the big-time for one the sport’s biggest underperformers during the last couple of years. Then came Robert Kubica’s devastating rally crash which has meant that, contrary to estimates at the time, the Pole still hasn’t driven an F1 car as of the time of writing. All seemed to be well again when Nick Heidfeld was selected as a replacement, but his failure to live up to expectations as well as Renault’s inability to develop its car as effectively as its rivals has seen it finish a distant fifth in the constructors, just four points ahead of Force India. Vitaly Petrov didn’t exactly set the world on fire either, having scored two less points than Heidfeld prior to the German’s dismissal, whilst Bruno Senna’s results in the latter third of the season also left something to be desired. All that considered, it’s not hard to see why the team is opting for a ‘clean sheet’ approach in 2012 with the signing of 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen, who returns to the sport after a two-year absence, and Romain Grosjean, who has spent this year carefully rebuilding his damaged reputation by winning the GP2 series after his disappointing stint at the team in 2009. Furthermore, the team will be officially rebranded ‘Lotus’ after a resolution with Tony Fernandes’ team was reached earlier in the year.

AT&T Williams                                           9^th Place, 5 points

If you were new to the sport this year, you’d be forgiven for having a hard time believing that Williams are in fact the third most successful F1 team of all time. After all, the glories of the 80s and 90s are a far cry from what has gone down in history as the team’s worst ever season since it began constructing its own cars in 1978. Of the nine ‘established’ teams, they were more often than not the slowest, as evidenced by a feeble points total of five. Four of these came courtesy of Rubens Barrichello, who despite some mercurial performances looks set to be forced to call time on his long and distinguished career in the sport. His likely replacement isn’t known at the time of writing, but Adrian Sutil, Bruno Senna and Jules Bianchi are all possibilities after Raikkonen’s surprise decision to sign for Lotus. Pastor Maldonado meanwhile may have failed to shine as brightly as his fellow first-year drivers Paul Di Resta and Sergio Perez, but has nonetheless done enough to secure his place with the team next year after some improved qualifying performances during the latter half of the year. Furthermore, Renault will replace Cosworth as Williams’ engine suppliers next year, something the team will be hoping improves their fortunes.

Force India F1 Team                                  6^th Place, 69 points

With each year that passes, Vijay Mallya’s pet project continues to go from strength to strength, his Force India team having gone from perennial tail-enders in 2008 to comfortably the fifth-fastest package on the grid towards the end of the 2011 season. They may have just lost out to Renault in the final reckoning, but sterling performances from both the seasoned Adrian Sutil and the novice Paul Di Resta, who took to the demands of F1 racing like a proverbial duck to water, brought them extremely close despite a slow start prior to the introduction of the revised VJM-04. Thereon, the points came in thick and fast, only the Japanese Grand Prix breaking a run of points finishes from the German Grand Prix all the way to the end of the season. The problem now for Force India is that they may have reached their performance limit – they lack the financial clout that would allow them to regularly fight the ‘big four’, so there must be doubts as to how much longer their ascent up the constructors table will continue. Tasked with this challenge are likely to be Di Resta and this year’s reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg, leaving Sutil to make a probable move to Williams, though this is yet to be confirmed.

Sauber F1 Team                                           7^th Place, 44 points

Entering the second year of the post-BMW era for Peter Sauber’s long-surviving team, things couldn’t have got off to a much better start – Sergio Perez finished a highly impressive seventh with a single-stop strategy on his debut with teammate Kamui Kobayashi just one place behind. Though they had this haul of ten points taken away from them on the grounds of technical infringements, both Perez and Kobayashi continued to rake in the points (with the sole exception of the European Grand Prix) right up until the German Grand Prix. It was at the following round in Hungary when things began to go awry – Force India’s new-found speed left the Swiss outfit powerless to prevent them snatching sixth place in the standings, and after that they found themselves having to defend seventh from Toro Rosso. As it happened, the team scraped together just enough points to prevent another slip down the table, but this state of affairs doesn’t exactly bode too well for Sauber. Just how Kobayashi and Perez will fare with the team next year therefore remains a mystery, but it’s apparent that there will have to be some fairly major changes of some kind if the team is to be anything other than a mere shop window for young talent.

Scuderia Toro Rosso                                    8^th Place, 41 points

Red Bull’s ‘B-team’ may be just that, but that isn’t to say that the boys from Faenza are content to simply be lower-midfield cannon fodder. The fact that Vettel took them to a race win (which subsequently led to them out-scoring Red Bull that year) three years ago is a reminder of that team is capable of greater things than they achieved in 2011. Unfortunately, on the evidence of the last three seasons, neither Buemi nor Alguersauri looks set to emulate Vettel, which makes it all the more baffling that both are allegedly set to be retained next season. On balance, one would have to say that it was Algersauri who has made the bigger impression of the pair this year, particularly with his seventh places at Monza and Korea, but Buemi is also supposedly valued by the team for his technical feedback. Still, I can’t help but get the feeling that both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, the next drivers in line in the Red Bull young-driver scheme, would make better bets than the current drivers, but it seems that both will have to wait longer for their chances; though it could be that one of them gets a mid-season promotion as many thought would be the case this year. Either way, there will immediately be pressure on both Buemi and Alguersauri next year to perform.

Team Lotus                                                  Unclassified

The rebranded ‘Team Lotus’, in deference to Colin Chapman’s ultra-successful team of yesteryear, set itself the goal of scoring its first points in 2011. Whilst this goal may have quickly been proven to be rather pie-in-the-sky, the team are now on the brink of latching on to the tail-end of the midfield scrum. Heikki Kovalainen’s performances could barely be faulted all season, even making the occasional appearance in Q2, whilst Jarno Trulli’s two thirteenth-place finishes proved pivotal in the battle for the countback-derived tenth position in the constructors standings and the all-important prize money that goes with it. On the basis of their performance this season, the newly renamed ‘Caterham’ team can realistically expect to accrue their first points in 2012, though the exact shape of their driver line-up is still to be fully decided – Kovalainen will in all likelihood stay, even if he has seemingly caught the eye of a couple of the more competitive teams, but Trulli’s seat on the other hand is said to be in doubt with Red Bull looking to station their young protégé Ricciardo with the team after his endeavours for HRT this year. Lotus have undoubtedly been the best performing of the three new teams up to now, but it could well be that we no longer consider them in the same category as HRT or Virgin next season.

HRT Formula One Team                           Unclassified

After the crushing disappointment of failing to qualify either car for the curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix, things didn’t turn out too badly for HRT in 2011. Though they may have lost considerable ground to Lotus since last year, they were not only frequently battling, but also beating their rivals at Virgin, Vitantonio Liuzzi’s thirteenth place at Canada proving sufficient for the Spanish team to avoid finishing at the very bottom of the pile. Unsurprisingly, he was more than a match for returnee Narain Karthikeyan, who landed the seat courtesy only of his connections with Indian car giant Tata, but once Ricciardo took the reins of the second car, something was found decidedly lacking with Liuzzi’s pace. Whether he keeps hold of his seat for 2012 is yet to be decided, but if he does, he will be partnered with one of the sport’s elder statesmen in Pedro De La Rosa. Ricciardo appears to be headed for pastures anew in the form of either Toro Rosso or Caterham, and it remains to be seen whether Red Bull extends their partnership with HRT by placing Vergne there. However, rumours of an all-Spanish line-up are rife, which will come as comforting news to GP2 driver Dani Clos, who has confessed his desire to step up to the highest level with the team alongside his compatriot.

Marussia Virgin Racing                           Unclassified

Where Lotus and HRT took a step forward in 2011, it has to be said that Virgin in contrast remained stagnant. After giving up hope on the MVR-02 relatively early on, the car was scarcely developed at all, leaving the team in the unenviable position of having to battle HRT in an effort to avoid finishing twelfth and last among the constructors. The best efforts of Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio just weren’t enough when push came to shove, and the team is sadly stuck with numbers 24 and 25 once again in 2012. Whilst Glock has already committed his short-term future to the team, D’Ambrosio follows in the footsteps of Lucas Di Grassi in being replaced after just one underwhelming season with the Yorkshire-based team. Arriving in place of the ousted Belgian is the highly-rated French GP2 driver Charles Pic, who along with Grosjean will give France their first representation on the grid since 2009. His record in the junior formulae is substantially stronger than that of D’Ambrosio, so Pic has a good chance of breaking the trend that has befallen the pilots of the second Virgin thus far in the team’s short history. The team have also abandoned their budget-conscious CFD-only approach, which should give Marussia (as the team will be rechristened next season) a timely boost in their efforts to gain respectability in the F1 paddock.

And so brings to an end another year of posting on my site. Whilst Melbourne, the first round of next season may seem some way off, don't forget that it's only a matter of weeks before the teams will begin to launch their new machines, with testing commencing in early February. 2012 promises to be an incredible season for the sport, and I'll of course be back to provide previews, reviews, features, fascinating insight and sometimes controversial opinions about everything that goes on. Thanks very much to everybody who has read this blog this year - hope you'll be back next year.

The Top Ten Drivers of 2011

Now the 2011 season has drawn to a close, it’s time to reveal my top ten drivers of the season, taking into account their past performances and the machinery at their disposal.

10. Paul Di Resta                   Force India F1 Team, 13^th, 27 points

It was a tight contest between Di Resta, Sergio Perez and Jaime Alguersauri for the final spot on this list, but the young Scotsman just about gets the nod on the basis of his better consistency. Di Resta kicked off his season by joining the exclusive club of drivers to score points on their debut (albeit only after the two Sauber drivers were excluded from the results), and immediately posed a threat to his more experienced teammate Adrian Sutil. There was inevitably the occasional rookie error (hitting the back of Nick Heidfeld at Canada springs to mind), but in general the mistakes were less frequent than the other first-year drivers on the grid. Once the revised version of the Force India came on stream mid-season, Di Resta was a regular visitor to the points-paying positions, his drives at Hungary and Singapore in particular turning the heads of the F1 paddock. If he is indeed paired with Nico Hulkenberg in 2012 as we expect, it will be fascinating to observe how Di Resta rises to the challenge. There may well only be room for one of them as a top-flight driver in years to come.

9. Heikki Kovalainen             Team Lotus, Unclassified

Arguably, the biggest injustice in F1 at the moment is the fact that a driver as talented as Kovalainen is saddled with as uncompetitive a car as the Lotus. It’s all too easy to forget that the mild-mannered Finn was every match for Nico Rosberg in GP2; that he out-scored Giancarlo Fisichella in his debut season at Renault; that he stood atop the podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix just three years ago. He may have been no match for Lewis Hamilton during his tenure as his McLaren teammate, but then how many drivers on the grid would have been? Over the course of the last two seasons, his points total has been equivalent to the square root of zero, yet at just about every race this year, he has wrung as much speed out of the Lotus as possible, out-qualifying teammate Jarno Trulli on all but two occasions. It’s not hard to see why Lotus team principal Tony Fernandes is so keen to hang on to him – let’s just hope that Kovalainen’s herculean efforts with the team next year don’t go unrewarded as they have been up to now.

8. Michael Schumacher         Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team, 8^th, 76 points

When it comes to the comeback of the most successful man in the history of the sport, it has to be said that things are looking decidedly rosier than they were twelve months ago. Where Schumacher barely scored half of teammate Rosberg’s points in 2010, he was just thirteen points in arrears this year. Admittedly, the Mercedes has been further from the front-running pace than last season, and there were perhaps one or more two more collisions than the German may have liked, but they don’t detract from what has to be regarded as a much-improved year for Schumacher. The occasions on which he outperformed Rosberg were far more regular with impressive fifth places at Spa, Monza and Suzuka as well as coming heartbreakingly close to the podium at Canada. These results as well as some electrifying starts serve to remind us that Schumacher still has the wherewithal to succeed if the team can provide the car. A ninety-second win cannot be ruled out if Mercedes does just that next year.

7. Adrian Sutil                        Force India F1 Team, 9^th, 42 points

With Di Resta impressing so much in the other during his maiden season, the performances of the man from of the other side of the Force India garage are easily overlooked. However, the record books will indicate that it was Sutil, who has just come off the back of his fifth F1 season, that scored the lion’s share of the points for the Silverstone-based team. With the notable exceptions of Hungary and Singapore, Sutil by and large held the upper hand when it came to race pace, his sixth places at the Nurburgring and the Interlagos finale being particular stand-out performances. In spite of that, he looks set to leave the team with which he has driven since the start of his career, with the possibility of occupying vacancies at either Williams, where he would partner Pastor Maldonado, or Renault, where he would have the far sterner challenge of lining up alongside returning former champion Kimi Raikkonen. At twenty-eight years of age, this next career move has the potential to make or break Sutil’s up-to-now promising career.

6. Mark Webber                    Red Bull Racing, 3^rd, 258 points, 1 win

In a sport where equipment is so paramount to success, it’s a given that any F1 driver will be compared to their teammate. After all, ten podium finishes in a season is pretty good by most people’s standards, but when compared to the imperious form of Sebastian Vettel at the wheel of the sister car, Webber’s achievements of one win and three pole positions are rendered rather negligible. Perhaps the most damning indictment of the Australian’s season was the way he was often racing the McLarens and Ferraris whilst Vettel was in a league of his own out front; clearly, Mark was not getting the best out the vehicle at his disposal. The comparisons with Nigel Mansell’s Williams teammate during his dominant 1992 season, Riccardo Patrese, are irresistible – Webber’s failure to get to grips with the new Pirelli tyres this season is very much reminiscent of Patrese’s struggles to accustom himself with active suspension, in stark contrast in both cases to their respective teammates. Though his end-of-season triumph in Interlagos may have only come courtesy of gearbox gremlins for Vettel, it will have hopefully given Webber the lift he needs to get back on terms with his teammate in 2012.

5. Nico Rosberg                    Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team, 7^th, 89 points

Since he departed Williams for the then-new Mercedes team at the start of last season, we have become precious little the wiser as to the extent of Rosberg’s potential. The fact that Mercedes has slipped away from the pace has hardly helped matters in this respect, with Rosberg having been unable to emulate the three podium finishes he bagged last year. Schumacher’s upturn in form has complicated the picture still further, but two conclusions can nonetheless be drawn. The first is that Rosberg has been the better qualifier of the two, evidenced by his out-qualification of Schumacher sixteen times out of a possible nineteen. The second is that he’s generally been the more consistent of the Silver Arrows drivers with a run of points finishes stretching all the way from Valencia to the end of the season, only interrupted by being taken out by the first-corner chaos at Monza. Rosberg is putting great faith in the Mercedes team by extending his contract for another two years; let’s hope the Brackley-based team is able to repay it with a race-winning car next year with which Rosberg can finally break his duck.

4. Lewis Hamilton                Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 5^th, 227 points, 3 wins

As ever, it’s been a year of ups and downs for Hamilton in 2011. There have been times when he was impeccable, when there was simply no equal for his raw speed and amazing ability to overtake. On the other hand, there have equally been too many times when his aggression and petulance have gotten the better of him, usually at his own or one of his fellow competitor’s expense. The fellow competitor on no fewer than five occasions happened to be a certain Mr. Felipe Massa, but this so-called ‘feud’ was in reality somewhat overblown by the British press. It’s still fair to say however that his mistakes at Canada, Hungary, Belgium, Singapore and India all cost him a considerable amount of points, whilst his wins at China, the Nurburgring and Abu Dhabi merely made the spectating experience all the more frustrating as he showed what kind of performances he is truly capable of. It has been this maddening inconsistency that has allowed his teammate Jenson Button to gain a definite edge over him this year, a trend he will have to reverse if he is to add to his solitary world title he won three years ago.

3. Fernando Alonso               Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, 4^th, 257 points, 1 win

Though this year’s Ferrari car was from the outset never going to be a likely title winner, Alonso debatably drove better during 2011 than at any other point in his F1 career. The Spaniard demonstrated, in terms of sheer points scored, the biggest margin of superiority over his teammate of all the drivers on the grid, Massa becoming the first full-time Ferrari driver to fail to reach the podium all year since Ivan Capelli’s disastrous 1992 season. By contrast, Alonso managed to finish in the top three ten times, his sole win at Silverstone standing out as a particularly commanding drive which neatly commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of Ferrari’s first ever F1 win. His starts at Catalunya and Monza were also dazzling, incidentally both executed to the delight of his adoring home fans and the ever-passionate tifosi respectively. It was of course disappointing to see Alonso not involved in the title fight after coming so close to glory last year, but the combination of a re-arranging of the technical department and an early switch of focus to next year’s car should yield palpable results when it comes to Maranello’s 2012 challenger. One thing is for certain – Alonso is more than capable of delivering a third world title.

2. Jenson Button                   Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 2^nd, 270 points, 3 wins

If Button surprised the majority of onlookers last year by coming as close to teammate Hamilton as he did, then he must have caused even more astonishment this season by outscoring him by a margin of forty-three points. This gap may have materialised largely as a result of Hamilton’s own blunders, but whichever way you look at things, 2011 was a blistering season for Button. His three wins at Canada, Hungary and Japan were all testament to his outstanding ability to deal with adverse weather conditions and master the nuances of the new Pirelli tyres. Furthermore, he visited the podium twice as often as Hamilton, twelve times to six, and in the final nine races, the tally was eight to two in favour of the Frome Flyer. His qualifying record may have been less impressive than Hamilton’s, but the harsh reality is that points are awarded on Sundays, not Saturdays. On the strength of this season, one would have to say that, if the McLaren is up to the challenge of competing for the title in 2012, Button is the more likely of the McLaren duo to capture a second title.

1. Sebastian Vettel               Red Bull Racing, World Champion, 392 points, 11 wins

Accuse me of being unadventurous if you wish, but when it comes down to it, who else is there that can really stake a valid claim to the top spot? The numbers speak for themselves – eleven wins, fifteen pole positions, seventeen podiums, eighteen front row starts, 392 of a possible 475 points, 739 laps led of a possible 1139. Did he have the best car? Yes. Did he make the best use of the best car? Absolutely – just look at Webber’s performance in the other Adrian Newey-designed car on the grid. In fact, if you omitted Vettel from all this season’s race results, Webber would have lost the title to Button by thirteen points. From this perspective, Webber’s performance could be reasonably interpreted as the ‘true’ performance level of the Red Bull RB7, with Vettel’s genius transforming it from a regular front-running contender to the dominant package of the 2011 season. In 2001, Schumacher secured his second title for Ferrari in far more dominant style than the first before going on to lock away three more titles. Could Vettel be about to do likewise ten years on? 

Brazilian Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Mark Webber took an overdue first victory of 2011 at the season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix. After his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel was hampered by a gearbox problem, the way was clear for Webber to stand atop the podium for the first time since last August.

There were no such problems for Vettel during qualifying however – he stormed to a record-breaking fifteenth pole position of the season, Webber joining him on the front row. McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton occupied the second row between them, ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and home hero Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.

As per usual, Vettel made a perfect to start to lead the way initially, but the shorter-than-usual distance between the grid and the first corner meant Webber’s slightly slow start didn’t cost him any positions. Alonso however made his customary flyer, vaulting past Hamilton as the pack funnelled through the famous Senna ‘S’ for the first time.

Not satisfied with fourth place apparently, Alonso was able to stay close to Button’s tail whilst opening a small gap to Hamilton during the opening stages. The two-time champion was able to wrest third place away with a brave move around the outside of Button at the unorthodox location of turn 5, but by this stage the two Red Bulls were almost five seconds down the road.

One man who couldn’t make a move around the outside work was Michael Schumacher, who after overtaking Paul Di Resta for tenth place tried to dive around the outside of Bruno Senna at turn 1 in a bid to take ninth. Contact between Senna’s front wing and Schumacher’s rear-left tyre however led to a puncture for the German, forcing him to trail back to the pits with three wheels on his Mercedes  for almost an entire lap. He was able to continue, albeit in twenty-fourth and last place.

Back at the business end of the field, it became clear after the first round of pit-stops that all was not well with Vettel’s car. Race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin had informed his driver over the pit-to-car radio that a problem had developed with his gearbox, and that he should therefore try to short-shift whilst using second and third gears. This impacted upon his speed, and by lap 30 he had no choice but to surrender the lead to Webber, who had managed to remain within around three seconds of his championship-winning teammate.

Button, who was seemingly making no progress on Alonso in fourth place, decided to attempt an alternative strategy whereby he changed to medium compound tyres instead of softs as per the rest of the leading group of drivers. The original plan was for Button to run the remaining forty laps on that particular set of tyres, but tyre wear necessitated the McLaren driver to make a third stop with nineteen laps to go; despite this he was still able to catch and pass fellow three-stopper Alonso on lap 62 with the help of DRS to re-take third.

At the front though, there would be no stopping Webber from taking the seventh win of his career, a win which moved him ahead of Alonso into third place in the championship and will no doubt give him the confidence boost he needs heading into the off-season. Button was able to somewhat reduce the advantage of second-place man Vettel, whose gearbox managed to survive for the rest of the race, but he had to settle for third position behind after running out of laps.

Alonso finished in fourth place, ahead of teammate Massa who benefitted from the retirement of Hamilton, gearbox issues bringing an ignominious end to a trying year for the Brit. Sixth place went to Adrian Sutil after an outstanding drive that should put him in good stead to remain on the grid in 2012, beating Rosberg with whom he battled for the much of the race and his Force India teammate Paul Di Resta. Kamui Kobayashi finished in ninth to safeguard Sauber’s seventh place in the constructors’ championship, whilst Vitaly Petrov claimed the final point of the year with a solid drive to tenth place for Renault.

Jaime Alguersauri and Sebastien Buemi both had fairly anonymous races to eleventh and twelfth places, shedding little light on how the Toro Rosso line-up will look next year; Sergio Perez could manage no higher than thirteenth after spinning his Sauber at mid-distance. Rubens Barrichello finished what could turn out to be his final ever race in a subdued fourteenth place, ahead of the recovering Schumacher, Heikki Kovalainen for Lotus and Senna, who was hobbled by a drive-through penalty for the collision with Schumacher and his own gearbox problem. Jarno Trulli, Jerome D’Ambrosio and Daniel Ricciardo completed the list of finishers for Lotus, Virgin and Hispania respectively. Pastor Maldonado ended his race in the barriers, Vitantonio Liuzzi succumbed to an unidentified mechanical mishap and Timo Glock’s left-rear wheel simply didn’t feel like staying attached to the rest of his Virgin car after his first pit-stop.

As the curtain falls on the season of 2011, it’s time for us to take stock. Vettel may have locked away the title some time ago, but the fact remains that it has been a year of innovation, excitement, some breathtaking highs and some heart-rending lows. But that’s not all from me – make sure you’re back here in a week’s time as my reveal my top ten drivers of the year and rate the field’s prospects for 2012.

Three is a Magic Number

Since the Concorde Agreement was originally signed in 1981, Formula One teams have been restricted to running a maximum of two cars in each race. Thirty years on however, the wisdom of this ruling has been thrown into question – the possibility of third cars is back on the agenda. Whilst proponents of this idea, principally Ferrari, believe third cars would be a great way of bulking out the grid numbers as well as giving young drivers an invaluable opportunity to gain race experience, there are concerns that they would be to the detriment of the smaller teams.

For teams with the resources (i.e. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes), having third cars seems like a no-brainer. Not only would it give them the opportunity to try out up-and-coming youngsters in competitive machinery, a particularly useful thing for those with extensive young driver schemes such as Red Bull, but having a third car could act as a useful marketing tool if they were permitted to display different sponsors on it to those that appear on the two main cars. Spectators would also be able to enjoy more competitive races up front as there would be more cars theoretically in contention for the win, whilst more cars on track would naturally provide more variables besides.

Of course, the third car would not be eligible to score constructors points for the team, and there would have to be restrictions on who could drive the third car – perhaps only drivers with less than a season’s worth of experience under their belts, or drivers under a certain age. Another interesting rule could be that the teams would have to (or at least takes turn to) give a seat to a local driver, which would surely boost interest in the Eastern markets as well as the US venues of Austin and New Jersey that F1 is set to visit over the course of the next two seasons.

Third cars would also go some way to solving the increasing problem of having too many drivers for too few F1 seats. With Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg widely expected to be confirmed as Williams and Force India drivers for 2012 respectively in the near future, Adrian Sutil looks as if he may end up on the sidelines next season despite his solid performances this year, whilst Bruno Senna looks as if he will be usurped by GP2 champion Romain Grosjean next season as Renault continues to await the return of Robert Kubica. Furthermore, the seats of Sebastien Buemi and Jerome D’Ambrosio are looking decidedly under threat from Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Pic, not to mention drivers such as Jules Bianchi, Giedo Van Der Garde and Robert Wickens who have all arguably done enough to merit a drive that they’re unlikely to get. Perhaps Rubens Barrichello would also reach that incredible milestone of a twentieth consecutive season as a full-time F1 driver if there was more breathing space in the hotly contested driver market as a result of third cars.

Despite these obvious advantages however, not everyone is in favour of third cars. The obvious fear is that, in the age of near-perfect reliability, the top twelve cars would have a monopoly on points that would make it impossible for some of the midfield teams to survive, let alone those right at the tail of the field. Some advocate selling customer cars to these teams, creating a situation similar to that of MotoGP at present whereby four constructors supply bikes to the entire grid, but purists argue that to take that particular course of action would be to deny F1 its very essence as a championship that stipulates each and every entrant is responsible for the design and creation of its own chassis.   

There is indeed much debate as to the extent to which technical partnerships such as those between McLaren and Force India or Williams and Hispania are legal. Supplying engines is one thing, even if there are currently fewer engine manufacturers than at any point since 1980, but the fear in some quarters is that outfits such as Hispania will ultimately become little more than glorified customer teams that own almost none of the intellectual property contained within the cars they race. Bear in mind the less-than-ideal economic climate in which F1 is forced to operate however, and there is certainly an argument to say that the Hispanias and Virgins of this world would be best placed to operate third cars on the behalf of the larger teams.

Perhaps that would be the best compromise – imagine Timo Glock, a man, lest we forget, who was scoring podium finishes for Toyota just two years ago, in with a fighting chance of points with his Virgin-McLaren. With Lotus on the cusp of latching on to the back of the midfield pack pace-wise, the spread between the fastest and slowest cars on the grid would be significantly reduced, whilst the fact that the big teams’ third cars wouldn’t be ran from under the same roof would avoid a situation that would give Renault, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Williams next-to-no chance of a top-ten finish.  Another option could be to allow the four big teams to run third cars on rotation, giving the nominated third driver at each team the chance to contest five grand prix in order to prove their worthiness of a full-time seat.

So, what is the most likely outcome of this entire furore? Bernie Ecclestone is already on the record as saying third cars are ‘unlikely’ to become a reality, in spite of the insistence of Ferrari and its president Luca Di Montezemelo in favour of them. McLaren team Principal Martin Whitmarsh is also known to be against the idea, preferring instead to look at solutions to try and make the smaller constructors more competitive. Nonetheless, Ecclestone has mooted third cars as a possibility if grid numbers dwindle below the twenty mark, but there was no apparent shortage of interest in the thirteenth grid slot when the FIA invited applicants (only to reject all of them of course) last year, meaning that isn’t an especially probable scenario.

Next weekend brings the final round of the season at Interlagos, so ensure you check back here in a week’s time for a run-down of all the action.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Lewis Hamilton rediscovered his form as he surged to his third victory of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After Sebastian Vettel made an early exit from the race as he suffered a mysterious puncture at the second corner, Hamilton was able to keep closest challenger Fernando Alonso at bay to take home the silverware.

Vettel equalled Nigel Mansell’s nineteen-year old record of fourteen pole positions in one season by coming out on top of a closely fought qualifying session on Saturday. Hamilton lost out by just over a tenth of a second to share the front row with the Red Bull driver, with his McLaren teammate Jenson Button lining up third. Mark Webber qualified in fourth position, ahead of the Ferrari duo of Alonso and Felipe Massa.

As the race began in the evening sunlight at the glamorous Yas Marina circuit, Vettel made the perfect getaway to lead from the McLarens of Hamilton and Button. However, on the exit of the very first turn of the race, the new champion suddenly lost control of his car as his right-rear tyre instantly deflated, sending him into the tarmac run-off as the rest of the field swarmed past. He was able to eventually limp back to the pits with three wheels on his Adrian Newey-designed wagon, but the damage done to his rear suspension was sufficient to warrant Vettel’s first retirement of 2011.

This left Hamilton to lead the way from teammate Button and Alonso, who made his way around the outside of Webber to take what would soon become third place at the first corner. Alonso was also quick to deprive Button of second place as he out-dragged the Brit down the long back straight, but by this stage Hamilton had already pulled out a gap of around two seconds over his former arch-rival.

The ease with which this manoeuvre was carried out was explained by Button reporting a suspected KERS failure a couple of laps later; indeed Webber then looked as if he would imminently pass the ailing McLaren. However, despite the DRS zones providing Webber with a considerable straight-line speed advantage, the Australian was unable to make a move that stuck. This battle for third place continued all the way to the first round of pit-stops, but Webber dropped behind Massa into fifth place after an uncharacteristically poor stop from the Red Bull mechanics.

Meanwhile, Hamilton and Alonso both stopped on lap 16 for a fresh set of soft compound tyres, with the gap between the two fluctuating between around two and five seconds during the second stint of the race as a result of the McLaren’s propensity to both heat up and wear out its tyres faster. Button was by this stage around ten seconds in arrears of Alonso, with Massa and Webber forming a close train behind. Again, Webber was never able to make a pass on Massa that lasted, and his tyre wear led to his Red Bull team trying an alternate strategy to clear the Brazilian.

Webber made an early second pit-stop on lap 35, but instead of making the mandatory change to medium tyres, the Australian was equipped with another set of softs, necessitating a third stop on the penultimate lap of the race. The extra pace of the soft tyres in relation to the mediums allowed Webber to pass both Button and Massa to reach third place, but his final pit-stop dropped him back behind Button. He was however able to remain ahead of Massa, thanks in no small part to the Ferrari driver spinning his car and subsequently costing himself the chance of picking up a season-best fourth place.

Back at the front, Ferrari made a valiant attempt to wrest the lead of the race away from Hamilton by leaving Alonso to make his switch to hard tyres three laps later, but it was to no avail as the Spaniard couldn’t quite build the margin required to stay ahead after his final stop. This left the way clear for Hamilton to take his seventeenth career victory, with Alonso and Button, whose KERS allegedly came back to life midway through the race, completing the podium. Webber held on to fourth place from Massa, whilst Nico Rosberg did a solid job to finish in sixth place for Mercedes just a few seconds further back. Michael Schumacher came home seventh in the sister car after finally triumphing in a race-long battle with Force India’s Adrian Sutil, whilst the one-stopping Paul Di Resta in the second Force India took ninth and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi took his first point since the German Grand Prix with tenth place.

Sergio Perez just missed out on the final point after dropping back late in the race courtesy of a KERS failure, finishing in eleventh ahead of Rubens Barrichello for Williams, whose engine problems in qualifying obliged him to start the race from the very back of the grid, and Vitaly Petrov who suffered a rather anonymous race for the Renault team. Pastor Maldonado in the second Williams who lost the chance to score points after being hit not only with a drive-through penalty but also a thirty-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags; Jaime Alguersauri for Toro Rosso and Bruno Senna for Renault were next up after both being penalised for the same infraction. Heikki Kovalainen drove another fine race for Lotus in seventeenth, beating teammate Jarno Trulli as well as Virgin’s Timo Glock and Hispania’s Vitantonio Liuzzi, though the latter pair’s respective teammates Jerome D’Ambrosio and Daniel Ricciardo both retired due to mechanical problems. Sebastien Buemi may have also scored points if not for an unfortunate gearbox failure after battling with Di Resta at the start of the race.

Just one round remains on the F1 calendar before 2011 draws to a close – the famous Interlagos circuit in Brazil. With Hamilton seemingly back to his brilliant best, he will surely be eager to prove he has what it takes to beat Vettel in a head-to-head battle. That will certainly be something that isn’t to be missed.

Ones to Watch

With there being so many different supporting championships to Formula One, it will come as little surprise that there is a considerable number of young hopefuls who look to have the talent to go all the way. In this post, allow me to introduce to some names that you’re likely to be acquainting yourselves with during the next couple of years.

Jules Bianchi (22, France)

Bianchi kicked off his car racing career in style by dominating the 2007 French Formula Renault 2.0 championship, a performance that caught the eye of the crack Formula 3 and GP2 squad ART Grand Prix. After finishing third in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2008, Bianchi was unstoppable as he won nine of twenty races the following year, earning himself a seat with ART in the GP2 series for 2010. He again managed to finish in third position, behind title challengers Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez, and bagged himself a place on Ferrari’s Driver Academy at an end-of-season test at Jerez. Though Bianchi was justifiably tipped as a pre-season favourite for 2011 GP2 honours, the inconsistency of the first half of his season ultimately left him again in third position behind the vastly more experienced campaigners of Romain Grosjean and Luca Filippi. With little left to prove at GP2 level, it seems unlikely that Bianchi will contest another season of  next year; if he cannot secure an F1 race drive (which seems likely now that Kimi Raikkonen has reportedly signed for Williams), he will continue in his current test/reserve driver role for Ferrari – with a major shuffle in the driver market on the cards in 2013, expect Ferrari to slot him in at Sauber after perhaps promoting current Sauber driver Perez to a race seat in place of the beleaguered Felipe Massa.

Charles Pic (21, France)

Like his compatriot Bianchi, Pic first made a name for himself in the Formula Renault category, placing third in the French Formula Renault 1.6 and Eurocup Formula Renault series in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Pic then made the step up to Formula Renault 3.5, where he again managed to finish third place on the second time of asking for the Tech 1 team in 2009. His GP2 career couldn’t have gotten off to a better start with a win at the curtain-raiser at Barcelona, but inconsistent form throughout the remainder of the year meant he finished in tenth place in the standings. This year, two wins and three second places put him within one point of Bianchi in fourth place, and he has since been linked with the Virgin Racing team for next year as a potential replacement for Jerome D’Ambrosio. Failing that, opportunities at other teams such as Lotus (soon to be re-branded as Caterham) or Force India may make themselves apparent to the Frenchman in 2013.

Esteban Gutierrez (20, Mexico)

It was Formula BMW where Gutierrez first marked himself out as hot property with second place in the USA championship in 2007 and victory in the European series the following season. Though he disappointed with only ninth place in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2009 for ART as teammate to the title-winning Bianchi, he redeemed himself by becoming the inaugural GP3 Series champion in 2010 with the French outfit. His success prompted ART to place Gutierrez alongside Bianchi in the GP2 team this year, where after showing the occasional flash of brilliance (including victory in the sprint race at Valencia) he placed thirteenth, making him the second-highest placing rookie behind Stefano Coletti. He remains with ART for 2012, where he could well be in title contention. Beyond that, it seems probable that he will eventually graduate to F1, most likely in 2013, for Sauber, for whom he is already the reserve driver. He is of course helped in this department by his Telmex backing, which makes him the logical replacement for Perez if he secures a promotion to Ferrari. Thus, expect a Bianchi-Gutierrez line-up at the Swiss team in 2013, with Kobayashi either moving up or down the team pecking order depending on his performances next year.

Jean-Eric Vergne (21, France)

Yet another fast Frenchman who seems on course to reach F1, Vergne began his rise to prominence with a convincing title win in the 2007 French Formula Renault 1.6 series. He followed this up with a brace of second places in a two-prong attack on both the West European and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series in 2009, before graduating to the British Formula 3 championship with the ultra-successful Carlin team. With Red Bull backing behind him, Vergne swept all before him, winning thirteen races en route to becoming the championship’s first ever French title winner. He remained with Carlin for a move to this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 series, where he narrowly lost the title to more experienced teammate Robert Wickens. His Red Bull links have also seen him participate in the first free practice session for Toro Rosso at Korea this season, a role that he will reprise at Abu Dhabi and Brazil. Unfortunately for Vergne, Jaime Alguersauri’s impressive form during the latter half of the season will probably be enough to warrant his retention by Toro Rosso next year, with Daniel Ricciardo tipped to replace Sebastien Buemi in the other seat. This means that Vergne could find himself racing for Hispania as Ricciardo is doing now, at least for the first part of the season, or alternatively returning to the Formula Renault 3.5 championship alongside free practice duties for Toro Rosso. Either way, a promotion to the Faenza-based team is likely in 2013 as either Alguersauri or Ricciardo is promoted to replace Webber at the senior Red Bull team.

Alexander Rossi (20, United States)

Could Rossi be the man whose future performances raise the profile of F1 stateside at a stroke? Thus far, the signs seem good. After success in the Skip Barber National series, Rossi progressed to the Formula BMW Americas series, where he took honours in 2008. Rossi went on to take fourth place finishes in the International Formula Master and GP3 championships over the course of the next two years, before impressing onlookers this year with third place behind Wickens and Vergne in the Formula Renault 3.5 series with the Fortec team. Among those onlookers was Team Lotus, who have signed Rossi to represent them in the end-of-season Abu Dhabi young drivers test. While Rossi seems set to either re-contest Formula Renault 3.5 or move to GP2 next year, by 2013 he could well have put himself in pole position to replace Jarno Trulli at Lotus should the veteran Italian decide to hang up his helmet. Only then will we know whether Rossi truly has what it takes to open the eyes of the hitherto largely dormant US market to the world of F1.

Felipe Nasr (19, Brazil)

After claiming a podium finish in only his second ever car race at the Interlagos round of the 2008 Formula BMW Americas series, Nasr stamped his authority on the European championship in 2009, where he finished in the top two positions on every occasion bar two on the way to an emphatic title success. He was subsequently signed by the Raikkonen-Robertson team for British Formula 3 in 2010, where he embarrassed his more experienced teammates by winning a race and coming home a creditable fifth place in the championship. This performance laid the foundation for a peerless 2011 campaign, where the crown came his way on virtue of finishing on the podium on no fewer than seventeen of a possible thirty occasions. The Brazilian’s plans for next year are unclear as of the time of writing, but Formula Renault 3.5 or GP2 have to be the most likely options. If he can show the same speed and consistency in either of those championships as he has done this year, there’s no reason why an F1 seat shouldn’t beckon in 2014 or beyond.

Kevin Magnussen (19, Denmark)

Seventeen years ago, Kevin’s father Jan Magnussen was tipped for stardom after breaking the great Ayrton Senna’s record of wins in one season in British Formula 3. Whilst it is generally acknowledged that the Dane’s underwhelming performances at the wheel of a Stewart F1 car in 1997-8 were not indicative of his potential, Magnussen Jr. on the other hand looks to have the talent to succeed where his dad failed.  Admittedly, his British Formula 3 campaign this year hasn’t quite been as remarkable as that of his father back in 1994, but that fact belies Kevin’s undoubted natural ability. After something of a shaky start, Magnussen equalled Carlin teammate Nasr’s tally of seven wins this season with a year’s less experience under his belt, and has since been confirmed as a Carlin driver in the Formula Renault 3.5 series next year. If all goes well there, it could be that Magnussen Jr. goes on to become Denmark's first F1 race-winner in years to come.

Indian Grand Prix 2011 - Round-up

Before we get into details of the events of the inaugural Indian grand Prix, I'd like to apologise for my belated posting - a host of technical difficulties with my computer have been the cause of the delay.

Now that's out of the way, let's talk about the race. Once more, Sebastian Vettel was simply untouchable as he began the race from pole, led every lap and set the fastest lap on the way to an eleventh victory of the season. Once he had negotiated the first sequence of bends without any real challenge from behind, the new world champion was in control throughout despite never being much more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Jenson Button at any stage during the race.

Button had nabbed the position at the start from fourth on the grid after taking advantage of Fernando Alonso running wide at the first corner and the power of his Mercedes engine, which propelled him past Mark Webber down the back straight on the opening lap. The Australian did keep Button honest during the first stint, but the Brit thereafter ran a rather lonely race in second position. 

Webber himself lost third position to Alonso after switching to the slower hard compound tyres two laps sooner than his Spanish adversary, and again couldn't find an opportunity to overtake despite hanging on to the coat-tails of the double champion for some time. All-in-all, it was another disappointing race for the Australian after starting on the front row of the grid, all the more so as he lost further ground in the battle for the runner-up spot in the championship.

He didn't lose as much ground as the besieged Lewis Hamilton however. The McLaren driver had already suffered from a three-place grid penalty in qualifying for ignoring yellow flags in practice which left him fifth on the grid before the start of what transpired to be another miserable outing for the 2008 champion. Felipe Massa was able to pass him early on in the race, and after he caught back up to the Brazilian during the second stint, he made yet more contact with his new arch-rival.

Hamilton had a superior exit out the slow right-hand turn 4, and drew alongside Massa on the approach to the following double-apex left-hander. Massa however stuck resolutely to the racing line and the pair collided, damaging Hamilton's front wing and sending Massa into the tarmac run-off. This time though, the stewards ruled that Massa was at fault, and it was he rather than Hamilton who was awarded a drive-through penalty.

This proved to be moot when Massa eventually wrecked his suspension with some over-exuberant kerb-hopping as he had done during the final session of qualifying the previous day, but Hamilton's pace was particularly lacklustre after he pitted to repair the damage. He slipped behind the two Mercedes drivers of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, as well as the impressive Jaime Alguersauri for Toro Rosso briefly, but never made even a slight impression on the battling silver cars ahead. He eventually trailed home in seventh.

Schumacher emulated Alonso's tactic of staying on the softer rubber for longer to great effect to leapfrog teammate Rosberg and take a well-deserved fifth place finish, with Alguersauri strengthening his bid to remain at Toro Rosso in 2012 with a solid eighth place behind Hamilton (though it should be noted that Sebastien Buemi was also on course to score points before succumbing to engine failure). Adrian Sutil finished ninth for Force India, whilst the top ten was rounded out by the young Mexican Sergio Perez, who  made good use of an alternative strategy to turn a lowly twentieth place on the grid into another hard-earned championship point for Sauber.

The other Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi however was eliminated in a collision at the first corner with Timo Glock, whom he hit after running wide in avoidance of Rubens Barrichello, who in turn had lost his front wing in contact with the sister Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Jarno Trulli was also spun around and given a puncture by returnee Narain Karthikeyan a few corners later, but besides this incident, the Hispania driver drove well to take a creditable seventeeth place in front his adoring home fans.

And home fans there were - the attendance at the all-new Buddh International Circuit far exceeded that of fellow relatively new eastern fixtures China, Turkey and Korea. Unlike the three aforementioned, having two Indian drivers in F1 (Karun Chandhok participated in Friday practice for Lotus but wasn't to race) and an Indian team ensured plenty of interest among the locals. With other new venues having failed to generate any real interest in F1 in themselves, Bernie should take note and ensure that any other prospective newcomers to the F1 calendar have a population sufficiently enthused by the sport to pay to fill the seats in the grandstands.

Apologies once more for the lateness of this post, but be sure to check back next week for a run-down of the hottest talents likely to emerge in F1 in the near future, as well as full coverage of the final two races of the 2011 season at Brazil and Abu Dhabi after that.

Rules are Rules

The 2011 Formula One season has in the eyes of most proven the most exciting in recent memory. Responsible, of course, have been a series of rule changes designed with the express purpose of spicing up the show – principally KERS, DRS and the less durable Pirelli tyres. So, just how effective have each of the changes been, and what more can be done in the way of refining the regulations to further improve the action?

KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System)

For me, this has been the least effective of the three major rule changes. Introduced back in 2009, the much-vaunted system was utilised only by Ferrari and McLaren for the whole season (with BMW and Renault having abandoned and re-adopting it at various points throughout the year), and a damn lot of good it did them as Brawn and Red Bull’s non-KERS cars did the vast majority of that year’s winning. A gentleman’s agreement saw the device temporarily placed on the scrapheap in 2010, but after this lapsed at the end of the year the device has become de rigeur for the leading teams – only the Lotus, Virgin and Hispania cars are not equipped with it. However, this writer is not a fan of KERS. Right from the system’s inception there had been the problem of battling drivers using it in the same places, rendering the meagre 60bhp boost it provides moot, but the fact it tends to be used almost exclusively at the start and in the DRS zones mean that problem is compounded. To get around this, two changes should be made: firstly, the boost should be upped to 120bhp to provide slightly more kick, and secondly, as per IndyCar, its use should be restricted to a pre-defined amount of occasions for the whole race. This would transform KERS into a far more tactical weapon, for using all your boosts early on would make you vulnerable later in the race and vice versa.

DRS (Drag Reduction System)

DRS has transpired to be something of a divisive issue among F1 fans; a good analogy would be to compare it to fake breasts. Whilst some men see breast size as the most important thing, regardless of whether or not they’re natural, others would be put off by fake breasts and would thus be happy to settle for a less sizeable but authentic pair. The same applies for DRS. Some F1 fans just want to see as much overtaking as possible, regardless of how it is precipitated, whilst others feel that DRS devalues overtaking by simply making it too easy. The latter opinion is the one I generally hold, but DRS certainly isn’t totally without merit. For one thing, it means that faster cars are no longer trapped in traffic, meaning the result often reflects the performance hierarchy of car/driver combinations more closely. However, therein lay further problems. This factor removes an element of unpredictability in races – in nine of sixteen races, the top five in the championship (Vettel, Button, Alonso, Webber and Hamilton) have occupied the top five race positions if retirements are discounted. Not only that, but the art of overtaking itself is lessened: perhaps then DRS is part of the reason that Hamilton, widely regarded as the best overtaker in the business, has had a difficult season as that particular skill of his is made less of an asset. If DRS therefore becomes a tool to level the playing-field, what does that achieve? F1 isn’t supposed to be about a level playing-field; else every team would use the same chassis as is the case in just about every other single-seater championship on the planet. Thus, for all of the passing it has given us this year, I would personally still get shot of DRS if the decision was down to me.

Pirelli Tyres

This is the change that, as far as I’m concerned, has had the greatest impact on the quality of the racing in 2011. The new, faster-wearing Pirelli tyres create a plethora of strategic options, with multiple pit-stops now the norm rather than the exception. As much overtaking as DRS has given us, ultimately nearly all of this year’s races have largely come down to pit strategy and tyre management. The choice of compounds adds another element to proceedings, though I would question the logic of obliging the drivers to run both tyre compounds during the race. After all, the faster the tyre compound, the quicker it wears, so the various risk-reward ratios of the different compounds already provide enough intrigue to keep things exciting – instead of all the leaders coming in to make the mandatory switch to hard tyres a dozen or so laps from the chequered flag, drivers could instead opt to take the risk of trying to eke out their tyres to the end without having to make an extra stop. Also, to ensure that all ten cars take to the track during Q3 on Saturdays, an extra set of options (which would then be taken away at the end of the session) could be given to each driver with which they could go all-out for the best possible grid slot. This would of course mean that the top ten can start the race on whatever tyres they like, but this would only add to the strategic possibilities.

What else?

One area that I believe could be improved upon is the points system. There certainly isn’t much wrong with it (besides messing up the all-time points statistics), but I think three or so points for pole position wouldn’t go amiss. Until last year, before refuelling was banned, I’d also be tempted to award points for fastest laps, but the fact that fuel loads diminish over the course of a race would now make such a reward unworkable. Another idea would perhaps be to resurrect the Jim Clark and Colin Chapman Cups. In 1987, these gave the normally-aspirated drivers and teams respectively something to shoot for in a season dominated by turbo-powered cars. Twenty-five years on, it’s the perennial bottom three teams of Lotus, Virgin and Hispania that could benefit from some form of private contest. Finally, I would like to see the top ten teams each nominating two races at which they would have to run a third car for a young driver to give them valuable race experience; further sponsorship opportunities could also be derived from running the third car in an alternate livery. With so many up-and-coming drivers vying for so few slots on the grid, it would be a perfect way of ascertaining which among them have real potential. 

Korean Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Sebastian Vettel took his tenth win of the season with another assured performance at the Korean Grand Prix. The new champion was able to pass pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton on the very first lap of the race, and from that point onwards enjoyed a relatively untroubled run to the chequered flag; Mark Webber’s third place also helped to seal the constructors’ title for Red Bull.

For the first time this season, something other than a Red Bull took pole position – Hamilton’s pace was just too much for Vettel on Saturday, and the Anglo-Austrian team’s streak which dated back to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was finally broken. Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Jenson Button was third fastest, ahead of Webber and the two Ferraris – Felipe Massa again out-qualifying Fernando Alonso.

At the start of the race, the top six all made solid getaways and maintained their positions into the first corner, but it was after the first run down the calendar’s longest straight that the real fun and games began. Hamilton immediately went on the defensive to defend first place from Vettel, holding the German at bay through turn 3, but it was a different story as the pair entered turn 4. Vettel was able to move to the inside of Hamilton along the preceding straight and it was a simple case of out-braking his adversary in order to assume the lead.

Massa meanwhile found excellent traction on the exit of the first corner and gained two places from Button and Webber under braking into turn 3. Webber emulated the feat into turn 4 as he managed to re-pass Massa as well as Button, who ran wide before losing a further place to Alonso later in the lap. Up front, Vettel and Hamilton were already beginning to escape third-placed Webber, with the two Ferraris running in the immediate wake of the Australian.

Whilst Massa’s pace looked respectable early on, it appeared to fade quickly as Webber put some distance between himself and the Brazilian. Soon after, a queue began to form behind the Ferrari consisting of Alonso, Button and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, the latter pair taking an early first pit-stop on lap 13 in order to try to ‘undercut’ Massa and catch up the leading trio. Massa stopped a lap later, but predictably re-joined behind Button and Rosberg, whilst Alonso on the other hand remained behind Massa after stopping a lap later than him.

Back at the front, Hamilton stopped on lap 16, one lap earlier than Vettel ahead, but this would not be sufficient to bridge the gap. However, he received a lifeline in the form of a Safety Car period, provoked on this occasion by a clash between the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov’s Renault at turn 3. Petrov was busy trying to pass Alonso down the straight after the Russian made up ground by way of an early first pit-stop, but both drivers left their braking far too late.

Whilst Alonso, who was on the outside, simply took a trip through the tarmac run-off area, Petrov clobbered the back of Schumacher with considerable force on the inside of the corner. With no rear wing and a de-laminated right-rear tyre, Schumacher was out on the spot, whilst Petrov would also have to retire after returning to the pits for a new front wing only to discover he had broken the Renault’s steering in the impact. The order behind the safety car was thus Vettel from Hamilton, Webber, Button, Rosberg, Massa and Alonso.

As the race restarted on lap 21, Vettel held on to the lead and began to ease away from Hamilton, whose McLaren in race trim was not the match for the Red Bull that it was during qualifying. As he began to fall into the clutches of Webber behind, Rosberg was responsible for holding up the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso. His defence of fifth place lasted until lap 27, when he allowed both of the scarlet cars by as he locked up a brake and ran wide at turn 3. Alonso however was still frustratingly behind slowed by his teammate Massa, and Ferrari on this occasion had no intention of pulling the latter to one side.

He was finally released when Massa made his pit-stop on lap 34, at which point he began to demonstrate the Ferrari’s true potential by setting a string of fastest laps. By the time the double-champion made his stop three laps later, he was well ahead of Massa and began to close on fourth-placed Button at a rate of over half a second per lap. The two Red Bulls and McLarens by now had also made their second and final stops of the afternoon, Hamilton and Webber going on to engage in some thrilling wheel-to-wheel combat as the former desperately bid to hold on to second place.

Once both men had made their stops on lap 33 however, Webber was unable to find a way past the McLaren until the first corner of lap 49. This move had the unfortunate effect however of allowing Hamilton to benefit from DRS, and the Brit was able to thunder back past into second place with ease. The other McLaren of Button was also seemingly under threat, as Alonso had cut the deficit to the Brit from around six seconds at the time of their pit-stops to just one with five laps to go. For all this speed though, the effect it had on his tyres rendered him unable to mount a serious assault on fourth place.

By this stage, Vettel had managed to build an advantage of ten seconds which he would maintain all the way to the finish line to claim his twentieth career victory, enough to equal Mika Hakkinen in the all-time rankings. Hamilton hung on to second, his first visit to the podium since his victory at the Nurburgring back in July, though his lack of pace relative to Vettel was later put down to an unspecified problem that led to a loss of front downforce for the McLaren. He therefore did well to finish ahead of Webber, who took third ahead of Button and a despondent Alonso – the time spent behind Massa in the first half of the race left the Spaniard wondering what might have been.

Jaime Alguersuari made full use of his Toro Rosso’s excellent speed trap figures to take a strong seventh place, getting the better of Rosberg during the dying stages of the race as he slowed down to conserve fuel. Sebastien Buemi rounded out a good day for Toro Rosso with ninth, ahead of Paul Di Resta who took the final point in tenth, beating Force India teammate Adrian Sutil who finished one place behind. Twelfth-placed Rubens Barrichello was the only Williams driver to finish after Pastor Maldonado retired due to clutch problems, while Bruno Senna took thirteenth in the sole remaining Renault.

Heikki Kovalainen put in arguably his Lotus team’s most convincing performance of the year so far with fourteenth, beating both Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez to the line in a miserable outing for the Swiss outfit. Jarno Trulli finished in seventeenth ahead of Timo Glock for Virgin, Daniel Ricciardo for Hispania, and their respective teammates Jerome D'Ambrosio and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Vettel’s latest victory just goes to show that he is no mood to go into cruise mode having already secured the title. He can match Schumacher’s record of thirteen wins in a season if he takes the top step of the podium at each of the last three rounds at India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, and it’s achieving precisely that sort of feat that motivates the young German. The rest shall simply have to up their games if they are to prevent Vettel from doing just that.

Korean Grand Prix 2011 - Qualifying Report

Lewis Hamilton finally broke the Red Bull team’s stranglehold on pole position during qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix. An excellent lap from the Brit put him two tenths of a second out of the reach of new champion Sebastian Vettel, who had to settle for second, whilst Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Jenson Button lines up third.

Q1

With Pirelli having brought its soft and super-soft compounds to the Korean International Circuit, convention would usually dictate that everyone but the bottom three teams would at least begin the session on the soft tyres. Red Bull instead opted to send both Vettel and Mark Webber out on super-softs in order to preserve a set of softs for the race, yet curiously both were off the pace – the time of 1’39.1 that they both set was three tenths slower than Button’s first effort on softs and a full eight tenths slower than that of Hamilton. The Red Bull pair were also outpaced by Ferrari, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa splitting the two McLarens as well, whilst even Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes was faster than the Milton Keynes-built cars. Hamilton proceeded to slash a further eight tenths off his best time to post an impressive 1’37.5, consolidating his grip on P1, though Button was able to find similar gains to re-claim second from Alonso. Vitaly Petrov for Renault was able to slot himself third with a 1’38.4 on the super-softs, though he was the only midfield runner to get himself among the top teams once on super-softs. Williams established themselves as the slowest midfield team on this occasion; as such the battle to avoid elimination was fought between Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado. Once again, Barrichello found himself out-paced by his far less experienced teammate, and as such lines up a lowly eighteenth place ahead of the usual six stragglers. It should be noted however that an unspecified car problem prevented Daniel Ricciardo from setting a lap time.

Eliminated – Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Timo Glock (Virgin), Jerome D’Ambrosio (Virgin), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania), Daniel Ricciardo (Hispania)

Q2

Once more, Hamilton was the first of the pole challengers to take to the track, and opened the session with a 1’36.5 on the super-soft compound. Again Button’s pace was found wanting in comparison to his teammate’s to the tune of eight tenths, though the same was the case for both Red Bull drivers who could do no more than match Button’s time. Alonso was a further tenth behind, which to begin with left him fifth, but this became sixth after the other Ferrari of Massa made a dramatic improvement on his time to equal Button and the Red Bulls. Whilst being a full 1.4 seconds of Hamilton’s pace, Rosberg’s performance would be enough to see him through to Q3, but on the other hand the sister Mercedes of Michael Schumacher was allegedly experiencing vibration problems which hindered his attempts to make the top ten. A 1’38.4 from the seven-time champion would not be enough as he slipped from ninth to twelfth as the session ended. Petrov was able to secure one of the three remaining slots in Q3, whilst the other two went to the Force India drivers of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta, leaving Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersauri eliminated and in eleventh place on the grid.

Eliminated – Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Bruno Senna (Renault), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Sergio Perez (Sauber)

Q3

Unlike last time out at Suzuka, not only was Q3 a veritable pole-position showdown, but it featured all but one of the ten remaining cars (only Adrian Sutil remaining in the pits throughout). Hamilton was on top during the first ‘half’ of the session, his 1’36.1 enough to beat Vettel’s time by a tenth. Webber was three tenths slower than his teammate but a tenth quicker than Button, who in turn enjoyed a margin of four tenths back to the Ferrari of Alonso; Massa, Rosberg and Petrov rounded out the top eight with both Force Indias at this stage showing no signs of leaving the pits. After a short interlude, the second half of the session got underway. Webber was first on the road but abandoned his flying lap, while Hamilton improved on his already-rapid time by a further three tenths. Massa climbed to fifth after his second lap ahead of Alonso, who along with Di Resta and Petrov abandoned his lap. Button was able to briefly overcome both Red Bulls with a 1’36.1, but Vettel improved his earlier time sufficiently to put himself back on the front row by a tenth. Alas, it wouldn’t be enough to deny Hamilton, who took his first pole position since last year’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Top Ten – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Jenson Button (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Paul Di Resta (Force India), Adrian Sutil (Force India)

My Prediction

Such was Hamilton’s form in qualifying trim that, barring another poor mistake from the former champion, he will be difficult to topple come tomorrow’s race:

1. Hamilton, 2. Button, 3. Vettel, 4. Alonso, 5. Webber, 6. Rosberg, 7. Petrov, 8. Schumacher, 9. Sutil, 10. Alguersauri

Tyre wear will mean Button will make it a McLaren one-two; Alonso will surpass Webber for fourth for the same reason. The hapless Massa is overdue a retirement, whilst Schumacher will make up several places from his starting position to bring home good points behind Petrov. Di Resta’s inexperience will finally get the better of him after a string of good results, allowing Alguersauri to haul himself into the points behind the other Force India of Sutil.

Limited dry running throughout the weekend however has made this one of the harder races to predict. Make sure you check back here tomorrow for a full lowdown of events from what promises to be another gripping grand prix.

Japanese Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Sebastian Vettel finally wrapped up the 2011 Formula One title after finishing in third position in today’s Japanese Grand Prix. Jenson Button did all he could to delay Vettel’s coronation by taking his third win of the year in fine style, but the German simply did all that was required to become the sport’s newest youngest-ever double world champion, which was merely to finish in the top ten. Fernando Alonso took another podium finish with second and looked like threatening Button in the closing stages, but the Brit was able to hang on to take victory.

Vettel was able to maintain his Red Bull team’s faultless qualifying record by the slimmest of margins on Saturday, with the McLarens of Button and Lewis Hamilton next up. The latter only had to chance set one lap time after he missed his chance to begin another before the session time expired, somewhat compromising his grid position. Hamilton was joined on the second row by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, while the second Italian car of Alonso lined up fifth from Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.

As the race began, Vettel’s getaway was inferior to that of Button, who began to saunter up the inside of the Red Bull. To stem the Brit’s advance, Vettel sliced decisively to the right, forcing Button to lift the throttle and lose a position to Hamilton in the process. Button later complained of Vettel’s start-line tactics to his team on the radio, but the stewards opted to take no further action. Massa, Alonso and Webber all held their positions in the meantime, but local driver Kamui Kobayashi squandered his best-ever grid position of seventh as he bogged down badly at the start – to the dismay of thousands of Japanese fans, he ended the first lap in twelfth. 

As per usual, Vettel began to make headway at the front of the pack, but on this occasion his closest pursuer Hamilton was able to maintain the gap at around two-and-a-half seconds. Button was around the same distance again behind in third, with the Ferrari pair of Massa and Alonso in close formation slightly further down the road. On the first corner of lap 6, Alonso made a rather straightforward pass on his teammate to move into fourth, immediately putting distance between himself and Massa and closing the gap to Button ahead.

Button was however engaging in some gap-closing of his own as the sister McLaren of Hamilton began to suffer considerably from tyre wear. The 2009 champion didn’t take long to take away second place from his predecessor at the Spoon Curve on lap 8, though it became apparent that Hamilton was also the victim of a slow puncture. He didn’t lose too much time as he pitted at the end of the lap for a fresh set of soft tyres, but he eventually rejoined behind Alonso after the Spaniard made his first stop two laps later. Vettel and Button meanwhile held on to their positions after pitting for new soft tyres on laps 9 and 10 respectively.

Not long after pitting however was it that Vettel’s tyres also began to wear at a faster rate than had been hoped for. Button was therefore able to close to within a second of the leader within ten laps, whilst Alonso made use of his younger tyres to get away from Hamilton and consolidate third. In fact, Hamilton soon found himself being chased down by the other Ferrari of Massa, whose later first stop meant his tyres were in far better shape than Hamilton’s. The duel reached its climax as Massa attempted a move around the outside of the Casio Triangle on lap 21; light contact ensued and the Brazilian lost a small piece of bodywork in the process. Not willing to prolong the battle, Hamilton made for the pit-lane immediately after.

He was not the first man to have made his second stop though as Button had made his a lap earlier and Vettel a lap before that. In fact, such were Vettel’s tyre troubles that Button emerged from the pit-lane ahead of him and assumed the lead of the race once the other front-runners had all been back to the pits. The gap between Button and Vettel remained around the one second-mark until the Safety Car was scrambled  on lap 25 to allow the marshals to remove the piece of debris caused by the Hamilton-Massa incident as well as another that arose from a minor clash between Webber and the yet-to-stop Mercedes of Michael Schumacher.

Things got underway once more on lap 28, with Button backing the pack up considerably before making good his escape from the rest of the field. Vettel in fact was losing ground to Alonso in third, and ultimately fell behind after the duo switched to medium tyres for their third and final pit-stops of the race: again, in spite of pitting earlier than his rival, Vettel surprisingly lacked the sheer pace to stave off the challenge to his position. He did catch back up to Alonso thereafter, making several attempts to re-capture second place at the first corner with the help of DRS, but some robust defending from Alonso meant that these attempts were to no avail.

Vettel would thus have to be content with third, but up ahead it appeared Alonso was anything but content with second place. He began to catch race leader Button at a rate of around a second per lap, much as the Brit had done to Vettel last time out at Singapore. Also like Singapore though, it transpired that the race leader had enough in hand to keep the pretender at bay, and Button clinched a finely-judged and well-deserved third win of the season. Alonso still drove excellently to take second place for Ferrari, whilst third was more than enough for Vettel to be crowned champion in 2011.

The second Red Bull of Webber trailed across the line in a lonely fourth position, some fifteen seconds ahead of Hamilton whose pace was inexplicably lacklustre after his second stop. Schumacher’s long middle stint, which saw him briefly lead the way at one stage, allowed him to finish in sixth ahead of Massa who once again was outclassed by Alonso despite having qualifying ahead of him. Sergio Perez drove a remarkable race in the face of flu and a lowly grid position of seventeenth – a combination of making one less pit-stop and the Safety Car allowed him to take a brilliant eighth place for Sauber.

Vitaly Petrov went some way to putting his Renault team’s disastrous showing at Singapore in the past with ninth place, while Nico Rosberg stole the final point after a spirited charge on an alternate strategy from the back row of the grid. The strategies of the Force India pairing of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta were severely hampered by the Safety Car, meaning they only finished eleventh and twelvth ahead of the second Sauber of Kobayashi who disappointingly never recovered from his poor start. Pastor Maldonado had an unremarkable run to fourteenth for Williams ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersauri and Renault’s Bruno Senna.

The other Williams driver of Rubens Barrichello did little to help his case for staying on at Williams next year by finishing down in seventeenth, ahead of the Lotus pairing of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli. Next were the Virgins of Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio, followed by the Hispanias of Daniel Ricciardo and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Sebastien Buemi was the only retirement of the event thanks to his front-right wheel parting company with the rest of his Toro Rosso shortly after his first pit-stop – not the first time such a gaffe has been made by the pit-crew of the Faenza-based team this year.

Now Vettel has confirmed what we just about knew arguably as far back as July, we can focus purely on enjoying the final four races of the season. For much of the race, the top six drivers were all covered by a window of less than ten seconds, indicating the performance parity of the three leading teams in race trim. Button, Alonso and Vettel are all on top form, whilst their respective teammates all still have a point to prove before the year is out: that should mean we’re in for some more thrilling races in 2011 yet. Let battle commence.

Japanese Grand Prix 2011 - Qualifying Report

Sebastian Vettel charged to yet another pole position as he bids to become Formula One’s youngest ever double champion at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver was able to out-do closest rival Jenson Button by nine thousandths of a second in the final reckoning, while his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton begins third after denying himself the chance to improve his time at the end of the final qualifying session.

Q1

Vettel began the opening session of the afternoon as he meant to go on by topping the times with a 1’33.1 on the harder medium compound tyres; the other Red Bull of Mark Webber was able to match this initially. Jenson Button kept up his strong form in practice as he beat the Milton-Keynes built cars by a tenth, though Fernando Alonso knocked the Brit off his perch with a surprise visit to P1 for Ferrari on a 1’32.8. Hamilton began the session off the pace of his teammate, his second time being only good enough for fifth place after the first was marred by an error at the challenging Spoon Curve. He did however later improve to second position, beating Button by a tenth but still a small margin away from erstwhile teammate Alonso. The usual hierarchy of teams was disturbed when the midfield contenders began to set times on the softer tyre, the speed advantage it offers clearly demonstrated by fastest times first by former Japanese F3 champion Adrian Sutil for Force India and then by home hero Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber. The bottom seven were never in doubt however as a hydraulic issue prevented Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg from leaving the pits; Vitantonio Liuzzi was also unable to set a time due to engine maladies. The pair will start from the back row of the grid.

Eliminated – Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Jerome D’Ambrosio (Virgin), Timo Glock (Virgin), Daniel Ricciardo (Hispania), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania)

Q2

Once more it was Vettel who laid down the benchmark, which on soft compound tyres was a 1’31.4. After failed attempts by Button and Webber to dislodge the German from P1, Hamilton successfully shaved three tenths off the time to head the standings. Ferrari were decidedly slower relative to the competition on the softer rubber, Alonso and Felipe Massa only managing fifth and sixth places, suggesting a Red Bull-McLaren shootout for ultimate honours. With Michael Schumacher seventh fastest and the other Mercedes of Rosberg out of the running, three extra Q3 spots were up for grabs among the rest of the pack: Kobayashi took eighth place as the clock neared zero, with Sutil slotting in behind in ninth. The two Renault drivers Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna were then able to bounce back from their dismal Singpore showing by taking eighth and ninth places, bumping Kobayashi down to tenth and Sutil eleventh ahead of teammate Paul Di Resta. Once again the Toro Rossos and Williams cars never looked particularly like challenging for a place in the top ten, whilst Sergio Perez became the second victim of the day of hydraulic problems which consigned the Mexican to seventeenth on the grid.

Eliminated – Adrian Sutil (Force India), Paul Di Resta (Force India), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Sergio Perez (Sauber)

Q3

As was the case to a certain degree last time out at Singapore, Q3 proved farcical in more ways than one. Such was the desperation to preserve tyres for the race that no less than four of the top ten set no time, the culprits being Schumacher, Senna, Petrov and Kobayashi, though the latter was promoted to seventh on the grid on virtue of having started (although not having completed) a flying lap. To be fair to Schumacher, he did attempt to start a flying lap, but he failed to cross the starting line to commence it before the session time expired. The reason was that he and Webber were both behind Hamilton in the queue of cars as they left the pits, but the McLaren driver’s leisurely out lap gave both Webber and Schumacher no choice but to try and pass Hamilton at the Casio Triangle to avoid running out of time – Webber dived up the inside of Hamilton and was the only one of the trio able to start another flying lap. Hamilton was thus forced to rely on his earlier time of 1’30.6, which incidentally was the fastest at the time it was set, though it was narrowly beaten first by Vettel, who took his twenty-seventh career pole, and then by Button who consequently secured a place on the front row. Massa will line up alongside Hamilton in fourth place ahead of Alonso and Webber, both of whom were lacklustre in the final showdown.

Top Ten – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Jenson Button (McLaren), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Bruno Senna (Renault), Vitaly Petrov (Renault)

My Prediction

Call me Mr. Unadventurous, but I just can’t realistically foresee anything that would stop Vettel from taking a commanding tenth win of the season:

1. Vettel, 2. Button, 3. Hamilton, 4. Alonso, 5. Schumacher, 6. Kobayashi, 7. Rosberg, 8. Senna, 9. Petrov, 10. Sutil

Hamilton will take a more circumspect approach after his Singapore woes, meaning he will cruise home to third behind Button. Fourth will be the maximum for Ferrari and Alonso, although Massa will end up being shunted by a frustrated Webber, leaving both parties point-less. Schumacher will take a solid fifth place at one of his strongest tracks ahead of Kobayashi who will please the home crowds with his best result since Monaco. Rosberg will make a veritable charge through the field on an alternative strategy to take seventh, beating the two Renaults of Senna and Petrov, while Sutil will put his Suzuka knowledge to good use to secure the final point.

Suzuka has had the unique privilege of crowning many world champions in the past, and few would bet against it crowning another in the form of Vettel tomorrow. Whether that may be the case or not, be sure to check back here to read all about everything that happens at a potentially historic Japanese Grand Prix.