That Was The Year That Was

What a year it's been for Formula One. The sport's longest ever season was full of thrilling races, monumental shunts, knife-edge overtaking, unpredictability, shock driver market news, fierce competition at both ends of the pit-lane and some highly quotable radio messages to top it all off. How to sum it all up?

I'll start by saying that, in my humble opinion, Fernando Alonso would have made a more fitting champion than Sebastian Vettel. Considering that the Ferrari was (at least in the dry) often the third, fourth or even fifth best package on the grid, the sheer amount of points Alonso was able to squeeze out of the F2012 is testament to his incredible determination, consistency, focus and sheer ability. Every opportunity was seized, and it's difficult to see how he could have done more. Two titles fail to do justice to the Spaniard's talent - indeed, 2012 has been the third time in five years Alonso has missed out on glory by a whisker. If Ferrari are able to produce even a marginally better car in 2013, then Fernando will be a major threat.

That's not to detract from Vettel's achievements this year, and it's clear that his partnership with Adrian Newey has the potential to rival the fearsome Schumacher-Brawn axis of a decade ago. It took him some time to get over the early hiccups of losing the exhaust-blown diffuser, but the margin of superiority he established over teammate Mark Webber in the latter part of the year speaks volumes. I can foresee Vettel becoming a five, six or even seven-time champion in the future, although it will be fascinating to see whether they all come courtesy of Red Bull or if the 25-year-old from Heppenheim decides to jump ship.

If the rumours are to be believed, that could be as soon as 2014. Ferrari have made no secret of how much they admire Vettel, but would Alonso really tolerate somebody as likely to deflect the team's attention away from himself as the sport's newest triple champion? Vettel on the other hand may be keen to put to bed for all time the perception that his success up to now has been down to the car, and that Alonso is still the best in the business given equal machinery. Such a move reportedly hinges on Red Bull failing to retain works engines in 2014, which seems highly unlikely, so don't hold your breath for a repeat of Senna-Prost.

Alonso, six years Vettel's senior, does not have time on his side to the same extent as his rival when it comes to the business of racking up more titles. What's more, he's likely to see out his career with the Prancing Horse (he's under contract until the end of 2016), which means he's at the mercy of Maranello's abilities to produce the goods. A move elsewhere can't be ruled out, but where to? McLaren is out of bounds after his experiences of 2007, Mercedes looks like being Lewis Hamilton's turf for the medium-term and Red Bull are unlikely to want him unless they lose Vettel. Returning to Lotus, where he won his first two championships in the Renault days, would be an option, but questions must be asked of the Enstone outfit's financial muscle in relation to the big-hitters.

Hamilton is another driver whose talents are not accurately reflected by the number of titles to his name. His driving for the most part this season has been superb, and McLaren's unreliability undoubtedly cost Lewis a shot at the title. He failed to score on six occasions against three for Vettel and two for Alonso, none of which (with the possible exception of the Maldonado incident at Valencia) were his fault. His best performances came after his move to Mercedes was confirmed, as he became once again totally at ease with himself. The way Jenson Button was outperformed for the bulk of the year must have come as a shock to the 2009 champion after his blistering season last year.

I've already written extensively about Hamilton's move to Mercedes, but it is clear that the Brackley squad has a lot of work to do if the Brit is to be given a car worthy of his talents. The year started well for Nico Rosberg, and his maiden triumph at China was as deserved as it was overdue. However, as the team's competitiveness waned, in part due to the double DRS failing to pay dividends, Rosberg's performances appeared to do likewise. Michael Schumacher on the other hand appeared to extract more from the F1 W03 when it was a less-fancied contender, his qualifying performance at Monaco a timely reminder of his extraordinary talent. The seven-time champion will be sorely missed next year.

2012 reinforced my view, which is shared by many pundits, that Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton are the class of the field. Button threatened to break into that group with his performances last year, but his inability to work around set-up issues cost him dearly this year; he lacks the adaptability that made teammate Hamilton so consistently quick this season. Similarly, despite two strong victories at Monaco and Silverstone, Webber proved maddeningly inconsistent, whilst Massa's strong end to the season failed to quite make up for his abysmal early-season form. Raikkonen's comeback meanwhile went considerably better than the majority of onlookers had predicted, even if he understandably lacked that final edge after two years away. If Lotus produce another quick car, he could prove the dark horse for the championship next season.

Though 2012 was not a stellar season for Button, there is cause for optimism next year. No longer do McLaren have to compromise between the sharply opposing driving styles of Hamilton and Button, and the latter can prove near-unbeatable when he's totally in sync with the car beneath him. Sergio Perez, who joins the Woking squad next season, has a similarly smooth style to Button, which should allow the two to work together effectively when it comes to getting the best from the car. I have high hopes for Perez in 2013, despite his decidedly mediocre end to the season, and I think the Mexican will be disappointed if he hasn't won a couple of Grand Prix by this time next year.

In much the same way as Alonso, Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya established themselves as the leading lights of the post-Schumacher era a decade ago, I see Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo forming the backbone of the generation that will be fighting for victories and championships five to ten years from now. Hulkenberg frankly obliterated teammate Paul Di Resta during the second half of this season; the Scot needs to re-assert himself next year to prevent his stock in the driver market dipping even further. Ricciardo meanwhile was one the most consistent performers of the season at the wheel of his often-reluctant Toro Rosso, and fully deserves a promotion to the Red Bull team proper if a vacancy emerges in 2014.

Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean have the speed to be part of the above group if they can temper their aggression. As of the time of writing, Grosjean has yet to be confirmed for 2013 - I will be very disappointed if the Franco-Swiss is dropped in favour of a 'safer' pair of hands, as he has demonstrated enormous potential which will go unfulfilled if he loses his seat. Admittedly, he has had an unfortunate propensity to shunt into others, but that will diminish as time goes on if he is given the chance. On the subject of young French drivers, I'm glad that the impressive efforts of Charles Pic at Marussia didn't go unnoticed and that he has been snapped up by Caterham, while Jean-Eric Vergne also showed the occasional flash of brilliance even if he wasn't as impressive as Ricciardo across the season as a whole.

Two names linked to Grosjean's drive have been Kamui Kobayashi and Heikki Kovalainen, but if Grosjean remains at Lotus the pair will be among a lengthy list of names to vanish from the F1 grid next year. Kobayashi was a reliable points-gatherer for Sauber, but with the notable exception of at Suzuka, he couldn't realise the race-day potential of the Sauber in the same way Perez was able to. Kovalainen did little wrong at Caterham, but unfortunately his lack of funds may transpire to outweigh his experience and talent. Bruno Senna, whilst in contention for the second Caterham seat, has been solid but unspectacular this year, much as he was during the back end of 2011 for Renault. He's competent enough, but a surname does not a future champion make.

Senna has been testing Mercedes DTM cars recently, so expect to see him emerge there if the Caterham drive eludes him. As a former Toyota junior, the Japanese marque's World Endurance programme seems the logical place for Kobayashi to go, whilst Kovalainen has expressed an interest in trying his hand at rallying - he beat Sebastien Loeb to the Race of Champions title back in 2004, so why not? Vitaly Petrov has said relatively little about his plans if he's dropped by Caterham, although a testing role, perhaps with Pirelli, is an option. With HRT going down the pan, Pedro de la Rosa may also return to testing, whilst Narain Karthikeyan has been linked to a drive in IndyCar. Timo Glock must be breathing a sigh of relief that he's under contract to Marussia for another two seasons.

What of the influx of rookies lined up to take the places of the aforementioned? Valtteri Bottas' promotion to a Williams race seat hardly comes a surprise, given the degree to which he is admired within the Williams garage. The Finn should give Maldonado a harder time than Senna was able to, although it could take him a while to get up to speed having had a year out from racing. I have the feeling Sauber may come to regret giving a race seat to (the admittedly very talented) Esteban Gutierrez as soon as they have, who by his own admission is "not 100 percent ready." His GP2 campaign this year was punctuated by errors, a trend that will not be tolerated quite as readily in the brutally unforgiving F1 paddock.

Recent reports suggest that, as a result of a potential Ferrari engine deal, Force India may sign Jules Bianchi alongside Di Resta next season ahead of experienced campaigners Adrian Sutil and Jaime Alguersauri. Bianchi is a driver whose progress I have been following closely since his F3 days, and I have no doubt that he is ready to step up to the highest level and that he will give his Scottish teammate a thing or two to think about. Giedo van der Garde has also got the requisite experience under his belt to perform if Caterham elect to put him alongside the Dutchman's former GP2 teammate Pic, whilst a Max Chilton or Luis Razia would make an ideal replacement for Pic alongside Glock at Marussia.

It's been an unforgettable year of F1 action, and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about it. Though there won't be any more posts on this site until March, you can still keep up to date with all the latest news by following me on Twitter at @KleinonF1. Having reached my target of 10,000 page views by the end of the year, I'd like to extend my thanks to everybody who has read this blog - rest assured I'll be back in the New Year to give you my two cents on everything that happens on and off the racetrack. Until then, from me, it's a very warm goodbye.

The Top Ten Drivers of 2012

It's been a long, thrilling roller-coaster ride of a 2012 season, with many standout performances up and down the field throughout all 20 races. Sadly, only ten drivers can be granted a coveted space in this list:

10. Felipe Massa

Scuderia Ferrari, 7^th in championship (0 wins, 0 poles, 122pts) – Re-entry

It’s fair to say that Massa’s season got off to an atrociously poor start. Calls for his replacement were being made as early as the Chinese Grand Prix, and by the time his teammate Fernando Alonso had managed to hustle the Ferrari to a second victory at Valencia, Massa had racked up a paltry eleven points. The next round at Silverstone nonetheless seemed to mark something of a turning point for the Brazilian, and for the first time he emerged as a podium contender with a strong fourth place. Notwithstanding another blip at Germany, Massa proceeded to score points in every race up until the end of the season, turning in particularly impressive drives once his seat was confirmed for 2013 – at Japan, where he scored his first podium in two years, Austin, rebounding brilliantly from the grid penalty brought about by the team, and, as ever, on home turf at Brazil. That upturn was just sufficient to allow Ferrari to hang on to second position in the constructors’ standings and earn Massa a place on this list ahead of Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean, both of whom started strongly but underwhelmed towards the end of the year.

9. Pastor Maldonado

Williams F1 Team, 15^th in championship (1 win, 1 pole, 45pts) – New Entry

Maldonado and Williams were arguably the surprise package of the season. After a learning year in 2011 during which the Venezuelan driver began to eclipse the vastly more experienced Rubens Barrichello near season’s end, Maldonado immediately established superiority over teammate Bruno Senna at Melbourne with what was very nearly a sixth place finish – better than any Williams would have finished since mid-2010. Maldonado featured in Q3 no fewer than 12 times over the course of the season, out-qualifying Senna in the process a mouthwatering 18 times. The manner in which he resisted the pressure of home favourite Alonso to take a deserved maiden win at Catalunya was sublime, while costly errors at Valencia, Silverstone and Spa combined with a burst of petulance during Monaco qualifying and plain bad luck at Singapore prevented Maldonado from being as high in the standings as he deserved to be. You can’t teach a consistent driver to be quick, but you can teach a quick driver to be consistent. And quick Maldonado was just about all year.

8. Nico Hulkenberg

Sahara Force India F1 Team, 11^th in championship (0 wins, 0 poles, 63pts) – New Entry

The fight between Hulkenberg and Force India teammate Paul Di Resta was expected to be perhaps the closest intra-team battle of all this year. In reality, such a battle was becoming rather one-sided by the end of the year as the young German seemed to constantly come out on top. Early results would indicate that ‘Hulk’ did take a few races to become familiar with his team’s modus operandi, but his fifth place finish at Valencia was the start of a worrying trend for Di Resta which, with the notable exception of at Singapore, the Scot appeared helpless to reverse. Hulkenberg took advantage of the chaos that unfolded before him at Spa to snatch a career-best fourth place, and was never outside the top eight (apart from at Abu Dhabi, where he was unfortunate to be squeezed into retirement at turn 1) in the final six races. While he may have thrown away a chance of a maiden podium finish with his collision with Lewis Hamilton at Interlagos, the fact he was in such a position to begin with highlights why it’s Hulkenberg and not Di Resta that Ferrari have their eye on for 2014.

7. Sergio Perez

Sauber F1 Team, 10^th in championship (0 wins, 0 poles, 66pts) – New Entry

While some drivers struggle to build on the impression they make in their first year of top-level competition in their second, Perez took a considerable step forward. Armed with a Sauber that was significantly more competitive, particularly early in the season, than its predecessor, the unassuming Mexican was immediately on the pace and was heartbreakingly close to what could have been a momentous maiden win in tricky conditions at Malaysia. Perez proved that result was no fluke by backing it up with a third place finish at Canada, showcasing once again his uncanny knack for tyre preservation, and of course another sparkling performance at Italy that saw the 22-year-old take the runner-up spot for a second time. Admittedly, there were times when he was outperformed by teammate Kamui Kobayashi, and good points were thrown away with somewhat careless incidents at Japan and Abu Dhabi; by that time, however, Perez had already secured an unexpected but deserved promotion to McLaren. There are rough edges to be smoothed, much as was the case when Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen were snapped up by Woking early in their careers. Only time will tell whether Perez will scale similar heights.

6. Mark Webber

Red Bull Racing, 6^th in championship (2 wins, 2 poles, 179pts) – No Change

To begin with, all the signs were positive that Webber had succeeded in putting his disappointing 2011 campaign behind him and had finally got back on terms with Sebastian Vettel. The banning of the exhaust-blown diffuser that the straight-talking Aussie struggled to get to grips with last year appeared to re-invigorate Webber as he beat his teammate to victory at both Monaco and Silverstone. Then came a period of frustration, when a disappointing run of results stretching from Hockenheim to Singapore curtailed any title ambitions he may have been harbouring. Webber once again became a threat for podium finishes from Japan onwards, once the car became the class of the field, but he was still unable to come to terms with Vettel for the balance of the season even without the mishaps that struck at Abu Dhabi and Austin. Though Webber proved this year, on his day, he’s a match for the best of them, his apparent inability to string together a consistently strong season surely means his best chances of winning the title are, regrettably, behind him.

5. Jenson Button

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 5^th in championship (3 wins, 1 pole, 188pts) – Down 3

In spite of a trio of impressive victories, Button’s third season at McLaren failed to build on the momentum of his second and allowed a refreshed Hamilton to re-assert his superiority. Though Button’s Melbourne victory boded well for an assault on the championship, it proved to be a false dawn as the 2011 runner-up later endured a fallow period which was as bewildering as it was pedestrian: his title aspirations were all but obliterated by mid-season having accumulated a scant seven points in the six races from Bahrain to Silverstone, and it wasn’t until Hockenheim that the Brit found his form once again. His remaining wins at Spa and at Sao Paulo weren’t attained without superb driving, but on the same token Button managed to by and large avoid the mechanical misfortune that blighted Hamilton’s campaign – the meagre difference between the respective points tallies of the McLaren teammates masks the degree to which Button was simply outperformed. Not only should the arrival of Perez in place of Hamilton next season make Button’s life easier in terms of obtaining results, it should equally ensure that the car at his disposal is more to his liking. Don’t rule him out of contention for a second title just yet.

4. Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus F1 Team, 3^rd in championship (1 win, 0 poles, 207pts) – Re-entry

How Raikkonen would fare in his first season back after two years of rallying was one of the great mysteries of the pre-season, but the Finn wasted little time in providing the answer. Making the best use of a competitive Lotus machine, a close second place at Bahrain – a race he could have won but for a tad more aggression – let the world know in no uncertain terms that the ‘Iceman’ was back. Thereafter, Raikkonen established a virtually unrivalled level of consistency, scooping an additional five podiums in the next eight races. Though it seemed for a time as if that 19^th career race win might nevertheless just elude him, an emphatic drive at Abu Dhabi, albeit aided by the demise of Hamilton, happily ensured that wasn’t the case. It was also clear by the end of the season that Raikkonen had firmly seen off the challenge of teammate Grosjean, who wasn’t really the same driver after his one-race ban. Finishing in the points in every race bar one (as well as completing every lap of the season barring the very last at Interlagos) in a year of such unpredictability demonstrates the ability that took Kimi to the 2007 title hasn’t waned.

3. Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull Racing, World Champion (5 wins, 6 poles, 281pts) – Down 2

Placing the man who became just the third man in history to string together three successive world titles only third in this list may seem a trifle harsh, but Vettel’s 2012 crown somehow lacked the sparkle of his first two. It took the reigning champion longer than expected to adapt to the nuances of the new Red Bull machine, and with the exceptions of his Bahrain victory and at Valencia, where 25 unquestionably deserved points went down the drain with alternator failure, the flourish of his 2011 campaign was noticeably lacking for much of the year. His qualifying record against Webber only stood at 11-9 in the German’s favour, and crucial errors were made at Hockenheim (did he really expect to get away with that?), Monza and Interlagos, where he was very fortunate his first-lap shunt with Senna didn’t end up costing him the title. It was only from Singapore onwards that he really hit his stride, and his four successive wins, not to mention his comeback from the pit-lane to third position at Abu Dhabi, were all well merited. It’s a stretch to say that Vettel is not a deserved recipient of the title, but considering the equipment at his disposal it arguably should have been a slightly simpler affair.

2. Lewis Hamilton

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 4^th in championship (4 wins, 7 poles, 190pts) – Up 2

While 2012 was probably the most consistent and error-free campaign put together by Hamilton yet, several blunders by McLaren and a depressing amount of bad luck meant that a championship challenge was never on the cards. From the start of the European season, Hamilton had the measure of teammate Button just about everywhere, as evidenced by a qualifying record of 16-4 in favour of the younger Brit. The only real mistake he made all season was his over-aggression in defending from a hot-headed Maldonado at Valencia, and his four wins at Canada, Hungary, Monza and Austin were all occasions when he was undoubtedly the class of the field. What’s more, he could have taken twice as many: what ought to have been a straightforward victory from pole position at Catalunya went south because of McLaren’s failure to fuel Hamilton sufficiently during qualifying, mechanical failure robbed him of near certain wins at both Singapore and Abu Dhabi, and Hulkenberg’s ambitious lunge at Brazil deprived Lewis of what would have been a fitting send-off in his final race for McLaren. If Mercedes can get their act together in time for the new rules in 2014, Hamilton is going to be an awfully difficult man to beat.

1. Fernando Alonso

Scuderia Ferrari, 2^nd in championship (3 wins, 2 poles, 278pts) – Up 2

Had you suggested that, after the first round of the championship at Melbourne, that Alonso would be world champion eight months later, the men in white coats would rapidly have been sent for. Yet, that is precisely what he came oh-so-close to doing. The Spaniard always extracted the very maximum from what was for the most part the third-fastest car in the field, reaching the podium positions 13 times throughout the season despite only being able to qualify sixth on average. Alonso’s win in the tricky conditions at Malaysia was masterful, and some of his overtaking at Valencia was a joy to behold even if Renault alternator woes were the main cause of an emotional home victory for the man from Oviedo. After a third win of the year at Hockenheim, a third title appeared to be well within Alonso’s grasp, but it was ultimately Ferrari’s inability to develop their car as well as Red Bull that denied him. Fernando’s desperation to get back on terms with Vettel was evident at the first turn at Suzuka; if not for that rare error, or perhaps Ferrari’s strategic mistake at Canada, we would be lauding one of the greatest and unlikely title triumphs that the sport has ever seen.