F1 2014 Season Preview: Marussia - Making the leap?

It says something that Marussia and Caterham are still sometimes referred to as the 'new' teams in F1. We are in fact about to start year five of their F1 existences, and the lingering perceptions of their newness is likely related to their being unfulfilled. Four full seasons down the line and the questions still swirl: when will they score their first point? When will they get on the pace of the midfield pack?

Photo: Octane Photography

The sneering that they face is rather unfair though. After all, both entered the sport promised a swingeing budget cap and technical freedom as a consequence, which subsequently were reneged on. And in F1 more than anything else you get what you pay for, and Marussia's budget continues to be around a third of the level of those further ahead. And what would we rather have, that the team spends money it doesn't have and thus encounters problems à la Lotus?

Yet even with these considerations there is evidence that Marussia might be poised to answer at least one of the questions outlined in the opening paragraph. Perhaps both.

A consequence of the new rules for 2014 is that reliability is no longer the given that we've grown used to, therefore many have speculated that if a Marussia (or Caterham) can make the finish in Melbourne it'll probably end the team's points drought. Moreover, this combined with the vagaries of establishing the order of the constructors' table means that a single strong finish while all this is going on could likely ensure tenth place in the final rankings (and the millions that go with it) in itself, with the season barely started. Indeed this is something that Marussia last year played for and got: focussing on reliability rather than performance in pre-season, and the P13 finish of Jules Bianchi in round two in Malaysia was what ensured the team's tenth placing ahead of Caterham in the ultimate standings.

Yet it didn't look in this pre-season that Marussia was poised to repeat the trick. The team was rather overwhelmed with car troubles in the first two tests, with the MR03 completing but 55 laps in the first eight days, a total that lagged way behind even those of Lotus (who missed the first test of course) and Red Bull (whose woes were well-documented). A few in response started to hypothesise that the new engine regulations and the associated complexities of the units must be a particular challenge for the small teams. Perhaps it would get the better of them.

But the team seemed to pull the iron out of the fire in the final Bahrain test, achieving a total of 258 laps which is testament to clearing many of the reliability problems. A few still linger, such an electrical problem the manifested of the final day, but things certainly look a bit more promising. Even more encouraging is that the car looks handy. Many commented upon the MR03's launch that it appeared neat and tidy, the sort that a team with its more modest resources would look to produce ideally, as well as well-balanced on track (though perhaps still a little short of downforce). And once it started to run properly too it looked quick: Jenson Button for one commented that in high-speed corners it appeared a major advance on previous Marussias, while Max Chilton in the final test set an impressive 1m 36.8 mark, good for the 14th best time of anyone, and better than the quickest times of Button, Vettel and Gutierrez (as well as was within 0.6 seconds of the best Marussia time from Bahrain Q1 last year, despite the various restrictions since). Some have even started to whisper that we could be set for the long-awaited advent of Marussia genuinely being on the pace of the midfield; of bridging the chasm that has gaped for four seasons.

If this is indeed so perhaps it shouldn't surprise us. While Pat Symonds left the team mid last season to some regret, he left behind a strong and restructured outfit. The team now has a Ferrari power unit finally, which has delighted the team as a massive improvement on the cumbersome and underpowered Cosworths. It also means that the squad gets Ferrari gearboxes, freeing up resource to be used elsewhere, as well as benefits from full manufacturer backing for the first time. And Marussia has long since been preparing for 2014 and its regulation changes: a team of four has been devoted to it entirely since mid-2012, and gradually the number of staff focussing on it increased over time, to become close to singular attention for the team by mid last year.

And most broadly of all the Marussia squad is one of a committed collection of real racers, those who can be counted upon to fight hard and make the maximum of its relatively meagre rations, as well as display a healthy willingness to think out of the box, something that could well serve it well in a new formula wherein much will be unexplored.

Look out for Marussia this year. The old certainties may not be so certain after all.

Max Chilton - Car #4

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We all know the one about Max Chilton, his father's money and its many implications. But while this backing definitely has assisted his move up the ladder, on one level there's been something of the double-edged sword about it. Throughout his motorsport career it has tended to be that Chilton has been in formulae rather ahead of time, often the youngest competing therein which has had a detrimental impact on results, at least initially. This was the way of it for him in F3, and then in his first two years in GP2 he was an also-ran. But in his third year he became a consistent front-runner, only champion Davide Valsecchi was a better qualifier and he won two feature races in fine style (the one at Singapore particularly so).

Was some of this at play too in Chilton's debut year in the sport's highest echelon last season? He was almost never near Jules Bianchi in qualifying; Chilton's deficit to him averaged out at close to a second over the piece. And while things were a bit closer in the races still Chilton only finished ahead twice when both made it to the end. Chilton also ended the year with the unlikely kudos of having finished all 19 rounds, and indeed it can be said that he didn't do a great deal wrong in terms of messing up (an egregious swipe of Pastor Maldonado in Monaco, triggering an accident that stopped the race, aside). But perhaps also it's something of a condemnation that this was his campaign's grandest attribute. The suspicion lingered that a more worthwhile compromise between not erring and going quickly should have been found.

But supporting the initial point, and as with most rookies, he showed signs of improvement as the season progressed and come Monza he was running close to Bianchi, while in Suzuka he had his crowning glory of the year by qualifying ahead of his team mate, albeit aided by various problems for the guy from across the garage. He gets another go this year at Marussia too, with a team keen to maintain continuity and which has expressed the belief that Chilton did indeed make great strides as 2013 progressed. The man himself sounds bullish too at the challenges that await in 2014, insisting that the complexities of the new formula and the requirements of the drivers to think on their feet will suit him. He has a highly-rated yardstick in Bianchi that if he matches, or even beats, with some regularity would reflect well on his own performances, as well as a car that just might let him fight with those further up the pecking order. Now it's over to Chilton to prove that the hypothesis outlined above is correct.

Jules Bianchi - Car #17

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Twelve months ago we seemed to have been waiting a while for Jules Bianchi to make good on his 'next big thing' status. Ferrari rated him highly, and had been carefully nurturing him, but things didn't quite seem to be coming together.

Two campaigns in GP2 added up to two third place finishes in the standings, which can be interpreted as good-ish rather than seizing the moment. Further, his form wavered somewhat in that time, and Ferrari had to be parachuted in at one point for emergency guidance. He then moved on to Formula Renault 3.5 for 2012, and while it is correct to say that he was unlucky that his championship rival Robert Frijns put him out in the last round, depriving him a shot at the title, some say he should have been in a stronger position going into the race, particularly as he spun away points in the round before. While despite Bianchi in the same year having been a test driver and sometime Friday practice runner for Force India the Silverstone squad passed him over for a 2013 race seat in preference to Adrian Sutil, admitting that it believed Bianchi could have done with another year of testing and practice.

But at the 11th hour Bianchi got his F1 break for 2013 after all: he was selected as a last minute super-sub at Marussia after first choice Luiz Razia's money didn't show up, and before anyone knew it the doubts were blown away as he won an awful lot of new admirers with his drives. Unlike most debutants he was right on the money right away and impressed his team - and most others - from the very off with his pace, intelligence and commitment. In Melbourne he left the rest of the B class far behind, and moreover bothered Maldonado early on in the race as well as (aided by a late tyre change) set a fastest lap that all but matched Vettel's. And then in Malaysia in his first ever dry qualifying session his effort resulted in a few jaws dropping around the Marussia garage. More importantly it set up him up for a thirteenth place finish that as it transpired guaranteed his team a lucrative tenth place in the constructors' table. His consistent pace in the Barcelona race was the result of another stellar effort - he was even held up by Vettel for a while (though again aided by varying stages of tyre life).

Bianchi last year looked to be a driver hard to fault: not only is he quick and consistent but his attitude is good, while his technical feedback was also considered especially strong by his employers. However, close observers of Bianchi's rise to the top note that perhaps he is one prone to 'pressure errors', particularly when challenged by a team mate. It remains to be seen if this will be exposed more in a season wherein his team mate presumably will be more up to speed and Bianchi might be fighting among other cars with greater regularly. But still - and despite the fact that a bigger team has yet to take a punt on him - he starts the year with his stock high, and with a more competitive car than last year is well-poised to demonstrate further that he is deserving a move up the order.

F1 2014 Season Preview: Williams - Up where they belong

And to think that pre-season testing this year was supposed to be cryptic. Plenty of stories have come out of it: Mercedes's strides; Ferrari's operating beneath the radar; Red Bull's woe. But ranking with any or all of these is that Williams appears to be back. Right back among the leaders. A place it knows well.

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Yes, we've said this sort of thing at the outset of a few recent seasons; cynics might say that it's an annual event. Indeed you just have to rewind 12 months to find all in the team gushing about the grand potential of the new FW35, potential that evaporated when it came into contact with air at Melbourne for round one. The likes of Adam Parr, Toto Wolff, Mark Gillan and Mike Coughlan were supposed to herald the team's long-awaited up turn. All have since left, for varying reasons. And despite the odd false dawn, most notably Pastor Maldonado's victory in Barcelona in 2012, last year, with just five points claimed and sitting a long way off the back of the midfield pack, it seemed that the giant was no nearer awaking from its slumber that stretches all the way back to 2004. But, really, this time it seems to be different. Everything seems to be in place.

The accession of Claire Williams to Deputy Team Principal, and thus plug the Parr/Wolff shaped gap in the management structure, was one for the romanticists given she is Sir Frank's daughter. But the flipside was that - particularly given that the late and recently-departed Lady Virginia Williams had reckoned that Claire should be Frank's long term successor - there was a risk the appointment was based more on emotion than logic. That may yet prove to be the case, but it has to be said that Claire's made a very good start.

First off there's been prolific recruitment of new technical staff (Coughlan exited last season). Pat Symonds given what happened in Singapore in 2008 remains a controversial figure but neither his skills nor his track record - championships delivered with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso - can be argued with, and he's in as Chief Technical Officer. In too have come the highly-rated Rod Nelson as well as Dave Wheater from Lotus; Shaun Whitehead from Red Bull, and Rob Smedley from Ferrari as Head of Vehicle Performance (regrettably not as Felipe Massa's race engineer for those who wanted his legendary radio transitions with Massa continued) among others.

The team looks rather in the money too. Pastor Maldonado - the relationship rather soured - left taking his PDVSA backing with him, but the team secured a pay off from the oil company that means it's not lost financially out in the immediate term. Petrobras, probably aided by Felipe Massa coming in as driver, has arrived as a sponsor. But best of all the team has secured title sponsorship from Martini, an iconic presence in F1 and motorsport heritage more widely, in what Zak Brown who brokered it described as a 'multi-million, multi-year' deal. Not for nothing, Sir Frank Williams says that he now has a 'very generous budget'. It was a coup too, not only was it the first new title sponsor in F1 - not related to the team's ownership or a driver - in a while, Williams also reportedly beat off competition from Ferrari and McLaren to seal the deal. And this has had the auxiliary benefit of allowing Williams - perhaps uniquely outside of the teams at the very top - to sign the best two drivers available rather than have to inspect how much cash is in their respective briefcases. The team as a result has a strong pairing, and a blend of youth and experience, in Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

And almost by accident Williams has got itself the best engine. It came about as Red Bull thought it beneficial for Toro Rosso to have a Renault engine like the A team, Renault didn't want to supply five squads, and Williams was the one without a seat when the music stopped, thus forcing the team into Mercedes's arms. But boy did Williams' numbers come in on this one if testing is anything to go by.

Best of all the FW36 for this season appears almost the best of the bunch on pace, and probably the best of the bunch on reliability. From Jerez the machine has impressed in how it handles, with a particularly responsive front end. And in Bahrain not only did Felipe Massa set the best single lap time of everyone, Vallteri Bottas's race simulation earlier in the test bore comparison even with the standard-bearer Mercedes. It suggests that both in qualifying and the race the Merc will have a serious rival in Melbourne.

And it may even be behind on reliability. Not until half an hour of testing remained did a Williams cause its first red flag from a breakdown; the solitary red flag is the fewest of all teams. It also completed a full 4,100km with a single power unit without having to change internal components. Its cooling figures - remarkably given it's not the works team - have been the best of all the Merc runners reportedly. The team gave the impression of being furthest on in its testing programme (Symonds commented that the team completed everything it planned to do - Williams might be unique in this), even devoting a morning of the Bahrain first test to practising pitstops. A reliable car and a team that is well-drilled operationally is exactly what we have come to expect from a team headed by Pat Symonds. Perhaps best of all  - and unlike McLaren - the evidence is that the team has if anything got more competitive as testing has gone on; its lap times more potent; its reliability more impressive.

Further ahead though there is the question of whether Williams can keep up with the in-season development of the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and a resurgent Red Bull. The Grove team's budget is strong but it's still not in the league of those of the three mentioned. But by comparison with last season it is rather a nice problem to have.

Before the start of pre-season testing few were talking much about Williams. After the opening test in Jerez the team was being spoken of as dark horses. After the two Bahrain get-togethers the consensus was that if Williams doesn't come away from Melbourne with a podium finish, at least, then it would likely be something of a disappointment.

Felipe Massa - Car #19

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The latter-day woes of Felipe Massa are one of the great mysteries of modern F1. We know that in ideal circumstances he can be devastating: as seen most notably in late 2008 - such as his totemic pole lap in Singapore - when he oh-so nearly scaled the high peak of the world drivers' championship. But that was all a long time ago, and it seems that for most of the meantime he's barely produced form even close to that again.

Everyone has their opinion on what explains it all: perhaps his head injuries sustained in Hungary in 2009 was the watershed; perhaps it was the recent environment at Ferrari wherein he clearly was 'the other driver' (with its many implications), and perhaps related to this we know that Massa's form seems particularly vulnerable to confidence. Whatever was the case, while there have been false dawns, while the pace has been shown on occasion, it's not been there with consistency. Some races you wouldn't know he was there; other races he'd be competitive but his pace would taper off unfathomably for a spell; elsewhere his weekends would be spoiled by spins or accidents. And on the bottom line the chasm between his results and that of his team mate Fernando Alonso cannot be denied.

It continued that way last year. While it started positively, with him having a run of out-qualifying Alonso and a few spoke of him 'getting under his skin', it rather unravelled quickly and a series of mid-year accidents and other mistakes - starting at Monaco wherein he appeared to repeat an identical crash in the race as one in practice that forced him to sit out qualifying - resulted eventually in his being dropped for 2014. He did display something of the freedom of the damned after that and had a mini-upturn, though the vices already mentioned were still sometimes on show.

And perhaps in a sense the Williams opportunity for this year was fortunate, in that he - unusually for modern F1 - found a team further down prepared to select on the basis of talent and experience rather than money, and Massa was the best available to them. But on the evidence of pre-season testing Massa has landed squarely on his feet.

It may well prove that Williams was similarly fortunate: after all, beware a driver with a good car and a point to prove. This season should answer a lot of the questions we have about Felipe Massa.

Valtteri Bottas - Car #77

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Valtteri Bottas arrived in F1 last year with a big reputation, and not even a year with the struggling FW35 dragged it down. Neither did a paucity of results compared with what was anticipated by both driver and team at the outset.

The Williams team - as well as those watching on - were impressed by Bottas's resolute and constructive attitude in the face of the technical woes (and it was held in notable contrast with that of his team mate). And, as we tend to look in such situations for our guide, Bottas showed raw pace - over a single lap at least - in comparison with his intra-team yardstick of Pastor Maldonado, out-qualifying him by 11 to 8 (and for all of Pastor's flaws if he's anything he's quick). Bottas displayed assuredness in the races and in bringing the car home too: he only failed to finish twice neither of which were his fault, and what mistakes there were from him were minor. Perhaps the only note of concern from last season was that Maldonado tended to be the better race day performer: when both made it to the end the Venezuelan finished ahead nine times to Bottas's five. It's not clear what explains this but it may be something for Bottas to keep an eye on.

Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of all that Bottas was able to demonstrate in his freshman F1 campaign however was a healthy ability to seize his opportunities on the rare occasions that they come along. In Canada he took advantage of the treacherous conditions to qualify in third place in an effort that showed impressive bravery and judgement (Bottas's wet-weather skills are thought to be especially strong - sadly in 2013 he had few chances to show it), while in the Austin weekend he was a star, topping the first session of qualifying and ending up fourth in the second. That he was disappointed with his eventual ninth on the grid having made a small mistake in his final run struck everyone as a good indicator of his star quality. The following day he made good on it all with a measured and competitive run to finish eighth. His efforts in Canada and Austin alone really grabbed everyone's attention

All the while he displayed a focus and level-head that for many was redolent of Mika Hakkinen; his ability to drive at the maximum like flicking a switch when grip levels are uncertain (seen most readily in Canada's qualifying) put some in mind of Sebastian Vettel. Bottas's campaign was a determined and consistent effort, containing evidence that he ticks most or all of the boxes. And now it appears for 2014 that he has a car in which he can prove as much.

F1 2014 Season Preview: Toro Rosso - Hard to read

Toro Rosso has never been any ordinary F1 team. Aside from the bit we all know - that it's the Red Bull B squad - or perhaps even because of it in part, it's always been one hard to read. And for a few reasons at the outset of the 2014 campaign the Faenza squad seems a bit harder to read even than usual.

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Part of the confusion arises possibly from that Toro Rosso still seems a team in transition, of becoming one with its own aero programme rather than one, as it did up to and including 2008, that benefits from Red Bull big team hand-me-downs. The transition hasn't been a quick or easy one, indeed Giorgio Ascanelli - leading an aero programme not reckoned to be his forte - fell on his sword in 2012 and was replaced as Technical Director by the highly rated James Key. And Key appears still to be seeking to make sense of it all: beefing up the technical staff, overseeing investment in the facilities as well as doing his best to integrate the team's two bases in Bicester and Faenza. But by admission last year was a holding season while all of this was going on. The team did rise a place in the constructors' table, but that in truth owed mainly to Williams' woes - Toro Rosso didn't in the broadest sense move forward to any great extent. Adding to the confusion the 2013 car seemed an inconsistent one: sometimes qualifying well inside the top 10, other times struggling to scrape out of Q1.

And as we stand now the confusion has been cranked up further, by the STR9 being one of those 2014 cars suffering a difficult birth due to the struggling Renault power unit. When Toro Rosso switched from Ferrari to Renault for this year it seemed non-contentious; indeed it seemed sensible given it would allow greater scope for the A team and B team to cross-fertilise, to develop in unison. But in the immediate term at least Toro Rosso must look on the decision ruefully, with the car behind where it wants to be, mainly down to a lack of running, particularly early in pre-season testing, which is related to difficulties with the power unit. In Jerez, as was the way for all Renault powered cars (that had deigned to turn up), it could barely complete a lap without succumbing to apparent overheating. Plus Toro Rosso had the peculiar problem that the car sounded rather odd when circulating on track, rather like a bag of bits being shaken around the place.

Things improved as testing went on. After the first two tests - one in Jerez and one in Bahrain - the team seemed well in the doldrums and was stopping only a syllable short in its press releases of saying it was all dastardly Renault's fault. But in the final four days in Bahrain the car achieved much more distance than in the previous eight with 271 laps. But even here it's hard to judge how well the team was doing accounting for the Renault restraints, as it has more kilometres on the clock overall than its sister Red Bull or Lotus, but fewer than the similarly-powered Caterham. The chassis has been hard to read too. It looks neat (aside from an awful nose that even raised some mirth from Ann Summers' Twitter feed), with the odd example of innovative thinking on show such as still seeking to get aerodynamic effect from the exhaust. But until the engine's at full chat and at the full extent of its torque it's impossible to know for certain how it will behave.

But Jean-Eric Vergne had good words to say about the STR9 at the end of testing: saying that he 'had a really good feeling from the car', and the team was at least bringing upgrades as pre-season went on: most notably a new (if still unsightly) nose as well as revised suspension. But the lap times themselves still appeared underwhelming on the face of it, around the mid-grid sort of level. A few reckon nevertheless that come Melbourne it'll be the quickest of the Red Bull pair of teams, which will be a feather in the cap. It won't stay that way however, given the A team's mammoth budget and development potential. More broadly Toro Rosso, whatever it's been doing right, is in the same position as the other Renault teams of waiting and hoping for the power unit problems to be sorted. And also hope that by the time it happens that its rival teams aren't out of sight in the points table.

Jean-Eric Vergne - Car #25

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Jean-Eric Vergne was at Toro Rosso as an audition for a Red Bull vacancy. It came along last year, and he goofed it, losing out to his team mate Daniel Ricciardo. So, that's pretty much that for him? Well, not necessarily.

The Red Bull collective continues to rate Vergne highly, and the fact that he's been retained at Toro Rosso for this year demonstrates as much (we know that this particular young drivers' programme feels no obligation to hang onto drivers - at Toro Rosso or anywhere else - for longer than strictly necessary). Indeed, for the most part it has considered Vergne to have the more potential than his contemporary Ricciardo.

So, what went wrong for Vergne? Broadly speaking, it fell into two categories. A big problem for him, both in absolute terms and relative to his team mate and promotion rival Ricciardo, was that the knack of qualifying in the dry continued to elude him last season. He didn't chuck the thing off on a Saturday with the regularity that he did in 2012 (though he did run off the track on his big quali efforts in Silverstone and Monza), but it remained the case that he was habitually clear tenths, and places, down on his stable mate. And these tended to spoil his weekends, resulting in races that appeared mediocre to the outsider due to being mired in traffic for the most part. He did tend to move forward on a Sunday, while Ricciardo moved back towards him in turn, but his qualifying yips ensured that the damage was done.

Yet possibly his other problem was even bigger: that in the rounds from Silverstone onwards last campaign when everyone knew as a fact that an A team seat was available while Ricciardo reached for the stars and got noticed, Vergne seemed to regress at the vital moment  Many concluded that he didn't respond well to a pressure situation - either of a qualifying lap or seizing the opportunity of the vacated Red Bull drive when it finally materialised. Hardly what will convince a top-level team to take a punt on you.

Nevertheless Vergne's best performances and results at Monaco and Canada last year showed that with a good starting slot he could be excellent - all pace and crisp passing. But it wasn't coincidence that both of the cases mentioned had wet qualifying sessions, when Vergne's ability to improvise with the grip below him uncertain serves him well (in a similar vein, he's often relatively quick early in Friday practice when the track is green).

But Vergne recognises the problem, and has spoken impressively this year of changing his environment and improving his mental approach, to achieve a mindset akin to those of his F3 and Formula Renault 3.5 years when he had much success. And if this can unlock his potential at vital moments with regularity then you would have thought it will ensure his F1 future. Possibly not at Red Bull, but somewhere.

Daniil Kvyat - Car #26

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It's fair to say that the selection of 19 year old Russian Daniil Kvyat for the 2014 Toro Rosso race drive was not widely foreseen. Antonio Felix da Costa as far as most looking in from out of the camp were concerned was a shoo-in for the drive, and had been so for a while. Some got cynical too, stating that Kvyat's accession was all about money: there's a Russian Grand Prix now after all, and someone worked out that in that vast country the soft drinks market was worth $14.5 billion in 2011. But just as with the selection of Daniel Ricciardo - not Kimi Raikkonen - to fill the empty chair in the big team, despite cynicism there is evidence beneath the exterior that this selection of Kvyat was in fact made for all of the right reasons.

Perhaps it's one of those decisions that - if such a thing is possible - should simultaneously surprise us and not surprise us. Red Bull's not afraid to go against external expectations as intimated. But more specifically the feeling within the Red Bull young drivers' programme is that Kvyat is the most talented of all of them on the way up (including da Costa), with tremendous natural pace allied to other skills, and Red Bull it seems has decided to cut to the chase by throwing him the keys. Red Bull kingmaker Helmut Marko has spoken highly of Kvyat's 'talent, passion and work ethic', Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost has spoken in glowing terms of his brain power and ability to perform under pressure, while Kvyat's technical feedback given in the Silverstone young drivers' test for Toro Rosso in July (depsite binning it) apparently also seriously impressed. As for the risk of a young man such as him evaporating under the sheer glare of being a F1 pilot, Marko has also noted that Kvyat's mental strength was a key reason for his being selected. His positive and constructive reaction to difficulties sets him apart, including from da Costa. Out of the car Kvyat appears articulate and mature; respectful but not overawed.

Kvyat benefited from timing too: at decision time he was in the midst of a rocket-like rise up the GP3 order, which shortly afterwards was rewarded with the championship, something he achieved despite having to juggle his efforts with F3 outings. He also impressed those important to be impressed in these F3 appearances too, particularly on his debut in the category when he stuck his car on pole at Hockenheim after only a shakedown test, and this further was just the first of a series of pole positions. Add in the fact that the heir apparent da Costa had a disappointing and patchy year in Formula Renault 3.5, and the decision was sealed.

And since getting the gig he's done nothing to suggest that he's not worthy of the step up. He's had two FP1 outings in a Toro Rosso late last season: in Austin he set a best mark just two tenths shy of Ricciardo's, while in Interlagos he circulated confidently and quickly in foul conditions. As for the matter of the 19 year old Kvyat being too young and raw to take full advantage of this opportunity? Well, starting out at his age is nothing new, and some of the parallels aren't bad for Kvyat: he in fact is older than Fernando Alonso was when he made his F1 race bow, as well as in Melbourne will be a matter of days younger than Vettel was when he made his own debut. There are plenty of earlier examples of F1 drivers with worthy careers at the top starting out at this point or sooner in terms of age and experience.

Of course, Kvyat must perform and quickly, as he's part of a young drivers' programme not know for its patience. But in the here and now there's next to nothing to suggest that he won't.

F1 2014 Season Preview: Sauber - Swiss Stoicism

Saying 'Sauber' in a word association test with an F1 fan would likely elicit responses in the following areas: midfielders, solid, stoic, dependable, upstanding, non-contentious, somehow perennial. A rock in the middle of the F1 whirlpool. Nothing wrong with that, indeed the sport needs its sort. And somehow after several years as a fully paid up member of the piranha club its founder and former Team Principal Peter Sauber, probably uniquely, is virtually without an enemy in the paddock. Even the name is appropriate - Sauber means 'clean' in German.

Photo: Octane Photography

There has been the odd variation from this norm: such as plucking Kimi Raikkonen from Formula Renault to give him his F1 debut in 2001, as well as the C31 of 2012 that on occasion could sail through the field like the rest were parked. But they've been the exception. However last year too Sauber threatened to vary from character, and this time not in a good way. The team that had for as long as anyone could remember been highly fastidious got behind on its supplier payments, as well as in the retainer of its star pilot Nico Hulkenberg reportedly. This devastated Peter Sauber, a man who had dipped into his own pocket in order to save the team and its 400 jobs in 2009; a man who had always prided himself on running a steady ship; in doing things the right way. Sauber it seems was just the latest team to suffer from a sport that struggles to attract sponsors and has a financial model that concentrates wealth well away from those who are not among the few at the top. And if even Sauber can be bitten by it...

This year however the team financial's plight has been eased apparently by investment from several Russian companies (though, against some expectations, it hasn't resulted in 18-year old Sergey Sirotkin getting a race seats, him getting a reserve role instead). Plus the 'Bernie money' for the excellent 2012 points haul will be on tap this campaign too. But things for Sauber didn't necessarily appear too flush early-on in testing, with the C33 in Jerez in Gary Anderson's words looking 'born a bit premature'. It was rather challneging for its drivers to keep under control, lacking as it did both front and rear end grip (understeer in turns turning into snap oversteer). It also looked to have unstable rear braking (there have been problems with the brake-by-wire system, possibly not entirely solved), and that the Ferrari power unit appeared more torquey than the Mercedes hardly helped. Sutil and Gutierrez both had crashes. And worse a new chassis had to be produced, possibly due to a front suspension or engine-mount pickup problem.

Another regret for Sauber, at least in the immediate term, is that is that it doesn't have a Mercedes engine. And more traumatically it is a couple of its nominal rivals in the constructors' fight - Williams and Force India - that are among those given a serious boost by the German power. It can hardly be denied either that swapping Nico Hulkenberg for Adrian Sutil on the driving strength leaves the team down compared with 2013 also.

But while the team isn't overloaded with cash it does boast a good technical team as well as a wind tunnel (a legacy of the BMW days) that's one of the best there is. Therefore, the team can be counted on to develop competitively as the campaign proceeds, as it did last year when it recovered from a tricky first half to be a consistent presence well inside the top ten (sometimes with both cars) after the summer break, thanks in large part to an effective exhaust solution.

And the updates have been fairly rapid in their delivery in pre-season too, and they appeared to sort a lot of the car's handling problems. The machine looks to be reliable too, with Gutierrez sixth in the testing mileage list and Sutil eighth. And while an engine problem on the penultimate day meant that it could only complete a single lap, the team more than made up for it on the following, final, day, the two drivers getting 177 tours between them, which is reckoned to be some kind of record for the age of single car testing. Most place the Saubers just outside the top ten on pace, which should make them well-placed to score points via attrition from the off if they can make it to the finish themselves. And you can expect the team to be suitably stoic from there.

Esteban Gutierrez - Car #21

Photo: Octane Photography

The pay driver isn't quite what it used to be. Time was they would be associated with the likes of Giovanni Lavaggi - those who observers felt hardly met the minimum requirements of a driving licence let alone a superlicence (though I can hear a few screaming 'Niki Lauda' at this point). Now though there are those for whom while their money and/or associated commercial opportunities oil the wheels of their promotion, they also come possessed with decent records in the junior formulae. Not stellar or unrivalled ones perhaps; not those that would necessarily have ensured that they would have got their F1 chance without the financial considerations. But decent nonetheless.

One such case is Esteban Gutierrez, who made his F1 bow in a Sauber last year. We started the year unsure of the extent that he was better than his accompanying opportunities for pesos (despite as mentioned a reasonable junior record, including P3 in the GP2 table and GP3 and Formula BMW crowns) and we ended the year still unsure.

To repeat the point that I labour, we should not forget the unintended consequence of testing restrictions that the age of the rookie having 10,000 testing kilometres to their name Hamilton/Vettel style before they even first race is now a thing of the past. Often therefore it takes a number of race weekends for them to find their feet. But whatever was the case the first half of Gutierrez's debut year was inauspicious: made up mainly of first session eliminations in qualifying, race finishes in the teens and never getting into the same postcode as team mate Nico Hulkenberg. It was also stained by a major blot resultant of running into the back of Adrian Sutil early in the China race, the Mexican apparently declining to brake for the hairpin at the end of the long straight.

However in his defence - and in addition to the point above - learning the ropes in a disappointing car and alongside a top-drawer team mate always was likely to back him into a corner somewhat. And come the second half of the year there started to be signs that - a bit like the experience of Hulk himself in 2010 - once he got mileage of around the 10,000km mark he would start to do himself justice. In Spa and Monza he showed pace on occasion but not at the vital times of either weekend. But Singapore seemed something of a breakthrough, qualifying in the top ten with the seventh fastest time (and out-qualifying Hulk, who admittedly had technical problems, as he did so). In Korea too he got into Q3 only to be bumped down at the start thanks to someone else's accident, but at Suzuka awaited his reward - and his best race of the year - with a seventh place finish for his (or any of the 2013 rookies') first points. He also was but 20 seconds shy of his team mate at the end, and all the while showed a willingness to race and assuredness when under pressure, including from Nico Rosberg late on. The Sauber team by this stage was also talking glowingly about his rate of learning and attitude. The problem was however that after this Gutierrez rather seemed to slip back towards his old ways. Hence our confusion.

But he has got another year at Hinwil to give us a few more clues either way, Gutierrez saved apparently by the team's new Russian backers not after all insisting on a race seat for Sergey Sirotkin. Not yet anyway. And the look of horror on Monisha Kaltenborn's face when the prospect of a Gutierrez-Sirotkin line-up for 2014 was put to her in a television interview late last season left little to the imagination. But with Sirotkin nevertheless hanging around the place as a reserve driver, in combination with his own patchy debut campaign, Gutierrez does need a step up this year and to start to show his speed with greater regularity. Otherwise the probability is that F1 will turn its back on him.

Adrian Sutil - Car #99

Photo: Octane Photography

It didn't attract much comment, but late last year it was confirmed that the longest-running driver-team partnership in contemporary F1 aside from Felipe Massa and Ferrari was about to come to an end. Yes, Adrian Sutil made the sideways step from Force India to Sauber for 2014, and in so doing leaves a collective with which he dates back all the way to 2006, and to its days as Midland when he did some practice outings. And since then via the Spyker phase before moving onto its current moniker only in his year standing down in 2012 did Sutil not race for the squad.

Even though it was all change for Force India on the driver front for this year Sutil insists that his Sauber move was a proactive one, and that his deal at Hinwil was in place before Sergio Perez parachuted into his former seat. Whatever is the case though the switch had a slightly unlikely air about it, and not just because of Sutil's longevity at Silverstone: after all, he was outscored by almost two-to-one by his intra-team yardstick Paul di Resta last year (and di Resta's out of F1 on his ear). More broadly, impatient ruthless F1 has shown a recent tendency to discard those not conspicuously moving up the ladder or else bringing a load of cash (Sutil does bring some sponsorship but it's thought to be relatively small fry as these things go). Sutil by contrast has about as many lives as a cat it seems.

But still, in Adrian Sutil Sauber has a German driver joining a German-speaking team, one who is based close to the factory, and who has a good turn of speed, lots of experience, as well as is fairly solid and reliable. He continued to perform that way last season even after a year out - he also won the drive after a face-off with Jules Bianchi which suggests there's not much wrong with his pace. Sutil's impressive drives in the 2013 campaign were reasonably numerous: he provided interloper services at the front in the season-opening race in Melbourne on the way to finishing seventh (impressive even if tempered by his presence among the leaders being slightly illusory given it owed mainly to a contrary strategy, and he only finished ahead of his team mate at the end thanks to a team order); in Monaco he was particularly combative on his way to fifth place, ambushing none other than Fernando Alonso - and at Station Hairpin... - along the way; he ran among the leaders for much of the British race as well as showed spirit in fighting his way to points in Belgium; and his marathon tyre longevity achieved in India to vault him up to ninth by the end was also noteworthy.

And furthermore analysis of the best times of each weekend in 2013 showed that Sutil's were faster than team mate di Resta's on average over the year. Yet as mentioned somehow it totalled up to far fewer points than his stable mate - 48 to 29 - as well as being out-qualified 12 times to 7; thus there seemed a case that for whatever reason Sutil wasn't as adept at converting the pace that was there when it most mattered. Another legitimate criticism of Sutil is that, while he's improved on this front over time, there often seems a few too many scrapes in his repertoire too. This continued to be the case last year, evidenced by first lap contact with Massa in Bahrain, spinning in the Canadian and Korean races, a practice shunt in Japan which got him a five place grid drop because of gearbox damage as well as contact with Maldonado in Austin - that he rather disingenuously tried to blame the Venezuelan for, hoping presumably that his reputation would go before him.

F1 2014 Season Preview: Force India - Indian Summer

Never judge a book by its cover. And in the same spirit never judge an F1 season by the top level outcome. Force India last year on the face of it re-asserted itself as the clear best of the midfield bunch, in so doing equaling its best ever constructors' table finish of sixth. Yet the feeling emanating from the Silverstone camp at the end of it all was one of lingering regret, as but for a few matters - some within its control; many not - it could have been better. The considerable scalp of McLaren's might have been its too.

Photo: Octane Photography

Why? Well as Mark Hughes noted in Autocourse, Force India's 2013 experience was that of a 'conscientious pupil who had done all of his exam preparation, only for the syllabus to be changed halfway through the exam itself'. The team in Technical Director Andy Green's words put 'a huge effort' into ensuring the car had gentle tyre usage given what was known about the delicate nature of the season's Pirelli product, and this brought its rewards in the first part of the year. After the Silverstone round Force India sat pretty in fifth in the constructors' table and did so with a clear 59-37 lead on McLaren, despite missing out on even more points via Adrian Sutil puncturing a tyre against Felipe Massa during Bahrain's lap one and both cars dropping out with wheel problems in Malaysia. But as we also know, for a few reasons after Silverstone everything changed, rendering the team's previous work on the tyres largely useless. By this time too the team had shifted a lot of resource to focussing on the radical 2014 regulation changes, and it rather confused itself in response to the here and now changes too: apparently the warm conditions at Silverstone in the young drivers' test as well as the track's unusual characteristics gave the team a bum steer about the behaviour of the revised rubber, while the squad hindered itself further with a few subsequent blind alley set up changes. A mini recovery was made in the final few races of the year but by this point McLaren was but a distant speck on the horizon.

Yet it looks now that finally the team is getting some gain as a result of the pain it endured in the latter half of last season. The early switch of focus to 2014 appears to have had its effect with the VJM07 for this year, a car that gives the impression of being business-like and well-designed; one that handles well on track and is possessed with good traction. Possibly related to this it like its predecessor looks to be gentle on the tyres too, evidenced by is often improving on its time on the second lap of a stint compared with the first. Even with Pirelli keeping things further from the edge this year this will be a benefit.

And of course, the Force India is one of the boats that has been lifted by the Mercedes power unit rising tide. This also is the first year of a technical tie-up with Mercedes (rather than McLaren) more generally, part of what Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley calls the start of a 'new five-year programme'. Whatever is the case, given how the Silver Arrows are flying right now teaming up with them cannot be a bad thing. Early in testing though it appeared the VJM07 was the least well-prepared of all of the Merc runners. Almost alone of the four it did little running in the first three Jerez days and appeared further behind the others in its programme for much of the duration. Even with testing over its total mileage lags behind its three similarly-powered rivals. But by the time the 12 days were done Force India appeared to have licked such reliability problems in large part, and frequently was showing handy pace too: Sergio Perez topping the times on the first two days of the Bahrain get together, which followed on from Nico Hulkenberg similarly topping the charts during the first Bahrain test's day one.

All of this should have a few implications. The expectation is that Force India at the very least will start the season with a par score being both cars in the top ten - the most optimistic assessments has its machine as the second best out there behind only the imperious Mercedes works team. Healthy points hauls early in the campaign can therefore be expected, and if achieved will likely have the auxiliary benefit of putting them realistically out of sight in the constructors' fight of some of its nominal rivals such as Sauber and Toro Rosso almost before the campaign has begun (and of course it's this table that the prize money is based on). The team adding to its solitary podium finish - as a result of Giancarlo Fisichella's second place in Spa in 2009 - seems within its grasp too.

More generally too we can expect from Force India as always a determined collective of racers that will make the best of what they have and shun outside distractions (in a similar vein to Team Enstone). And its pair of drivers is one that would improve most on the grid - particularly in the case of Nico Hulkenberg who more and more appears one who can rank alongside just about anyone out there right now. Set yourself for an Indian Summer.

Sergio Perez - Car #11

Photo: Octane Photography

We all know the one about the Chinese word for 'crisis' being composed of two characters, one signifying 'danger' and the other 'opportunity' (though apparently the claim is fallacious). But the relationship works in the opposite direction too: that opportunities bring their potential dangers and possible crises. And so it is especially in F1: if you get your opportunity you'd better make sure you make good on it, otherwise your stock will sink rather lower than it was when the opportunity came along in the first place. This very narrative played out for Sergio Perez in 2013, who had his Opportunity Knocks moment at McLaren 12 months ago only for his employers to end the relationship after but a season; thus leaving Perez now to try to piece his F1 career back together.

Perez got the move at an opportune moment: the vacancy opening days after he'd sailed through the field to finish second in the 2012 Italian round, which in itself followed on from two other podium runs that year. But while certainly Checo converted these in fine style, a few wondered the extent that each had come in peculiar circumstances. Some (including a few in his own team) wondered too about his consistency and tendency to get the most of the car more generally. The Woking move further had a touch of the gunshot wedding about it, of McLaren making a snap, ill-considered, judgement having been left floundering by Lewis Hamilton's unexpected decision to leave. And such doubts came flooding forth in 2013 as, while Checo's McLaren year was never awful, if never quite took off: not starting well and rather flapping around from there. Again his consistency was questionable, both from race-to-race and within races - indeed it was a phase of the Abu Dhabi race wherein his pace dropped off without explanation that resulted in McLaren finally resolving to drop him. And while wavering form is to be excepted from a young charge, McLaren too surmised that even his high points weren't really that high. Both his behaviour with other cars around and his handling of the tyres had a one-extreme-to-another quality.

Force India however decided to grab Perez as he plummeted from the McLaren third-storey window, calculating that his abilities plus his commercial/financial offering (two Mexican sponsors - Roshfrans and Claro - have since appeared on the car, while Autosport has quoted the figure of 15 million Euros) added up to more than incumbent Paul di Resta.

The team reckons too it has got a driver improved by his McLaren year despite the difficulties, both via the experience of operating within a top-line team as well as benefiting from the tutoring on offer there. And on the face of it, Perez did improve during his year in Woking. In the second part of the year he at least started to out qualify team mate Jenson Button with regularity (doing so seven times in the final nine rounds), as well as he managed to more than double his points total from 23 to 49 in the final four races. His Austin weekend was especially strong. While this year he's looked refined out on track in the VJM07 in testing: an observing Peter Windsor noted in the final Bahrain test his 'shock' that Perez 'looked as good as anyone out there...it's the best I've ever seen Sergio Perez drive...this guy looked absolutely superb...brilliant'. And, to return to the crisis-opportunity maxim, while having Nico Hulkenberg as a yardstick will be a grand challenge there's also an opportunity to, from getting close to the Hulk or even to beat him on occasion, repair much of the Woking-induced damage to his reputation. But - even though his association with pesos means the sport isn't going to shun him any time soon - it feels a lot like he needs it.

Nico Hulkenberg - Car #27

Photo: Octane Photography

All at Force India must have had to pinch themselves from time to time this off-season. The team after all had been able to recruit a driver who increasingly is considered among the very best and most complete in contemporary F1, but also one that is somehow - unfathomably - passed over by the top echelon of teams time after time. Without any disrespect intended to the Silverstone squad, Nico Hulkenberg really shouldn't be there.

And this is no case of those within F1 - armed as they are with much more data, and more gossip, than us do looking on - knowing something that we don't. Instead Hulkenberg's consistent shunning by the big boys is one part circumstance and a few parts an exasperating refusal on the part of leading team principals to understand what's good for them. The circumstance includes matters like Lotus needing Pastor Maldonado's money, and Ferrari being spooked by Alonso's wandering eye and therefore going for the known quantity of Kimi Raikkonen. But also it seems that Hulkenberg's weight, thought to be a particular impediment in the 2014 formula, is counting against him, with McLaren for one apparently put off by this (though some have been cynical enough to suggest the Woking team didn't take Hulk as it didn't want to in effect admit it'd got it wrong in picking Perez over him in late 2012). This I struggle with though - surely whatever the drawback amounts to Hulk's considerable talent would more than compensate? Much more? Such snubbing is no new thing either: that last year was the first time that Hulk had finished in the top 10 of the drivers' table, and that he still awaits his first F1 podium visit, only underlines the chronic nature of his being overlooked.

In the last 18 months Nico Hulkenberg has demonstrated persistently that he has all of the attributes of a habitual front-runner and race-winner; perhaps even of a champion. He's fast, consistent, and makes few mistakes. He is polished yet assertive in wheel-to-wheel battle. He is unperturbed by reputation and status, looking every inch that he belongs when running among the sport's most revered names - see the 2012 Brazilian race, as well as in Korea last year. And even over and above these perhaps his brain power utilised behind the wheel is his most impressive asset of all. This was shown most noticeably in that very same Korean race last campaign, when for example he was happy to let Lewis Hamilton pass him at turn one, knowing his adversary would get marbles on his tyres and thus he'd be able to pass him back right away.

But here he is, having not been paid by Sauber on time making the apparent side-step for this season back to Force India, for whom he drove in 2012 as a racer and in 2011 as a tester. And irony of ironies it appears, in the immediate term at least, that he actually dodged a bullet in driving a Force India rather than a Lotus. Hulk therefore in Melbourne and in subsequent races should have plenty of opportunities to fight well inside the top ten and bagging his overdue first F1 podium finish doesn't seem an at all fanciful objective. On the more broad level, all Nico Hulkenberg can do is keep doing what he's been doing, and thus further underline the asinine thinking that he's been a victim of; that's up until now denied him his long-deserved promotion. Surely not even in the F1 paddock can such absurdity prevail forever.

F1 2014 Season Preview: McLaren - Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

McLaren's ability to somehow daintily dance around championship triumphs, almost as if they were doing it consciously, is the stuff of legend. Despite being one of the sport's most prestigious and most lavishly resourced and supported outfits, winning but four titles of the last 44 available rather crudely demonstrates such a failing. But at least you used to be able to count on its cars being at the sharp end; being competitive; in the thick of the fight. That was until last season, when somehow the bone dropped clean out of the team's jaws. Even though it ended 2012 with the most competitive car out there seemingly, and there being relative rule stability, in 2013 McLaren sunk like a stone, never so much as getting a podium finish (or even coming all that close to one). This for the first time since before the McLaren International era, in 1980.

Photo: Octane Photography

And just like then there was a palace coup in response to it all, and also just like then it was a certain Ron Dennis who ended up in charge as a result. As far as Dennis and a few others were concerned the rap sheet of Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh was a lengthy one: the decision to go radical in the car's design in the last year before a major set of regulation changes, which backfired as intimated; the time taken to decide whether to stick with the MP4-28 or return to the previous, successful, machine; that having decided to stick rather than twist apparently underestimating what was required to make that car competitive; the failings of a car for which the various bits looked good in theory but never looked nearly as good together, possibly betraying disparate technical groups not interacting effectively; apparent lateness in finalising new technical recruits, which meant that they weren't able to feed into the 2014 car's fundamentals (including in the midst of it all missing out on James Allison); and an inability to attract a new title sponsor to replace Vodafone. That he sealed a Honda engine deal for 2015, while positive, got rather dwarfed. It wasn't much of a secret that Dennis has wanted to seize back the McLaren race team reigns ever since he was forcibly de-saddled in early 2009 (indeed he'd already had a few goes at it), but various events of 2013 combined to give him his opportunity finally, and he struck.

Martin Whitmarsh hasn't gone officially, but he has effectively, with him missing in action all the way through pre-season testing. And his job has in effect been taken by Eric Boullier, tempted over from Lotus to fill the Racing Director role. This has been viewed rather a coup for Dennis, Boullier highly rated and possessed with a strong track record established in difficult circumstances at Enstone, as well as with DAMS in GP2. While the choice of structure is interesting too (Boullier's recruitment part apparently of a wider overhaul), indicating a spreading of the management load across more than one person akin to what Mercedes put in place last year. And the word is that all of this has lifted Woking spirits considerably.

But some on the outside have doubts. For all that McLaren has been missing out on championships in Whitmarsh's time, Dennis while decorated had a rather sparse record in this himself in his later years at the helm too. He between the end of 1991 and his departure in 2009 achieved only four titles from a possible 34. This was attributed in part to him having a rather poisonous relationship with Max and Bernie, which tended to ensure that McLaren could count on little help (and perhaps much hindrance) from F1's twin powers. Max has since gone of course, but Dennis's relationship with his replacement Jean Todt was hardly better.

Dennis's abrasive style is well-known, and as well as alienating the powers-that-be has also alienated a few star drivers and other staff. And then there's the team's matrix structure, one that's attracted its fair share of criticism, that is big on systems and empiricism but perhaps works somewhat at the expense of human inspiration; it's thought to have suppressed Adrian Newey's creative juices and contributed to him running off from McLaren to the fledgling Red Bull. The architect of this matrix structure? R. Dennis.

But things looked up for McLaren early on in testing. The new MP4-29 appeared business-like in its aerodynamic detail, and it also contained the field's most notable technical innovation - the one that the rest are most minded to copy - with its rear suspension 'blockers' designed to energise the diffuser. They've stayed on the car since, which seems to confirm that they're working. The machine looked business-like on track too, it appearing fine-handling, reliable, setting impressive lap times and even the debutant Kevin Magnussen looked a lot like he belonged right away (indeed, illustrating all of these points, Magnussen set the fastest time of anyone in Jerez). And of course, in the Mercedes it has exactly the right power unit too.

Yet things ever-so-gradually seemed to taper off as testing proceeded. The McLarens' lap times drifted down the order somewhat - the feeling is that Williams and possibly Ferrari have usurped the Woking cars in the meantime - and even unreliability crept in before the end of testing with Button missing a lot of running in the final Bahrain get-together. And in this final test Button, perhaps surprisingly frank, confirmed that the car 'was not quick enough' and that there had been no technical upgrades since Jerez, which was down to an explicit attempt to develop a driveable car with a stable technical baseline that they understand. And while Button stressed that a big upgrade is on tap for the first round in Melbourne, the likelihood is that just about everyone else will have similar. Perhaps given the own goal of 12 months ago it's understandable that the team is exercising caution, but the possibility creeps that it's perhaps been just too conservative.

Whatever is the case though, compared with 12 months ago things are looking much rosier in the McLaren garden. Two cars in the top 10 of the grid in Melbourne, probably comfortably so, can be expected for starters.

Kevin Magnussen - Car #20

Credit: Henry Mineur / CC

Sergio Perez was dumped by the McLaren team at the end of last year after just a single season in Woking. What were viewed as sub-optimum performances from Perez were part of the equation that equalled his forcible exit, but another key part of it was the perceived quality of the guy waiting in the wings. Kevin Magnussen gets his big break this year in the sport's highest echelon, and does so as a driver very highly rated by his employers.

Of course, those of a certain vintage will associate Kevin with his father Jan: a man who arrived in F1 with a reputation as the next big thing, armed with a British F3 record that even made Ayrton Senna's look modest (14 wins from 18 rounds). But he rather fell on his face when he got there, in part via exasperating employers with his lax approach to the job. It appears though that while Kevin can count upon similar talent, his application is far the superior, he apparently taking on board the lessons from his father's experience. Kevin's commented, perhaps not for nothing, that his dad's 'never been a big part of my racing'.

And in testing he impressed everyone, not just within the McLaren team but also those watching him at work out on track. His speed and flair was considerable, as was his healthy willingness to push, but his gentle and sensitive throttle applications, feeling for the limit of adhesion rather than going over it and requiring reflex corrections, really got some tongues wagging. And as intimated his rounded, mature and cerebral outlook, with a very constructive relationship with his team, are other attributes of his. He's also confident, but in a good way, and not to the point of arrogance or conceit. By all accounts too in his championship year in Formula Renault 3.5 just passed his racecraft as well as his poise and decision-making with other cars around improved markedly.

Perhaps comparisons with McLaren's last rookie - none other than Lewis Hamilton - are inevitable, but sight should not be lost of how much tougher a cliff edge F1 is for rookies to scale these days: as an unintended consequence of testing restrictions put in place since Magnussen won't have anything like the 10,000km testing mileage before his debut that Lewis benefited from. Direct comparisons aren't really fair in other words. But even with the modern restraints the feeling is that Kevin Magnussen is well placed for his freshman F1 campaign. And a good year would be one where he gets into Button's ballpark, perhaps too beating him in qualifying with regularity, particularly so as the season progresses. One to watch.

Jenson Button - Car #22

Photo: Octane Photography

Just as is the case for his team, the conclusion of the 2012 season must seem a very long time ago to Jenson Button. Then he'd ended the year in good form - indeed he'd just won the campaign's concluding round in Brazil in fine style - was sitting in possibly the quickest car out there and his rapid team mate was on the way out of the Woking door, suitcase in hand. Many had him down as a 2013 championship contender. Not a favourite perhaps, but one in the mix nonetheless. But as we know, McLaren against all predictions plummeted like a broken lift in 2013, and in so doing it took the amiable Button with it.

There were plenty of good drives from Button last year that flattered his car, such as in Malaysia, China, Germany and Brazil - all delivered in the ultra smooth, unobtrusive yet when required crisply aggressive manner that is his trademark. His consistent finishing - scoring in 14 rounds - ensured that the likes of Force India remained at arm's length in the constructors table and thus spared McLaren even greater embarrassment, and his refusal to whinge or bitch in public or private was appreciated by the team too.

But also there were a few days in there wherein it actually didn't seem all that obvious that he was any better than the MP4-28, and some at McLaren started to mutter that with him no longer being cajoled by Lewis Hamilton's raw speed as well as now being lumbered with a struggling car that Button perhaps wasn't bringing his A-game every time. A year too with an unpredictable car, the balance of which would often vary, also rather ruthlessly exposed the old Button bugbear that he is undoubtedly one with a relatively narrow operating window, and that he struggles to make the best of things when he doesn't achieve such preferred neutral handling.

Some also wondered whether an impatient sort out of the car who'd bang his fists on tables and would wring the car's neck when out on track might have got better results too - in other words was Button the wrong man for the situation that McLaren found itself in? Whatever was the case, before anyone knew it Button's future at the team was the subject of speculation. He talks in excited tones about the Honda power unit to come in for 2015, but it's by no means certain that he'll still be around to take advantage of it.

Ron Dennis's return to prominence in the team - precluding as it does presumably a move for Fernando Alonso - keeps the most savage wolf away from Button's door at Woking, but the feeling lingers that he still needs a big season. We know however from much of the 2011 campaign as well as from early in 2009 that when Button feels that everything is right with the world he can put in performances that are a match for anyone, quite literally, and from testing it appears that the MP4-29 is one that gives its drivers a level of confidence and predictability that it predecessor never got close to. Now the ball's in Jenson's court; he can't afford to mis-hit.

F1 2014 Season Preview: Lotus - Enstone woe

On the surface, all looked good for Lotus last season. The E21 machine was an excellent one, arguably the second best out there; some had it closer to the mighty Red Bull than top-level results suggested. The team was in the thick of the battle for second place in the constructors' table, bagged a race win as well as had a few other near misses along the way. And all this against teams much better resourced than it. Lotus had a good claim to be punching further above its weight than any other.

Photo: Octane Photography

But F1 teams are rather like icebergs, that what can be seen is but a small proportion in relation to what goes on underneath. And so it was at Team Enstone in 2013: the main problem was that the team was out of money; spending more than it was raising. A drip-drip hemorrhaging of technical staff, such as Technical Director James Allison as well as his deputy Dirk de Beer to Ferrari and Rod Nelson and David Wheater to Williams, gave the first hint at problems. Then the dam rather burst late in the year, via a very public falling out with star driver Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn owed apparently upwards of 16 million Euros in wages. The Quantum Motorsport deal, that was supposed to solve the whole matter, for months lingered apparently poised to be finalised but proved ultimately to be a mirage. And then, on the eve of the 2014 season, team principal Eric Boullier jumped ship too, gratefully accepting the rope thrown by the restructuring McLaren. It was tempting to ask that the last person out of Enstone please turn out the lights.

Perhaps, as Toto Wolff did, you could criticise the team for not living within its means. Perhaps also, as some did, you could criticise the team for not raising more cash from sponsorship and the like. But there are plenty of other things going on: the limited funding coming from Genii Capital didn't help, but Lotus's case in large part betrayed the sport's currently skewed funding model that concentrates cash with certain teams, of which Lotus isn't one. Ferrari based on its 2013 effort gets $171m in result money; Red Bull $162m. Lotus - despite being about as competitive as Ferrari as well as not so long ago being habitual title winners - gets a princely $65m, in large part because it doesn't benefit from a bonus independent of its constructors' placing, that the 'big five' of the Bulls, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Williams get, the Bulls and Ferrari in particularly vast quantities.

The cash flow problems further appear to be reverberating into its 2014 effort too: the E22 appeared late - uniquely missing the first test in Jerez. And then when it did appear in the two Bahrain tests (having apparently completed 100km of mileage in promotional filming between times) it didn't run much, and when it did run it was seconds off the pace. After the second Bahrain test the two Lotus cars were bottom of the pile both in laps completed and in times. And while the team is rather hamstrung by being a Renault power unit runner, just as with Red Bull the feeling is that on top of this it has been creating problems for itself, such as with its exhaust failures early in Bahrain test two and mileage that is way behind the likes of Toro Rosso and Caterham. Grosjean admitted towards the end of testing that the team wouldn't be ready for the opening rounds of the season and would likely struggle therein, but it wasn't really a revelation to anyone.

Lotus's pre-season antics have been curious on occasion too. After the first four-day test in Bahrain, wherein there was little outward sense that the team had much to be optimistic about, Technical Director Nick Chester was rather gushing in his rosy assessment of it all, using words like 'encouraging' and 'successful', stating what a success the Lotus's unique 'twin-tusk' nose was as well as speculating that the team would be the most competitive Renault runner. Outwardly, there's almost nothing that's happened before or since that would indicate what such optimism was based on.

But, again just as with Red Bull, the distinct possibility remains that once the reliability ills are remedied that the car could still be quick. Certainly, out of just about all the machines launched this year the E22 has the most outward evidence of thinking out of the box. And the nose, while unsightly, certainly is the product of lateral thinking and as mentioned the team's said it's given encouraging aero data in testing. More broadly, Team Enstone is one that likes nothing better than fighting in adversity, taking on supposedly better equipped rivals and defeating them. While the Enstone culture, that of a gritty, skilled and no-nonsense group of racers up for any challenge, is one that's shown itself to be impervious to any amount of staff comings and goings. Which as far as 2014 goes is just as well.

Enstone has surprised us before. And even with all of the recent woes no one in that collective will even be thinking about giving up.

Romain Grosjean - Car #8

Photo: Octane Photography

Patience is a virtue not often displayed in the F1 paddock. And the matter is particularly acute when it comes to assessing drivers, who tend to be judged - for good and more often for bad - before the rest of us can blink. But thankfully Lotus in the past couple of years has gone against this grain, and has just got its rewards in the latest-spec Romain Grosjean. The team's co-owner Gerard Lopez in recent weeks described him as one of the three fastest drivers in the sport right now. Such a claim may be slightly over-egged (unless he was talking about qualifying pace), but that it didn't sound totally absurd displays just how far Grosjean's star his risen since the middle of last season.

As late as Monaco last campaign Grosjean looked rather a dead man walking: following a series of accidents there including one that ended his race, which in themselves followed on from an underwhelming opening to the year, some even had him being booted out mid-year. Almost no one had him being retained for 2014. How long ago that seems now.

Towards the end of last season against most expectations he blossomed into something akin to a complete F1 driver. Pace had always been there in ideal circumstances but the repeated crashes, especially early in races, and apparent propensity to panic when other cars were around, as well as the timidity borne of lacking confidence, were almost entirely shed. His turnaround can be pinpointed at roughly mid-last season: apparently the Pirellis used later in the year suited his driving style, particularly for a qualifying lap, but his team reckon that the big breakthrough was psychological - Grosjean noted before the season end that he had indeed been getting help in this area. Whatever was the case, in the latter part of the 2013 campaign he was superb and increasingly so: fast, aggressive without overdoing it as well as immaculate under pressure. It was rewarded with a series of podium finishes (four in five races), status as the Lotus team's pace-setter as well as of the biggest, perhaps the only, irritant to the imperious Red Bulls. Splitting the Milton Keynes cars in Austin where by rights they should have had the race to themselves, and never putting a wheel out of line as his previous tormentor-in-chief Mark Webber stalked him from behind for much of the distance, felt a lot like scaling a mountain top.

It's a pity therefore that having scaled this high peak, and that his freshman F1 win seemed a matter of when rather than whether, that almost as suddenly he'll find himself struggling with a recalcitrant, initially anyway, E22. We can only hope that his recent improvements aren't vulnerable to this setback. Grosjean will also be aiming to cement the status that he started to build late last campaign of being the Lotus go-to guy, of it very much being his team. And in these circumstances he'll need a positive attitude and the ability to keep the team's spirits up in order to lead them out of the rubble. The ball's in his court.

Pastor Maldonado - Car #13

Photo: Octane Photography

No one was in any doubt as to why Pastor Maldonado got the Lotus drive for 2014. Indeed, in case there was any still lingering Eric Boullier made the matter explicit: had there not been a financial imperative, such as had the Quantum investment come off, the team would have snapped up Nico Hullkenberg. But as things were it needed Pastor's PDVSA cash (often-quoted as being in the region of £30m annually) to steady the ship.

It was hardly a popular decision, particularly as the latter stages and aftermath of the 2013 campaign was something of an open season on Pastor Maldonado. Largely this was because of the goings-on of the Austin weekend wherein he was taken to the cleaners by his team mate Valtteri Bottas (tumbling out in Q1 while his team mate topped that session and later made the top ten on the grid and finished eighth in the race) and worse got out of his car after his quali effort to at least heavily imply in front of a microphone that the Williams team, given he was on the way out, was out to screw him. This too followed some weeks of Pastor rather conspicuously seeking to extract himself from Williams - the driver-team relationship clearly having gone sour. The move to Lotus, reportedly, wasn't popular with his prospective team mate either, Pastor and Romain Grosjean apparently falling out after a series of scrapes in their GP2 days together.

There was also rather a lot of sniggering in the gallery when Pastor claimed that 2013 was his best season in F1 in terms of his driving. But rather against the common perception Pastor, Austin aside, put together a reasonable year of effort in a difficult and disappointing car. He did have typical offs early in the year - three in the first two rounds - but after that though he knuckled down, and for the most part delivered finishes that were about as high as could be expected with the set of wheels he had access to. He breached the points in Hungary, the first time in 2013 that a Williams troubled the scorers, and only just missed out in several other rounds. There also certainly were fewer prangs and infamous red mist moments in there than was the case in 2012 (though perhaps you could say that's not saying much), and this was something confirmed by Alex Wurz, who worked with Pastor at close quarters at the Grove team, who has said recently that Pastor is by now well-aware of his need to change and that there 'has been a large improvement' in his ability to avoid error and rages when behind the wheel.

Some too have mused that Lotus, as seen in the recent case of Grosjean, have shown an ability to polish a rough diamond; to convert a fast but wild pilot to being one fast but fast. Maldonado will be slightly more of a challenge, evidenced by the fact that he rarely takes the same line twice through a corner, and often gives the impression of hanging to the back of a car rather than being ahead of it. But as mentioned, in Maldonado they have a driver who already has gone a long way to sharpening up his act. And while it may grate, Pastor's sheer ambition cannot be denied - he makes no bones of his desire to be world champion. Matching, or even beating, Grosjean would certainly make such an aim a little more plausible.

And a stat that may be of surprise is that in the rounds last season wherein both finished Maldonado finished ahead of the highly-rated Bottas more often than not, by nine times to five - indeed it seems rather airbrushed from history that for much of the year, particularly in the mid part, Pastor was the Grove team's habitual race day pace-setter. In other words, the common trashing of Pastor's efforts in 2013, and the equally common assertions that Bottas whipped him, are not really borne out in fact. Indeed they appear based only on the Austin weekend and rather ignore the other 18 rounds.

But of course, Pastor's never been one to get much benefit of any doubt. He's no Nico Hulkenberg, but these days he's also not necessarily the idiot that a few seem to insist.

F1 2014 Season Preview: Ferrari - Dark horses?

Nico Rosberg summed it up. In the middle of the third and final pre-season test before everyone headed out to Melbourne for round one he reckoned he had a good handle on where his Mercedes team was on pace relative to all others. Well, all apart from one. For him, Ferrari remained a mystery. And he wasn't the only one feeling this way.

Photo: Octane Photography

Perhaps appropriately F1's most enigmatic team has been the enigma of 2014 pre-season testing, for the most part getting on with its business without drawing attention to itself; in Anthony Rowlinson's words performing 'a measured and consistent programme'.

Confusing the whole issue, with Ferrari there was none of the extremes on show at either end of the spectrum from Mercedes or from Renault/Red Bull - instead the consensus is that while neither team nor engine were experiencing anything like the woes of Red Bull or Renault, and indeed were running pretty reliably at least, they weren't reaching for the stars either.

One Ferrari 'insider' was quoted in the final test saying that the Italian power unit is ceding some 75bhp to the Merc, with the Scuderia struggling to understand how the German marque was extracting so much power from the fuel restrictions. Certainly, even before this year the Ferrari engine tended to be more fuel-thirsty than the rest. Equally certainly, there has been no rising-tide-lifts-all-boats experience with the Ferrari unit as there has with all of those powered by Mercedes, and if Ferrari has ceded ground then with engine homologation clawing it back won't be easy. While the F14 T has looked a bit of a handful out on track, particularly with a loose rear end both upon acceleration (which caught Kimi Raikkonen out in Bahrain, resulting in him ending a test day slightly early after a smash) as well as more generally aerodynamically, something that has been a Ferrari trait for a while.

But nevertheless there seems a fairly strong case for optimism. All the way through testing only the Ferrari has been a consistent presence among the Merc-powered teams at the business end of the timing screens. At the very least, one would imagine that if the eight Mercedes-powered cars will get into Q3 at Melbourne then it will be the two Ferraris that complete the ten. And in the third test the red cars started to show their hand, and the lap times were fairly impressive: not quite on the level on show from the Mercedes but seemingly enough to place it in the next group up with the likes of McLaren and Williams. Edd Straw described the Scuderia as 'coming up the rails', while some optimists have Ferrari as the Merc's closest challenger.

Furthermore, the Ferrari design has just about the tightest cooling out there, which reflects well on the team's confidence in the engine's reliability and in how the whole package works together. Its millstone of the past few years of wind tunnel correlation and having to use the Toyota tunnel in Cologne appears lifted too, with its own tunnel recalibrated, reopened and reportedly giving results that chime well with what is happening on track. That the team turned up to the second Bahrain test with loads of upgrades may show a collective with its technical swagger back. While for those of you who like their history, on previous occasions wherein the rules have changed radically, in particular engine rules, Ferrari has tended to be right there right away.

And in a converse sense Ferrari's low profile is likely to bode well, as had a red car gone after a headline-grabbing low fuel glory run it would have set off alarm bells, that the team had felt the need to get the Italian press off its back - indeed one recalls that it was in 2012's pre-season that everyone really knew that the car then was struggling when it did precisely that.

But whatever is the case at the broadest level the Scuderia simply must deliver this year. It's got all of the budget and facilities in the world, its previous wind tunnel problems sorted and its simulation capacity much improved, star technical recruits such as James Allison and Dirk de Beer, and one of the strongest driver line ups that the sport has ever seen, both experienced and smart - exactly what you want with the new formula. President Luca Montezemolo has already given his pronouncement, that he is 'sick of coming second', and you feel that Ferrari has to make a credible championship challenge - and unlike the one in 2012 one not so conspicuously based on the skills of one of its drivers - at the very least. There is nowhere to hide. It all should concentrate the mind beautifully.

Kimi Raikkonen - Car #7

Photo: Octane Photography

F1 more than most activities likes to remind us to never say never; that nobody knows anything. And you wouldn't have to rewind too far to find days when the suggestion of Kimi Raikkonen returning to Ferrari would have brought considerable and universal hilarity. The Finn had been paid not to drive for the team just four years previously, things then apparently ended badly with Luca Montezemolo, and he's not known for letting bygones be bygones. Perhaps Claudio Langes getting the gig would have been more probable. But here we are.

The move had something of the gunshot wedding about it, and from both parties' perspectives. From Kimi's point of view, his Lotus love affair was long over, owed as he was upwards of 16m Euros for last season's efforts. While Red Bull, against many expectations, chose to hire from within in replacing Mark Webber. Ferrari was therefore the only available competitive ride that remained. As for Ferrari, that team was spooked by the growing strain in its relationship with Fernando Alonso, particularly as his manager paid a rather conspicuous visit to Christian Horner in the Hungary paddock, which meant that the Italian team - whether as a punishment or to protect its future (or both) - quickly snapped up the handily-available Kimi.

Since his return from his two-year rallying detour what we can expect from Kimi in F1 has been pretty clear. Perhaps the outer edge of devastating pace, particularly in comparison to his McLaren days and especially over a single lap, has gone; indeed in this his Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean seemed capable of exploring territory that Kimi couldn't, especially late on last season (though then there may have been mitigating circumstances). But what we have now is reliable finishing and persistent points bagging, via a series of tenacious, quick and committed race performances.

Alongside Fernando Alonso we'll get a clearer picture on such matters. And his match-up with a man who has long had the Scuderia to himself will be a challenging one, and with Kimi's skill set similar to Alonso's (less good in quali but excellent in races) the area in which he can establish an upper hand isn't clear. But still, he'll be the Spaniard's most imposing intra-team challenger since 2007, and the pointy, torquey handling of the new turbos will suit Kimi's driving preferences. There also remains the question of Kimi's previous stint in Maranello: then Kimi was frustrated at an environment somewhat unresponsive to his needs, and Alonso presumably will be drawing a lot of attention to himself, much more than Massa did last time. What can Kimi do to stop history repeating itself?

Fernando Alonso - Car #14

Photo: Octane Photography

Fernando Alonso endured more of the same of his Ferrari time in 2013: yet another season of frustration, failing technical upgrades, and swimming against the tide with inferior equipment to his rivals. And perhaps for the first time since he arrived in Maranello the relationship between driver and team developed a certain tautness, visible to those on the outside. The show has since just about been kept on the road, but it's not yet clear whether there's been a rapprochement or merely an uneasy truce.

But whatever has been going on Ferrari would be best advised to keep Alonso sweet. Once again last season Fernando Alonso was the best thing about the Scuderia, and his second place in the drivers' table grandly flattered the F138, a car that started with promise but rather flat-lined, as well as wasn't suited to the mid-year Pirelli changes; a car that by consensus was but the fourth best out there.

And as Jody Scheckter noted recently, Ferrari has 'a short memory'. The past counts for little, and the team will pull towards the driver that's getting the job done. It's also hard to imagine that Alonso's political base at Maranello has evaporated. But as an indirect consequence of it all Alonso faces the most formidable intra-team foe he ever has at Ferrari - indeed more formidable than he's faced since his annus horribilis of 2007 at McLaren - in Kimi Raikkonen. Another world champion. Ferrari's last.

And of course, there have been plentiful - and often gleeful - references to Alonso's experiences alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2007, with many concluding that just as night follows day that in similar circumstances we'll see the same again this year. There are plenty of reasons to think that things could be different this time however. For one thing, Alonso's an incumbent at the team, well-ensconced, knows each and every button to press, rather than being new as he was then up against a guy who'd been there since the age of 13. For another, no matter how well Kimi Raikkonen does this year he will not have the surprise element that Lewis did in 2007, nor likely the pace. And moreover, assuming that exactly the same will happen again necessarily also assumes that Alonso hasn't learned a great deal from his McLaren year, or more generally, since. Something that I find hard to believe.

Kimi will claim a greater slice of the Ferrari pie than Felipe Massa tended to in Alonso's time, plus there will be days that Kimi will be on top, almost inevitably. But still, so long as Alonso avoids implosions à la at Woking the probability for a number of reasons is that he'll have the upper hand over a season, possibly comfortably so.