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F1 2013 Mid Season Review

Starting with a hazardous Australian Grand Prix with ever changing weather conditions to a controlled race in Hungary we’ve had everything from tyre explosions to loose wheels, pitlane accidents, cars on fire and controversy galore. The 2013 F1 season has been a thrilling, wild ride for teams, drivers and fans alike.

With ten races behind us, it’s time to look at the season so far and how things have been shaping up.

Here is our F1 2013 Mid Season Review ahead of what is set to be an tumultuous second half of the season.

Red Bull Racing – 277 points

Sebastian Vettel – 172 points, Mark Webber – 105 points

Red Bull is still the team to beat and are the only team to really maximise their results every race so far this season. Leading the championship with 60 points over Mercedes in second place, it’s bound to be business as usual for the team following the break. Sebastian Vettel is sitting pretty in the drivers’ championship too – 38 points ahead of his nearest rival, Kimi Raikkonen in second place.

Vettel has raced all out so far this season – even defying team orders to score an extra 6 points – and remains on track for his 4th world championship.

Red Bull have an incredibly quick car – perhaps the quickest on the grid – and have remained incredibly consistent but have suffered like the other teams with tyre degradation issues and saw Vettel retiring from the British Grand Prix with mechanical failures. Vettel however will be very hard to beat going forward and his rivals know it.

Mark Webber, who announced that he will be leaving F1 at the end of the season, has had a more inconsistent – and really unlucky – season. Webber has had no wins yet this season but you can be sure that he’ll be looking to add to his nine career wins before he bows out of F1. His frustration became very clear in Malaysia when Vettel defied team orders to pass Webber for what would have been his only win this season.

Mercedes – 208 points

Lewis Hamilton – 124 points, Nico Rosberg – 84 points

With Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff assuming high profile positions and Lewis Hamilton joining the Brackley based team, all eyes were on Mercedes even before the season got underway.

Nobody expected Hamilton to be challenging for race wins in his first season at Mercedes, but he was on the podium within two races and took his first race win at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Team mate Nico Rosberg has already recorded two race wins so far this season and continues to impress.

Mercedes has made quite a turn-around this season and their prospects are not looking bad at all. With a 69 point deficit to championship leaders Red Bull, it seems unlikely that they will challenge for the championship though.

Ferrari – 194 points

Fernando Alonso – 133 points, Felipe Massa – 61 points

A mid season review of the Ferrari team’s performance so far this year, seems all too familiar. Ferrari started off really well with both drivers having a really good start to their season.

Alonso banked a solid second place at the first race in Australia, and Massa also started off well – regularly out-qualifying his team mate and recording point finishes.

But things have been on a downward spiral after Alonso’s wins in Spain and China. In contrast to the 2012 season when Alonso had a 40 point lead at the summer break, the team has lost their second place in the championship and qualifying seems to be a big problem for the team. Massa was struck by a number of crashes and race retirements pushing him far behind his team mate as far the driver standings go.

They’ve just not kept up with the pace of development at Red Bull. Alonso has slipped back into third place in the championship – but it would be silly to discount the Spaniard just yet – his entire championship lead was wiped clean by Vettel in the second half of the 2012 season so that should be a clear indication of how quickly things can change.

Lotus – 183 points

Kimi Raikkonen – 134 points, Romain Grosjean – 49 points

The Lotus F1 Team started the 2013 season on a high, with a win for Kimi Raikkonen at the Australian Grand Prix. But that early strong form has not led to further victories for Raikkonen or the team, with the Finn collecting five second-place finishes and teammate Romain Grosjean – the former ‘first lap nutcase’ added two third-places to his name.

Lotus have been in the midst of the battle at every race. Their constant evolution and the way the tyres work for them has made this team a contender for the podium every race weekend. But their downfall is Saturday qualifying – the E21 has simply not had the outright pace in qualifying to make Sundays a little easier for the team.

Raikkonen has moved up to second place in the championship, one point ahead of Alonso, but if he hopes to catch Vettel they’re going to need to start winning races and with technical director James Allison leaving for Ferrari, it remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to keep up the development pace that will be required to catch the Red Bull.

Force India – 59 points

Paul di Resta – 36 points, Adrian Sutil – 23 points

For the purposes of a mid season review it can be said that Force India have had a pretty impressive season in general – especially in the earlier part of the calendar. Their car has far outshone the team’s resources and their drivers have both delivered on track, scoring points and making Force India’s mark as the strongest of the mid-field teams.

Adrian Sutil, who recently celebrated his 100th race, has driven really well especially in Monaco when he fearlessly overtook his rivals on the narrow street circuit. But unfortunately, like his team mate Paul Di Resta, the pace has just not lasted and they’ve both been rather lack-lustre of late. The final two races before the mid season break were their worst of the year so far and the tyre change in Budapest seemed to affect them particularly negatively.

Both drivers have worked really hard though and this has culminated in the team now ahead of McLaren in the Constructors’ championship. The Woking-based team is breathing down their necks though and they’ll have to pull up their socks in the remainder of the season if they hope to hold onto 5th place in the championship.

McLaren – 57 points

Jenson Button – 39 points, Sergio Perez – 18 points

The fact that McLaren is being discussed this far down in the mid season review should be a clear indication of the difficult, disappointing season the Woking-based team have had. McLaren are used to being in the heat of the battle for the championship but are currently on 6th in the standings, behind Force India. The dramatic slump in their form will certainly be a surprise to most.

Their drivers both try really hard – sometimes a little too hard as is often the case with Sergio Perez, but their car can’t keep up and they’re left fighting the mid-field.

Jenson Button’s strategy calls have been his only saving grace – in the last four races he was able to challenge for 5th and 6th places but this is obviously not where the team are used to being.

McLaren has said that they are no longer developing their 2013 car and are now working on their 2014 car instead, so don’t expect too much from them in the second half of the season. Jenson Button however has said he is very positive going into the Belgian Grand Prix and has predicted a podium at Spa. Let’s wait and see how that pans out.

Toro Rosso – 24 points

Daniel Ricciardo – 11 points, Jean-Eric Vergne – 13 points

Toro Rosso may not be fighting for titles and race wins but they have shown some significant progress during the season so far.

Daniel Ricciardo, who is still first in line for Mark Webber’s Red Bull seat, has put in some very strong qualifying performances.

Team mate Jean-Eric Vergne has brought home some very impressive race drives. With Vergne out of the running for the Red Bull seat, one can only hope that the Frenchman will still come out fighting for the rest of the season as the battle of the team mates has been the most interesting thing to watch within the Toro Rosso team.

It is unsure how long Toro Rosso will continue development on their current car, given the mammoth task of developing the much-changed 2014 cars that lies ahead.

Sauber – 7 points

Nico Hulkenberg – 7 points, Esteban Gutierrez – 0 points

Sauber has had a really challenging season so far and the mid season review of their performance leaves a disappointed taste in the mouth. Everyone had great hopes for Sauber – their car was the star of the 2013 car launches, but things have just not materialised for the team.

I guess a lot can be blamed on their budget and financial troubles but from the very beginning Sauber were on the back foot with a car that has struggled from the word go, and two brand new drivers in the team.

Nico Hulkenberg has done his best with the car he’s been given and has managed to secure 7 points for the team. His team mate Esteban Gutierrez has not done too badly for a rookie but has failed to bring home any points.

Sauber have closed a deal with Russian investors to help save the team, so let’s hope that pans out well for them or we may never see a C-33.

Williams – 1 point

Pastor Maldonado – 1 point, Valtteri Bottas – 0 points

At the back of the grid it’s been a very disappointing season for the Williams team. After winning a race last year in the FW34 we all expected much more from the FW35 but alas. They only scored their first point for the entire season at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.

The car lacks downforce and both Pastor Maldonado and team mate Valtteri Bottas have found the car difficult to drive, resulting in the team doing a mid season review of their own and overhauling their technical team. Most notably, technical director Mike Coughlan has left the team and been replaced by former Renault and Marussia man, Pat Symonds. He is bound to make a huge difference to the team but I’m afraid it’s a little too late to expect it to make a difference for the 2013 season though so let’s hope they’re already working on next year’s car.

Marussia – 0 points

Jules Bianchi – 0 points, Max Chilton – 0 points)

Marussia continues their battle for tenth place in the championship with the Caterham team. They started the season very impressively and after the Australian Grand Prix you would have been forgiven for thinking they may even be set to trouble the mid-field teams this season, but instead they’ve pretty much been racing the Caterham team all season.

They have gained a lot since last year though, especially in the form of rookie driver Jules Bianchi who has had some impressive performances.

His fellow rookie team mate Max Chilton has struggled a little to come to grips with driving an F1 car but the Marussia team have been impressed by his consistency and the feedback they get from him.

They’ve been dealt a pretty big blow with Pat Symonds leaving for Williams but for now, they still hold on to tenth place thanks to Bianchi’s 13th place finish in Malaysia.

We’re not expecting much in terms of development from the Marussia team for the rest of the season but for now, it seems they should be able to stay ahead of the green machines for the remainder of the season.

Caterham – 0 points

Charles Pic – 0 points, Giedo van der Garde – 0 points

Caterham’s season has been an uphill battle all the way. The team was targeting the mid-field but have just not managed to make any headway. It was only after Heikki Kovalainen was called in to advise the team that they started making some headway and finally in Bahrain – at the fourth race of the season – they managed to out qualify Marussia.

Slowly but surely their car has been improving and their upgrades have steadily resulted in progress. In Hungary they were able to easily out qualify both Marussia’s.

Both Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic have put in solid performances, doing they best they can with what they have so they’ll be hoping that they can take back tenth from Marussia before the end of the season.

And that’s a wrap on our mid season review of the 2013 Formula 1 season. The first half of the season has been a thrilling one but has been dominated by tyres. With that behind us, and teams now on revised Pirelli rubber, the second half of the season should see some real battles taking shape. As we head to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix you can bet that everyone will be bringing their A game.

What are you hoping for in the second half of the season? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Photo credits:

Photo of Bianchi’s car on fire – F1 Madness screen grab

Photo of Vettel gearbox failure – F1 Madness screen grab, Sky Sports HD

Lewis Hamilton after the Hungarian GP – Mercedes F1 Twitter Team

Massa and Alonso – Ferrari F1 Twitter team

Raikkonen – Lotus F1 Team

Adrian Sutil – Force India Twitter team

Jenson Button – Wikimedia Commons

Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull Twitter Team

Sauber launch – Sauber F1 Team

Pastor Maldonado – Williams F1 Twitter Team

Max Chilton – Marussia F1 Twitter team

Giedo van der Garde – MyCaterham Twitter team

August 19, 2013
F1 2013 Hungarian GP – Qualifying Report

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton secured his thirtieth career pole position as he set the fastest time in qualifying for the Hungarian grand prix.

The biggest casualty of the first session of qualifying was Force India’s Paul di Resta. The Scot seemed struggled throughout the first part of qualifying and sounded perplexed on the radio to his team. Some suggest that the new kevlar belted tyre may not be as well suited to the characteristics of the Force India as was the old steel-belt construction. Di Resta will start in 18th position.

The second part of qualifying, always a bit more frantic, saw drivers leaving the pitlane on scrubbed sets of the softer tyres. Mark Webber’s pitwall informed the Australian that he had suffered a kers failure making the Red Bull driver’s afternoon all the more difficult. Nevertheless, Webber was able to advance to the final part of qualifying.

For the majority of the second part of qualifying Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg appeared to be on course for the top ten. However, the track evolution and several drivers opting for a new set of softs saw the Sauber driver relegated to 12th place. McLaren’s Jenson Button missed out on advancing but teammate Sergio Perez, recovering from a crash in the final practice session, managed to scrape through.

Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo delivered another impressive qualifying performance and will start from 8th on the grid.As Mark Webber departed the scene without taking to the track in the final session of qualifying it was teammate Vettel who carried Red Bull’s hopes. However, by 0.038s Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position from the German. Hamilton has won the Hungarian grand prix on three previous occasions and is the only driver in the last eight years to win the race from pole (2007, 2012).

Lotus’ Romain Grosjean underlined the pace shown in the morning practice session with a third place starting position for tomorrow’s race. Nico Rosberg will start fourth – some four tenths off teammate Hamilton.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso quietly qualified fifth ahead of Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen in sixth. Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez* and Mark Webber** round out the top ten, respectively.

* Sergio Perez has opted for an alternate strategy by setting his fastest lap on the medium compound tyres.

** Mark Webber did not complete a lap in the final part of qualifying; this allows him his choice of tyre on which to start tomorrow’s race.

July 27, 2013
2013 Formula 1 Mid Season F1 Technical Round Up – Part 2

In this second part of our F1 technical round up we take a look at McLaren, Lotus and Force India.

McLaren

McLaren have had a very tough start to the season. Their 2013 car is nowhere near their 2012 contender, the MP4-27. With a whole new front suspension setup, McLaren have had their fair share of hardship this season.

At the front of the car, McLaren have kept most of the design of their front wing from the 2012 car. While other teams are are sporting 5 to 7 tiered wings, the front wing on the McLaren has three tiers. This configuration has hardly been touched throughout the season and they’ve been running the same front wing for the past few races.

Around the side of the car, they’ve ditched the horizontal side pod airflow conditioners at the top of the side pods for curved vertical vortex generators from the Spanish Grand Prix with the Red Bull type “D” wing to condition the flow around the side of the car.

Towards the rear of the car, they’ve tightened up the bodywork in the coke bottle region. They’ve added a vertical slot on the rear wing endplate to minimise tyre squirt.

With McLaren now concentrating on next season’s car, it is unlikely that they will make many further updates to the current car. We should see development parts for the 2014 car surface during free practice in the last few races.

Lotus F1 team

Lotus kicked off their 2013 campaign very well with a victory in the F1 season opener in Australia and Kimi Riakkonen has also consistently scored points for the Enstone based team.

Lotus is running a 4 tiered front wing with a split vertical element. The split element helps to direct the airflow whenever the car changes direction. They’ve also added a curved horizontal vane on the front wing endplate to help create a vortex of air around the side of the car.

In a few races this season, they’ve run a bulge on the underside of the nosecone, which helps the airflow along the underside of the car.

Lotus are also running a similar cross-under tunnel to Red Bull, where the air from the outer edge of the side pods is directed to the center of the car to exit at the diffuser.

The one big F1 technical development which Lotus were testing throughout the second half of the 2012 season and again at the British and German Grands Prix is their passive DRS or DRD.

The device works by receiving high speed air from intakes around the air box above the driver’s head. The air then travels down the back of the car and exits from a periscope type outlet just below the rear wing, which then stalls the rear wing at high speed. This reduces the rear wing’s effect and it gives the car a higher speed.

The trick to this device lies in when the wing stalls. You don’t want it to stall half-way through a high speed corner. Nor do you want to it not to stall down a straight where DRS is not active. It’s quite tricky to get it right but it looks as if Lotus have found a way around this problem. They’ve added a bleed pipe that exits just above the monkey seat. The reason that this is legal is that it requires no input from the driver to activate. It uses the speed of the air coming into the airbox to stall the wing.

Force India

Force India have been the strongest of the mid-field teams so far this season. They’re currently even ahead of McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship.

As far as their F1 technical upgrades go, Force India have a 4 tiered front wing with the same vertical guide vanes on the main plane of the wing that we can see on the Red Bull.

These guide vanes work in conjunction with the guide vanes on the back of the wing to guide the air to the edge of the wing for better vortex generation.

On the underside of the nose cone, they have followed the top teams in splitting the turning vanes. The split in the turning vanes helps to keep the airflow under the car a bit more constant when the car changes direction.

And around the back of the car, they too, have a slot in the end plate of the rear wing that helps to minimise the tyre squirt.

And that’s it for part two of our F1 technical Round Up. In part three we’ll look at the Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams, Caterham and Marussia F1 teams.

July 24, 2013
Adrian Sutil sets the morning pace at Young Driver Test

Adrian Sutil set the early pace on the final morning of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone, putting Force India back on top of the time sheets.

Carlos Sainz Jr, who ventured out for Red Bull for the morning session, ended in second place ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Jean-Eric Vergne for Toro Rosso.

Susie Wolff, who is testing for Williams today, focused on aero testing and finished in 8th place after a rather impressive morning. A big day for F1 as Wolff becomes the first woman to take part in the tests.

Here is the full time sheet for the morning.

Photo: Official Force India Twitter account

July 19, 2013
Young Driver Test morning timesheet – James Calado on top

James Calado put Force India at the top of the timesheets on the opening morning of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone.

His benchmark of 1.33.986 is just over half a second slower than the fastest lap of this year’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, set by Red Bull driver Mark Webber.

Here is the full time sheet following the first morning of testing at the Silverstone Young Driver Test.

July 17, 2013

Everything you need to know about the Young Driver’s Test

Formula 1’s annual Young Driver’s Test starts tomorrow on the Silverstone race track.

However, this year’s three day test session has a bit of a twist to it. As a result of the tyre troubles at Silverstone grand prix the test has been transformed into an emergency tyre test for the Italian manufacturer to regain its footing in the sport.

Teams won’t have free reign to do as the please throughout the three days though. Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, has clearly stipulated what can and cannot be done.

The FIA will send its own observer to the test session to ensure that no current race driver complete any development work for their respective teams.
The current race drivers may complete one full day of work on the emergency tyre testing program.
The ‘young driver’ will be permitted to carry out development work on their team cars.

Mercedes will sit out the three day test session as the Brackley based team serves a ban imposed on them for conducting a tyre test after the Spanish grand prix. Lewis Hamilton has voiced his concern on the dangers of Mercedes not being allowed to test the new tyres before their introduction at the Hungarian grand prix.

“I don’t know if people fully appreciate how big a negative it is for us not to do the test.We are going to go to Hungary when other people have gone and tested (the new tyres with) different ride-heights, different pressures, got their car ready for a long run so they arrive ready.We don’t have any of that information so when we get there we’re going to go into it blind.We shouldn’t be in this position in sport, but that’s the way it is,” said Hamilton.

But it seems the Brit’s fears will be assuaged as Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hemberey, announced that Mercedes will recieve data on findings about the new tyres.

The Young Driver’s Test was institued with the aim of showcasing up-and-coming talents that could, potentially, be the future of Formula 1.Several current drivers will be present at the test but in amongst will be some eager drivers keen to make their mark.

Team	Wednesday 17th	Thursday 18th	Friday 19th
*Red Bull*	Antonio Felix da Costa Daniel Ricciardo	Antonio Felix da Costa Daniel Ricciardo	Carlos Sainz Jnr Sebastian Vettel
*Ferrari*	Davide Rigon	Davide Rigon	Felipe Massa Davide Rigon
*McLaren*	Kevin Magnussen	Oliver Turvey	Gary Paffett
*Lotus*	Nicolas Prost	Davide Valsecchi	Nicolas Prost
*Mercedes*	Banned
*Sauber*	Robin Frijns	Robin Frijns Nico Hulkenberg	Kimiya Sato
*Force India*	James Calado	Paul di Resta	Adrian Sutil
*Williams*	Daniel Juncadella	Pastor Maldonado	Susie Wolff
*Toro Rosso*	Johnny Cecotto Jnr	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Jean-Eric Vergne Daniil Kvyat
*Caterham*	Alexander Rossi	Will Stevens	Charles Pic Giedo van der Garde
*Marussia*	Tio Ellinas Max Chilton	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Rodolfo Gonzalez Jules Bianchi

July 16, 2013

2013 German Grand Prix: Penalties for Red Bull and Force India

Red Bull Racing and Force India have both been awarded fines for the unsafe release of their drivers during the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Force India have been handed a 5 000 Euro fine for the unsafe release of Paul Di Resta, who almost collided with an incoming Toro Rosso when leaving his pit box.

Red Bull Racing on the other hand have a more heavier fine of 30 000 Euros for the unsafe release of Mark Webber. When leaving his pit box, Webber’s rear right wheel came adrift and when careening down the pit lane, narrowly missing a few Lotus mechanics, but it eventually collided with an FOM cameraman. The cameraman was immediately attended to by the track medical staff and taken to a nearby hospital. The latest update from the FIA is that the cameraman is concious and in a stable condition with few broken ribs, a fractured collar bone and a few bruises.

The Red Bull incident sparked another debate about pit lane safety, which no doubt will be looked into more closely after this incident.

July 7, 2013
F1 Silverstone Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

Team and Driver quotes following today’s qualifying session at Silverstone.

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton (1st, Q3 – 1m 29.607s)

“It feels incredible to be on pole, just like it did back in 2007. We have the greatest Formula One fans in the world here in Britain and there was a great turnout today, which makes the atmosphere so special. My lap in Q3 was a lap for the fans out there around the circuit. I haven’t been feeling comfortable in the car all weekend, so I was really happy to find a good lap and this feels fantastic. The team has done a phenomenal job and it’s a great reward for the guys here at the track but also back at base, especially as our two factories are so close to the track. But we know that tomorrow is another day and our Sunday performance isn’t quite as strong right now. Our long run pace looked ok yesterday and we were able to manage the tyres quite well. It’s going to be tough to keep Seb behind but we will give it everything we’ve got.”

Nico Rosberg (2nd, Q3 – 1m 30.059s)

“A fantastic team result today and it’s great to see how much progress we have made together since last year. The feeling of confidence that our car will be quick in qualifying is fantastic and I love going to a race knowing that we have a shot of a strong grid position. The team are doing a great job and we are keeping up the development so a big thank you to everyone at the factories, many of whom are here today watching. My lap was good and starting from the front row is great but Lewis did a fantastic job today. I hope we have improved our race pace; it will be all about tyre management tomorrow and keeping the others behind us. I’m confident that we can get a good result.”

Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal

“The team has worked incredibly well over the past few months to achieve a result like today’s. We have been chipping away at the performance, quietly bringing new updates and continuing to push, while also focusing our efforts on how we could improve our tyre management issues, and it seems to be paying off. The engineers and drivers got the cars into the perfect place for qualifying and, as the wind dropped towards the end of the session, both Lewis and Nico were able to deliver strong performances. Lewis put in a stunning lap at the end of the session and it’s great to see him and Nico pushing each other so hard in every session. It will be more of a challenge to remain as competitive in the race but we gathered good information yesterday and hope to be able to build on that tomorrow.”

Toto Wolff, Mercedes team executive director

“A fantastic result for the entire team to take our third front row lockout this year. Fair, sporting competition is what Mercedes stands for and, while a lot has been said and written this weekend, the only thing that really matters is what happens out on track. The focus this afternoon should be on our drivers, Lewis and Nico, and on this fantastic team who have pushed so hard to keep developing the car in tough times and solve our problems. Lewis put in a mega lap: I don’t know if it’s the Silverstone factor or something else, but that was an incredible performance. Nico has been strong all weekend and second position gives us a great platform for the race tomorrow. Tomorrow should be warmer and we have struggled with race pace at some circuits so far this year. But the trend is going in the right direction, and I hope we can continue that tomorrow.”

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel (3rd, Q3 – 1m 30.211s)

“We will see what happens tomorrow. It’s a long race, but I’m happy with today. Either Lewis found a short cut or he has something special round here, it was a phenomenal lap and he wasn’t in reach today. I was very happy with the lap I did at the end, it was very close with Mark also. We did what we could for the team and it’s always nice to position well in qualifying, especially around here – qualifying is good fun and I’m enjoying the high speed corners. We’ll see how we get on with the tyres tomorrow and with looking after them. I’m happy for the team today, our factory is very close to this track, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Mark Webber (4th, Q3 – 1m 30.220s)

“We were up against it to get on the front row against the Mercs, they’re on another level as they have been for the last few events. It was disappointing to get pipped by Seb there at the end by a hundredth, it was very close. I was happy with the first part of my lap, but I could have done better in the last sector. We have a good balance for qualifying and race pace in terms of where we prioritised things. It should be an interesting race, we can get a good result from there.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal

“We could see this morning that Mercedes were very fast over a single lap and they’ve demonstrated that again this afternoon, so congratulations to Lewis on his pole position at Silverstone. It was a great performance from both of our drivers with only one hundredth of a second separating them on the second row. Hopefully we can give Mercedes a good run for their money tomorrow from there, and I’m sure it’s going to be an exciting British Grand Prix.”

Thierry Salvi, Renault support for Red Bull

“Silverstone is one of the hardest circuits on the engines, with some of the fastest series of corners we see all year and one of the highest average speeds, but also some of the tightest complexes. As a result, getting the maps correct is always a compromise, but we were on the right side today. While it would have been great to get a front row start at the team’s home race, we did the best we could. We’re still in a good position to let the race come to us and hopefully we can win for the fourth time in five years.”

Force India

Paul di Resta (5th, Q3 – 1m 30.736s)

“I’m over the moon with the qualifying result and I think the whole team can feel very satisfied with fifth on the grid. The morning practice session was quite difficult so it feels great to come through and end up just behind two Mercedes and two Red Bulls. This track takes a lot of commitment and you need to build up your speed, but I think we saved our best till last – and that’s when it mattered. For tomorrow our tyre wear looks healthy and we’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to get in some clean air during the race. I will sleep well tonight and hope that we can have a straightforward race, and come away with lots of points.”

Adrian Sutil (7th, Q3 – 1m 30.908s)

“Seventh place is a great result today. The car was not easy to drive this morning, but we made some improvements before qualifying and found more speed with each session. If we can do our homework tonight then we have the potential to have a great race. There are still some unknowns with the tyres over long runs because I haven’t really done more than ten laps on a set of tyres, but I feel comfortable on both compounds. So we can be happy with the result, but we need to concentrate on tomorrow because that’s what counts. In terms of strategy we need to keep an open mind and have several options going into the race so that we can react as the race develops.”

Dr Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal and managing director

“I am delighted with today’s qualifying result. The sun was shining, the grandstands were full, and we put on a fantastic show. Fifth place for Paul at his home Grand Prix is a tremendous effort, especially on this high-speed track, which has not been our strongest race in previous years. Adrian’s seventh place confirms just how competitive we are this weekend and we know that we have good race pace. For tomorrow it’s important that we maximise these starting positions and hopefully give our supporters and partners something to celebrate at our local race.”

Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo (6th, Q3 – 1m 30.757s)

“Coming off the back of a bad couple of races, I expected to be strong here and I was more motivated than ever. However, if I’d been told I could be sixth this afternoon, I would have been surprised. We were very close to Di Resta in fifth, but we can be happy with this position. We showed good pace all weekend, including this morning when I was sixth, so it was nice to confirm that this afternoon. Now I am looking forward to the race when I hope I can come away with a good handful of points. I’d like to think I could finish at least in the same place I am starting from. It would be nice to do even better and I will be pushing hard to achieve that. I believe it will be a few degrees warmer tomorrow, which could make the track conditions change quite a lot. This is a very demanding circuit with lots of high speed corners, so the tyres don’t get much of a rest, therefore tyre wear will be an important factor tomorrow.”

Jean-Eric Vergne (13th, Q2 – 1m 31.785s)

“I made a mistake on my quick lap in Q2 and that’s the plain fact and I’m very upset about it, as it lost me the chance to get into Q3 which was definitely possible. As to what happened when I got it wrong, I am not exactly sure what was the reason: maybe I was too close to Vettel in front of me, but I felt I lost downforce and then just went straight on. Anyway, I am not looking for excuses. The car was working well, as it has done all weekend, so now I must make up for it in the race tomorrow. Looking at Daniel’s performance this afternoon, it’s a good sign as it shows the car is quick and we will have something to work with tomorrow afternoon. I think it’s still feasible to have a good race tomorrow and to bring home points.”

James Key, Toro Rosso technical director

“It’s good to have got through to Q3 with one car here. We’ve been reasonably on the pace right from the start of the weekend, even if neither driver has been completely happy with the balance of the car. However that did not stop them from setting what we consider a competitive lap time. We were not sure what to expect at Silverstone, as it’s such a different track to the last three venues, especially to Monaco and Montreal. We did a lot of work to ensure we had the car in its sweet-spot for here and that paid off. Daniel did a fantastic job to get to Q3 and then to P6 completely on merit, while it was a great shame for Jev, who had matched Daniel’s pace all weekend but just did not get the maximum out of his Q2 lap. Overall, it shows that the steps forward we are making on the performance front are working consistently and a two car points finish is a realistic target tomorrow.”

Lotus

Romain Grosjean (8th, Q3 – 1m 30.955s)

“Whilst were very quick on the hard tyres at the beginning of qualifying, we weren’t as competitive on the mediums, I don’t know if it’s the weather or something else, but we weren’t as good on them as in free practice this morning meaning we didn’t have enough to qualify further up the grid. We are working hard and in the right direction, but the tyres are still playing a key part. I’m quite satisfied with my performance today.”

Kimi Raikkonen (9th, Q3 – 1m 30.962s)

“It was a close qualifying session between both of the team’s cars so I think we both got pretty much all there was from the car today. It’s not ideal as we’d like to be nearer the front of the grid, but it is what it is. We’ll go into the race wanting to get a better result than we did in qualifying. Usually this is what happens for us and and hopefully that is the case again tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director

“I’m reasonably happy with both cars making it into the top ten but, of course, we would have liked a bit more from today. Romain didn’t have a perfect last lap and suffered from understeer in Turn 15 whilst there didn’t seem to be much more pace in Kimi’s car. We had quite a dilemma as to whether we should run Romain on the harder tyres in Q3 as he went very well on them in Q1. Other than that, both compounds are well suited to the demands of Silverstone and there should be a range of strategy permutations available tomorrow. Like many of the crew, the E21 certainly prefers warmer temperatures. The cloud cover today can mean a reasonable temperature drop, so we’re certainly hoping for clearer skies and a warmer track tomorrow.”

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso (10th, Q3 – 1m 30.979s)

“This weekend has been complicated for us by problems that we haven’t managed to get on top of, concerning various aspects such as the balance of the car, its driveability and performance. We can consider this the worst Saturday of the season so far, having never finished so far down, but now we must react immediately to try and return to the form we showed at the start of the year. We definitely expected a lot more here, because this is a track that suits our car’s characteristics better than others. In Q3, we hesitated a bit over tyre choice: we went out on the Hards because they had worked well in free practice this morning and in Q1. Then we switched to Medium with the idea of just coming back to the pits if it did not go well but then we decided to finish the lap and nevertheless our rivals were quicker. Now, we must try to do the same, starting from tomorrow: even if the race will be an uphill struggle we are well aware how things can change during a race. We hope we can stage a good climb up the order and bring home as many points as possible.”

Felipe Massa (12th, Q2 – 1m 31.779s) “It was an extremely difficult day as we did not have the car we were expecting and we had no grip whatsoever with new tyres. Compared to other cars, we struggled to put together a good lap. The time lost when I went off the track yesterday and the interruption this morning to change the engine definitely cost me valuable kilometres and in qualifying I lacked the few tenths necessary to make it through to Q3. Now we must think about tomorrow, as the race is an altogether different matter and I hope that, with a full fuel load and higher temperatures, things can change in our favour. If the car is more competitive, I’m sure I can pull off a few passing moves and fight for a good result.”

Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director

“Today, the much awaited sunshine didn’t manage to push the temperatures up as much as we had hoped, especially on the track. The surface stayed rather cold and already in the final free practice this morning had created some problems with grip, with several drivers going off the track. Things only improved slightly in qualifying, but not enough to improve the grip levels. Looking at our start positions, it’s obvious that our cars suffered more than others, even if the gaps in the small group of cars ahead of Fernando are very close. While trying to improve the balance on the car, we tested various solutions, trying to increase driveability in both the high and low speed corners, always keeping in mind what will be the key factors in tomorrow’s race. We can be more confident when it comes to the race and we will be counting on the performance we have seen over a long run, which is encouraging. During the opening laps it will be important to try and make up a few places. Then, our strategy will be aimed at helping the drivers as much as possible in their efforts to close up to our direct rivals.”

McLaren

Jenson Button (11th, Q2 – 1m 31.649s)

“I’m higher on the grid than I expected after practice. Yesterday, I didn’t think we’d qualify ahead of one Ferrari and just behind the two Lotuses. But I was much happier in qualifying than I’d been all weekend – we should be positive that we’ve improved the car. I think 11th was the best we could have realistically achieved today. Even if we’d got into Q3, we’d probably have been 10th; so starting 11th means I’ll have a new set of tyres and will start from the clean side of the grid. After Q2 I walked down the pit lane to the FIA scales, waving to the crowd. There were so many Union Jacks and rocket-red caps out there, and the fans have been unbelievably supportive all weekend. You always want to do a good job in front of your home crowd, so I want to say a big ‘thank-you’ to them for their support. You never know what will happen tomorrow: starting 11th isn’t great, but we can race well from there. I will drive my heart out for a good result.”

Sergio Perez (14th, Q2 – 1m 32.082s)

“It’s been a difficult day. The puncture in FP3 wasn’t the best preparation for qualifying – and it made it more difficult, because we had to change the damaged floor for the older-spec version. This afternoon, I struggled a little with the warm-up of my tyres during Q2; I lost temperature when I was stopped and weighed at the FIA scales. We’ve been a bit unlucky all day. Still, we were a lot closer today than we were yesterday. Even if it’s not apparent, we’ve definitely made some improvements, and I think we might have had the potential to slip into Q3 if we’d been a little bit luckier. Our race pace should be better than our qualifying pace. Tomorrow is still going to be difficult, but I’m positive we can go forwards from here.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal

“It’s been a difficult weekend for the team, but our pace in qualifying shows an upturn in form that we hope to carry into the race tomorrow. Jenson was unfortunate to miss out on Q3. In Q2, he lost out to 10th place by just 0.057s, and was only 0.659s from the fastest qualifier. Checo had an unlucky day: his poor luck started with his puncture in FP3, which damaged his floor and meant we had to fit an older-spec floor to his car. Into qualifying, he was called to the FIA weighbridge, which lost him tyre temperature, and then encountered traffic on his critical run, which lost him time. However, both our drivers are fantastic racers: Jenson will have the support of the home crowd behind him, and Checo will be determined to recover from the setbacks that affected him today. So I think our drivers are both set for charging races tomorrow.”

Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg (15th, Q2 – 1m 32.211s)

“Unfortunately P15 is reality. It was more or less the best we could do today. The car was difficult to drive, especially at high speed with a little bit of wind the car is very sensitive. We are simply not quick enough. Of course, a lot can happen during the race tomorrow, and maybe a bit of English rain would help us. But I think points will be difficult, then again you should never say never.”

Esteban Gutierrez (18th, Q1 – 1m 32.666s)

“Compared to the practice sessions yesterday, I think we made a step forward, but it’s tricky because we find ourselves in a position where everything is on the limit. Whatever we do there is always a compromise to it, which is challenging. It seems I am losing a lot of time at the exit of the corners, and this is tricky, because that is usually when I try to push and get things right. I believe I did my best with overall good and consistent laps. But it is just not quick enough. This is something we have to evaluate and see what we can do to be better in order to progress.”

Tom McCullough, Sauber head of track engineering

“We struggled with the car’s balance in FP3, but were able to improve it for qualifying. P15 and P18 on the grid is clearly not where we want to be and will make the race difficult tomorrow. The current forecast is dry, so we will work hard tonight on the strategy in order to maximise our chances.”

Monisha Kaltenborn Sauber team principal

“We can’t be happy with a result like that. Nico did a good job, while Esteban was struggling. Of course, this is not the position you want to be in looking ahead to the race tomorrow. It won’t be an easy race for us.”

Williams

Pastor Maldonado (16th, Q2 – 1m 32.359s)

“We were expecting to be a bit closer to the top ten today, but we were struggling to put everything together in the car for one lap. Hopefully tomorrow we can work on our race pace and fight with the teams around us to move up a few positions. We need to keep improving as a team because we’re not where we want to be still, but race by race we are aiming to close the gap.”

Valtteri Bottas (17th, Q1 – 1m 32.664s)

“We were unlucky to miss out on Q2 today as I was very close to my teammate and we could have both made it through. There are always things you can do better during a lap but we didn’t have the pace to be in the top ten today so we need to do everything we can to get closer. We will look at our strategy going into tomorrow and try to maximise our potential for the race.”

Mike Coughlan, Williams technical director

“It was a difficult session for us, after a promising FP3 we were expecting more from qualifying. In the high speed corners here we feel we are competitive but we still have work to do in the low speed sections. There is always a great crowd here at Silverstone and we are looking forward to the race tomorrow. We will be aiming to put on a good show for all our fans here supporting us at our home event.”

Caterham

Charles Pic (19th, Q1 – 1m 33.866s)

“The final lap in quali is one of my best laps of the year so far so I’m very pleased with how today’s gone. We made some good progress in FP3 with the balance and that carried over to qualifying, and breaking into the 1.33s and finishing ahead of the Marussias was about as much as we aimed for today, so it’s gone to plan. It changes from race to race but it does look like we have a small advantage over our nearest rivals this weekend, but having seen good race pace all year I’d like to think we’ll be fighting with a couple of cars ahead as well in the race tomorrow. We’ve been close to the Williams cars this year in a few races so with a good start, decent deg levels and no reliability issues tomorrow could be a good day.”

Giedo van der Garde (21st, Q1 – 1m 35.481s)

“It’s been an interesting day as we ran a different plan to the normal FP3 and then did just the one run in quali. It’s finally dry so we used some of FP3 for aero evaluation and then switched to race prep, bearing in mind the penalty from the last race which meant we knew pretty much where we’d end up in quali. We worked a lot on managing the tyre degradation, not really looking at quali at all but we still ended up beating one of the Marussia cars in quali which was a bonus, but really today’s all been about getting ready for Sunday. I think we’re in pretty good shape now and after the work we did today the degradation levels look manageable, even with the warmer track conditions we had today and which it looks like we’ll have tomorrow, and we have a good setup for the race so let’s see what happens.”

Marussia

Jules Bianchi (20th, Q1 – 1m 34.108s)

“It’s good to have one Caterham behind us but less good to have one ahead. In the short space of time that we have had to work on our dry set-up, I don’t think we are quite there yet, so we’ll be spending the time we have now to see what we can do to give us the best chance for tomorrow.”

Max Chilton (22nd, Q1 – 1m 35.858s)

“Today was a challenging day. We had some work to do this morning trying to get the balance right and it felt like we had made a good step forward, but so did everyone else. We still have quite a bit of work to do but our race pace yesterday looked more promising, so that’s what we’ll focus on now. We’ll do what we can to have a better race tomorrow.”

John Booth, Marussia team principal

“Following on from yesterday we had two differing car balances to contend with and Jules was slightly happier with his car than Max. We made some changes to Max’s car in order to equal up the set-ups, however this morning both cars appeared to be suffering with balance issues. During and after FP3, the engineers and crews worked hard to make significant changes to the cars to gradually improve the balance, however at the end of our qualifying session we still have two cars for which the balance is less than perfect. Overall we are slightly disappointed with the result and need to understand how we can improve our pace in qualifying. For tomorrow it looks like we will have a better race set-up and I am sure that with the top speed we have and the improvements we have made to our race pace, we can have a better day. It looks like the race will be dry and temperatures up from today and these conditions should suit us better.”

Pirelli

Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director

“The wet conditions yesterday morning meant that the teams had to work hard in the morning to make up for time lost gathering data on the slick tyres. All of them managed to find plenty of pertinent information: vital not only for qualifying today but the race tomorrow as well, which we expect to be dry. During the final free practice session this morning we saw a deflation on the rear left tyre of Sergio Perez. First findings show that this was unequivocally caused by a cut in the inner sidewall: something went into the tyre, pierced it, and then came out again, in the direction of travel. Whether that was a piece of debris or the edge of a kerb is hard to say at the moment and it is important to point out that this incident was unrelated to any of the delamination issues we have had in the past. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for sealing a great pole position with a stunning lap at his home grand prix. Yesterday’s rain meant the fans didn’t get a chance to see much on-track activity but today was action from start to finish. We’re looking forward to an exciting grand prix tomorrow with between two and three pit stops per car if conditions stay largely the same.”

June 29, 2013
F1 2013 – Free Practice 2 Report – British GP

The second free practice session for the British grand prix got underway in gloomy, overcast conditions. Thankfully, the dreaded rain that curtailed the morning’s running stayed away for the most part.

Drivers took advantage of improved conditions and set about testing new parts, and sorting out a set-up for Sunday’s all important race. Vettel was first out on track followed by teammate Webber – both on intermediate tyres. The two Red Bulls lapped consistently on both the hard and medium compound tyres.

The two Toro Rosso drivers, in the running for the Red Bull seat in 2014, did their level best to impress ‘onlookers’ as they traded fastest laps between the pair of them and spent the better part of the session in the top end of the timing sheets.

Felipe Massa’s miserable run continued as he wiped off the front-wing and broke the front-right suspension of his Ferrari. The rear-end of the Ferrari seemed to get away from the Brazilian as he exited Stowe corner. This makes it three crashes at all of the last three races for the man who says that his future with Ferrari is secure.

Ferrari didn’t show too much of their hand in the long runs but Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen set competitive long run times in the mid to high 1 minute 38 region. The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Rosberg set a competitive long run pace but soon dropped off to the 1 minute 39s.

The track temperature didn’t reach any great heights with 20 degrees celcius the highest it climbed too. The rest of the weekend is expected to be dry and slightly hotter. Good news for the likes of Ferrari who seemed to struggle with getting the heat into the medium tyre in the cold conditions.

McLaren continued to struggle with Button managing 11th and Perez 14th overall. No doubt they’d prefer the wet stuff this weekend.

Mercedes Nico Rosberg, and qualifying ace of late, set the fastest time overall.

June 28, 2013
Silverstone F1 Grand Prix Preview Quotes – Force India

Preview quotes from the Force India F1 team ahead of the Silverstone Grand Prix

Paul di Resta, Force India

“It’s always a highlight of the year. When I was young I dreamed about coming to Silverstone as a Formula One driver so it’s always a very special weekend. As a venue it’s spectacular with some of the greatest corners of the year and the atmosphere is just incredible. The place is packed all weekend and the buzz from the fans gives you so much energy.

With the way our car is working these tyres at the moment, we are looking really healthy. I believe this car is the best we’ve ever had and everyone in the team is working hard to squeeze even more performance from it. The key for Silverstone is to hopefully get three successful
days in a row on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That’s what we did in Bahrain and it really paid off. If we can do it at Silverstone, then hopefully we can make a big impact on the race.”

Adrian Sutil, Force India

“It’s not my top favourite, but it’s a great place to drive a Formula One car. It’s fast and flowing, so it’s quite a big change from Monaco and Canada, but I’m confident that we can go there and perform well. I enjoy the high-speed sections and also the newer start of the lap, which
definitely makes it easier to overtake compared to the old layout.

I will be in the UK for the whole week. There’s a simulator session on Wednesday to prepare for the weekend and I will be spending a lot of
time at the factory. It’s a good chance to spend more time with the team members who don’t come to races.”

Dr Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal

“There is always something special about racing at Silverstone. After the Indian Grand Prix, we regard Silverstone as our second ‘home’ race. Our
headquarters is just across the road and everyone in the team feels a touch of pride in racing on what we consider ‘our’ turf. It is also a special place, the venue where the very first Formula One world championship race was held and one which can boast some of the most passionate fans in the world.

Two exciting races in Monaco and Canada have set us up perfectly for this weekend’s event. We celebrated our 100th race in Canada and continued picking up points with both cars. That’s what we need to do if we are to hold on to fifth place in the championship. While I still believe that we are edging ever closer to the podium, we must also focus on consistency and play the long game in the championship, which means scoring points at every race.

In the past we’ve never had great success at Silverstone, so we are keen to put that right this year. It’s a home race for Paul and I’m sure the
whole team can count on lots of support from the British fans. Performance-wise, I expect us to be competitive. We have a couple of
small upgrades so I’m optimistic that we can be fighting for ou usual position inside the top ten.”

June 27, 2013