New Years special: The Drivers resolutions

Forget eating healthier or summoning the motivation to heft yourself to the gym, Front of the Grid has come up with it’s own version of  New Years resolution, F1 style.

This quirky look at the drivers aims for next season is the result,but before we dive into next season, let’s take a look at the best bits from last season.

Resolutions

Sebastian Vettel- Keep winning and don’t leave Red Bull.

Mark Webber-  Become lucky, Voodoo,Black Magic, whatever it takes to win that title.

Lewis Hamilton- Run back to Mclaren with his tail between his legs.

Jenson Button- Find a car that works for all 20 races.

Michael Schumacher- Stay retired this time, or the untarnishable reputation may just start to become tarnished.

Nico Rosberg- Put lewis Hamilton in his place, by out qualifying and out performing him in every race.

Fernando Alonso-  Keep dragging Ferrari back into a top performing team.

Felipe Massa- The archetypal “must try harder.”

Kimi Raikonen- The Iceman has proved he’still got it this season, he just needs to learn to hold his tongue occasionally in a post race interview.

Romain Grosjean- Stop crashing into things on the first lap.

Sergio Perez- The talented  Mexican has performed well this season, he just needs to grab his chance at Mclaren with both hands and make sure he is ingrained in the team. So that when Lewis Hamilton comes crawling back to Mclaren, it isn’t him that has to make way.

Paul Di Resta- Keep improving and wait for your big break.

  Some other F1 faces

Bernie Ecclestone- Extend the F1 season to 30 races, including events under water and in Space.

Sky- Get out of F1 and stay there, failing that, try and avoiding taking the sport away from the people who watch it.

Potted History of F1

Origins –  The First world championship was in  1950 and the decade  saw domination of Alfa Romeo and Juan Manuel Fangio who won the world championship 5 times and with five different manufactures ( Maserati Ferrari Mercedes Alfa Romeo  and a joint Mercedes Maserati effort)

Retro Mclaren Racer -Image: Brendon Galio

Mike Hawthorn was the first Brit to win the title, driving his Maserati to victory in an 11 race championship.

The 1960’s saw  Graham Hill Jack Brabham and  Sir Jackie Stewart become world champions  as well  as the supremely talented Jim Clarks 2 world titles and untimely death.

1970’s–  Emmerson Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda dominate the 1970’s  winning  2 titles each, the decade also saw James Hunt win his only World Championship. Lotus Tyrell and Ferrari and Mclaren shared the constructors title between them.  In 1970 German Jochen Rindt became the first man ever to be awarded the World Championship posthumously, after crashing fatally in the practice session of the 1970 Italian Grand Prix.

Death was still a common occurrence in F1, with 10 drivers losing their lives in the  1970’s as well as four spectators who  passed away after a car ploughed into the crowd in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix

1980’s–Arguably the era  that had the greatest number of skilled drivers,  with Nelson Piquet  claiming all of his 3 world tiles and  Prost and Senna  winning two titles a piece. Their team Mclaren won six out of ten titles  in the 80’s . Turbos which came in 1970, came into their own in the 1980’s powering Nelson Piquet to his first title in 1981.

The 1990’s was when I began to watch F1,it was characterised by the emergence of Michael Schumacher, taking his first 2 titles in 1994 and 1995 with Benetton. His Battles with  Mika Hakkinen were  legendary and he earned his place in many racing fans hearts with his daring driving.

1996 saw Damon Hill win his first and only drivers title just 28 years after his father did the same thing , making them the only father and  son to do so. Prost, Mansell and Senna also won titles in the early 1990’s . Tragedy also occurred at Imola in 1994,  Ayrton Senna passing away after crashing his Williams, he remains the last driver to be killed in Formula 1 and long may that continue.

The best moments of 2012

The last decade  has seen the dominance of Michael Schumacher who  won   5 consecutive World Titles from 2000 to 2004 and lately Red Bull. With Sebastian Vettel becoming the youngest ever  triple World Champion. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton spearheaded a mini revival for British moter racing, scoring back to back titles in 2008 and 2009. Fernando Alonso also became world champion in 2005 and 2006. The number of races per season increased from 16 to 20 resulting in the longest  campaign on record.

There you have it, a potted history of the sport in under 500 words !!

Interlagos : Race Review

Sebastian Vettel became the sports youngest triple World Champion in a race that started in dramatic fashion and ended less so.

The cars crossed the finishing line under the safety car after Paul di Resta crashed on the pit straight on the penultimate lap of the race.

Red Bull nearly threw it away with a poor tyre change, but Vettel held on, and in the end only had  to stay on the track to pick up his 3^rd Championship.

Seven times World Champion Michael Schumacher made it easy for Vettel to pass him on his last ever race in F1.  As David Coulthard commented, it was one incredible German driver replacing another, as Schumacher retires Vettel has truly placed himself in the F1 hall of fame.

Jenson Button took the win, making him victorious in both the first and last Grand Prix of the season, he  will be  ruing what might have been, had reliability issues not hampered the Mclaren team.

Hamilton was very quick again, continuing his fantastic finish to the season, he  will be wondering why he moved to Mercedes, with the German team capping an unremarkable season with an average performance in Brazil

Fernando Alonso, the consummate professional, drove consistently throughout and couldn’t of done much more, his performance this season signals a return to the top for Ferarri, after being dogged with poor performances since the rise of Red Bull.

On the First lap, Sebastian Vettel was  hit  by Bruno Senna, giving him the mammoth task of sything through the grid to have any chance of becoming World Champion, a task he accomplished with great success.In my eyes that feat alone making him a worthy World Champion.

Watch the race highlights here :http://youtu.be/odOKIcNMR2E

On a quick side note, the technical capability of Formula 1 teams nowadays is astounding, after the incident on lap 1.  Red Bull engineers took a photograph of the damage to Vettel’s car while he was driving.

Then blew it up onto a huge bit of paper and showed it to head designer, Adrian Newey,  to check it was safe to continue.

During the race the BBC camera showed a close up of the  weather predicting software that the teams use. The on-screen message that showed up was “it’s raining”.   Really Insightful that.

Webber has a tough job both Ferrari’s working together against him, sandwiching him and rendering him unable to help his teammate for the first part of the race.

In deteriorating conditions,  Mark Webber’s bad luck continued, being  hit by Kobiashi, in what turned out to be a   gripping first 7 laps.

Vettel fought his way back up to 7^th, in just 6 laps of simply incredible driving.

A deserving World Champion, few men would bet against Vettel being at the forefront of the title race again next season. It’s been a stunning season of racing; all I can say is roll on Melbourne.

Austin Grand Prix : Race review

With one race to go Sebastian Vettel remains in the driving seat of the world Championship, he  finished 2^nd to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, with Fernando Alonso coming  home 3^rd.

Lewis Hamilton enjoying his victory. Image :Robert Galbraith/ Reuter

This is the first time these 3 drivers, who are arguably the most talented drivers of the decade, have shared the same podium.

The State-side spectacle was only available on Sky with highlights on the BBC after the event,  the familiar voice of Martin Brundle took Sky’s viewers through the inaugural Texas Grand Prix.

Drivers love the circuit of the Americas, designer Herman Tilke has taken inspiration from of some of F1’s greatest corners.  The first section includes a blind apex on the first corner and then a “snake section”, where the track veers from side to side, Jenson Button said of the circuit “Turns 2-9 were the best corners I’ve ever driven.”

Vettel performed his usual trick of leading from the front, until with 13 laps to go Lewis Hamilton  soared past  him,  the Red Bull man couldn’t get back past  Hamilton despite  driving the fastest laps of the race on the final lap, leaving the Englishmen to take  his 4^th win of the season and the 21^st of his career.

Watch the moment Hamilton overtook Vettel here

incidently there is a great article on the BBC from chief F1 writer, Andrew Benson, analysing  who is the more worthy recipient of their 3^rd world title, you can read the article here.

Ferrari caused controversy by deliberately breaking the seal on Felipe Massa’s gearbox, in order  to push Alonso further up the grid, it also put  the Spaniard on the clean side of the track, giving him a better chance of catching Vettel and taking points from him.

This weekend,Red Bull  became only the fourth team to win three  constructor titles consecutively, an impressive feat to quote Adrian Newey for a team that came from “ the ashes of Jaguar.”

Looking ahead to what promises to be an absolute gem of a race in Brazil, Alonso needs win with Vettel lower than 4^{th ,}  to come second  with  Vettel lower than 7^th  or  3^rd   with Vettel lower than 9^th .

With rain predicted anything could happen and it probably will,  one thing for sure it’ going to be a fantastic finale.

Championship standings with one race to go are as follows : Vettel 273  Alonso 260 Raikkonen 206 for full standings click here

Adrian Newey: Designer Extraordinaire

Probably the single most talented designer F1 has ever seen, Adrian Newey has risen from humble beginnings in Stratford-upon-Avon to become the worlds one of the most Famous designers, the 53-year-old Southampton University Graduate has an amazing 8 championship winning cars under his belt.

He is Currently the Chief Technical Officer at Red Bull Racing,(image on left courtesy of Zimbio.com) who are well on their way to winning their 3rd consecutive World Championship with Sebastian Vettel.

His first world title came back in 1990’s after he formed a formidable partnership at Williams with a certain Patrick Head. Nigel Mansell (whose own page is coming late next week) delivered the goods in 1992 followed by Alain Prost in 1993.

He moved to Mclaren in 1997 and had great success with Mika Hakkinen sweeping to 2 consecutive titles ( 1998 and 1999) Newey designed a championship winning car at the first time of asking for the Woking based team. It’s this ability and a talent to design cars that sail incredibly close to the wind in terms of legality( the Red Bull RB7 front wing springs to mind here) that make him one of the most revered technical men in Formula 1.

From 1992 to 2004 Newey, a man who starts every design on paper, engineered an incredible six World Championship winning cars under four different drivers. A feat only beaten by Ferrari’s Rory Byrne who designed the car for all 7 of Michael Schumacher’s Championships.

He then moved to Red Bull whose dominance has been complete for the last 3 years, down in no small notion to Newey’s daring designs.

Quite a short post and probably quite an unexpected one for a lot of people.

The only man ever to win Constructors Championships with 3 different team,s but Newey’s genius often gets overlooked. With Sebastian Vettel poised to become a treble world champion, I though it apt to take a look at the man who brought them to him.

If this interested you have a look at this gem of an article on formulaone.com,  published just after Adrian received his OBE for services to Motersport in April.

The Korean GP : Issues with Eastern Expansion

While Vettel strolled to victory in Yeongnam, putting him in pole position in the Championship with just 4 races left, the rest of the pack was left far behind.

A feeling I’m sure most European race tracks will be able to emanate ( I’m speaking metaphorically of course, but bear with me ), as they seem to lose places in the calendar hand over foot to new ventures in the East.

While undoubtedly new tracks and countries on the Calendar keep the sport from going stale. It’s a sad state  of affairs that there was no place in this seasons 2o race calendar for the greatest circuit on the planet, ( no arguments here) The Nurburgring.

Yeongnam from the air Image: http://www.f1fanatic.com

 

 
Financial issues certainly have their part to play.  While ‘The Ring’ and most of Europe  are on the brink of bankruptcy, the East and Asia in particular are less effected by the global recession,and so profit hugely

Singapore, Korea, India, Abu Dhabi, these tracks weren’t around 5 years ago,and while I applaud Ecclestone for taking the sport forward and making it truly global, one should not forget its origins and the origin of formula came from Europe, specifically Britain. So while a Grand Prix in India is a smashing idea,  why not at the same time bring back the French or the Dutch Grand Prix.

A grand Prix at Assen or Zandvoort would be a truly great spectacle and would boost the sport’s popularity in a country that hasn’t hosted a Grand Prix since 1965 and the  rebuilding of such a venue would also provide jobs in a struggling economy.

I think the best strategy  is to implement races on a one on one off basis,  as  the schedule is already bursting at the seams to fit 20 Race weekends in ,any more would be simply mad.

Ten European and ten Rest of World races is the perfect balance. If we bring back the Dutch GP, take out Hockenheim or Valencia. Or for example if the much talked about London GP ever does became a reality, Silverstone may have to make way.

Though I do also believe some circuits are sacrosanct, embedded deeply  in the history of  F1 and as such should be protected from  modern, profit driven  business to ensure the origins of the sport remain fully in the limelight and don’t get brushed under the carpet.

Spa, Monza,  Suzuka, Interlagos  these circuits are the fabric of  F1 and should not be driven out of the calendar (excuse the pun) on a whim. Without these great institutions Formula 1 would undoubtedly suffer.

So while I most definitely welcome taking Formula 1 to new shores,expanding the sports profile in the process, I do wish to err on the side of caution, maintaining  a balance of new and exciting destinations with tried and tested countries that continue to produce great racing  year after year.

So while i’m excited for the Indian and Abu Dhabi races in the coming weeks, even more so for the  Inaugral Austin Grand  Prix in  mid November. For me the pinnacle of the season will be ,quite rightly a classic track with decades of history and charml. Not a soulless strip of tarmac in the middle of a desert.

The Season So Far

Image :www.f1.com – Vettel celebrates in Bahrain

If you’ve been living on Mars or perhaps the Outer Hebrides since March, here is my handy guide to how the 2012 season has panned out so far.

Australia

Mclaren dominant, Button led from the front, drive of the day from Pastor Maldonado  who was 5^th  until a last lap crash.

Malaysia

Alonso wins in a rain soaked Sepang,  21 year old Mexican Sergio Perez an impressive second, Button crashed into a HRT , Hamilton gets his second pole position of the season and finishes 3^rd.

China

Rosberg wins an entertaining GP by 22 seconds, his Mercedes team mate, Michael Schumacher was also on the pace but had to retire after an error from his pit crew. Vettel qualified 11^th and worked his way up to 5^th , Button and Hamilton were 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

 Bahrain

There was doubt that this race would even go ahead due to the unstable political position of the country. These doubts were compounded when the Force India team were attacked by petrol bombs. The Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber looked strong while the McLaren’s were way off the pace; tyre strategy looks to be even more crucial than ever this season. Vettel wins and Lotus gain a double podium with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain  Grosjean coming 2^nd  and 3^rd . Schumacher hauled himself up from 10^th to 22^nd and the Williams team see a double retirement after a double points finish in China.

Spain

Lewis Hamilton was at the centre of yet more controversy as his pole sitting car was moved to the back of the grid after it was found to not have enough fuel. Pastor Maldanardo wins on Frank Williams 70^th Birthday. Alonso 2^nd at his home Grand Prix, the Lotus’s of Raikkonen and Grosjean finished 3^rd and 4^th.  So far ,5 races 5 different winners.

 Monaco

Michael Schumacher grabs pole but gets a 5 place grid penalty . Webber wins, being pushed all the way by Rosberg ,Mark Webber backgflips into the Red Bull pool in celebration –  a 3^rd victory here in 3 years for Red Bull.

 Canada

Hamilton makes it 7 winners in 7 in what is becoming the best start to an F1 season in living memory. Grosjean takes 2^nd with Perez climbing from 15^th to clinch 3^rd and the drive of the day.Three  points separate the top 3 drivers.

Lewis Hamilton 88 Fernando Alonso 86 Sebastian Vettel 85

 Valencia

Alonso wins from 11^th after a cut and thrust Grand Prix in the Mediterranean, multiple crashes and punctures provided the  afternoons drama , Pastor Maldanardo  ended up T boning Lewis Hamilton in the penultimate lap after being forced  almost of the track by the McLaren driver. Kimi Raikkonen 2^nd and Schumacher 3^rd after starting 12^th.

Fernando Alonso 111 Mark Webber 91   Lewis Hamilton 88

Silverstone

It was a  rain addled weekend as Ferrari and Red Bull shared the spoils on the podium ( Webber, Alonso , Vettel). With the Lotus Renault of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean  scoring a solid 5^th and 6^th position, Mclaren’s lack of pace was evident as Button and Hamilton sunk to 8^th and 10^th respectively.

Fernando Alonso 129  Mark Webber 116 Sebastian  Vettel 100

German Grand Prix

 Alonso takes his 3^rd victory of the season  with Vettel coming second and a rejuvenated Jensen Button  taking 3^rd ( later promoted to 2^nd ) after Sebastian Vettel was penalised for being off the Circuit during an overtaking manoeuvre  while passing Jenson Button. Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire after gearbox damage and veteran Michael Schumacher grabbed the fastest lap of the day  completing  a  1.18 725 lap on his home circuit.

Fernando Alonso 154  Mark Webber 120 Sebastian Vettel 110

Hungarian Grand prix

Hamilton gains his second victory of the season after retiring from his 100^th race in Germany, the Brit held of challenges from both Lotus drivers to take victory at the Hungororing . Alonso finished 5^th  but stretched his  Championship lead to 40 points after Vettel could only manage 8^th.

Fernando Alonso- 164   Mark Webber  124  Sebastian Vettel -110

Belgian Grand Prix

The first race back after the mid season break went off with a  bang as Romain Grosjean caused a huge  shunt at the first corner of the Spa circui, leaving Hamilton and Alonso both out of the race ( the Frenchman was later banned for one race and fined €50,000 after being found to have caused 7 first lap collisions in 12 races .)

There was also a memorable 4 way duel for the final podium position between Schumacher, Raikkonen, Hulkenburg and Webber. Jenson Button qualified on pole for the first time in 5o races and led from the front, while World Champion Sebastian Vettel made his way from 10^th on the grid to 2^nd .

Fernando Alonso-164  Sebastian Vettel -140 Mark Webber 132

Italian Grand Prix

Hamilton led from the  front in an exciting affair in Monza, moving into second in the Championship in the process, Sergio Perez was an impressive 2^nd after qualifying 12^th  for Sauber team that have come a long way this year. Sebastian’ Vettels 2^nd alternator failure of the weekend put him out of contention and dropped him out of the Championships top 3. Tyre choices were the words on everyone’s lips this weekend, as smart tactics from Perez  enabled him to switch to the faster medium tyres in the last six laps of the race.

Fernando Alonso 179  Lewis Hamilton 121 Kimi Raikkonen 141

Singapore grand prix

 World Champion Sebastian Vettel dominated the seasons only night race from start to finish, in what is was also the final street race of the season. Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox failure realistically ended his chances of a second World Title, Button was second and Alonso third, followed by a very impressive 4^th position by Scot Paul Di Resta , who is tipped to move to McLaren next season.  It was another consistent performance from the Lotus team claiming 6^th and 7^th positions and cementing themselves as the fourth team in Formula 1.

Fernando Alonso-  194 Sebastian Vettel -165  Kimi Raikkonen- 149

Japanese Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher announced his retirement for the second time at the beginning of the weekend, the 43 year who has won two world titles at Suzuka could only finish 11^th. It was a dream day for Red Bull as Vettel romped to victory from pole closing the gap on Alonso to just 4 points. The Ferrari driver was forced to retire after the first lap due to a puncture, his teammate Felipe Massa finished 2^nd. Sauber’s Kamui Kobayahsi became the only the third Japanese driver to achieve a podium place, his victory  even sweeter as it came in front of his home fans.

Fernando Alonso 194 Sebastian Vettel 190 Kimi Raikkonen 157

Next Up : The Korean GP: Issues of Eastward Expansion