Formula One 2013 preview – Lights out, away we go! (Part two)

By Simon Wright

We are almost set for the start of the 2013 F1 season

A new season is almost upon us.  Formula One returns with the Australian Grand Prix on 17 March.  2012 was an unbelievable year, with seven different winners in the first seven races, and a championship battle full of twists and turns that was only settled in the dying stages of a brilliant Brazilian Grand Prix.

We might have lost Michael Schumacher to retirement again over the winter, but there are still five world champions on the grid.  With 19 races, there will be plenty of globetrotting across the world for the 11 teams, now that HRT have said farewell to the sport.

We welcome five rookies onto the grid, the most for a Grand Prix season since 2001, and although the depth of the midfield could be criticised, there are plenty of reasons to get excited about 2013.

I now preview the campaign ahead for the midfield runners and the backmarkers, attempting to get indications from the difficult formbook of winter testing, and see what might happen over the course of the season.

Force India – Struggling to move forward

I look at Force India and think where are they going in Formula One?  They seem to be totally stagnated in Grand Prix’s midfield pecking order.

You know what to expect from their car and solid driver line-up.  There will be regular point’s finishes, and some sterling qualifying efforts, but not much else. 

Based around the corner from Silverstone, podiums are a must if they want to break out of the competitive midfield and on a regular basis too.

Paul di Resta: If you created a list of driving in terms of giving excitement, Paul di Resta would be near the bottom of this list.

That isn’t a bad thing, as he regularly brings the car home, and doesn’t get caught up in too many scrappy incidents.  However, neither does he set the world alight.  Now in his third season in the sport, there is no doubting di Resta is a good driver, but is he more than that?

The Scot is hungry and wants to be successful in the sport.  He is aiming at high up the grid in future.  To do that, he will need to produce more high-scoring point’s finishes in 2013.  I can’t make up my mind on what kind of season he will have to be honest.

Adrian Sutil is back and raring to go after missing out in 2012

Adrian Sutil: I’m delighted to see Adrian Sutil back in Formula One.  Some have questioned Force India’s safe policy of picking Sutil over Jules Bianchi or Bruno Senna, but I do think Vijay Mallya has made the right decision here.

Like di Resta, Sutil doesn’t set the pulses racing, but he is a solid driver who deserves a place on the grid – something the likes of Senna, Kovalainen, and Kobayashi cannot say in 2013.

An unsavoury nightclub altercation in Shanghai in 2011 cost him an F1 seat last season, and while he was eventually found guilty of assault and earnt a suspended jail sentence, Sutil performed very well when he was last in F1. 

Di Resta starts the season as team leader, considering the miles of testing he has under his belt, but Sutil deserves a second chance, and I wouldn’t be totally surprised if he was the one scoring the majority of Force India’s points in 2013. 

Williams – Plenty of excitement

Williams entered 2012 off the back of their worst season in their proud history.  2011 was truly terrible, with just five points collected all campaign.

They ended 2012 with unfulfilled promise.  Victory was earnt in Barcelona in stunning fashion by Pastor Maldonado, before the horrific pitlane garage fire that marred the post-race celebrations.

However, they didn’t make the most of what was a very good racing car.  2013 could be different.  They might have lost Tito Wolff, but in Valtteri Bottas, have one of the most exciting rookies to enter the sport since Lewis Hamilton arrived on the scene in 2007.

Can Pastor Maldonado put the package together?

Pastor Maldonado: Pastor Maldonado in an enigma, but there is no doubt he is truly talented.  After all, you don’t win a race by accident, and his performance in Barcelona all weekend last season was extraordinary.  Unfortunately, he earnt himself a wild reputation, thanks to a spate of unnecessary incidents in mid-season.

Maldonado was cleaning up his act by the end of the campaign though, and the Venezuelan will be keen to get more consistency into his locker.  If he does, then Williams are sure to move up the constructors’ championship table. 

He has natural speed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he grabs a pole position or even a win again in 2013 – because when he can put the package together, he is very difficult to beat.

Valtteri Bottas: Bruno Senna was consistently in the points and brought some strong financial backing to Williams, so for him to be dropped in favour of the less sponsored and unknown quantity that is Valtteri Bottas suggests the latter has a bright future.

Bottas hasn’t raced since romping to the GP3 title in 2011, but showed a lot of maturity and matched Maldonado’s speed regularly in Friday morning practice sessions last year.

He is familiar with the team from his testing duties, and will have experience of the majority of the current race circuits.  Plus, he is Finnish and they have a reputation of driving flat-out. 

Bottas should be a dark horse to watch out for in 2013.

Toro Rosso – The battle for a top seat

Toro Rosso's youngsters have been given a second chance to impress

Scuderia Toro Rosso’s star has waned ever since Sebastian Vettel left the team.  They have developed a knack for hiring young talent from the Red Bull Racing academy, only to dump them on the scrapheap when the going gets tough.  Scott Speed, Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari can testify to that.

The stakes are high in the Italian team this season.  With James Key onboard as technical director and a more stable car in the pipeline – they should improve considerably on last season’s modest effort.

The drivers’ remain unchanged, and it could be the case that the winner of the battle for supremacy between Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo will be aiming high up the grid, whilst the loser will join the likes of Buemi and Alguersuari in the rejects category.

Jean-Eric Vergne: It was difficult to read a great deal into Jean-Eric Vergne’s debut season.  His qualifying performances were nowhere near good enough, but he was a better raceday driver and ultimately outscored his team-mate.

Vergne only got into the points on four occasions, but they were all eighth place results, on days where the going got tough such as the tricky conditions in Malaysia and Brazil, and the crash chaos at the start in Belgium.

He deserved to keep his seat, but must build on an unspectacular rookie year.  He probably is behind Daniel Ricciardo on speed, but perhaps better when it comes to collecting the big points.  The pair certainly has a good working relationship, but there is a big private battle going on in the aim to be a Red Bull star of the future.

Daniel Ricciardo: They say that nice guys can’t win in Formula One, so that might count against Daniel Ricciardo.  However, he is a very likeable Aussie who stays out of trouble and quietly gets on with the job in hand.

Ricciardo struggled to start with at Toro Rosso, but developed into a very capable performer after the summer break, and scored points in five of the last eight races.  He also thrashed Jean-Eric Vergne 15-5 in qualifying.

The only thing that seems to be missing from Ricciardo’s talent is he is slightly timid behind the steering wheel, which possibly explains why he doesn’t get the excitement levels up for a neutral.  

This could be a breakthrough year for Ricciardo, and I reckon he will surprise plenty of people who have him written off already as just another Buemi or Alguersuari.

Caterham – All direction lost

Three years into the project and Caterham seem to have lost all direction with the point of entering Formula One.  Legal wrangling about the naming rights, the harsh sackings of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli along the way, and the departures of Tony Fernandes and Mike Gascoyne seem to hint the team is in serious financial trouble.

Vitaly Petrov did provide a crucial cash injection, when he finished 11^th in the season finale last term, but even the Russian was ditched for fresh talent.  New team principal Cyril Abiteboul has a huge job on his hands.

I can only wish him the best of luck, but Caterham’s position as perennial backmarkers in unlikely to change in 2013.

Charles Pic: Making the move of the minnows from Marussia to Caterham might surprise a few people; there isn’t a great deal of difference to be honest.

Charles Pic is a solid driver, and proved his capabilities last season, when he gave Timo Glock some concerns on a regular basis.

However, I don’t quite see the logic of the move, and as team leader of Caterham, he has a big challenge ahead of him.

Giedo van der Garde: I don’t know a great deal about Giedo van der Garde’s background.  He is a surprising choice for selection in the number two seat at Caterham, and I think he will be in for a long campaign at the back of the field.

The one main advantage is he knows a lot of the team, having been the reserve driver last season, which could give him a slight headstart over his team-mate Pic.  Other than that, I hope he likes blue flags – because this is what he will have to get used to frequently.

Marussia – Hope at the end of a dark tunnel

Last season was Marussia’s most challenging campaign.  They didn’t debut the 2012 car until Melbourne, lost test driver Maria de Vilota to that dreadful testing accident in Oxfordshire, and ultimately had to terminate Timo Glock’s contract in January to save money.

However, they will have KERS on their package this season for the first time, and were very unlucky to have been pipped to the crucial 10^th spot in the constructors’ championship by a distinctly average Caterham squad.

Pat Symonds will be back this season too.  Michael Schumacher’s former race engineer was banned for his part in the ‘Crashgate’ scandal involving Nelson Piquet Jr in Singapore 2008.  

He has been a consultant with the team, but can now return to the pitwall in 2013 and his experience and knowledge of engineering can’t be faulted.  His presence could push Marussia ahead of Caterham in 2013.

Max Chilton has his chance to impress at Marussia

Max Chilton: Max Chilton comes from a real racing dynasty within his own family.  His brother Tom is a star in touring cars, and his dad was a nifty racing ace himself.

He impressed in GP2, winning three races and finished fourth in the championship.  There is no doubt that his seat has come from some important financial backing, but the team does like to give new talent a go.

Chilton has done the majority of the Marussia testing over the winter.  If he can match the likes of Charles Pic in the Caterham, and his highly rated team-mate Jules Bianchi, he will have had an excellent debut season.

Jules Bianchi: Frenchman Jules Bianchi is so highly rated; he is part of Ferrari’s Young Driver Academy.

He only narrowly missed out on a Force India drive to the proven Adrian Sutil, but when Luis Razia’s money ran out, Bianchi stepped in to fill the breach.

He has the speed, and will make mistakes but is likely to cause a stir in his debut season.

Regulation changes

There isn’t a massive amount of changes in the regulations for 2013, before the big switch to V6 turbos for 2014.

With just 22 cars on the grid this season, only six cars will be eliminated from the first two parts of qualifying, rather than seven as it previously was.  The pole position shootout will remain the same, with the top 10 cars competing.

The double DRS system as pioneered by Mercedes GP has been banned by the FIA.  Teams can still run a passive system though, with Sauber and Lotus believed to be trying this concept out.

The FIA have made minimal changes to the regulations

The FIA has removed the rules of ‘force majeure’ to clarify issues in post-qualifying and post-race scrutinising.  This happened after Lewis Hamilton stopped on track after qualifying in Spain last season, and likewise with Sebastian Vettel in Abu Dhabi.  Now, if a driver stops and can’t provide the required FIA fuel sample – they will either be excluded from qualifying or disqualified from the race.

The minimum weight of the cars, including driver has been increased to 642kg to combat the new specification of Pirelli tyres.

The FIA has introduced a new ‘penalty points’ system for drivers, after last year’s catalogue of incidents which led to penalties for regular offenders such as Sergio Perez, Michael Schumacher and Pastor Maldonado, plus the one-race ban for Romain Grosjean.  Under the new system, driving infringements will receive points for different levels, and when they have committed enough offences to harm a driver’s super license, they will be banned immediately from racing.

The use of the DRS system has been modified.  Competitors can only now use the device in the permitted DRS zones for practice and qualifying, along with the race.  Previously, DRS could have been used everywhere until raceday.  To combat this, the FIA has announced that all circuits will have two DRS zones, with the exception of Monaco, Hungary and Singapore.  DRS will still be banned in areas such as Eau Rouge at Spa and the tunnel in Monaco on safety grounds.

Calendar and TV schedule

There will be 19 races this season, after the European Grand Prix was dropped from the schedule for the first time since 1998.

A proposed race in New Jersey was postponed due to circuit design issues, whilst a 20^th race in Europe was scrapped after Turkey, Austria and Portugal couldn’t agree on a deal with their respective race organisations.  The German Grand Prix will be staged at the Nurburgring in 2013.

The Sky team are ready for season two in the British broadcast battle

The BBC and Sky Sports F1 HD will continue to share the rights in 2013, with Sky being the only place to see every session live and uninterrupted.  The BBC will show nine races live, and extended highlights of 10 events, with practice sessions live on BBC Two.

Georgie Thompson has been dropped from the Sky presenting team, with Natalie Pinkham taking on the role as Ted Kravitz’s co-host for The F1 Show.  On the Beeb, Jake Humphrey’s departure for pastures new with BT Vision means former Superbikes and MotoGP anchor Suzi Perry will be the face of terrestrial F1 coverage.

Round 1, Australian Grand Prix – 17 March (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 2, Malaysian Grand Prix – 24 March (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 3, Chinese Grand Prix – 14 April (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 4, Bahrain Grand Prix – 21 April (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 5, Spanish Grand Prix – 12 May (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 6, Monaco Grand Prix – 26 May (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 7, Canadian Grand Prix – 9 June (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 8, British Grand Prix – 30 June (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 9, German Grand Prix – 7 July (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 10, Hungarian Grand Prix – 28 July (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 11, Belgian Grand Prix – 25 August (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 12, Italian Grand Prix – 8 September (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 13, Singapore Grand Prix – 22 September (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 14, Korean Grand Prix – 6 October (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 15, Japanese Grand Prix – 13 October (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 16, Indian Grand Prix – 27 October (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

Round 17, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – 3 November (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 18, US Grand Prix – 17 November (Live on Sky Sports, extended highlights on BBC)

Round 19, Brazilian Grand Prix – 24 November (Live on Sky Sports and BBC)

So we are almost set and ready to go.  The 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship promises to be another special season. 

Lights, camera, action!

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