This weekend signifies the start of the 2013 Formula One season where some new faces, old rivalries and even more unpredictability will be on show. After the six different winners in the opening six races last season, it would be hard to envision something that will be even more difficult to predict, but it seems that this season will produce it. No team has edged ahead in practice, with many drivers from different constructors topping the time sheets. But this does mean that the 2013 Australian GP will be extremely exciting and a must-see, even though there will only be 11-teams on the grid this season. Here's a run down of the constructors and drivers for this season:
Red Bull - The three time Constructors Champions cannot surely make it a fourth in a row this time around? What is for sure, is that the competition will be even fiercer this season and Red Bull may finally be knocked off the top of the tree. Sebastian Vettel will again be on the shortlist for the 2013 Drivers Champion, but again, surely he can't make it four in a row as well. His win last season was perhaps the best and most deserved of the three because he was made to work for it and didn't win it at a canter. Hopefully Mark Webber will challenge more this season, but it is unlikely that he will come close to win it. Another really quiet season for the Australian may leave many people thinking his time with Red Bull could be nearing the end, however a great performance on his home track this weekend may quash those thoughts for now.
Ferrari - Hopefully, this will be the first season in a while that Ferrari really come back in to Constructors contention. The last few seasons have the Prancing Horse somewhat stumble to begin with and gradually get back up, just a little too late. The speculation over Felipe Massa is something that is unlikely to go away until the Brazilian produces that quality everyone knows he has. Fernando Alonso will definitely be in contention for the Drivers Championship again this year and a better start may give him the impetus he needs to take his third crown. This is a huge season for Ferrari and one that will be very intriguing to watch.
McLaren - Perhaps the final of the real Constructors Championship contenders, but the first few races will be all about life after Lewis Hamilton. Like him or not, the departure of Hamilton has left a huge hole in McLaren and it probably won't be one that Sergio Perez will fill this season. The Mexican will hopefully have a season of brilliance after bursting on to the scene with Sauber, but if McLaren are going to have a Drivers Championship in their office at the end of this season, it's more than likely going to be Jenson Button's. In terms of progression from last season, I think McLaren may be the weakest out of the big teams this season and could have a really disappointing campaign.
Lotus - Lotus are going to be the team to watch out for. They did extremely well last season, with Kimi Raikkonen having an outside chance of winning the Championship up until the end. His driving skill is definitely something to be admired and he is definitely a contender again for the Championship this year. Now that Romain Grosjean has got over his tough first season, the Frenchman must show his class this season. If Grosjean does well, Lotus have a real outside chance of stealing the Constructors Championship but again if the Drivers Championship is headed to Lotus it will be in the hands of Raikkonen for his second crown.
Mercedes - After an extremely disappointing season last year, Mercedes will be hoping that they are the most improved team in 2013. If the car is more reliable and competes, there's no reason to think that Nico Rosberg and Hamilton can't produce enough points between them to perhaps stake a claim for the Constructors Championship. Rosberg perhaps hasn't quite fulfilled his potential yet in Formula One but the German definitely has the talent and even showed it last year. Unfortunately for Rosberg, this season will be all about Hamilton and whether his move was the right decision. This is the year Hamilton will prove how good a driver he really is and, again providing the car competes on all levels, maybe even have a shout for the title.
Sauber - There's an all new look to Sauber with Perez moving to McLaren and Kamui Kobayashi being surprisingly being shown the door. Nico Hulkenberg takes one of the seats, moving from Force India after scoring three points more than Kobayashi and three points less than Perez. Hulkenberg has been around for a while now and continues to do well for the middle order teams. It's a case of one Mexican out another in for Sauber as 22-year old Esteban Gutierrez claims Perez's seat. Gutierrez has basically been promoted from Sauber's reserve driver after finishing third with three wins in GP2. Sauber will be in be in the hunt with Force India, Williams and Toro Rosso for the best of the midfield. As they seemed to have the most reliable drive last year, they may again pick up some fantastic finishes this time around which could give them the edge over their main rivals.
Force India - They are will most likely the closest to Sauber in that heated mid-field battle. Paul Di Resta's second F1 season was a rather disappointing one at times especially finishing 17-points behind his then team-mate Hulkenberg. Now that the German has left, Di Resta should be the main points earner for Force India. But with the team failing to acquire Jules Bianchi, they have gone for an old friend in Adrian Sutil. Sutil failed to have a drive last year but was with Di Resta at Force India in 2011 after being with the team since it was Spyker in 2007. Back in 2011, Sutil was the main points earner but that should change this time around. If Sutil begins the campaign the way he finished 2011, Force India will have a very competitive garage although maybe not enough to catch Sauber and their former employer.
Williams - Possibly the most inconsistent team last season, Williams at times looked like that were coming out of the motor racing doldrums. With Pastor Maldonado earning a victory last season, it really gave Williams something to build on and hopefully they perform and become a real dark horse this time around. If Maldonado can keep his discipline in check, he will continue to upset the big boys by taking places and earning points. With Bruno Senna dumped by Williams, Finland's Valtteri Bottas comes in. He has also technically replaced Heikki Kovalainen as Finland's number two driver in Formula One. Again Bottas has just been promoted from being Williams' reserve driver and did take Bruno Senna's seat for many of the practice sessions last year so the tracks shouldn't be a problem for him. He won the GP2 series in 2011 which was his debut season. Providing Maldonado keeps on the right side of the stewards and Bottas performs, Williams could really compete with Sauber and Force India.
Toro Rosso - Maybe somewhat surprisingly, Toro Rosso remain unchanged from last season despite being the lowest scorers in the midfield. The Toro Rossos were constantly the 'plus one' to fall from Q1 last season and, unless they've improved immensely this time around, they may fall even further behind the mid-field. Jean-Eric Vergne outscored Daniel Ricciardo in his debut Formula One season by six points but the Frenchman still only scored almost half the amount of points as Senna who finished in the place directly above him. Like Mercedes, they have to become the most improved car of the year to make any in roads within the competition and if they're not careful, Caterham could potentially catch up with them.
Caterham - Without Kovalainen this year, Caterham may not be as strong in the chase of the midfielders. Vitaly Petrov wasn't really close to Kovalainen last year and that has cost him his seat for this. Charles Pic makes the move from Marussia after competing and beating Timo Glock a lot last season. The young Frenchman will be hoping to build on that in his second season and carry on from where Kovalainen left off. Giedo Van Der Garde becomes the first Dutch driver since Jos Verstappen in 2003. Van Der Garde raced for Caterham in the GP2 as well as being the F1 reserve driver, so again it's another easy promotion. The Dutchman finished sixth in the GP2 with two wins under his belt. It's unlikely that we'll see the best of him in a Caterham, or with any points to his name. But Caterham have been getting closer and closer to the midfield in recent years and they'll be hoping to carry that on this year.
Marussia - If that is the case with Caterham, Marussia could be in a league of their own without HRT this season, unless they've immensely improved of course. There's a completely new look with Pic moving to Caterham and the underwhelming Glock being shown the door. In comes Britain's fourth driver, Max Chilton, and Bianchi who has had a bit of a time of it recently. Much like Van Der Garde, it's unlikely we'll see the best from these two as they are unlikely to get anywhere near the points, but it may be interesting to see who becomes the more dominant out of the two. Chilton is 22-years old and was Marussia's reserve driver after being Force India's in 2011. The progression for Chilton is again a natural one and he did manage to finish fourth in last season's GP2 with two victories. Bianchi on the other hand was all set for Force India, where we probably would have seen his skill and the Frenchman amongst the points, until a sponsor pulled out and left him in the cold. Thankfully, he found the money from another sponsor and Marussia offered the seat. He was Force India's reserve driver last year and manage to finished second in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series after two consecutive second overall places in GP2.
No comments:
Post a Comment