2013 FIA Formula 1 Season

[youcleanwepaint]

can't lie I only watch F1 its the monaco gp or if its raining on track

[The King]

Expecting a much better showing from Torro Rosso now that James Key is there.

Really excited for the midfield battle this year.

[Sinister]

Yeah seems like there is a good showing for the youngers;

 

• Gutierrez
• Bottas
• Van Der Garde
• Chilton

[Sinister]

Marussia

 

[Sinister]

Caterham

 

[Sinister]

So glad for man like Razia; fully deserved the drive in F1 after the season he had last year in GP2.

 

Mclaren fastest in testing...

[Sinister]

Jerez testing overview:

 

Red Bull

 

 

After giving the world a fleeting glimpse of the RB9 at a launch at its base in Milton Keynes, the reigning champions whisked their chassis off to Jerez in time for it to hit the track two days later.

As ever Red Bulls keeps its cards close to its chest. Later in the week the team began hiding the car behind screens whenever it came into the pits. Nothing unusual has been spotted on the car – so far – but remember this is the team which tested a Double DRS at Singapore last year without anyone noticing.

By the end of the test they had set their quickest time on hard tyres but the reliability of the RB9 impressed Sebastian Vettel more. This was a notable weakness of its predecessor.

“Looking ahead, I think the Barcelona test will maybe reveal a bit more, but just because people are running more and teams will play around a bit more there,” said Vettel. “So if you keep your eyes open you might spot some stuff.”

“However, as I’ve said before, we just focus on what we do. In Barcelona we’ll learn more about ourselves and maybe a little bit about our rivals. It should be interesting.”

Team mate Mark Webber said he was suffering no after-effects from his operation over the winter to remove a metal rod from his right leg, which he injured in 2008.

 

Ferrari

 

 

Despite spending three days in the F138 Felipe Massa covered fewer laps than some drivers who did two days. He clearly had some misgivings over the arrangement when he spoke to media on Thursday.

Massa said he’d had no further explanation from team mateFernando Alonso about his absence from the Jerez test. The team took the unusual step of announcing its arrangements for all three tests in advance, claiming that Alonso was missing the first of them to work on his fitness. They denied rumours he had picked up an injury while karting pre-season.

The team’s running with the new car got off to a slow start as they had to fix some cooling problems on Tuesday. Comparing different exhaust specifications was the main job for Wednesday.

On Massa’s final day in the car he set the quickest time of the test. His 1’17.879 on soft tyres was over half a second quicker than the best time set by a 2012 car at this test last year.

The team’s objective for the final day of running was to give new test driver Pedro de la Rosa some time in the car to help develop their simulator – a weakness of theirs in recent years. The plan was disrupted when a gearbox problem caused a fire on his second lap.

Fortunately they were able to get the car back on track in the afternoon and a disruption due to a hole appearing on the track meant running was extended by half an hour.

De la Rosa is taller than both Alonso and Massa so he found the car somewhat uncomfortable to drive, but was grateful for the chance to have one of the team’s precious days of pre-season running.

 

McLaren

 

 

McLaren ended 2012 with a car that was quick but prone to breaking down. The early signs from the MP4-28 is little has changed.

Worryingly for them it was a mechanical fuel pump failure which disrupted Jenson Button’s first day in the car, forcing much of his aero testing workload to be passed on to Sergio Perez the following day.

But encouragingly Button was also able to turn a quick time out of the box – a 1’18.861 on hard tyres. He was stopped again on Thursday when his right-rear wheel became loose.

Button dismissed the relevance of his Tuesday time but pronounced himself pleased with how quickly the new tyres came up to temperature and how well the simulator version of the MP4-28 correlates to the real thing.

Perez stressed he had a lot of work to do in getting used to McLaren’s way of working, saying he needed to start from scratch in learning how to set the car up.

 

Lotus

 

 

“We’ve been chugging around with a fair amount of petrol on board and it seems reasonably swift,” was Lotus technical director James Allison’s verdict on the performance of the E21. Lotus topped the times on Wednesday and Friday.

Allison also pronounced himself “delighted with the basic reliability of the E21″. The team lost some time on Kimi Raikkonen’s first day at the wheel due to a clutch problem.

The car also stopped on track late on Wednesday but this appeared to be a scheduled fuel run-out test.

This time last year Lotus suffered a setback when a suspension problem appeared in Barcelona on their second E20 chassis. This cost them four days’ running and forced them to redesign and strengthen one of their parts.

Allison said steps have been taken to prevent that happening again: “Once we realised our error we redesigned the joint so that the glue lines were capable of delivering the required strength without any scatter from chassis to chassis. On the E21 we’ve paid particular attention to this area so we’re not expecting any repeat dramas.”

 

Mercedes

 

 

Managing expectations was the name of the game at Mercedes when they revealed their W04 on the day before the test began.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were quick to point out how far off the pace the team was at the end of 2012. But at the same time Hamilton said: “We’re ahead of where they were this time last year.”

There were some worried looks as the car proved unco-operative at first. It stopped while Hamilton was driving at the end of the filming day – he said this had been a fuel run-out test – and early on during both of the first two days.

A wiring loom fault halted Rosberg after 14 laps on Tuesday, and unburnt fuel caused a fire. Then Hamilton suffered a rear brake pipe failure and crashed at speed at Curva Dry Sack on Wednesday.

After those troubling but unrelated problems there was obvious relief when Rosberg and Hamilton completed almost 300 laps over the remaining two days. A new front wing appeared on the car during the test and they appeared to be running a passive DRS at one point as well.

 

Sauber

 

 

Besides its striking new colour scheme a focal point of the new Sauber C32 was its aggressively slender sidepods.

Nico Hulkenberg said the cooling on them “worked well” and the team will surely be aware that the cool temperatures of Jerez will not correlate to what they find at Sepang or Singapore later in the year.

The car ran reliably – it stopped due to a planned fuel run-out on Wednesday. New driver Esteban Gutierrez did the most laps of any driver and the C32 already has more than 200km more on the clock than any of its rivals.

 

Force India

 

 

 

Force India remain the only team yet to confirm their drivers for 2013. Jules Bianchi is in the hunt for the seat and got a run in the car whereas Adrian Sutil – who is believed to be the other main contender – did not.

The team’s simulator driver James Rossiter also drove, getting his first taste of a real-world F1 car since 2008. Unfortunately he knocked one of his pit crew over during the test but happily there were no serious injuries.

As was to be expected the running was not trouble-free but the VJM06 never stopped on track, including on Thursday when Paul di Resta suffered an exhaust problem. “Good work by the engineers using the telemetry meant the damage was only superficial,” said chief race engineer Jakob Andreasen.

 

Williams

 

 

Williams were the only team using a 2012-specification car at the first test. They said this was to allow them to get a handle on the 2013-specification tyres with a reliable car they already understood.

The value of that was undermined somewhat when the car stopped on Wednesday due to a clutch problem.

By the end of the test Sauber, Red Bull and Force India had covered more ground with their new cars than Williams had with their old one.

The team did run some new parts on the FW34 including a sloped 2013-style nose. The final car will be seen for the first time a week tomorrow when the second test begins.

 

Toro Rosso

 

 

Toro Rosso has a reputation for being tough on its young drivers. But when the team launched its new car on Monday at Jerez team principal Franz Tost made it clear that they need to give them the equipment they need to compete in 2013.

“It’s more in the hands of the team to provide the drivers with a competitive car,” said Tost.

Jean-Eric Vergne described the changes on the STR8 as “massive” and they don’t stop with the car. Both drivers have new race engineers: Daniel Ricciardo is now paired with Marco Matassa, who was his data engineer last year, and Vergne’s new engineer is former Renault man Phil Charles.

Given all these changes a less than smooth week night have been expected. But the car looked stable and quick on track and only stopped twice during the test.

 

Caterham

 

 

Caterham whisked the covers off their CT03 just 15 minutes before the first test of the year began. Aside from an attractive new paint job it looks outwardly similar to the one they campaigned last year – they are one of few teams to retain a stepped nose.

The car ran well but did stop on Thursday shortly after leaving the pits. Nor are there yet any signs the team has been able to bridge the gap to the midfield.

There will be no major changes to the car before the first race but technical director Mark Smith said new front and rear wings and a new diffuser will follow once the season has begun.

For Charles Pic the test almost meant getting to grips with using KERS for the first time. He said he still needs to spend time getting to grips with how to recover the energy during a lap.

 

Marussia

 

 

Marussia were yet to confirm the identity of Max Chilton’s team mate when they revealed their 2013 car, so the MR02 was unveiled by two other team members.

The following day Luiz Razia was finally confirmed as their second driver an hour before running resumed.

There was some teething trouble with the new car: A suspension failure triggered a crash from Chilton on Tuesday, Razia’s engine failed the following day and Chilton was delated by electronic problems when he returned to the car.

Despite that Chilton was happy with the progress the team made with KERS, which it is using for the first time. And team principal John Booth pointed out they are well ahead of where they were 12 months ago:

“Perhaps the most satisfying thing about this week’s test is the fact that we are in completely different shape to how we were this time last year. Heading into Australia we had just 100km of mileage to our name, whereas we leave Jerez tonight having achieved almost 1000km of running and a good deal of data for the engineers to pore over next week.”

[The King]

Best Overtakes of 2012

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20976191

[The King]

Formula 1 teams rounded off their winter preparations at Barcelona over the weekend, and there are now just a few days for regrouping and reacting before everybody jumps on aeroplanes to Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

For those within each outfit, the last few weeks have delivered plenty of answers about how well their pre-season plans are going, and whether they have made the improvements they had hoped for with their 2013 challengers.

But the nature of testing, with varying fuel loads meaning no outsider knows exactly how representative each quick lap is, always makes it impossible to be totally sure about the competitive order across the field.

Yet a deeper look at the twists and trends that have played out over recent weeks have given us plenty of pointers, and while some of these were confirmed in this final free run, other issues also came in to play.

 

 

We are definitely in for a close fight

While we will only get the true answer as to just how tight things are when the final lap times are delivered in Q3 in Australia, the feeling among the paddock regulars is that the leading pack 

has

 bunched up a lot.

 

Stable regulations have certainly played their part in helping this happen. Throughout the hundreds of laps that have been completed since the start of February, we've seen flashes of potential from a number of teams at a number of times, but it is not one outfit that has been doing it alone.

There is consistency from Ferrari; the Mercedes single lap form, and the fact that has been carried through into some promising long run form. There have also been flashes of speed from McLaren; and there are the laps where, in equal conditions, Red Bull has been head and shoulders clear. Then there is that amazingly strong long run on mediums that Romain Grosjean produced for Lotus last week.

It is these outfits that appear to be ending the testing spell in the strong form in terms of both single lap and long run form, but in a sport as competitive as Formula 1, winning the winter world championship is no guarantee of any success when the proper race action gets underway.

 

 

Red Bull is the biggest uncertainty

Red Bull Racing is a team that doesn't do anything by halves, and it went to some pretty extreme measures to keep prying eyes away from its RB9 and its latest updates over the Barcelona week.

Yet with high screens being used in the pitlane to keep the gaze of photographers and the opposition away, there were plenty of furrowed brows at the team as it found itself right below the windows of the media centre, so everyone could get a good view on the beautifully intricate details of Adrian Newey's latest masterpiece.

But if catching a good look at the RB9 was not a problem, getting an understanding of the competitive pace of the Red Bull was much harder to get hold of as the Milton Keynes-based outfit played things very close to its chest.

At no point did the outfit look like it had pumped out the fuel and sent Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber out to push the car to its ultimate potential. On long runs too, the car appeared strong but there was nothing that indicated it was willing to let the opposition know just how strong it is.

It was notable that there were times when Vettel and Webber were not using DRS on the main straight when they were out on track, while rivals were gaining a couple of tenths by activating the straight-line speed boost.

Also do not forget that historically Red Bull has run higher fuel levels than many of its rivals. Estimates suggest they could be keeping 70kg on board at all time to hide its pace. It is no wonder there is a confused picture.

However, a bit of calculation can shed some light on just how quick it could be…

If we take Red Bull's best time from the two Barcelona tests, which was Vettel's 1m22.197s from Barcelona two, take away 0.7s for the track improvement that happened for this week, and deduct 2.45 seconds to fuel correct it down to empty and you are left with a probable potential of 19.047s on the final day of testing.

If Mercedes was capable of 1m20.130s on the final day of testing, then it is close. If Rosberg was running 30kg of fuel (as could be expected), then that leaves a theoretical best of 1m19.080 seconds. If it was on 20kg though, its best would be a 1m19.43s…

It is that low 19.3-19.4 range that Lotus, Ferrari and McLaren also appear to be in if we take their historical levels of testing fuel, which puts all of them a few tenths behind the reigning champions…. Unless, of course, Red Bull was heavier than even our conservative estimates suggest.

 

 

Mercedes's pace is genuine

Topping winter testing times and winning the 'winter' world championship ultimately counts for little when the season kicks off.

Remember that build-up a few years ago where the sponsor-less Prost team looked amazing in testing, only to fall flat when it had to run at the same weight levels as everyone else during the campaign.

Don't forget also how at the final test of 2011, it was an under-fire Mercedes that moved to the top of the timesheets to make it appear that it had got its house in order, before disappointing in Melbourne.

Mercedes has again led the way this week and this winter, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's efforts in Barcelona clear of the opposition.

From what we have seen of the team's long run race though, those times do not appear to be a case of simple showboating, because there have been some eye-catching long runs as well.

This week, Jenson Button singled out Mercedes as the team that had impressed him; while other engineers were pointing towards the team being among that close pack at the front of the field.

Mercedes knows too well that it is better in F1 to underplay prospects and then over-deliver, but when Lewis Hamilton talks of a confidence about the team being able to win a race this year, you know that he has already seen something that he has faith in.

The W04 is not a guaranteed rocket ship – as Hamilton himself was at pains to stress – but if things are as close as they look at the head of the field, then just being up near the front is going to be enough to make things pretty exciting this year.

 

 

McLaren has not made the progress it hoped for

While Mercedes' testing form has clearly moved forwards from those troubling opening two days at Jerez, McLaren's path over the past few weeks appears to have gone in the opposite direction.

From a level of confidence in Jerez about the way the team had instantly been able to show pace with the MP4-28 (remember how Felipe Massa said he was shocked by Jenson Button's best effort from day one on a dirty track), the team's winter has not progressed in the manner that it had hoped.

While the MP4-28 appears quick, and on low fuel analysis it definitely appears to be in that front-running bunch, there are other issues that appear to be more pressing for the team.

One is that on some long runs it has not looked to be a match in terms of handling tyre degradation as some of the opposition, especially compared to that eye-opening 20-lap stint that Romain Grosjean did on medium tyres at Barcelona 1.

Compounding McLaren's situation is that the switch to a pull-rod front suspension appears to have left it unable to make swift set-up changes to the car, which has slowed down the ability of team and driver to get a firm understanding of the car.

A look at the final test progress of Button and Sergio Perez showed no end of 30-minute breaks in its running, which can only have been to allow the mechanics vital fettling time.

McLaren is a world away from the troubles that marred its build-up to the 2011 campaign, which it recovered from to emerge as Red Bull's main challenger, but it is not as comfortable as it was 12 months ago when Button dominated the Melbourne season opener.

 

 

Talk of tyre chaos is going too far

The warmer temperatures experienced on the final two days of the Barcelona test, allied to an improved track condition from last week, were supposed to be perfect for allowing teams to get a clear understanding of where they stand.

Yet a recurring theme that came up in conversations with drivers and engineers throughout the test was of how the tyre situation – and in particular the high degradation, was making it incredibly hard to work things out.

Barcelona has always been tough on tyres. But throw in the cooler track temperatures that were around 10 degrees colder than is experienced at the Spanish GP, plus air temperatures that cool the tyres on the straights, and you have the perfect mix for that nightmare of graining.

With the situation meaning the supersoft was barely good enough for a single flying lap, and the other rubber not allowing very long runs, there were the usual doom mongers predicting that we should brace ourselves for chaos in Australia.

Surely, they suggest, the supersoft will be fantastic for qualifying but fall apart after a few laps, producing a topsy-turvy race in Melbourne where drivers could be forced to make five or six stops.

Don't believe a word of that though. Looking at how the long runs panned out in Barcelona this week, it was common to see drivers get through with four stops.

Transposing that to a warmer grand prix, and the pressures/understanding that comes from a competitive situation, and that means a two or three-stop race.

Yes, strategy is going to be pretty open in Australia, especially with a predicted one-second per lap difference between the two compounds being taken, but that's only a good thing. It will be interesting, not a shambles.

[The King]

ITS BACK ON FRIDAY!

 

Long read but this is the best preview you could possibly read. Brilliant article.

 

 

Technically, the eighth and final season of Formula 1's 2.4-litre V8 formula may be just a formality while the big challenge of 2014's turbo V6 formula is prepared for, but competitively it's poised to be very juicy indeed.

 

It's fair to say that, with six titles from six in the past three years, the Red Bull/Sebastian Vettel combination has stamped its position as the dominant force on this formula.

 

The degree of difficulty in this level of achievement is borne out by the fact that only two other drivers – Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher – have won three consecutive titles in the 63-year history of the championship.

 

Of the constructors, just Ferrari, McLaren and Williams have ever matched it. It's all the more remarkable given that the team was a minnow as this formula was born, and Vettel had yet to even make his F1 debut.

 

The level of domination that's followed from a team finally properly harnessing the talents of Adrian Newey – arguably the greatest technical brain that the sport has seen – has created consequences. There is only one Newey, and Red Bull is exploiting him so brilliantly that it's created an imbalance: there has been fall-out among the competition.

 

Lewis Hamilton has despaired of McLaren, heads have rolled at Mercedes, and the tension at Ferrari ratchets up with every title that Fernando Alonso fails to win. There have been constant regulatory attempts to rein Red Bull back in; and last year it almost worked, in that it took the team most of the season to recreate what the 2012 regulations had taken away from its car.

 

 

It took Red Bull much of 2012 to recoup performance lost to rules tweaks, but then it dominated again © XPB

This year's no different, really. The ban on double DRS wasn't intended as an anti-Red Bull measure – it was announced before it even had the feature on last year's car – but it may as well have been. A big part of why last year's RB8 responded so well to it was how the car's rear end was configured.

 

With its downforce relatively immune to rear ride-height changes – aided by the unique bodywork tunnels to the diffuser – it could carry more rear wing. Double DRS was therefore able to dump more drag than it would have otherwise. It enabled the car to have its cake and eat it, and the fitment of the feature coincided with the competitive transformation of the car late-season that allowed Vettel to take control of the championship. But now it's gone.

 

A small rule clarification about engine maps might also impact more upon Red Bull than any other team. The expectation was that you could specify a new baseline engine torque map; in fact it's been decided that teams must continue with the same baseline map they had in the second half of last season.

 

This precludes the re-introduction of the controversial Red Bull Hockenheim map. It allowed the driver to get hard on the throttle earlier in the corner to give more exhaust-enhanced downforce, thereby negating a key disadvantage: a rear bodywork design that compromised the Coke-bottle profile for the sake of enhancing the aero effect of the exhaust.

 

It's just possible that this year's Red Bull RB9 – which follows the same rear bodywork concept, with a big exhaust ramp partially blocking the Coke-bottle profile of the lower bodywork – has been configured around a false assumption regarding engine maps. That alone won't render the car uncompetitive, but it's just another obstacle placed in the way.

 

As ever, the team will shake its head in exasperation then hunker down and do it some other way. Flexi-wings, blown diffusers, trick engine maps, air-extractor wheels: each tentacle has been sliced off Red Bull's armoury, and each time it's simply grown another. It'll do so again, and it's inconceivable that it won't be a major contender.

 

 

Hamilton and Alonso aren't shy about underlining Vettel's car advantage © XPB

Vettel takes a little bit of heat from Hamilton and Alonso – and a significant section of the sport's fan base – who suggest that he's merely a good driver in a fantastic car; the inference being that they'd beat him in an equal car.

 

Vettel – who has a remarkable abstract intelligence – simply turns that around. When their reservations were put to him, he effectively said: "Yes, maybe the car is more important. Which is why I will continue to beat you."

 

It wasn't as bald a statement as that, but the implicit message was the same, and became the perfect way of dealing with the question. His incredible record of achievement – triple world champion, 26 grand prix wins and 36 poles – comes at an age when his team-mate, Mark Webber, was only just making his F1 debut, and when Damon Hill was six years away from his.

 

He is absolutely on a mission to break more records – he's a savagely intense competitor with a huge turn of speed, sitting in the cockpit of the product of Newey's best thinking. Yet he is still developing. Perceived injustice can sometimes trigger emotion and the occasional lapse, but this is to nit-pick over a quite remarkable performer.

 

Mark Webber has the unenviable task of trying to compete with the phenomenon that is Vettel, and sometimes with one hand tied behind his back – as was recently underlined by Helmut Marko's comments about him. He gets material equality with Vettel, but Seb's achievements only reinforce the barrier of emotional support around him, leaving Mark forever looking in.

 

Yet that brings out some of Webber's gritty best. And, if the RB9 drives like a conventional car and not one that demands the Vettel trick of standing on the throttle to tame slow-corner-entry oversteer via exhaust gas – as happened in 2011 and towards the end of last year – then he can compete on level terms. Also the most combative man on the grid, he can never be discounted.

 

Marko's comments – in Red Bull's own magazine! – that Webber succumbs to pressure had an element of self-fulfilment about them: a lot of the pressure that he faces comes from the feeling of fighting against the will of elements within the team. But he's fully capable of proving Marko wrong regardless, given the right car.

 

Lewis Hamilton finally accepted last year that Vettel has out-manoeuvred him: that he's stolen the records he'd once assumed were his for the taking by plugging himself into better cars.

 

McLaren had produced some great cars for Hamilton, but not great enough. And even last year, when the MP4-27 was often quicker than the Red Bull, the team still couldn't convert that into a title campaign. If it hadn't been for that, and if he'd been winning titles at McLaren, Lewis could probably have made himself live with the constraints that chafed at his collar: the burdened relationship with Ron Dennis, the number of corporate days, and so on.

 

 

Hamilton has been an unhappy figure at times in recent years © LAT

But he wasn't, and so he made not a career choice but a lifestyle one by choosing to get out. His preference was to race alongside Vettel at Red Bull, where he would have relished betting on his talent to prevail. Failing that, he wanted to go Ferrari to do the same there against Alonso – again. But neither option was available. After each of those teams had been approached for a second time during the summer break and had given the same response, Lewis reluctantly took the next best option: Mercedes.

 

He cheerfully admitted before testing began that he had no idea how quick a car the team might build him. His feeling after the first week of Barcelona was that it wasn't bad, but lacked the downforce he'd been used to.

 

He rejects the notion that he's going to be fighting for the 2013 title; but he's quite at ease with that. What we shouldn't bet against is him being able to bridge the gap if the car is somewhere close to the pace on a few occasions. Testing suggests that it's closer than last year's model was by the end of the season.

 

There have been some big changes here, and they don't seem to have finished yet. Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda buying into the team has provided an aggressive push to get to the bottom of its underachievement, and confirmation that McLaren tech director Paddy Lowe is on gardening leave suggests he is indeed set to join the Brackley team. But in what role? Why would he choose to leave his technical director position at McLaren for the same job at Mercedes?

 

The suggestion is that he might be joining as team principal, which casts doubt upon Ross Brawn's future there.

 

 

No one expects miracles from Mercedes, so Hamilton faces little pressure © LAT

This isn't the same group of people that Hamilton signed up with, but he's unlikely to let that bother him too much. He's gone in there as a fast gun for hire: one who'll be delighted to pull off the occasional against-the-odds victory or put guys in faster cars under some pressure.

 

If it turns out to be better than that, then great. If it turns out that Mercedes is the place to be for 2014's new formula, fantastic. But even if it continues just as it has been, Lewis will only be 30 by the time his contract ends – and who knows what alternatives might be available by then.

 

This isn't a typical driver career move, but then Lewis isn't a typical driver. In the meantime, he can just relax into his seat, knowing that the pressure is off for perhaps the first time in his F1 career. In that state of mind, he just might be at his explosive best.

 

Nico Rosberg, meanwhile, faces a tough challenge. He proved last year that when the car's quick he can win; and there might not have been a finer 2012 qualifying lap than the one that he conjured up for pole at Shanghai.

 

The general perception is that of an absolute top-line driver stuck in sub-standard machinery. But is he?

 

He was internally out-manoeuvred by Michael Schumacher, and in the aftermath his previous performance edge over the latter disappeared; in fact there were several races last year where Michael was the faster Mercedes driver.

 

Having his old karting team-mate – the man commonly accepted as the quickest in F1 – alongside leaves him absolutely nowhere to hide. This is going to be an interesting one to monitor.

 

Lewis's move took McLaren by surprise. He was irritated coming into the Monza weekend when he found that his management team had gone ahead and had Mercedes prepare a draft contract without his say so; and at the point when the Mercedes offer came out into the open, he was feeling inclined to stay at McLaren.

 

Before the Singapore weekend, he was telling people privately that he was going to stay put, and this was the team's understanding at that point.

 

 

Days after walking away from a failed McLaren in Singapore, Hamilton announced he was leaving for Mercedes © LAT

But something changed during that weekend. He says it wasn't the fact that his car broke down while he was leading; though that can't have helped. The team's relationship with him had been so strained that perhaps it didn't try as hard as it might to keep him, but whatever the reason, after a day of contemplation, he'd made his decision by Tuesday and McLaren had lost 'F1's fastest driver'.

 

He was the guy who could manhandle a car that was a couple of tenths off onto the front row; now the team doesn't have that. In Jenson Button it has a driver who will maximise any car that can be made to behave exactly as he likes, but who struggles with rear instability.

 

In Sergio Perez it has someone with a wider operating window than Button, but whose ultimate pace is as yet unclear. Perez delivered some scintillating drives for Sauber last year, but all had a tyre-related explanation; now we'll find out how much he was adding to the mix. As with Rosberg, he has nowhere to hide.

 

With this driver pairing, McLaren absolutely needs to have a car that can qualify on the front row on merit, without requiring the driver to transcend its level. Does it have this in the MP4-28? Well, sometimes it's looked like that in testing: such as the first day at Jerez when Button stunned with his instant pace, or the Wednesday at the first Barcelona test, where Perez was mighty quick.

 

But at other times the car has left the team scratching its collective heads, trying to understand why it's graining the Pirellis even faster than the others. This is a time of some tension for McLaren, only underlined by the fact that it's been forced to put Lowe on gardening leave.

 

The new-for-2013 Pirellis are very different to those that we've seen so far, but in testing their softer range of compounds has been giving teams as big a headache as the old tyres did. Fifteen-lap stints were just about possible at Barcelona – suggesting a three-stop race there – but they were past their best by five.

 

 

The new range of Pirellis introduces another new challenge © LAT

McLaren wasn't the only team struggling to get a handle on them. But one car was noticeably easier on the rubber than the others, just as last year: the Lotus. There's something about the suspension of this lineage of cars that makes them soft-riding and kind to the tyres, albeit perhaps at the expense of the last couple of tenths of single-lap pace.

 

How quickly the teams progress their understanding of how to get the best from the Pirellis, and how much the graining situation might be eased once we get to the warmer climes of the opening races, is one of the great imponderables. But if the tyres degrade as quickly as they did in the first couple of tests, Lotus is going to be looking very good indeed.

 

Kimi Raikkonen will effortlessly take full advantage of this, being the seasoned pro that he is, still with a good turn of speed to unleash when the mood takes him.

 

Romain Grosjean? It seemed at first last year that to become a major force he just needed to pull back a little. His speed and some of his moves can be breathtaking, but there was a worrying lack of progression to his season.

 

Also, his qualifying incident at Interlagos with Pedro de la Rosa's HRT at the top of the hill, where he could so easily have been in a sixth-gear interlocking-wheels end-over-end accident, suggested that he simply doesn't recognise the red-alert signals of self-preservation; even afterwards he didn't see it as a big deal.

 

He admits he saw a psychologist last year in an attempt to eliminate the incidents. It would be terrific to see this bear fruit, and it's great he's been given one more chance by Lotus: he's a very exciting racer and is ultimately a couple of tenths faster than current-spec Kimi. But he has a lot of convincing to do.

 

 

Being wiped out at Spa was critical to Alonso's title defeat © XPB

Had it not been for Grosjean's misjudgement off the startline at Spa last year, it's a fair bet that Fernando Alonso would now be world champion. But instead he goes into his fourth season at Ferrari with only those titles that he secured at Renault a long time ago.

 

Hamilton considers Alonso his only true rival; a feeling that's mutual. But the heat they created when forced to share a garage through 2007 led to its own fall-out; one that damaged both their prospects.

 

The last time that Ferrari won a title was as a result of the radioactive Alonso/Ron Dennis pairing, when McLaren was the Scuderia's only rival. Back then Raikkonen was good enough – and immune to pressure enough – to secure that unlikely triumph.

 

But impressive as Raikkonen was, he couldn't hang on to the drive once Alonso was potentially free. Kimi won for Ferrari at his first attempt, and Alonso has only a couple of lost showdown finales. But since Kimi's time, Red Bull has moved the game on and the task has become more difficult.

 

Ferrari hasn't been helping itself, however. After the disastrous showdown strategy-call in Abu Dhabi 2010, and failing the blown-diffuser challenge of 2011, there was a title there for the taking last year, despite the team starting with a disastrously off-the-pace car.

 

Strategic conservatism – a crippling fear that's hung over the team since Abu Dhabi 2010 – cost it dearly. By being so determined not to be wrong by being too adventurous, it achieved failure by not being adventurous enough.

 

Barcelona, Monaco, Canada and Silverstone were all races where vital positions were lost to timid tactical choices. Twenty-eight Alonso points were squandered in those four races. He lost the title by three. So it wasn't really just Grosjean's fault...

 

 

Ferrari is clearly starting 2013 stronger than it began '12 © LAT

But the new car looks incomparably better than the F2012 did this time last year, and the team continues to be absolutely devoted to Alonso. It has conceived the car in the Toyota tunnel rather than the problematic Maranello one, and testing suggests that it is among the fastest; perhaps even the fastest of all.

 

Nevertheless, part of the reason that Ferrari was in title contention last year was due to Red Bull and McLaren not getting their acts fully together; it's unlikely that it'll be able to count on both of those again. If it's to be won by Ferrari in 2013, you'd suspect that it has to be done on performance, rather than mere reliability.

 

However, everything suggests that it's starting from a good place, and with Felipe Massa transformed for the last six races back into the driver he was before his accident – and before Alonso came and stole his team – Fernando might be able to count on Felipe to take some heavy points off his rivals.

 

It's certainly not beyond imagination that we could see Felipe back to the top step of a podium one day; and that looked close to impossible a year ago.

 

Williams and Sauber took turns at terrorising the top teams last year, and look set to continue to do so. The FW35 is a very neat-looking piece of kit that has been showing almost Lotus-like consistency in testing. Valtteri Bottas joins Pastor Maldonado there for an exciting driver line-up, though the latter's 2013 challenge is similar to Grosjean's.

 

Both Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez have made the narrow-sidepod Sauber go quickly on occasion; if it's as good as last year's car, then Hulkenberg is quite capable of pulling off an outrageous result.

 

Thus far, Force India doesn't look quite at its level, nor Toro Rosso, but there's plenty of development scope for both.

 

Caterham and Marussia, meanwhile, look likely to continue to fight only each other for another year. The bigger question on their horizons is 2014, and the expense of the change of engine formula.

 

But why worry about the future when there's so much to enjoy in 2013?

[Lenny]

Very good read, cheers

[Sinister]

Good read bruh

[Haze-e]

Very good read, cheers

[The King]

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There's little left to say about Red Bull after its dominance of the past three seasons.

The bottom line is that it can no longer be written off as an energy drink-fuelled flash in the pan. Red Bull is now a serious team that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with all but the greatest few outfits in the sport in terms of achievements.

Throughout the current rules cycle, which started in 2009, it has had what is fundamentally the best car. There's no reason for that to change this year, although inevitably Adrian Newey and his technical team are pushing against the ceiling of what is achieveable. But despite keeping a low profile in pre-season testing, Red Bull remains the team to beat.

With the same driver line-up it has had for the previous four seasons and no significant changes in personnel, the biggest step forward this year is a massive influx of sponsorship from Infiniti. This means that the team is only reliant on patriarch Dietrich Mateschitz for around 25 per cent of its budget. In these chastened financial times, that can serve only to make it stronger.

A fourth consecutive world championship double in 2013? There's no compelling reason why not.

 

#1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)

Debut: USA 2007
Wins: 26
Poles: 36
F. Laps: 15
Points: 1054
Titles: 3
2012: 1st
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Should he win a fourth consecutive F1 title, Vettel will be stepping into territory only previously charted by Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher. And he would be doing so in his mid-twenties, one decade earlier in life than his record-shattering compatriot reached that mark, and twice as many years ahead of Fangio.

There should be no argument about those statistics, and yet as he racked up title number three, there were more questions than ever about where Vettel stood among his own peers, let alone among the historic legends.

Red Bull's technical edge and the underdog heroics of Fernando Alonso in particular, combined with relatively muted periods during mid-2012 and only late-season glimpses of the crushing dominance he had shown all through '11, meant Vettel's level of esteem wilted a touch during what should have been his finest hour.

That clearly niggled at the usually ebullient German towards the end of 2012, but the easygoing sparkle was revived by Red Bull's new-season launch. A three-time world champion in the best car and with a point to prove will surely be a dangerous thing for the rest of the field.

 

#2 Mark Webber (AUS)

Debut: Australia 2002
Wins: 9
Poles: 11
F. Laps: 14
Points: 848.5
Titles: 0
2012: 6th
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Yet another year for Webber at Red Bull and he'll almost certainly do what he has always done: take a couple of wins, score lots of points, and help the squad's constructors' title bid.

He may be unlikely to challenge Sebastian Vettel across the whole season, but Webber's ability to keep the German on his toes and bring home ample points finishes is why nobody has yet ousted him from his coveted seat in a Newey-designed car.

There'll be a bit more pressure this year, if Daniel Ricciardo or Jean-Eric Vergne can put together an impressive enough campaign for Toro Rosso to warrant a promotion. But the RB9 looks more-than-promising, so it would be a surprise if Webber didn't add to his nine F1 wins.

His more immediate challenge will be to finally deliver on home ground. Since his sensational fifth place for Minardi on his F1 debut, Webber has struggled to get it together in Melbourne: it took him until last year to improve on that result.

This year he will surely be after that elusive Australian GP podium.

 

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For two out of the past three seasons, Ferrari has taken the world championship fight all the way to the final round. While proud of those achievements, there is a certain frustration that it has not made that final step to become title winner again.

Heading into 2013, though, there is confidence about its chances of doing just that.

Lessons have been learned from the early troubles with its F2012. There is an increased focus on ramping up simulation facilities, and windtunnel correlation issues have been solved by the team electing to use Toyota's facility in Cologne for this season's car.

On the driving front, things look promising too. With Fernando Alonso delivering the best form of his career, and Felipe Massa appearing to be back to the strong driver he was before his Hungarian Grand Prix crash in 2009, the ingredients appear to be in place for Maranello to make the steps forward it hopes will bring it the crown.

 

#3 Fernando Alonso (SPN)

Debut: Australia 2001
Wins: 30
Poles: 22
F. Laps: 19
Points: 1364
Titles: 2
2012: 2nd
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In the words of the double world champion, this year's Ferrari is "200 times" better than last year's. Regardless of how he is measuring that, it suggests that the F138 is going to be a lot closer to the pace than the 2012 Maranello creation, a car that only missed out on the drivers' title by three points.

Based on Alonso's maths they might as well give him the 2013 trophy now, but it's easy to forget that his championship charge last year owed as much to favourable circumstances (and weather conditions) at key moments as it did his brilliance.

With three Ferrari seasons under his belt and two championship near-misses to show for it, Alonso's fire is unlikely to need stoking for this year.

#4 Felipe Massa (BRA)

Debut: Australia 2002
Wins: 11
Poles: 15
F. Laps: 14
Points: 704
Titles: 0
2012: 7th 
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Rarely in the top 10 in the first half of last year, rarely out of it in the second; Massa's 2012 resurgence was just enough to allow him to cling on to the second Ferrari seat, but he is still on the brink.

While that's not the most comfortable scenario for a driver, it is at least becoming increasingly familiar terrain for Massa. There are signs it could be changing too. Last year's resurgence was down to more than just an increasingly competitive F2012, as the Brazilian demonstrated by outqualifying team-mate Alonso in two of the final three races.

That said, Massa's last win remains Brazil 2008, a drought that can only sit for so long without redress from Ferrari. The irony is that his future may be determined by very different forces, with Ferrari short of immediate replacements, particularly after Sergio Perez's move to McLaren.

 

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Of all the 2013 machines, the McLaren is the one that appears the biggest step forward over last year in terms of refinement. It has been called an aggressive car and, given the pace of the machine last year, provided the basis on which those changes have been made are correct, it surely has to be a championship contender.

A slow start is forecast, with the MP4-28 suffering from understeer in pre-season testing. Yet even amid such pessimism, it would be a mistake to underestimate that squad that was fastest over a single lap at the beginning and end of 2012.

The biggest question mark hangs not over the machinery but over the drivers. Jenson Button is a class act, but prone to spells where he cannot get the car as he would like and vanishes into the pack. Sergio Perez has great potential, but there are doubts over both his qualifying pace and attitude that must be addressed if he is to deliver the performances expected of a Lewis Hamilton replacement.

The other thing that McLaren must get right is reliability. Last season, Hamilton drove well enough to have been a serious championship threat, but was robbed over a three-figure sum of points by unreliability and team blunders. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

 

#5 Jenson Button (GBR)

Debut: Australia 2000
Wins: 15
Poles: 8
F. Laps: 8
Points: 999
Titles: 1
2012: 5th
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Hamilton's exit means McLaren will undoubtedly look to Button to deliver it titles. But the 2009 world champion's mature and personable nature, plus his experience and technical insight, meant he was hardly short of internal support even when paired with a lifelong McLaren protege, so the switch to clear number one status will make little difference.

There are days when Button conjures up drives that no one else on the grid could. The problem is not necessarily that they are too few and far between, but that the troughs in between those peaks are so deep. He could get away with such inconsistency on the way to his title because his early-season dominance created such an ample points cushion. That will not be the case this year.

Feeling at one with his car and set-up is key to unlocking Button's sublime ultimate pace. Though he is confident that this year's Pirelli tyres are logical enough not to cause any repeat of his mid-2012 slump, the fact that Button ended testing talking of the new McLaren being hard to understand did not bode well.

 

#6 Sergio Perez (MEX)

Debut: Australia 2011
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 1
Points: 80
Titles: 0
2012: 10th
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The biggest opportunity of Perez's career so far immediately resulted in him receiving more criticism than ever before, as he got an early taste of the spotlight that top-team drivers are under.

He had spent much of 2012 being lauded. Three podiums in a Sauber, including a near-win in Malaysia and moments in Italy when his pace was otherworldly compared to rivals, resulted in Perez being touted as Massa's likely replacement and celebrated as a rising talent.

But after being signed as Hamilton's McLaren replacement, instead it was his dubious maturity, the number of mistakes, the chances missed, the mediocre qualifying record, and the days when erstwhile team-mate Kamui Kobayashi had the edge that got all the attention.

The truth is Perez is surely something in between the superhero depicted in early 2012 and the ragged waste of an F1 seat some dismissed him as later in the year. Alongside Button at McLaren, though, there will be no hiding place as it is revealed whether the supporters or detractors have got it right about the Mexican.

 

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In 2012, Lotus got its mojo back. Shaking off the shackles of a naming row, and consigning to history the troubles caused by its forward facing exhausts in '11, the team returned to the front with an on-form Kimi Raikkonen and delivered a victory.

The momentum gained last year appears to be carried over into 2013, with its E21 looking every bit as strong as its predecessor. Appearing good on long runs, and with different tyres this year perhaps helping Lotus's single-lap qualifying weakness, there is a degree of optimism about its chances.

Matters will also be helped by the increased experience of Raikkonen and team-mate Romain Grosjean, who perhaps did not make the most of the E20 at the start of last season as they got themselves back up to speed in F1.

The pair will not let opportunities like that slip through their fingers again, which makes the team a clear candidate for more wins and even the title.

 

#7 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)

Debut: Australia 2001
Wins: 19
Poles: 16
F. Laps: 37
Points: 786
Titles: 1
2012: 3rd
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If the Finn did have detractors following his two-year sojourn from the sport, they didn't last long. Raikkonen's start to 2012 included points in the first two races, podiums in the fourth and fifth and – after four further rostrums – that famous win in Abu Dhabi.

Whether he and Lotus can build upon that, or whether his championship third-place represents the apogee of realistic achievement, will be the burning issue in Enstone.

Pre-season testing hasn't exactly been smooth - of the 2013 field, only Jules Bianchi and Adrian Sutil completed fewer laps – but it has also been positive, with team-mate Grosjean's race simulation in particular drawing envious glances along the pitlane.

While that run hinted at a bigger threat from the Frenchman, it was also evidence that the softly suspended Lotus remains capable of fantastic turns of speed, and that can only be a good thing for Raikkonen.

 

#8 Romain Grosjean (FRA)

Debut: Europe 2009
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 1
Points: 96
Titles: 0
2012: 8th
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It would be grossly unfair to base your opinion of Grosjean on the harsh one-race ban he was given for causing the Belgian GP first-corner shunt that began to derail a certain Ferrari driver's title hopes.

Instead, you should look at the speed shown since returning to F1 in a frontrunning car and with a "less-defensive, more open" mindset than in his disastrous 2009 debut, according to Renault technical chief James Allison.

Grosjean's speed has never been in doubt, the Frenchman outqualifying team-mate Raikkonen 10-9 last year (not taking grid penalties into account), and if the Lotus E21 begins the season its predecessor ended 2012, he could – just – mount a title assault.

While that would be a shock, even to the most ardent of fans, a maiden grand prix win would certainly not be. Grosjean already came close in Canada last year and would have been in with a shout of European GP success too had his car gone the distance. Definitely one worth watching closely.

 

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The first three seasons of the modern works Mercedes team have flattered to deceive. It has had its moments, but nobody in Stuttgart would argue that Nico Rosberg's 2012 Chinese Grand Prix victory and a further five podiums is anything like good enough. No wonder there has been so much change this year.

The obvious one is the recruitment of Hamilton. At last, Mercedes has a driver proven to be of the top level. Good as Nico Rosberg is, he has been unfortunate enough not to have had a known quantity top-line team-mate since his first season alongside Webber at Williams. Whatever happens, any shortfall in performance this year cannot be blamed on the drivers.

Niki Lauda has come on board as the non-executive chairman of the team's board. Supposedly, this is a low-profile role but the Austrian was instrumental in recruiting Hamilton and has been trying to poach just about every technical name of note in the paddock – successfully, in the case of former McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe who comes on board next year.

But much of the technical team under Ross Brawn and Bob Bell remains unchanged. This year will be a stern test of their potential.

 

#9 Nico Rosberg (GER)

Debut: Bahrain 2006
Wins: 1
Poles: 1
F. Laps: 4
Points: 399.5
Titles: 0
2012: 9th
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This could be Rosberg's most important year in F1 yet. So far, it has been difficult to say whether the German is a great driver, one who has been held back by mediocre equipment, or merely a very good one.

We should find out in 2013. Hamilton's speed is not in doubt. If Rosberg can match or beat Hamilton more often than not, his stock will go up. If he can't, it's unlikely he'll ever find himself leading a top F1 team.

On the bright side, the W04 has looked rapid in testing and could give Mercedes the chance to spring a surprise or two. For Rosberg, the down side is that, if the car is the one to have on a given day, he's going to have his work cut out to beat Hamilton.

#10 Lewis Hamilton (GBR)

Debut: Australia 2007
Wins: 21
Poles: 26
F. Laps: 12
Points: 913
Titles: 1
2012: 4th
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Revitalised by his switch to Mercedes, the man who many perceive to be the fastest in the business has talked down his chances in 2013. Victories are not beyond reach, but consistent success will very much depend on the car Mercedes is able to deliver. Despite positive pre-season indications, Mercedes still has a giant step to make if it is to join the frontrunners.

All of that means Hamilton's patience, rather than his craft, could be tested most in 2013, a fascinating dynamic given some of his past actions. Whether Mercedes will be the making of the man (or even vice versa), or whether early season enthusiasm gradually subsides, we can only wait to see. It's incredible to think Hamilton's last title came five years ago, but there's little evidence to suggest the wait will end in 2013.

There's also the intriguing battle with Rosberg, a man who, despite beating Michael Schumacher for three straight years, remains hard to quantify. Will Hamilton beat him hands down, as many are happy to predict, or will Hamilton be the benchmark by which Rosberg finally gains recognition?

 

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Although Sauber enjoyed its days in the sun last year – with Perez delivering three podium finishes and Kobayashi adding another in Japan – the team did not achieve the consistency it had hoped for.

Its car was clearly competitive at most tracks, but it still seemed to be a challenge for Sauber to get it spot on for both qualifying and the races.

With an all-new driver line-up for this year, which includes the highly-rated Nico Hulkenberg, there are hopes that it can make good steps to become more established near the front.

The team is certainly not holding back in the way it is approaching things. It has opted for some radical tiny sidepods to help its aerodynamic performance; and the outfit was a leader in terms of exhaust concept understanding last year.

While regular wins are unlikely, Sauber will be hoping that it can inch closer an actual victory in 2013.

 

#11 Nico Hulkenberg (GER)

Debut: Bahrain 2010
Wins: 0
Poles: 1
F. Laps: 1
Points: 85
Titles: 0
2012: 11th
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When Hulkenberg announced his sidewards step from Force India to Sauber, two teams perennially mired in F1's midfield, the general consensus was 'why'?

But the German is thinking big picture, and the big-team moves of ex-Sauber men Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Raikkonen and Perez – plus the team's technical ties to Ferrari - will likely have influenced his decision.

There is no question that Hulkenberg has the potential to be world champion, as evidenced by that amazing Interlagos pole lap for Williams, and what might have been a winning drive in last year's Brazilian GP but for a harsh drive-through penalty.

Don't expect Perez-style podiums; Sauber is not one of the top-five teams based on winter testing, and that means that small points consistently will take a heck of an effort. But if Hulkenberg manages that, Maranello will surely be taking note.

He must also crush new team-mate Esteban Gutierrez this year, something he should be able to manage without too much trouble.

 

#12 Esteban Gutierrez (MEX)

 

 

 

 

Debut: Australia 2013
Wins: -
Poles: -
F. Laps: 0
Points: -
Titles: -
2012: -
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The youngest driver on the 2013 grid, and one of five rookies, Gutierrez has the CV to warrant his F1 shot. Championships in Formula BMW Europe (2008) and the inaugural GP3 series (2010) have been followed by two successful seasons in GP2, with last year's tally of three wins and seven podiums enough for third overall.

Whether he can capitalise on that junior formula form is another issue entirely however. For starters there are the inevitable comparisons to compatriot Perez, who scored three podiums over 2012 before leaving for McLaren. There is Sauber's sixth place in the constructors' to defend too, and the small matter of having Hulkenberg – who got the better of Paul di Resta last year – to try and match as team-mate.

Gutierrez has gone the right way about approaching the task, though. He racked up more kilometres than any other driver in testing, has praised the opportunity to learn from Hulkenberg and insists his Melbourne debut will be an opportunity to build his confidence rather than trying to star.

Others have discovered before him that's no guarantee of getting yourself noticed, but the backing of Telmex gives Gutierrez a bit more luxury than some when it comes to playing the long-game.

 

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The ex-Jordan squad has made a habit of overachieving in recent years, partly thanks to a canny technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes and partly down to a policy of picking a strong driver line-up. In the past three seasons, it has finished seventh, sixth and seventh in the standings and came close to winning the 2012 season finale, which bodes well for this year.

While its driver line-up has unquestionably been weakened by the loss of Hulkenberg to Sauber, di Resta and Adrian Sutil are a strong enough driver line-up to score heavily enough to recreate their run to sixth place of two years ago.

The team, under the technical direction of Andrew Green, whose history with the Silverstone firm dates back to its inception for the 1991 season, has proved itself able to get a good handle on its car and came on strongly in the closing stages of last year despite stopping development early in the season.

Realistically, Force India can be expected to do no better than sixth. Even finishing in the top seven would arguably be an over-achievement. Expect to see plenty of snapping at the heels of the bigger teams and consistent points.

 

#14 Paul di Resta (SCO)

Debut: Australia 2011
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 0
Points: 73
Titles: 0
2012: 14th
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For much of 2012, the sight of two Force Indias squabbling their way forwards through the midfield in tandem was common. Anyone asked to name the main rising talents outside the top teams would have found it tough to split team-mates di Resta and Hulkenberg. Whenever candidates were pondered for any of the potential big-team vacancies early in the silly season, di Resta was mentioned.

Yet as 2013 gets underway, di Resta is starting a third season with Force India. Of his former peers, Perez is now in a McLaren and though Hulkenberg's move to Sauber was more a sidle than a stride, the German is now the man feted as F1's next big star.

Suggest to di Resta that he has missed his chance, and the response will be blunt. He would argue that the crucial period in which Hulkenberg gained the upper hand and the plaudits was a brief one, not indicative of the true season-long power balance, and caused in part by chassis problems. To make that point ring true, though, di Resta really needs his best F1 season yet.

 

#15 Adrian Sutil (GER)

Debut: Australia 2007
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 1
Points: 95
Titles: 0
2012: -
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Second chances are rare in Formula 1, but Sutil has been handed a golden opportunity to show that his removal from the grid at the end of 2011 was undeserved.

Force India's decision to go back to its line-up from two years ago appears at face value to be a conservative step backwards, but the combination of Sutil's commercial deal and the likelihood of him being a solid (if unspectacular) points accumulator clearly made him appeal to the midfield outfit.

The German finished his last season in F1 strongly compared to team-mate di Resta, but by then it was too late to save his drive. He'll be hoping to pick up where he left off and make his second bite of the cherry a long one.

 

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Williams may have returned to the winners' circle in 2012, but it also readily admits that it threw away good opportunities to deliver even more.

A mixture of some wildness from Pastor Maldonado and going down a wrong development path on the aerodynamics front meant it finished the campaign a disappointing eighth overall in the standings.

The team knows it can do much better than that; and there is a feeling inside Grove that its winter preparations have gone in the direction it hoped.

With Xevi Pujolar stepping up to the chief race engineer role, and the team adamant that Maldonado has learned lessons from last year, Williams can make good strides this year. There are also high hopes that the arrival of Valtteri Bottas will not only deliver results from him, but also put his team-mate under some healthy pressure.

Realistically, Williams will need a dose of right circumstance if it is going to knock off the established frontrunners from the top step of the podium, but the fact it is in the hunt is a world away from the troubles it was in just a few years ago.

#16 Pastor Maldonado (VEN)

Debut: Australia 2007
Wins: 1
Poles: 1
F. Laps: 0
Points: 46
Titles: 0
2012: 15th
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Mercurial at his best, manic at his worst, Maldonado was bundle of dichotomies in 2012. Where his victory at Barcelona was exquisite, his subsequent run of six pointless races, and the clash with Perez at Silverstone, drew far less favourable labels. There is perhaps no one else capable of such sudden moves from zero to hero and straight back.

And yet, despite the oscillations, despite the mistakes, Maldonado remains an incredibly talented driver, able to comfortably outperform his 2012 stablemate Bruno Senna.

That luxury may be harder to come by with new incumbent Bottas partnering him at Williams, and it will be interesting to see how the new dynamic affects Maldonado. It may be that Bottas is the perfect foil to the Venezuelan, helping to share some of the points-scoring burden, but it could also upset his approach. A need for more consistency – and points – is obvious, and the ball is in Maldonado's court. How he reacts will be intriguing.

 

#17 Valtteri Bottas (FIN)

Debut: Australia 2013
Wins: -
Poles: -
F. Laps: -
Points: -
Titles: -
2012: -
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Some drivers only really, truly blossom when they reach F1. There has long been a feeling that the often underpowered machinery of the middle-ranking junior categories stifled Bottas's true ability, and although he won a GP3 title along the way, his promising junior career did not advertise his talent as effectively as his performances once unleashed in an F1 car.

Williams is utterly convinced by its new Finn. His extensive Friday mileage certainly gives Bottas a much better grounding than most rookies and his strong relationship with the team will undoubtedly help. He is aware of the bigger picture of an F1 career, and the equal perils of coming into a debut season either too headstrong or too reticent.

With Williams, he has an ideal chance to learn, impress on occasion and avoid lofty expectations, although many in the sport would already put money on Bottas having a big future ahead of him.

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Sometimes, team bosses are coerced into setting targets for the coming season that they later have cause to forget. But when notoriously conservative Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost declared, unprompted, that the goal was sixth in the constructors' championship at the launch of the car, many eyebrows were raised.

The last few years have been testing for Toro Rosso. After campaigning Red Bull machinery for several years, it has been forced to build the ex-Minardi operation into a genuine constructor. The last time it finished sixth in the championship in 2008, it was thanks to a combination of Red Bull design and the mercurial Vettel. This time, it must do it on its own.

In technical director James Key, who joined last year, STR has excellent leadership. The ex-Force India man excelled at Sauber, hauling it into the position of being a credible upper-midfielder following BMW's departure. Now, he's trying to pull the same trick at Toro Rosso.

Sixth is definitely possible, if perhaps a little too ambitious. But with Daniel Ricciardo finishing last year impressively and more to come from Jean-Eric Vergne, there should be regular points.

 

#18 Jean-Erinc Vergne (FRA)

Debut: Australia 2012
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 0
Points: 16
Titles: 0
2012: 17th
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Vergne was pretty upbeat after new upgrades arrived on his Toro Rosso for the final pre-season test. The challenge will again be to battle for points, but the pressure this year will be higher.

Last season, Vergne was an F1 rookie and everyone accepted he needed time to settle in. Now he will be directly compared to Ricciardo.

There is a reasonable chance one of them will be in a Red Bull in 2014 and the other will not be in F1 at all, particularly with the highly rated Antonio Felix da Costa waiting in the wings.

Vergne's strength last year was in the races – and he did score more points than Ricciardo – but qualifying was a weakness. He'll need to rectify that if he is to come out on top in the intra-team scrap.

 

#19 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)

Debut: Britain 2011
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 0
Points: 10
Titles: 0
2012: 18th
Click here for full stats

Now in his second full F1 season, Ricciardo by his own admission cannot afford to simply replicate his 2012 form. Stunning, rather than solid, will be required.

Not that it's needed, but he has a considerable carrot and stick for motivation: impress and the second Red Bull seat might just be waiting; disappoint and it might be the F1 exit that looms large on his horizon.

It is with those potential scenarios lurking in the background that Ricciardo will take on team-mate Vergne in one of the most intriguing internecine battles of the season.

Ricciardo had the measure of the Frenchman in qualifying last year, beating him 16-4, but came home second in the championship, six points adrift. How he and Vergne square up this year will have a big bearing on the futures of both men.

 

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F1's 'new teams' may no longer be new to the sport, but it has become clear that they still have a step to go before they can become regular challengers to the established outfits.

Caterham heads into 2013 with a feeling of almost starting over again – having moved to its new Leafield factory last year, operating under new team boss Cyril Abiteboul and signing two new young drivers.

Early indications from the CT03 do not suggest the outfit is about to make a big jump forward just yet; but there is very much a work-in-progress attitude at Caterham as it focuses on infrastructure changes to get sorted first before it addresses car weaknesses.

A big update is planned for the start of the European season, which it hopes will be enough to lift it closer the midfield. Things could hot up considerably if it is enough to put some heat on the establishment by becoming a regular contender to get into Q2.

 

#20 Charles Pic (FRA)

Debut: Australia 2012
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
F. Laps: 0
Points: 0
Titles: 0
2012: 21st
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For most of the squads' three-season rivalry, moving from Marussia to Caterham would be seen as progression. But Pic is making the transition just as that power balance shifts.

While Caterham is still finding its feet with its new technical facilities and leadership structure, Pic's ex-employer Marussia has completed similar (and even more strenuous) growing pains. Based on testing hints, that could well mean Pic starts 2013 chasing the car he stepped out of at the end of last year.

Though his financial backing smoothed his climb to F1, Pic did enough to prove even in a humble Marussia last year that he is worthy of a place on the grid. Timo Glock was a great benchmark, and Pic compared better than predecessors Jerome d'Ambrosio and Lucas di Grassi.

The Frenchman was considered for 2013 by some midfield teams, and again while his sponsorship would have been a factor, there was also confidence that he had the talent to top it off.

#21 Giedo van der Garde (NLD)

Debut: Australia 2013
Wins: -
Poles: -
F. Laps: -
Points: -
Titles: -
2012: -
Click here for full stats

Older than most F1 rookies at 27, van der Garde is facing the tough task of joining what looks likely to be grand prix racing's tail-end team for his maiden year at the top level.

His junior CV does pack a little sparkle in the form of the 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 title, but is dominated by large patches of anonymity. One win in three years of Formula 3 Euro Series competition and a best championship position of fifth in four seasons of GP2 points towards a conclusion that his ultimate potential at the top level might be reached very quickly.

Add in the fact that he has been reunited with Pic – a man who finished ahead of him in the GP2 standings when they were team-mates at Addax in 2010 – and van der Garde appears to have a daunting year ahead of him.

But he has shown grit and determination throughout his career and will not allow such hardships to get the better of him.

 

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The ex-Virgin operation has the smallest budget of any team but after three difficult seasons, culminating in the agonising loss of 10th place in the constructors' championship with a few laps of 2012 to go, there are positive signs.

This doesn't mean that Marussia is going to be snapping at the heels of the midfield, or fighting for points, but under the technical directorship of Pat Symonds, whose paddock ban has now ended, there are real hints of progress.

The first target is to beat Caterham on merit. Last year, the green team was consistently ahead and good fortune played into Marussia's hands, but pre-season testing suggests that being best of the two surviving 'new teams' is a realistic objective.

No team has made so big a step forward with its car pace as Marussia, with Jules Bianchi lapping almost 3.5 seconds faster at Barcelona in testing than the car managed in qualifying last year. One of the key additions is the Williams-supplied KERS unit, which was at the heart of Caterham's advantage last year.

The termination of Luiz Razia's contract on the eve of the season is a financial blow, but in Jules Bianchi it has acquired a stronger replacement.

 

#22 Jules Bianchi (FRA)

Debut: Australia 2013
Wins: -
Poles: -
F. Laps: -
Points: -
Titles: -
2012: -
Click here for full stats

Bianchi's 2013 pre-season preparations could hardly be considered calm and settled. He started the testing season driving for Force India on occasions but not knowing if it would lead to a drive, and then lost out in a shootout with Sutil that had as much to do with off-track factors as what either was capable of in the cockpit.

The fact that he has ended up with a race seat at the back of the grid could in fact work in his favour long-term. If Ferrari – and maybe, in the future, Force India again – like the look of the Frenchman when it comes to deciding their line-ups for 2014 and beyond, a season spent out of the limelight but getting to grips with life as a F1 driver could be the perfect platform for Bianchi. His late deal certainly made the back of the grid that little bit more interesting.

 

#23 Max Chilton (GBR)

Debut: Australia 2013
Wins: -
Poles: -
F. Laps: -
Points: -
Titles: -
2012: -
Click here for full stats

Chilton's F1 rookie season suddenly looked a bit more complicated when Bianchi replaced Razia to become his third team-mate in little over a month, and all before the young Briton had even started a grand prix.

Against a team-mate of Glock's experience, expectations would have been low and Chilton could have learned quietly. The Razia battle would have been a more intriguing head-to-head between drivers in similar positions. But Bianchi is both a rival rookie and significantly better prepared.

Chilton's extra few tests with the team do not compare to the amount of Friday mileage Bianchi has racked up, nor, more crucially, to the background knowledge and comfort in F1 practices that he will have obtained through his stints with Ferrari and Force India.

Chilton did not emerge as a potential F1 driver until last year, when a breakthrough GP2 season showed how his pace had developed. An unusual junior career had taken him straight from T-Cars to British F3 (with an LMP1 appearance along the way!), and he clearly needed time to blossom. His race craft still needed polish last year, but at least his speed was now apparent.

[Afroman]

Really looking forward to this 

[The King]

 http://gppredictor.com/

 

ViP2 League: http://gppredictor.com/league/join/code/9de43ebab67f64e06d8c031244200a4c

[Fighting Weight]

Vettle been replying to himself in this thread more than I do in Fight Club

[The King]

BEWARE THE QUIET TESTERS

Red Bull has always taken a low-key approach to pre-season testing, this year more than ever.

During the 12 days in Spain, the RB9 didn't run in anger with much less than half a tank of fuel, and in the all-important second half of the final Barcelona test did a surprisingly small amount of running.

The either indicates problems, or supreme confidence. Recent history would suggest the latter.

The car is categorically not more than two seconds off the pace, as a glance at the headline times would suggest.

Extrapolating from the laps the car did do, it's possible to conclude that Red Bull is a couple of tenths faster than the chasing pack, but this is based on too many assumptions and too small a margin to be confident this is a predictor for the season to come.

Melbourne is far from the most representative circuit on the calendar, but this weekend Red Bull will finally show its hand. But, whether or not it's at the front, beware of jumping to conclusions.

HAMILTON AT MERCEDES

Lewis Hamilton's switch to Mercedes is the story of 2013. Testing suggests the new car is, at the very least, a step forward over its predecessor and its strong showing at Barcelona has led some to predict a debut win for the Hamilton/Mercedes combination.

This is definitely not out of the question, although it's perhaps a little too much to ask for a team to make a big enough leap forward to go from struggling to match the Saubers and Force Indias at the end of last season to setting the pace, without the help of a major rule change.

But there's no reason why Hamilton – not to mention team-mate Nico Rosberg – can't be in the mix this weekend.

Given where Mercedes was in the second half of 2012, if the team can run strongly in the top six and fight for a podium, it would represent a superb start to the season.

And with Albert Park being a circuit that won't punish a slight downforce deficit, or a rear-tyre degradation problem, as much as some, the cards might just fall in Mercedes' favour and allow an even better result.

TYRE TROUBLES

Track temperatures will be higher during the Australian Grand Prix weekend than they were during testing – albeit not by as much as the recent Melbourne heatwave initially promised. So it won't be until Friday practice that teams are able to get a proper handle on the 2013 rubber in more 'natural' conditions.

As is now traditional, there were predictions of 100-stop races and tyres that last only two corners during testing. This is, of course, nonsense. Pirelli is aiming for two/three-stop races and with high temperatures expected in Melbourne, it will be fascinating to see how the tyres degrade and wear.

Plenty of teams have forecast an unpredictable start to the season, so any squad able to get on top of the rubber before the rest could find itself very well- placed indeed.

McLAREN'S CAUTIOUS START

Despite showing very well early in pre-season testing, McLaren became more underwhelming as time went on. The drivers talked of the car being difficult to understand and, on track, it appeared to suffer from an understeer problem.

The team has talked up the long-term potential of its aggressive MP4-28 design, but has warned it might take a few races to hit form. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh has set his sights for Melbourne relatively low, talking simply of points as the target.

Rest assured, internal expectations will be higher. Not only are there question marks over whether the car will be transformed by running at higher track temperatures, but there's also doubt about the potency of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez in qualifying trim.

If McLaren does struggle, expect there to be plenty of scrutiny of a team that's found it hard to turn regular wins into titles over the past decade.

FERRARI'S STRONGER START

The Ferrari F138 didn't look like the best car during pre-season testing, but it wasn't far off. In 2012, Fernando Alonso had a fight on his hands even to get his car into Q3, but this year the red machine at least looks capable of being near the front.

There is a suspicion that the car isn't quite there in terms of rear-end downforce. Certainly, at Barcelona there were signs of the rear running out of grip a little earlier than some of its rivals did.

But with Ferrari promising to run more new parts than most during Friday practice, that picture could change.

Also, keep an eye on Felipe Massa. The Brazilian finished last season very strongly, having looked dead-in-the-water as a grand prix driver in the first part of the year.

If he can keep up that form, he could prove to be a key ally to Alonso in the Spaniard's quest for a third world title.

RAIKKONEN THE DARK HORSE

last year didn't quite go as planned. He started way down the grid after a timing problem in qualifying – triggered by a delay to change a visor – meant that he didn't get the final lap he was anticipating.

But things are very different this year. Raikkonen is now race-sharp and has proved himself capable of winning. The new Lotus, too, looks to be a competitive machine and is expected to be in the thick of the five-team scrap at the front.

A strong start for Lotus is critical. It doesn't pack the same financial punch as the four teams that it aspires to mix it with and good results early on will make a big difference.

WILL THE WILD MEN DELIVER?

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado both proved they had the speed last season, but also became embroiled in far too many incidents.

The pair clashed on the second lap of the Australian Grand Prix, putting third- place starter Grosjean out of the race, while Maldonado crashed out of sixth place on the final lap. A repeat will not go down well.

Both need a confidence-boosting start to the season, for their own performances and to avoid getting drawn back into the maelstrom of controversy that engulfed them at times last season.

After all, if they can cut out the errors, both can be formidable competitors.

THE BATTLE AT THE BACK

Caterham and Marussia showed in testing that the gulf between them and the midfield remains, but there does appear to have been a shift in the competitive balance between the pair.

While Marussia came within a few laps of beating Caterham to 10th in the championship last year, the green team was the stronger over the course of the season.

In 2013, it looks like Marussia is well-placed to start as the dominant force in the battle at the back.

With the addition of KERS, supplied by Williams, Marussia showed in testing that it had the legs of Caterham. If that pattern continues in Melbourne, it will set the stage for a fascinating, if low-profile, confrontation.

inShare

 

[M.Dot]

It's finally back. I'm watching the first practice. Mandem think I'm nuts lol.

[The King]

Predictions for the weekend?

Webber win

Vettel fastest lap

Vettel Pole

[Lenny]

Random winner.

Lewis will come top 3

[Sinister]

I dunno what will happen just yet; think all the testing will go out the window after the first corner.

 

I'm just hyped its back!

[A walmart bag]

My boy Lewis to silence all the haters and doubters this season.

[Lenny]

Locked into qually and its pouring down with rain.

Might go back to bed

[Sinister]

Get me proper pissed but tomorrow should be good.