Monaco Grand Prix 2013 - Report

Nico Rosberg dominated an eventful Monaco Grand Prix to take his and the Mercedes team's first F1 victory of the year. In a race that saw two safety cars and a red-flag period, Rosberg led every lap from pole position en route to replicating his father Keke's victory of 30 years ago. Rounding out the podium were the Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Mercedes were once more the class act of a rain-affected qualifying session, with Rosberg and Hamilton sewing up the front row for the Brackley-based team ahead of the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber. The track had dried by Q3, but the cooler conditions clearly favoured those able to warm up their tyres faster.

That meant Kimi Raikkonen qualified down in fifth for Lotus, with Fernando Alonso sixth in the sole Ferrari in qualifying after a major shunt for the sister car of Felipe Massa in final practice at the Sainte-Devote corner ruled him out of the session.

The top six remained in grid order as the lights went out on race day; Vettel made a much better start than the Mercedes but had nowhere to go and was forced to fall into line behind Rosberg and Hamilton. The only change among the top ten at the start was Jenson Button clearing Adrian Sutil's Force India for eighth place.

Later in the first lap, Perez cut the Nouvelle Chicane trying to defend from Button, the Mexican surrendering the place after several laps in order to avoid a penalty. That would be the only change among the top ten until the pit-stop phase, with Sky Sport's David Croft summing up proceedings nicely by describing the queue of cars as a 'rubber-shod centipede of speed'.

Most drivers were not pushing at this stage but driving to a delta to extend their tyre life as long as possible while the teams waited patiently for a gap in the midfield traffic to emerge in which they could 'place' their driver. Rosberg was around two seconds clear of Hamilton by the time the pit-stops began, with similar gaps separating the top half-dozen drivers.

Fourth-placed Webber became the first of the leaders to dive into the pit-lane to replace his worn super-soft compound tyres in favour of the harder soft compound, doing so at the end of lap 25. Following closely behind were Raikkonen and Button on the following lap, with Alonso pitting on lap 28 and Perez on lap 29.

Things got interesting however when the Safety Car was deployed on lap 31 after Massa, having started from the back row, once more ended up in the barriers at Sainte-Devote in a more or less identical shunt to the one he suffered in practice. Vettel at this stage had just pitted, and found the Safety Car obstructing his path. Rosberg and Hamilton meanwhile continued unhindered, albeit at reduced speed because of the yellow flags.

Both Mercedes drivers duly headed for the pit-lane, but the Safety Car had by now released the Red Bulls, along with all the other chasing drivers, allowing them to close up to Rosberg and Hamilton. The German retained the lead, but the Brit re-joined the race down in fourth behind Vettel and Webber. Besides that change however, it was status quo ante bellum among the top ten.

The race finally got back underway on lap 39 after Massa was attended to by the track's medical team - it later transpired that Ferrari driver escaped unhurt. Rosberg now headed a German one-two with Vettel in second from Webber, Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, Perez and Sutil. After his misfortune, Hamilton made an attempt to pass Webber at La Rascasse on lap 40, but failed to make the move stick.

The next change of position came when Perez launched another attack on his teammate at the Nouvelle Chicane on lap 42, this time keeping within the confines of the circuit and gaining seventh place. Perez then attempted a similar move on Alonso, with the Spaniard cutting a small section of the chicane in order to avoid a collision and to maintain his position.

An incident involving Pastor Maldonado's Williams and Max Chilton's Marussia then interrupted the race again on lap 46. After an off at the Nouvelle Chicane, Chilton failed to spot Maldonado on the racing line as the pair arrived at Tabac and moved across on the Venezuelan - contact was made, Maldonado sailed into the outside wall, and the red flags were shown to allow the marshals to clear the dislodged barrier.

Anyone who watched the Monaco Grand Prix from two years ago will remember that, in such a situation, the drivers are permitted to change tyres - a relief for the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers who would no longer need to concern themselves with getting their existing tyres to the end of the race.

After one lap run under the Safety Car - during which Alonso gave up his position to Perez after an instruction by the FIA - the race resumed on lap 48 with Rosberg leading Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Perez, Alonso, Button and Sutil.

It was the Force India driver who was the man on the move at this stage of the race, making successful passes at the unorthodox location of the Loews hairpin on Button (on lap 52) and Alonso (on lap 57) to move into seventh. During this time, Perez had yet another dive down the inside at the Nouvelle Chicane, Raikkonen his next target, but both cars missed the apex of the corner and the positions remained unchanged.

The Safety Car returned to the fray on lap 63 as a result of an incident between Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo under braking for the Nouvelle Chicane whilst the pair were dicing for thirteenth - Grosjean, who had already had no fewer than three incidents during practice, simply left his braking fractionally too late and rear-ended the unfortunate Ricciardo, putting the Toro Rosso out on the spot and himself out several laps later with front-end damage. The Frenchman will take a ten-place grid penalty next time out at Canada as a result.

The final restart came on lap 67, with the order now Rosberg, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Perez, Sutil, Alonso and Button. Perez was once again on the attack at the Nouvelle Chicane, but on lap 69 he went for the inside as Raikkonen shut the door - the McLaren was squeezed between the retaining barrier and the Finn's Lotus, and the inevitable contact gave Raikkonen a puncture and, after several laps, put Perez out of the race with brake problems.

By that time, the sister McLaren of Button managed to pass a subdued Alonso, forcing his way past the Ferrari at La Rascasse and completing the move through Anthony Nogues corner on lap 70. The only other changes of position came as Raikkonen came back through the pack after pitting to replace his punctured tyre - passing Esteban Gutierrez, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg in the final laps in quick succession to get back to tenth place.

That meant that, having led every lap from pole position, Rosberg took a memorable second career victory, a fitting crescendo to a weekend in which the German had topped every session. Vettel held on for second place, extending his points lead to 21 in a poor weekend for Alonso and Raikkonen, his fastest lap in the dying stages eluding to the speed the Red Bull was capable of. Third place for Webber completed a very solid weekend for the Milton Keynes outfit.

Hamilton was disappointed to finish only in fourth place after his front row start; it seems Rosberg is proving more of a match for his teammate than the vast majority of observers (myself included) had anticipated pre-season. Sutil finished a strong fifth, a deserved reward for a great drive coming after some appalling luck for the Force India driver, with Button taking a solid sixth for a McLaren team that is still off the pace.

Alonso could do no more than seventh, his lacklustre pace coming as a surprise after Ferrari's strong showing during practice - the Spaniard claimed a piece of Perez's bodywork getting caught in his floor caused a handling imbalance but conceded this didn't totally account for his lack of speed late in the race.
Eighth place was the sole Toro Rosso finisher of Jean-Eric Vergne, who produced a steady run to eighth from an impressive tenth on the grid.

Paul Di Resta was left frustrated at his team's call to not bring him for a change of tyres during a damp Q1, which consigned him to 17th on the grid, but recovered well in the race to finish ninth. The Scot pitted early after gambling on a Safety Car when Charles Pic's Caterham broke down with gearbox failure, which failed to materialise, but was fortunate when the red flags came out as this gave him a 'free' change of tyres. He was eleventh at that stage, which became ninth after the Perez-Raikkonen clash.

Behind Raikkonen finished Hulkenberg, Bottas and Gutierrez, with Max Chilton coming home 14th for Marussia in spite of a drive-through penalty for causing the collision with Maldonado. Completing the finishers was the Caterham of Giedo van der Garde, who, after taking a career-best qualifying slot of 15th, had to pit for a fresh front wing after mounting the rear of Maldonado at Loews on the first lap. Jules Bianchi joined a lengthy list of retirees with late brake issues after taking damage in the Maldonado incident.

Monaco Grand Prix 2013 - Preview

This weekend sees the Formula One drivers return to action and take on the unique and challenging Monaco Grand Prix – the description ‘jewel in the crown’ may be somewhat hackneyed, but it is difficult to imagine F1 without Monaco and vice versa.

The race was first held in 1929 as a way for the Automobile Club de Monaco to gain equal status with the other racing clubs of Europe, and has been a continuous fixture on the F1 calendar since 1955. The circuit layout has barely changed in that time, with famous corners such as Sainte-Devote, the Loews hairpin and Tabac still more or less in their original form.

As well as being an anachronism in the safety-focused modern era, Monaco has somehow resisted the ‘Bernification’ of F1 – practice is still customarily held on a Thursday rather than on Friday, the track is the only one on the calendar which lacks ‘themed’ trackside advertising (where a single sponsor occupies one particular group of a circuit’s advertising hoardings), and the TV feed is the only one still produced locally rather than by Ecclestone’s FOM organisation.

The race itself is notorious for its lack of overtaking, even in the context of the Pirelli-DRS formula, making grid position more crucial in Monaco than anywhere else. Full of slow corners and with no real long straights to speak of, strong traction out of slow corners is the key to the best lap times, while the circuit gives the driver perhaps the best opportunity of the year to transcend the limits of his machinery.

The tyre allocation for the weekend consists of the super soft and soft compounds, with tyre wear – for once – not expected to be quite as influential in determining the race's outcome as it has been so far this year. Monaco will also be the first race of 2013 with only a single DRS zone, which is found along the start/finish straight on the approach to Sainte-Devote.

Tyres have dominated the agenda since the Spanish Grand Prix, with Pirelli immediately confirming that, on the basis that four pit-stops in a race is ‘too far’, that they would be hardening the tyre compounds from Canada onwards in a bid to reduce the amount of pit-stops as well as to help prevent the rear de-laminations that have been a worryingly regular occurrence as of late.

Understandably, this provoked outrage by Lotus, Ferrari and Force India, the three teams that would stand to lose out  most with such a change. Lotus team principal Eric Boullier likened Pirelli’s decision to widening the size of the goal in football, whilst Ferrari’s ‘Horse Whisperer’ column defended the virtues of four-stop strategies – pointing out that few people were complaining when Sebastian Vettel won at Barcelona in 2011 with four pit-stops.

Red Bull on the other hand were the most vocal supporters of change, believing that the tyre situation had been prevented them from exploiting the inherent speed advantage of their car. The FIA then intervened, stating that tyre changes could only be made on safety grounds, and that any further change would require unanimous approval from the teams. Pirelli are currently seeking consensus to introduce minor changes to the rear tyres, but it seems unlikely such an agreement will be forthcoming with certain teams having a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

The debate is an interesting one, and you certainly have to feel a certain sympathy for Lotus, Ferrari and Force India for producing cars that deal with the tyre situation better than their rivals, even if, like me, you would prefer to see a return to more durable tyres and flat-out racing. Pirelli of course have their image to bear in mind – four-stop races and de-laminating tyres do not make for good PR. In fact, there’s no guarantee the Italian firm will even be around next year, with the FIA yet to offer them a contract to continue supplying tyres for 2014 and beyond.

The whole episode however highlights the folly of deliberately creating tyres that quickly degrade. A return to a tyre war would not only allow drivers to be on the limit for longer during races, but would prevent the ludicrous scenario whereby the competitive order of the top teams is determined by a single variable over which nobody but Pirelli has control.

The other major talking point has been the confirmation of Honda’s return as an engine supplier in 2015 with the McLaren team, the Japanese marque in particular citing the new turbo engine regulations coming into force for next season as an attractive technological proposition. People expecting a return to the kind of form McLaren enjoyed when they won four consecutive titles from 1988 to 1991 with Honda power had better temper their expectations, however.

Whilst a ‘works’ relationship with their engine supplier will no doubt be advantageous for McLaren, it shouldn’t be forgotten that, during the 2000s, Honda engines were considered average compared to the likes of BMW, Mercedes and Ferrari. Equally, if a development freeze similar to the one currently in force is introduced to save money, it will be impossible for any manufacturer to enjoy the same supremacy Honda did 25 years ago.

That said, Honda’s return is certainly good news for F1 and a strong endorsement of the upcoming formula. Whilst BMW have recently scotched rumours of a comeback to engine supply, hopefully other manufacturers will be encouraged by Honda’s example to join, or return to the fray – Toyota, Ford, VW-Audi and even Hyundai-Kia would all make valuable additions to the grid.

With benefit of the practice timesheets, Mercedes seem virtually certain to take pole position, if not lock out the front row, with Nico Rosberg going quickest in both Thursday sessions. The question is however to what extent tyre woes will slow he and teammate Lewis Hamilton down during the race, and if the Silver Arrows can take the win simply by holding up their competitors all the way to the chequered flag. It’s a big ‘if’, but if so, Rosberg has the chance of emulating his father Keke’s Monaco victory of 30 years ago.

Ferrari also look strong, and if Alonso can replicate his searing race pace of Barcelona, he could be in with a chance of taking the Prancing Horse’s first win in the Monegasque streets since 2001 and become the first driver to win at the principality for three different teams. Lotus also showed some eye-catching long-run pace in practice, even if their headline lap times were less impressive, making Kimi Raikkonen another threat for the win – particularly if he can once more make one less pit-stop than his rivals.

Red Bull meanwhile looked a bit out of sorts through the slow corners, lacking single-lap pace in particular which could severely hamper their chances of a strong race result with overtaking next to impossible. McLaren appeared once again to have made precious little progress since the last race, but since Jenson Button and Sergio Perez both tend to be quick at Monaco, solid points should be in the offing. Pastor Maldonado is another man to look out for as he seeks Williams’ first points of the season on a circuit at which he has always been strong.

Qualifying Prediction

1. Rosberg, 2. Hamilton, 3. Alonso, 4. Raikkonen, 5. Massa, 6. Grosjean, 7. Vettel, 8. Webber, 9. Button, 10. Maldonado

Race Prediction

1. Alonso, 2. Raikkonen, 3. Rosberg, 4. Massa, 5. Hamilton, 6. Webber, 7. Button, 8. Perez, 9. Maldonado, 10. Sutil

Despite Mercedes sewing up the front row, it will be a simple case of Alonso sticking right with the silver cars during the first stint, waiting for them to pit, hammering out a series of fast laps and emerging ahead after his first stop. Raikkonen will replicate the feat to take second, with Rosberg hanging on to third from Massa, who will jump Hamilton during the pit-stops.

Webber will have a steady run to sixth ahead of the McLaren duo, with Maldonado ending Williams’ barren run with a great drive to ninth and Sutil finally having some luck, taking the final point in tenth. Vettel on the other hand is overdue some bad luck and will fail to finish, as will Grosjean in a repeat of his practice contretemps with the Sainte-Devote barriers.

2013 Spanish Grand Prix - Report

Fernando Alonso took a comfortable second win of the season in front of his devoted home fans at the Spanish Grand Prix. Making his way from fifth on the grid to third at the start of the race, Alonso took advantage of his Ferrari's scintillating race pace to take the lead shortly after his first pit-stop, and was never seriously challenged thereafter.

Kimi Raikkonen put up a valiant fight to finish second, but the Lotus car's superior tyre preservation wasn't enough to overhaul Alonso on this occasion. Felipe Massa put in a strong drive to make it two Ferraris on the podium in third ahead of points leader Sebastian Vettel, while pole-sitter Nico Rosberg came home sixth as the Mercedes drivers once again struggled with tyre wear throughout.

Mercedes were undoubtedly the team to beat on Saturday, with Rosberg posting two times quick enough for pole and Lewis Hamilton slotting in just behind his teammate to give the Silver Arrows their first front-row lockout of the year. Vettel would line up in third place from Raikkonen, Alonso and Romain Grosjean; Massa set the sixth fastest time but was demoted three places for impeding Mark Webber, who started seventh.

As the lights went out on Sunday, Rosberg maintained his advantage whilst Hamilton lost out to Vettel as the pack reached the first turn. The Brit then dropped behind Alonso, who audaciously passed the Mercedes driver around the outside of turn 3, having already taken Raikkonen on the exit of the previous corner, to the delight of the crowd.

That meant, at the end of the first lap, Rosberg led compatriot Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen and a fast-starting Sergio Perez, who fell prey to Massa at the start of the second lap. Adrian Sutil had also made a superb getaway to sit eighth after starting 13th, with Grosjean and the second Force India of Paul Di Resta and Webber in his wake.

After a few laps, the top half-dozen cars began to split into two groups of three as Hamilton began to struggle with tyre wear. Raikkonen made his way ahead of the Mercedes at turn 10 on the seventh lap, with Massa doing likewise the following lap. By this stage, Webber had already made his first pit-stop, and by the end of lap 9, Massa, Alonso and Hamilton had also switched from medium compound to hard tyres.

The remaining front-runners all pitted at the end of lap 10, and the earlier stop allowed Alonso to jump Vettel for a net second place. Likewise, Massa had moved up ahead of Raikkonen into a net fourth place, whilst Webber climbed five places to a net sixth by being the first of all to pit. A slow first stop meanwhile had seen Hamilton drop to ninth.

Though not suffering as badly as his teammate, it was clear Rosberg lacked the race pace to get away from Alonso, and it seemed a mere matter of time before the home favourite surged ahead. With the help of the DRS along the main straight, Alonso got the job done at the start of lap 13, and took the lead of the race when Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez finally made his first pit-stop at the end of the lap.

By this stage, Rosberg had already fallen behind Vettel (at the turn 7-8 chicane) and Massa (in the second DRS zone before turn 10) and would drop a further position to Raikkonen at the start of lap 15. In the meantime, Alonso was stretching his legs at the head of the field, and had established a lead of over four seconds over Vettel by lap 19.

As the second round of pit-stops loomed, it was Massa who headed for the pit-lane first at the end of lap 20, swiftly followed by Webber. The following lap saw race leader Alonso dive for the pits, handing the lead to Vettel, who stayed until the end of lap 24. Kimi Raikkonen, the only driver among the leaders to opt for medium tyres for his second stint, then led proceedings until he made his second stop two laps later, again for a set of options.

This gave the impression that the Finn would try to make it home with just three stops instead of the conventional four as he was now around 16 seconds down on Alonso, who re-took the lead following Raikkonen's stop. The two-time champion enjoyed a seven second buffer over teammate Massa, who had successfully undercut Vettel to take second place and make it, for the time being at least, a Maranello one-two.

Alonso continued to grow his lead, which stood at 11 seconds by lap 32. Raikkonen meanwhile had caught Vettel and was now being held up the German, costing him valuable time in relation to the Ferraris. Having been repelled at turn 10 the previous lap, the Lotus driver finally found a way past at the start of lap 33, but any chance of victory appeared slim given that he was now 19 seconds away from the race lead.

The Ferrari drivers pitted on lap 36, both Alonso and Massa switching to the medium tyre for their fourth stint. Vettel came in for what would be his penultimate stop three laps later, also opting for the medium.
Raikkonen was now back in the lead, but all too briefly as Alonso breezed past with the help of DRS and fresher rubber at the start of lap 39.

With both drivers having one more stop to make, the identity of the race winner was in no doubt whatsoever by this stage; arguably it hadn't been since Alonso began to sprint into the distance during the second stint.
To further emphasise Alonso's speed, he had established a cushion of ten seconds by the time Raikkonen stopped for the final time, making the mandatory switch to the hard compound, on lap 45.

The 'Iceman' retained third ahead of Vettel despite the reigning champion's pace on new tyres, and when Alonso and Massa made their fourth stops on laps 49 and 51 respectively, Raikkonen moved up to second.
There was, however, no way at this late stage that he was going to be able to challenge Alonso, who enjoyed an untroubled run to the chequered flag.

With his second win at the Catalunya circuit, Alonso surpasses Nigel Mansell's win total with a 32nd career victory - only Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher have more.

Raikkonen cruised home to an unchallenged second place, reducing Vettel's points lead from ten to four, while Massa took his first trip to the podium of 2013 with a strong drive to third. Vettel came home in fourth, and Webber rounded out the top five with Red Bull lacking sufficient race pace to take the fight to Ferrari or Lotus.

Having dropped behind Webber at the second pit-stop phase, Rosberg held on to finish sixth, narrowly ahead of Di Resta, who put in another quietly assured performance for Force India with seventh. More bad luck however befell teammate Sutil despite his great start - any chance of points for the German were extinguished by an excruciatingly long first pit-stop as the wheelnut issues which plagued the team in Malaysia returned.

Eighth place went to Jenson Button, who raced well on a three-stop strategy after starting a lowly 14th, but was disappointed by McLaren's updates failing to work as hoped. Finishing just behind in ninth was teammate Perez, who was somewhat more circumspect during battle than he was in Bahrain and ultimately was unable to find a way past his teammate, whom he nevertheless out-qualified for the first time on Saturday.

The final point of the afternoon went the way of Daniel Ricciardo, with the Toro Rosso showing some very solid pace all weekend. Teammate Jean-Eric Vergne was unlucky to be ruled out of contention with damage caused by a puncture, which may in turn have been due to a collision with Nico Hulkenberg in the pits. The Sauber driver continued, but a penalty for causing the shunt saw the 'Hulk' finish down in fifteenth.

It was a good race for the other side of the Sauber garage though, with Gutierrez setting the fastest lap of the race whilst chasing Ricciardo all the way home for tenth. After a shaky start to the year, the Mexican's performance was highly impressive considering a three place penalty for impeding Raikkonen in qualifying left him 19th on the grid.

Twelfth place went to Lewis Hamilton, who spent the entire race going backwards from his grid position of second. His slow first stop dropped him to ninth place, but Mercedes' perennial tyre wear troubles meant Hamilton was unable to re-gain any of the lost ground. Indeed, he was never really in the frame for points, losing further positions and only just holding on from a recovering Sutil at the end of the race.

At the scene of his maiden F1 victory a year ago, Pastor Maldonado could do no better than fourteenth after an early drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding. Valtteri Bottas brought the sister Williams home in sixteenth behind Hulkenberg, demonstrating lucidly that Williams are still the least competitive midfield team by some distance despite updates having been introduced to turn their situation around.

Caterham on the other hand appear to have pulled ahead of their arch-rivals Marussia with their latest upgrades, Charles Pic winning the 'Class B' battle in 17th place and Giedo van der Garde looking in good shape until a detached left-rear wheel ended his challenge. Completing the finishers were the Marussia duo Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton, with Romain Grosjean the only other driver to retire with his Lotus suffering from rear suspension failure early on whilst running in ninth.

Spanish Grand Prix 2013 - Preview

This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix marks the beginning of Formula One’s European season, and may well give us our first true glimpse of how this year’s title fight is likely to pan out.

The above is true for two reasons: firstly, it’s traditionally the race where the teams first apply major upgrade packages to their cars, and for some outfits, the significance of these new parts can barely be overstated. If they have the desired effect, it could catapult them several places up the grid; if not, it will surely be tempting to all but write off the season and focus ever more resources on 2014.

Secondly, the Catalunya circuit is one of the most aero-dependent on the calendar, giving the teams a fairly good indication of where they stand relative to their rivals. Often, if the car works well in Spain, it will work well on most other tracks – out of the 22 races that have been held at the circuit since 1991, 16 times has the winning team gone on to win that year’s constructors’ championship.

This weekend’s tyre allocation consists of the hard and medium compounds, with the former having been tweaked by Pirelli since the last race in Bahrain to make it slightly more durable.  In addition, all the drivers will be given an additional set of unmarked, ‘prototype’ hard tyres in a bid to create more on-track action during Friday practice.

There will once again be two DRS zones in operation – one in the traditional location of the start/finish straight, and the other along the short back straight on the approach to the turn 10 hairpin. Despite the addition of a second zone, overtaking is likely to be much tougher than it was at China or Bahrain, mostly because of the Catalunya track’s tendency to spread out the field relatively quickly.

So far in 2013, we know that, with two pole positions apiece, Red Bull and Mercedes are strong over a single lap but struggle somewhat with tyre longevity. Ferrari and Lotus meanwhile lack that final edge in qualifying but make up for it by showing consistently strong race pace. McLaren appear to lack speed during both qualifying and the race, and are surely pinning their 2013 hopes on making serious progress this weekend.

Team manager Jonathan Neale has likened the Woking team’s struggles to those of Ferrari a year ago, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that last year’s Spanish Grand Prix marked the Italian’s team resurgence after a shaky start, with Fernando Alonso leading much of the race and coming home second to shock winner Pastor Maldonado.

While Jenson Button is already 63 points adrift of Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead, it’s hardly an insurmountable advantage if McLaren can get their act together, given that there are still 15 races to run. Button has however suggested he’s not expecting the troublesome MP4/28 to be transformed by this weekend’s updates, meaning his main focus is likely to be to re-assert himself against his upstart teammate Sergio Perez after being beaten by the Mexican in Bahrain.

The major talking point of the week has been Lotus, who yesterday lost their highly-rated technical director James Allison. Though this shouldn’t have any drastic impact on their performance in the short-term, with the Enstone team promoting Nick Chester to the role with immediate effect, it could hamper the team’s ability to keep up in the development race later in the year.

This will come as bad news for Kimi Raikkonen, who is yet to sign a deal to remain at Lotus next year. Red Bull are known to be interested in the Finn’s services, and Allison’s departure could be the catalyst for Raikkonen’s arrival at Milton Keynes and thus Mark Webber’s F1 retirement – word on the street is that the Aussie has already signed a deal to race at Le Mans with Porsche from next year.

As for Allison himself, Ferrari appears to be the Englishman’s most likely destination. The Italian team has brought along updates to Catalunya in the hope of bolstering the F138’s qualifying pace and helping Alonso to a first home win since his triumph for Renault in 2006. Avoiding the operational errors that cost the Spaniard critical points at Malaysia and Bahrain will be key to this.

Bahrain was disastrous also for Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, whose appalling rear tyre wear saw him steadily drop back from pole position to ninth place at the chequered flag. Naturally, the team’s updates are focused on improved tyre preservation, and will be critical to the title hopes of Lewis Hamilton, who is just 27 points adrift of points leader Vettel heading into Spain.

The relatively conservative tyre allocation, combined with Red Bull’s strong aerodynamic package, should make the Anglo-Austrian team favourites for the win at Catalunya; if Vettel can qualify well and make good his escape as he did in Bahrain, a second Spanish Grand Prix victory could well be on the cards. Also a former winner at Spain, Webber could nonetheless prove a thorn in Vettel’s side if he can rediscover the form that nearly took him to victory at Malaysia.

Of the midfield teams, Williams have the most urgent need to take a step forward having not yet scored a point in 2013. There will no doubt have been some serious head-scratching at Grove considering it was this time a year ago that Maldonado took that famous victory, the team’s first in eight years. Williams are expecting their updates to bring them closer to their midfield rivals, but points still seem an unlikely prospect with Force India, Toro Rosso and Sauber all in contention for minor points placings.

Qualifying Prediction

1. Vettel, 2. Alonso, 3. Webber, 4. Hamilton, 5. Massa, 6. Rosberg, 7. Raikkonen, 8. Grosjean, 9. Button, 10. Sutil

Race Prediction

1. Alonso, 2. Vettel, 3. Raikkonen, 4. Massa, 5. Webber, 6. Button, 7. Rosberg, 8. Perez, 9. Sutil, 10. Hulkenberg

It’s easy to overlook the fact that, without the unfortunate DRS issues that plagued his car at Bahrain, Alonso could have contended for the win at Bahrain. Bearing that in mind, I’m plumping for the Spaniard to take his second home win in front of his adoring fans, with Vettel consolidating his points lead with second place. 

Raikkonen will make up ground due to superior tyre preservation, albeit not enough to challenge for victory, with Massa and Webber rounding out the top five. 

McLaren will bank a solid double-points finish, even if their step forward is not as pronounced as their drivers would have hoped. Rosberg will come home a solid seventh, Sutil ninth in another good outing for Force India, and Hulkenberg will make it four Germans in the points with the revised Sauber. Hamilton and Grosjean are both overdue some bad luck – Spain could therefore be a bad weekend for both.

McLaren's hits and misses

Unusually among Formula One’s elite teams, McLaren has a history of signing relatively unproven drivers. Indeed, Sergio Perez – who joined the ranks of the illustrious British team at the start of the year in place of the departed Lewis Hamilton – is the sixth man to join the Woking outfit without a race win to his name in the last twenty years.

So, the question is, has McLaren’s approach paid off? There have been stories of success and failure; a couple have gone on to have title glory with the team, whilst others failed to make much impact at all during their tenure at Woking. Allow me to guide you through each of them…

Michael Andretti (US) – MISS

Career prior to McLaren: 1991 CART champion. McLaren career: 13 starts, 7 points.

On the back of his Stateside success, McLaren team boss Ron Dennis described Andretti as one of fewer than five drivers who had the necessary aggression to become F1 champion. Despite this show of confidence however, numerous factors conspired to make the American’s sole season with McLaren in 1993 little more than a disaster.

Having never raced extensively outside of his native North America, Andretti first of all had the disadvantage of having to learn virtually every track on the F1 calendar. Additionally, he would have to acclimatise himself to the highly technological MP4/8, complete with systems such as active suspension and traction control, which was poles apart from the IndyCar machinery he had been driving for most of his career.

Admittedly, his failure to relocate to Europe hardly helped matters, preventing him from testing as extensively as he may have done pre-season. The net result was a series of basic errors, which, combined with some bad luck, limited Andretti to just three points by the time Dennis decided to terminate his contract in the late summer.

Ironically, already aware that it was his final outing in F1, the Italian Grand Prix was by far Andretti’s best performance of the year, charging through the field from an early spin to finish in third place and on the podium. By that point however, it was decided that the vacated McLaren cockpit would be occupied by a certain blonde-haired Finn for the next race….

Mika Hakkinen (FIN) – HIT

Career prior to McLaren: 30 starts, 13 points. McLaren career: 2 world titles, 20 wins.

Hakkinen was signed as McLaren’s test driver in 1993 on the back of two promising seasons for Team Lotus, and with Ayrton Senna angling for a move to Williams, a promotion to a race seat for the Finn seemed imminent. Andretti’s lacklustre season however gave Hakkinen an early promotion to a race seat, who wasted no time in making an impression.

Hakkinen out-qualified teammate Senna on his McLaren debut at Estoril, and took his maiden podium finish next time out at Suzuka. Sadly, he would have to endure relatively uncompetitive machinery for the next three seasons, but in the meantime succeeded in making numerous teammates, not least of all Nigel Mansell, seem rather average indeed.

Some bad luck during the 1997 season delayed Hakkinen’s maiden race victory until the season finale at Jerez, but with McLaren doing the best job with the new ‘narrow-track’ regulations of 1998, not even Michael Schumacher and Ferrari could prevent Hakkinen from storming to that year’s title. A successful title defence followed in 1999, with perennial number two Eddie Irvine providing the stiffest opposition with Schumacher sidelined due to injury.

A great head-to-head battle in 2000 went in Schumacher’s favour, with Hakkinen comfortably securing the runner-up spot, but a heavy crash in the opening round of the 2001 season set the tone for a subdued season which transpired to be the double champion’s last. By the time Mika announced his retirement, McLaren had nonetheless secured the services of another fast Finn…

Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) – HIT

Career prior to McLaren: 17 starts, 9 points. McLaren career: 9 wins, two-time WDC runner-up

Having made the giant step up to F1 in 2001 from the entry-level British Formula Renault series, Raikkonen proved all of his doubters wrong with a sublime maiden season for Sauber. Hakkinen’s departure left Ron Dennis in need of a driver, with Raikkonen getting the nod over his more experienced teammate Nick Heidfeld to many people’s surprise.

2002 was a tough season for McLaren amid total domination by Schumacher and Ferrari, but Raikkonen would have taken a maiden victory at Magny-Cours if not for an oil slick. He wouldn’t have to wait long to reach the top step of the podium for the first time however, doing so at Sepang in 2003. This formed the basis of a serious title challenge, but failing to win a race again that year meant Raikkonen ultimately fell just short of deposing Schumacher.

2004 was a write-off as Schumacher and Ferrari returned to their dominant ways, but the rule changes for 2005 benefited the Michelin-shod McLaren team. Experiencing more than his fair share of unreliability, Raikkonen nonetheless just lost out to Fernando Alonso and Renault that year, and after a barren 2006 campaign in which McLaren were off the pace, Raikkonen headed for Ferrari in 2007.

Lewis Hamilton (GB) – HIT

Career prior to McLaren: 2006 GP2 champion. McLaren career: 1 world title, 21 wins.

It’s not often that a driver is able to make their F1 debut for the one of the best teams on the grid, but Hamilton is among the lucky few who have. On the back of his runaway successes in F3 and GP2, combined with copious amounts of testing, the 22-year-old Brit was arguably a fairly low-risk option when it came to choosing a McLaren teammate for reigning champion Alonso in 2007.

Nobody however could have foreseen quite how close Hamilton would get to the championship in an almost error-free rookie season, coming within a single point of beating Raikkonen and Ferrari. In doing so, Hamilton instantly made the team his own, with a disgruntled Alonso heading back to Renault and the end of the year.

Now McLaren’s main focus in his sophomore season, Hamilton snatched the title from Felipe Massa at the 59^th minute of the 11^th hour at a sodden Interlagos, becoming the youngest ever champion to boot. The new regulations for 2009 wrong-footed McLaren, costing Hamilton the chance to defend his title, whilst Red Bull’s rise to ascendancy would put paid to his title ambitions for the next two years.

Hamilton appeared to have the machinery to challenge for his second title last year, but luck deserted the McLaren team on numerous occasions, costing the English driver any real opportunity to challenge Vettel or Alonso at the end of the year. Amid that backdrop, Hamilton couldn’t resist an offer to join Mercedes, bringing a close to a long and fruitful association that dated all the way back to 1998.  

Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) – MISS

Career prior to McLaren: 17 starts, 30 points. McLaren career: 1 win, 3 podiums.

With Alonso out of the McLaren picture for 2008, the Woking team was in need of a replacement to partner Hamilton. Beating off competition from the likes of Nico Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher, Kovalainen was deemed the man for the job after a solid if perhaps slightly unspectacular debut season at Renault – continuing McLaren’s tendency to hire Finnish drivers.

Kovalainen showed himself to be a capable competitor, taking his first podium in just his second outing at Malaysia, but clearly unable to match Hamilton’s prodigious speed. A first win came at Hungary, but only after Massa suffered a late engine failure whilst looking certain to win, and Kovalainen failed to beat Toro Rosso driver Vettel in the wet at Monza despite starting alongside the young German.

Whilst Hamilton won the 2008 title, Kovalainen finished just seventh in the standings, costing McLaren the constructors’ crown in the process. More of the same was to come in 2009, with the Finn scoring steadily in the latter half of the year but failing to prove himself to be of McLaren quality. Finishing just twelfth in the standings, Kovalainen was replaced by Jenson Button for 2010 and was forced to seek refuge with newcomers Lotus.