It wasn't a particularly memorable Grand Prix - it rarely is in Spain - but it proved to be a day that Fernando Alonso would never forget. He won the Spanish Grand Prix for the second time, his third win in his native Spain. Alonso was fairly restrained compared to his post race antics in Valencia last year. He didn't lay out the Spanish flag on the track, nor was there a cuddly toy; there was just a flag raised in salute.
I thought Bahrain was an excuse for Bernie Ecclestone to reap money out of the Middle East, but Sunday’s Grand Prix proved that Bahrain can provide an action-packed Grand Prix as well. However, even after all of the exciting racing, it appears that Formula One has not changed in the past 12 months. Still the F1 circus arrives in the Gulf region to scenes of protest and British politicians desperate for the race to be called off at the last minute. And still Sebastian Vettel leads home the Loti/Lotuses of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean (in that order). Sense of déjà vu perhaps?
It took me a while to get back into the swing of this, having had three weeks off. By the looks of it, a lot of the drivers seemed to have the same issue, or at least thought the Chinese Grand Prix was next weekend. There was a car on track for less than half of qualifying, so now this is a full blown issue. At least, for the sake of future qualifying sessions, the podium was full of drivers who bothered to set a representative time on Saturday.
Wow! While there were occasional lulls in the action in Malaysia, it has more than made up for it with the political hurricane it has brought on Red Bull. Even the top dogs at Red Bull were happily calling out Sebastian Vettel, although you still have to admire his ‘win at all costs’ mentality, for disobeying team orders and overtaking Mark Webber (Helmut Marko even said, through gritted teeth, that Vettel was wrong) and breaking trust with the team that will likely never fully recover.
When Sebastian Vettel stormed to a two second lead on the first lap, I feared the worst, and had flashbacks of 2011, when Vettel played that trick 11 times in 19 races. But, after about lap four, the reigning world champion was fairly anonymous, simply unable to make the tyres work in the cool conditions. Other drivers showed themselves to be far more comfortable on the new rubber, certainly once they moved onto the medium tyres, and put in some pretty impressive performances.
Over the past few weeks, I have compiled lists ranking the drivers on the 2013 grid (and Luiz Razia) on key categories, and some less desirable characteristics, that are needed for a Formula One driver to be successful. But now, as a finale to the pre-season top fives, it’s the top five best drivers on the grid, based on their overall skill set. The comments from last week give a little insight to who thinks they should be here, but here is the official Class of the Field Top 5 Best F1 drivers, the perfect way to pass the final few hours before we are able to watch Formula One in earnest, for the first time in four months. Brace yourselves; there may be a surprise or two!
Finally another sensational F1 season looms. We are less than two weeks away from the opening race in Australia kicking off the 2013 season. In fact, the new season is so close that the even more sensitive Pirellis of an F1 car won't touch Tarmac until the cars touchdown in Melbourne. Yes, the preseason really is hotting up. And speaking of hotting up, this brings me to the topic of the latest top five: the hottest heads in F1.
There's nothing better than seeing a slower car come good on one Sunday afternoon to upset the odds and compete with the big boys. Who can forget Damon Hill in his Arrows at the 1997 Hungarian GP? Or Jean Alesi taking on Ayrton Senna on the streets of Phoenix in 1990. Unfortunately, the gap between the best cars and the midfield has increased in recent years, allowing precious few to challenge at the top. But then there is that equaliser: weather. Weather is the deepest adversary of a good car as it throws out the formbook and allows the lesser known names through.
Round two of my top fives focuses on the men who have the best raw speed on the grid. In the current setup of Formula 1, the closest we have to a raw speed shootout is the second qualifying session on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately Qualifying 1 is ruined by the fact that the majority of the grid is fighting to avoid just one elimination spot (although this may improve in 2013). Qualifying 3 is often hidden by strategy, not to mention the fact that half the cars sit in the garage and post sector times.
We are a week into pre-season already, so I thought that it was about time that I woke up from my winter hibernation and get back to work. I came up with the idea of a few light-hearted top 5s and this week, I'm taking a look at the best potential drivers - younger drivers who will become the World Champions of tomorrow if and when the old guard are forced out of the top teams.
It truly was an ‘I was there’ moment. Sat in my university flat in shock that the Ravens were going to the Super Bowl after rolling over most people’s choice for the best team in the entire league, the New England Patriots. Yes the Baltimore Ravens are going back to the Super Bowl for the first time since I was a small lad living in Baltimore, when the Ravens had a record breaking defence with Ray Lewis (in his prime, no less), Tony Siragusa, Chris McAlister and O.J. Brigance.
Wow. I think I can safely say that the Brazilian GP was quite a way to end the season, and will give us plenty of entertainment just from the memories all the way until Melbourne, Australia in March. Just about everyone had a significant story to tell and it seemed everyone but Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Marussia were pleased to be involved in such a spectacle. Were it not a championship decider, it was a race that drivers joined F1 to be involved in.
After a Grand Prix that easily overcame expectations, we are left with a title fight and a disgruntled Lewis Hamilton showing that he can still deliver when he has a car half as good as his competitor. At the moment these drivers are in a class of their own, leaving the rest in their wake. Who knows how far ahead they’d be in a standard spec series? Austin provided a great insight into each of the three men’s great strengths.
Bruno was slightly luckier. Having fought his way back up after his spin, he made his alternate strategy work and was a prime benefactor of the Di Resta/Pérez/Grosjean/Webber battle going sour. In the end he worked his way up to eighth, showing the Williams has found some of its genuine pace back, but it was one of a number of great drives ruined by careless driving throughout the race.
I hardly thought I would be writing about a dominant driver this season, but Sebastian Vettel is making it look easy as he romps to a third world title. Four wins on the bounce, more than 200 laps uninterrupted in the lead - that’s more dominant than last year and in all honesty, would you bet on anyone else to win the last three races of the year?
It’s happened: Fernando Alonso has finally relinquished his championship lead that he has held since Malaysia, twelve races ago. It’s fair to say it’s been coming and he’s not out of it but it’s a long road back. His successor at the top and future Ferrari teammate if you are to believe the papers today, was back to his usual dominant self just as the fight appears to be disappearing from Fernando Alonso.
It was another stereotypical Japanese Grand Prix. A huge build up of excitement leading up to the event because the track is both a driver and fan favourite but then three laps into the race, we realise that what makes it such a favourite is its very fast sweeping corners. Great to watch but useless for overtaking. Despite this, it was a good Grand Prix and I was on tenterhooks right until the very end.
I think it’s fair to say that the Marina Bay circuit is not the best track for encouraging aggressive racing, they even have a corner designed specifically so cars don’t run side by side through it, but in it’s short five year history, it has absolutely captured the heart of the Formula One.
Another scintillating Grand Prix is in the books and this one really did sort the men from the boys in the title challenge. Despite just third and fourth place finishes for their beloved Ferraris, it couldn’t have been a better day for Fernando Alonso as key championship rivals fell by the wayside, allowing him to open up his championship lead, and perhaps more crucially tick another race off the list until the end of the season. But even the Spaniard, who all but played God in Italy, couldn’t steal the limelight from one man: Sergio Pérez.
F1 is back and aren’t we all glad! The Belgian Grand Prix certainly started with a bang, especially for Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, as 40% of the main title chasers were wiped out before they had made it through La Source. The incident mixed up an already mixed grid and the resulting safety car caused a very interesting difference in strategy. In fact, with overtaking all through the field and a complex strategy race, it was one of the better dry races from the magnificent Spa.
