It’s been an interesting season
this year, with plenty happening both on and off the track. McLaren are
suffering horribly but with small improvements before the break, Mercedes have
had mixed form but seem to be pulling things together, Ferrari are going backwards,
Lotus not going anywhere and Red Bull still on top at this stage – but for how
long?
Tyres
This year, a lot of the
headlines, rumours and races have been dominated by the tyres. This has been
true of every year Pirelli has been in the sport but never to such a negative
degree. Prime examples of this are the blowouts in Silverstone and other races
and the ‘secret test’ by Mercedes and Pirelli after Barcelona.
We have seen Pirelli go to
extremes this year and it hasn’t worked, unfortunately. The problem is, using
tyre compounds from previous years means teams already have data on them and a
lot of the unpredictability the supplier is supposed to be bringing to each
race won’t be there. It’s certainly an issue but it would be nice for racers to
push flat out again and show what they can do. There have always been
limitations of some sort and those who make the most of them end on top.
The drive everyone wants?
Mark Webber’s drive is probably
one of the most desired seats in the sport right now – at least on one hand. Daniel
Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso have all been named as
potentials. I said recently that I didn’t think Raikkonen would go, and I still
maintain that. Yes, it’s a good drive but he’s savvy enough to know that Sebastian
Vettel will always be number one in the team, and with some of the stunts he’s
pulled off, it wouldn’t be good – and Raikkonen wouldn’t be as nice as Webber.
The other side is this: Why would
an experience driver go there with that knowledge? For someone in Ricciardo’s
position it’s a no brainer – he gets a better car and that may help him down
the line. Alonso and Raikkonen don’t need that; they need to rally their
current teams around them to get the best results, in my opinion.
Looking to next year
New rules for next year should
shake things up a bit (hopefully for the better as far as McLaren are
concerned). It’s got that air of excitement about it that has been missing this
year. I’m a firm believer that motorsport, especially at the top level like F1,
should be pushing boundaries and passing technology down to road cars. That
seems to have diminished recently, and hopefully this will encourage a return
of that practice.
Stand out driver?
It’s hard to pick out a stand out
driver so far – there’s been a few. I think it has to be Lewis Hamilton. He’s
made the move to Mercedes work and its early days. They’ve done far better than
he or anyone else thought – especially with their form from the end of 2012. If
they really have got over their tyre wear issues, they’ll be a serious threat
over the reason of the season.
Worth a mention
Saying that, we’ve had some impressive
performances this year. Both Toro Rosso drivers have upped their game this year
and produced fantastic results, with Ricciardo having a shot at the Red Bull
seat for next year. Paul Di Resta has done very well this year, proving that he
is going to be a top driver should he get the car under him, and his teammate,
Adrian Sutil, has done a great job on his Formula One return.
Summary
It’s not been the greatest year,
which is a shame. Politics and drama have come to the forefront again and are
overshadowing the racing going on – and there is some great racing happening
when we are allowed to focus on it. I get the feeling the whole sport is
waiting for the rule changes next year to bring some new life to Formula One. I
really hope so.
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