Fernando Alonso (E,
Ferrari), 1st, 164 pts, 3 wins A+
Simply put, Fernando Alonso has so far this year been the
class of the field. Few would have been brave enough to put a bet on a
resurgence of this magnitude by the half-way mark of the season considering how
uncompetitive the Ferrari appeared in Melbourne, but some relentless development by
the team combined with some peerless driving from Alonso has given the Spaniard
a healthy 40-point buffer heading into the summer break. Part of his genius
stems from an uncanny knack of maximising his points haul at every event –
Hungary is a case in point, as Alonso banked a fifth place finish and ten
points despite the Ferrari showing less raw pace than the Red Bull, Lotus and
McLaren. In a season like 2012, it will be those weekends rather than those
when the Ferrari is capable of winning that will make him an extremely hard man
to beat before the season is out.
Lewis Hamilton (GB,
McLaren), 4th, 117 pts, 2 wins A
It was clear almost from the outset of this season that
Lewis Hamilton had well and truly put behind him what can only be described as
an annus horribilis of a 2011
campaign. The win-or-bust attitude that saw him languish behind Jenson Button
in last year’s standings was replaced by a new brand of tamed aggression that
saw him lead the way after three rounds after racking up three consecutive
third places. Blunders by his McLaren team unfortunately served to cost him
dearly at Bahrain and Spain, particularly as a win seemed on the cards at the
latter. That first trip to the top step of the podium finally arrived at
Canada, where Hamilton executed the winning strategy to perfection, whilst his
equally briliant win at Hungary was sorely-needed to re-invigorate his title
hopes after a somewhat fallow period during the previous three races. He may
have a gap of almost 50 points to close, but if McLaren can deliver then
Hamilton is far from out of the running.
Sebastian Vettel (D,
Red Bull), 3rd, 122 pts, 1 win A
It’s been anything but a straightforward title defence for
the man that took last year’s title with such consummate ease, but Sebastian
Vettel has for the most part had the measure of teammate Mark Webber in pure
speed terms and has extracted the most from his machinery so far. He’s taken
three pole positions so far this year, and his tally of two podiums belies his
pace at certain events this year. His victory at Bahrain was textbook stuff,
and prior to the alternator failure that brought his Red Bull to a halt in
Valencia he was escaping from the field at a fearsome rate. A strategic miscue
during the closing stages at Canada also denied him a potential runner-up
position, and without those two mishaps he would be within nine points of
Alonso’s championship lead. There have been occasions where Webber has had the
better of him, Silverstone being chief among them, but when push comes to shove
Vettel has to be considered the better title bet of the two Red Bull
contenders.
Kimi Raikkonen (FIN,
Lotus), 5th, 116 pts, 0 wins A-
Although doubts naturally surfaced whether Kimi Raikkonen
would be able to cut it at the sharp end of the field after two seasons away in
the WRC, the phlegmatic Finn has proved he has lost none of his lustre and has
marked himself out as one of the most consistent performers of the season. He’s
had more podium finishes than everybody bar Alonso and Hamilton, and whilst
none of those visits have been to the top step, his performances at Bahrain and
Hungary in particular mean it would take a brave person to bet against him
clinching a victory before the season is out. Though qualifying has sometimes
been suspect, having been outqualified by Lotus stablemate Romain Grosjean more
often than not, Raikkonen has still scored points at every round bar China – it’s
been this consistency that has allowed him to stave off the challenge of his
rapid teammate and go into the final nine races with an outside shot of title
glory.
Mark Webber (AU, Red
Bull), 2nd, 124 pts, 2 wins A-
After a bitterly disappointing 2011, this season was widely
viewed as the last chance for Mark Webber to fight for the title he so narrowly
missed out on two years ago. The year started in unspectacular fashion as the
down-to-earth Aussie racked up a quartet of fourth place finishes, and since
then his form has varied alarmingly – after a difficult weekend in Spain that
failed to yield any points, he underlined his title credentials in Monaco with
an excellent victory from pole position. After two more races at Canada and
Valencia where he was overshadowed by teammate Vettel, he had the measure of
the German all weekend at Silverstone and executed his tyre strategy to
perfection to take a popular victory ahead of Alonso. Webber has only banked
two more eighth places since then, so his title chances would appear to hinge
on how consistently he can perform in the remaining nine races of the year.
Romain Grosjean (F,
Lotus), 8th, 76 pts, 0 wins B+
Following two seasons in the wilderness after a lacklustre
F1 debut in 2009, Romain Grosjean immediately made his presence felt in the
first race of the season at Melbourne by qualifying third. That set the tone
for what has been a highly impressive campaign thus far at least as far as raw
pace is concerned, although there has inevitably been the odd mistake given his
inexperience – first lap exits at Malaysia and Monaco that were of his own
doing as well as an error-strewn race at Hockenheim are the most noticeable
blots on his copybook. On the other
hand, three visits to the podium, which would have been four without that
alternator failure at Valencia, can certainly be regarded as a job well done
for the Franco-Swiss, his level-headed drive to second place at Montreal
standing out in particular. As his experience grows, we should begin to see
fewer errors and more maturity to go with his eye-catching pace.
Sergio Perez (MEX,
Sauber), 9th, 47 pts, 0 wins B+
If Sergio Perez’s achievements in his rookie season were
arguably overlooked, in the UK at least, as a result of fellow newcomer Paul Di
Resta’s successes, this year’s second race at Malaysia made the whole world
stand up and take notice of the Mexican. In torrential conditions, Perez came
within one tiny mistake of overhauling Alonso to take his and his Sauber team’s
(as an independent constructor) first victory in the sport. Since then, Perez
has continued to rack up the points, despite experiencing his fair share of bad
luck – particularly at Spain and Monaco. His drive to third at Canada
underlined his flair for tyre preservation, and a couple more similar
performances before the year is out will give Perez a good shot at what would
be a deserved promotion to Ferrari next year.
Nico Rosberg (D,
Mercedes), 6th, 77 pts, 1 win B
Having been somewhat overshadowed by Mercedes teammate
Michael Schumacher towards the end of last year, the onus coming into 2012 was
firmly on Nico Rosberg to re-gain the upper hand. He did so with his overdue
but perfectly executed maiden win in China, where he made the best possible use
of his machinery being ideally suited to the circumstances. It’s been a mixed
bag for Rosberg since then, largely owing to how inconsistently the Mercedes
car has performed. The German has delivered when it has been competitive, as
was the case during his textbook run to second at Monaco, but on the same token
has looked rather ordinary when the car has proven a handful, as was the case
at both Silverstone and Hockenheim where Schumacher was still able to salvage
decent points. The last few races have put paid to any outside hope of a
championship tilt, but Rosberg will nonetheless be keen to re-capture the
imperious form that took him to what he’ll be hoping won’t be his last F1
victory.
Michael Schumacher
(D, Mercedes), 12th, 29 pts, 0 wins B
Perhaps the unluckiest man in the sport this season, the
48-point gap that separates Michael Schumacher from teammate Rosberg fails to reflect what has been the most convincing season of the seven time champion’s F1
comeback so far. Things started on a sour note as gearbox trouble eliminated
Schumacher from third place in Melbourne before a botched pit-stop cost him
what seemed a comfortable second place behind Rosberg in China. In addition,
DRS issues in qualifying at Bahrain and the race at Canada as well as a fuel
pressure problem in Monaco have all cost Schumacher valuable points. There have
been mistakes, most notable his collision with Bruno Senna in Spain and his
calamitous weekend at Hungary, but he has given Rosberg as hard a time as he’s
ever done during their years as teammates. At the ripe old age of 43, as that
fastest qualifying lap at Monaco attests, he’s still capable of mixing it with
the best of them.
Kamui Kobayashi (J,
Sauber), 10th, 33 pts, 0 wins B-
Moving into his third full season of F1, Kamui Kobayashi is
arguably yet to capitalise on the amazing potential he displayed during those
two races in which he drove for Toyota at the end of 2009. At certain races,
principally in Spain and Germany, he has driven superbly and has looked just
about as convincing as any of the other up-and-coming drivers in the field. On
the other hand, he has been more error prone than his less experienced teammate
Perez, his Silverstone pit-lane incident standing out as his most costly
blunder, and has on occasions inexplicably had no answer to his fellow Sauber
driver’s prodigious race pace. Kobayashi’s lack of funding means he has to
demonstrate he deserves what could this winter transpire to be a
hotly-contested Sauber seat on merit alone. Cutting out the errors and
replicating his good weekends on a more frequent basis will be the key to doing
that.
Pastor Maldonado (YV,
Williams), 11th, 29 pts, 1 win B-
The first race of the year in Melbourne, where a last lap
crash marred what would otherwise have been a superb drive to sixth place, very
much set the tone for Pastor Maldonado’s season so far. When he took his
Williams team’s first victory in eight years at Barcelona in emphatic fashion,
he was predictably being touted as the sport’s next big thing. Just two weeks
later in Monaco, he became the sport’s pantomine villain as he deliberately
swerved into Perez during free practice, costing himself a top ten grid slot on
his favourite circuit. He was on course for a podium finish before he was too
aggressive in trying to pass Lewis Hamilton during the closing stages at
Valencia, whilst a solid points finish went west at Silverstone as he again
clashed with Perez during the race. The talent is clearly there, it’s a simple
matter of applying it in a less hot-headed manner for the Venezuelan in order
to fulfil his potential.
Jenson Button (GB,
McLaren), 7th, 76 pts, 1 win C+
After beating Vettel and Hamilton to the chequered flag at
Melbourne, Jenson Button appeared to have continued where he had left off last
year. Unfortunately for the Brit however,
this result proved to be something of a false dawn. After netting a
second podium finish at China, things went downhill very quickly: after losing
a sixth place finish to a differential failure at Bahrain, his inability to
switch on the tyres, paradoxically thus causing them to wear faster, led to a
spell in the doldrums. He didn’t truly get back on top of things until Germany,
where he showed winning pace for the first time since China en route to second,
but the fatal damage to his title challenge has been done. Hamilton has firmly
established his superiority over Button since those opening races, clearly
evidenced by a qualifying record of 10-1 in favour of the former, meaning
Button owes it to his team to start supporting Lewis’s title bid.
Bruno Senna (BR,
Williams), 15th, 24 pts, 0 wins C-
Where teammate Maldonado has been lightning quick but prone
to the odd on-track clash, Senna has been the dependable, steady points gatherer
for the Williams team. Whilst adopting such a role is not a bad thing in and of
itself, the problem is that nagging feeling that there’s so much more to be
unlocked from the Williams car than Senna is currently able to extract. His
qualifying record has been lacklustre, and his race pace has often found
wanting in comparison to that of his teammate – although he has shown solid
pace on some occasions, not least in Hungary, sixth and two seventh places
don’t look quite as good stacked up against a victory for Maldonado. With
Valtteri Bottas waiting patiently in the wings to replace Senna, the Brazilian
needs to prove in the second half of the year that he’s a match for his
quick-but-erratic teammate.
Felipe Massa (BR,
Ferrari), 14th, 25 pts, 0 wins D
Ever since that fateful afternoon in Hungary three years
ago, Felipe Massa has been on a steady downward trajectory. In 2010, after 11
races, the gap between the Brazilian and his teammate Fernando Alonso was 38
points; at the same point in 2011 it was 75; this year it currently stands at
139. Each season has been a bigger disappointment than the last, and the
prospect of Massa ever returning to his sparkling form of 2008 is as slim as
ever. Top six finishes at Monaco and Silverstone may have been the highlights
of his year so far, but on neither occasion did he truly threaten Alonso.
Notwithstanding a spectacular resurgence in the second half of the year, he is
virtually certain to lose his Ferrari seat – on the basis that he is on the
record as being unwilling to drive for anything besides a top team, this could
well be Massa’s final season in F1.
The Rest
Neither Force India driver has given the impression of
vastly outperforming the car so far this year, with Nico Hulkenberg (C+) recently
beginning to outshine teammate Paul di Resta (B-) after something of a slow start. The
Scot has been a consistent if unspectacular performer up to now, but needs to
up his game somewhat in order to keep Hulkenberg at bay and keep up the
momentum in his career. The Toro Rosso teammates Daniel Ricciardo (C) and Jean-Eric
Vergne (C-) have been difficult to assess given how far away the car’s performance
has fallen from the rest of the midfield pack, but it has been the Australian
who has finished ahead of the Frenchman more often than not despite his smaller
points tally. Heikki Kovalainen (A) has been as excellent as ever, and deserves far
better than the lot he has at Caterham, whilst Vitaly Petrov (B) has been closer to
the Finn’s pace than many had predicted. Timo Glock (B+) likewise has done little
wrong at the wheel of the woeful Marussia, with Charles Pic (B) seemingly
improving by the race at the wheel of the other car. Pedro de la Rosa (B) meanwhile seems to have helped
to bring his HRT squad closer to their Marussia rivals, even if he does
languish at the very bottom of the drivers’ standings, whilst it’s fair to say
that Narain Karthikeyan (C) is probably
exceeding the (admittedly rather modest) expectations of most F1 viewers.
No comments:
Post a Comment