Further thoughts on the Brazilian Grand Prix

That was the year that was
Has there ever been a better F1 season than 2012? It's not exaggeration - just try to name one.

Of course, many cite 1982 as a vintage season, mainly because of its extreme drama and variety of winners. But let's not forget that it was also a reason framed by tragedy and acrimony, the likes of which this year were thankfully absent. 1997 will always have its admirers, but surely 2012's racing and abundance was overtaking makes this year better. 1974 was also highly thought of, but this season has a good case to usurp it.

 This year will surely be remembered as a great one
Credit: Ryan Bayona / CC

This year was one with everything. There was a multitude of credible contenders which was reflected in the number of winners - some eight drivers from six different teams - and with a few cards falling another way 1982's all-time record of 11 winners might have been matched or even beaten: Sergio Perez should have won at Malaysia and could have won at Monza, Romain Grosjean challenged for the win at Valencia and Canada, Nico Hulkenberg could well have won at Interlagos had he got his pass of Hamilton for the lead right, and what if Michael Schumacher hadn't got his grid penalty at Monaco and had reliability that day? In other words, half the field and two-thirds of the teams might have been victors.

Then there is the quality of the races themselves. Listing diverting F1 races from 2012 isn't the work of a moment: Malaysia, Valencia, Abu Dhabi, Austin, and of course Interlagos, to name but a few. Very few failed to entertain; almost all had aggressive yet high-quality wheel-to-wheel dicing throughout the field.

Teams' half way report

In some ways it's just as well that this season features a five week summer break. For unpredictability and competitiveness it's difficult to think of a previous F1 season that matches it. The mid-year moratorium is a good opportunity to take stock of who's hot and who's not, and what may be likely to happen next. Here's a team-by-team rundown.

Red Bull

Credit: Ryan Bayona / CC

Top of the constructors' table and 53 points clear of the nearest challengers after 11 races; yet in Red Bull land this counts as a disappointment. Perhaps that tells us something.

Red Bull is still top of the class overall, but not in 2012 the clear A star performers of 2011. There have been three wins in 11 races (half the level of this point last year), but only in a couple of rounds has the Red Bull been the clear pace setter. And both drivers trail Fernando Alonso in the drivers' table by the region of 40 points.

The RB8 didn't have the most successful of births, and all of a sudden we had to get used to the unaccustomed sight of the Bulls being near, but not quite at, the front. Technical Director Adrian Newey had admitted that the severe restriction of blowing (and of off throttle blowing) of diffusers has disproportionately impeded his cars. It also didn't help that the Bulls' initial 2012 exhaust solution didn't work and had to be abandoned. Interestingly, Newey also admitted recently that stricter policing of wing flexing has further given the team difficulties.

But a few things helped them nevertheless. One is that the team's operational side remains as strong as ever; pit stops and strategies are sharp and the team rarely drops the ball. Plus gritty drives from both of the drivers have maxed out the results. And, as the controversy over its exploitation of loopholes in the engine mapping regulations showed, the squad is still perfectly capable of pushing the boundaries in the name of performance. And gradually as the season progressed things have improved for the team - it has always been excellent at in-year development. In Valencia it even looked like it had a clear stride on everyone else.

Further thoughts on the Malaysian Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez were
the surprise pace setters at Sepang
Credit: Morio / CC

Surprise surprise
As Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez lined up in eight and ninth places on the starting grid at Sepang last weekend, not even their respective mothers would have predicted confidently they'd be in the front two at the race's conclusion. This held even as the rain fell in the minutes before the start: for all we talk about rain's ability to act as a leveller, and to shuffle the usual running order, its ability to do those with any regularity is over stated. Usually, the cars that have grip in the dry will also have grip in the wet. And shock results in rainy conditions that we remember, such as Olivier Panis's 1996 Monaco victory, often owe more to attrition or other freak occurrences than to an unlikely candidate having the legs of the field all being equal. This wasn't the case at Sepang: Alonso and Perez against all expectations were fairly and squarely the quickest two guys out there in the race.

Finding a performance on pace which ranks as a similar surprise is a tricky business. Giancarlo Fisichella's run to second place in the Force India at Spa in 2009 was a similar turn-up, as was, famously, Sebastian Vettel's pole and win in a Toro Rosso at Monza the previous year. Before that, for a comparable shock you may have to go back to Damon Hill's dominant drive in the Arrows in Hungary 1997, which would have been rewarded with a win but for a last lap hydraulic problem. In other words, the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix will be one that we will remember.

Checo checks in
There are always lots of young drivers with promise in F1. The key differentiator is exactly how good they are. For every Ayrton Senna there a dozen or two who transpire to be good without being top drawer (think Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli and the like), and even a few who can altogether (such as Stefano Modena and Jan Magnussen).

F1 2012 Season Preview: HRT - Struggling on

Without wishing to sound patronising, the fact that HRT are still going probably ranks as their best achievement. In their short existence as an F1 team they've been widely derided, have often given the outward impression of stumbling from one crisis to the next, and usually concerned more immediately with surviving than making progress up the order. But they continue to struggle on, against the odds somewhat, into their third season in the sport. And, relatively speaking, as 2012 starts the future in some ways looks a bit more promising for them now than at any point before.

Credit: Gil Abrantes / CC

As Campos Meta, the team entered the sport for the 2010 season, at the time assuming a strict and swingeing budget cap to be in place for all teams. Perhaps it was naive to think that would hold, but whatever the case throughout the team's life money and sponsors have been extremely hard to come by (and worse, F1 is a business that makes it even harder for new teams by keeping television-rights income among the established members of the top 10 teams). The money factor made itself felt before even their first race, financial problems resulting in majority shareholder José Ramón Carabante taking over control of the team from Adrián Campos, with Colin Kolles parachuted in to replace Campos as team principal and the team rebranded as HRT.

For the next two years HRT's cars have spent most of the time off the back of the pack, and although they've avoided placing last in the constructors' championship in both seasons (by finishing ahead of Virgin/Marussia in both 2010 and 2011) that owes something to the slightly strange and distortive countback system in establishing the order. And at the start of both seasons they've made all cringe by still being in the process of building their cars as the practice sessions were underway for the opening round.

Making sense of the 2012 drivers' market

It's not called the 'silly season' for nothing. On a daily basis almost there is a new twist in who's going where apparently for next year's F1 grid. This is despite the fact that the top four teams in this year's constructors' championship have their line ups for next year signed and sealed, as does Sauber (barring something really unforeseen happening in each case). The allocation of the rest of the racing slots for 2012 remain twisting in the wind.

And every year the silly season seems to get sillier than the year before (though that probably only works in the same way that Christmas seems to start earlier every year). It was brought home this year by the publication by the FIA of the 2012 entry list of drivers and teams this week. Pre season testing is but two months away and five of the twelve teams have yet to confirm their driving line up. Indeed, four have yet to confirm either driver, and this being F1 there may yet be the odd change among those already 'confirmed'.

In F1, as in most things, everything is connected to everything else, with confirmation or rejection of drivers in one team having a knock on impact on the decision of others. Currently, the line up decisions of Lotus (née Renault) and Force India appear to be especially important to where many of the rest of the pieces will fall into place.

Vitaly Petrov's 2012 future is not clear
Credit: Morio / CC

Lotus surprised everyone (including me) with the bolt from the blue signing of Kimi Raikkonen, back from two years of rallying. The team it seems moved quickly in response to Kimi's Williams deal falling down and the confirmation that Robert Kubica won't be back racing at the start of next season (and is likely to be out for even longer than that).

That leaves one race seat empty there. Vitaly Petrov is in many ways the man in possession. Indeed he has a contract at Lotus for 2012, but is not mentioned on the 2012 entry list and noted himself recently, albeit mid-rant, that contracts can easily be bought out.

Istanbul Qually: Seb makes it four out of four

Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park. If that sounds rather familiar, that's because it is: it's Seb's fourth pole from four races so far this year, the first time that's been done since 1999 (when Mika Hakkinen did it).

It was comfortable stuff for Seb, as it has been in every qually session this year virtually. Indeed, Seb was content that the time set from his first run in final qually would be sufficient for pole, sitting out while most of those behind him scrapped for the lower places. It was visual testimony to his dominance.

For the first time this year Seb is joined on the front row by team mate Mark Webber, though the Australian will be less content with the four tenths of a second gap between him and the similarly equipped pole man. Both Red Bull pilots saved a set of soft tyres by only running once in the final session, so while the oppostion usually get a bit closer to the Bulls come race day, this factor will make it more difficult for the Bulls to be touched tomorrow.

Sepang Qually: Seb made to work for it

It just goes to show that nobody knows anything. William Goldman famously said it of Hollywood, and it applies to F1 just as aptly.

As a topline, Sebastian Vettel claiming pole for tomorrow's Malaysian GP was as expected, but the parallels with the opening round at Melbourne end there. Seb was really made to work for his pole, going toe to toe with the equally mighty Lewis Hamilton, and pipping the Englishman by a smidgen at the very last of a highly exciting qualifying session.

We're therefore perfectly poised for the race, two champions in evenly matched machinery on the front row, and it's possible that the McLaren looks looks after its tyres better, which could be its trump card. The fact that the two have been needling each other off track for weeks (as have their respective teams), and that there's a strong possibility of rain at some point, only adds spice to the mix.

Like the champions they are, both Seb and Lewis found those vital extra tenths that weren't really there in their final runs. This left their team mates filling the second row, Webber ahead of Button, and each around three tenths down on Seb's pole time.

Melbourne Qually: Seb delivers a rude awakening

The rest of the field must feel a little like they've been beaten up.

After all of the winter optimism about a tight scrap at the front, Red Bull, or more to the point Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, curtly reminded them all of reality by comfortably qualifying on pole for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix. He was a full three-quarters of a second ahead of the next man, Lewis Hamilton, and was even further ahead of his Red Bull team mate, Mark Webber. And all of this without touching his KERS button, worth around 0.3 seconds per lap (though Hamilton didn't touch his either).

Vettel's opponents have only small crumbs of comfort. Tyre management and strategy could well throw a googly in tomorrow, and the direct 'feed in' between qually and race won't be the case to anything like the same extent as in previous years. Plus Melbourne has historically been a rather atypical track and not always the most reliable indicator of general competitiveness throughout the season (indeed, Jacques Villeneuve debuted the 1997 season by qualifying fully 1.7 seconds ahead of the pack here, only for it to transpire to be one of the most competitive F1 seasons on record). But, despite all of this, there will be serious head scratching going on up and down the paddock. There's absolutely no sign of resting on laurels from either Vettel or his team.

Melbourne Preview: As you were...

Nothing like a bit of watching F1 to blow away the cobwebs.

And despite everything, all the speculation, all the various changes and associated language of the apocalypse, at the outset of the 2011 campaign what's most remarkable is how little has changed since the end of last year. Red Bull still appear to be leading the way, followed by the Ferraris (well, one of them at least), the McLarens, the Mercs (not necessarily in that order), then a gap to midfield. And the Pirellis don't seem to be nearly as bad as some had been predicting.

Indeed, alongside the Pirellis doing a bit better than thought, the big news of practice so far is that reports of McLaren's death have been greatly exaggerated. With a 'bolt on and go' technical upgrade, including dropping a troublesome (and complex) 'octopus' exhaust system for a more standard set-up, the cars look both better handling and much more reliable than was in the case in testing. Indeed, Jenson and Lewis topped the FP2 timesheets (in that order), and their long-run pace also looked impressive.

Of course, all the usual caveats apply, it was only a practice session, different cars will be running different programmes (and there's reason to think the Red Bulls and possibly the Ferraris didn't fully show their hands - indeed Vettel got within 0.16s of Button's best, and Jenson reckons he didn't use his Drag Reduction System [DRS] in so doing). But it seems at the very least McLaren have saved themselves the ignominy of running in the midfield, and are comfortably within the top four teams. That they have made such progress this quickly is indeed impressive, even by their standards.